The Man Who Was Jekyll and Hyde (24 page)

The following two entries sit at the top of the page, where the William Brodie entry is now represented only by a blank space:

Edinburgh, the 17 August 1718, was born betwixt 11 and 12 at night, Cicel Grant (now my Spouse) Daughter to William Grant, Writer, and Jean Broun, his 2nd spouse, and was baptized nixt day by the Reveredn Mr Freebairn, in presence of the above Ludovick Brodie, John Grant and Allexander Gordon, Writers &c., named after Mrs Cicel Rentoun, Sister to the Laird of Lamerton.

Edinburgh, 20 October 1740. We the above Francis Brodie and Cecil Grant was married in Her Father’s house by the Reverend Mr Wallace, Minister in Edg. Before these witnesses, viz., our two fathers John, Joseph, and Hellen Brodie’s my Brother’sand Sister, Ludovick Allexander, and Jean Grant’s her Brother’s and Sister, and John Grant, Writer to the Signet, my Uncle and her Cousin.

[THE BLANK AREA, where there were once probably seven lines about the couple’s first son; lines that were no doubt infused with joy].

Edinburgh the 22 September, 1742, was born att 6 in the morning being Wednesday, our Second Son, and deied about 11 oclock that Forenoon and was buried that evening in the Greyfriars Church Yard, two double paces to the west side of the narrow road opposite to Harley’s Tomb, where a Great many of his Relations are interred.

Helpful reading on Deacon Brodie:

Traditions of Edinburgh
, Robert Chalmers (Chambers, 1940)

Kay’s Edinburgh Portraits
, James Paterson (Hamilton, Adams, 1885)

The Strange Case of Deacon Brodie
, Forbes Bramble (Hamish Hamilton, 1975)

Deacon Brodie: Father to Jekyll and Hyde
, John S Gibson (Paul Harris, 1977)

The Trial of Deacon Brodie
, William Roughead (various, 1906)

Stevenson, Jekyll, Hyde and all the Deacon Brodies
, Owen Dudley Edwards (NLS, 2000)

Robert Louis Stevenson
, James Pope Hennessy (Jonathan Cape, 1974)

The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson
, Thomas Graham Balfour (Methuen, 1901)

The RL Stevenson Originals
, E B Simpson (T.N. Foulis, 1912)

The Fabulous Originals
, Irving Wallace (Longmans, Green, 1955)

‘Doomed to death’ … William Brodie (right) and his co-accused, George Smith.

How it looked back then: the head of Brodie’s Close in the Lawnmarket, sketched by Bruce J. Home.

The foot of the close, by the same artist.

The Old Excise Office, Chessel’s Court, Canongate, in a sketch by Bruce J. Home. This was the site of Brodie’s failed armed raid of 1788 that led to his downfall.

A cock-fighting match in Edinburgh, attended by Deacon Brodie.

The Brodie-crafted cabinet that stood in the young Robert Louis Stevenson’s bedroom and inspired him to created Jekyll and Hyde.

Brodie’s lantern and some of ‘his’ keys are now kept in the Bank of Scotland’s Museum on the Mound.

Brodie was arrested in Amsterdam under the name John Dixon and held in what is now the Dam Square royal palace … where, intriguingly, four cast-iron lamp posts bear the name Dixon. (Picture: Norman MacDonald)

The popular Deacon Brodie’s Tavern on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile …

… where the exterior name boards depict the contrasting two sides of the original’s character.