Joseph Kinniburgh

Joseph Kinniburgh, M.D., occupied No. 4 in 1844-45.¹ He was born in Edinburgh on 06 April 1814, son of Robert Kinniburgh and Margaret McPherson.² Robert Kinniburgh was a pioneer of communication with people who are deaf and mute and founded Edinburgh’s Deaf and Dumb Institution.³

Joseph Kinniburgh graduated M.D. at St Andrew’s and L.R.C.S. Edinburgh in 1839. He worked with his father for a time, at the Deaf and Dumb Institution,⁴ authoring an Inquiry into Natural Language of Deaf Mutes and An Inquiry into the Possibility of Communicating Knowledge of Religion to Uninstructed Deaf-Mutes by Natural Signs (1846).⁵ He was then appointed Physician to Dunfermline Fever Hospital, living at 47 Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline in 1851,⁶ and practised privately in Edinburgh and London. He died at 5 Argyle Square, Edinburgh on 13 April 1855.⁷

Joseph Kinniburgh married Isabella Skae in Edinburgh on 20 March 1837.⁸ She was the daughter of Alexander Skae and Isabella Davidson, born in Edinburgh on 20 March 1817.⁹ She died at Blythswood, Glasgow in 1893.¹⁰ They had four children before taking up residence at No. 4 Malta Terrace. Their first child was Robert Kinniburgh, who was born in 1838, became a musician¹¹ and vocalist,¹² and died unmarried in 1887 in Glasgow.¹³

The eldest daughter was Isabella Skae Kinniburgh, born in 1841. She married William Nicholson on 24 March 1863, but was soon widowed. She married secondly, on 07 September 1870, at Portobello, Thomas Salmon Forman, teacher, session clerk and registrar in North Leith.¹⁴ She was widowed a second time in 1879. She died in Edinburgh in 1913.¹⁵

Margaret Emily Lockhart Kinniburgh was born in 1842. She was described as a colourist of maps in 1861.¹⁶ She married John Stuart at St Paul’s Episcopal Chapel, York Place on 12 September 1867.¹⁷ John Stuart was described as a clerk in the 1871 census, when they were living in Perth.¹⁸ He died of typhus in the Perth infirmary on 21 May 1873, aged 27 years.¹⁹ Margaret Kinniburgh remarried in 1877, to Charles Joseph Mason,²⁰ and by 1881 they had moved to Bramley, Yorkshire.²¹ In 1901 she was living in Leeds, Yorkshire.Census records. England. Leeds, Yorkshire. 31 March 1901. MASON, Margaret. RG13/4238/23. Ancestry collection ‘1901 England Census.’²²

Camilla Kinniburgh was born in 1843²³ and died at 6 Hermitage Place, Edinburgh on 09 December 1862.²⁴

1. PO Directory 1844-45.
2. Baptisms (OPR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 06 April 1814. KINNIBURGH, Joseph. 685/1 410 351. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 15 July 2021.
3. ‘The Late Mr Kinniburgh.’ Perthshire Advertiser. 04 September 1851.
4. Edinburgh Academy for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. Caledonian Mercury. 25 March 1847. p. 01, col. 05. https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: accessed 15 July 2021.
5. The Scottish Congregational Magazine. 1846. Vol. 06. p. 189.
6. Census records. Scotland. Dunfermline, Fife. 30 March 1851. KINNIBURGH, Joseph. 424/ 16/ 21. Ancestry collection ‘1851 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 16 December 2023.
7. Death announcements. Scotland. 1855. The Scotsman. 18 April 1855. KINNIBURGH, Joseph. p. 03, col. 06. https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: accessed 15 July 2021.
8. Marriages index (OPR) Scotland. St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. 20 March 1837. KINNIBURGH, Joseph and SKAE, Isabella. 685/2 430 499. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 14 July 2021.
9. Baptisms index (OPR) Scotland. St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh. 20 March 1817. SKAE, Isobella. 685/2 140 306. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 14 July 2021.
10. Deaths index (SR) Scotland. Blythswood, Glasgow. 1893. KINNIBURGH, Isabella. 644/7 306. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 14 July 2021.
11. Census records. Scotland. Leith, Midlothian. 02 April 1871. KINNIBURGH, Robert. 692/2 04/ 18. Ancestry collection ‘1871 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 05 October 2024.
12. Census records. Scotland. Barony, Lanarkshire. 03 April 1881. KINNIBURGH, Robert. 644/9 88/ 14. Ancestry collection ‘1881 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 05 October 2024.
13. Deaths index (SR) Scotland. Blythswood, Glasgow. 1887. KINNIBURGH, Robert. 644/7 304. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 05 October 2024.
14. Marriages (SR) Scotland. Portobello, Edinburgh. 09 September 1870. FORMAN, T. S. and NICHOLSON, Isabella Skae. 684/1 35. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 16 December 2023.
15. Deaths index (SR) Scotland. Morningside, Edinburgh. 1913. FORMAN, Isabella. 685/6 729. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 13 March 2026.
16. Census records. Scotland. St George, Edinburgh. 07 April 1861. KINNIBURGH, Margaret, 685/1 84/ 05. Ancestry collection ‘1861 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 16 December 2023.
17. Marriages (SR) Scotland. St Andrew, Edinburgh. 12 September 1867. KINNIBURGH, M. E. L. and STUART, John. 685/2 274. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 02 October 2024.
18. Census records. Scotland. Perth, Perthshire. 02 April 1871. STUART, John (Head). 387/1 16/ 16. Ancestry collection ‘1871 Scotland Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 02 October 2024.
19. Deaths (SR) Scotland. Perth. 24 May 1873. STUART, John. 387/ 270. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 02 October 2024.
20. Marriages index (SR) Scotland. St Andrew, Edinburgh. 1877. KINNIBURGH, Margaret and MASON, Charles. 685/2 310. https://scotlandspeople.gov.uk: accessed 02 October 2024.
21. Census records. England. Bramley, Yorkshire. 03 April 1881. MASON, Charles (Head). RG11/4505/37. Ancestry collection ‘1881 England Census.’ https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 04 October 2024.
22. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 04 October 2024.
23. Census records. Scotland. Dunfermline, Fife. 30 March 1851. KINNIBURGH, Joseph (Head). 424/ 16. p. 21. https://ancestry.co.uk: accessed 15 July 2021.
24. Death announcements. The Scotsman. 11 December 1862. KINNIBURGH, Camilla. p. 4, col. 6. https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk: accessed 16 July 2021.