Between 1883 and 1890, John Martine, a retired brewer, farmer and corn merchant wrote three volumes of reminiscences on the parishes of the County of Haddingtonshire. Classics of the genre, they chronicled in detail East Lothian's historic past: the families, characters, events and anecdotes which have moulded this agriculturally rich but often overlooked region since its early beginnings. To this end, the Martine family's East Lothian origins can be traced back to the reign of David I in the 12th century when Alexander St Martine was appointed Sheriff of Haddington.In the centuries that followed, his descendants emerged as tacksmen, clerics, tanners, merchants, bakers, post masters and doctors. Two of their number even served as Provosts of Haddington, and over a span of six centuries, family members married into virtually all of the old farming families of the area, from Dunbar to Tranent. Taking all of this into account, Roddy Martine has embarked upon a voyage of revelatory discovery. Through family connections and old papers, he has brought his ancestor's history of East Lothian up-to-date with tales and anecdotes to embrace the 20th and 21st centuries.
From John Knox, Jane Welsh Carlyle and the patriot Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun to Robert Louis Stevenson, the Italian impresario Gian Carlo Menotti, the golfer Ben Sayers and the painters William Gillies and John Bellany, they are all here with a story to tell.