Louis Cauvin
(circa 1754-1825), French teacher and philanthropistSitter in 1 portrait
Robert Kay; Louis Cauvin; David Scott
by John Kay
etching, 1817
NPG D43285
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Kelly hastings
01 April 2018, 16:34
Louis Cauvin Senior was born in France, worked as a merchant who came to Edinburgh in the late 1700s. He was gifted land from Lord Abercorn on what is now Willowbrae Road which he named Louisfield and built a manor building naming it Louisville (now a grade B listed building) which he opened as Cauvins Hospital (a boarding school for the underprivileged children of local teachers and farmers) he left this to his son Louis Cauvin Junior (an only child and the man in the picture) who died during Burke and Hares reign and was buried in Restalrig church yard, building himself a tomb with writing across the sealed doorway so it would be known if he was stolen! The building has been used as an ambulance depo at the end of the war and then a home for abused women after the war, then for folk who couldn't pay there rent, then to sheltered housing as it is now. The house was bequeathed to the people of Edinburgh by LC Junior and was to be used to help the local community.
Ewan Notman
27 November 2020, 17:53
Louis Cauvin Snr died in 1778 of lockjaw. Reputed originally to have been a footman in the family of Lady Jane Douglas, and to have come over from France as a witness in the Douglas Cause. He had two sons who were members of the Lodge. Louis Cauvin Jnr (1754-1825), who was a friend of Burns, and the founder of the Cauvin's Hospital [School], Duddingston; and Joseph Cauvin (?-1815), Advocates' 1st Clerk and later WS.