David Cousin | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1809-05-19)19 May 1809 | ||||||||||
| Died | 14 August 1878(1878-08-14) (aged 69) | ||||||||||
| Nationality | Scottish | ||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | architect,town planner,landscape architect | ||||||||||
| Style | Neoclassical | ||||||||||
| Spouse | Isabella Galloway (m. 1838) | ||||||||||
| Children | 3 daughters | ||||||||||
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David Cousin (19 May 1809 – 14 August 1878) was a Scottish architect,landscape architect andplanner, closely associated with early cemetery design and many prominent buildings inEdinburgh. From 1841 to 1872 he operated as Edinburgh’sCity Superintendent of Works (also known as the City Architect).[1]
Cousin was born in North Leith on 19 May 1809, the son of Isabella Paterson (1773-1851) and John Cousin (1781-1862), and was baptised inNorth Leith Church.[2]
Initially he trained under his father as ajoiner, but went on to study mathematics withEdward Sang. He trained as an architect underWilliam Henry Playfair, Scotland’s most eminent architect of the time, leaving Playfair's practice in 1831 to set up on his own. During this time he competed, but was unsuccessful, in the competition to design theScott Monument. He established a partnership withGlaswegian engineer William Gale, and together they won two competitions for the design of the West Church inGreenock and the Parish Church atCambuslang.
In 1841 he was appointed assistant toThomas Brown, Superintendent of City Works in Edinburgh, replacing him in this role when Brown retired.[3]
During theDisruption of 1843, he left theChurch of Scotland and joined theFree Church, after which he received many commissions for the new churches and graveyards that were necessary as a result of the split.[1] He himself was an elder ofPilrig Free Church, which was to his own design and only the second purpose-built church for the Free Church.[4] In the Disruption painting he is shown withJohn Maitland, holding the plan for the Free Church Offices which he designed and were gifted to the church by Maitland.
He lived and worked at 7 Greenhill Gardens in Edinburgh.
He employedJohn Chesser at his City Architect's office at 12 Royal Exchange. He also trainedJohn Henderson,[5]Robert Morham and Morham's brother-in-law,John McLachan.[6]
He retired toLouisiana in the United States and died there inBaton Rouge in 1878, aged 69. Although buried in the United States he has a memorial inDean Cemetery inEdinburgh where the remainder of his family lie, including his wife, Isabella. The memorial stands on the west side of a north-south path, just north of the large Highlanders monument. His brother, George Cousin (1807-1890) a surveyor, lies nearby.
On 23 April 1838 Cousin married Isabella Galloway (1804-1876), the daughter of atailor. Together they had three daughters however none of them survived to adulthood.
David's brother William Cousin (1812-1883) was a minister in the Free Church of Scotland, latterly in Melrose in the Scottish Borders.[7]
Many of these were done to a standard plan as "temporary" solutions which were later replaced.
