“He was an elusive personage from the first, and he remained so to the end”.
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EDWARD RABAN retired as Printer to the Town and University in 1649 and the roles were taken on by James Brown, the son of William Brown, Minister of Invernochty (Strathdon). Little is known of Raban’s final years. He lived on until 1658, dying in Aberdeen in late November or early December that year. He was buried near the west wall of St Nicholas Kirkyard on 6 December 1658. A memorial to Raban, inside the Mither Kirk, was unveiled on the tercentenary in 1922.
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His life has been extensively research by Edmond in his Aberdeen Printers, and by Duff in Early Career of Edward Raban. Yet he remains an elusive enigma. During the tercentenary, J.F. Kellas Johnstone, the leading bibliographer of the North-East at the time, gave an address on Raban. Many of his facts were correct, but others were not. New research has now shed light on some aspects.
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Edouard Raban: l'imprimeur d'Orange
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Raban’s children remain as mysterious as the man himself. The daughters born in Edinburgh have helped piece together a new understanding of his life but there is also new information about his other issue, in particular Edward born in Leiden 1614/15 and Elizabeth born in Aberdeen around 1627. There has been much confusion between Edward Raban in Aberdeen and Édouard Raban, printer in Orange and Nimes in France. The two have often been conflated as one. All evidence now suggests Éduoard in Orange was the son of Edward in Aberdeen.
The Bibliothèque Nationale de France’s gives 1621 as his date of birth, but this is incorrect. Édouard’s own will states he was born in Leiden. New research suggests that he was born some time between August 1614 and March 1615. The Bibliothèque Nationale notes Édouard was apprenticed to his father and was a member of the Bon Accord Masonic Lodge. All evidence points to him leaving Aberdeen for the Continent (probably Geneva) around 1634 as he was printing independently in Grenoble in 1635. Around 1641, Édouard moved to Orange, a Protestant enclave ruled by the Dutch House of Nassau, and becomes printer to the Prince, the Town and the University. |
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In 1660, Édouard moves to Nimes but in February 1663 is forbidden to practice after printing a Protestant tract. He returns to Orange where his son Isaac (born circa 1639) had been running the firm. Isaac died in 1665 and Édouard, with Isaac’s widow (imprint Veuve Isaac Raban), continue the businesses. In 1674, Édouard produces ‘Antiquitez de la ville et cité d'Orange’. Following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he is compelled to abjure his Protestantism and to convert to Catholicism. It was a bitter blow. Édouard died April 1687. Veuve Isaac Raban sold the press 1698.
Death entry for Edouard Raban in Orange 1687.
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This entry was taken by Kellas Johnstone to mean that Gavin Milne married Constantia 3 who had been born in Aberdeen in 1624. This can now be disproved. Constantia 3 like her two previous namesakes died young. Raban and Janet Johnston had another daughter, Elizabeth (born circa 1627) and it was she who married Gavin Milne in 1648. There are four baptism entries for their children: Isabel in 1649, James in 1652, William in 1653 (Dr Guild is witness), and Robert in 1654. Each states very clearly 'Elizabeth Raban'.
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Baptism entry for Isabel Milne, 1649, daughter of Gavin Milne and Elizabeth Raban.
Elizabeth was widowed in the later 1650s, and remarries in February 1661. Her second husband is John Murray. She died in Aberdeen in June 1685.
Marriage entry for John Murray and Elizabeth Raban.
If you are descended from Elizabeth Raban and Gavin Milne |
John Raban, Edward’s second son, was probably born in Aberdeen around 1625. He apprenticed with his father but is found in Old Parish Registers working as a printer in Edinburgh in 1648 when he marries Mause Whyte. Intriguingly, however, there is a second John Raban in Fife, at exactly the same time, married to Christian Melville (a family names which Edward Raban had plenty of connections with). Nothing on either of these Johns has been found after 1653. If you have any of these names in your family tree then please get in touch.
