John Mylne

Who was John Mylne?

John Mylne was a Scottish master mason, the first of three successive generations of the name to serve as Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. He was born in Dundee into a family of master builders. His great-grandfather, also John, had been Master Mason to both James III and James IV. He was the son of Thomas Mylne, Master Mason to the Crown and burgess of Dundee. His grandfather Robert Mylne had been provost of Dundee.

Mylne was well established as a mason by the 1580s. He was made a burgess of Dundee in 1587 for various works in the city, and in particular his renewing of the royal burgh's harbour. He also built the mercat cross which formerly stood in the High Street. In 1584-5 he was engaged on alterations to The Drum, a tower house in Lothian, for the 7th Lord Somerville. The Drum, now on the south-east edge of Edinburgh, was rebuilt as a Palladian house by William Adam in the 18th century. In 1589 he built or extended Bannatyne House in Newtyle, Angus, for justice Thomas Bannatyne. Mylne was Master of the Mason's Lodge at Scone at a time when the mason's lodges were moving away from being simply craft guilds, and he admitted King James VI to the lodge as a Freeman Mason.