His name has gone down in literary history as the meanie who said ‘bah humbug’ to Christmas, but the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge was actually a successful, generous and jovial Edinburgh merchant.

Actor Richard Wilson depicts Dickens’ popular Christmas character, Ebenezer Scrooge

Charles Dickens created Scrooge after seeing the gravestone of Ebenezer Scroggie while filling in time on a lecture visit to Scotland in 1842.

The novelist misread the surname as Scrooge and thought ‘mealman’ – a reference to Scroggie’s career as a corn trader – was ‘Meanman’.

Inspired by the name and shocked by the apparently hard-hearted inscription, Dickens wrote about it in his notebook.


The following year he published A Christmas Carol and a legend was born.



But now campaigners want to raise awareness of Scroggie’s grave which lies unmarked a few metres away from Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and publicise the fact he was actually known for his generosity, jovial nature and wild parties.

The tombstone was removed when Canongate Kirkyard was redeveloped in the 1930s but now a memorial may be put up telling Scroggie’s story.

‘Characters like this should not be hidden away or forgotten about,’ said Marion Williams, of the Cockburn Association, which protects historic Edinburgh.