Kelsey Jackson Williams

Inspired by a recent query from one of my postgraduates, I thought there might be some value in providing a quick tutorial in how to locate the academic backgrounds of early modern Scots with university degrees. 

Let us suppose you find a Scot in a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century document with the honorific “M[aste]r”. Unlike its more elastic usage south of the border, in a Scottish context this almost always indicates someone who is literally a “master”, i.e., has graduated with a university degree. So far so good, but how do we identify the university from which our master graduated?

If I had nothing else to go on, I would start with the presumption that our student had probably attended one of the five (not four!) ancient Scottish universities and would check the following sources:

Aberdeen (King’s College)

Founded in 1495 by papal bull of Alexander VI. Its catchment area was broadly Aberdeen and the rural north-east. The volumes edited by Innes and Anderson below allow one to track both the matriculation and graduation of undergraduates from 1600/01.

Cosmo Innes, ed. Fasti Aberdonenses: Selections from the Records of the University and King’s College of Aberdeen, 1494-1854. Aberdeen: Printed for the Spalding Club, 1854.

Contains a wide selection of university documents related to endowments, laws, and visitations as well as well as an edition of the “album studiosorum”, listing students who matriculated at the university from 1601 (any earlier alba are lost). Generally only the student’s name and occasionally a geographical designation are given.

Peter John Anderson, ed. Officers & Graduates of University & King’s College, Aberdeen, MVD-MDCCCLX. Aberdeen: Printed for the New Spalding Club, 1893.

Contains lists of teaching staff, graduates of higher degrees (e.g., Doctors of Medicine), and individuals who graduated M.A. from 1600 onwards (earlier graduation lists are lost). Generally only an individual’s name and occasionally county of origin is given, but Anderson footnotes those who later became ministers of the established church.

Aberdeen (Marischal College)

Founded in 1593 by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, hence its name, and a separate university from King’s until their merger in 1860. Its catchment area was similar to King’s but with a greater preponderance of urban students from Aberdeen itself.

Peter John Anderson, ed. Fasti Academiae Mariscallanae: Selections from the Records of the Marischal College and University, MDXCIII-MDCCCLX, 3 vols. Aberdeen: Printed for the New Spalding Club, 1889-1898.

• Volume I: Endowments
• Volume II: Officers, Graduates, and Alumni
• Volume III: Index (to volume II)

The best of all the Scottish university record editions. Volume II contains extensive biographical entries on officers, staff, and recipients of higher degrees as well as lists of undergraduate matriculation and graduations from 1605 (the earliest years seem not to have been preserved). Generally only names and occasional geographical designations are given but there are comparatively extensive footnotes identifying graduates’ later careers.

Edinburgh

Founded in 1583 and the second-youngest of the ancient universities. Its core catchment area encompassed the Lothians, the Borders, and the south-east coast but, given its position in the capital, it attracted students from across Scotland.

David Laing, ed. A Catalogue of the Graduates in the Faculties of Arts, Divinity, and Law of the University of Edinburgh Since its Foundation. Edinburgh: Printed for the Bannatyne Club, 1858.

Contains lists of staff and graduates from the foundation of the university. Generally only names are given, occasionally geographical designations, and sometimes a subsequent indication that a student become a minister.

List of the Graduates in Medicine in the University of Edinburgh from MDCCV to MDCCCLXVI. Edinburgh: Printed by Neill & Company, 1867.

Contains a list of medical graduates from 1705 onwards. Names are usually paired with a geographical designation (Scotus, Anglus, etc.) and, from an early date, the title of the student’s dissertation.

Glasgow

Founded in 1450/51 by a papal bull of Nicholas V. Its catchment area was predominantly the west and southwest of Scotland, though with occasional students from further afield.

Cosmo Innes and Joseph Robertson, eds. Munimenta alme universitatis Glasguensis: Records of the University of Glasgow from its Foundation till 1727, 4 vols. Glasgow: Printed for the Maitland Club, 1854.

• Volume I: Privileges and Property
• Volume II: Statutes and Annals
• Volume III: Lists of Members – Internal Economy
• [Volume IV]: Preface – Supplemental Lists – Indices

Volume III of this substantial collection contains a list of graduates from 1578 to 1727 and a list of matriculations from 1593 to 1727 (earlier registers, if kept, were evidently lost). Occasionally a name is supplemented by a geographical designation and the sons of peers are usually indicated as such. Volume IV contains useful lists of officers and staff.

W. Innes Addison, ed. The Matriculation Albums of the University of Glasgow from 1728 to 1858. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 1913.

One of the biographically richest of the volumes under discussion, the original matriculation albums contain the name and status of the individual’s father, often key to identifying matriculands, and many entries are supplemented with extensive biographical summaries by Addison.

St Andrews

The first Scottish university, founded in 1413 by a papal bull of Benedict XIII. Its catchment area was historically Fife, Angus, and Perthshire, though in earlier centuries, before the establishment of competing centres of learning, it was much more national in scope.

James Maitland Anderson, ed. Early Records of the University of St. Andrews: The Graduation Roll, 1413-1579, and the Matriculation Roll, 1473-1579. Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1926.

Contains graduation and matriculation registers as indicated in the title. It is of considerable importance as the only pre-Reformation list of university students in a Scottish university. There are occasional geographical designations and sometimes notes of financial status (e.g., “pauper”).

Robert N. Smart, ed. Alphabetical Register of the Students, Graduates and Officials of the University of St Andrews, 1579-1747. St Andrews: University of St Andrews Library, 2012.

A printed, but not published, volume available in a small number of reference libraries, Smart’s work is nonetheless essential for the period. A substantial minority of entries from the original records – occasionally containing geographical designations and, for graduands, usually indicating social class (“potens”, “minus potens”, etc.) – are supplemented with biographies by Smart, though there have been occasional errors of identification.

Robert N. Smart, ed. Biographical Register of the University of St Andrews, 1747-1897. St Andrews: University of St Andrews Library, 2004.

A similar volume to that above, but with comparatively fuller biographical information for students of more recent periods.

James Maitland Anderson, ed. The Matriculation Roll of the University of St Andrews, 1747-1897. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1905.

The raw material underlying Smart’s 1747-1897 volume. From 1865-66 onwards a student’s parish or burgh of origin is given.

Scots Abroad

You may find, however, that your Scottish university graduate attended none of these institutions, for it was not uncommon for Scots to study abroad, especially for advanced degrees. The following list makes no claims to comprehensiveness (for a much longer list of published, often digitised, university matriculation albums, see the wiki here), but focuses on documents of specific interest to Scottish scholars or likely to contain Scottish students.

Bourges

Marie-Claude Tucker. Scottish Students and Masters at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bourges in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, in Literature, Letters, and the Canonical in Early Modern Scotland, ed. Theo van Heijnsbergen and Nicola Royan. East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2002. 111-120.

Heidelberg

W. Caird Taylor. Scottish Students in Heidelberg, 1386-1662. Scottish Historical Review 5 (1907): 67-75.

Leiden

Willem Du Rieu, ed. Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV-MDCCCLXXV. The Hague: apud Martinum Nijhoff, 1875.

An essential resource for Scottish students of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Students’ ages are given as well as their geographical origins.

Louvain

J. H. Baxter. Scottish Students at Louvain University, 1425-1484. Scottish Historical Review 25 (1928): 327-334.

Oxford

Scottish students are dealt with seriatim in the multi-part Alumni Oxonienses, which falls outside the purview of this list, but of particular relevance is:

W. Innes Addison, ed. The Snell Exhibitions: From the University of Glasgow to Balliol College, Oxford. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 1901.

Padua

Horatio Brown. Inglesi e Scozzesi all’Università di Padova dall’anno 1618 sino al 1765, in Monografie storiche sullo Studio di Padova. Venice: Officine Grafiche Ferrari, 1921. 139-211.

Paris

Annie I. Cameron. Scottish Students at Paris University, 1466-1492. Juridical Review 48 (1936): 228-255.

The Scots Colleges

William Forbes Leith, ed. Records of the Scots Colleges at Douai, Rome, Madrid, Valladolid, and Ratisbon, Volume I: Registers of Students [all published]. Aberdeen: Printed for the New Spalding Club, 1906.

Contains a series of registers of fundamental importance for locating Catholic Scots who matriculated at the colleges and seminaries established for their use on the continent after the Reformation. Biographical information is generally very comprehensive, including age, parentage, and subsequent career.

* * *

We might end this bibliography with the observation of just how essential Scotland’s several publication societies have been in making these records accessible. Without the Bannatyne Club, Maitland Club, Spalding Clubs, Scottish History Society, and their sibling organisations we would be the poorer in this as in much else.

(c) 2024 Kelsey Jackson Williams