Moncreiffe Bursaries
The origins of the Moncreiffe Bursaries lie in a bursary founded 1554 by Rev. Henry Whyte, Dean of Brechin. There were two Whyte bursars, one at St Salvator’s College and one at St Mary’s College.
By the 1660s, the rights of patronage and presentation to the Whyte bursaries had been acquired by Sir John Moncreif, and they seem to have passed with his estate to his wealthy kinsman Sir Thomas Moncreif. In 1701, Thomas Moncreif gave the two Colleges an additional 4,000 merks to augment the funds and provide ‘a more comfortable and competent subsistence to the said bursars’. The funds were divided between St Salvator’s and St Mary’s.
By the 1890s, the patron was still a member of the Moncrieffe family, but each bursary was only worth £6.