Henry Dundas was Chancellor of the University of St Andrews from 1788 to 1811. His role in the abolition (and/or the delay of the abolition) of the slave trade has attracted a lot of public attention recently –…
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…
Thomas Moncreif (sometimes: Moncrieffe) (1626-1715) was the youngest child of a merchant from Kirkwall, Orkney. In the 1650s, he was involved in negotiations with the exiled Charles II, and did well under the…
The Maxwell Bursary was created in 1751 by the will of Hugh Maxwell, the minister of Strathmartine (and alumnus of the university). He left 2,700 merks, to be mortified to produce an income for a bursar to attend the…
Hugh Maxwell (c1681-1751) left funds to create the Maxwell Bursary. He was the son of a Dundee merchant, and had been educated at St Andrews, taking an MA in 1702 before becoming a minister. He served in parishes in…
The Walker Trust was established in 1881 by John Walker in memory of his brother George Walker. John Walker put £7,500 into a trust ‘for furthering the usefulness or relieving the needs of the University of St Andrews…
John Walker (c.1794-1884) was from a farming family in Fife. He was probably a younger son of farmer Arthur Walker of Pitblado and Agnes Millar, and took up the tenancy of his father’s farm at Newbigging of Ceres. He…
These prizes were established in 1852-53, thanks to a substantial gift from London-Scot Henry Miller. Cash prizes, of increasing value, were to be awarded to the student in each year who performed best in a special…
Henry Miller was apparently a Scot, living in London in the early 1850s. He gave the University £2,400 in 1853 to fund a series of 12 prizes for the top 3 students in each year group. The University invested the money…
James Playfair (1736-1819) was principal of the United College at St Andrews from 1800 to 1819. The son of a Perthshire farmer, he had been educated at St Andrews in the 1750s, and licensed as a minister in 1770. In…