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 –…
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…
At his death in 1889, David Berry left £100,000 to the University of St Andrews. At the time, it was by far the largest donation the University had ever received, and it helped the University out of very significant…
Alexander Berry (1781-1873) was born on 30 November 1781, to a Cupar farming family. He attended Cupar Grammar School, then studied at the University of St Andrews from 1796-1798, followed by a year studying medicine…
By all accounts, George Hill (1750-1819), principal of St Mary’s College in the University of St Andrews, and Church of Scotland minister, was affable, intelligent and eloquent. He is remembered as an influential…
In March 1828, Susan Elizabeth Low, of Clatto House, near Blebo Craigs, Fife, wrote to her son, Peter Low, with news about a recent marriage in the county: Our great Fife heiress, Miss Bruce of Falkland, is married to…
Hugh Cleghorn was Professor of Civil History at the University of St Andrews from 1773 to 1793. His lectures addressed contemporary questions about empire and slavery. He later became colonial secretary at Ceylon (Sri…
A donor to the University of St Andrews, alumnus Andrew Bell’s life began in the ‘Auld Grey Toon’, and he travelled around the world, from North America to India, being shipwrecked along the way. His employment as a…
In 1720, James Brydges, first duke of Chandos, gave £1,000 to the University of St Andrews to endow a new chair. During the early 1720s, Chandos was a director of (and investor in) the slave-trading Royal African…
The Arnott Prizes in Natural Philosophy were established in 1869 with a capital sum of £1,000 gifted by Neil Arnott, once a surgeon for the East India Company. The prize fund was later augmented by his widow, Marianne…