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 –…
David Baxter (1793-1872) was born in Dundee to William Baxter (1767-1854) and Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Gorrell (1763-1804). He was one of eight children but often considered ‘one of Dundee’s greatest sons’. Baxter initially…
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…
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…
The story behind the Guthrie Scholarship and Cheape Bursaries at the University of St Andrews is one of interconnected influential families, immense business wealth, and exploitative imperial labour systems. In 1865,…
What did the students at St Andrews in the nineteenth century think about slavery, colonialism and empire? Unless they wrote or spoke publicly about it, it’s difficult to say… The archives of the University tend to be…
John Gray was unusual for being one of the very few repeat donors to the University, funding a university prize, bursary and Chair between 1794 and his death in 1811. While scholars have taken an interest in Gray for…
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…
If you take the A90 from Perth towards St Andrews, you will pass an imposing ruin perched high on a clifftop, overlooking the sheer drop to the Tay valley and road below. This is the Kinnoull Tower, linked to the…
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…