Series 4 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society

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MISCELLANY X
was meanwhile occupied by Walter Scott, from 1679 until at least
17001. And it is probable that the other four parishes also had schools
in the early 1690s. Bara certainly had a schoolmaster in the years 1694-
96, Garvald was supplied in late 1696 and Morham supported a school
early in 1697? We know that the (relatively) wealthier parish of
Athelstaneford had two schoolmasters in 1676, Nathaniel and John
Carmichael, and a reader and precentor in 1683 and in 1698.3 It would
be strange indeed if Garvald or Morham maintained a school and
Athelstaneford did not. Thus, in 1690,21 of East Lothian’s 25 parishes
certainly had schools, 19 of these being grammar schools; and it is very
likely that, in the years prior to the passing of the 1696 act, 23 (if not
all 25) supported schools of some kind.
If we exclude the parishes wholly within the burghs of Edinburgh,
Canongate and Leith (in which there was a full complement of
grammar schools, as we should expect), we find 28 parishes in Mid¬
lothian in the early 1690s. According to our lists, 17 of these had Latin
schools. Colinton and Stow may be added to them since the parochial
schoolmasters there were graduates or said to be grammar school
teachers.4 And eight more parishes—Ratho, Kirknewton, Glencorse
(Woodhouselee), Carrington, Temple, Borthwick, Crichton and
Fala—appear from the evidence of their session and the presbytery
records to have had schools, although we cannot determine whether
1 His name was entered on, and then deleted from, the sheriff’s list, probably because
it was discovered that he did not teach Latin. See Bolton K.S. Mins., 2 November
1679 to 15 September 1700.
2 Bara K.S. Mins., 20 December 1696 (‘twelve pund Scots given to the schoolmaster
for 2 yeares fies’). Haddington Presb. Mins., 2 July, 30 July, 27 August, 17 September
1696 (Garvald); 15 April, 29 April 1697 (Morham).
3 Haddington Presb. Mins., 25 May, 27 June 1676; 28 June 1683; 3 February 1698.
Nathaniel Carmichael was session clerk and schoolmaster at least from 1655 to 1676
(ibid., 6 December 1655). The extant session minutes for Athelstaneford date only from
1770, however. It should perhaps be remarked that the writer has found evidence of
the establishment of parochial schools in the 1690s in the cases of all Lothian parishes
whose seventeenth-century session minutes or account-books have survived.
* At Colinton Mr Thomas Johnston was appointed schoolmaster, precentor and
session clerk on 7 February 1669 and he was still writing the minutes in 1700. The
Colinton session minutes and account books contain frequent references to the school
and its master throughout the last half of the seventeenth century. Linlithgow presby¬
tery found John Campbell, precentor at Stow, fit to teach the grammar school of
Dalmeny when he was presented to them for trial on 6 September 1693; Mr Alexander
Kellman had succeeded Campbell at Stow by April 1694 and was himself succeeded
by Mr James Drummond in 1696 (Stow K.S. Mins., 22 September 1695; 3 May,
25 October 1696).