Series 4 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society

LISTS OF SCHOOLMASTERS
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their schoolmasters taught Latin.1 Of the remaining parish, Cranston,
the more accessible church and other records tell us nothing.2 In Mid¬
lothian, then, at least 19 of the 28 landward parishes had grammar
schools and at least 27 of the 28 had schools of some kind.
Despite the fact that no return of schoolmasters by the sheriff of
West Lothian is to be found among the commission papers, we may
complete our analysis for all three of the Lothian shires from data in
the records of the presbytery of Linlithgow and of the kirk sessions
there. In 1690 the county contained twelve parishes and it is clear that
in the years immediately preceding the 1696 act at least eleven of them
maintained schoolmasters who could teach Latin.3 The first intima-
1 Ratho K.S. Accts., 1682-9, passim, and Ratho K.S. Mins., 4 July 1692 (when Patrick
Mathie was precentor and clerk), 3 December 1695. At Kirknewton, John Morton was
schoolmaster and session clerk at least from 1675 until 1694 (K.S. Mins., 16 May 1675;
21 June 1682; 9 April 1686; 4 July 1694). Alexander Ferguson was schoolmaster at
Glencorse at least from 13 November 1691 until 2 March 1705 (K.S. Mins.) and the
Carrington session minutes show that George Horsburgh taught the school there at
least from 16 November 1691 until 7 February 1697. Temple K.S. Accts., August
1687; 10 January 1692; 7 November, 24 November 1693; 25 August 1695; 2 March,
25 May 1696. At Borthwick, the minister, heritors and heads of families appointed
John Porteous to be their schoolmaster and precentor on 26 October 1690 and he was
still writing the session minutes on 2 May 1714. Andrew Baillie is named as the
schoolmaster at Crichton in 1692 and 1694 (Dalkeith Presb. Mins., 20 September
1692; Crichton Poll Tax return, 1694, in Scottish Record OlBce). And the earliest kirk
session register for Fala notes John Crichton as precentor and schoolmaster between
18 July 1680 and 1 February 1685, Andrew Veitch between 31 May 1685 and 26 May
1689, and James Currie on 1 September 1689 (at which date there is an unfortunate
gap in the records until 1713).
2 There was a vacancy at Cranston parish kirk from 1689 until 1694 during which
period it would seem that the parish was united, effectively if not officially, with Fala
(see Poll Tax return, 1694, in Scottish Record Office).
3 The Linlithgow presbytery minutes refer to schoolmasters in: Bo’ness—21 July
1691, 13 March 1695 (Mr John Foggo); Carriden—9 July 1690 (Mr John Davie),
9 August 1693 (Mr Alexander Marshall); Abercorn—30 March 1692 (Mr John Reid
‘late schoolmaster’), 29 September 1697 (JamesJohnston); Dalmeny—20 August 1690
(John Tailor), 6 September 1693 (John Campbell), I7june 1696 (John Tailor); Uphall
—19 August 1696 (Mr James Stuart); Livingstone—22 August 1694 (WilliamWilson);
Bathgate—17 June 1696 (Mr Andrew Lyall); Torphichen—9 November 1693 (James
Stephen), 10 April 1695 (Mr John Lesley). The burgh-parishes of Queensferry and
Linlithgow also, of course, maintained grammar schools—31 October 1694, 17 June
1696. Discharges of payment of salary in the Dundas of Dundas papers (National
Library mss. 80.2.10) show that Mr John Reid was master at Abercorn in 1690 and
1691, Mr John Harper in 1692 and until 1697; and that at Kirkliston, Mr John Buchan
taught the school in 1689 and 1690, John Robertson in 1691, Mr William Provand
from 1691 to 1694 and Mr Thomas Cornwall from 1694 to 1697 (see also Kirkliston
K.S. Mins., 26 November 1694,16 July 1697).