Scottish History
Subject History

An early cartoon of Sir William Fraser.

It was the University of Edinburgh that first made Scottish history a fully academic subject, when in 1901 it established a Chair of Scottish History and Palaeography. This was the fruit of a bequest by Sir William Fraser (1816-1898), a lawyer and genealogist who had made a fortune from researching and publishing the family papers of the Scottish aristocracy. The holders of the Fraser Chair have all been in the forefront of the discipline, and the first four of them are discussed below.

Peter Hume Brown (1901-1918)

Hume Brown published many works including a three-volume History of Scotland. His first-ever Honours student (in a class of one) was Alan O. Anderson, who went on to become a distinguished scholar of medieval Scotland. In his early years Hume Brown was the only Scottish History teacher in the University, but in 1909 a second lecturer was appointed. The small department thus created was able to teach courses running from medieval times to about 1800.

Robert Kerr Hannay (1919-1940)

Hannay was a noted medievalist who co-wrote (with John Herkless) a five-volume study of the archbishops of St Andrews. His book The College of Justice (1933) dealt with the early history of the court of session. It was republished, along with a number of his seminal articles, in 1990; they remain in many ways standard works.

William Croft Dickinson (1940-1963)

Dickinson was a charismatic teacher, and one of his most widely-read works was a three-volume edition of Sources for Scottish History for the use of students. He also expanded the staff of the department. He relaunched the Scottish Historical Review in 1947 and helped to establish Edinburgh University Press. His Scotland from the Earliest Times to 1603 (1961) was long a standard textbook and is still worth reading.

Gordon Donaldson (1963-1979)

Donaldson was one of the most prolific and influential historians Scotland has ever had. His particular field was the Reformation, and his impact was felt particularly on the early modern period (although he published on all periods from medieval times to the twentieth century). He was taught as an undergraduate by Hannay and was for many years a colleague of Dickinson, his two predecessors in the Chair. He published over a dozen books, as well as lecturing and broadcasting to bring Scottish history to the widest possible audience. Donaldson built on Dickinson’s success in recruiting students by establishing an honours degree in Scottish History.

From 1979 onwards

The fifth and sixth holders of the Fraser chair have been Geoffrey Barrow (1979-1992) and Michael Lynch (1993-2005); they are currently Honorary Fellows in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, and information about them is available on the School’s website. The seventh and present professor is Tom Devine (2006 to date).

As an academic subject, Scottish history is constantly changing, but always with an awareness of its own past. There is no doubt that this past has been particularly distinguished at the University of Edinburgh.

Back to Subject History main page