| Administrative History | Robert Arbuthnot [1728-1803] was a member of a distinguished Jacobite/ Episcopalian family. He was brought up and later owned Haddo-Rattray House, north of Peterhead. He was a merchant and then a banker in the firm of Arbuthnot and Guthrie, which failed in 1772. He then moved to Edinburgh where he bacame secretary of the Board for the Encouragement of Manufacturies and Fisheries in Scotland. He befriended Beattie after Beattie moved to Aberdeen in 1758, and became for some years his principal poetic adviser and promoter. He negotiated on Beattie's behalf and often in conjuction with Sir William Forbes, with the booksellers over several of the publications |
| Description | He will introduce Matinglay to Moir and Mercer. Beattie would welcome Greenfield as a colleague, but uncertain whether he or the College have power to achieve this. Trill intends to resign, but no vacancy yet. Copland may succed as professor of Mathematics, which would leave natural philosophy chair open. The town are patrons of the mathematics professorship. Last year three candidates proposed themselves for the professorship in natural philosophy, and Beattie and colleagues agreed that if the college made any recommendation, it should be unanimous. So Beattie cannot do anything independently for Greenfield. Will send papers on chivalry when transcribed. Beattie had hard winter, and needed an assistant. |