| 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
Elizabeth Montagu [1720-1800] She met Dr Gregory in 1766, and he introduced her to Beattie's Poems on Several Subjects, which she admired. Beattie met her in 1771, during his visit to London, and they remained close friends until her death. She was an active promoter of Beattie's advancement and she became his principal adviser on literary matters. His final collection of poems was dedicated to her in 1784 |