| Administrative History | Alexander Gerard (1728 - 1795) was a Church of Scotland minister, university professor and was born at Chapel of Garioch, Aberdeenshire. Gerard became the first professor of moral philosophy and logic at Marischal College and his protégé was James Beattie. Gerard was elected a member of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society shortly after it was founded in 1758.
William Duncan (1717 - 1760), university professor. He was sent to the Aberdeen grammar school, and afterwards to Foveran boarding - school under George Forbes. When sixteen he entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, and graduated MA in 1737. Having a dislike for the ministry, for which he was intended, he moved soon after to London. He worked for Robert Dodsley as a translater of French novels, and generously assisted David Watson with his Works of Horace (1741). At this time he was close friends with the mathematician George Lewis Scott and the poet John Armstrong.
In 1748 Duncan published The Elements of Logic. Its plan, to ‘introduce scientifical Reasoning into natural Knowledge’, was consonant with the Baconian curriculum reforms shortly to be introduced at Aberdeen University by Thomas Blackwell, with whom Duncan had once studied Greek. The work's success led to Duncan's appointment in May 1752 as one of three professors of philosophy at Marischal College. Specializing in experimental and natural philosophy, Duncan lectured alongside Francis Skene and Alexander Gerard. The latter's Plan of Education in the Marischal College (1755) proposed that logic was the natural history of human understanding and should therefore be grounded in natural philosophy, an argument which reflects Duncan's earlier ideas. |
| Description | Letter from Thomas Gray, Cambridge, to James Beattie, about Gray not seeing Dr Gerard and Mr Duncan. Letter talks about the duke of Grafton's [Augustus Henry FitzRoy, third duke of Grafton (1735 - 1811), prime minister] 'installation' and Gray's 'Ode for Music'; Gray's present - the Homer - from Mr Foulis; and Gray's subscription to Foulis' edition of Milton. Letter mentions that Gray is looking forward to receiving Beattie's next letter and Gray's intended journey to the North of England. Letter requests Beattie to send his letter to Wharton [Thomas Wharton (1717 - 1794), physician]. |