| Administrative History | Archie Watson was a bookseller in Aberdeen in the early 20th century. He wrote a biographical essay on John Skinner (1721-1807), Episcopalian minister and poet.
Born in 1721 in Aberdeenshire, John Skinner was the son of a schoolmaster and obtained a bursary to Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1734. He taught after leaving university but became Episcopalian and eventually was ordained and appointed rector of Longside in Aberdeenshire in 1742. He suffered a good deal during the anti-Jacobite persecutions of the Episcopalians, but remained stoically in his parish, where poverty made him turn to writing as an additional source of income. He was a respected poet, encouraged by Burns, and a church historian, and wrote 'Ecclesiastical History of Scotland', 1788. He remained in Longside till 1807 when, now widowed, he removed to Aberdeen to live with his son, but died a few days later and was buried at Longside. |
| Source | Presented by J.M. Bulloch, (1867-1938), literary critic, in 1923. John Malcolm Bulloch was born in Aberdeen in 1867, the son of John Bulloch who edited 'Scottish Notes and Queries'. He contributed to 'Scottish Notes and Queries' from an early age, and graduated MA from Aberdeen in 1888. Active in student affairs, he was one of the originators of the Students’ Song Book in 1891 and worked on student magazines, thus paving the way for a career in journalism. Though he edited several illustrated papers, he eventually found his niche as a literary and theatrical critic in London, donating most of the books he reviewed to Aberdeen University Library. He also maintained his interest in the history of the North-East and produced scholarly works on the family of Gordon and the Territorial Army. He died in 1938, and his funeral took place in King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the University Archivist and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |