| Administrative History | James Hay Beattie [1768-1790]. Eldest son of Beattie. Named, with permission, after Beattie's patron James Hay, Earl of Erroll. His childhood is lovingly recorded in many letters, which show that Beattie was always a deeply involved parent, and in the memoir Beattie wrote shortly after James Hay's death. His childhood and adolescence were marred by his mother's mental illness, and her total disasppearance from his life when he was aged about eleven. He attended Aberdeen Grammar School, and then Marischal College from 1781 to 1786. He considered entering the church, but Beattie secured his appointment on 28 Spetember 1787 as his own assistant and successor. James Hay sometimes taught the Arts class, but was already ill with tubercolosis, of which he died on 19 November 1790. His father assembled a substantial volume of his prose and verse, printed in an edition of 200 copies for circulation among his friends in 1794, and subsequently published with Beattie's own poems in 1799 |
| Description | Letter from James Hay Beattie, Edinburgh, to James Dun, Aberdeen, mentioning the arrival of James Hay and [presumably] James Beattie at Edinburgh and talking about James, a midshipman on board Admiral Hood's [Samuel Hood, first Viscount Hood (1724 - 1816), naval officer, led an advanced division in the expedition against St Eustatius in January 1781] ship. According to the letter: "while we were at Monstrose they had a letter from him [the midshipman], Dated however before the taking of St Eustatius telling that he was very well. But they had had no word from David of a long time; and therefore conjectured, as you did, that the Ariadne must be gone upon some secret expedition". Letter mentions James Hay's lodging in Mrs Walker's, Writer's Court and his seeing of the tall man. James Hay writes about going to see the 'Maid of the Mill, and the Taylors' at the play house with James Beattie. Letter mentions Baille Cleghorn; James Beattie's intention to take James Hay to London on business and James Hay's reading of Mrs Inglis's Poem. Letter mentions the Beatties' dining with Sir William Forbes; their going to the Play with the Dutchess of Gordon and their sitting in the same box as her. Letter mentions that the Arbuthnots are well; Sir William Forbes' invitation for the Beatties to stay with him, their decline of the offer, and the Mercers' health.
Annotated on reverse: 'Please to write by the return of the post'. |