| Administrative History | Thomas Gordon was a professor of Greek and philosophy at King's College, Aberdeen. He was born in 1714, the son of George Gordon, professor of Hebrew at King's College (1693-1730). After graduating M.A. from Aberdeen in 1731 Thomas Gordon pursued a lifelong academic career there and taught future Enlightenment luminaries such as Dr John Gregory (1724-1773). He was also a secretary of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society (1761-1764 and 1767-1771). Thomas Gordon's daughter, Anna Gordon Brown, was a noted ballad collector whose ballad manuscripts contributed greatly to nineteenth century collections, including Walter Scott's 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.' |
| Source | Exact provenance unclear, part of the schoolmaster James Melvin's (1795-1853) collection. Dr James Melvin was born in 1795 in Aberdeen and educated there at the Grammar School and at Marischal College, where he graduated A.M. in 1816. He was a teacher and later also lecturer in humanity (Latin) at his old college. He was a careful and successful teacher and an eminent Latin scholar, and ‘Latin Exercises as dictated by the late James Melvin, LL.D.’ was published in 1857 (four years after his death in 1853) by the rector of Grantown Grammar School: it was subsequently revised and re-edited by other teachers. He produced a Latin grammar in 1822, of which there were several editions. His library of over 6,000 books (mostly a fine collection of classical and mediaeval Latin literature) was left to Marischal College, Aberdeen. |