To Cosmo Gordon from Aberdeen Beattie has been kept in suspence about an affair which he now mentions to Gordon as Lord Rector of Marischal College. First year's payment of Beattie's nephew's exchequer bursary (which the Barons conferrd on him) became due at Martinmas [11 November, which was a Scottish quarter day]. He went to Alexander Innes, Deputy Collector of Bishop's rents with the usual certificates from the Professors of Divinity and asked for his money, which Innes refused on four separate occasions on one pretence or another. The presentation of the bursary does indeed contain impossible conditions. The conditions of the bursary cannot previously have been interpreted literally. The professors must have granted a certificate on the basis that they were satisfied upon the whole with the behaviour, attendance, learning and proficiency of the student. It would be most unfair on Beattie's nephew and a stigma on his character if the bursary were taken from him and he deserves this as little as any young man who ever attended college. Another bursar, Ralph king, is in the same predicament as Beattie's nephew and is also languishing in a consumption. 5 February 1787