John and George Armstrong at Edinburgh / by William J. Maloney.

  • William Joseph Marie Alois Maloney
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John and George Armstrong at Edinburgh / by William J. Maloney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    seven months later trailed one another to a finish. As all classes were conducted in Latin, this was the subject of the first year. John enrolled in the Latin class that opened about October 1720 ; when he was eleven.* Rationed partly from home, he lived in lodgings at a cost which can now be only conjectured, but of which a reasonable estimate for room and board would be four English pounds, seven shillings, and sixpence, a seven-month session (note 6). A lift on the carrier’s cart from Castleton to Edinburgh and back—some 70 miles each way ; together with such incidentals to study as books and writing materials, might account for another pound. And as the professor charged a fee of twenty shillings for the class, the basic cost of John’s first session in Arts may have been more than six English pounds. Besides attending the Latin class, John matriculated. In those days, the student matriculated not as a civis of the University, but as a member of a particular class. During the second half of the session, sometimes in January, usually in February, and occasionally in March, those who wished to matriculate were assembled in the Library where the name of the professor, and the subject of his class, together with the date, were then inscribed in the Matriculation Register. Beneath the inscription, the first four or five to enroll wrote their names across the top of the page ; and the rest signed in straggling rows and columns. Under the heading, “ Discipuli Domini Laurentii Dundass, Humaniorum Literarum Professoris, Qui Vigesimo-Nono Die M. Martii, MDCCXXI, subscripserunt,” John Armstrong registered. No official record seems to exist of the fees the students paid for the class. To matriculate in it, there was a further charge of thirty shillings Scots, or two shillings and sixpence in English money. The matriculation receipts went to the upkeep of the Library. In the Library Accounts, John is credited with the payment of thirty shillings Scots in March 1721. Thus, John was named in the University records twice that session ; once, in the Matriculation Register and once in the Library Accounts. Latin was the subject of the first year in Arts ; Greek, for the second ; Logic with Metaphysics, for the third ; and Ethics with Natural Philosophy, for the fourth. According to Grant (II, 492), the average attendance at the end of the seventeenth century was 600 a year. In 1721, only 150 are listed in the Matriculation Register : the Professor of Ethics neglected to matriculate his class ; 55 enrolled for Greek ; 56 in Logic ; and 44 registered for Latin, along with John Armstrong. Matriculation was voluntary for those who came to learn, but not to graduate. The graduand, however, was required not only to complete * According to Graham (p. 434), in Scotland then “ the great bulk of the students were mere boys. They were usually from thirteen to fifteen years of age—some only eleven , .
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