First Meeting of University Court, 1859
With the constitution of the University Court in 1859, Edinburgh University became a self-governing body.
The most significant measure of Universities (Scotland) Act 1858 was the establishing of University Courts as the supreme governing body at all four of Scotland's case. In Edinburgh's case, this meant that power to appoint university staff and to regulate the curriculum finally passed from the Town Council of Edinburgh to the University itself. The Court's functions would be to revise, on appeal, the acts of the Senatus Academicus, to sanction the expenditure by the Senatus of University funds and generally to undertake supervision of the professors. An Executive Commission was set up to implement the Act and ordained that it should come into force from 15 October 1859.
The University Court was to be chaired by the Rector (elected by the students), and to consist of the Principal, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and of Assessors appointed by the Rector, the Chancellor, the Town Council, General Council, and the Senatus Academicus. This meant that it could not be constituted until after the first meeting of the General Council on 28 October 1859, at which Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868) was elected Chancellor. A Rector too had be be elected by the students who
was first constituted in 1859, following the passing of the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858.
In 1859 Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) became the first layman since 1622 and the first member of a church other than the Church of Scotland to be appointed Principal of Edinburgh University.
The Principalship of Edinburgh University fell vacant on 2 May 1859 upon the death of John Lee (1779-1859). The previous year the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858 had been passed, which transferred the power to elect a new Principal from the Town Council of Edinburgh to seven Curators of Patronage.
Lee's death placed the Commissioners and the University in a paradoxical position. Three of the seven Curators of Patronage were to be elected by the University Court, the new supreme governing body of the University as established by the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858. The University Court itself, though, was to consist of the Principal, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and of Assessors appointed by the Rector, the Chancellor, the Town Council, General Council, and the Senatus Academicus. The Chancellor was to be elected by the General Council, whose first meeting was to be chaired by the Principal. Clearly, then, none of the new administrative measures introduced by the Act could be effected unless a Principal was already in post.