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William Carstares (1649-1715)

2015-06-11T13:39:20Z

Jforrest:

[[File:Edi uni eu 0003 624x544.jpg | border | 400 px | right | thumb | William Carstares (1649-1715) by John Aikman, ca. 1712, University of Edinburgh Art Collection (EU0003)]]'''William Carstares (1649-1715)''' was [[Principal]] of Edinburgh University from 1703 to 1715.

== Biography ==

Carstares was born in 1649, in Cathcart near Glasgow. He was the son of Rev John Carstares who was a member of the Covenanting party of Protestors. He was classically educated by John Sinclair, the minister of Ormiston, before entering Edinburgh University to study for his Bachelor of Arts, which he received in 1667. Due to the dominant Episcopalian nature of the University at the time, his father encouraged him to study theology at Utrecht. While there he became a life-long advisor and confidant to the Prince of Orange, later King William III of England (William II of Scotland), becoming William's chaplain until the King's death in 1702.

With his connection with the Prince of Orange, he was implicated in many acts that opposed Charles II, for which he was arrested and imprisoned several times, and at one point, was tortured for information regarding the Rye House Plot of 1674. He accompanied the Prince into England to take the English throne in 1689.

During his lifetime he was an influential diplomat and statesman both in the political arena and in ecclesiastical affairs. It was he who convinced William III to accept and trust the Presbyterian settlement in Scotland; and advocated that the General Assembly should accept the Act of Union.

After the death of William in 1702, he was no longer employed in the court and returned to Edinburgh to quell a disquiet in the Assembly regarding their rights. It was at this point that he was appointed as [[Principal (office of)|Principal]] of the University after [[Gilbert Rule (c1629-1701)]]. Carstares applied the same diplomacy and tact to the appointment as he had done in politics and introduced many changes into the University; but even before his appointment as Principal, he had already negotiated with William III to make an annual payment to all the Scottish Universities of 300 pounds from the Bishop's rents.

He improved relations between the [[Town Council]] and the University and persuaded the Council to replace the [[Opening of Edinburgh University, 1583#The Regenting System|Regent]] designation with that of Professorial, and developed professorships for individual subjects, including those in Ecclesiastical History, Anatomy, Physics and Medicine, Public and Civil Law. He also developed the foundations for a Faculty of Law. This not only increased choice and specialisation within the curriculum, but also expanded University teaching as a whole, providing the basis for the enlightenment period to come. He continued to work in developing the University and obtained from Queen Anne a bounty of 250 pounds to augment professors' salaries.

Very little survives of Carstares' writings, especially of his sermons, which were preached in fluent Latin. A few pamphlets survive written in defence of the National Church from the strong Episcopalian alliance which was lobbying for toleration in 1712, which was successfully defended against. Carstares died in Edinburgh, December 1715, and was buried in Greyfriars Churchyard in 1716. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth Kekewich (d. 1724) of the Kekewich's of Trehawk in Cornwall. They had no children.

== Positions ==

*Pastor of Theobald in Hertforshire in 1681
*Minister of the English church in Leyden 1685
*Chaplain to Prince of Orange, later King William III 1685-1702
*Principal of University of Edinburgh 1703-1715<
*Minister of Greyfriars church, Edinburgh 1704
*Elected moderator of the General Assembly 1705

== Relationships ==

*Chaplain to Prince of Orange, later King William III

== Publications ==

*''Some Queries humbly propos'd, upon the bill now depending before the Honourable House of Commons, for a toleration to the episcopal Dissenters in Scotland''. London, 1712
*''The case of the Church of Scotland with relation to the Bill for a toleration to the Episcopal dissenters to set up meeting-houses, and use the English service in Scotland''. London, 1712
*''The Scottish toleration argued: or, An account of all the laws about the Church of Scotland ratify'd by the Union-Act. In a letter from a Scots gentleman [i.e. William Carstairs] to a Member of Parliament''. London, 1712

== Sources ==

*Alexander Bower, ''The History of the University of Edinburgh''. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1817-1830.
*Tristram Clarke, 'Carstares , William (1649-1715)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) [[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4777], accessed 3 Sept 2010]
*[[Sir Alexander Grant]], ''The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years'', 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1884)
[[Category:Principals|Carstares, William]]

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649)

2015-06-11T13:37:13Z

Jforrest:

[[File:Edi uni eu 0482 624x544.jpg | border | 225 px | right | thumb | William Drummond of Hawthornden (Edinburgh University Art Collection)]]'''William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649)''' made a major [[William Drummond of Hawthornden's Donation of Books to Edinburgh University Library, 1626|donation of books]] to [[Library|Edinburgh University Library]] in 1626. He thus became the Library's first important private benefactor and gifted the library its first literary collection.

== Early Years ==

Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, near Roslin, Midlothian, the eldest son of Sir John Drummond, Laird of Hawthornden. The Drummonds were an ancient family with connections to the Royal House of Stewart. Drummond was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, then at Edinburgh University, under [[James Knox (d. 1633)]], graduating MA in 1605. From 1606 to 1608 he studied Law in Paris and Bourges. When he returned to Scotland in November 1608, he bought back nearly 400 volumes of French, Italian, Spanish, and English literature, the foundation of a fine private library. In 1610, Drummond visited London, meeting some of the most famous poets of the city. Upon his father’s death later that year, Drummond became Laird of Hawthornden and retired to the family seat, to write and to lead a life of gentlemanly simplicity.

== Drummond the Poet ==

Drummond has long enjoyed a reputation as Scotland’s foremost seventeenth-century poet. He wrote in English, not Scots, and is regarded as playing a major role in the Anglification of Scottish literature. His first published poem appeared in ''The Choisest Flowres of the Epitaphs'' (1613), followed by his first independent volumes: ''Teares on the Death of Meliades'' (1613) and ''Poems'' (1616). As his poetic reputation grew, he began to correspond with the Scottish poets at the Court of [[James VI and I|King James VI and I]]: Robert Kerr, Sir Robert Aytoun, Sir David Murray, and, particularly, William Alexander of Menstrie. When James VI and I visited Scotland in 1617, Drummond saluted him with ''Forth Feasting: A Panegyricke to the Kings Most Excellent Majestie''. This led to Drummond’s work becoming more widely known in London literary circles. Ben Jonson, on a visit to Scotland, stayed at Hawthornden Castle in 1618, and Drummond recorded their conversations. In 1623, Drummond was deeply affected by the loss of his mother and the death of many friends in a famine that afflicted Scotland. His grief was expressed in his next volume ''Flowres of Sion'' (1623), a collection of religious and philosophical lyrics.

== Donation to Edinburgh University Library ==

[[File:0002037c.jpg | border | 225 px | right | thumb | ''Flowres of Sion'' (1623), donated by Drummond to [[Library|Edinburgh University Library]] in 1624 (De.4.54)]]In 1626, Drummond was made a burgess of Edinburgh and in the same year made a major [[William Drummond of Hawthornden's Donation of Books to Edinburgh University Library, 1626|donation of books]] to [[Library|Edinburgh University Library]]. His gift of around 550 volumes made him the Library's first significant private benefactor and gave the Library it's first literary collection. Drummond made further donations on an annual basis between 1628 and 1636. All in all, he presented some 800 printed titles and thirty-six manuscripts; around 700 volumes survive in the Library’s collection. These include some of the Library's greatest treasures, especially in the fields of literature, history, geography, philosophy and theology, science, medicine and law. They include early printings of Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser, Drayton and Sir Philip Sidney, a complete copy of John Derrick's ''Image of Irelande'' (1581), and two early pamphlets encouraging the colonisation of Nova Scotia. It has been conjectured that Drummond was planning to withdraw from literary life at this time. He was certainly preparing to go abroad for some time on business connected with registering patents for military machines of his own invention.

== From Poet to Pamphleteer ==

By 1633, Drummond had resumed his literary career, writing a series of pageants for the Scottish coronation of Charles I, which were printed as ''The Entertainment of the High and Mighty Monarch Charles, King of Great Britaine, France and Ireland'' (1633). In the same year, he began writing his longest work, a ''History of Scotland from the Year 1423 until the Year 1542'' (finished about 1644, but published posthumously in 1655). From the mid-1630s onwards, however, Drummond’s energies turned to political pamphleteering. His first overly political work was a defence of John Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino, who was convicted on a capital charge of libel against the King for possessing a document thought to be treasonable. Following the signing of the National Covenant in March 1638, Drummond wrote and circulated ''Irene: a Remonstrance for Concord, Amity and Love amongst his Majesty's Subjects'', which advocated passive obedience to the King but rejected any kind of compulsion of belief, whether Episcopal or Presbyterian. Further pamphlets, ''The Magicial Mirror'', ''Queries of State'', ''The Idea'', and ''The Load Starre'' (1639) attacked the Presbyterian grip on the country and warned of the consequences of civil war. Drummond played no personal role in the Bishops’ Wars of 1639 and 1640, and in the civil conflicts that rocked England and Scotland over the following decade. His last substantial tract was ''Skiamachia, or, A Defence of a Petition'' (1643), in which he assumed an extreme anti-clerical position. Drummond died at Hawthornden Castle on 4 December 1649. Drummond’s son William and brother-in-law collaborated the posthumous printing of much of Drummond’s work.

[[File:IMG 1443.JPG | border | 250 px | right | thumb | Fragment of MS Latin stanza addressed by Drummond to Michael Drayton, [[Laing Collection]], [[Library|Edinburgh University Library]] (La.II.320))]]

== Drummond Archives at Edinburgh University ==

*Signature, 27 July 1605, [[First Laureation & Degrees Album]], Edinburgh University Archives (GB 237 EUA IN1/ADS/STA/1/1)
*Signature, 27 November 1637, [[Admissions Register, Edinburgh University Library]] (Da.2.1)
*''Pleasantissima Polemo-Middinia inter Vetarvam & Nebarnam'', [[Laing Collection]] (La.II.69)
*Fragment of MS Latin stanza, addressed to Michael Drayton, [[Laing Collection]] (La.II.320)
*Historical Notes by Drummond, [[Laing Collection]] (La.III.254)
*Transcripts of letters from Elizabeth I of England to [[James VI and I|James VI]] of Scotland in Drummond's hand, [[Laing Collection]] (La.III.365)
*Poem in 17th-century anthology, [[Laing Collection]] (La. III, 436) (La.III.436)
*Transcript of Drummond's Will, [[Laing Collection]] (La.III.494)

== Sources ==
{{Template:BenGal}}
*[[Thomas Craufurd]], ''History of the University of Edinburgh, from 1580 to 1646: To Which is Prefixed the Charter Granted to the College by James VI of Scotland, in 1582'' (Edinburgh: Printed by A. Neill & Co., 1808)
*[[Charles Pringle Finlayson (1911-1985)|C. P. Finlayson]] and S. M. Simpson, 'The History of the Library 1580-1710', in ''Edinburgh University Library 1580-1980: A Collection of Historical Essays'', ed. Jean R. Guild and Alexander Law (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Library, 1982), pp. 43-54.
*[[Sir Alexander Grant]], ''The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years'', 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1884)
*''The Library of Drummond of Hawthornden'', ed. Robert Macdonald (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971)
*[[David Mather Masson (1822-1907)|David Masson]], ''Drummond of Hawthornden: The Story of his Life and Writings'' (London: Macmillan and co., 1873)
*John Scally and Julie Lawson, '''A labyrinth of delight': The World of William Drummond of Hawthornden 1585-1649'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Library, Museums & Galleries in partnership with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2005)
*M. C. T. Simpson, 'The Special Collections', in ''Edinburgh University Library, 1580–1980: A Collection of Historical Essays'', ed. J. R. Guild and A. Law (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Library, 1982), pp. 140-62.
*Michael R. G. Spiller, 'Drummond, William, of Hawthornden (1585–1649)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) [[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8085], accessed 4 June 2014]

[[Category:Benefactors|Drummond, William]] [[Category:Alumni|Drummond, William]]

File:Edi uni eu 0003 624x544.jpg

2015-06-11T13:36:09Z

Jforrest:

[[William Carstares (1649-1715)]] by John Aikman, ca. 1712, University of Edinburgh Art Collection (EU0003).

This painting was presented to the University on the death of Mrs Carstares by the executor of her estate, Professor [[Charles Mackie (1688-1770)]].

Appointment of William Carstares as Principal of Edinburgh University, 1703

2015-06-11T13:35:39Z

Jforrest:

[[File:Edi uni eu 0003 624x544.jpg | border | 250 px | right | thumb | [[William Carstares (1649-1715)]] by John Aikman, ca. 1712, University of Edinburgh Art Collection (EU0003)]]The appointment of [[William Carstares (1649-1715)]] as [[Principal]] of Edinburgh University in 1703 initiated a programme of reforms designed to remodel the 'Tounis College' in the image of Dutch universities such as Leiden. This laid the foundation for Edinburgh to develop into one of the major universities of Enlightenment Europe.

Under Carstares, the regenting system was abolished in favour of a professorial system that assigned each of the subjects on the curriculum to a single professor. The Faculties of [[Faculty of Arts|Arts]] and [[Faculty of Law|Law]] were constituted, and new chairs were established in Public Law, Civil Law, [[Anatomy]], and [[Chemistry]].

After the death of Carstares in 1715, his reforms were continued by [[William Wishart "primus" (1660-1729)]] and [[George Drummond (1688-1766)]].

== Key Events of Carstares's Principalship ==

*[[Seizure of College Records by Town Council, 1704]]
*[[Foundation of Faculty of Law, 1707]]
*[[End of Regenting System, 1708]]
*[[Foundation of Faculty of Arts, 1708]]

== Sources ==

*[[Alexander Bower (fl. 1804-1830)|Alexander Bower]], ''The History of the University of Edinburgh''. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1817-1830.
*[[Sir Alexander Grant]], ''The Story of the University of Edinburgh during its First Three Hundred Years'', 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1884)
[[Category:Events|Appointment of William Carstares as Principal of Edinburgh University, 1703]][[Category:Incomplete|Appointment of William Carstares as Principal of Edinburgh University, 1703]]

File:Edi uni eu 0482 624x544.jpg

2015-06-11T12:55:19Z

Jforrest:

Three-quarter-length portrait of William Drummond of Hawthornden. Almost full face, in which the sitter wears a red and black striped doublet embroidered with thistles and acorns and a high open work lace ruff collar and cuffs.

University of Edinburgh Art Collection EU0482

File:Edi uni eu 0068 624x544.jpg

2015-06-11T12:52:48Z

Jforrest:

Half-length portrait of Robert Rollock, shown full face. In his right hand he clasps a prayer book.

University of Edinburgh Art Collection, EU0068.

File:0016052c.jpg

2015-06-11T10:34:52Z

Jforrest:

[[Sir William Fraser (1816–1898)]] by William Crabb, 1869, University of Edinburgh Art Collection (EU0053)