List of libraries

• Introduction
• Registers (5)
• Books (1966)
• Borrowers (2410)
• Facts & figures

Also known as High School of Edinburgh. Located in Edinburgh. Founded in 1658. Type of library: Institutional. Collection: Dispersed and lost.
Address: Royal High School (1777-1829), High School Yards, Edinburgh
Alternative address: Royal High School (1829-1968), Regent Road, Edinburgh

Library description

The first iteration of the High School was a seminary school attached to the Abbey of Holyrood in 1128 before moving to a mansion house in the mid-sixteenth century and then to another site in the Cowgate (High School Wynd), in 1555.[i] According to C.A. Ross, the Royal High School was first recorded as a grammar school in an Instrument of Sasine in 1503[ii] and in 1589 it was re-founded as a ‘Royal High School’ by James VI[iii]. The school has had several different sites across Edinburgh throughout its history. In 1578, a schoolhouse was completed “in the garden of Blackfriars’ monastery”,[iv] where it remained until 1777. The first record of a library in the school is in 1658 when the Town Council ordered its founding, stating that it would be “convenient and expedient... for the good of the Grammar School both masters and scholars that shall be hereafter, to erect a Library in the said school for all sort of books that may concern humanity and the knowledge of languages”.[v]

The Statistical Account for Scotland in 1791 describes the building of a new school-house in 1777 at High School Yards, the first to have a purpose-built library. However, the Statistical Account of 1834-45 states that “in consequence of the extension of the town to the north, this situation was found to be inconvenient, and in 1825 the foundation of the present High School was laid on a spot of ground cleared out from the sloping side of the Calton Hill…There is a large hall, library, museum, and apartments for the different classes”.[vi] This move in 1829 coincided with a call from parents for a more centrally-located school in the New Town of Edinburgh.

Surviving records for the school library are housed at Edinburgh City Archives and relevant records consist of a ledger recording the books purchased for the school library from 1769 to 1837. There are also library catalogues for the years 1757, c. 1790, 1837 and 1848, when a juvenile section of the library was first established. Concurrently, records of the books borrowed by school pupils exist for the period 1770 until 1960, though these are not complete for the whole period, with a gap between 1812 and 1823 and another between 1832 and 1848. The registers record pupils’ names, the books borrowed, the dates and, in some cases, the teacher supervising this exchange. Borrowers’ records between the period 1770 and 1826 have been digitised here. 25 volumes of the original collection survive at the National Library of Scotland under the Grindlay collection.

There are 5 registers for the Royal High School Library that cover the period 1770-1828. Due to Covid-19 restrictions in accessing the archives, the second half of the first ledger and the first half of the second ledger have not been transcribed. Untranscribed pages of these ledgers are available as images on the system. Records have not survived for the period between 1812 and 1823. Other existing library borrowers’ registers cover the years: 1831-32 (SL137/14/7); a range of registers covering the period 1848-1874 (SL137/14/10-SL137/14/19); and later registers covering the periods 1908/09 (SL137/14/20), 1915-1941 (SL137/14/21-23) and 1950-1960 (SL137/14/24). These are available to consult at the Edinburgh City Council Archives.

[i] William D. D. Steven, The History of the High School of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart, 1849), p. 5

[ii] William C.A. Ross, The Royal High School (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1934) p. 19

[iii] James Scotland, The History of Scottish Education (London: University of London Press Ltd, 1970), p. 71

[iv] Scotland, p. 14

[v] J.B. Barclay, The Tounis Scule (Edinburgh: The Royal High School Club, 1974) p. 40

[vi] Statistical Account 1834-45, Edinburgh, Count of Edinburgh, NSA, vol. I, 1845, p. 683

Borrower description

The majority of borrowers were the teachers and pupils of the Royal High School of Edinburgh. Across the period of data transcribed and included in the database, 2,376 pupils borrowed books. There was a limited number of community borrowings with pupils or teachers occasionally borrowing on behalf of someone else. Two of these instances involved female borowers: Miss C Irving and Joanne Briggs. Teachers borrowed books prolifically from the school library, particularly the rector Alexander Adam who borrowed 274 volumes in his time there.

Records relating to an incident at the school in 1595 reveals that some pupils at this time were “sons either of barons or landed proprietors”.^[1] Steven also notes that “the sons of highland chieftains, were engaged in the affray, which proves that the highland proprietors of that period could not have been so illiterate as it is generally supposed they were. By spending their early days in Edinburgh, they must have acquired at the once the best education and the best manners which those times could furnish”.^[2] By the eighteenth century, the situation had changed. In 1718, the then rector of the High School, George Arbuthnot, reflected that attendance at the school had been badly affected by many of the families moving to London, stating that “[t]here were then scarce any of the nobility, and very few of the gentlemen of the country residing in Edinburgh, and the youth who attended his instructions were almost altogether the children of burgesses”.^[3]  When John Lees resigned as rector in 1765, he stated that at the beginning of his rectorship the school had only 90 pupils which he raised, with the help of his colleagues, to 220.^[4]  The Statistical Account of 1791-1799 concurs with this number, stating that the school had 200 pupils in 1763 and that by 1783, the roll had grown to 500 and was “it is believed, the most numerous school in Britain”.^[5] Matriculation records reveal that by the 1820s the school had gained an international reputation with pupils coming from across the world. The first matriculation record to survive records that the school had a roll of 650 pupils in 1827-28, with boys coming to attend the school from France, the West Indies, Jamaica, India, China and North America (as well as from across Scotland and the rest of the British Isles).^[6] 

[1] Steven, p. 25

[2] Steven, p. 26

[3] Steven, p. 93

[4] Steven, p. 105

^[5] William Creech, Statistical Account 1791-1799, Appendix for Edinburgh, County of Edinburgh, OSA, Vol. VI, p. 591

^[6] Matriculation records RHS, Edinburgh City Council Archives (SL137/5)

Holding description

The first iteration of the school library was depending on “donations of books from the teachers, and voluntary contributions from the citizens and the pupils of the school”.[i]  William Steven’s history of the school includes a list of the first donors of books to the library, including the rector, John Muir, and the other masters; “William Thomson, principal clerk of Edinburgh; John Scougall, William Hog, William Nimmo, William Douglas, and Robert Burnet, lawyers; John Lord Swinton; Patrick Scott of Thirlestane; Mr Robert Douglas, one of the ministers of Edinburgh; William Tweedie, professor of philosophy in the University”.[ii] Acquisition records form 1769 then reveal the purchasing decisions made by the schoolteachers for the school library and a large bequest of books was made by George Grindlay in 1801, when he donated the contents of his home library to the school. These books were marked separately in the 1839 catalogue and were freely available for pupils to borrow.

A variety of genres were represented in the school library catalogue with a growing focus on English books towards the end of the eighteenth century. The 1783 catalogue saw a decrease of the proportion of Latin texts in the overall collection from 78% in the 1757 catalogue to 46%. By 1839 that proportion had decreased again to just 29%, while the English works (including translations) increased from 11% in the 1757 catalogue to 36% in 1783 and in 1839 to take up the majority of the collection at 62%.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was a marked change in the types of books acquired, with an increase in the number of novels, periodicals and volumes of poetry purchased for the library. This shift is reflected in changing borrowing patterns in the period.

[i] Steven, p. 64

[ii] Steven, pp. 64-5

Sources

• Other: Accounts of books purchased for the school library 1784-1868, Edinburgh City Council Archives (SL137/12/1)
• Other: Accounts of books purchased for the school library 1843-1868, Edinburgh City Council Archives (SL137/12/2)
• Other: School Library Catalogues: c. 1790, c. 1837, c. 1839, Edinburgh City Council Archives (SL137/13/1 – SL137/13/3)
• Matriculation records: Matriculation records RHS, Edinburgh City Council Archives (SL137/5)
• Other: Grindlay Collection, The National Library of Scotland

Secondary sources

J.B. Barclay, The Tounis Scule (Edinburgh: The Royal High School Club, 1974)

Maxine Branagh-Miscampbell, ‘Childhood Reading and Education: The Royal High School of Edinburgh, 1750-1850’, unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Stirling (2021)

-----, ‘School Libraries in Lowland Scotland, 1750-1850’, Edinburgh History of Reading eds. Mary Hammond and Jonathan Rose (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020)

William Creech, Statistical Account 1791-1799, Appendix for Edinburgh, County of Edinburgh, OSA, Vol. VI

William C.A. Ross, The Royal High School (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1934)

James Scotland, The History of Scottish Education (London: University of London Press Ltd, 1970)

Statistical Account 1834-45, Edinburgh, Count of Edinburgh, NSA, vol. I, 1845

William D. D. Steven, The History of the High School of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart, 1849)