Scottish education in the nineteenth century

Last updated
Recreation of a nineteenth-century classroom at the Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow The Scotland Street School Museum (Glasgow) (3816540623).jpg
Recreation of a nineteenth-century classroom at the Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow

Scottish education in the nineteenth century concerns all forms of education, including schools, universities and informal instruction, in Scotland in the nineteenth century. By the late seventeenth century there was a largely complete system of parish schools, but it was undermined by the Industrial Revolution and rapid urbanisation. The Church of Scotland, the Free Church of Scotland and the Catholic church embarked on programmes of school building to fill in the gaps in provision, creating a fragmented system. Attempts to supplement the parish system included Sunday schools, mission schools, ragged schools, Bible societies and improvement classes. Scots played a major part in the development of teacher education with figures including William Watson, Thomas Guthrie, Andrew Bell, John Wood and David Stow. Scottish schoolmasters gained a reputation for strictness and frequent use of the tawse. The perceived problems and fragmentation of the Scottish school system led to a process of secularisation, as the state took increasing control. The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 transferred the Kirk and Free Kirk schools to regional School Boards and made some provision for secondary education. In 1890 school fees were abolished, creating a state-funded, national system of compulsory free basic education with common examinations.

Contents

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Scotland's five university colleges had no entrance exams, students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and left without qualifications. The curriculum was dominated by divinity and the law. There was a concerted attempt to modernise the curriculum resulting in reforming acts of parliament in 1858 and 1889. The curriculum and system of graduation were reformed, entrance examinations introduced and average ages of entry rose to 17 or 18. There was a revitalisation of the Scottish university system, which expanded to 6,254 students by the end of the century. Major figures produced by the university system included William John Macquorn Rankine, Thomas Thomson, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, David Brewster, Fleeming Jenkin, Joseph Lister, William Macewen, Robert Jameson, Edward Caird, James George Frazer and Patrick Geddes.

Schools

Background: the school system

Statue honouring Thomas Guthrie in Edinburgh Thomas Guthrie.jpg
Statue honouring Thomas Guthrie in Edinburgh

After the Reformation there were a series of attempts to provide a network of parish schools throughout Scotland. By the late seventeenth century this was largely complete in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands elementary education was still lacking in many areas. [1] These schools were controlled by the local Church of Scotland and provided a basic education, mainly to boys. [2] By the eighteenth century many poorer girls were being taught in dame schools, informally set up by a widow or spinster to teach reading, sewing, and cooking. [3] The Statistical Account of Scotland undertaken parish-by-parish by John Sinclair in the 1790s indicated that all but the oldest inhabitants were expected to be able to read and that many (although fewer girls) could write and count. However, it also indicated that much of the legal provision of schooling had often fallen into decay. [2] In the burghs there were a range or parish schools, burgh schools and grammar schools, most of which provided a preparation for one of the Scottish universities. These were supplemented by boarding establishments, known as "hospitals", most of which had been endowed by charities, such as George Heriot's School and the Merchant Companies Schools in Edinburgh. [4] The Industrial Revolution and rapid urbanisation undermined the effectiveness of the Scottish church school system, creating major gaps in provision and religious divisions would begin to undermine the unity of the system. [5] The publication of George Lewis's Scotland: a Half Educated Nation in 1834 began a major debate on the suitability of the parish school system, particularly in rapidly expanding urban areas. [6]

Church schools

Aware of the growing shortfall in provision the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland formed an education committee in 1824. The committee had established 214 "assembly schools" by 1865. There were also 120 "sessional schools", mainly established by kirk sessions in towns and aimed at the children of the poor. [7] The Disruption of 1843, which created the breakaway Free Church of Scotland, fragmented the kirk school system. 408 teachers in schools joined the breakaway Free Church. By May 1847 it was claimed that 500 schools had been built, along with two teacher training colleges and a ministerial training college, [8] 513 schoolmasters were being paid direct from a central education fund and over 44,000 children being taught in Free Church schools. [9] The influx of large numbers of Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century led to the establishment of Catholic schools, particularly in the urban west of the country, beginning with Glasgow in 1817. [10] The church schools system was now divided between three major bodies, the established Kirk, the Free Church and the Catholic Church. [7]

Supplementary education

A schoolmaster administering punishment with the tawse Tawse19thC.png
A schoolmaster administering punishment with the tawse

Attempts to supplement the parish system included Sunday schools. Originally begun in the 1780s by town councils, they were adopted by all religious denominations in the nineteenth century. The movement peaked in the 1890s. By 1890 the Baptists had more Sunday schools than churches and were teaching over 10,000 children. [11] In 1895, 50,000 teachers were working within the Church of Scotland in these schools [12] and 60 per cent of children aged 5–15 in Glasgow were enrolled on their books. [13] From the 1830s and 1840s there were also mission schools, ragged schools, Bible societies and improvement classes, open to members of all forms of Protestantism and particularly aimed at the growing urban working classes. [11] The ragged school movement attempted to provide free education to destitute children. The ideas were taken up in Aberdeen where Sheriff William Watson founded the House of Industry and Refuge, and they were championed by Scottish minister Thomas Guthrie who wrote Plea for Ragged Schools (1847), after which they rapidly spread across Britain. [14]

Theory and practice

Scots played a major part in the development of teacher education. Andrew Bell (1753–1832) pioneered the Monitorial System, by which the more able pupils would pass on the information they had learned to other children and which developed into the pupil-teacher system of training. It was further developed by John Wood, Sheriff-Depute of Peebles, who tended to favour fierce competition in the classroom and strict discipline. In contrast David Stow (1793–1864), who founded the first infant school in Scotland, in Glasgow in 1828, focused on the bond between teacher and child and advocated the "Glasgow method", which centred on trained adult teachers. [4] He established the first teacher training college in the United Kingdom, the Glasgow Normal Seminary. When, after the Great Disruption it was declared the property of the Church of Scotland, he founded the Free Church Normal Seminary in 1845. [15] Ultimately Wood's ideas played a greater role in the Scottish educational system as they fitted with the need for rapid expansion and low costs that resulted from the reforms of 1872. [4] Scottish schoolmasters gained a reputation for strictness and frequent use of the tawse, a belt of horse hide split at one end that inflicted stinging punishment on the hands of pupils. [16]

Commissions

Commissioner George Douglas Campbell, the Duke of Argyll (c. 1860) by George Frederic Watts George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll by George Frederic Watts.jpg
Commissioner George Douglas Campbell, the Duke of Argyll (c. 1860) by George Frederic Watts

The perceived problems and fragmentation of the Scottish school system led to a process of secularisation, as the state took increasing control. From 1830 the state began to fund buildings with grants, then from 1846 it was funding schools by direct sponsorship. [17] The 1861 Education Act removed the provision stating that Scottish teachers had to be members of the Church of Scotland or subscribe to the Westminster Confession. In 1866 the government established the Argyll Commission, under Whig grandee George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, to look into the schooling system. It found that of 500,000 children in need of education 200,000 were receiving it under efficient conditions, 200,000 in schools of doubtful merit, without any inspection and 90,000 were receiving no education at all. Although this compared favourably with the situation in England, with 14 per cent more children in education and with relatively low illiteracy rates of between 10 and 20 per cent, similar to those in the best educated nations such as those in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Scandinavia, the report was used as support for widespread reform. The result was the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, based on that passed for England and Wales as the Elementary Education Act in 1870, but providing a more comprehensive solution. [18]

1872 act

Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 approximately 1,000 regional School Boards were established [19] and, unlike in England where they merely attempted to fill gaps in provision, immediately took over the schools of the old and new kirks and were able to begin to enforce attendance, rather than after the decade necessary in England. [18] Some ragged and industrial schools requested to be taken over by the boards, while others continued as Sunday schools. [14] All children aged from 5 to 13 years were to attend. Poverty was not accepted as an excuse and some help was supplied under the poor law. This was enforced by the School Attendance Committee, while the boards busied themselves with building to fill the gaps in provision. This resulted in a major programme that created large numbers of grand, purpose-built schools. [18] Overall administration was in the hands of the Scotch (later Scottish) Education Department in London. [17] Demand for places was high and for a generation after the act there was overcrowding in many classrooms, with up to 70 children being taught in one room. The emphasis on a set number of passes at exams also led to much learning by rote and the system of inspection led to even the weakest children being drilled with certain facts. [18]

To compensate for the difficult of educating children in the sparesly populated Highlands, in 1885 the Highland Minute established a subsidy for such schools. [20]

Secondary education

The Mearns Street Public School built for the Greenock Burgh School Board still bears its name, carved on the stone pediment above the entrance Former Mearns St School - geograph.org.uk - 608264.jpg
The Mearns Street Public School built for the Greenock Burgh School Board still bears its name, carved on the stone pediment above the entrance

Unlike the English act, the Scottish one made some provision for secondary education. [4] The Scottish Education Department intended to expand secondary education, but did not intend to produce a universal system. The preferred method was to introduce vocational supplementary teaching in the elementary schools, later known as advanced divisions, up until the age of 14, when pupils would leave to find work. This was controversial because it seemed to counter the cherished principle that schooling was a potential route to university for the bright "lad o' parts". [19] Larger urban school boards established about 200 "higher grade" (secondary) schools as a cheaper alternative to the burgh schools. [1] [19] Some of these were former grammar schools, such as the Glasgow and Edinburgh High Schools, Aberdeen New High School and Perth Academy. Some hospitals became day schools and largely remained independent, while a few, including Fettes College in Edinburgh, became public schools on the English model. Other public schools emerged around the mid century, such as Merchiston, Loretto School and Trinity College, Glenalmond. [4] The result of these changes was a fear that secondary education became much harder to access for the children of the poor. [19] However, in the second half of the century roughly a quarter of university students can be described as having working class origins, largely from the skilled and independent sectors of the economy. [19] The Scottish Education Department introduced a Leaving Certificate Examination in 1888 to set national standards for secondary education. In 1890 school fees were abolished, creating a state-funded, national system of compulsory free basic education with common examinations. [1]

Universities

Background: the ancient universities

The new buildings of the University of Glasgow at Gilmorehill, circa 1895 University, Glasgow, Scotland, ca. 1895.jpg
The new buildings of the University of Glasgow at Gilmorehill, circa 1895

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Scotland's five university colleges had about 3,000 students between them. [21] They had no entrance exam, students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and left without qualifications. [22] Although Scottish universities had gained a formidable reputation in the eighteenth century, particularly in areas like medicine and had produced leading scientists such as Joseph Black (1728–99), the curriculum was dominated by divinity and the law and there was a concerted attempt to modernise the curriculum, particularly by introducing degrees in the physical sciences and the need to reform the system to meet the needs of the emerging middle classes and the professions. [22] The result was two commissions of inquiry in 1826 and 1876 and reforming acts of parliament in 1858 and 1889. [22]

Reforms

The curriculum and system of graduation were reformed. Entrance examinations equivalent to the School Leaving Certificate were introduced and average ages of entry rose to 17 or 18. Standard patterns of graduation in the arts curriculum offered 3-year ordinary and 4-year honours degrees. [22] There was resistance among professors, particularly among chairs of divinity and classics, to the introduction of new subjects, particularly the physical sciences. The crown established Regius chairs, all in the sciences, including medicine, chemistry, natural history and botany. The chair of Engineering at Glasgow was the first of its kind in the world. By the 1870s the physical sciences were well established in Scottish universities, whereas in England the battle would not be complete until the end of the century. [23] The new separate science faculties were able to move away from the compulsory Latin, Greek and philosophy of the old MA curriculum. [22] Under the commissions all the universities were restructured. They were given Courts, which included external members and who oversaw the finances of the institution. Under the 1889 act new arts subjects were established, with chairs in Modern History, French, German and Political Economy. [23]

The University of St Andrews was at a low point in its fortunes in the early part of the century. It was restructured by commissioners appointed by the 1858 act and began a revival. [23] It pioneered the admission of women to Scottish universities, creating the Lady Licentiate in Arts (LLA), which proved highly popular. From 1892 Scottish universities could admit and graduate women and the numbers of women at Scottish universities steadily increased until the early twentieth century. [24] The University of Glasgow became a leader in British higher education by providing the educational needs of youth from the urban and commercial classes. [25] It moved from the city centre to a new set of grand neo-Gothic buildings, paid for by public subscription, at Gilmorehill in 1870. [26] The two colleges at Aberdeen were considered too small to be viable and they were restructured as the University of Aberdeen in 1860. [23] A new college of the university was opened in Dundee in 1883. [21] Unlike the other Medieval and ecclesiastical foundations, the University of Edinburgh was the "tounis college", founded by the city after the Reformation, and was as a result relatively poor. In 1858 it was taken out of the care of the city and established on a similar basis to the other ancient universities. [23]

Achievements

Lord Kelvin by Hubert von Herkomer Hubert von Herkomer03.jpg
Lord Kelvin by Hubert von Herkomer

The result of these reforms was a revitalisation of the Scottish university system, which expanded to 6,254 students by the end of the century [21] and produced leading figures in both the arts and sciences. The chair of Engineering at Glasgow became highly distinguished under its second incumbent William John Macquorn Rankine (1820–72), who held the position from 1859 to 1872 and became the leading figure in heat engines and founder president of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. [23] Thomas Thomson (1773–1852) was the first professor of Chemistry at Glasgow and in 1831 founded the Shuttle Street laboratories, perhaps the first of their kind in the world. His students founded practical chemistry at Aberdeen soon after. William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin was appointed to the chair of natural philosophy at Glasgow aged only 22. His work included the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. By 1870 Kelvin and Rankine made Glasgow the leading centre of science and engineering education and investigation in Britain. [23]

At Edinburgh, major figures included David Brewster (1781–1868), who made contributions to the science of optics and to the development of photography. Fleeming Jenkin (1833–85) was the first professor of engineering at the university and among wide interests helped develop ocean telegraphs and mechanical drawing. [23] In medicine Joseph Lister (1827–1912) and his student William Macewen (1848–1924), pioneered antiseptic surgery. [27] The University of Edinburgh was also a major supplier of surgeons for the royal navy, and Robert Jameson (1774–1854), Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh, ensured that a large number of these were surgeon-naturalists, who were vital in the Humboldtian and imperial enterprise of investigating nature throughout the world. [28] [29] Major figures to emerge from Scottish universities in the science of humanity included the philosopher Edward Caird (1835–1908), the anthropologist James George Frazer (1854–1941) and the sociologist and urban planner Patrick Geddes (1854–1932). [30]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 R. Anderson, "The history of Scottish education pre-1980", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), ISBN   0-7486-1625-X, pp. 219–28.
  2. 1 2 D. Witherington, "Schools and schooling: 2. 1697–1872", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN   0-19-211696-7, pp. 563–5.
  3. ↑ B. Gatherer, "Scottish teachers", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), ISBN   0-7486-1625-X, p. 1022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 O. Checkland and S. G. Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), ISBN   0748601023, pp. 114–15.
  5. ↑ T. M. Devine, The Scottish Nation, 1700–2000 (London: Penguin Books, 2001), ISBN   0-14-100234-4, pp. 91–100.
  6. ↑ M. Lynch, Scotland: A New History (London: Pimlico, 1992), ISBN   0-7126-9893-0, p. 357.
  7. 1 2 O. Checkland and S. G. Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), ISBN   0748601023, p. 111.
  8. ↑ G. Parsons, "Church and state in Victorian Scotland: disruption and reunion", in G. Parsons and J. R. Moore, eds, Religion in Victorian Britain: Controversies (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988), ISBN   0719025133, p. 116.
  9. ↑ M. Lynch, Scotland: A New History (Random House, 2011), ISBN   1-4464-7563-8, p. 397.
  10. ↑ J. C. Conroy, "Catholic Education in Scotland", in M. A. Hayes and L. Gearon, eds, Contemporary Catholic Education (Gracewing, 2002), ISBN   0852445288, p. 23.
  11. 1 2 M. Lynch, Scotland: A New History (London: Pimlico, 1992), ISBN   0712698930, p. 403.
  12. ↑ C. Brown, Religion and Society in Scotland Since 1707 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), ISBN   0748608869, p. 130
  13. ↑ D. W. Bebbington, "Missions at Home", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN   0-19-211696-7, p. 423.
  14. 1 2 G. Morton, Ourselves and Others: Scotland 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012), ISBN   0748620494, p. 181.
  15. ↑ T. M. Devine, Glasgow: 1830 to 1912 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), ISBN   0719036925, pp. 398–9.
  16. ↑ M. Peters, "Scottish education: an international perspective" in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003), ISBN   074861625X, p. 1024.
  17. 1 2 "Education records", National Archive of Scotland, 2006, archived from the original on 31 August 2011
  18. 1 2 3 4 O. Checkland and S. G. Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), ISBN   0748601023, pp. 112–13.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 L. Patterson, "Schools and schooling: 3. Mass education 1872–present", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN   0-19-211696-7, pp. 566–9.
  20. ↑ "The Scottish Law Reporter: Containing Reports by ... of Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary, Court of Teinds, and House of Lords". The Scottish Law Reporter: Containing Reports by ... Of Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary, Court of Teinds, and House of Lords. XXIX: 205–206. 1892.
  21. 1 2 3 R. D. Anderson, "Universities: 2. 1720–1960", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN   0-19-211696-7, pp. 612–14.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 R. Anderson, "The history of Scottish education pre-1980", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), ISBN   0-7486-1625-X, p. 224.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 O. Checkland and S. G. Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), ISBN   0748601023, pp. 147–50.
  24. ↑ M. F. Rayner-Canham and G. Rayner-Canham, Chemistry was Their Life: Pioneering British Women Chemists, 1880–1949 (London: Imperial College Press, 2008), ISBN   1-86094-986-X, p. 264.
  25. ↑ P. L. Robertson, "The Development of an Urban University: Glasgow, 1860–1914", History of Education Quarterly, Winter 1990, vol. 30 (1), pp. 47–78.
  26. ↑ T. M. Devine, Glasgow: 1830 to 1912 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), ISBN   0719036925, p. 249.
  27. ↑ O. Checkland and S. G. Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), ISBN   0748601023, p. 151.
  28. ↑ J. L. Heilbron, The Oxford Companion To the History of Modern Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), ISBN   0195112296, p. 386.
  29. ↑ J. Browne, "A science of empire: British biogeography before Darwin", Revue d'histoire des Sciences, vol. 45 (1992), p. 457.
  30. ↑ O. Checkland and S. G. Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland, 1832–1914 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), ISBN   0748601023, pp. 152–4.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish national identity</span> Scottish identity and common culture

Scottish national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity, as embodied in the shared and characteristic culture, languages and traditions, of the Scottish people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universities in Scotland</span>

There are fifteen universities in Scotland and three other institutions of higher education that have the authority to award academic degrees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Reformation</span> Religious and political movement that established the Church of Scotland

The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterian in its outlook. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation that took place from the sixteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of education in Scotland</span> Aspect of history

The history of education in Scotland in its modern sense of organised and institutional learning, began in the Middle Ages, when Church choir schools and grammar schools began educating boys. By the end of the 15th century schools were also being organised for girls and universities were founded at St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Education was encouraged by the Education Act 1496, which made it compulsory for the sons of barons and freeholders of substance to attend the grammar schools, which in turn helped increase literacy among the upper classes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in early modern Scotland</span> Overview of the education in early modern Scotland

Education in early modern Scotland includes all forms of education within the modern borders of Scotland, between the end of the Middle Ages in the late fifteenth century and the beginnings of the Enlightenment in the mid-eighteenth century. By the sixteenth century such formal educational institutions as grammar schools, petty schools and sewing schools for girls were established in Scotland, while children of the nobility often studied under private tutors. Scotland had three universities, but the curriculum was limited and Scottish scholars had to go abroad to gain second degrees. These contacts were one of the most important ways in which the new ideas of Humanism were brought into Scottish intellectual life. Humanist concern with education and Latin culminated in the Education Act 1496.

Scottish religion in the nineteenth century

Scottish religion in the nineteenth century includes all forms of religious organisation and belief in Scotland in the 19th century. This period saw a reaction to the population growth and urbanisation of the Industrial Revolution that had undermined traditional parochial structures and religious loyalties. The established Church of Scotland reacted with a programme of church building from the 1820s. Beginning in 1834 the "Ten Years' Conflict" ended in a schism from the established Church of Scotland led by Dr Thomas Chalmers known as the Great Disruption of 1843. Roughly a third of the clergy, mainly from the North and Highlands, formed the separate Free Church of Scotland. The evangelical Free Church and other secessionist churches grew rapidly in the Highlands and Islands and urban centres. There were further schisms and divisions, particularly between those who attempted to maintain the principles of Calvinism and those that took a more personal and flexible view of salvation. However, there were also mergers that cumulated in the creation of a United Free Church in 1900 that incorporated most of the secessionist churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in Medieval Scotland</span> Overview of education in Medieval Scotland

Education in Medieval Scotland includes all forms of education within the modern borders of Scotland, between the departure of the Romans from Britain in the fifth century, until the establishment of the Renaissance late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. Few sources on Scottish education survived the Medieval era. In the early Middle Ages, Scotland was an oral society, with verbal rather than literary education. Though there are indications of a Gaelic education system similar to that of Ireland, few details are known. The establishment of Christianity from the sixth century brought Latin to Scotland as a scholarly and written language. Monasteries served as major repositories of knowledge and education, often running schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church music in Scotland</span>

Church music in Scotland includes all musical composition and performance of music in the context of Christian worship in Scotland, from the beginnings of Christianisation in the fifth century, to the present day. The sources for Scottish Medieval music are extremely limited due to factors including a turbulent political history, the destructive practices of the Scottish Reformation, the climate and the relatively late arrival of music printing. In the early Middle Ages, ecclesiastical music was dominated by monophonic plainchant, which led to the development of a distinct form of liturgical Celtic chant. It was superseded from the eleventh century by more complex Gregorian chant. In the High Middle Ages, the need for large numbers of singing priests to fulfill the obligations of church services led to the foundation of a system of song schools, to train boys as choristers and priests. From the thirteenth century, Scottish church music was increasingly influenced by continental developments. Monophony was replaced from the fourteenth century by the Ars Nova consisting of complex polyphony. Survivals of works from the first half of the sixteenth century indicate the quality and scope of music that was undertaken at the end of the Medieval period. The outstanding Scottish composer of the first half of the sixteenth century was Robert Carver, who produced complex polyphonic music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial Revolution in Scotland</span> Overview of the role of the Industrial Revolution in Scotland

Thy Industrial Revolution in Scotland was the transition to new manufacturing processes and economic expansion between the mid-eighteenth century and the late nineteenth century. By the start of the eighteenth century, a political union between Scotland and England became politically and economically attractive, promising to open up the much larger markets of England, as well as those of the growing British Empire, resulting in the Treaty of Union of 1707. There was a conscious attempt among the gentry and nobility to improve agriculture in Scotland. New crops were introduced and enclosures began to displace the run rig system and free pasture. The economic benefits of union were very slow to appear, some progress was visible, such as the sales of linen and cattle to England, the cash flows from military service, and the tobacco trade that was dominated by Glasgow after 1740. Merchants who profited from the American trade began investing in leather, textiles, iron, coal, sugar, rope, sailcloth, glass-works, breweries, and soap-works, setting the foundations for the city's emergence as a leading industrial center after 1815.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of universities in Scotland</span>

The history of universities in Scotland includes the development of all universities and university colleges in Scotland, between their foundation between the fifteenth century and the present day. Until the fifteenth century, those Scots who wished to attend university had to travel to England, or to the Continent. This situation was transformed by the founding of St John's College, St Andrews in 1418 by Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St. Andrews. St Salvator's College was added to St. Andrews in 1450. The other great bishoprics followed, with the University of Glasgow being founded in 1451 and King's College, Aberdeen in 1495. Initially, these institutions were designed for the training of clerics, but they would increasingly be used by laymen. International contacts helped integrate Scotland into a wider European scholarly world and would be one of the most important ways in which the new ideas of humanism were brought into Scottish intellectual life in the sixteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of popular religion in Scotland</span> 1500, John Konx, John Calvin ,

The history of popular religion in Scotland includes all forms of the formal theology and structures of institutional religion, between the earliest times of human occupation of what is now Scotland and the present day. Very little is known about religion in Scotland before the arrival of Christianity. It is generally presumed to have resembled Celtic polytheism and there is evidence of the worship of spirits and wells. The Christianisation of Scotland was carried out by Irish-Scots missionaries, and to a lesser extent those from Rome and England, from the sixth century. Elements of paganism survived into the Christian era. Most early evidence of religious practice is heavily biased towards monastic life. Priests carried out baptisms, masses and burials, prayed for the dead and offered sermons. The church dictated in moral and legal matters and impinged on other elements of everyday life through its rules on fasting, diet, the slaughter of animals and rules on purity and ritual cleansing. One of the main features of Medieval Scotland was the Cult of Saints, with shrines devoted to local and national figures, including St Andrew, and the establishment of pilgrimage routes. Scots also played a major role in the Crusades. Historians have discerned a decline of monastic life in the late medieval period. In contrast, the burghs saw the flourishing of mendicant orders of friars in the later fifteenth century. As the doctrine of Purgatory gained importance the number of chapelries, priests and masses for the dead within parish churches grew rapidly. New "international" cults of devotion connected with Jesus and the Virgin Mary began to reach Scotland in the fifteenth century. Heresy, in the form of Lollardry, began to reach Scotland from England and Bohemia in the early fifteenth century, but did not achieve a significant following.

Music of Scotland in the nineteenth century

Music of Scotland in the nineteenth century includes all forms of music production in the period, in Scotland or by Scottish people.

Evangelical revival in Scotland

The evangelical revival in Scotland was a series of religious movements in Scotland from the eighteenth century, with periodic revivals into the twentieth century. It began in the later 1730s as congregations experienced intense "awakenings" of enthusiasm, renewed commitment and rapid expansion. This was first seen at Easter Ross in the Highlands in 1739 and most famously in the Cambuslang Wark near Glasgow in 1742. Most of the new converts were relatively young and from the lower groups in society. Unlike awakenings elsewhere, the early revival in Scotland did not give rise to a major religious movement, but mainly benefited the secession churches, who had broken away from the Church of Scotland. In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century the revival entered a second wave, known in the US as the Second Great Awakening. In Scotland this was reflected in events like the Kilsyth Revival in 1839. The early revival mainly spread in the Central Belt, but it became active in the Highlands and Islands, peaking towards the middle of the nineteenth century. Scotland gained many of the organisations associated with the revival in England, including Sunday Schools, mission schools, ragged schools, Bible societies and improvement classes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in Scotland in the twentieth century</span>

Education in Scotland in the twentieth century includes all forms of organised education in Scotland, such as elementary, secondary and higher education. The centre of the education system became more focused on Scotland throughout the century, with the Scottish Education Department partly moving north from 1918 and new departments created by the Scottish Executive after devolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of schools in Scotland</span>

The history of schools in Scotland includes the development of all schools as institutions and buildings in Scotland, from the early Middle Ages to the present day. From the early Middle Ages there were bardic schools, that trained individuals in the poetic and musical arts. Monasteries served as major repositories of knowledge and education, often running schools. In the High Middle Ages, new sources of education arose including choir and grammar schools designed to train priests. Benedictine and Augustinian foundations probably had charitable almonry schools to educate young boys, who might enter the priesthood. Some abbeys opened their doors to teach the sons of gentlemen. By the end of the Middle Ages, grammar schools could be found in all the main burghs and some small towns. In rural areas there were petty or reading schools that provided an elementary education. Private tuition in the families of lords and wealthy burghers sometimes developed into "household schools". Girls of noble families were taught in nunneries and by the end of the fifteenth century Edinburgh also had schools for girls, sometimes described as "sewing schools". There is documentary evidence for about 100 schools of these different kinds before the Reformation. The growing humanist-inspired emphasis on education cumulated with the passing of the Education Act 1496.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish education in the eighteenth century</span> Overview of the Scottish education during the eighteenth century

Scottish education in the eighteenth century concerns all forms of education, including schools, universities and informal instruction, in Scotland in the eighteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Protestant missions</span>

Scottish Protestant missions are organised programmes of outreach and conversion undertaken by Protestant denominations within Scotland, or by Scottish people. Long after the triumph of the Church of Scotland in the Lowlands, Highlanders and Islanders clung to a form of Christianity infused with animistic folk beliefs and practices. From 1708 the Scottish Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) began working in the area. In 1797 James Haldane founded the non-denominational Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Home. Dozens of lay preachers, divinity students and English preachers were sent to the region. In the early nineteenth century a variety of organisations were formed to support evangelism to the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education (Scotland) Act 1872</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 made elementary education for all children between the ages of 5 and 13 mandatory in Scotland.

Olive Edith Checkland was an English historian and writer who specialised in post-19th century cultural, economic and social relationships between Japan and the United Kingdom. After enrolling on a geography degree at the University of Birmingham, she assisted her husband Sydney Checkland in forming the University of Glasgow's School of Economic History and the couple edited a republication of the English Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 and she worked alone in researching the Scottish Poor Laws. As associate director of 19th-century East Asians, Checkland wrote five entries for Oxford University Press' Dictionary of National Biography.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.