Tag Archives: 18th century

Robert Bruce (1718-1785)

About Bruce

  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations, 1759-1764
  • Lord Kennet (1764)
  • Son-in-law of George Abercromby of Tullibody

Teaching

  • Advertised his ‘Course of Lectures upon GROTIUS DE JURE BELLI AC PACIS’ in Oct 1759 (Cairns, ‘First’ 23*)
  • 40 students in session 1763-64 (Cairns, ‘Famous’137*)
  • ‘lectured regularly to large classes’ (Emerson, Academic patronage 262*)

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

William Scott

About Scott

  • Professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, 1729-1734

Publications, Manuscripts, and other Resources

  • H Grotius, Hugonis Grotii De jure belli ac pacis librorum III. Compendium, annotationibus & commentariis selectis illustratum. In usum studiosae juventutis academiae Edinensis [ed William Scott] (Edinburgi: excudebant haeredes & successores Andreae Anderson, anno Dom., 1707)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

John Loudoun (d. 1750)

About Loudoun

  • Regent at Glasgow, 1690s and 1699-1701
  • Regent at St Andrews, 1695-1699
  • Professor of logic and rhetoric at Glasgow from 1701-1750
  • Taught Francis Hutcheson and William Robertson

Teaching

  • Used Pufendorf for his ethics class (Haakonssen, ‘Natural’, 261*)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Patrick Hardie

About Hardie

  • Regent at Aberdeen

Teaching

  • ‘…critical of Hobbes, and it would appear from Hardie’s thesis that he attacked Hobbes’s account of moral laws in his lectures on natural jurisprudence’. (Wood, Aberdeen Enlightenment 39-40*)

Publications, Manuscripts and Other Resources

  • Amplissimo ac ornatissimo Domino D. Gulielmo Forbes … theses hasce philosophicas … D.D.C.Q. Patricius Hardie praeses et hi candidati laurea magisteriali condecorandi … Qui … theses hasce … publice propugnabunt, in Collegio Novo Universitatis Carolinae Abredonensis, ad 11 diem Aprilis, 1722 (Aberdeen, 1722)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

John Millar (1735-1801)

About Millar

  • Regius Professor of Civil Law at Glasgow, 1761-1801

Teaching

  • ‘By the time of the creation of the regius chair [1713], natural law had come into prominence as an integral part of legal education…’ (Cairns, ‘Famous’ 135*)
  • ‘In 1765 Millar turned the second of the annual courses on the Institutes into a presentation of natural jurisprudence modelled on the theory of his mentor, Adam Smith, who had resigned in 1764.’ (ODNB*)
  • ‘…did not teach from Grotius’ work or a compend of it, but unfolded his own Smithian account of the nature of law and its progress that followed the structure of Justinian’s Institutes’. (Cairns, ‘First’ 47*)
  • Recommended Cocceji and Heineccius (Cairns, ‘Historical Introduction’ 165*)

Publications, Manuscripts and Other Resources

  • MS 3930, ‘Lectures on law delivered by John Millar (1779-81)’ [Civil Law] (NLS, Edinburgh)
  • MS 3931, ‘Lectures on law delivered by John Millar (1779-81) – with printed title page ‘A course of lectures on Government’ (1778)’ (NLS, Edinburgh)
  • MS Gen 179, ‘Lectures on government, delivered in the University of Glasgow, by John Millar, written from notes taken by Alexander Campbell, 1783’, 4to (Mitchell Library, Glasgow)
  • MS 289-291, ‘Lectures on government, given in the University of Glasgow, by John Millar, 1787-88. A fair copy in the hand of his son, James Millar. With a letter from James Millar, son of the professor, transmitting the volumes to the duke of Hamilton. 1833.’ 4to, 3 vols. (Mitchell Library, Glasgow)
  • MS Gen 180, ‘Lectures on government, delivered in the University of Glasgow, by John Millar, and taken down by William Rae, 1789’ 4to, 3 vols., bound with printed syllabus, dated 1787 (Mitchell Library, Glasgow)
  • MS Hamilton 117, ‘John Millar: Course of lectures upon jurisprudence [Student’s notes.] 1793’ 4to (Mitchell Library, Glasgow)
  • MS Murray 77, ‘John Millar. Notes on the Institutes of Heneccius [sic], taken by David Boyle. These are copies of Boyle’s notes, done by Alexander Boswell, Dec. 9th 1794.’ (Mitchell Library, Glasgow)
  • MS Gen 203, ‘John Millar: Lectures on the Publick Law of Great Britain’ (n.d.) (Mitchell Library, Glasgow)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Robert Heron (1764-1807)

About Heron

Teaching

  • ‘In 1790–91 he announced a course of lectures entitled the ‘Law of nature, the law of nations, the Jewish, the Grecian, the Roman and the canon law, and then on the feudal law’, intended as an introduction to the study of law, but the scheme was unsuccessful.’ (ODNB*)

Publications, Manuscripts and Other Resources

  • Abstract of a course of lectures on law, natural and positive. By Robert Heron. (Edinburgh: sold by Bell and Bradfute, W. Creech, A. Guthrie, Arch. Constable, and H. Mitchel, 1797.) [2],63,[1]p. ;  8⁰. (ESTC)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Robert Hamilton (1763-1831)

About Hamilton

  • Student of John Millar (Cairns, ‘First’ 39*)
  • Regius Chair of the Law of Nature and Nations at Edinburgh, 1796-1831
  • Advertised his classes but never with a starting date (Cairns, ‘First’ 40*)
  • Never lectured (Grant, Story 316-17*)
  • Professorship not filled after his death (next appointment was James Lorimer in 1862)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Thomas Reid (1710-1796)

About Reid

  • Student of George Turnbull at Aberdeen (ODNB*)
  • Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, 1764-1780
  • Founding member of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society (1758–1773) (see here for membership and archival materials at University of Aberdeen, Special Collections)
  • Member of the Glasgow Literary Society
  • Critic of David Hume and proponent of ‘Common Sense’ philosophy

Teaching

  • Regent at King’s College, Aberdeen, 1751-1764 (ODNB*)
  • At ‘public’ class at Glasgow, lectured on pneumatology, ethics, and politics: two hours a day each morning during the session (ODNB*)
  • ‘Private’ class three days a week during the session on the ‘culture of the mind’ (ODNB*)
  • Successful teacher who prospered despite having a dry style (ODNB*)
  • Left teaching to his assistant Archibald Arthur in 1780 (ODNB*)

Publications

  • T Reid, Inquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principles of Common Sense (London and Edinburgh, 1764) Available from Google Books
  • T Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785) Available from the Internet Archive
  • T Reid, Essays on the Active Powers of Man (Edinburgh, 1788), includes chapter, ‘Of Systems of Natural Jurisprudence’, at 387-94) Available from Google Books
  • T Reid, Practical Ethics: Being Lectures and Papers on Natural Religion, Self-Government, Natural Jurisprudence, and the Law of Nations, ed. Knud Haakonssen (Princeton, 1990) Available from Google Books

Material in Libraries, Archives, and Digital Collections

  • Reid Project: includes catalogue, bibliography and downloadable issues of Reid Studies: An International Review of Scottish Philosophy
  • The Papers of Thomas Reid (Digitised by University of Aberdeen, Special Collections)
  • Thomas Reid Papers (MS 3061): essays and notes on a variety of topics (University of Aberdeen, Special Collections)
  • Birkwood Collection (MS 2131): ‘over 800 items relating to the writings and teachings of Thomas Reid’ (University of Aberdeen, Special Collections). Including MS 2131/7/VII/21, ‘Of the Law of Nations’
  • A Arthur, ‘Archibald Arthur’s notes on Thomas Reid’s lectures (1765)’, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, MS 891086
  • Robert Jack, ‘Dr Reid’s Lectures, 1774-1776’,University of Glasgow, Special Collections (GUL) MS 116-18
  • George Baird, ‘Notes from the Lectures of Dr Thomas Reid, 1779-80’, 8 vols, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, MS A104929

 

NPG D5598; Thomas Reid by Charles Picart, after  John Tassie
Thomas Reid
by Charles Picart, after John Tassie
stipple engraving, published 1811
NPG D5598
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.