| Description | AET/BS/1 Minute Book of the School's Trustees, 1860 - 1888
AET/BS/2 Minute Book of the executors of Dr John Brown, 1860 - 1888
AET/BS/3 Executor's Papers, 1837 - 1861
AET/BS/4 School Trustee's Papers, 1860 - 1893
AET/BS/5 Papers relating to the administration of the School, 1861 - 1864
AET/BS/6 Personal Papers of Dr John Brown, 1772 - 1847 |
| Administrative History | John Brown MD (1775 - 1860), through a trust disposition dated 1847 and his will and testament, created an endowment for the "instruction of the Children of Indigent Persons residing in the vicinity of Skene Square".This endowment was used to set up Dr John Brown's School on Skene Square, which opened on the 2nd December 1861. Dr John Brown was born in Aberdeen in April 1775, the twin of Christian, and son of John Brown of Newhills and his wife Barbara Thomson (married 1776 in New Machar). He trained at Marischal College and was listed as a former Regimental Surgeon in the 1851 census. A news article about the unveiling of a plaque to Dr Brown at the school refers to him as an Army Doctor who had served during the Napoleonic Wars.
The school was transferred to the Aberdeen School Board in November 1878, and eventually became Skene Square School: there is a separate collection of records pre- and post the School Board's takeover of the school in the series ED/GR6S/A65. The Trust's funds were thereafter used to pay the fees for the children of indigent persons living around Skene Square and attending the school, until the charity was amalgamated into the Aberdeen Educational Trust in 1889. |