| Administrative History | Shaw's Fund was founded with a bequest from Alexander Shaw, a bookseller and natural history dealer, in 1807. This accumulated until the trustees were able to open a Hospital in the Gallowgate in 1839, housing and caring for, as per the terms of Shaw's will, ten deserted or destitute orphans, five boys and five girls. All were to attend the Church of Scotland (South Parish) whilst at the Hospital. The minutes indicate that some boys attended Aberdeen Grammar School whilst at the Hospital: from the 1860s the children were to be educated at Dr John Brown's School (see AET/BS).
The New Statistical Account states that the children were to be admitted between 2 and 4, and to take the name of either Shaw or Davidson. They were to be taught "English, and a little French, writing and arithmetic", and the girls learnt needlework. Boys were to remain at the Hospital until 12 or 14 then assisted with apprenticeship fees, or if they showed "superior genius is to be retained in the hospital till he is twenty-one years of age, to study the French language diligently, and to be permitted to learn any profession for which he may be fitted and most inclined." Girls stayed at the school until they were 13, then received £10 if they remained as a family's servant for 5 years.
The Hospital moved to Broadford Cottage in 1863, then to 'Rosebank House', 8 Rosemount Place, in 1882. In 1888 Shaw's Hospital was amalgamated into the Aberdeen Educational Trust, and under the terms of the Trust's scheme of administration, the Hospital building was sold to the Aberdeen School Board for £450 in 1890. The remaining residents were moved to the Hospital for Orphan and Destitute Female Children in Huntly Street (see AET/H).
For more information about Alexander Shaw see: https://www.nla.gov.au/blogs/behind-the-scenes/2015/06/09/mr-alexander-shaw-no-379-strand-london and "In Cook's Wake: Tapa Treasures from the Pacific" (in library at Old Aberdeen House). |