Montrose Academy is a coeducational secondary school in Montrose Angus. The School now teaches people from ages 11–18.
It became a comprehensive school in the mid-fifties and was one of a pair of Scottish schools which formed a country-wide trial of comprehensive schooling in Scotland. It serves the surrounding local community with a roll of around 900 students and a staff of 79. Most pupils come from the associated primary schools of Borrowfield, Ferryden, Lochside, Rosemount, Southesk and St Margaret's. A number of pupils come from outside the catchment area.
History
The Grammar School
The earliest evidence of schooling in Montrose was in 1329 when Robert the Bruce gave twenty shillings to "David of Montrose in aid of the schools".John Strong, "The Development of Secondary Education in Scotland", The School Review, Vol. 15, No. 8 (Oct. 1907), pp. 594-607 The name of John Cant or Kant, appears on a deed dated 26 September 1492 as "Master of Arts and Rector of the Parish Church of Logy in Montrose Parish" and is believed to be an early record of a public school in the Montrose area.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p10 The grammar school was founded in the 16th century,Frances Hindes Groom,Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland (T.C. Jack 1884), p56 although the precise date of establishment is unknown.Great Britain. Education Commission (Scotland)., Report by Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into schools in Scotland, Volume 4, (H.M. Stationery Office, 1868) Originally the grammar school was established close to the parish church and it was a requirement of the schoolmaster to read lessons in the church, although the practice was waning by the late eighteenth century.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p47
The Grammar School of Montrose is reputed to have been the first school in Scotland to teach Classical Greek. This was made possible when John Erskine of Dun, the then Provost of Montrose and patron of the school, brought Pierre de Marsilliers to Scotland in 1534 and founded a Greek school.Thomas MacCrie,The Life of Andrew Melville: Containing Illustrations of the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Scotland During the Latter Part of the Sixteenth and Beginning of the Seventeenth Century : with an Appendix Consisting of Original Papers, 2nd edition, (W. Blackwood, 1824), p11 Other teachers from France followed. The introduction of Greek at Montrose is understood to have hastened the Reformation in Scotland. In the 1530s the Protestant reformer, George Wishart began to teach at the school.Ian Cumming, "The Scottish Education of James Mill" in History of Education Quarterly, Vol.2, No.3(Sept. 1962), p155 Wishart came to be known as "the Schoolmaster of Montrose".Peter Lorimer, The Scottish Reformation, a sketch (1860), p92 He taught and circulated copies of the Greek Testament amongst his pupils and fled to England in 1538 when investigated for heresy by William Chisholm, the then Bishop of Brechin.William Hanna, Essays by ministers of the Free Church of Scotland (Thomas Constable and Co., 1858), p298 It is likely that on his return to Scotland he taught John Knox Greek before returning to teach in Montrose in 1544.
The grammar school was renowned enough as a seminary to attract such distinguished men as James Melville (1556–1614) and his uncle, Andrew Melville.David Mitchell, History of Montrose (1866), p41. Andrew Melville was taught Latin at the grammar school by Schoolmaster Thomas Anderson. He studied the original Greek of Aristotle under Pierre de Marsilliers in 1557 before passing to the University of St Andrews in 1559.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p23 His proficiency in Greek astonished the professors there who had no knowledge of the language. Melville later became a noted theologian and distinguished scholar of Classical Greek and Latin.
James Melville studied at Montrose in 1569 under the tutelage of Mr Andrew Milne. Melville rehearsed Calvin's Catechisms and read Virgil's Georgics amongst other works.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p26 He used these words to describe his years of instruction: " The maister of the scholl, was a lerned, honest, kynd man, whom also for thankfulness I name, Mr. Andro Miln. I never got a stroke of his hand; howbeit, I committed twa stupid faults, as it were with fire and sword :—Having the candle in my hand, on a winter night, before six o'clock, in the school, sitting in the class, bairnly and negligently playing with the bent, with which the floor was strewed, it kindled, so that we had much ado to put it out with our feet. The other was being molested by a condisciple, who cut the strings of my pen and ink-horn with his pen-knife; I aiming with my pen-knife to his legs to fley him; he feared, and lifting now a leg and now the other, rushed on his leg upon my knife, and struck himself a deep wound in the shin of the leg, which was a quarter of a year in curing. In the time of the trying of the matter, he saw me so humble, so feared, so grieved, yield so many tears, and by fasting and mourning at the school all day, that he said he could not find in his heart to punish me farther. But my righteous God let me not slip that fault, but gave me a warning, and remembrance what it was to be denied with blood, although negligently; for within a short space, after I had caused a cutler, newly come to the town, to polish and sharp the same pen-knife, and had bought a pennyworth of apples, and cutting and eating the same in the links, as I put the slice in my mouth, I began to lope up upon a little sand brae, having the pen-knife in my right hand, I fell, and struck myself, missing my belly, an inch deep in the inward side of the left knee, even to the bean, whereby the equity of God's judgment, and my conscience struck me so, that I was the more wary of knives all my days."David Mitchell, The History of Montrose (1866), p43. Mitchell cites Melville's diary as his source.
George Gledstanes was master in 1586–7, a teacher of languages and Reader in the parish church.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p30 David Lindsay was appointed master around 1594 before becoming master at Dundee Grammar School.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p31 He was followed by James Lichton, appointed in 1614.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p32 Alexander Petrie, made master in 1622, received a salary of 25 merks per quarter for Candlemass, Lamass, and Hallowmass. Robert Graham became master in August 1638 and remained until 1644. By this time the school was increasing in numbers and an assistant master was employed in 1639.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p41 Succeeding Graham were William Clyd (6 May 1643 – 8 November 1643); John Nicol (1643–1645); John Cargill (1645-July 1656) and John Strachan (22 September 1656 – 1659).James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p43 James Wishart was master from 1659 until his death in 1684. William Langmuir or Langmoor was appointed on 2 January 1684 and was in his post until 1704, when Robert Strachan took over as master.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p44 In 1686 a library was established at the Grammar School, which contained a number of rare books. On 28 June 1710 Robert Spence became master, then James Stewart in 1717 and Patrick Renny on 16 June 1725.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p46 Hugh Christie, on 10 June 1752, was the first headmaster of the school to be granted the title "rector". His successor David Valentyne was rector from 20 July 1766 until 19 October 1806.
In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, an "English School" opened in the town. The school taught music, French, writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, geometry and navigation.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p60 By the late eighteenth century, the old Grammar School was in ruins. Construction of the 'New Schools', designed by Andrew Barrie, commenced in 1787 and was completed the following year.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p85 The buildings were constructed on the Mid Links, an area of parkland in the town, and contained separate accommodation for the Grammar School, English School and Writing School. Between the ruin of the old Grammar School and the building of the 'New Schools', the Grammar School operated from rooms in the Town House.
The teaching of French is noted in the early history of the Grammar School; German was not taught until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Painting was introduced as a subject in 1816.James G. Low, The Grammar School of Montrose, (J. Balfour & Co, 1936), p69
The educational establishment in Montrose was one of the most renowned burgh schools in Scotland which provided a preparatory education for university study. It was especially well regarded in teaching classics.Alexander Bain, James Mill: A Biography (1882), Longmans, Green, and co.,
Montrose Academy
The new Montrose Academy was founded in 1815. It was partly funded by public subscription funds of £1350, adding to £1000 from Montrose Town Council. Built close to the site of the former grammar school, the foundation stone was laid on 27 February or 15 March 1815 by Mrs Ford of Finhaven.Trevor W. Johns, The Mid Links, Montrose, since Provost Scott, (Montrose Review Press, 1988), p52Alexander Allan Cormack, Susan Carnegie, 1744-1821: her life of service (Aberdeen University Press 1966), p300 It existed alongside other schools including White's Free School and the local trades school, and had the largest attendance.
Montrose Academy is seen to have replaced the ancient Grammar School of Montrose which had established itself during the 16th century and absorbed all other existing burgh schools in the area.John Strong, A History of Secondary Education in Scotland: An Account of Scottish Secondary Education from Early Times to the Education Act of 1908 (The Clarendon Press, 1909), p165 Its inception as an academy was part of a broader 18th century development in the Scottish school system towards the inclusion of more practical subjects such as navigation, drawing, arithmetic and book-keeping, alongside the traditional tuition of the Classics.Bob Harris, "Cultural Change in Provincial Scottish Towns, c.1700-1820", The Historical Journal, Vol.54, No.1 (2011), p119 This was seen in other Scottish provincial towns and reflected a commitment to learning which was "rooted in the past, but re-energized and adapted" due to the effects of urban growth and the rise of a commercial elite. Academies were concentrated in the industrial towns of the east.R. D. Anderson, Education and the Scottish People, 1750-1918, (Oxford University Press, 1995), p134 The wide curricular provision was such that an 1866 report complained that "Classics do not occupy a prominent place, and nothing else has been substituted in the way of sound and systematic training".
Academies were initially supplementary but eventually superseded the old grammar schools, as had occurred in Montrose. The foundation of Montrose Academy came 55 years after that of the very first academy in Perth in 1760. The pupils were required to pay fees, which funded teachers' salaries. Sometimes, as in the case of James Mill, poor boys were sponsored by local ministers or benevolent landowners. In the mid-nineteenth century, a bequest left by John Erskine of Saint James Parish, Jamaica to the sum of £3000, provided education for eight orphaned boys.