KING'S COLLEGE, ABERDON. 
T HIS inftitution was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary; but received 
its prefent appellation Toon after the univerfity was eftablifhed by a royal 
charter, and becaule amply endowed by the munificence of James IV. 
It is not perhaps altogether foreign to thefe memorials, to mention alfo, that 
the above is the proper orthography of that ancient city, and the name is fb 
written in the earlieft manufcripts. Aber, in the language of our forefathers, 
generally fignified, the place where a rivulet falls into a river, or where a river 
falls into the fea; this is fituated near the mouth of the river Don. The large 
commercial city adjacent, is properly Aberdeen, or Aber-dee, becaufe fituated 
near the noble harbour formed by the confluence of that celebrated river with the 
ocean. 
Each of thefe hath an univerfity; die other is called “ The Marischai. 
College,” becaufe founded and endowed by George Earl Marifchal of Scotland, 
about a century after the former. In both thefe colleges, the methods of in- 
ftruftion are nearly the fame ; the ledums differing only by the accidental 
difference of diligence or ability in the profeflors. The ftudents wear fcarlet 
gowns, and the profeffors black ; which is the academical drefs in all the Scottifh 
univerfities, except that of Edinburgh where the fcholars are not diftinguifhed by 
any particular habit. 
The courts and religious eftablifhments originally conneded with the college 
now under confideration, in their early flourifhing eftate contained the fplendid 
refldence of a primate of an opulent bifhoprick, the cathedral of this diocefe, 
and an extenfive Canonry, which was a feminary of learning. 
Pope Adrian, was the firft who patronized this inftitution, or at leafl in whofc 
pontificate it was confulted : he granted the requifite privileges, and gave autho- 
rity to Edward Bishop of Aberdon, anno 1157, to conftitute a college of 
canons there, as well for the purpofes of erudition, as the more pompous 
celebration of divine fervice. . 
In the reign of Alexander II. and by conceflions from that monarch, the 
appointments were encreafed for the fupport of that “ canonical school of 
“ general literature*,” that there theology, law, medicine, philofophy, and 
the liberal arts, fhould be freely taught. 
There is in the chartulary an original charter of David I. anno 1154, cor- 
refponding with the above, fpecifying the ' tithes and lands devoted to the 
cathedral and a confirmation of it by Malcolm IV. with an additional parch- 
ment, granting liberty of paflurage in the foreft of Aberdeen— and to have it for 
a perpetual barony; dated at Banff, anno 1170. 
But it was foon after its diftinguifhed patron the great bishop Elphincston, fo 
juftly renowned for his love of letters, and eminent talents, by the hiftorians of 
• Studium Generate in Collegio Canonicorum. 
C C 2 
the 
