AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award

Applications are invited for a three-year collaborative doctoral studentship, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The award will be held jointly at the University of Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland and will start in September 2008. The research will be supervised by Professor John W. Cairns, Professor of Legal History at the University of Edinburgh and Dr Brian Hillyard, Head, Rare Books Division, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Deadline for applications: 31 May 2008.

The proposal is that a detailed study be made of the library of Charles Erskine (or Areskine) (1680-1763) (normally designated as of Tinwald), Regent in Philosophy (1701), then Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations (1707) in the University of Edinburgh. Admitted as an advocate in 1711, Erskine became Solicitor General (1725), Lord Advocate (1737), Senator of the College of Justice (1744), and Lord Justice-Clerk (1748). Active in politics, Erskine became an M.P. in 1722, and from 1725 was linked to the Earl of Islay (later 3rd Duke of Argyll). Despite his academic posts, his career was one of a legal practitioner and politician.

Erskine’s library is particularly suitable for such a study, because a substantial portion, perhaps as much as two-thirds of what he owned by 1731, survives in the Alva Collections of the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and the Advocates’ Library (AdvL). Also, his manuscript book catalogue form 1731 survives as MS 3183 on deposit in the NLS from the AdvL. This catalogue also notes at least some acquisitions after 1731. A shelf catalogue of his son’s library, incorporating his father’s, also survives as MS La.III.755 in Edinburgh University Library, as does a catalogue of his wife’s library (NLS, MS 5161, fols. 17-27).

The broad aim of the project is to provide a rigorous and detailed study of the libraries of Scots lawyers in the first half of the eighteenth century. A well-educated group, members of the bar, the Faculty of Advocates, usually followed university study in Scotland with legal study abroad. Many were book collectors, going beyond a library necessary for practice. Study of their libraries will achieve the wider aims of improving understanding of Scots law and its practice in the early 18th Century, as well as focusing on the intellectual milieu of the Scottish landed classes from which members of the Faculty of Advocates, who were prominent in Enlightenment thinking and practice later in the century, were largely drawn. Detailed study of a single library provides a way to understand and explain the collecting practices of Scots lawyers, linking them to general concerns in contemporary Scotland, as well as to legal scholarship and practice. It will promote the wider objective of understanding early-eighteenth-century intellectual history.

More specifically the research would require transcription of the 1731 catalogue, identification of the books listed and then physical examination of them where surviving, as well as of other books in the two Alva Collections not listed in the 1731 catalogue. This would permit production of a near-complete catalogue of Erskine’s library, taking into account the book plates and indications of provenance. Information about provenance would illuminate Erskine’s collecting practices. For this part of the research, the student would be based primarily in the NLS, where training would be delivered in bibliography, bibliographical databases, palaeography, and the study of provenance. Location in the NLS would give much easier access to the Alva Special collection than available in the public Reading Room. The student would also have access to the AdvL for examination of the Alva Collection there. This work would provide the foundation for an analysis of the collection and its development. Further details of the project can be found here.

The deadline for receipt of applications at the University of Edinburgh is 31 May 2008.

Interviews for the studentship, if required, will take place at the University of Edinburgh during the fourth week of June. A successful candidate would require to be vetted to work in the non-public areas of the National Library of Scotland.

The successful candidate will take up the studentship in September 2008.

Year One

Work in NLS to produce Catalogue of Erskine’s Library, examining surviving works in NLS/AdvL. Undertaking any necessary skills training. Establishing key questions.

Year Two

Year Three

Completion of above and writing up of thesis.

The anticipated date for the submission of the thesis is 31 August 2011.

Further information about the doctoral research programme of the School of Law can be found here:
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/pg/research/

Further information about the National library of Scotland can be obtained here: http://www.nls.uk/

The studentship will cover the cost of tuition fees for a UK or EU student for three years and (only for a UK residence-qualified student): an annual maintenance award of £12,940 in the first year, rising by approximately £300 per year in the second and third years; an additional annual contribution from the AHRC of £500; and a further additional annual contribution of £1000 from the Federal Trust. Details of the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Awards are available here.

Applicants must hold a good first degree (first or upper second) from any university in an appropriate field (e.g.. law; history, classics; librarianship) and a relevant Masters degree completed or close to completion would be an advantage. The successful applicant will need to meet the AHRC’s academic criteria for doctoral study; to have the ability to work effectively in academic and non-academic environments; to be able to give attention to detail; and to demonstrate the potential to develop advanced research skills. Candidates must also meet the AHRC's UK/EU residency requirements allowing them to take up a full fees and maintenance award. These can be consulted here.
Applications from candidates who fail to meet these criteria will not be considered.

Applicants should complete and submit a University of Edinburgh postgraduate application form, which can be downloaded from here.

When completing the form it is important to bear in mind the following essential guidance:

1. Please specify “The Library of Charles Erskine (1680-1763): Book Collecting and Lawyers in Scotland, 1700-1760” under Proposed field of study in Question 21 of the application form.

2. With your application form, please enclose a covering letter indicating clearly that you are applying for the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award: Library of Charles Erskine.

3. Please also enclose a supporting statement describing your proposed approach to this research project. Your statement should be no more than 1500 words and should include the following:

• a clear statement of your proposed research topic;
• the key research questions that you intend to address;
• the broader context of your research topic i.e. an indication of the relevant key sources in the field, both primary and secondary;
• where relevant, the approach or methodologies that you intend to apply.

You must also submit a piece of written work (an extract from a dissertation or an essay) of not more than 4,000 words.

4. When submitting your application, it is essential that you enclose at the same time all necessary supporting documentation (academic transcripts; references). Failure to ensure that these reach the College Postgraduate Office by the deadline will result in your application being removed from the competition.

5. When you submit your application by post (see below), you should at the same time send an email to the School of Law Postgraduate Office (tessa.rundell@ed.ac.uk) stating that you have applied for the Collaborative Doctoral Award. Do not send your application materials to the Law School.

6. Please note that students wishing to apply for this Award who are already holding a PhD offer from the University of Edinburgh do not need to reapply for admission. They should simply complete the supporting statement under 3 above, and submit this by email to Tessa Rundell.

Submit your application by post to:

The Postgraduate Office, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh, David Hume Tower, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JX, UK

For informal inquiries about the project, please contact Professor John W. Cairns: john.cairns@ed.ac.uk. For enquiries about the postgraduate admission process, please contact the School of Law Postgraduate Office (tessa.rundell@ed.ac.uk).