The Signet Library is delighted to announce that it has been awarded one of the 2025 round of Jean Guild Award grants from The Old Edinburgh Club to fund research, conservation and publication of its archive of the Society’s former school for orphaned children, John Watson’s Institution (1828-1975).
John Watson’s Institution opened in the autumn of 1828, paid for by a fund set up by the last will and testament of a wealthy Scottish lawyer, the Writer to the Signet John Watson (d. 1762). The school building, overlooking the banks of the Water of Leith and now home to the National Galleries of Scotland Modern One , was the work of the WS Society’s architect William Burn. Over the course of the next 150 years, it became for its pupils not just a school but a home and an anchor for life. It closed in 1975, and is remembered now by the members of the John Watson’s Club and in the form of the modern charity John Watson’s Trust (SC014004).
This project takes its origins from a seminar at the University of Edinburgh in 2015 which centred on Professor Richard Rodger’s MESH (Mapping Edinburgh’s Social History) initiative. We have known for a long time that these records are ideal for a study along the lines laid out by Professor Rodger and MESH, and we are grateful to the Old Edinburgh Club for opening up this marvellous opportunity for us.