Former Teacher Biographies

David Crichton LL.D. (1802 - 1888), First English Master
 

The Madras College Magazine for March 1890 reports:

Mr David Crichton, afterwards the Rev. Dr. Crichton, minister of the Free Church of Inverbrothock, was the first English Master of the College. Previously he had been Master of the English School of the Burgh, which, with the Burgh Grammar School, was amalgamated with the new institution, the, masters of these schools being constituted "THE MASTERS" of Dr. Bell's foundation. The English School is now the City Hall. The site of the Grammar School, with its master's house and garden, now forms part of the College Grounds. In early days there stood in front of the building several apple and pear trees, the relics of the garden; but it will be readily believed that not much ripe fruit was gathered from them.

Mr Crichton was a native of Galloway. He had come into these Eastern parts to take charge of a small school at Anstruther. While he was there the Mastership of the English School at St Andrews fell vacant, and Mr Crichton became a candidate. The story of his appointment is interesting, and affords an insight to the character and powers of the man. The appointment was in the gift of the Town Council. In order to defeat some intrigues in favour of a relative of one of the Councillors—whose fitness for the post was considered doubtful—it was arranged that before the appointment was made the candidates should undergo an examination by Professors of the University. This test the doubtful candidate declined. Three only presented themselves, and when the Professors reported the result Mr Crichton's was the only name mentioned. The Council in consequence appointed him.

When Dr. Bell's idea of founding a seminary to perpetuate and extend his pet Madras or Monitorial System of Education began to take shape, Mr Crichton was at pains to make himself acquainted with the principles and methods of the system, and his success in its practical application was one of the reasons which determined Dr. Bell to devote his fortune to the building and endowment of the Madras College.

Mr Crichton had a considerable reputation as an energetic and successful teacher. The Madras system of tuition engaged very much the attention of the educational world, and it was no uncommon thing for visitors even from the Continent and from America to come to St Andrews to witness the working of the system under the guidance of one of its most successful exponents. He is remembered by old pupils as a strict disciplinarian, who ran no risk of infringing Solomon's well-known saying about the child and the rod. Really he was a warm-hearted, kindly-dispositioned, sympathetic man, and his success, not only as a teacher, but afterwards as a minister, was largely owing to the practical interest his sympathetic nature led him to take in all that concerned the welfare of those under his charge.

In the year 1838 Mr Crichton was appointed minister of Inverbrothock, a position which again he owed, as in the case of his appointment to St Andrews, entirely to his own merits. Those were the days of patronage in the Church, but Inverbrothock was one of the few charges then existing where the presentation was in the hands of the congregation—who had already shown their fitness to exercise such a right by electing as their ministers men who afterwards rose to distinguished positions in the Church. It may he interesting to note that Dr. McCulloch of Greenock—a native of St Andrews, and whose name was well known to a former generation of school children through his "Course of Heading" and "Series of Lessons" —was a minister of Inverbrothock. Mr Crichton was unanimously chosen after he had preached twice to the congregation. In Arbroath Dr. Crichton took a very active interest in the educational concerns of the town, and was the means of effecting many and great improvements therein. At the Disruption he cast his lot with the Free Church, and to the end of his days he continued to minister to those who with him had joined that Communion in Arbroath. In the beginning of 1888 he was called to his rest full of years and honours.

To him the words of Pan! concerning David, the great Jewish King, may be fitly applied— "After having served his own generation by the will of God he fell on sleep,"

T.B.

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The Madras College Magazine for Christmas 1907 reports:

David Crichton.

In accordance with the deed executed by Dr. Bell and his trustees, the Madras College was built on the foundation of the two Burgh Schools—the Grammar School and the English School -and the masters of these schools became the masters of the new institution.

Mr. Waugh, the master of the Grammar School, was well up in years and averse to the change of methods involved in the new departure. He resigned his post and received a retiring pension. Mr. William Carmichael was appointed in his stead and became the first Classical Master in the Madras College.

The English School was, with its Master, Mr. David Crichton, transferred to the College, and Mr. Crichton thus became the first head of the English department. He was a native of the Parish of Irongray in the shire of Kirkcudbright, and received his early education in the country schools of that district and in the more fully equipped schools of Dumfries. It is illustrative of the state of education in Scotland at that period that, as Mr. Crichton frequently mentioned, his training in the Classics was obtained at the country schools, but he had to go to Dumfries to perfect himself in the more ordinary branches of knowledge. He was an apt and distinguished pupil, and his acquirements were so well known, that at the early age of fifteen he was offered the post of tutor to two families living near Dalbeattie, who had combined for purposes of education. Mr. Crichton lived with one of the families. His pupils were very little younger than himself, but they got on together very comfortably, and when lessons were over Mr. Crichton took part in their sports and amusements.

After two years in this situation he was asked to become the master of a select school which, as a better educational arrangement, it had been resolved to establish in Dalbeattie. Under Mr. Crichton's care this school prospered, but desirous of pursuing his studies, in 1820 he entered the University of Edinburgh, where he completed his course as an Arts student.

At the end of one of his sessions he was appointed master in a school at Anstruther. Under his predecessor this school had declined greatly in reputation, and the roll of pupils had fallen to a small number, but Mr. Crichton's energy and ability soon restored it to a prosperous condition. Mr. Crichton had as a pupil in Anstruther John Goodsir, afterwards the eminent Professor of Anatomy in Edinburgh University, and later, his brother Henry, who perished with the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, in which he was Naturalist. By and by a vacancy occurred in the mastership of the English Burgh School at tit. Andrews, and Mr. Crichton became a candidate. As was not unusual with Town Councils in those days, the appointment became a subject of intrigue and wire-pulling among the Councillors, and to prevent the possible selection ill this way of an incompetent teacher, a resolution was carried, against keen opposition, that all candidates should submit themselves to an examination by a committee composed mainly of professors of St. Andrews University. Mr. Crichton was one of three who complied with this condition.

The examination was long and searching, with the result that the examiners sent in his name alone to the patrons, who appointed him to the office. This appointment led, in the way explained at the beginning, to his becoming the first English Master of the Madras College.

Dr. Bell's intention in founding the College was to establish and propagate his educational system.
The interest taken in this system led to the College being visited by many distinguished educationalists, not only from this country, but also from abroad; and as Mr. Crichton had had the advantage of frequent interviews with Dr. Bell, and had discussed with him all the points of the system, he enjoyed the privilege of receiving these visitors and displaying to them the methods of instruction devised by Dr. Bell and in operation in the College. There is a tradition that Dr. Crichton's treatment of his pupils was unduly harsh and severe. The writer of this notice was his pupil during the first session of his attendance at the Madras, and maintained the acquaintance till Dr. Crichton's death. He never witnessed any of the severity attributed to Mr. Crichton, and his estimate of that gentleman was of a kind hearted and affectionate man to whom anything approaching to harshness was repugnant, he was, however, an educational enthusiast, impatient of anything savouring of idleness and indifference; and it must be borne in mind that the ideas of his day with regard to the training of the young differed entirely from those of modern times. Solomon's recipe for spoiling a child was then received as absolute, without exception or limitation. Something like Lowell's description of the temper of his countrymen, during their war with Mexico, was the prevailing view of the attitude to be maintained in the inculcation of knowledge. The subsequent career of Mr. Crichton as the minister of an attached and devoted congregation, negatives entirely any conception of him as a stern or hard man.

His residence at St. Andrews enabled him to fulfil his cherished ambition of becoming a minister of the gospel. He completed the necessary course of study by attendance at St. Mary's College and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of St. Andrews. Soon after he married a daughter of Mr. Smith, his predecessor in the English School. While devoted to the work of education, the goal at which he aimed was the ministry of the Church, and when an opportunity came he did not hesitate to sacrifice pecuniary emolument to attain his end. He had the same ideal as an aged friend of the writer, that though from a monetary point of view the ministry "was a poor profession, it was a grand and noble calling."

A vacancy having occurred in the church of Inverbrothock, the appointment to which was in the hands of the seat-holders, Mr. Crichton became a candidate. When he preached to the congregation he openly placed his manuscript on the open bible, to the consternation of his hearers. But his reading of it must have been, as was said by an old woman of Dr. Chalmers', "fell reading," for he was placed on a short leet of three and immediately after he preached a second time he was called unanimously. When he was settled in Arbroath it was not long before he discovered that education in the district was at a low ebb, and with all the enthusiasm of his nature set himself to turn the tide. He carried out an educational census of the district and published statistics of its educational condition. He headed a movement to build a large school in connection with his church. Local contributions, though liberal, proving inadequate, he appealed to noblemen and proprietors of the surrounding country side with considerable success. But a request for help to the heritors of St. Vigean's, of which parish Inverbrothock was a part, met with a refusal, one of them expressing his astonishment "that a clever fellow like the priest of Inverbrothock would ever think of such a thing as educating the children of weavers and other working men like us." The movement was carried to a successful issue, and at a later period Dr. Crichton, as he had then become, gave great help in promoting secondary education in the town. At the time of the Disruption, Dr. Crichton and his congregation threw in their lot with the seceding body, and till the day of his death lie continued a useful and influential minister of the Free Church.

In his later days he sustained many and sore family bereavements and a great loss of worldly means, but he was cheered by the practical sympathy of his congregation and the community. He died on 4th February 1888, full of years. "Having served his generation by the Will of God, he fell on sleep."

After his death a small volume was published by his son-in-law, containing a short series of Dr. Crichton's expository lectures, and a memoir from which the foregoing details have been taken.

THOS. BHOWN.