Aberdeen Town Council Register (ATCR), lxiv, 205–6, 26 Sept. 1780. The wording here of the request is slightly different from the transcript of the subscription appeal leaflet by Knight in Aberdeen University Library (AUL) Knight MS M111, 1244.
2.
Letter to Prof. ThorkelinG. J., Edinburgh, from Patrick Copland, Marischal College, 2 Aug. 1790 (Edinburgh University Library La III 379167).
3.
Letter to CoplandPatrick, Marischal College, from MaskelyneNevil, Greenwich, 7 Dec. 1780 (AUL MS 2886).
4.
ATCR, lxiv, 215v–216v, 3 Feb. 1781.
5.
“A Plan of the City of Aberdeen with all the Inclosures surrounding the Town to the Adjacent Country. Made out from an accurate Survey taken 1789 by Alex'r Milne” (reproduced by W. & A. K. Johnston Ltd (Edinburgh, 1902)).
6.
“History of the Society: … A Report on the Aberdeen Observatory”, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, iv (1798), Appendix, 36–38.
7.
Aberdeen journal, 15 Oct. 1781, p. [4].
8.
Letter to CoplandPatrick, Marischal College, from MaskelyneNevil, Greenwich, 1 Oct. 1781 (AUL MS 2886).
9.
McCulloch obviously continued in business as a navigational instrument-maker for in 1789 he published an account of his recently invented and patented “New Improved Sea Compasses”. He was then at 38, Minories, London.
10.
Letter to “The Principal and Professors at Marischal College” from CoplandPatrick, Fountainhall, 27 Sept. 1822 (AUL Knight MS M111, 1231–3).
11.
Letter to Rev'd CockAlexander Mr, Minister of Cruden from CoplandJohn Baillie, Aberdeen, 16 July 1782 (in private collection of letters of CoplandPatrick (Richmond)).
12.
“Lord Bute's telescopes”, document in the archives of the Marquess of Bute. Most of these appear, without dates, in TurnerG. L'E., “Auction sales of the Earl of Bute's instruments 1793”, Annals of science, xxiii (1967), 213–42.
13.
AUL Knight MS M109, 274.
14.
SinclairJohn, The statistical account of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1791–99): vide“Historical Account and Present State of the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen—Anno 1798”, xxi, Appendix III, 133–5.
15.
AUL Knight MS M111.
16.
KennedyWilliam, Annals of Aberdeen (London, 1818), ii, 105–6. For the Royal Society of Edinburgh's summary, see ref. 6.
17.
AUL MS 504 (observatory notebook by MacKayAndrew). This book contains no formal description of the instruments but occasional references are made to instrumental details.
18.
RamsdenJ., “Description of a New Universal Equatoreal, Made by Ramsden” (pamphlet, publisher unknown, 1779).
19.
MacKayAndrew, The theory and practice of finding longitude at sea or land (1st edn, London, 1793, with list of over 500 subscribers; 2nd edn, Aberdeen, 1801, with engraved portrait; 3rd edn, London, 1810). See 1st edn, p. 199.
20.
MacKayAndrew, “Determination of the latitude and longitude of the Observatory at Aberdeen”, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, iv (1796), 135–61, pp. 135–6.
21.
Possibly CaryWilliam (1759–1825), philosophical instrument-maker in London noted for some of his astronomical apparatus.
22.
ReidJohn S., “A select clock”, Antiquarian horology, xiii (1981), 45–50. The design was originated in 1747 by FergusonJames, a farmer's son from the north-east of Scotland who, having taught himself drawing, mechanics and horology, made a prominent name for himself in these disciplines in London.
23.
CoplandAlexander, The existence of other worlds (London, 1834), 3.
24.
AUL Knight MS M111, 1209, for example, quotes from the account book the entry “1786—Coals, Candles, Wax Candles all for the Observatory, Castlehill”.
25.
Letter to BeattieJ.Dr, Peterhead, from MercerJames, Aberdeen, 3 Aug. 1783 (AUL Beattie Collection MS 30, C423).
26.
The selected writings of John Ramsay, m.a. with memoir and notes by Alexander Walker (Aberdeen, 1871), 287.
Duplicate (?) of a letter by Prof. StuartJ. in AUL MS 3017/10/18.
35.
AUL Knight MS M111, 1248.
36.
BullockJ. M., The Castlehill Barracks in the Town of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1905), letter to WindhamWilliam from Colonel Delancey quoted.
37.
AUL Knight MS M111, 1249, 1255–6.
38.
For example it is not mentioned by AndréC. and RayetG. in L'Astronomie pratique et les observatoires en Europe et en Amerique, depuis le milieu du XVII siècle jusqu' à nos jours: Deuxième partie (Paris, 1874) or by StuartIan in “The failure of Scottish astronomy in the eighteenth century”, National newsletter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, lxxv (1981), L21–L22 and L37–L39.
39.
InnesGeorge, “Determination of the longitude of Marischal College Observatory at Aberdeen, from corresponding observations of the occultations of Jupiter and his Satellites by the Moon, on the 5th of April 1824”, Astronomische Nachrichten, viii (1831), 429–38.
