Aeneas James George Mackay

(1839-1911)
Advocate, historian, Professor of Constitutional History at the
University of Edinburgh, Sheriff of Fife and Kinross

Educated at the Edinburgh Academy, at King's College London and the Universities of Oxford, Heidelberg and Edinburgh, Aeneas Mackay held the Chair of Constitutional History at the University of Edinburgh from 1874 until 1881. He was awarded an LLD by the University in 1882 and founded the Scottish History Society in 1885. He devoted the rest of his life to the practice of law, notably as Sheriff of Fife and Kinross from 1886 until 1901, as well as farming and forestry.

He bequeathed to the Library some 4,000 volumes on Scottish history, law, literature and many other subjects; they are listed in the pre-1985 guard-book catalogue, in which they are identifed by the note *** Mackay Bequest. The older volumes are held in Special Collections in Hf - Hh, more recent publications being distributed among the open-shelf collections.