The Playfair and Diaspora project
Early 2007, special funding, largely from the generosity of Mr Piers Playfair in New York, enabled work to start on the Playfair and Diaspora Project. This two-fold project was designed to open up some of the riches held within Special Collections by, firstly, providing a detailed, on-line catalogue of the Playfair Collection and, secondly, by creating a database of records relating to the Scottish diaspora from amongst all the collections held within the department.
For some years, within Special Collections beside two important photograph albums, there has been a growing collection of manuscripts, letters, journals, cuttings, notes, lectures and so forth, covering a period from 1778 to 1999 created by a remarkable St Andrews family, the Playfairs. Gifted with high intelligence and a strong work ethic, their careers took members of this large and strongly attached family from Fife to London, India, Aden, Algeria and Zanzibar and into academia, medicine, politics, local government, the military and consular services. In all their various professions, they made their mark whilst several members of the family were ennobled or marked out for other high honours.
The patriarch of this talented family was the Reverend James Playfair DD (1738-1819) who became principal of the United College at St Andrews in 1800 thus establishing the link with the town and university which was to be so firmly maintained by his descendents. The youngest of his four sons, James (1791-1866) became a prominent merchant in Glasgow; William Davidson (1783-1852) and Hugh Lyon (1786-1861) both had distinguished careers in the Indian army, subsequently retiring to St Andrews where they played a full part in local affair, Hugh, indeed, becoming provost and overseeing the paving of the streets of the town. The eldest son, George (1782-1846) became a surgeon and also went out to India where he rose to the rank of surgeon-general. The daughters of this family (and, indeed, the wives of the Playfair brothers) were no less interesting for several of them were gifted diarists and letter writers leaving behind vivid accounts of their busy social and domestic lives, complex family relationships, arduous travels and all the upheavals of living overseas.
Much of the collection centres round the sons of Dr George Playfair - Surgeon-General George Ranken (1816-1881) also of the Indian Medical Service; Lyon, Lord Playfair of St Andrews (1818-1898) an eminent chemist who turned to politics and rose to ministerial rank; Sir (Robert) Lambert (1828-99) who ended his career as consul-general of Algiers and Tunis, a scholar and prolific author; Dr William Smoult (1836-1903) a fashionable London doctor with royal patrons, and the only poor, little lame duck of the family, (James) Octavius (1839-1864), who had a brief and unfortunate army career, emigrated to Argentina and died there as a young man. Additional Playfair papers that have been deposited during the course of the project have brought the family saga forward several generations and into other professions.
The collection is particularly strong in correspondence, much of it bound up into albums and often interspersed with press cuttings and other printed papers but there are also fascinating sequences of daily diaries and journals as well as texts for lectures, reports and other papers. The catalogue, now nearly completed, is sufficiently detailed, often incorporating quotation from the manuscripts described, to give a good flavour of the depth and richness of this important and illuminating collection.
The second part of the project has resulted in a database of over 1650 entries and it is still growing. Many of the entries relate to Scottish overseas relations, trade or travel abroad, for instance, rather than what might properly be considered "diaspora" and the database has been given the name SOVS (Scots overseas) for this reason. However, by keying in the search term "diaspora" all specifically diaspora material is readily obtained. The range of collections in which such material is to be found is remarkable and sometimes rather surprising. As new collections come in quite regularly, any of which might contain relevant material, this is clearly a database that will grow and grow!
Marion M Stewart
February 2008