Centre for Scottish & Celtic Studies

Thanks to seedcorn funding, Jessica was able to visit manuscripts in Aberdeen and Edinburgh (NL Scot., Adv. MS 3658 and U. Aberdeen L. MS 2538) written by James Fraser of Kirkhill (1634-1709), a Gaelic-speaking traveller in Scotland, England, France, Spain, and Germany. She knew he had met the subject of her PhD research, Thomas St Serfe (1624-69; sometimes Sydserf), while in London, and hoped there was more about their meeting in the manuscripts that had not made it into the print edition of Fraser’s travels. There was nothing new in the Edinburgh manuscript, but at Aberdeen she found what she was looking for and is now able to add some additional colour to her portrait of St Serfe.

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First published: 6 July 2022