Charters of incorporation

• Reference:GB 1716 RSA1/2

• Scope and Content

  The Academy speedily after its foundation in May 1826, put into effect the drafting of an application to be granted a Royal Charter by way of Incorporating itself as a body. After two years of false dawns, mis-placed correspondence, and an over-zealous Edinburgh bureaucracy, the application was finally refused in July 1828. It would take a further decade before a second and this time successful, application secured the Academy its coveted Royal Charter. In so doing, it became the 311th recipient of such an honour. The Royal Charter of Incorporation was granted on 13 August 1838. Whilst the Academy’s request that the Charter be accompanied by an annual grant of £800 was rejected, it continued to devote not less than one-third of its gross Annual Income to its pension Fund, as established in the 1829 Rules. The key change in the Academy’s affairs which its application for a Charter had set out to amend, was the abolishing of the rank of Associate Engraver (for which the Rules of 1829 permitted a maximum of four] in favour of the Academy being able to elect a limited number of distinguished practitioners in that field to the privileges of Associate AND Academician Rank. By 1884 moves were afoot to seek a Supplementary Charter, basically an amendment to the existing charter. The submission for that was finally made in 1889 and the Supplementary charter was granted in 1891. The Supplementary Charter of 1891 encapsulated a number of areas of reform which had seen a concerted opposition raised by the Architects who accused the Academy of mismanagement, including the misappropriation of funds, as well of a definite bias against Architects. Associates were the big winners of the 1891 Supplementary; they were now given the right to be involved in the election of new Associates and to serve on the hanging Committee for the Annual Exhibition. Any Member absent from Scotland for three continuous years would see them moved to ‘non-resident membership’ but on the understanding that full rights would be restored them on return when the next vacancy occurred. Under the 1891 Supplement, a General Assembly was introduced which included both Associate and Academician ranks. This was in addition to the existing General Assembly of Academicians, established in the original Laws of 1829, which continued to be the route by which the President and Council were elected. The former practise of prospective Associates self-nominating by signing a sheet left in the galleries, which had previously been the norm, was also abolished by the 1891 Supplement, Associate candidates now being exclusively nominated by existing members of the Academy at both Associate and Academician rank, and voted on.

• Related Material

  See also RSA Letters Boxes 35-39 inc. (S12N, S12O, S12P & S12Q), also Magazine File (S12P)