Linlithgow Academy, as a separate institution, dates back only about 100 years: to the year 1894. However it was a natural successor to the educational establishment first mentioned in a Papal Bull of Pope Gregory VIII in 1187.
This 12th century establishment was a "Sang Schule" in the Kirkgate which trained choristers for services in St Michael's Church.
By the 16th century however some teachers such as Ninian Winzet, Robert Aitkenhead and Robert Nairn, were increasingly expressing their views that the school should, "teach and exhort the youth of the town in grammar, in the normal authors, and in good and civil manners".
By 1647 the Rector of Linlithgow Grammar School, as it was now called, was earning 100 pounds (Scots) a year and had an assistant called the "doctor" to assist him.
In addition to this basic salary the teacher could charge fees for teaching Latin or English. The town dominie was becoming a figure of some importance in the community and one of them, James Wiseman, was chosen to address King James VI on his visit to the burgh in 1617.
Discipline in those early days was brutal. Flogging with a rod or the tawse, public humiliation or ducking the head in a bowl of stale porridge: all were examples of the rigorous control exercised over a class which could number up to 100 pupils.
The school day started at 5.00am and lasted for 10 hours, with most lessons being conducted in Latin.
By the 17th century the importance of education was bringing the whole subject into increasing conflict between church and town. Rector James Kirkwood fell foul of the Linlithgow Town Council which he had reviled and was forced to flee.
The religious squabbles of the period hampered free learning and the Civil War, and the visit of Cromwell's troops who destroyed the old School house, further handicapped local education.
In the 1670's a new school was built and the town's bairns continued to be taught. In the 18th century their curriculum expanded to include "Geography, Book-keeping, French, Mathematics and Navigation".
The "Kirkgate School" lasted until 1816 when a new building was constructed. It was originally designed along "open plan" lines with all the pupils being taught in one large hall. However in 1839 the town council suggested partitioning the room and having the Rector teach in one half and the doctor in the other "in order to introduce a spirit of competition into the teaching".
Rector Low approved of the arrangement but his assistant was not so sure arguing that it would "engender bad feeling between the boys, not to mention between the teachers". The suggestion was duly dropped.
In 1872, under the new Education Act, the school was put under the control of the Burgh Board and, in 1876, the 350 pupils moved into yet another new building in the Rose Gardens. By 1880 numbers had risen to 443 and Inspectors' reports speak of overcrowding, bad hygiene and teaching difficulties among the seven staff. The problem was solved on February 26, 1902 when the Grammar school burned to the ground.
Meanwhile, in 1894 while life went on at the Grammar School, St Joseph's R.C. School and the Public School, yet another Linlithgow Educational establishment was about to open. Still discernible today on the facade of Longcroft Hall was inscribed:
"LINLITHGOW ACADEMY"
The log of 8 January 1894 records: "The School opens today under Mr Alex Muir M.A. and Miss Maggie McLaren, Assistant Mistress. There are registered 13 girls and 4 boys".
By the October the numbers had risen to 65 and an extra teacher, Mr John Will, was engaged.
In 1896 a new headmaster was appointed and Rector James Beveridge was to serve the Academy for 33 years. It was he who on 12 May 1902 marched his 102 pupils into a new school at the Low Port. This "Old Academy" was to be the home of secondary education in the town for 66 years. It was "home" also to six Rectors: Beveridge; Milne; Baxter; MacIntyre; Glennie and Liston.
By the late 1960's the school roll was around 500 and accommodation was very cramped.
In December 1968 a new school was officially opened by a former pupil, Margaret Kidd M.P. and the Linlithgow Academy we know (and love?) was in business.
When John Ferguson was appointed Headmaster in 1973 he became the 29th Linlithgow Rector to be recorded since the year 1617. In 1987 he officiated at the celebrations held to mark 800 years of education in Linlithgow.
Rector Ferguson retired in 1989 and was replaced by John Low who took charge in school of some 1050 pupils and 80 staff: a far cry from that first Academy record of January 1894.