Raisin Monday receipt, St Andrews University, 1904.

Raisin Monday receipt from John Dall to Andrew John Oliphant, University of St Andrews, 1904.

Raisin Monday probably originated as a initiation ceremony for first year undergraduates, known as bajans or bejants. Students had to give a pound of raisins to a senior student who would have helped them settle into university life, in return for a receipt written in Latin to prove that the raisins had been given. The tradition continues today although raisins have usually been replaced by a bottle of wine and the receipt can be written on anything, the more outrageous the better.

John Dall (1881-1918), son of John Dall of Cupar and Elizabeth Stirling, studied at United College, St Andrews, from 1896, graduating with a first class degree in Mental philosophy in 1901. He went straight on to St Mary's College, St Andrews, graduating with a BD in 1905. He was licensed by Cupar presbytery in the same year and became minister of Rothesay New Church in 1907. He demitted in 1910 to take up a post as professor of church history and history of dogma at Queens University, Kingston.

There is no record of Andrew John Oliphant graduating from the university.

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Call number used to be ms5040

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Binding: Brown cloth on boards. Marbled endpapers. Paper: 15.5x26.5cm mounted in board 21.5x32.5cm

Description compiled by Maia Sheridan, Archives Hub project archivist, based on material from the Manuscripts Database.

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