Aberdeen Shipmaster Society

The Seamen's Box of Aberdeen was founded in 1598 and incorporated by charter of James VI in 1600. The objects of the Society were essentially charitable, being established to make provision for families of skippers, masters and mariners who were drowned at sea. By virtue of these interests, it quickly gained considerable importance in the municipal life of the Burgh of Aberdeen, pressing for improvements in both administration and the physical development of the harbour area.

During it's first 200 years, the Society raised funds through the collection of poor money and prime gilt from mariners using the port at Aberdeen, poor money being levied on the wages of masters and seamen belonging to the port, whilst prime gilt, a tax imposed on the tonnage of a ship as well as the wages of her seamen, was due from skippers of both home and foreign-going vessels. In 1775 it brought an action in the High Court of Admiralty against John Auldjo, merchant in Aberdeen, for non-payment of prime gilt for 75 voyages made from the port of Aberdeen. The litigation lasted ten years, going before the House of Lords and the Court of Session before finally being ruled in favour of Auldjo, a decision which brought an end to the practice, and to the provision of charity for foreign seamen which it had funded. It seems that a further consequence of the litigation process was the Society's decision to reconstitute the organisation and to petition for a new charter. This was granted on 16 April 1801, and the Society reconstituted under a new name, the Aberdeen Shipmaster Society.

The Society was a wealthy organisation and a substantial land owner in the city of Aberdeen. As well as holding properties purchased for rental, in 1670 it erected a loft in the Quire of St Nicholas Parish Church, with accommodation for all of its members, and in 1788 purchased St Andrew's Lodge, on the south side of the Shiprow, for use as the Society's meeting hall. The building was sold during the development of Market Street in 1840, and a smaller property at 22 Regent Quay purchased by way of replacement.

See Alexander Clark, A Short History of the Shipmaster Society, or The Seamen's Box of Aberdeen (Aberdeen: William Smith, 1911) for further details