Our History
A Legacy of Excellence and Innovation
Erskine Stewart Melville has a long and distinguished heritage dating back over 300 years. It is the story of three different people, from contrasting periods of Scotland’s history. In 1694, the Scottish businesswoman and philanthropist Mary Erskine founded a girls’ school to educate the destitute daughters of Edinburgh merchants. In 1832, Robert Cunningham, a forward-thinking educationalist, philanthropist and churchman, founded the Edinburgh Institution for Mathematics and Language to provide boys with a new broad-based curriculum. The school was renamed Melville College when it moved to Melville Street. In 1814, Daniel Stewart, the son of a poor farm worker, who went on to become a successful businessman, left money in his will to the Merchant Company to found Daniel Stewart’s College, for boys of the deserving poor. The College opened in 1855.
The three Schools formally united in the 1970s to form Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools, (ESMS) and by the turn of the 21st century had become the largest family of independent schools in Europe.
Today the School continues to honour the memory of our three founders by supporting children from lower income families through our bursary provision and by empowering our students through innovative approaches and transformative experiences.
Eyes on the Future
In August 2026, ESMS will transition into a single co-educational school for 3-18 year olds, named Erskine Stewart Melville. As we approach this new era for the school, we will continue to honour our founders by challenging traditional thinking, embracing innovation, championing individuality and mastering progressive teaching and learning.
Digital Archives
Stewart’s Melville College and The Mary Erskine School Archives locate, collate and preserve school records and memorabilia and we are proud that this wealth of information has been carefully gathered within the archive stores. Our Digital Archives are also growing, and our schools’ histories, Rolls of Honour, biographies on our Sporting FP’s and school magazines are all available to view online.
Our current physical collection includes fascinating artefacts such as old uniform, badges, caps and blazers, pupil roll books dating back to the early years of the schools, school trophies and awards, a military and school medal collection and a research library with work on our founders, our schools and education in Edinburgh. We also care for part of the John Watson’s School Collection and the Stewart’s Melville FP Club memorabilia. Our aim is to add as much of this as possible from both Stewart’s Melville College and The Mary Erskine School to our Digital Archives over time, making this available to the wider ESM Community.
If you have an enquiry, would like to organise a visit to the Archives in person or donate any materials to the School Archives, which would be gratefully received, please get in touch with the Archives at archives@esms.org.uk.
Visit our Digital Archives to view our WW1 and WW2 Roll of Honour, or search the history of Edinburgh Institution, and the Daniel Stewart’s College magazine.
