HISTORY OF THE CONGREGATIONS OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FROM 1733 TO IQOO HISTORY OF THE CONGREGATIONS OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FROM 1733 TO 1900 REV. ROBERT SMALL, D.D., EDINBURGH IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME II EDINBURGH DAVID M. SMALL, 3 HOWARD STREET 1904 THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITBD, EDINBURGH. PREFACE THE second volume, though too long deferred, is less complete than I could have wished. First, it was intended that a list of all the Moderators in the various Synods from 1745 to 1900 should appear in the Appendix, but up to 1820, owing to the smallness of the three Synods, the occupancy of the Chair went for little, and since 1847 the names have been given in faithful array in the Clerical Almanac, so that it was thought this addition might be fitly dispensed with. Hence some who attained to this dignity among us have the fact passed over, though with most of them it is incidentally mentioned. Second, I would have much inclined to annotate and correct the list of students given at the close of Dr M'Kelvie's Annals, especially that part which includes the Antiburgher section. Though both Dr M'Kelvie and Dr George Brown profess to give the names of the students who entered the Antiburgher Hall each session, they can have had no authentic documents to draw from, and must have ever and again made entries and determined dates by conjecture. We have means for sup- plementing their defects, but, unfortunately, time is wanting, and also ability to prosecute the needed inquiries. The reception which the first volume has met with is more encouraging than I had ventured to hope for. Interest, of course, has been confined very much to the United Free Church and, as was to be expected, to the United Presbyterian section thereof. After two rivers have peacefully coalesced they may show for a time by the colour of their waters that they had flowed in separate channels. The bitterest complaint I have met with has been the reverse of what was looked for. I have been blamed for conceal- ment of facts one example being that I wound up a minister's course by simply stating that he was loosed from his charge ; whereas I ought to have told that the root evil was drink. There are cases in which more may be read between the lines than is expressed, and balancing between the feelings of relatives and the claims of truth is like attempting to split the apple under the terror of wounding the child. Looking back over the completed work I see many omissions which cannot now be supplied, e.g. books ignored, owing to the author's limited reading, or because they did not come within the current of his narrative. Minor inaccuracies are certain to be discovered. It is as when a wayfaring man, having passed through a locality, describes it to a general audience, among whom one or two are natives of the place and familiar with its every nook and crevice. Great are my obligations to Mr William Crawford for the invaluable service he has done me in my disabled condition. But for him and members of my own family the present volume must have been either held back indefinitely or given to the press in an unrevised and unfinished state. Thanks are also due to those brethren \vho have favoured me with com- munications of which readers will get the benefit in the list of corrections and additions. R. S. 46 COMISTON DRIVE, EDINBURGH, December 1904. 2067459 CONTENTS PRESBYTERIES FAGE GALLOWAY ......... i GLASGOW . . . . . . . . .22 EASTERN DIVISION . . . . . . .123 SOUTHERN DIVISION . .... 135 NORTHERN DIVISION ....... 150 WEST HIGHLAND CHURCHES . . . ... 161 GREENOCK . . . . . . ' . . . 168 HAMILTON . . . . . . . . .211 KELSO . . . . . . . . . 246 KlLMARNOCK AND AYR .... . . 277 SOUTHERN DIVISION . .... 323 KlRKCALDY ......... 352 LANARK ... ..... 403 MELROSE ......... 428 ORKNEY ......... 475 PAISLEY ......... 510 PERTH ...... .... 544 EASTERN DIVISION ....... 565 SOUTHERN DIVISION ..... . 583 WESTERN DIVISION ....... 606 NORTHERN DIVISION ....... 636 SHETLAND ......... 653 STIRLING ......... 663 APPENDIX THE CHURCH CASE IN THE LIGHT OF SECESSION AND RELIEF HISTORY 718 INDEX I. CONGREGATIONS . . ^. . . . . 725 II. MINISTERS AND OTHERS ..... . 728 CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS . . . ... 743 vii History of the Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church WIGTOWN (ANTIBURGHER) THE first distinct mention of Wigtown congregation in early Secession records is at the Antiburgher Synod in February 1750. They had given a unanimous call to Mr John Tennant, whom they wished recalled from Ireland to be ordained over them. It was decided, however, to continue him there till next meeting, and by that time he had calls from several congrega- tions in Ireland. The result was that in August 1750 Wigtown people had to surrender Mr Tennant to more pressing claims, and next year he was ordained at Roseyards, in the county of Antrim. When the Seceders about Wigtown were congregated cannot be ascertained, but the title-deeds of their property are dated 2ist October 1749, and the church was finished some time in the following year. The membership was drawn at first from a wide range, extending to Stranraer on the west, a distance of twenty-six miles, and taking in a great part of Galloway. The places mentioned as receiving occasional supply of sermon are Minnigaff, Mochrum, and Kirk- cowan, and the preacher who appeared oftenest among them was Mr John Swanston. At the rupture of 1747 they must have taken the Antiburgher side almost in a body, as these names never again occur in the Minutes of the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow. Soon after this the county town seems to have been fixed on as the seat of the congregation. First Minister. ANDREW OGILV1E, from Marnock, who, before acceding to the Secession Presbytery, had been parochial teacher in Botriphnie, of which Mr Campbell, a man of great evangelical fervour, was minister. Ordained at Wigtown, in September 1751, the call being signed by 86 male members, who must have formed a widely-ramified family. They had diffi- culty for years in supporting a fixed ministry, and hence, prior to 1755, the Presbyter)' declared him " transportable." The meaning was that they were prepared to remove him from Wigtown whenever he should obtain a call to another place. In 1757 the congregation was behind with the stipend, and this led the members about Stranraer, as is to be related elsewhere, to propose to Jiave him " transported to that corner altogether." In 1763 the people, afraid of losing their minister, reported that they had paid up most of their arrears, and had also adopted a method for ministering more effectu- ally to his support in time coming. The financial arrangements in old Secession congregations were seriously defective owing to the ordinary funds being drawn almost exclusively from seat rents, the weekly collections going to side purposes. Mr Ogilvie died, 25th April 1783, in the sixty-second II. A 2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. Of his two sons, who entered the Hall together, Andrew, the younger, after being eleven years a probationer, received ordination on 2ist April 1801, with the view of dis- pensing sealing ordinances in Orkney, but he continued on the preachers' list till the end. He died, 5th June 1835, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Second Minister. ALEXANDER OGILVIE, son of the former minister. In the earlier part of the vacancy the congregation called Mr James Biggar, afterwards of Urr, but he was appointed by the Synod to Newtonarcls, in Ireland. Mr Ogilvie was ordained, I2th April 1786. The call was signed by 97 male members, 12 of whom were elders. The church had been enlarged shortly before by the erection of galleries, which increased the sittings to 450. Mr Ogilvie died, 2ist January 1831, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty-fifth of his ministry. A daughter of his became the wife of the Rev. Peter Hannay, one of his successors in Wigtown. At a moderation six months after Mr Ogilvie's death 43 voted for Mr Hannay, and 45 for Mr Thomas Nicol, afterwards of Pitrodie. Objections to the sustaining were advanced on the plea of undue influence, and after witnesses were examined 2 votes had to be discounted, which produced a tie, and the call was set aside. Third Minister. JAMES TOWERS, from Airth. Called also to Dairy, Ayrshire. Ordained, 28th November 1833. In September 1836 the com- municants numbered 307, having increased 75 since Mr Towers' ordination. Nearly one-third of these were from other parishes, most of them from Kirkinner, a number from Penninghame, and a few from Sorbie and Minni- gaff. Fifteen families were from more than six miles, yet the minister could testify that they attended as regularly as any in the congregation. The stipend was ,120, with ^10 for sacramental expenses, but there was no manse. The debt was inconsiderable. The church was rebuilt in 1845, with sittings for 600. On 6th January 1847 Mr Towers accepted a call to Grange Road, Birkenhead, a newly-formed congregation, whose call was signed by 71 members and 47 adherents, the stipend promised being ^200. The church was opened in the following year, and in 1854 a gallery had to be erected, which increased the sittings from 600 to 738. Thus Grange Road grew under the ministry of Mr Towers till it became not only a strong church but the mother of churches. In 1879 he retired from active service to make way for a colleague, and died, 29th July 1891, in the eighty-fourth year of his age and fifty-eighth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. PETER HANNAY, translated from Creetown after a ministry there of eleven years, and inducted to Wigtown, his native congre- gation, on 3rd January 1849. The Rev. Alexander Dalrymple, junior minister at Tarbolton, had been previously called. The stipend was now ,135, with 24 for house rent. Mr Hannay died, after a brief illness, 26th May 1855, in the fifty-first year of his age and eighteenth of his ministry. The congregation had a new manse ready for occupancy, and Mr Hannay was about to take possession, when the summons came to " the house ap- pointed for all living." Next year a volume of his sermons was published, with a Memoir by the Rev. James Inglisof Johnstone. It also contains a historical sketch of the Secession in Wigtownshire, which appeared ten years before as an Appendix to a sermon preached at the closing service in the old church. Fifth Minister. JOHN STEVENSON, who had resigned Haddington (West) owing to ill-health two years before. Believing himself restored to fitness for regular work he had accepted a call to Zion Chapel, Newcastle ; but when the induction day came he did not appear, and at a meeting PRESBYTERY OF GALLOWAY 3 of Presbytery the following week he withdrew his acceptance. He was inducted to Wigtown, 3rd June 1856. But again the nervjus system yielded to the strain, and the connection had to be dissolved, gth June 1857. He then retired to the family residence near Kilmarnock, where he officiated as an elder in Princes Street Church. He died at Saltcoats, 8th January 1897, in his seventy-third year. In a few months Mr John Hinshelwood, after- wards of Hadtlington (East), was called to be Mr Stevenson's successor at Wigtown, but declined. Sixth Minister. JOHN SQUAIR, from Nairn. Mr Squair was first called to three other vacancies in close succession Hartlepool (West) ; Burray, in Orkney ; and Kendal ; but Wigtown came in, and was accepted. Ordained, 24th May 1859. The stipend was ,150, with manse, garden, and an acre of ground lying in grass. There was a debt at this time of ,800, contracted mainly by the building of the manse ; but as years passed it gradually de- creased, and at last entirely disappeared. Within the last thirty years the population of the parish has decreased over a third, and at the close of 1899 the membership was 153, and the stipend from the people .175, with the manse. WIGTOWN (RELIEF) THE attempt to have a Relief congregation in this place was a blunder from first to last. A beginning was made by Glasgow Presbytery on I ith February 1834 in consequence of a letter from Mr Reston of Newton-Stewart, Who had preached by request at Wigtown on Sabbath week, and had a large audience in the evening. The Court Hall, he ascertained, could be had free of ex- pense, and " many of the inhabitants expressed their willingness to pay for supply/' A preacher was sent at once, to remain till the end of March. Sermon having been kept up for over a year a congregation was organised on loth August 1835, with 20 names on the communion roll. In the spring of 1837 the people were engaged in erecting a place of worship, and the Presbytery promised collections to aid them in the undertaking ; but progress was hindered for want of funds, though grants were made to Wigtown by the Synod year after year. In June 1838 it was found that ^55 had been raised by subscription in the town and neighbourhood, and ^26 had been received from five sister congregations, but there was a debt contracted of ^174. In 1840 the place of worship was still unfinished ; pecuniary difficulties were great, and a legal prosecution was threatened. By the end of that year ^343 had been sunk on the building, and ,130 was still to pay. In May 1841 the Presbytery of Newton-Stewart reported to the Synod that the roof was on, but the windows were not in, the walls were not plastered, and no seats were fitted up. The end came on 8th July 1843, when the Minute of a congregational meeting was laid before the Presbytery, at which it had been unanimously agreed to sell the church, and on 27th August it was intimated that it had been bought by the Free Church congregation for 200. The debts so far as known were slightly over ^150, but ^4 was all that remained to reimburse denominational funds after expenses were paid. At next Synod the Presbytery reported that " the congregation at Wigtown had ceased to exist." Had it gone on the two U.P. congregations would only have weakened each other. 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS STRANRAER, IVY PLACE (ANTIBURGHER) THE early Minutes of the Antiburgher Presbytery of Glasgow having dis- appeared we have no means of tracing the history of this congregation back to the beginning. The earliest reliable notice is in May 1757, when the Antiburgher Presbytery of Dumfries had a petition from Stranraer craving that a probationer might be appointed to continue among them for some time to assist their minister, the Rev. Mr Ogilvie. This shows that they formed a branch of Wigtown congregation, though the two places are twenty-six miles apart. At next meeting they urged that Mr Ogilvie should either be transferred to Stranraer altogether or that they should be allowed to call a minister for themselves. A disjunction from Wigtown must have been obtained soon after. First Minister. JAMES DOUGLAS, from Wigtown. Ordained, 2nd May 1759, the call signed by 37 male members. Dr George Brown states that, owing to some dissatisfaction with Mr Douglas' marriage, a number of his people became Cameronians. There is a reference in the Presbytery Minutes, of date nth February 1761, to trouble the session of Stranraer had had with several in the congregation, who found fault with Mr Douglas' father-in-law. That gentleman had caused an Irishman to be apprehended when the com- munion was being observed, and Mr Douglas had intimated from the pulpit the satisfaction of the session with what had been done. The Presbytery approved of this as just and reasonable, and the parties who had caused the turmoil^were to be dealt with. Hence, probably, the uprise of Reformed Presbyterians in the town. Mr Douglas died of fever in October 1772, in the fourteenth year of his ministry. There was a membership in 1767, according to Dr Brown, of 240. Second Minister. WILLIAM DRYSDALE, from Muckart. Ordained, 2oth April 1774. In 1791, as we find from the Old Statistical History, there were 443 names on the examination roll of this congregation, and they were scattered over the whole of Rhinns. It was not till after Mr Douglas' death that their regular place of worship was built, their meetings having previously been held in what was originally a dwelling-house. A new gallery was put up in 1800, a token of increase, though a disruption was experienced at the time of the Lifter Controversy some years before. Mr Drysdale died, loth April 1810, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. His last illness was erysipelas, brought on by exposure to the chill March winds, and it speedily reached a fatal issue. He was never married. Third Minister. JOHN ROBERTSON, who had resigned Rothesay a year and a half before. Inducted, loth July 1811. The people had intended to make the stipend ^90 ; but now by an enactment of Synod no one was to be settled in a town on less than ^100. Hence they agreed to name that sum, and pay the rent of a dwelling-house besides. Mr Robertson in his second charge had his lot cast among a people deeply imbued with the Covenanting spirit. The congregation was widely scattered, extending from north to south thirty-six miles, and from east to west eighteen. This was a remnant of Antiburgher times. It was when away preaching one Sabbath at a station eleven miles distant .that Mr Robertson's public work came to an end. After four months' illness he died on igth January 1835, in the sixty-first year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. A sermon of his appeared in one of the two volumes published in 1820 by ministers of the Antiburgher Synod. In 1836 the communicants of this congregation numbered 250, of whom only a fourth resided in the parish. Of the others fully two-fifths were from the parish of Inch, which comes close in to the town of Stranraer. Leswalt PRESBYTERY OF GALLOWAY 5 stands next with about half the number, and then other parishes in the following order : Portpatrick, Stoneykirk, Ballantrae, Kirkcolm, and Glen- luce. About 30 families came from more than six miles. The late minister's stipend was .120, and he had a manse, on which some debt rested, but the church was unburdened. Instead of seat-letting the con- gregation met and apportioned among themselves the expenses of stipend. The highest subscription was ^5, 55. and the lowest is. 6d., the average being about 155. The people appear thus far to have wrought harmoniously together, but they were now passing through a period of unrest which lasted four and a half years. Soon after Mr Robertson's death the Rev. James M'Crie of Old Meldrum, a licentiate of Wigtown Presbytery, was brought south to assist at the com- munion. Nothing followed till the end of the year, when a moderation resulted as follows : For the Rev. James M'Crie, 38 ; for Mr Adam Lind, afterwards of Elgin, 24 ; and for Mr Alexander M'Gregor, afterwards of Kilwinning, 12. This gave Mr M'Crie an absolute majority of 2 ; but when the call came before the Presbytery a complaint was made that the voting had been confined to male communicants. The case was referred to the Synod, by whom the call was set aside.* In November 1836 Ivy Place congregation called Mr David Croom, but Mr M'Crie's former supporters kept aloof. Those who knew Mr Croom in after years do not require to be told that, though he had nothing else in sight, he was certain in these circumstances to put aside the Stranraer invitation, and give the people in that place no further trouble. But feeling kept as strong as ever, and in February 1837 a petition for disjunction signed by 30 male and 41 female members came before the Presbytery, and was carried by protest to the Synod. This led to a meeting of a Synodical Committee at Stranraer on 7th June to endeavour along with the Presbytery to restore peace to the congregation. After grievances had been fully ventilated they had a very agreeable conversation with six representative men from each side, and it was thought that, if meetings for prayer were arranged for, and the Lord's Supper observed, brotherly feeling might be restored. However, at the Synod in September the requisitionists were up again, " adhering to their petition for disjunction as strongly as ever." They were told that they might apply individually to the session for certificates of membership, but the Synod could in no way countenance the setting up of a third congregation in Stranraer. Six months after this the appearance of Mr John Peden brought the two parties into oneness, and a moderation was applied for, the stipend promised being ,30 higher than before, and leading men among the disjunctionists acting as commissioners ; but Mr Peden had a prior call to East Regent Place, Glasgow, which he accepted, much to his own regret before many years had passed. The way was clear now for harmonious action. Fourth Minister. ROBERT HOGARTH, from Dairy, Ayrshire. Ordained, 6th August 1839. The call was signed by 130 members and 72 adherents, and the stipend was to be ^130, with manse and garden, which was ultimately increased ^70. During the first twenty years of Mr Hogarth's ministry the congregation was much borne down with debt, and yet they were aljle to show an annual return of nearly ^40 for missionary and benevolent purposes. In 1844 they made a special effort and reduced the burden by .200, and in 1859 the last of it, amounting to .540, was cleared off under the stimulus of ^100 from the Board. On 23rd August 1881 Mr Hogarth's demission was accepted. He had been laid aside for some time from all official duty by illness, and, there being no hope of speedy restora- * See vol. i. p. 715. 6 HISTORY. OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS tion, he intimated his wish to retire, waiving all claim to the manse or to any allowance from the congregation. As he intended to leave Stranracr he believed that it would be better for all parties that he should not hold the position of senior minister. Though the people would gladly have retained him among them they acquiesced in the proposal he had made. Thus the church was preached vacant, Mr Hogarth retaining his seat in Presbytery and Synod. He now removed to Glasgow, and ultimately to Stirling, where he died, I2th March 1893, m his seventy-sixth year. Three of his sons are in the ministry of the U.P. Church the Rev. John P. Hogarth, Renfrew ; the Rev. William Hogarth, Rigg-of-Gretna ; and the Rev. Thomas Biggart Hogarth, Clackmannan. The last name reminds us that their father was a nephew of Thomas Biggart, Esq., of Dairy, Ayrshire, a wealthy friend and benefactor of the U.P. Church. Fifth Minister. GEORGE HUNTER, M.A., from Sydney Place, Glasgow. The stipend was now ,225 in all, and the ordination took place, 2/th June 1882. After labouring in Stranraer for seven years with much devotedness Mr Hunter offered himself to the China Inland Mission, and was accepted. The congregation, believing that his resolution had been arrived at under divine guidance, agreed to the severance, and he was loosed from his charge, 29th October 1889. But Mr Hunter's course in China was comparatively brief. On his way to a distant station he was seized with malarial fever, and he died, I2th March 1900, leaving a widow and two children. He was in the forty-fourth year of his age and eighteenth of his ministry. Sixth Minister. JAMES S. SMITH, M.A., from Bonkle. Ordained, loth June 1890. The stipend was the same as before, with a manse. A new church, with 530 sittings, was opened on Wednesday, i6th March 1898, by the Rev. William Watson of Birkenhead. It cost about ^4000, and the collections that day and on the following Sabbath, when Dr Hutchison, the Moderator of Synod, preached, amounted to 260. The money previ- ously subscribed was over ^3000, and ,250 was received from the Church Building Fund. The membership at the close of the following year was 305, and the stipend as before. STRANRAER, BELLEVILLA (BURGHER) ON 3ist July 1793 the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow received a petition for sermon from 23 persons in Stranraer. These were the remains of a little party which had broken off from the Antiburgher congregation over the "Lifter" question, and to them the Old Statistical History refers two years before as " Smytonians," and states that, like another class of " sectaries " in the place the M'Millanites, they were not numerous. In Dr M'Keh ie's Annals it is explained that their minister, Mr Drysdale, had given them offence by siding with Mr Smyton of Kilmaurs for a time, and then for- saking him, but there is no trace of any such thing in the Synod records. When the "Lifter Presbytery" fell into fragments the Smytonians in Stranraer, like most of their brethren, sought and found an asylum among the Burghers, and on the first two Sabbaths of September Mr Dewar of Fenwick preached to them by appointment of the Burgher Presbytery of Kilmarnock. This was followed on I5th October by a paper from some people in and about the town expressing satisfaction with Burgher principles, and desiring to be taken under the Presbytery's inspection. From this time Stranraer ranked as a vacancy, the preachers generally remaining several Sabbaths at a time owing to the distance. In February 1797 Mr Dewar was again sent two Sabbaths to Stranraer to preach and PRESBYTERY OF GALLOWAY 7 set in order the things that were wanting. They had two elders among them already, and the people wished these men constituted into a session, which was done. Next came a call to himself signed by 45 members and 69 adherents, besides an unattested paper said to contain nearly 200 names, but it was agreed without a vote to continue him at Fenwick. First Minister. WILLIAM IRVING, from Ecclefechan. The stipend promised was .70, with sacramental expenses, but before granting a moderation the Presbyter)' wished to make sure that the meeting-house was in course of being roofed in. The call to Mr Irving was sustained in August 1798, and preferred at next meeting to another from Mauchline, but for a whole twelvemonth the state of the building kept the ordination back. In February 1799 the commissioners informed the Presbytery that they had been disappointed in not getting the wood forward from Liverpool, and this caused delay till 25th September, and then Mr Irving was ordained in their own place of worship. The cost was put, forty years after, at between ,500 and ^600. Stranraer was reckoned so far apart in those days that the minister had regularly to apply to the Presbytery for assistance at his yearly communion, and two of their number were usually appointed. But in the beginning of 1818 Mr Irving requested a visit from a committee to inquire into the state of the congregation, where everything was running into disorder. Stipend was in arrears, elders and others were deserting his ministry, and the managers were neither collecting the seat rents nor fulfilling their obligations. The Synod found that Mr Irving's conduct had been irreproachable, and they recommended the congregation to conduct themselves towards him as became Church members by supporting him and encouraging his heart in the service of the gospel. The Presbytery, however, followed another line of action, and at a special meeting in Stranraer on 4th November 1818 they accepted Mr Irving's demission. The congregation fulfilled their part of the contract by paying him over ^230, the amount of his claims, and the church was preached vacant. Mr Irving now itinerated as a probationer for about two years. The following account of his death, on I7th October 1820, is abridged from the Recorder, a short - lived but ably - conducted Union magazine : He was passing from Auchterarder to Dunning, and had reached the west end of the village, when he left the public road, to allow his horse to water at a well. The horse suddenly falling he was thrown forward into the well, and, though taken out at once, he almost immediately expired. Dislocation of the neck was ascertained to have been the cause of death. The sad recital closes thus : " His fervent piety, irreproachable conduct, and amiable manners endear his memory to his friends, and soothe their sorrow for his departure." Stranraer congregation had supply of sermon regularly in their vacant state, and after a year and a half they called Mr William Rutherford, who was appointed by the Synod to Newtown St Boswells. The call purported to carry the names of 62 persons in full communion, but the Presbytery reduced the number to 51. Of ordinary hearers there were 45, and the stipend undertaken was ll - Second Minister. WILLIAM SMELLIE, M.A., from Tarbolton. The call was signed by 90 members and 60 adherents, male and female. This being the first call presented to the United Presbytery of Wigtown Mr Smith of Whithorn could not but express his disapproval of females being admitted to vote or subscribe. It was opposed, he maintained, to the apostolic rule and the constitution of human society, and though it was allowed by the late Burgher Synod, he would resist any attempt to make it a law of the United Church. The question of woman's vote comes up again under the 8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS history of Ivy Place congregation. Mr Smellie was ordained, iyth April 1822, and in less than a dozen years his church was much ahead of the older Secession congregation in membership. In 1836 the communicants were returned at 347, and the stipend was .138, with an occasional allowance for travelling expenses. More than two-thirds of the families were in nearly equal numbers from Leswalt, Inch, Stoneykirk, and Portpatrick, with a few from Kirkcolm and Kirkmaiden. Fifty families came from more than six miles. The debt, which must have been long burdensome, was now under ^100. Mr Smellie died, 24th April 1863, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. Third Minister. THOMAS DOBBIE, M.A., son of the Rev. James Dobbie of Annan. Called some time before to Everton, in Lancashire, and also to be Dr M'Kerrow's colleague at Manchester ; but after his trials for ordination at Everton had been sustained, and all looked well for the young congrega- tion, progress was arrested owing to the sudden failure of Mr Bobbie's health. Ordained at Stranraer, I3th April 1864. The stipend was to be ^200, and there was the promise of a manse as soon as possible. On 2oth December 1867 Mr Dobbie declined a call to Thread Street, Paisley, and at the same meeting Mr Matthews 'of Bridge Street Church gave in the demission of his charge. Union followed, and at this point we pause, to resume with the history of the United congregation. STRANRAER, BRIDGE STREET (RELIEF) THE first application from Stranraer to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow for sermon was on I7th November 1817. It came from "a number of respect- able people," and Mr Nichol of Ayr having preached to them and reported favourably of their prospects they were recognised as a forming congregation on 3rd March 1818. It was not till 1821 that their church, with 650 sittings, was built, the cost being .800, the greater part of which was derived from borrowed money. It is not correct to say that it was the preaching of Mr Symington of the Reformed Presbyterian Church which prompted this movement, as he was not ordained at Stranraer till two years after the congregation was formed. First Minister. JOHN M'GREGOR, from Glasgow (East Campbell Street). Ordained in the open air on 5th May 1824 "on account of the multitude who had assembled." The stipend promised was ,130, with an increase of ,5 for every ^100 of debt paid off. In 1836 the membership amounted to 363, of whom nearly one-half came from other parishes, Leswalt taking the lead by a great way ; while Inch, Portpatrick, and Stoneykirk followed, with a few stragglers from Kirkcolm, Ballantrae, and Kirkmaiden. Of these families 31 were from farther than four miles. The stipend was now ^140, and the debt of .500 was being gradually reduced. Mr M'Gregor died, 24th September 1852, in the fifty-second year of his age and twenty- ninth of his ministry. The congregation in the following year got into confusion over a divided call to Mr George Barlas, and feeling ran so high that 78 members, including 5 of the session, craved a disjunction, which Presbytery and Synod alike refused to grant. Mr Barlas had now accepted Auchtermuchty (East), so that the parties came together again. A unanimous call followed to Mr John M'Laren, who set all other invitations aside in favour of Cowcaddens, Glasgow. Second Mints/er. GEORGE D. MATTHEWS, B.A., from Kilkenny, Ireland. Having graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, Mr Matthews entered our Theological Hall in 1848. Ordained at Stranraer, 3ist August 1.854, the stipend being ^140, and no members and *> adherents hi. signed the call Towards the close of 1867 Mr Matthews w ^invited to undertake the charge of Jane Street Church; New York, and his resi Jna ion leral Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, and in that caoacitv hp resides ,n London. Bridge Street Church is now used for SabbaS school purposes by the two congregations of the Established Church STRANRAER, WEST (BELLEVILLA AND BRIDGE STREET UNITED) As already stated, when Mr Matthews' resignation of Bridge Street pending commissioners from the congregation expressed thf wish of The people to enter mto union with Bellevilla under the pastorate of Mr Debbie The movement bemg gone into with entire unanimity on both sides he Presbytery on 3 rd March 1868, after accepting Mr Matthews' resk'mtion S^^?nA C ^* mS T teC i- F r " dme they met in g BrdTe -et Church, and within six months the stipend was raised to /TOO On 22nd February 1870 Mr Dobbie declined a call to Bristo Church Fdin burgh, but on 25th February 1873 he accepted St Andrew's PLace Leith During the ensuing vacancy the congregation called Mr Walter Duncan ' and ^ William Thomson, w^pS '" 15 Pened T Wedn -day,' 22 nd October "^ "by The opening collections that day and the next two was 229, and the stipend ^310, with the manse. WHITHORN (ANTIBURGHER) THE first distinct mention of this congregation in Secession records is the Synod in May 1793, when they brought up a call to Mr John Mitchel m cornpet.tion with another from Anderston, Glasgow (no v WellnSoi Church). The call from Whithorn was subscribed by ,8 male member u^^" t r V te WaS , taken Glas ow carried b y 2 to 16. Th church with 6op sittings, ,s said to have been built in 1790. It is also stated that oTenHt f ^?^ re f ation consisted of a ver^ew wh S d been \ to . nd at Wigtown, eleven miles to the north. In 1794 thev called Mr Andrew Small, but 4 members and some adherents alleged Vshness of pro cedure and the unripeness of the congregation for supporting a mSis P tS JiHon IT bein - r u ov erruled as frivolous Mr Small accepted, oncon- fo Sb r'lS U m , ^ P Wer t0 draW back Sh uld the opposition prove Jte. At a subsequent meeting he gave in reasons for asking to be io HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS set free, and commissioners from Whithorn having been heard this was agreed to, the Presbytery expressing very strong disapproval of "the irregular and almost unprecedented conduct of the remonstrants." Mr Small's name appeared for many years on the preachers' list, but he never got another call. He then settled down in Abernethy, his native place, where the family name figured at an early period in the session records of that place. In 1823 Mr Small published a book on "Roman Antiquities discovered in Fife." In the Autobiography of James Skinner he stands forth graphically as spellbound among the superstitions of an earlier age. He died at Abernethy, i6th March 1852, in his eighty-sixth year. First Minister. JOHN SMITH, from Auchinleck, where his father had been an elder, first in the Established Church and then in the Secession. Licensed in 1778, and after itinerating as a preacher for nine years he was called to Bclmont Street, Aberdeen, but owing to want of harmony the call was put aside. Mr Smith's English accent, like that of Dr Jamieson in similar circumstances, was objected to as savouring of affectation. Dis- couraged by want of success he turned aside to business for a time ; but in May 1794 the Synod considered it desirable to have a preacher ordained for location in distant places, and Mr Smith was fixed on. At next meeting Kilmarnock Presbytery reported that they had ordained Mr Smith as instructed, and that he was now under call to Whithorn. A stray Minute of session has come down to us, recording the order followed on the modera- tion day. After prayer for direction in the solemn work before them the minister who preached and presided suggested the Rev. John Smith, the candidate whom the session had previously agreed on. He then asked three times if there were any other names to be added, and there was no response. A show of hands being taken a considerable number were held up for Mr Smith, and only one against him, and he was declared duly elected. Then, a blessing being invoked on the work of the day, the call was read in the hearing of the congregation, who were desired to attend the session in order to append their names. The number who subscribed was 26. They were but a little company, reminding us of the disdainful state- ment in the Old Statistical History that the parishioners of Whithorn in- cluded among them "a few sectaries of the Cameronian and Antiburgher description." Mr Smith was inducted, 3rd June 1795 a m d died on 25th February 1893, in the forty-fourth year of his ministry. Creetown congregation after a vacancy of half-a-year called Mr George Black, from Hutchesontown, Glasgow ; but he accepted Walker, near Newcastle, where he was ordained, 22nd June 1859, and died, 2 ist September 1864, in the thirty-fourth year of his age and sixth of his ministry. Of one of Mr Black's predecessors it was said : " The atmos- phere of the place, heavily charged with noxious vapours, proved almost fatal to him." He left in time ; but Mr Black kept at his post till the lungs were hopelessly diseased, and then returned to his old home to die. Third Minister. JAMES BROWN, M.A., from Moffat. Ordained, i7th August 1859. The stipend from the people was to be ^80, including every- thing. On Friday, igth April 1861, a new church, with accommodation for nearly 300, and built at a cost of over ,800, was opened by Dr Edmond of London. On ist November 1864 Mr Brown accepted a call to Morningside, Edinburgh, but during his ministry at Creetown an important point had been gained by the congregation obtaining an attractive place of worship. Fourth Minister JOHN MUNRO, who had retired from Gardenstown three years before. Inducted, 6th June 1865, and his demission was accepted, 6th November 1866. He now returned anew to the preachers' list, and PRESBYTERY OF GALLOWAY 17 afterwards resided in Edinburgh, where he died, nth April 1875, m the sixty-third year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministerial life. Fifth Minister. ROBERT LINDSAY, M.A., from Dairy, Galloway. Called also to Sandwick, in Orkney, and to Lochmaben. Ordained, 3rd March 1868. The present manse was built soon after at a cost of ^585, of which the Board contributed fully one-half. After he had laboured on for twenty-six years in uninterrupted health illness set in one Sabbath evening in June 1894, and his stately form was to be seen in the pulpit or in the Synod Hall no more. He died on 23rd August, aged fifty-four. In May next year the congregation brought up a call for Mr Donald Ross, who intimated that he had accepted Westray. Sixth Minister. ALEXANDER W. BLACK, from Berkeley Street, Glasgow. Ordained, I2th September 1895. The membership at the close of 1899 was 91, and the stipend from the people ^90, with the manse. PORT-WILLIAM (RELIEF) IN the parish of Mochrum, in the southern division of Wigtownshire, the Secession obtained a slight footing so early as 1746, as appears from what is given under Kirkcowan, and it is likely that the Antiburgher congregation of Wigtown had a few families in that district from the first. But it was not till 1832 that the movement took shape which issued in the erection of what is now the U.P. congregation of Port- William. At this time there were about a dozen members of the Secession church at Whithorn residing in the parish the scanty remains of what had been. On ist May of that year a number of the inhabitants were granted sermon by the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow, and next year a church, with 330 sittings, was built. Port- William had a population at this time of 400, and it is two miles from the parish church. First Minister. GEORGE WALKER, from Falkirk (West). Ordained, 29th May 1833. The stipend promised was ^90, with hopes of increase. On 7th December 1835 Mr Walker stated to the Presbytery that it was highly expedient his labours at Port-William should come to an end, and the congregation, while regretting the circumstances which made this step desirable, offered no objections. The Presbytery, on the ground that the desire for separation was mutual, dissolved the relation. In Dr M'Kelvie's Annals it is stated that Mr Walker now emigrated to America, and became minister of a congregation in Dobbsferry, State of New York. All we know further with certainty is derived from the following newspaper notice : " Died at New York, loth February 1843, Rev. George Walker, a native of Falkirk." His age was given as thirty-five. Second Minister. WILLIAM DUNLOP, from Irvine (Relief). Ordained, 2nd November 1836. The stipend at this time was ,100, and the member- ship 1 10. In 1865 the congregation, under the impulse of the Synod's scheme, set about building their first manse, which was done at the very moderate figure of .510, the Board granting ,250. Mr Dunlop, after labouring on for nearly forty years, was so completely disabled by paralysis that only on one or two occasions did he take part in public work again. A colleague thus became indispensable, and it was arranged that Mr Dunlop should have his lifetime of the manse and an allowance of ^20 from the congregation. They were to give the junior minister ^50, which it was expected would be made up to .220 from Central Funds and the Ferguson Bequest. Jliird Minister. JAMES ADAM, from Lochee. Ordained, 28th August II. B i8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 1877. It augured ill for the permanence of the relationship that within ten months one of the members complained to the Presbytery about a letter he had received from the minister, and Mr Dunlop concurred in the complaint. The matter being looked into, and parties heard, the Presbytery enjoined Mr Adam to withdraw the offensive document and apologise for having penned it, a decision to which he submitted. Mr Dunlop died, 2nd November 1 88 1, the very day on which he had been ordained forty-five years before. He was in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He had two brothers who became U.P. ministers Hugh, who was for a time in Bankhill Church, Berwick* ; and James, who was first in Biggar (South) and then in Mother- well. Mr Adam was now sole pastor for five years, but in April 1886 a dispute between him and the managers wrought on till it ended the connection. It appears that at Mr Dunlop's death the manse needed repairs, and to stimu- late the liberality of the congregation Mr Adam told the managers he would let the ,25 go which they owed him for stipend if they raised the ^15 needed to put the house in proper order. They thanked him for his generosity and agreed to the proposal, and the money was expended as had been arranged. But, though they understood the debt to be cancelled, Mr Adam explained that he only agreed to postpone the term of payment, and the result was a display of acrimonious feeling, which, in the opinion of the Presbytery's committee, gave little promise of either financial or spiritual prosperity to the congregation. Mr Adam now felt constrained to demit his charge, and, the commissioners from Port-William offering no opposi- tion, the resignation was accepted on gth November 1886. At the Synod in 1888 he applied to be admitted to the probationer list, but it was pro- nounced inexpedient to grant the application. Next year he craved a recommendation, to be used by him in Queensland, but this also was refused. His name again came up at the Synod in 1897, when he renewed his request to have his name placed on the roll of probationers. It appeared that he had been engaged in mission work under the Church Extension Com- mittee at Victoria, where he was faithful in the discharge of his duties. He had since returned to Scotland, and was in the membership of the U.P. congregation at Bearsden. The decision come to was that, though he might be employed as occasional supply, his name was not to be placed on the regular list. Mr Adam retained his ministerial status all through from the time he left Port-William. Fourth Minister. JOHN LANGLANDS, M.A., from Montrose (Knox's Church). Ordained, 22nd June 1887. The membership had been somewhat reduced within recent years, but the people were still to make their part of the stipend ,70, with the manse. In the early part of 1900 circumstances favoured a union with the Free Church congregation, an object much to be desired, as the united membership would not have been more than 200. On 20th March the Presbytery, in answer to a request from the Free Presbytery of Wigtown for an expression of opinion on the subject, intimated full approval of what was proposed, and a joint committee was appointed to confer with all concerned. It was found in the end that the U.P. congrega- tion was willing to go into the union provided Mr Langlands were to be retained, but this was a condition which the other congregation refused to accept. It was vain to attempt pressing the matter further, and it was * The Rev. Hugh Dunlop was ordained at Berwick, and August 1848 ; but the cause refused to be revived, and he resigned, nth March 1851. After acting as a probationer for three years he gave himself to mission work, first in Ayr, and after- wards in connection with Queen's Park, Glasgow. He died, 3ist January aged seventy-one. PRESBYTERY OF GALLOWAY 19 agreed that ordinances should be kept up in the Free Church by a retired minister meanwhile, or in some similar way, and the door kept open for resuming negotiations when better feelings should prevail. The names on Mr Langlands' communion roll at that time numbered 83, and the stipend from all sources was ^186, and the manse. GATEHOUSE (UNITED SECESSION) THE earliest attempt to form a Secession congregation in this place was made in 1816. On 25th June of that year a gentleman in the locality represented to the Burgher Presbytery of Annan by letter that circumstances were favourable for entering on mission work there, and that a number of people wished sermon in connection with the Secession. The Rev. John Law of Newcastleton was accordingly sent to preach one or more Sabbaths in that part of Galloway, and on 2gth October a petition for occasional supply followed, with 53 signatures. Supply was kept up with regularity two Sabbaths each month till February 1818, when intimation came from the people that, as they had no convenient place to meet in, preaching would have to be discontinued for the time. A new church was in course of erection at Gatehouse for the parish of Girthon, to supersede the now roofless ruin which stands over two miles to the south, and this may have abated the desire for sermon from any other quarter. Thus the scene closed, not to be reopened till after a break of nineteen years. The Secession Presbytery of Wigtown arranged on 2oth February 1837 to have a preacher sent two Sabbaths to begin mission work in Gatehouse as soon as convenient, and at next meeting Mr Towers of Wigtown stated that he had addressed respectable audiences there on the second Sabbath of March, and that supply should be provided for the whole of April. After this reports that the station continued to prosper were brought in from time to time, and in the summer of 1838 a site was looked out for a place of worship. Three probationers were now located for periods of six months in succession ; Mr A. R. Johnston, who left to be ordained at Duntocher ; the Rev. David Hogg, formerly of Rattray ; and Mr Alexander Paterson, afterwards of Dairy, in Galloway. The station was congregated on 2Oth February 1839, with a membership of about 50. The church, with 200 sittings, was to be opened on Sabbath, 24th May 1840, by the Rev. John Young, M.A., of London, and, failing him, by Mr Johnston of Duntocher. The cost seems to have been about 390, of which the Board granted ^100, and the people raised ,130. The population at that time was about 2000. The village is partly in the parish of Girthon and partly in that of Anwoth, two parishes from which the congregation of Kirkcudbright, eight miles distant, had about 20 adherents, young and old, so that there was some Secession material to draw from. In August 1840 a call was addressed to Mr Walter Muckersie, who, after taking time for deliberation, declined, and was afterwards ordained at Ferry- Port-on-Craig. First Minister. JAMES FALCONER, from Glasgow (now Sydney Place). The call was signed by 41 members and 36 adherents, and the stipend of .60 from the people was to be made up to ^80 by a grant from the Mission Board. Ordained, 5th April 1842; and in 1845 the building was freed from debt, the people raising ^80, and an equal sum being granted by the Liquidation Board. On 3oth March 1847 Mr Falconer resigned his charge. The membership was now reduced to 36 and the average attendance to about 50. On 2oth April the resignation was accepted, the Presbytery recording it as their conviction that the decline had arisen from circum- 20 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS stances over which the minister had no control. They instanced the removal of some who had taken a lively interest in the congregation, and they also expressed disappointment at the want of steadfastness on the part of others from whom better things might have been expected. Mr Falconer was inducted as colleague at Spittal on nth July 1848, but resigned on account of ill-health, loth October 1849, and died at Glasgow, 2oth April 1851. Second Minister. JOHN THORBURN, who under pressure accepted the call, and was loosed from Dunning (Relief) that the way might be opened for union between the two congregations there. Inducted, I4th January 1851. This relationship lasted eight and a half years, and had then to be dissolved owing to a serious act of forgetfulness on his part and deep dissatisfaction on the part of his people. On 23rd August 1859, after being rebuked, he was loosed from his charge, and his name recommended to be put on the probationer list. He itinerated as a preacher from September 1861 to December 1864, and died in the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, on 2ist February 1865, in the fiftieth year of his age. Mr Thorburn, so far as we can gather, and as appears from some slight productions of his pen, was a preacher of more than average ability, but somehow ill-fortune attended him in each of his three successive charges. Third Minister. ANDREW CLARK, from Paisley (Thread Street). Or- dained, 23rd October 1860. The stipend from the people was ^60, and the call was signed by 40 members and 16 adherents. Under his ministry com- pacting went on, though there was no very great building up. Mr Clark died at Largs, i6th July 1883, in the fifty-first year of his age and twenty-third of his ministry. There was a membership at this time of 77, and the funds yielded ,75 of stipend. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER B. DYKES, M.A., from Shamrock Street, Glasgow. Ordained, 27th February 1884, and translated to Gorebridge, 4th October 1887. With a declining population around numerical increase, even under a young minister, was scarcely to be expected. Fifth Minister. JAMES G. CLARK, M.A., son of the Rev. John Clark of Urr. Ordained, I5th January 1889. At the close of 1899 there were 70 names on the communion roll, and the stipend from the people was ,70, which was made up to ^206 in all by Supplement, Surplus, and ^40 from the Ferguson Bequest Fund. There is no manse, and never has been. KIRKCOWAN (UNITED SECESSION) THE name of Kirkcowan, along with that of Mochrum, comes up in the old Secession records so early as 7th October 1746, when an accession was given in from some people in these parishes, and Mr John Swanston was appointed to preach to them on his way to Ireland, and again some months afterwards on his way back. Between these passing visits they had one Sabbath filled up, and then they merge in the Associate congregation of Galloway, with its seat in Wigtown. It was not till nearly a century after that the Secession Presbytery of the bounds commenced evangelistic opera- tions at Kirkcowan, a village at this time of 500 inhabitants. In the Missionary Report for 1837 it is stated that the station began in 1835, tne circumstances being as follows : A Baptist minister had been preaching in the village for two years. Of those who had been waiting on his ministra- tions about a dozen were deprived of their Christian privileges by the parish church session for promoting "divisive courses." Joined by a number more they had sermon from the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow from the middle of PRESBYTERY OF GALLOWAY 21 October to the end of November 1835. Then the Secession Presbytery of Wigtown stepped in, and agreed, on 2oth September 1836, to send preachers to Kirkcowan for six months, the meetings being held in a private house fitted up for the purpose. On 2ist March 1837 the supporters of the station, to the number of 60, petitioned for regular supply during summer. The Rev. Peter Hannay now ministered to them for some months while pausing between Oban and Creetown. The feeble cause at Kirkcowan owed much at this time to the minister and congregation of Eaglesham, who interested themselves deeply in its welfare, and aided to the extent of .30 a year. First Minister. THOMAS S.MAIL, from Ecclefechan, who got licence in 1817, and after twenty years of probationer life might find it a relief to undertake regular work even in a very humble sphere. His' location at Kirkcowan began in June 1838, and his salary was to be ^80 a year, and on 24th July he received ordination, the services being conducted in 'a tent. It was deemed expedient to have Mr Smail qualified to administer sealing ordinances, but there was no pastoral bond formed. In another year the station was congregated, there being a membership of about 70. Four elders were next elected and ordained, but it was not till i6th July 1844 that Mr Smail was inducted. The call was signed by 33 members and 8 adherents. The stipend promised by the people was ,40, and Eaglesham was to furnish 10 for three years, and the Board was expected to grant other ^10. Matters continued on this level for seventeen years ; but in 1860 the membership was down to 55, and the people could not offer more than ^25 in addition to keeping their humble place of worship in repair. Hut Mr Smail was now among infirmities, and on I7th April of that year his resignation was accepted. He survived only nine days, dying on the 26th, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. The name figures in Thomas Carlyle's Reminiscences, whose fellow-townsman he was, as well as fellow- student, and at whose hand he gets contemptuous treatment. He speaks of him, however, as having developed into "a flowery preacher," a description the accuracy of which there is nothing to confirm. Hut we know at least that Mr Smail held the fort faithfully at Kirkcowan for upwards of twenty years. Second Minister. JOHN DAWSON, from Queen Street, Edinburgh. Or- dained, 26th June 1861. The stipend was .40 from the people, ^30 from the Hoard, and ^50 was expected from the Ferguson Fund. On i6th March 1862 the congregation took possession of a new church, with 220 sittings, built at a cost of .^700. It was opened by Dr MacGill, the Home Mission Secretary, and was nearly free of debt. Four years afterwards a manse was erected, which also cost ^700, of which ^385 was raised by the people or their minister, and ,315 was granted them by the Hoard. Mr Dawson died, 1 7th August 1871, after a long and painful illness, in the forty-sixth year of his age and eleventh of his ministry. Those who knew Mr Dawson when a divinity student can attest that he was a man of high-toned Christian character. Third Minister. DAVID F. MITCHELL, from Carnwath. Ordained, 1 7th December 1872. The congregation prior to this had called, without success, Mr Adam Gray, now of Kirn. Mr Mitchell, acting under medical advice, demitted his charge before the third year of his ministry was com- pleted, with the view of emigrating to a milder climate, and the connection was dissolved, 2ist September 1875. He is now minister of a Presbyterian congregation in South Brisbane, Queensland. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER SCOTT, B.D., from Queensferry. Or- dained at Ballyfrenis, in Ireland, I2th March 1868, and inducted to Kirk- cowan, 1 8th October 1876. Accepted Musselburgh (Bridge Street), 6th June 1882. Kirkcowan membership had now come up from 68 to 83. A 22 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS short time after Mr Scott's removal the congregation called Mr William Yule, who declined, and obtained Baillieston. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM HENDERSON, from Selkirk (First). Ordained, 26th June 1883. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 90, and a stipend of 70 from the people, which was made up from the Ferguson Bequest and Central Funds to ,186, with the manse. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW GREYFRIARS (BURGHER) ON 1 3th December 1738 a petition signed by 83 persons, members of Praying Societies in and about Glasgow, was presented to the Associate Presbytery craving to be taken under their inspection. The first time they had sermon was on Thursday, 26th April 1739, when the services were con- ducted by Messrs Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine and Mr James Thomson of Burntisland. As Ralph Erskine states in his Diary, two tents were erected for them within two miles of the town. The Association had branches already in Rutherglen, Gadder, and New Kilpatrick, and they were after- wards joined by Praying Societies in Mearns, Neilston, Kirkintilloch, Old Monkland, and other parishes around. The first session was constituted on 9th February 1740, and consisted of six elders and three deacons. Mean- while there was occasional sermon at various places in the neighbourhood, and even before acceding to the Presbytery an attempt was made to ascer- tain what the several societies would subscribe for the maintenance of a minister. First Minister. JAMES FlSHER, formerly of Kinclaven. Elected, 5th June 1740, with great unanimity, 17 who had voted for Ralph Erskine signing the call. For thirteen months the decision was put off from meeting to meeting, Mr Moncrieff of Abernethy being bent on retaining Mr Fisher in Kinclaven, but on 8th October 1741 he was inducted into his new charge. Ebenezer Erskine, his father-in-law, preached from the text : " I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed," and the sermon appears among the author's published discourses. In addressing the people he brought in the duty of proceeding with the erection of a regular place of worship. They had been meeting for some time at Crosshill, and there the induction took place, but on the first Sabbath of November 1742 they took possession of the church they had built in Shuttle Street. Into the Controversy on the Burgess Oath Mr Fisher threw himself with indignant warmth, and along with Ralph Erskine took the lead on the side of forbearance. Adam Gib was bold enough to impute the attitude he took up on this question to hostility to Mr Moncrieff for having tried to fix him down at Kinclaven, and this story was brought up in Struthers' "History of Scotland" so late as 1828. Mr Fisher published a pamphlet in 1748, entitled "A Serious Enquiry into the Burgess Oaths of Edinburgh, Glasgow,. and Perth," in which the subject is reasoned out with comparative calmness. A year later he wrote another, addressed to members of his congregation who had gone to form " The Mother Antiburgher Church " in Glasgow. For his misdeeds by speech and pen Mr Fisher was one of three selected at the outset to undergo the sentence of the greater excommunication at the hands of the Antiburgher Synod " the first droppings of a thunder-shower." But before this he was chosen by his own Synod to be their Theological Professor, an office which PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 23 he held till 1764, when failing strength and the demands of an overgrown congregation compelled him to resign. Two years later, when he was verging on threescore and ten, he expressed a strong desire to have the help of a colleague, and also to see the congregation comfortably settled before his death. The first call came out in the early part of 1768. It was addressed to the Rev James Clunie, who had been settled in Dundee only three months before. The signatures numbered 1162, adherents included, but none of them under the age of sixteen. The sad issue is given under the history of School Wynd, Dundee. A call followed in 1770 to Mr William Fletcher signed by 564 and dissented from by 210. The Presbytery referred the call to the Synod, by whom it was laid aside " as improper to be carried into execution in the present embroiled state of the congregation." Bridge of Teith became the scene of Mr Fletcher's labours. Second Minister. GEORGE HENDERSON, from Kinross (West). A rival call from Cambusnethan was sustained on the same day, but Mr Henderson was, with some reluctance, ordained colleague and successor to Mr Fisher on 22nd August 1771. His intimate friend, the Rev. George Lawson of Selkirk, was present as a corresponding member, but it was not he who preached the ordination sermon, as his biographer supposed. There were three discourses preached on the occasion, but all by members of Presbytery, as had been previously arranged. The stipend was to be ^80 meanwhile, but should he become sole pastor it was to be raised to what the senior minister had ,100, with the manse. Mr Fisher died, 28th September 1775, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fiftieth of his ministry. Of his family one daughter became the wife of her mother's cousin, the Rev. James Erskine of Stirling ; another was married to Mr Erskine's successor, the Rev. Robert Campbell, but they both died early ; a third was the mother of the Rev. Dr Wardlaw of Glasgow ; and a fourth left an infant daughter a few days old Erskine Gray who became the wife of the Rev. Ebenezer Brown of Inverkeithing. A very faithfully prepared Life of Fisher by Dr Brown of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, with a large amount of valuable information drawn from original sources, forms a half volume of the " United Presbyterian Fathers." Of Mr Fisher's publications one, which appeared in 1742, relates to the great Revival in the west of Scotland. It is very much an amplification of the Associate Presbytery's judgment on George Whitefield as a priest of the Church of England, whom it was wrong in the friends of a covenanted reformation to countenance, and in it Mr Fisher, like his brethren, deplored " the symptoms of delusion attending the present awful work upon the bodies and spirits of men." The Secession Fathers consistently set themselves against those physical manifestatiofts which some ascribed with confidence to the operations of the Spirit of God. Twice effects of a similar kind showed themselves in their own congrega- tions on communion occasions once at Orwell and once at Abernethy, under the preaching of the Rev. David Smyton of Kilmaurs when " the noise among the hearers was so great as to interrupt the progress of the service ; but Mr Ralph Erskine, who was present, wisely put a stop to the commotion by solemnly rebuking the people and warning them that nothing extravagant or disorderly could be supposed to proceed from Divine influence."* But it was by the Catechism which bears his name that Mr Fisher did most service with his pen to the Secession Church and to the cause of revealed truth. It is an exposition of the Shorter Catechism by way of question and answer, and it did much in our fathers' days to * Christian Repository for 1820, p. 1 68. 24 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS train both young and old to a mastery of sound theology. Of the book itself Dr William Anderson wrote as follows : " It is the glory of the faith, the mental philosophy and the theology of Scotland. In scholastic subtlety of distinction it equals that of Aquinas and Scotus, while it is clothed with a charm of piety, and advances with a power of scripture proof in which they were so deficient." After Mr Fisher's death Mr Henderson went on single-handed for five years, but in March 1781 a petition for pulpit supply was presented by the congregation to the Presbytery "because of their minister's present indisposition." For a time the pulpit was filled almost every Sabbath by ordained ministers, and in a few months Mr Henderson expressed to the session his felt need of a colleague. This was followed by a request for a moderation, the stipend of the junior pastor to be ^100. Third Minister. ALEXANDER PlRlE, from Linlithgow, where he had been ordained only a year and a half before. Inducted, nth June 1782. Mr Henderson was so far recovered that he preached and presided on the occasion. He may also have been able to take a regular share of the work at first, but in August of the following year Mr Lawson of Selkirk wrote him : " I am sorry to hear that you are still in a poor state of health, but glad, at the same time, to hear that you do not murmur at the hand by which you are afflicted." But there is nothing in the letter to indicate the prospect of ultimate recovery. The end must have been sudden. Dr M'Kelvie states in a note appended to his Life of Michael Bruce that Mr Henderson preached on Sabbath and died on the following Thursday. This answers to the 2nd of December 1784, the date given in the Scots Magazine. He was in the thirty-ninth year of his age and fourteenth of his ministry. Mr Henderson was a close friend of Bruce, and his name is well known in that connection. It is to him that the poet refers in his " Lochleven " as " Lelius ! partner of my youthful hours." Five of Mr Henderson's sermons were put into print by his son, with a brief Memoir prefixed, so late as 1859. His widow, a daughter of Bailie Buchanan, Greenock, survived her husband fifty-three years. Ten years after Mr Pirie was left sole pastor the congregation got deeply involved in the controversy about the magistrate's power, and petitions against interference with the Formula went up to successive meetings of Synod, one of them subscribed by 109 members. As the crisis drew on the session was troubled by members betaking themselves for baptism to Pollok- shaws, where Old Light views prevailed. For nearly a year before the rupture in the Synod the dissatisfied party in Glasgow formed themselves into a society, and were holding meetings " for prayer and conversation." They issued a strongly expressed manifesto on the Original Principles of the Secession^ with charges of apostasy against the Synod in general and certain of their leaders in particular.* This party had two retired ministers among them, both of whom were from Shuttle Street the Rev. John Thomson, recently of Kirkintilloch ; and the Rev. George Thomson, who had been in Rathillet long before. So the Original Burgher congregation in Glasgow sprung into existence 500 strong. The withdrawals in 1799 must have thinned the pews of Shuttle Street Church, though it is too much to say that they reduced the congregation to "a shadow." When the worst was coming it was resolved to have Mr Pirie provided with a colleague, the stipend to be ,160. The Rev. Ebenezer Brown of Inverkeithing was first fixed on ; but he was averse to a change, and the Synod in April 1800 de- cided accordingly. * This "Testimony" is dated iSth January 1799, nine months before any member of Synod gave in a declinature. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 25 Fotirth Minister. JOHN DICK, M.A., who had been fourteen years in Slateford. Inducted, 2ist May 1801. While the collegiate relation lasted Mr Dick used to conduct service on Sabbath evening once a month. Hence his able volume of Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles, published in 1808. But Mr Pirie died, 28th February 1810, in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry, and these services were discontinued. In 1815 Mr Dick obtained the degree of D.D. from Princeton College, New Jersey. In 1817 Shuttle Street stipend was ^320, the highest received by any Dis- senting minister in Glasgow. In April 1820 Dr Dick was appointed Pro- fessor of Theology, an office which he accepted with much reluctance. During the first session he had only the Burgher students in his class, but afterwards, owing to Professor Paxton's refusal to concur in the Union, he had both sections under his care. This continued till 1825, when there were 154 in attendance, and that year Dr Mitchell was appointed to the Chair of Biblical Criticism, relieving Dr Dick of the first and second year students. On i8th November 1821 Greyfriars Church was opened, with 1500 sittings, built at a cost of ^8300. The collection was ,260, which a newspaper of the day spoke of as " the largest sum ever collected on such an occasion i,n Glasgow." The Professor died after a very brief illness on 2$th January 1833, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-seventh of his ministry. It was apoplexy in the end, and, "such were the rapid advances of disease," wrote Dr Heugh, u that I could not have recognised the well-known face of Dr Dick." His Lectures on Theology were published a year after his death, in four volumes, which used to hold a high place in the examination of students and in the manses of the U.P. Church. The Biography prefixed was written by his son, Mr A. Coventry Dick, advocate, the author of a masterly "Dissertation on Church Polity," which appeared in 1835 as a contribution to the discussion on Voluntaryism. Dr Dick was a son-in-law of the Rev. George Coventry of Stitchel. Fifth ^Minister. DAVID KING, translated from Dalkeith, where he had been little more than three years. At their meeting in September 1833 the Synod decided that in the case of transporting or competing calls the decision shall be left to the individual more particularly concerned, and accordingly Mr King's preference was endorsed without a vote. It was the end of the old dispensation, and Greyfriars induction took place, 1 5th October 1833. As the call was signed by only 454 members it would seem that the congregation had come down from what it used to be. Dr Dick was too thoughtful and self-restrained to be aboundingly popular, and as years advanced he may have waned before younger men. But now there was the setting in of a springtide of prosperity, which declined only with Dr King's decline. In 1836 the communicants numbered 820, and there was a stipend of ^370. The congregation was also expending ,60 a year on the missionary station at Oban, besides paying an annuity of ^100 to Dr Dick's widow. In 1840 Dr King published a pamphlet on the Voluntary question, entitled " The True Independence of the Church of Christ." In the Atonement Controversy he also figured, taking his stand on the side of forbearance, and all the while there was the high standard of pulpit efficiency maintained. " The sun of his intellectual power, I am afraid, shines too bright to last long," was a lady's verdict when his Glasgow ministry opened ; but year after year the work went on amidst nervous tension and a great amount of mental tear and wear. We think now, If he had but learned to rest, and rest in time ; but even when abroad in 1848 his pen was all activity, and this was followed by his volume on the " State and Prospects of Jamaica." That same year appeared his " Geology and Religion," which passed rapidly through five editions. In 1854 we read, with painful interest, 26 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of his powers being so strung up that even in sleep a sermon would be composed, to be traced out in pencil before it faded from the tablets of the mind. Then the fainting, the restlessness, and the long, deep, deathlike slumber. We recall what he wrote of John Bright, whom he once met at a hydropathic in Yorkshire : " He has overdone his brain, and is here, a nervous patient, dispirited, tremulous, and disabled." On I3th March 1855 l)r King wrote the Presbytery intimating his wish, on account of impaired health, to retire from the active superintendence of Greyfriars congregation. The arrangement come to was that he should retain his status, and receive an allowance of .370 for two years, and afterwards .270. This leads us on to the retreat at Kilcreggan, where work was resumed on a quiet scale, and where we shall take up the broken thread. It is enough to add here that Dr King's resignation was accepted on 27th October 1862, that he might accept a call to London (Westbourne Grove). In April 1855 Greyfriars congregation presented to the Rev. John Cairns of Berwick what was described as the only perfectly unanimous call that church had ever given, but Glasgow was to be baffled, as Edinburgh had been already. At the next moderation the Rev. James Knox of Ayr was carried over the Rev. Alexander MacEwen of Helensburgh by a majority of 63. The call was declined, and in a few months Mr Knox was brought in to Pollok Street, and Mr MacEwen to Claremont Church, which may have told doubly on the membership of Greyfriars. When a moderation was next applied for the stipend was made ,400 instead of ^500. Sixth Minister. HENRY CALDERWOOD, M.A., from Edinburgh (Rose Street), but a native of Peebles. Ordained, i6th September 1856. Mr Calderwood had acquired distinction before the close of his theological course by his well-known work on the " Philosophy of the Infinite," in which he tried conclusions on high themes with his old professor Sir William Hamilton. Though weighted with the cares of a large congrega- tion he was not turned aside from his favourite study, as his article on John S. Mill's Utilitarianism in the British and Foreign for 1867 attested. Another article, on Professor Ferrier of St Andrews, which appeared soon after, is perhaps in its own way the most masterly thing he ever penned. Two years before this Glasgow University had conferred on him the degree of LL.D., and in 1868 he was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. His resignation of Greyfriars Church was accepted on 8th September of that year, and he girt himself for onerous duties of another kind, though he never turned his back upon his former profession or his denominational connection. In 1880 he was Moderator of the U.P. Synod. He also edited the denominational magazine from 1884 to 1891, and contributed largely to its columns, without emolument or reward. But the side work he undertook along with his regular round of duty told upon the springs of life ; the heart's functions got disturbed, and he died suddenly on igth November 1897, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. A list of Professor Calderwood's published works, ending with his unfinished Life of David Hume for the Famous Scots Series, need not be inserted here. His Life, with its wide range of activity, has been befit- tingly given to the public by his son, Mr W. L. Calderwood, Edinburgh, and his son-in-law, the Rev. David Woodside, B.D., Glasgow. Seventh Minister. JAMES BUCHANAN, translated from Linlithgow (West), where he had been six years. Inducted, 2gth April 1869. Loosed from his charge, 26th May 1881, having been chosen by the Synod to succeed Dr MacGill as Foreign Mission Secretary. Mr Buchanan's business talents, along with a serious inbreak on his health, recommended his trans- ference to this situation, the duties of which he has since discharged with PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 27 systematic efficiency During this vacancy the congregation called Mr Walter Brown; but the youngest congregation in Edinburgh was to be his choice and not the oldest congregation in Glasgow Eighth Aftms/er -WILLIAM S. GOODALL, M.A. from Stewarton, where he had minis tered for five years. Inducted, I2th September 1883 As the KXS T r-Y 1 t0 , bC diffiCUk , he WaS invited ' n I8 9 to remove to unbetl, Coa bridge, but remained m Greyfriars. Though the congrega- tion is changed from what it was in Dr King's time there was a membership of nearly 700 at the close of 1899, and the stipend was ^520. CATHEDRAL SQUARE (ANTIBURGHER) ^iV' 6 Mother Ant r iburgher Church in Glasgow" in a new domicile d under a new name. It began ,n the withdrawal of certain "burgesses and others from the ministry of Mr Fisher at the Breach of 1747 On ronsidTn f yea J ^, e Antibu n?her Synod received a petition from a considerable number of Glasgow congregation craving advice, supply and "a constitute session." All they obtained, meanwhile, was liberty torece^ve timecftm M a M CS ^n nei ff hbourin * *en, In 'this state matters cTn- 1 M Mair of Orwell was appointed to preach to them on the first Sabbath of June and intimate that their former minister was under sus- He was also to constitute two elders and two deacons into a session Lr fo ?H g n !? C r SSar In I749 the Pra >' in & Societies wer e told to look Monk-HnH ^ ^f f T d ? CC f S " ne dder was needed for the Parish of Monkland, another for Cambuslang, and a deacon for the parish of Cadder I he congregation met at this time in a hall in what is now Queen Street In Jebruary 1752 the Synod refused to sustain a call from Glasgow to Mr Alexander Nimmo as ,t was given by "a scrimp majority," and he was ordained soon after at Newcastle (now Blackett Street). [Vol I pas re ;67 1 First Minister. }QKK JAMIESON, from Craigmailen. His father was a farmer near Linlithgow, of whom Dr George Johnston has sad " Itls a singular fact that this man, the father and grandfather of two A, tiburgher S ?K I" 15 ' A" 8 !? E P isc P alian ' logical course in 1751 the 1 resbytery of Perth and Dunfermlme were instructed to take Mr Jamieson on trials for licence that he might undertake a mission to Pennsylvam'T bu" a call from Glasgow came ,n and his ordination took place, A th January Ichurc? JrY^ U ,Y S b T Ht ; n Havannah Street, on 'which lo build church. Mr Jamieson laboured on for seventeen years, general! v conduct mg three services ^each Lord's Day, but on the third K^^1^ ie was seized with palsy , the pulpit. The congregation were annovcd to find that some people ascribed this serious and sudden illness of their minister to the amount of work they had laid upon him, and fs inc T"from the nature of his trouble it was the universal opinion he would never be ab"e m the best state of health to discharge his functions as formerly,^ colleague bSeM 'Td ,l r H S T rCe ' Mr JamicS n ' Wh was feelin * himself greasy better, looked with disfavour on the proposal; but, seeing the people fixed in their purpose, he expressed concurrence. His' stipend ha d P been 70 but they were now to make ,t ^80, and the junior colleague was to have /6o' he hadW T\ r -] A * RAMS f' fr m W hitehaven Like Mr J^mleto^ he had been fixed on for America, but m him Presbyter)' and Synod had a refractory subject to deal with. Under pressure he accepted ordination on ist August 1770, but with the proviso that he would go "only if he cou?d bv any means get over his difficulties." These thickened in as time pa sed'- 28 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and he was, moreover, in demand for Glasgow, to say nothing of his native congregation at Whitehaven. For resistance to his superiors he was sus- pended for a time from preaching, but when the sentence ran out the Synod appointed him to the Havannah. He was inducted on 3Oth June 1772, the call being signed by 237 male members. From Mr Ramsay's pamphlet of 390 pages, entitled " Conscience Disburdened in a Flight from Persecution," we can trace through a dark-coloured medium the windings of his ministerial life. He possessed rare pulpit gifts, but they were linked to a most unhappy temperament. None the less, and largely through the influx of Seceders into Glasgow, the congregation prospered and the church required to be greatly enlarged. Mr Ramsay, by his own showing, was amidst down- bearing labours. For several summers there were three services on Sabbath, and a discourse on Thursday evening, and his colleague could never take more than one service, and during the inclement season he only preached on alternate Sabbaths. For himself, he made a point of visiting his whole congregation of 900 members once a year, except the families in Anderston, where Mr Jamieson resided. This work engaged him more or less three days every week during five months in winter and the early spring. The setting up of a congregation in Anderston fretted Mr Ramsay, though he tells that he opened their church, concurred in Mr Mitchell's ordination, "and promised himself better days than he had feared." But offences came owing to parties on the Havannah side crossing the dividing line at Jamaica Street and worshipping at Anderston. While he was in this un- happy state of mind Mr Jamieson died on I5th December 1793, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Mr Ramsay being unreliable for regular pulpit work some of the people began in a very few years to talk of a colleague. Third Minister. ROBKRT MUTER, from Strathaven, where he had been brought up in the Established Church, but joined the Secession when a student. Having obtained licence in March 1799 he preached in the Havannah, and the first discourse he gave was delivered, we read, with all the "readiness and vivacity of popular oratory, and in a capital voice, which had been a great desideratum among the preachers." After a further trial of his gifts the call came out with comparative unanimity to Mr Muter, and was preferred by the Synod to another from Leslie (West). The senior minister was to have ,140 and the junior ^130. But Mr Ramsay's ill- disguised aversions were now to burst forth and bear down every semblance of his better nature. Believing that there was a lion in the way Mr Muter drew back from ordination at Glasgow, and was even drawn into corre- spondence with Leslie ; but at last he accepted the call, and Mr Ramsay instantly resigned. Remonstrances followed, and there was delay from one meeting to another. On 8th April 1800 the culmination was reached. That day Mr Ramsay opened out before the Presbytery what he called his Defence, a bulky document consisting of eighty-six large quarto pages. At the first sederunt he overtook twenty-four pages, dealing with Mr Muter's delinquencies in seven divisions. Then there was an adjournment till six o'clock, when he commenced anew before an audience of, he supposed, 2000 people. Other thirty-three pages brought them to nine or ten o'clock, when he needed to pause, having been " on his feet all day, and reading as loud as he usually spoke from the pulpit." Other matters occupied him till nearly midnight. His brethren bore up wonderfully, and after he concluded they thought it best to refer the whole affair to the Synod. When the Synod met in April Mr Ramsay was not present, and instead of taking up the case they appointed the Presbytery to meet on I3th May along with correspondents from other Presbyteries. The congregation PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 29 having agreed, with only five dissentient voices, to oppose the resignation no longer the connection was dissolved, and next day Mr Ramsay " went home to his house with a serious but an easy and serene mind, and a glad heart." He now spent his Sabbaths at home. He had been sitting loose to Secession principles for many years, and he now set himself to examine the foundations of Presbyterianism, with the result that the whole fabric crumbled into ruins among his hands. A book followed on the Nature, Constitution, and Administration of Gospel Churches. He was an out-and- out Independent now, and, some of his former people having gathered round him, they met for public worship in the Trades' Hall, and formed a church of about 30 members. We are quite prepared to hear after this that " Mr Ramsay preached with astonishing power three times every Sabbath for several months." This would go on while the excitement lasted, and then there would be the reaction. The fact that he had renounced his witnessing profession with serious aggravations was brought before the Synod, and he was deposed, ist May 1801. In 1802 his health failed, and Mr William M'Gavin, the author of" The Protestant," though only a layman, was installed as his colleague. But though the little company had now a chapel of their own in Hutchesontown there was gradual decline, and in 1807 Mr M'Gavin resigned, and Mr Ramsay, it is to be inferred, withdrew into private life. In parting with him let us record Mr M'Gavin's testimony to his merits : "All the old Seceders who knew him in his prime, and who have conversed with me on the subject, have confessed that as a preacher they never heard his equal." Mr Ramsay died at Rothesay, I2th August 1824, in the seventy- seventh year of his age. His old congregation paid him an annuity to the close. All we know of his family is that his eldest son, Captain James Ramsay of the Columbian Navy, encountered a sad fate. The Glasgow Herald recorded in February 1826 that, when asleep in his bed on ship- board, he was assassinated by his gunner, who immediately terminated his own existence. Of Mr Ramsay's controversial writings the first was a goodly pamphlet, published in 1778, entitled "The Relief Scheme Considered," in which he struck out against Free Communion, and was at the opposite pole from Independency. This involved him in warfare with the Rev. Patrick Hutchison of Paisley, and led to a second publication of a similar kind. In 1782 he mingled in the "Lifter" Controversy, recommending forbearance in his " Irenicum." But in the end his pen got ample employment in the opening out of his own grievances and in bitter and sometimes amusing animadver- sions on all and sundry. Mr Muter was ordained, I4th August 1800. There were numerous withdrawals from the membership at first, but there was also rapid increase, and on 29th November 1801 anew church was opened, fronting Duke Street, with sittings for 1224, and built at a cost of .4500. In 1817 there was a stipend of ,280. The word "ambitious" has been applied to Mr Muter in those clays, and his discourses seem to have had more of the high-wrought style than was common in Antiburgher pulpits. In 1832 he had the degree of D.D. from Rutger's College, New Brunswick. But two years before this he had been promoted to the rank of senior minister in Duke Street, though he was not quite threescore. At this point the congregation entered on a train of experiences altogether unique. Fourth Minister. WALTER DUNCAN, son of the Rev. Alexander Duncan of Mid-Calder. Appointed by the Synod to Glasgow in preference to Dum- barton, and ordained as colleague to Mr Muter, I7th June 1830, each minister to have ,240. Deposed, I4th April 1835, and submitted to the sentence in a penitential spirit. Further reference to Mr Duncan will come 30 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS up in connection with the churches in East Regent Place and Parliamentary Road. Fifth Minister. HAMILTON M. MACGiLL, from Mauchline. Chose Glas- gow in preference to Buchlyvie and Thornliebank, and was ordained on 2nd February 1837. In little more than three years we are among the normal workings of a collegiate charge. By that time about three-eighths of the names on the communion roll had been added since the commencement of Mr MacGill's ministry, and it became evident that among them there was a growing wish to have the senior minister thrust into the background. Amidst strong opposition from the majority this was followed by the dis- junction of a large party from Duke Street on loth November 1840, with Mr MacGill for their minister, but this belongs to the history of Woodlands Road Church. Dr Muter was now left sole pastor again, but that was only to be for a few months. Twice had disruption cut down the membership, but now there was to be a repairing of the breaches by amalgamation. Sixth Minister. JOHN GRAHAM, brought in, along with his people, from Blackfriars Street Relief Church. At a meeting of Presbytery on gth March 1841 the two ministers and commissioners from both congregations had declared their wish for coalescence. Difficulties came up, but these were got over, and the union took place on 25th March 1841. After sermon the questions of the Formula were put to Dr Muter and Mr Graham, and the people having signified their acceptance of both as their ministers by holding up the right hand Mr Graham was set apart by prayer to the collegiate charge of the congregation. At next meeting of Synod the ministers who examined the Minutes of Presbytery reported that they con- sidered the proceedings in this case " not only as most anomalous but irregular and unconstitutional in the highest degree, inasmuch as there does not appear to have been either a call given or an edict served." Dr Muter died, 5th May 1842, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. He was a son-in-law of the Rev. Andrew Mitchell of Beith and a brother-in-law of Dr Mitchell of Wellington Street. We come now to a third disruption in Duke Street. A certain newspaper had come out with the report of a congregational banquet held in the Assembly Rooms, at which the rules of propriety were infringed, and on nth February 1845 Mr Graham asked the Presbytery to investigate into this matter. The committee of inquiry reported in April that the meeting, besides being unduly prolonged, had been disfigured by spirit-drinking and story-telling, with an utter absence of edifying entertainment. A sentence of strong condemnation was to be read from the pulpit, and inquiries affecting the minister were also to be instituted. On 1 5th July a libel was framed ; but on the 23rd Mr Graham renounced the authority of the Presby- tery, and on gth September he was declared no longer a minister or member of the United Secession Church. He made no attempt to retain possession of Duke Street pulpit, but withdrew to the Lyceum Rooms with a consider- able number of his people. A church was afterwards built for him in Barrack Street, to which we shall come shortly. Seventh Minister. ALEXANDER DUNCAN, the eldest brother of Mr Walter Duncan. The congregation was much reduced in numbers, and for their encouragement the Presbytery agreed to occupy Duke Street pulpit by turns every alternate Sabbath. Amalgamation was now arranged for with the congregation of East Regent Place, Mr Duncan, the minister there, being to remove with his people to Duke Street on gth December 1845, but the particulars come in more fitly in connection with the winding-up of East Regent Place Church. Mr Duncan died, 27th February 1853, in the fifty- first year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry. The first-born of the PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 31 six brothers, he was also the first to be called away. He had been seized with apoplexy at a children's soiree in the church on the preceding Thursday, and died on Sabbath forenoon. Eighth Minister. JOHN BROWN JOHNSTON, from Kirkcaldy (Bethel- field), his second charge, where he had been junior colleague six years. The call was signed by 129 members and 22 adherents, which shows how much this old congregation had suffered and how little coalescence had done to repair its ruined fortunes. The stipend named was .200, but, fore- casting better days if the call were accepted, they came up other ^50. Inducted, 26th January 1854. Had the degree of D.D. from Hamilton College, State of New York, in 1860. Four years after this Dr Johnston declined a call to Dublin ; but on I2th September 1868 he was translated to Govan, leaving Duke Street congregation in something of its early strength. Ninth Minister. MATTHEW CRAWFORD, from Sanquhar (South), where he was ordained eleven years before. The stipend was now ,450, and this call, in contrast with the former, was signed by 516 members and 159 adherents. Inducted, i8th March 1869. The present church in Cathedral Square, with nearly 1000 sittings, and built at a cost of ^2O,cxx), was opened, 3oth May 1880. The old building had been sold to the North British Railway Company two years before, and brought ,18,500, but of this sum ,5000 went for the new site. In January 1886 it was stated to the Presbyter) 7 that Mr Crawford, finding himself unable for ministerial duty, had agreed to accept a yearly allowance of ,75, and was to be freed from all responsibility Tenth Minister. JOSEPH L. SKERRET, translated from School Wynd, Dundee, which was his third charge, and inducted, 5th August 1886, his stipend to be ^375- Shortly after this Mr Crawford went to reside in Partick, partly, perhaps, to give his colleague greater freedom. But when a retired minister goes beyond the bounds of his congregation his former services and his present claims are in danger of passing into the background. Whatever may have been the explanation in this case complications arose, which led ultimately to the appointment of a Synodical Commission to meet with parties and give judgment. An adjustment was arrived at through Mr Crawford consenting to accept ^250 in satisfaction of all claims. Five years later a larger commission, entrusted with more important work, visited Cathedral Square, and on 24th May 1894 they suspended the Rev. J. L. Skerret from office sine die, on the ground of culpable imprudence, and loosed him from his charge. When Glasgow Presbytery decided on 3rd April 1894 to proceed against Mr Skerret by libel they interdicted him from exercising the functions of his office meanwhile ; but next Sabbath he and his adherents worshipped in the Argyle Halls, Duke Street, and his explanation was that instead of preaching he conducted evangelistic services. There they continued to assemble regularly, and after sentence of suspension sine die was passed a number of his sympathisers from Cathedral Square Church demanded a meeting of the congregation to take up a resolution for the immediate sale of the property. This being refused by the session, of whom ten elders kept by the congrega- tion, while only one or two followed Mr Skerret, the case passed into the civil courts. The impression of the pursuers appears to have been that if they only got the merits under the notice of the Lords of Session all would be put to rights. There was failure at every stage, and the expenses to the gaining party reached ^207, of which the Synod relieved them. As the result of recent events, it was stated that the congregation had been reduced by about a half, and its financial resources correspondingly impaired. In September 1894 they called the Rev. John Forsyth of Kilwinning, who declined. 32 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Eleventh Minister. JAMES PRIMROSE, M.A., translated from Broxburn, where he had laboured nearly fifteen years. Inducted, 25th April 1895. In the following December the membership was 375 ; whereas three years before it was returned at 807. The stipend was to be .300. In 1896 Mr Primrose published " The Mother Antiburgher Church of Glasgow," being a compre- hensive yet carefully minute history of his own congregation, written and arranged in a way that makes it very attractive. This was followed in 1898 by " Strathbrock ; or, the History and Antiquities of the Parish of Uphall," a book of wide antiquarian research, for which native aptitudes are required. The volume was favourably reviewed by the Press, and the author shortly afterwards elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland. At the Union the membership of Cathedral Square came close on 600, and the stipend was ,350. KELVINGROVE (RELIEF) THIS congregation represents the original Relief Church in Glasgow. In 1763 the magistrates of the city were declared by the Lord Commissioners for the planting of churches to be the exclusive patrons to vacant parishes in the town, and a presentation to the Wynd Church was issued on this footing soon after and carried into effect. These proceedings gave great offence to many, as the General Session, or the session of the vacant parish, used to share the right of nomination. This led to the erection of a chapel in Cannon Street, with 1800 sittings, which was designated " The Meeting- House of the Free Presbyterian Society." The church was opened on 1 7th August 1766 by Mr Baine of College Street, Edinburgh. Two months before this the congregation had been taken under the inspection of the Relief Presbytery, but when they proceeded to fix on a minister difficulties arose. Boston of Jeclburgh was first thought of, but in September he wrote them, stating that he could not see his way to remove to Glasgow. How- ever, the proposal to have his son from Alnwick inducted as his colleague, should the call be accepted, was favourably entertained, and on that under- standing Boston preached a day in Cannon Street, but at a meeting on 28th October a motion for delay was carried by 112 to 89. We find from Gillespie's manuscripts that he officiated in Glasgow on Sabbath, 2ist December, and intimated a moderation for the following Wednesday ; but it must have come to nothing, and within two months Mr Boston died. First Minister. WILLIAM CRUDEN, M.A., who had been ordained at Logic-Pert, I2th September 1753. Mr Cruden was the choice of Logie parish, Stirlingshire, in 1759, but patronage prevailed in favour of another. The Evening Courant of nth April 1767 announced that on Tuesday last Mr Cruden of Logie, near Montrose, was unanimously chosen to be minister of the Relief Church, Glasgow ; and he was inducted on i6th June following. Having no session he gave in to the Presbytery on 9th November a list of those deemed suitable for elders and deacons, and he was empowered to serve an edict and proceed to their ordination. When the question of Free Communion came before the Relief Synod in 1773 Mr Cruden, along with Mr Cowan of Colinsburgh, took up strongly conservative ground, and, when it was carried that it accorded with Relief principles to hold occasional communion with Episcopalians and Independents, he withdrew from further connection. In the beginning of 1774 he became minister of Crown Court Church, London, where he remained till his death, on 5th November 1785. His tombstone in Bunhill burying-place gives his age as sixty, and in Wilson's History of Dissenting Churches in London he is characterised as "a worthy PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 33 and respectable minister, of approved talents and piety, and lived in London, greatly respected by his brethren." He was the author of a collection of hymns, entitled " Nature Spiritualised," and a volume of his sermons was published in 1787. On 1 7th April 1774, as we find from a newspaper report, it was carried by a majority of Mr Cruden's former congregation to apply to the Established Church to have their place of worship placed on the footing of a Chapel of Ease, members retaining the right to choose their own minister. The terms were agreed to, and on 8th May " The Meeting-house of the Free Presby- terian Society " was opened as a church under the inspection of the Established Presbytery of Glasgow. On the following Tuesday a section of the members petitioned the Relief Presbytery to be recognised as a forming congregation, which was done, and thus the continuity was preserved. Next year they built Dovehill Church, at a cost of ^1880, with sittings for 1400. Second Minister. THOMAS BELL, from Jedburgh (High Street), where he had laboured for nine years. The translation was twice forbidden by the Relief Synod, though Mr Bell pleaded his unhappy situation, and Jedburgh people did not wish to retain him against his will. Mr Bell and Dovehill congregation took the matter into their own hands, and without formal recognition by any Church Court he entered on his ministry at Glasgow, and for nearly three years he and his people were out of all ecclesiastical connection. On I7th January 1780 they applied to the Presbytery to be readmitted, but this could not be done without the infliction of sharp censure. On ist March, besides rebuke, in which the commissioners shared, Mr Bell was suspended from office for two Sabbaths. The guilt of rebellion being now wiped out Dovehill congregation came forward on I4th April with a call to the Rev. Thomas Bell, " late minister of Jedburgh," which was at once accepted, and his induction followed on the 28th. The Church Courts of the Relief never again exercised authority in the case of a trans- porting call, with one notable exception at Auchtergaven. In the latter part of 1797 the congregation was called to consider what they were to do owing to their minister's inability to preach. When waited on he gave it as his opinion that help was needed, but declined to be more specific. He was so infirm that he could not even write his brethren for assistance, and the Society was left to provide pulpit supply as it best could. The proposal carried to have a colleague, who should receive ^140, the stipend which Mr Bell had and was to retain. Before proceeding to an election a remarkable Article in the Constitution was read to the congrega- tion. The elders in a body were to vote first, then the managers, then the committee chosen by the congregation, and, last of all, the communicants and proprietors, being members. At the first moderation Mr Watt of Blairlogie had a majority in whatever way the balance may have been struck, but the session, managers, and committee agreed to desist from the prosecution. The congregation, however, did not acquiesce, and though the Presbytery sustained the call Mr Watt refused to accept. It bears the marks of a contest between the classes and the masses. From this point dates the origin of Hutchesontown on the one hand and John Street on the other. Third Minister. JOHX BRODIE, from Aberdeen, where he was ordained eighteen years before, and where he was described by Dr George Brown as " the popular minister of the Relief congregation, Shiprow." Inducted on iith October 1798 as colleague to Mr Bell. Invited back to Aberdeen within six months, but remained in Dovehill. After a time Mr Bell was able to take some share of public work ; but he died, I5th October 1802, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. He was a weighty preacher, with more of the doctrinal in his discourses than was usual among II. C 34 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS his brethren of the Relief. His publications include "A Treatise on the Nature and Effects of Saving Faith " and " Discourses on the Supreme Deity of Jesus Christ." He even approximated to the Antiburgher standard on certain points, being opposed to the use of hymns and paraphrases in public worship, besides writing with vigour in defence of Covenanting. He translated Witsius on the Antinomian and Neonomian Controversies, and his scholarship is attested by his translation from the Dutch of Dr Wynpersse on " The True and Eternal Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ." * After becoming sole pastor Mr Brodie received a yearly gift of ^50 or ^60 in addition to the regular salary of ,140. He died, 7th October 1811, in the sixty-first year of his age, according to the Scots Magazine, and thirty- second of his ministry. All that remains of his pulpit work is a sermon, entitled " The Preaching of the Gospel the great Means of Salvation," published the year he left Aberdeen. His son was long minister of the Relief Church, East Campbell Street. Fourth Minister. JOHN BARR, from Beith (Head Street). A prior call to Langholm (South) led to sundry complications, which are given in their own place. Ordained, 24th March 1812, the stipend to be ^200, which was raised to ^270 in 1815. Mr Barr was laid aside from all public work by a sudden stroke of illness in June 1831, and though he survived for a number of years he never preached again. He was the author of " Plain Catechetical Instructions for Young Communicants," a little book which ran through at least sixteen editions. But a colleague being required now to take the entire work, the congregation called the Rev. John French of Strathaven, who declined, much to the Presbytery's regret. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM LINDSAY, who had been ordained at John- stone two and a half years before. Inducted, 22nd November 1832. At the close of 1836 Mr Lindsay's stipend was ^220, and Mr Barr had a yearly allowance of ^100. Up till then it had been ^150, which he wished to surrender entirely, but the people would agree to nothing more than a deduction of ^50. In Dovehill, as in most of the Relief churches in Glasgow, the proprietorship system prevailed, and at this time more than half the sittings belonged to private individuals, for which they paid an annual rent to the congregational funds. The debt on the church amounted to fully ,750, which was reckoned of little account. The right of electing managers belonged originally to the proprietors, but for some time they had shared the privilege with the congregation. Mr Barr died at Rothesay, 1 7th March 1839, in the sixty-second year of his age and twenty-seventh of his ministry. A daughter of his was connected by marriage with a well-known Campbeltown family, and was the mother of the late Mr John Colville of Motherwell, M.P. for the North-East Division of Lanarkshire. At the Relief Synod in May 1841 Mr Lindsay was appointed to the Chair of Exegetical Theology and Biblical Criticism, and in 1844 he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow. In December of the latter year a new church was built in Cathedral Street, with 1 100 sittings, * Mr Bell's son James was the author of "Bell's System of Geography/' pub- lished in 1831 in six goodly volumes. He is described in the Life of Dr William Anderson as " an insatiable book glutton," from whose stores of information the Doctor drew largely when a student. He figures more graphically as a walking encyclopaedia in the early life of Dr James Hamilton of London. But "although his mind was stored with the knowledge of the world his treasure lay in heaven, and thither- wards his heart tended." A small annuity was settled on him by his father, and the last decade of his life was spent in Campsie, where he died on 3rd May 1833, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. The minister of Strathblane found "the rural philo- sopher," when the end was near, " leaning like a child on the Saviour's breast." PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 35 and there the congregation remained thirty-five years. The Union of 1847 necessitated a readjustment of Chairs in the Theological Hall, and to Dr Lindsay was assigned the department of Biblical Criticism and Sacred Languages, a province in which he and Dr Eadie partially overlapped, and after Dr Brown's death in 1858 he held the Chair of Exegetical Theology alone. Of his work in this department we have a valuable specimen in his "Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews," published in two volumes the year after his death. Admirable were the care and thoroughness with which Professor Lindsay wrought out his conclusions. In this respect Mr Brooks, his successor in Johnstone, contrasted him with Dr William Anderson: "If you inquired," he said, "what was Dr Lindsay's opinion on any subject he would not answer unless his mind were matured ; Dr Anderson would have told what were his present views." There was a like contrast in the Junior Hall between the two colleagues, Drs Lindsay and Eadie. But his judicial characteristics are best brought out in his little volume on "The Relationships which bar Marriage," published in 1855. There is also his "Life of the Rev. Thomas Gillespie" in the "United Presbyterian Fathers," where he was under the disadvantage of having slender material to work on. Dr Lindsay died suddenly on Sabbath, 3rd June 1866, after officiating twice in his own church. He was in the sixty-fourth year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. Sixth Minister. THOMAS WH1TELAW, M.A., from Perth (North). Or- dained at South Shields (Mile End Road) on 23rd March 1864 as colleague and successor to the Rev. Thomas M'Creath, whose son-in-law he became. Called to succeed Dr Lindsay, and inducted, 25th April 1867. The stipend was to be .400, and the call was signed by 279 members and 32 adherents. On nth December 1877 Mr Whitelaw accepted a call to King Street, Kilmarnock. On Wednesday, i6th October 1878, intimation came that the church was in an insecure state owing to underground railway opera- tions, and the congregation never worshipped in it again. Next Sabbath they met in the Berkeley Hall, about a mile to the west, and continued there till they were about to emerge from the vacant state. Prior to leaving the old church the congregation had secured a site at Kelvingrove Park, but a number of the Presbytery were opposed to the removal, believing that the Western district of Glasgow was already overchurched, and that Cathedral Street was more necessitous now than when the former place of worship was opened. After a discussion of several hours the transfer- ence was sanctioned in November 1878. Seventh Minister. PETER RUTHERFORD, translated from Bristol, where he had been seven and a half years, after ministering five years in Falkirk (now Graham's Road), and inducted, 3Oth April 1879. The call was signed by only 149 members and 80 adherents, which attested how much the church had suffered in the transition state. The weight of the congregation had been swaying westward, but a goodly proportion of families must have been left behind, the more so that they were without a fixed ministry. The congregation was now worshipping in the Queen's Rooms, Sauchiehall Street, but on Thursday, I3th May 1880, the new church, with sittings for 822, was opened by Dr Edmond of London. It cost, with the site, fully ,18,000, but the price paid by the railway company for the old building was ,21,000, which, but for extra expenses, would have covered everything. Kelvingrove is a mile and a quarter west from Cathedral Street, but, taken all in all, it was as suitable a position as could have been fixed on. The membership at the close of 1899 was 430, and the stipend, including expenses, was ,525. Mr Rutherford is a son-in-law of a predecessor of his in Falkirk, the Rev. William Steel. 36 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ANDERSTON (RELIEF) THE origin of this congregation requires to be traced with minuteness. To begin at the beginning, a pamphlet, entitled " Unity and Peace Recom- mended," was published in Glasgow in the summer of 1766. It was written from the Antiburgher point of view, but it found fault with the censures pronounced on " the separating brethren " ; it pleaded for union between the two branches of the Secession ; and it argued against making promiscuous hearing a matter of Church discipline. The publisher was John Bryce, an elder in the Havannah Church, and two of his brother elders and a deacon were believed to be implicated, but they explained to the session that they were not the authors, nor did they subscribe to everything it contained. Still, on 6th July 1767 some members of the congregation brought up a complaint against those office-bearers who were involved in the publication of the obnoxious pamphlet, and the session agreed to refer the whole affair to the Presbytery, which condemned the conduct of these four men as " offensive, rash, and inconsistent." They also required them to express to the session their approbation of the Antiburgher Testimony, and they were to refrain from disseminating scruples about the sentence of excommunica- tion passed on the separating brethren. There the case might have ended, but at a subsequent meeting certain members of Presbytery urged that the offenders had been too mildly dealt with, and the Synod was appealed to, by whose directions the Presbytery met on 4th October to enter fully into the merits. Several correspondents were with them, and, Adam Gib being among the number, it was clear that severity and not compromise was to be the order of the day. Mr Gib opened the proceedings with a sermon from Haggai ii. 5 : " According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remaineth among you : fear ye not." The application would be : Fear not to go straight forward with disciplinary work when fidelity to covenant engagements is concerned. Mr Gib and four others were afterwards appointed to draw up matters of complaint against the offenders, one of whom was James Monteith, who became the head of a well-known family in Glasgow, and was afterwards the central pillar of the Relief cause at Anderston. It was not his name, how- ever, that stood first on the culprit list it was that of John Bryce, from whose shop in the Saltmarket issued most of the Secession sermons and pamphlets published in those days. When the several articles of offence were brought forward Mr Monteith admitted that the sentences pronounced on such men as the Erskines and James Fisher had been matter of grief to him. He acknowledged also that he had been favourable to union with the Burghers. At the close of the examination the three elders were required to be done with their scruples before next meeting, under pain of being suspended from office. Against this edict Mr Monteith dictated a protest, and when it was objected that there was no accompanying appeal the parties replied that there was no use carrying an appeal to Edinburgh, as they had Edinburgh with them already, meaning in the person of Mr Gib. At next meeting, on 22nd November, there was a communication from the other elders but none from James Monteith, who was, therefore, found guilty of contumacy, and for this and former offences he was laid aside from the eldership. On 1710 January 1769 he petitioned to have the sentence reviewed ; but he never followed up his request, and this is the last time his name appears in the Antiburgher records. He then passed over to the Relief, and took the lead in the erection of the Relief church in Anderston, which was opened in 1770, with 1140 sittings. This narrative sets aside the story which has found currency through Dr PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 37 Strang's " History of Glasgow and its Clubs," published in 1856. It ascribes the origin of Anderston Relief congregation to the action of Glasgow Anti- burgher session in suspending Mr Monteith from fellowship and office for having heard sermon in the Tron Church one Sabbath when he sought shelter there with his delicate wife from a thunder-shower. In the Minutes of the Havannah session there is no trace of any such thing, and the allega- tion that in those days cases were not engrossed in session Minutes where the parties refused submission to Church censure, and broke away, is a sheer fiction. Dr Strang's book only affords another specimen of the way in which floating traditions will transmogrify simple facts. So much for the origin ascribed to Anderston Relief Church in Ur M'Kelvie's Annals and con- tended for in the memorial volume of that congregation's history. First Minister. JOSEPH NEIL, who had been ordained at Keighley, Yorkshire, in 1756. In MialPs History of Congregationalism in Yorkshire a curious account of Mr Neil's antecedents is given. It is stated that, having offended his Presbytery by marrying when a student, "and having been expelled in consequence," he came from Scotland with views not favourable to Presbyterianism, and that his congregation was Independent. It is added that, " though a man of diligence and success, the smallness of his income at length compelled Mr Neil to retire from Keighley, and return to Scotland in 1770." Expulsion by a Presbyter}' for an ill-timed marriage cannot be true, and as for having to leave Keighley on account of scanty means, it does not harmonise with the testimony he bore to the liberality of his people in his farewell sermon : " Exerting yourselves more, I believe, than any congrega- tion in England (circumstances being considered) to render me and my family easy in reference to the things of this world." Mr Neil was inducted to Anderston, igth November 1770. The church was finished before this, and on ist January 1771 two elders were constituted into a session, one of them being Mr James Monteith, and eight others were ordained. Mr Neil died, 20th February 1775, in the forty-eighth year of his age and fifth of his ministry in Anderston. In 1773 he published a sermon on "The Nature and Necessity of Christian Communion in order to Everlasting Happiness," and this was followed the year after his death by a volume of his discourses. Some ill-judged expressions such as this: "The obedience of the Divine Surety recommends our sincere though imperfect obedience to the divine acceptance and reward," gave Ramsay of Glasgow occasion to charge the author with Arminianism but there seems to have been no reason to question his general soundness in the faith. Second Minister. JAMES STEWART, from Dunblane, and a licentiate of Glasgow Established Presbytery. Five months before Mr Neil's death he was engaged as his assistant, and on i$th August 1775 he was ordained as his successor. Among the dissenting denominations in Scotland the Relief took the lead in the introduction of hymns into public worship, and in this movement Mr Stewart was first among the foremost, having compiled a volume for the use of Anderston Church five years before the innovation was sanctioned by the Synod. About this time the meeting-house required to be enlarged to 1250 sittings. Three detached discourses of Mr Stewart's were published by himself, each of them bearing on the times. The first, entitled " Britain's Fall," led him to speak of her fall in religion, her fall in victon-, and her fall from empire both by sea and land, and then this dark state of things is ascribed to a variety of guilty causes. Another, of a brighter stamp : " A Plan of Reform proposed to the Christian People," appears in the centenary volume of Anderston Church, and is direct, practical, and comprehensive. Third Minister. GAVIN STRUTHERS, from StrathaVen (East). Having 38 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS chosen Anderston in preference to Kilbarchan he was ordained as colleague to Mr Stewart, 3ist July 1817. The stipend was ,180, with 1$ for sacra- mental expenses. Mr Stewart died, 4th June 1819, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. In 1836 the communicants were 1050, and the debt on the property was 670. The stipend at this time was ,265, and it had been made up to ^250 shortly after the death of the senior minister. The present church was opened, i6th February 1840, with the same number of sittings as the former. Mr Struthers had the degree of D.D. conferred upon him by Glasgow University in 1843, an d at the second meeting of the United Presbyterian Synod he was chosen to the Moderator's Chair. In the summer of 1854 Dr Struthers showed tokens of failing strength, and his work in Anderston closed with the communion services in October of that year. In a few months he was completely prostrated every way, and another was required to perform the whole work. He died, nth July 1858, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. A well-compacted and ably-written sketch of his life appeared in the U.P. Magazine for that year. From among Dr Struthers' published writings we select his History of the Relief Church, a book of permanent value. It betokens thorough ac- quaintance not only with the Rise, Progress, and Principles of the Relief but with the various phases of denominationalism in Scotland throughout the period embraced. Altogether, Dr Struthers was deservedly looked on as the ablest man in the Relief Synod, though by no means the best orator. The Campbeltown Case brought out his mental grasp and legal acumen, and later on the Relief Magazine ever and again bore witness to his powers as a con- troversialist. His " Treatise on the Principles of Christian Communion as held by the Relief Church " also did much to clear the way for the Union of 1847. Fourth Minister. JOHN LOGAN AIRMAN, translated from St James' Place, Edinburgh, and inducted as colleague to Dr Struthers, 28th February 1856. The stipend was to be ^300, with 20 for expenses, and the senior minister, though entirely laid aside, was also to have ,300. In 1861 Mr Aikman published the largest and the least known of his works, the " Cyclo- paedia of Missions," a book on which a great amount of labour must have been expended. In 1869 he had the degree of D.D. from New York, which was duplicated from Glasgow University the year of his death. Meanwhile Anderston Church, though less favourably situated than some others, kept up well, having a membership of about 1000, and giving a stipend of ^600. Dr Aikman died on Sabbath, I3th September 1885, aged 65. He preached on the preceding Sabbath from : " Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." In no other case has the U.P. Synod lost its Moderator by death, and the same thing, I believe, may be said of the Secession and Relief Synods all through. Anderston congregation now called the Rev. John G. Train, Buckhaven, who declined, and within a month accepted an invitation to Hull. Fifth Minister. ALEXANDER R. MACEwEN, B.D., who had been nearly six years in Moffat. Inducted, 2ist September 1886. The stipend was .600, as before. Accepted a call to Claremont Church, his native congregation, on 1 8th June 1889, leaving a membership of 1030. Sixth Minister. ALEXANDER L. HENDERSON, son of the Rev. Dr Henderson, Paisley. Having declined Rockvilla, Glasgow, Mr Henderson was ordained at Durham in 1879. Called to Erskine Church, Stirling, in 1882, and removed in a few years to Camphill, Birmingham, to succeed the Rev. James M. M'Kerrow. Inducted to Anderston, I3th February 1890, the stipend to be ,525, which continued for the next ten years. The membership at the close of 1899 was 903. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 39 SYDNEY PLACE (BURGHER) THE first notice of a movement towards the formation of a second Burgher congregation in Glasgow came before the Presbytery on nth February 1789. It was time for Church Extension to take shape in both sections of the Secession. Since 1747 the population of the city had increased from 20,000 to nearly 60,000, and it was now mounting upwards at the rate of 1 500 a year. No wonder that the church in Shuttle Street was becoming too strait for the attendance, and that the supply of sittings came short of the demand by 620. The first proposal was to erect a second place of worship on the church grounds, have a second minister, and make the charge collegiate. But wiser counsels prevailed, and it was resolved to build the additional church in a different part of the town altogether. This issued in the erection of the large building in East Campbell Street at a cost of ^1500, with sittings for 1361, and in an application to the Presbytery for supply of sermon. After a committee had conferred with all parties the petition was granted, the reason assigned being that " many of the members have no access to hear the gospel ; the meeting-house is so crowded." This was on 4th May 1789, and the new church was to be opened on the following Sabbath. On 1 6th June a petition from 148 members to be disjoined from Shuttle Street Church was agreed to, a decision against which the Rev. John Thomson of Kirkintilloch, who had strong proclivities that way, protested to the Synod, alleging that the disjunction was granted "on principles neither proper nor scriptural," but his protest was dismissed without a vote. Mr Thomson expressed himself so unguardedly against the Building Committee at one of the Presbyter)' meetings that they summoned him before the Lords of Session, a step for which they afterwards expressed regret. It was needful now to be provided with an eldership, and twelve of their number having been chosen the Presbytery arranged for the ordination on the second Sabbath of November. It was a vigorous beginning. First Minister. WILLIAM KIDSTON, previously of Kennoway. Mr Kidston preached in East Campbell Street on an early Sabbath after the church was opened, and on 28th January 1790 he was chosen to be their minister, though under appointment to be ordained at Kennoway, as will come up under the history of that congregation. The Synod refused to sustain the call from Glasgow, and the settlement at Kennoway went on. There was quietness now for over a year, but a second call to Mr Kidston from Campbell Street came before the Synod in September 1791 signed by 41 1 members and 233 seat-holders. The translation carried, and Mr Kidston was inducted on the i8th of the following month. The stipend was to be ^120. The increase, we may well believe, was rapid, but a partial arrest came through the Old and New Light Controversy, which began to stir in 1795. Opposition to any interference with the Formula had its headquarters in the west, and the two Glasgow congregations had their full share of the turmoil it occasioned, but, so far as we can judge, Campbell Street was the greater sufferer. Dr John M'Farlane, who had good means of knowing, said the losses were about 400, and it is certain the seat rents fell from ,198 in 1799 to .110 in 1801. The Old Light cause was strong in Glasgow from the first, and in other two years one of the calls they issued carried the signatures of 691 members. They built their church near by, and obtained the Rev. William Watson of Kilpatrick for their minister. This was the pulpit occupied for some time by the Rev. John Clark, whose Life, with its interesting pictures of college days and college studies, was written by his 40 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS friend and fellow-student, afterwards Principal Cairns. It is now Campbell Street Free Church. But with only five churches of the Secession in its various sections, and the population of Glasgow up now to 83,000, it was no hard matter to regain lost ground. Mr Kidston in no long time gathered a full congregation around him again ; but about the close of 1813 his health suddenly gave way, and "he was laid aside from all public duty until 1817." In the Presbytery Minutes of their first meeting in 1814 it is stated that Mr Kidston, their clerk, being absent through indisposition, another was appointed pro tempore. For almost four years his name is entered in none of the sederunts, though he still engrossed the Minutes and subscribed them. In June 1815 commissioners appeared wishing arrangements made for a second minister, but the Presbytery delayed in hopes that the season would have an influence for good on Mr Kidston's health. In July they applied for a moderation, and a letter was read from Mr Kidston expressing his desire to have this gone into at once, which was agreed to. Second Minister. WILLIAM BRASH, from Bristo Church, Edinburgh. Called already to Ecclefechan, but the Synod, in keeping with his expressed wish, gave Glasgow the preference. Their call was signed by 509 members and 183 adherents, and Mr Brash was ordained, 26th December 1815. The stipend was to be ,160, and two years later the ministers had ^200 each. There was rapid increase now, the number admitted to Church fellowship amounting in three years to 430. The preaching of Mr Brash was "fervid and graphic," and the effect was heightened by the youthful appearance of the preacher, who was only in his twenty-second year. In December 1817 Mr Kidston appeared in the Presbytery anew. It was a sign that his activities were finding their way back into the old channel. The charge was now to be for twenty years collegiate in the full sense. In 1833 Mr Kidston had the degree of D.D. from St Andrews University, and again in 1837 from the University of Glasgow. The year before this the communion roll stood at 800, and the stipends were as above named, with ^19 each for expenses. A much larger sum than the original cost had been laid out on the property, on which there was a debt of ^1400. In 1838, owing to growing infirmities, Dr Kidston retired from active duty. A year previously he resigned the clerkship of Presbytery, which he had held for forty-one years, and in 1839 he resigned the Synod clerkship, which he had held for nearly twenty years. The Synod, in accepting the resignation, sympathised deeply with him in the severe indisposition under which he laboured. This accounted for the laying down of the threefold burden. But though Dr Kidston was older than his colleague by twenty-six years he was to be the survivor. Mr Brash was but a little way into his majority when he entered on his ministry, and for the first two years he had the sole charge of the congregation. It was both an early and a heavy beginning, and this was to have as its counterpart an early breakdown. Trying experiences of another kind may also have told on his powers of endurance. Disease of the heart began to manifest itself prior to 1849, and though he resisted for a time it gradually gained the mastery, and laid him aside from all public work. Dr Kidston was still able to preach occasionally, but little could be looked for from one who was in the sixtieth year of his ministry. For the requirements of that large congregation it was essential that a third minister should be obtained to undertake the whole responsibility. Third Minister. JOHN KER, M.A., a native of Twecdsmuir, but brought up under the ministry of Dr Brown, Broughton Place, Edinburgh. Or- dained at Alnwick (Clayport Street), nth February 1845. It i g strange to read that on the moderation day Mr Ker was carried over Mr David PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 41 Laughland, afterwards of Newarthill, by only 18 votes. In 1849 he was called to Barrhead, and in the beginning of 1850 to Campbell Street, Glasgow, but he did not yet see his way to leave his first charge. Campbell Street then made choice of Mr David Young, who had already written accepting Milnathort, and though this new development made him pause he adhered to his former decision. A second call was now brought out to Mr Ker, which proved successful, and he was' inducted on igth March 1851 as colleague to Dr Kidston and Mr Brash. Then commenced an inflow of prosperity, 588 new members being admitted within three years. Mr Brash died, 24th November following, in the fifty-eighth year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. A brief Memoir, with a beautiful tribute to his Christian worth, appeared soon afterwards in the U.P. Magazine from the pen of his junior colleague. Of Mr Brash's family his son John was minister at Wamphray for some years, and then went to America. From the period of Mr Brash's death Dr Kidston gradually sank, and on 23rd October 1852 he died, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and sixty-third of his ministry. As the oldest member present, Dr Kidston was chosen Moderator of Synod at the Union in May 1847 Dr Jamieson of Scone, who was his senior in age though not in office, being absent. He opened the Synod in October with a sermon from the text : " We are all one in Christ Jesus," which was published. That and another discourse, preached in con- nection with the Glasgow Missionary Society some years before, are all that remain of Dr Kidston in print. An animated sketch of his life and character was given by his son-in-law, Dr John M'Farlane, in a sermon preached in Campbell Street Church the Sabbath after the funeral, of which the sub- stance is to be found in the U.P. Magazine for the following year. Mr Ker was invited to remove to Bristol in 1855. There a congregation had been recently formed, and there was an impression abroad that England had a right to draw on the best men Glasgow had to give. The stipend was to be ,400, with his life assured for ^1000; but Mr Ker put the proposal aside, and remained in Campbell Street. Inspirited by this decision the congregation resolved next year to dispose of the old church, for which they obtained ^1000, and erect a new one in Sydney Place. At next Synod Mr Ker was chosen to be the first Home Mission Secretary, but in the face of strong pressure he firmly declined to accept. He stated that the managers of Sydney Place had undertaken heavy re- sponsibilities in connection with building operations, and he was pledged to stand by them as far as in his power ; besides, he felt that he wanted those aptitudes for business which the office required. The committee appointed to converse with him, in presenting their report, suggested a meeting with the congregation, but the Synod resolved instead to proceed with a new election. Looked at now, the whole conception seems pre- posterous, but some may have apprehended that Mr Ker's health would not hold out under the incessant demands of heavy ministerial work, and their wish may have been to avert the danger by assigning him another sphere of usefulness. If so, their fears were to have a speedy fulfilment. Before the month was ended he came to a pause in the middle of a prayer-meeting address the hand of God had touched him. The church in Sydney Place, with sittings for 1200, and built at a cost of ^8200, was opened on 28th November 1858 by Drs Cairns and Edmond ; but their own minister was away, " in extreme suffering and weakness." Fourth Minister. JAMES FRAME, from Perth (York Place), where he had laboured for two years on his way from Peterhead to Glasgow. In- ducted as junior minister, 9th September 1863. He was to have ^350 of stipend, and Mr Ker's allowance was ^250. It was only occasionally 42 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS that the latter could appear in the pulpit, but hi name was a tower of strength to the congregation. For Mr Frame the burden was great, and in the summer of 1870 there were signs of failing energy, but he toiled on till July, expecting that the holidays would put all to rights. Instead of this languor remained, and then gastric fever set in, and on I4th July 1870 he died, in the thirty-ninth year of his age and seventeenth of his ministry. His son, of the same name, was ordained at Millport thirteen years afterwards. The congregation now called, without success, the Rev. William Graham of Liverpool to be colleague to Dr Ker, who had obtained the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University in 1869. A year later they called the Rev. A. S. Matheson of Alloa, but with the same result. Fifth Minister. JAMES MACWEN, M.A., from Hawick (East Bank), after a ten years' ministry there. Inducted, 25th September 1872. The stipend was to be ^500, with ^25 for expenses, and Dr Ker, who was to be responsible for no part of the work, declined to accept more than ^150 a year. This arrangement continued till the latter was chosen by the Synod to the Chair of Practical Training in 1876. Though never accepting the status of Professor, Dr Ker discharged the duties of the office with high efficiency, except during one session, when he was laid aside by ill-health, and substitutes were provided. He died suddenly, 4th October 1886, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. His sudden removal made a wide blank in the U.P. Hall and in the front rank of the U.P. ministry. Of the works he has left behind him his "Lectures on the History of Preaching" may be singled out as an enduring memorial of his professorial work. There are also his two volumes of sermons, which were published, the one in 1869 and the other in 1886, both of which passed rapidly through successive editions; and most suggestive of all are "Thoughts for Heart and Life," being extracts from unpublished material, written for the most part in note-books without any view to publication. A volume of Letters came last, of interest going far beyond the circle of friendship to which they were addressed. Since Dr Ker's death Mr MacEwen has been sole pastor, carrying on the entire work of that large congregation un- aided. At the Union the stipend was ^525, and the membership at the close of 1899 was a few units over 700. EAST CAMPBELL STREET (RELIEF) THIS was the second Relief congregation in Glasgow, keeping Anderston out of view. On 8th August 1791 a number of heads of families applied to the Relief Presbytery to be recognised as a forming congregation, but in the absence of Mr Bell, the minister of Dovehill, the petition was allowed to lie on the table. On i6th August Mr Bell was present, and the prayer of the petition was granted without opposition, but the church not being in readiness it was not till the fourth Sabbath of April 1792 that services were begun. The building, exclusive of the site, cost a little over ,2000, and it contained 1372 sittings. First Minister. JAMES DUN, called from Kilsyth, where he had been ordained twelve years before. Inducted, 6th September 1792. The stipend promised at first was ,146. On 2nd October Mr Dun brought forward a list of names, 6 in number " persons chosen by the proprietors of his congregation for elders" and he was authorised by the Presbytery to set them apart to office according to the Rules of the Church. Of PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 43 Mr Dun we are informed by a successor of his, the Rev. William Rama-e that some of his admirers spoke of him as the foremost man the Relief Church had ever produced. He died, 2nd January 1805, in the fiftv- sixth year of his age and twenty-fifth of his ministry. A sermon preached by him at the opening of the Synod in May 1792 is all that remains of his .pulpit work As a preacher, says Mr Ramage, he was not impassioned and rhetorical but calm, conversational, and almost wholly without action The congregation now called the Rev. Robert Walker of Cupar who after some hesitancy decided not to remove, and then the Rev. John Pitcairn of Kelso, who resisted all attempts to draw him to Glasgow Second Minister .-ROBERT BRODIE, M.A., son of the Rev. John Brodie of the mother church in Dovehill. After some hesitancy about signing the Confession of Faith he was ordained, i ith June 1807. Mr Brodie seems to have been a tasteful and refined rather than a powerful preacher, and hence we are told his audience was latterly select rather than large. In 1816 the communicants were about 650, and the stipend averaged / 2 ?o The debt was only ^500 Mr Brodie died, 6th August 1846, in the sixtv-second year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. A volume of his discourses was published m 1848, under the editorship of the Rev. William M'Dougall of Paisley who had been brought up under Mr Brodie's ministry, and was expected to furnish a befitting memoir, which was never done Third Minister.- -WILLIAM RAMAGE, called from Kilmarnock (King Street) where he had been four and a half years, and inducted, 6th May 1847 The call was signed by only 196 members, and the stipend was to be / 3 oo n 1 2th March 1856 a large wing of the congregation petitioned to be dis- joined along with their minister and transferred to a new church which thev had erected in Berkeley Street, and on 9 th April this was agreed to, their brethren who kept by the old walls wishing them all success Fourth J//w*r.-ALEXANDER WALLACE, translated from Potterrow, Edinburgh and inducted into his fourth and last charge, 3 oth April i8;7 The stipend was to be 340. It would lead us to doubt whether the con- gregation had been large enough to divide when we read that the members remained, though they formed the majority, were only 360 in number, but under Mr Wallace there was rapid increase. In May 1860 he was invited to remove to Sydney, New South Wales, and in September 1861 he was called to succeed Dr Alexander Fletcher as minister of Finsbury Chapel .ondon. As these congregations were not under the U.P. Synod neither call came before Glasgow Presbytery, and both were declined. There was a general w,sh that Finsbury Chapel should be accepted, in order to bring A ] S c P r . e S atlon 'nto connection with our Church, but Mr Wallace decided to remain in Glasgow. Then Albion Chapel, in the same part of London, sought to obtain his services, but was equally unsuccessful The present church, with sittings for 1400, was built on the old site at a cost of 65 >, and opened by Dr Cairns of Berwick on Sabbath, loth March 1864. SllLeTl >H^ a aCC r reC T' ed the de ? ree f D ' D - from Westminster Hege, United States. In the new bu.ldmg the membership kept increas- ng, till a maximum of 1300 was reached in 1875. Dr Wallace the while had ^H if T ^ 1S P en '- In I86 his " Mem ir of James Stirling" ap- peared, a book of lasting interest, m which the service he rendered to the temperance cause ,s condensed and perpetuated. In 1868 he published The Desert and the Holy Land," a field which gave full scope to his exuberant powers of description. There is also his volume of lectures on Peasant Literature of Scotland," a subject in which he took warm interest and was quite at home. But as years passed energy began to fade and ,t was said that after an attack of whooping-cough, out of season "like 44 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS snow in summer," he never was quite the same man again. In 1890 Dr Wallace retired into the background to make way for a colleague. Fifth Minister. W. SHAW STEWART, from Buckhavcn where he had been ordained three and a half years before. Inducted, I5th January 1891, and obtained the degree of D.D. in 1892. Each of the ministers was to have ,300, and the membership was slightly over 900. On I4th February 1893 Dr Wallace passed into the emeritus position with an allowance of ,50 a year. He died on 2oth August 1893, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. In the beginning of 1900 East Campbell Street membership was 657, and the stipend ^400. GLASGOW, WELLINGTON CHURCH (ANTIBURGHKR) THIS was an offshoot from the old Antiburghcr church in Duke Street, which, through the growth of the town, was filled to overflowing. The applicants for disjunction, 81 in number, were described as residing in Anderston, Partick, Meikle Govan, up the water of Kelvin, and places adjacent to the west of Jamaica Street. ' They had a 'place of worship nearly finished, and, with the concurrence of the minister and session of Duke Street, they were erected into a separate congregation, the three elders and three deacons resid- ing within the bounds to be constituted into a session. This was on 5th November 1792, and Mr Ramsay, their minister, was to preach to them on the following Sabbath. First Minister. JOHN MITCHELL, son of the Rev. Andrew Mitchell, Beith. Mr Mitchell was also called to Whithorn ; but at the Synod in May 1793 Anderston was preferred, as the Minutes show, by 20 votes to 16, the reasons assigned being priority in lime and superiority in numbers. The calls were signed by 56 and 18 male members respectively, and Mr Mitchell was ordained, 1st August 1793, the stipend being ^80. From the first the young minister cultivated the graces of style, a thing little attended to by Secession ministers in those clays. Neil Douglas, Relief minister in Dundee, who heard him give an ordination address at Rothesay in 1797, described it as "a piece of finished composition, perhaps too much so for the audience and the occasion." In 1804 Mr Mitchell obtained ^,100 for a prize essay on the Evangelisation of India. In 1807 he received the degree of D.D. from Princeton College, New Jersey, and thirty years afterwards the honour was duplicated by Glasgow University. In 1810 galleries were erected in the church, and the sittings increased from 550 to nearly 1000. In 1818 the communicants numbered about 450, and the stipend was ,300. In September 1825 Dr Mitchell was chosen by the Synod to the newly instituted Chair of Biblical Literature. He was now fifty-seven, and he pleaded his advanced years and heavy ministerial duties as a reason for declining the appointment, his brother, Mr Andrew Mitchell, urging similar arguments on his behalf, but the will of the Synod prevailed. On I5th July 1827 the new church in Wellington Street, with 1492 sittings, was opened, the cost of the whole being about ,10,000. Of Dr Mitchell's appearance in his own pulpit on a Sabbath forenoon in 1834 we have the following account from the pen of a gifted lady, to be met with again. The whole aspect and demeanour of the preacher prepossessed her in his favour, and she wrote : " The devotional service was solemn and appropriate and spiritual. In the lecture there was a ground- work of substantial thought and sound consecutive exposition, with a grateful glow of fervent godliness pervading the whole. In expression much elegance ; in counsel much practical wisdom." She adds: "With a little more various modulation of voice and somewhat more energy of action the PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 45 preacher would be still more acceptable and impressive." But years were now beginning to tell on Dr Mitchell's vigour, and in 1840 it was deemed proper to proceed with the election of a colleague, the junior minister to have ^300 and the senior at least as much. Second Minister. JOHN ROBSON, M.A., from Lasswade, where he had been ordained seven and a half years before. At the moderation 183 voted for Mr Robson, 93 for Mr Johnston of Limekilns, and 64 for Mr James Robertson, preacher, ultimately of Newington. The induction took place, 2nd June 1840. The membership was fully 800. In the third year of his Glasgow ministry Mr Robson had to sojourn for a time in Jamaica for the benefit of his health ; and he was seated beside his brother-in-law, the Rev. James Paterson, when the latter was thrown from his gig, and killed on the spot. In February 1843 Dr Heugh, after administering the Lord's Supper in Wellington Street, wrote that the old minister could do nothing, and his young colleague was away an invalid. In May of the previous year Dr Mitchell notified the Synod that he could not undertake to teach the class next session, and it was arranged that the junior section of the Hall should meet in Glasgow, and that certain ministers should be associated with- the Professor in the superintendence of the class ; but the work devolved mainly on the Rev. John Eadie, who succeeded to the Chair. At next Synod Dr Mitchell resigned, stating that owing to growing frailties the duties of the Chair, "always heavy, would now be oppressive." He died, 25th January 1844, in the seventy-sixth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. In addition to the prize essay already mentioned and some stray discourses Dr Mitchell was the author of a discriminating Memoir of Pro- fessor Paxton, prefixed to an edition of the " Illustrations of Scripture " published in 1842. The fullest estimate of his own gifts and excellences is given in the sermon preached by his colleague on the occasion of his death, most of which appeared in the Secession Magazine for 1844. Soon after returning from Jamaica Mr Robson was invited to succeed his brother-in-law at New Broughton, but, feeling quite restored, he had no difficulty in deciding to remain in Glasgow. Had the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University in 1844. Next year we find the congregation raising over ,900 for missionary and benevolent purposes. The ^3000 of debt on the new church they were at the same time clearing off. In a year or two the communion roll showed between 1250 and 1300 names, and at this high figure it remained for years, till by the organising of congregations in the suburbs its numerical strength was slightly reduced. In December 1864 Dr Robson's semi-jubilee as minister of Wellington Church was celebrated, when he was presented with 1000 guineas. But about this time there came symptoms that his usefulness might be extended but a little way into the second half of the jubilee period. The healthy action of the heart was impaired, and though he moved on for a time it was under the conscious- ness of failing strength, and in 1866 he found it needful to suggest a colleague. Third Minister. JAMES BLACK, translated from St Andrews, and inducted, 6th February 1868. The scnatus of that old University conferred on Mr Black the degree of D.D. almost immediately after he left. Each minister was to have ,550 of stipend, and for some years Dr Robson was able to take a fair share of ministerial work. But the ailment at the citadel of life gained ground, till, on the morning of the communion Sabbath, 2ist January 1872, he peacefully passed away. He was in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Under Dr Black's sole pastorate the congregation maintained its old level of prosperity, and in 1880 it was decided to remove to the west end of the city. The new church, seated for 46 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 1015, was opened on Saturday, nth October 1884, by Principal Cairns, and the name changed to Wellington Church. The site and the buildings together cost about ,26,500. To meet this outlay ,12,000 was obtained by the sale of the old church, which certain preparatory expenses reduced to ,9000. Over i 1,000 was raised at the opening services, and the balance of ,6000 was cleared off in 1888 and 1889 by special effort. In 1892, owing to partial decline in Ur Black's health, it was deemed proper, first by him- self and then by the congregation, to have steps taken with the view of obtaining a junior minister. Fourth Minister. DAVID W. FORREST, M.A., called from Moffat, and inducted on i$th March 1894. Each of the colleagues was to have a stipend f foy>- 1 '89? Mr Forrest published his volume of "Kerr Lectures, entitled "The Christ of History and of Experience," and in the following year he received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. On loth July 1899 he was loosed from Wellington Church on accepting a call to Skelmorlie, where the strain would be less, and where he would have more leisure for the exercise of his pen. On applying for liberty of moderation the commis-. sioners intimated that the stipends were to be the same as formerly. A call to the Rev. G. A. Johnston Ross, Westbourne Grove, London, followed, and his unexpected declinature left severe disappointment behind it. Dr Black remains meanwhile with the responsibility undivided, but the con- gregation keeps in the waiting attitude. Of the Doctor's publications we go back with interest to what, so far as we. know, was the earliest the sermon preached at Largo after the premature death of their minister, Rev. David Hay, a young man who had been brought up in St Andrews congregation. Passing by several discourses of a similar kind we might single out for special mention "The present Attitude of Science to Religion." But by much the most important production of his pen is " The Christian Life : an Exposition of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,'" published in two volumes in 1875. Coleridge knew no book comparable to the " Pilgrim's Progress" "for teach- ing and enforcing the whole system of saving truth according to the mind which was in Christ Jesus." So instead of amplifying on the flowing drapery Dr Black deals with the essential merits, and employs Bunyan's allegory "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness." At the Union Wellington Church had a membership of 1032. JOHN STREET (RELIEF) A NUMBER of Glasgow people having begun to build a place of worship in John Street they petitioned the Relief Presbytery to be received as a forming congregation, which was agreed to on loth October 1798, but with the condition annexed that in the election of a minister after the first occa- sion the right of voting was to be limited to those in full communion. The church, built at a cost of ,4440, and containing some 1500 sittings, was opened on the third Sabbath of November. In the early part of 1799 a call was given to the Rev. John Pitcairn of Kelso (East) ; but he could give them no encouragement to go on, and the call was withdrawn. It must have been a severe disappointment to the parties concerned, as it was to obtain him for their minister that they withdrew from Dovehill. First Minister. JOHN WATSON, who had been ordained scarcely two years before at Duns. Inducted to John Street, 29th May 1800. It proved an unfortunate choice in the end, although Mr Watson's ministry lasted twenty years. On 2nd May 1820 two petitions came up to the Presbytery, one from the session and the other from the managers, wishing inquiry into PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 47 the circumstances of the congregation. Mr Watson was conversed with, when he admitted that reports unfavourable to his character for sobriety had gone abroad, and that these were in some instances well founded. Sorrow was expressed and amendment promised ; but on 7th June 1820 he demitted his charge, feeling that his usefulness in John Street was at an end. The connection, as the congregation requested, was dissolved, and their minister was suspended from office sine die. He removed to the Isle of Man, where he died in 1823. The first payment to his widow from the Widows' Fund was made in August of that year. The congregation allowed him ^100 per annum till his death. His successor, fifty years afterwards, spoke of the dismal state in which he found the church, " through the failure of the once promising, but latterly lamentable, ministry of his predecessor." Second Minister. WILLIAM ANDERSON, son of the Rev. John Anderson of Kilsyth. As his troubled entrance into John Street pulpit has been much commented on we shall give the particulars from the Minutes of Presbytery. Mr Anderson got licence on 5th September 1820, and was appointed to preach in John Street on Sabbath week. The congregation having tested his abilities a call in his favour was sustained on 6th March 1821. On loth April Mr Anderson delivered a homily before the Presbytery on ist Timothy iv. 7 : " Refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness." In the discourse he struck out against the system some ministers had of praying in the introductory exercises that the Spirit would bring seasonably to their recollection the truths they had been meditating on, or suggest something better fitted for edification. It was, he said, as if they put themselves on a level with the apostles, who were to trust to the aids of the inspiring Spirit, and take no thought what they were to speak. The petition, he ofttimes judged, was put up in thoughtlessness and formality, if not in the spirit of designing hypocrisy. When he finished the Presby- tery agreed "for many weighty reasons not to sustain." At a subsequent meeting other parts of his trial exercises were approved, but before proceed- ing further it was deemed needful to inquire into certain reports about his way of preaching, and specially they wished a pledge that he would discon- tinue the practice of reading his discourses. On i8th July he gave in a paper, in which he urged that, so long as he had the approval of John Street congregation, he saw no impropriety in making free and public use of his manuscript. Delay was still resolved on, and on 6th November Mr Anderson was subjected to what some might deem an inquisitorial examination. He had previously acknowledged that he had used ill-considered expressions in the pulpit, and for this offence he was willing to be admonished by the Moderator. But satisfaction was required on three points doctrine, prud- ence, and the non-delivery of his discourses. Of the ten questions with which he was now confronted some were frivolous, such as that relating to repeating lines from Shakespeare, which he admitted he had been four times guilty of in fourteen months. But two or three of the questions went a great way deeper. Was it the case that in one of his public discourses he had represented the Saviour's argument for the resurrection of the dead from the words spoken to Moses at the bush as invalid ? In reply he read from his manuscript that had such reasoning been used by any interpreter but Jesus Christ, or one taught by His Spirit, we would have been ready to pronounce it sophistical. But, worst of all, he had said from the pulpit that, rather than the hallelujahs of heaven, many sinners would prefer the company of that other place, could they but " carry on a lucrative brimstone traffic there, or did they find that there were wine and women and theatres in hell." It is doubtful whether very many Presbyteries, even in our own time, would look on this as " sound speech which cannot be condemned." But sorrow was 48 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS expressed for some "hard sayings" he had used ; and as for the manuscript, he would meanwhile dispense with it, and if after eighteen months he felt unable to go on he would resign his charge. On 22nd January 1822 he was asked if he were willing to harmonise with his brethren, and having given satisfaction on a variety of points he was ordained on 7th February following. At the Synod in May 1829 strong measures were in course of adoption on the organ question, and Mr Anderson stood up boldly for toleration. He argued that the use of instrumental music in public worship was not opposed to our Presbyterian standards, nor in the case before them did it endanger the unity of Christian fellowship. A motion against interference with Roxburgh Place Church concluded the speech, and he felt so strongly on the subject that he hinted " he might be speaking there for the last time." Mr Anderson's father seconded, but when the vote was taken all the support they had came from two elders. This slight number, however, did not represent the entire minority, as 15 declined to vote, 8 of whom favoured a middle motion, declaring the introduction of the organ to be highly inex- pedient, though they were not prepared to say it was opposed to Scripture or the spirituality of gospel worship. After the Synod Mr Anderson published two pamphlets, the one "An Apology for the Organ," and the other U A Chapter of Organ History." His position being assailed these were followed by an Appendix to the " Apology for the Organ." Soon after this he entered on the public advocacy of Pre-Millenarianism, and in 1831 he published " An Apology for the Millennial Doctrine as held by the Primitive Church." To this theory he clung to the last, and it gave a colouring to some of his discourses, and particularly to a discourse on "The Prospects of the World," to which full reference has been made under Aberdeen (St Paul's). Of Mr Anderson's pulpit appearances about this time we have a graphic picture from the pen of a lady of cultured mind, the wife of the Rev. James M'Crie of Old Meldrum. Happening to be in Glasgow one Sabbath in 1834 she embraced the opportunity "of hearing the first preacher, as report would have it, in the Relief denomination." She describes him as " rather tall and swarthy complexioned, his large dark eyes indicating strength of mind and perhaps more vehemence of temperament than even strength of mind. There is a wildness and fear-nothingness, with a haze of mysteriousness, apparent in his whole aspect and contour. The discourse was an exposition of ' The lost Piece of Silver.' There were many excellent thoughts -in it. The figure was usefully and impressively unfolded. The illustrations of character were truthful, occasionally stirring, though now and then grotesquely absurd." This last feature she animadverts on, with the wish that he would throw away his oddities ; but she adds : " As it is, he holds no mean place in the service of the Redeemer." The purifying and compacting of John Street Church had meanwhile been going on year by year work in which the minister found himself much hampered. "The secular affairs were administered by a committee of pew proprietors, some of them not members of the church, who, instead of being helpful, were for many years obstructive of our progress." From the report given in to the Commissioners on Religious Instruction in 1836 it appears that the seats were originally portioned out among those who subscribed for the building of the church, and who became bound in return to pay an annual feu-duty, amounting in all to ,296, which was on an average 45. a year on each sitting. The congregation was in course of buying up the sittings "at an extortionate price" as they came to be disposed of, and at this date they held about one-half. The rates fixed by the managers should have yielded ^520, but the proprietors kept by the PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 49 original feu, some of them letting their seats and pocketing a good per- centage. The membership was now 900, and the stipend ^270. Of the debt ^1000 rested on the building, and for this the proprietors were responsible. Other ,600 stood against the congregation. The financial affairs of John Street required to be put on a simpler basis, and this may not have been fully done till the new church was built. In 1850 Mr Anderson published his well-rounded-off treatise on Regenera- tion, and had the degree of LL.D. conferred upon him by Glasgow University. In 1851 he published his book on "The Mass," which has been characterised by his biographer as "a terrible piece of critical anatomy," and it was followed by " Penance and the other Romish Sacra- ments." Most of the lectures included in these volumes were originally delivered to crowded audiences in the City Hall, and they were such as probably no other man could have produced. They helped him to earn the encomium with which the inscription on the tablet to his memory in John Street Church concludes : " A fearless Advocate of every good Cause, and an eloquent Denouncer of all Unrighteousness." When afterwards challenged by the Secularists of Glasgow to meet Holyoake in public debate he made the characteristic reply that " to prepare for such a thing was what he had neither leisure nor inclination for, and that the Council of Trent had long enough occupied his head with jargon, immor- ality, and impiety." Third Minister. ALEXANDER M'LEOD, who had been eleven and a half years in Strathaven (West). Dr Anderson, though only in his fifty- seventh year, had requested his people to provide him with a colleague. Deafness was growing upon him, and it impaired his fitness for the ministrations of the sick-chamber and the conducting of Bible classes. But though he was to take his full share of pulpit work he firmly declined to accept more than ^250 of stipend, the junior minister to have .350. Mr M'Leod was inducted, nth October 1855, the call being signed by 701 members and 129 adherents. The present church, built on the old site, was opened on Sabbath, ist January 1860. It was seated for 1400, and the collection amounted to ,1 134. Though the total cost was little under .10,000 in seven years it was free of debt. The two ministers kept all through on friendly terms ; but it comes out that there were party preferences in the congregation, and on 9th February 1864 Mr M'Leod accepted a call to Claughton, a suburb of Birkenhead, where a congregation had been recently formed. The call was signed by only 43 members and 17 adherents, but they promised a stipend of ,400, with expenses. Next year Mr M'Leod received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. Great must have been the contrast between the huge congregation in John Street and the little company to which he ministered in Claughton ; but success was only a question of time. In 1866 the new church, with sittings for 800, was opened, the cost being set down at .9000. In 1871 Dr M'Leod was invited back to Glasgow by Parliamentary Road Church, but he resolved to go on in Claughton. He died, I2th January 1891, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty-seventh of his ministry. His " Christus Consolator " was published in 1870, and his earlier works have already come in under the heading of Strathaven (West). Of Dr M'Leod, Dr Anderson wrote thirty years before : " He is a great man, both intellectually and morally, my colleague." Fourth Minister. DAVID M'EWAN, from College Street, Edinburgh, after ministering there for nearly thirteen years. Inducted, I2th October 1865. The congregation had previously called the Rev. James M'Owan of' Perth (North). Dr Anderson now retired from regular pulpit work, though II. D 50 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS he generally preached in John Street once a month. He was to have an annual allowance of .300, and his colleague's stipend was not to be less than ,400. The congregation showed no signs of decadence as yet, the membership reaching 1 140. Dr Anderson, who resided during the last decade of his life in Prospect House, Uddingston, died, I5th September 1872, his last wordsbeing: "Near the Kingdom." His Life, by George Gilfillan, was published next year, a book marked by the fervour and critical skill for which its author stood pre-eminent. For compactness, however, and literary grace we prefer his portrait of William Anderson, which appeared first in Hogg's Instructor and then in his Second Gallery. Another discriminating estimate of Dr Anderson's gifts as a thinker, a preacher, and a writer we cannot afford to overlook that by Dr Hutton of Paisley, prefixed to the volume of discourses headed by "Reunion in the Heavenly World" published in 1876. Mr M'Ewan received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University in 1873, and in May 1875 he was invited to succeed Dr John M'Farlane in Clapham Church, London, being carried over the Rev. John Dobie by 105 votes to 88 ; and, having accepted the call, he was loosed from John Street on I3th July, and was inducted to Clapham on 7th October. In his new charge he had a membership at first of fully 500, and it steadily increased till in sixteen years it reached a good way over 900, and furnished a stipend of ^1000 the largest, next to that of Dr Monro Gibson, of any Presbyterian minister in London. In 1898 Dr M'Ewan obtained for his colleague the Rev. Thomas Currie, M.A., from Warrender Park Free Church, Edinburgh. Fifth Minister. JOHN BRAND, from Bell Street, Dundee, where he had been ordained eight and a half years before. Inducted to John Street, 3ist March 1876, the stipend to be ^600. Four years after this it was ,700, and the membership was returned at 1 100, but there was now to be a rapid decline through emigration to the suburbs. Mr Brand found the incessant pastoral work required, extending over far distances, too much for him, and on 8th June 1886 his demission was accepted. After a brief pause he undertook the building up of a new cause at Downfield, in the neighbour- hood of Dundee, his old centre, and there the rest of his ministerial life was to be spent. Sixth Minister. JOHN F. BLAIR, previously of Gardenstown, where he had ministered nearly six years. Inducted, i6th August 1887. John Street membership, which used to go up among the four figures, was now reduced to 600, though the stipend named was ,450. A return to the inflow of better days no one could look for, and in eleven years the numbers were down another hundred. In March 1899 Mr Blair resigned owing to diffi- culties of various kinds, and on nth April he was loosed from his charge. He then removed to New South Wales, where he was inducted soon after into Campbell Street, Balmain, in the Presbytery of Sydney. Seventh Minister. ALEXANDER WYLIE BLUE, from Campbeltown. Or- dained, 26th April 1900. The membership at the beginning of the year was 480, but the stipend was still to be ,450. During the brief period between the above date and the Union there was good promise of increase under a new ministry. HUTCHESONTOWN (RELIEF) ON gth February 1799 the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow received a petition from the Gorbals to have a congregation formed there. On 9th April this was agreed to, and the church, built at a cost of ,3000, was opened by Mr PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 5I Hutchison of Paisley on the second Sabbath of May. In Clelland's Annals the sittings are placed at 1700. This congregation and that of John Street were nearly contemporaneous and much alike in their origin. Both sprung from the same contested election in the parent Relief church at Dovehill John Street was begun by friends of the Rev. John Pitcairn, Kelso, the minority's candidate, and Hutchesontown by friends of the Rev. John Watt, Blairlogie, the majority's candidate. Though the latter had declined the divided call from Dovehill the impression was that he would accept Hutchesontown, where all was harmony. The moderation took place in January 1800, and as Mr Pitcairn disappointed his friends in John Street so Mr Watt disappointed his friends in Hutchesontown. From the Society's Rules and Regulations, which got the sanction of the Justices in 1826, we obtain insight into the workings of the proprietor system so common in the early Relief churches. The secular affairs in this case were under the control of twelve managers, including a preses and treasurer. Only proprietors in full membership could hold office or vote on any occasion, and none but proprietors could be managers. The treasurer was to uplift the whole revenues, except extraordinary collections required by the session for purposes such as the relief of the poor or sacramental expenses. Proprietors in arrears with feu-duty for two years were to forfeit their sittings, and any proprietor wishing to sell his right was to make his first offer to the managers at the price they had cost him. If the offer were declined he might dispose of them to any other purchaser ; but the managers were not bound to divide the property or, in the case of heirship, to enter the seats under more names than one. A proprietor might sublet his pew, but not at a higher rate than 5 per cent, on the original cost, exclusive of repairs. First Mtm's/er.~WuAAAU THOMSON, from Beith (Head Street), where he had laboured twelve and a half years. Inducted, i4th August 1800. Ihe call had been protested against, but the protest was withdrawn, and Mr Thomson having expressed his wish for Glasgow the translation was agreed to. In 1836 the communicants numbered between 800 and 900 and were admitted to be on the decrease. The debt was .700, and the stipend which had been .200 in 1817, was now ^300, with 26 for sacramental expenses. Three years after this Mr Thomson required a colleague being now on the verge of fourscore. He died, 25* July 1842, in the eighty third year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry. Mr Thomson was char- acterised by Mr Ramage of Berkeley Street as a man of great force of character, and a natural orator, with "homely ways and pithy Doric quickened by the true Promethean fire." Second Minister. JAMES S. TAYLOR, translated from Coldstream (East) where he had been ordained twelve years before. Inducted, igth November 1839, as colleague and successor to Mr Thomson, with whose uncultured strength his own tasteful style and manner must have been in striking contrast. As junior minister he was to have a stipend of ^200. Mr Taylor was much respected by his brethren, and took a high place amon^ the preachers in Glasgow. At the Union in May 1847 he was one of the three ministers fixed on from the Relief side to address the huge evening audience in Tanfield Hall. But along with his gifts and graces there was a one-idead sensitiveness which led to unhappy results. In 1845 a fretting case from his session came before the Synod by protest, which was sustained by a majority. Then, as we read in the Minutes, "the Rev. James S. Taylor feeling himself aggrieved by the decision, intimated his intention of resigning his charge." This was specially awkward, as he was Moderator of Synod at the time ; but after a committee had conferred with him the explanations 52 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS they gave so far satisfied him, and he did not now "feel himself under the painful necessity of separating from his ecclesiastical connection." But matters were not always to be thus adjusted. In 1872, when the Synod sanctioned the introduction of instrumental music into public worship, Mr Taylor wrote the Moderator renouncing connection, because, he said, "I am obliged to regard the U.P. Church as having on a point of vital moment ceased to be a witness for truth in the land." A committee was appointed to have an interview with him, but he declined all conference on the subject, and the case was remitted to the Presbytery of Glasgow. Again attempts to have conversation with him were baffled, " because his mind had long ago been made up on the matter in question," and on I3th August Mr Taylor's resignation of his charge was accepted. After this he went over to the Baptists, and preached till 1880 to a few of his people who kept by him. He died at Helensburgh, suddenly and unseen, on 29th December 1888, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and sixty-first of his ministry. Though distance came between him and the clerical friend- ships of his youth and manhood a graceful tribute to his memory appeared in the denominational magazine soon after his death. Third Minister. WILLIAM NAIRN, M.A., translated from Keith, where he had been nearly four years. Inducted, 2nd July 1873. The stipend was to be ^450. In 1887 Mr Nairn published a volume of sermons, entitled "The Books were Opened." On 8th July 1888, when enjoying his holidays at Arran, he fainted while out fishing, and was carried to his lodgings, only to die. He was in the fiftieth year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry. We read that his heart was weak, and that after preaching he was liable to weary, sleepless nights. This may partly account for his closing illness and sudden death. Fourth Minister. JAMES B. NICHOLSON, M.A., from Kettle, where he had been ordained four years before. Inducted, I9th February 1889. On Sabbath, I4th May 1899, centenary services were conducted in the venerable building, which stands as it stood before the intervening century was born. At the close of the year the membership was close on 1000, and the stipend was .525. GREENHEAD (RELIEF) ON 2nd July 1805 a petition for sermon was laid before the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow in the name of a body of people residing in Bridgeton and its vicinity. The application was granted, and the station was opened on the last Sabbath of that month. Along with a set of rules drawn up previously it is stated that the movement arose from the wish to obtain the blessings of a gospel ministry, the village standing in need of a house for public worship. The Articles agreed on bore that the money contributed was to be paid in five instalments, two months apart, and the subscribers were to have their choice of seats according to the sums given, and where two or more were equal the order was to be determined by lot. In calling a minister all who brought certificates of church membership and took sittings were to have the right to vote, but the election of managers was to lie with the proprietors only. On this footing the building was proceeded with, and when completed it had 1293 sittings, and cost almost ,1600. For more than thirty years this was the only place of worship in Bridgeton. In 1807 the congregation issued three unsuccessful calls first, to Mr M'llquham of Milngavie, but, having his choice of Tollcross, he wrote them to go no further ; second, to Mr M'Farlane of Waterbeck, but his time to PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 53 accept had not yet come ; and third, to Mr Walker of Cupar, who declined Bridgeton, as he had done Campbell Street a little before. First Minister. JOHN RESIGN, who had been in four charges, the fourth being Carrubber's Close, Edinburgh, where he had not much to keep him from accepting a fifth. Inducted, ijth March 1808. Within two years he was libelled by his elders, mainly for insobriety, and the Synod in May 1810 found the charges proven; but, satisfied from the evidence "that he has been labouring under distress of body and debility of mind, they see it their duty to blend mercy with judgment." Their decision was to loose him from his charge and suspend him from office, leaving it to the Presbytery of Glasgow to remove the sentence if they should see fit. Mr Reston must have had popular gifts, but he was erratic and unreliable. A complaint was made to the Presbytery in 1819 that he had been allowed to preach in John Street Church, though still lying under suspension. We find from the newspapers that he died at Wilmington, after a short illness, on nth August 1829. Second Minister. JOHN M'FARLANE, who had been seven years in Waterbeck, and now accepted what he had declined three years before. Inducted, 2oth September 1810. The stipend was to be ,180, with ^12 for expenses and ^20 for a house. He died, 6th December 1829, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and twenty-seventh of his ministry. His son James entered the Relief Hall in 1825, but joined the Establishment before his Theological course was finished. He was ordained to the third charge, Stirling, in 1831, and after being in St Bernard's, Edinburgh, fora number of years he became known as Dr M'Farlane of Duddingston. Instead of taking the evangelical side during the ten years' conflict he was the author of a pamphlet upholding Patronage and the policy of the Moderates throughout. He died in 1866, aged fifty-seven. Third Minister. JOHN EDWARDS, from Campsie. Ordained, 23rd September 1830. Five years after this the membership, which had increased 300 during that period, numbered 916. Mr Edwards' stipend, which had been ^180 at first, was now ^216, having risen slightly year by year. There was a debt on the property of fully ^1400, and the proprietors still held 219 of the sittings. In 1858 the church buildings were renovated and improved at an expenditure of ,3000, and the sittings reduced to 1000. In 1870 Mr Edwards received the degree of D.D. from Philadelphia, United States, and two years after this arrangements were made to provide him with a colleague, the.junior minister to receive a stipend of ^400 and the senior minister 200. In November 1872 the congregation called Mr Jeffrey of King's Park, Dalkeith, but he remained in the east for the time. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER HlSLOP, M.A., from Earlston (West). Ordained, 2nd October 1873, and loosed, I3th February 1877, on accepting a call to Helensburgh. In a few months the congregation called Mr Robert S. Wilson, but he deemed it inexpedient to accept, and was ordained soon after at Castle- Douglas. Fifth Minister. JOHN STEEL, called from St David's Free Church, Kirkintilloch, where he had been ordained, 26th August 1869. Inducted to Greenhead, 24th April 1878. Dr Edwards died, 2oth August 1888, in the' eighty-fourth year of his age and fifty-eighth of his ministry. Though slightly ailing for some time he rose that morning and dressed as usual, and a short time after it was found that the long life journey was over and that he had entered into rest. Little remains to attest what Dr Edwards was, but we go back with undimmed interest to a lecture of his on " Self-Educa- tion," which, after appearing in a volume of Lectures to Young Men, formed two articles in Hogg's Instructor for 1845. I* contained stimulus and direction for youthful readers bent on self-improvement in the face of 54 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS difficulties, and it showed the author to be a man of wide reading, mental culture, and solid attainments. Mr Steel received the degree of U.D. from Glasgow University in 1896. The congregation at the close of 1899 had a membership of 732, and the stipend was .440. TOLLCROSS (RELIEF) ON ist July 1806 a large body of people in and about Tollcross, a village a mile east of Parkhead, petitioned the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow to be received as a forming congregation. They stated that they were building a house for public worship, and it appears from a newspaper paragraph that the work was going on in the early summer. The application was granted forthwith, and Sabbath services were begun. The church, when finished, had 1231 sittings, and it cost ^2300. First Minister. WILLIAM M'lLQUHAM, translated from Milngavie, where he had been for eight years. A competing call came out from Bridgeton at the same time ; but of the two newly-formed congregations Mr M'llquham preferred Tollcross, where he was inducted, 2ist May 1807. The stipend in 1817 was .180, with a manse. Mr M'llquham died, 2nd September 1822, he and his eldest daughter, aged sixteen, being buried in the same grave. He was in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. Second Minister. WILLIAM NEY, from Kilsyth. Ordained, 25th May 1824. Though Mr Ney's course was brief, and had a troubled close, the biographer of Dr William Anderson, his fellow-townsman, tells us "there was no man in the Relief body of whose abilities and commanding eloquence Anderson entertained a higher opinion." But the gold became dim, and on 8th November 1831 Mr Ney had to be loosed from his charge and sus- pended sine die. He died in his father's humble cottage at Kilsyth about a year afterwards. The precise date cannot be given ; but his widow received the first payment of her annuity at Whitsunday 1833. His age was thirty- seven, and they had been married only two years when he lost his ministerial standing through intemperance. Third Minister. WILLIAM AULD, son of the Rev. William Auld, Greenock. Ordained on a harmonious call, 28th February 1833, and in three years the communion roll rose 400, and reached a total of 916. The church was crowned with a steeple and bell in 1834 at a cost of ^280, and about the same time a manse was built at a cost of joo. Since the close of Mr Ney's ministry the funds had improved by at least ^100, but the stipend was only ^140, with house and garden. This was partly owing to a debt of ^1400 on the property. At this time one-fourth of the congregation were from Old Monkland parish, and 45 families came from more than two miles. Of the membership, the report bore that one-fifth were hand-loom weavers and one-fifth were miners. The proprietors numbered 127, and they included, in addition to the original contributors and their heirs, those who had subscribed at least a guinea for the erection of the steeple. The management of the Society's secular affairs was entirely in their hands, including even the fixing of the seat rents, and they were not all members of the congregation. In 1876 it was arranged to provide Mr Auld with a colleague, whose stipend was to be .250, the senior minister to have ^150, with the manse. Fourth Minister. CHARLES M'EwiNG, from Stornoway, where he had been minister four and a half years. Inducted, i ith December 1876. Three years after this the membership was 361. On the evening of Tuesday, 24th PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 55 October 1883, Mr Auld's jubilee was celebrated with much interest, befitting discourses having been preached from Tollcross pulpit by his colleague and others on the preceding Sabbath. But he was now nearing what the con- gregation in their congratulatory address called " the dawn of the better life day," and on iyth April 1885 he died, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. Mr Auld's son, the Rev. James M. Auld, was ordained on 22nd February 1875 D Y Glasgow Presbytery as a missionary to Kaffraria. For some years the station of Elujilo was under his charge, but since then he has laboured at Columba, in the same colony. After becoming sole pastor Mr M'Ewing's salary was raised to ^300. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 625, and the stipend was ^345. REGENT PLACE (ANTIBURGHER) IN November 1817 a petition was presented to the session of the old Anti- burgher congregation in Duke Street craving to have the reading of the line in the praises of the sanctuary restored and repeating tunes discon- tinued. It was the conservative element in conflict with modern innova- tions. The session refused to interfere, declaring that these were matters which it lay with the minister to arrange, a dictum which the rules and forms of the present day do not sustain. Irritation wrought on for more than a year, when it found a salutary outlet in Church Extension. On 2nd March 1819 a packet of papers was given in to the Presbytery, and a committee was ap- pointed to examine the various documents and report on them at next meet- ing. On 23rd March it was agreed to lose sight of disputes about the non-reading of the line and such things and keep by the simple question of granting a disjunction. To ascertain whether the petitioners were backed by a large enough constituency two petitions were to lie in the session-house of Duke Street on certain evenings, to be signed, the one by members and the other by adherents, who wished to be disjoined. On 27th April the petitions were brought up, the one signed by 157 members, of whom 13 were from Anderston congregation, and the other by 69 adherents. Thereupon it was agreed to erect the applicants into a separate congregation. Thus at the Union in the following year Edinburgh and Glasgow had each five Secession congregations ; but while in Edinburgh three were Burgher and two Antiburgher, in Glasgow three were Antiburgher and two Burgher. But the meeting-house in Regent Place was not finished, and sermon was not required tilt the first Sabbath of August. That day the new church, with 1446 sittings, was opened by Mr Muter, whose appearance in the pulpit was the pledge of peace between the two congregations. An election of elders was next to be proceeded with, and a session was formed on the fourth Sabbath of October. The first call came out on 3oth December, signed by 85 male members and adhered to by 61 female members and 114 non-communicants. The stipend was to be ,300, and it was reported that there were 600 seats let. The call was addressed to the Rev. Hugh Heugh of Stirling ; but at the Synod in May he indicated strong attachment to his people, and it was decided not to translate. He was called again in June 1820, but the former decision was repeated. There was nothing more done now till April 1821, when the Presbytery held a special meeting to receive an application from Regent Place for a moderation. The whole proceedings connected with this call were condensed into the shortest space possible. On Friday the moderation was granted ; on Saturday and Sabbath the pulpit intimation was made ; on Monday the-election took place ; and on Tuesday the call was set aside. The preacher chosen was Mr James 56 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Whyte, for whom seven calls gathered up for the Synod's decision a year later. In Regent Place Church Mr Whyte's gifts were not universally ap- preciated, the signatures fell short, and in the Presbytery it carried not to sustain "on account of the divided state of the congregation." They were now to fall back on their former choice. First Minister. HUGH HEUGH, who had been fifteen years in Stirling (now Viewfield). The numbers signing in his favour now amounted to 260 members and 203 adherents. Along with this call another from Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, to be colleague to Dr Jamieson, came before the Synod on 1 3th September 1821. The discussion lasted eight hours, when it carried to translate to Glasgow. Mr Heugh, as was given in a report at the time, "stated his known attachment to his congregation, which was undiminished, begged the Court to throw out of view every secular consideration connected with himself or his family, and entreated that, wherever a doubt existed in the minds of members, Stirling should have the benefit." The vote stood thus : Glasgow 55, Stirling 52, Edinburgh i, and he was inducted, 9th October 1821. What about repeating tunes now and the reading of the line? The minister, before the year was out, put such matters at rest by desiring the precentor to introduce the new music and by consenting to wear the gown and bands. It was unworthy prejudice denied house room even in its own temple. Some families of the sterner sort might seek else- where, but the congregation was safe into the tide of progress. Mr Heugh had the degree of U.D. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1831, but of such honours he wrote some years afterwards : " They are of vastly little value a mere shoulder tinsel knot." He took an active part in the Voluntary Controversy, and published a pamphlet in 1833, entitled "Con- siderations on Civil Establishments of Religion/' In 1836 Regent Place had a membership of about 1150. There was a debt of ^2245, which was being reduced by the yearly overplus. The stipend, including expenses and life insurance, was ^468. The congregation also, besides supporting two city missionaries of their own, bestowed ^90 a year on Inveraray church, and ,250 on Bellevue, Jamaica. About the year 1843 Dr Heugh felt the evening shadows beginning to gather, and a sojourn on the Continent was recom- mended, the fruits of which we have in his " Notices of the State of Religion in Geneva and Belgium." But, though partial restoration came, he felt persuaded that he would never be able to resume full work again, and steps were taken to procure a colleague. At this juncture Dr Heugh stepped forward to take his part in the Atonement discussions, and at the time when a breach was threatened he acted as a mediator. On neither side did he go to extremes, and his " Irenicum " helped to smooth the way to better things. It was a motion of his that carried at the Synod in May 1845, when the Clerk's table was laden with conflicting Memorials. But when July came, and Dr Brown was libelled, his state of health was such that he could not go beyond a silent vote. At this time the Rev. David Croom of Sanquhar was under call to be his colleague, but declined. Second Minister. JAMES TAYLOR, translated from St Andrews. Having been called with much harmony he was inducted, 26th February 1846. The stipend was to be ,300, and he had scarcely settled down in Glasgow when he received the degree of D.D. from St Andrews University. With Dr Heugh the fibres now yielded one by one. Once he addressed his people at the communion, once he was present at the prayer meeting, once he took his seat in the session, and once in the Presbytery. Once he accompanied his colleague in a round of pastoral visitation, and once in some visits to the afflicted. Then he might have said : " It is done." It was when in this worn state that he had to suffer for the part he took in the PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 57 Atonement Controversy ; but the recital pertains to the history of Kirkgate, Leith, and the Rev. William Marshall. Dr Heugh died, loth June 1846, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. His memory survives in a biographical volume of much merit by his son-in-law, the Rev. Hamilton M. MacGill, U.U. A companion volume of his discourses was pub- lished at the same time, of which a friendly critic wrote that, "wanting his admirable delivery, they have lost much of their charm," a remark which admits of wide application. Mrs Heugh, who was a daughter of the Rev. John Clarkson of Ayr, died, I5th September 1877, in her ninety-eighth year. On nth July 1848 Dr Taylor, with a large proportion of his congrega- tion and a larger proportion of its wealth, was disjoined from Regent Place and transferred west to Renfield Street. By request he was to occupy the pulpit till the first Sabbath of August, and dispense the communion on that day. The Presbytery expressed gratification at the spirit displayed by both parties. Third Minister. JOHN EDMOND, translated from Dennyloanhead, where he had been Dr Stark's colleague for eight years. The congregation which remained in Regent Place were in readiness for a moderation at next meeting of Presbytery. Mr Edmond was described about this time by a brother minister of strong literary bent as " one of the most effective speakers in the U.P. body, mildly animated, tremulously powerful, with sweetness now and then soaring almost into strength." The first call having been declined another followed, but they were induced by the object of their choice to have it withdrawn. They next fixed on Mr Andrew Morton, probationer, but he preferred Sir Michael Street, Greenock. Now the resolve was formed to call Mr Edmond again, believing that in the circumstances he would not a third time say them nay. He yielded, and his induction took place, 5th June 1850. During the ten years which followed there was steady progress in Regent Place Church, and though the situation was unfavourable the membership at the close of that period was about 1000, with a revenue of ^1600 a year. But now Church Exten- sion was commencing with vigour in London, and as the first-fruits a con- gregation was formed in Highbury on 3ist October 1869. * After a half year had passed, though the members numbered only 39, they called the Rev. John Edmond of Glasgow, and at a meeting of Presbytery on I2th June 1860 Mr Edmond, in presence of a huge audience, intimated his acceptance, taking the front place in the new movement. The church at Highbury was opened on 4th December 1862 by Dr Cairns of Berwick, with sittings for 1050, the cost being about ^9000. The stipend was ^500, of which ^200 was guaranteed by the Synod for three years, but owing to the rapid gathering in of better-class families the supplement was dispensed with before that period expired. In the beginning of 1861 Mr Edmond had the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. In 1870 he was sent as a deputy to the first General Assembly of the Presby- terian Church of America. When in Canada he conducted a Sabbath service in Dr Ormiston's church, Hamilton, and the Doctor having removed shortly after to New York he was invited to become his successor. The call was forwarded with 435 signatures of members, and the promise of 3500 dollars, and a manse, but Dr Edmond decided to remain at his post in Highbury. In 1872 he wrote an account of his tour through the United States and Canada in twelve articles, which extended through the twelve numbers of the U.P. Magazine for that year. At the intervening Synod he filled the Moderator's Chair. In 1885 the Rev. Peter Carmichael, from the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Airdrie, was inducted as his colleague, and on 7th October 1893 Dr Edmond died, in the seventy-eighth year of his 5 8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS age and fifty-second of his ministry. Of his published writings a large pro- portion were addressed to the young. Before leaving Glasgow he issued "The Children's Charter," and this was followed by "The Children's Church at Home," the first series in 1861 and the second in 1863. In 1871 his " Scripture Stories in Verse " appeared, most of them reprinted from the fuvcnile Missionary Magazine. l-'onrth Minister. WILLIAM R. THOMSON, who had been five years in Bethelfield, Kirkcaldy. Prior to this Regent Place congregation attempted to obtain the Rev. W. B. Robertson of Irvine, but, like churches of even higher mark, they were disappointed. There were 826 members at this time, and the stipend was to be .450. Mr Thomson was inducted, 3rd October 1861, and accepted Sir Michael Street, Greenock, on 2gth April 1863. A call from Regent Place to the Rev. William M. Taylor of Bootle quickly followed, but was declined, and then, after a lengthy pause, they called the Rev. William Thomson of Haddington, who preferred to remain in a quieter sphere. Fifth Minister. ALEXANDER OLIVER, B.A., who had been in Galashiels (East) for eleven years. Inducted, 26th January 1865, the stipend to be the same as formerly. On I2th May 1878 the new church at Dennistoun, with sittings for over 800, was opened by Professor Cairns. The cost was about ,13,000, but that sum was more than covered by the price received from the railway company for the old building. In 1888 Mr Oliver received the degree of D.U. from Edinburgh University. Since coming to Glasgow he has published two books, the one, entitled " In Defence of the Faith," in 1886, and the other, "What and How to Preach," in 1892, the latter being a set of lectures prepared by appointment of Synod for our divinity students in connection with the work of Practical Training. At the Synod in 1894 Dr Oliver was raised to the Moderator's Chair. The stipend of Regent Place Church at the close of 1899 was ^600, and the membership stood at, or slightly over, the same figure. CALTON (RELIEF) THE place of worship in which this congregation began had a far-back history. It was built in 1756 for Mr Hugh Innes, one of two ministers who split the old Reformed Presbytery and set up another for themselves based on Fraser of Brae's scheme of Universal Redemption. It remained in the hands of this party till 1791, when the congregation collapsed, the last minister being Mr George Thomson, who had been at one time Burgher minister of Rathillet. The property was afterwards acquired by the main body of Reformed Presbyterians in Glasgow, under Mr John M'Millan. On this congregation removing to their new church in Great Hamilton Street the Relief Presbytery, on petition to that effect, appointed Mr M'Farlane of Bridgeton to preach in the vacant chapel on the first Sabbath of February 1820. On 1st March commissioners appeared from a body of people " in and about Calton " to be taken under the Presbytery's inspection, and it was agreed to recognise them as Kirk Street Relief Church. First Minister. JAMES TURNBULL, who had been nearly seven years in Colinsburgh. Inducted, 27th June 1820, the stipend to be ^120. Next year a new church, with 1394 sittings, was built at a cost of ,2200. Houses and shops, which brought a good return, were also erected on part of the ground, the outlay being ^2100. In the summer of 1826 disputes arose in the session over a proposal by Mr Turnbull to have the Lord's Supper administered quarterly and week-day services dispensed with, but on 5th September a graver matter was introduced into the Presbytery. Seven of PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 59 the elders requested an investigation into reports affecting their minister's character. At three successive meetings witnesses were examined in long array, and Mr William Anderson, who along with other two members of Presbytery had conducted the precognition, pressed home the charge with much vehemence. Mr Turnbull admitted that on the night specified his head was so confused on Glasgow streets that he did not know east from west ; that in his bewilderment he asked two women to tell him his where- abouts ; and that he went with them into a shop and paid for a dram, but left without tasting it, and reached home after midnight. It makes us doubt whether the insobriety and improper demeanour imputed to him were altogether the invention of "a wicked, enthusiastic visionary." But members and adherents to the number of 750 petitioned the Presbytery in his favour. They were convinced, they said, of his entire innocence, and it was their settled determination to abide by their minister, come what might. The sentence was that for certain imprudences Mr Turnbull should be suspended from preaching on Sabbath first, and should be rebuked before the con- gregation. He bowed to the decision, expressed sorrow for his faults, and promised circumspection for the future. At next meeting of Presbytery Mr Thomson of Hutchesontown reported that he preached in Calton Church as appointed, but " Mr Turnbull declined to make his appearance when called for." In one of the public papers it was reported that the church " was doubly crammed in all parts," and it was further stated by a friend of Mr TurnbulFs that the streets and lanes leading towards the place of worship were crowded, and that the carrying out of the Presbytery's sentence would have been to hold up the minister to derision. He himself rebelled against the sentence altogether, and on 2nd January 1827 his brethren declared him no longer a Relief minister. This brought the case before the Synod by protest and appeal, the con- gregation unanimously resolving to adhere to Mr Turnbull till the matter was settled. At the Synod the committee which sat on the case reported that they found the appellant in a good frame of mind, that he lamented the sin he had committed, and that he cast himself upon the mercy of the Court. He was then called to the bar, rebuked by the Moderator, and suspended for four Sabbaths. Against the latter part of the sentence the commissioners from the congregation protested, and this brought matters back to where they were. Mr Turnbull on returning to Glasgow did not lie aside for four Sabbaths, and on I3th July the Presbytery received his written resignation of connec- tion wit^i the Relief. By this time he had deserted the Calton pulpit, and was preaching in another place of worship. A week afterwards he put in an appearance, and declared himself to be still the minister of a Relief congregation, but when he was about to be admonished from the Chair he declined the Presbytery's authority. Accompanied by the great body of his people Mr Turnbull now occupied a chapel in Great Hamilton Street, called the Noddy Kirk. On 6th July 1830, along with his session and congregation, he petitioned the Presbytery for readmission, but at next meeting it was decided that he would have first to give satisfaction for his former declinature of their authority. All we know of Mr Turnbull further is that in July 1832 he ceased to be a member of the Widows' Society through non-payment of the rates, but all attempts to discover when or where he died have been baffled. In the report of the Commissioners on Religious Instruction in Glasgow a few years after this there is no mention of either him or his congregation. Dr Aikman, however, was mistaken in stating that Mr Turnbull was deposed from the office of the ministry. Second Minister. ALEXANDER HARVEY, who had been ordained to 60 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Kilmarnock (King Street) in 1822. The call to Calton was signed by only 57 members, but he accepted, and was inducted, I7th January 1828. Though there was a great clearing out, the elders who brought up the charge against Mr Turnbull would remain, and there were eleven managers and about 100 communicants and seat-holders who acquiesced in the Presbytery's decision. Such was the nucleus Mr Harvey had to commence with ; but the Calton con- gregation increased, while that in the Noddy Kirk was sure to decrease. In 1836 Mr Harvey reported a membership of 920, and there were no sittings to let. But the stipend still stood at ,250, and there was an annuity of ,100 paid to a Mrs Elder, of whom we know nothing. The debt amounted to ,3570, but more than two-thirds of the interest was met by rents from property. Mr Harvey made himself a power in the Relief Synod all along, but specially during the Voluntary Controversy, and it is to the question of Church and State that most of his published writings are directed. His famous debate with Mr Maitland MacGill Crichton we shall deal with under the heading of Pittenweem. He died of malignant fever, 25th September 1843, m tne forty-seventh year of his age and twenty- second of his ministry. The Presbytery put upon record their deep sense of the bereavement they had suffered by the removal of a brother " so talented, so serviceable, so public-spirited, and of such decided integrity." Third Minister. JAMES G. STEWART, from Strathaven (West). There was division at the moderation, but, instead of petitioning the Presbytery not to sustain, the minority proceeded to set up a new cause, now Gillespie Church. The call was signed by 499 members and 80 seat-holders, and Mr Stewart having accepted, though with hesitancy, he was ordained, 23rd July 1844. The congregation could not undertake more than ^200 of stipend, and the loss sustained by so many withdrawals was not to be recovered for thirty years. Great was the contrast between Mr Stewart and his predecessor, and this may have told unfavourably. While the one courted publicity and threw his energies into public movements, the shrink- ing nature of the other kept him habitually in the shade. The only time Mr Stewart turned aside from the quiet tenor of his way was in 1854, when he published by request a treatise, entitled "The Anti-Sabbatarian Defence- less," consisting of lectures he had delivered to his own people. As a hindrance to success, the old burden of debt remained almost undiminished. Amidst many discouragements Mr Stewart's unostentatious work went on year after year, but without any perceptible rising of the tide. He died, ist May 1874, in the sixty-second year of his age and the thirtieth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. ROBERT CAMPBELL, who had been transferred from Canon Street, Glasgow (now Bellgrove), and inducted to Aldershot on 6th June 1865, a position for which he possessed marked adaptations. But after doing energetic work there he consented to grapple with the difficulties of keeping Albion Chapel, London, from extinction, and was admitted to his third charge on igth September 1872. In August 1874 the Presbytery of London were informed that the lease of the chapel being to expire in June 1876 the City Corporation had resolved to pull the building down and let the site for secular purposes. The Presbytery now felt that the sooner the con- gregation shifted to another situation the better, and on gth November it was announced that they were worshipping in a hall in Hackney, having gone where there was the best opening, and where the largest number of the existing congregation could be kept together. But before another month had passed a great door and effectual opened in Glasgow for their minister. Calton congregation with their large, empty church addressed a call to Mr Campbell signed by 127 members and 36 adherents ; but, drawing on PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 61 the future, they put the stipend at ^350. The invitation came opportunely, and Mr Campbell was inducted, 5th January 1875. As for Albion, the congregation resolved on 24th March thereafter to resign its records into the hands of the Presbytery, and request to be dissolved. This was done on 7th June, no alternative seeming practicable. Thus passed away the commodious church built for Alexander Fletcher in the beginnings of his abounding popularity, and where Dr John Young ministered during what we may consider the best twenty years of his thoughtful life. Of Mr Campbell in Calton Church all we require to say may be con- densed into a single sentence. In five years the congregation had a membership of 938, a total income of nearly 1 100, and gave a stipend of ^500. After this there was little room for increase ; but the work of con- solidating went on, and in the beginning of the Union year there were 1198 names on the communion roll, and the stipend was as before. In 1892 Mr Campbell appeared as the author of " Jezebel : a sacred Drama," skilfully conceived and vigorously executed. ERSKINE CHURCH (UNITED SECESSION) THIS congregation with its minister came over from the Independents in 1821. We find from Kinniburgh's "Fathers of Independency" and from Greville Ewing's "Memoirs" that the members had withdrawn originally from a congregation in connection with the Relief Synod. They worshipped at first in The Tabernacle in Jamaica Street, built by the Haldanes, and vacated at Whitsunday 1809 by the Rev. Greville Ewing's congregation. Declining to avail themselves any longer of Mr Haldane's liberality, owing to his having embraced Baptist views, they met for a time first in one city hall and then in another. On i6th October 1814 they took possession of their new church in Nicholson Street, with 910 sittings, and built at a cost of ^2100. First Minister. JOHN CAMPBELL, a native of Lochgilphead, which accounts for his mastery of the Gaelic language. Brought up in the Established Church, and studied Theology two sessions in that connection. His views of Church government having undergone a change he attended the Rev. Greville Ewing's classes for a time, and then became one of Haldane's missionary preachers. He was ordained at Dunkeld, 6th May 1801, Mr Ralph Wardlaw, who was then in location at Perth, taking the opening exercises. Mr Campbell removed to Dundee in 1804 to the West Port Church, formerly Relief and under the care of Mr Neil Douglas, but now Congregationalism In 1810 he became pastor of the newly-formed congregation, Jamaica Street, Glasgow, where he and his people so far swerved from the genuine type of Independency as to have a regular eldership, and after ten years they decided to adopt the Presbyterian system altogether. The Secession Church had recently come into greater prominence through the Union of Burghers and Anti- burghers, and on 3oth January 1821 Mr Campbell and his congregation applied for admission into its fellowship. The petition was signed by ten elders and more than 100 male members, and the movement seems to have been gone into with entire unanimity. On 27th February Mr Campbell preached " an excellent and impressive sermon " before the Presbytery, of which he entered in his Journal : " I was enabled to deliver with tolerable ease the thoughts I had been collecting on my text." Then minister and elders having assented to the questions of the Formula 62 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS another Secession congregation was added to the five already existing in Glasgow. In 1821 and 1822 the Synod, availing itself of Mr Campbell's ex- perience and his command of the Gaelic language, appointed him to itinerate for six weeks or two months in the Western Highlands. He also passed over in the summer of 1826 to preach the gospel to the native Irish in their own tongue, and had even the wish to devote him- self entirely to evangelistic work of that kind, but in the following year his health showed symptoms of decline. In April 1828 he required sick- supply for his pulpit, and he died on loth July, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry. His eldest son, who was on the point of being admitted to holy orders in the Episcopal Church, predeceased him by seven months. Of Mr Campbell the Glasgow Herald recorded in connection with his death : " He was mainly instrumental in the late revival of evangelical religion in Ireland, having two years ago preached no less than seventy sermons, chiefly in the Irish tongue, in the districts where the revival took possession." A Memoir of Mr Campbell was published, with extracts from his Diary and Correspondence, by Dr John M'Farlane, one of his successors in Nicholson Street. The congregation in February 1829 called Mr John Reid, whom the Synod in April appointed to Cowgate, Edinburgh. A few months later they called the Rev. James Thomson of Maybole, but the Presbytery allowed the call to drop. Second Minister. JAMES SMITH, from Denny. The call was signed by 230 members and 114 adherents, and the stipend was to be .170. Ordained, I4th April 1830. The congregation had been in straits towards the close of Mr Campbell's ministry, owing, they said, to the commercial state of the country and other causes. Under Mr Smith there was large improvement, the seat rents rising in three years from ,88 to .231, and the collections from ,82 to .144. In 1836 it was reported that the communicants had increased in five years from 240 to over 600. The stipend was now ,200, with at least ,20 in name of expenses. There was a debt of ,1253 on the property, but it was in course of being re- duced. On loth December 1839 Mr Smith was loosed from his charge, having resolved on emigrating to America. There had been a loss of nervous energy, consequent, it was said, on a crushing love disappoint- ment, and he believed that a change of scene was desirable. In the United States he became minister of the College Church, Washington ; but his health seems never to have been fully re-established, and after struggling on for a few years he was compelled to give in his demission. He then returned to Scotland, and died in Glasgow, I2th March 1845, m the forty-third year of his age. The Senatus of Washington College, the members of which had sat under his ministry, conferred on him the degree of D.D. after he left. On receiving notice of the honour done him he seemed saddened, and said : " I doubt this will be of little use to me now." A tombstone to Dr Smith's memory stands in the burying- ground beside Denny U.P. Church. Third Minister. JOHN M'FARLANE, called from Kincardine, where he had been for nine and a half years, and inducted, 22nd September 1840. At the moderation 102 voted for Mr M'Farlane and 47 for Mr James Morison, preacher, shortly to be ordained at Kilmarnock. The stipend promised was to be from ,160 to ,200. In 1842 Mr M'Farlane had the degree of LL.D. from the University of Glasgow. The congregation, as Dr M'Farlane stated when leaving for London, had scarcely 300 members when he began his labours among them, which implies a great falling off since 1836, and they PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 63 were heavily burdened with debt. On i5th May 1842 they removed to Erskine Church, with its 1200 sittings, the cost being ^4245. In 1846 it was announced that ,1115 had been paid off within six months, and the debt was finally liquidated in 1854. The old building was sold to an Independent congregation, the Rev. David Russell's, for 700. In 1861 Dr M'Farlane, who had interested himself deeply in the cause of Church Extension in London, was fixed on by the newly-formed congregation in Clapham to become their minister, and, though subscribed by only 36 members and 89 adherents, the call was accepted, and on I2th November he was loosed from Erskine Church, the membership of which, he stated, was just touching 1 200. He was inducted into Clapham on I5th April 1862, where his ministry proved a great success. Dr M'Farlane's career as an author began in Kincardine in 1837, where he was joined by Dr M'Kerrow, Bridge of Teith, in preparing the " Life and Correspondence of Dr Belfrage, Falkirk." In his first charge he also took part with his pen in the Voluntary Controversy. In Glasgow he published "The Mountains of the Bible," in 1849 ; "The Night Lamp," bearing on his sister's death-bed experiences, in 1851 ; "The Life and Times of Dr Lawson," in 1861. These were followed after he went to London by the "Memoir of Dr Archer," and a "Memoir of Dr M'Kelvie," prefixed to a volume of his sermons, and in a condensed form to his Annals and Statistics. Other publications of his remain in goodly array, but full particulars are given by Dr William Graham of the English Presbyterian College, London, in his Life of Dr MTarlane, published in 1876. He died, 7th February 1875, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. ROBERT S. DRUMMOND, M.A., translated from St James' Place, Edinburgh, after a ministry there of four years, and inducted, 22nd May 1862. The stipend promised was ^500, which was ultimately raised to ,700, with some additions. In 1869 Mr Drummond received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University, and on 28th May 1872 he accepted a call to the English Presbyterian Church, St John's Wood, London, to succeed the Rev. Dr Roberts, who had been promoted to the Humanity Chair in St Andrews University, where he conformed to the Established Church. Here the newly-ratified scheme of Mutual Eligibility had its first beginning. After seven years Dr Drummond comes before us again under Belhaven Church, Glasgow. During this vacancy Erskine Church attempted to widen out the circle of Eligibility by calling a minister from among the Independents, the Rev. Alexander M'Auslane, Dr Fletcher's successor in Finsbury Chapel, London. But this was a contingency for which the Rules of Synod did not provide, and the Presbytery had no power to sustain the call. Fifth Minister. JAMES JEFFREY, M.A., translated from King's Park, Dalkeith, where he had been ordained seven and a half years before. The stipend was still ,700, with expenses. Inducted, 5th June 1873. On ist November 1887 a section of the membership was disjoined from Erskine Church and erected, with Mr Jeffrey for their minister, into Trinity con- gregation, Pollokshields. Sixth Minister. JAMES KIDD, B.D., translated from St Andrews after a ministry of nearly eight years. Inducted, 25th September 1888. In 1895 Mr Kidd's "Morality and Religion" was published, the second volume of the Kerr Lectures, and that year he received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. At the close of 1899 the membership of Erskine Church was 68 1, and the stipend, including expenses, ,525. 64 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ST VINCENT STREET (UNITKD SECESSION) ON loth October 1822 two petitions were presented to Glasgow Secession Presbytery from members of Campbell Street (now Sydney Place) and Anderston (now Wellington Church) to be formed into a separate con- gregation in Melville Street, where they had a place of worship "in a state of forwardness." A paper of adherence was also given in from 93 persons not in connection with the Secession, and, according to the Christian Monitor, there were 400 in concurrence. At next meeting the sessions of Greyfriars and Duke Street reported that the proposal for a new congrega- tion ought not to be entertained ; but those of Anderston, Nicholson Street, and Regent Place made no objections, the last named adding that they appre- hended no danger to existing interests from the proposed erection. On the petition being granted Dr Dick and Messrs Muter and Campbell protested and appealed to the Synod, their chief complaint being that in building a place of worship without the sanction of the Presbytery the parties had acted irregularly, but when it was agreed to overture the Synod to prevent such irregularities in future the protest was withdrawn. On 8th April 1823 a petition was presented by 69 persons to have their names added to the list of applicants for sermon. They stated that the church would be ready for occupancy on the third Sabbath of that month. The sittings were 1576, and the cost, including the purchase of the ground, was ^4460. Six elders were ordained on the third Sabbath of October, and after another year the congregation called Mr John Smart, who had been appointed by the Synod to St Andrew's Place, Leith. Edinburgh Presbytery pleaded the decision of their superiors for disregarding this new intervention, and with Mr Smart's approval went straight on with the ordination. The call was signed by 180 members and 134 adherents, while the stipend promised was ^300, with sacramental expenses. In March 1825 they made choice of Mr William Nicol, but not with unanimity, and the Synod appointed him to Jedburgh (Blackfriars). First Minister. ALEXANDER O. BEATTIE, who had been ordained at Leslie seventeen years before, and was now translated from Kincardine. It was not Mr Beattie's way to express himself on any subject with bated breath, and when the call came before the Synod he intimated a decided wish to be removed to Glasgow, which carried by a majority of 20. Inducted, i8th October 1825. Success attended Mr Beattie in each of his three charges, though it was in the growing city of the west that it had full scope for visibility. In ten years the congregation had a membership of little under 1600, and out of 1576 sittings 1538 were let, a larger proportion than in any of the sister churches, Secession or Relief. The stipend was -335> but a debt of .3000 was still allowed to rest on the property. Mr Beattie, having passed through the Medical Classes in Glasgow University, took the degree of M.D. in 1833, which was capped by that of D.D. from Oxford, Ohio, in 1844. When within a few years of his jubilee arrangements were made to provide Dr Beattie with a colleague. Second Minister. GEORGE MARSHALL MIDDLETON, called from Kinross (West) in 1854, but the call was declined. Another, signed by 737 members instead of 484, followed in 1855, and having accepted it Mr Middleton was inducted, 2nd October of that year. His stipend as junior minister was to be ,300. For a time Dr Beattie shared the work, but in July 1857 he was seized with paralysis, and never appeared in the pulpit again. He died, loth June 1858, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. The present church was opened on Wednesday, i8th February 1859, with 1380 sittings. For the old building the railway company paid ,15,000, but in PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 65 providing another over ,21,000 was expended. Mr Middleton laboured on for seven years as sole pastor, and then organic disease of the heart weakened his strength, and a colleague was required to relieve him of the burden. In 1864 the Rev. John Mitchell Harvey of Alloa (West) was called, but he did not accept. Third Minister. JAMES RENNIE, translated from King's Park, Dalkeith, after a fifteen years' ministry there. Having preferred St Vincent Street, Glasgow, to Egremont, Liverpool, he was inducted, ist August 1865. Mr Middleton was away in quest of health when his colleague was inducted, and they never met after the relationship was formed. On his way home from Jersey he died at Moffat, very suddenly, on 3rd July 1866. There was no symptom of special illness, but, whilst talking quietly with his nearest relative, the labouring heart ceased to beat, his countenance changed, and he passed away. He was in the fortieth year of his age and sixteenth of his ministry. Of both Dr Beattie and Mr Middleton memorable notices appeared in the U.P. Magazine, the one by Dr Eadie, the other by Dr David Young. They furnish a contrast between Dr Beattie's " open- mouthed and measured elocution, every sentence swelling out into oracular volume and majesty," and Mr Middleton's graceful elocution, at once the perfection of nature and the perfection of art. From the early days of his ministry Mr Rennie had taken an active part as a member of Synod in everything pertaining to " the service of song in the house of the Lord." It was fit, therefore, that in 1896, when the revised draft of the Hymnary was to be laid on the table, he should be called to fill the Moderator's Chair. Two years after this a colleague was arranged for, and in October 1898 the congregation called the Rev. J. Smyth Wood, St George's, Sunderland, who declined. Fourth Minister. DAVID M'QuEEN, who had been translated from Arthur Street, Edinburgh, to East India Road, London, in 1893, where he was amidst abounding labours for five years. Inducted to St Vincent Street on 3 ist May 1899, each minister to have a stipend of ^300. On I3th March 1900 Mr Rennie retired from the collegiate position, and was enrolled minister-emeritus. The congregation, aided by a Committee of Presbytery, hoped to give him 800 guineas in lieu of an annual allowance. The membership at, the Union was a little over 400, and Mr M'Queen's stipend was ,400. EGLINTON STREET (UNITED SECESSION) THIS church was intended to meet the wants of Secession families on the south side of the river. Lauriston (now Erskine Church) was the only con- gregation they had in that part of the town, and it was an accession from the Independents, and wanted the charm of novelty. Accordingly, on gth December 1823 a number of persons in the Gorbals intimated to the Presby- tery of Glasgow that they intended to erect a church there, and that, having meanwhile procured a commodious place to worship in, they wished sermon at once. The petition was granted, and Mr Kidston of Campbell Street preached to them on the third Sabbath of that month. For another year they figured in the Presbytery records as "the congregation assembling in the Lancas- trian schoolroom, Lauriston." Then, as we find from a Glasgow newspaper, their own chapel was opened on Sabbath, gth January 1825, by Messrs Heugh, Mitchell, and Kidston. On i4th June a congregation was formed, the members being admitted partly by certificate and partly by examination, but the numbers are not given. In August a session of four elders was II. E 66 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS constituted, and a moderation was at once applied for, the stipend promised being ^200, with sacramental expenses. First Minister. JOHN JOHNSTON, who had been minister at St Andrews for nearly sixteen years. The call was signed by 80 members and 121 ad- herents, and the induction took place, igth October 1825. Mr Johnston was a very effective preacher, and, as I remember him when he paid his last visit to St Andrews, he carried the remains of his popularity with him into an advanced old age. But his difficulties in Eglinton Street ultimately proved too great for him to overcome. The church, with sittings for 1218, cost over ^4000, and this entailed a burden which pressed heavily on minister and congregation year after year. In 1836 Mr Johnston stated that up till then the debt had gone on increasing till it amounted to more than ^5000. The stipend at this time was ,220, and the communicants were 565, a number more than double what they were five years before. Still, towards the close of 1840 the managers, under special discouragement, declared that they could not go on unless their financial affairs were put on an altered footing. Finding the way blocked Mr Johnston resigned, and was loosed from his charge, 9th March 1841. When setting out for America he received from Thomas Carlyle a testimonial as "a man of affectionate, graceful dis- position, of good talent usefully as well as gracefully cultivated, whose whole past life has been spent in honourable and well-accepted labour as a Christian minister." He added: "To me he was a benefactor, my first good instructor in the Latin language ; his father was my father's venerated minister, and still dwells in my memory as one of the most venerable and truly Christian men I have ever seen in the world." On reaching his destination Mr Johnston joined the Old School Presbyterians, and became minister of Jane Street Church, New York. Thence he was transferred to the city of Jersey, where he remained till 1854, when he retired from active service, his people having provided him with a handsome annuity for life. He then returned to this country, retaining the status of senior minister, and died at Moffat, 4th May 1864, in the eightieth year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry. A Memoir of Mr Johnston appeared soon after in the U.P. Magazine, written by Dr M'Farlane of London in his best style. Second Minister. WILLIAM BURGESS, M.A., translated from Urr, where he had been five and a half years. Inducted, 28th April 1842. The stipend promised was ,200, with expenses, and ,25 would be added as soon as 800 seats were let. The call was signed by 174 members and 76 adherents. The congregation had twice called the Rev. William Johnston prior to this, but he remained in Limekilns. The debt must long have been oppressive, but it was gradually reduced. A special effort, for example, in 1851 brought it down ,513. In April 1862 the state of Mr Burgess' health required him to repair to a warmer climate for three months ; but at the expiry of that period he was still an invalid, and on 6th August he died, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry. The congregation were fit now to undertake a stipend of ,400, and on this footing they called the Rev. James M'Owan of Perth. Third Minister. WALTER MORISON, B.A., from Cathcart Street, Ayr, where he had laboured fully ten years. Inducted, 23rd March 1864. At the moderation 218 voted for Mr Morison and 108 for the Rev. John C. Baxter of Dundee, but the call was signed by 440 members and 147 ad- herents. In 1870 Mr Morison declined a call to Brighton, but on I4th February 1871 he accepted Westbourne Grove, London, to succeed Dr King. That year he published a volume, entitled " Passio Christi," and in 1873 he received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. In 1889 appeared "The Footprints of the Revealcr," the merits of which are tersely expressed PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 67 as follows : " Sympathetic in spirit, adequate in argument, popular in style, and convenient in form." In 1896 Dr Morison passed into the emeritus position, his ministry closing on the last Sabbath of March, and in the early part of the following year the Rev. G. A. Johnston Ross was inducted as his successor. Fourth Minister. GEORGE HILL DICK, from Stockbridge, where he had been ordained four years before. The stipend was ^500, with expenses, and the call was signed by 573 members and 129 adherents. Inducted, 4th January 1872. Eight years after this the membership of Eglinton Street was considerably over 1000, and the stipend was .520. Mr Dick died, 26th February 1893, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry. Next year a volume of his sermons and essays was published, entitled " The Yoke and the Anointing," with a biographical sketch by his son. Mr Dick was a nephew of the Rev. George Hill, Musselburgh, and a son-in-law of the Rev. Peter Mearns, Coldstream. Fifth Minister. ROBERT AULD, translated from Wick, after a ministry there of four years, and inducted, nth January 1894. Eglinton Street at the- close of 1899 had a membership of 822, and the stipend was ^400. CAMBRIDGE STREET (UNITED SECESSION) AFTER 1824 there was a pause of ten years in the work of Church extension in the city. On I4th October 1834 eighteen members from various Secession congregations and 101 adherents intimated to the Presbytery of Glasgow that they were erecting a place of worship in Cambridge Street, and they wished to have sermon as soon as it should be "in a sufficient state of repair." No objections being offered by sessions the Presbytery on Tuesday, nth November, formed the petitioners and others with certifi- cates into a congregation, and Drs Mitchell and Beattie were appointed to open the church on Sabbath first. The building, with over 1000 sittings, and the ground together cost .3110, and of this sum ^2500 rested as debt on the property. On the fourth Sabbath of February 1835 three elders were ordained and one inducted. First Minister. JOHN EADIE, from the village of Alva and the con- gregation of Tillicoultry. Ordained, 24th September 1835. The call was signed by 84 members and 74 adherents, and the stipend promised was ^200, with expenses. In the following year there were 254 names on the communion roll. In 1843 Mr Eadie was appointed by the Synod to the Chair of Biblical Literature, as successor to Dr Mitchell. During the former session he had conducted the class, and among the students there was eagerness to have his services secured permanently. He had also given proofs of wide acquaintance with Biblical Literature, both German and British, in a review of a sermon on Hades by the Rev. George Gilfillan of Dundee. This able and elaborate paper appeared in the United Secession Magazine for May,* and on the 5th of that month, when the vote was taken, Mr John Eadie was carried by a great majority over Drs King and Mar- shall and Mr William Johnston. Next year he had the degree of LL.D. from the University of Glasgow, and this was followed in 1850 by D.D. from the University of St Andrews. In 1846 he was invited to remove to Rose Street, Edinburgh, but declined. In three months the offer was renewed, but in compliance with his own request the second call was with- * The substance of this review is given in Dr Eadie's Biblical Cyclopaedia under " Hades." 68 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS drawn. By this time Cambridge Street congregation was large and flourish- ing, and in 1863 a section of the membership, including a large proportion of the leading families, resolved to remove to the west end of Glasgow and take their minister with them. A new church was built in Lansdovvne Place, and on loth November of that year, Dr Eaclie having intimated to the Presbytery his concurrence in the proposal, the new congregation was declared to be constituted, and on Sabbath the I5th, Cambridge Street Church was preached vacant. Prior to this most of the works by which Dr Eadie is best known were published his " Commentary on Ephesians" in 1854, that on Colossians in 1856; the " Life of Dr Kitto" in 1857; and "Paul the Preacher" and the "Commentary on Philippians" in 1859. Other publications of his are named at the close of the Lansdowne period. When Dr Eadie left Cambridge Street the Rev. William Sprott, the minister appointed to intimate the Presbytery's decision in the case, was called forthwith to fill the vacant pulpit, but he remained in Pollok- shaws. Second Minister. ROBERT CAMERON, who had been first in Perth (North), and was now translated from Egremont, Liverpool, where he had been inducted, loth July 1860, and had laid the foundations of a good con- gregation. Admitted to Cambridge Street, 4th October 1864. The stipend was to be ,500, as before, with ,25 in name of expenses. Under Mr Cameron's ministry recent loss of numbers was largely made up for, and the stipend rose to ^600. On i6th November 1897 he was enrolled minister- emeritus, a position which his studious habits fitted him for enjoying, but in less than six months all was over. He died, 25th April 1898, in the seventy- second year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. That day he seemed in his usual health, and went out in the afternoon, leaving the Bible open at the text on which he was preparing a discourse. He returned home about five o'clock, and in an hour he was dead. A younger brother, the Rev. David Cameron, was minister of Newton-Mearns, and John, an older brother, died, 2nd January 1847, in the fourth year of his theological course. Mr Cameron's son, the Rev. James R. Cameron, is minister of Kilcreggan. Third Minister. PETER SMITH, called from London Road Church, Glasgow, and inducted, 22nd February 1898. The membership at the close of 1899 was 754, and the stipend was ,500. BLACKFRIARS STREET (RELIEF) THIS congregation applied on ist November 1836 to be received into con- nection with the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow, and was admitted at once. It had previously been under the care of the Rev. Robert Jackson, and was described as the Independent Relief Church, Regent Place. The minister stated to the Commissioners on Religious Instruction that the chapel, with 800 sittings, was opened in January 1835, and that they met previously in various schoolrooms and places of worship. He is entered as having been minister for seven years, but he himself spoke of having been in the habit of officiating at funerals and preaching in Glasgow for twenty-eight years. The church, with dwelling-houses attached, cost ^3900, of which ^3400 rested as debt on the property. The minister received the balance of the funds after all accounts were discharged, and as the whole income for 1835 was under ^90 his stipend must have approximated to a vanishing quantity. The communicants numbered about 100, and had been "nearly stationary during the last five years." A note is appended, which bears that the place of worship had since been sold to the Relief denomination, and that the PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 69 congregation was getting supply from the Relief Presbytery. Mr Jackson now disappears, nor is his name to be met with in the clerical lists for Glasgow either before or after. First Minister. JOHN GRAHAM, whose name has been already linked with the beginning of the Relief Church, Arbroath. Having removed to Newcastle in 1827 he is lost sight of for eight years. His next appearance is before the Relief Presbytery of Kelso on 3rd February 1835, when he wished to know what steps would have to be taken that his people and himself might be received under the Presbytery's inspection. On 3ist March the Clerk reported that he had got a number of certificates in Mr Graham's favour from ministers about Newcastle, and, these being found satisfactory, his application was recommended to the Synod. The matter being left in the hands of the Presbytery they ascertained that Mr Graham's moral character was unblemished, and that he might be admitted " with the utmost safety." Five of their number were now appointed to proceed to Newcastle to test his literary and theological attainments, from which it would seem as if he had not passed through a regular preparatory course. If all were right they were to proceed with the admission of his congregation and himself into Church fellowship, and on I2th August this was done with due formality. On 7th March 1837 the newly - admitted congregation of Blackfriars Street applied for a moderation, promising a stipend of ^150, and the call came out in favour of the Rev. John Graham, Wall Knoll, Newcastle. On 1 8th April the case came before Kelso Presbytery; but Mr Graham's mind was not made up, and they adjourned till to-morrow. When to-morrow came the balance was still in a state of equipoise, and he was allowed another fortnight for consideration. On 3rd May he was still unable to decide, and on the gth all he could say was that he did not feel it his duty to accept Blackfriars. A second call, however, was closed with at once, though the offer was reduced to ,130, and on 2ist September 1837 he was admitted to his charge in Glasgow. In little more than a year confusion arose, and three of the four elders resigned. A complaint also came up from some of the managers that Mr Graham had taken a lease of the building on his own responsibility. His predecessor had stated to the Commissioners on Re- ligious Instruction that the chapel belonged to private individuals, but was to be made over to the congregation as soon as they were able to meet the debt. That time had never come, and now the building was virtually in the hands of a single proprietor, from whom the minister and two of his leading men took it for behoof of the congregation, a step which, in the opinion of the Presbytery, the emergency warranted. In this state matters continued till 2nd March 1841, when the congrega- tion craved the Presbytery's advice in reference to a proposal for union with the Secession congregation of Uuke Street. No deliverance was come to, and when the Presbytery met again, on 6th April, the Moderator reported that Mr Graham had been inducted colleague to Dr Muter of Duke Street Church, and that the Rev. Dr Struthers had preached on the occasion. A petition was then given in from a number of the members to be still recog- nised as a Relief congregation, and the Presbytery recommended them to secure, with that view, the present or some other place of worship. At next meeting commissioners reported that no progress had been made, but they were to use further efforts. This is the last we hear of Blackfriars Relief Church till we come to the origin of Albert Street congregation. 70 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS EAST REGENT PLACE (UNITED SECESSION) THIS congregation began in an exodus from Duke Street, when steps were taken to procure a colleague to Dr Muter in room of Mr Walter Duncan. A large party in the church wished the place left open, in the hope that their young minister would be speedily restored to office ; but at a con- gregational meeting it was carried to apply for a moderation, and along with this petition to the Presbytery, on 8th December 1835, there came up a protest from 268 members against a decision of session refusing to allow them a disjunction. The Presbytery advised the session to grant certificates to those who should apply for them, and on 3rd February 1836 the applicants, to the number of 213, were erected into a congregation. On 8th March eight persons were chosen for elders, four of whom had been in office before. The meetings at this time were in the Lyceum ; and for the next twelve- month the congregation were kept in the waiting state. In April 1837 they sent up a petition to the Synod signed by 281 members and 115 adherents praying them to restore Mr Duncan to the functions of the ministry. He himself had a memorial forward to the same effect, but by a majority of 80 to 66 it was decided not to entertain the proposal. By this time the church in East Regent Place was finished, with its 1370 sittings and a heavy burden of debt. Before the end of the year Mr Duncan began to preach regularly in the Trades Hall, and many of his admirers in East Regent Place gathered round him. The session as well as the attendance was thinned, and seven new elders had to be elected, only three of whom agreed to accept. In this trying position the congregation called, first the Rev. Joseph Broun of Dalkeith, and then the Rev. John Cooper of Fala, but neither of them was inclined to face the contingencies involved. First Minister. JOHN PEDEN, from Nevvmilns. Called also to Stranraer (Ivy Place). The Glasgow call was signed by 172 members and 85 adherents, and the people, notwithstanding heavy liabilities, promised ^220 of stipend, with allowances. Ordained, 3rd July 1838, and was loosed, I4th December 1841. Mr Peden in intimating his demission explained that when his ministry began the membership was 179 and the debt ^4600. In two years the communicants increased by 190, and the annual revenue by ,200, but when it came to be known that they were in straits accessions decreased. He also stated that it was a working-class congregation, and that, considering the high scale of liberality required otherwise, they could do little towards the reduction of the debt. The resignation was accepted ; but Mr Peden's merits were known, and within a month the congregation of Church Street, Berwick, applied for a moderation, promising .150 of stipend, and on 22nd February 1842 he was inducted to his second charge. He died, nth July 1858, in the forty-eighth year of his age and twenty-first of his ministry. At the first meeting of Presbytery after Mr Peden left, the vacant con- gregation asked a moderation, the stipend to be ^20 higher than before. They had the junior minister of Duke Street in view, the Rev. John Graham, whose gifts of elocution they may have expected to fill the church. But the numbers signing were fewer than before, several perhaps holding back from fear of responsibility, and the call was declined. Second Minister. ALEXANDER DUNCAN, from Girvan, where he had laboured for fifteen years. Inducted, 3oth June 1842. The stipend was now pitched at ^170. The congregation was still kept down by a load of debt, and, though the Presbytery brought the case under the notice of sessions, it yielded no effectual relief. But in September 1845 Duke Street fell vacant through Mr Graham being declared out of connection, and the membership was weakened by the withdrawal of his supporters. Here now was the best PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 71 method for East Regent Place people, as they said, keeping up gospel ordin- ances. A basis of union between them and Duke Street was brought before the Presbytery on gth .Jecember 1845 and spoken to by commissioners on both sides. Mr Duncan was to be their minister, his stipend ^170, as before. Duke Street Church was to be the place of worship, but the debts on East Regent Place were to remain against the present obligants. On that footing the Presbytery declared the union consummated, and Dr Beattie was to preach in Duke Street on the following Sabbath and intimate this deed to the congregation. The pecuniary affairs of East Regent Place were brought before the Synod at its next meeting by the managers, but, while expressing sympathy with the petitioners, they " did not see reason to recom- mend the case to their congregations." The commodious building was now occupied by an E.U. church under the Rev. Fergus Ferguson, but on its acquisition by the railway company they removed to Montrose Street Church, which was vacated by Dr Young's congregation in 1875. LONDON ROAD (UNITED SECESSION) ON 8th August 1837 a petition for supply of sermon was presented to Glasgow Secession Presbytery by a committee entrusted with the erection of a new church at the eastern extremity of Glasgow. The building was now finished, with 1094 sittings, and on the following Sabbath it was opened for public worship. On I2th December, with the consent of neighbouring sessions, 47 members were constituted into a congregation. First Minister. GEORGE JEFFREY, from Coldstream (West), but a native of Leitholm. Ordained, 5th December 1838. The call was signed by four elders and 44 members, and the debt at this time was ^2800. In 1853 Mr Jeffrey was called by the Associate Reformed congregation, Jane Street, New York, a church which had afterwards for its ministers Mr John Brash from Wamphray and Mr G. D. Matthews from Stranraer. The stipend was to be ^600 ; but he decided without hesitation on remaining in Glasgow, and the call was never brought before the Presbytery. In 1861 he received the degree of D.'D. from New York. On the resignation of Dr Kidston in 1839 Mr Jeffrey was appointed Presbytery Clerk, an office which he held till his death, and the duties of which he discharged with vigour and efficiency. Indeed, whether guiding ecclesiastical deliberations as Clerk of Presbytery or administering rebuke as Moderator of Synod, he was alike prompt and decisive. On social or semi-political questions he also spoke straight out, as in a Fast-day sermon in 1854 on " The War," and in exposing " The Pro-Slavery Character of the American Churches, and the Sin of Holding Communion with them." Dr Jeffrey died, after a short illness, 23rd May 1887, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty- ninth of his ministry. He was a son-in-law of Dr Ritchie of Edinburgh, but was early left a widower. With his younger brother, Dr Robert T. Jeffrey, and otherwise, the family relationship in Glasgow was beautifully kept up in their household arrangements. Second Minister. PETER SMITH, translated from Port-Glasgow (Clune Park), and inducted, 5th September 1888. The stipend was to be ,420, but it was afterwards raised .50, and there was a membership of 700. On 26th January 1898 Mr Smith accepted a call to Cambridge Street Church. The stipend named was ^70 less, but if he remained in London Road there was the fear of health giving way. Third Minister. J. ANDERSON WATT, from the English Presbyterian 72 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Church, Gateshead, where he was ordained in 1886. Inducted to London Road, 8th June 1899. The stipend in December 1899 was ,570, and the membership was over 900. BATH STREET (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THE Synod in May 1837 having refused to restore the Rev. Walter Duncan to the office of the ministry 60 or 70 of his former people, now in East Regent Place Church, signed a requisition inviting him to come and preach to them. Accordingly, services were begun by him in the Trades Hall two months after, and on the first Sabbath of May 1839 the church in Parlia- mentary Road, with iioo sittings, and built at a cost of ,3200, was opened for public worship. His eldest brother, the Rev. Alexander Duncan of Girvan, took one of the services, and for this breach of Church rule he was called to account by Kilmarnock Presbytery. In May 1843 the Synod received a petition from Mr Duncan and 503 members of his church, con- curred in by 249 ordinary hearers, to be received into communion. Parties were heard, and the whole case was handed over to a committee, the decision being reserved for next meeting. In October it was found that Mr Duncan had retired from the exercise of the ministry, in token of sub- mission to the sentence of deposition, but the committee was not prepared to recommend restoration forthwith. It was therefore resolved to let the matter lie over till another Synod. This involved other seven months during which Mr Duncan's lips were sealed. At that meeting it was moved that, as he had for ten months surrendered his connection with Parlia- mentary Road Church, and had renewed his expressions of regret for having disregarded the sentence of deposition, he be rebuked for this part of his conduct, and restored. Delay having carried by 87 votes to 58 Mr Duncan declined further subjection to the Synod's authority, and at next meeting of Glasgow Presbytery the congregation of Parliamentary Road intimated that they would look to them for no more sermon. The case now slumbered for nineteen years, but in May 1863 Mr Duncan and his people applied anew to be admitted into the fellowship of the U.P. Church. The petition was unanimously recommended by Glasgow Presbytery, and the Synod, considering that twenty-eight years had passed since the sentence was pronounced, granted the application without demur. Having ascertained that in the ordination of elders and the admission of members the rules of the Church had been strictly adhered to, the Presby- tery met in Parliamentary Road Church on the evening of Tuesday, 3oth June, when a sermon was preached by Dr Eadie. The members signified their assent to the Basis of Union adopted in 1847, and the minister and elders to the Formula. Then Dr Robson offered the admission prayer, and the Rev. Walter Duncan, along with his congregation, was readmitted to the Church of his fathers. But what remained of his ministerial course was comparatively brief. He died, 27th December 1870, in the sixty-third year of his age and forty-first of his ministry, leaving a son of the same name, who was ordained three years afterwards over Bridgend Church, Dumbarton. At his last annual soiree Mr Duncan stated that he had a membership of 950. After an unsuccessful call to the Rev. Dr M'Leod of Birkenhead the congregation obtained for their Second Minister. ROBERT JOHNSTONE, LL.B., from Arbroath (Princes Street), where he had been ordained eleven years before. Inducted, 3rd January 1872. The stipend was to be ^500, with ,20 for expenses. Mr Johnstone was previously known by his " Lectures, Exegetical and PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 73 Practical, on the Epistle of James," and to these he added a companion volume on Philippians in 1875. Next year he obtained the degree of U.D. from Edinburgh University, and on 26th July he was chosen by the Synod to succeed Dr Eadie in the Chair of New Testament Literature and Exegesis. In 1888 Dr Johnstone published his Exposition of ist Peter, a volume we can scarcely pass from without adverting to the sobriety and thoroughness with which he discusses the vexed question of " The Spirits in Prison." With the view of Union with the Free Church it is intended to transfer Professor Johnstone from Edinburgh to the corresponding Chair in the Divinity Hall at Aberdeen. Third Minister. JAMES SCOTT, translated from Union Church, Kirk- caldy, and inducted into his third charge on Wednesday, 3ist January 1877. The present church in Bath Street was opened on the preceding Sabbath by Dr Johnstone, their previous minister, when the collections amounted to ,1340. But the semblance of abounding prosperity was not to be main- tained. An oppressive debt rested on the property, and though by the earnest efforts of minister and people this was much^ broken in on, Mr Scott's health and spirits gave way, and he retired from the active duties of the pastorate on gth March 1891, with an allowance of ^100 a year. In 1893 ne undertook the care of the little congregation at Wamphray, where he remained two years. Then came complete retirement, and on I5th May 1896 he died, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. FourtJi Minister. JOHN M. WlLSON, B.D., son of the Rev. James Wilson, Dudhope Road, Dundee, who had acted for some time as assistant in Wellington Church. Ordained, 25th February 1892. In November 1899 it was intimated to the Presbytery that with the aid of a Bazaar the church had got free of debt, and at the end of that year there was a membership of 505, and the stipend was ,350. WOODLANDS ROAD (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation was an offshoot from Duke Street Church (now Cathedral Square) in 1840. After the Rev. H. M. MacGill had been colleague to Dr Muter for three and a half years dissatisfaction began to prevail. Instead of having the two ministers kept on equality there was a party urgent to have their stipends readjusted and the labours of the senior minister abridged. With these modifications in view, at a meeting of the congregation 81 members against 147 voted that the collegiate relation could be no longer maintained on its present footing, and while matters were in this condition Mr MacGill, on 8th September, tabled his resignation. On the same day 186 members, including six elders, petitioned the Presbytery to be disjoined from Duke Street and formed into a new congregation. The Presbytery met with the two parties the following Monday, but no basis of agreement could be arrived at. On loth November the petitioners asked in addition to have the pastoral tie between them and Mr MacGill reserved unbroken. He had in the interim been called to Airdrie (Wellwynd) ; but this call he now put aside, and expressed his cordial concurrence in the arrangement proposed. The Presbytery agreed to grant the petition, and without further ceremony the applicants were placed under the care of Mr MacGill as their minister, the six elders among them to be constituted into a session. They worshipped at first in the Mechanics' Hall, Hanover Street, and on their first anniversary as a congregation their new church in Montrose 74 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Street was opened, with 1000 sittings, the cost being ^3000. At the Synod in 1858 Mr MacGill was elected Home Mission Secretary, Dr Sommcrville to be confined to the Foreign Department. Six years after this the Synod was overtured to admit both Secretaries to full ministerial status in Presbytery and Synod. In opposition to this it was urged that only those in fixed pastorates were entitled to be constituent members of Church Courts. It was a question on which Mr MacGill felt acutely, contending that his position was lowered and his influence for good seriously impaired by keeping him on inequality thus far with his clerical brethren. So early as 1807 the Antiburgher Synod had yielded the point by retaining the Rev. George Paxton in all his former privileges when they appointed him Professor of Theology without a pastoral charge, but now other counsels prevailed. At the Synod in May 1866 the discussion reached its keenest, and the two parties were so nearly balanced that in a crowded house, and amidst much excitement, the vote had to be taken by calling the roll, when the negative side carried by a very trifling majority. In that state the matter rested till a broader question emerged, and the Mission Secretaries came in under the wing of the Theological Professors to their seats in the Church Courts, but this was not till 1877. In 1868 Mr MacGill was appointed to succeed Dr Sommerville in the Foreign Mission Department, and in 1870 he obtained the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. It was thought that the transference from the one secretaryship to the other would better secure exemption from discomfort ; but the Jeypore Case came on in 1877, bringing exposure to vexations innumer- able. Looking back over that period of trial we cannot but regret that Dr MacGill ever left the ranks of the regular ministry and the quiet routine of pastoral life. In this connection he comes before us as he was painted by George Gilfillan, who found in him, from first to last, "all that is amiable, gentle, and intelligent." The Jeypore Case was wound up in 1878, and at next meeting, the Synod requested him to take entire rest for a period of six months. But relaxation and change of scene brought only temporary relief, and he died at Paris, 6th June 1880, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. In 1876 Dr MacGill published " Songs of the Christian Creed and Life," consisting chiefly of renderings of hymns from Latin arid Greek into English verse. " Many of these translations," says Julian in his Hymnology, "are exceedingly good, and stand in the very first rank of modern English verse." But Dr MacGill is best known by his Life of Dr Heugh, his father-in-law, with its compactness, fulness, good taste, and living interest. Second Minister. DAVID YOUNG, from Milnathort, where he had been ordained eight years before. Inducted to Montrose Street, 22nd March 1859. The stipend was to be ^400. In 1873 Mr Young re- ceived ^ the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. On Wednesday, loth November 1875, being the thirty-fifth anniversary of the congrega- tion, their new church in Woodlands Road was opened by Dr Cairns, who preached from the text: "A name that is above every name." The collections that day and next Sabbath amounted to .1460. The cost was about 15,000, of which fully ,5000 was obtained for the church in Montrose Street. It was bought by the Evangelical Union congregation, under the ministry of Dr Fergus Ferguson.. In 1880 Mr A. R. MacEwen was called to be Dr Young's colleague, but he preferred Moffat, and there was no further movement in the direction of a second minister till 1884, when Mr MacEwen was called a second time, but with the same result. Third Minister. DAVID WOODSIDE, B.D., from Stromness, where he had been not quite four years. Inducted, 24th September 1885. A year PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 75 before this Dr Young appeared in his own pulpit for the last time, and was then retiring to Bridge of Allan in an enfeebled state, or, as he ex- pressed it, with an arrow in his breast. He died, I4th July 1896, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. Though Dr Young was engaged in literary work when a student, having edited the Alloa Advertiser, he never appeared as a full-fledged author. Beyond "Readings in Genesis" and "Notes of a Tour in the East," which ap- peared in the U.P Magazine for 1865 and 1871, he has left nothing behind him to perpetuate his name. The congregation under his successor had a membership of 633 at the close of 1899, and the stipend was ,625. Mr Woodside has come favourably before the public within the last two years in connection with the Life of his father-in-law, Professor Calderwood. GILLESP1E CHURCH (RELIEF) THK call of Calton Church to Mr James G. Stewart on 8th April 1844 being much divided, a number of dissatisfied members presented a petition with 299 signatures to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow craving to be recognised as a forming congregation. Next week a minister who had preached to them in the Mechanics' Hall, Canning Street, re- ported an attendance of about 500. On nth June the cause was organised with a membership of 150, and a moderation was granted, the stipend to be ,200, with ^10 for expenses. Two of their number, who had been elders in Calton, were to be constituted into a session. First Minister. JOHN W. BORLAND, who had been eight years in Bloomgate, Lanark. Inducted, 3rd September 1844. On Sabbath, 28th September 1845, the new place of worship in Great Hamilton Street was opened, with 1000 sittings, when the collections amounted to ,400. The cost, including the ground, was put at ,3600. The obligation to pay part of the annuity promised to the widow of Mr Harvey, the late minister of Calton, gave rise to resistance, but at last ^8 was fixed on as the just proportion, making numbers the basis of the calculation. For a course of years the debt was a heavy burden, but in 1851 and 1852 it was re- duced by ,400, and a free-will offering for the same purpose in 1857 brought it down ,1000 additional. Still, it was long ere either of the sections into which the old Calton congregation was divided enjoyed prosperity. In 1874 Mr Matthew Galbraith of Charlotte Street, Aberdeen, was called to be Mr Borland's colleague, and then Mr John Ruthven of Kinross (West), but both declined. The senior minister was to have ,20 a year besides the annuity from the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. Second Minister. JAMES IMRIE, M.A., from Musselburgh (Bridge Street), where he had been ordained twenty-one years before. Inducted to Gillespie Church, ist June 1875, the stipend promised being ^300. Four years afterwards the membership was given at 200, and the stipend was ,180. Mr Borland died at South Shields, 25th November 1878, in the seventieth year of his age and forty-third of his ministry. In 1883 the entire debt of the congregation, amounting to ^2000, was swept away through the exertions of the minister. In 1889 Mr Imrie published a volume of discourses under the title of " Preach the Word." He also published lectures on the Book of Esther. On 26th April 1892 he retired into the emeritus position, and connected himself with Regent Place Church. He was paid ^1000 in lieu of retiring allowance. He died on ist July 1897, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty- 76 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS fourth of his ministry. Mr Imrie had two brothers ministers in the Established Church. Of these William, the elder, attended the U.P. Hall three sessions, but became parish minister of. Penicuik in 1864, where he died in 1887, aged fifty-one. The younger was ordained at Logic, and died, minister of St John's, Edinburgh, in 1891, aged forty-nine. Third Minister. ADAM SHAW, M.A., translated from Leven, where he had been nearly three years. Inducted, I2th December 1892, the Board having guaranteed a stipend of ,200. The congregation had previously called the Rev. John Lennox of Beith. The membership at this time was only 108, but it reached 627 before the close of 1899, and during that period the stipend rose to ,350. RENFIELD STREET (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation was organised on nth July 1848 by the disjunction of eleven elders and 400 members from Regent Place, with Dr Taylor for their minister. They were about to remove to a new church, with 1236 sittings, in Renfield Street, three-fourths of a mile to the west. It was originally expected that this erection would supersede the old place of worship in Regent Place, but at a meeting of the congregation 197 against 142 voted to remain. The large party adhering to the present building now acquiesced in the severance, and the church in Renfield Street was opened on the second Sabbath of August by Dr Brown of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, when the collection amounted to ,750. The total cost was close upon ,12,700, but in 1857 it was announced that the congregation had paid off ,8000 of debt in eight years. On i4th January 1873 Dr Taylor demitted his charge, having been appointed Secretary to the Education Board. From the early period of his ministry in Glasgow he had been active with his pen, and otherwise, in pleading the cause of national education. In a series of articles in the denominational Magazine for 1847 and 1848, as we well remember, he opened out the case with clearness and much plausibility. At that time the Synod was greatly divided on the question, and when the goal was reached in 1873 it seemed as if Dr Taylor had got no more than his due reward ; but, "Put not your trust in princes." In six years the office was abolished, and no other was ever provided for him by Government to supply its place. This seeming wrong left Dr Taylor free for more important though less lucrative work. T this we owe "The Age we live in " and the "Great Historic Families of Scotland," the literary outcome of his later years. All along he had contributed largely to dictionaries and reviews, but his fullest and most ambitious work is the " Pictorial History of Scotland," published in 1859. He died at Corstorphine on i6th March 1892, when within two days of completing his seventy-ninth year. Had he survived a little longer he would have received the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh University. Second Minister. JAMES G. SCOTT, translated from St Andrews, and inducted, 3oth April 1873. The stipend was ^600, and the membership six years afterwards was 650. On loth June 1884 Mr Scott asked the Presby- tery to relieve him from active duty, as a throat affection necessitated his removal to a dry and warm climate. The congregation, having testified to the efficiency of his ministry, intimated that they would raise for him a sum of not less than ^600. At the same time they foresaw that on Mr Scott's retiring from pulpit work many of their abler members would take the opportunity of connecting themselves with other churches. Third Minister. ANDREW F. FORREST, who had been ordained at Stirling (Erskine Church) nine years before. Thence he was translated to PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 77 Bristol in 1881, and now he was inducted to Renfield Street on 28th April 1885. In September 1887 Glasgow Presbytery welcomed Mr Scott back from his sojourn in South Africa and Australia. When in Tasmania he had declined a call to Bothwell and Green Ponds owing to the severity of the climate in winter. He died in London on 23rd October 1888, in the fifty- fifth year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry. Renfield Street at the beginning of 1900 had a membership of 828, and the stipend was ^600. SHAMROCK STREET (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON nth June 1850 a petition to be recognised as a distinct congregation was presented to Glasgow Presbytery by a number of members from different congregations in the city. They were building a church, with 900 sittings, on the farthest outskirts of Glasgow to the west, and at next meeting, on igth July, no objections having been made by neighbouring sessions, they were congregated. The arrangement was premature, as they were not to require supply of ordinances till the church was opened. This took place on Sabbath, 6th October, Drs Anderson, Eadie, and Robson being the officiating ministers. Next month 34 members, who gave in certificates, were added to the roll, and a month later Dr William Johnston was called to be their minister, the stipend to be ,320. The call was declined, as is given with some interesting particulars under Limekilns. In April 1851 another unsuccessful call was addressed to the Rev. W. B. Robertson of Irvine with the signatures of 59 members and 36 adherents. First Minister. JAMES ROBERTSON, from Portsburgh, Edinburgh, where he had laboured eighteen years. Inducted, 6th November 1851, and had the degree of D.D. from Union College, New York, in 1852. In the course of the following year a debt of ,750 was liquidated and the stipend raised to ^450. In 1860 Dr Robertson published " Old Truths and Modern Speculations," a book marked by the richness of style for which the pro- ductions of his pen were distinguished. The strain arising from this suc- cessful effort, combined with heavy ministerial work, may have occasioned the breakdown which followed. He died, I4th January 1861, in the fifty- eighth year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry. Dr Robertson's son, Eric Sutherland, attended our Divinity Hall, Session 1878-9, and then turned to literature. In this capacity he edited a forty-volume series of " Great Writers," besides being the author of a Life of Tennyson and other books. In 1892 he took orders in the Episcopal Church, and since 1896 has been vicar of St John's, Windermere. Shamrock Street Church had a membership at Dr Robertson's death of over 800, and with this enlarged constituency they again invited Mr Robertson of Irvine to be their minister, but without effect. They next called the Rev. Robert Johnstone, Arbroath, but he also declined. Second Minister. JOHN DOBIE, from Linlithgow (West), where he had been ordained eleven years before. At the moderation four candidates were proposed, and the result was looked forward to as doubtful, but Mr Dobie had a considerable majority in the end, and the call was described as more largely signed than either of its immediate predecessors. Inducted, 3Oth April 1862. Mr Dobie received the degree of D.D. from Chicago, United States, in 1871. At the height of his ministry the congregation reached its maximum, having over 1000 members, and the stipend being pitched for several years at ,700. But as time passed an ebb tide set in, perhaps owing to the uprise of rival churches in the district and the impairing of Dr Dobie's 78 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS strength, and in 1889 the stipend stood at ,350, with ,150 to an assistant On 28th October next year Dr Dobie intimated to the Presbytery that he felt himself unable for the whole work, and would retire on the appointment of a colleague. He had been laid aside not only for weeks but for months, and he wished to be entirely relieved. An annual allowance of ,150 was agreed on, with a substantial gift at the time, and the colleague was to have ,350. Third Minister. JOHN POLLOCK,' translated from Merchiston, Edin- burgh, and inducted, i8th June 1891. In January 1896 Dr Dobie's annuity from the congregation was commuted for a slump payment of ,650, which the Presbytery recommended the congregation to augment to ,800. In 1898 Mr Pollock published a short narrative of our Church's history, entitled "Stranger than Fiction," with a chapter headed "How Prince Charlie split the Secession." With dates for his guidance he had reached the conclusion that the religious clause in the Burgess Oath was introduced after the Rebellion of 1745, and was meant to debar the Pretender's Popish friends from the rights of citizenship. The origin of the clause in question is not easily arrived at, but certainly it was not extemporised to meet a passing emergency. It appears from a pamphlet by Ebenezer Erskine that the question which "split the Secession" was discussed by the Associate Presbytery " when Mr Wilson was with them," and he died several years before Prince Charlie touched our shores. We know also that those Secession Fathers who maintained the lawfulness of swearing the Burgess Oath argued that this was sanctioned by the Church of Scotland in her best days, and Ralph' Erskine in one of his pamphlets on the subject traced the institution back to Reformation times. Taking these things into account we cannot make Prince Charlie a factor in the evolving of our denomina- tional history. Still, Mr Pollock's solution had appearances in its favour, and it was no long time in finding its way once and again into print. At the Union, Shamrock Street, under Mr Pollock, had a membership of about 720, and furnished a stipend of ,350, as before. MISSION CHURCHES WE shall here take in a group of congregations which all originated more or less in Home Mission work. Most of them after passing through the first stages of development removed to better localities, and came through severe struggles into line with ordinary working-class churches. They are eleven in number : Alexandra Parade, Elgin Street, Burnbank, Sandyford, St Rollox, Albert Street, Bellgrove, Springbank, Cumberland Street, Cran- stonhill, and Rockvilla. ALEXANDRA PARADE IN April 1849 the Presbytery of Glasgow took up with favour a proposal to institute a mission church in the heart of the city, with an experienced minister to evangelise among the sunken masses. For some time there was no progress made, but in the beginning of 1852 Dr Taylor reported that operations had been commenced six months before in Stirling Square, near the seat of the earliest Secession congregation in Glasgow. First Minister, GEORGE BLYTH, from Ceres (West). Ordained in PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 79 Bristo Church, Edinburgh, on 24th August 1820, to proceed to Russia as an agent of the London Missionary Society. After labouring at Astrakhan with much devotedness for two years he was obliged to leave by what purported to be an imperial decree. He was now designated to Jamaica on the last day of 1823, the service being again in Bristo Church. Hampden became his new sphere of labour, where a church to accommodate 700 was built in 1828, and enlarged to 1000 by the introduction of galleries some years after. The membership by this time numbered between 700 and 800. After labouring for nearly thirty years in by much the largest of our Jamaica congregations Mr Blyth had to return to Scotland in enfeebled health. In the summer of 1851 he was employed to grapple with home heathenism in the heart of Glasgow, and in six months it was reported that he had gathered 200 people about him. On gth November 1852 a congregation was formed with a membership of 29, and on 5th October 1853 Mr Blyth was inducted, the call being signed by 34 members and 38 adherents, with a stipend of 200 guaranteed by the Presbytery's Mission Committee. A meeting-place in Canon Street had been provided free of charge by John Henderson, Esq., of Park. During the next seven years the annual increase averaged 24, so that in 1860 the membership reached 180. On I3th January 1863 Mr Blyth's resignation, owing to growing infirmities, was accepted, the congregation testifying to the zeal and success with which he had laboured among them. After this he removed to Partick, where he acted as an elder in Mr Lawrie's congregation. He died, 4th July 1866, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. His "Reminiscences of Missionary Life," published in 1861, relate in an artless way his experiences in the foreign field. Mr Blyth's brother Thomas entered the Antiburgher Hall along with himself, and acted as a probationer from 1821 to 1836. He then became a farmer in the neighbourhood of Kinross, where he was long an elder in the East congregation. He died, 4th July 1872, aged about eighty. Second Minister. WALTER MUCKERSIE, who had been in Ferry-Port - on-Craig twenty-two years. The congregation had removed from Canon Street to a position half-a-mile to the north in May 1863, and was now worshipping in a hall in Mason Street. During the vacancy there was a serious decline in numbers, so that by the end of 1863 the membership was only 82, and they could not promise to raise more than 70 a year by their own exertions. But their attention was now turned to Mr Muckersie, who had identified himself with the Revival movement, and had been largely engaged inievangelistic work. The call was signed by 56 members and 24 adherents, and the induction took place on the evening of 3ist May 1864 in Duke Street Church, for the sake of larger accommodation. After a time another place of worship was urgently needed, and Mr Muckersie felt him- self in the midst of discouragements. But at that time a church in Frederick Street, vacated by the congregation of Free St David's, came to be disposed of, and his people secured it at a cost, including improvements, of ^1700. It was taken possession of in November 1866, with sittings for 850, and in the course of seven years the building was free of debt. After other seven years there was a membership of 540 and a stipend of ^290. On 7th September 1890 Mr Muckersie felt constrained to retire from active duty owing to failing strength and impaired memory. He received a gift of ,130 in place of a retiring allowance, and was. to retain the position of senior minister. Six years afterwards he sought back to what remained of the old home circle at Kirkcaldy, and died there unseen on 23rd May 1897, in the eighty-fourth year of his age and the fifty-fifth of his. ministry. On rising from table a little before in his usual health his last words were about the meeting-place for the death-divided. 8o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Third Minister. JOHN KERR CRAIG, translated from Dean Street, Edinburgh, his third charge, which he had held for eight years. Inducted, 24th February 1891. Like other churches in the same part of the town that of Frederick Street had suffered by the population tending outward, and though the membership was returned at 470 the people could only undertake ,250 of stipend. As real success was not to be looked for in their present situation a transference to Alexandra Parade, three-fourths of a mile to the north-east, was agreed to by the Presbytery in February 1893. It was a heavy undertaking to face, especially when Central Funds were low, and on 9th July 1894, before building operations were completed, Mr Craig accepted a call to Wigan, in Lancashire. Thence he removed in 1899 to Canonbury, London, to succeed the Rev. Robert Wylie, formerly of Rathillet. There the congregation, though small, is growing, but in none of his last three charges has the stipend come up to what he had in Dean Street. On Sabbath, 3rd February 1895, the new church, with 700 sittings, and built at a cost of over ^4000, was opened. The old property brought about ^1000, and altogether the debt at this time was reduced to ,1700. Still, this was much for the congregation in its enfeebled state, and in view of a fixed ministry a supplement of not less than 100 for the first year had to be arranged for. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM M'KENZIE, from Claremont Church, Glasgow. Ordained, 28th May 1895, having previously declined Westray. The membership was put at 279 when the vacancy occurred, and only half that number signed the call, but by the end of next year it numbered 388. Before the end of 1898 the burden of debt was removed, ^250 having been obtained from the Liquidation Fund, and by the close of the following year there was a communion roll of 520, while the congregation furnished a stipend of ,290. ELGIN STREET ON I3th April 1852 the Presbytery of Glasgow agreed to open a preaching station on the south side of the Clyde, " in a very poor, populous, and need- ful locality." It was explained that there had been evangelistic work going on there for some time, and it was desirable that this should be permanent. Though the district fixed on could be gone round in five minutes it was calculated that it contained no fewer than 2000 of the non-church-going class. First Minister. DAVID M'RAE, M.A., who had twenty-six years of ministerial experience behind him, first at Lathones and then at Oban. On loth August 1852 he was invited by the Presbytery's Mission Committee to take the oversight of the infant cause in the Gorbals, and having accepted the call he entered on his difficult field of labour on the twenty-first of that month. A congregation was formed with 64 members on 7th April 1853, and three elders were ordained three months afterwards. Mr M'Rae was formally inducted on 29th September, the call being signed by 71 members and 80 adherents, and the stipend was to be made up to ,200 by the help of the Presbytery's Mission Committee. The services were conducted in Erskine Church, and Mr Edwards of Bridgeton in his address to the minister said : " Five minutes' walk from Portland Street to the site of your own church in Main Street is all that is necessary to conduct from the extreme of modern civilisation to the extreme of modern wretchedness." Next year there was a membership of 104, and from this time an average gain of 60 a year, till in 1860 they numbered 468, with a total income of PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 81 //320. so that the congregation was now self-supporting. The new church in Main Street, Gorbals, was opened on Sabbath, I4th June 1854, with accommodation for 600, and within five years a gallery was erected to hold other 300, the entire cost being about ^3000. Second Minister. JOHN C. JACKSON, from Colinsburgh, where he had been ordained nineteen years before. At the first moderation the show of hands gave Mr Jackson and the Rev. W. R. Murray of Ardrossan 61 votes each, but on a division the latter had 70 and the former 63. This call being declined Mr Jackson became the unanimous choice of the congrega- tion, and was inducted as colleague to Mr M'Rae on 27th July 1869. The call was signed by 202 members and 65 adherents. The arrangement was that the senior minister should have ^100 a year and the junior ^250, Mr Jackson to be responsible for the whole work. The church in Elgin Street, with sittings for 1150, and erected at a cost of ^7800, was opened on I2th October 1873 by Mr M'Rae's son, the Rev. David M'Rae of Gourock, and the collections on this and the following Sabbath amounted to nearly ,400. The old building had been acquired by the City Improvement Trust, and this necessitated removal. But there were heavy encumbrances now, as the new church was built on an expensive scale in the hope of attracting better- class families from about Pollokshields and Crosshill. These districts, how- ever, set about providing churches for themselves, and Elgin Street was left to struggle with a load of debt which increased year by year. On I2th February 1878 Mr Jackson accepted a call to Crail, and the pulpit, we may- say, fell vacant. Third Minister. DAVID K. MILLER, who had been eleven years in Leitholm. Inducted, 29th October 1878, on a divided call, 102 having voted for Mr Miller and 99 for Mr Ruthven of Kinross. The congregation now found that their expenditure was exceeding their income by ,320 a year, the debt amounting to ^4150. From this trying situation Mr Miller was re- lieved by a call to Eyemouth, which he accepted, 6th April 1880. An appeal was then made to some of the sister churches on the south side to aid in keeping the water-logged vessel afloat, and in this way ^50 or ^60 a year was secured. But an energetic minister was the first necessity. In the second year of the vacancy Mr Jackson was invited back from Crail, but without effect. The stipend promised at this time was ^250, which included ^,40 from the Ferguson Fund. They next called Mr D. W. Forrest, preacher (now Dr Forrest of Skelmorlie), but he also declined. Mr M'Rae died, igth July 1881, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. JOHN GOOLD, from Montrose (St Luke's), where he had been five years. Inducted, 7th September 1882. The congregation now set earnestly about the reducing of their debt, and by prolonged effort, with the aid of ^550 from the Board, it was brought down to ^2000 in 1885, and in 1892 the total amount was ^1500, which was manageable compared with what it had been. At the semi-jubilee of the new church on 6th October 1898 it was announced that the entire debt had been extinguished. A year later the membership was about 560, the stipend ,350, and the total income over ,800. BURNBANK THIS congregation sprung from Mission work in the Cowcaddens in 1851, where ground was broken by the Rev. Timothy East, formerly a Congrega- tional minister in Birmingham, whose name is remembered in connection with a sermon he preached in the Tabernacle at Moorfields from the text : II. F 82 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS " What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" It was this discourse which turned John Williams "from indiffer- ence to strong devotion/' Mr East having retired after going on for fully a year the Presbytery took the cause under their own superintendence, and invited a preacher of remarkable devotedness to undertake the building up of a spiritual temple in that trying locality. 1'irst Minister. JOHN M'LAREN, from Dennyloanhead, a younger brother of the Rev. William M'Laren, Blairlogie. Having accepted the invitation he kept by his purpose, though in the interim he had calls from Peebles (now the Leckie Memorial), Longridge, and Stranraer (Bridge Street), and was also within a few votes of being chosen for the North Church, Perth. On the ist Sabbath of October 1853 he entered on his field of labour, preaching from the text : " Compel them to come in." On 2nd May 1854 a congregation was formed with 27 members, and Mr M'Laren was ordained on 3ist October. This was the third of the Presbytery's Mission churches, and it had the most rapid success among them, the membership rising to 363 in 1859 and the contributions to ^370. On Sabbath, 23rd May 1858, the uncomfortable hall in Stewart Street was exchanged for a new church in City Road, with accommodation for 850 or 900, and built at a cost of ^3000. But Mr M'Laren was now to be with- drawn from the field under the grasp of deadly disease. In January 1859 he was removed to Blairlogie, but ere long recovery ceased to be looked for. "Spring and early summer," says his biographer, "covered the Ochils and the broad valley of the Forth with green, while day by day his young life was withering." He died, 2ist June, in the thirty-third year of his age and fifth of his ministry. A monument in the Necropolis, Glasgow, marks where he is buried. A Memoir of Mr M'Laren was published in 1861 by the Rev. Peter Leys of Strathaven, with four sermons he had preached to his people on special occasions. Second Minister. DAVID PIRRET, from Broughton Place, Edinburgh. Ordained at Sutton, in Lancashire Presbytery, on 24th October 1855. On the moderation day in City Road Mr Leys was very nearly invited to become Mr M'Laren's successor, having 57 votes against 63 for Mr Pirret, who was inducted, 27th March 1860. There were at this time 354 names on the certified roll, but the call, though harmonious, was signed by only 126 members, a circumstance indicative perhaps of the Mission church element. We understand, besides, that high as Mr M'Laren's standard of admission had been, and faithful as his dealings were with the souls of applicants, the lapsing for a number of years was considerable. But the congregation was in a state t6 offer a stipend of ^200, and in 1865 the debt of ,2000 which rested on the building was extinguished. Five years of steady progress followed, and then there was a movement for the erection of a church in a better locality, the impression being that in New City Road they were "at a great disadvantage as compared with the neighbouring congregations." In May 1870 the proposal was favourably entertained by the Presbytery, but two months afterwards a petition from nine elders and others who wished to remain in the present church urged that their interests should be regarded in the disposal of the property. In September it carried at a congregational meeting by 154 to 102 to proceed no further in the direction indicated, and this was unanimously agreed to a month afterwards. But in May of the following year 50 members brought up a complaint that within five months the above arrangement was departed from and the church sold to the Independents. In the Presbytery a majority expressed disapproval of the hasty and irregular manner in which the congregation had acted, a decision which entailed nothing serious. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 83 The new church, built in a better locality a third of a mile to the west, was opened on Sabbath, igth September 1872, by Professor Caldenvood, who preached in the forenoon. It is seated for 1100, and cost upwards of ^5000. The opening collection was fully ^450, and seven years afterwards the membership was 725 and the stipend ^500. But as Mr Pirret advanced in years this high level was not maintained, and on I2th February 1895 he was enrolled minister-emeritus. In lieu of a retiring allowance he received a slump sum of ^1000. Though now. amidst failing strength he gave him- self willingly, especially in the summer season, to evangelistic work, in which he had had much experience. When a divinity student Mr Pirret wrote a prize essay, which developed into a volume, published in 1851, entitled "The Ethics of the Sabbath." Third Minister. ROBERT PRIMROSE, translated from Partick (East), and inducted to his fourth charge on 2ist May 1895 in the fourteenth year of his ministry. The stipend at first was .300, but at the close of 1899 it was ^475, and the membership numbered 808. SANDYFORD Ox 241)1 April 1855 a petition to be erected into a congregation was pre- sented to the U.P. Presbytery of Glasgow from a body of people who were worshipping in a schoolroom in Catherine Street, Cranstonhill. They pleaded want of accommodation in the churches of Wellington Street, Anderston, and Shamrock Street. On loth July it was reported that the applicants had been formed into a congregation with a membership of 42. First Minister. WILLIAM MILLER, who had retired from Longridge three years before in ill-health. On 4th November 1854 he began to preach in the above schoolroom under the auspices of an Evangelistic Committee. On 3rd January 1856 Mr Miller was inducted, there being now 126 names on the communion roll. The people were to raise ^100 of stipend, and they expected a like sum from outside sources, and, if all went well, they calcu- lated on reaching the point of self-support by another year. Though essentially a Mission church the congregation was not included in the Presbytery's Home Mission Scheme. The new church in Cheapside Street was opened in November 1856, with sittings for 632. The building cost about ,1400, of which more than ^800 had come from friends outside. Mr Miller died, I3th January 1860, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry. Second Minister. JOHN WILSON, Ph.D., from Edinburgh (Nicolson Street). Called first to Arbroath (now Princes Street) ; but there was some opposition, and Glasgow, which came very soon after, was accepted. Or- dained, 5th June 1860. The stipend promised was ,200, and the member- ship was 1 80. On 5th October 1873 the present church, with sittings for 950, was opened, the cost being ,5000. In 1884 the debt was reduced 1000, with the aid of ^200 from the Board, leaving ^2000 still to liquidate. The communion roll at this time reached its maximum of nearly 500, and the stipend for years had been ,300. Dr Wilson died, 2ist February 1895, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. The Presbytery entered in its records that he was in the truest sense a student and a scholar, and that in pulpit preparation and pastoral duty he spent himself beyond measure. In August of that year the congregation called the Rev. William Hay,* but he declined on the ground that he meant to devote himself to the medical profession. * Mr Hay belonged to Cumbernauld congregation, and obtained licence from 84 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Third Minister. W. M. PATON, B.D., from Abernethy, where he had been nine and a half years. Inducted, 23rd December 1895. At the close of 1899 the membership was 418 and the stipend ,308. ST ROLLOX THE district of St Rollox was described in 1878 as without exception the most " unimpressionable " in the whole city of Glasgow. The mass of the inhabitants, it was added, was professedly Roman Catholic, but with little more than Romish licence and intolerance. Forty years before this a Glasgow Evangelistic Association commenced work there, but appearances did not encourage them to persevere. On 24th April 1855 a petition came up to Glasgow Presbytery from St Rollox and Garngad bearing that Mission operations had been carried on there for two years ; that the audience averaged 100 during the day and 150 in the evening; and that those in attendance wished to be erected into a congregation. On i2th June the petition was granted, and a member of Presbytery appointed to form 32 persons with certificates into a congregation. This was done on the 2oth of that month, and four of their number were, without loss of time, elected to the eldership and ordained. First Minister. DAVID FORREST, who after a long struggle with ill- health had been loosed from his charge at Troon in April 1852. On recovering so far as to find himself able for a fair amount of ministerial work he chose St Rollox to commence with, and the result has been given above. Now that the congregation was organised it was desirable that the pastoral tie should be formed, which was done on 4th March 1856, the call being signed by 67 members and 32 adherents. The people promised ^100 of stipend. For eight years public worship was conducted in a hall, but on Sabbath, 24th March 1861, a new church was opened, with 440 sittings. The services were conducted by Drs Anderson and Eadie, and their own minister. The building cost ^1200, but through the liberality of friends in Glasgow, among whom Mr John Henderson of Park merits honourable mention, the church was entered free of debt, an opportune tribute of respect to Mr Forrest and his arduous, self-denying work. But, though at that time Mission churches were springing up in various parts of the town under the fostering care of the Elders' Association, St Rollox was looked on as outside the general scheme. None the less, Mr Forrest toiled faithfully on, and, as self-support was not to be looked for, the congregation was put on the sup- plemented list in 1874. There were then 152 names on the communion roll, and the people contributed ^100 of the stipend, which was made up to ,180 in all. In the beginning of 1875 Mr Forrest was laid aside by illness, and in a few months it was felt that a colleague would have to be arranged for, the retiring minister to have .40 a year and the colleague ^205, of which ^100 would come from the Mission Fund and the Ferguson Bequest. Second Minister. JAMES M. CRUICKSHANK, who had resigned Westray in April 1874 to escape the Orkney climate, and returned to the preachers' list. During his second period of probationership he was both acceptable and popular, receiving calls to Logiealmond, Auchterarder (North), Banff, and Kilmarnock (Holm) ; but St Rollox came, and he was inducted there, Falkirk Presbytery in 1884. Having emigrated to South Africa he became pastor of a church at Kimberley. On returning to this country he passed through a regular medical course, hut was also engaged more or less for pulpit supply, and in this capacity attracted the notice of Sandyford congregation. He is now a medical practitioner in Sunderland. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 85 loth August 1875. Mr Forrest meanwhile was relieved from active duty, and on 6th June 1876 he resigned his place as senior pastor, retaining his seat in Presbytery and Synod. He also at personal inconvenience kept up his connection with his old congregation to the end. He died, i2th September 1877, in the seventy-first year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry, leaving a son who at the Union was the Rev. Dr Forrest of Skelmorlie. At the end of that year the membership was returned at 213, and Mr Cruickshank's stipend was ,220 in all, of which ^105 came from the congregation. But removal to a better situation was now coming to be strongly desired by the Presbytery as well as by the people, the drawbacks, however, being the want of funds and the fear that the congregation might lose the characteristics of a Mission church. Hence for fifteen years the proposal remained in suspense, and it was not till October 1892 that the foundation stone of a new church, intended to accommodate 700, was laid in Springburn Road, nearly a mile from the original site of the congregation. It was stated that ^4500 would be required to complete the building, but of this sum two-thirds had already been obtained. The ordinary income in their new situation was ^450 in 1896, and the largest item on the other side next to ^140 of stipend was the sum paid for interest on a bond of ^2000. On 3 ist March 1898 Mr Cruickshank, who had been ailing for some time, was touched by the hand of death when engaged in quiet conversation, and in a moment passed away. He was in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. Third Minister. WILLIAM ADAM, M.A., who had resigned Elgin (South Street), a year and a half before in the interests of union. Inducted, ist September 1898. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 645, and the stipend from the people was ,255. THIS congregation began under the fostering care of Regent Place Church, and was intended to meet the wants of the non-church-going population around. With this view the building in Blackfriars Street, which had been occupied by the Rev. John Graham and his congregation before they amalgamated with Duke Street, was bought for ,1400 by the Elders' Home Mission Association, and the Rev. William Cowan was invited to take the superintendence. Having accepted he began his labours on ist July 1855, on which day the place of worship was reopened. On 8th April 1856 Mr Edmond, minister of Regent Place, reported that a congregation had been formed of 47 members, of whom 4 were received by certificate from other churches and 43 admitted by examination. An election of two elders was now to be proceeded with, and on the Sabbath following 45 of the 47 members sat down at the communion. First Minister, WILLIAM COWAN, who had been ordained at Buckhaven ten years before. The call was signed by '56 members and 17 adherents, the congregation of Regent Place becoming responsible for the stipend. In- ducted to Blackfriars, ist October 1856, and in this new and trying sphere he laboured with much devotedness for eight years. He died, I5th August 1863, in the forty-eighth year of his age and eighteenth of his ministry. Mr Cowan had seen the shadowed side of family life, having been thrice left a widower, each of his wives having lived only between three and four years. The membership of Blackfriars Church at his death was 224, but it declined considerably during the vacancy. Second Minister. ALEXANDER BRUNTON, from Oban, after ten years' 86 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS experience of ministerial life, as had his predecessor. Inducted, 25th October 1864. Regent Place congregation had now expended .1500 on Blackfriars Mission Church, and at this point the tie, which had proved of so much service to the feeble cause, was severed. The congregation now promised i 10 of stipend and the Mission Board ^100. In 1871 a change of situation was felt to be required. The original design had been to remedy the obscure position of the church by changing the front entrance ; but it was found that this could not be done at a cost of less than i 100, and the district having become largely occupied by workshops and places of business a new site was secured in Albert Street, at some distance to the north-east. The new church cost altogether about ^350x3, and was opened on the second Sabbath of September 1872 by Professor M'Michael. The old build- ing was sold to the railway company, and brought ^1500 to the Building Fund. The burden that remained was considerable, but the last of the debt, amounting to ,192, was cleared off in 1881, with the aid of a grant of ,100 from the Liquidation Board. The removal to Albert Street brought a large addition to the membership, which was returned in 1900 at 356, the stipend from the people being .192. BELLGROVE THE cradle of this congregation was the City Hall Saloon, Candleriggs, where it was nurtured for a time as a Mission station, under the care of Greyfriars Church. On 5th April 1862 a congregation of 65 members was formed, and next month two of their number were chosen to the eldership. First Minister. ROBERT CAMPBELL, from Cumnock. For four years Mr Campbell had laboured in this district with much success, and though he was only a divinity student the people petitioned for and obtained his continuance among them after they were congregated. He obtained licence in January 1863, and no time was lost in forming the pastoral bond, the congregation undertaking ^63 from their own funds, which sum, with outside subscriptions and a grant of ,50 from Greyfriars, was to be made up to ,200. Mr Campbell was ordained, 24th June 1863, the call being signed by 83 members and 34 adherents. The church in Canon Street having been recently vacated by what became Frederick Street congrega- tion the Presbytery decided when sustaining the call that the congregation should remove thither at once. It was in Canon Street, accordingly, that the ordination took place. In the end of 1864 it was arranged, with their own approval, that Canon Street should .look no longer to Greyfriars for aid but should draw from the Home Mission Board, the hope being that they would by-and-by become self-supporting. But on gth May 1865 Mi- Campbell accepted a call to Aldershot, and in two months the Presbytery took steps to further the union of Canon Street with some other aid- receiving congregation. How this was accomplished is now to be traced. As for Mr Campbell, we meet with him again in connection with the history of Calton Church. The Rev. John Fraser, who had conducted Missionary operations in the Trongate for upwards of a year, having removed to the south side in April 1863, worship was still kept up in the Tontine under the superintendence of a Committee of Presbytery, with John Henderson, Esq. of Park, for its con- vener. In the following November they invited the Rev. William Barras to remove from Buckie to undertake the care of this Mission station, and he was introduced to his new field of labour on Sabbath, 6th December. Mr Henderson must have made himself responsible for the whole salary, as it PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 87 was nearly eleven months before even a church-door collection was made. Those gathered in to Church fellowship were placed under the wing of Duke Street session, and in February 1865 there were 36 present at the com- munion. Canon Street congregation now took steps to have Mr Barras brought from the Tontine to be Mr Campbell's successor, and this resulted in a unanimous call, signed by 124 members and 41 adherents. For stipend the congregation was to contribute ^100, and Mr Henderson was to give another ^100. The membership of Canon Street was 220 when Mr Campbell left, but it had lost considerably during the vacancy. It now received an addition of 60 or 70 from the Tontine, where services were discontinued. Second Minister. WILLIAM BARRAS. Inducted, 26th December 1865. In the second year of his ministry in this new sphere there was an increase of 64 members and an addition of eight to the eldership. But a new church had been spoken of in Mr Campbell's time, and now it was clear that the extension of Ingram Street would deprive the people of their place of worship. The death of Mr Henderson on ist May 1867 was the loss of their best benefactor, and to make up the ,200 of stipend for 1868, ^100 had to be obtained from the Mission Board. But the feeling grew that self- preservation required them to remove to another locality, and with this design a site was taken in Bellgrove Street. A Committee of Presbytery opposed the transference, but the congregation decidedly adhered to their purpose. At last, on 8th September 1868, after a long and keen discussion in the Presbytery, the removal was sanctioned by a majority of one. The new church, with sittings for 730, was opened by Dr Harper on i2th June 1870. It cost ,3800, and though the Building Fund had been gathering up for years there was a debt to face of ^2200. At the time when the congrega- tion decided to leave the original district they were told that it must be in reliance on their own resources ; so that, in the words of another, " Bellgrove Church was put on its own basis, and left very much to itself to sink or swim." But encouragement came in the shape of 108 accessions to the membership during their first four months in Bellgrove Street, and in 1870 the membership increased from 248 to 357. Still, there were long years of struggle for minister and people, even in the midst of numerical progress, but by means of a Bazaar held in December 1878 the debt was reduced ^720, and next year there was a stipend of over ,250. In March 1882 the last of the debt was cleared off by two grants of ^350 each the one from the Ferguson Bequest and the other from the Synod's Liquidation Board. Mr Barras died, 6th May 1891, in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty- first of his ministry. He had been struck down by paralysis three days before, but his vitality had been previously drained away by influenza. He left Bellgrove Church with a membership of nearly 600, and the stipend for years had been ^315. On loth November 1892 a stained-glass window in the church was unveiled, with the words : " In memory of the Rev. William Barras, pastor 1860-91." A carefully-drawn-up volume, from which a good part of the above particulars have been taken, presents us with a clear view of his life work. Third Minister. W. T. WALKER, M.A., translated from Oban after a ministry there of seven years. Inducted, I2th November 1891. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 691 and a stipend of ^315. SPRINGBANK THIS congregation originated in Mission work which had been conducted in Springbank by Cambridge Street Church for a long course of years. In 88 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS May 1862 lay agency was superseded by the appointment of Mr William Sinclair, probationer, to act as evangelist and missionary. The engagement was renewed from month to month until it became permanent. On loth March 1863 a petition for supply as a Mission station was laid before Glasgow Presbytery from 124 persons in Springbank, which was described as a village two miles from Glasgow, and 61 of their number asked besides to be formed into a congregation. After inquiry this was agreed to on 1 4th July, and soon afterwards two of their number were ordained to the eldership, Dr Eadie being the minister on whom these preliminaries devolved. First Minister. WILLIAM SINCLAIR, from North Leith. Ordained, 22nd January 1866. The call was signed by 52 members and 39 adherents, and the stipend was to be made up to ^205. The congregations of Cambridge Street and Lansdowne stood by their foster-child for five years, and aided in almost the same proportion at an average rate of nearly ^80 a year. On I2th May 1867 a new church was opened, with 500 sittings, the cost of the building being ^1850. The site, which is considerably nearer the heart of the town than the original village was, had been chosen by the Extension Committee, who made a grant of ,200 to aid the erection, and there was also some assistance obtained from the Ferguson Bequest Fund. About 1870 the congregation became self-supporting, and within other two years the debt was all but paid. Springbank had now profited largely by extensive building operations, and in 1873 galleries were put into the church, which increased the sittings to 740. Six years after this there was a com- munion roll of about 350 and a stipend of not less than 260, which in due time was raised to ^300. In 1899 Mr Sinclair by reason of impaired health required regular assistance with his pulpit work, and it was felt desirable that he should have a colleague. On 25th October 1900, the week before the Union, a call was sustained to Mr Thomas Cameron, and his ordination fixed for 131)1 November, which would make it the first in the United Free Church. There was a membership now of 750, and the junior minister was to have ,250 and the senior ^200. CUMBERLAND STREET ON loth June 1862 a paper signed by 106 persons who were attending Sabbath ordinances in the Tontine Reading-Room, Glasgow, was given in to the Presbytery asking to be erected into a congregation. On gth December 65 persons who had been admitted to membership by examina- tion were congregated, and 2 of their number were soon after ordained to the eldership. It is to be regretted that there was not a larger amount of well-tested material to work with when the foundations of a Christian church were being laid. In April next year the congregation, by advice of the Presbytery, removed from their temporary place of worship in the Trongate to an Academy in Commercial Road on the south side of the river, a distance of nearly a mile, and, as worship was to be continued in the Tontine, it was to be expected that some of their number would be left behind. It was among those who remained that the Rev. William Barras began his labours when brought from Buckie to the heart of Glasgow. In the end of 1863 the party meeting in Commercial Road applied for a moderation, the stipend to consist, as they calculated, of ,50 from them- selves, ^100 from the Board, and ,50 from other sources. First Minister. JOHN ERASER, a native of Grantown-on-Spey, who emigrated to Canada in his youth, and studied for the ministry there. He PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 89 was ordained at Chatham, a congregation in connection with the U.P. Church in that colony, in 1851, and in 1856 he was translated to Goderich. Having returned to Scotland he was admitted by the Synod in May 1862 to a place on the probationer list, and about this time, if not considerably earlier, he settled down to carry on Mission work in Glasgow, with the Tontine Reading-Room for his centre. This explains the application from 106 persons already referred to, and it was under his supervision that the communion roll of 65 members was made up. Mr Fraser was inducted to the pastoral charge of Commercial Road Church on 23rd February 1864, the call having been signed by 69 members and 14 adherents. In the spring of 1866 minister and people removed to a brick building, with accommodation for 450, and erected at a cost of ,313, of which the Presbytery i-aised nearly one-third, the other two-thirds being provided by the efforts of minister and congregation. On the forenoon of Sabbath, 2 ist February 1873, ^e present church, built on the same site, was opened by the Rev. Walter C. Smith, then of the Free Tron, Glasgow. It cost in all not less than ^4500, and has sittings for over 1000. Seven years after this there was a membership of 600 and a total income of ,700, which might well afford a stipend of ,200. But churches of this class are sure, even at their best estate, to be wanting in cohesion, so that we are less surprised to find that in other eight years both the membership and the funds had fallen nearly one-half. There was, moreover, a debt of ^2500, and the stipend was ^230 in arrears. The result was that Mr Fraser, on whom years were telling, withdrew from active duty on 8th January 1889, and he shortly afterwards received a gift of ^400 in lieu of a retiring allowance. He died, 5th May 1894, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-third of his ministry. Second Minister. JAMES EASON, M. A., from Carluke. Ordained, i7th September 1889. The people were to attempt a stipend of ^230, which proved too much for them. But in 1892 the funds were relieved by a strong and successful effort to clear off ^2000 of debt, which left only ,500 borrowed from the Loan Fund. On 29th July 1895 Mr Eason accepted a call to Duns (South), where, owing to a recent union, he had a larger and an abler congregation to work with. Third Minister. JOHN COOK, who had laboured six years in Buckie. Inducted, 9th January 1896. Four years afterwards the membership was 374 and the stipend ,224. CRANSTONHILL A MISSION station, which had been long maintained at Cranstonhill by Wellington Street Church, was now in a state of ripeness for being formed into a regular congregation. This was done on i3th July 1875, there being a membership of 250 attested by Wellington Street session, and on 2nd October five elders were ordained and one inducted by Dr Black. First Minister. ROBERT EDGAR, M.A., who had been seven and a half years in South Ronaldshay. Inducted, 3ist January 1876. Trusting to the fostering care of the parent church the congregation promised a stipend of ,200. The work was to proceed much as before, but on a higher platform, and there were no buildings to provide or extra burdens to bear. On nth June 1878 Mr Edgar accepted a call to St Andrew's Square, Greenock. Second Minister. GEORGE G. GREEN, M.A., from Buckie, where he 90 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS had been about thirteen years. Inducted, 5th December 1878. The stipend was to be made up to ^290, of which the people raised .150. The membership a year afterwards was 295. In June 1885, with the view of building a new church, for which ,2000 was already subscribed, Cranstonhill had their place of worship made over to them by the mother congregation. The building was opened on Sabbath, i8th December 1887, by Drs Drummond, Black, and Bonnar, when the collections amounted to over ^100. The cost altogether was ,4000, and the sittings are between 800 and 900, and it is practically free of debt. At the close of 1899 Cranstonhill had a membership of 909, and the stipend was ,300. ROCKVILLA MISSION operations had been carried on in this part of Glasgow for a course of years by Shamrock Street Church, and on I3th November 1877 a regular preaching station was formed by Glasgow Presbytery. A year after, on 8th October, the members, 104 in number, were erected into a congregation, and in six months they called Mr A. L. Henderson, who declined, and was ordained at Durham. Shamrock Street congregation had engaged for ^80 and the use of their premises for three years, and, trusting to subsidies from the Mission Board and probably the Ferguson Bequest, the people undertook altogether a stipend of ,232, though their own income for the year was only ,58. First Minister. JOHN MILNE, M.A., who had resigned Greenlaw the year before. Inducted, 25th November 1879, the call being signed by 96 members and 20 adherents. They were now in a fully organised state, but the meeting-place was complained of as unsuitable, and prosperity was denied. At the expiry of the three years Shamrock Street Church agreed to continue the ^,80 for another year. In the beginning of 1883 the Presbytery found that, though Mr Milne was doing good work, the membership was only 112, and the withdrawal of the ^80 would have to be made up for. In the end of that year an iron church was re- commended, but owing to a shortcoming of funds there was nothing done. A year later Mr Milne wrote to the Presbytery that he could go on no longer with any hope of success unless more comfortable ac- commodation were provided for the congregation, and on I4th July 1885 his resignation was accepted, the people much regretting the circum- stances which seemed to make this a necessity. He afterwards removed to Edinburgh, and was living in the Braid district in a very infirm state at the time of the Union. Second Minister. M. BRUCE MEIKLEHAM, son of the Rev. John Meikleham, Grange. When Mr Meikleham's work began, with a location of sixteen months, there were only 72 members, and the collections averaged 143. each Sabbath, but in seven months their numbers had increased by a half, and the attendance was doubled. Mr Meikleham was ordained, 2ist March 1887, the congregation undertaking a stipend of ,80, and the Board to grant ^100 for three years, besides house rent. A new church, with 650 sittings, was opened at Possilpark on Thursday, 4th September 1890, by Dr Drummond of Belhaven. It cost ,2800, but the congregation had been so liberally assisted by friends in Glasgow that only a debt of ^600 remained. Two years after this there were 316 names on the communion roll, and the stipend from the people was 150. At the close of 1899 the membership had grown to 414, and the stipend to ,200, without supplement. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 91 CALEDONIA ROAD (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 1 2th October 1854 the Presbytery of Glasgow was applied to for sermon by some members and adherents of the U.P. Church, with the view of forming a new congregation on the south side of the Clyde. There was nothing done at that meeting, as the parties had not got disjunction lines. At next meeting 49 communicants and 12 adherents renewed the application. It came out that they had separated from Hutchesontown Church, in which there was turmoil at that time, the minister being blamed for prompting the congregation to vote the managers out of office. On I2th December the parties were erected into a congregation, which was to meet for the present in Commercial Road Academy, and on I3th February arrangements were made for having three elders formed into a session. First Minister. ROBERT T. JEFFREY, M.D., translated from Denny after a ministry there of twelve years. Inducted, 2gth April 1856, the call being signed by 93 members. The stipend promised at first was ,200, with ^25 in name of expenses. The new church was opened on Sabbath, 22nd March 1857, with sittings for about iioo. Dr Jeffrey's brother George, of London Road Church, preached in the forenoon, and the collection at the three services amounted to .350. The entire cost was ^7500, which was cleared off after some years without either Bazaar or external aid. In 1859 Dr Jeffrey published his "Voices from Calvary," a volume which drew forth a beautifully-written review by William Robertson of Irvine in the denominational magazine. In March 1861 he declined a call to remove from Glasgow to Albion Church, London. The death of his brother in 1887 helped to weaken Dr Jeffrey's strength by the way, and in 1890 it was found needful to have a colleague ap- pointed, the senior minister to have ^225 and the junior ,400. Second Minister. WILLIAM R. THOMSON, B.D., from Earlston, where he had been ordained two years before. Inducted, 22nd April 1890. Dr Jeffrey died, ist August 1895, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. The circumstances were markedly pathetic. The bond of affection between the different members of the family had always been close and warm. The two brothers, for example, dwelt side by side, each in his own house, but with a door through the wall between. His brother's death cast a shadow over his own remaining years, and when his sister died on Monday, 29th July 1895, it intensified his own burden of frailties. Next day he was laid down on what proved his death-bed, and on Thursday, as the funeral procession was about to leave, he entered into rest. George Gilfillan, who knew the two brothers well, ranked them among his worthiest and warmest friends. He spoke of Dr George as a man of "open, frank, and all-embracing heart" ; while his brother, with more eccentricity, had nearly equal warmth, and a still stronger intellect. We know, besides, that as the evening advanced the eccentricities of Robert's younger days were smoothed down, and he became more conservative in his theology even, as is attested in some measure by his second volume of discourses, which was published in 1890, with the title, "The Salvation of the Gospel." Under Mr Thomson the congregation keeps up its strength and liberality, the membership at the close of 1899 being close on 800 and the stipend ^525. 92 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS MARYHILL (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON loth July 1855 a petition from 31 church members and 77 adherents to be congregated was presented to Glasgow Presbytery from Maryhill. On I4th August this was agreed to, and on 9th October the ordination of three elders was arranged for. The station had been opened on 5th February in a hall seated for 250, as the outcome of mission operations previously carried on in the place by Shamrock Street Church, Glasgow. Maryhill is three miles from the heart of the city to the north, and the population was esti- mated at 3000, but the soil was hard to work. Indeed, this congregation might, without much impropriety, have been included in the group of so- called Mission churches. First Minister. ROBERT NIVEN, who was originally from the Relief Church, Dovehill, Glasgow. Ordained on 2nd November 1835, to proceed to Kaffraria as a missionary under the Glasgow South African Society. Some time after the outbreak of the war of 1850 Mr Niven returned to Scotland, and it was under his agency that the Mission at Maryhill was carried on. He was inducted to his Home charge on 3oth April 1856, the call being signed by 75 members and 30 adherents. On the third Sabbath of May 1859 the new church, with sittings for 430, and built at a cost of ^1340, was opened by Dr Robertson of Shamrock Street. A gallery was added in 1865, which provided additional accommodation for 140. A manse was built in 1868, the cost, as reported to the Synod, being .750, of which the Board contributed one-third. Before Mr Niven retired the property was free of debt. In 1872 it was felt that a colleague was needed, and it was agreed that Mr Niven should have ^50 a year, with the manse, and the junior minister 170, the congregation to make up whatever might be short of the ,40 expected from the Ferguson Bequest. They first called Mr James S. Rae, who accepted Ecclefechan. Second Minister. JAMES M. RAE, from St Paul's, Aberdeen. Ordained, 26th March 1873. ^ r Niven took a share of the work for four years, but on 6th February 1877 he retired under growing infirmities, and removed from Maryhill soon after. He died at his son's residence in Gourock on 1 2th October thereafter, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty- second of his ministry. Of Mr Niven's connection with the Foreign Field and his experiences during the Kaffir War we have a minute and interesting account from his own pen in the U.P. Magazine for 1851, and in the same periodical for 1861 Dr M'Michael gave particulars of the treatment he received from the Governor, Sir George Cathcart, at a later time, when he was ordered to leave the colony. I recall the impression made in at least one congregation by Mr Niven's description of mission work in Kaffraria when he was home on furlough in 1846. Mr Rae after a period of feeble health died, 2ist February 1882, in the thirty-eighth year of his age and ninth of his ministry. There was a membership now of over 250. Third Minister. WILLIAM DUNCAN, from Mid-Calder, where he had been colleague to his uncle for eight years, hiducted, 2ist November 1882. The stipend from the congregation was to be ,170, with the manse, and a grant of ^30 was expected from the Ferguson Fund, but this was not long required. In 1893 the church was enlarged by an addition of 250 sittings, making 850 in all. This with the erection of new halls and the introduction of an organ cost over .3000. At the close of 1899 there were 502 names on the communion roll, and the stipend was ,240, and the manse. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 93 CLAREMONT (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON gth October 1855 a number of U.P. members applied to Glasgow Pres- bytery to be formed into a new congregation in the Sandyford district, where they had a place of worship nearly completed. On I3th November, after some inquiry bearing on the mode of conducting public worship, the con- gregating was agreed to, the members being 17 in number. At the meeting in January 1856 a moderation was applied for, the stipend at the very outset being struck to the tune of ^425 a year, but on the part of certain members of Court there was sensitiveness as to some dreaded encroachment on Church order. An organ was about to be put into the building, and the purpose, it was inferred, must be more than ornamental. The representatives of the congregation explained that it was deemed desirable to have the instrument erected at once, but before using it they would give due notice to the Pres- bytery. In March the applicants brought up a memorial, in which they gave full expression to their intentions, and after long discussion a motion carried to grant the moderation but enjoin the parties not to introduce the organ without the sanction of the Synod. The ministers who set themselves most decidedly against the proposed innovation were from the Relief side of the Church, influenced, perhaps, by the remembrance of the Roxburgh Place Case in their own Synod twenty-seven years before. One of them was the Rev. James S. Taylor, who left the U.P. Church when the Synod afterwards granted liberty to introduce instrumental music into the public worship of God. First Minister. ALEXANDER MAcEWEN, M.A., from Helensburgh, where he had been ordained eleven years before. The call was signed by 25 members and 29 adherents, and the induction took place on Wednesday, 1 3th August 1856. On the following Sabbath the congregation entered their new church, when the Rev. John Cairns of Berwick preached in the fore- noon, their own minister in the afternoon, and Mr Ker of Sydney Place in the evening. The entire cost of the building was about ,10,500, and it had sittings for 1 100. Next year the contributions for the Building Fund were over ,3000, and on this scale of liberality the debt rapidly melted away. As for the organ, it remained a silent listener, on Sabbath at least, for sixteen years, very much through the minister's influence, who carried discretion into all his counsels. In 1872 the point was yielded, and the instrument, which required to be strung up anew after its long rest, was allowed to get out its voice for the first time on the first Sabbath of November. In 1864 Mr MacEwen received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. He died, after a long and severe illness, on 4th June 1875, m tne fifty-second year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. A volume of his discourses, with a well-balanced Memoir by his son, and now his successor in Claremont Church, was published in 1877. In Dr MacEwen the Church lost a minister of solid excellence and a counsellor of rare sagacity. Second Minister. ADAM S. MATHESON. Having accepted a call from Alloa (Townhead) to Derby Road, Liverpool, he was admitted on i8th September 1873 to the place vacated two years before by Dr Taylor of New York. The offer of a larger sphere and a stipend of ^800 came from Claremont Church in 1877, which he accepted, and the induction took place on 1 7th April of that year. The congregation had previously called Dr Drummond from St John's Wood, London, promising a stipend of ^1000, but he declined. Under Mr Matheson the extensive machinery moved on for ten years with vigour, but in March 1888 the Presbytery -were asked by sixteen of the elders to make inquiry into the state of their affairs. The committee of investigation found that decline had set in, that differences 94 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS prevailed, and that an attempt should be made to have harmony restored. On 1 2th June a letter was received from Mr Matheson demitting his charge, and stating that the committee had taken upon themselves the responsibility of recommending him to retire from the scene of discomfort. The resigna- tion was accepted at a meeting on the 26th, and some months afterwards it was intimated that Claremont congregation had sent Mr Matheson a cheque for ^1000. He was admitted to High Street, Dumbarton, his fourth charge, within six months, and to the partial relief which the change brought we are indebted in some measure for subsequent productions of his pen. Third Minister. ALEXANDER R. MACEWEN, B.D., brought from the neighbouring congregation of Anderston, and inducted into what had been his father's congregation, I2th September 1889. Dr John Smith had pre- viously declined to exchange the collegiate charge of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, for the sole pastorate of Claremont Church, Glasgow. The stipend was ,800, as before. In 1892 the University of Glasgow conferred the degree of D.D. on Mr MacEwen. Three years afterwards Dr MacEwen gave to the world a standard work in his " Life and Letters of John Cairns, D.D., LL.D." He has recently contributed to the "Famous Scots" Series a little volume on " The Erskines," in which he has done as much justice to the subject as was consistent with the narrowness of the canvas. Claremont Church still divides with Wellington Church, as it has long done, the honour of holding the foremost place in the U.P. denomination for abound- ing liberality, their income in 1899 for missionary and benevolent purposes alone amounting to nearly ^3500. The membership at the close of that year was 978. POLLOK STREET (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) IN the July number of the denominational magazine for 1855 a paragraph appeared, in which it was stated that a church was in course of erection at Pollok Street, "on the Govan road, near the new suburban village of Pollokshields." Nothing further emerged till I3th November, when 45 members of the U.P. Church petitioned Glasgow Presbytery to be formed into a congregation. At next meeting this was agreed to, public worship to begin in the hall forthwith. The church was opened on i6th March 1856 by Dr M'Farlane of Erskine Church, with sittings for 986, the entire cost of the buildings being ^6000. First Minister. JAMES KNOX, M.A., from Ayr (now Darlington Place), where he had been ordained twelve years before. Inducted, 2nd September 1856. The call was signed by 114 members and 60 adherents. Mr Knox had been called to Greyfriars Church in the beginning of the year, when he had a small majority over the Rev. Alexander MacEwen of Helensburgh ; but party feeling got in, and the call was declined. The Pollok Street move- ment had drawn all along from Greyfriars, where the cohesion had been weak- ened by Dr King's retirement, and now the new cause was strengthened by Mr Knox's induction. At first the district was only beginning to be peopled, but as building operations went on the congregation rapidly grew and prospered. In 1870 Mr Knox received the degree of D.D. from the Uni- versity of Glasgow. When the time came for lightening his labours by the appointment of a colleague the congregation called the Rev. James Drummond from Alexandria, but he remained some time longer in his first charge. Second Minister. ANDREW H. ANDERSON, who had been for a short time in Leith (St Andrew's Place), and then for two years in Aldershot. PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 95 Inducted, i3th January 1876. The stipend promised was ^412 to each minister. In the beginning of 1883 Dr Knox withdrew from active duty owing to failing health. Declining any allowance from the congregation he removed to Edinburgh, where he died on zyth January 1886, in the sixty- ninth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. Besides being a masterly preacher Dr Knox was a man of wide accomplishments. His originality is well illustrated by a lecture he published in 1870 on "The Combined Progressive and Conservative Elements in Nature and Religion." Mr Anderson's health had never been reliable, and in a quieter sphere he might have found better adaptations than in either Leith or Glasgow. The tear and wear of Pollok Street Church seems to have induced some relaxing of the nervous tension, and the flow of prosperity came to an end. The congregation now got restive, and on 5th October 1892 the Presbytery sanctioned an arrangement under which Mr Anderson was to retire on receiving payment of ,1000. Rest was needed, but it came in a way much to be lamented. He had gone to live at Prestwick, and he died in the neighbourhood of Ayr on I4th December 1892, in the fifty-first year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. Third Minister. CHARLES ROBSON, M.A., translated from Clune Park, Port-Glasgow, after a ministry of four and a half years. Inducted, 8th June 1893. The congregation had previously called the Rev. James Macmillan of Nairn, but without success. The present call was signed by 269 members, and the stipend was to be ^350. On I4th November 1899 Mr Robson accepted a call to Inverness. Fourth Minister. THOMAS P. RANKINE, M.A., translated from Water- beck, and inducted, 3rd May 1900. At that time there was a membership of nearly 650, and the stipend was as before. SPRINGBURN (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) SPRINGBURN was described about the time of the Disruption as a village a mile and a half north-east of Glasgow, inhabited chiefly by weavers. On 8th January 1856 a petition to be formed into a congregation was presented to Glasgow Presbytery from 22 United Presbyterian members residing in the place. They had been worshipping for some time in a schoolroom, under the superintendence of the Rev. James Lindsay, formerly minister of Kilmarnock. No objections being offered, Dr George Jeffrey preached at Springburn by appointment of Presbytery on the 25th of next month, and declared the petitioners congregated. The first church, with 434 sittings, was opened on Sabbath, I7th August, the cost being fully ,800. A call was addressed in October 1857 to Mr Matthew Crawford ; but he had already received three others, and a fourth which followed from Sanquhar (South) he accepted. The stipend was to be ,100 from the congregation, but supple- ment was expected. First Minister. WALTER CHISHOLM, from Galashiels (West). Or- dained, 3 ist August 1858. Within three months Mr Chisholm signified to the Presbytery that owing to ill-health he had been obliged to employ two divinity students on a recent Sabbath, a thing which needed apology in those days. Regular sick-supply followed, and he died, 25th November 1859, in the thirty-second year of his age and second of his ministry. We remember Mr Chisholm as a probationer of stately appearance, with an amount of pulpit action above the average. During the vacancy which ensued Mr Thomas Forsyth had the offer of Springburn, but he preferred to become junior pastor at Gorebridge. 96 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Second Minister. JAMES A. JOHNSTON, who had been nearly nine years in West Linton, and was now transferred to a field of more befitting possi- bilities. A stipend of ,150 was all that the people could offer meanwhile, but if this were supplemented by a grant of ^30 for one year aid would not be required again. Inducted, 3rd July 1861. Mr Johnston gave himself with much vigour to his special work, and also to the advancement of the Temperance movement, a cause in which he had been deeply interested before college days, and of which he remained an earnest upholder to the end. A new church was opened on Thursday, igth March 1874, by Dr Cairns of Berwick. The cost was calculated at .4000, and it was to accom- modate 950. Springburn was now a part of Glasgow, and it had a popula- tion of 24,000. Within other five years the membership of the congregation approached 700, and the stipend was ^400. In 1894 Mr Johnston, who had been in broken health for some time, had a colleague arranged for, who was to receive ,300 a year, his own allowance to be ^150. Third Minister. ALEXANDER GILCHRIST, from Linlithgow (East). Having removed to the United States Mr Gilchrist, after passing through a regular curriculum of study, was ordained minister of Arlington Heights, Illinois, in May 1890, in connection with the Presbyterian Church of America. After labouring there for three years energetically and success- fully, as the congregation testified in parting with him, he returned to Scotland, and was received as a probationer into the U.P. Church at the Synod in May 1894. Springburn congregation soon after this called Mr David S. Cairns, now of Ayton, but he preferred not to accept. Mr Gilchrist was inducted as colleague and successor to Mr Johnston, 23rd April 1895. The senior minister died, igth September thereafter, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and when within a few days of completing the forty-third of his ministry. The Rev. Adam Johnston Millar of Milnathort is his son-in-law and also his nephew. At the close of 1899 the membership of Springburn was over 1 100 and the stipend ^500. SPRINGBURN, WELLFIELD (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON loth December 1895 the Presbytery's Extension Committee recommended that steps should be taken with the view of having another church formed in Springburn, which had a population now of 27,000. The movement had been long talked of, but it was held back as St Rollox congregation was expected to remove to this locality. The proposal having been sent down to sessions that struggling congregation reminded the Presbytery of their heavy burden of debt, and Springburn session suggested that the new formation should have its seat at a reasonable distance from them. Under the auspices of the Presbytery the station was opened on igth January 1896, and on 23rd March a congregation was formed with 106 certified members. A further advance was gained by the ordination of ten elders on the last Sabbath of April. A hall had been previously erected, with the aid of a grant from the Board. First Minister. DAVID M. FORRESTER, B.D., from Logiealmond, where he had been ordained ten years before. The call was signed by 1 1 1 members, and a stipend of ,300 was guaranteed by the Church Extension Committee. Inducted, 7th September 1896, and when the year ended there were 163 names on the communion roll. On Thursday, 5th October 1899, the new church was opened by the Rev. Dr Smith of Broughton Place, Edinburgh. It has sittings for fully 800 and all suitable equipments. It was estimated that the cost would be ^5000, but, owing mainly to the PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 97 foundation yielding, the total outlay amounted to over ,8000. The people had ^1000 subscribed before the work was begun, and a grant of ,500 was received from the Extension Fund. A few months before the Union an additional 1000 was promised by the Board on condition of having the debt cleared off, and the congregation was girding itself for a large effort by means of a Bazaar to meet the requirement. It gave promise of being largely patronised, so that it was expected that in a short time Wellfield Church, Springburn, would walk unfettered. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 267, and the stipend from their own resources was ,165. BERKELEY STREET (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) X. THIS congregation was formed on 8th April 1856 by the disjunction of 140 members from East Campbell Street Church. The petition bore that they had erected a new church in Berkeley Street, and wished to be transferred thither along with their minister, whose stipend was to be at least equal to what it had hitherto been. The majority remaining behind wished their west-end brethren all success, and the Presbyteiy's way was clear to grant the prayer of the petitioners, the four elders included among them to form the new session. The church, with 900 sittings, was opened on Sabbath, nth May, by Professor Lindsay, who preached in the forenoon, and the collections at the three services amounted to nearly ,300. The building cost ^5500, and of this sum ^1500 had been contributed previously. The membership was now about 200, and within a year the debt was reduced other ,1800. The last of it was cleared off in 1866. First Minister. WILLIAM RAM AGE, the pastoral tie of nine years remaining undisturbed by the transition from east to west. In 1871 steps were taken to provide Mr Ramage with a colleague, the senior minister to have ,300 a year and the junior .400. The district was well churched now, and numerical increase may have been less rapid than was expected, especially after the church was opened in Kent Road. Second Minister. GEORGE L. CARSTAIRS, from St James' Place, Edinburgh. Ordained as colleague and successor to Mr Ramage, 3rd October 1871, having declined calls to Tillicoultry and Kilmarnock (Portland Road). In 1873 Mr Ramage published a volume of sermons, carefully thought out and tastefully composed, and in 1880 he received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. On the last Sabbath of October 1 88 1 he preached for the last time. Next day a severe attack of angina pectoris laid him finally aside from all public work, though he survived thirteen years. In 1882 he published six discourses, entitled " Divine Forecasts." He died, igth October 1894, in the eighty-first year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. In May 1889, when Mr Young was elected Home Mission Secretary, Mr Carstairs' business training and general aptitude brought him large support for the office, especially from the west, although he was a reluctant candidate. At the close of 1899 there were over 700 names on the communion roll, and the stipend was ^520. LANGSIDE ROAD (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON i4th April 1857 a petition from 21 persons in the district of Strathbungo to be received into Church fellowship with the view of being erected into a congregation was laid before the Presbytery of Glasgow. Along with this there was a paper subscribed by 31 members of the denomination declaring II. G 98 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS their readiness to encourage and support the movement. It was also stated that ^ioo had been collected for the building of a church, that a free site had been obtained and ,500 to meet prospective expenditure, and it was hoped the congregation would be self-supporting from the first. After some demur from Pollokshaws session about the station having been begun without the sanction of the Presbytery a committee met with the applicants, and on nth August a congregation was formed with a membership of 17, of whom 1 1 had been admitted by examination and 6 by certificate. First Minister. HENRY ERSKINE FRASER, M.A., son of the Rev. William Fraser, Alloa (West), and great-grandson of the Rev. Henry Erskine, Falkirk. Mr Fraser, when a preacher, was called first to Methven and then to Hexham, but having accepted North Shields he was ordained there, 2oth November 1845. Being invited to undertake the building up of a congregation at Langside he resigned a flourishing charge on 2nd September 1856 and removed to Glasgow. The population around being sparse progress was not rapid, and it was not till February 1858 that a moderation was applied for, but though the call which followed was signed by only 26 members and 31 adherents there was a stipend promised of ,200. Mr Fraser was inducted on 23rd March, and for another year the congregation continued to worship in a schoolroom at Crossmyloof. Then on 6th March 1859 the new church, with 450 sittings, was opened by Professor Eadie, when the collections amounted to over ^80. The cost came up to ^1600. In 1879 steps were taken to secure a junior minister, the pecuniary arrangements being that Mr Fraser should receive ^150 for five years, and after that ,120, the colleague to have .315. Second Minister. JAMES R. HOUSTON, translated from Govan (Green- field), his third charge, and inducted into Langside Road, 24th June 1879. At the end of that year the membership was 183. The entire work of the congregation devolved on Mr Houston from the first, and in 1884 the Presbytery, with his own consent, sanctioned the reduction of Mr Fraser's retiring allowance to ,75 on account of the congregation's financial position. He now removed to Edinburgh, where he died, after a brief illness, on 1 5th May 1890, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty-fifth of his ministry. His son, Mr Norman Fraser, was ordained two years afterwards at Saffron- hall, Hamilton. A new church was opened on Friday, 2ist May 1897, by Dr Smith of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, the collections that day and on the two following Sabbaths amounting to ,314. The building cost ,5600, and there were 780 sittings. The membership of Langside Road in December 1899 was 400, and though the interest on borrowed money must have told largely on the funds the stipend kept at ,315, as before. WHITEVALE (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON gth December 1862 a petition, purporting to be from the elders, managers, and people of the Independent Secession Church, Barrack Street, was presented to the Presbytery of Glasgow for admission and sermon. Their minister, Dr John Graham, with whom we parted company under Cathedral Square, was now dead, and in the funeral discourse Dr William Anderson had prepared the way for this application. He deplored the unhappy step which Dr Graham took when he put himself into the position of a fugitive from discipline ; he testified to his friend's gifts as a pulpit orator, saying : " With his rich, musical, baritone voice, and his persuasive appeals to the natural affections, I have been as much moved by him as I ever was by any preacher" ; and he promised the congregation a welcome reception into the PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 99 U.P. Church. A committee of inquiry reported on roth February that Barrack Street Church had no eldership and no authentic communion roll. Some members of Presbytery thought information desirable as to Christian character before proceeding further, but the majority decided to recognise the congregation at once, and appoint a provisional session to make up a roll of membership. In August a moderation was granted, the stipend promised being ^215. First Minister WILLIAM MUNSIE, from John Street, Glasgow, who was already under call to Linlithgow (East) and Perth (York Place). Or- dained, 24th November 1863. As the call was signed by 151 members we may consider the entire number to have been about 200. Next year prosperity was reported, and the debt reduced from ^800 to ^600. But the isolated state of the congregation for sixteen years, coupled with the circum- stances which led to it, cannot have been favourable to compactness, and after a time difficulties emerged. In November 1868 the church was sold to the Union Railway Company, and a site secured in Whitevale Street, much to the satisfaction of the Presbytery. Unfortunately, the managers were now finding themselves unable to meet their stipend liabilities ; but at this very time a call came out to Mr Munsie from Slateford, and he was loosed from Barrack Street, I3th April 1869. In their vacant state the congrega- tion expressed the opinion that a union with some neighbouring congregation was desirable, and a Presbyterial Committee was instructed to travel in that direction, but after a time the majority decided against their former proposal. It was now that formidable differences began to emerge, under which there was serious, and almost entire, disintegration. As they refused to entertain the suggestion to unite with Canon Street congregation, whose removal to Bellgrove they had been recently memorialising the Presbytery to forbid, and as they also looked unfavour- ably on a junction with Blackfriars, the committee had given them to understand that they might never get a minister at all. A meeting of the congregation was now called without the sanction of the session, and in an irritated mood they decided to go over to the Free Church. The managers followed up this resolution by making an offer of ^1000 to the Free congregation in East Miller Street, with which they proposed to unite. Against this application of the money received for the church two of their number entered a protest. The session, moreover, in which three ministers of the Presbytery had been appointed to sit and vote, placed the eight go- ahead managers under suspension. Litigation of a half ludicrous kind fol- lowed. The money which the majority of the managers had voted away was lodged in the bank in the name of three of their number, and could not be uplifted without their conjoint authority. One of the three remained faithful to the denomination, and the other two raised an action against the bank to compel payment, but the Sheriff held that the third name was essential. The way was effectually blocked now, as the party refused to put pen upon paper, and the congregation at a meeting regularly summoned by the session declared in favour of keeping by their former connection. The case was thereupon dropped, though not till four years were lost ; and after legal expenses on both sides were deducted, ^noo remained for building purposes. The congregation had meanwhile been worshipping in a hall near by in very reduced circumstances, so much so that they required their pulpit supply paid for from the funds of the Presbytery on alternate Sabbaths. In 1873 they called the Rev. William Blair of Dunblane, who declined the offer, and in 1874 they removed to a wooden church they had built at Campbellfield at a cost of ^900. TOO HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Second Minister. ADAM WELCH, translated from Kincardine, and inducted, 2nd June 1874. The communion roll at this date was reduced to 71 names, but the Elders' Association in Glasgow was to make good a stipend of ^300 for four years. The new church in Whitevale, with sittings for nearly 1000, was opened on the evening of Friday, 4th October 1878, by Professor Cairns. At the end of the following year there was a membership of 243, and the stipend contributed by the people was 160. In 1888 the debt of ^3000 which rested on the building was reported to have been reduced to ^900, the Board granting ^450. At that time there was a com- munion roll of 272. On loth March 1896 Mr Welch was enrolled minister- emeritus, the congregation paying him, instead of a retiring allowance, ^1000, which was borrowed on the property, a sum which, in the opinion of the Presbytery, was suitable to their circumstances. He was also admitted an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, but this privilege he relinquished in 1898 as no longer required. His average stipend for sixteen years had been ^167, which a grant from the Ferguson Trustees raised to ^207. After retiring Mr Welch removed to Edinburgh, and in 1898 he published a volume, entitled " The Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and other Papers," in which he works out his conclusions with much ingenuity. Third Minister. W '. H. KELLOCK, M.A. Inducted, 24th November 1896 after being six years in Kilmaurs. The stipend was to be made up to ,270, the Board granting ^120 for the first year, ^100 for the second, and ^80 for the third. The membership at the close of 1899 was 445, and the stipend from the people ^190. KENT ROAD (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS cause originated in a petition on i8th March 1863 from 18 persons for sermon with the view of forming a new congregation towards the west end of Glasgow. They were to commence in the Educational Rooms, Bath Street. They stated that their intention was to build somewhere between St George's Road and Woodlands Road. Though these places are not far apart more definite information as to the locality was demanded at next meeting on I4th April. Dr James Taylor in particular was clear against giving any body of men a roving commission to settle down a church wherever they pleased, and he carried the Presbytery with him by 20 votes to 9. There was an impression abroad already that it was designed to call Dr Joseph Brown of Dalkeith, and that the new formation was to carry a strong infusion of the Abstinence element. A site in the neighbourhood of Kent Road was at last agreed on, though there was a feeling on the part of some in favour of a situation to the south of Dumbarton Road. On gth June 28 members were congregated 26 from the U.P. Church and 2 from the Established. First Minister. JOSEPH BROWN, D.D., translated from Dalkeith, where he had been twenty-nine years, and inducted, 22nd December 1863. Inferior offers from Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London had been previously rejected, but the golden opportunity had come at this late hour. The stipend was to be ^400. The church in Kent Road was opened on Sabbath, 26th March 1865, by Dr Johnston of Limekilns, who preached in the forenoon. The collec- tions amounted to 666 ; the cost was 6200 ; and there are 1090 sittings. In ten years the little one had become, if not 1000, at least 900 strong. In 1873 Dr Brown succeeded Dr Cairns of Berwick in the Moderator's Chair, and on I2th February 1884 his jubilee was celebrated, when he re- PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW lot ceived a cheque for ^1100, along with several Addresses, one of them from the Scottish Temperance League. Second Minister. ALEXANDER KlRKLAND, from Hamilton (Auchingra- mont). Had been Dr Brown's assistant for years, and in 1882, when acting in that capacity, declined a call to Mearns. Ordained, 4th October 1887. The senior minister was to have ^325 the first year and ^,275 thereafter, and his colleague was to rise from ,300 to ^350, and then to ^375, with allowance for expenses. Dr Brown died on I ith April 1897, in the eighty-seventh year of his age and sixty-third of his ministry. He has left behind him two little volumes, both published in 1847, entitled "The Dwellings of Jacob" and " The Lambs of the Flock." His name survives in his grandson, the Rev. Joseph Brown Pirret, Thornhill. Though Kent Road, with so many rival churches around, is scarcely what it was in its youthful prime it had at the close of 1899 a membership of 788, and the stipend, with allowances, was ^520. LANSDOWNE (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THE building of this church was begun in the summer of 1862, under the auspices of a committee consisting of 1 1 gentlemen, members of Cambridge Street congregation. The formal severance from Cambridge Street was not till loth November 1863, when 68 members, along with Dr Eadie, were formed into a new congregation. It was a removal to a wealthy locality, but it is gratifying to read Dr Eadie's assurance that many of the poorer members were nearer the new church than the old one, that not a few of that class would migrate with him, and that they would be specially welcomed. On Sabbath, 6th December, the new place of worship, built at a cost of over ,12,000, was opened by Drs Cairns, Eadie, and Buchanan, the collections amounting to ,1230. The change brought no increase of stipend for five years ; but at that time it was augmented, and in 1873 '* rose to ^700. Meanwhile there were monitions that the evening shadows were beginning to fall, but for nearly three years there was little abatement of Dr Eadie's many-sided activities. In May 1876 the new arrangements for the Theological Hall were completed, and on that occasion he appeared in the Synod for the last time, and unlike his former self. To meet the requirements of the lengthened session he was to have a colleague in Lansdowne, but the pastoral tie was to remain unbroken. While all was in this transition state the end came. Dr Eadie died, 3rd June 1876, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, in the forty-first of his ministry, and in the thirty-fourth of his Professorship. During the Lansdowne period of his life Dr Eadie contributed largely to various dictionaries and reviews. The last work published under his own eye was the History of the English Bible, in two volumes, and he left in manuscript his Commentary on the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, which was given to the world in 1877, under the editorship of the Rev. William Young of Parkhead. But we turn back with interest from these higher ventures to his " Lectures oil the Bible to the Young." Some, who read them as outlined in ^Juvenile Missionary Afagazine for 1847, will recall the memorable headings " Read the Bible, Understand the Bible, Be- lieve the Bible, Remember the Bible, Practise the Bible, Circulate the Bible." Thus was Professor Eadie mindful of the command: "Feed my lambs." In this volume we can scarcely pass by his " Life of William Wilson " in the "United Presbyterian Fathers," or his " Chapters on the Secession Church" in " Taylor's Pictorial History of Scotland." But all else must be left among to2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the details of Dr Eadie's Life, as given by his friend of a younger day, Dr James Brown of Paisley. Second Minister. THOMAS BOBBIE, called from St Andrew's Place, Leith, soon after the vacancy occurred, but he declined. Being renewed with a much larger array of signatures the call was accepted, and the induction took place, i6th January 1877. The stipend promised was ,825, and the membership at this period was about 700. After going on for eighteen years in Lansdowne Mr Dobb'ie wished the assistance of a colleague, which was speedily arranged for, the junior minister to have ^600 and the senior ,225. The congregation issued an unsuccessful call to Mr G. A. Johnston Ross, Bridge of Allan, early in 1895. Third Minister. JAMKS MACMILLAN, M.A., who had been five and a half years in Nairn. Inducted, I2th March 1896, and loosed on 25th September 1900 on accepting a call to the infant congregation of Newlands, Glasgow. The membership at the beginning of that year was 759, and the income for Missionary and Benevolent purposes over ^1000, the stipends of the two ministers being as before. IBROX (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THE opening of a preaching station at Ibroxholm was sanctioned by Glasgow Presbytery on nth April 1865, and services were begun on Sabbath, I4th May. The district had a population of 13,000. It is a mile from Govan, and the Established Church of Bellahouston was the only one within the bounds. On gth January 1866 a congregation was formed of 27 certified members, and on 26th February two elders were ordained and two inducted. First Minister. JOSEPH LECKIE, translated after being sixteen months in his second charge at Millport. Admitted, 5th June 1866. The call was signed by 32 members and 44 adherents. The congregation was meeting in a wooden church. I happened to hear Mr Leckie preach a remarkable discourse on a Sabbath evening soon after from the text : "Life is yours." Though the delivery had none of the animation which Dr John Duncan felt needful, as he advanced in years, for setting his mental machinery in motion, the discourse had all the qualities which are sure to captivate a cultured audience. The new church, with 678 sittings, and built at a cost of ^6000, was opened on Sabbath, 2oth December 1868, by Dr Robertson of Irvine. Eleven years afterwards the membership was 270, and the stipend ^500. In 1877 Mr Leckie received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University, and in 1884 he published a volume of unique discourses, which were sometimes named along with those of his special friend, Dr John Ker. Dr Leckie died, 3rd January 1889, in the sixty-third year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. A second volume of Dr Leckie's sermons, entitled " Life and Religion," was published in 1891, with a Memoir prefixed by his son in Boston Church, Cupar, affectionate but no way over- coloured. Both volumes present striking side-views of truth, and lead into by-paths of far-reaching meditation. The first to be called by the vacant congregation was the Rev. D. W. Forrest, but he remained in Moffat. Second Minister. WILLIAM T. BANKHEAD, B.D., originally from Port- land Road, Kilmarnock. Ordained at North Shields in 1882, having previously declined Saffronhall, Hamilton. Preferring Ibrox, Glasgow, to Grange Road, Edinburgh, he was inducted, 27th March 1890. The church after being enlarged to the extent of 250 sittings, and much improved, was reopened by Professor Hislop on Sabbath, 2ist November 1897. The cost, PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 103 including the erection of new mission premises some distance off, was over ,5000. At the Union Ibrox had a membership of 475 or thereby, and the stipend was ^500. QUEEN'S PARK (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS church was commenced as a preaching station by Dr Eadie on Sabbath, ist October 1866, the parties interesting themselves in the move- ment agreeing to bear the expenses of a temporary building and pulpit supply. They were congregated on 8th January 1867, the petitions being signed by 60 members and 26 adherents, and four elders were ordained on the 25th of next month. The congregation rapidly advanced to a flourishing maturity, the average attendance being already 300. First Minister. WILLIAM SPROTT, translated from Pollokshaws, and inducted to Queen's Park, I3th May 1867. The stipend was to be ^450 at once. The new church, seated for 1200, was opened on 7th November 1869, when the collections were over ,700. Under Mr Sprott there was large and steady increase, till in five years Queen's Park was spoken of as our largest congregation on the south side of Glasgow, with not a seat to let. After Dr John M'Farlane's death on 7th February 1875 there was some talk about removing Mr Sprott to Clapham Road, London, as his successor. Whether in connection with this movement or not, Mr Sprott visited the great Metropolis in the second week of March, and returning homewards on Friday, the I2th, he met his death at Bedford through a railway collision. At a crossing the driver having failed to read the danger signals two carriages were smashed into fragments, and the impact bore Mr Sprott, who was the greatest sufferer, over a wide distance, inflicting injuries which made recovery hopeless. Nothing remained for him but to make some slight adjustment of his worldly affairs, and calmly await the event. He died next morning at eight o'clock, in the forty-ninth year of his age and twenty-fifth of his ministry. He was expected to conduct Anniversary Services at Kilmarnock on the following day, but a more momentous engagement intervened. Second Minister. FERGUS FERGUSON, who had been eleven and a half years in Dalkeith. Inducted, 1 6th March 1876. The call was signed by 417 members and 96 adherents, and the stipend was to be 700. In the biographical and critical sketch prefixed to the volume of sermons by Mr Morrison of Brechin, Mr Ferguson a year before leaving Dalkeith had entered largely into the need for having the Standards of the Church revised. In discussing this question he touched on twenty-two points as enforcing the claim, but the general argument would not have suffered though the pen had been drawn through the greater part of them. In March 1877 he put the matter into practical shape by introducing an Overture into Glasgow Presbytery, in which he complained of the Westminster Confession of Faith as wanting in "logical form" and "literary style," and more especially as presenting an in- adequate exhibition of the truth concerning God, the Universe, and Man, Christ, the Church, and the Bible. When this Overture came before the Synod, along with others, Professor Cairns remarked : " I cannot bring the charges of Mr Ferguson under any systematic head, so as to say that he wishes to change in any direction known to existing nomen- clature." None the less, this was the Synod at which the foundations of the Declaratory Act were laid, though for Mr Ferguson the movement took a hostile form. Certain utterances of his were believed by Glasgow io 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Presbytery to furnish materials for a libel, which in its several counts caused great confusion at successive meetings, and came in full form before the Synod in 1878. But after careful dealings in committee Mr Ferguson's explanations " on the great fundamental Articles of the Christian faith " were accepted, and he was restored to his ministerial functions. This was succeeded by comparative calm, disturbed sometimes by mutterings of thunder from about Coupar-Angus. In 1885 Mr Ferguson received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. In his theology he has proved himself eminently conservative, especially in relation to the Higher Criticism, and his gifts as a preacher have kept Queen's Park Church at a high level of prosperity. The membership at the close of 1899 was 966, and the stipend at least ,850. Dr Ferguson's son, the Rev. James Ferguson, is minister of Brandon Street, Hamilton. DENNISTOUN (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 4th May 1869 a petition with certificates from 41 members of the denomination was laid before the Presbytery of Glasgow. They wished to proceed with the erection of a new church in the north-east of the city, and ,1500 was already subscribed for this purpose. There was also a stipend of ,350 guaranteed for five years, and though three of the neighbouring sessions were unfavourable a congregation was erected at next meeting on 8th June. This was followed up on 2gth August by the induction of seven, and the ordination of three, elders. Many of the leading families were from Greyfriars Church, a change of ministry there being deemed a suitable time for inaugurating this new movement. First Minister. WALTER ROBERTS, M.A., who had been ordained at Airdrie (Wellwynd), six years before. Inducted to Dennistoun, 9th November 1869, the call having been signed by 52 members and 39 adherents. The church was opened on Sabbath, 2nd October 1870, by Dr Rainy, who preached in the forenoon ; cost ^6720, and sittings 900. At the Anniversary Services in 1879 the last of the debt was cleared off by a collection of ^860. At the close of that year there was a membership of 445, and the stipend was $oo. On 8th August 1882 Mr Roberts' resignation had to be accepted owing to ill-health and the need to remove to another climate. In Australia he was never fit to undertake ministerial work, but he devoted himself to the labours of the pen, still retaining connection with Uennistoun as senior minister, though the pastoral relation was never to be resumed. Latterly he edited the Star, the monthly organ of the Presbyterian Church. Second Minister. JAMES L. MURRAY, who had been eleven years in Kilmarnock (Princes Street). Inducted, ist May 1883. The stipend was to be ,500, and the congregation also paid ,70 a year to Mr Roberts. This continued till 1898, when it was surrendered, and .35 was added to Mr Murray's stipend. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 626, and the stipend was as above. [Mr Roberts died, i8th July 1902, in his sixty-seventh year. His widow was a daughter of the Rev. James C. M'Laurin, Pollokshaws.] ST GEORGE'S ROAD (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 2nd May 1870, in consequence of City Road congregation being about to remove to another locality, 50 members and 30 adherents applied for sermon to the Presbytery. Their first place of meeting w^s a hall in Grove Street, near the former church, and there they were congregated PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW 105 on gth January 1872 with a communion roll of 71. A session was then formed by the ordination of three elders and the induction of two others. They next removed to a wooden church in Garscube Road, the name the congregation bore for several years. In August they called Mr James S. Rae, but he declined, and was ordained at Ecclefechan. For stipend they were to raise no themselves, and the Board were to allow an equal sum, while 30 or 40 was expected from the Ferguson Fund, making at least 250. A second call, addressed to the Rev. Andrew Alston, Newmilns, was also unsuccessful. First Minister. ROBERT SCOTT, M.A., from Logiealmond, where he had been seven years. Inducted, 2gth April 1873, an( i fifteen months afterwards the communicants numbered 310. On loth December 1876 the new church in St George's Road was opened by Professor Cairns, whose missionary Mr Scott had been in student days, and the opening collection was 684. The entire cost, including the site, was 7500, and the sittings are 1000. On 8th March 1880 a call to become colleague to Dr Cairns of Chalmers' Church, Melbourne, was prosecuted before Glasgow Presbytery by repre- sentatives of the Free Church Colonial Committee and accepted by Mr Scott. The membership of St George's Road was now 650, and the stipend 500. He was inducted to his charge at Melbourne on 27th July, and he became sole pastor six months afterwards by the death of Dr Cairns. Mr Scott resigned, ist December 1885, and returned to Scotland with high attestations of his acceptability as a preacher. In Edinburgh he took a full medical course with distinction, and is now in professional practice in Sydney. Second ^//>.y/ win A NARROWER, from Govanhill, Glasgow. Ordained, nth September 1893. The stipend was again made ^262, ios. At the recent Union the congregation was still worshipping in the hall, but with a membership approximating to 250 the erection of a church on the unoccupied site can hardly be much longer delayed. SOUTHEND (RELIEF) BETWEEN the Relief congregations of Campbeltown and Southend there existed from the first a closeness of connection such as has been met with, PRESBYTERY OF GREENOCK 197 we believe, in no other part of Scotland. Both were composed almost entirely of families which came over from what they called the Low Country to Kintyre in Covenanting times, and a common ancestry formed an enduring- bond between them. Hence, when the Synod of Argyle cut down the week-day services at communions the elders of Southend combined with those of the Lowland Church, Campbeltown, in strong resistance. Simi- larly, the two ministers stood side by side at the bar of the General Assembly to answer, for having sermon on the Saturday before the com- munion. This brings us down to a meeting of the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow on iyth May 1797, when a petition for sermon was laid before them from a number of the inhabitants of Southend, and in response a native of the parish, the Rev. Daniel M 'Naught of Dumbarton, was appointed to preach there on the first and second Sabbaths of June. In July the Rev. Neil Douglas of Dundee entered on a mission to the West Highlands, and preached two Sabbaths to large congregations at Southend, numbers having come, he states, from distances of ten, fourteen, and even twenty-four miles. Prior to this the Duke of Argyle had allowed them a site for a church and manse, with thirteen acres of land for a glebe. The parish minister at this time was Mr Donald Campbell, father of Dr M'Leod Campbell, but, accord- ing to Southend traditions, a man very unlike his spiritually-minded son. Soon after the Relief congregation was organised Mr Campbell was trans- ferred to Kilninver. In 1798, as attested by a stone on its front, the new church, with 500 sittings, was opened, and, the proprietor system being adopted, there was no burden of debt. First Minister. ALEXANDER LAING, M.A., from Kilsyth, who had obtained licence from the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow in July 1797. Mr Laing was sent to supply at Southend during October of the following year, and in November the congregation of " Machrimore, near Campbeltown," applied for a moderation. The stipend was to be ,60, with dwelling-house, garden, and thirteen acres of land, the people also engaging to labour the glebe, and drive what coals and turf the minister might require. Mr Laing was ordained, 28th June 1799, there being three ministers present, of whom Mr Pinkerton, from Campbeltown, acted as Moderator and gave the addresses. At the close of the service Mr Laing got liberty to constitute a session, of which the four members had been elders in the Established Church. The congregation wished originally to have a minister who could preach also in Gaelic, but when this was found impracticable, the Highland families, who had gone along with the movement thus far, withdrew, and got back their subscriptions. Since then distinction of race has marked more or less the difference between the two Southend churches, the one being the Lowland and the other the Highland, though Gaelic is now a vanishing quantity in the parish. At one period in Mr Laing's ministry the communicants were nearly 200 in number, but towards its close the tide of emigration towards Illinois set strongly in. It was a discouraging time for those who remained as they marked the empty pews and reduced communion roll. In 1843 it was found essential to provide a colleague for Mr Laing, who had gone on with his pulpit work long after physical and mental vigour r^.d alike decayed. Second Minister. JAMES LAMBIE, from Canal Street, Paisley. Or- dained, 28th June 1843. The aged minister was to have the manse and glebe and a yearly allowance of ,20, and the congregation were to give Mr Lambie ^70, which the Synod augmented to ;ioo. Mr Laing died, 1st March 1851, in the fifty-second year of his ministry and in or about the seventy-eighth of his age. Though he laid no claim to the gift of oratory he had good material to work on, and the congregation greatly respected i 9 8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS him, and enjoyed stability under his care. Mr Lambie on becoming sole pastor got possession of the glebe as well as the manse ; but his farming operations brought him into money difficulties, and, owing to the state of feeling in the congregation, he was loosed from his charge on gth September 1862. On removing to Australia he was inducted to the oversight of three congregations Milton, Greenhills, and Sunbury. He was afterwards trans- lated to Wyndham and Little River. He died on 3rd May 1884, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Third Minister. ROBERT SMALL, from Balgedie. Ordained, 29th July 1863. At the moderation the first vote stood thus: for Mr Small, 51 ; for Mr Andrew Ritchie, afterwards of Yetholm, 34 ; and for Mr James Graham, afterwards of Droughty Ferry, 17 being in the ratio of 3, 2, and I. The stipend till the Augmentation system came in was ^120 in all, with the manse, but the glebe, which was now rented up to its value, was never henceforth to be farmed by the minister. In 1871 a new and comfortable manse was built at a cost of ^820, the Board contributing ,320. On such occasions Southend was sure to be generously aided by the strong sister church in Campbeltown, and thus, though few in numbers, they had the building finished free of debt. After subscribing liberally themselves a few of the leading men went up to "The Town," and without pressure or difficulty the end was gained. On nth March 1873 Mr Small accepted a call to Portsburgh, Edinburgh (now Gilmore Place). Fourth Minister. ANDREW M'LAREN YOUNG, son of the Rev. David Young, formerly of Kinclaven. Ordained, i6th April 1874, the stipend promised being ^137, ios., with the manse, and there was also a supplement of ,20. The population was now declining, till it sunk from over 2000 in 1831 to scarcely 850 in 1891. On 7th January 1890 a new church, with sittings for 360, and built at a cost of ,1200, was opened by the Rev. Dr Drummond of Glasgow, and on Sabbath, i6th May 1898, centenary services were conducted by the Rev. Douglas K. Auchterlonie of Craigdam, who preached in the forenoon from the text : " Mercy shall be built up for ever." The membership at the close of 1899 was 1 16, and the stipend ^130, with the manse. A year before this Mr Young published a neat little volume, entitled "Southern Kintyre in History," a memorial of the centenary celebration, at which the faithful work done by himself and Mrs Young had been suitably acknowledged. DUNOON (UNITED SECESSION) THIS congregation commenced as a preaching station in 1825 under the auspices of an association in Glasgow composed of ministers, office-bearers, and members of the Secession Church. Three years before this Dunoon consisted of the parish church and manse, with a few houses, four of them slated, and the others only thatched. But now there was the promise of growth, and the Glasgow Association, which made Argyleshire the special field of its evangelistic operations, fixed on it as the centre of what was called the Cowal Mission. On 8th March of that year they applied to have the station at Dunoon congregated ; but the Presbytery believed delay to be better, and in this state matters remained for five years. Then in April 1830 the Synod authorised the Presbytery to form the station at Dunoon into a congregation, which was done on i6th June. The petition to that effect was signed by 38 residenters. It was also stated that in 1828, by the assistance of friends in Glasgow, a commodious church was erected, with sittings for 280, the cost being ^'730, and that the attendance was PRESBYTERY OF GREENOCK 199 promising. In March 1831 an election of four elders was proceeded with. The first the little congregation called was Mr Adam Thomson ; but accept- ance was delayed month after month, and then he intimated that he felt it his duty not to go to Dunoon, and he was afterwards settled in Hawick. The next they called was Mr James M'Gavin ; but the congregation declined to enter into competition with Tay Square, Dundee, and other places, at the Synod, and the call was allowed to drop. The third call was addressed to Mr John Inglis, who preferred Hamilton. First Minister. WILLIAM TURNER, from Pitcairn-Green. Ordained, 2nd September 1834. Though the call was signed by only 32 members and 23 adherents the stipend promised was ^100. Three years after this there were 85 names on the communion roll, and the minister was receiving ^120. Summer visitors were beginning to tell for good on the congregation to this extent at least, that they generally paid sittings for a half year, though only two months in attendance. The rates, it must be owned, were not burden- some, varying from 2s. 6d. to 75. 6d. a year. Up to 1839 a considerable amount of debt rested on the property, but by a grant of ^98 from the Liquidation Board this was reduced from ^280 to under ^100, and in 1843 their first manse was built. In 1865, when Mr Turner required to have his work permanently lightened, the congregation agreed that his salary of ^150 should remain undiminished. Second Minister. JOHN C. JOHNSTON, from Alyth. Ordained as colleague to Mr Turner, 3oth May 1865. There was a membership at this time of 162, and the stipend of the junior pastor was to be ^150 in all. The two ministers now divided the work between them ; but in 1871 Mr Turner was seized with paralysis, and, being assured by medical authority that he was permanently disabled, he offered to resign. The congregation, however, were cordial to have the tie preserved unbroken, so that he retained the status of senior minister, with an annual allowance of ,70, and the occupancy of the manse, till I4th September 1874, when he died, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. In the following year the manse, which the aged minister had occupied, was superseded by another at an additional outlay of ^450, the congregation raising ,300, and the Board allowing ^150. The present church was built the same year at a cost of about 5000, with sittings for 700, and the old building was sold to the Free Gaelic congregation. To meet that large expenditure the congregation subscribed ,500, and raised three times that sum by Sales of Work ; while the minister, drawing largely on Glasgow families who had connection with Dunoon, collected ^2000. In 1890 Mr Johnston stated that a lady member of the church had recently be- queathed ^1000, and that the people were in course of clearing off the small sum remaining. The stipend was raised to ,250 after Mr Turner's death, and in other nine years to ,300, and there was now a membership of 260. Between this and the Union the congregation had troubles to pass through from which it must have sustained harm. A party in the church brought a complaint before the Presbytery on I2th January 1897. They wished to provide Mr Johnston with an assistant, but the session, though a largely signed petition to that effect was laid before them, refused to call a congregational meeting to consider the question. The complaint was dis- missed ; but persistency prevailed for the time, and a preacher was engaged to share the pulpit and pastoral work with Mr Johnston. This went on for a year, and by that time the feeling was largely entertained, partly on grounds of economy, that regular assistance should be dispensed with. After some confusion the case came back to the Presbytery, and a committee by their appointment met with Dunoon congregation on the evening of Monday, 2 oo HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 3ist October 1898. Business began with the reading of a petition from 106 members praying the Presbytery to confirm a recent resolution of the con- gregation declining to renew the appointment of an assistant. After long conference with parties it was decided to bring the question to a vote. It looks as if this had been the only course open, but the object was thwarted by nearly the whole of those who favoured the assistantship rising and walking to the door. The breach was now irreparable, and the next thing was a public meeting, called by newspaper advertisement, at which about 50 people signified their wish to form a new cause in Dunoon on a Congrega- tional basis. They met in the Burgh Hall until a little Episcopal church came into the market, which they secured, and there, with not much appear- ance of growth, they still convene for public worship. However, the membership of the mother congregation after the tumult subsided was less by only 25 than before it began. It may be remarked in closing that, rather than submit to have a little matter decided by the vote of a majority, the disruptionists at Dunoon betook themselves to a system of Church govern- ment in which the will of a majority is all in all. On 9th October 1900 the arrangements made by the congregation, with Mr Johnston's concurrence, for the appointment of a colleague were sanc- tioned by the Presbytery. The junior minister was to have a stipend of ^200, with the manse, and the senior minister, who was to be virtually in the emeritus position, was to receive ^100 per annum, and .250 on his leaving the manse. The membership at this time was 250. In 1887 Mr Johnston published "The Treasury of the Scottish Covenant," a storehouse of valu- able and far-gathered information. INVERARAY (UNITED SECESSION) IN narrating the early history of the Secession cause in this place we are de- pendent on a few scattered hints for our guidance. The first notice is on gth February 1830, when the Elders' Association in Glasgow intimated to the Presbytery that a number of persons in Inveraray had applied to them for sermon. From this time preaching was kept up till the early part of 1834, when it was discontinued, but in June 1835 it was revived under better auspices. Dr Heugh had for some years spent his holidays at Inveraray, and, whilst admiring the beauties of the situation, he believed that the spiritual interests of the people were not attended to, and that they "needed to hear something else than the law." The station was now taken under the wing of Regent Place Church, and a place of worship, with 200 sittings, was opened in December 1836, the cost being a little over ,500, the bulk of which was supplied from their funds. In January next year 16 members applied to be congregated, and, the Synod's sanction being obtained, this was done on nth July. A further stage was reached on Sabbath, ist October, when the Rev. Henry Renton of Kelso officiated at the ordination of three elders. Prior to this Mr Robert Watt, afterwards of Aberlady, acted at Inveraray as missionary for Regent Place Church, and, to fit him better for the work, he received ordination as a preacher at large on 2gth September 1835, the services being conducted not at Inveraray but in Dr Heugh's church, Glasgow. First Minister. JAMES HAY, from Dennyloanhead. Ordained, 24th April 1838, the call being signed by 20 members and 102 adherents. A stipend of ,90, and expenses, was guaranteed by Regent Place congregation. In those days the managers of Inveraray church let the seats at is. a quarter, and regularly sent the balance to Glasgow, but it did not amount PRESBYTERY OF GREENOCK 201 to more than ^25 a year after meeting incidental expenses. Matters con- tinued in this state till I3th June 1843, when Mr Hay accepted an invitation to become the first minister of Govan, a congregation of which he had laid the basis before going to Inveraray at all. After his removal the people were bold enough to call Mr John Brown Johnston, though they scarcely numbered three dozen, exclusive of adherents. It is doubtful, indeed, whether in the altered circumstances it would not have been better to counsel a dissolution of the congregation. Though the two Established Church ministers remained in at the Disruption the Free Church had entered the field, and was taking large possession. But through a vacancy of six years the feeble cause, which was now transferred from Regent Place Church to the Mission Board, continued to hold on. Second Minister. GILBERT MEIKLE, from Edinburgh (now Lauriston Place). Ordained, loth July 1849. The stipend was to be ^40 from the people, with sacramental expenses, and ,50 of supplement from the Board. Only 19 members signed the call, and in 1866 the entire number was 23, the encouraging feature in the case being the attendance, which was returned at 90. But in a decaying town like Inveraray, with a U.P. family scarcely ever coming in, marked progress was outside all reasonable calculation. Enough that steady work was done, leaving effects for good upon young and old. In the beginning of 1895 Mr Meikle saw cause to make way for a colleague owing to illness and the advances of age. There was a member- ship now of 52, and an attendance of about 100 at the Sabbath school, so that the congregation was intent on still going on. They first called Mr T. G. Conochie, who declined the call, and was afterwards ordained as colleague to the Rev. William Rose, Victoria Street, Dundee. Third Minister. WILLIAM STIRLING, M.A., from Renfield Street, Glasgow, a grandson of the Rev. James Stirling, Kirriemuir. Ordained, loth December 1895, as colleague to Mr Meikle, who made no claim on the congregation, and had removed to Edinburgh. The stipend from the people was to be ^45, but it was raised from other sources to ,171. On 1 2th January 1898 Mr Stirling intimated to his session that he had accepted an invitation to begin work in an Extension church at Rutherglen, and he was loosed by the Presbytery on ist February. At a meeting of the congrega- tion six days later it was agreed to have ordinances continued for the time, but everything betokened the approach of a final winding-up. In April it was ascertained that the Duke of Argyle was willing to give ^50 to the representatives of the congregation if they signed the renunciation of the lease. Then it was decided to have no further supply, and the moderator of session was to give disjunction certificates, in the hope that the members generally would join the Free Church congregation, the minister of which was Mr Meikle's son-in-law. The harmonium was gifted over to the friend whose services they had enjoyed for a number of years. The ^50 received from the Duke of Argyle was paid into the funds of the denomina- tion, and by his Grace's kindness the church bell was sent to New Guinea on petition from the Rev. James Chalmers, the missionary, who had been trained under the pastorate of Mr Meikle. The old communion cups, the baptismal basin, and the collection plates have since followed. GOUROCK (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 4th April 1848 a number of United Presbyterians residing in Gourock petitioned Paisley and Greenock Presbytery to be formed into a congregation. This movement was partly suggested by the Union between the Secession and 2O2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Relief Churches the year before. The Greenock sessions offering no objec- tions the petitioners were disjoined from their respective congregations at next meeting, on 8th May, and constituted into Gourock U.P. Church. In the newly-formed society there were two who had been in office before, and at the request of the congregation they were recognised as forming the session without ceremony. This was on 6th June, and that month a place of worship, with 700 sittings, was taken possession of. Next October a modera- tion was applied for, the stipend promised being .120, with travelling expenses. The call was signed by 40 members and 39 adherents, but Mr John C. Baxter, to whom it was addressed, accepted Wishart Church, Dundee. In a few months they brought out a call to Mr John Logic,* but he intimated that he preferred a foreign field of labour, and sailed for Canada soon after. First Minister. DONALD M'DONALD, from Gillespie Church, Glasgow. Ordained, 3rd July 1849. The signatures had increased now to 67 and 60. Mr M'Donald died, I5th August 1852, in the twenty-seventh year of his age and fourth of his ministry. We only know further that his wife had sunk into the grave seven weeks before him, and that he was a nephew of the Rev. William Morton of Kilmaronock. Second Minister. GEORGE SANDIE, son of the Rev. George Sandie Gorebridge. Ordained, I7th May 1853, having declined calls to Berwick (Bankhill) and Hull. In 1864 Mr Sandie, as the outcome of a tour to the East, published a volume, entitled " Horeb and Jerusalem," which was reviewed with much appreciation by Dr Eadie in the U.P. Magazine. Prompted now by the vision of a higher sphere than Gourock he resigned his charge, 6th December 1864, and went to try his fortunes in mighty London. Though he was welcomed by the little U.P. Presbytery there it was not till after prolonged inquiries and a year's waiting on that a field of ministerial labour came in sight. He had now the prospect of securing a suitable hall in the direction of St John's Wood for commencing gospel operations, but nothing further emerged. He ultimately held an Inde- pendent charge in the great city, and died at Upper Norwood, London, gth May 1879, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry. Third Minister. GEORGE MORISON, M.A., from London Road, Glasgow. Ordained, igth December 1865. The membership at this time was 135, but there was an attendance in summer of about 500, and the stipend promised was ^175, with a manse. After the first few years of Mr Morison's ministry dispeace arose, and it grew worse as time passed. The first complaint brought before the Presbytery was about a check that had been administered from the pulpit to seeming irreverence. After that came a memorial from one of the elders bearing on remarks made at two particular services, and parties were exhorted to study the things that make for peace. We hear no more for two years, and then Mr Morison brought before the Presbytery the fact that four of his five elders had resigned. Next, certain proceedings at a congregational meeting were complained of by a number of the members, and a meeting of Presbytery being held at Gourock it was ascertained that dissatisfaction prevailed to some extent, without grounds to justify itself, and that it was leading to non-attendance upon ordinances. It was natural that this should prompt Mr Morison, who * Mr Logic was from Buckhaven. On 2nd December 1849 he was ordained over the three congregations of Warrensville, Brucefield, and Bayfield, in the Presbytery of London, Canada. He removed to North Carolina in 1875 for his health, and, having returned, he was inducted to Tilbury, Ontario, in 1879. He died, igth October 1887, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. PRESBYTERY OF GREENOCK 203 had recently been left a widower with no family and considerable means, to tender his demission before long, which was accepted on 2ist March 1871. At a meeting of the congregation a wish had been expressed that he should reconsider his resolution to leave, but he stated in reply that his mind was fully made up. When a moderation was applied for towards the end of the year the number of members was down to 1 1 1, showing what want of harmony had produced. What remained of Mr Morison's life is given under Maisondieu, Brechin. Fourth Minister. DAVID MACRAE, son of the Rev. David MacRae, Elgin Street, Glasgow. Mr MacRae had been known for ten years in the literary world, and though he entered the U.P. Hall in 1859 he did not take licence till 1871. Aware, no doubt, of his distinction in another line Gourock congregation applied for a full trial of his gifts as a preacher, and he was ordained there on gth April 1872. The call was signed by 81 members and 41 adherents, and, though reduced in numbers, the people undertook a stipend of ^210, ios., with a valuable manse. Three years afterwards Mr MacRae was called to the North Church, Perth, but he remained in Gourock. There were to be troubled unfoldings by-and-by, and the emerg- ing of a case which acquired notoriety, and must be gone into with some minuteness. It took shape on i6th January 1877, when Mr MacRae, as a member of Paisley and Greenock Presbytery, moved an Overture to the Synod for a revision of the Westminster Standards. Others had been work- ing in the same line ; but Mr MacRae went in for thoroughness, and proposed to limit the Church's Creed to such articles as every man must hold in order to be a Christian. A policy of unfaithfulness to truth, he maintained, had too long prevailed among the office-bearers of the denomination, and he was bent on having this brought to an end. It carried in the Presbytery to reject the Overture, and the merits of the speech delivered in support of its transmission were to be taken up at next meeting. On 4th March the Presbytery condemned the language in which Mr MacRae had charged the ministers of the Church with dishonesty in professing adherence to the doctrines of the Confession, as he himself had twice done within recent years, and exhorted him to express himself on such matters with caution and charity. At the meeting in April an Overture from Gourock session of similar purport with his own, but brief and comparatively mild, was allowed to go up to the Synod, where it was to be supported by Mr MacRae and one of his elders. At the ensuing Synod a committee was appointed to consider the whole question of the Church's relation to the Confession, and the Overture from Gourock was dismissed with a declaration of steadfast adherence to the Standards as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scrip- tures. There was quietness now in the Presbytery of Paisley and Greenock till October, when Mr MacRae brought up questions bearing on the Presbytery's decision in March. They had spoken in that decision of the Standards continuing to bind all faithful office-bearers to the system of truth they contained. He wished in particular to know whether this bound faithful office-bearers to hold the doctrine of "everlasting torment" as the doom of the non-elect. At the meeting in December the Presbytery by a majority refused to admit Mr MacRae's right to question them in that fashion, and he was admonished from the chair to give heed to the exhorta- tions he had formerly received. In January 1878 he gave in reasons of dissent from the decision come to, but they were such that the Presbytery refused to engross them. Previous to this Mr MacRae had asked the Presbytery to explain the Synod's decision on the Gourock Overture, a thing which they declared to be beyond their competency ; but they pro- 204 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS posed to confer with him in private, that he might let them hear his diffi- culties, an arrangement which he said would not serve his purpose. The natural inference is that he invited the discussion for the sake of the reverberation it would make. At the Synod in May Mr MacRae again came forward in quest of information. He wished an explanation of what was meant by steadfast adherence to the system of doctrine contained in the Westminster Standards, but again he was left to work out the problem for himself or leave it unsolved. At this Synod it was agreed to send down the draft of a Declaratory Act to Presbyteries to be reported on. When this document came to be dealt with in the Presbytery of Paisley and Greenock Mr MacRae proposed a series of resolutions, which his brethren refused to receive owing to their offensive tone and language. The next expedient was to move the Synod to declare that they required assent to nothing that belies, or is supposed to belie, the character of a good, and just, and merciful God. At their meeting in 1879 Mr MacRae spoke much as on other occasions, but was complimented by Professor Calderwood on not having applied the word "Jesuitical" to the attitude of his brethren, but this drew from him the reply that "Jesuitical" was the only word capable of expressing what he intended. Refusing to withdraw the term he was rebuked from the chair, and a com- mittee was appointed to converse with him on the views propounded in his motion and speech. The report they brought up was that the opinions Mr MacRae entertained were inconsistent with any reasonable amount of liberty that could be allowed to the ministers of this Church, and on their recommendation a commission of 40 members was appointed to deal with him, and ripen the case for judgment, with power to call a special meeting of Synod should an appeal be taken on either side. Mr MacRae could now afford to be unbending alike before the Synod and the Commission. The congregation of School Wynd, Dundee, had given him a unanimous call to succeed their former minister, the Rev. George Gilfillan. The Commission met on 22nd May, but the issue was as most people expected. Mr MacRae adhered to his old ground without yielding a hair's-breadth, and the sentence come to was suspension from office. Against this decision he protested, and a meeting of Synod was called for 22nd July to deal with the protest and wind up the case. A few days before the meeting Dr John Ker wrote to a friend as follows : "All, I am sure, would be willing to let the question rest, and give all possible room on so mysterious and difficult a subject, but he insists on dragging it up to a hard and fast line on the side of either annihilation or universal restoration." Principal Cairns, again, in his speech before the Court, said : " Mr MacRae asks the Church to grant a liberty which would revolutionise its position on a great and solemn question, entering into the substance of the faith, and I for one cannot assent to his request." On a vote being taken the protest was dismissed, and the finding of the Commission affirmed by a majority of 288 to 29. The sentence of suspension from all ministerial functions sine die was now pronounced, and Mr MacRae declared no longer a minister of this Church. Looking over the whole proceedings the Rev. James Ross in his History of Congregationalism in Scotland thinks himself entitled to say : " The Synod not only refused to sanction any change in the formula of sub- scription but expelled Mr MacRae for demanding it." Next Sabbath Mr Boyd of Skelmorlie appeared at Gourock by appoint- ment of Synod to intimate the above decision and preach the church vacant, but he found the gates locked, and a handbill up intimating that there was to be no sermon. After reading the Minute of Synod to the onlooking crowd he retired, and conducted services in the open air. The following PRESBYTERY OF GREENOCK 205 Sabbath the pulpit was occupied by a member of Greenock Presbytery, who met with a cordial reception. On Sabbath, i/th August, Mr MacRae took possession, and the Presbytery's representative, on being denied access, read a protest, and withdrew to the Gamble Institute with the party in the congregation who adhered to the Synod. At the close of the services about 40 of their number signed a paper authorising legal steps to be taken to secure possession of the church and manse. With Mr MacRae the question of removal to Dundee was pressing, and meanwhile he had con- ferences with his friends in School Wynd, but continued his ministrations at Gourock when Sabbath came. At last, at a meeting of session on i/th October, he stated plainly that he was about to leave 'the congregation, but whether he would accept Dundee would depend on the state of his health. He added, however, that if they thought of bringing the Synod before the Court of Session to test the legality of their procedure in his case he would remain with them till the fight was over. As this was the utmost Mr MacRae would engage for it was arranged that he should preach his farewell sermon on the following Sabbath, and next Wednesday there was a parting celebration. Difficulties in the way of accepting Dundee being now got rid of, his induction followed nine days afterwards. The office-bearers adhering to Mr MacRae had been already suspended from office, but on 2ist October the Presbytery were informed that five of the managers had expressed regret for the irregularities of which they had been guilty. Other seven, including two elders, either refused to yield or delayed making any such acknowledgment. The party who sympathised with Mr MacRae applied for sermon to the Independents, were formed into a congregation, and obtained a minister in 1880, who remained with them two years. Another succeeded in the following year, and when he left in 1889 the church became extinct, or, as the Rev. James Ross puts it, "ceased to meet," and several returned to their old connection. In March 1880 the party adhering to the Synod had a membership of 129, and they were pre- pared to offer a stipend of ,310, with a manse. Fifth Minister. GEORGE RAP:, M.A., from Dumfries (Loreburn Street), where he had been ordained eight years before. Inducted, i8th May 1880. Since then the congregation has renewed it's strength, and though the stipend remains the same the communion roll at the close of 1899 numbered 328. KIRN (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 2oth July 1858 the Presbytery of Paisley and Greenock agreed to open a preaching station at Kirn in response to a petition from members of the U.P. Church and with the concurrence of Dunoon session. During the ensuing winter no supplies were asked for, but in spring services were resumed, with the understanding that they were henceforth to be kept up throughout the year. In June 1859 the church was opened, with 480 sittings, and during the four busy months of summer the pulpit was to be occupied by four outstanding ministers from Glasgow in succession. The station was congregated on ijth January 1860 with a membership of 37. By this time the liberality of the people had been evinced by their collect- ing over ^1000 for current expenses and toward the building of the church, which cost about ,2000. On I7th April of that year three elders were ordained, but it was long before a fixed ministry was arrived at, partly owing to divided counsels both in session and congregation. First Minister. ROBERT W. THOMSON, from St James' Place, Edin- burgh. Ordained, 22nd March 1864. The call was signed by 29 members 206 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and 15 adherents, and the stipend was to be ,200, with travelling expenses. In 1867 the building was enlarged to furnish 650 sittings, and in 1868 Mr Thomson was called to Thread Street, Paisley, but remained at Kirn. On i8th January 1876 he wrote the Presbytery resigning his charge, medical authority certifying that he was unfit for ministerial work and required to take a long voyage for his restoration. On the 25th a Committee of Inquiry gave in a favourable report regarding his professional standing, and, the congregation having agreed to a parting gift of ,100, the resignation was accepted, with an admonition to walk circumspectly, "that the ministry be not blamed." He then sailed for Australia, but it does not appear that he ever again undertook regular ministerial functions. He died some time in August 1 88 1, aged forty-six. Second Minister. ADAM GRAY, from Tarbolton, a brother of the Rev. James Gray, missionary in Rajputana, and the Rev. Robert Gray, Canon- gate, Edinburgh. Mr Gray had been ordained at Sutton, in Lancashire Presbytery, 3oth January 1873, and he was inducted to Kirn, 6th June 1876. The stipend was now ^300, with a manse, the membership of 101 bearing- hut a slight proportion to the income of the congregation, which had all along been largely derived from summer visitors. The stationary popula- tion has doubled since then, but this has told on the communion roll far more than on the funds. At the Union the membership was over 160, and the stipend was ,253. KILCREGGAN (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THE preaching station at this watering-place owed its origin to the illness of Dr King and his retirement from active service in Greyfriars Church, Glasgow. To secure scope for his gifts in a quieter field a wooden church was opened here on the first Sabbath of June 1858, and was speedily filled to overflowing. Next summer the sittings were increased from 328 to 440, with the same result, Dr King's location fixing the coast residence of not a few. There was this drawback, however, that in winter the place was almost deserted. On 4th December 1860 Mr France reported to the Presbytery of Paisley and Greenock that he had preached at Kilcreggan, when five certifi- cates of membership were given in, and he had conversed with 14 applicants for Church fellowship. These 19 were accordingly congregated, and on the first Sabbath of May 1861 they had two elders inducted over them. In the end of that year Dr King removed to London to lay the foundations of a congregation at Westbourne Grove, where a new church, with sittings for 1000, and built at a cost of ^7700, was opened for him on 26th January 1862 by Dr Cairns of Berwick. There he laboured up to the measure of his strength, and beyond it, till his translation to Morningside, Edinburgh, in 1869. It ought to have been entered at the proper time that Dr King had his degree of LL.D. from Glasgow University in 1841. First Minister. ]OSEPH CORBETT, from Blackett Street, Newcastle. Soon after declining a call to Burton-on-Trent he had to choose between Alexandria and Kilcreggan, when he preferred the latter, though the call was signed by only 20 members in contrast with 390. The stipend promised was .210, and the attendance in winter was entered at 50, whereas in summer the church was filled. The ordination took place, I7th June 1862. On 2oth April 1869 Mr Corbett accepted a call to succeed Dr Scott as minister of Coupland Street Church, Manchester, where he remained five years, and then removed to Camphill, Glasgow. .When this vacancy occurred at Kilcreggan the new church, with sittings for 800, was nearing completion, PRESBYTERY OF GREENOCK 207 and it was opened on Sabbath, i4th June, by Dr King and Mr Corbett. The collections amounted to ,200, and the cost was about ,2550. Second Minister. FORREST FREW YOUNG, a grandson of the Rev. Forrest Frew, Relief minister, Perth, and son of James Young, Esq. of Yoker, who was long a pillar in Renfield Street, Glasgow, and afterwards in Wel- lington Church. The membership of Kilcreggan was now 72, with an attend- ance of 100 in winter, and at least five times that number in summer. Mr Young was ordained, 22nd September 1869. The stipend was as before, but there was a manse built that year at ^1000, of which ^300 came from the Manse Board. On 3rd June 1879 Mr Young's resignation of his charge was accepted, the Presbytery expressing their high estimate of his character and attainments. In 1879 his name was placed on the probationer list, and in 1885 he was inducted to the E.P. Church, Wark, in Northumberland, where he still labours. But Kilcreggan had now a vacancy of four years to pass through, during which there was not likely to be progress. At last the people intimated their wish to hear preachers with the view of having a settled ministry again. There were only 60 members now, and the stipend named was ,200, with the manse. Third Minister. ROBERT M'LEAN, M.A., who had been ordained at Millport, another watering - place, seven years before. Inducted, 28th August 1883, and loosed, I7th December 1891, on accepting a call to Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, where he has had to bear up against a retiring tide. The mother church of the Secession in Liverpool has been long since over- shadowed by her suburban daughters. Fourth 'Minister. ARMSTRONG BLACK, from Palmerston Place, Edin- burgh, to which, after a brief ministry at Waterbeck, he had been trans- planted sixteen years before. Inducted to Kilcreggan, I7th May 1892. The change would be welcomed as release from the tear and wear of a large high-class congregation. The membership of Kilcreggan at this time was 76, and the stipend ,250, with the manse. But even into this quiet retreat trouble came, and swelled into trying dimensions, and a case emerged which forced its way to the Synod. Under the strain Mr Black's attachment to Kilcreggan was likely to yield, and on 2nd June 1896 he accepted an in- vitation to become colleague to the Rev. James Muir of Egremont. After quietness was restored the congregation called him back, but he remained in his new sphere of labour till 2gth May 1899, when he accepted a call to St Andrew's Church, Toronto. That same year he received the degree of D.D. from Queen's University, Kingston. Fifth Minister. JAMES R. CAMERON, M.A., from Craigs and Duntocher, where he had been ordained three years before. The call was signed by 54 members and 26 adherents. Inducted, 7th June 1898. The membership at the close of the following year was 104, and the stipend ,262, ios., with the manse. MILLPORT (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THE Presbytery of Paisley and Greenock began Sabbath services here on 22nd June 1862. Though the population of the two Cumbrae islands, of which this is the principal town, was only 1250 at that time, and in addition to the parish church it had now a Free church, Millport was becoming a marked resort for summer visitors, and gave promise of steady increase. During the summer months the collections were good, and it was intended to go on with services once a month during winter, but when the time came it was thought better to discontinue them altogether. On the first Sabbath of July 1863 a wooden church was opened, with accommodation for 350 zo8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS people, the cost being .500. At this time ordained ministers were looked to for supply, and in September Church members connected with the station were placed under the session of Largs for the enjoyment of sealing ordin- ances. On ist March 1 864 a congregation was formed with a communion roll of 30, and steps were taken to have three elders ordained, the average attendance being put down at 60. First Minister. JOSEPH LECKIE, who had retired from Muirton in an invalid state six years before, after ministering there nine years. The call was signed by 31 members and 19 adherents, and Mr Leckie, after some hesitancy about undertaking the work, was inducted, 2Oth December 1864. On i/th April 1866 he accepted a call to the infant congregation of Ibrox, Glasgow. Millport depended so much upon summer visitors that the in- crease in membership could not be rapid, the number amounting as yet to no more than 52, and though the attendance in summer reached from 400 to 500, in winter it was only 70. Second Minister. WILLIAM T. HENDERSON, from Bethelfield, Kirk- caldy. Ordained, 3rd June 1867. The stipend, including everything, was to be 1 60. On loth August 1875 Mr Henderson accepted a call to New Kilpatrick, leaving a membership of 180, with less disparity between the attendances in summer and winter than aforetime, there being 300 in the one case and 1 50 in the other. Third Minister. ROBERT M'LEAN, M.A., from Wellington Street, Glasgow. Ordained, gth May 1876. The funds now afforded a stipend of ^210, with ,40 in lieu of a manse. On I3th July 1879 the new church was opened, with sittings for 650, the cost being about ^4500. But in the pulpit there was not yet to be aught like permanence, as on 28th August 1883 Mr M'Lean accepted a call to Kilcreggan. Fourth Minister. JAMES FRAME, B.D., son of the Rev. James Frame, Sydney Place, Glasgow. Ordained on 25th March 1884. The call was subscribed by 120 members and 81 adherents, and the stipend promised was ^210, with a commodious manse, built in 1880. The cost had been calcu- lated at ^uoo, but it went beyond ^1400, of which the Board paid ,250. At the close of 1899 the stipend was unchanged, but there was a member- ship of 233. INNELLAN (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) A PREACHING station was opened at this young watering-place, three or four miles south of Dunoon, on the first Sabbath of June 1867 by Greenock Presbytery at the request of a local committee. Next October Mr Daniel Tennant, a preacher from Sir Michael Street, Greenock, was located at Innellan for three months, and was retained until April. More might have followed, but illness intervened, and Mr Tennant died on 4th August, aged thirty-two. The station was supplied by ordained ministers during August and September, and then preachers were sent in succession for a month each, but the former system was renewed when summer came. This season the new church, built at a cost of ^1000, was opened, with sittings for 370. On nth May 1869 a congregation was formed with a membership of 23, and after a few weeks two elders were ordained and one inducted. First Minister. JAMES FAULDS HENDERSON, son of the *Rev. David Henderson, formerly of Dairy, Ayrshire. Ordained, 2ist September 1869. The call was signed by 20 members and 12 adherents, and the stipend promised was ^155. There being little of a fixed population to draw from the congregation kept few in number, and this may have turned Mr Hender- son's mind in the direction of a change. On 4th June 1872 he accordingly PRESBYTERY OF GREENOCK 209 tabled his resignation to the Presbytery, intimating that he had accepted an appointment to Strathalbyn, in South Australia, and the congregation, having regard to the leadings of Providence, offered no opposition. He ultimately was transferred to Rockhampton, and in 1899 he was Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland. (Mr Henderson died at Sydney, 1 3th August 1902, aged sixty-one.) Second Minister. ROBERT HENDERSON, M.A., son of the Rev. Alex- ander Henderson, East Church, Perth. The congregation showed no eagerness to get out of the vacant state, and on applying for a moderation they stated that the membership was 28 and the adherents about 20. Their average attendance in winter was 50 and in summer 250. . Depending largely, no doubt, on the last-mentioned element they undertook a stipend of ^190. They hoped also for better days, but Innellan did not grow like some of the West Coast watering-places. Mr Henderson was ordained, I4th April 1874. At the close of 1879 Innellan showed a communion roll of about 50 and a total income of nearly ^270, but before another year ended dispeace arose in the congregation, and the funds went back. Some mis- understanding between the minister and one of his elders widened out into dissatisfaction on the part of the office-bearers generally with the state of affairs in the church. Happily, differences were got over by mutual acknow- ledgments, in which the minister took the lead, and the Presbytery were much gratified by the spirit manifested on both sides. To tide the emer- gency over Mr Henderson expressed his willingness to forego ,50 of stipend, and he would also dispense with holidays, or take them at his own cost. It was an example which ministers on like occasions would do well to imitate, and it had its reward. The congregation passed through the crisis with its numbers scarcely reduced, if at all. In 1885 the Synod granted the people liberty to elect a third of their managers from among seat-holders residing in Innellan part of the year, though not disjoined from their own congregations a concession more needed there than at either Wemyss Bay or Kilcreggan, where it had been allowed for years. In 1895 something of the old spirit reappeared, and the Presbytery had again to recommend the cultivation of forbearance and charity along with temperance of language and attention to the Rules and Forms of Procedure. In June 1900 the assessors, who had sat in the session for five years, reported to the Presbytery that their services might now be dispensed with, five elders having been elected and inducted at Innellan. They also testified to the good feeling that had existed during their period of office, and that the minister was held in high esteem both by the members of the congregation and by the many families of summer visitors, as was shown at his semi-jubilee a year before, when he was presented with gifts amounting to .230. But the population of the quoad sacra parish was rather on the decline, and the return for 1899 gave only 34 members, the stipend from the people being ^140, and a manse. This was made up to ^186 by supplement and surplus, and there was a total income of nearly ^250. WEMYSS BAY (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) A PREACHING station was opened at this place, near the railway terminus, on the first Sabbath of June 1869 by the Rev. John M'Coll of Partick. This was the outcome of negotiations which had been going on for four years under Paisley and Greenock Presbytery. Matters took an unwonted turn early in 1868 through a Free Church minister suggesting that the object might be better gained by joint action with their Presbytery a proposal which was II. O aio HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS heartily entertained. Public worship was now held in a wooden church which had previously done service at Kilcreggan and was made over to six trustees three belonging to the Free and three to the U.P. Church. It accommodated 250 persons, and the expenses of the erection, added to the purchase price, were to reach ,300, of which sum ,135 had -already come from the U.P. side and ,104 from the Free. Meanwhile the pulpit was to be supplied alternately by ministers or preachers from the two denominations. When the busy season was closing the wish was expressed to have sermon continued during the winter, and 100 persons having promised to give regular attendance uninterrupted supply was arranged for. The question by-and-by arose : To which of the Churches is the congregation to adhere ? and the answer turned on another question : From which of the Churches is a minister to be chosen ? Two preachers came to be voted on by the seat-holdersMr Benjamin Bell of the Free Church, afterwards ordained at Friockheim, and Mr John Boyd, U.P., when the latter had a majority. The Free Church people with scarcely an exception acquiesced, and application was made to the U.P. Presbytery of Paisley and Greenock on 1 7th January 1871 to be congregated. Certificates were at the same time given in by 7 members, and the petition being granted at once this little group formed the nucleus of a communion roll. First Minister. JOHN BOYD, M.A., from the neighbouring congregation of Largs. Mr Boyd during seven months of probationer life had obtained seven calls viz. to Aberdeen (George Street) ; Kirriemuir (Bank Street) ; Moniaive ; New Barnet, in England ; Hamilton (now Saffronhall) ; Dollar ; and Wemyss Bay. Ordained, 3oth May 1871, having preached two Sabbaths as a candidate since the congregating. The call was signed by 22 members and 42 adherents, and the stipend was to be .170, with travelling expenses. The attendance was reported at loo in winter and 200 in summer. At this time the population of Skelmorlie was little above 400, but it was more than doubled in twenty years. In March 1872 a session of four members was formed, and the Presbytery's Committee with sessional powers discharged. In April 1874 the church was announced to have been " lately begun." It was opened before the end of the season by Professor Eadie, with sittings for 425 after the gallery was put in, the cost being .3200. A manse had been built the preceding year at a cost of ,1200, of which the people raised ,850, and the Board allowed .350. At the close of 1879, though the membership was only 117, the stipend was ^310, a contrast which betokens the predominance of the Glasgow element. The church was reconstructed in 1897 at a further cost of about ,4000, and reopened in May of that year by the Rev. William Leitch of West Free Church, Helensburgh. The number of sittings is now 600. Altogether between ,8000 and ,9000 has been expended on the buildings, and they are entirely free of debt. Mr Boyd occupied his pulpit for the last time on the second Sabbath of March 1899. He had been in feeble health for several years, and on reaching the manse that day he expressed the conviction that he would never preach again. He died on 8th April, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and twenty- eighth of his ministry. Second Minister. DAVID W. FORREST, D.D., who had been in the collegiate charge of Wellington Church, Glasgow, for five years, but con- sented to accept a quieter sphere for the time. Inducted, i6th August 1899. The stipend was to be ,350, with the manse, a modest sum compared with what he had in Glasgow. The membership at the close of the year was barely 200, attesting that Wemyss Bay had still the characteristics of a West Coast watering-placeample funds and a limited communion roll. PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 211 CRAIGMORE (UNITED PRESBYTERIA::) CRAIGMORE is a suburb of Rothesay, and on 2oth October 1881 a petition to have a preaching station commenced there was presented to the Presby- tery of Paisley and Greenock from 33 residenters, and concurred in by 27 others, mostly heads of families. Rothesay session offering no opposition the station was opened on the first Sabbath of November. On 24th January 1882 a congregation was formed with a membership of 27, and within a few weeks three elders were elected and ordained. The attendance at this time was between 50 and 80, and a stipend of .2*0 was to be offered. First Minister. JOHN RUTHERFORD, B.D., a licentiate of the Free Church Presbyter)' of Glasgow. Ordained, 6th September 1877, as a missionary for Swatow, China, under the English Presbyterian Church. On returning from the Foreign field his name was put on the probationer list of that Church, and Craigmore congregation requested to have him appointed to their pulpit for two Sabbaths. A call followed signed by 28 members and 19 adherents, and Mr Rutherford was inducted, 25th April 1882. The new church, with 500 sittings, and built at a cost of .3400, was opened on Sabbath, I4th July 1889, by Dr Joseph Brown. After seven years of a fixed ministry the resident congregation had a membership of not quite 80, but with the aid of ,500 from the Extension Fund the debt was gradually reduced till in 1893 it was entirely cleared away. Thus Mr Rutherford's prospects brightened ; but on 27lh February 1894 he accepted a call to the E.P. Church, Lewes, in Sussex, a congregation of not over 50 members, whereas Craigmore had double that number, but the emoluments were quite as good. Second Minister. JAMES CAMERON, B.D., from Abbey Close, Paisley, nephew of Dr Cameron of College Street, Edinburgh. Ordained, 22nd May 1894. At the close of 1899 the membership of Craigmore was 108, and the stipend ,215, with a manse, purchased that year for ^1025. PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON HAMILTON, SAFFRONHALL (ANTIBURGHER) THIS was the mother Antiburgher Church for a wide midland region of Scotland. Their own baptismal list begins in October 1747, a few months after "the mournful rupture." Their first designation is "the community of Cambusnethan, as they are in conjunction with Kilbride," and their first meeting-place was at Hartwoodmiln, in the parish of Shotts, which must have been a village of some consequence in those days judging from the number of infants it furnished for baptism. In the treasurer's accounts the Sabbath collections are entered as three or four shillings on an average ; and the elders at this time were four in number, but five others were afterwards added. Motherwell is the only familiar name which we met with in the records during those early years, keeping parishes out of view. These last come gradually to make up a formidable list. Besides Cambusnethan, Shotts, and Kilbride, there are Carluke, West Monkland, Dalziel, Glassford, Blantyre, Dalserf, Bothwell, Avondale, Barony, and Lesmahagow. This betokens the extent of territory from which the membership was drawn. The first time Hamilton itself appears is on ist June 1760; but at an 2i 2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS election of elders in 1761 it takes the lead, requiring two out of the five who were chosen. It was now becoming the stronghold of the congregation. The way for the entrance of the Secession may have been partially prepared by the Rev. Alexander Findlater, who shared the pulpit of the parish church from 1695 to 1735. He owed his promotion to the Duke of Hamilton, with whom his son, whose intrusion into West Linton produced a disruption there, was also a favourite. But the father was characterised by Wodrow as " that poor, imprudent, rough man," and with this description he couples the lamentable state of the town parish. But we must now go back to the time when the Antiburgher congregation became fully organised. First Minister. WILLIAM OLIVER, from Midholm. Ordained, i8th November 1755, over "the Associate congregation of Shottenhill," which was in the parish of East Kilbride. The session now met almost invariably at Woodside, which seems to have been a part of Hamilton. The church is attested to have been built in 1761, and the earliest set of tokens are dated 1756, the congregation being designated " Cambusnethan and Kilbride." The minutes of session for a period of years about that time have been preserved, and they reveal an eldership of ten or thereby, with accessions to the Act and Testimony at nearly every meeting from the wide range of parishes around. The cases of discipline are generally of a mild type, though the swearing of the Mason Oath was dealt with, and the session had trouble from members going to hear anti-Government preachers. The fringes of the Sabbath were also strictly cared for, a man and a woman being on one occasion rebuked for travelling on the Lord's Day to be ready for harvest work on the morrow. But the Antiburgher congregation of Cambusnethan and Kilbride was too far-gathered to retain its oneness, and in August 1760, petitions from the east and the west ends of that community came before the Synod craving disjunctions, while those in the centre remonstrated, and wished Hamilton to be the ordinary place of worship. The opposition carried their point ; only Mr Oliver was recommended to give as much supply as possible to the extremities of the congregation. At subsequent meetings the petitions for disjunction continued to be pressed, till the Synod declared they would receive no more papers of the kind unless it appeared that the applicants were able to support the gospel for themselves. But persistency prevailed in the end, and the boundaries of Hamilton congregation were circumscribed on the north-east in 1763 by the formation of a congregation at Whitburn, and on the south-east in 1765 by the formation of a congregation at Strathaven, of which particulars are given under their respective headings. Mr Oliver died, gth July 1775, in the forty-sixth year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. A daughter of his was the wife of the Rev. James Ramsay, Antiburgher minister of Glasgow. After his death the congregation called Mr Andrew Thomson, whom the Synod appointed to Sanquhar (South). Second Minister. JAMES PUNTON, from Back Street, Dalkeith. Called also to Kirriemuir, but the call from Hamilton, signed by 126 male members, was preferred, and Mr Punton was ordained, ist July 1777. There appears to have been eight elders at this time, but one of them was laid under suspen- sion soon after for a trifling offence. When the call to Mr Punton was about to be arranged for he had got a number of the people about Shotts to subscribe a petition for sermon four times a year in that quarter, and he pushed the matter offensively on the morning of the ordination day. The case widened out, through his rebellious bearing, till it went to the Synod, and it figures in the minutes of Glasgow Presbytery long afterwards. An election of elders about this time gives us insight into the extent of the congregation. The town of Hamilton was to nominate three, and those in the western PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 213 part of the parish one ; Shotts and Bothvvell were to nominate two each, and Cambusnethan, Lesmahagow, and Dalserf one each. At a subsequent election Monkland, Airdrie, and the parishes adjacent formed an additional district, and Kilbride, Blantyre, and Cambuslang a second. In the last decade of the century the Old Statistical History, said of the Antiburghers compared with the Relievers : " They are more widely scattered, less affluent, and the provision made for their minister is more scanty." When the Anti- burgher Presbytery of Glasgow met on 26th May 1801 the elder from Hamilton informed them that his minister on his way to Glasgow that morning had died suddenly on the mail-coach. Impressed by this solemn visitation they spent some time in prayer, the Moderator and two other members conducting the devotions. Mr Punton was in the fifty-second year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. The Christian Magazine states that he had endeared himself to his people, and that they showed it by their attention to his widow and six children. Ten or a dozen years before Mr Punton's death the place of worship was repaired and enlarged, making 582 sittings. At that time 250 adults in the parish of Hamilton were reported as belonging to the Antiburgher congregation. Now came two unsuccessful calls to Mr William Patrick. The former of these was not quite harmonious, though signed by 122 (male) members, and the Synod appointed Mr Patrick to Lockerbie. But Hamilton con- gregation, believing that the preacher's leanings were in their direction, hurried forward with a second call, the design of which was defeated by his settlement at Lockerbie, as already appointed. But at this very time, and as if to inspirit them anew, they had property left them in land and houses, amounting in value to ,40 a year. Their connection with this property may explain why, at the Union of 1820, minister and congregation had it entered in the Synod minutes that they were to be known by the name of Antiburgher Seceders in all time coming. Third Minister. JOHN MONCRIEFF, from Duke Street, Glasgow. The Synod having preferred Hamilton to Buchlyvie Mr Moncrieff was ordained, 1 8th January 1804. The stipend promised, even with the recent addition to their resources, was only &o, with house and garden. But twenty years before this the Antiburgher church at Hamilton came so far short in liberality that the managers brought the bad situation of affairs under the notice of the session. They complained that too many members, of whose ability they had not the least doubt, contributed nothing for the support of the gospel. The decision come to was that those unable to pay had only to make their case known and seats would be cheerfully provided for them, and that others were to be denied Church privileges unless they did their part in this respect to God and to their brethren. In 1818 the stipend was ^130, of which ^40 came from the above-mentioned bequest. In the early months of 1831 Mr Moncrieff required supply for his pulpit, but, though his health improved, the people with remarkable unanimity expressed their wish for a change. They had lost largely already, they said, and some of their best members were merely " waiting on." In July the Presbytery met with them, and suggested a colleague, but while some approved others would prefer resignation, though they had no fault to find with Mr Moncrieffs doctrine or life. In a few weeks the congregation pronounced unanimously for a severance of the pastoral tie as essential to their existence, and on 6th December his demission was accepted in the interests not only of the congregation but of his own health and comfort, the retiring allowance to be ,30 a year. Mr Moncrieff now removed to Glasgow, where he was appointed Pro- fessor of Hebrew in the Andersonian College, and in 1833 he was recom- 2i 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS mended by the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow as a teacher of that language to the students under their inspection. Shortly before this he published an essay on "The Antiquity and Utility of the Hebrew Vowel Points." The book was a proof of the author's attainments in Oriental scholarship, but his attempts to identify the Hebrew vowel points with the earliest traces of the written language were futile. Mr Moncrieff died, 29th January 1839, leaving a son newly licensed, whose name figures in the history of Bridge Street Church, Musselburgh. The congregation now called Mr Alexander Davidson, but they were in a divided state, and the Synod appointed him to School Wynd, Dundee. The second call was addressed to Mr Andrew Broom, but he explicitly declared to the Presbytery that, owing to the want of unanimity among the people, he would not accept. He was ordained at North Sunderland a year afterwards, but further particulars regarding him are given under Alex- andria, Dumbartonshire. Fourth Minister. JOHN INGLIS, from Cambusnethan. Called also to Sandwick and Eday, in Orkney, and then to Carnwath, but the choice ultimately lay between Dunoon and Hamilton. Having preferred the latter he was ordained there, 2oth May 1834. In the third year of his ministry Mr Inglis computed the communicants at 320, of whom more than a fourth were from the parishes of Dalziel, Dalserf, and Blantyre, with a few from Bothwell. The stipend was ,100, with manse and garden, and Mr Moncrieff had his ^30. There was a debt of ,784 upon the property, and 52 families came from more than two miles. In a few years the congrega- tion was relieved of the annuity payable to the retired minister, but the managers' books show that the debt tended to increase year by year, till in 1863 it got so oppressive that the Presbytery had to appeal for aid to sister congregations, and to the Church at large. On gth February 1870 Mr Inglis retired from active service, the arrangement being that he should have ,50 a year, with the manse, and the colleague .130. Two unsuccess- ful calls followed the first to Mr A. F. Knox, who accepted Stirling (Viewfield), and the other to Mr John Boyd, who preferred Wemyss Bay. Fifth Minister. THOMAS R. ANDERSON, M.A., from Kirriemuir. Called also to Warkworth, in Northumberland, and to Glengarnock. Ordained as colleague to Mr Inglis, 7th March 1871. There was now to be a speedy turn of affairs for the better. Blackswell Church had served its day, and negotiations were opened with the Rev. John M'Farlane's congregation for the purchase of their place of worship. The bargain was struck, and Saffronhall was taken possession of after being renovated at an outlay of ,500. Mr M'Farlane being out of ecclesiastical connection formal union between the congregations was impracticable, but the bulk of his people, about 200 in number, remained in the old pews. In the circumstances they had to be admitted to membership one by one, and two who had been elders were afterwards elected to office, which they accepted. The old minister also ended his days in the fellowship of Saffronhall Church. In 1880 Mr Anderson declined a call to Bristol, but on I4th April 1881 he accepted Greenfield, Govan. The membership, which was reckoned 180 at his ordination, was now almost double that number, and the stipend was ,200, exclusive of .50 to Mr Inglis. A house for the junior minister had also been bought a year or two before at .1100, the Board granting ,100. This used up the ,40 of feu rates which had done so much for the old congrega- tion in its time of weakness, but it left the manse free of debt. St.\-f/i Minister. DAVID W. FORREST, M.A., son of the Rev. David Forrest, St Rollox, Glasgow. Ordained, 22nd June 1882, having previously declined Mount Pleasant, Liverpool ; and Elgin Street, Glasgow. Accepted PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 215 a call to Moffat, 291!) March 1887. There was a membership of 373 at the end of this year. Seventh Minister. ANDREW M. SMITH, M.A., from Cumnock. Or- dained, 2 ist February 1888. The stipend was ,250, with the manse, and there was also the ^50 to the senior minister, who also retained the old manse. On 23rd September 1891 Mr Smith accepted a call to Trinity Church, Sunderland, to succeed the Rev. James S. Rae, who had removed to Newington, Edinburgh. He remained there till 1895, when he was in- ducted into Darlington Place, Ayr. Eighth Minister. NORMAN FRASER, B.D., son of the Rev. Henry Erskine Fraser, Langside, Glasgow. Ordained, 7th April 1892. On 2oth May 1894 Mr Inglis completed the sixtieth year of his ministry, and on 26th June his co-presbyters met with him in the manse, which had been his abode so long, and presented him with an embellished address befitting the occasion. He was now in his ninety-fifth year, and the father of the denomination. He died on 4th July, having survived the presentation only eight days. At the close of 1899 the membership of Saffronhall was 408, and the stipend .280, with the manse. HAMILTON, AUCHINGRAMONT (RELIEF) THIS congregation sprang from the appointment of a minister by what the Rev. James Ramsay, Antiburgher minister in Glasgow, styled " a political (politic) manoeuvre." The minister of the First charge was believed to have circumvented the patron, and secured the presentation for a Mr Hutchison, whom he calculated on having for his son-in-law. This stirred indignation throughout the parish, but Mr Hutchison was ordained, I4th November 1776, and married his colleague's daughter nine months after. The people, however, knowing what the end would be, had taken time by the forelock, and on ist July presented a petition to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow to be received under their inspection. This step was resolved on as "the anti- Christian yoke of patronage is become so universal and intolerable." Mr Kerr of Bellshill was thereupon appointed to preach at Hamilton on Sabbath first, and sermon appears to have been continued regularly on alternate Sabbaths. A church, with noo sittings, was also built without delay. First Minister. JOHN RAMSAY, a licentiate of the Established Church, who appeared before Glasgow Relief Presbytery on 4th February 1777, and, after his pulpit gifts were put to the test, was received by them as a proba- tioner. This was in the line of arrangements between him and the people of Hamilton. Ramsay of Glasgow brings up that he had been previously employed as an assistant in the neighbouring parish of Shotts with the design of reconciling the people to the ministry of an intruder. For a similar purpose he was then brought to Hamilton, where he was to occupy the pulpit, Ramsay thought, once a fortnight, and, apparently possessing popular gifts, he became a favourite with a large body of the parishioners, and, to have the bond formed between them, they agreed to go over jointly to the Relief. Mr Hutchison of St Ninians came forward, and convicted Ramsay of sundry inaccuracies, but he left his version of the story substantially un- touched. Mr John Ramsay was ordained, ist May 1777, and after the service closed he intimated to the Presbytery that two men, who had been elders in the Establishment, were willing to act along with him, and he was authorised to constitute them into a session. Under Mr Ramsay the con- gregation flourished, but he died on 2nd March 1786, in the ninth year of his ministry. After a vacancy of a year and a half the congregation called 2 i6 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the Rev. Alexander Simpson, formerly of Bellshill, and then of Alnwick, but the call was withdrawn. They next came into competition with the forming congregation of Kilbarchan for the services of Mr John M'Laren, but were unsuccessful. Second Minister. "WILLIAM CARRICK, from Strathaven. Ordained, 28th May 1789. A few years after this it was stated in the Old Statistical History that the Relief congregation had 874 parishioners, old and young, in connection with it, that they paid their minister about ,100 a year, and that they were the most numerous body of dissenters in the place. Mr Carrick's labours extended over forty years, and they were described as "faithful and successful." He died, i8th December 1829, having suffered much from asthma in the latter years of his life. The week before his death he suggested the appointment of an assistant and successor, and conducted both services next Sabbath, intending to make that the close of his ministry. On Monday and Tuesday he went out as usual, and on Friday he expired, "leaving a blank not to be easily filled up." He was in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Third Minister. JOHN M'FARLANE, who had been fully eight years in Dumbarton (Bridgend). Inducted, I7th February 1831. Not acquiescing in this call a large minority broke off, and formed Brandon Street Church ; but in 1836 Mr M'Farlane put the communicants at upwards of iioo, which was 100 more than before the separation. His stipend was ,180, and a manse had been built for him in 1832 at a cost of 7. The debt on the property amounted in all to ,835. About 200 of the membership were from the parishes of Cambuslang and Blantyre. On 2ist August 1837 the Presbytery received a requisition from ten elders bearing that the church was in a state of distraction, and would require to be visited Presbyterially. A deputation was sent to ascertain whether Mr M'Farlane would be able to hold converse with his brethren, as he was understood to be in a nervous state, which sometimes unfitted him for the discharge of his ministerial duties. They found him correct in mind though weak in body, and they had a friendly interview with him in his bedroom. But the commissioners alleged a fama of intemperance in the house of a female member of the congregation, whose name was afterwards mixed up with the case, but without any imputation of criminality. Mr M'Farlane explained that owing to illness he was obliged on one occasion to remain in that lady's house all night. Witnesses having been examined the matter was allowed to lie over till 26th September. At that meeting a motion that there was ground for charging Mr M'Farlane with conduct unworthy of a Christian minister carried by 10 to 4 over another motion that there was no ground for a libel. He was then placed under suspension till the case should be formally gone into, the result being that on 3Oth March 1838 the Presbytery dissolved the connection between him and his congregation. Against this sentence a protest and appeal were taken to the Synod. At the Synod commissioners from Hamilton appeared along with the parties, and presented a petition in Mr M'Farlane's favour subscribed by upwards of 500 members of the congregation. After the case had occu- pied one entire day and part of another the Presbytery were instructed to proceed immediately to investigate the matter de novo. In May next year the case came up in ripened form, with medical certificates bearing on the mental condition of the accused, and also a petition signed by 409 members of the congregation praying to have the sentence of suspension removed, and Mr M'Farlane's name placed on the roll of probationers, with the view, no doubt, of having him set over them anew as their minister. On the other side two commissioners appeared for the session and three for the PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 217 managers. After parties had been fully heard a motion that the prayer of the petitioners be refused was carried by a majority of 23 to 15. The other motion was brought forward by Mr William Anderson of John Street, who sympathised strongly with Mr M'Farlane, though he did not free him entirely from blame. It seems to have been understood on both sides that during the year 1836 Mr M'Farlane was in a state of mental aberration, and that for two months in the beginning of 1837 "he fulfilled his ministry with his previous acceptability," but that subsequently, when he appeared in the pulpit, he was in a state of high nervous excitement. The Presbytery found it proven that on several occasions these abnormal appearances were owing in some measure to the influence of stimulants, and the majority of the Synod so far agreed with this that they pronounced for suspension sine die. This ended the case so far as Church Courts were concerned. Mr M'Farlane's friends now built a place of worship for him at a cost of ^1500, with sittings for 550. On 26th May 1839 he opened the church with sermon, which was afterwards published, from the text : " Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." On the previous day a petition from 441 members of his former congregation had been put into his hands, expressive of their earnest desire that he should continue to be their minister, and here was the answer. The church was built in the hope that he would be restored to his status by the Synod, with renewal of the pastoral bond between him and them, but their petition to that effect having been refused Mr M'Farlane began his labours among them without ecclesiastical recognition of any kind. On this footing he continued his ministry, preserving an unblemished reputation while standing alone, and at his jubilee on 2nd December 1870 he received a presentation of 100 sovereigns. When he was no longer able to hold on by reason of age's infirmities the church was disposed of to Blackswell congregation for ^800, of which the sum of ,750, which remained after certain deductions were made, was handed over to their worn-out minister. He died, I4th November 1873, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His tombstone in Blantyre burying-place bears the inscription : " Erected by a few friends in memory of the Rev. John M'Farlane, for fifty-one years minister of the gospel, being thirty-one pastor of Saffronhall Church, Hamilton." Fourth Minister. MATTHEW R. BATTERSBY, from Campsie. Ordained, 1 2th September 1839, having previously declined calls to Dumfries (Town- head), Newton-Stewart, and Annan (Relief). Though much encroached on by two disruptions within nine years Muir Street still kept strong and vigorous. On I2th January 1864 Mr Battersby's demission of his charge, tendered on account of money difficulties, was accepted, the people regretting the circumstances which rendered severance desirable. In December 1865 it was reported at the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, Victoria, that Mr Battersby had been inducted to Maryborough, in the Presbytery of Castle- maine, and in November a year later the acceptance of his demission was announced. He returned to Scotland in full ministerial status, and resided at Barrhead, where he attended the ministry of Mr Clark. He died there, 3rd December 1870, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. A tombstone was erected to his memory by the Rev. William Beckett of Rutherglen and other early friends. Fifth Minister. PETER C. DUNCANSON, translated from West Calder, where he had been ordained five years before. Inducted, nth October 1864. The stipend was to be ,200. A new church, with sittings for between 800 and 900, was opened on Sabbath, 24th November 1867. The officiating ministers were Dr Johnston of Limekilns, Mr Duncanson, and Professor Eadie. The collections amounted to slightly over ,200, and the church 2 i8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS cost upwards of ^5000. A manse was arranged for about the same time at an estimated cost of i 100, which swelled out to ^1600, while the allowance from the Board remained at ,200. At the close of 1899 Auchingramont still kept the lead among the five U.P. churches in Hamilton, though others were pressing forward both in numbers and in stipend, and Saffronhall was only a step behind. The membership was 412, and the stipend ,300, with the manse. HAMILTON, AVON STREET (BURGHER) ON 1 2th June 1798 the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow granted supply of sermon to Hamilton in answer to a petition from that place. Appearances turning out favourably, arrangements were made to have a congregation organised, and in August of the following year an election of six elders was proceeded with. A church was in due time erected, with sittings for 656, but the cost cannot now be ascertained. In Hamilton there had been an Antiburgher congregation for nearly fifty years, but the impression would be that there was room for the more liberal section of the Secession in this growing town. An attempt of the same kind had been made in 1775, but after services had gone on in an irregular way for a twelvemonth they were discontinued for want of encouragement. First Minister. JOHN HAMILTON, from Craigs, Old Kilpatrick. The stipend promised was ,80, with 10 for a house, and the call was signed by 64 members and 92 adherents. Called also to Kirkintilloch, but the Presby- tery decided in favour of Hamilton, and Mr Hamilton was ordained there, 23rd September 1800. His term of active service was little more than begun when it came to an end. In September 1801 the congregation repre- sented to the Synod that their minister had been in distress for eight or nine months, and unable to discharge the duties of his office. His resigna- tion was accepted on 6th October. A voyage to Quebec in 1803 was of no avail, and he died on 27th April 1805, aged thirty-two. It was an unfavour- able beginning for the congregation, but nothing as compared with what was to follow. During the vacancy occasioned by Mr Hamilton's resignation Mr John Brown, a probationer from Glasgow (now Greyfriars), was called, but dis- satisfaction arose, and harmony was disturbed. At a meeting of the con- gregation it was found that 59 wished the* call prosecuted and 10 wished it dropped. Mr Brown, in the circumstances, refused to go on with his trials, and after some delay he renounced connection with the Burgher Synod. On 8th June 1803 he got licence anew from the Established Presbytery of Glasgow, and was ordained to Gartmore Chapel in 1805. He was trans- ferred to the parish of Langton, Berwickshire, in 1810, and came out at the Disruption in 1843. In the year of his ordination he published A Vindication of the Presbyterian Form of Church Government, a treatise which brought him into repute, and in 1815 he received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. Besides being the author of a book on Arian and Socinian Errors he wrote several pamphlets during the Non-Intrusion Controversy. He died, 25th June 1848, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. He was the father of the Rev. Thomas Brown, D.D., of the Dean Free Church, Edinburgh. Second Minister. ALEXANDER EASTON, from Kirkintilloch. When a preacher Mr Easton was aboundingly popular, being called to Kirkintilloch, Lochwinnoch, Port-Glasgow, and Miles Lane, London. Appointed by the Synod to Miles Lane, or rather to Redcross Street, where he was ordained, PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 219 27th September 1792. In 1801 the congregation represented to Coldstream Presbytery, under whose inspection they were, that their minister was labouring under indisposition, and required supply for his pulpit. This was followed by papers of complaint against him and a request to have the relation dissolved. The Synod in September arranged that Mr Easton should meanwhile remain in Scotland, and in April 1802 they accepted his demission, the congregation to pay him ^30 a year so long as his circum- stances required it. Being restored to the preachers' list he was called to North Berwick and Hamilton. The latter call being preferred by the Synod his induction followed on i7th July 1804. But the root evil remained, and the connection was dissolved on 28th May 1806, and, owing to intemperate habits, he was suspended sine die. He thereupon renounced connection, and, having preached on to those of his people who adhered to him, he was deposed by order of Synod on 23rd December of that year. He now joined the Established Church, and died, near Govan, gth September 1842, in his seventy-fifth year. In the newspaper announcement he was entered as " lately classical teacher in Glasgow." Third Minister. ROBERT FLETCHER, son of the Rev. William Fletcher, Bridge of Teith. Entered the Burgher Hall along with his brother, after- wards Dr Alexander Fletcher, Finsbury Church, London. Ordained, gth February 1808, his brother commencing the services, and his brother-in-law, the Rev. John Brown of Whitburn, giving the concluding discourse. The membership, which had been 1 12 before Mr Easton was inducted, was now 129, of whom 101 signed the call. There must have been an inflow of pros- perity under Mr Fletcher, as we find that when the next crisis came the number was exactly double. Misfortune supervened in the same form as before, and Mr Fletcher, after being dealt with and put upon trial again and again, had to be removed from his charge on I5th May 1817 and placed under suspension. We meet with him afterwards in London, where he conducted an educational establishment for some time with as many as forty pupils, some of them paying 2 guineas a quarter. But there was failure in London as well as in Hamilton. He died, it is understood, in 1825. The congregation now called the Rev. George Lawson of Bolton, but, strong as their claims were, those of Kilmarnock (now Portland Road) were stronger still, and the Synod decided accordingly. They next called Mr Alexander Waugh, the call being signed by 196 members and 209 adherents large numbers looked at in the light of adverse experiences. The stipend promised was ^150, with expenses, and, so eager were they to gain their object, they afterwards came forward offering other ^30. But Miles Lane, London, carried all before it. Fourth Minister. THOMAS STRUTHERS, from Maybole, where he had laboured for six years. Inducted, i6th November 1819, and it was perhaps appropriate that a Fast should be observed till the services were over. Of the congregation's history there is nothing to record till 1836, when the communicants numbered 320, of whom about one-fifth were from the parishes of Blantyre, Bothwell, and Dalziel. The stipend was ^130, in- cluding everything, and there was a debt of ^600 on the property ^200 less than it had been nine years before. In 1845 this burden was entirely removed by a special effort, with the aid of ^150 from the Debt Liquidation Fund. Mr Struthers' jubilee was celebrated on 2nd December 1862, when, along with other gifts, he was presented with .400. Arrangements had previously been made for securing his partial release from ministerial work, the colleague to receive ^120 a year, and the aged minister ^75. Fifth Minister. ROBERT BLACK, M.A., from Glasgow (Renfield Street). 220 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Ordained as colleague to Mr Struthers, I2th March 1863. The bond between them lasted exactly a year, as Mr Struthers died, I3th March 1864, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. He had been seized with paralysis eight days before, and from that moment lost all power of speech and motion. The only publication he left behind him was a sermon, entitled "The Church of God," which he preached, as Moderator of Synod, in May 1844. Mr Black was now sole pastor till loth February 1874, when he accepted a call to Princes Road, Liverpool. He was inducted to his second charge on 5th March thereafter, and resigned, 26th August 1878, on being appointed Organising Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1886 he took orders in the Episcopal Church, and was curate of Christ's Church, Cambridge, from that date till 1891. He is now vicar of Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, with an official income of ,310 a year. Sixth Minister. THOMAS S. TRENCH, from Linlithgow (East). Or- dained at Wellington Quay, Newcastle Presbytery, igth November 1867, and inducted into Hamilton, 3rd June 1875. O n Thursday, 3Oth May 1895, the new church in Avon Street, with sittings for 500, and built at a cost of over ^3600, was opened by the Rev. Dr Oliver, ex-Moderator of Synod. The sale of the old church in Chapel Street brought ^750, and beyond .500 received from the Loan Fund, to be paid by half-yearly instalments, there was no debt remaining. In January 1900 the membership was 274, and the stipend ^250. HAMILTON, BRANDON STREET (RELIEF) WHEN the Relief congregation of Hamilton applied for a moderation in September 1830 a protest against the application led to a delay of three months, but it was granted in December. On 4th January 1831, when the call to Mr M'Farlane was brought up, objections on the part of a minority were tabled, but as no dissent had been taken at the time they were dis- missed, besides being pronounced frivolous and vexatious. A petition on 1 2th April to be formed into a separate congregation fared better, and a member of Presbytery was appointed to preach to the petitioners on Sabbath first. On 3rd May he reported that the attendance was numerous, that managers had been elected, and a considerable sum of money raised for ulterior purposes. On gth June six elders, who had taken part in the move- ment, were appointed to be formed into a session. Services were meanwhile conducted in a hall, but a new church, with 945 sittings, was opened on I5th December 1831. First Minister. GEORGE BOAG, son of the Rev. William Boag of Dunning. Ordained, 27th March 1832. The stipend was to be ,100 in all. This proved an unfortunate settlement, arising partly at least, as is clearly established, from stimulants used to excess. On I4th May 1833 it is entered in the Presbytery minutes that " Mr Boag continues infirm both in body and mind, and unable to officiate," and at next meeting, on 4th June, a committee sent to converse with him found him unwilling to take any step till the wishes of the congregation were known. On gth September the Presbytery met in Brandon Street vestry, but Mr Boag neither put in an appearance nor sent an excuse for absence. A deputation appointed to wait on him had great difficulty in obtaining access to his presence. They found him in bed, apparently in health of body and in possession of his mental faculties, but he refused to attend, pleading inability. This report being brought back he was to be summoned to next meeting, which was to be held in Glasgow. PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 221 Again he failed to appear, and the summons was to be renewed with cer- tification. On ist October the connection between him and Brandon Street congregation was dissolved on the ground of contumacy and because it was evident his usefulness was at an end, and he was suspended from preaching. He died next day, in the thirty-third year of his age. Second Minister. WILLIAM BARR, from East Kilbride. Ordained, 24th April 1834. Two years after this the communicants were considerably over 600, and the stipend was ,120. The congregation was said to be largely composed of hand-loom weavers. There was a debt on the property of ,800, and 8 1 families came from beyond two miles. That same year a dis- course by Mr Barr on The Perpetuity of the Gospel appeared in the " Relief Preacher," a collection of sermons by ministers of the Relief Synod. The volume was slashingly reviewed in the Christian Journal, the preachers in some cases being treated with little respect. Mr Barr's sermon was pro- nounced fresh and vigorous, but disfigured by a swollen, inflated style. " He has obviously taken for his model the author of 'The Natural History of Enthusiasm,' and studied his work by night and by day, and, as a natural consequence, he has imitated the stilted extravagance, which is the defect, not the excellence, of that distinguished author." But these youthful blemishes would wear off as years passed, and Mr Barr's merits secured his removal to a larger sphere. On 5th January 1841 he accepted a call to the historical congregation of Jedburgh (now Boston Church). Brandon Street called Mr James Bonnar soon after, but he preferred East Kilbride. Third Minister. JOHN T. M'FARLANE, from College Street, Edin- burgh. Ordained, i5th February 1842, the call being unanimous, and the stipend promised \ 10. At this time the debt on the property amounted to ,1800; but in 1854 this burden was entirely removed, nearly ^700 being raised that year, other ,470 having been contributed previously by the congregation, and ,650 being received from the Debt Liquidating Board and Christian friends. On 26th August 1879 Mr M'Farlane retired from office after requiring sick-supply for a lengthened period, but was to retain his status as senior minister. The Presbytery recorded "that he had laboured with much fidelity, gentleness, and acceptance." He was to receive an allowance of ^75 a year, and the junior minister was to have ^180. The collegiate state was never reached, as Mr M'Farlane died, 23rd January 1880, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. ROBERT D. SHAW, B.D., from Bridge of Allan. Ordained, I4th October 1880. The stipend arranged for now was ,220, with the expectation of ^30 from the F'erguson Bequest. The membership at this time was 256. In May 1889 Mr Shaw declined Argyle Place, Edin- burgh, where the Rev. William Logan of Lanark had received considerable support. On 26th July 1892 he accepted Hope Park, in the same part of the city. During his ministry the membership of Brandon Street had risen to 337- Fifth Minister. THOMAS B. NICHOLSON, M.A., from Leven, a younger brother of the Rev. James B. Nicholson, Hutchesontown, Glasgow. Or- dained, 28th March 1893, and loosed, ist November 1898, on accepting a call from the E.P. congregation of Cricklewood, London. Sixth Minister. JAMES FERGUSON, B.D., son of the Rev. Dr Ferguson, Queen's Park, Glasgow. Ordained, nth April 1899. The membership at the close of that year was 364, and the stipend ,250. 222 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS BURNBANK (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) IN its beginnings the history of this congregation ran parallel for a time with that of Blantyre. The station was opened on Sabbath, ijth June 1877, services being conducted morning and evening, and for want of better accommodation a shop was rented for three or four months. In November the cause was taken in charge by the congregation of Saffronhall, Hamilton, and under their missionary the station, which had hitherto been little better than a failure, began to promise well. In a few months there were 50 applications for membership, and liberty to dispense sealing ordinances among them was obtained. On Sabbath, i6th June 1878, a wooden church was opened, when there was a collection of ^12. On 2gth July 1879 a petition from 141 members and 38 adherents to be formed into a congregation was granted, and on I3th November they had three elders inducted over them and two ordained. First Minister. JOHN GILMOUR, who had been in Gardenstown sixteen years. Inducted, I3th May 1880. There was a membership now of 120, and the people were to raise 70 of stipend, which they hoped would be made up from other sources to 220. The new church was opened by Dr Scott, Home Mission Secretary, loth August 1884, with 562 sittings. Building operations were commenced two years prior to this, but delay was occasioned and heavy additional expense incurred by the subsidence of the ground. The total expenditure amounted to ,3900, towards which the Mission Board granted ,400, and the Ferguson Bequest ,250, while two Bazaars yielded ^930, and ^500 came from contributions. This left ^1820, the last of which was successfully overcome before the Union with the aid of ^500 from the Debt Liquidation Board. At the close of 1899 the membership of Burnbank was 323, and the stipend from the people ^100. BELLSHILL (RELIEF) THIS congregation originated in the induction of the Rev. James Baillie into the parish of Bothwell on 2nd September 1763. He had been ordained at Shotts eight years before, and must have been well known to the people of his new charge, of whom only 8 signed his call. Beyond the fact that Mr Baillie swayed to the Moderate side of the Church there is little known regarding him ; but he seems to have been a man of more than average attainments, as, after being transferred to Hamilton, he was appointed to a Divinity Chair in Glasgow University in 1775. His name is linked with that of his daughter, Joanna Baillie the poetess. But, rather than submit to the enforcement of Patronage, a large proportion of Bothwell parish threw themselves into the arms of the recently constituted Presbytery of Relief, as Blairlogieand Auchtermuchty had done shortly before. Accordingly they got Mr Gillespie through from Dunfermline to preach to them on gth December 1762, and baptise children, and we find from one of his note-books that the service was repeated in April following. The church was finished in August 1763, and as there was a gathering in of sympathisers from surrounding parishes accommodation was provided for fjetween 600 and 700. Even this was found insufficient, and an enlargement had to follow, raising the number to 812. First Minister. ALEXANDER SIMPSON, from Paisley, a licentiate of the Church of Scotland. Ordained, 27th October 1763. He had written the Presbytery of Paisley in August preceding intimating that he had made up his mind to accept a call to Bothwell, as the people there could not PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 223 reconcile themselves to a minister put in by Patronage. The Presbytery framed a libel against him which ran thus : "That he had submitted to be ordained by Mr Thomas Gillespie, who was under sentence of deposition, and by other ministers calling themselves the Presbytery of Relief; that he was exercising his ministry at Bothwell without consent of the incumbent ; and that, treating his ordination as valid, he had administered baptism and the Lord's Supper in certain Established churches." He appeared in answer to the summons, and pleaded that he was only affording temporary relief to a party in Bothwell parish who wished to keep by the Established Church ; that neither he nor the Relief Presbytery taught separating principles ; that he very much desired to continue in the Establishment, and he did not think he had done anything to prevent it. The case came before the Commission of Assembly in June 1/64, and it ended with declaring "the said Alexander Simpson incapable of receiving a presentation or call to any parish in the Church." As a member of the Relief Presbytery Mr Simpson did much to help on the rupture which took place between the two parties in that Court, as is shown in an Appendix to Vol. I. He had also a sharp correspondence with Cruden of Glasgow, which brought their friendship to an end. Thus irritation wrought on till the Relief ministers formed themselves into two Presbyteries, with a chasm of personal estrangement between. But the vehemence with which Mr Simpson championed the cause of Alexander Pirie, as comes out under Blairlogie, may have caused him discomfort among his own people. It is certain that he left Bellshill not long after, though he did not simply throw up his charge, as Dr Struthers supposed, and go forth not knowing whither he went. In the Life of Dr Bogue of Gosport there is a letter, of date 1 7th April 1771, in which the writer informs his friend that Simpson of Bothwell is determined for Duns, and on 26th June he adds: "At the Presbytery of Relief Simpson accepted the call to Duns." What pertains to his after history is given under the headings of Duns (South) and Pittenweem. After his removal Bellshill was supplied by the Rev. Archibald Simpson, who had been minister of a Presbyterian congregation in South Carolina, and is understood to have been an American by birth. But his engagement was temporary, as he declined to cast in his lot with the Relief. From a newspaper notice we find that on 24th August 1774 a Chapel of Ease was opened at Port-Glasgow by the Rev. Archibald Simpson. He was inducted on I3th September, and there the remainder of his ministry was spent. His resignation was accepted, 27th October 1784, and he died, 9th April 1795. Second Minister. JOHN KERR, from the Antiburgher church, Duke Street, Glasgow, but acceded to the Relief at the close of his theological course. His old minister, James Ramsay, referred with characteristic bitter- ness to the change he made : " Having contracted a vehement itch for the pulpit, and some students of the same standing being appointed on trial before him, the slight is intolerable. Then Secession principles are thrown to the winds, and he seeks a settlement in a connection where stipends are not so small and the number of probationers not so great." Having got licence from the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh in June 1774 he was ordained at Bellshill on nth January of the following year. In the length of his services Mr Kerr seems to have carried his early experiences with him, as his sermons are said to have often exceeded an hour and a half. He died suddenly on Saturday, 3oth June 1792, at Irvine, whither he had gone to assist at the communion. He was in the eighteenth year of his ministry. An impression prevailed that he had over-exerted himself on the preceding Sabbath, when preaching at Anderston in the open air. 224 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Third Minister. ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON, from the Reformed Presby- terian Church, Calton, Glasgow, and a brother of the Rev. Peter Robertson, Irvine. Introduced for licence to the Relief Presbytery by Mr Stewart of Anderston, and ordained at Bellshill, 8th January 1793. The stipend was to be ,86, with the manse and a glebe of nine acres. Within a few years Mr Robertson and his people got into strained relations, which resulted in the acceptance of his resignation on i5th January 1799. Imprudences were alleged against him, and want of circumspection, which brought his minis- terial standing into question after he left. In March 1807 he intimated to the Presbytery his acceptance of an invitation to take the pastoral oversight of some people in Kirkcudbright. To preach to parties outside the de- nomination was opposed to the rules of the Relief Synod, and Mr Robertson was, therefore, declared cut off from the connection. But Kirkcudbright failed him after a time, and in 1814 the Synod, on the recommendation of Dumfries Presbytery, readmitted him to the status of a probationer. He died suddenly in Glasgow about the middle of the forties. Fourth Minister. JOHN JAMIESON, who had been ordained at Colins- burgh two years before. When a preacher he attracted the attention of the vacant congregation at Bellshill, and before he had time to take his bearings at Colinsburgh a majority set about having him translated thither. In March 1801 a moderation was applied for, and, in the face of an opposi- tion paper signed by 140 members, it was granted. Mr William Aulcl of Burnhead, and afterwards of Greenock, was the other candidate. Mr Jamieson being chosen the case went to the Synod, who instructed the Presbytery to sustain and concur in the call. Mr Jamieson, however, refused to accept ; but, a second call having passed through a similar ordeal, he decided to face all contingencies, and was inducted, 2gth July 1802. The settlement gave rise to some fierce writing, and, as the opposi- tion included about one-third of the membership, the congregation must have suffered seriously at this time. On Sabbath, igth February 1832, Mr Jamieson, towards the close of his lecture, took up the Psalm-book, and was requesting the congregation to sing a few verses, when utterance failed him, and he fell backwards in a state of insensibility. He was borne from the pulpit, and in the space of an hour he died. Such was the account given in the newspapers at the time. He was in the fifty-sixth year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. His father-in-law, the Rev. John Brown of Falkirk, expired with like suddenness at Bellshill on a communion Sabbath eleven years before. A daughter of Mr Jamieson's became the wife of the Rev. William Lindsay, East Church, Perth. Fifth Minister. JOHN WlLSON, from Old Kilpatrick, but born in Gorbals, Glasgow. Ordained, i7th October 1833. Four years after this there were about 600 communicants, and the stipend was ,120, with a manse and glebe worth other ,30. Some 20 families were from Dalziel parish, and Old Monkland and Cambuslang furnished about half-a-dozen each. Thirty-six families came from upwards of four miles. On Sabbath, I3th December 1846, the present church, built on the old site, was opened by Dr Struthers of Glasgow, when the collections amounted to ^158. It is seated for 900, and cost over ,1600, exclusive of bell and clock. On i3th Nov- ember 1882, at the celebration of his jubilee, Mr Wilson was presented with his portrait and a cheque for ,400. His stipend had gradually risen till it reached ,250. Sixth Minister. JOHN R. FLEMING, B.D., son of the Rev. William Fleming, Lothian Road, Edinburgh. Ordained as colleague to Mr Wilson, 1 5th July 1884. The names on the communion roll at this time were 416. The senior minister was to have ,106 a year from the congregation, with PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 225 the manse, and he occupied the pulpit occasionally till near the close, and regularly took part in communion work. He died, 3rd October 1893, in the eighty-seventh year of his age and sixtieth of his ministry, leaving a son-in- law, the Rev. W. R. Inglis of Kelso, a member of Synod. His son, Mi- William B. Wilson, got licence in the end of 1863, but the Distribution Committee reported in 1870 that he had left the denomination to join the Church of England. In that connection he officiated for a short time as curate at Maryport, but his mind became much affected, to the clouding of his father's declining years. He still survives, but hopes of restoration to usefulness have long since expired. On becoming sole pastor Mr Fleming's stipend was raised from ,200 to ^300, with the manse. In 1889 the church had been renovated at a cost of ^1000, but on Thursday, 5th December 1895, it was announced as follows : " During a thunder-storm about midnight on Tuesday the spire of the U.P. Church, Bellshill, was struck by lightning, and seriously damaged, about a couple of tons of masonry being displaced." This brought the congregation face to face with extensive outlay, but before the jubilee of the church opening, in December 1896, the spire was rebuilt and heightened, and a new bell put in. At the Union the membership was within a few units of 500, with the stipend as given above. STRATHAVEN, FIRST (ANTIBURGHER) ON 1 4th December 1738 an accession was given in from Avondale parish to the Associate Presbytery, and on I7th September of the following year Ralph Erskine of Dunfennline and James Thomson of Burntisland conducted week-day services somewhere in that locality. The Antiburgher families about Strathaven after the Breach of 1747 formed part of Hamilton con- gregation (now Saffronhall), but on the ground of distance they were erected into a separate congregation on loth June 1765. Occasional supply had been granted them before this, and their first church was built the previous year. First Minister. DAVID SOMMERVILLE, from Nicolson Street, Edin- burgh. Ordained, loth September 1766, on a call signed by 39 (male) members and 3 adherents. After ministering at Strathaven for nearly twenty-four years Mr Sommerville resolved on emigrating to America, and was loosed from his charge on 23rd August 1790. Dr Scouller states that this step was forced upon him because of inability for regular work, strength having failed through a severe bleeding from the nose. He died in June 1793, m Rockbridge County, Virginia. Though Dr Scouller says that he only preached in vacancies, as his health allowed him, he seems to have held a fixed charge, since at his death he was a member of the Presbytery of Pennsylvania. His widow died near Lexington, 6th January 1800. Second Minister. THOMAS STEWART, from Kinclaven. In the early part of the vacancy the congregation called Mr Thomas Blair, the call being signed by 68 (male) members and 18 adherents, but the Synod appointed him to Cairneyhill. Mr Stewart next became the object of their choice, but on both occasions there was a small minority in favour of Mr Thomas Smith, of whom more is given under Auchinleck. Mr Stewart was ordained, 24th July 1792. The stipend arranged for was .55, with house and garden. The Presbytery had been wishful to secure for the minister the use of a horse when required for pastoral work or attendance on Church Courts, and also the promise that the farmers would drive his coals, but the congregation II. P 226 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS instead of binding themselves to these conditions came up ,5. Mr Stewart is said to have been a man distinguished for " much warmth of heart, grace of character, and genuine excellence." He died on Monday, 8th March 1819, having taken ill on his way home from the Presbytery on the previous Thursday. He was in the sixty-first year of his age and twenty-seventh of his ministry. The Secession cause in Strathaven during his ministry drew its membership from a wide circumference. Third Minister. JAMES M'E WAN, from Perth (North). Ordained, iQth October 1819. In the following year the second church was built, at a cost of .850, with sittings for 630. In 1836 the communicants numbered 320, and the stipend was ^130, with manse and garden. Of the families in attendance 1 5 came from over four miles, and more than one-third were from the parishes of Glassford, Kilbride, Stonehouse, and Hamilton, by far the largest number from Glassford. The debt on the property was ^300. Mr M'Ewan, owing to long-continued affliction, had his resignation accepted on 3ist December 1850, the congregation testifying to the kindly feeling which had subsisted between him and them during the whole course of his ministry, and to the diligence and faithfulness with which he had discharged his official duties. They were to pay him an annuity of ,40. He died in Edinburgh, I3th November 1859, in the seventy- third year of his age and forty-first of his ministry, leaving two sons ministers in that city David in . College Street and Thomas in the Potterrow (now Hope Park). Fourth Minister. PETER LEYS, from Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Ordained, I7th December 1851. The congregation had previously called Mr David M'Ewan, their former minister's son, but he preferred Cathcart Street, Ayr. The stipend, besides the annuity to Mr M'Ewan, was to be ^90, with the manse, to be afterwards raised to ,110, and the call was signed by 141 members and 40 adherents. In 1861 Mr Leys published a valuable Memoir of his friend, the Rev. John M'Laren of City Road Church, Glasgow, with discourses appended. In the previous year he was nearly called to be Mr M'Laren's successor. Five years later a sphere of labour opened for him at Aldershot, but he decided to remain in Strathaven. On 25th February 1881 Mr Leys' resignation was accepted by Hamilton Presbytery, medical certificates bearing that he required immediate relief from all active duty. The congregation agreed unanimously to give him ,40 a year, an arrangement in which he cordially acquiesced. Mr Leys removed soon after to Glasgow for the sake of his family, though he took part ever and again in communion work among his old people. In 1886 the current of his life was disturbed by family troubles, which led to im- prisonment without moral blame on his part. Two grandchildren were under his care, but their father, Mr Leys' eldest son, had now embraced Popery, and, with the view of sending them to be trained in a Jesuit estab- lishment at Sheffield, he claimed possession of the boys, the burden of whose maintenance he had been obliged to throw over on his father six years before. The case was carried into the Court of Session, where, as a matter of course, paternal rights prevailed, and the decree was issued that the children must be surrendered. But Mr Leys, while recognising the legality of the decision, felt that there were interests involved which forbade obedience, and the boys were removed under their aunt's care to some place of concealment. Their grandfather, refusing to reveal the secret, was sent to the Calton Jail, amidst widespread sympathy, though it was clear the judges had no alternative. After a time relief came through the son relenting, with the request to press the matter no further, and thus the .rison doors were opened. Mr Leys died at Edinburgh, 6th July 1892, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. A younger PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 227 son of his, George Meston, went through his course as a probationer, and then turned to law. Fifth Minister. GEORGE F. DEWAR, from Musselburgh (Bridge Street), where he had been for five years. Inducted, 25th October 1881. The membership was 284, and the stipend, exclusive of Mr Leys' annuity, was ,120, with a manse, but with the expectation that it would be augmented from the Ferguson Fund and other sources to not less than ^180. At the beginning of the Union year the membership of Strathaven, First, was 230, and the stipend ,155, with the manse. STRATHAVEN, EAST (RELIEF) THE parish church of Avondale was built or rebuilt in the town of Strathaven in 1772, and the 800 sittings it ultimately contained were all allocated to the heritors except 85 "communion seats," and the common people are said to have considered themselves deprived of their fit proportion. But the minister of Avondale told the Commissioners on Religious Instruction in 1836 that for three dozen years there were no "seats" in the church at all. This defective arrangement, as much as the grievance of Patronage, might try the endurance of many, and lessen their attachment to the building. There was some talk of erecting a Chapel of Ease, but enforced settlements at Eaglesham and Shotts had prepared large numbers for enlisting under the banner of the Relief. The scheme was brought into active shape by the conduct of their minister, the Rev. Robert Bell, in furthering an intrusion into the parish of Hamilton. This was on nth November 1776, and on 2oth January following a number of people in Strathaven petitioned the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow for supply of sermon. Services were begun on Sabbath, 6th February, and an entry from the Journal of an Established Church Elder gives the particulars. " Mr Kerr, minister of the Relief Church, Bellshill, preached here in the churchyard, being invited by the inhabitants who were displeased with Mr Bell." A church was built without delay, with 1087 sittings. First Minister. WILLIAM HERIOT, from the Burgher congregation of Dunblane. Ordained, I7th September 1777. It proved an unfortunate choice in the end, though we read of Mr Heriot having charmed the people by his eloquence at first. In August 1784 serious charges were brought against him by his eight elders and twelve of the managers. Untruthfulness and the use of improper language were proved against him, and for guilt in other ways there was declared to be strong presumption. Hence he was loosed from his charge on 5th January 1785. What we know of his after history is given under Head Street, Beith. This discouraging affair must have gone to discredit the Relief cause in Strathaven, and it was long before the ground it lost at this time was regained. A call to Mr John Reston was sustained and concurred in six months thereafter, of which there is no further mention, and he became minister of Biggar (South). Second Minister. JOHN KiRKWOOD, a native of Airdrie. Came over from the Establishment when a divinity student, and was ordained at Strathaven, i7th October 1786. Called to Dumfries (now Townhead) two years after, but declined to remove. Under Mr Kirkwood the congregation recovered tone, and experienced a gradual building up. He died, gth January 1818, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. He was the father of the Rev. James Kirkwood of St James' Place, Edinburgh. In December 1818 the congregation called the Rev. William Muir of Mainsriddell, but after a time he announced that he had 228 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS made up his mind to decline the call. The terms laid down were that his stipend of ^150 was to be reduced to ^100 if he were unable for duty, the congregation to keep his garden and pertinents in repair, but the Presbytery suggested to strike out the latter item and put an allowance for expenses in its place. Third Minister. JOHN FRKNCH, from Tollcross. Ordained, 4th May 1820, and under his abounding popularity the building was filled to excess. The stipend began at ^156 in all, with manse and garden. Mr French was called in 1832 to Dovehill, Glasgow (now Kelvingrove), but he remained in Strathaven till a wide door of usefulness opened in College Street, Edinburgh, and he was loosed on 3rd September 1833. Within a few months Mr James Banks was called by a great majority to be Mr French's successor, but he declined, and accepted Canal Street, Paisley, instead. Fonrt/i Minister. WALTER M'LAY, from Milngavie. The church at this time was overcrowded, having a membership of not less than 1500, and the disruption which followed a divided call brought welcome relief. Or- dained, 25th May 1835. Fifteen months after this Mr M'Lay reported that he had 1280 names on his communion roll, and that fully one-fourth of these were from other parishes, most of them from Glassford, and a goodly number from Stonehouse and Kilbride, with a few from Hamilton and Lesmahagow. The stipend was ^160, with a manse and glebe which had been provided for Mr French a few years before he left, at a cost of ,700, of which ^250 remained as debt on the property. In 1844 a sum of ^500 was expended on a spire with bell and clock, but any burden this entailed was met in 1847 by the liberality of the people. During Mr M'Lay's ministry of thirty-four years the congregation kept well up, but on 28th December 1869 his resigna- tion, tendered on the ground of money difficulties, and acquiesced in by the people, was accepted. He then removed to London. Returning to Scotland he proposed to have his name placed on the probationer list, but the matter was allowed to drop. In 1880 Mr M'Lay was admitted to the benefits of the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, and he died in Glasgow, I4th May 1885, aged seventy-three. Fifth Minister. ALEXANDER W. DONALDSON, B.A., from Moniaive, where he was ordained six years before. Admitted to Strathaven, 5th July 1870. Seven years after this the church was renovated, or rather rebuilt, at a cost of ,3000, and entered free of debt. The sittings were reduced to 800, but the congregation, though much smaller than it was in its overgrown state, had still a membership of 585 at the close of 1889, and the stipend was ,310, with a manse. STRATHAVEN WEST (RELIEF) AT the moderation in the Relief Church, Strathaven, on i6th February 1835 three probationers, who had got licence together some months before, were nominated, and the vote stood thus : for Mr Walter M'Lay, 426 ; for Mr George O. Campbell, 356 ; and for Mr Neil M'Michael, 36. 'Along with the call which was brought up to the Presbytery on 3rd March a petition to be formed into a second congregation was presented from the minority with nearly 400 signatures. They represented the church as overcrowded, and, the commissioners on the other side offering no opposition, the Presbytery at once granted the disjunction craved. When the communion roll was made up the names numbered 265. The church, with 976 sittings, was built at a cost of nearly .1400, and the work had to be gone on with at once, as the hall in which the congregation met accommodated only 330. PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 229 First Minister. GEORGE O. CAMPBELL, son of the Rev. George Campbell, Roberton. Ordained, I7th November 1835. Nine months afterwards Mr Campbell reported the membership at 377, and the stipend at .120, with a house and garden. The debt was ,950. In a public discussion on the Establishment question between him and the parish minister of Wiston and Roberton, which took place at Strathaven on igth March 1839, and lasted from 6 o'clock in the evening till 3.40 next morning, Mr Campbell was twitted with the heavy burden of debt on his church, and also with the smallness of his stipend, as disproving the efficiency of Voluntaryism. In the end of 1842 Mr Campbell declined a call to Arthur Street, Edinburgh, but the offer being renewed he accepted, and was loosed from Strathaven, 2 ist March 1843. Second Minister. ALEXANDER M'LEOD, from Calton, Glasgow, but a native of Nairn. Having preferred Strathaven to Irvine he was ordained, 2oth February 1844. Before the end of the year he published a lecture, entitled " Mountain Worship," the motto being : " Our fathers worshipped in this mountain." This slight publication, and acquaintance with his gifts generally, led George Gilfillan to speak of him as "a. genuine prose-poet." In Strathaven he also contributed to Hogg's Instructor several articles, the substance of which afterwards appeared in his volume on "European Life." Well known now throughout the churches, he was invited to become colleague to Dr William Anderson of John Street, Glasgow, and accepted, 28th August 1855. Third Minister. ANDREW J. GUNION, translated from Hawick (Allars), where he had laboured ten years, and admitted to Strathaven, 28th April 1857. The stipend promised was ,140, with manse and garden. The congregation had previously called Mr George Wade, who preferred Falkirk (West). After nine years of ministerial life in Strathaven Mr Gunion was loosed on 1 5th August 1866 on accepting St Andrew Square, Greenock. Fourth Minister. JAMES H. S. HUNTER, son of the Rev. John Hunter, Savoch-of-Deer. Ordained, loth April 1867. After being laid aside for some time through ill-health Mr Hunter resigned his charge, and, though the Presbytery suggested a longer period of relief, the congregation, while testifying that they would part with their minister on friendly terms, con- sidered that the dissolving of the pastoral tie would be better for Mr Hunter as well as for themselves, and the resignation was accepted, 3oth April 1872. In May 1878 Mr Hunter's name was put on the probationer list, and he was inducted to Stornoway in June of the following year. Fifth Minister. PETER MORTON, from Glasgow (now Woodlands Road). Ordained, 4th March 1873. The membership at this time was slightly over 400, and the stipend was ,175, with a manse. Mr Morton died, 3rd July 1882, in the forty-sixth year of his age and tenth of his ministry. The Presbytery on removing his name from the roll expressed gratitude to the Head of the Church "for the qualities which marked his character, for his ability and faithfulness and gentleness of life." The congregation some time after called Mr Andrew M. Porteous, who preferred to undertake the building up of a new congregation at Cullen. Sixth Minister. JAMES M'RORIE, from Crieff. Though the member- ship had now fallen to 316 the stipend was raised to ^200, besides the manse. Mr M'Rorie was ordained, 4th December 1883. At the close of 1899 there were 387 names on the communion roll, and the stipend was as formerly. 23 o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS SHOTTS (BURGHER) IN 1 739 the Secession cause in Cambusnethan got a considerable increase to its strength from the neighbouring parish of Shotts. In May of that year two elders and a considerable number of private Christians from that parish acceded to the Associate Presbytery. This was owing to an intrusion into the Established Church, but the infliction was mild compared with what the people had to endure thirty years after. The presentee in the latter case was Mr Laurence Wells, who had been a licentiate ten years, and he owed his promotion to the tutors of the young Duke of Hamilton. In June 1763 a moderation took place, but elders, heads of families, and all the resident heritors except one, refused to sign the call. The Presbytery saw insuperable difficulties in the way of going on, and they sought to induce the Duke's representatives to drop Mr Wells, but they were met with a curt refusal. Pleading that the opposition came from all ranks and orders of men in the parish they referred the case to the Synod, from whom it was sent on to the General Assembly, who sustained both the presentation and the call. The Presbytery had now to take the presentee on trials, and after lengthening out the process till the verge of another Assembly they found that his knowledge of divinity was " very low and mean," that he had little acquaintance with the rules of composition, that he wanted aptness to teach, and that he was not qualified for the parish of Shotts. In 1765 the case came back to the Assembly. The Presbytery were now- ordered to proceed with Mr Wells' trials anew, and in his oral examination to take down the questions and answers in writing, and in case of another appeal to transmit them together with his trial discourses to the Supreme Courts. After going over the work a second time the Presbytery adhered to their former decision, and the case was remitted to the Commission in June 1766. There the two discourses which the Presbytery deemed least satisfactory were read and approved of, and as for the presentee's answers taken down at the time, they were pronounced by some of the members to be specially satisfactory. Still, on various pretences the ordination was delayed till another Assembly, when strict orders were given to go through with the work at once and on a fixed day, all the members to attend. The Presbytery met at Shotts at the time appointed, but the edict had not been served, and they were at a stand. This was reported to the Assembly, which was still in session, and arrangements were made anew, the Lord Advocate giving assurance that the ministers engaged would have the civil power to protect them. When the day came the military, through some misunderstanding, were not forward, and a mob had gathered, by whom the presentee was roughly handled, besides being compelled to sign a paper engaging never again to trouble that parish. At last, on I7th August 1768, Mr Wells was quietly ordained at Hamilton. The minister who was to preach sent a letter apologising for absence on the ground of indisposition. The sermon was, therefore, dispensed with, but the ordination proceeded, and the presentee's name was added to the roll. The case, after lasting six years, had its sequel in the Justiciary Court, when a man and woman from Shotts were found guilty of riot and tumult to obstruct the settlement of the Rev. Laurence Wells. The man was fined 300 merks, and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. The woman, who must have been deeper in the transgression, was condemned to be taken through the town of Glasgow, with her hands tied behipd her back, and followed by the common hangman, and then to be confined to hard labour in the house of correction for two months. It has been stated that these proceedings were followed by a petition for PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 231 sermon from Shotts presented to the Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh at its next meeting. But it was to the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow that the application was made, and that not till 2ist May 1770. Services were begun on the fourth Sabbath of June, but appointments for a time were far between, as Cambusnethan would be reckoned quite accessible. On 6th November 1770 a formal accession was given in from Shotts, and Mr Moir of Cumbernauld was appointed to preach there and constitute two elders into a session. Next year the church which they long occupied was built. First Minister. JOHN SCOTT, from West Linton. Ordained, I3th April 1774. The congregation engaged to give "for his annual sustenance" ,50 and a house, with either an additional .5, or as much land as keep a horse and a cow summer and winter. Mr Scott was at the Synod in September 1776, but though Moderator he was absent from the meeting of Presbytery on 1st October. He died on the I3th of that month, leaving a widow, a sister-in- law of the Rev. Robert Jaffray of Kilmarnock, who survived him forty years. Shotts congregation ten months afterwards called Mr John Kyle, but the Synod kept by their former decision, appointing him to Kinross. Second Minister. EBENEZER HYSLOP, from West Linton. Ordained, ist May 1780. During the vacancy the congregation got advantage from the accession of some malcontents from Cambusnethan, and they now undertook ^60 of stipend, with a house, and payment of half the Widows' Rate. Mr Hyslop was one of the first two who announced their separation from the Burgher Synod in 1799, though the Old Light party in Bathgate, who blamed him for drawing their minister to the same side, alleged that he once spoke of the Preamble from their pulpit as a " harmless thing, and that it was like the priest's holy water if it did no good it would do no ill." They also inveighed against him that his connection with meetings for Reform had brought him several times before the Sheriff of the county for examination, and hence they designated him " That Reverend Democrat." But Mr Hyslop's congregation seems to have gone along with him unitedly at this crisis, besides getting large accessions from Cambusnethan Church. However, ten years later matters were in such a state at Shotts, partly owing to disputes about stipend, that their minister had to resign. His admirers about Bathgate put it in this form : "The Providence of God has so shaken his own congregation that he has tumbled out of it, none wishing him to be stayed." But a fortnight after his demission was accepted Mr Hyslop was called to Dalkeith, where he was inducted, 28th November 1810. Here the Old Light cause, a feeble break-off from the Rev. Thomas Brown's church, made no headway, and the stipend of ,70 which his people promised, with house and garden, proved too much for them. Mr Hyslop retired in 1830, and died at Doune, where his son was Original Burgher minister, 22nd June 1831, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. Dr Taylor of Flisk has given us a pleasant view of the old man, with his Geneva cloak and light brown wig, as "he poured out his soul in a flow of prayer which knew no halting." Shortly after Mr Hyslop left, Shotts congregation issued a call signed by 415 members, but it probably suffered afterwards by being vacant seven years. On loth December 1817 Mr George Hill, son of the Rev. George Hill, Cumbernauld, was ordained at Shottsburn. In 1839 minister and people went with the minority of the Original Burghers, who kept aloof from union with the Establishment, and in 1842 they helped to form the Synod of United Original Seceders. In 1852, when that Synod by 32 votes to 31 declared for Union with the Free Church, Mr Hill was absent, but he after- wards intimated his adherence to the majority. Knowing his congregation to be otherwise minded, and finding himself too infirm for further service, he 23 2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS bade them farewell. Mr Hill died, 3ist January 1856, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. He had been succeeded at Shotts- burn the year before by Mr John Ritchie, a son of the Rev. Ebenezer Ritchie, first of Kirkwall and then of Colmonell. In 1884, though the congregation was not more than a third of what it had been in its best days, the stipend was much larger. Mr Ritchie resigned in May 1891, after a long illness, life trembling in the balance. He died, 27th January 1892, in the sixtieth year of his age. His son, the Rev. Ebenezer Ritchie, was ordained over the OriginaiSecession congregation, Paisley, in 1886, and in 1893 ne became Ur Grosart's successor in Blackburn. In 1900 the minister of Shottsburn was the Rev. R. R. Hobart, M.A., son of the Rev Thomas Hobart, Carluke. WHITBURN (ANTIBURGHER) ON 3 ist October 1763 the Antiburgher Synod made Whitburn the seat of a new congregation. West Calder was originally fixed on, but Whitburn was more central for the wide region around, where the nearest Antiburgher churches were Mid-Calder, eight miles to the east ; Craigmailen, seven miles to the north ; and Hamilton, fifteen miles to the south-west. The member- ship was mainly composed of families from the eastern bounds of Hamilton, the southern bounds of Craigmailen, and the western or south-western bounds of Mid-Calder. A church was built in or about 1766. There was no local grievance, such as the people being refused a vote in the election of a minister, to account for the origin of Whitburn congregation, as Dr M'Kelvie and Dr Scott have stated. Between 1760 and 1770 there was no vacancy in the parish church. First Minister. ARCHIBALD BRUCE, from Dennyloanhead. Ordained, 24th August 1768. The call was signed by 33 (male) members or heads of families and by 30 adherents. Mr Bruce has stated that a discourse of his for licence secured the approval of Mr Gib, who spoke highly of him to some of the Whitburn people. The subject was National Covenanting, and it was delivered in Dennyloanhead manse on a communion Monday before six or seven ministers, in a room where Mr Gib was laid down in bed after preaching. The views of these two brethren on that subject diverged a good way ere all was done. In 1780 Mr Bruce published "Free Thoughts on the Toleration of Popery," by which his reputation for learning and ability was heightened, and in 1786 he was elected Professor of Theology. Mr Gib was so far dissatisfied with Mr Bruce's views on some points by this time that he tabled a protest against the nomination, though it was afterwards withdrawn. He accused him of having advanced principles "meaning to subject the con- sciences of Christians to the lordship of civil powers, and transferring to these powers the special privileges and business of the Church:" It was a subject on which Mr Gib sometimes propounded dogmas that would lead to a com- plete separation between Church and State, and at other times he treated "scruples" with regard to the National Covenant as necessitating exclusion from Antiburgher fellowship. With an intellect of marvellous acuteness he wanted corresponding breadth, and his opinions on the relation of magistracy to the Christian Church were never rounded off into a consistent whole. With Mr Bruce it was different. His opinions on that question, like those of his coadjutor, Dr Thomas M'Crie, had at least the merit of being thoroughly reasoned out. His model was the Reformed Church of Scotland in its purest times. Hence, when the Antiburgher Synod in 1796 set about the refashioning of the Testimony he became the head of a little compact group, who were prepared to resist all such innovations. They were six in PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 233 number Professor Bruce of Whitburn, and the Revs. James Aitken, Kirrie- muir; Thomas M'Crie, Edinburgh; Robert Chalmers, Haddington; George Whytock, Dalkeith ; and James Hog, Kelso. They stood out so distinct from their brethren that in all the contending^ of those eight years they only on two occasions drew in a wandering vote. Their position we may best describe as Anti-Voluntary from centre to circumference, and equally Anti- Erastian, but, unable to bear back the tide, they intimated that severance was their only resource, and Whitburn became the cradle of the Constitu- tional Presbytery. On 28th August 1806 four of their number having met in the humble manse there the scene at Gairney Bridge was re-enacted, Professor Bruce being Moderator. Mr Whytock was now dead, and Mr Chalmers, who hesi- tated about taking the final step, was absent. Their proceedings having been reported to the Synod, which was sitting in Glasgow, Mr Bruce was set aside from the Professorship, and his case remitted to Edinburgh Presbytery. On Tuesday, 7th October, having failed to appear, he was deposed from the ministry. After this, besides preaching as before, he taught the little group of divinity students connected with the Constitutional Presbytery, seldom or never amounting to more than half-a-dozen. He died suddenly on Sabbath, i8th February 1816, in the seventieth year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. He had conducted public services as usual, but in the evening, as he was reading, his head dropped upon the book, and he passed away. Of Professor Bruce's numerous and remarkable publications we can only specify at this point his " Review of the Proceedings of the General Associate Synod," published in 1808, and "Memoir of James Hog of Carnock," which he edited. He also wrote as an exposure of Patronage, a parody of the Shorter Catechism. The opening question and answer may be given as a specimen. " What is the chief end of a modern clergyman ? To obtain a presentation and enjoy the benefice and the favour of the patron all the days of his life." It is cleverly done, but it sometimes comes very near profanity. Professor Bruce was succeeded by Mr Robert Shaw, who was ordained, I4th May 1817. The congregation, though far-gathered, had never been large, and the stipend offered was ^60, with the manse and a glebe of considerable value. Mr Shaw published an Exposition of the Westminster Confession in 1845, an d he received the degree of D.D. from New Jersey in 1851. He died, loth January 1863, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. He was succeeded by the present minister, the Rev. John M'Knight. The membership at the Union was about 160. STONEHOUSE (BURGHER) IN the year 1792, while 22 families in the parish of Stonehouse belonged to the Relief, the two branches of the Secession had only 5 families each. The Burghers, however, had a preaching station within the bounds nine years before. Sermon was begun in December 1783 by petition from some people in the place, and it was continued at least once a month till the close of 1785. It was then transferred to the village of West-Quarter, in the parish of Glassford, five miles to the north-west, where it was continued for another year. But it was not till June 1793 that preachers began to be sent continuously to Stonehouse. In 1796 the people obtained a loan of ^30 from the Synod Fund to aid them in building a place of worship, with 360 sittings. Of that sum 20 was turned into a donation at next meeting. First Minister. WILLIAM TAYLOR, from Falkirk (now Erskine Church). The call was signed by 72 members and 32 adherents, and the stipend was 2 34 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to be .60, with a house and garden. A competing call came out from Port- Glasgow soon after, with the promise of slightly better emoluments, but the Synod preferred Stonehouse, and Mr Taylor was ordained, 4th December 1798. Owing to the largeness of the multitude the service was conducted in the open air, though the frost was intense. But even under a fixed ministry the cause made little progress, and year by year it required to draw more or less from the Synod Fund. In 1809 the membership was given at 130. The entire income was not quite up to ^60, the stipend originally promised, and from this there had to be deducted the interest on ^90 of debt. On 28th January 1817 Mr Taylor's resignation of his charge, owing to the stipend being inadequate to support his large family, was accepted. In view of what was coming the Synod in May 1816 had promised ,70 to meet his outfit for America. There he became minister of Osnaburgh and Gwilliamsburgh, in Upper Canada, where he suffered much discomfort, he and his family being "cooped up in a log-hut of one apartment." In two years he left, and was settled in the state of New York, and about 1823 he became minister of Madrid Church, in the Associate Reformed Presbytery of Washington. In September 1837 he retired, and died not long after. Next year the congregation was received into the United Secession Church of Canada. Second Minister. WILLIAM FRASER, from Dunning. But before this they aimed at something higher, and called Mr James Harper, ultimately Principal Harper, whom the Synod appointed to North Leith. Mr Fraser's call was signed by 125 members and 64 adherents, and a stipend was promised of ^100, with manse and garden. The Synod having preferred Stonehouse to Girvan he was ordained, 29th March 1820. Four years after- wards it was reported that the membership was 180, but many of them being in indigent circumstances the funds required aid, as ,150 had recently been expended in repairing the church and manse. In May 1828 the elders of Stonehouse brought a serious charge against their minister, and on 3rd June he sought to meet it by producing a paper to evidence private marriage with his servant, dated six months back. The Presbytery, without questioning the genuineness of the document, pronounced for deposition, and Mr Fraser protested and appealed to the Synod. The case came up in September, when the above sentence was confirmed, and Mr Fraser's name dropped from the roll. In May 1831 the Presbytery of Lanark asked the Synod's permission to restore Mr Fraser to office, but the matter was delayed. This did not prevent the Presbytery from uplifting the sentence on the 24th of that month, the case being urgent, as he was on the eve of emigrat- ing to America, a step which subjected them to the frown of their superiors. At this point we lose sight of Mr Fraser, who is sometimes confounded with another of the same name who was minister of Gwilliamsburgh, in Upper Canada. While the case of discipline was pending Mr Fraser put in a big money claim for repairs he had made on the manse at Stonehouse, and the Presby- tery upheld his claim to 100 guineas. This crippled the congregation's finances, and on applying for a moderation they showed from their seat rents and collections that they could not promise more than ^80, with the manse. Third Minister. MATTHEW M'GAVIN, M.A., from Irvine (now Trinity). Ordained, i5th June 1831. As the call was signed by only 94 members and 66 adherents we may infer that the congregation had suffered numerically during the recent confusion. For nearly ten years Mr M'Gavin remained at Stonehouse, but on 2nd February 1841 he accepted a call to Wellwynd, Airdrie. In his time a good many members came from Glassford, Dalserf, and Lesmahagow. PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 235 Fourth Minister. HENRY ANGUS PATERSON, M.A., son of the Rev. James Paterson, Midmar, and cousin of the Rev. Alexander Paterson, after- wards of Dairy, Galloway. Ordained, i8th August 1842. Though the membership which signed this call was up to 159 the stipend was ^10 lower than before. In 1845 the congregation got rid of ,270 of debt with the aid of ,120 from the Liquidation Board. Mr Paterson when a student was rigorously dealt with in Aberdeen Presbytery for views on the Atone- ment supposed to come near those afterwards propounded by the Rev. James Morison, and an essay of his was one of three submitted to the Synod in June 1840. The committee who examined them reported that " these essays, viewed as a whole, do not seem chargeable with any sys- tematic departure from the doctrines of our Church." Still, this deliverance did not prevent Mr Paterson's licence being opposed by two of the six members of Presbytery who voted on the occasion. In January 1848 he tendered the demission of his charge with the view of removing to Nova Scotia, but he was induced to withdraw it. In 1879 tne ld church, which had been twice enlarged, was replaced by another built at a cost of well- nigh ^4000, which large sum was all cleared off in a few years without having recourse to any "new-fangled means of raising money." The membership at this time was 272, and the stipend ,140, with the manse. On Wednesday, 23rd September 1891, Mr Paterson's jubilee was celebrated, when he received a cheque for ^400. This, he stated very characteristically, he would receive as his retiring allowance, so that nothing more would need to be thought of, should he require before long to desist from active service. At the close of 1899 the membership of Stonehouse was 315, and the stipend ^175, with the manse that had served so long. EAST KILBRIDE (RELIEF) EAST KILBRIDE, in conjunction with Cambusnethan, gave its name for a time to the Antiburgher congregation which found its fixed centre in Hamilton about the year 1760. From this time till 1791 there was no dissenting church in the parish, but on 2nd March of that year a petition was presented to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow "by a very large body of heritors, elders, and heads of families in the parish of East Kilbride com- plaining that they were aggrieved by the law of Patronage, and begging to be received as a forming congregation." The Crown had presented the Rev. James French of Carmunnock, a neighbouring minister, to the vacant charge, whereas the people had been bent on securing a Mr Ure, who had been assistant to the former minister. Their petition being granted the station was opened on the second Sabbath of March, and before the end of the year a church, with 913 sittings, was built at a cost of ^ooo. First Minister. JAMES SMITH, from East Campbell Street, Glasgow. Ordained, I2th June 1792. The stipend was to be ^70, with ^5 for a house and ^5 for expenses. Mr Smith appears from his subsequent history to have been popular, but early in 1795 tne elders and managers petitioned the Presbytery regarding afama affecting their minister's character. A paper was submitted to their inspection written by Mr Smith as a marriage line, said to have been given to a young woman who had since died. The Presby- tery were unanimously of opinion that it proved an irregular marriage, and they agreed that he be solemnly rebuked, the rebuke to be intimated to the congregation. At next meeting several members of Court dissented from this decision, which they considered inadequate to the offence, and on 7th May the Presbytery dissolved the pastoral tie, and suspended Mr Smith from 236 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS office till such time as they should see fit to restore him. On 2/th July he petitioned to have the sentence uplifted, which was unanimously agreed to on 7th October, and within seven months he was admitted to Old Kilpatrick, and College Street, Edinburgh, was to follow. Second Minister. JOHN FERGUS, from Kilsyth, a brother of the Rev. Henry Fergus, Dunfermline. Ordained, 141!) July 1796. The stipend was _^8o, with the manse they had built, and, as was frequent in the Relief, the promise of .5 for every ^100 of debt paid off. Mr Fergus died, 22nd April 1816, in the forty-seventh year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. Third Minister. ROBERT CAMERON, translated from Castle-Douglas, where he had laboured six years. Inducted, 1 7th July 1817. The call was signed by 338 members and opposed by 273 members and adherents. When sustained and concurred in, an appeal was taken to the Synod, but nothing followed. In 1836 the number of communicants was placed at 782, of whom more than one-fifth were from other parishes, specially from Glassford, Cambuslang, Blantyre, and Mearns, with a few from Hamilton, Eaglesham, and Rutherglen. Twenty families came from over four miles. The stipend was ^120, with the manse, and the debt on the property was ^300. Shortly after this some hidden evil began to work towards a sepa- ration, and the people set about getting quit of their minister by a money agreement, the terms of which were laid before the Presbytery in December 1840. A meeting followed at East Kilbride on 26th January 1841, when the pastoral relationship was dissolved, Mr Cameron receiving and accepting the sum of ,200. But certain charges were still to be dealt with, which he had previously met with a denial. The Presbytery minutes are not explicit on the subject, but a stray document makes it clear that there were acts of intoxication involved. On i6th March certain papers were submitted, and a letter from Mr Cameron was read, in which he charged the Presbytery with treating him illegally and "cruelly," their intention being "to crush him." He closed by declaring himself "in every shape and form uncon- nected with the Relief Synod." The Presbytery on their part pronounced the Rev. Robert Cameron to be a fugitive from discipline, suspended him sine die, and expelled him from the communion of the Relief Church. He was now in the thirtieth year of his ministry, so that with him the day was far spent, but with this the curtain drops, only Dr M'Kelvie adds that he emigrated to America. Fourth Minister. JAMES BONNAR, from Dunfermline (now Gillespie Church). Ordained, 28th September 1841, having preferred East Kilbride to Hamilton (Brandon Street) and Partick. In 1868 the church was entirely remodelled at a cost of .800, all of which was contributed at the time. This was followed in 1879 by the building of a' new manse at a cost of nearly ,2000, including the price obtained for the former. In 1871 Mr Bonnar published "The Great Interregnum," a work on which he had bestowed much attention and study, being an exposition of Daniel and the Apocalypse. In 1885 he received the degree of D.D. from St Andrews University, of which he had been a distinguished student. In April 1898 Dr Bonnar requested to be relieved of the full pastorate, and the congrega- tion arranged to give him 60 a year with the manse, the colleague, with the entire charge, to have ^180, which it was expected would be made up to 200 from the Ferguson Bequest. Fifth Minister. CAMPBELL MACLEROY, B.D., from Regent Place,- Glasgow. At the first moderation Mr Deas Logie had 61 votes and Mr Macleroy 60, when it was decided by 68 to 46 to proceed no further, and the election was declared null and void. A request was then made for a re- hearing of the two candidates. At the second moderation, after it had been PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 237 unanimously agreed to go on, Messrs Logic and Macleroy were again pro- posed, when the former had no votes and the latter 118, and it was then decided by a large majority to proceed with the call, which secured the signatures of 162 members and 57 adherents. A petition against sustaining was afterwards presented from 133 members, and dismissed as ill-founded. After the two parties had agreed unanimously on measuring strength against each other it was too late for the minority to attempt to veto further procedure. Mr Macleroy was ordained, I3th December 1898. Dr Bonnar died, 2oth August 1899, m tne eighty-second year of his age and fifty-eighth of his ministry. At the close of that year the membership, which had been little affected by recent commotions, was returned at 293, and the stipend was ^200, with the manse. NEWARTHILL (ANTIBURGHER) THIS congregation was formed on 2nd March 1802 by the Antiburgher Presbytery of Glasgow in answer to a petition from 27 persons, mostly heads of families, members of Blackswell Church, Hamilton, which was vacant at the time. The parties described themselves as residing in the parish of Shotts, at a great distance from their own place of worship. Being joined by Seceders in the parishes of Bothwell and New Monkland they explained that, instead of making Cennoblehill, where services had hitherto been conducted, their centre, they intended to erect their place of worship at Newarthill, which was about five miles from Hamilton, four from Airdrie, and seven from Cumbernauld. Hamilton session having offered no objec- tions the application was granted. An election of elders was next applied for, as among those who were disjoined there was only one who had been a member of Hamilton session, and he was old and infirm. This was followed in due time by the ordination of seven to that office. (The seven elders were Thomas Nisbet, senior, Thomas Nisbet, junior, Thomas Smellie, Ebenezer Paterson, William Cleland, Thomas Paterson, and Robert More.) The church, with 600 sittings, and built at a cost of ^400, seems to have been opened at the close of 1802, as it was then that appointments were transferred from Cennoble to Newarthill. This village, though in Bothwell parish, is seven or eight miles from the Established church. First Minister. WILLIAM BROWN, from Castle Street, Jedburgh. The stipend was to be ^60, with a house and garden, a sum which the Presby- tery looked on as inadequate, but large considering the smallness of the congregation. Mr Brown's call was signed by 30 male members and 34 adherents, and he was ordained, 2gth June 1803. The congregation had much to contend with, and in 1809 they complained to the Presbytery that their debt was oppressive, and that they could scarcely make greater exer- tions than they were doing. It was readily agreed to represent their case to the Synod, and this brought them a slight grant in aid. By this time they were endeavouring to give their minister 10 more than was originally promised. On 3Oth April 1816 Mr Brown tendered his resignation, and was loosed from his charge. The Presbytery commended the Christian spirit which pervaded the paper of demission. The step he had taken, they said, was not prompted mainly by deficiency of stipend but apparently from the fear that his labours at Newarthill were not successful. There is also reference made to discomfort experienced from alienation of feeling on the part of some both in the session and in the congregation. There is no trace of Mr Brown having returned to the preachers' list. He afterwards removed to Perth, and on 24th July 1827, which was immediately after the Union 238 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS between the Constitutionalists and the Protestors, he acceded to the Original Secession Church. He died "at his house, Marshall Place, Perth, after a protracted illness," on i;th June 1829, aged fifty-five. A few months after Newarthill fell vacant the people called Mr Hugh Stirling and matters bore a very promising look. It was stated that all the male members, 55 in number, had subscribed except one, who had no opportunity. There were also the names of 47 adherents appended, "respectable persons belonging to other communions," and they could easily have doubled the number. It was added that the inhabitants of the district generally were anxious for the settlement of Mr Stirling. It happened, however, that he was also under call to Mearns, and, when Glasgow Presbytery came to decide between the two places, Newarthill lost by the Moderator's casting vote. In the circumstances we could wish the balance had turned the other way. Second Minister. ANDREW FERRIER, son of the Rev. Dr Ferrier, Paisley. Ordained, 23rd April 1818. The stipend promised at first was ^80, with house, garden, and glebe, but the Presbytery were of opinion that the funds could afford ^100, and this sum the people agreed to pay. In 1830 Mr Ferrier published the Life of his great-grandfather, the Rev. William Wilson of Perth, one of the Four Brethren, and thereby did valuable service to the United Secession Church. His mother was a daughter of the Rev. John Muckersie of Kinkell, and his maternal grandmother was a daughter of Mr Wilson. Besides this, Mr Ferrier had married his cousin, the only daughter of the Rev. James Muckersie, Alloa, so that he had a double connection with the subject of the Memoir. But for a man of his gifts Newarthill was a narrow field to labour in year after year, and on 1 2th March 1833 he removed, with 75 of his members, to Airdrie, six miles distant, where he reappears as the first minister of Bridge Street con- gregation. The severance was keenly opposed by those who remained at Newarthill, knowing as they did that a loss so serious would reduce them to the verge of extinction, and after the Presbytery yielded the congregation prepared to renounce their authority. Next Sabbath a meeting was sum- moned of those who were desirous to have a preached gospel kept up in the place. It was explained from the chair that they were left destitute through Mr Ferrier leaving them, and that they ought now to form them- selves into a Christian society, and petition some Presbyterian body for sermon. In keeping with what seemed the unanimous voice of those present a petition was laid before the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow on gth April to be taken under their inspection. The application was favour- ably received, and the Rev. John French, then of Strathaven, was appointed to open the station in this connection, but there were tokens already that the transition was to be resisted. That same day two members of Newarthill congregation complained to the Secession Presbytery that the resolution passed at a congregational meeting to have the property transferred to the Relief was opposed to the plain terms of the title-deeds. Double supply followed, though it is to be surmised that the party adhering to the Secession occupied the church, having law on their side. To keep the lamp from expiring the Secession Synod granted Newarthill ^20 at their next meeting, and in July 1834 the Relief party agreed to ask for no more sermon "owing to untoward circumstances and the opposition they had met with." In parting with them the Presbytery expressed the hope that the members would connect themselves with Christian societies of the same order in the immediate neighbourhood. Third Minister. JOHN DUFF, from Kennoway. Ordained, loth August 1836. When the first year of Mr Duff's ministry closed the communicants PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 239 were about 100, and the stipend ,70, with a house and glebe valued together at ^14 a year. The families from Shotts parish were now reduced to 8 or 9, and with these exceptions, and a very few from Dalziel, the congregation was confined to the parish of Bothwell. But the neighbourhood having become more populous the communion roll in a few years was doubled. In 1840 the debt of over ^400 was reduced, the Liquidation Board agreeing to grant ^60 over against the congregation's ,100. But Mr Duff, whose active labours the Board highly commended, was loosed from Newarthill on i3th June 1843, having accepted a call to Dairy, Ayrshire. Fourth Minister. DAVID LAUGHLAND, from Stewarton. Ordained, 1 6th July 1844, after declining Busby. The stipend was to be j8o, with manse, garden, glebe, and sacramental expenses, and the call was signed by 125 members and 21 adherents. Mr Laughland had acquired medical skill in his student days, intending to become a medical missionary, and after the cholera in 1849 ne was presented with a watch by the community in acknow- ledgment of his self-denying services at that trying time. In 1867 the manse was renovated at a cost of ,400, the Board allowing ,170, and in 1874 the church was almost rebuilt and opened free of debt. To meet the outlay the people contributed ,400 ; the minister, aided by a liberal grant from the Ferguson Fund, raised ^500 ; and the last ^100 was collected at the opening services. At the summer communion in 1883 Mr Laughland appeared in the pulpit for the last time, when he preached from the text : " Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." A long illness followed, and he died on igth December, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. The Presbytery testified in their minutes to "his gentle and kindly disposition, his unobtrusive manner, his prudence, his fidelity to duty, and his exemplary Christian character." Fifth Minister. ARCHIBALD M. MARSHALL, from Tillicoultry. Called also to Burray, in Orkney, and to Wick. Ordained, 2nd July 1884. The membership at the close of the preceding year was 168, and the stipend from all sources ^i 77, with manse, garden, and glebe. Mr Marshall accepted a call to the E.P. Church, Jarrow, on 27th January 1891. We meet him again under Callander. Sixth Minister. GEORGE GOODFELLOW, from East Bank, Hawick. Ordained, 22nd July 1891. The membership at the beginning of 1900 was 237, and the stipend from the people ^140, with additions as before. WISHAW (RELIEF) ON 6th August 1822 certain heads of families and others in Wishaw town intimated to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow that they intended to have a place of worship built in that growing village, and they craved the Presby- tery's advice. The Rev. John French, then in Strathaven, was appointed to preach there on Sabbath week, converse with the applicants, and report. The services were conducted in the open air, and an earnest desire being expressed for connection with the Relief, that they might maintain their Christian liberty, the petitioners were recognised as a forming congregation. The building was proceeded with soon after, and the church, with 740 sittings, was opened on 3rd August 1823. In April 1825 a moderation was applied for, and also a fourth hearing of a certain preacher, that he might be eligible for election. First Minister. JOHN M'lNTYRE,from Dovehill, Glasgow, a brother of the Rev. Archibald M'Intyre of Newlands. Ordained, 2oth October 1825. Died, 3rd March 1830, in the thirty-third year of his age and fifth of his ministry. 24 o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS His merits were expressed thus in an obituary notice of the day : " His short but splendid career and great promise of future usefulness will long be remembered with mingled feelings of pleasure and regret." Second Minister. PKTKR BROWN, translated from Hawick (Allars), where he had been ordained six years before. Mr Brown was the original choice of Wishaw congregation, but proceedings were arrested by a call from Hawick, which he had intimated his intention to accept. When this vacancy occurred the majority turned in thought to Mr Brown again, and though there were other four candidates proposed at the election, one of them Mr James Boyd, ultimately Dr Boyd of Campbeltown, Mr Brown had more supporters than all the others put together. Inducted, 22nd December 1831. In 1836 the communicants were over 550, and the stipend was ,110, with a manse and small glebe. At least 30 families were from the parish of Dalziel, 20 from Both well, and 7 or 8 from Shotts. The cost of the church and manse had not been ascertained, but the debt on the property was about .700. Mr Brown was loosed from his charge, I7th November 1863, having accepted an invitation to occupy an important position in the Church of Victoria. He was inducted minister of Hawthorn on I7th January 1865. He also filled the Chair of Exegetical Theology for five years without re- muneration, and then failing health compelled his retirement. He died in the forty-seventh year of his ministry. The date is not given, but Mr Brown's funeral sermon was preached by Dr Cairns of Melbourne on I7th September 1871. "His physical powers gradually sank in decay, till the voice of his Master called him home." He was the author of a little volume, entitled "Historical Sketches of the Parish of Cambusnethan." Third Min ister. ROBERT S. BRUCE, from Glasgow (St Vincent Street). Called also to South Shields (East Street), and to Aberdeen (Belmont Street), and ordained at Wishaw, I2th October 1864. The population of the town had been tripled within twenty-four years. On Sabbath, 22nd October 1876, a new church was opened, with sittings for 920, and built at a cost of ^5000. The collections amounted to .294, and there remained a debt of only 1000. Three years after this there was a communion roll of 556, and a stipend of .250, with a manse. In the beginning of 1898 Mr Bruce, who had been laid aside from duty by severe and protracted illness, was received as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. He was to rank as senior colleague, and have ^100 of yearly allowance. Fourth Minister. JOHN L. M'GREGOR, M.A., from Alyth. Ordained at Bankhill, Berwick, in 1889, and inducted into Wishaw, 28th April 1898. His stipend as junior colleague was to be ^175, with the manse. At the close of next year the membership was 606, and the stipend was ^25 higher than that named. LARKHALL (RELIEF) THE parish of Dalserf, to which Larkhall belongs, is linked with the name of James Hog, afterwards of Carnock, a prominent Marrow man, who ministered there from 1791 to 1797. Though there was no dissenting con- gregation in the parish till last century was well advanced a number of families were connected from the first with the Antiburghcr church in Hamilton, distant four miles to the north-west. In the autumn of 1833 services were commenced in a large room in the village by Secession preachers, and on 25th March 1834 a petition for sermon was presented to the United Presbytery of Lanark by 44 persons in connection with other denominations. To the granting of this request Crossford assented, and Storehouse cordially agreed, though it would affect them considerably. PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 241 The elders of Blackswell, Hamilton, also wrote that they offered no objec- tions, but on the plea that that congregation belonged to Glasgow Presbytery regular supply was delayed from time to time. The result was that on 4th November of that year the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow availed themselves of the opening, and appointed preachers to Larkhall. On ist May 1836 the new church was opened, with 300 sittings, and built at a cost of not quite ^450, half of which remained as debt on the building. In June two of the ministers were commissioned to visit the place and get the minds of the managers as to the propriety of having a regular congregation organised. This was done on 3oth August, when 47 persons were received into Church fellowship, and their number was increased in two months to about 100. Larkhall was at this time a village of 2000 inhabitants. The parish church was three miles distant, but in 1835 it had become the seat of a Chapel of Ease, and was formed soon after into a quoad sacra parish. First Minister. ANDREW M'DOWALL, from Bridge Street, Stranraer. Ordained, 23rd May 1837, the call being signed by 131 members and 54 adherents. The stipend was to be ^90. Mr M'Dowall had been brought up in the Established Church, and studied divinity two sessions in Edinburgh under Dr Chalmers. Through exposure to a drenching rain and continuing in wet clothes he contracted a severe cold, which brought on consumption, and he died, 2ist April 1839, in the thirty-third year of his age and second of his ministry. He was buried in the Churchyard of Kirkcolm, his native parish. Second Minister. JOHN SHEARER, from Campsie. Ordained, i8th February 1840, the stipend to be as before. In 1845 the church had to be enlarged by the addition of galleries, which gave 480 sittings in all, and the debt was reduced about that time under the stimulus of a grant of ,50 from the Relief Liquidation Fund. During the forty years of Mr Shearer's ministerial course the population of Larkhall grew from 2200 to over 7000, and at the close he had a membership of 420, and a stipend of ,170. On Tuesday, 28th September 1880, a deputation from Larkhall presented a request to the Presbytery for sick-supply in consequence of the sudden and serious illness of their minister. This was granted, but he died on the following Saturday, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Third Minister. ALEXANDER BORLAND, translated from Cumbernauld towards the close of his third year's ministry. Inducted, I4th June 1881. The stipend promised was ,200, with ^25 for house rent. The people now set about purchasing a manse, the first they possessed. The price must have been considerable, including the acre of ground in which the house stands, but the debt of ^460 which remained was cleared off in the following year with the aid of ^165 from the Liquidation Board. At the close of 1899 the membership of Larkhall was 504, and the stipend ^250 with the manse. At the Union a new church of grander proportions and on a much more prominent site was in course of erection. It was to be seated for 760, and the cost, including halls and other equipments, was put at ,75. BLANTYRE (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) WE have here what is appropriately known as the Livingstone Memorial Church. It originated in mission work at Stonefield, a place which in 1871 had under 400 inhabitants, but was to grow in ten years into a town with a population of eleven times that number, consisting principally of miners and their families. It abuts on Upper Blantyre, and the congregation of II. Q 242 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Bothwell was expected to provide in some measure for the spiritual wants of the people, but on 27th March 1877 they intimated that they preferred to leave this field to the care of the Presbytery and the Mission Board. A student was engaged soon after to conduct mission operations there ; but for a place of meeting a shop had to be rented at first, and, in view of what was needed, the Board stepped in with the promise of ^300 to aid in providing a hall. After going on for six months the people expressed a wish to have an evangelist located among them, and to be placed under the wing of some neighbouring congregation. At this point the minister and session of Cambuslang engaged to render the service needed, so that sealing ordinances might be enjoyed by those in Church membership, and a general superintendence exercised. The Home Board now recommended that an offer of ,150 should be made to the Glasgow Church Planting Com- mittee for a wooden erection, which was standing unoccupied at Parkhead. This arrangement appears to have been carried through, and the place of worship was opened on the first Sabbath of June 1878, with sittings for 250. The audiences subsequent to this averaged 140 and 180. On 23rd February 1879 the station was congregated, and on 4th May three elders were appointed. First Minister. ROBERT MACKENZIE, M.A., from Scone. Ordained, 1 2th February 1880, having previously declined a call to Errol. There was a membership now of 134, and the stipend was to be made up in all to 220. The new church was opened on Sabbath, I7th September 1882, Professor Blaikie, author of " The Personal Life of Livingstone," being appropriately chosen to conduct the services, when the collections amounted to ,134. The cost of the building was about ,3500, and the sittings are fully 500. To aid in the erection a grant of ,300 was obtained from the Extension Fund, besides ,500 from the Loan Fund, and ,200 from the Ferguson Bequest. On 22nd May 1888 Mr Mackenzie accepted a call to Alloa (West), leaving a membership of over 250 at Blantyre, which, however, suffered considerable diminution during the vacancy. Before the end of the year the congregation called Mr John Addie, who declined, and obtained Wilson Church, Perth, some time afterwards. Second Minister. THOMAS A. HUGH, M.A., from Queen's Park, Glasgow. Ordained, igth March 1889. Eight years before this ^1000 had been realised by means of a Bazaar, and now, in 1890, a like sum was raised in the same way, which cleared the property of debt and left ,400 towards the erection of a hall. At the close of 1899 the membership was on the right side of 300, and the stipend from the people ,155, which was made up in all to .203. MOTHERWELL, FIRST (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) MOTHERWELL, though a place of little account a century and a half ago, early received the impress of the Secession cause. The records of the Antiburgher congregation of Hamilton show that the session of that wide- spread community met at Motherwell occasionally. Later on, when Hamilton became the seat of the congregation, a three miles' walk to the place of worship would not be deemed oppressive for a Sabbath day's journey. But in course of time Motherwell grew into importance, with the promise of greater things, and in the beginning of 1865 it was felt to be more than time that the U.P. Church should make for itself a habitation there instead of depending on Bellshill, Wishaw, and Hamilton for sacred ordinances. A preaching station was accordingly opened on the last PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 243 Sabbath of February by the Rev. H. M. MacGill, Home Mission Secretary. On 4th August 60 Church members were organised into a congregation, and on 22nd October two elders were inducted and one ordained. First Minister. JAMES DUNLOP, M.A, translated from Biggar (South), where he had laboured nineteen years. Inducted, loth July 1866. The stipend was to be ^225 in all, and the call was signed by 83 members and 23 adherents. On 26th August the new church, with 770 sittings, was opened, the entire cost being ^2600. Next year a manse was added at an additional outlay of ^900. In 1877, when a rival congregation was about to be formed in Motherwell, the minister and session of this church gave a sombre account of their state and prospects. Their debt, they said, amounted to ^650, and only about two-thirds of the sittings were let. Owing to dulness of trade their numbers had been considerably reduced within the last two years, and they now stood at 430. They had recently lost 52, many of whom, it is believed, had been both active and liberal in the church. This big reduction is accounted for under next heading. In November 1882 Mr Dunlop's health failed him, and he obtained a pro- tracted leave of absence, but in less than a month the darkening down was such that he resigned, though he looked on his sun as not much past its noon. Presbytery and congregation had alike to acquiesce, only Mr Dunlop was to retain his status as senior minister, with an allowance of ,100 the first year, and after that ^60. But he died, 25th January 1883, in the sixtieth year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. Second Minister. ANDREW W. CARMICHAEL, called from Oxendon Chapel, London, to which he had been inducted, 2nd January 1873, on removing from Linlithgow (East). The old time-honoured building at Oxendon having been sold at ^6500 in 1876, a new church was built at Haverstock Hill with the proceeds, and opened on Friday, 7th April 1878, by Dr Oswald Dykes. But there were grounds for the surmise that Mr Carmichael, after ten years' experience of London life, might look with favour on a welcome back to Scotland. The older church at Motherwell came forward with a stipend of ,250, and a manse, the call was accepted, and Mr Carmichael was inducted, 2nd October 1883. Before a year had passed the debt of ^524 was extinguished by the aid of ,155 from the Liquidation Board. In the year of the Union the membership was 660, and the stipend as above. MOTHERWELL, DALZIEL (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) PARTICULARS as to the origin of this church claim minute description, as they illustrate the turns which disputes about communion wine were apt to take in sessions, congregations, presbyteries, and synods thirty years ago. On 25th September 1877 a paper was brought up to Hamilton Presbytery from Motherwell, signed by two elders and 303 members, complaining of the session's action in introducing unfermented wine at a recent communion without consulting the wishes of the people. It bore that intimation of the proposed change was not made till the preceding Sabbath, and that, though some 36 availed themselves of the brief opportunity allowed for giving in objections, these objections were disregarded. The result was that the session was asked by 103 of the members to call a meeting of the congrega- tion, but they preferred to meet the difficulty by arranging to have two tables, a proposal which increased the general dissatisfaction. A committee on going to Motherwell suggested a return to use and wont, but this suggestion the session refused to entertain. They offered instead to provide unfermented wine at each half-yearly communion and fermented wine at 244 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS each quarterly, but when this adjustment was laid before the memorialists not one of them was willing to acquiesce. The movement now assumed a phase more in keeping with former Synodical enactments. At a meeting of session on I3th November a petition came before them from 60 members asking to be provided with unfermented wine, and on nth December they agreed by a majority to grant the request. At a meeting of the congregation six days later the Moderator intimated a protest to the Presbytery against this decision, ruled that this arrested procedure, and closed the meeting. Against his ruling another protest was tabled, but the Presbytery waived the question involved, and arranged to meet at Motherwell on I2th February. A vote was then taken to test the strength of the two parties, when 117 voted for use and wont and 48 for a change. The question was then put : Would the majority be agreeable to let the minority have unfermented wine if they wished it ? but only two of their number responded. A recommendation to return to use and wont was then issued, and this was turned into an injunction at next meeting. The case was now appealed to the Synod by the representative elder, and he was supported by five of his brethren, making a majority in the session of six to two, so far as we can judge. At this point Mr John Colville, one of their number, who was afterwards M.P. for East Lanarkshire, comes prominently into view. Mr Colville was a cousin of the devoted and successful evangelist of the same name from Campbeltown, and a foremost man in the congregation for every good work. In his name the case came before the Synod, but the committee who entered into the merits granted no redress, and though the Synod by the intervention of Mr Colville's father-in-law, Dr Joseph Brown, gave the language a more favourable turn the cause of use and wont prevailed. The two parties in Motherwell Church were now at the parting of the ways. On 29th October 1878, and after a pause of some months, a petition from 70 certified members of Presbyterian churches, praying to be formed into a second U.P. congregation in Motherwell, was presented to Hamilton Presbytery, and Mr Bruce of Wishaw was appointed to preach to them on Sabbath first, confer with them, and report at next meeting. All went on successfully now, though the 'session of the other congregation stood in the way. It was ascertained that the parish had a population of about 12,000, that it had increased about 2000 within eight years, and that there was church accommodation for considerably less than one-third. The petitioners were thereupon congregated, the members being 83. This was followed by the induction of five of the former elders into office on 5th January 1879. All that they now needed was a fixed ministry, and with this in view a stipend of ,200 was decided on. First Minister. THOMAS F. WHILLAS, B.D., who had been ordained at New Leeds about six years before. Inducted, I5th April 1879. At the end of that year there were 166 names on the communion roll. The church, with 600 sittings, was opened on Thursday, 2nd June 1881, by Principal Cairns. It cost ^3750, of which ^1400 remained as debt on the building, but it gradually, though not rapidly, melted away. The manse was com- pleted in 1889 at a cost of .1070, of which ^300 came from the Manse Board. At the Union there was a membership of 570, and a stipend of ,250, with the manse. KIRKMUIRHILL (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS was Church Extension as a native growth. On 2ist December 1867 commissioners appeared before the Presbytery of Hamilton from Kirkmuir- hill and certain adjacent villages requesting to have a preaching station PRESBYTERY OF HAMILTON 245 opened, and promising the use of a suitable meeting-place and the pay- ment of all expenses. This was the outcome of a public meeting held at Kirkmuirhill to consider how the spiritual wants of the people could be best met. It was explained that there was a population of 2500, and no place of worship nearer than three or four miles ; that not fewer than 500 Church members of various denominations in the district were favourable to the cause ; and that subscriptions for building a place of worship already amounted to ^600. The three U.P. congregations whose interests might be affected by the new formation were Lesmahagow, Crossford, and Stone- house, and as the first two were in Lanark Presbytery there was hesitancy about how to proceed. But the merits of the case being so clear it was decided that Mr Leys of Strathaven should preach at Kirkmuirhill on the second Sabbath of January 1868, and that the ministers of Crossford and Lesmahagow should be conferred with, and their concurrence, if possible, secured. At next meeting crowded halls were reported, and though the movement might not be looked on with entire cordiality from the Lesma- hagow side, where the disjunctions were likely to be most numerous, there was nothing to interfere with continued operations. For some time the services were conducted by members of Presbytery, and on 26th May 55 Church members were constituted into a congregation. This was followed up on Sabbath, 3Oth August, by the ordination of three elders and the induction of a fourth. A moderation was now applied for, the stipend promised being ^150, besides a manse and garden ground. On Sabbath, 2oth December, a church, with 675 sittings, was opened by Dr Scott, the Home Mission Secretary, when the collection reached ,50. It was built at a cost of ,1500, and a manse was completed soon after at ^850, of which ^300 was obtained from the Manse Board. First Minister. WILLIAM THOMSON, from Burton-on-Trent, his second charge, which he had occupied six years. The call was signed by 90 members and 63 adherents, and Mr Thomson was inducted, I2th January 1869. Within six months the membership was over 200, and steady increase continued, but on 2nd September 1873 ^ r Thomson accepted a call to Plantation, Glasgow, which proved his last, and his weightiest, charge. Second Minister. JOHN MEIKLEJOHN, M.A., from Glasgow (now Cathedral Square). Ordained, I4th April 1874, having previously declined Aldershot, Wick, and South Ronaldshay. Owing to failure of health, which necessitated his removal to a more genial climate, the Presbytery on 2nd October 1888 accepted Mr Meiklejohn's demission of his charge, and expressed their hope that his removal to Melbourne would be the means of restoring him to health, " so that he may continue to employ his high talents and scholarly attainments, and other ministerial qualifications, in the service of the Great Master." Since then he has done important work, and held a prominent -place in the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and is now minister of a large congregation in Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, with the degree of D.D. Third Minister. RoBKRT KERR, M.A., from Mitchell Street, Beith. Ordained, 23rd April 1889. The membership of Kirkmuirhill at the close of 1899 was 295, and the stipend from the people ^170, with the manse. HALLSIDE (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) HALLSIDE is a village two miles to the east of Cambuslang. It owed its uprise to some large steel works, and a preaching station was opened there 246 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS on Sabbath, 27th September 1874. The meeting-place was a cooking depot at Newton, some distance off, and after a time one service was conducted at Hallside and another at Cambuslang, by members of Hamilton Presbytery, on successive Sabbaths. In September 1875 Mr Thomas Watt, student, was engaged to carry on the work, but after a year of remarkable success he had to remove to a warmer climate. Next month 57 persons sat down together at the communion table. On I7th December 1876 the church was opened, with accommodation for 219, when the collection amounted to ,30. This sum, with an overplus of .44 from the income of the former year, raised the building fund to 400. A grant from the Board, along with .20 from the Ferguson Bequest, yielded other ^200, and thus the entire cost was more than met. On I3th February 1877 a congregation was formed with a membership of 60, and on 8th March three elders were ordained and one inducted. Then an unsuccessful call was addressed to Mr Robert S. Wilson, now of Castle-Douglas. First Minister. ROBERT J. ROBSON COWAN, son of the Rev. William Cowan, Blackfriars Church, Glasgow. Ordained, 6th November 1877. The call was signed by 68 members and 39 adherents, and the stipend was to be made up to ,200. Two years later the people gave ^70, and ^125 came from Supplement and Surplus. But after a time the sources of increase were much reduced by the Established Church opening two preaching stations, the one at Newton and the other at Hallside, so that in numbers there was retrogression rather than progress. But in 1894 the situation was improved by the erection of a manse, chiefly through the minister's efforts, the Board aiding to the extent of .250. A Bazaar held in Cambuslang was well patronised, and subscriptions from friends made up the rest. At the close of 1899 the membership of Hallside was 133, and the stipend from the people ,80, as it had been for at least a dozen years. PRESBYTERY OF KELSO MOREBATTLE (ANTIBURGHER) ON 1 2th July 1737 certain Praying Societies in Morebattle and the adjacent parishes gave in an accession to the Associate Presbytery. This was followed by Messrs Moncrieff and Fisher observing a Fast among them on the last Wednesday of September and constituting two elders into a session. On 1 2th October there were accessions from Northumberland, and this process went on from a wide stretch of country on every side. It was arranged on 5th March 1739 that the boundaries of the congregation should extend eight miles to the south of Gateshaw and seven miles north and east of Stitchel. These were to be the two centres. Thus did the mother church of the Border counties take shape, though, the Presbytery having no probationer at command, supply was obtained only at wide intervals. In their paper of accession the petitioners from Morebattle "begged relief in their lamentable circumstances." This related to the enforced settlement of the Rev. James Christie over the parish of Morebattle twelve years before. The patron and his nominee had the heritors on their side, but the elders, with one exception, and a great majority of the heads of families were dead against them. Nevertheless, the Presbytery of the bounds met at Morebattle on 4th March 1725 for Mr Christie's induction, but, as is recorded in their minutes, "a rabble of profane and furious people PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 247 from several corners of the country violently kept the Presbytery and con- gregation from meeting in the church." Services were attempted in the churchyard, but the ministers had to withdraw, u not without blows as well as opprobrious language." They thereupon adjourned to Linton parish, a few miles off, and there Mr Christie was inducted as minister of More- battle. It might have conduced to his own comfort had he remained in his former charge at Simprin. There was now a driving forth of the congrega- tion into a state of dispersion. Happily, the minister of Eckford, a parish immediately to the west, was a pronounced non-intrusionist, and the people got partial relief by waiting upon his ministry. This continued till they found a more effectual remedy by placing themselves under the care of the Associate Presbytery. First Minister. JOHN HUNTER, a native of Roxburghshire. Licensed, 6th June 1738. Mr Hunter being the only probationer as yet, there was wide demand for his services and eagerness to have him for their minister, but the remote situation of Morebattle and the people's long endurance of oppression secured them what proved a short-lived privilege. On the moderation day it was proposed that all those should be excluded from taking part who had not withdrawn entirely from connection with the Established Church, but this was not agreed to by the Presbytery's Com- mittee. Societies in Chirnside, Norham, and Ashkirk were allowed to sub- scribe his call, "but with this provision, that they attend for examination and other Church privileges at Stitchel." Ordained, iyth October 1739, and died, 7th January 1740, before completing the twelfth week of his ministry. Ralph Erskine in a postscript to the sermon he preached at Mr Hunter's ordination described him as "a burning and a shining light that burnt so fast and shone so bright that it is less to be wondered that he did not burn and shine long." Mr Hunter was not a mere youth at his death. He left behind him a widow and family. His son Josiah, of Falkirk, who became very unfavour- ably known in the Antiburgher Synod, cannot have been under eleven when his father died. Mr Hunter himself had been a teacher at Linton, in Roxburghshire, and passed through his theological course in the Established Church. Ebenezer Erskine, in writing to the Rev. Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, refers to a letter of his as having prepared the Associate Presbytery to welcome Mr Hunter and take him on trials for licence. His brother Ralph remarks further, in his Appendix to the ordination sermon : "It was no doubt a great loss to the generation that such a gracious person, endowed with such great and blissful gifts, should have lived so long in such a retired and obscure way, mostly owing to the corruptions of the times, with which his zealous soul could never reconcile itself." Four of his dis- courses, entitled " The Bush Burning yet not Consumed," were published in 1743. A few months after the vacancy occurred Morebattle and Stitchel were formed into distinct congregations. It was a desirable arrangement, as the places are ten miles apart. In a few years a wider severance was made, Stitchel at the Breach taking the Burgher, and Morebattle the Anti- burgher, side. Second Minister.- JAMES SCOT, from Ancrum parish, where his father was proprietor of Ashieburn, a small estate, to which the son was served heir in 1733. Ordained, i3th May 1742. When a student Mr Scot attended the ministry of Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, a prominent Marrowman. It was not till 1749 tnat the church at Gateshaw was built, so that for seven years Sabbath services must have been conducted mostly in the open air. Mr Scot some time after his ordination married a daughter of Ebenezer 248 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Erskine, a relationship which did not prevent him parting company with his wife's kindred when the Burgess Oath Controversy reached its consumma- tion. He seems to have kept consistently by the strict Antiburgher party from first to last, and even published a pamphlet on the subject. In con- nection with this question, as is well known, Mrs Scot renounced attendance on her husband's ministry, though the story has been given by Mr Tait with some embellishments.* It cannot be that the lady had her indignation stirred by her husband telling her on his return from the scene of the "mournful rupture" that they had excommunicated her father and her uncle, as the higher censures did not emerge till years after. It is certain, however, that when the worst came Mrs Scot turned her back on Morebattle Church and joined the Burgher congregation of Jedburgh. Her father, as we find from a letter he sent her three years afterwards, had many an anxious thought about her difficult situation. He would be glad to see her with them at the approaching communion, but he added : " I am sorry I cannot invite your husband to come along with you." By this time sentence of excommunication had been pronounced on Mr Erskine and his brethren by the party to which Mr Scot adhered. Morebattle stipend has not been ascertained, but the rental of Mr Scot's property at Ashieburn was ,106 a year, a large sum in those days, and more than double what his successor had at first from the congregation. He died, 6th February 1773, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and thirty-first of his ministry. His widow removed to Edinburgh, where she joined Bristo Church, a stronghold of the Burgher cause. She died, I3th January 1814, in the ninety-fifth year of her age. Third Minister. DAVID MORRISON, from Milnathort, a younger brother of the Rev. James Morrison of Norham.t Ordained, i6th March 1775. The congregation passed through a period of confusion before a settlement was arrived at. Six months after Mr Scot's death there was to be a moderation, but the minister appointed to preside found the people " in a very great ferment," and forbore to proceed. In the beginning of next year a petition, signed by 104 members, asked for a moderation, and another pleaded for a hearing of more probationers, and the Presbytery sought advice from the Synod. But about this time Mr Morrison preached three days at Gateshaw, and other three days later on. This was followed up by a call with the signatures of 68 male members and an adherence by 48 others, so that matters righted themselves. Four years afterwards the congrega- tion consisted of 650 examinable persons, from which we may calculate the communicants at 350 or 400. The stipend at this time was only ,45 a year, with ,3 at each communion, and a glebe of six acres. In March 1780 Mr Morrison asked the sanction of the Presbytery to remove their place of worship to the village of Morebattle, a mile to the east. The new church, * James Tait was from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Having obtained licence from Melrose Presbytery he was called to Walker, near Newcastle, in August 1858, but declined. He afterwards withdrew from the probationer list, but wished the door kept open for his return. He was then engaged for many years as editor of the Kelso Chronicle. He latterly resided at St Boswells, where he published two very interest- ing volumes on " Border Church Life," and also acted as an elder in New town con- gregation. He died, I2th December 1891, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. t James Morrison's birthplace was Turfhills, in the vicinity of Kinross, but Thomas Mair of Orwell was his minister. Like many of the Antiburgher students of his time he never attended a University, but passed from the Philosophical Class at Abernethy to the study of Theology. Ordained at Norham, 23rd June 1756, and died, I4th February 1824, in the ninety-second year of his age and sixty-eighth of his ministry. PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 249 seated for 400, was opened in the autumn of that year by the Rev. Alexander Pringle of Perth, a son of the congregation. In 1798 a stipend of ,58 was reported, and in 1810 it was up to ,80, with a house, offices, and three- fourths of an acre of ground. The Presbytery were of opinion that, con- sidering their numbers and their circumstances, the people came far short of their duty, and wrote them to that effect, but the answer was that, owing to the declining state of the congregation, they could do nothing more. In the beginning of 1814 steps were taken to provide Mr Morrison with a colleague, but a year passed before the object was gained. He died, gth May 1819, in the eighty-second year of his age and forty-fifth of his ministry. His wife was a sister of the Rev. William Inglis of Dumfries, and she is credited with having done much for the industry of Morebattle by the introduction of the two-handed spinning-wheel. A daughter of theirs was married to the Rev. Dr Duncan of Mid-Calder. Their son Walter went over to the Established Church when a student, and became parish minister of Gordon in 1807. This benefice he exchanged for that of Morebattle in 1814, so that he and his father for some years occupied churches distant from each other by a stone's cast. Carrying perhaps something of his early training along with him, he was during the ten years' conflict, says the Chaff and the Wheat, a decided advocate of Non-Intrusion and spiritual independence, but at the Disruption he remained in the Establishment. He died, 2gth January 1844, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. A grandson of his, Sir \Villiam Atherton, was Attorney- General of England, 1861-63. Fourth Minister. ROBERT CRANSTON, from Howgate. At the Synod in May 1814, when competing calls from Morebattle and Selkirk to Mr Cranston came to be disposed of, he was permitted to express his views, an innovation against which dissents were entered. Mr Cranston's mind swayed in the direction of Selkirk, though the Antiburgher congregation there was weak and never came to anything. There was at least aversion to Morebattle, where, after considerable delay, he was ordained as colleague to Mr Morrison, 24th January 1815. The feeling may have been that the money arrangements were still on a contracted scale, as the stipend of the junior minister was only to be .90, with an advance of ,20 should he become sole pastor. They were also to give him a free house, and it was expected that he would have his coals driven. Under Mr Cranston all went smoothly on. In January 1864 he obtained a colleague, and before the end of the year his jubilee was celebrated, when he received a presenta- tion of 130 sovereigns. He died, I7th August 1871, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and fifty-seventh of his ministry. Mrs Cranston was a sister of the Rev. John Clark of Abernethy, and two of their daughters were married to United Presbyterian ministers the eldest to Mr Kiddy of Lilliesleaf, and another to the Rev. Robert Dick of Colinsburgh. Fifth Minister. MUNGO GIFFEN, from Strathaven (West), a brother of the Rev. John S. Giffen of Earlston. Ordained as colleague to Mr Cranston, 2oth January 1864. The congregation was reduced in numbers now, and owing to shiftings of population the process was sure to go on. The senior minister was to have ,50, with the occupancy of the manse, and Mr Giffen's stipend was to be .120, to which a grant of ,20 was added from the Home Board. On roth July 1866 the present church, with sittings for fully 400, was opened by Dr Cairns of Berwick. It stands close by the site of the old building, and the cost, which was over ^1000, the congregation defrayed from their own resources. In 1868 Mr Giffen was invited to Wolver- hampton, but though he must have seen discouragements before him at Morebattle he declined the call. On 8th May 1889 he was relieved from 250 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS active duty, partly owing to failing eyesight, but be was to retain the status of senior pastor, with a. retiring allowance of 40 a year. He is now in reality minister emeritus, and resides in Edinburgh. Sixth Minister. COLIN M. GlBB, M.A., from Eyre Place, Edinburgh. Ordained, 27th March 1890, the membership being 150, and the stipend from the people ^85, with the manse. On 24th January 1899 Mr Gibb accepted a call to Larbert. Amalgamation with the Free Church was felt to be most desirable at this stage, but though negotiations were gone into by the two Presbyteries they ended in failure. Seventh Minister. THOMAS PULLAR, B.D., from Perth (East). Or- dained, 1 5th February 1900. The membership was then under 100, and that of the sister congregation was about 150. STITCHEL (BURGHER) THIS congregation, though in a state of coalescence with Morebattle for a time, had a history of its own from the beginning. On 315! August 1737 the Associate Presbytery received an accession from the parish of Stitchel, with a request that they would send some to preach Christ to them that they might have a trial of their gifts, but the Presbytery had no licentiates at their com- mand as yet. All they could do for the petitioners, meanwhile, was to arrange for holding a day of humiliation among them. This was done on Thursday, 2gth September, by Messrs Moncrieff and Fisher, who came through from Morebattle, where they had been engaged in similar work the day before. They, at the same time, constituted five elders of the parish into a session. In the beginning of May 1738 Stitchel had Sabbath services for the first time, Messrs Alexander Moncrieff and Thomas Mair being the preachers. But now better prospects of supply opened through Mr John Hunter, a student belonging to the locality, receiving licence a few weeks afterwards from the Associate Presbytery, of whom Ebenezer Erskine in his letter to Gabriel Wilson of Maxton wrote : " Your character and commenda- tion of him recommended much to me." It was next arranged, in view of securing Mr Hunter for their minister, that Morebattle and Stitchel should form one congregation, and that Stitchel should have a third part of his labours. The mainspring of the Secession movement at Stitchel was Sir Robert Pringle, the principal heritor of the parish. The pulpit having fallen vacant in the end of 1732, he applied in his own name and in name of the other elders for a hearing of certain probationers, but his plans were thwarted by the issuing of a Crown presentation in favour of Mr Alexander Home. Sir Robert stood strongly out for the rights of the parishioners and when the Presbytery met at Stitchel for a moderation 10 of the heritors out of 17 voted for the presentee, and of the session 8 out of 15 went to the same side. Sir Robert and six other elders protested on the ground that the Presbytery had taken no steps towards trying the inclinations of the people, but the Presbytery took the votes of heritors, chiefly non-resident, and elders as decisive, and Mr Home was ordained on the ist of January 1734. Sir Robert Pringle intimated his accession to the Associate Presbytery on ist November 1737, and was one of the five elders who formed the original session at Stitchel. Mr Hunter died in the beginning of 1740, and on i$th May thereafter Morebattle and Stitchel petitioned to be disjoined, which was agreed to without compunction. But before obtaining a minister of their own the people of Stitchel had to pass through eleven years of hope deferred. They PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 251 first called Mr Adam Gib, but their claims were outweighed by those of Edinburgh, though, according to the Caledonian Mercury, it was urged on their behalf that the sending of Mr Gib to Stitchel "would give an oppor- tunity to reform Old England." Next they came into competition with Haddington for Mr Walter Loch, but he was "in adorable providence removed by death." They now turned to one of their own number, a native of the village of Hume. On 7th April 1742 Mr John Swanston, student of divinity, svas attested to the Associate Presbytery by the Correspondence of Stitchel, and some members who had conversed with him being pleased with his appearances he was taken under their inspection. In March 1745 calls in his favour were laid before the Synod from Urr and Stitchel, besides another from Dundee and Montrose, which was not sustained. Urr was preferred, but the preacher absolutely refused submission, and adhered unbendingly to his purpose. After a year Stitchel congregation petitioned the Synod to revive their call to Mr Swanston, but the Synod declared that, as his reasons for refusing Urr had no relevancy, so their arguments had no weight to reverse the decision, and the preacher was peremptorily enjoined to submit to ordination at Urr, with certification that, "if he fail, the Synod shall be obliged to censure him, conform to the merits of the offence." At this point the connection between Mr Swanston and Stitchel congregation ends. What followed will come under Kinross (West), where he was ulti- mately ordained. First Minister. JOHN POTTS, who joined the Secession as a student of divinity in the end of 1742, and before receiving licence acted as Clerk to the Associate Presbytery. Mr Tait makes him a native of Kelso, but in a certain pamphlet Mr Potts alludes to England as his own country. Soon after obtaining licence he received calls to Dalkeith and Stitchel, the latter of which was issued in December 1746, and had 157 signatures. At the ensuing Synod there was great confusion, ending in the Breach, and which of the places was to be assigned to Mr Potts remained undetermined. But, meanwhile, he had been sent to London, and could look at the scene from afar. When stationed there, as he himself relates, he frequently went to hear dissenting ministers of other denominations, for which offence a hue and cry was raised against him, and, believing that the Antiburghers under Adam Gib would deal sharply with him, he resolved to keep by the other party. The Burgher Synod now ordered him again and again to return to Scotland, that he might be ordained either at Dalkeith or Stitchel, but he persisted in giving no heed to their commands. Dalkeith people, tired of the long delay, asked liberty to withdraw their call, and Stitchel alone remained. He appeared before the Synod in October 1750, made humbler acknowledgments than he admits in his pamphlet, and submitted to rebuke, and a " patched-up peace," as he calls it, was arrived at. His ordination at Stitchel, with which Kelso was now conjoined, took place, 1510 August 1751, nearly five years after their call came out. It was a long while to wait, and what they gained was of little service to them in the end. In the course of a year and a half Mr Potts made Kelso his headquarters, and we leave him there for the present. It has been stated that the first church at Stitchel was built in 1740, but that must be a mistake. It is clear that they had no regular place of worship in Mr Potts' time. In the pamphlet referred to above he explains as his reason for leaving Stitchel and going into Kelso that he was like a soldier who does not encamp on the same spot of ground summer and winter, and thus, he says, instead of " remaining with my tent at a hillside, I have removed to a house for winter quarters." We quote in this connection a state- ment in the Statistical History bearing on the parish of Westruther : "In 252 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 1752 the bodily infirmities of the minister, with the breaking out of the Secession and the appointment of one of that body to a place at Stitchel, who to his other popular attractions added the charm of preaching in the open air, had so reduced the congregation that it was agreed upon for the comfort of the small number that frequented it to reduce the church to one- third of its size." This confirms the belief that Stitchel congregation had no meeting-house as yet, and it shows the effect which the Secession standard had on a parish ten miles distant. Second Minister. GEORGE COVENTRY, from Kinross (West). We find that Mr Coventry acted as session clerk at West Linton when a divinity student, being probably in charge of a side school within the bounds of that congregation. Ordained, i8th June 1755. Stitchel community was now to be at peace under a new ministry, and was to be highly privileged for a long course of years. Mr Coventry was called in 1766 to Stirling (now Erskine Church), and the call was repeated in 1767, but everything was in confusion there, and the Synod on both occasions continued him in his rural retreat at Stitchel. In January 1791 he tendered the demission of his charge to the Presbytery, assigning as his reason that he felt himself unable to overtake the amount of pastoral labour Stitchel required, and also that he was unfit for continuous study, being much enfeebled by a nervous disorder. The congregation wished him to go on among them as strength permitted, and in this state matters continued till I5th April 1794, when his resignation had to be accepted, and he died in Edinburgh, 3oth June 1795, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Dr Waugh of London wrote of the minister of his youth as follows : " Old Mr Coventry gave us as much sound divinity in one sermon as is now found in ten volumes. Such sermons and such prayers ! none such to be found nowa- days." One of Mr Coventry's daughters was the wife of Dr Dick of Grey- friars Church, Glasgow, and another, who died early, was married to the Rev. James Peddie of Bristo Church, Edinburgh. His son, Dr Andrew Coventry, was long Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, and his grandson, the Rev. George Coventry, who succeeded his father as proprietor of Shanwell, Kinross-shire, was an Episcopal clergyman. The only daughter of Professor Coventry became the wife of Maitland Makgill Crichton, Esq., of Rankeillor, the renowned Non-Intrusion champion of Fife. In their vacant state the congregation called Mr George Campbell, but the fact of their former minister having private means had probably lowered thjeir standard of liberality, and the stipend they promised was only ^65. When their call came before the Synod, along with another from Old Cambus or Stockbridge, the commissioners announced .70, but Old Cambus carried. Third Minister. ROBERT GREIG, from Milnathort (now Free Church). Ordained, I4th July 1796, and died, 5th September 1802, after a lingering illness, in the twenty-ninth year of his age and seventh of his ministry. Within a few months Stitchel called Mr John Campbell, but he had calls from other three places, and Tarbolton was preferred by the Synod. In the number of signatures Stitchel headed the list, having within a few units of 300 members. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM M'L.vv, from Craigs, Kilpatrick. Ordained, 22nd August 1804. During the previous vacancy a new church was com- pleted on the site of the former, with 400 sittings, and a stone in a prominent part of the wall bore the date 1802. After a quiet ministry of forty years Mr M'Lay died, 3rd July 1844, in the seventy-first year of his age. Fifth Minister. HUGH DARLING, from Dalkeith (now Buccleuch Street). Preferred Stitchel to Bathgate (Livery Street) and Girvan, and PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 253 was ordained there, 3rd June 1845. The call was signed by 154 members, and the stipend was to be ^90, with the manse. On 7th December 1854 Mr Darling was loosed from his charge, having resolved on emigrating to Australia. The congregation, with the view of retaining him, had agreed to raise his stipend ^20, and Mr Darling stated that the membership had increased by one-third during the nine and a half years of his ministry. He also spoke of the promised rise in the stipend as giving Stitchel the foremost place in the Presbytery for liberality in proportion to their numbers. Never- theless, he adhered to his purpose, and the pastoral relation was dissolved. On the other side of the world he laboured at first in Sydney, and in 1861 was translated to Emerald Hill, Victoria. In 1874, owing to a stroke of paralysis, he resigned, under satisfactory arrangements, and died at Kew, 2nd December 1877, m tne sixty-second year of his age and thirty-third of his ministry. Sixth Minister-. DAVID CAIRNS, from Stockbridge, Cockburnspath, like his brother, Principal Cairns. Ordained, 5th September 1855, having previously declined Kinross (East). Mr Cairns is the author of a Memoir of his father-in-law, the Rev. Dr Smith of Biggar, prefixed to a volume of Dr Smith's sermons published in 1868. In 1872 Stitchel manse was re- paired at a cost of ,400, of which the Board furnished ,125. In March 1900 Mr Cairns retired from active service owing to failing strength, and now resides in Edinburgh. His three sons are all United Presbyterian ministers John, in Dumfries (Buccleuch Street) ; David Smith, in Aytoun ; and William, in Abernethy. Seventh Minister. G. M. NAPIER, from Renfrew. Ordained, 2nd August 1900, as colleague and successor to Mr Cairns. The congregation was much reduced from what it used to be owing to the hemming in all round, but though the membership was now not over 100 the stipend from the congregation was ,160, with the manse. JEDBURGH, BLACKFRIARS (BURGHER) THE Secession in Jedburgh is traced back to 1737, when the parish minister offended many of his people by the reading of the Porteous Act, but the name occurs in the minutes of the Associate Presbytery for the first time on i6th October 1739, the day before Mr Hunters ordination at Morebattlc. Among other accessions in view of that great event there was one given in by James Mather, elder in the parish of Jedburgh, and on I7th February 1741 there was another, apparently from a private member. Though this is all the Presbytery records have to tell there must have been many besides who became members of Gateshaw congregation. On I2th May 1741 the Seceders in and around Jedburgh were, at their own request, disjoined from Morebattle, which is nine miles distant, and erected into a distinct congrega- tion. In 1742 they called the Rev. James Thomson of Burntisland, but the Presbytery set the call aside "owing to the present circumstances of Burnt- island congregation." Three years later Mr William Mair became their choice, but, from among five congregations which claimed his services, Muckart was preferred. First Minister. JOHN SMITH, from Stitchel. Ordained, 24th September 1746. A session of eight members had been formed only ten or twelve days before. The Presbytery's order was to have them elected "out of the properest corners " of the community and ordained with all convenient speed. At the Breach of 1747 there was the loss of an elder and 18 members, 254 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the great body of the people adhering to the minister and the Burgher party. This slender loss would be balanced in importance by the accession of the minister's wife from Gateshaw, and there may have been others who bore her company. After being nearly fourteen years in Jedburgh Mr Smith \vas translated in April 1760 to Dunfermline to succeed Ralph Erskine. There had been three earlier calls, not six, as has been sometimes alleged, the first of these being seven years before. On the present occasion Jedburgh prepared no answers to the reasons of translation, affirming that these were the same in order, matter, and almost in words as they had answered already. The transportation carried at last but only by one vote. Second Minister. ALEXANDER SHANKS, from the parish of Stobo and the congregation of West Linton. In the records of that church there is a curious entry on 2Oth November 1 749 : " To Alexander Shanks, a boy, to buy books, 45." He was about seventeen at this time. Ordained, i^th October 1760. Under these two successive ministries the Burgher Church in Jedburgh was highly privileged, and grew to a membership of more than 800. In March 1793 ^ r Shanks represented to the Presbytery that he felt himself unable for the duties required in his widespread congregation, drawn as they were from seven or eight country parishes, with only 180 in Jedburgh itself. He was also satisfied that probationers could not go through the needed visitation work, and he had intimated to the session and managers that he had resolved to demit his charge before the end of the year. The congregation, however, wished him to spend the remainder of his life among them, and preach occasionally as he found himself in ability. The Presbytery looked on this proposal with favour, and made Jedburgh collegiate, declaring that the reasons of demission were now fully obviated. On this footing Mr Hector Cameron was called in May 1794, and the call, signed by 524 members, was accepted, but competing calls came in, and the Synod in August appointed him to Moffat. The arrangements at Jedburgh were now upset, and the Presbytery were asked to reverse their former deed making the charge collegiate. The plan, it was stated, would not answer the necessities of the congregation nor give that ease to Mr Shanks which was needed. What they wished was a minister who would take the whole work and the whole responsibility. Mr Shanks now interposed anew with his demission. The real difficulty in obtaining a colleague, he believed, lay in the unwillingness or inability of the people to provide adequate maintenance for two ministers. " It is un- seemly," he said, "to hear the Presbytery and the commissioners haggling with each other about temporalities like two tradesmen in a bargain." Let the Presbytery simply set him free, and take care to treat the people gently and kindly during the vacancy. At next meeting the congregation ex- pressed lively concern at the thought of losing Mr Shanks, and would willingly afford him every relief in their power. They knew of no bar to a moderation, they said, but want of money, and to put this out of the way they proposed to give ^130 to a colleague. They also hoped that when the poverty of eleven-twelfths of the congregation was taken into account the Presbytery and the outside world would not think they were dealing harshly with their venerable pastor, to whom they had previously arranged to give ,90, and a house, though this was afterwards fallen from. The case went to the Synod, and by their advice the Presbytery met at Jedburgh in June 1795 to ascertain if anything more could be done in the way of obtaining a colleague, but without any real progress being made. Meanwhile Mr Shanks was pressing persistently for the acceptance of his demission, and he appeared before the Presbytery on 28th July 1795 and urged them to be done with it immediately. Three motions were made Accept the resigna- PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 255 tion, Refuse to accept, and Refer to the Synod when the first carried, and the pastoral tie was dissolved. Notwithstanding the turn things had taken friendly relations between Mr Shanks and his old congregation continued. He supplied the pulpit by appointment of Presbytery for a time with few interruptions, and was to preside in the session when required. The Synod, however, were dissatisfied, and at their meeting in September of that year they instructed the Presby- ter)' of Kelso not to grant Jedburgh a moderation till they had made pro- vision for Mr Shanks to the extent of not less than ^40 a year. Mr Shanks died, 5th October 1/99, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. Two volumes of his sermons were published, the one by himself in 1787, and the other, with a Memoir, by his successor, in 1806. Mr Shanks appears to have been much impressed with the duty of loyalty to the powers that be, a sermon of his being entitled " Peace and Order recom- mended to Society," and another was on the text : " Curse not the King." After the obstacle to the granting of a moderation had been removed the congregation called Mr George Wigton, a preacher who had started diffi- culties about the questions of the Formula when about to receive licence. His scruples revived in view of ordination, and the call was allowed to drop, but he soon after entered on the work of the ministry at Liflf, near Dundee, having overcome the straitness of the gate. Third Minister. PETER YOUNG, from Kelso. Ordained, 1 5th August 1798. At Mr Young's first communion, as Mr Tait has stated, there were 59 young persons admitted. In 1801 a new church was erected, and in 1818 this was superseded by another, with accommodation for 1200. The outlay on building and repairs, manse included, between 1790 and 1836, was put down at over ^4000. Their experiences at the close of Mr Shanks' ministry may have gone to raise the standard of liberality in the church. In 1803 Mr Young was called to Miles Lane, London, a problematic situation, but the Synod, without a vote, continued him in Jedburgh. He died, i8th October 1824, in the fiftieth year of his age and twenty-seventh of his ministry. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM NICOL, M.A., from Dr Lawson's Church, Selkirk. The call was signed by 816 members, and the stipend promised was .160, with manse and garden. Jedburgh had to compete before the Synod with other five congregations, but Mr Nicol expressed himself in favour of Jedburgh, which was carried by an absolute majority. The votes were : Jedburgh, 31 ; Portobello, 22 ; and Glasgow (now St Vincent Street), 6 ; the other three Kirkcaldy (Union Church), Kilpatrick, and Dunfermline (Queen Anne Street) being left outside. Ordained, I7th August 1825. In 1836 the communicants were returned at over 1300, and it was intimated that they had decreased from 100 to 150 during the preceding five years. It was explained, however, that they were as strong as they had been ten years before, so that they cannot have numbered 1620, as has been stated, at the time of Mr Nicol's ordination. The membership was drawn from fourteen parishes, but in four of these the numbers, young and old, did not amount to 10. In Oxnam there were, of all ages, 197 ; in Southdean, 173 ; in C railing, 172 ; and in Ancrum, 146. Then the order was Eckford, Cavers, Bedrule, Roxburgh, Hobkirk, and Minto. Seventy-four families were from more than six miles. The minister's stipend was now ,190. The weak point in the finance was the ordinary collections, which were only about i each Sabbath, though the average attendance was between looo and iioo. The debt on the property was close on ^1400. Mr Nicol received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University in 1853. In 1856 he found himself unable to go on much longer single-handed, and a colleague 256 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS \\-a-. arranged for, the junior minister to have ^200, and the senior minister jioo, with the manse, and to be relieved of all responsibility. The com- munion roll was now much reduced, there having been a great thinning out from the extremities, as was inevitable after 1843. Fifth Minister. JOHN POLSON, from Paisley (Thread Street). Ordained as colleague and successor to Dr Nicol, 1 2th November 1856. The call was signed by 476 members, which contrasted with the days when there was a muster of over 900. Dr Nicol died, 28th December 1858, in the sixty- third year of his age and thirty-fourth of his ministry. Though several stray sermons of his were published during his lifetime there is not, so far as we know, any Memoir of Dr Nicol in existence. Mr Poison continued sole pastor of Blackfriars Church till the beginning of 1891, when the charge again became collegiate. Sixth Minister. JAMES T. DEMPSTER, from Coatbridge (Dunbeth). Ordained, 22nd January 1891. The stipend arrangements were the same as thirty-rive years before ^100, with the manse, to the senior minister, and ^200 to the junior. But in the beginning of 1894 Mr Poison stated to the Presbytery that, having been placed in circumstances which made further payment of stipend to him unnecessary, he had resigned the same, and his colleague was now to receive ^250. That was the stipend at the close of 1899, with the manse additional, and the membership was 398. JEDBURGH, CASTLE STREET (ANTIBURGHER) ON 1 4th June 1748 a petition was presented to the Antiburgher Presbytery of Edinburgh from parties in Jedburgh who wished to be taken under their inspection, "according to the present situation of the Testimony." The meaning was that they declined to be longer in fellowship with their brethren, who, along with their minister, Mr Smith, had taken the Burgher side. The party were few in number, consisting only of 18 members, with a single elder at their head. They did not mean to be recognised forthwith as a congregation, but only asked that the two nearest ministers of the Presbytery should preach and baptise within their bounds at such times as might be arranged. The little remnant would have for the most part to attend ordinances at Gateshaw, nine miles off, or at Midholm, if that were nearer for any of them. In this state matters continued year after year. In June 1752 they petitioned the Presbytery to allow no encroachment on their bounds, and to have ministers sent to them once a quarter besides the ordinary supply of preachers. They were " in a broken condition " at this time, few in number, and with no church of their own to meet in. In September 1762 they came into unsuccessful competition before the Synod with the congregation of Craigmailen for the services of Mr Alexander Oliver. First Minister. JOHN ROBERTSON, from Milnathort. Ordained, 28th August 1765. The meeting-house, with 400 sittings, was built about that time, if not in that year. The stipend in 1780 was ^40, but the Presbytery were informed by the people that they provided their minister with a house in addition, and for some time past they had allowed him between 2 and .3 for expenses at each communion, and as he had no glebe some of the farmers furnished him with a horse for pastoral visitation, and sometimes when he went to the Synod. He would also, like many of his brethren in rural districts, have the slenderness of his income much augmented by private benefactions. The examinable persons under his care at this time were numbered at 264. Both Mr Robertson and his people must have had PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 257 a struggle sometimes, only he may not have been entirely dependent upon his stipend. We know at least that his father was a proprietor of a small estate in the parish of Orwell. But with a membership a good way under 200 there could be little margin left for periods of adversity, and accordingly, in 1785, assistance was required from the Synod, "through the failure of several members, and the hardships of the times." On the i8th of April 1806 Mr Robertson was seized with apoplexy, and he died on the 24th, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and the forty-first of his ministry. During this vacancy the congregation called Mr Andrew Rodgie, whom the Synod appointed to Hawick. Second Minister. JAMES CLARKE, from Kilmarnock (Clerk's Lane). Or- dained, i gth August 1807. The call was signed by 59 (male) members and adhered to by 9 persons. The minister's position was trying at the best, and it must have become more so after the Union of 1820, through being overshadowed by a large congregation with no denominational barrier between. Still, the return in 1836 compares favourably with what had been in 1780. The communicants were 290, and the stipend was ^92, with manse and garden, and the debt on the property was only ^100. Of the sittings, 360 out of 400 were let. But the pressure on the congregation's resources became greater as years passed, and in April 1842 Mr Clarke brought a rather delicate money matter before the Presbytery for solution. He stated that it was intimated to him a year and a half before that it would be impossible to continue his stipend at the old figure ; that he replied he would make a trial of what they could give him, and, if it proved insufficient, he would clear all difficulties by resigning his charge ; that he heard nothing more of the matter till recently, when he found he was only to receive ,70 a year. This led to disagreement, the congregation resolving that no more should be paid, counting from the time when he arranged to take what the funds could afford. Mr Clarke then told them that he would have no more discussion on the subject, but would carry the case to the Presbytery. This brought matters to a bearing, as the Presbytery found that, while Mr Clarke was entitled to due support from the congregation in which he had laboured long and faithfully, he was not entitled to claim full stipend later than the time when he agreed to take what the people were able to give him. There was a pause now till the evening sederunt, and then he tendered his demission. On 23rd May he intimated that he adhered to his purpose, as he believed his comfort and usefulness at Jedburgh were quite gone, and the commissioners from the congregation stated that it was considered vain to oppose the acceptance. The connection was accordingly declared at an end. Mr Clarke spent the evening of his days in Dunoon, where he had a small property, and where he died, gth May 1849, m tne seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. A humble tombstone in Dunoon Churchyard marks his place of burial. He interested himself much in the young of his congregation, for whose special benefit he published a little volume in 1826, entitled " Motives to early Piety," and another in 1839, entitled "Motives to Prayer." He also stated in 1836 that he had superintended his own Sabbath school for twenty years. One could have wished that a ministry like his had not closed before its time and amidst feelings of estrangement. Third Minister. JOHN BAIRD, M.A., from Milngavie. Ordained, i8th January 1843. The call was signed by 135 members, and, though unable to keep the stipend of the former minister above ^70, the congregation now named .80, with house, garden, and communion expenses. The Presbytery sanctioned the arrangement, believing, no doubt, that the people were under- taking up to their utmost ability. A vain struggle followed of other ten II. R 25 8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS years, and then minister and congregation had alike to surrender. By the Union of 1847 the impropriety of maintaining a feeble cause m a town where there were now two strong churches of the same denomination became increasingly evident, and on I2th April 1853 Mr Baird gave in his resigna- tion to the Presbytery. The congregation intimated that, though regretting the thought of losing their minister, they were constrained to acquiesce in the step he had taken, and the Presbytery in a like spirit accepted the demission. Sermon was not all at once discontinued, but it seems to have been universally understood that there was to be no fourth ordination in the old building, and on I5th November 1853 the congregation was formally dissolved. The remaining members, almost in a body, connected themselves with Blackfriars Church, from which their fathers had seceded at the Breach 106 years before, and we are assured that the little company brought with them an accession of energy far beyond their numerical strength, and in the effort which followed to clear off the burden of debt the large congregation got the benefit. The deserted place of worship was turned into a wool store, and the old site is now occupied by dwelling- houses. Mr Baird after leaving Jedburgh was three years on the probationer list. He then emigrated to Canada, where he became minister of Pickering. He died suddenly at Port Stanley, Ontario, on Sabbath, 27th September 1874, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. He preached in the forenoon, and died in the afternoon. JEDBURGH, HIGH STREET (RELIEF) THE history of this congregation begins back beyond the formation of the Relief Presbytery in 1761. The particulars have been so fully given again and again that little remains for us to do beyond noting down the leading facts in consecutive order. These commenced with the death of the Rev. James Winchester on i8th September 1755 the minister who by his per- sistent reading of the Porteous Act furnished a strong foothold for the Secession cause in Jedburgh. In the early part of the vacancy there was firm ground taken by the elders, seventeen in number, to oppose the exercise of Patronage in every form. They entered into a written agreement that they would stand or fall together in the election of a minister, and that they would keep by the man whom the majority of the parish might decide for. This was followed by a paper largely subscribed in favour of Thomas Boston, minister at Oxnam, a parish bordering on Jedburgh. But after three months' delay the Crown, disregarding the wishes of the people, pre- sented Mr John Bonar. minister at Cockpen, to the benefice. According to Dr Thomas Somerville this was due to the Marquis of Lothian, to whom Boston was personally offensive, and, being parish minister, and on the ground, Somerville would be familiar with the facts. No fitter instrument than Bonar of Cockpen could have been selected to buy up opposition and blunt the edge of Patronage. He was the grandson of Bonar of Torphichen, one of the twelve Marrowmen, and he was out and out evangelical, as the family has been down to our own time. Even Carlyle of Inveresk has testi- fied that "John Bonar of Cockpen, though of the High party, was a man of sense an excellent preacher." His merits were so far recognised at Jed- burgh that a moderation in his favour was applied for, " in name of all the heritors, except two small ones, the Provost, three of the four Bailies, the Dean of Guild, five Councillors, and sundry heads of families," but the elders, with their large following, stood unbendingly out for the rights of PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 259 the people. While matters were in this state information came that Mr Bonar was determined to let the matter go no further, and then came a peaceful opening for him at Perth, whither he was in due time transferred. Patronage was now to throw off its better dress and present itself in its own features. The Rev. John Douglas of Kenmore, in Perthshire, had done the State some service by dissuading his parishioners from joining the Pretender in 1745, an & now he was rewarded by a Crown presentation to the living at Jedburgh. Nothing could have been devised better fitted to compact the ranks of opposition. Unlike Mr Bonar, the new presentee was of the Moderate school ; but resistance was hopeless, and on 28th July 1758 Mr Douglas was inducted to Jedburgh, his call having only five signatures appended. "A Scottish Borderer" states that "he was placed without tumult, and soon sank into an object of complete indifference." For ten years he held on, preaching to all but deserted pews, and he is chiefly remembered as the father of Dr Douglas, parish minister of Galashiels, a man much respected and of strong literary bent. Not inclining to prolong the struggle the people of Jedburgh, more than a year before the close of the vacancy, resolved on taking matters into their o\vn hands. They would erect a meeting-house, and bring in Mr Boston to be their minister, leaving the judicatories of the Church to take their own way. The building went rapidly on, and in five months it was completed. By this time everything was arranged between them and the object of their choice, who was to have a yearly stipend of ^120 secured him. The bond to that effect was subscribed by 23 of the leading men, town councillors and others, and the call, of which a copy has been preserved, has over 300 signatures. First Minister. THOMAS BOSTON, youngest son of Thomas Boston of Ettrick. We find from his father's Memoirs that he was born, 3rd April 1713, and we next meet with him as a little boy "going in seven" confessing to his mother the corruption stirring in his heart. Then, on being con- versed with by his father, he complained of being troubled with evil thoughts, u wondered why God made the devil," and was afraid his prayers were not heard, because he sometimes forgot them when he went to bed at night. It was all like the soul exercises of a child brought up in the manse at Ettrick. He got licence in August 1732, when he had little more than completed his nineteenth year. His father had died ten weeks before, and the preparatory process may have been hastened that he might become his father's successor. Accordingly, he was presented to the parish of Ettrick in a few months, and ordained, 4th April 1733, having completed his twentieth year the previous day. In 1749 ne was promoted to the parish of Oxnam, but now a much more important sphere opened for him at Jedburgh. On Wednesday, 7th December 1757, Mr Boston appeared before the Established Presbytery in the old church there, and, with a crowded audience looking on, demitted his charge of Oxnam parish, and on Friday, the gth, he was inducted minister of the church newly built for him. The service was conducted by the Rev. Roderick M'Kenzie, whom we met under the histoiy of Nigg congregation. It has been brought up against Boston, in a pamphlet by James Ramsay, Antiburgher minister in Glasgow, that the removal from Oxnam to Jedburgh was the reverse of a sacrifice, and that before agreeing to shift his tent he had to get legal security for a larger stipend. But it can hardly be said that the .120 did more than compensate for the ^90, with glebe and manse, which he was surrendering, and there was much heavier work to face, and sundry contingencies besides. But Mr Boston's period of service drew prematurely to a close. While the evening shadows were gathering there was an attempt made to have him translated to Glasgow, but a transition 260 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS came of another kind. He died, I3th February 1767, in the fifty-fourth year of his age and thirty-fourth of his ministry. His son Michael was the first Relief minister of Falkirk, and three of his daughters were the wives of Relief ministers Margaret, married to the Rev. William Campbell, Dysart ; Jean, to the Rev. Robert Paterson of Largo, afterwards of Biggar ; and Catherine, to the Rev. Alexander Simpson of Bellshill, Duns, and Pittemveem. A volume of Mr Boston's sermons was published in 1768, and a volume of "Essays on Theological Subjects" followed in 1773. Specimens of his pulpit discourses are given in the " United Presbyterian Fathers," under the title of Boston and Baine. One sermon by his father on " The Evil and Danger of Schism" he published in 1753, with special bearings, and a preface adapting it to his own times. It has been sometimes said that, had the elder Boston lived, " he would have been bound by honour and consistency to secede and identify himself with the Four Brethren." But this is to mistake Boston of Ettrick's ecclesiastical position altogether. Separation from the Church of Scotland he looked on with rooted aversion, and all the more so that the followers of John M'Millan added much to the discomforts of his ministry at Ettrick. The ground he occupied was like that taken up afterwards by Currie of Kinglassie, Williamson of Inveresk, and, in a milder form, by Willison of Dundee. Judging from his line of argument and theirs one finds it hard to say what amount of corrup- tion in a church would in their opinion justify secession from her judicatories. The sermon on " The Evil and Danger of Schism " brings out the father's rounded-off views on the whole question. But the younger Boston, though he had little sympathy with the Seceders, was drawn on to occupy airier ground than his father thought of. His name now stands next to that of Thomas Gillespie, whom he greatly surpassed both in mental grasp and pulpit gifts, as the founder of the Relief denomination. Jedburgh congregation, in looking out for a successor to their first minister, turned in the direction of his son Michael, who had been ordained over a Presbyterian congregation in Almvick, but when the call was brought up in August 1767 the Presbytery refused to receive it. A newspaper of the day assigns as the reason that young Boston had expressed a disinclination to become a member of the Relief Presbytery when Duns congregation called him shortly before. Second Minister. THOMAS BELL, from Moffat, who acceded to the Relief when a student of theology. Ordained at Jedburgh, igth April 1768. He was brought up in the Established Church, but, by his own account, "he embraced the Dissenting interest from a full conviction that it was most favourable to the religious rights of man, and most agreeable to the constitu- tion of the primitive Church." In the year after this ordination Mr Douglas, the parish minister, died, and was succeeded by Mr Macknight, afterwards Dr Macknight of Edinburgh, a man of much repute and acceptable as a preacher. In Dr Somerville's Autobiography it is stated that under him there was a drawing away of several families from the New Church, and a building up of the old congregation, but that through his own induction in 1773 there was another thinning out. Still, "the situation was healthy and pleasant, the stipend the largest in the Presbytery, and though the parish was extensive and populous, yet from the number of dissenters the duties were not at that time more burdensome than in most of the country parishes in the vicinity," so that he considered himself a fortunate man. But Mr Bell was not to be a fixture in Jedburgh. Glasgow opened up for him in 1776, and he was bent on going. The Synod, however, on two succes- sive years, refused to translate, though a minority pronounced such conduct tyrannical. Mr Bell, for his part, disregarded the decision, and went to PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 261 Glasgow in the face of Church authority, where he became minister of Dovehill, in circumstances which are fully narrated under Kelvingrove. No Court of the Relief ever attempted to overrule the choice of the party in such a case again, till we come to Auchtergaven in 1835. Third Minister. ANDREW DUN, who got licence from the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow on I4th April 1779. On 25th May he was appointed to preach two Sabbaths at Jedburgh by request, and on 4th August he was furnished with an extract of his licence in order to his approaching ordina- tion. His ministerial course was brief, though we cannot tell with exactness when it began or when it ended. He was present at the Synod in May 1782, though March of that year has generally been given as the date of his death. Then a preacher was to supply the last four Sabbaths of June, "provided the minister and managers satisfy the Presbytery anent his expenses." This bespoke Mr Dun's last illness, and he must have died soon after. P'rom Mr Tait's "Border Church Life" we learn that the membership in 1781 was 745, of whom nearly one-half were from the country, and the stipend was ,105. Fourth Minister. JAMES SCOTT, a native of Wilton parish. After being for several years an Established Church probationer he was ordained over the Presbyterian congregation of Brampton, Northumberland, in 1774. Jedburgh people first thought of calling Mr Thomson of Earlston, afterwards of St James' Place, Edinburgh, but, not finding reason to go forward, they fixed on Mr Scott, who was inducted in September 1783. He was a younger brother of Thomas Scott, the first Relief minister of Auchtermuchty. In Jedburgh the Relief still held the foremost place by much. Dr Somerville in the Statistical History in 1791 testified that "nearly the half of all the families in the parish, and a great proportion of the families in all the neighbouring parishes, belonged to this congregation." Of examinable parishioners, he calculated that the Relief had 1200, the Established Church 850, the Burgher 600, and the Antiburgher 150. In 1815 Mr Scott was provided with a colleague, the arrangement as to stipend being that he should receive ,80, and the junior minister ,120. Fifth Minister. JAMES PORTEOUS, from the parish of Johnstone, Dumfriesshire, and the congregation of Wamphray. Ordained, I3th July 1815. Mr Scott died, I2th August 1823, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry at Jedburgh. He was the father of the Rev. James Scott, Relief minister, first in Dalkeith, and then in Cowgate and Bread Street, Edinburgh. In 1836 the congregation was still very large, though Blackfriars Secession Church had now got a good way ahead. The communicants were between 1050 and noo, of whom fully two-fifths were from the parishes of Southdean and Hobkirk, Ancrum and Oxnam, Crailing, Eckford, and Cavers, in the order of their names. The church had been rebuilt in 1818, with sittings for noo. It cost at least ,2700, of which ^1700 remained as a burden on the building. The stipend was ,190, but there was no manse. On 24th December 1839 Mr Porteous accepted a call to Coldstream. It is believed that the debt on the church and the little done for its extinction prompted his removal to a narrower field of labour. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM BARR, who had been in Hamilton (Brandon Street) for seven years. Inducted to Jedburgh, 2oth January 1841, where he laboured thirty-four years, during which time the congregation was greatly reduced in numbers, very much through the uprise of Free churches all around. On 1 6th June 1874 Mr Barr intimated to the Presbytery that he thought it right to anticipate by a few years what might then become matter of necessity. His wish was to enjoy a period of release from the responsibilities of ministerial work before the inevitable change, and 262 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS through the kindness of Providence he was in circumstances to lay down the emoluments of office along with the work. The congregation, however, was unanimous that he should retain the status of senior minister and occupy the manse, which was agreed to. Seventh Minister. JOHN W. PRINGLE, M.A, from Cupar (Bonnygate), a grandson of the Rev. James Pringle, Kinclaven. Called in December 1873 to Auchterarder (North) and to Ceres (West), and in January 1875 to Hamilton (Chapel Street), but he put these calls aside. Then came Jedburgh, and his ordination followed, 5th May 1875. The call was signed by only 205 members, and the stipend was to be ,200, with .30 for house rent. On 24th April 1883, answering exactly to the day of his ordination at Hamilton forty-nine years before, Mr Barr's jubilee was celebrated. Had it been deferred for a little it would have been too late, as the evening rapidly gathered in, and he died on 7th June, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Mr Pringle was loosed from his charge on 8th February 1898, having re- solved to devote himself to the work of Church Extension, for'which he has peculiar aptitudes, and to the fostering or building up of new congregations, particularly about the outskirts of our cities or large towns, as opportunity might offer. Eighth Minister. JOHN FORSYTH, from Kilwinning, where he had been ordained eight years before. Inducted, 8th September 1898. The member- ship at the close of the following year was 339, and the stipend ,225. KELSO (BURGHER) THE origin of this congregation links itself indirectly with the name of the Rev. James Ramsay, who was parish minister of Kelso from 1707 to 1749. To hjm Thomas Boston makes kindly reference again and again in his Autobiography, and though they were on opposite sides in the Marrow Controversy he states that at an earlier period they seldom differed in " Presbyterial management of matters of greatest weight." But in 1/39, when the case of the eight seceding brethren was before the Assembly, Mr Ramsay took the lead in urging strong measures, and expressed himself in terms fitted to offend those of his people who sympathised with the oppressed in neighbouring parishes. Soon after this one of his elders, Alexander Mein, gave in an accession to the Associate Presbytery. But Mr Ramsay died, at an advanced age, on 3rd July 1749, and in two months the Duke of Roxburgh came forward with a presentation, when division set in, heritors, elders, and heads of families ranging themselves for and against the presentee. The call was signed by about 80 persons, of whom a large proportion were the Duke's dependents, or were acting under his influence. On the ordination day, 4th July 1750, a paper of protest was given in to the Presbytery signed by seven elders and 214 members, and this was followed up on 3rd October by a petition to the Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh for sermon from 112 persons. Supply was granted, and a building called the Riding School fitted up as a place of worship. Thus Mr Ramsay's boast was at an end that " there was less division in his parish than in any other within the bounds." First Minister. JOHN POTTS, about whose relation to Stitchel and Kelso conjointly it is impossible to reach certainty, owing to a large blank in the Presbytery records. The call on which he was ordained was originally from Stitchel alone, but Kelso followed with a formal adherence, so that Mr Potts was ordained minister over both places on I5th August PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 263 1751. Whatever were the circumstances, the minister seems to have made Kelso his sole centre early in 1753, but before this matters had come very near a rupture between him and his brethren of Edinburgh Presbytery. In June of the previous summer he was engaged to take part in communion work at Jedburgh, but before the time for setting out he received a paper from five of the elders, along with the signatures of their own minister and Mr Brown of Haddington. They complained that, according to information received from some of his own hearers, he had been declaring in favour of mixed admission to the Lord's Table, and striking out against the Secession terms of communion, and they wished to hear his explanation before pro- ceeding further. Xo satisfaction was obtained, and we know that when the Synod met in May 1753 the Presbytery reported that Mr Potts was under sentence of suspension. He had his fill of Church censures at this time, the Antiburgher Synod having deposed him a fe\v weeks before for deserting them and proving faithless to the Act and Testimony. He was done now with both sections of the Secession, and made for London, to which he had clung so tenaciously in his preacher days. That year he published a pamphlet, entitled " Seceding Presbyterianism Delineated," in which he found an outlet for embittered feeling. He apologises in it for having associated himself with Seceders by saying : u It was at an age so immature that he could not be esteemed a judge either of men or things." Whether it was so or not he had been kindly treated by the Associate Presbytery, as they forthwith granted him 305. from the Fund for Students, and paid him at a very high rate for his services as their Clerk. But now he descended to sheer abuse, of which one specimen may be borne with. Mr Brown of Haddington, the Presbytery Clerk, having incurred his displeasure, the Rev. John Potts taunted his peace-loving brother with the struggles of his early days, when he employed himself u vending thimbles, needles, and pins, and such like." In London Mr Potts became minister of the Congregational Church, Crispin Street, Spitalfields. It has been stated that he died early, but in 1760 a London periodical had a paragraph about a boy of nine or ten years, a son of Mr Potts, a Dissenting minister, having been killed by the sudden fall of two houses in a particular street, and also states that the father was quite near him when the disaster happened. In the " Bunhill Memorials " we also find that Mr John Potts of Crispin Street, Spitalfields, preached at the ordination of a Baptist minister in Essex in 1764, so that he must have survived his brief stay at Kelso at least eleven years. In a controversial pamphlet on similar lines with his own, Mr Potts is credited with a genteel and elegant way of preaching, a quality which might be partly owing to his English origin. Specimens of his pulpits gifts are contained in two volumes of discourses, the one, published in 1757, with eighteen sermons on the words: "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee" a text which might befit his beginnings in the great modern Babylon. Second Minister. ROBERT NiGOL, from what became his own congrega- tion. Called first to London,-but the Synod appointed him to Kelso, where he was ordained, 23rd September 1761. As it was found that only two of the elders were of Presbyterian ordination " the others were required to lie by from the exercise of their office till a new election should take place." The last mentioned must have been set apart to office after Mr Potts re- nounced the authority of the Presbytery and became an Independent. The Secession cause seems to have been in a state of suspended animation after their minister left, and there had to be a fresh beginning made. A preacher named James Wright, who lived in Kelso, and had turned aside like Mr Potts into divisive courses, sometimes conducted Sabbath services among 264 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS them, but on 4th February 1755 some of Kelso people petitioned the Presby- tery for sermon, and two of the members were sent to converse with them and clear the Presbytery's way to recognise them anew. Other six years passed before the damage done by Mr Potts was repaired, and the congrega- tion enjoyed a stated ministry again. Under Mr Nicol prosperity must have been attained, though of his personal history there is almost nothing to record. We find that he presided at a meeting of Presbytery on 3rd February 1784, and when they met again, on 6th April, the minute bears that "the Rev. Robert Nicol, the Presbytery's late Moderator, being removed by death, the Presbytery proceeded to choose another." He died on the 2nd of that month, so that this was not unlikely the funeral day. He was in the twenty-third year of his ministry. The strength to which the congregation had now grown may be judged of from the names appended to the first call which followed. It was signed or concurred in by 606 members and 210 occasional hearers. The preacher on whom they harmonised so well was Mr James Forrester, \vhom the Synod at their former meeting had appointed to be ordained at Bathgate (Livery Street). The Presbytery of Kelso were of opinion that proceedings ought to be sisted, in deference to the importance of Kelso congregation, till next meeting of Synod, but it was enough for Edinburgh Presbytery that they had instructions to go on with Mr Forrester's ordination. Accordingly, they went straight forward, heedless of communications from the sister Presbytery, and Kelso congregation was baffled. Third Minister. ROBERT HALL, M.A., from Glasgow (now Greyfriars), but a native of Cathcart parish, and a brother of Dr James Hall of Rose Street and Broughton Place, Edinburgh. The Presbytery of Glasgow had manifold dealings with Mr Hall, who had calls to Eaglesham, Renton, and Fenwick. In the competition Renton was preferred, but Mr Hall, who had a will of his own from first to last, refused to be settled there, and the call was withdrawn. He was ordained at Kelso, 3ist May 1786, and the settle- ment, though it turned out well in the end, was far from harmonious. The opposing candidate was John Dick of Slateford and Greyfriars, Glasgow. The minority, or many of them, withdrew, though not till some years had passed, during which Mr Hall had a good deal to endure, and they helped in the end to form the Relief congregation of Kelso. A new church was opened in 1788, with 955 sittings. Mr Hall's eccentricities, of which several amusing and seemingly well-authenticated specimens are given in the Life of his co- Presbyter, Dr Adam Thomson, detracted little from his power as an able and faithful minister. He died on 7th July 1831, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. HENRV RENTON, M.A., from Edinburgh (Broughton Place). Ordained, 6th January 1830, as colleague and successor to Mr Hall. In the sixth year of Mr Renton's ministry the communicants were within a little of looo, of whom about five-eighths belonged to Kelso parish. Of the others, more than one-half were from the parishes of Sprouston and Roxburgh, with a considerable number from Ednam, Makerstoun, Eckford, and Eccles. Fifty-one families were from beyond four miles. The stipend was ,200, with manse and garden. In 1852 Mr Renton went as commissioner from the U.P. Church to Kaffraria, where disturbance prevailed and the natives were in arms against the colonists. For strength of principle and statesmanlike qualities no fitter man could have been chosen, and to mark their apprecia- tion of the work he did, the Synod at its first meeting after his return, and in his absence, elected him to the Moderator's chair. As a leader in the Supreme Court of the Church Mr Renton's bearing all through was marked by thorough straightforwardness and integrity of purpose. In 1863 steps PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 265 were taken to lighten his labours by providing him with a colleague. The two ministers were to have ^200 each, and the manse was to remain in the occupancy of Mr Renton. Fifth 'Minister. ROBERT WHYTE, M.A., from Milnathort. Ordained, 6th January 1864. Called to College Street, Edinburgh, in 1866, but kept by Kelso till 3rd December 1867, when he accepted Pollokshaws. Sixth Minister. JAMES ROGERS, from Kinclaven. Having rejected Houghton-le-Spring he was ordained colleague to Mr Renton, 6th October 1868. In 1875 a question of more than local interest disturbed this congre- gation, and was carried into the higher Church Courts. On one matter Mr Renton was peculiarly conservative. Members of other denominations before being admitted by him to Church fellowship had to appear before the session, answer the questions of the Formula, and be admitted] like young communicants. This was felt by some of the office-bearers and a large pro- portion of the people to have an unkindly look towards members of the Free Church, and in 1875 a petition was laid before the session, signed by 330 members, to have the arrangement thus far dispensed with. It led to dis- cussion both at Presbytery and Synod, and, though it was held that in keeping on the old lines minister and session were within their rights, the general feeling was that in the circumstances use and wont might very well be departed from and the wished-for concession made. It is likely, however, that the old system was kept up during what remained of Mr Renton's days. He died, 4th January 1877, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty- seventh of his ministry. Besides the impress which he left on Kelso and on the denomination all that remains of Mr Renton is his Synod discourse on : " Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." One of Mr Renton's sisters was married to Dr Robson of Wellington Street, Glasgow, and another was the mother of Duncan M'Laren, Esq., whose name has been long prominent on our Foreign Mission Board.* On i gth November 1878 Mr Rogers, who had been struggling for a time with broken health, and had taken a voyage to Jamaica without solid benefit, was loosed from his charge with the view of proceeding to New Zealand. The congregation granted him a yearly allowance of .125, and he was also to receive an annuity for the time from the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. He reached the other side, but died at Dunedin on 28th April 1879, m tne thirty-seventh year of his age and eleventh of his ministry, leaving a widow and three children. Seventh Minister. T. C. KlRKWOOD, translated from Stromness, where he had ministered for four years. Inducted, 3oth June 1880. The call was signed by 462 members and 89 adherents. The old church was now ripe for being supplanted, having done service for nearly a century, and in July 1885 the memorial stone of the present stately edifice was laid. In this work Mrs Renton Mein, daughter of their late minister, and the mother of the Rev. B. R. Mein, Thropton, Northumberland, took the lead with a contribution of ,1000 to the building fund. The church was opened by Principal Cairns, 29th October 1886, with 800 sittings, and built at a cost of about ^7000, of which little more than one-fourth rested as debt on the property three years * Mr Renton's brother, the Rev. Alexander Renton, was ordained at Hull, 26th March 1847, and resigned, 4th February 1851. Before the end of the year he sailed for Jamaica, where he became Theological Tutor in Montego Bay Academy. He died at Kelso, 25th October 1863, in the forty-third year of his age and seventeenth of his ministry. A stately tombstone in Grange Cemetery marks where he is buried. Dr William Robertson characterised Mr Renton as "a man of gentlest manners, princely bearing, rich gifts, and rare accomplishments." 266 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS afterwards. The membership at the close of 1899 was 528, and the stipend ^350, with the manse. KELSO (ANTIBURGHER) THOUGH the congregation of Stitchel as a whole kept by the Burgher side at the Breach of 1747 there must have been a considerable sprinkling of Antiburgher families residing within the wide circuit it embraced. By-and- by those in the western bounds formed the Antiburgher congregation of Earlston, and with them we part company for the time. Those in the eastern division now made the village of Hume their centre, and on 28th February 1749 the Presbytery arranged that they should have sermon alternately with their brethren at Earlston. But though Hume came to rank as a separate congregation, and had a regular place of worship, the people were never in a position to have a minister of their own. In 1753 they had an election of elders, and in 1754 they applied for a moderation, but the Presbytery held them back in their weak state, and no such attempt, so far as appears, was ever made again. In 1768 Kelso, five and a half miles to the south, was recognised by the Antiburgher Synod as the seat of a congregation, and the people connected with Hume, reduced in numbers by this encroachment, had to merge themselves in Kelso or Earlston, as they might find most convenient. In 1769 the members of Gateshaw resid- ing within easier reach of Kelso, 24 in number, were annexed to the new formation. The church, with over 600 sittings, is said, in the report given in to the Commissioners on Religious Instruction, to have been built about 1772, and the materials of the place of worship at Hume are believed to have been employed in the construction. First Minister. JOHN MUIRHEAD, from Dennyloanhead. Ordained, 2nd September 1772. Though Mr Muirhead is seen from his writings to have been a man of talent his was not a successful ministry. It is stated, indeed, in the Presbytery minutes of 1781 that the congregation numbered 400 examinable persons, but the stipend was only ^40, with ^5 for house rent, and ,2, 55. for each communion, ^3 for a horse, and 2 for coals. It was a homely affair, like the church they met in. But evil days were draw- ing on. In consequence of complaints by elders and others the Presbytery met at Kelso on 26th August 1783 to investigate certain charges against Mr Muirhead. Neglect of pastoral duty was alleged, failure in keeping his word, and even want of punctuality in observing the hours of public worship. The case ended with a rebuke to the minister and an admonition to all parties to bury their animosities. But before the year ended things were worse than ever, and a considerable number of office-bearers and members would be satisfied with nothing short of Mr Muirhead's removal. His home, they said, was in a deplorable state, as " drunkenness, broils, and contention have been too frequent in his family, and he has not used due influence to prevent them." With regard to pecuniary embarrassments, "he acknow- ledged want of economy, his income having been about 70." On 8th March 1785 Mr Muirhead offered his demission, assigning as the reason that a congregational meeting had desired it, and that the greater part of the elders were refusing to officiate. The Presbytery meeting was pro- tracted, and next day the resignation was accepted. To all appearance it was more than time. Mr Muirhead itinerated as a preacher for a dozen years, but we cannot say he kept himself above reproach. Two years after leaving Kelso he had to be dealt with by Glasgow Presbytery for breaches of sobriety. We PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 267 sympathise with the poor man as he pleaded "affliction on his body and vexa- tion on his mind, arising from the state of his family." The last notice we have of him is at the Synod in September 1797, when ^5 was given .Mi- Walker of Dennyloanhead to be laid out by him for Mr Muirhead's behoof. According to a list drawn up by Adam Gib, and continued after his death, he died before the end of the year. He left several productions of his pen behind him, in one of which he reasoned very pointedly in support of the Church confining herself to the Psalms of David in the article of praise. This was published as a sermon after he had returned to preacher life. Some years later he joined issue with Dr Young of Hawick, whose "Essays on Government" he considered more favourable to the order of things in Church and State than the Secession Testimony allowed. But his most important work is that entitled " Dissertation on the Federal Transactions between God and His Church," published in 1784. Second Minister. JAMES HOG, from Milnathort. Ordained, ist August 1786. The congregation, besides the harm done by the former minister, had suffered reduction in another way. Greenlaw having now obtained a minister the people from about Stitchel and Hume petitioned to be transferred thither, pleading that they were nearer Greenlaw than Kelso, Hume being only three miles from the former and five and a half from the latter place. The session urged that, if the petition were agreed to, they would be put out of capacity to support the gospel, but the Presbytery granted the disjunction. So Mr Hog's call was signed by only 57 (male) members. The stipend was to be ^50, and a garden, or 2, zos. instead, but there is no mention of a house. So early as 1799 there were elements at work in the congregation which brought disruption seven years afterwards. In July of that year Mr Hog wished to know from the Presbytery whether he ought to dispense the communion among his people that season. Some of them were chargeable with "promiscuous hearing," and he thought they should be required to give satisfaction for the offence. The Presbytery took a similar view, and advised him to allow no elder to officiate and no member to communicate who had been guilty of such conduct, until the scandal was removed. Money matters also came in to give trouble. The stipend was inadequate in the judgment of the Presbytery, and the congregation, when closely dealt with, promised ,66 a year, with manse and garden. But Mr Hog now opened out his grievances more fully to his brethren at their desire. The stipend, he explained, still came short of his requirements in a place where fuel was so dear and where the hiring of a horse had to be provided for when duty obliged him to travel. He was much discouraged, besides, by a spirit of insubordination among his people and the bad management of their temporal affairs. His hands were specially weakened by the loose principles of elders and others, who stood up for and practised promiscuous communion, on which account sacramental work had not been proceeded with that summer. He had offered his demission some years before, and he now insisted on its acceptance, unless he were to be supported in the exercise of his functions. The Presbytery submitted the case to the Synod, which was in session at the time, whose advice to Mr Hog was not to press his resignation. They also instructed the Presbyter)' to check the disorders which had arisen at Kelso, believing that if this were done the people would have no difficulty in giving their minister a creditable support. Mr Hog was one of the four ministers who formed themselves into the Constitutional Presbytery on 28th August 1806. In his earlier days he had been liberally inclined, but his strongly conservative tendencies, as we have seen, had already showed themselves in his dealings with an opposing party in his congregation. But though the Synod instructed the Presbytery of 268 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Kelso to proceed against Mr Hog his infirm health prevented the carrying through of extreme measures. Sentence of deposition was put off from time to time, and was never pronounced. He died on Qth January 1808, when he was in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. The younger Ur M'Crie, in his father's Life, characterises Mr Hog as "a classical scholar, an accurate divine, and a man of determined resolution, pious, humble, and inoffensive in his walk." The congregation now broke into two, but the party adhering to the minister kept the property. After a vacancy of five years a call, subscribed by 22 (male) members, was reluctantly accepted by Mr Patrick Mackenzie, a probationer from Inverness, and he was ordained, I2th May 1813. In 1820 the congregation represented to the Presbytery that, owing to removals by death and otherwise, they were unable to support their minister. Still they held on. In 1836 the communicants were about 50, and there were only two families with children in the whole congregation. The attendance in winter was between 30 and 40, but in summer it rose towards 100. The minister received for stipend what the funds could yield him, and their average income was less than ^50 a year. Yet to his handful of people Mr Mackenzie was preaching three times each Sabbath, and this continued till 27th June 1837, when the pastoral tie was dissolved. He then went as a missionary to the Hebrides, and died in 1839. The congregation still got sermon occasionally, but in 1843 the property was sold, and the proceeds handed over to the funds of the Original Secession Synod. The church was turned into a printing office. It is somewhere mentioned in connection with this congregation's deep- sunk state that a good many of the members had found their way into Mr Hall's church. This was in keeping with the spirit of a petition which the elders and other members laid before the Constitutional Presbytery in 1819, when the movement for union between the two large sections of the Secession was taking shape. They prayed the Presbytery to take this matter into their serious consideration, and to correspond with their respective Synods in order to a broad reunion. By this bold step Kelso only drew from the Presbytery a warning against being moved from a steadfast adherence to their religious profession by vague general schemes of coalescence. The party which adhered to the Antiburgher Synod when Mr Hog with- drew in 1806 got preachers for a term of years. In June 1807 the Presbytery of Kelso, by instructions of Synod, conversed with a minority of the con- gregation, and were to give them supply as soon as they had a proper place of meeting. Sermon was begun on the second Sabbath of September, and went on, but not regularly. In 1812 the ordination of three elders was appointed, but it does not appear that a fixed ministry was ever thought of, and in the beginning of 1817 they reported that they were not able to maintain constant supply. In August the difficulty was smoothed down by three of the members agreeing to board the preachers free of expense. But when the Union came in 1820 there was no need for burdening themselves and other people any longer, there being a prosperous church of the same denomination in Kelso. At this time the name drops from the roll of Secession congregations. KELSO, EAST (RKLIEF) ON 6th September 1791 a number of people in and about Kelso petitioned the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh to be taken under their inspection. They also stated at large certain reasons for making this application, and these the PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 269 Presbyter}- pronounced well founded. This is where the records of the Presbytery begin, but the station was opened two months before. The movement did not originate in any special grievance, such as a violent intrusion. Indeed, the parish church had been highly favoured with accept- able ministers for two generations. In the New Statistical History the Relief congregation is characterised as an offshoot from the Secession, and with that testimony other authorities agreed. As mentioned under a former heading, the settlement of Mr Hall in the Burgher Church five years before was not harmonious, and the angularities of the young minister may have kept dissatisfaction alive. Hence, perhaps, the attempt to form a Relief cause in Kelso, though numbers from the general community must have made common cause with the malcontents from the Burgher Church. First Minister. JOHN PITCAIRN, from Hamilton. Ordained, 25th October 1792. The church, with sittings for 550, was already built, and, though not quite finished, was fit for occupancy. The stipend was ^90 with an additional ,5 for each communion. Mr Pitcairn was reckoned as almost on a level with Struthers of College Street, Edinburgh, in the graces of pulpit delivery, and hence over against his name there stands a formidable list of calls. When a preacher he had Newton-Stewart, Dysart, and Kelso to choose from. In 1796 he was invited to Haddington, a position which had few attractions. In 1799 John Street, Glasgow, which had been formed by a minority who voted in his favour in Dovehill Church, called him to be their minister, but he could give them no encouragement, and the call was withdrawn. In 1804 Crown Court, London, attempted to draw him away from the Relief Synod to the Church of Scotland, and from Kelso to the British metropolis, but they were unsuccessful. Last of all, in 1820, when he was over fifty, he was invited to College Street, Edinburgh, but he decided to be a fixture in his first charge. He died, I3th February 1829, in the sixty-first year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. A volume of his sermons, published after his death, gives only a dim view of his powers as a preacher. But though his discourses might be inferior in solidity to those of Mr Hall, as heard from his lips they would be far more attractive for a general audience to listen to. Second Minister. WILLIAM M'CHEYNE, from the parish of Glencairn and the congregation of Burnhead. Called to be colleague to Mr Pitcairn, who died in the interval. Ordained, i6th March 1829, and died, igth July 1836, in the thirty-sixth year of his age and eighth of his ministry. In this connection there is the following entry in the Journal of Robert Murray M'Cheyne : " Died this day, W. M'Cheyne, my cousin-german, Relief minister, Kelso. Oh, how I repent of our vain controversies on Establishments when we last met." We find from their own returns that at the date of this vacancy the com- municants numbered 888. It was stated about this time in the New Statistical History that "the Secession and Relief number among them many persons of great respectability in point of wealth as well as of character." As in the Burgher congregation, the membership was drawn from the whole circle of surrounding parishes, Sprouston and Roxburgh furnishing by much the largest proportion. The stipend was fixed at ^160, and there was a manse and garden, much above the average value, but burdened considerably with debt. Third Minister. JAMES JARVIE, translated from Carluke, where he had been two and a half years, and inducted, i8th April 1837. After this there was a gradual narrowing in, until the membership came much beneath what it had been in former days. In November 1873 ^ r R- C. Inglis, now of Chapel Street, Berwick, was called to be Mr Jarvie's colleague, but he 27 o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS declined. Ten months later it was the same with Mr William Muirliead, now of Stranraer, the call on this occasion being signed by 171 members and 29 adherents. Fourth Minister. W. R. INGLIS, who had been little more than a year in Holm, Kilmarnock. Inducted, loth March 1875. The stipend arrange- ments were that the colleague should have ^132, IDS. from the congregation, which the Board was to supplement up to ^167, ios., and the senior minister a yearly allowance of ,50, besides the manse, and the annuity from the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. Mr Jarvie died, igth May 1883, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. In 1852 he published a volume, entitled " Discourses and Miscellaneous Writings," which possesses very considerable literary merit. The membership of the con- gregation at the close of 1899, and for a number of years before, was over 200, and the stipend from the people .186, with the manse. COLDSTREAM, WEST (BURGHER) ON I7th December 1767 the Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh disjoined, certain members from the congregations of Stitchel and Kelso and formed them into a congregation at Coldstream. The severance could scarcely be objected to, the distance of the applicants from either church being about ten miles. On the first Sabbath of February 1768 two elders were ordained, and one inducted who had been formerly an elder in the Established Church. That year the first church was built, but particulars cannot be ascertained. First -Minister. JOHN RlDDOCH, from Stirling (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 24th November 1768. Of Mr Riddoch we know little beyond what we have from his successor. " He was not a popular man, but he was a good preacher, well read in the Bible and in the doctrines of divinity." After ministering to his people thirty-five years Mr Ricldoch's health entirely gave way, and on loth April 1804 he resigned. It was agreed to pay him ^30 annually, but he claimed ^99 as expenses due to him in connection with the dispensing of the communion thirty-three successive summers, engaging that if this sum were paid he would let all else go. But the people kept by their offer of ^30, and on these terms the demission was accepted, 2gth May 1804. Mr Riddoch then removed to St Ninians, where he died, nth March 1805, in the thirty-seventh year of his ministry. Second Minister. ADAM THOMSON, M.A., from Coldstream. Appointed by the Synod in May 1804 to Horndean in preference to Leslie (Trinity), as related under the proper heading. But Mr Thomson was bent against compliance, and even seemed in the mood for throwing off subjection to ecclesiastical authority altogether ; at least the Presbytery had to admonish him for the non-fulfilment of appointments for five Sabbaths, and for not having even sent notice to the Clerk, that other supply might have been provided. But while his trials for ordination at Horndean were dragging slowly on Coldstream congregation petitioned for a moderation. The Pres- bytery, aware of what was intended, delayed the matter, to give time for the settlement at Horndean, but on i2th April 1805, when they were about to fix the ordination day, Mr Thomson arrested procedure by a protest and appeal to the Synod. A second time Coldstream people applied for a moderation, and a second time there was delay. At the Synod the call from Horndean was set aside, and when the censure to be inflicted on Mr Thomson came to be decided on Rebuke carried over Admonish. The way was open now for Coldstream congregation obtaining the object PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 271 of their choice, a rival call from Alnwick being speedily disposed of. Al- though his brother counselled him not to go to Coldstream, as "a prophet is not without honour save in his own country,'"' Mr Thomson was otherwise minded, and .he seems never to have had reason to repent of his choice. His ordination followed on I2th March 1806. Less than a month before this his brother, the Rev. Peter Thomson of Leeds, died, and in the follow- ing year he \vas called to be his successor. But instead of taking his brother's place he published a Memoir of his brother's life, along with two sermons preached to the bereaved congregation at the time. With Cold- stream under Mr Thomson there was steady increase, the accessions averaging for a lengthened period 50 a year, independently of those received by certificate, and of the summer communion in 1818 he entered that 710 communicated. In 1834 the stipend was ^150, with a manse, and while the Secession had 155 families in the town the Relief had only 55. The greater part of both congregations must have been drawn from the country. In 1838 Mr Thomson had the degree of D.D. conferred upon him by the College of Miami, Oxford, Ohio. About this time Dr Thomson entered on the enterprise with which his name is largely identified the breaking down of the Bible Monopoly, and opening of the way for the cheap circulation of the Word of God. The end was gained, but at a ruinous cost to himself and his family, and even .the zealous efforts of sympathisers came far short of making up for the heavy pecuniary loss it involved. Third Minister. PETER M EARNS, from Glasgow (now Woodlands Road). In asking to be provided with a colleague Dr Thomson might be thought to have taken time by the forelock, as he was still several years short of seventy, and his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated. But his energies were largely taxed, and it was well to relieve the strain in time. Mr Mearns was ordained, 3oth September 1846. The two ministers were to have ^100 each, Dr Thomson retaining the manse. The call was signed by 384 members, but there was a heavy debt on the property, which must have done much to cramp their energies. For over four years Dr Thomson took his full share of ministerial work, but after retiring to rest in his usual health on New Year's evening 1851 he was struck with paralysis which incapacitated him for regular work ever after. But he survived fully ten years, with mental powers not seriously impaired, and died, 23rd February 1861, in the eighty-second year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry. His son, of the same name with himself, left East Bank, Hawick, and set sail for Sydney a few months before, and the narrative of Dr Thomson's life and ministry, ably written by his son-in-law, the Rev. Peter Landreth, was published in 1869. Of Mr Mearns' literary work we can only mention in particular his carefully prepared volume on " Muirkirk and its Neighbour- hood," the scene of his own early days, and the service he has done the memory of James Hyslop, the author of "The Cameronian's Dream," by editing and annotating his poems, besides furnishing a sketch of his life. He has also advocated at various times, and in a temperate spirit, the claims of Michael Bruce to the authorship of "The Ode to the Cuckoo" and certain of the Paraphrases. Fourth Minister. ARCHIBALD MACAULAY CALDWELL, from Dumbarton (High Street). Ordained as colleague to Mr Mearns, 6th December 1892. Long before this the debt on the property, which amounted to ^2000 shortly before Mr Mearns' ministry began, was entirely cleared away. The senior minister was to receive ,40 a year, and the manse, while the junior pastor was to have ,180, with ^20 for a house. While matters were in a transition state the Presbytery enrolled Mr Mearns minister-emeritus in opposition to his own expressed wishes. They maintained that he was retiring from all 27 2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS responsibility, and that the rule enacted at last Synod laid down this as the course to be followed in such a case, but he replied that he had not entirely withdrawn from the duties of the pastorate, and wished to be still regarded as senior minister. The Synod at next meeting sustained his appeal, and instructed the Presbytery to rescind their former resolution, and reserve to Mr Mearns his full standing. On 22nd March 1898 Mr Caldwell accepted a call to Gilmore Place, Edinburgh. During his ministry the membership had risen from 258 to 368. Fifth Minister. JOHN A. CL^RK, B.D., from Perth (York Place). Or- dained, loth November 1898. The membership at the close of the following year was 359, and the stipend ,200, the senior colleague retaining the occupancy of the manse. Mr Mearns' son James, after nearly running his course as a U.P. probationer, joined the Episcopal Church, and was admitted to Holy Orders in 1885. Some years afterwards he found scope for his literary tastes in connection with the sub-editorship of Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology. Since 1896 he has been vicar of Ashby, Lincolnshire. COLDSTREAM, EAST (RELIEF) ON 3rd July 1826 the Relief Presbytery of Kelso received a petition for sermon from upwards of 50 persons, chiefly heads of families, in or about Coldstream. At this time there were only two Presbyterian churches in the town the Established and the Secession. The Rev. Robert Scott had occupied the parish pulpit for over thirty years, of whom we have some notices in the Journal of Dr Adam Thomson. An auxiliary branch of the Bible Society was about to be formed in Coldstream, and Mr Scott was asked to allow the meeting to be held in his place of worship. " He, how- ever," says Dr Thomson, " not only refused the church for us to meet in, but expressed his firm determination to discountenance the Bible Society by every means in his power." Next day he found him completely enraged about the entire proposal, and " he went on to abuse the Bible Society and its supporters, alleging that we were throwing away money that should have been given to the poor ; that we were sending Bibles to those who could not read them ; that many were much better men in heathen countries than those possessing the Bible." The Doctor added : " How deplorable that a large parish should be under the care of a man holding, and acting but too consistently with, such views." It is to be hoped that a goodly proportion of the applicants to the Relief Presbytery for sermon were persons seeking away from under the teaching of Mr Scott. Supply was at once granted, and Dr Crawford, then of Earlston, told, more than forty years afterwards, how on his first visit he went down and preached by the river- side. But a church, with 800 sittings, was opened on 2nd September 1827. First Minister, JAMES S. TAYLOR, born at Southend, Arran (not Kintyre), but brought up in Dumfries. Ordained at Coldstream, I7th January 1828. He was chosen by a very small majority Dr Crawford thought of not more than 4 or 5 ; but he, as the presiding minister, sug- gested that the minority should fall in, and when the question was put the members rose in a body, so that the election was declared unanimous. The stipend was to be ^80, with 5 for each communion, but by 1834 it had risen to ,115. Under the ministry of Mr Taylor, with his varied accom- plishments, the congregation made a good beginning, but on I5th October 1839 he accepted Hutchesontown, Glasgow. Second Minister. JAMES PORTEOUS, who had been twenty-five years minister of Jedburgh (Boston Church). Inducted, 8th January 1840. It PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 273 was understood that Mr Porteous might look with favour on the proposal to remove, and though beyond middle life he had still nearly thirty years of active service before him. At the celebration of his jubilee in July 1864 he was presented with a purse containing 145 sovereigns, and for other five years he continued to do full work. The end came suddenly. On Sabbath, 22nd August 1869, he and his son, our minister at Spittal, exchanged pulpits, but severe illness set in during the afternoon service, and he died about noon next day, before his son arrived. He was in the eighty-first year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry'. Third Minister. GEORGE F. ROSS, from Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Ordained, 2oth September 1870, having declined Hull. There was a want of unanimity when the election took place, and the feeling may never have been got completely over. It is certain that discomfort arose, and Mr Ross having resigned his charge it was accepted on i4th September 1880. He then removed to Edinburgh, and died there, 23rd July 1885, in the forty- first year of his age and fifteenth of his ministry. There is pathos in recall- ing a little incident which occurred in the last stages of his illness. One of his boys had gained a Foundation at George Watson's College, and came home with the certificate which attested his success. The father took it into his hand, glanced languidly over it, and gave it back without uttering a single word. By this time he was done with time and with time's concerns. Fottrth Minister. JOHN L. ELDER, M.A., from Wellington Street, Glasgow. Ordained, i8th January 1881. The stipend was to be .170 from the funds of the congregation. A manse was built in 1884 for ^1300, the Board having promised a third of the cost up to ^1000. The member- ship being much reduced from what it had been under Mr Porteous, it was thought that when Mr Mearns was about to require a colleague a union with the West congregation would be worth attempting, but though both congregations were of opinion that the object was desirable there was no way of coming to terms. The West congregation decided that the colleague would have to be chosen by the united membership, and the East congrega- tion intimated that they were not to part with their minister even for the sake of union. Hence it was deemed advisable to let the proposal drop. On Sabbath, 2nd January 1898, the church was reopened, after being im- proved at a cost of over ^400. The collections amounted to a fourth of that sum, and church and manse are practically free of debt, ^100 having been granted by the Debt Liquidation Board. The membership at the close of 1899 was 200, and the stipend ^170, with the manse. YETHOLM (BURGHER) Ox 4th April 1786 some people in and about Yetholm petitioned the Burgher Presbytery of Kelso to be taken under their inspection, and on i6th 'May a preacher was appointed to Yetholm for two Sabbaths. In close alliance with these proceedings, though on transverse lines, Mr Andrew Blackie was ordained as parish minister on the 4th of that month. Instead of contesting the powers of a presentation, relief from the yoke of Patronage was sought and found in a simpler way. The building of a church to accommodate 600 was proceeded with and finished without delay. On 4th April 1787, exactly a year after the first petition was tabled, a moderation was applied for, with the promise of ^60 for stipend, and a house. First Minister. ROBERT SHIRRA, from Stirling (now Erskine Church), and a nephew of the Kirkcaldy minister of the same name. Had been called II. S 274 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS a considerable time before to Fenwick and Eaglesham, and the Presbytery of Glasgow appointed him to Eaglesham, but he refused to be settled there. At next meeting of Synod Yetholm was placed over against Eaglesham, and carried by a majority. The call was signed by 234 members and 54 adherents, and he was ordained, ist August 1787. That Mr Shirra was a man of vigorous mind seems unquestionable ; that he studied the things that make for peace is not so clear. It is generally stated, and correctly enough, that, along with his congregation, he acceded to the Original Burgher Presbytery on i2th November 1799, but it does not seem to have been known that he and they were out of all ecclesiastical connection for years before this. He wrote the Synod in April 1796 stating that he could not intimate the collection for their fund as required, and there was also a minute of session forwarded chiming in with the letter. At the meeting in September there was long reasoning with him, and a committee was appointed to meet at Yetholm, but the visit was declined. In April 1797 two neighbouring ministers were instructed to converse with the session, but the business terminated abruptly. On aoth June Mr Shirra appeared before Kelso Presbytery according to request, accompanied by Mr George Moscrip, a divinity student. The student was in course of being dealt with for a letter he had written to a fellow-student, in which he denounced the judicatories of the Church as " synagogues of Satan," but while inquiry was going on Mr Shirra read his declinature, threw it on the table, and left the Court. Going over these particulars, one is tempted to wonder what it was all about, and the only explanation is that this had something to do with the proposal to alter the questions of the Formula. Mr Shirra was now cut off from connection with the Synod. In a manuscript, from which extracts were made by Mr Tait, it is stated that he " stood alone for about the space of three years, till some of his brethren saw necessity to bear testimony to the truth also." This means that he anticipated the " Old Light " rupture, and remained solitary till that Presbytery was formed. Here we might close our notice of Mr Shirra and his congregation, but theje is interest in outlining their subsequent history. In 1815 there was a disruption in the church by which it was shorn of half its strength, as will be narrated under the next heading. In 1834 Mr Shirra was provided with a colleague, whose call was signed by only 100 members and 9 adherents, a contrast with what had been in his own case. He died, i6th November 1840, in the eighty-second year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry. His successor, the Rev. John Hastie, united with the Free Church in 1852, and thus supplied a blank in Yetholm parish, there having been no Free Church congregation formed there at the Disruption, when only a few indi- viduals left the parish church. Mr Hastie died, 4th July 1863, and since then they have had four ministers. YETHOLM (BURGHER NEW LIGHT) PEACE was not the heritage of Mr Shirra and his congregation after they became one with the Original Burghers. Strife got in between the minister and a large section of his people. Some question about stipend came before their own Presbytery in 1810, and disputes on other matters reached a state of intensity in 1814. It would seem that Mr Shirra and part of his session accused certain members of unfaithfulness to the principles of the Church, probably with regard to the claims of a Covenanted Reformation. The consequence was that on 25111 February 1815 a petition from Yetholm was laid before the Burgher Presbytery of Kelso, signed by 1 14 persons, asking PRESBYTERY OF KELSO 275 to be taken under their inspection, which was granted at once. In July 1816 they called Mr Andrew Lawson, son of Professor Lawson of Selkirk, but hearing that he was also called to Ecclefechan they wished to proceed no further. The Presbytery, however, objected, and one of their own number was to act as their commissioner before the Synod. It was all in vain, how- ever, Ecclefechan being preferred without a vote. The stipend promised at this time was ^100, with a house, and, under pressure, they engaged to pay the minister's taxes and allow him 4 at each communion. They next called Mr Patrick Bradley, but there was a marked shortcoming in signa- tures, and the Presbytery of Kelso appointed him to Lilliesleaf. First Minister. WALTER HUME, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Or- dained, ist April 1818. The church, with nearly 500 sittings, was built that year, but it was not ready for this great occasion. We read, at least, in Dr Adam Thomson's Journal that, public worship being without, and the day cold, it was deemed expedient to dispense with Mr Lee's discourse, which should have closed the services of the day. To make amends the ordination sermon was an hour and ten minutes in length, and the charge to minister and people occupied three-quarters. The call was signed by 213 members, from which we can infer the extent of the inroad which had been made on the parent congregation. The rival places of worship have stood since then with little more than the breadth of the street between. As for the ministers, if Mr Hume was less distinguished for pulpit gifts than Mr Shirra the disadvantage might be more than made up for by his pacific disposition and kindly, unassuming ways. After forty-two years of service Mr Hume, who was considerably over the average age when ordained, had to give place to another. Second Minister. EBENEZER ERSKINE WHYTE, from Bridge ofTeith. Mr Whyte was called to Johnshaven in the third year of his preacher life, but the place was uninviting, and he declined. It seemed after this as if he was never to have another offer, but in the quarter of grace allowed at the finish of his six years' probationership Yetholm came in, and, no doubt, was gladly welcomed. He was ordained, I4th August 1861. The aged minister was now confined to the sick-chamber, and he died on 2ist Decem- ber, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. His elder daughter, the wife of the Rev. Daniel Kerr of Duns, preceded him by a few months, and his colleague was soon to follow. Mr Whyte's health gave way in the spring of 1 863, and he sought back to the humble dwelling at Bridge of Teith, where he died on 5th July following, in the thirty-third year of his age and second of his ministry. Third Minister. ANDREW RITCHIE, from Milngavie. Ordained, 5th October 1864, and loosed, 4th July 1882, on accepting a call to be colleague to the Rev. John Steedman, Erskine Church, Stirling. The manse, which had long done its part, was improved in 1875 at a cost of ^540, of which ,415 was raised by the people, and ,125 came from the central fund. Fourth Minister. ARCHIBALD TORRANCE, B.D., from Morningside, Edinburgh. Ordained, loth April 1883. Died, 2ist March 1897, after a short but painful illness, in the forty-first year of his age and fourteenth of his ministry. Fifth Minister. ALLAN SHIELDS, from Strathaven (First). Ordained, nth November 1897. The membership, though a good way lower than it was a dozen years ago, has suffered less than the average of country con- gregations, standing at the close of 1899 at very little under 200. The people paid from their own resources ,150, which with supplement and surplus was made up to 276 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS LEITHOLM (RELIEF) ON 24th September 1833 certain inhabitants of the village of Leitholm, in the parish of Eccles, applied to the Relief Presbytery of Kelso to be recog- nised as a forming congregation. Up till then dissenting families within the bounds attended Secession or Relief churches in Coldstream or Green- law places at least five miles distant. In 1793 a petition for sermon, signed by 206 persons in that locality, 'had been addressed to the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh, and documents were produced to show that the applicants were able to build a church and support a minister, but for some inexplicable reason it carried not to receive them, and for forty years we hear no more of it. Now footing was obtained, and a place of worship built, with 350 sittings, and on i8th April 1835 a congregation was organised. First Minister. WILLIAM BROWN, from Strathaven (East). Ordained, 1 5th July 1835. The cause not making much headway, and the stipend being 60 in arrears, Mr Brown resolved to return to the preachers' list, and his resignation was accepted, ist April 1840, and within two years he was admitted to Clackmannan. The congregation now called Mr Thomas Stevenson, who preferred Bread Street, Edinburgh, and then Mr James Martin, who afterwards obtained Head Street, Beith. Second Minister. PETER GLASSFORD, originally from Calton, Glasgow. Ordained at Alnwick (Lisburn Street), loth October 1838, and inducted to Leitholm, 3ist August 1842. The stipend was to be ^100. On 2nd October 1849 Mr Glassford intimated to the Presbytery that he intended to seek a ministerial charge in another country, and on the 23rd of that month the connection was severed. The membership at this time was about 130, and the stipend ^65, which supplement raised to ,90. He wished his name put on the probationer list meanwhile. There it remained for four years, and during a brief part of that period he was under suspension for not walking circumspectly. After removing to Canada in 1854 he was inducted to the charge of Albion and Vaughan, where he remained till 1873. He died in August of that year, in the thirty-fifth year of his ministry. Third Minister. DAVID BARCLAY, from Saltcoats (now Trinity). Or- dained, 3 ist July 1850. This ministry was also to be brief, as Mr Barclay gave in his resignation, igth October 1858, which was accepted with some demur, as he assigned no valid reason for the step he was taking. He then removed to Berwick, where he lived in retirement. The Wallace Green records bear that he died at Kirn, 2nd May 1876, after a week's illness, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER HAY, M. A., from Perth (Wilson Church). Ordained, I3th July 1859, the stipend to be ^80, and ^30 was expected from the Mission Board. On 8th August 1866 he accepted a call to Boston Church, Cupar. About this time the manse was built, at a cost of ,770, the Board granting ^270. Fifth Minister. DAVID K. MILLER, M.A., from Blairgowrie. Ordained, 8th May 1867, the congregation to contribute ,90 of the stipend. They had not got justice hitherto by reason of these rapid changes, but in this case there was to be a period of eleven years allowed them. Mr Miller remained in Leitholm till 8th October 1878, when he accepted Elgin Street, Glasgow, leaving a membership of 246. The congregation in a few weeks set about calling Mr John Howatson, but he gave Horndean the preference. Sixth Minister. JOHN M. WATSON, from Douglas, brother of the Rev. William Watson, Kirkcudbright. Ordained, gth July 1879. The membership at the Union was 255, and the congregation gave ^170, with the manse. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 277 PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR KILMAURS (ANTIBURGHER) ON 1 5th March 1739 the Associate Presbytery held a meeting at Kinross, of which the Caledonian Mercury gives the following account : " Not a few of their adherents from all corners attended. The principal inhabitants, with all the elders except one, 50 heritors, and the body of the people in the town and parish of Kilmaurs made a secession to them, desiring they might place a minister over them." The people of Kilmaurs were to have a minister of the patron's choosing placed over them on 3rd May by orders of the General Assembly. The Presbytery had upheld their cause before that Court, urging that there were only 22 heads of families in favour of Mr William Coates, the presentee, while 173 declared for another ; that of the heritors he had 37 on his side, of whom 25 were non-resident, while against him there were 65, most of whom belonged to the parish, and of the elders all except one were in opposition. They also warned the Assembly that the bulk of Kilmaurs parish was threatening a total separation from the Church, and that certain Seceding preachers had of late been visiting the bounds. This latter state- ment related to a Fast which Messrs James Thomson and Thomas Mair had observed at Mearns on i8th July of the preceding year, when numbers from the disaffected parish attended. The accession being received, Kilmaurs became the great gathering-point for the Seceders in Ayrshire. First Minister. DAVID S.MYTON, of whose antecedents we only know that he studied theology under Mr Wilson of Perth, and got licence on 28th December 1739. He was called first to Balfron, but Kilmaurs pressed forward, and was preferred by the Presbytery. Ordained, I3th November 1740. It was arranged that Mr Smyton should preach four Sabbaths in the year at Fenwick, six at Dairy, and two at Kil winning. In August 1742 the minister and session of Kilmaurs obtained the Presbytery's sanction to apply a legacy of 1000 merks to the building of a place of worship, as "a very pious use," such as the testator intended. The church was built in the following year, with sittings for 1000 people. Mr Smyton was married in 1743 to a daughter of the Rev. Hugh Thomson, a former minister of Kilmaurs parish. For some reason not very well defined Mr Thomson demitted his charge in 1712, and preached after that to those of his people who chose to hear him. He died, I3th February 1731, in his sixty-seventh year, and Mr Smyton by his marriage became proprietor of a very good farm near by. At the Breach in 1747 Mr Smyton sided with the Burgher party, being opposed to pushing the question to a rupture, but on 2nd June he appeared before the Antiburgher Presbytery of Edinburgh with confession of his sinful steps and compliances, and was received into the stricter connection. How- ever, a little of the tolerant spirit remained, and Mr Smyton was one of two who demurred about proceeding against " the separating brethren " in the way of the higher censures. The state of feeling among his people may have influenced him in the transition he made ; we find, at least, that at a meeting of session on 2ist May 1747, when twenty-six elders were present, they were unanimous in condemning the swearing of the Burgess Oath. As time passed there was a branching off from Kilmaurs by the formation of young congregations all around, but in 1759 elders were still needed for the town of Kilmarnock and the parishes of Fenwick, Stewarton, London, Galston, and Dunlop. In January 1781 the congregation called Mr Alexander Allan to be colleague to Mr Smyton, but when the call, signed by 109 male members 278 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and 41 adherents, came before the Synod Coupar- Angus was preferred. They were to give the colleague ,40 and a house, and enlarge the stipend at the old minister's death. They next called Mr Walter Galbraith, a preacher from Holm of Balfron, but the Synod appointed him to London- derry, where he was ordained on I7th December 1782, and where he re- mained till his death, which was reported in May 1811. But matters of serious moment now arrested progress in the direction of a second minister. This brings us to the "Lifter Controversy," which had its headquarters at Kilmaurs. A number of Antiburgher ministers had abandoned the practice of lifting the communion elements before the consecration prayer. Professor Bruce in his "Review" states that Mr Gib was looked on as the first who introduced this innovation, and he certainly became its advocate out and out. But it was a system for which Mr Smyton had no tolerance, and he hung on the flank of Presbytery and Synod, insisting that conformity to the Saviour's example when He "took bread" before blessing it, ought to be enforced. Instead of this forbearance was enjoined by the Supreme Court in September 1782. Mr Smyton, however, the repeal of this deed being refused, declined the Synod's authority at their next meeting, and the majority of his congre- gation sided with him, declaring that the question was : " Whether the example of the Great Head of the Church is to be the rule of administration or not." Ur Jamieson of Edinburgh, eighteen years afterwards, commented on this case in the following terms : " One worthy minister, whose body and mind were both labouring under the infirmities of age, and who, it was believed, was spurred on by some contentious persons in his own congrega- tion, gave in a declinature, and left the Synod." But a compact minority of Kilmaurs congregation, including two elders, instead of going along with their minister, kept by the Synod. They were few in number, and their money difficulties were aggravated by an un- successful attempt to deprive the other party of the church and manse. The records of that period bear witness to the heavy demands the action before the Lords of Session made on their limited resources. An Inter- locutor was passed in Mr Smyton's favour in July 1785, and it was found that ^80 was worse than thrown away. The comparative strength of the two parties within Kilmaurs parish the Old Statistical History some years later put thus: Lifters, including young and old, 151 ; Non-Lifters, 1 14. But the cause which Mr Smyton organised was doomed to speedy extinction at its fountain-head. One paper, of date 2oth June 1787, throws some light on the state of affairs among the Lifters at Kilmaurs. The need for a colleague to their aged minister must have been growingly felt, and here was a complaint laid before the Session by a number of the members. Mr William Robertson had preached to them, to the great satisfaction of his hearers generally, but one of the elders had slandered him by spreading a report against his doctrine. "Let the session," they said, "take this affair into their serious consideration." What form the affair took we cannot tell, but Mr Robertson was ordained by the Lifter Presbytery to be Mr Smyton's colleague before the end of the year. The old minister died, i6th March 1789, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry, f Mr Robertson we have no trace, either of whence he came or whither he went ; but it is certified that he left ten months after Mr Smyton's death, and had no successor. Of the people, a considerable number may have made common cause with the Lifters at Dairy, eight miles distant, where a congregation had been formed, and a minister ordained. Others may have amalgamated with their former brethren, and the remainder would be dispersed. The after fortunes of the denomination which Mr Smyton founded are PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR' 279 dealt with under the headings of Dairy and Falkirk (South). The con- gregation in connection with the Synod set about building a place of worship for themselves, with 450 sittings, in 1788, and called Mr William M'Caul, whom the Synod appointed to Aberdeen (Belmont Street). After this disappoint- ment there were some who hesitated about going on with the building, as the subscriptions amounted only to .50, and of this sum 20 was needed to meet a debt incurred by the law process. Unless the members from Stewarton would raise ,40 they did not see how they could proceed, and ^20 was all they would undertake. Second Minister. GEORGE PAXTON, from Morebattle. Called also to Craigend and Greenlasv, but the claims of Kilmaurs prevailed. In view of a fixed ministry the building went on with vigour, and Mr Paxton was ordained, I2th August 1789, the arrangement being that he should preach every alternate Sabbath at Stewarton. The meeting-house seems to have been taken possession of in the beginning of winter, and the schoolroom which they had occupied till then was abandoned. A congregational minute of 9th January 1797 records the reading of a paper in which the minister stated that, unless the people in Stewarton were to attend regularly at Kilmaurs, he would apply to the Presbytery to have the bond between him and the congregation severed. It brought up the question whether Kilmaurs people were able of themselves to furnish him with his full stipend, and members were to put down what each was willing to give additional. The result appears to have been favourable, and Stewarton was disjoined, as will be seen at the proper place. At the Synod in May 1807 Mr Paxton was elected Professor of Theology. For two years he had been largely laid aside from ministerial work by illness, and it was now decided that he should be loosed from his charge, and devote himself entirely to the duties of the Chair, receiving a salary of .150. After this he resided in Edinburgh, where, besides conducting the Divinity class, he superintended the training of students during their University course. To his own studies as Professor we owe his " Illustrations of Scripture," published in three volumes about the year 1819. But there was one subject on which Mr Paxton took up strong ground, that of Religious Covenanting, and so early as 1801 he published a pamphlet on the subject. This, along with unconquerable aversion to the semblance of forbearance with the swearing of the Burgess Oath, occasioned his refusal to go into the Union with the Burgher Synod in 1820. There was the earnest wish to overcome his scruples, and, if practicable, to retain him as one of the Professors ; but all efforts to that effect were vain, and at the Synod in April 1821 his resignation was accepted. He then began to preach in the old Gaelic Chapel in Castle Wynd, where a goodly number of Anti-Unionists from Nicolson Street and the Potterrow gathered round him, and were constituted into a Protestor congregation under his pastoral care, but without any induction ceremony. In 1822 they removed to the church they had built in Infirmary Street, with nearly 1000 sittings, and there Professor Paxton's popularity availed to gather large audiences. On Sabbath, ist April 1832, he was seized with paralysis in the pulpit when giving out a Psalm, and though he partially recovered he was never able for regular work again. On 2nd October 1 834 the Rev. James Wright, translated from Coupar-Angus, was inducted as his colleague, and under him the congregation was broken in two. In 1834 Professor Paxton received the degree of D.D. from the University of St Andrews. He died, gth April 1837, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry, leaving two sons-in-law ministers of the United Secession Church the Rev. John More, Cairneyhill, and the Rev. William Young, Berwick-on-Tweed. 2 8o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Third Minister. DAVID ROBERTSON, from Kinross (East). Ordained, 2 ist June 1 8 10. The membership had grown under Mr Paxton, and it was now about 200. The stipend at first was ,90, with allowances for com- munion and Synodical expenses, and in a few years it was raised to ^100. The congregation about this time revived the process before the Court of Session for possession of the old property, which Mr Smyton and his people had retained. In November 1818 an outlay of i, 45. 4d. is entered in the managers' books "for postages for the law plea since 1815." The action, as appears from a paper written by Mr Robertson, cost the litigants on both sides ^1300, and the property when sold yielded .300. The congregation reached its maximum about the year 1824, when it had a membership of 250. It kept not much under this figure till the Morisonian Controversy arose. Mr Robertson was rigidly Calvinistic, and influences from Kil- marnock captivated a number of his people, and led them away from under his ministry. This explains the reduction in the communion roll from 240 to 199 during 1842. After this he had several attacks of angina pectoris, and on 1 6th June 1846 a brief illness of half-an-hour brought the end, when he was in the sixty-first year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. In 1833 Mr Robertson published "Discourses on the Apocalypse," in three volumes. Fourth Minister. FRANCIS CHRISTIE, from Edenshead. Ordained, 26th October 1847. The stipend was to be .100, with manse and garden, and the call was signed by 170 members and 28 adherents. In December Mr Christie was married to his predecessor's daughter, the ceremony being performed by his sister's husband, the Rev. John Eckford of Newbigging. A ministry of less than four years followed, Mr Christie having died on 30th August 1851, in the thirty-second year of his age. The congregation then called the Rev. Dr Jeffrey, who had meanwhile succeeded to the sole pastorate at Denny, but he declined. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, M.A., from Kilmarnock( Princes Street). Mr George Barlas was also put up at the moderation, and had a very considerable following ; but though the call was only signed by 1 1 6 members, and the stipend was smaller, Mr Taylor gave Kilmaurs the preference over Sanquhar (South), assigning as his reason the better spirit that congregation had displayed in devising liberal things. He was ordained, 28th June 1853, and loosed, 4th September 1855, on accepting a call to Bootle, Liverpool, where he speedily made his power felt as a preacher. In 1863 he declined Regent Place, Glasgow, and in 1869 Westbourne Grove, London, but on 8th January 1872 he accepted Broadway Tabernacle, New York, where he was installed on gth April. He now received the degree of D.D. from Yale and Amherst College, United States, and this was followed in 1883 by that of LL.D. from Princeton University. In March 1892 he had a slight stroke of paralysis, which was looked on as the evening summons, and he died at New York, 8th February 1895, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and forty- second of his ministry. Dr Taylor's published works are too numerous to be gone over, and most of them are so well known that this is not required. Sixth Minister. ANDREW GRAY, from Glasgow (Renfield Street), but a native of Blackford, near Auchterarder. Ordained, 29th April 1857. The stipend was ,120, with manse and garden. A new church was opened, 26th March 1865, with 472 sittings, and built at a cost of ^1400. A curious phenomenon, which illustrates the workings of human nature on its ecclesi- astical side, occurred on that occasion. The pew set apart by the managers for the minister and his family was taken possession of by one of the members, who refused to let it go, pleading that it corresponded to the seat PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 281 he had occupied in the old church. The case had even to be referred to the Presbytery, who upheld the rights of the managers, and the aggressor indicated that he would vacate the pew, but might seek redress by going elsewhere. On loth December 1889 Mr Gray, owing to advancing in- firmities, was relieved from the active duties of the pastorate. Seventh Minister. WILLIAM H. KELLOCK, M.A., from Hope Park, Edinburgh, but originally from Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. Ordained, i6th October 1890. The money arrangements were that Mr Gray should have 40 a year, and the junior minister ^100 from the congregation, with the manse. On 3rd November 1896 Mr Kellock accepted a call to Whitevale, Glasgow. Eighth Minister. JOHN C. CHALMERS, B.D., from B*im7teahea4t Ordained, 2oth April 1897. The stipend from the congregation was to be ^ioo at first, and they had a new manse nearly ready, which had been gifted to them by the senior minister, who, though residing in the suburbs of Glasgow, had their interests close at heart. Mr Gray died at Kilmaurs on 1 4th February 1899, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. At the close of that year the membership was 172, and the stipend from the people was ,135, and the manse. KILWINNING (ANTIBURGHER) MR SMYTON of Kilmaurs had a branch of his congregation in Kilwinning, nine miles off. and the original arrangement was that he should preach there two Sabbaths every year. The number of families cannot have been great, as in the baptismal register of Kilmaurs there are only three entries from Kilwinning for the two years 1753-4. But on 9th June 1758 a member of the church residing in Kilwinning presented a petition to the session, which it was agreed to send up to the Presbytery. Though the purport is not given it must have been a disjunction that was sought for and obtained. In 1759, about the time the church was built, the minister of the parish read a warning from his pulpit against "the schismatic teachers," who were making frequent intrusions into that corner. This churchman was the Rev. Alexander Ferguson, one of the first to advocate relinquishing those doctrines to which he had subscribed at his ordination. It is explained that he was tainted, like his co-Presbyters in Stevenston and West Kilbride, with Socinian views, and hence he pleaded that in signing the Confession of Faith he only took that composition of fallible men in so far as it was in his judgment agreeable to the Scriptures. These things be- tokened the need there was in that locality for preachers of another stamp. In Mr Ferguson's opinion the sermons, Acts, and Testimonies of the Seceders were all of the Antinomian stamp, "which has a direct tendency to destroy all the obligations of morality and good works." First Minister. WILLIAM JAMESON, from Alloa (now Townhead). In April 1762 Mr Jameson was missioned for North America, but at the meeting of Synod in August he gave reasons for non-compliance, which were accepted. Ordained, 6th April 1763, the members numbering about 112. Two years before this the congregation had called Mr Thomas Herbertson, whom the Synod appointed to Dumfries. From an unpublished volume of reminis- cences by Dr Mitchell of Glasgow we have, through Dr Scott's Annals, the following description of Mr Jameson : " He had a patriarchal appearance. His voice was soft and sweet, and unaffectedly musical in its tones. His manner was grave and affectionately kind." He died, 23rd November 1792, in the fifty-seventh year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. His tomb- 282 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS stone bears that he was a man whose mind, manners, and ministrations were characterised by a simplicity, sweetness and sagacity, and savour of piety seldom so happily united. Mr Jameson married the younger daughter of the Rev. William Wilson of Perth, and their son was the Rev. John Jameson of Methven. The manner of his death was striking. At evening worship in the family his son, a youth of fifteen, at the father's request, took the prayer, but when the other suppliants rose the father remained on his knees. Laid down in bed, "he smiled adieu to his wife and children, and in a few minutes fell asleep." Second Minister. ROBERT SMITH, son of the Rev. Robert Smith of Auchinleck. Ordained, i$th June 1796. The congregation had been weakened during this vacancy by the formation of the families in and about Saltcoats into a distinct congregation. The call they issued soon after to Mr John Thomson, whom the Synod appointed to Duns, was signed by 56 male members, and the number of Antiburghers in Kilwinning parish about this time was put at 222, young and old, and there might be one-half more from other parishes. Another call, given to Mr David Hog, afterwards of Rothesay, the Presbytery preferred to one from Ayr, but Mr Hog refused to accept. The case having been referred to the Synod he underwent rebuke, and the call was set aside. Mr Smith, who had been brought up in a rigidly Antiburgher atmosphere, refused to enter into Union with the Burghers in 1820, and took the majority of his congregation with him into the Protestor Synod. He died, 22nd June 1835, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. Since then the congregation has had four ministers (i) George Steven- son, son of the Rev. Dr Stevenson of Ayr, who died on ist June 1859, in the forty-eighth year of his age and twenty-third of his ministry ; (2) Andrew Anderson, translated from Dromore, Ireland, and inducted, 24th July 1860. Demitted his charge, I3th May 1863, and removed to New Zealand. Was ultimately minister of the Free Church, Cowdenbeath ; (3) Thomas Robert- son, son of the Rev. John Robertson of Ayr. Ordained, i2th July 1866. Mr Robertson was the only minister of the Original Secession Synod who signed the Anti-Establishment Manifesto in 1885. Having resigned in 1888 he removed to Australia, where he is now minister of Maldon, Victoria. Four years before this the membership was 90, and the stipend ^135, with a manse ; (4) Thomas Matthew, formerly of Midholm, was inducted, 1889. KILWINNING (UNITED SECESSION) MR SMITH of Kilwinning experienced a breach in his congregation through refusing to go into the Union of 1820. It has been stated, on the authority of Mr Ronald of Saltcoats, that Mr Smith himself inclined to accede, but the influence of a bachelor brother who lived with him went the other way, and prevailed. Accordingly, along with two of his co-Presbyters, Messrs Stevenson of Ayr and M'Derment of Auchinleck, he took part in the formation of the Protestor Synod on 29th May 1821. Notwithstanding this, the Presbytery of Kilmarnock proposed a conference with the three brethren, which was held on 7th October. The Christian Recorder bears that they stated their objections to the Union with great candour and moderation, and were replied to in the same spirit, and that after the meet- ing had gone on for four hours they all dined together in Christian brother- hood. The conference was renewed on 5th February 1822, but next day it was found needful to drop their names from the roll. 'Dr Bruce of Newrmlns has given the gist of the proceedings. In the Basis of Union religious covenanting was recognised as a duty in certain circumstances, but Messrs PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 283 Smith, Stevenson, and M'Derment pleaded that it ought to be made a term of communion, maintaining "that we are bound by the solemn deeds of our forefathers, both as members of the same community with them, and as their lineal descendants." To this it was asked in reply whether Scotsmen who leave the country are thereby freed from obligation to these solemn deeds, and whether the Covenants are binding on the whole community, including Roman Catholics as well as Protestants. The chasm between the parties was too great to be bridged over by a friendly spirit and the earnest wish to see eye to eye. The Union party in Kilwinning congregation, consisting of 40 members and 30 adherents, now procured sermon from the United Presbytery. This was on 2nd April 1822, the station being opened on the following Sabbath by the Rev. George Lawson of Kilmarnock, and in 1824 they built a church, with 250 sittings, at the modest cost of ,300. The ground flat was let as a dwelling-house, the rent of which met the interest of ^180 which remained as debt on the building. The new cause, which was strengthened by several Burgher families who were disjoined from Saltcoats and Irvine, was not organised till I5th March 1825. Their first call was addressed to Mr Robert Allan, the stipend promised being ,80, with a dwelling-house, but Mr Allan was appointed to Tillicoultry. When they next applied for a moderation Mr Walker of Mauchline dissented from allowing them to go on, as he believed ^80 to be more than 55 persons in the common walks of life could afford to pay. First Minister. JAMES GOWANS, from Perth (North). Ordained, 4th July 1827. Though Mr Gowans was a man of unblemished character and an able theologian the choice proved unfortunate. In a well drawn-up historical sketch of Kilwinning Church the nervous breakdown which he experienced within a few years is ascribed to the undue strain he gave himself in pre- paring and mandating two elaborate discourses each Sabbath. Sad de- lusions took possession, and refused to be dislodged. Being prevailed on to resign he was loosed from his charge, 9th October 1832. His name was long on the probationer list, but he ultimately settled down in family life at Brechin, where he died, 2nd May 1874, in the eighty-third year of his age. At this stage the congregation called, first, Mr Anthony L. Christie, after- wards of Otterburn ;* and, second, Mr John M. Thomson, whom the Presby- tery appointed to Maybole. Second Minister. ALEXANDER M'GREGOR, from Comrie. A number of the members voted for Mr William Jameson ; but, though he had carried, Jamaica would have got the preference. Mr M'Gregor was ordained, 22nd March 1836, the membership being now 73. In the end of that year he returned 100 as the number, and the stipend was not to go below ^80, but there was no manse. The mother congregation at this time had 164 com- municants, and the stipend some years later was ^100. In 1838 Mr M'Gregor's people built a new church on a different site at a cost of ^800. It was opened in November of that year, the collection, which would be con- sidered large for their numbers and ability, amounting to nearly ^20. In the Debt Liquidation Report for 1841 there is a notice of the means taken to get rid of the burden incurred. It amounted to ,520, and the members * Mr Christie was from Kinghorn. In the early part of 1834 Kilwinning call was set aside owing to his refusal to accept, and on 22nd January 1835 Mr Christie was ordained over the recently-formed congregation of Otterburn, in Northumberland, with a membership of 26. In 1849 there was a communion roll of 190. After a period of severe distress Mr Christie died, igth May 1862, in the sixty-second year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry. His son, now the Rev. James Christie, B. A., of Carlisle, was shortly afterwards ordained as his successor. 2 8 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS numbered 130, but consisted almost entirely of working people. The original proposal was to pay off the half of that sum, the Board to grant ^100 if the people raised ,160. After some delay the object aimed at was reached, and in 1845 the remaining half was also cleared away, the Board allowing ^125. In 1867 their first manse was built, at a cost of ^850, of which ,580 was raised by the people, and .270 carne from the Board. Mr M'Gregor died, ist March 1875, in the seventy-third year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. Third Minister. JAMES D. TAYLOR, from Newington, Edinburgh. Ordained, 3ist August 1875. Mr Taylor possessed much of the evangelistic spirit of his minister, the Rev. James Robertson of Newington, and under him the congregation prospered every way. For fourteen years he laboured in Kilwinning, but on 2nd July 1889 he accepted a call to the neighbouring congregation of Saltcoats (Trinity Church). The membership had now risen to 170, and the stipend from the people to ,135. Fourth Minister. JOHN FORSYTH, from St Ninians. Ordained, 22nd April 1890. Declined a call to Cathedral Square, Glasgow, in the beginning of 1895, but accepted Jedburgh (Boston Church) on 2510 July 1898. Fifth Minister. GEORGE STIRLING, from Bonhill, a brother of the Rev. T. W. Stirling, Henderson Memorial Church, Glasgow, and the Rev. J. W. Stirling of Buchanan Station, Kaffraria. Ordained, 2nd May 1899. The congregation was now self-supporting, and the close of that year gave a membership of 184, the stipend being ^180, with a manse. KILMARNOCK, PORTLAND ROAD (BURGHER) THIS congregation had its remote origin in the settlement of Mr William Lindsay as minister of the second charge of Kilmarnock parish on i2th July 1764. The call was signed by only three heads of families, and the Presby- tery refused to transport the presentee from Cumbrae, but the General Assembly in 1763 ordered them to go on with his induction, and this sen- tence was confirmed at their meeting in 1764. A newspaper of the day reported the proceedings as follows : " We hear from Kilmarnock that on Thursday last a great disturbance happened there at a meeting of the Pres- bytery appointed to admit a minister to that parish. The Presbytery was deforced not only from the church but even from the town, and were obliged to receive the minister in a public-house in the suburbs." At Ayr Circuit Court in October ten men were tried for riotous conduct, of whom three were sentenced to a month's imprisonment, and then to be whipped through the streets of Ayr. On 27th August a considerable body of parishioners brought their grievances before the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow, who appointed one of their number to preach to them the next Sabbath. On 6th November an adherence to this paper was given in with a petition setting forth their melancholy situation through being robbed of their Christian privileges. After this there was a break, but on 26th August 1765 the petitioners repre- sented that "a considerable number have favourable thoughts of joining the Secession if they had ordinances dispensed among them in a fixed way." Supplies, however, continued slight owing to the dearth of preachers, and discouragements arose from young men not fulfilling their appointments. As time passed petitions for frequent supply became more urgent, and it was stated that when they were favoured with preaching the congregation was numerous. Yet for years the Burgher cause in Kilmarnock was abandoned, but reviving came. The new movement dates from i6th June 1772, when supply of sermon PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 285 was again applied for, and kept up with more regularity than before. In September, there being the hope of permanence, the Presbytery recom- mended very warmly the different sessions to aid them by collections in the building of a place of worship. On gth August 1773 they were congregated, but other three years passed before there was ripeness for a moderation. The church was now finished, with sittings for 725, and the stipend was to be ,50 while the minister remained unmarried, and after that .60, and a free house. First Minister. ROBERT JAFFRAV, from Stirling (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 23rd August 1775. In the Christian Repository for 1817 it is stated that " the prosperity of the Secession Church in the west country, and especially in the neighbourhood of Kilmarnock, was in a great measure owing to the character, talents, and labours of this eminent servant of Christ." In the Old Statistical History the number of Burghers in the parish, young and old, is given at 540, but there were also large numbers from the parishes around, such as Fenwick and Galston. About three years before his death Mr J affray was laid aside from public work by a paralytic stroke, and, after receiving partial supply from the Presbytery month after month, the congregation found it needful to arrange for a colleague Mr Jaflfray to receive ^80, and the young minister ^130, to be raised to .160 should he become sole pastor. The first call was addressed to Mr John Law, whom the Synod appointed to Xewcastleton. A new election occa- sioned serious dissension, about seven-eighths voting for Mr Andrew Young, the minority, however, being strongly opposed. To obviate one of their objections Mr Young was sent to preach other two Sabbaths ; but matters remained much as before, and the Synod, owing to want of harmony at Kilmarnock, appointed him to Lochmaben by a small majority. This de- cision stirred the spirit of rebellion in the congregation, which was shown by refusing to ask sermon from the Presbytery, and by petitioning to have the relation between them and their aged minister dissolved. Happily, the latter part was fallen from, and on 4th April 1814 Mr Jaffray died, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. The inscription on his tombstone has a simple but expressive close : " Now with his God." The only production of his pen which we have seen is "An Essay on the Reasons of Secession from the National Church," published in 1805. In September 1814 a second call, signed by 496 members with 156 adherents, to the Rev. Andrew Young of Lochmaben was brought up to the Synod ; but the translation was refused, and the Presbytery recommended " to pay particular attention to the congregation under their present disap- pointment." But the congregation, instead of waiting to be consoled, held an indignation meeting in the following week, when by a vote of 234 to 9 they resolved to go over to the Old Light Burghers. The members who adhered to their former connection were only 77 in number, and between the two parties an expensive lawsuit was engaged in for possession of the property. A compromise was effected in the end, the majority agreeing to surrender their claims on receiving payment of ,265. This was the origin of what is now Henderson Free Church. Their place of worship was built in 1818 at an expense of over ^1000, and the first call they issued was signed by 376 members and 94 adherents. The congregation united with the Church of Scotland in 1839, and left at the Disruption of 1843. Second Minister. GEORGE LAWSOX, who after a struggle of nine years at Bolton, in Lancashire, was recognised as "transportable." This being understood three congregations, Kilmarnock, Annan, and Hamilton (now Avon Street), came up to the Synod contending for his services, but Kilmarnock, owing to their trying experiences, got the preference. They 2 86 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS had previously called Mr George Donaldson, a preacher of highly popular gifts, but he was sent to build up School Wynd, Dundee. Of these Kil- marnock calls, the earlier was signed by only 84 members, and the other by 130. Mr Lawson was inducted, I4th October 1818, and under his effective ministry the process of growth went on. In 1821 he was called to succeed his father at Selkirk, but after stating his sentiments in a pathetic and powerful speech he was continued at Kilmarnock by the Synod without a vote. A second attempt followed a year later, but the translation was vetoed by a great majority, and a third call from Selkirk was withdrawn, there being no hope of success. In 1836 Mr Lawson reported a membership of 548, of whom not more than one-tenth were from other parishes, most of these from Riccarton. Instead of ^120, the sum promised him at first, the stipend was now ,147, with a dwelling-house, and the debt of ,780, which had been chiefly incurred by the above-mentioned lawsuit and the erection of a manse, was in course of gradual liquidation. But now the claims of his father's and brother's congregation were to outweigh those of Kilmarnock, and on 2nd May 1837 he accepted a call to Selkirk. Third Minister. JAMES LINDSAY, from Coupar- Angus. The particulars of the moderation are noteworthy. The first vote gave for Mr Lindsay 163, for Mr William Bruce 1 17, and for Mr David Croom 72. The second vote gave for Mr Lindsay 190, and for Mr Bruce 159. Looked at in the light of after events, Mr Croom might have been expected to have the foremost place. The call was accepted, and Mr Lindsay was ordained, I7th April 1838. It was difficult to succeed George Lawson, and the positions to which the un- successful candidates afterwards attained may also have induced unpleasant reflections. But, whatever may have been the predisposing cause, dissensions arose in a year or two. Stung by something said against his efficiency at a meeting of session Mr Lindsay read a paper from the pulpit on the following Sabbath intimating that he would remain with those who were satisfied with him, however few. The Presbytery found there had been imprudences on both sides, and counselled the cultivation of a Christian spirit, but that did not prevent 168 members, with seven elders at their head, from applying for their disjunctions. The wound was too deep to be healed, and on 8th August 1854 Mr Lindsay's resignation was accepted. He took this step, he said, for want of moral encouragement, and because there were no reasonable prospects of success. When a congregation was being organised at Springburn Mr Lindsay's services were secured for a time, but nothing permanent followed. He died at Rothesay on I5th November 1877, aged seventy-five. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, M.A., from Glasgow (now Woodlands Road). Having declined Queensferry he was ordained at Kilmarnock, 6th March 1855. In December 1859 the church in Portland Road was opened, with sittings for 700, the cost being .2000, and in 1866 the former manse was replaced at a cost of ,800, of which the Board paid ,200. Mr Hamilton was loosed on ist November 1870 on accepting an invitation to Brighton, where a preaching station had been opened in the beginning of the year. The congregation was not organised till I3th February 1871, and on the 2ist Mr Hamilton was inducted, the member- ship being 52. Next year he had the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. A church had been bought previously for ^3000, with 450 sittings. But the U.P. cause never took kindly to the soil of Brighton, and in 1890, though the income for the preceding year was nearly .800, there were only 120 communicants. Owing to infirm health Dr Hamilton retired on 7th April 1896, and, as there was another English Presbyterian Church in Brighton, the congregation was dissolved. Fifth Minister. GEORGE F. JAMES, from Glasgow (Erskine Church). PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 287 Ordained as colleague to Dr M'Kerrow of Manchester, I2th September 1867, having declined South Shields (Mile End). Inducted, gth January 1872. The congregation had previously called Mr George L. Carstairs, probationer, but he accepted Berkeley Street, Glasgow. At the present election 78 voted for Mr James and 68 for Mr George Rae, now of Gourock ; but the call was accepted, and prosperity followed. The stipend at first was only .170, with the manse and whatever might come from the Ferguson Bequest Fund, but within three years an addition of ^50 was made. In April 1876 when Mr James was called to Bristo Church, Edinburgh, this stipend had been raised to ,270 perhaps to checkmate these overtures. This call was declined, but a second was accepted on i2th December 1876. The property was now free of debt, a burden of ,800 having been cleared off three years before with the aid of ,250 from the Liquidation Board. Sixth Minister. JOHN FORREST, from Glasgow (Caledonia Road), who had been ordained at Hull on nth April 1871. Inducted to Portland Road, 4th July 1877, the stipend to be ^300, with the manse. Mr Forrest had painful experience of family life on the shadowed side, being three times left a widower. His second wife, a daughter of the Rev. John S. Hyslop of Leven, died leaving an infant a fortnight old, which followed its mother to the grave a fortnight later. His third wife came through to Edinburgh to attend her sister, Mrs Ritchie Key, in a serious illness, but caught the malady herself, and became its victim. Trials like these told on Mr Forrest's health, and after two years of impaired vigour he died, 2nd July 1900, in the fifty-seventh year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry, leaving three orphan children. He was the brother of the Rev. A. F. Forrest of Renfield Street, Glasgow. The membership of Portland Road at this time was about 470, and when the Union came on the church was vacant. KILMARNOCK, CLERK'S LANE (ANTIBURGHER) OWING to a wide blank in the Presbytery minutes the date of this congrega- tion's origin cannot be determined with exactness. We find that the Anti- burgher Presbytery of Glasgow appointed stray supply to Kilmarnock on the second Sabbath of 1771, but up till then, and much later, Kilmaurs, two and a quarter miles to the north, was the regular place of worship. That congregation must have drawn a great part of its strength from the neigh- bouring town, since in 1754 and the two preceding years the list of baptisms shows 29 in Kilmaurs parish and 27 in Kilmarnock. But the wish would be to have ordinances for themselves in the market town, and, accordingly, the first church was built in 1775, though regular supply must have been granted three years before, as appears from the session of the North Church, Perth, having given 4 in the earlier part of 1772, though it was not till 1776 that they were regularly organised. This appears from a protest and appeal which came before the Synod in May of that year against a deed of Glasgow Pres- bytery disjoining certain persons in and about Kilmarnock from Kilmaurs and erecting them into a congregation. In September a committee, which had met with the parties, reported that, though Kilmarnock were disjoined, the congregation of Kilmaurs would be numerous enough to support a minister, and it would not be for the comfort of either side to reverse the Presbytery's decision. The Synod adopted the report, but expressed dis- approval of the rashness and bitterness with which the people of Kilmarnock had pushed the disjunction. First Minister. JAMES ROBERTSON, M.A., from Whitburn. Ordained, 9th September 1777, on a stipend of 40 or ,50. Three years after this 2 88 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Kilmarnock had a complaint against Kilmaurs. The mother congregation \vas about to have a colleague for their aged minister, and it was alleged that upwards of 30 persons to the south and east of Kilmarnock, most of them in full communion, and two of them elders, still kept up their connection with Kilmaurs. It was thought unseemly that these parties should be passing another church of the same communion on their way to their own place of worship, and, whatever might be said in favour of continuing while- Mr Smyton lived, the Presbytery advised the session not to allow them to subscribe a call to a successor. Mr Robertson's ministry was very success- ful and in 1792 the number under his pastoral care within Kilmarnock bounds alone was put at 480. In 1807 the second church was built, with sittings for 750, but on 3rd November 1811 Mr Robertson died, after a lingering and painful illness, in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty- fifth of his ministry. In the Courts of the Antiburgher Church he had long taken a leading part, and was never accustomed to express himself tamely on any subject that came before them, though in the pulpit his language is said to have been plain and his similes homely. As a preacher, he is credited with having rivalled the Rev. James M'Kinlay of the Laigh Kirk, a minister whose fame lives in the poems of Robert Burns. His large and valuable library of 3000 volumes, comprising books in many languages, was pur- chased after his death for ,800, and now forms part of the Hall library of the U.P. Church. Second Minister. JOHN RITCHIE, from Ayr (First). Ordained, 23rd March 1813, and remained there twelve years. Like his predecessor, Mi- Ritchie took up strong positions, and in contending for what he believed to be the right he could use vehement language. These qualities, however, may have prepared him to welcome a change, and hence, at the Synod in Sep- tember 1825, when two calls he had received came up for disposal, the one from Queen Anne Street, Dunfermline, the other from Potterrow, Edinburgh, he expressed the wish to be removed, assigning reasons partly theological and partly political. Potterrow was preferred, only three votes being given to continue him in Kilmarnock, and, accordingly, he was transferred to a sphere where his name came to be known far and wide. Third Minister. DAVID WILSON, who had resigned Balbeggie five years before, and returned to the preachers' list. Inducted to Kilmarnock, 2ist March 1826. A few weeks previously it was announced in the public prints that Mr Wilson's wife, a daughter of the Rev. Alexander Moncrieff of Muckart, had died at Newcastle. In this larger congregation Mr Wilson is spoken of as having faithfully discharged his official duties, but in 1839 misunderstandings arose between him and his people over the proposal to call a colleague, and 136 members applied for a disjunction. The Synod hoped differences might be adjusted, as "the appearance of the parties was calm, prudent, and conciliatory." With this view a committee met at Kil- marnock along with the Presbytery ; but the end was not gained, and the connection was severed on 3rd July 1839, the congregation having agreed to pay Mr Wilson .100 at once, and grant him a retiring allowance of ,30 a year. In giving in their report at next Synod the committee expressed "unfeigned sympathy with Mr Wilson, and deep regret to receive the demission of a brother with such excellent gifts for the ministry." He now removed to Edinburgh, where he became a teacher of Hebrew. Fourth Minister. JAMES MORISON, son of the Rev. Robert Morison of Bathgate, but best known as the founder of the Evangelical Union Church. Mr Morison when a preacher had thrown himself heart and soul into Revival work, as is related in connection with the history of Cabrach con- gregation and several others in the north. The call from Kilmarnock was PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 289 not harmonious, and the stipend was to be only ,120, with a very plain manse, but these latter considerations would not go for much with Mr Morison. On 2gth September 1840 the Presbytery met for the ordination, but the audience was kept waiting for fully an hour. A tract of his on the question : '' What must I do to be saved ? " had been seen by two of the ministers, and they found statements in it which they feared were incon- sistent with sound doctrine. Mr Morison, according to the minutes, signified his regret that some of the expressions used by him had conveyed erroneous ideas. He also undertook to suppress the further circulation of the tract, and engaged in future " to seek modes of expressing his sentiments less liable to be misunderstood." The difficulty was thus got over, and the service went on. But, says Dr Adamson in his Life of Principal Morison, " The solemn act of ordination was performed without that deep spiritual feeling which alone renders it of any value." It is something to possess the gift of discerning spirits and searching the bosoms of other people, especi- ally across a distance of well-nigh sixty years. At a meeting of Presbytery five weeks afterwards one of the members com- plained that the tract which was to be suppressed had got into full circulation, and after some committee workings the whole business was taken up in open Court on 2nd March 1841. The paper brought in contained charges of doc- trinal error, eight in number, and there was also disingenuous conduct set forth in three branches. We can well believe there was enough of the old Athenian spirit in Kilmarnock to crowd the building twice over. The pro- ceedings, broken by an interval, went on till after midnight, and then it was decided by a vote of 20 to 5 that Mr Morison be suspended from the office of the ministry and the fellowship of the Church. The other motion was to meet next day for a free and friendly conference with the accused before issuing the case, a proposal the adoption of which it is all but certain would have done no good. Mr Morison now intimated an appeal to the Synod, and, of course, continued preaching on the same as before, and to crowded audiences. The discussions in the Synod were of a like complexion with those in the Presbytery, and in the end all other motions were withdrawn in favour of one proposed by Dr Heugh to dismiss the appeal, continue the sus- pension, and appoint a committee to deal with Mr Morison and report. On the following morning Mr Morison met with the committee, but they had to report that, after a protracted and friendly conversation with him of nearly three hours, they did not succeed in producing any change in his sentiments. This was on Saturday, and at the adjourned meeting on Monday he did not compear, but on Wednesday they had a reply from him to a letter of theirs, in which he intimated that he adhered unswervingly to his former opinions, and had on the intervening Sabbath disregarded the sentence of suspension. It ended with the Synod declaring Mr Morison no longer connected with the United Secession Church. The second week was chiefly occupied with the case of Mr Walker of Comrie, which covered similar ground, but had a happier ending. It is curious to read now in Dr Heugh's Correspondence of that date the following extract : " Our chief work has been with (Mori- son) and (Walker), two good but dogmatic and erring young men, the former further wrong than the latter, and less willing to be put right." The severance being now complete, and the majority retaining the property, Mr Morison occupied without disturbance the pulpit of Clerk's Lane. In the vestry of that church the Evangelical Union was formed on 1 8th May- 1843, and it was agreed to open without delay a Theological Academy at Kilmarnock under Mr Morison's superintendence. In 1851 he accepted an invitation to succeed his friend and former fellow-student, the Rev. John Guthrie, in the pastorate of Dundas Street Church, Glasgow. II. T 2 9 o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS There his influence grew and spread, alike as a preacher, an author, and the acknowledged head of an ecclesiastical denomination. His list of books is too long to go over, but we may say that in his Exposition of Romans ix. he attempts with great skill and enormous labour "to storm the supposed Biblical stronghold of Calvinism." His Commentaries, however, on Matthew (1870) and Mark (1873) are the property of the Church universal. In 1862 Mr Morison received the degree of U.D. from Michigan College, United States, and this was crowned in 1882 by a like honour from Glasgow University. He died, I3th November 1893, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry. His Life, by Dr William Adamson, published in 1898, is eminently companionable, though at the controversial period the author gives us rather much of moral heroism in conflict with meaner elements at every turn and on every side. In their altered position Clerk's Lane congregation twice sent the half; year's retiring allowance to Mr Wilson, their former minister, and then pay- ment ceased. The Presbytery, they said, by cutting off the congregation from their connection, "have broken every claim which they or Mr Wilson could have upon them," though Mr Wilson had nothing to do with the pro- ceedings complained of. The Synod had to make amends to the injured party so far by granting him 20 a year, and this continued to the end. He died at Glasgow, i6th November 1853, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministerial life. Mr Morison was succeeded in Clerk's Lane by the Rev. William Bathgate, who removed along with the bulk of his people to a new church in 1878. A minority of more than 100, who kept by the old walls, obtained the Rev. Robert Hislop for their minister, and his place was taken in 1880 by the Rev. James Forrest. But Mr Forrest got restless even in the atmosphere of the Evangelical Union, and the process of development went on till in 1 887 he took most of the congregation with him into the ranks of Unitarianism. Clerk's Lane now began to be known as a " Free Christian Church." In biographical notices of Dr Morison he is generally represented as having been deposed by the Secession Synod for heresy, and Dr Adamson is of opinion that this is what exclusion from their ecclesiastical connection was meant for. It would be worth while to know what form the sentence in Dr Adamson's opinion ought to have taken, if there was to be a sentence at all. The parting of the ways had been reached, differences on important doctrinal points had emerged, further attempts to understand each other Mr Morison believed to be futile, and the case was wound up by declaring Mr Morison to be no longer connected with the United Secession Church. Through the report of a jubilee presentation to an elder of Camphill U.P. Church, Glasgow, in 1892 some statements about Mr Mprison's case have got currency which require cc-rrection. The Synod's decision, for example, is said to have been arrived at "after a trial which lasted eleven days." The facts are these : Mr Morison's appeal was taken up after Tuesday was so far advanced. The reading of long papers and the hearing of parties occupied that day, the first sederunt on Wednesday, and all Thursday. His own speech occupied six hours in the delivery. On Friday members of Court spoke their opinions, and the decision was arrived at that evening, the case having continued nearly three and a half days in all. " I saw him," said the narrator, "deposed from the office of the ministry at 3 A.M., in a scene of the greatest solemnity." The motion agreed to, as we have stated, was simply to dismiss the appeal, confirm the sentence of the Presbytery, and .appoint a committee to deal with Mr Morison and report. There was nothing analogous in this to the judge putting on the black cap and pronouncing for doom, and the newspaper report bears that the business closed at twelve PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 291 o'clock. As for the words said to have been spoken by Mr Morison with a tremulous voice in reply to the Moderator's announccaunt of the Synod's verdict, there is no trace of them in the brief speech as given by the re- porters. It illustrates the extent to which memory will distort plain facts when it works after an interval of fifty years, and how little reliance can sometimes be placed even on testimony at first hand. KILMARNOCK, KING STREET (RELIEF) On igth September 1799 Mr John Moodie, son of the former minister, was ordained to the charge of Riccarton parish, greatly to the dissatisfaction ot the people generally. He was reckoned a good man, but with none of his father's gifts as a preacher. Accordingly, on 6th November following, a petition for sermon came up from Riccarton to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow, and Mr M'Laren of Kilbarchan was appointed to preach there on Sabbath week. For some time services were kept up in a sparse way, a barnyard being the meeting-place, and probably, at least in winter, the barn itself. A church was built on a cheap scale, most of the woodwork, including the pulpit, being obtained from the Laigh parish church, which was taken down that year to make way for another. First Minister. DANIEL M'NAUGHT, translated from Dumbarton (now Bridgend), where he had laboured seven years. Inducted at Riccarton, i8th March 1802, but though it is recorded that he had a bond for his stipend the amount is not given. With the Presbytery's permission he at once set about an election of elders, of whom seven were ordained on 3rd July. On ist November 1808 Mr M'Naught accepted a call to Biggar. He is de- scribed as a man of ability, but in his first two charges he had much to struggle with. When he left Riccarton the cause was in a depressed state, and after a vacancy of a year the people petitioned to have the Rev. John Lawson, formerly of Dumfries, located among them for six months. This was agreed to, and after that period had expired he continued to preach occasionally at Riccarton for some months longer. After he left steps were taken to provide funds for the securing of a fixed ministry, the ordinary revenue not being sufficient for that purpose. A society designed to include the whole congregation was formed, the male members to contribute two- pence, and the females one penny per week. They numbered 170, and the sum raised should have amounted at least to ,57. The way was now clear for a moderation. Second Minister. JAMES KIRKWOOD, M.A., son of the Rev. John Kirk- wood, Strathaven. Ordained, 25th July 1811, the stipend to be ^100, with house, garden, and ^10 for sacramental expenses. Under Mr Kirkwood there could not fail to be rapid progress, and in 1815 the congregation removed to the town of Kilmarnock, on the other side of the river, the materials of the old church being utilised for the erection of the new build- ing. It cost ^800, and the outlay was partly provided for on the proprietor system. Those who subscribed \ and upwards were 96 in number, and as ,400 was required before commencing operations their contribu- tions must have averaged at least ,4 each. These parties had their choice of sittings, coming down the list in order, and to them afterwards belonged the fixing of the minister's stipend, and the seat rents. In 1818 Mr Kirk- wood declined an invitation to succeed his father at Strathaven, but on 2nd December of that year he accepted St James' Place, Edinburgh. Third Minister. WILLIAM LIMONX, from Hutchesontown, Glasgow. Ordained, 3rd May 1820. The stipend was to be ,160, but the congrega- 292 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS tion empowered the managers to pay other .10. On 3rd July 1821 Mr Limont accepted a call to College Street, Edinburgh. An increase of stipend to .200 had been promised, but that did not detain him in Kil- marnock. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER HARVEY, from Lanark. Ordained, 22nd August 1822, after declining a call to Dundee (now Dudhope Road). The stipend was .160 in all, which gradually rose to ^220. On New Year's Day 1828 Mr Harvey accepted a call to Gallon, Glasgow, a congregation which needed building up, and in which he made himself a name. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM M'DOUGALL, from Campbeltown, where he had been five years. Inducted, 26th August 1828. The stipend was .210, with house rent. Mr M'DougalFs powers of pulpit oratory were then at their best, and on I4th April a new church on the same site was opened, with 1493 sittings, all of which were already let. The cost was ,4000, and the building was described as the first dissenting church in Scotland which had a bell, and the second which had a steeple. In 1836 the communicants were put at 980, of whom 62 were from Riccarton, and an equal number in all from Craigie, Symington, and Kilmaurs. There was a debt of ^3600 on the property. On ist March 1842 Mr M'Dougall accepted Thread Street, Paisley, to succeed Professor Thomson as minister there. Everything betokens that Kilmarnock congregation had not kept up the full swell of prosperity to the close. The stipend, for one thing, was now fixed at .180. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM RAMAGE, from Roberton. Having declined Cupar (Provost Wynd) he was ordained, 26th October 1842, the call being- signed by 470 members and 140 seat-holders. In 1846 the congregation decided by 365 votes against 118 that '"feeling was not ripe for Union between the Relief and Secession Churches," but next year they intimated their unanimous approval. On 22nd April 1847 Mr Ramage accepted East Campbell Street, Glasgow. Seventh Minister. JOHN SYMINGTON, translated from Bread Street, Edinburgh, after two years of successful labour. At the moderation 234 voted for Mr Symington and 190 for Mr Matthew Dickie, probationer, afterwards of Cumnock. Inducted, I4th December 1847. In 1851 the debt on the property had its remaining balance cleared off. In 1871 Mr Sym- ington became utterly enfeebled, and on I2th December a moderation for a colleague was granted, the senior minister to have ,150 of stipend, and the junior ,200, but on the 1 5th he died, in the seventy-first year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry. Eighth Minister. ALEXANDER BROWN, from Longridge. Ordained, igth March 1872. The call was signed by 503 members and 131 adherents. In 1876 Mr Brown declined a call to Cambuslang, but on 22nd May 1877 he accepted North Leith, to be colleague to Dr Harper. Ninth Minister. THOMAS WHITELAW, M.A., translated from Cathedral Street, Glasgow, where he had been ten and a half years. Inducted, 3rd January 1878. At the close of the following year King Street had a mem- bership of 780, and the stipend was ,450. In 1883 Mr Whitelaw published a volume, entitled " How is the Divinity of Jesus depicted in the Gospels and Epistles?" and he received the degree of D.D W from St Andrews University in time to enter the letters on the title-page. Of the works mentioned here, this is the one which, in our opinion, best brings out where Dr Whitelaw's strength lies. In 1880 he had published his " Pulpit Commentary on Genesis," and this was followed by "The Patriarchal Times "in 1887, "The Gospel of St John " in 1888, and "The Preacher's Commentary on Acts " in 1896. His studies in this line have prepared him PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 293 all the better for dealing with the Higher Criticism. The membership ot King Street Church at the time of the Union was about 820, and the stipend kept as before. KILMARNOCK, PRINCES STREET (UNITED SECESSION) WHEN Mr James Morison was ordained to the ministry of Clerk's Lane congregation there was a want of harmony. At the moderation he was carried over Mr James Robertson, afterwards of Newington, by 67 votes to 27, but the leaders of the minority contrived to let him know that about 140 members and 50 adherents were far from satisfied. Of the seven elders, three signed this communication, while the other four were decidedly in his favour. There were thus conflicting elements at work in the church already, and when Mr Morison's Case came before the Presbytery on 2nd March 1841 a memorial was read from 41 members and 9 adherents complaining of the strange doctrines preached by their minister, and asking relief from their trying situation. This party was granted sermon at once, and met at first for Sabbath services in the hall of the George Inn. When Mr Morison returned from Glasgow, with the Presbytery's sentence of suspension con- firmed by the Synod, he called a meeting of session, at which four of the members voted to disregard the edict of the Supreme Court, but against this decision the other two who were present protested. At this point there was the formal parting asunder. The minority were said to number about 100. The building of a church had now to be proceeded with, as the property in Clerk's Lane went with the majority. But, though few in number, the party would be zealous, and the appeal to sister congregations for aid would in some cases be warmly responded to. The church, with sittings for 750, was finished in 1842, and the only aid they received from central funds, so far as we can discover, was in May of that year, when the Synod granted them ,20. First Minister. DAVID T. JAMIESON, called from Busby, where he had founded the congregation and laboured for six years. Inducted, 2nd November 1842. The call was signed by only 84 members, but there was steady increase under Mr Jamieson. In 1858 he published " Scenes of Youth Revisited," a poem marked by pleasing sentiment and rapid, graceful versification. On nth July 1870 Mr Jamieson, being permanently in- capacitated, resigned on an annuity of ^70 from the congregation, and his demission was accepted on nth October. He died, 5th September 1875, aged sixty-seven, having suffered much from chronic bronchitis in his closing years. A tablet to his memory in Princes Street Church speaks of him as having been "an able, esteemed, and successful minister of Jesus Christ." Six months after Mr Jamieson retired the congregation called Mr W. R. Inglis, now of Kelso (East), but the Rev. G. H. Dick, then of Stock- bridge, had a large following, and the minority, headed by half the elders and managers, did not acquiesce. The Presbytery sustained the call, but they notified to Mr Inglis how matters stood, and he decided not to accept. This was followed by a comfortable settlement in due time. Second Minister. JAMES L. MURRAY, from Aberdeen (St Nicholas'). Called also to Loancnds, Ireland, and Tranent. Ordained, 5th March 1872. The call was signed by 183 members, and the stipend was ,165, besides the ^70 paid to the former minister. In two years ^30 was added in name of house rent, and in 1879 there was a membership of 465. The stipend was ^300, and a recently built manse besides. On loth April 1883 Mr Murray accepted a call to Dennistoun, Glasgow, to be colleague to the Rev. Walter Roberts, but in reality to the sole pastorate. 294 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Third Minister. ROBERT J. DRUMMOND, B.D., son of the Rev. Dr Drummond, Belhaven, Glasgow. Ordained, 3oth October 1883, and loosed, 7th October 1890, on accepting a call to Lothian Road, Edinburgh, to be colleague to Dr Reid. There was a membership now of 649, and the funds afforded a stipend of ,350. Fourth Minister. ROBERT LAW, B:D., from Mearns, where he had been ordained six years before. Inducted, 26th May 1891, and loosed, isth June 1897, on accepting a call to Bridge of Allan, to succeed the Rev. G. A. Johnston Ross as colleague to the Rev. James Muir. During Mr Law's ministry there had been further increase, the communion roll now reaching 700. Fifth Minister. JOSEPH HlBBS, M.A., from Leslie (West), after a ministry of four years. Inducted, 25th January 1898. At the close of the following year Princes Street Church had a membership of 732, and the stipend was .438, and a manse. KILMARNOCK, HOLM (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) IN 1854 the Rev. James Banks, who had retired from the ministry of Canal Street, Paisley, five years before in broken health, intimated to the Pres- bytery of Kilmarnock that he was acting as a missionary in the town. A man of great devotedness, and a born evangelist, this was the element in which he lived and moved, and Kilmarnock was the place in which he had been similarly engaged when a student. On 6th December 1862 the fruit of his labours appeared in a petition from 56 persons to be formed into a congregation in the mission district known as Holm of Riccarton. But difficulties having arisen in connection with the proposed transference of the property, this led to the petition being withdrawn and further pro- cedure arrested. But Mr Banks was not the man to have his energies tied down by Church forms, and accordingly in June following he congregated the people on his own responsibility. In October the Presbytery took into consideration a letter received from him at a former meeting intimating his withdrawal from the fellowship of the U.P. Church, and, being present, he was asked if he thought he had done wrong in taking matters into his own hands ; but he answered that, if he were in the same circumstances, he might do the same thing again. This led to the Presbytery declaring him out of connection. There was a pause now, but on I3th June 1865 Mr Banks came forward, acknowledging his error, and expressing an earnest wish to be restored. His congregation had already applied to be received into fellowship, and, knowing his high-toned character, the Presbytery had no difficulty in granting his request. On nth July minister and people were taken under the inspection of the Presbytery, and, the pastoral tie being regarded as already formed, Mr Banks received the right hand of fellowship, and took his seat as a member of Court. At this time there were 73 names on the communion roll, and an average attendance of about 250, "nearly all poor, and most of them very poor." For office-bearers they had three elders and three deacons, and, as Mr Banks was finding himself unable to discharge the duties of pastor and missionary, the people were desirous to obtain a suitable colleague for him. The hall in which they met accommodated 250, and had been built at a cost of ^500. It was free of debt, a grant having been obtained from the Ferguson Bequest Fund, and friends throughout the Church, who sympathised with evangelistic work of the kind, lending their aid John Henderson, Esq. of Park, being a large contributor. The property was held by Mr Banks, but he intended to make it over to the congregation, PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 295 as was done in due time. In April 1866 Mr Samuel Henderson, a preacher of experience in Home Mission work, entered on a year's location at Holm, but withdrew at the expiry of that time.* In making further arrangements the people were desirous that Mr Banks, though retiring from active labour, should retain the status of senior minister, but his demission was accepted on nth February 1868. He had already been received as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. After remaining in his old sphere of labour for a time he removed to Saltcoats, where he officiated as an elder in his native congregation (now Trinity), and in that capacity appeared in Edinburgh, on at least one occasion, as a member of Synod, his tall, vener- able form attracting attention. He died, 29th August 1890, in his eighty- eighth year. After Mr Banks retired the station was for some time wrought by Mr David F. Mitchell, a senior student, afterwards of Kirkcowan, but he resigned in the early part of 1872 on receiving licence. The grant of ^50 from the Home Mission Fund was still continued, and in view of a settled ministry the people would try to raise 77, los. of stipend, a sum which proved too much for them. This, with 20 from the Ferguson Fund and a Supplement of ^60, would make ,157, ios., which was close on the minimum. They now called Mr Douglas K. Auchterlonie, who declined, and was settled next year at Craigdam. Second Minister. WILLIAM R. INGLIS, son of the Rev. John Inglis, Blackswell, Hamilton. The call was signed by 75 members and 68 ad- herents, and Mr Inglis had this in his favour that he was the choice of a majority in Princes Street Church the year before. Ordained, gth September 1873, and loosed, 9th February 1875, on accepting a call to Kelso, to be colleague to the Rev. James Jarvie. The congregation now called the Rev. James R. Cruickshanks, formerly of Westray, and afterwards of St Rollox, Glasgow. As Mr Cruickshanks had only supplied one Sabbath the question was raised whether the Revs, on the probationer list did not come under the same rule as other preachers, who required to be heard two Sabbaths to be made eligible. The Presbytery, however, sustained the call, but it was declined. Third Minister. WILLIAM CUTHBERTSON, from Abbey Close, Paisley. Ordained at Portadown, in Ireland, on I5th July 1868, after declining Shapin- shay, in Orkney, which might have proved a more comfortable place. After holding on for nearly six years he resigned on 2nd June 1874, and returned to the probationer list. Inducted to Holm, I4th September 1875, the membership being only a little over 70, and the stipend from the people .72, ios. In 1877 the minds of minister and congregation were turned towards the erection of a church on a different site, a proposal to which Mr Banks was much opposed, and after vacillating for three years they resolved to pull down their hall, and build on the old site. The new church was opened, ist June 1881, with sittings for nearly 500. The Board made a grant of ^300, and the entire cost was ^1600. The membership was now over 90, but with this additional burden to face the stipend had to remain as before. Mr Cuthbertson died, 25th October 1891, in the fifty-fourth year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. There was now a membership of 140, and Mr Cuthbertson had the satisfaction of seeing the commodious church free of debt before the end came. Fourth Minister. JOHN CAIRNS, from Duns (South). Ordained, 22nd * Mr Henderson was from Barrhead congregation. Soon after leaving Kilmar- nock he contracted serious illness, when fulfilling an appointment in Ireland, and died, 23rd September 1867, in his thirty-fifth year. 296 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS March 1892. Before the close of the year the communion roll had risen to 200. In 1895 the congregation sustained harm by the withdrawal of six elders, the entire session except two. There had been disagreement over financial matters, and at a congregational meeting a vote of No confidence in the above parties was carried almost unanimously, a course of action rather too common when the ecclesiastical atmosphere gets into an electric state. The Presbytery held that these men were in the right when the quarrel began, but, as they offered to withdraw to save further trouble, the offer was turned to account, and the matter took end. In the Returns for that year there was a decline of 37 in the membership, and the ground lost at that time has never been quite regained. At the close of 1899 the numbers were 219, and the stipend from the people was NEWMILNS (ANTIBURGHER) ON 1 5th June 1767 a petition from 37 persons in the parish of Loudoun was laid before the Antiburgher Presbytery of Glasgow. It bore that they were grieved and deeply dissatisfied with the arbitrary measures adopted by the National Church, and owing to "their clamant situation" they craved supply of sermon, and wished to have converse with some of the ministers. Though this language implies that the parties were acceding to the Seces- sion for the first time they were told that, as they were within the bounds of Kilmaurs, they would have to send up the paper through the session of that congregation. At next meeting, the application being not only trans- mitted but concurred in, Mr Smyton was appointed to preach at Newmilns on the third Sabbath of July. Services followed at the rate of one Sabbath a month, or thereby, for several years, but they were held at Darvel, and not at Newmilns.. In 1773 the first church was built, with sittings for 400. It is described as having been a long, barn-shaped house, with a wooden stair at each end leading to the galleries. First Minister. JAMES GREIG, from Ceres (West). In 1768 Mr Greig was taken on trials for licence in view of being sent as a missionary to Pennsylvania, but he held back, and after a time got quit of the engage- ment. Ordained at Newmilns, 3oth November 1773. 1 tne interim the Synod had seen reason to admonish him " to keep up his dignity as a preacher" ; but nothing of the kind was ever required again, and in a brief biographical notice which appeared in the Christian Magazine it is stated that, though his manner of address in the pulpit was not very agreeable, the congregation prospered under his ministrations, and from a mere handful "grew into a multitude of people." He died, igth June 1813, in the seventy- sixth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. The congregation had called Mr James Reid fifteen months before this to be his colleague, and the Synod had preferred Newmilns to Crieff by a majority of two, but Mr Reid firmly refused submission to the appointment, and was afterwards ordained at Sanquhar. Second Minister. JOHN BRUCE, M.A., from Glasgow (now Cathedral Square), a nephew of Professor Bruce of Whitburn. Ordained, ist May 1816. There was a strong, well-compacted session of twelve elders at this time. In 1833 the present church was built, with sittings for 780, and some years afterwards the membership was given at 470. In 1835 Mr Bruce published two discourses bearing on the Voluntary Controversy, and in 1847 he received the degree of D.D. from Washington College, Penn- sylvania. In 1862 a colleague had to be arranged for, who was to receive PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 297 .130 of stipend, and Dr Bruce ,100, with the manse, it being understood that the work would be equally divided between the two ministers. Third Minister. ANDREW ALSTON, from Strathaven (East). Called previously to Gardenstown, and ordained at Newmilns, 28th April 1863. At the moderation a goodly number voted for Mr George Graham,* but the call was signed by 227 members. On i/th July 1865 Dr Bruce's jubilee was celebrated, when he was presented with ,550 and a marble timepiece. His kinsman, Dr W. Bruce Robertson of Irvine, preached, and the pre- sentation was made by David M 'Cowan, Esq., Glasgow, son-in-law of a departed co-Presbyter, the Rev. John Walker of Mauchline. For other six years Dr Bruce took his share of regular ministerial work ; but on the last Sabbath of August 1871 he appeared in the pulpit for the last time, when he discoursed from the text with the closing words : " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." That week he had a severe stroke of paralysis, and he died, isth April 1872, in the eighty-first year of his age and fifty- sixth of his ministry. Dr Bruce was married to a daughter of Dr Ferrier of Paisley, and he had four sons-in-law in the ministry of the U.P. Church the Rev. Alexander Millar of Huntly ; the Rev. William Cochrane, formerly of Muckart ; the Rev. James Martin, Carronhall, Jamaica ; and his colleague at Newmilns. His son Thomas in 1862, when a probationer, appeared as the author of a volume, entitled " Man's Part in the Chorus of Creation," which was much commended at the time. He afterwards emigrated to New Zealand, where he still lives, and is engaged in farming. Another son was preparing for the ministry, but he died after finishing his second session at the University. In 1873 a f w f I^ r Bruce's sermons and com- munion addresses were published, with an Autobiography, brief but of much interest, prefixed. Mr Alston being now sole pastor his stipend was raised to ,175, with the manse, but before the end of the year he was called to Garscube Road, Glasgow (now St George's Road). He remained in Newmilns, however, other four years, and then accepted a call to Cathcart Road (now Govan- hill) on I2th December 1876. When the next moderation was applied for the people came up spontaneously to ,200, and the manse, a figure which the Presbytery had named without effect years before. Fourth Minister. JOHN T. BURTON, M.A., from Lesmahagow. Or- dained, 3rd July 1877, the call being signed by 303 members and 91 adherents. Six years after this Mr Burton took the foremost part in originating Darvel congregation, though it was to cut off a large branch from his own church, and accordingly we find the membership of New- milns reduced from 440 members in 1883 to 320 in 1884. On loth February 1885 Mr Burton accepted Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Fifth Minister. JAMES W. DALGLEISH, M.A., from Gorebridge. Or- dained, ist September 1885. Since then the losses of the preceding year have been much made up for, so that in December 1899 there was a membership of 417, and the stipend since 1890 has been ^250, besides the manse. * George Graham was from Abbey Close, Paisley. He and his younger brother, James, afterwards of Droughty Ferry, were licensed together by Paisley Presbytery in January 1 86 1. He had Newmilns for one of his vacancies the last quarter of 1862, and his name never appeared on the preachers' list again. He caught a severe cold in the North, which brought his work to an end. He was henceforth a confirmed invalid, spending his winters generally in the south of France. But the ailment pre- vailed at last. He died at Edinburgh, I2th December 1870, in the thirty-eighth year of his age. He was a brother of Professor Graham of the English Presbyterian Col- lege, London. 298 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS IRVINE (RELIEF) THIS congregation comes up full formed in the earliest minutes of Glasgow Relief Presbytery. On 1 8th August 1773 it is entered that they petitioned for sermon ; but there is nothing to indicate that this was the first time, and Dr Struthers puts the origin back to 1771. The Rev. John Craig, then of Newlands, gave the history of the congregation with superabounding details in the Christian Journal for 1842 ; but, though he speaks of the parish minister as not generally acceptable, he had been twenty years in Irvine at this time, and there was no special grievance to prompt a disruption. Still, Relief principles must have been embraced by a considerable number of the parishioners, and they had a place of worship, with 700 sittings, ready to be taken possession of in 1773. I n April 1775 they invited the Rev. Thomas Monteith of Alnwick, who had been previously in the Relief Church, Duns, to become their minister, but after some negotiations with the Presbytery he declined acceptance. First Minister. JAMES JACK, from the Burgher Church, Dunblane. Ordained, 29th April 1777. In July he gave in to the Presbytery a list of persons to serve as elders, and in September he reported their ordination. Success attended the labours of their first minister, but he died on 2oth January 1782, in the thirty-third year of his age and fifth of his ministry. It was fever, and the announcement that all was over was made to the congrega- tion by his substitute in the forenoon of the communion Sabbath. A time- worn tombstone, which has probably disappeared long ere now, used to reveal dimly where he was buried. His ministry, though brief, gave the Relief cause a standing in Irvine, which it retained through good and through bad report. Second Minister. HUGH WHITE, whose name occurs in the list of students who joined the Burgher Hall in 1770. According to Dr Thomson of Paisley he was a native of St Ninians,* and, if so, he was probably brought up in Erskine Church, Stirling. But it was as a licentiate of the Established Church that he was recommended by Mr Bell of Glasgow for admission to the Relief, and having preached before Glasgow Presbytery he was unanimously received as one of their probationers. A call to Irvine followed, where he was ordained, 3rd July 1782. Mr White's history now merges in that of the Buchanites, over which we cannot afford to linger. Under the tuition of Elspeth Buchan, who became an inmate of his dwelling, Mr White proved himself an apt scholar, and he lost no time in giving his people the benefit. On 3oth June 1783 several members of his congregation tabled a petition and complaint against their minister on the score of fantastic doctrine. The Presbytery met on 8th July to take up the case. On two points they found him decidedly heretical. He boldly maintained that there is sin neither in the believer's soul nor in his body, though sin cleaves unto both, and being asked by the Moderator if the bodies of Old Testament saints were temples of the Holy Ghost, as well as those of the New, he replied that he believed they were not. He was now suspended from office, and the church pronounced vacant. On 8th October the Presbytery met to hear his defences, a libel having been previously put into his hands. Mr White appeared, but he had no written answers pre- pared, the reason he assigned being that he was commanded to take no thought what he should say. Evidence that he had preached and baptised since his suspension was then adduced, and after he had " vindicated in the strongest manner both the errors and the contumacy laid to his charge " it was carried unanimously to depose him from the office of the ministry. * Christian Journal for 1835, p. 9. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 299 They wished to intimate the sentence to him, but, though called "three times at the most patent door," he had gone beyond their reach. After the Buchanite delusion collapsed he went to America ; but at this point he passes from our view, as he had previously passed from the view of the Presbytery. Third Minister. PETER ROBERTSON, from the Cameronian Church, Gallon, Glasgow. Ordained, 2nd November 1784. He accepted the call on the express understanding that he would not require ''to exercise "on Sabbath evenings, or, in other words, conduct a third service. In 1789 the old church was taken down, and another, with 938 sittings, built in its place. A few years after this the Old Statistical History makes the number of adult parishioners belonging to the Relief meeting-house about 240, and the stipend ^70. If this calculation is correct the communion roll must have been largely made up from other parishes. Mr Robertson died, 3Oth January 1819, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. Dr Craig has described him as a preacher of free and sovereign grace, often put in a highly evangelical form. His defect, he adds, con- sisted in this, that he confined himself almost exclusively to didactic discus- sions on doctrinal points, and, drawing on early recollections, he adds that during his latter years " he became very monotonous, as if each discourse had just been the reconstruction of the preceding." At his death the church was in course of enlargement, having been found too small for the increas- ing congregation. Fourth Minister. ARCHIBALD M'LAREN, from Dovehill, Glasgow (now Kelvingrove). Ordained, 2gth March 1820. The congregation had been much disturbed towards the close of Mr Robertson's ministry on the subject of Church Psalmody, but the storm was allayed through a leading elder, who was bitterly opposed to the introduction of new tunes, throwing himself overboard. Mr M'Laren, so far as appears, had a peaceful course, and he certainly left the congregation strong in numbers. He died on nth September 1841, in the fifty-seventh year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. In the sermon preached on the occasion by the Rev. Robert Brodie of Glasgow he is not credited with profundity of learning or powers of eloquence, but there was consistency of deportment as well as faithful and kindly work alike among young and old. The congregation on proceeding to choose another pastor found them- selves much divided. A majority resolved to apply for a moderation, but an opposing petition was signed by 10 elders, 17 managers, and 239 communicants. The Presbytery now arranged for a meeting at Irvine, when 216 voted to go on and 176 to delay. The Presbytery paused for the time, but a month afterwards they yielded to the wishes of the majority, and this resulted in a divided call to Mr Bryce Kerr, afterwards of Largo, signed by 296 members and 151 adherents. The Presbytery finding the two parties almost equally balanced resolved to set the call aside. They thus placed themselves between two fires, 266 complaining to the Synod against the moderation having been granted, and 285 complaining that the call had not been prosecuted. The Synod disapproved of the Presbytery's action in the former case but confirmed their decision in the other. In a few months the congregation called Mr Alexander M'l.eod unanimously, but he pre- ferred Strathaven (West). Fifth Minister. JAMES DRUMMOND, translated from Provost Wynd, Cupar, where he had been ordained fourteen months before. Mr Drummond had been the minority's candidate when Mr Bryce Kerr carried. The present call was unanimous, and it was signed by 336 members and 168 adherents, the communion roll having been reduced through recent with- 3 oo HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS drawals. Inducted, 2ist March 1844, the stipend to be ^145. Under Mr Drummond everything progressed satisfactorily, but the numerical losses through contention were not made up for, and have never been. He died, gth July 1867, in the sixty-second year of his age and twenty-fifth of his ministry. Dr William Robertson, we read, was deeply affected by the loss of his friend and neighbour, and " outside the darkened home he ranked himself as chief mourner." Mr Drummond's son, then of Erskine Church, Glasgow, is now Dr Drummond of Belhaven Church. Sixth Minister. HENRY REID, M.A., from Glasgow (London Road). Ordained, 7th July 1868. The stipend was to be ,160, with ,15 for expenses, but no manse. The call was signed by 187 members and 30 adherents. In 1872 a manse was built at a cost of ^1140, of which the Board paid ,300. On 2nd March 1886 Mr Reid's demission, given in by letter, was accepted, and the Presbytery recorded his " having resigned his charge without assign- ing any reason and without craving extracts, and having immediately thereafter left the country." He emigrated to Australia, but we search in vain for his name on any clerical list there, and cannot even learn whether he is dead or alive. Seventh Minister. JOHN GRAY, B.D., from Wellington Church, Glasgow. Ordained, 23rd November 1886. The stipend was ,175, with the manse. On Thursday, 26th June 1890, the church was reopened by Principal Cairns, after undergoing a complete renovation. The cost, including the erection of a new hall, amounted to ^2200, of which only 200 remained to be raised. On 2nd July 1895 Mr Gray accepted a call to St George's Road, Glasgow. Eighth Afinister. ROBERT POLLOCK, B.Sc., from North Leith. Or- dained, 1 6th January 1896. At the close of 1899 the membership was 333, and the stipend ,190, wi'th the manse. IRVINE, TRINITY (BURGHER) UP till the year 1772 there was not a single Burgher congregation within the bounds of Ayrshire. At a prior date a family belonging to that side of the Secession removed from the banks of Loch Leven to Irvine, and were much inconvenienced through having no minister of their own persuasion within reach. They got over the difficulty so far by walking to the Antiburgher Church in Kilwinning, three miles distant, but when baptism was required a Burgher minister was brought from Burntshields, in Renfrewshire, which was not nearer than a dozen miles. In the above-named year a Burgher congregation was formed in Kilmarnock, but even that was eight miles distant. In Irvine the Relief had by this time a large congregation, but genuine Sececlers, even of the milder type, would be slow to identify them- selves with a Church which cared nothing for the Act and Testimony. No wonder though, amidst shiftings of population, the want of a Burgher Church in the place came to be felt by a growing number of the inhabitants. In Dr M'Kelvie's Annals it is stated that an attempt was made by the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow to meet these requirements so early as 1780, but that from want of encouragement supply had to be discontinued. In the Presbytery minutes no trace is to be found of such a thing till 3ist July 1792, when some people in and about Irvine presented a petition for sermon. Supply was granted for the second Sabbath of August, and con- tinued at the rate of about two days each month till May 1793, wh en Irvine disappears from the records. Two months before this another petition for sermon had come in from PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 301 Kilwinning. The applicants stated that there were 70 persons in or near that town who went occasionally to the Burgher churches of Saltcoats and Dairy, and that many others were expressing their earnest wish to have supply. Irvine people, looking apparently with favour on this new centre, were willing that the light which had been glimmering among them for the last nine months should go out. The Presbytery on I4th June granted sermon as desired, but owing to opposition from the minister and session of Dairy, three and a half miles off, the Burgher cause never was allowed free course at Kilwinning, and in a few years the quivering candlestick was shifted back to Irvine. On 24th February 1801 the petition from that place for sermon was renewed, and Kilwinning sank into silence. There was to be permanence now, though the beginnings were humble. The meeting-place for nine years was a malt barn, and until a fixed pastorate was obtained there could be little progress made. First Minister. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, from Greenock (now Trinity Church). Competing calls to Mr Campbell from Pitrodie and St Andrews had been before the Synod at its last meeting, and he was appointed to Pitrodie, but now Irvine came in, and necessitated a pause. The Synod's enactments were not like the laws of the Medes and Persians, and at next meeting the new claimant got the preference. Mr Campbell was ordained at Irvine, 22nd February 1809. The new church was opened some time that year, with 658 sittings. The call was signed by only 39 members, but it was concurred in by 112 who were not in full communion. But prosperity was to supervene, and "under Mr Campbell's ministry the congregation," as stated by his illustrious successor, "grew, first outwardly and then inwardly, for thirty years and more," until at his death there were over 500 names on the communion roll. He died, 2nd March 1843, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. Second Minister. WILLIAM B. ROBERTSON, from Stirling (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 26th December 1843. There were other three candi- dates proposed Messrs Hugh Darling, Robert Jeffrey, and Robert Reid but Mr Robertson had an absolute majority. The stipend was to be ^130, with expenses, and the call was signed by 346 members and 80 adherents. To transfer the brilliancy which followed' into the Historical Annals of a congregation would be like transforming poetry into the merest prose. Leaving the ethereal side of the subject to the Biographies of the Poet- Preacher, by Dr James Brown and Mr Arthur Guthrie, we state instead that Mr Robertson was called to the newly-formed congregation of Shamrock Street, Glasgow, in 1851, the promised stipend to begin with being ,320, and the call was renewed ten years later. Mr Robertson was also called to Regent Place, Glasgow, in 1861, but though in all these cases strong pressure was used to tempt acceptance he decided to remain at Irvine. The declinature in 1851 led to the building of a manse, the first which the congregation possessed, and now their triumphant gladness aimed at higher things. Trinity Church, which cost ^7000, was resolved on and carried through. It was opened by Dr Cairns of Berwick on 29th December 1863, sittings 750. In 1869 the University of Glasgow conferred on Mr Robertson the degree of D.D. In the Presbytery minutes Dr Robertson is entered as having presided at the ordination of Mr M'Donald at Cumnock on loth January 1871, and with this service his regular work as a minister was wound up. He had returned from London a month before, bringing with him, as he expressed it, a weight of cold on throat and voice, and that morning he hurried to the train with neither topcoat nor plaid. Fully developed pleurisy supervened, and week after week he was swimming for life. The worst wore past, but as summer closed there had to be migration to 3 o2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS a warmer climate, while, as time went on, ability to resume his functions at Irvine became more and more a matter of hope deferred. Sympathy with the gifted invalid now took active form in the West, and without effort 5000 guineas were subscribed for a testimonial to Dr Robert- son. The moving spirits therein seem to have been Sir Peter Coats, Paisley, and Mr David M'Cowan, Glasgow. It was a rich tribute of admiration and affection. But now the wants of Trinity Church pulpit had to be perman- ently provided for, and a colleague to undertake the whole work was found to be indispensable. Accordingly, in 1874 the congregation called Mr William Muirhead, afterwards of Stranraer (West), and in the early part of 1875 Mr Armstrong Black, afterwards of Waterbeck, but both declined. The situation had its drawbacks, as there was reason for the apprehension that Dr Robertson would be everything in the people's estimation, and the colleague nowhere. Third Minister. GEORGE K. HEUGHAN, from Dalbeattie. Called also to Portadown, Ireland, and Auchterarder (North). Ordained at Irvine, i8th January 1876. The original arrangement was that Dr Robertson should have ,100 a year, with the manse, and the colleague ,200, including house rent, but when the third moderation was applied for the Doctor was among them again, and, thus inspirited, they added ^50 to the stipend of each minister. The strain this involved may have helped to induce restiveness, which, as appears from Dr Robertson's Life, began to work before a year had passed. Discontent was fanned by money difficulties ; the advice of the Presbytery was applied for ; and, to end the matter, Mr Heughan resigned. This step was taken, he explained, "in view of the divisions existing in Trinity Church, and the apparent hopelessness of either reconciling parties or continuing faithful ministerial work in the face of determined opposition." At a meeting of the congregation it carried by 1 1 1 to 107 to acquiesce, but a scrutiny of votes brought the numbers to exact equality. Such being the case, Mr Heughan adhered to his demission, and on 22nd October 1878 the connection was dissolved. Some of the junior minister's friends withdrew from the membership, and even Dr Robertson did not escape without re- proach. Next year Mr Heughan was inducted into Nairn. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM S. DICKIE, son of the Rev. Andrew Dickie, St Paul's, Aberdeen, and brother of the Rev. Matthew Dickie, Alva. Called previously to Peterhead, Buckie, and Wilson Church, Perth. Ordained, 5th August 1879, Dr Robertson presiding on the occasion. The stipend was to be ,250, with the manse, which Dr Robertson had now resigned. During the vacancy he also deemed it right to retire into the emeritus position, the congregation voting him ^100 a year. He now removed to Bridge of Allan, and thence to Westfield House, near West Calder, where he resided till near the end. He died at Bridge of Allan on 27th June 1886, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and forty-third of his ministerial life. Responding to the strains of the grand Passion Hymn, his last words were : " Yes, that will do." Thus passed away the man of rarest genius the U.P. Church in any of its sections ever possessed. The membership of Trinity Church in the last return before the Union was 244, and the stipend ,250, with the manse. DALRY (BURGHER) AT the time of the Breach the Burgher cause was weak in Ayrshire, where Mr Smyton of Kilmaurs and his entire session took the Antiburgher side. However, there were some who declared for the more liberal party, and on PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 303 ist August 1749 they petitioned the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow to take " their melancholy situation into serious consideration," as their pastor had deserted the foundation on which he stood when the relation between them commenced. They asked to be placed under the inspection of Mr Fisher or Mr M'Ara, Glasgow and Burntshields being the only Burgher churches at all within reach. It was arranged that there should be an interim relation between Mr M'Ara and them until they were in a position to call a minister for themselves. In this way, while the Antiburghers in the northern division of Ayrshire kept by Kilmaurs, the Burghers gravitated north to Burntshields, which was outside the county altogether. At his ordination Mr Smyton had been appointed to preach six Sabbaths each year at Dairy, eight miles dis- tant, but now the small number of baptisms entered in the Kilmaurs list from that district indicates that the greater number of families had passed from under his care. Messrs Wilson and Fisher had held week-day services there in 1736, and on Wednesday, 2nd May 1739, Messrs James Thomson and Ralph Erskine " preached to a very numerous auditory," when observing a Fast in the place. We are thus prepared to find a branch of Kilmaurs con- gregation in Dairy and adjacent parishes. For thirty-two years the Burghers in this part of Ayrshire claimed mem- bership with Burntshields, though the distance for most of them must have been incompatible with regular attendance. Hence the Burgher family in Irvine spoken of already worshipped regularly with the Antiburghers at Kil- winning, but it was Mr M'Ara who baptised their children, and it would be with his congregation that they communicated. But on 28th July 1779 some people in Dairy petitioned the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow for sermon, which was granted them on three stray Sabbaths. Similar applications followed, but it was not till July 1785 that regular appointments began. A church, with 500 sittings, was now in course of erection, and by the end of the year it furnished them with shelter, but nothing more. At the Synod in May 1790 a translating call to the Rev. John Jaffray of Dalkeith came up to the Synod from Dairy, but his state of health, which developed into insanity, was such that the Synod came to no decision, but remitted the case to Edinburgh Presbytery. Dairy people may have been influenced in their choice by the fact that he was a brother of Mr Jaffray, the popular Burgher minister of Kilmarnock, but it was well for them that he was continued in Dalkeith. But some time before this Dairy became the seat of another congrega- tion, which had a history not to be overlooked. There the Antiburgher malcontents from around, who sympathised with Mr Smyton on the Lifter question, pitched their encampment. Their minister was Mr John Gemmell, who seems from his own showing to have been under Mr Smyton's tuition, and was probably brought up in his congregation. There being no vestige of the Lifter Presbytery's minutes in existence we only know that Mr Gemmell was in Dairy in September 1789. He disagreed with Hunter of Falkirk on what was called the Double Sonship, keeping closely by orthodox lines, and a pamphlet he published in 1791, to which we are indebted for some curious information, seems to have brought the Lifter Presbytery to an end. Of Mr Gemmell we have gathered the following particulars, partly from trans-Atlantic sources : The stipend promised him at Dairy, but seldom paid, was ^40, and to supplement this he went in for Medicine. For three sessions we have him walking in to Glasgow, twenty-five miles, every Monday morning, and walking back on Saturday, attending classes during the week, and preaching twice on Sabbath. From under this double burden he emerged with the degree of M.D. Later on he established a printing office at Beith, which occupied much of his attention, and sent forth books which have brought down his name on their title-page. The con- 3 o 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS gregation, which had stood solitary for nearly thirty years, applied in 1819 to the Constitutional Presbytery for admission, but they were told that, with regard to the taking or non-taking of the elements before consecration, a decision on either side would be making a new term of communion in the Secession body. In 1822 Dr Gemmell left Dairy, and emigrated to America. He became minister of a congregation in Lanark, Ontario, but his name is found on the list of no Presbytery. He died in 1844. When he left Dairy his congregation there broke up. An aged lady, with whom I conversed on the matter, remembered little more than this, that towards the close the people had frequent meetings and "a great deal of quarrelling." It was the spirit of Bryce Kerr, the champion of the Ayrshire Lifters, lingering among them. (See Beith, Mitchell Street.) First Minister. GEORGE RUSSELL, from Cambusnethan, where his grandfather was one of the first Secession elders. The Presbytery of Glasgow in October 1789 appointed Mr Russell to Largs in preference to Dairy, but opposition having arisen he refused to comply. Then Dairy called him a second time, and he was ordained there, 2gth March 1791. The stipend was to be .50, with a free house, but the Presbytery stipulated fora rise as soon as galleries were put up. In 1793 there was an attempt to form a Burgher congregation at Kilwinning, about four miles off, but Dairy session pleaded that this would deprive them of 10 or 12 members, and the Presbytery found they had only 112 in all. The movement, after being tried for a year or two, was abandoned. In 1803 the revenue from all sources was ,30, the stipend as at first ^50, with a free house, and the members about 130. But it is attested that the congregation gained strength by the accession of Antiburgher families who for convenience came in at the Union of 1820. Mr Russell died, 5th May 1832, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-second of his ministry, leaving a good name behind him " for humility, simplicity, and godly sincerity." A harmonious call was addressed soon after to Mr James Robertson, preacher, but as he let it be known that he preferred Portsburgh, Edinburgh, Dairy people disdained to press their claim. Then they made choice of Mr James Towers, who accepted Wigtown. Second Minister. DAVID HENDERSON, from Dunfermline (Chalmers Street). Called about the same time to the two Dalrys, the one in Galloway, and the other in Ayrshire. Having preferred the latter he was ordained there, gth April 1834. The call was signed by 152 members and 42 ad- herents, and the stipend in all was to be .115. Resigned his charge on 3ist May 1842, and became Chaplain in Gillespie's Hospital, Edinburgh. He died at Innellan, where his son was minister, on 28th June 1871, in the seventy-third year of his age. Third Minister. JOHN DUFF, previously of Newarthill. Inducted, 26th July 1843. The callers were almost exactly one-half the number who signed on the last occasion, but the stipend was to be ^uo in all. After ministering at Dairy for nearly six years Mr Duff resigned his charge, having resolved on emigrating to America, and was loosed, 27th March 1849. He stated that he had lived in great harmony with his people, and their engagements with him had been honourably fulfilled. They on their part regretted the step he was taking, but as he had seen this to be his duty they would not stand in the way. In Canada he ministered at first to the united congregations of Albion and Vaughan, but in October 1851 he was translated to Elora and Nichol, in the Presbytery of Flamboro. He was living as a retired minister at Elora in 1883, and he died there, i8th September 1888, in the eighty-second year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 305 Fourth Minister. GEORGE MORRIS, from Cairneyhill. Mr Morris during a brief probationership received calls to Dalreoch, Largo, Kirriemuir (West), and Coupar-Angus (formerly Relief, and nosv E.U.). These were in succession declined. Ordained at Dairy, gth July 1850. The call was signed by 185 members and 42 adherents, and the stipend was to be ^100, with manse and garden. The population of the town was 2700 at this time, but it increased a third in ten years, and then tended to decline. In 1867 the manse was improved at a cost of ,350, for which the Board granted ^50, and twelve years later the membership was 338, and the stipend ,190. In September 1899 Mr Morris, who was in the fiftieth year of his ministry, and had required regular assistance for a considerable time, resolved to retire, the people granting him ^60 a year, with the manse. Fifth Minister. JOHN THOMSON, M.A., from Buckhaven. Ordained, 28th November 1899, as colleague and successor to Mr Morris, the stipend from the people to be ^190 in all. The membership at this time was 341. SALTCOATS, TRINITY (RELIEF) APPLICATION was made to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow on 25th June 1781 by a respectable body of people in the parishes of Ardrossan and West Kilbride to be received as a forming congregation, and Mr Kerr of Bellshill was appointed to preach at Saltcoats and converse with the applicants on his way to assist at Irvine communion. The report he and other members of Presbytery gave in being favourable, they were received on 23rd July, and next year their first place of worship, described as a very plain structure, closely seated, was taken possession of. Saltcoats, most of which was then in the parish of Stevenston, thus became the centre of the congregation. The parish minister of West Kilbride, the Rev. Arthur Oughterson, has his name entered along with that of Ferguson of Kilwinning as one of a group of Ayrshire ministers who carried Moderatism to the verge of Socinianism. A number of his parishioners were now taking part in seeking a full-orbed gospel for themselves elsewhere. First Minister. DAVID EWING, who had been brought up under the ministry of the Rev. William Cruden, but afterwards belonged to Dovehill Church, Glasgow. Ordained, 28th April 1784. The call was signed by 106 members, and the stipend was to be ^70, with 1 additional for each com- munion. In 1786 a peculiar question was referred by the session to the Presbytery. They wished advice as to the terms on which they were to admit members of the Established Church to occasional communion. The answer was that they should ascertain whether such persons approved of intrusion settlements, legal doctrine, and other abuses in the Establishment, and, if they did, let them be excluded, but if they looked on these evils as a burden and a grief let them be admitted. The Relief Church being on the ground before either the Burghers or the Antiburghers came forward, this secured them a marked ascendency ; hence while the Old Statistical History in 1793 assigned 80 families in Stevenston parish to the Relief, it only gave 14 to the two sections of Seceders between them. Mr Ewing at this time had families from Kilwinning and Dairy, as well as from the immediate locality. He died, 1 5th June 1833, in the eightieth year of his age and fiftieth of his ministry. He published in 1813 a little book, entitled " Vindica- tion of Gospel Truth," in opposition to errors contained in the writings of a local heretic. Mr Ewing left two sons in the ministry James of Partick (now Newton Place), and John, who was long a preacher.* * John Ewing entered the Divinity Hall of the Relief Church in 1827. After II. U 3 o6 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Second Minister. JAMES GIFKEN, from Southend, Kintyre. Ordained as colleague to Mr Ewing, 26th July 1831. The senior minister was to have ^50, and the junior .70. The congregation had previously given an unsuc- cessful call to Mr Alexander M'Coll, who five years after became minister of Bankhill, Berwick.* In 1836 Mr Giffen gave the communicants at 311. A new church had been built in 1832 at a cost of slightly under ^500, with sittings for 650. The debt that remained on the property was ^150, and the minister's stipend, including everything, was ^,106. Mr Giffen's demission of his charge was accepted, loth November 1863, and he died, 2ist March 1870, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. A sermon of his remains in print, entitled " Lessons taught by the Desolations made on the Earth." It wa's preached in 1832, a year when the destroying angel was abroad. Third Minister. GEORGE PHILP, from Bethelfield, Kirkcaldy. Ordained, 6th September 1864, having declined Dubbieside two years before. The stipend was .120, and a capacious manse was added in 1870 at a cost of ^1085, the people raising .785, and the Board allowing ,300. In 1869 Mr Philp was called to Glengarnock, a young congregation which he had done much to foster, but he preferred to remain in Saltcoats. After a long struggle with shattered health Mr Philp died, 4th March 1889, in the sixtieth year of his age and twenty-fifth of his ministry. For eighteen years he was Clerk to Kilmarnock Presbytery before and after Ayr Presbytery was formed, and at his death the two Presbyteries bore united testimony to the respect and affection with which they regarded him. Those who knew him best recall with pensive interest his sympathetic spirit and his fidelity to duty in all its forms. Fourth Minister. JAMES D. TAYLOR, translated from Kilwinning, where his fourteen years of devoted service had gained for him a good degree. He was inducted to Saltcoats on Tuesday, 6th August 1889. The new church was opened on the preceding Friday at a cost of ^2400, with 450 sittings. Mr Philp had raised a large part of the money, and within two years the debt was cleared off, and a large hall built in the rear of the being six or seven years a preacher he caused trouble to Hamilton Presbytery by failing to fulfil Sabbath appointments, and by sending unlicensed persons to take his place. Ignoring repeated citations to attend he was suspended from preaching within their bounds. The Synod in 1840 approved of the sentence, and enacted that suspension in one Presbytery shall apply to all the Presbyteries of the Church. After a committee had dealt with Mr Ewing he was restored to a place on the probationer list, but some marked defect in his delivery precluded all hopes of a settlement. In 1845 he was again in conflict with Hamilton Presbytery. He had been dissatisfied with the talent he received from one of their congregations, and this led to corre- spondence, in which he was not careful to measure his language. Again there was suspension, which ended as before. Mr Ewing was long remembered for the strange things he said and did. His name ultimately appeared year after year on the list of Occasional Supply. He died at Greenock, 26th September 1875, in his sixty-sixth year. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. George Campbell of Roberton. * Mr M'Coll, like his brother in Partick, was from Bridgeton, Glasgow. A year and a half after declining Saltcoats he obtained Bonhill by a small majority, but felt it better not to avail himself of the advantage. Ordained at Bankhill, Berwick, I4th July 1835. The congregation was a split off Chapel Street, and never made much headway, and Mr M 'Coil's resignation was accepted on 23rd June 1847. He then emigrated to America, and was pastor of a congregation in Lewiston, near Lake Ontario, for two years. Then he laboured two years at Seneca Falls, whence he re- turned to Lewiston, where he remained other seven years. A Presbyterian church at Niagara Falls was his last charge. After being there for a like period he sustained a severe accident, and though he survived a number of years he was never fit for service again. He died, i6th November 1872, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 307 church besides. When the vacancy occurred the question of union with the West congregation was mooted, and an earnest but unsuccessful effort made in that direction. The case was the reverse of urgent, as appears from the fact that the membership of Trinity Church at the recent Union was not under 300, and the stipend was ^200, with the manse. SALTCOATS (BURGHER) THIS congregation owed its origin to the settlement of Mr John Duncan, rector of Kilmarnock Academy, as minister of Ardrossan parish in 1788. The presentation and letter of acceptance were laid on the table of Irvine Presbytery in January of that year, and Mr Duncan was appointed to give the parishioners a specimen of his pulpit gifts on the first Sabbath of May. The arrangement failed owing to a mob having prevented him fulfilling the appointment, and, such being the disposition of the people, the Presbytery declined to require a second attempt. On 23rd September they were to meet at Ardrossan to moderate in a call, but again a mob intervened with " insult and opprobrious language." Thwarted thus far they left the form of a call in the hands of their Clerk, with the names of three non-resident heritors appended, and the case was referred to the Synod. The patron's contention was that the presentee ought to be taken on trials without a moderation at all, and the Synod enjoined the Presbytery simply to receive concurrences, and proceed towards the ordination with all convenient speed. Against this decision commissioners from the parish appealed to the Assembly in 1789, by whom orders were given to have Mr Duncan settled on or before 1st September. Accordingly, the Presbytery met at Irvine on 28th August, when it was found that the serving of the edict had been forcibly prevented, but orders had been given to affix it " to the most patent door of the church." It was read now, the services went on, and Mr Duncan was installed into Ardrossan parish. A fortnight after this four men and twelve women were charged before the Circuit Court at Ayr "for violently assaulting, invading, and attacking the members of the Presbytery of Irvine" met at Saltcoats on 1310 May for the purpose of inspecting the schoolhouse. It was a peaceful mission, but popular feeling sought an outlet for itself in this lawless way. One man and two women were outlawed for not appearing, and the diet was deserted against others. Only four women were found guilty, and owing to a legal technicality the verdict was pronounced null and void. While the parish was in this state of commotion a petition from Ardrossan for sermon was laid before the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow on i6th March 1790, and Mr Dewar of Fenwick was appointed to preach to them on the fourth Sabbath of that month. After obtaining supply from meeting to meeting the people gave in their accession to the Presbytery on loth May 1791, and on the fifth Sabbath of January 1792 the congregation was regularly organ- ised by the installation of four elders. A church, with sittings for 566, was built in 1792, the Synod having granted ,20 to aid the cause in its feeble beginnings. First Minister. JAMES BORELAND, from Kilmarnock (now Portland Road). Ordained, ist November 1792. The call was signed by 148 members and 86 adherents. The stipend was ^70, and that of Mr Duncan was only ,5 more, with manse and glebe. Mr Boreland's work was just beginning when illness came, and he died, I7th June 1793, m the twenty- ninth year of his age and eighth month of his ministry. During the vacancy 3 o8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of nearly three years which intervened the congregation called Mr Henry Belfrage, whom the Synod appointed to be his father's colleague at Falkirk, and Mr James Keith, whom they sent to Fala. Second Minister. HENRY FRASER, eldest son of the Rev. John Fraser, Auchtermuchty. Ordained, i8th February 1796. The congregation seems to have grown since the former call was issued, there being 1 50 signatures of members when the Presbytery met on the following clay. In addition to the original 70 the minister was to be provided with a free house. Mr Fraser's course at Saltcoats was as brief as that of his predecessor, and it had a more regretful ending. Three weeks after his ordination he succeeded to the estate of Lassodie, near Dunfermline, by the death of the former proprietor's widow at the age of eighty-seven. The right came through his maternal grandfather, the Rev. Henry Erskine of Falkirk, eldest son of Ralph Erskine and his first wife, Margaret Dewar, a daughter of the Laird of Lassodie. In the Presbytery records Mr Fraser was now entered first as Henry Fraser Dewar, and then simply as Henry Dewar, the entail requiring the change of name. But a weightier change was impending. At a meeting of Presbytery on i3th December 1796 Mr Dewar's place was vacant, but his brother Donald, from Kennoway, being present for some special purpose, was asked to correspond. A petition from Saltcoats con- gregation bore that Mr Dewar had left them, and they wished supply of sermon and advice in their present situation. The Clerk was now asked from the chair whether he had heard from Mr Dewar, and in reply he laid on the table a paper addressed to the Moderator and other members. Mr Fraser of Kennoway now interposed, and pleaded that the Presbytery would delay reading the paper. His brother, he said, had left for Dublin, but he had reason to expect his return to this country in a few days. It was agreed by a majority to leave the paper unread, and to meet again that day four weeks, Mr Dewar to get notice to attend. On loth January 1797 Mr Dewar intimated that he declined to put in a personal appearance. Then the former communication and this second letter were both read, and pronounced "rationalistic throughout." He rejected the whole system of revealed truth, and held " that to believe one doctrine rather than another is neither a merit nor a crime." He closed by expressing the hope that they would all meet at last in that happy state where they would look back with an eye of enlightened for- bearance on those weaknesses, mistakes, and errors of their brethren which they once detested. Commissioners were forward from the con- gregation wishing a deliverance at once, and it was unanimously agreed to pronounce sentence of deposition from the chair, and to declare the church vacant. Mr Dewar's declinature and the other documents were also to be sent up to the Synod, that they might pass judgment on the merits. Thinking of his father at Auchtermuchty and his nearest relatives Mr Dewar might well express the fear that the step he was taking would cause them grief "to an overwhelming degree." Between him and the brother just mentioned, who was only seventeen months younger than himself, there had been blended interests all through. They entered the university and the divinity classes together, and went on side by side till they were licensed to preach the everlasting gospel, and now they parted, as if for eternity. After renouncing all connection with the Christian ministry Henry Dewar went through a medical course, and took his diploma. Then he was for some time an assistant surgeon in the army, and ultimately a public lecturer in Edinburgh on medical and scientific subjects, besides publishing several treatises in the same line. He died on igth January PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 309 1823, in the fifty-second year of his age, after an illness of six days, from blood-poisoning', through scratching his finger in the dissecting-room. Third Minister. ROBERT FORREST, from Dunbar. Mr Uevvar had commended the congregation to the special care of the Presbytery "as in general a society of upright, warm-hearted people, who would make any pastor happy that agreed with them in religious sentiment." The Synod preferred the call from Saltcoats to another from Kirkcaldy (Bethel- field), and Mr Forrest was ordained, 2/th February 1798. Other four years went past, and again Saltcoats congregation was in commotion, minister and people not drawing well together. In the beginning of 1802 the Presbytery, in reply to a vague reference from the session, recommended the parties to live together as brethren, and they warned Mr Forrest against making incautious allusions, either in the pulpit or elsewhere, to matters of dispute, a blunder into which many a young minister has fallen. But the evil was too far gone to be remedied by mild advices, and on 22nd April the Presbytery met at Saltcoats to deal with Mr Forrest's demission of his charge. Dr Mason was over from America in quest of recruits from the home Church, and discomfort at Saltcoats inclined Mr Forrest to respond, though a petition signed by 178 members indicates that the great body of his people wished him to remain. At this meeting three of the members, one of them an elder, were dealt with for disparaging Mr Forrest's ministerial work and circulating reports to his disadvantage, while he was admonished for extreme rashness, particularly in saying that " the one half of the congregation were ignorant and the other half sceptical." The case being referred to the Synod he was loosed from his charge on 29th April 1802, with the view of joining a group of brethren who were shortly to set sail with Dr Mason for New York. After being received into fellowship with the Associate Reformed Synod Mr P'orrest supplied a Secession pulpit in Montreal for a short time, but returned to the States, where he was installed as minister of Pearl Street congregation, New York, on 26th April 1804. Having resigned after four years he was admitted in January 1810 to Stamford, Delaware, where he laboured till 1843, when he retired owing to age and infirmities. He died, 1 7th March 1846, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. Mr Forrest is described as having continued a diligent student to the end, though his lot was cast in a quiet, rural sphere. Be- sides numerous magazine articles and other slight productions he was the author of " A Testimony to the Doctrines of Original Sin and the Atonement," prepared by order of Synod. Fourth Minister. JAMES ELLIS, from Campbell Street, Glasgow (now Sydney Place). Ordained, 2ist March 1804. The call was signed by 147 .members, and the stipend was to be ^90. During the ministry of Mr Ellis the Presbytery had little trouble from Saltcoats, almost the only exception being a reference from the session in 1807. One of the people had given offence to some of the congregation by carrying the mail between Saltcoats and Irvine on Sabbath, and it was unanimously decided that he ought to give this up, or cease to be retained in membership. In 1836 the communicants were a little way over 300, and, though the church was situated in Stevenston parish nearly four-fifths of their number were parishioners of Ardrossan. The stipend had at one time been .150, but the minister had voluntarily surrendered ^20, and it was now .130, with 4 guineas at each communion. There was a debt on the property of ,240, which the people had no wish to reduce, looking on it as a metallic bond of union. Mr Ellis died on 24th July 1852, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. His funeral sermon was preached 3 io HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS by his old fellow-student, Dr Brown of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, and the biographical part appeared in the U.P. Magazine shortly after. The history of this congregation and that of the West Church, formerly Anti- burgher, were now to merge peacefully into one. SALTCOATS, WEST (ANTIBURGHER) THE congregation of Kilmaurs had some families in Ardrossan parish almost from the beginning. Mr James Mair, who acceded to the Associate Presby- tery in 1739, and was soon afterwards ordained at West Linton, had been assistant for years to the parish minister of Ardrossan, and a number of his former hearers followed him when he joined the Secession. They had sermon on the second Sabbath of December 1739, and again on the fourth Sabbath of March 1740, the preacher on the latter occasion being Mr David Smyton, who was ordained at Kilmaurs before the end of the year, and on whose ministry they required to attend, though the distance was at least ten miles. When an Anti burgher congregation was formed at Kilwinning in 1758 they obtained regular supply of ordinances within three and a half miles of Saltcoats, and with this arrangement they had to rest satisfied for thirty-five years. Though the ground was now preoccupied by both the Relief and the Burghers, as shown above, this did not prevent the formation of an Antiburgher congregation within the same bounds in 1793. In 1799 this handful of people called Mr James Brownlee, whom the Synod ap- pointed to Falkirk, and in 1800 a church was built, with 436 sittings. First Minister. JOHN GIFFORD, from Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Ordained, igth March 1800, but, no doubt finding his position in Saltcoats discouraging, he resigned on igth August 1811. After returning to Edin- burgh he acted as a probationer for years, and was latterly a member of Potterrow Church. He died, i8th September 1847. The family name was long prominent in Nicolson Street Church, and the late Lord Gifford was one of his nephews, several of whom were widely known and much respected. During the vacancy of three and a half years which followed Mr Gifford's resignation the people called Mr James Meikle, whom the Presbytery appointed to Beith, and Mr Andrew Scott, whom the Synod appointed to Crieff. Second Minister. DAVID RONALD, from Brechin (City Road). A stipend of ^100 was promised, with a dwelling-house, but the call though unanimous was signed by only 25 (male) members with 22 adherents, and on 25th January 1815 Mr Ronald was ordained. In 1836 there were 142 names on the communion roll, one-fourth of these from Stevenston parish. The ordinary income was /i 10 a year, and the debt on church and manse was .200. But with two sister congregations in Saltcoats there was only room for decrease, and the weakest of the three was likely to be the greatest sufferer. Accordingly, in 1849 the membership was down to 85, and the stipend from the people was ^65, which the supplement made up to ^75, besides the manse. In 1840 Mr Ronald was appointed Clerk to the Associate Synod, being carried over Mr Harper of Leith by 56 votes to 51, which office he held jointly with the Rev. David Crawford after the Union of 1847. This added 2o to his limited income. When Mr Morison's Case was agitating Kilmarnock Presbytery Mr Ronald found scope for his theological acumen, though so far as the universality of the Atonement was concerned he did not differ materially from the accused. At the death of the Rev. James Ellis of the Old Burgher Church the two congregations amalgamated without the slightest audible demur. What follows belongs to the history of the United congregation. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 311 THE MIDDLE AND THE WEST (UNITED) AT a meeting of Presbytery on 29th July 1852, Mr Ellis' funeral day, it was intimated that the congregation were to meet on Tuesday first, and that meanwhile there should be no pulpit supply provided beyond the approach- ing Sabbath. There was a general wish among the people to form a union with the West Church under the ministry of Mr Ronald, and this proposal would then be brought to the test. The way to a consummation so much to be desired had been prepared by settled friendship between the two ministers. For some thirty years they had managed the preachers' distribu- tion scheme between them, and had lived on the best of terms. Now it carried by a vote of 45 to 29 that Mr Ronald should occupy the vacant pulpit, and bring his people with him into what was the larger building. It was union in the simplest way possible, and though the minority would have preferred interim supply of preachers, everything was adjusted harmoniously. On 24th August, the Presbytery having met in the Middle Church, Saltcoats, the Rev. David Thomas of Mauchline preached from the text : " Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." The members of each congregation were asked to express anew their adher- ence to the proposed Basis of Union by holding up their right hands. This being done, they were declared to be united, the Rev. David Ronald to be their minister, and both the former names to be superseded by that of " Countess Street." The elders of the two churches were, of course, to form the joint session, and the two properties were to be held by trustees in the name of the united congregation. The Middle Church people spoke of Mr Ronald being sole pastor for the time, evidently understanding that a colleague would be required before long, but nine years passed before steps were taken in that direction, and by that time Mr Ronald had reached the age of threescore and ten. Second Minister. GEORGE FAIRGRIEVE, from Tillicoultry. Ordained as colleague and successor to Mr Ronald, i8th February 1862. The call was signed by 172 members, and the stipend of the junior minister was to be ,120, while, with the aid of .20 from the Ferguson Bequest Fund, the senior minister was expected to have ^80, with the manse. At the celebra- tion of his jubilee in 1864 Mr Ronald received a gift of 500 sovereigns, very much as an acknowledgment of his long continued services to the denomina- tion. The present church, which cost ^2000, and is seated for 670, was opened by Dr Robson of Glasgow on 8th July 1866. About the same time 870 was expended in building a new manse, of which the Board defrayed one-third. The whole debt was cleared off within seven years largely by the efforts of Mr Fairgrieve. Mr Ronald died, 1st February 1873, in the eighty-second year of his age and fifty-ninth of his ministry. He left behind him two little treatises condensed and pointed the one on Presbyterianism, and the other on Christian Baptism, subjects well adapted to his logical cast of mind. Mr Fairgrieve's strength became much impaired about the time of his semi-jubilee, and a substitute was required for long periods. Third Minister. JAMES BRAND SCOTT, B.D., from Milnathort. Called to Gardenstown and Pitcairn, but accepted Saltcoats, where he had been assistant. Ordained, 5th August 1890. The stipend from the people was ,130, which the Ferguson Bequest and the Surplus Fund raised to ,184, and the senior minister had ,70, and the manse. Mr Fairgrieve died, 23rd November 1893, in the fifty-eighth year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. In 1894 Mr Scott's stipend was raised from ,130 to ,160, besides the manse, and in a short time there was a further increase of .30. On gth January 1900 Mr Scott accepted a call to East Bank, Ha.wick. 3 i2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Fourth Minister. JAMES W. PURVES, M.A., from Lothian Road, Edin- burgh. Ordained, 26th June 1900. The stipend for some years had been about .200, with the manse, and the membership at the Union was 300. In 1899 over 600 had been raised for repairs on church and manse. STEWARTON (ANTIBURGHER) THE first church at Stewarton was built in 1775 at a cost of ^200, with sittings for nearly 600. The people as yet formed part of Kilmaurs con- gregation, and the building was erected for public worship, conducted by Mr Smyton, their minister, during his periodic visits. About this time attempts were made by sister denominations to get footing in Stewarton. In July 1777 the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow appointed a day's supply in answer to a petition for sermon from some people in that village, but we read of nothing further. Two years later the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow was applied to in the same way, and services were kept up occa- sionally for nearly two years, and then abandoned. While this was going on the Antiburgher families in the place were disjoined from Kilmaurs and formed into a distinct congregation. The petition to that effect was signed by 39 heads of families, and they engaged to indemnify Kilmaurs for the loss in seat rents by a payment of ^8 for the support of Mr Smyton, their minister. At the Synod in April 1782 a call came up from Stewarton to Mr Walter Galbraith in competition with three others from Ireland, and of the four Londonderry carried.* Soon after this the disruption in Kilmaurs con- gregation took place, when Mr Smyton struck out for himself on the "Lifter" question, and carried the majority of his people with him. The party adhering to the Synod being weak, a coalescence with the people of Stewarton was carried into effect, the places being only three miles apart. The terms of union were as follows : (i) The two divisions were to share equally in the minister's labours, and were to contribute equally for his stipend. (2) The church-door collections, meant mainly for the poor, were to go into a common fund ; and (3) The division in which the Presbytery might fix the minister's residence was to provide him with a house. On this footing Mr George Paxton was ordained over the united congregation in August 1789, an arrangement which lasted for seven years. In 1797 Stewarton was disjoined, Mr Paxton remaining in Kilmaurs. First Minister. THOMAS M'CuLLOCH, from Oakshaw Street, Paisley. Ordained, I3th June 1799, and resigned in the early part of 1802 on accept- ing a mission to Nova Scotia. In that colony he was inducted over a con- gregation in Pictou, a mere hamlet at that time, on 6th June 1804, and in the following year he opened a Grammar School, which widened out into what was virtually a Theological Hall. In 1838 he became President of Dalhousie College, Halifax. Received the degree of D.D. from the Uni- versities of New York and Glasgow. He died on gth September 1843, m the sixty-seventh year of his age. Dr M'Culloch was a son-in-law of the Rev. David Walker of Pollokshaws. His son, the Rev. William M'Culloch of Truro, Nova Scotia, died, i4th July 1895, aged eighty-four. Second Minister. JAMES METHVEN, who had been loosed from Balmullo two years before. Inducted to Stewarton, 5th July 1802. During Mr Methven's ministry there seems to have been little progress made, and on * Mr Galbraith entered the Hall in 1777 from Drymen. Besides Stewarton and Londonderry he had calls to Lame and Newtownards, in Ireland. Ordained at Londonderry, I7th December 1782, and died, 3oth April 1810, in the twenty-eighth year of his ministry. Was not called to Kilmaurs as stated, page 278. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 313 22nd May 1826 his resignation, tendered under partial constraint, was accepted. His name appeared on the probationer list from 1828 to 1835, and was then withdrawn. In June 1840 he petitioned the Synod to be restored to the list, with a view to working in mission stations. The request was not granted, but he received an increased donation from their fund, and he was to be available for pulpit supply. He died in Glasgow, 28th June 1841, after a brief illness. Third Minister. PETER CAIRNS, from Howgate. Stewarton having been preferred to West Kilbride by the Presbytery, he was ordained there, 23rd October 1827. In 1836 the communicants numbered 274, having in- creased from 150 during Mr Cairns' ministry. About one-sixth of the con- gregation were from other parishes, chiefly Neilston, Kilwinning, and Fenwick. The minister's stipend was ,109, including expenses, and he had also a manse. Prosperity like this was less to be expected, as two other dissenting congregations had sprung up in Stewarton within the last ten years. The one was an Original Burgher church, which had a membership at this time of 83. Having joined the Establishment in 1839 it gave rise to the famous Stewarton Case of the Ten Years' Conflict. The other was a Congregational church set up mainly by William Cunninghame, Esq. of Lainshaw, who acted as pastor without any emoluments. He returned his communicants at 64. In 1870 the U.P. manse was rebuilt at a cost of ^800, of which the Board allowed ^300. On 3ist October 1876 Mr Cairns' jubilee was celebrated, and soon after a colleague was arranged for, the senior minister to have ^120, with the manse. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM S. GOODALL, M.A., from Milnathort. Or- dained, 26th June 1877. The stipend from the people was ^170, to be made up to ,200 from other sources, or by their own exertions if needful. There was also to be a house, or ^20 instead. Mr Cairns died, 23rd July 1879, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. On 1 4th August 1883 Mr Goodall accepted a call to Greyfriars, Glasgow, leaving a membership of 350. Fifth Minister. JOHN C. LAMBERT, B.D., son of the Rev. George Lambert, Rigg-of-Gretna. Ordained, 22nd January 1884. The stipend, in- cluding expenses, was ^261, with the manse. Accepted a call to Cathcart, Glasgow, 5th August 1890, a congregation to which he had been invited two years before. Sixth Minister. JAMES W. D. CARRUTHERS, M.A., from Moffat. Ordained, 7th April 1891, and loosed, 23rd February 1897, on accepting a call to the North Church, Perth. Seventh Minister. JOHN RONALD, B.D., son of the Rev. James Ronald, Annan. Ordained, 29th June 1897. The membership three years after this was not under 400, and the stipend was as above ^261, with the manse. FENWICK (BURGHER) ON 2 ist December 1737 a representation and petition from Fenwick and parishes adjacent was laid before the Associate Presbytery declaring a secession from the Established Church judicatories, with the grounds thereof, and on the fourth Thursday of March 1738 Ebenezer Erskine and his son-in- law, James Fisher, observed a Fast in that place. Encouraged by the large attendance and the interest manifested, the people applied for a hearing of Mr John Hunter, who was about to be licensed. It was as if they contem- plated having a minister speedily fixed among them, but Mr David Smyton having been ordained at Kilmaurs, four miles off, in November 1740, the 3 i4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS seceding families in and about Fenwick parish were placed under his pastoral care. Their numbers, however, cannot have been large, as the average number of baptisms did not exceed three a year. But on i ith June 1782 a petition on a large scale was presented from Fenwick to the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow for supply of sermon. This was the outcome of a general meeting held a few days before to determine which body of dis- senters should be preferred, when 7 voted for the Antiburghers, 36 for the Reformed Presbyterians, and 17 for the Relievers, while the Burghers carried by a very large majority. A violent settlement was in course of being carried through in Fenwick parish af the time this application was made. A young man, Mr William Boyd, had been presented to the benefice by the tutors of the Earl of Glasgow, and after he had occupied the pulpit two Sabbaths a committee of Presbytery came to moderate in a call. On 28th November 1780 the report they gave in to the Presbytery bore that they had fulfilled their commission. The scrolls of the call and paper of concurrence were next handed in, " and found signed by no person whatever." On the other hand, there was a large compearance in opposition to Mr Boyd. The whole affair was delayed till another meeting ten weeks afterwards, when letters were read from three non-resident heritors concurring in the presentation. A petition was then read from the heritors, elders, and heads of families of the parish, humbly showing that, as Mr Boyd had no call nor concurrence therein, "he can be of no benefit apparently in this parish," and craving that the Presbytery would interpose with the patron on their behalf. Parties having been heard at great length it was decided to refer the whole cause to the Synod for decision, and from them it passed to the Assembly. In the Supreme Court the concurrence of the three non-resident heritors was sustained, as meeting all requirements, and the Presbytery of Irvine was enjoined to proceed towards the settlement with all convenient speed. By a majority the presentee was taken upon trials, and appointed to preach at Fenwick as often as he conveniently could. Having duly notified his intention to appear there on Sabbath week he arrived on the preceding Saturday, but next morning the beadle refused to ring the bell, and "the locks of the kirk doors were filled with small stones, so as that they could not be opened." There was no convening for public worship, and as Mr Boyd and a friend were proceeding towards Stewarton they were followed "for about a quarter of a mile by a number of boys and some girls crying out 'thief and robber' ! and some of them throwing stones and dirt." On 7th May 1782 the edict was returned, and, objections being called for, a paper was handed in authorising eight elders and 20 heritors and heads of families to oppose the settlement by all lawful means. The edict, it was argued, ought never to have been served, as no call existed, so that the main link of the chain was wanting. They also complained (i) that they could not see of what advantage Mr Boyd's ministry could be to them " when what he speaks cannot be heard by us in the kirk of Fenwick by reason of his weak voice or slow way of speaking," and (2) because he reads, and does not preach the gospel, and every intelligent person, they said, knows that reading is one thing and preaching another. They concluded thus : " May He who is the founder and foundation of Sion appear in His glory and direct you in this weighty affair." Members of Presbytery having expressed their opinion it was agreed to memorialise the General Assembly on the subject. In this paper, of which a copy has been preserved, they admit Mr Boyd to be "a young man of distinguished abilities and worth," but, if his ordination is to be proceeded with, "they would humbly petition them to ordain him themselves, which they can easily do by a small committee of their own number." The suggestion was PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 315 prompted by regard for the peace of that corner of the country, where the minds of even their own people were " in danger of being alienated from the Establishment by Relief houses and Seceding meetings lately erected in their bounds." The Assembly, however, ordered the Presbytery to go on with the work, and also required every member to attend, the result to be reported to the ensuing Commission. The Caledonian Mercury gives the issue as follows: "On 25th June the Presbytery of Irvine, in place of meeting at Fenwick, met in the Council Chambers of Irvine, where they ordained the presentee." That was Tuesday, and on the preceding Sabbath the Rev. James Moir of Tarbolton preached at Fenwick by appointment of the Burgher Presby- tery of Glasgow, ahd though there is no record to that effect we may assume that he had a huge audience. At that season the services would be con- ducted generally in the open air, but in 1784 a church was -completed at a cost of .267, with sittings for 500. On 2oth July of that year a formal accession from Fenwick was given in along with a petition for an election of elders, and on loth March 1785 a moderation was granted, the stipend promised being ^60, with a house, or -, instead, and a horse to be provided when required. But two disappointments were met with before they reached a fixed ministry. The first call was addressed to Mr Robert Hall, but the Synod appointed him to Renton, which he refused to accept. The second came out for Mr Robert Shirra, but as the result of some conversation with him the people agreed to drop it, "as they were determined never to have a minister against his own will." They were averse, it seems, to intrusion on either side. First Minister. JAMES DEWAR, from Dunfermline (Queen Anne Street), a congregation in which the family name was long and favourably known. After most of Mr Dewar's trials had been given there was danger of losing him through a call to Old Kilpatrick, but the Presbytery sustained the claims of Fenwick, and he was ordained there, i8th April 1787. Ten years afterwards he was called to the newly-formed congregation of Stranraer (West), which he had been active in getting organised, but the translation was unanimously refused. Mr Dewar, who has been described as a vigorous and original preacher, laboured on in Fenwick till 4th August 1829 when he resigned owing to growing infirmities, and retired on an annuity of ^50, with the manse. He died, 28th September 1833, in the eighty-third year of his age. Mr Dewar's son Hugh joined the Established Church while a student, and became parish minister of Stonehouse in 1822. He died, 2ist May 1861, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. In 1827 the congregation made an unsuccessful attempt to provide Mr Dewar with a colleague. At the moderation three condidates were proposed Messrs David Marshall, William M'Kelvie, and Michael Thomson but Mr Marshall was carried by an absolute majority. Though the call was signed by 254 members, feeling ran high between the supporters of Messrs Marshall and M'Kelvie, and it may have been partly on this account that the forming congregation of Lochee was preferred by the Synod. Second Minister. WILLIAM ORR, from Saltcoats (Countess Street). The vote at the moderation lay between Mr Orr and Mr William Nisbet, afterwards of Edinburgh (Cowgate), and when a show of hands was taken the former had a majority of only i, which the reading of the roll increased to 7. But on this occasion the minority yielded, and the call was subscribed by 300 communicants. The presiding minister had allowed Mr Nisbet to preach the sermon on the moderation day, but though the Presbytery strongly disapproved, the proceedings were sustained, and Mr Orr was ordained, 2nd February 1830. His stipend as junior pastor was ^100 in all, 3 i6 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and there was a communion roll of 455. Next year the second church, with sittings for 789, was built at a cost of ,728, exclusive of old materials and cartage, and in 1833 the old thatch-roofed manse was replaced by another, which raised the total outlay to ^1200. On nth March 1879 Mr Orr's jubilee was celebrated, when he was presented with a cheque for ^900 from his congregation and other friends. Under the encroachments of age he had been for some time laid aside from ministerial work, and Mr Adam Baillie had been called to be his colleague, but he declined, and soon after- wards was ordained at Errol. Third Minister. JOHN KlRKWOOD FAIRLIE, from Wellington Street, Glasgow, a nephew of the Rev. John Kirkwood of Troop. Ordained, 25th June 1879. The senior minister was to have ^100 annually, with the manse, and Mr Fairlie .160, which the congregation expected to be made up to ^200 from other sources. Mr Orr died, I5th May 1882, in the eighty- third year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. His son, the Rev. Robert Workman Orr, is minister of Bank Street, Brechin. The population of Fenwick parish has now declined to one-half of what it was seventy years ago, and the membership of the congregation is also much below what it used to be. At the close of 1899 it was 173, and the stipend from the people ^170, with the manse. The whole property had recently undergone considerable repairs. GALSTON (BURGHER) ON 4th September 1777 the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow appointed Mr Jaffray of Kilmarnock to preach at Galston on the second Sabbath of that month. He drew a considerable branch of his congregation from that place, which is five miles to the south-east, one of the galleries in his church being known as " the Galston loft." From this time sermon was regularly kept up as the supply of probationers would allow, though the people were still reckoned a part of Kilmarnock congregation. In June 1781 some people in and about Galston not previously in connection with the Seceders gave in a formal adhesion to the Presbytery, but it was not till December 1790 that a session was formed by the ordination of four elders. Up till then, and for years afterwards, the families in Galston must have been largely dependent on the mother church at Kilmarnock for gospel ordinances, but in 1798 a step in advance was gained by the erection of a church, with 574 sittings. In March of that year they reported that the average attendance was 300, that their prospects were more encouraging since the building was covered in, and that to meet expenses they had received subscriptions amounting to ^100, a large sum in those days. In answer to a petition for aid the Synod in September allowed them ,18, "to enable them to seat their meeting-house." Next July they were ripe for a moderation, the stipend promised being ^70, with a free house and garden. The call was addressed to Mr William Nicol, and signed by 128 members with 208 adherents, but the Synod appointed him to Barrhead First Minister. JAMES BLACKWOOD, from Old Kilpatrick (Craigs). Galston being preferred by the Synod to Braehead, Mr Black wood was ordained there, 26th August 1800. The congregation all along drew a large part of its strength from the farmers around, and in 1836 the minister reported the communicants at 330, nearly one-third of these being from the parishes of Riccarton and Loudoun, with a few from the bounds of Craigie and Kilmarnock. The stipend at this time was ,104, with manse and garden, and the average income was about .200, of which a considerable PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 317 part had been applied for several years to the extinction of debt resting specially on the manse. In 1841 Mr Walter Muckersie was called to be Mr Blackwood's colleague, but he declined, stating that he preferred Ferry- Port-on-Craig ; and in 1842 they called Mr Thomas Pearson, but the call being somewhat divided he waited on, and was ordained next year at Eyemouth. Second Minister. THOMAS MATTHEWSON, from Kelso (First). The call was signed by 245 members and 59 adherents, and the stipend was to be j8o for the time, the senior minister to receive ^52 a year, with the manse. Ordained, i4th March 1843. On 4th December 1849 Mr Blackwood's jubilee was celebrated. Though eight months of his fiftieth year were still to run, the fear would be that, if the celebration were put off thus long, it would be too late. As it was, Mr Blackwood had to remain in his own room while the evening meeting went on, and his grateful reply to the addresses sent him had to be read by another. He died on the 26th of next month, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, leaving a son-in-law in the ministry, the Rev. A. W. Smith of Pitlessie. A sketch of his life work and his merits appeared in the U.P. Magazine soon after by Dr Bruce of Newmilns. Under Mr Matthewson Galston congregation continued to prosper, and in 1879 it had a membership of 368, the stipend being ^203, with the manse. But in 1885 illness came, and amidst marks of declining strength he was admitted to the Aged and Infirm List, with an allowance of ^80 from the people, and the manse. Third Minister. DAVID JAMES, B.D., from Erskine Church, Glasgow, a nephew of the Rev. G. F. James, Bristo Church, Edinburgh. Ordained as colleague and successor to Mr Matthewson, 23rd December 1885. Was left sole pastor by Mr Matthew-son's death, 7th June 1886, in the seventy- sixth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. Loosed, 4th September 1893, on accepting a call to Bethelfield, Kirkcaldy. Fourth Minister. DAVID J. ALLISON, son of the Rev. James Allison, Alexandria. Ordained, i8th December 1894. Within the last twenty years the membership, like the population, has slightly declined, but in the be- ginning of 1900 it still numbered 326, and the stipend was as before. WEST KILBRIDE (UNITED SECESSION) ON 6th November 1821 the United Presbytery of Kilmarnock received a petition for sermon from West Kilbride. That parish had been long under the ministry of the Rev. Arthur Oughterson, who was aging now, and died within a year. He belonged to a group of Ayrshire ministers, including Ferguson of Kilvvinning and M'Gill of Ayr, who wished subscription to the Confession of Faith dispensed with, and were suspected of leaning to Socinianism. Hence, when a Relief congregation was started in Saltcoats, five miles distant, it was made up of people from West Kilbride and Ardrossan, and towards the end of the century, according to the Old Statistical History, 50 of the parishioners attended Secession and Relief churches. The present application was cordially supported by the two Secession ministers of Saltcoats, and the request for supply once a fortnight was unanimously agreed to, the prospects of the cause being pronounced far from discouraging. On 3rd August 1824 twenty-seven members of the Secession, and 70 adherents, petitioned to be disjoined from Saltcoats, and, the two sessions acquiescing, they were formed into a separate con- gregation. This was followed without delay by the ordination of four elders,. 3 i8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and to aid the people at this stage the Synod allowed them a donation of 20. In the end of 1826 a moderation was obtained, the stipend promised being ^80, and a house. The call, signed by 37 members and 42 adherents, was addressed to Mr Peter Cairns, but another call was brought up to the Pres- bytery the same day from Stewarton, and unanimously preferred. First Minister. PETER iMATHER, from Dunbar (West). The Synod having preferred West Kilbride to South Ronaldshay, in Orkney, Mr Mather was ordained, i6th July 1828. The stipend was now to be ,90, with 3 guineas each communion. On 2nd February 1836 Mr Mather intimated to the Presbytery that, having embraced views of divine truth subversive of Presbyterian order, he required to resign his charge, and a committee, after conversing with him, reported that there was no hope of his sentiments allowing him to continue in connection with the Secession Church. The demission was at once accepted, and regret expressed at parting with a brother " who had enjoyed a high degree of their confidence and esteem, and had commended himself in an eminent degree to the affection of the people of his charge." The parting discourse was preached at West Kilbride amidst deep feeling from the text : " Finally brethren, farewell. Be perfect," etc., and on 26th October Mr Mather was inducted into Brown Street Con- gregational Church, Glasgow. In 1839 he accepted an invitation to Ardrossan, with the hope, perhaps, on both sides that members would be drawn in from among his former friends at West Kilbride. In his new sphere of labour Mr Mather took the Evangelical Union side, and Ardrossan Church was one of five which, for doctrinal reasons, were declared out of fellowship with the four Congregational churches in Glasgow. After this he edited the Christian News, an organ of that denomination, and proved him- self an active man in their ministerial councils. Having withdrawn from Ardrossan in 1845 he afterwards took charge of a small congregation in the north of England. He died at Glasgow, nth January 1864, in the seventy- second year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. Second Minister. ANDREW SPROTT, M.A., from Stranraer (Bellevilla). Prior to this the congregation had called Mr Alexander Sorley, who accepted Arbroath. Mr Sprott was ordained, isth November 1837. This call was signed by 72 members and 36 adherents, but the stipend was reduced to ,80, with expenses. On 26th April 1842 Mr Sprott, who had brought up at a former meeting certain discouragements in his situation at West Kilbride, was loosed from his charge at his own request, inquiry having revealed serious alienation between him and his people. He now returned to the probationer list, and three years afterwards was admitted to Archieston, where he had a happier course. During his ministry at West Kilbride the debt of ,160 on the property was felt to be oppressive, and in 1840 an effort was made to have it reduced with the aid of the Debt Liquidating Board. The membership at this time was no, but it was not till 1845 that the burden was lessened by ^100, of which one half was raised by the people, and the other half came from the Board. During this vacancy the congregation came very near the expiring point. At one time they intimated that they could not take sermon oftener than once in three weeks, though they would be happy to receive it oftener if the Presbytery could furnish it with less expense, and any preacher within the bounds who had no other appointment was recommended to give them a day gratis. At another time they wished liberty to dispose of their property for the security of those who were under obligations for the debt. This was in 1843, when the Free congregation was being formed in the place. Three years after this they wished to proceed towards a settlement, but ^40 was all they could promise for stipend, and it was hoped the Board would make up PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 319 what was needed. Thus the matter hung in abeyance for two years, and then the way was opened up to better things. Third Minister. JOHN BOYD (see Paisley, George Street). Inducted, 2oth June 1849, having been ordained at Hexham sixteen years before. In the Missionary Record for November of that year it is stated that before his location it was seriously contemplated to give up the cause altogether, but since then the audience had grown from 70 to 1 50. After they had gone on for about a year amidst decided tokens of reviving, the bond between them and Mr Boyd was fully formed, and their prospects improved every way. In 1866 Mr Boyd had the degree of D.D. from Monmouth College, Illinois, and on I3th March of that year his resignation was accepted, and he retired into private life, making his abode at West Kilbride. There were now 80 names on the communion roll, and the people were prepared to promise his successor a stipend of ,70, which was to be supplemented up to ,120. Dr Boyd died, I5th January 1881, in the seventy-third year of his age. Fourth Minister. JAMES CLARK BALDERSTON, from Paisley (Thread Street), but translated from Boveedy, in Ireland, where he had been or- dained, 1 2th January 1865. Admitted to West Kilbride, 4th May 1868. A new church was opened on 5th August 1883 by Professor Graham of London, with sittings for 400, and built at a cost of ,2500. The member- ship at the close of 1899 was 158, and the stipend from the people ^150. Since 1872 there has also been a manse, which cost over ^900, of which ,300 came from the Manse Board. ARDROSSAN (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation was formed by disjunctions from Saltcoats, and consisted at first of 89 members, of whom about three-fourths were from Mr Ronald's church, and the other fourth from Mr Giffen's. It was on loth February 1857 that sermon was applied for, and on the second Sabbath of March services were commenced in the new church, the three neighbouring ministers, Messrs Ronald and Gififen of Saltcoats and Boyd of West Kilbride, being the officiating ministers. On i4th April the congregation was formally organised, and on the third Sabbath of May two elders were inducted and one ordained. On 7th June the people were in ripeness for a moderation, the stipend promised being ^150, with expenses. The church has 350 sittings, and cost ,1300. First Minister. SIMON SOMMERVILLE STOBBS, son of the Rev. William Stobbs, Stromness, and grandson of the Rev. Simon Sommerville, Elgin (Moss Street). Ordained, 22nd December 1857. The call was signed by 109 members and 52 adherents, and all was unanimity and heartiness, but the bright prospect was speedily to be clouded. The people may have been over-sanguine, and, when success came short of expectation, there may have been an undue tendency to restiveness and discontent. It happened, at least, that before a year and a half had passed Ardrossan affairs were brought before the Presbytery. After a committee had failed to heal dis- sensions that Court itself took up the case. Certain parties had called a congregational meeting, at which they went on to show that they were not to blame for the differences with their minister. The Presbytery found that these proceedings were fitted to injure Mr Stobbs in his absence. Several papers which had been handed in were also read, one from 50 members declaring that they would no longer act along with Mr Stobbs, and another from 54 members expressing satisfaction with his ministrations, bating the use of the manuscript in the pulpit. It ended for the time with an exhortation to all 320 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS parties to humble themselves before God, review their conduct in the light of Christian duty, and endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. This was on 2ist June 1859, but at a meeting three weeks afterwards Mr Stobbs brought up a communication he had received from three of the elders declining to co-operate with him, and also a request sent him to call a con- gregational meeting for the purpose of relieving the trustees from their responsibilities and minuting the resignation of managers. This led to a meeting of Presbytery at Ardrossan on 6th September, when a second committee reported that with two exceptions all the office-bearers of the church were alienated from Mr Stobbs' ministry, but the party adhering to him were willing to support ordinances for themselves by contributing at the rate of .4, $ s - a Y ear f r eac ' 1 member. They would also undertake the liabilities resting on the property, which amounted to nearly ^800, if the other party would relinquish their rights and withdraw, a proposal which the trustees and those in the majority refused to entertain. At a loss what to do, the Presbytery decided to refer the whole case simpliciter to the Synod. Another motion was that the dissatisfaction which prevailed with the ministrations of Mr Stobbs was not justified by anything brought out in evidence, and that measures be taken to provide the congregation with an acting session. While the reference was pending the regular income shrunk up, and before the end of the year it was intimated to the Presbytery that money claims to the extent of ^80 were about to become due, while the treasurer had only 6 in hand. The evil was too acute to admit of delay, and on I4th February 1860 a letter was read from Mr Stobbs resigning his charge. He had been anxious, he said, to labour on in spite of violent op- position, but the state of his health would not permit, and on I3th March the resignation was accepted, with the concurrence of commissioners from both sides, and arrangements were made for meeting his pecuniary claims. Mr Stobbs was now to have his name placed on the probationer list, but after acting in this capacity for two years he withdrew, and the General Assembly in 1863 authorised the Presbytery of Glasgow to receive him into the ministry of the Established Church. In 1864 he was inducted into the charge of Swallow Street, London, a congregation of long standing, where he remained till 1868. He was afterwards in the quoad sacra church at Lugar, in the parish of Auchinleck, from 1872 to 1876. He next appears as minister of Elder Street Mission Church, Edinburgh, which became St James' quoad sacra, where he laboured till 1898. Since then his name has appeared on the list of Ministers Unattached. Second Minister. WILLIAM RIGBY MURRAY, from Broughton Place, Edinburgh. Ordained, 26th March 1861. The present call was signed by only 66 members and 18 adherents, a proof both of reduced numbers and abated spirits, but all gradually came right. Within three years the debt of ;8po was extinguished, and in 1866 a manse was built at a cost of ,978, of which the people raised two-thirds, and about one-third came from the Board. In 1868 Mr Murray was called to be colleague to the Rev. David M'Rae, Glasgow, but the majority was small, and he declined. On nth June 1872 he accepted Brunswick Street, Manchester. In November the congregation called Mr James Drummond, afterwards of Alexandria. The membership was 1 60. Third Minister. WILLIAM M'GILCHRIST, B.D., son of the Rev. John MGilchnst, Rose Street, Edinburgh. Ordained, 29th July 1873. The stipend was to be ^160, with the manse, and ^10 for expenses. Seven years after this the congregation was giving ^200, but after that there was a period of serious decline, till the membership fell to not more than no At the PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 321 Synod in 1891 Mr M'Gilchrist was one of the four candidates proposed for the Church History Chair, when Dr Orr was appointed. Since then there has been a regaining of lost ground, till in the year of the Union there was a communion roll of 150, and a stipend from the people of ,170. GLENGARNOCK (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) A PREACHING station was opened at Glengarnock on the fourth Sabbath of August 1 869 by the Rev. George Philp of Saltcoats, who reported to Kil- marnock Presbytery an attendance of 95 in the forenoon and 113 in the evening. This important step was taken in compliance with a petition for sermon signed by 55 persons residing in that village or its neighbourhood, and presented on i3th July. Services had already been conducted in a school- room for some months by a third-year student, and the collections were found to average .2, 55. The nearest churches of the denomination were at Beith, two and a half miles distant ; at Dairy, three and a quarter ; and at Lochwinnoch, four miles ; while within a radius of half-a-mile there was a population of 2000. In Kilbirnie, however, within a mile and a half, there were a Reformed Presbyterian and a Free church, besides the parish church, which lies about midway between the two places. On I4th September the petitioners were congregated, and when the communion roll was made up the names amounted to 67, of whom only 16 came from U.P. churches, the greater number of these being from Head Street, Beith. On 28th December four of their number were set apart to the eldership, two of whom had pre- viously been members of the Reformed Presbyterian session in Kilbirnie. In February 1870 Mr Philp, who had been active in the congregation during the formative period, was invited to become their minister, but he declined. The call was signed by 62 members and 29 ordinary hearers, and the stipend promised was 150, with expenses. The building of a manse was now pro- ceeded with, which was finished at a little over ^500, of which ,200 came from the Manse Board. A second unsuccessful call was addressed to Mr T. R. Anderson, who preferred Hamilton (now Saffronhall). First Minister. WILLIAM G. MILLER, from Blairgowrie. Ordained, 2gth August 1871. The new church, seated for 280, and built at a cost of ^1500, was opened on the afternoon of Saturday, 6th September 1873, by Dr Walter C. Smith, then of Glasgow. To meet the outlay a grant of ^200 was obtained from the Ferguson trustees, ,150 from the Extension Fund, and ^600 from the Permanent Loan Fund, and there were the proceeds of a bazaar held at Ardrossan. In 1879 the debt stood at ,200, and four years afterwards it was entirely paid off, the Liquidation Board giving ^100. On nth April 1884 Mr Miller accepted a call to Blairhill, Coat- bridge. Second Minister. ROBERT B. ANDREW, B.D., from Campbeltown. Ordained, 7th October 1884. At the close of 1899 the membership was 132, and the stipend from the people ,120, which ^40 from the Ferguson Bequest, and Surplus, raised to ,186, besides the manse. DARVEL (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) AT a meeting of Kilmarnock Presbytery on 8th January 1884 a petition for sermon came up from 138 members of Newmilns congregation residing in Darvel, and the station was opened in the Institute Hall on the third Sabbath of that month by Mr Burton, their minister, who reported at next II. X 322 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS meeting an attendance of 268 in the forenoon and 450 in the evening and a collection of 13. The session and congregation of Newmilns cordially concurring, the new cause was constituted on the 2gth with a communion roll of 143. Among them were five elders, and four others having been ordained a session of nine members was formed on 4th March. Within other two months the people had subscribed about ^400 for the building of a church, which was to accommodate 450, the estimated cost being /i 400. A moderation was now applied for, and a stipend promised of ^140, which they expected, would be supplemented by 20 from the Fer- guson Bequest Fund. All this made a hopeful beginning. The town, which lies a mile to the east of Newmilns, had a population at that time of nearly 2000. Other denominations had early appeared upon the ground. In 1795 tne Relief sent supply to Darvel on petition from a number of people in the parish of Loudoun, but after a few years it was withdrawn for want of encouragement. In iSiothe Reformed Presbyterians ordained a minister there over what is now the Free Church congregation. In 1844 an Evan- gelical Union Church was formed, of which the celebrated Dr Landels, who afterwards joined the Baptists, became the first minister, but the cause did not long survive his departure. About that time a quoad sacra church was also built ; but, notwithstanding the intervening distance, Newmilns retained its hold, and now there was the peaceful severance. First Minister. JOHN DRYSDALE ROBERTSON, from Stirling (Erskine Church). Ordained, 24th June 1884. On 3rd May 1885 the church was opened, when the debt was cleared off by the special collections, and a balance left for the building of a manse. This new undertaking was entered on, and a grant of ,200 obtained from the Manse Board, leaving the con- gregation to raise ^650. The debt of ,230 which remained after the manse was finished was also got rid of in a few years, with the help of ^100 from the Debt Liquidating Fund. This young congregation was now fully equipped every way; but a displacement came on 26th June 1893, when Mr Robertson accepted a call to Ebenezer Church, Leith, leaving a mem- bership of over 200. Second Minister. DAVID R. W. SCOTT, M.A., from Camphill, Glasgow. Ordained, igth December 1893. The returns six years after this showed a communion roll with 262 names, and a stipend of ,162 from the people, with the manse. HURLFORD (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) IN 1 88 1 the attention of Kilmarnock Presbytery was turned to Hurlford, a place two miles south-east of Kilmarnock, as a fit field for evangelistic work, but it was found on inquiry that it would be inexpedient to commence operations at that time. But in May 1896 a petition from 51 members and 21 adherents, who had broken away from the Free Church congregation, was favourably entertained. Intimation having been sent to sessions, and also to the Free Presbytery of Irvine, and no objections offered, a supply of preachers was sanctioned on 7th July, and on 2nd February 1897 a con- gregation was formed with a communion roll of 101. This was followed on i6th March by six of their number being ordained as elders. First Minister. MATTHEW JOHNSTON, from Camphill, Glasgow. Or- dained, 6th July 1897, in the Institute Hall, where they had worshipped from the beginning. Mr Johnston had been located at Hurlford since November, and the call, signed by 112 members, was both unanimous and cordial. The people undertook to raise ,100 of the stipend, which was PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 323 made up by ^25 from the Ferguson Bequest Fund, with rupplement and surplus, to ^186, besides 20 for house rent. The congregation removed to their own hall in February 1898, and the new church was opened on Satur- day, 1 5th October, by the Moderator of Synod, the Rev. Dr Blair of Dun- blane. It was planned to accommodate 400, and the estimated cost of the buildings was not more than ^2000. To meet this outlay the congregation raised 200 at the outset, and were to receive .500 from the Extension Fund and ,500 from the Permanent Loan Fund. A well-patronised bazaar followed in December 1897, so that the debt was well provided for. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 159. SOUTHERN DIVISION COLMONELL (ANTIBURGHER) THE first mention of this place in early Secession records is on 24th April 1745, when a petition was presented to the Associate Presbytery of Glasgow from several within the Colmonell bounds who had formerly acceded, craving supply of preaching in that corner. This was followed on 27th August by a similar petition from Girvan and Colmonell, places twelve miles apart. In reply to another application Mr John Swanston was appointed to preach three Sabbaths to the community of Colmonell, an expression which seems to imply that they were already organised into a congregation. In April 1746 a probationer was sent to supply two Sabbaths within the bounds of Carrick and Colmonell, and an election of elders was next applied for. On zoth June a formal accession was given in of about 14 persons in Minnigaff parish, which, though sixteen miles distant, was reckoned within the bounds of Colmonell community. At the first meeting after the Breach the congregation of Carrick and Galloway earnestly besought the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow to sue for peace with their brethren, but. without waiting the result, they petitioned the Antiburgher Synod soon after to grant them the supply of sermon they needed. Then in the beginning of 1 748 Galloway and Carrick were before the same Synod craving that ministers and probationers missioned to Ireland might preach to them on their way going and returning. In this state matters continued for years, services being held at various places within the wide bounds, but in 1755 a humble church was built at a place called Ford, a little way from the village of Colmonell, and this became the seat of the congregation. In 1757 they called Mr James Henderson, but he was under obligation to pro- ceed to Pennsylvania, and the Synod set the call aside. Mr Henderson was afterwards settled in Rattray. First Minister. THOMAS RUSSELL, from Falkirk or Dennyloanhead. Ordained, 2ist May 1760. At the time of the settlement the Presbytery was apprehensive that the congregation had not ability to support a minister, and after nine years had passed it was found that there had been scarcely any accessions to fill up the blanks made by removals or by death. While there was little hope of matters improving, and the stipend was nearly two years behind, a call came out to Mr Russell from Greenloaning. He had already represented to his brethren that, unless something was done to better his position, he was afraid it would not be in his power to keep himself on proper terms with the world, and the congregation explained in reply that, owing to their weak state, they did not think they could do better, and there was danger that they might not find them- selves able to do so much. The Presbytery believed that the deficiency sprang from real incapacity, and meanwhile each session was urged to give them i, and, if better could not be, it was felt that Mr Russell would have 3 2 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to be loosed from his charge. A fitting opportunity was now afforded, and to clear his way the connection with Colmonell was dissolved, i8th April 1 769. But though without a minister the people had no inclination to abandon the struggle, and the Presbytery gave them credit for exerting them- selves beyond their ability. It was also agreed that at this critical time each member should grant them a day's preaching gratis, and that the com- munion should be observed some time that summer, in the hope that this "might be a means of keeping up their drooping spirits upon the back of such heavy discouragements." In this feeble state the congregation con- tinued for eight years, and then they called Mr James Pattison, a preacher who had been brought up among them, but the Synod appointed him to Moniaive. Second Minister. JOHN BLAIR, from Ceres (West). Ordained, igth April 1780, so that the vacancy lasted exactly eleven years. The call was signed by 44 (male) members, and 52 others adhered, and declared their willingness to contribute. The stipend promised was ^35, with a house and "a horse keep." A new church was built in 1800 at a cost of only ^120, with 170 sittings. Mr Blair laboured on for nearly forty years without the congregation experiencing much improvement. He died at Ford, where the church and manse stood, on nth January 1820, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, leaving two sons, who became United Secession ministers John at Drymen, and James at Warkworth. Mr Blair has again and again been put down as a Protestor against the Union, but it will be seen from the above date that he died eight months before the Union was consummated, and while the negotiations were going on he took no part whatever with his three co-Presbyters who were on the opposition side. Colmonell congregation, moreover, remained in connection with the United Synod for nearly two years. It was not till 1st July 1822 that they intimated to the Presbytery of Wigtown their resolution to join the Protestors. The Clerk also stated that since receiving this notice he had preached at Colmonell, and found that a minority disapproved of the change resolved on, but that meanwhile nothing further could be done. However, in August some members applied for sermon, which was kept up occasionally, and in May 1824 the Synod granted ^5 to aid with supply. This cannot have continued long, nor was it needed, there being a Reformed Presbyterian church within two miles, besides the Protestor congregation in the village. The majority in their new connection obtained the Rev. Benjamin Laing, formerly of Arbroath, for their minister, but this was not till 1830. Mr Laing was a son of the Rev. Robert Laing of Duns (East), and became known as Dr Benjamin Laing, Professor of Hebrew to the Original Secession Synod. In 1836 he had a membership of 70, and a stipend of .50, with manse and garden. A little volume of his, entitled " Historical Notices of the Ecclesi- astical Divisions in Scotland," advocates Union on a very broad basis, and it brought him into trouble with his brethren. At the Union of 1852 he joined the Free Church, taking the great majority of his people with him, and in the following year he was inducted into the vacant Free Church of Colmonell, his own people having their names added to the communion roll. He died, 1 2th October 1862, in the seventieth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. A small remnant of the old congregation kept by the Original Secession Synod, and even had a minister set over them, but after a time he went into the Established Church, and the cause is now extinct in Colmonell. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 325 AUCHINLECK (ANTIBURGHER) WALLACETOWN is the name under which this congregation is known in early Secession records. It consisted at first of "Societies in the South and West," which acceded to the Associate Presbytery on I3th April 1738. As they were far scattered they were asked to fix on a convenient place for having week-day or Sabbath services, but they craved to be allowed several centres owing to the distances embraced. On 22nd June Messrs Nairn and Mair were to observe a Fast at Kirkconnel, and preach on the following Sabbath at Wallacetown. Supply was now sent sometimes to the one place and sometimes to the other, and there is an allusion in 1739 to the electing of elders between them, though the places were at least a dozen miles asunder. Before long, when Sanquhar became the gathering-point for the societies in Nithsdale, Kirkconnel must have been drawn in to form part of the congregation there, so that Wallacetown was left alone. In Dr M'Kelvie's Annals there are marks of confusion through identifying this Wallacetown with Wallacetown which now forms part of the town of Ayr. But the place where the Seceders met was on the north side of Airsmoss, in the district of Auchinleck and Muirkirk. When Mr Smyton was ordained at Kilmaurs in November 1740 it was understood that the station at Wallacetown, though twenty miles distant, was to be under his care. It was afterwards arranged that he should preach there four Sabbaths in the year, but it was thought desirable ere long to have the south quarter of his charge erected into a separate con- gregation. Still, the people about Auchinleck had to depend mainly on Kilmaurs for gospel ordinances, and William M'Gavin, the author of "The Protestant," has related how his father and mother used to ride on the same horse a distance of twenty miles each way to attend Mr Smyton's ministry. A church was at last built a little to the south of the village, but when this was done, or at what time regular supply of sermon was obtained, cannot be determined. First Minister. ROBERT SMITH, from Mid-Calder. Ordained, 3Oth November 1763. In 1778 Mr Smith published a pamphlet against the Burghers, entitled " Self-inconsistency Exemplified," a production which may have influenced his son's hostility to the Union between the two sections of the Secession forty years afterwards. The congregation never acquired much strength, and in the last decade of the century the members in Auchinleck parish are put down at 20, but a much larger number may have come from other parishes. In 1803 the people were expecting to secure Mr Smith's son Alexander for his colleague, but the young man died on 2oth September of that year, and the father's resignation, owing to age and infirmities, was accepted, 3ist January 1809, the congregation allowing him ^26 a year. He afterwards removed to Kilwinning, where an elder son was minister, and he died there, I2th June 1817, in the eighty- fourth year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministerial life. William M'Gavin testified to the minister of his early days as follows : "The Rev. Robert Smith was a man of feeble and deformed body, such as I suppose Alexander Pope to have been, but of a most acute and vigorous mind ; and his congregation became distinguished all the country round for the extent of their religious knoxvledge, correct acquaintance with their principles, and the ability with which they maintained them." Second Minister. ROBERT CRAWFORD, from Craigmailen. Ordained, 29th October 1811. In May 1812 a case involving a serious charge of immorality against Mr Crawford came up to the Synod by reference from Kilmarnock Presbytery, to whom it was sent back for fuller investigation. 326 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS It reappeared a year later, Mr Crawford having protested against a sentence of suspension pronounced on him by the Presbytery after he had been acquitted by the Provincial Synod of Glasgow. It comes out that charges in the same line, but of a milder type, had cropped up later on, and now, when dealt with by a committee, he acknowledged imprudences, and under- went rebuke. But Mr Crawford having urged the Synod to loose him from his charge, this was done on I3th May 1813, partly on the ground of six elders having sent in a paper with pleadings to the same effect. He then removed within the bounds of Edinburgh Presbytery, before whom he appeared in November, and took the oath of purgation, and in October 1815 his name was put on the probationer list. This was followed in January 1817 by his induction into Elgin (South Street), where he died in 1828, much respected. His son was long minister in Burntisland. Early in 1814 Auchinleck congregation called Mr Andrew Scott, whom the Synod appointed to Crieff, and at the close of the year they called Mr Andrew Isaac, a probationer from about Perth, but after a time a call from Berwick (Church Street) was announced, which the Synod preferred. But progress was arrested in a distressing way. At the meeting at which he was expected to finish his trials for ordination he did not appear, but was found wandering by the river side, his reason quite gone. In harmony with this there is the following entry in the Church Street records : " Paid for taking Mr Isaac home, ^5" ; and in November 1815 the call was with- drawn, owing, they said, to the events that had taken place, and the impression they had made. Having recovered from this sad visitation Mr Isaac emigrated to America, and was ordained on 3ist October 1821 to the charge of Carmel, Indiana. In 1827 he was translated to London- derry, Ohio, where he died, i2th September 1840, aged fifty-one, "the repose of nature being sweetly exchanged for the sleep of the righteous." Third Minister. PETER M'DERMENT, from Ayr (now Original Seces- sion). Ordained, 3rd April 1816. The call was signed by 52 male members and 20 adherents, the stipend to be ^100, with a house. At the Union of 1820 Mr M'Derment went with his co-presbyter and former minister, the Rev. George Stevenson, and, like him, took part in the formation of the Pro- testor Synod, 2gth May 1821. This step led some elders and members of his congregation to apply to the United Presbytery at their next meeting for advice " in their present trying circumstances." Mr M'Derment refused to meet with the committee appointed thereupon to converse with him ; but they reported that they found even the dissentients well affected towards their minister, though dissatisfied with his conduct in constituting a Pro- testor Session in opposition to the wishes of the majority of the eldership. But Mr M'Derment and the other two Anti-Unionists in Kilmarnock Pres- bytery must have been men of pacific minds, for even at this late hour they wished a conference with their brethren. Everything passed off pleasantly when the two parties met ; but there was no getting over antagonistic con- victions, and nothing remained but to part asunder. After this the section at Auchinleck who adhered to the United Synod had preaching kept up among them for a time ; but there was nothing now to prevent them joining the Burgher congregation of Cumnock,.a single mile distant, and thus the uprise of an opposition church was prevented. Mr M'Derment died, 26th September 1833, in the fiftieth year of his age and eighteenth of his ministry. Dr M'Crie, in lamenting his loss, wrote thus : " There was so much of the milk of human kindness about him, so much gentleness, so much piety, so much anxiety to do good, so much zeal for the public cause." The congregation, after a vacancy of nearly four years, during which they experienced four disappointments, obtained for their PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 327 minister Mr George Roger, M.A., who was ordained, 8th November 1837, and died, 4th April 1870, in the sixtieth year of his age and thirty-third of his ministry. He was succeeded by the present minister, the Rev. Professor Spence. The congregation, for want of denominational feeders, has neces- sarily declined, and in 1884 there was a membership of only 28, but with a high standard of liberality. AYR (ANTIBURGHER) IN 1764, the year when the minutes of the Anti burgher Presbytery of Glasgow begin, Ayr was receiving occasional supply of sermon. On 2nd April 1765 seven persons gave in an accession to the Act and Testimony, and other 3 followed on 24th June 1766. It was now thought proper to have a session organised, and after inquiry the Presbytery found the people to be in a state of ripeness for having an election of elders. Accordingly, four were chosen, and pronounced qualified ; but only three were ordained, the fourth having refused to come forward. In 1770 the first church was built, but as regards the cost or the dimensions there is nothing known. The first preacher they called was Mr Thomas Darg, a young man belonging to the West. The call bore the signatures of 33 (male) members, and it was con- curred in by 13 others. Unfortunately, it might be thought, for Mr Darg's comfort, he had acquired some command of the Gaelic language through residing for a considerable time in the North Highlands as a tutor. After Ayr appeared sure of their object he was called to Wick, where this special gift would be of service, and the Synod accordingly fixed him down in that ungenial outpost. First Minister. JOHN CLARKSON, son of the Rev. Andrew Clarkson, Craigmailen. Ordained, 2ist April 1772, and died, 2ist August 1780, in the thirty-third year of his age and ninth of his ministry. A daughter of his, who was a mere infant when her father died, became the wife of Dr Heugh of Glasgow. The widow of Mr Clarkson of Ayr survived her husband nearly sixty-three years, and died, 28th April 1843. Dr Heugh wrote next day to his son in India : " Your grandmother finished her long pilgrimage yester- day, tranquilly falling asleep in the midst of us. She has been thirty years under my roof, and has mingled with all the little incidents of our passing domestic history." She was in her 8gth year. Some time after Mr Clarkson's death the congregation called Mr Alexander Allan to be his successor, the call being signed by 43 (male) members, and adhered to by 36 not in communion, who declared their willingness to contribute for the support of the gospel in connection with the congregation, but the Synod appointed him to Coupar-Angus. Second Minister. JAMES TAYLOR, from Buchlyvie. Ordained on a unanimous call, I4th November 1781. Mr Tayjor, having been sent by the Synod on a mission to England his course came suddenly to an end, as the inscription attests on a neglected tombstone in the now disused burying-ground connected with the old Antiburgher meeting-house at Kendal. It runs thus: "Erected by his congregation to the memory of the Rev. James Taylor, Minister of the Gospel at (Wallacetown, Ayr), who died in this town, August I2th, 1793, on his way to Liverpool. Aged 37. His character may be known by the tears of his flock and the grief of his friends." Of Mr Taylor all we know further is that he was a son-in-law of Professor Moncrieff of Alloa. A few months after falling vacant the congregation called Mr James Watt, whom the Synod, in keeping with 328 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS his own wishes, appointed to Pennsylvania.* Two years later they made choice of Mr David Hog, but the Presbytery by a unanimous vote assigned him to Kihvinning. He was ultimately settled in Rothesay. Third Minister. GEORGE STEVENSON, from Morebattle. Ordained, 22nd February 1797. When negotiations for Union with the Burgher Synod were going on Mr Stevenson was a member of committee, and took the lead in resisting the proposal to make covenanting a matter of forbearance in the United Church. This was the strong point with him, as hostility to the Burgess Oath was with Professor Paxton. As the decisive Synod was drawing on, he and Mr Smith of Kihvinning repre- sented to Kilmarnock Presbytery the difficulty they had in co-operating with those brethren who were already joining in communion work with the Burghers, and it was agreed to recommend that the practice complained of be as far as possible avoided in the meantime. When the Union came Mr Stevenson stood foremost among the Protestors, and his congregation kept by him. If any were otherwise minded they had the means of placing themselves noiselessly under the ministry of Mr Schaw. In 1824 Mr Stevenson published "A Plea for the Covenanted Reformation," in which the subject is very ably reasoned out. The statement that the author 'was a man of amiable disposition and the reverse of a controversialist is favoured by the fact that in this treatise there is no recriminating of his former brethren. Mr Stevenson received the degree of D.D. from New Jersey in 1834, and in 1836 his son George was called to be his colleague, but the Synod appointed him to Kilwinning. At this time the congregation had a communion roll of 273, and the stipend was .138, with 16 guineas for house rent. There was a debt on the property of ,270. Dr Stevenson died, 5th May 1841, in the seventieth year of his age and forty- fifth of his ministry. Mr John Robertson, from an active family in Dr Paxton's Church, Edinburgh, was ordained, 29th May 1843. He and his congregation kept by the Original Secession Synod in 1852, and in 1884 they had a membership of 160, with a total income of AYR, DARLINGTON PLACE (BURGHER) ON I3th June 1797 the Burgher Presbytery of Kilmarnock received a petition for sermon from Ayr with 13 names appended, and Mr Russell of Dairy was appointed to preach there on the following Sabbath. The applicants, we * James Watt was called to two congregations in Ireland, his native country to Hillhall and Dublin as well as to Ayr, but some of his relatives having emigrated to America he expressed his willingness to go there, and the Synod in May 1794 appointed him to Pennsylvania. But that year he published anonymously "Animad- versions on existing Circumstances among Antiburgher Seceders," in which he ques- tioned whether their professions of absolute adherence to the standards of the Church, and their conduct in covenanting, were marked by integrity. He also suggested that the Secession Testimony was in some points materially wrong. Having owned him- self the author of this pamphlet, and refusing to retract, he was suspended from preaching by the Synod in May 1795. A year afterwards he made certain acknow- ledgments, submitted to rebuke, and was restored. No sooner was this done than he read a paper declaring that Presbyterian Church Government and Infant Baptism are opposed to the Word of God, and that the subscription of creeds has no warrant m Scripture. For these reasons he renounced subjection to the Synod, and they on their part excluded him from the communion of the Church. After this he qualified as an M.D., wrote controversially, and became pastor of a Baptist church in Glasgow, where he died, 3rd March 1821, aged fifty-nine. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 329 may assume, had previously belonged to other churches of the same con- nection, and, having settled down in the town, they wished a congregation formed to stand midway between what was deemed the narrowness of the Anti burghers and the laxity of the Relief. In 1799 a church, with 610 sittings, was built at a cost of ^1010, and, to prepare the way for an election of elders, a paper of formal accession from 48 persons was given in to the Presbytery on nth February 1800. At the same meeting an appeal against a refusal of Tarbolton session to disjoin a family who wished to be annexed to Ayr was sustained, and on i6th March four elders were ordained. On 5th August a call signed by 31 members and 32 ad- herents was addressed to the Rev. Hector Cameron of Moffat, the stipend promised being ,100, but the Presbytery of Edinburgh decided to con- tinue him at Moffat. First Minister. WILLIAM SCHAW, who had been ordained six years before at Lochwinnoch, and had preached again and again to Ayr people while the cause was in course of formation. The translation was agreed to by the Presbytery, and Mr Schaw was inducted, 26th August 1801, the services being conducted in the open air. Under his ministry, and in the midst of a growing population, the congregation increased by degrees, till in 1836 it had a membership of 400. The stipend was ^126 in all, and there was a debt of only .250 on the building. Next year he was Moderator of Synod, and in 1839 he received the degree of D.D. from Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. In August 1845 I^ r Schaw's jubilee was celebrated with much cordiality, but the age of money presentations was not yet fully begun. The congregation had passed through a short period of com- motion some' time before in the choosing of a colleague. At the first moderation Mr Hugh Darling, afterwards of Stitchel, was carried over Mr James Clyde by 108 votes to 95, and a disruption was threatened. Harmony, however, was restored and the storm appeased by casting the successful candidate adrift, and beginning anew. Second Mijiister. JAMES KNOX, M.A., from Port-Glasgow. Ordained as colleague and successor to Dr Schaw, i/th July 1844, the call being harmonious, and signed by 269 members. For stipend Mr Knox was to have ;ioo, and the senior minister ^73, an arrangement in which the latter expressed full concurrence. In the winter of 1846 Dr Schaw was pronounced to be labouring under heart disease, and after a fortnight of complete prostration he died, igth September 1847, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. In an obituary notice which appeared soon afterwards his excellences were summed up as follows : " He was the friend of peace and order, a lover of good men, and an ornament of the Church and profession to which he belonged." Besides a number of stray discourses Dr Schaw published a volume of sermons in 1821, entitled "The Christian Monitor." In 1856 Mr Knox received a divided call to Greyfriars, Glasgow, which he declined ; but another quickly followed from Pollok Street, which he accepted on 8th July of that year, and Ayr became vacant. The stipend was now to be ^210, including everything. Third Minister. ROBERT M. M'lNNES, from Glasgow (now Woodlands Road). Ordained, 25th August 1857. Exactly three years afterwards the present church was opened, with sittings for 767, and built at a cost of ^3480. In 1879 there was a membership of 465, and the stipend had been raised altogether to .362, ios., while the total income for that year ap- proximated to ,2000. After a long struggle with an incurable ailment Mr M'Innes died, 24th December 1894, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. His eldest son, the Rev. John M'Innes, had been ordained in Darlington Place Church for India on 8th October 1884, 33 o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS his father presiding on the important though trying occasion. His field of mission labour is Alwar, Rajputana. Fourth Minister. ANDREW M. SMITH, M.A., from Trinity Church, Sunderland, to which he had been translated from Hamilton (Saffronhall) four years before. Inducted to Darlington Place, 26th September 1895, and loosed, 26th June 1900, on accepting a call to be colleague to the Rev. James Robertson, Viewforth U.P. Church, Edinburgh. In the begin- ning of that year there were 540 names on the communion roll, and the stipend was ^363. At the Union with the Free Church the congregation was vacant. AYR, CATHCART STREET (RELIEF) THIS congregation originated in a petition from a number of people in Ayr and its vicinity craving the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow to appoint some of their ministers to preach to them the word of life. This was on 6th September 1814. There had been a change in the pulpit of the parish church through the death of Dr Dalrymple in January of that year. Mr Auld was transferred from the second to the first charge ; but in his new colleague there was no promise that the reign of Moderatism which pre- vailed under Drs Dalrymple and M'Gill was coming to an end. Hence, as a reason for the application now made, the parties assigned " their destitute state for want of the gospel." Most of them, it is said, had been accustomed attending and communicating at Newton-on-Ayr, where there was an evangelical ministry, but they now set about obtaining the same privilege in a simpler way. Mr Stewart of Anderston Church opened the station on the third Sabbath of September. The granary of a large brewery was the meeting-place at first, and Mr James Howie in his History of Ayr stated that he remembered hearing the celebrated Alexander Harvey, then in Kilmarnock, preach in that temporary meeting-house at their first com- munion. There must, however, be some mistake here, as Mr Harvey was not even a divinity student at that time. In proceeding with the building of a church time was lost and much additional expense incurred by the walls rending when the roof was being put on, making the total cost ^3300. This was the account their second minister gave in 1836 to the Commis- sioners on Religious Instruction. The sittings numbered 1182. First Minister. JOHN NICHOL, from Dovehill, Glasgow. Ordained, 5th December 1816. Mr Nichol had another call from Kilbarchan, which was withdrawn when he announced his acceptance of Ayr. The amount of stipend is not given in the Presbytery minutes, but care was taken to have the bond extended on a legal stamp. Mr Nichol died of inflamma- tion of the lungs on gth April 1825, after an illness of four days, in the thirty-third year of his age and ninth of his ministry. A volume of his discourses, which I have not seen, was published after his death. The first meeting of session, it should have been stated, was held on I4th February 1817, and the first name entered was that of Henry Cowan, who did more than anyone else to help on the Relief cause in Ayr. Second Minister. ROBERT RENWICK, from Hutchesontown, Glasgow. Ordained, 28th November 1826. The stipend was to be ,160. On the moderation day he was the only eligible candidate, the others not having preached four Sabbaths, and it was reported at the time that owing to this there were only 260 signatures at the call, or little more than a fourth of what might have been. Some want of cordiality may account for an attempt which was made two years afterwards to form a second Relief PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 331 congregation in Ayr. Sermon was granted in July 1828, the centre to be in Newton-on-Ayr, and after a trial of some Sabbaths the Presbytery were of opinion that the movement ought to be encouraged ; but all at once silence comes in, and the proposal is never heard of again. In 1836 Mr Renwick's communion roll was close on 900, which was a good many more than the two Secession congregations taken together. About three- fifths of the families resided within the parish, and the others, excepting a few from Maybole, Dundonald, and Monkton, were within the boundaries of Newton-on-Ayr and St Quivox. The stipend was now ^180, with .5 at each communion. It might have been more, as the seat rents alone yielded over ^200 a year, but there was a debt of ,2000 resting on the property. This heavy burden was much reduced in 1845, M f Henry Cowan evincing his unabated interest in the cause by a donation of ^500. With Mr Renwick all went on smoothly till, on I4th January 1851, a letter was received from him by the Presbytery, in which he made an acknowledgment which involved the unhappy termination of his ministerial life. At next meeting, on nth February, the congregation intimated that they could not forget Mr Renwick's faithfulness, and they hoped he would be dealt with as leniently as was consistent with the Rules of the Church. But the sentence was suspension sine die. As he had made all the reparation possible 268 members petitioned within three months to have him restored to office. The session, however, put in an appearance against it, and the Presbytery adhered to their former decision. Mr Renwick now betook himself to a secular calling. He was ultimately stationmaster at Maryhill, where he died of apoplexy, 2oth May 1862, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. J^hird Minister. DAVID M'EwAN, son of the Rev. James M'Ewan of Strathaven (First). Mr M'Ewan's popularity as a preacher was attested by calls from Alloa (West), London (Albion Chapel), and Strathaven (First), from which his father had retired, as well as from Cathcart Street, Ayr. Ordained, 24th September 1851. The stipend was now ,200, with sacra- mental and travelling expenses. In less than a year Mr M'Ewan was called to College Street, Edinburgh, to be Dr French's colleague, and the call on being repeated was accepted, ist November 1852. Fourth Minister. W T ALTER MORISON, B.A., from Glasgow (Wellington Street). Called first to Peterhead, but preferred Ayr, and was ordained, loth August 1853. The stipend was ^215. Memory recalls in this connec- tion a long article which appeared in the denominational magazine for 1856 on "Scottish Presbyterian Preaching." There was no name given, but Mr Morison of Ayr was known to be the author, and it marked him out in our estimation as a minister destined to be better known and widely heard of. Promotion came, and on gth February 1864 he accepted a call to Eglinton Street, Glasgow. Fifth Minister. GEORGE COPLAND, M.A., from Glasgow (St Vincent Street). Ordained, 4th January 1865, the membership being 628, and the stipend was to be ,270, including everything. In 1872 the minister was furnished with a manse at an outlay of ^1200, the congregation drawing nothing from the Central Board, and within the next eight years upwards of ^1300 was expended on church improvements and the erection of a suitable hall. At the Union the membership was 450, and the stipend .320, with the manse. 332 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS AYR, WALLACE STREET (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 25th January 1898 a letter from the Evangelical Union Church, Wallace Street, Ayr, was presented to the Presbytery of the bounds to be received into the U.P. Church. This was the first of three similar applications from E.U. churches which came before the Synod in May of that year. In this case the congregation had voted unanimously against joining the Congrega- tional Union on the basis proposed, objecting specially to the following statement: "The Union as such does not require formal subscription or assent to any doctrinal creed" not even to what were known as "the three great universalities." The applicants explained that they had a membership of 1 80, and were to be self-supporting. Their church was the place of worship in which Dr Schaw's congregation met in Burgher and Secession days, but which they vacated in 1860, when they removed to Darlington Place. It had recently been renovated at a cost of not less than ^1000, which left a debt of ^200. This congregation was constituted on I2th June 1844 by the Rev. James Morison of Kilmarnock, whose case, along with the doctrinal discussions involved, and the prominence given to the motto " Salvation for all," had made a deep impression on Ayr. Sabbath services were held first in a dwelling-house, then in a hall, and then in the Corn Exchange. In 1865 they acquired the church which they still occupy. Not till the present minister came do they seem to have attained to much stability. The ministers came and went in rapid succession, and sometimes the congrega- tion disappeared from the attested list of E.U. churches altogether, as if the cause had been in a state of suspended animation But we now come down to present times and to the present situation. First Minister. ALEXANDER STEWART, B.D., from Dundas Street E.U. congregation, Glasgow. After graduating in Glasgow University and attending the E.U. Hall four sessions Mr Stewart got licence from the Conference in 1879, and was ordained at Ayr in August 1884, his own minister, the Rev. Dr Morison, presiding. On applying to the Presbytery of Kilmarnock and Ayr to be admitted along with his congregation to the U.P. Church he declared that he held by the Presbyterian system of Church government, and believed in a basis of creed or confession. The Declara- tory Act had removed doctrinal difficulties that might otherwise have stood in his way. On 23rd May 1898 the Presbytery met in Wallace Street Church according to the remit of Synod, when the Rev. Alexander Stewart, having answered the questions of the Formula, was received along with his office-bearers and congregation into the U.P. Church. Some 45 members had broken away more than a year before owing to a difference with their brethren about the reconstruction of the church. They now form the " Morison " congregation, and are connected with the Congregational Union. They worship in what used to be Dr Stevenson's church. At the close of 1899 Wallace Street had a membership of 204, and the stipend was AYR, TRINITY CHURCH (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) On 7th July 1896 a circular on the subject from the Home Mission Secretary stirred the Presbytery of Kilmarnock and Ayr to set about arranging for Church Extension in earnest within their bounds. A committee, to which the matter was handed over, reported at an early meeting that there were two openings in the town of Ayr, and that. one or other of these should be PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 333 fixed on for immediate action. The one was on the south side of the river, where buildings had extended outwards among the more prosperous classes ; the other was in a working-class district on the north side, where the population had increased not less than 2000 in ten or twelve years. It was decided to take the south side first, and the north side as soon as practicable. The returns from sessions on 3rd November were all favourable to this order, except in one case, where it was thought the claims of the north side should have had precedence. Thus an increase of churches to the de- nomination was resolved on for the first time since 1814, when the Relief congregation in Cathcart Street sprang into existence. The site finally chosen was about a mile south from either of the other two churches, but it was not till April 1898 that the erection of a hall was proceeded with. The Board was to aid *.vith a grant of .500, and, better still, a lady friend of Church Extension was to give whatsoever sum might be needed up to ^800. She wished at the same time to have the place of worship kept open certain hours on week-days for any who might wish to resort thither for meditation and prayer. It was in the line of Old Testament worship, when the godly went up to the temple on Zion at the hour of the evening sacrifice. One is curious to know how far the arrangement would have served its purpose, but a constant attendant could scarcely have been dispensed with, and the con- dition was not insisted on. The hall was opened, and services begun, on Sabbath, 2oth November 1898, and 24 members, most of them certified from the sessions of Darlington Place or Cathcart Street, were formed into a con- gregation on 2nd February 1899. Three of their number were soon after chosen and inducted as elders, one of them the Rev. James Allison, minister- emeritus of Alexandria, and the other two had held office before. With the sums already mentioned, and another gift of ,250, the liberality of the people supplying the rest, the buildings, which along with the site cost ,2000, were already free of debt, and the way was opened up to rapid prosperity. First Minister. MILLAR PATRICK. M.A., translated from Biggar (Moat Park), where he had been ordained five years before. Inducted, I2th July 1899. The call was signed by 29 members and 20 adherents, and the stipend was to be ,300, the congregation to raise ^150. In the following year the people contributed ,250 of the ^300, and the membership at the Union is believed to have been over 200. As the hall accommodates only 1 80 a church of suitable dimensions was already felt to be an urgent necessity. CUMNOCK (BURGHER) THE first application to the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow from this place for sermon was on 5th August 1773, and Mr Walker of Mauchline, the nearest minister, preached there on the fourth Sabbath of that month. The paper given in was in name of more than 30 persons, chiefly heads of families, and it assigned reasons at full length for the step they were taking. It had six signatures, one of them that of a Seceder probably connected with Mauchline congregation, six miles off. On 5th February 1775 the adherents formally acceded to the Presbytery, which shows that in Cumnock the Secession was breaking new ground, and in December elders were ordained. That year the first church was built, and a moderation was next applied for, with the promise of ^55 a year, and other $ when the minister should "take up house." First Minister. JAMES HALL, from Glasgow (now Greyfriars). Ordained, 334 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS i6th April 1777, when he was only four months over the age of twenty. Mr Hall, it is said, " was not appreciated in Cumnock according to his merits," but a larger sphere of usefulness awaited him. In 1780 he was called to Wells Street, London, but the Synod continued him in Cumnock. In May 1786 a call he had received from " New Edinburgh " came up to the Supreme Court for disposal. He was absent through illness, but the case went on, and the transportation was agreed to. During Mr Hall's ministry of nine years in Cumnock the congregation must have prospered, as a call they now addressed to the Rev. William Watson of Largs was signed by 234 members and 171 adherents, but the Synod forbade the transference. Second Minister. DAVID WILSON, from Cambusnethan. The Presby- tery of Glasgow having preferred Cumnock to Lanark he was ordained, 3oth October 1788. The people engaged for ^70, with a house, and the farmers were also to furnish the minister with a horse when required, except in seed- time and harvest. This provision was needed, as Mr Wilson's hearers were drawn from stretches of at least a dozen miles. The Rev. Peter Mearns, in a very interesting Memoir of Mr Wilson, has mentioned that the con- gregation got a large accession of strength from New Cumnock in 1796, where the settlement of an unpopular clergyman led to a general disruption, leaving, even on a good day, not more than 24 persons in the parish church. Mr Wilson kept faithfully by the good old custom of giving a lecture as his first discourse Sabbath by Sabbath, and his preaching throughout was set to the gospel keynote. He died, I7th December 1822, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. Mr Mearns states that Mr Wilson might have removed to Ayr at the time the Burgher congregation was formed, but though this may have been talked of the formal offer was never made. Third Minister. ROBERT BROWN, from Kilmarnock (now Portland Road). Had calls to Kinghorn, Kirkcaldy (Union Church), and Cumnock, but the last named was signed by 540 members and 152 adherents, or more than the other two put together, and was preferred by the Synod. The stipend was to be ^130, with manse and ground, and he was ordained, i8th November 1823. Mr Brown has been described as dignified in manner, but kindly, and a very edifying preacher. We see him mounted on his black pony, away on some far round of visitation among the scattered families of his flock. In 1831 the present church was built, with 851 sittings. Mr Brown died, i8th July 1847, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty- fourth of his ministry, leaving a widow and a family of four, of whom the youngest, his only son, was to be afterwards known as Dr James Brown, St James' Church, Paisley. Fourth Minister. MATTHEW DICKIE, from Irvine (Relief), a brother of the Rev. Andrew Dickie, St Paul's, Aberdeen. Brought up in the Estab- lished Church, but went over to the Relief before entering on his college course. Ordained at Cumnock, 5th July 1848, having during a brief pro- bationership declined Walker, near Newcastle, and Bankhill, Berwick. In 1850 Mr Dickie was invited to Canal Street, Paisley, but he remained in Cumnock. On 28th April 1857 he accepted a call to the young congrega- tion of Bristol, with a membership of only 60. There a new church was opened on 5th September 1859, the cost being very nearly ,6000, and there was the prospect of rapid prosperity. The acoustics, however, proved a sore discouragement, though this did not prevent gradual consolidation. In the spring of 1869 Mr Dickie's health gave way, and after a period of much- tried endurance he died, 3Oth May 1871, in the fifty-seventh year of his age and twenty-third of his ministry. An appreciative Memoir of his life work by his former co-presbyter, Dr Taylor of New York, was published in 1872, PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 335 with a small selection of his discourses and specimens of his poetical gifts appended. His son, the Rev. Matthew Muir Dickie, after distinguishing himself as a student, became minister of Haddington (East). Fifth Minister. WILLIAM HUTTON, from Pitcairn. Ordained, 3rd November 1857, and loosed, I4th September 1869, on accepting a call to Mofifat. Shortly before this the manse was rebuilt at a cost of ^930, of which ^200 came from the Manse Board. Sixth Minister.- ALEXANDER M'DONALD, from Kilsyth, but a native of Kirkintilloch. Having preferred Cumnock to Aberdeen (George Street) he was ordained there, loth January 1871. The membership at the close of 1899 was 378, and the stipend ,280, with the manse. TARBOLTON (BURGHER) THE Secession cause got recognised footing in Tarbolton when, in response to a petition from a Praying Society in that parish, Ralph Erskine and James Fisher observed a Fast there on the first Thursday of September 1740, and preached on the following Sabbath. Against this alleged intrusion there appeared in the Courant shortly after a testimony and declaration purport- ing to be from the elders of Tarbolton parish, but it was signed by only five out of twelve the entire number. There is no trace of further supply by the Associate Presbytery, and, like their brethren throughout most of Ayrshire, the Seceders in and about Tarbolton would have to attend ordinances at Kilmaurs, not less than ten miles distant, and accordingly we find that in 1753 Mr Smyton baptised two children from that parish. It was not till 1776 that steps were taken to form a Secession congregation in the place itself. On gth April of that year some people in and about Tarbolton presented a petition to the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow for supply of sermon, with reasons assigned. The station was opened at Milburn, in the neighbour- hood, on Sabbath week thereafter by Mr Gilfillan of Dunblane, and, a formal accession being given in at next meeting, the applicants were received as a congregation on 2jth August 1777. The church, with 600 sittings, is be- lieved to have been built that year, and on I5th February 1778 four elders were ordained and one inducted. First Minister. JAMES MOIR, translated from Cumbernauld, where he had been ordained twelve years before. Being ready for a change Mr Moir preached a Sabbath at Tarbolton by appointment of Presbytery in December 1777. A moderation was applied for in March, but the congrega- tion were enjoined to report in the first instance whether they were prepared to give their minister ^60 a year and a free house. At next meeting, though no reply came, the proceedings went on, and Mr Moir was inducted, 26th August 1778. When Glasgow Presbytery loosed him from Cumbernauld Mr Thomson of Kirkintilloch dissented, as was his custom, alleging that the callers in Tarbolton were not numerous enough to support the gospel, and that the decision turned on the mere probability of future success. If this latter statement is correct it can scarcely be said that the event justified the forecast. After a trial of twenty-four years the congregation was described in the Old Statistical History as follows : "They are under the charge of a pious clergyman, and consist of very worthy persons, but they are not numerous." At an earlier period they were also burdened with debt, and had to be commended by the Presbytery to the aid of sister con- gregations. In reply to a "Practical Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ," by Dr M'Gill of Ayr, Mr Moir published in 1787 his "Scripture Doctrine of 336 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Redemption," a treatise "of marked ability." It was followed in 1790 by " An Account of the Process for Socinian Heresy against Dr M'Gill." These writings have secured for him a place in Dr M'Kerrow's list of outstanding Secession authors. The congregation, however, did not prosper under his labours as might have been expected, and in 1793 a 'd began to be required year by year from the Synod Fund. Their weakness was further aggravated by the formation of Burgher churches at Mauchline and Ayr, which led to the loss of several families. Mr Moir gave in the demission of his charge in February 1800, and the Presbytery, on inquiring into his reasons for taking this step, found that in his intercourse with his people he had not been sufficiently mindful of the injunction : " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Due acknowledgment having been made, and rebuke administered, his resignation was accepted on I7th June, the people agreeing to make a collection annually for his benefit. During his few remaining years he had an allowance of .20 from the Synod. He died, i6th October 1804, in his sixty-seventh year. Mr Moir, by his marriage, was a brother-in-law of Dr James Hall of Edinburgh. During this vacancy the congregation called Mr John Belfrage and Mr James Robertson, but the former was appointed by the Synod to Slateford, and the latter to Wooler. Second Minister. JOHN CAMPBELL, from Greenock (now Trinity Church). As a probationer Mr Campbell must have been popular, as, besides Tar- bolton, he had calls to Stitchel, Horndean, and Newbigging ; but Tarbolton carried in the Synod by an absolute majority, and the ordination followed on 7th July 1803. Had the decision turned on numbers Tarbolton, with only 89 members signing, would have had no share with Stitchel, which had 297, but it might be reckoned that three disappointments would be too many in succession. Under Mr Campbell's ministry there was a steady building up. The session at first consisted of only three members, and when additions were attempted th'e Formula, for some reason, stood oftener than once in the way, one of the elders-elect in particular refusing to accept unless one of the questions was materially altered and another expunged altogether. But Mr Campbell proved himself a judicious guide, and the name was simply dropped from the list. In 1819 there was a communion roll of very nearly 220 names. In April 1844 the congregation called Mr George Hunter to be Mr Campbell's colleague, but he preferred Tillicoultry. Third Minister. ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE, from Ayr. His parents were members of the Original Secession Church, and at what stage he changed his connection is not given. Ordained, i6th October 1844. Mr Campbell died, 2nd August 1848, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. Shortly before becoming sole pastor Mr Dal- rymple was called to Wigtown, but he decided not to remove. His stipend up till then had been only ,80, Mr Campbell being allowed ,50, with the manse ; but there was an advance now, and he entered on possession of the manse. We have no further notice of Tarbolton till 1876, when the stipend from the people was ^130, which was raised from other sources to .190, besides the manse. At the close of 1892 Mr Dalrymple wished to retire, the understanding being that he was to be received as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, and would retain the manse. At this point a union with the Free Church preaching station, of which the mem- bership was about 70, was suggested, and the congregation, with that view, was to delay calling a colleague. But, though this step was strongly recommended to the Free Church party by their own Presbytery, the great majority declared against it, and nothing further could be done. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 337 Fourth Minister. WILLIAM MORGAN, M.A., from Old Meldrum. The membership was 123, and the people were to pay ,100 of the stipend. Mr Dalrymple died, i2th June 1893, in the seventy-sixth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. He was a vigorous preacher, says Mr Kirkwood. and kept closely by the old lines. " He not only visited his people regularly, but almost to the last catechised them, both old and young, parents and children alike." It reminds us that Dr Stevenson was the minister of his youth. Mr Morgan was ordained, 26th July 1893. In the year of the Union Tarbolton had a membership of 180, and the stipend from the people was the same as above, with the addition of the manse. MAUCHLINE (BURGHER) ON 5th March 1793 tne Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow granted sermon to this place on petition from 47 persons, and supply was continued at intervals for a year and a half. Then at the Synod in September 1 794 representa- tions were brought up from Tarbolton and Cumnock against the attempt to form a congregation at Mauchline. It carried to grant supply but recommend the Presbytery to be cautious in giving disjunctions to members of Tarbolton and Cumnock. Against the former part of this decision Mr James Hall of Edinburgh, formerly of Cumnock, dissented, as the Court, he believed, had thereby disabled the two congregations concerned from sup- porting the gospel, Tarbolton virtually losing by this deed 13 families, and Cumnock 130 members. These churches, however, were distant from Mauchline four or five miles, so that it was right they should face whatever the new erection might involve. The cause progressed, a large proportion of the membership having come from the parish church owing to an unpopular settlement, and in 1796 the first place of worship was built, with accommodation for 600. In the end of that year the people wished advice as to calling a minister, and were told that they would have first to make up a roll of membership and have elders ordained. This led to an accession with 24 names, and in February 1798 a moderation was granted, the stipend of ^70 to be increased to ^80 as soon as they were able. This issued in a call to Mr William Irving signed by 63 members, but he held back with his trial discourses till a rival call came out from Stranraer (West), which the Presbytery preferred. A fortnight after this call was issued two commissioners appeared before the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow with a petition in the name of a great number of Christian people in Mauchline, Sorn, and other parishes praying for a hearing of a few of the ministers, as they contemplated putting them- selves under the Presbytery's inspection, " if circumstances afterwards answered their present views." This movement, however, found its centre in Catrine, and, though it went on for a few years, sermon had to be discontinued. First Minister. JOHN WALKER, from Linlithgow (West). Ordained, 1 7th April 1799. This call was signed by 68 members and 20 adherents. The Presbytery wished the congregation to add a free house to the stipend formerly named, but the answer was that they could do nothing more at present, though willing to exert themselves to meet the Presbytery's views. In the sermon preached on the occasion of Mr Walker's death he is described as a man of eminent piety and much gentleness, but the best testimony to his excellences comes from a wing of his people who were originating a church at Catrine not long before his death. They testified "that under the ministry of Mr Walker, and by the blessing of God on his II. Y 33 8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ministry, the congregation has risen from a small and not very cheering beginning to become a numerous and respectable portion of the Church of Christ." They, therefore, esteemed him highly in love for his work's sake. But the time was now approaching when their aged minister would have to give place to another. Second Minister. DAVID THOMAS, from Wellington Street, Glasgow. Ordained as colleague and successor to Mr Walker, 29th July 1835. The membership at this time was 411, but at the moderation there was not ' entire harmony, and, though Mr Thomas had a decided majority over the other two candidates, 79 members gave in a complaint about undue haste, and the call was signed by less than half the membership. Each of the ministers was to have a stipend of ^80. Mr Walker died, 8th August 1836, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. Mr Thomas was long a prominent figure in the U.P. Synod, having been appointed Clerk of the Committee on Bills and Overtures the year before the Union of 1847. He died, i8th February 1874, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry, leaving a son in the ministry, the Rev. David Thomas of Howgate, and a son-in-law, the Rev. William Hutton, then in Moffat, and now in Grange Road, Birkenhead. In the early part of his ministry the congregation sustained a serious loss through the members from Catrine being formed into a new congregation. Mainly owing to this the names on the communion roll numbered only 247 at Mr Thomas' death. Third Minister. WILSON BAIRD, son of the Rev. Hugh Baird, Cumber- nauld. Ordained, 27th July 1875. C* n Friday, 3oth October 1885, the present church, with sittings for 439, was opened by Dr Mair of Morning- side, a son of the congregation. The cost was ^2300, and of this sum the people had previously subscribed nearly ^1000, though they only numbered 250 members. Friends contributed over ^700, and a grant of ^200 from the Ferguson Bequest Trustees, with another of ,130 from our own Board, crowned by an opening collection of fully ,260, enabled them to take possession of their handsome building free of debt. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 270, and the stipend from the people was .175, besides ^120 contributed for missions. MAYBOLE (BURGHER) ON loth June 1794 a petition for sermon came up to the Burgher Presby- tery of Glasgow from some people in Maybole, and preachers were ap- pointed to supply there three successive Sabbaths in July. Two years before this, according to the Old Statistical History, there were only three Seceders in the parish, two women and one man, and these were recent importations. Of the minister in the Established church all we know is that at the close of his forenoon service one Sabbath in the autumn of 1807 .he told his people that, the weather being critical, any of them who chose might in his opinion devote the afternoon to harvest labour. In April 1796 the Seceders of Maybole applied to the Synod for a grant to assist them in building their place of worship, and obtained a donation of .20, the entire cost being ^400. In March 1797 a formal accession was given in to the recently-formed Presbytery of Kilmarnock from 24 persons, and they were followed in August by other 33, making a membership of 57 in all. In October they applied for a moderation, promising a stipend of ^60, with a suitable house, and expressing their readiness to augment it as soon as practicable, both for their own credit and for the comfort of their minister. In December a session was constituted. PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 339 First Minister. JAMES MATHER, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Mr Mather being under call to Denny the case had to be decided by the Synod, who preferred Maybole, and the ordination took place, iyth July 1798. The call had been signed by 40 members and 124 adherents. In view of a fixed ministry the people came forward undertaking to provide Mr Mather with a horse in addition to what had already been engaged for. But discouragements came in a few years, mainly through Mr Mather's health breaking down, so that, in order to pay the stipend and provide pulpit supply, donations varying from 10 to 20 were required again and again from the Central Fund, and their circumstances were described as very distressing. The Presbytery found,^however, on inquiry into their internal affairs that they were making un- common exertions, and both Presbytery and Synod seem to have acted gener- ously towards them on the principle of helping those who help themselves. Thus there was the moving on from year to year till 1811, when Mr Mather wrote the Presbytery that he was to be entirely laid aside for three months. He died on 24th November of that year, in the fourteenth year of his ministry. Soon afterwards steps were taken to have the church fitted up with galleries, to accommodate 555 in all, which indicates that the congregation amidst their difficulties had neither lost ground nor lost hope. Second Minister. THOMAS STRUTHERS, from Abbey Close, Paisley. Ordained, I4th April 1813. The call was signed by 116 members, a large increase on the former 40, but the adherents were reduced from 124 to 71, owing, no doubt, to a large proportion having passed from the outer to the inner circle. The stipend was now ,100, with a house, and an additional ,5 instead of a horse. After six years of successful labour at Maybole Mr Struthers was called to Hamilton (now Avon Street), and the Synod in September 1819 decided for his translation. After a pause of a year and a half the congregation called Mr James Tail ; but there was a competing call from Barrhead, and when the case was under discussion in the Synod Mr Tail, we read, ''stated with modesty his reasons for giving a preference to Barrhead," and he was accordingly sent thither by a large majority. This call was signed by 154 in full communion, and 96 others adhered, showing that the increase under Mr Struthers had been considerable. Third Minister. JAMES THOMSON, from Mauchline. A prior call from Glenluce was allowed to drop, and he was ordained, 3oth April 1823. Called to Lauriston, Glasgow (now Erskine Church) in 1829, but after Mr Thomson was heard, it was agreed without a vote to continue him in May- bole. A change might have taken him out of harm's way, and been better both for himself and for his congregation. On 6th August 1833 he demitted his charge, as it would be inexpedient, he said, to continue longer at Maybole. At a congregational meeting 50 had voted to end the connection and 35 to continue it. He had been solemnly rebuked by the Presbytery a few months before, but the pastoral bond was now dissolved, and he was placed under suspension. Six months having passed, there was reason to believe that his good resolutions had stood the test of time, and his brethren, desiring to befriend him, removed the sentence and restored him to Church communion. But before notice of this decision was sent off by the Clerk information came that evil habits had again prevailed, and suspension passed into deposition. In a few months Mr Thomson lost his wife, the daughter of a Kirkoswald farmer, and his children were taken under the care of their mothers family. After this he attempted to keep his footing as a teacher amidst adverse fortunes. He died at Girvan in 1837, and a tombstone in Maybole Churchyard tells where he is buried. The inscription closes with the word " Resting." Yes ; after the burning pulse-beat has ceased, and life's fitful fever is over, he sleeps well. 340 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS In June 1834 Maybole congregation called Mr John Lawson. Two other candidates were proposed, and perhaps for this reason Mr Lawson lingered in indecision till after the call was set aside. Then notice of acceptance came, and the Presbytery, at the unanimous wish of the congregation, agreed to go on with his trials for ordination. However, when they met again, Mr Lawson had letters forward assigning reasons for preferring a call from Pitlessie, and Maybole had to begin the work of hearing candi- dates anew. Fourth Minister. JOHN MONCRIEFF THOMSON, from Strathaven (First). Chosen by a decided majority. He had no hesitation in accepting Maybole in preference to Kilwinning, and on 8th April 1835 he was ordained. There is reason to fear that the standing of the congregation had suffered towards the close of the former ministry, and, though the number of callers was almost the same as before, the stipend of ^100 included everything. In 1836 there were 296 communicants, of whom about a third were from other parishes, the greater part by far from Kirkmichael, and the others from Kirkoswald, Straiton, and Dailly, with a very few from Dalmellington. Nineteen families came from more than six miles. The second Mr Thomson went on for seventeen years, and, in the judgment of his co-Presbyters, proved himself "an able and faithful minister of the gospel." But he may have found the tides adverse,- and on 1st November 1852 his resignation was given in and accepted. He assigned as his chief reason the prospect he had of bettering his circumstances in another line of life, and the con- gregation, while expressing their esteem for their minister, believed that it would be unkind not to acquiesce. He passed to the editorship of the Glasgow Constitutional, a position which implied literary talent and re- quired peculiar aptitudes. He eventually held the office of registrar in one of the districts in Glasgow, and died there on 3rd April 1862, aged fifty- five. On to the end he remained faithful to the denomination, and for years his name held its place on the list of Occasional Supply. At the commencement of this vacancy a small committee of Presbytery was appointed to advise with the elders and managers, who were finding themselves in serious difficulties, but the main result was the cutting down of the communion roll to 129. Fifteen years before this the parish minister gave 548 of the population, young and old, as belonging to the Secession. Whence the mighty reduction came is a mystery, even though we take into account the decline in the weaving trade, which used to be the staple industry of the place. The funds had also suffered serious decline, so that the congregation could not undertake more than 80 of stipend, to which the Board agreed to add ,20. This matter being adjusted the congregation called Mr William Fleming in November 1853, who was ordained soon after to Union Church, Kirkcaldy. Fifth Minister. JOHN CARRICK, M.A., from. Partick (now Newton Place). Ordained, I2th July 1854, and within a year and a half there was a membership of 185, and the stipend from the people had risen ,20. This was followed up by the church debt of ,87 being cleared off, with the aid of ^30 from the Liquidation Board. Maybole now disappeared from the list of supplemented churches, owing, perhaps, to the generosity of the minister. In 1867 a manse was built at a cost of 710, of which .270 came from the Board. The present church, with 380 sittings, and built at a cost of about ^1800, was opened on Sabbath, igth December 1880, by Dr Thomson of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, when the collection amounted to ^91. There was but a small proportion of debt remaining. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM THOMSON, M.A., from Stonehouse. Or- dained, i8th February 1886, as colleague to Mr Carrick, but with the under- PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 341 standing that he was to be responsible for the whole work. The stipend was to be ^125, Mr Carrick accepting no allowance either from his people or from the Fund for Aged and Infirm Ministers. On I3th October 1891 he resigned entirely, the congregation testifying to his long and valuable services. He then removed to Edinburgh, where he still resides. The membership at the close of 1899 was 194, and the stipend from the people 1 35, w ith the rnanse. Next year a hall and other buildings were com- pleted at a cost of ,800, and opened free of debt, the Board aiding with ^100. GIRYAN (BURGHER) THE Secession cause did not take shape in Girvan till the second Sabbath of October 1813, when, in answer to a petition to the Burgher Presbytery of Kilmarnock for sermon, Mr Walker of Mauchline opened a preaching station in the place. On 4th April 1815 a formal accession was received from 21 persons, and at the ensuing Synod they obtained 20 to aid them in building a meeting-house, and a year later other 20 to finish it. In July 1816 they brought out a call to the Rev. Andrew Scott of Cambusnethan signed by 52 members and 165 adherents, but Mr Scott had been ordained only twelve months before, and the Synod after hearing him decided without a vote not to translate. The next call was addressed to Mr James Anderson who wrote them signifying that his mind was made up to accept Dunblane, and the call was withdrawn. In 1818 they called Mr William Fraser, the number of adherents on this occasion being 403, but he wrote the Presbytery intimating, in " dutiful and Christian language," his declinature, which was accepted, and he was ordained at Stonehouse in 1820. In the beginning of 1819 they fixed on Mr Alexander Waugh, with the promise of ^180 of stipend, which was 60 more than before, but at the Synod Miles Lane, London, carried over all competitors. First Minister. THOMAS THOMSON, from Longridge. Ordained, 8th November 1820, and died, 28th April 1826, in the thirty-eighth year of his age and sixth of his ministry. Second Minister. ALEXANDER DUNCAN, eldest son of the Rev. Alexander Duncan, Mid-Calder. Ordained, i6th August 1827. The call was signed by 1 20 members, but the stipend promised, instead of being ,120 as at first, was only ,90. Nine years after this the communicants numbered 205, of whom fully one-fourth were from the parishes of Colmonell and Kirkoswald. The stipend was now ^10 higher than before, and of the sittings 336 were let, between 50 and 100 of them to members of the Established Church. On 3ist May 1842 Mr Duncan accepted a call to East Regent Place, Glasgow. This introduced a vacancy of nearly three years, during which four unsuccessful calls were issued the first, which was not har- monious, to Mr Hugh Darling, afterwards of Stitchel, who remained on the preachers' list for the time ; the second to Mr Robert T. Jeffrey, M.D., who preferred Denny ; the third to Mr George Hunter, who preferred Tillicoultry ; and the fourth to their former minister's youngest brother, Mr Robert Dick Duncan, who preferred Wishart Church, Dundee. Third Minister. DAVID SIM, from Regent Place, Glasgow, a nephew of the Rev. David M. Inglis of Stockbridge. Having declined Livery Street, Bathgate, Mr Sim was ordained at Girvan, I7th April 1845. The stipend was ^100, as before. On gth March 1852 Mr Sim accepted a call to Bradford, where the U.P. congregation, built up by the Rev. Alex- ander Wallace, had experienced heavy reverses. There Mr Sim laboured with quiet success for twelve years, and then " when heavy liabilities were 342 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS removed " illness put an arrest upon his work. He died, i6th August 1864, in the forty-second year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. Bradford congregation and other friends within the bounds of Lancashire Presbytery testified their respect to Mr Sim's memory by raising the sum of ,2000 on behalf of his widow and family. Fourth Minister. JOHN STILLIK, from Maybole. Called also to Ramsay, a vacancy of little account, and ordained at Girvan, 2nd November 1852, where Mr John More, afterwards of Alloa, had been the opposing candidate. The stipend was ^i 15, including house rent and expenses. When a pro- bationer Mr Stillie escaped death by a hair's-breadth. The particulars have been given by Mr James Skinner in his Autobiography. Referring to the after fortunes of the packet in which he himself went to Shetland he says : "One of our preachers intended to sail in her from Aberdeen. For this purpose he svent to the station at Glasgow, but was a minute too late. He took the next train, and arrived in Aberdeen an hour after the packet had sailed. In losing the train by a minute he saved his life." This was Mr Stillie, and the vessel was never heard of more. All on board perished, but he was preserved to labour for thirty-four years in Girvan, and share in the congregation's welfare. On 25th September 1870 a new church was opened by Dr MacEwen of Glasgow, with sittings for 450, and built at a cost of ^1800. The opening collection amounted to ^150. In 1875 the membership was 162, and the stipend was ^180, with a manse. In 1885 Mr Stillie, who had been a distinguished student, especially in Greek, received the degree of D.D. from Princeton University, and next year, having given up all pecuniary claims on the congregation, he retired from active duty, and went to reside in Greenock, where he connected himself with Trinity Church. He had the satisfaction of seeing the whole property free of debt when he left. He died, 28th November 1893, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. In 1895 four Articles appeared in the U.P. Magazine on John Knox in the first stages of his reforming career. They revealed thorough acquaintance with the subject, and were taken from a pile of manuscript Dr Stillie left behind him on his favourite field of research, the History of the Scottish Reformation. Fifth Minister. CHARLES AIRMAN THOMSON, B.D., son of the Rev. William Thomson, Plantation, Glasgow, and nephew of Dr Logan Aikman. Ordained, 3ist March 1887. The membership at the close of 1899 was 194, and the stipend from the people ,165, with the manse. TROON (BURGHER) UP till 1808 Troon was a village of no importance, but at this date it began to take its place as a seaport on the coast of Ayrshire. The population increasing, a petition for sermon was presented to the Burgher Presbytery of Kilmarnock on 29th March 1814, which was granted at once, and the upper flat of a rope work was rented and fitted up for public worship. This was not the earliest beginning, as we find Tarbolton session granting a day's sermon to Troon in the previous year, in compliance with a petition to that effect. But preaching was kept up on a very limited scale for years, and, though the name was now figuring on the list of vacancies, all that the people asked for in 1817 was sermon every third Sabbath. This opening at Troon, it occurs to us, might have been turned to better account, the parish church of Dundonald, to which it belonged, being five miles distant, and the Secession churches of Ayr and Irvine not nearer than six miles by the road. But in 1822 matters assumed a more energetic look, and the building of a PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 343 church was proceeded with, to accommodate 300 people, at an outlay of ,320. In July of the following year the people petitioned to have a session organised, and this led to the ordination of three elders. But there is reference now to money embarrassments, and on 6th July 1825 a collapse was reached, the Presbytery agreeing, after some conversation " respecting the people of our communion at Troon," that they be admitted into any congregation to which they may apply on being certified by the elders. A winding-up of this kind has been described as mysterious, but the explanation is not far to seek. A licentiate of the Established Church had recently come upon the ground, and, money burdens pressing, which a grant of ,20 from the Synod did not greatly lessen, those responsible for the debt on the building surrendered the place of worship to the new-comers, for which they drew a rent of ^18. This caused a blank of fourteen years in the history of the Secession cause in the growing village of Troon. In this state matters continued till Whitsunday 1839, when a petition for renewal of sermon was presented to the Presbytery of the bounds from members of the Secession and other residenters in the village of Troon. The church had been vacated by the removal of the Established congrega- tion to a more commodious building of their own, and now there was to be a return to the first possessors on payment of ^200. Supplies being forth- with appointed this petition was followed up on 2ist January 1840 by another to be congregated. The sessions of Ayr and Irvine offering no objections, the Presbytery proceeded at once to lay the foundations anew, and on i2th May it was reported that four elders had been set apart for office, one of whom, we find, had been a member of the original session. First Minister. DAVID FORREST, from the village of Broxburn and the congregation of East Calder. At the moderation Mr Forrest had a decided majority over Mr Walter Muckersie, but the division of votes may account for the call being signed by only 59 members and 7 adherents. On gth December 1840 the ordination took place, the stipend promised being ^80. The original church was now their own, the Board having promised ^60 on condition that the building was secured free of debt ; and payment was reported in 1843. But by this time a new church, with 600 sittings, was in course of erection, and, the Disruption having now taken place, the older building was sold to the Free Church congregation. In two years the new debt contracted, of about .300, seems to have been cleared off, the Liquida- tion Board contributing half the sum required. In 1849 there was a member- ship of 138, and the stipend was ,90, with a supplement of 10. Some time afterwards Mr Forrest's health gave way, and in August 1851 he tendered the demission of his charge. When the Presbytery met again it was found that he had sailed for Quebec, and, in compliance with the congregation's unanimous desire, he was willing to withdraw his resignation, in hopes that the voyage might restore him. This was not to be, however, and on I3th April 1852 the pastoral bond had to be dissolved, much to the regret both of the Presbytery and the people. Next year Mr Forrest's health was so far restored that he was able to undertake mission work in the district of St Rollox, Glasgow, and in 1856 he was inducted to the charge of the newly- formed congregation there. During this vacancy the people called Mr John More, who preferred Alloa (West). Second Minister. JOHN KiRKWOOD, from Wellington Street, Glasgow. Ordained, 2nd August 1853. The stipend from the people was now ^110. In 1865 a manse was added, the building of which cost ^870, the Board making a grant of 200. On the evening of Thursday, nth July 1889, a new church, with 660 sittings, was opened by the Rev. Dr Taylor of New York. The entire cost, including an organ, was .4000, of which the opening 344 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS collections of ,444 left only ^170 still to be raised. In 1875 Mr Kirkwood published a volume on "Troon and Dundonald," which reached a third edition in 1881. In view of the Union with the Free Church he prepared, at the request of his co- Presbyters, a historical sketch of "The United Presby- terians of Ayrshire," which is remarkable for the graceful rapidity with which it goes over the wide field in continuous narrative, taking in every congregation with every minister. At the Union the membership was 292, and the stipend ,240, with the manse. MUIRKIRK (ANTIBURGHER) THE first application for sermon from Muirkirk was made to the Burgher Presbytery of Kilmarnock on 3rd September 1799. The prospects of the Secession in that place never looked brighter than at the very outset, the petition being signed by 246 persons. But, though services were kept up at intervals for some years, there was no progress made, and in the end of 1804 the name disappeared from the records of this Presbytery. At what time their Antiburgher brethren took up the work we know not, but in the earliest extant Minutes of that Court, commencing in May 1814, Muirkirk appears as a preaching station, receiving supply about once a month. On 22nd February 1820 the people asked help from the local Presbytery in building a place of worship, and after some inquiries it was agreed to give them all the encouragement in their power. That same day the Antiburgher Presbytery of Glasgow had a petition from Muirkirk before them to the same effect, and it seemed to be understood on all hands that this village of 2500 inhabitants stood greatly in need of evangelical preach- ing. For twenty years the pulpit of the Established church had been filled by William Rutherford, whose name figures as the author of a book, entitled "View of Ancient History." This work, though to a certainty the produc- tion of Logan of Leith, seems to have secured Rutherford's promotion, and in this way Muirkirk got a minister of the pronouncedly Moderate school, giving additional point to a bold statement in the Christian Recorder that, apart from the Secession, "there is no other place of worship for about ten miles round in which the gospel is preached." But the Antiburgher congregation of Auchinleck, nine miles distant, had a few members from Muirkirk, and these along with some others, making 26 in all, petitioned the Presbytery on 5th August 1820 to be erected into a congregation. The petition was granted, and at the Union a few weeks afterwards Muirkirk appears in the list of churches under the inspection of Kilmarnock Presbytery. On 2oth February 1821 three elders were ordained and a session constituted. But difficulties were now becoming formidable, and in the beginning of 1822 the Christian Recorder told that building operations were at a stand. Besides ^20 received from the Synod the Muirkirk Iron Company had subscribed 50 guineas for the new church, and by collections and otherwise the sum of .234 had been raised. But in securing a foundation large additional expense was incurred, and there now, it said, "stands the church without door or window, absolutely useless as a place of worship," and requiring at least other .450 to reach completion. The people were spiritless, and the Presbytery told them they would just have to do as other congregations did in like circumstances finish the house with borrowed money. But liberal aid was forthcoming, specially from Glasgow, and next year the church, with 380 sittings, was taken possession of, the total cost being .900. First Minister. JAMES GARRETT, from Stranraer (Bellevilla), who had PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 345 been previously called to an expiring congregation at Coupar-Angus. Or- dained, i3th October 1824, the call being signed by 61 members and 35 adherents. The stipend promised was ^80, with expenses. The Presbytery hoped that an additional sum would be got from the Synod for three years, but on applying they were told they ought not to have granted a moderation unless they found the people able to support their minister from their own resources. However, a grant of 10 was twice made to the congregation within a few years. On 5th August 1828 a petition came up from Muirkirk to the Presbytery for sermon, as their minister had sailed for a foreign country. There was also a letter forward from Mr Garrett, demitting his charge on the ground of opposition he had met with and the pecuniary difficulties of the congregation. But it was also ascertained that a late servant of his had brought a grave charge against him, and, though the Presbytery looked on this as probably unfounded, they dissolved the connec- tion, and also suspended him from office and membership "till Providence should throw further light on the case." A committee was then appointed to visit Muirkirk and make investigations, but, though the Minutes they drew up were read at a subsequent meeting, there is nothing entered as to the purport. After the case had slumbered for seven years it was partially revived by a letter from Mr Garrett in Van Dieman's Land, and his successor at Muirkirk was requested to obtain if possible the attendance of the principal witness, but Mr Aird was getting in among troubles of his own by this time, and refused to interfere. In the Almanac list for 1848 the name of James Garrett appeared as minister of Tamar, in Van Dieman's Land, in connection with the Church of Scotland, and on that list it remained till 1867, but we can add nothing more. Second Minister. JOHN AlRD, from Cumnock. The congregation had previously called Mr Peter Buchan, afterwards of Holm, Orkney, but when part of his trials had been delivered he pled to be relieved, as, in his opinion, the congregation was unable to afford him adequate support. Mr Aird's call was signed by 48 members and 23 adherents, and he was ordained, 29th May 1832. The stipend promised was only ^65, so that there was some talk in the Presbytery about turning Muirkirk into a mission station. The young minister made a most hopeful beginning. The Rev. Peter Mearns of Cold- stream in his History of Muirkirk says : " I can well remember his opening sermon, which made a great and lasting impression, particularly on the minds of the young." And again : " It was a great privilege of my early days to hear so many of his sermons." In 1836 Mr Aird returned the com- municants at 100, and the number of sittings let at 115, and his own emolu- ments at 71. He conducted two services in winter and three in summer, the evening services being attended chiefly by members of the Established Church. On 22nd November of that year a. pro re nata meeting of Presby- tery was held to deal with a letter of Mr Aird's, containing the demission of his charge, but, though the Moderator had sent notice both to him and to the congregation to attend for their interest, no compearance was made. There had been a serious quarrel between him and Mr Brown of Cumnock, the minister of his student days, in the conducting of which the Presbytery found Mr Aird to have been highly blameworthy. At last meeting it was decided to censure him, but he was not prepared to submit, and here was the result. The letter bore that his views of Church government had changed, and he could no longer remain in the Presbyterian connection. The Presbytery simply took him at his word, and declared him out of fellow- ship with the United Secession Church. There are traces now of communications having passed between Mr Aird and the Congregational minister of Kilmarnock, but nothing followed, and 34 6 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS at a meeting of Presbytery in March 1837 Mr Aird appeared, regretting the step he had taken, and requesting readmission. The matter was delayed, but after admonition he was received into membership, and then restored to his status as a preacher. For years Mr Aird was like a wandering bird cast out of its nest. In 1839 the Relief Synod refused his petition for admission to their communion, because "the necessary credentials from the denomina- tion with which he had been connected had not been laid on their table." With the Reformed Presbyterians he was more successful, but, though he acted for some time as a probationer among them, no settlement offered. We find next that the Free Church Assembly in 1845 empowered their Com- mission to decide on an application from the Rev. John Aird, a preacher of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to be received into their fellowship, but nothing followed. He next went over to the Independents, and by his own showing ministered to a Congregational church in Bootle for four years, when he left to take possession of some property in Blackburn, West Lothian, and there he laboured as a missionary for a period of thirteen years. Last of all, he petitioned the U.P. Synod in 1875 to De recognised as a minister without a charge, explaining that he had reverted to his original conviction in favour of Presbyterianism as more in accordance with the New Testament than Independency. The application was granted, and thus Mr Aird came back to his starting-point. He died of apoplexy in Edinburgh, 4th October 1877, in his seventy-fourth year, after an illness of two days. Looking over his zigzag course we think of him as he was in his better days, and recall the words of Mr Mearns : " I never heard a more earnest and faithful preacher of the gospel than Mr Aird." When Mr Aird left Muirkirk the congregation was all but annihilated. At the first meeting of Presbytery after the church was declared vacant a paper with six names was received by the Presbytery announcing that all the other members had left, and, though a few were willing to hear sermon, they were unable to pay for even the preachers' board. Occasional supply was all that could be afforded in the circumstances ; but in November 1838 the location of Mr George Walker was arranged for, and, as his stay was ex- pected to be prolonged, it was agreed to ordain him as a minister at large. Accordingly, the service was gone through at Kilmarnock on 3ist March 1840, the edict having been previously read at Muirkirk. The membership at this time was 40, and the people engaged to raise ,45 as their part of the stipend, the Mission Board being to furnish a like sum. The session having been broken up a quorum had to be secured by the ordination of two elders on the fifth Sabbath of September 1839. In October 1842 a letter from Muirkirk stated the need for sermon there, as Mr Walker had accepted a call to Johnshaven. There being no pastoral bond to dissolve he had passed away like a knotless thread. The Rev. Robert Watt, afterwards of Aberlady, was then located at Muirkirk ; but after twelve months they had a succession of preachers, and in numbers and resources they continued much as before. However, in 1846 a member of Presbytery reported reviving interest, and by-and-by this showed itself in a request for a moderation. During the first years of the vacancy accessions had been kept back by the fear that membership might involve liability to be prosecuted for arrears of stipend or for congregational debt, but these fears were got over when both Mr Aird, the late minister, and Dr Ritchie of Edinburgh, one of the chief creditors, gave written assurance that no such danger was to be appre- hended. Third Minister. DAVID YOUNG, from Auchinleck congregation, but a native of Catrine. When Mr M'Derment, their minister, became a Pro- testor this family adhered to him, and hence in 1832 Mr Young entered the PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 347 Original Secession Hall, but in 1834 he joined the United Church as a student of divinity. After ten years of probationer life he was ordained at Muirkirk on 2ist April 1846. There was less room for increase now, a Free church having been organised in the place, so that after six years' labour Mr Young could not report a membership of more than 64, while the stipend was ,40, with a supplement of ^50. The ground was further encroached on in 1868 by the formation of an Evangelical Union church. At a former period there had been an Independent preaching station at Muirkirk, but it never attained to a stated ministry, and it had for many years ceased to exist. But James Morison's influence was now widely felt in Ayrshire, and under this new form the cause was revived, though it was not till after Mr Young's death that their'first minister was ordained. His stay at Muirkirk was short, and since then he has had five successors. In 1867 a new manse was built for Mr Young at a cost of ^650, the people raising ,350, and receiving ,300 from the Board. He died, after a few days' illness, on 3Oth May 1874, in the seventy-first year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry. His brethren of the Presbytery entered on their records a warm tribute to his excellences both as a man and a preacher, and Mr Mearns testified : " He has left a hallowed memory behind him." Foiirth Minister. ALEXANDER DUNCAN, from Newington, Edinburgh. Having preferred Muirkirk to Muirton he was ordained, gth March 1875, and on I2th November 1877 ne accepted Roxburgh Street Mission Church, Greenock. Some time after he left the congregation called Mr Charles Moyes, who became minister at Renfrew. Fifth Minister. JOHN DUNDAS, from Dundee (Dudhope Road). Called to Woodside, Aberdeen, but declined, and was ordained at Muirkirk, I7th December 1878. At the close of 1899 there were no names on the com- munion roll, and the stipend from the people was ^80, with the manse. CATRINE (UNITED SECESSION) CATRINE, though in Sorn parish, is only two miles to the south-east of Mauchline, and the Burgher congregation there used to draw one-fourth of its membership from that village. But the population having increased largely towards the end of last century, an attempt was made to form a Relief church in the place, as has been noticed under the Mauchline heading, but after going on for several years it came to nothing. In this state matters continued till 1815, when 65 persons in and about Catrine applied to the Burgher Presbytery of Kilmarnock for sermon, but the sessions of Mauchline and Cumnock and their ministers opposing this, the applicants judged it improper to press the petition further, and eight years went past before the movement was resumed. Then on i8th November 1823 Kilmarnock Presbytery granted supply to Catrine on petition from 21 members of the mother church at Mauchline. On loth P'ebruary following, this decision was not only confirmed in the face of a memorial from Mauchline but the petitioners were disjoined and congre- gated. In August the Presbytery had other two petitions from Catrine for disjunction to pronounce on, one signed by 33 members of Mauchline con- gregation, the other by 40. Of these, the prayer of the former was granted, but the latter document, not having come through the session, was refused. Two members of Presbytery dissented from the disjoining of the 33, on the ground that others might follow, reducing Mauchline so much that they would be unable to fulfil their obligations to their minister. On the last Sabbath of September 1824 three elders were ordained at Catrine, but 34 8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Mauchline session and congregation being deeply dissatisfied with the proceedings all along, the Presbytery allowed them to bring their complaint before next Synod. Here a decision was given in their favour, and the Presbytery were recommended, while endeavouring to propagate the gospel, to remember the interests of existing congregations. In the early part of 1826 Catrine people requested the Presbytery to aid them in building a place of worship, but the answer was that they declined making any such exertion at present. This refusal may have damped the spirits of the applicants, so that on and May 1827 they asked to be left without supply for some time. This proved the winding-up for a period of ten years. On I4th February 1837 the movement shaped itself into a petition from 104 members of the Secession church in the village of Catrine to be erected into a congregation. They had got their disjunctions from the sessions of Mauchline and Cumnock, and these sessions reported to the Presbytery that they did not object to the granting of the petition. Mr Thomas was thereupon appointed to preach at Catrine on an early day, and take steps for having elders elected. Towards the end of 1 836, and before the con- gregation was formed, a place of worship was in course of erection, with 580 sittings. The total cost was to be ,900. First Minister. JOHN YOUNG, from Glasgow (Regent Place). Ordained, 1 2th September 1838, after declining a call to Bannockburn. The stipend was to be .100, with expenses. The call was signed by 144 members and 87 adherents. On the moderation day Mr Young had a decided majority over Mr William Bruce, afterwards Dr Bruce of Edinburgh. But his ministry was of short duration, long-continued illness requiring the accept- ance of his resignation on 23rd May 1843, the congregation judging it dutiful to acquiesce. On 2gth August the Presbytery received a letter from Mr Young intimating that he felt it his duty to withdraw from the fellowship of the United Secession, a resolution which the Presbytery reported to the Synod at its next meeting. He died suddenly in Glasgow on New Year's Day 1844. Second Minister. JOHN KKMP MILLER, from Dunbar (West). At the moderation Mr Miller had a majority of only one over Mr David Laughland, afterwards of Newarthill. The call, however, was subscribed by 112 members, including almost all the voters, and the ordination took place, 2ist May 1844. The stipend was now ,90, showing that the funds had not improved during the former ministry. On 3rd February 1846 Mr Miller tabled his demission, and the Presbytery met again on the 24th to hear parties and decide on the matter. They found the state of feeling between the minister and the great proportion of his people to be such as made it inexpedient that he should continue longer at Catrine ; so, with best wishes for his' usefulness in whatever sphere Providence might place him, they dissolved the connection. After this Mr Miller went to reside in Edinburgh, where he fulfilled occasional appointments, but the latter years of his life were spent in Dunbar, his native place. He died there, 3ist March 1895, in the eighty-third year of his age. Catrine congregation during this vacancy called Mr John C. Baxter, who some time after accepted Wishart Church, Dundee. The call was signed by 131 members. Third Minister. THOMAS BOWMAN, from Langholm (North). Ordained at North Shields, 8th November 1842. In the beginning of 1845 ne resigned his charge owing to protracted illness ; but congregation and Presbytery were alike unwilling to have the bond dissolved, and the paper of demission lay on the table month after month. But, there being no prospect of timely recovery, the resignation was accepted on 8th April of that year. Health being gradually restored he resumed work, and was called in 1848 to PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 349 Stockton-on-Tees, which he declined. Inducted to Catrine, 7th June 1849. The stipend was to be ,90. After other seventeen years of ministerial labour Mr Bowman's health again failed, and he was loosed from his charge on 1 2th June 1866, the congregation allowing him .30 a year, which they were to pay so long as he required it. In 1867 he settled down with his family in Dumfries, where he connected himself with Townhead Church, in which he became an elder, superintended the Sabbath school, and was active in promoting schemes of benevolence. He died, 22nd June 1882, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Fourth Minister. JAMES M. COPLAND, from Glasgow (Caledonia Road), a brother of the Rev. George Copland, Cathcart Street, Ayr. The stipend was now .70, besides the manse, which had been built in the last year of Mr Bowman's ministry at a cost of ,709, of which ^260 was received from the Manse Board. Ordained, 26th February 1867, the call being signed by 140 members and 25 adherents. In 1870 Mr Copland was called to Leeds, but preferred to remain in Catrine. On 26th June 1900 he was entered on the emeritus list. The membership in the beginning of that year was 141, and the stipend from the people was \ 10, with the manse. PATNA (UNITED SECESSION) IN the summer of 1830 the Secession Presbytery of Kilmarnock opened a mission station in the village of Dalmellington, and next October they arranged also to provide supply for Patna two Sabbaths every month. In May 1832 it was agreed to have the two places, which are five miles apart, supplied on alternate Sabbaths, but within a year sermon was confined to Patna alone. In the Mission Report presented to the Synod in 1835 attention was directed to the spiritual destitution of this place, a preacher having written regarding it : " There is scarcely another district where I have obtained equally melancholy accounts of the religious condition of the people." It may have been in consequence of this that at a subsequent meet- ing of Presbytery several of the members reported the readiness of their con- gregations to contribute for more constant supply of preaching at Patna. The village, with over 200 inhabitants, was-six miles distant from the parish church of Straiton. A few families belonged to the Secession church in Maybole, but that was seven miles off. By this time, however, arrangements were being made for the erection of a Chapel of Ease at Patna, which was opened in 1837. The place where the Secession preachers held service was described as "a room," and if progress were to be made larger accommo- dation would have to be provided, and a location secured in view of a settled ministry. First Minister. -JOHN BARCLAY, from Glasgow (now Greyfriars), whose mother was a daughter of the Rev. John Low of Biggar. In October 1836 it was reported to the Presbytery that Mr Barclay had been officiating for some time at Patna with great acceptance, and that his continuance was much desired by the people. A fixed sphere of labour, however humble, would also be welcomed by himself, as he had been fifteen years among the wanderings of probationer life. Moreover, having medical skill he possessed special adaptations for the place. In June 1837 the people petitioned to be congregated under Mr Barclay's care, which was agreed to on ist August, and in December 1838 it was announced that three elders had been ordained. The church was opened in the middle of December by Mr Schaw of Ayr, with accommodation for 200, the expense being partially defrayed 350 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS by a grant of .50 from the Board, on condition that the congregation and Presbytery should raise the rest. There was now the wish to have Mr Barclay ordained, and this was done on igth August 1840, the call being signed by 26 members and 26 adherents. Though the building was only to cost ^200 in all it was not till 1843 that the Presbytery succeeded in getting the debt cleared off. Mr Barclay's resignation was accepted on 22nd October 1850. This step he took under the consciousness of inability to labour as the necessities of the place required. He also referred to inadequacy of support, and the people, while expressing respect and esteem for their minister, felt themselves unable to make such increase to his income as would remove his difficulties. In 1853 he applied to the Presbytery for a certificate of character and standing, as he intended to go abroad. But he was now beyond threescore, and this step was never taken. He died in Partick on 8th March 1867, in his seventy-sixth year. Second Minister. JAMES M'FADYEN, from Glasgow (Duke Street). Licensed in April 1837, and removed to Canada in 1843 as a probationer. Ordained in Rochester, in the United States, on nth October of that year. The congregation consisted of a handful of people who wished to be con- nected with the Secession Church of Canada, but the town was too well occupied by a great variety of sects for the cause to make headway. Mr M'Fadyen was inducted to Chatham and Tilbury in 1846, and Rochester is no more heard of. He resigned, and returned to Scotland in 1848, and was admitted to Patna, 3rd September 1851, on a call signed by 54 members, the people undertaking to raise no more than ^30 of the stipend. A manse was now felt to be a necessity, as Mr M'Fadyen for want of a suitable house was compelled to reside with his family in Ayr, ten miles distant. Accord- ingly, an effort was made in 1855 to have this matter put right at a minimum of expense, the calculation being that a dwelling-house in keeping with the place might be built at a cost of ,200. Mr Barclay had got over the difficulty by his own exertions and the liberality of friends, but on leaving he claimed the house as his own, and got it disposed of for his own behoof. The blank had now to be filled up, the people contributing ^43, and the rest having to be obtained from outside aid. Things now moved quietly on with little to encourage till 1861, when the state of the congregation came to be investigated, and the result was that Mr M'Fadyen resigned, and his demission was accepted on Qth December 1862. After having his name on the preachers' list for three years he settled down in Pollokshaws, where he was available as Occasional Supply. He was admitted in 1877 to the benefit of the Fund for Aged and Infirm Ministers, and died, I7th April 1882, in his seventy-fourth year. Third Minister. JAMES PATRICK, from Kilmarnock (King Street). Patna had now been treated for three years as a missionary station, and had Mr John Paterson, afterwards of Whitehill, located among them. He was succeeded by Mr Patrick, and, tokens of reviving having appeared, he was ordained, 8th February 1865. The call was signed by 47 members and 29 adherents, and the stipend promised by the people was ,45. Fifteen years after this there was a membership of 92, and the stipend from the people was fol, ios. The manse being very limited in dimensions it was enlarged and improved in 1869 at an outlay of ^i 13, the Board aiding with a grant of 50. After labouring on for thirty-three years, during which time he usually preached at side places in the afternoon and evening of each Sabbath, Mr Patrick's failing health compelled him to retire from active duty, and he was enrolled as minister-emeritus on roth January 1899. He now resides in Edinburgh, and is an elder in Morningside Church. Fourth Minister. G,. H. DOUGLAS, from East Bank, Hawick. Or- PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR 351 dained, 26th July 1899. The membership at the close of that year was fully 100, and the stipend from the people was ,80, with the manse. PRESTWICK (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) IN June 1879 the Extension Committee of Kilmarnock Presbytery brought in a report to the effect that they deemed it better to delay the opening of a preaching station in Prestwick till the following summer. But the building of a hall was meanwhile proceeded with, and on the evening of Sabbath, 25th April 1880, it was opened, the Board having allowed .100 for the building and ^50 for initial expenses. Regular services were begun on the first Sabbath of June by Dr John Ker ; and Mr David Woodside, student, now minister of Woodlands Road, Glasgow, entered on Summer Recess Work soon after. In August the members belonging to the station were taken under the care of Darlington Place session, and on I3th December 1 88 1 they were congregated. The collections for the year amounted to nearly ^100. The hall when finished cost .470, which was reduced to ,135 by the grant from the Home Board, with their own subscriptions and the aid of friends, the name of Sir Peter Coats standing prominent on the list. A moderation was now applied for, the membership being 25, and the stipend promised ^75, which they calculated would be made up from the Ferguson Bequest Fund and the Church Supplement to .180, with a share in the Surplus. First Minister. ARCHIBALD ALISON, from Leslie (West), where he had been ordained thirty-three years before. Though wearing beyond the trans- planting point he was still in full vigour. The callers were few, but the field was inviting, and there was the prospect of ultimate success. Prestwick lies two and a half miles north of Ayr, and at that time it had a population of about looo, including many members of U.P. churches, particularly during the summer months. So Mr Alison accepted the call, and- was inducted, 4th July 1882. On Thursday, 5th June 1884, the new church was opened by Principal Cairns, with sittings for 400, and next year a manse was added at a cost of ^1486, for which the Board allowed ,225. In May 1892 the congregation intimated to the Presbytery that they had only ^500 of debt remaining, with five payments of ,25 to the Loan Fund, and if the latter claim were cancelled they would endeavour to have the whole cleared off before the end of 1893. The proposal was agreed to, and the entire burden removed, an achievement fitted to cheer Mr Alison in his declining years. The shadows were now gathering fast, and in March 1895, after he he had been laid aside for a time, it was found he would never be able to resume work again, and a colleague would have to take his place. The junior minister was to have ^180, inclusive of the grant expected from the Ferguson trustees, and Mr Alison was to retain the manse. Second Minister. ERNEST F. SCOTT, B.A., Oxon., son of the Rev. Ernest F. Scott, formerly of Towlaw. Mr Scott had gained distinction at Glasgow University, from which he passed to Oxford on the Snell Founda- tion. After graduating there he entered our Divinity Hall as a second-year student. Ordained as colleague to Mr Alison on nth September 1895. The aged minister, his frame unstrung by paralysis, was still able to some extent for pastoral work, but he appeared in the pulpit no more. On 29th June 1899 his jubilee was celebrated, and on 7th March 1900 he died, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. His brother, the Rev. George Alison of Kilbarchan, though his senior by several years, still survived in a green old age. The membership of Prestwick when Mr Scott 35 2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS became sole pastor was 140, and the stipend from the people ,160, to which the manse has now been added. PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY KIRKCALDY, BETHELFIELD (BURGHER) ON 4th November 1736 the Praying Societies of Kirkcaldy, though not in formal accession, petitioned the Associate Presbytery for advice about a matter of Church order. In those days, when multitudes convened from far distances to commemorate the Lord's death, it was found that due care was not always taken to keep unfit persons back from sacred territory, and the matter was brought under the notice of the Presbytery by these Societies. A committee was appointed "to consider the most proper method of distributing tokens at communions " ; but no report was ever given, and before the end of another year a neighbouring minister joined the Associate Presbytery, and the Seceders of Kirkcaldy placed themselves under his pastoral care. First Minister. THOMAS NAIRN, son of the Rev. Samuel Nairn of Errol. Ordained to the parish of Abbotshall, 7th September 1710. Acceded to the Associate Presbytery, iath October 1737. Mr Brown of Haddington states that Mr Nairn was impelled to take this decisive step by the reading of the Porteous Act, which came into effect in the preceding August. That agrees with the reference in the paper he gave in "to ministers proceeding from evil to worse, even to the profanation of God's day and worship." Mr Nairn was excluded from the parish church of Abbotshall in October 1 740, and that year a place of worship was built for him, with iioo sittings. His congregation now consisted of two sections of Seceders those in Kirkcaldy parish and those in Abbotshall. But though the two streams met they refused to mingle, Kirkcaldy people keeping distinct, and claiming an elder- ship of their own, and it was not till 1742 that a coalescence was effected between them. The difference between Mr Nairn and his brethren originated in the proposal to have the Covenants renewed. The Presbytery had been troubled years before by a party in Edinburgh, who maintained that the cause of a Covenanted Reformation ought to be advanced by offensive arms. The Presbytery in drafting their Act for Covenanting inserted a short paragraph condemning these dangerous extremes, and upholding the duty of sub- mission in lawful commands to " the present civil authority over these nations." In a pamphlet on the subject Mr Nairn states that, when his brethren, at a meeting in October 1742, were putting' a stigma upon the Old Dissenters, as denying the duty of subjection to the present government, he made objections, and offered a formal dissent. He also mentions that Messrs Alexander Moncrieff and Thomas Mair inclined to have this testi- mony against the followers of John M'Millan dropped ; but Mr Mair went off under the plea of illness, and Mr Moncrieff said he would rather vote Approve than differ from his brethren, and thus Mr Nairn was left alone. The question between the Associate Presbytery and the Cameronians was this : Is it consistent with our national Covenants to recognise an un- covenanted king as having a right to rule over a covenanted land ? The Old Dissenters maintained that George II. and those in authority under him wanted the qualifications which magistrates ought to have under our PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 353 National Covenant, and therefore were not entitled to formal allegiance. Here the Seceders came in with pleadings from Bible texts, such as : " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers," and " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." After three long conferences, one of them lasting from four in the afternoon till midnight, Mr Nairn adhered to his dissent, and on 3rd February 1743 ne declared his secession from the Associate Presbytery. He then entered into ecclesiastical fellowship with John M'Millan, a thing of great importance to the Old Dissenters. Up till then, Mr M'Millan being the only minister they had, there was no way open for the licensing of students, but now a Presbytery was constituted, and one preacher after another sent into the field. In November 1747 the Antiburgher Synod framed a libel against Mr Nairn for impugning the duty of subjection to the powers that be and for seceding from their jurisdiction, and, after several scenes of ludicrous con- fusion he was laid under the sentence of excommunication. What is known of Mr Nairn's subsequent history can be summed up in a few particulars. Within two years he deserted the Reformed Presbyter)-, and Adam Gib says : " He was under scandal among them," but the quality of the offence is nowhere given. It can hardly have been flagrant, for in 1751 he was restored to the ministry of the Established Church, an event commemorated in a rhyming squib, entitled "News from Abbotshall : the several Times that Mr Nairn has turned his Coat." In this abusive performance there is no insinuation of any moral break-down. Mr Nairn died in February 1764. At the outset a goodly number of Abbotshall congregation kept by Mr Nairn, and a petition, subscribed by 99 persons, including five elders, was given in to the Presbytery in his favour. After the other party got possession of the church his adherents built a little place of worship for him, which was long afterwards known as the " barn-kirk." Of it the New Statistical History says: "Till lately there existed a remnant of that old sect the Cameronians, or Mountaineers as they are sometimes termed. The house, or rather barn, in which they assembled is now occupied by a handful of individuals who call themselves ' Christians.' They have no stated pastor." These so-called Mountaineers were under the little Reformed Presbytery founded by Hall and Innes in 1752. Mr James Kirkaldy was their minister forty-four years, but he died, gth January 1808. Some of the last representatives of this congregation came up to communicate at Kinness- wood with a sister remnant so late as 1831, and then the glimmering taper in that village also went out. The vacant congregation of Kirkcaldy the year before the Breach was clamorous for a moderation, but there was persistent delay. The Burgess Oath question was causing division among them. We find from a pamphlet by the Rev. John Muckersie of Kinkell, a decided Antiburgher, that he was called to Kirkcaldy at this troublesome time, but refused to be settled there, because many of the people differed from him on that controverted subject. The majority took the Burgher side when the rupture came, and retained the church, while the minority went away, and formed the Antiburgher congregation of Pathhead. After a year and a half Kirkcaldy congregation called the Rev. James Johnston of Dundee, but the Synod refused to sanc- tion the translation. Second Minister. ROBERT SHIRRA, from Stirling. Though the call came out more than a year earlier, he was not ordained till 28th August 1750. There is reason to think he held back in the hope of being called to his native congregation, and becoming colleague to Ebenezer Erskine. But a prophet is not without honour save in his own country, and it may have been better for him that Kirkcaldy proved his destined field of labour. Mr II. Z 354 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Shirra's eccentric sayings and doings, which became very marked as he ad- vanced in years, have obscured our view of his solid excellences, but his power as a preacher is attested by the two calls he received in close succes- sion from Queen Anne Street, Dunfermline, one of the most important churches in the Burgher connection. Even the titles of the scattered sermons he published evince how closely he kept to the strengths of Bible truth. Though the congregation from the beginning of his ministry must have been' large his stipend for the first year was only ^55, 135. 4d., and there was no manse till long afterwards. In 1784 it was .65, and it is doubtful if it ever rose above 70, along with 10 for sacramental expenses. In the second year of Mr Shirra's ministry a peculiar question was referred by the session to the Presbytery. Certain members had given offence by u whitening yarn " on the Lord's day. The process, they said, required the material to lie upon the bleachfield on Sabbath, and a person had to be in attendance. The parties were enjoined by the Presbytery to desist from such a practice. Mr Shirra afterwards reported that he had talked the matter over with members of Synod, and they were of opinion that watching the yarn was a breach of the Fourth Commandment. One of the offenders got baptism for his child about this time, having assured the session that he had given over the practice complained of; but some were still dissatisfied, because, though the watching is discontinued, "he suffers his yarn to lie during the Sabbath on the grass, exposed to the influence of the heavens." So the question came before the Synod : " Whether the suffer- ing of yarn to lie on the grass during Sabbath, exposed to the influence of the heavens, while no servile work is done, or watching to prevent it being stolen, is a breach of the Fourth Commandment?" The Synod, after long reasoning, came to no definite finding, but they were generally of opinion that the practice of bleaching upon the Sabbath day should be forborne, as it gave offence. The session in wishing to get the Synod's views on the subject explained that the custom complained of was not peculiar to Kirk- caldy. Towards the end of the century feeling arose between Mr Shirra and his congregation. A large proportion of his people held advanced opinions in politics, but Mr Shirra was keenly Conservative. It seems, indeed, as if the French Revolution had disturbed the balance of his judgment, and in his pulpit discourses the duty of subjection to the civil powers interfered with the preaching of the gospel. Hence the remark made at a congregational meeting : " That for some time back the people would have been as much edified by staying at home and reading the newspapers as by attending church." In 1797 he also published a pamphlet, entitled "Church and Civil Government considered," an address to those who call themselves "The Friends of the People." About the same time he got honourable mention from the parish minister of Kirkcaldy for not infrequently showing friendly interest in the Established congregation, making supplication for them by name in his public prayers. He was also chosen to be chaplain of a regiment of volunteers, while " the Constitutional Society of Edinburgh presented him with a splendid Bible in appreciation of his loyalty." As the per contra his people thought it about time he had a colleague, and with this view they addressed a call in 1797 to the Rev. John Smart of Stirling signed by upwards of 500 members, and reasons of transportation were given in both by Mr Shirra and by the congregation. But Mr Smart was bent against removing from Stirling, and the Synod gave effect to his wishes. Another call followed, to Mr Robert Forrest, probationer, but it was signed by fewer than 100 members, and the Synod appointed him to Saltcoats. Meanwhile the impression deepened that the right course would be to have PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 355 Mr Shirra relieved from ministerial duty altogether, and, though he was averse to this measure, not one moved a finger in favour of having him retained. On i gth June 1798 the Presbytery accepted Mr Shirra's demission, judging u that the continuing of his pastoral relation to the congregation of Kirkcaldy would no longer answer the ends of edification," while disapprov- ing of the conduct of the people in insisting that his resignation should be accepted. But if the parting with their aged minister has an unkindly look they were liberal towards him in their money arrangements, his retiring allowance being ^65 a year, which was nearly as much as he had before. He now went to spend the remainder of his days in Stirling, and after the Original Burgher Presbytery was formed he joined the large following they had from Ebenezer Erskine's old congregation. He also published " The Good Old Way sought out and defended." He died in the full assurance of faith, I2th September 1803, in the eightieth year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry. In 1851 the Rev. J. B.. Johnston, then of Bethel- field, published a volume of Mr Shirra's "Remains," with a Memoir. Another, and a much earlier one, was written by his son-in-law, the Rev. Thomas Aitchison of Kirkgate, Leith, but it never appeared in print. Third Minister. JAMES LAW, from Dunfermline (Queen Anne Street). Ordained, gth January 1799. In 1804 a manse was built for him at a cost of ^500, the first the congregation possessed. In 1837 Mr Law gave the number of communicants as a few units over 800, not much under the half of these residing in Abbotshall parish, Kirkcaldy and Dysart supplying nearly as many between them. Most of the remainder were from Kinghorn and Auchterderran, with a very few from Aberdour, Auchtertool, Kinglassie, and Wemyss. The minister's stipend was ^130, with $ for sacramental expenses, and a manse and garden. The debt was not given, but it must have been very considerable, as the new church, which was opened on I3th November 1831,* cost ,2400, and the burden was not entirely cleared off till 1875. Of Mr Law himself it is admitted on all hands that-he was a man of robust intellect, with both a mind and a will of his own. Dr John M'Farlane characterised him as "an incorrigible polemic," and "pugnacious to a great degree." But in spite of these qualities, which formed a part of himself even into advanced old age, he never lost the respect and attach- ment of his people. It appears, however, that after he had been twelve or thirteen years in Kirkcaldy the congregation suffered loss by the withdrawal of some 23 heads of families, who applied for sermon to the Original Burgher Presbytery of the bounds. They complained of "innovations in Doctrine and Worship contrary to the Confession of Faith." If this was an out- growth of the seed Mr Shirra had sown it was long in appearing above ground. The party never came to much, although in their first call they mustered over 100 members, and promised ,90 of stipend, with house rent. Their minister, the Rev. Thomas Hislop, afterwards of Doune, left them in 1823, having for three years, instead of the sum named, got nothing at all, and an action before the Court of Session for arrears of stipend brought him no redress. After a lengthened vacancy another minister was ordained, and under him the congregation united with the Established Church, but left at the Disruption, and merged soon after in Kirkcaldy Free Church. Fourth Minister. JOHN BROWN JOHNSTON, from Biggar (North), a nephew of Dr Johnston, Limekilns, on the one side, and of Dr Brown, Broughton * This is from the Scotsman, and must be correct. In the report of the Com- missioners on Religious Instruction Mr Law is represented as saying in December 1837 that the church was built fully a year ago. This seems to have misled both Dr George Brown and Dr M'Kelvie. 35 6 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Place, Edinburgh, on the other. After setting aside calls to Invcraray, Comrie, and Broughty Ferry, Mr Johnston was ordained at Newcastle, as colleague to the Rev. James Pringle, on ist October 1845. But the strain proved too much, and, prostrated by paralysis, he resigned, and was loosed, 4th August 1846. There was gradual recovery, however, and after editing the Scottish Press for a time he returned to the preachers' list with aug- mented popularity. A telling sermon of his at that time on "The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord," I vividly recall, and the effective- ness with which it was given. Then came calls from Haddington (West), Kinross (West), and Bethelfield. Of these, the last was accepted, and Mr Johnston was inducted, aoth February 1850. The congregation agreed to pay the old minister his full stipend, an arrangement which was scarcely just to his colleague, who was only to have ^120. In 1852 Mr Johnston was called to Newcastle (Blackett Street), the congregation with which a considerable number of his former people had connected themselves, but he declined, and accepted Duke Street, Glasgow, I3th December 1853. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM REID THOMSON, son of the Rev. Alexander Thomson, Peebles. Called to Perth (North) and Kirkcaldy (Bethelfield) on successive days. Ordained, iith October 1854. Declined a call to Edinburgh (St James' Place) in 1856, and a second in more decided terms in 1857, expressing the wish to have pleadings dispensed with. Mr Law died, 5th May 1859, in the eighty-fourth year of his age and sixty-first of his ministry. On 27th August 1861 Bethelfield pulpit fell vacant by Mr Thomson accepting a call to Regent Place, Glasgow. Sixth Minister. ROBERT DICK BROWNLEE, from Mid-Calder. Was called some time before to East Calder. Obtained a majority at Bethelfield on the moderation day, the other candidates being Mr Alexander Mair (now Dr Mair of Morningside) and Mr Richard Leitch, now of Newcastle (Blackett Street). The vote was taken by putting the two candidates last proposed against each other, throwing out the one, and then taking the final vote between the remaining two. There was an impression at the time that, had the election been conducted on our present system, the result might have been different. But the call was accepted, and the ordination took place, 25th November 1862. Had Mr Brovvnlee been settled in a less laborious sphere at first, he might have had a longer lease of health and a longer course of usefulness. For thirteen years he bore up under the heavy burden, but on 3oth August 1876 he accepted a call to Bournemouth. Having caught cold the following winter, when away at his father's funeral, his labours in his new sphere came speedily to an end, and his resignation was accepted in 1877. He died, 2gth March 1881, in the forty-third year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry, and was buried in the family resting- place at East Calder. During the vacancy arising from Mr Brownlee's translation the congre- gation called Mr John T. Burton, but he accepted Newmilns, and the Rev. A. F. Forrest, who declined to remove from Erskine Church, Stirling. Seventh Minister. ISAAC E. MARWICK, from Loanends, Ireland, where he had been ordained, 26th March 1872, but a native of Eday, Orkney. Inducted to Bethelfield, 26th February 1878. Died, 3ist August 1891, in the forty-eighth year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. In 1887 Mr Marwick published a well-compacted History of Bethelfield Church, in connection with the celebration of its ter-jubilee, a little volume to which the writer owns his obligation. Eighth Minister. JOHN MuiR, M.A., from Dairy, Ayrshire. Ordained, 2oth April 1892, but owing to family circumstances he was suspended sine die on i ith October of the same year, and the pastoral tie dissolved. In less PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 357 than ten days 436 members and 86 adherents of Bethelfield Church petitioned the Presbytery to restore their late pastor to the exercise of his office with the least possible delay, and a letter to the same effect was read from him- self, but after deliberation they decided that, considering all the interests involved, they could not grant the petition and request. On I3th February 1894 Kirkcaldy Presbytery, with the sanction of the Synod, reponed Mr Muir, and granted him a certificate of ministerial status on the understanding that he was to go abroad. Canada was his destination, and in the Assembly list for 1899 ne appears as minister of Grimsby, in Hamilton Presbytery. Ninth Minister. DAVID JAMES, B.D., from Galston, where he had been minister nearly eight years. The congregation had previously given an unsuccessful call to Mr Robert Russell, who soon after became colleague to the Rev. George Alison, Kilbarchan. Mr James' was inducted, 5th October 1893. The membership at the close of 1899 was about 650, and the stipend with a manse. KIRKCALDY, PATHHEAD (ANTIBURGHER) THIS congregation arose at the Breach of 1747, and consisted of members who broke off from the Burgher congregation, and obtained sermon from the Antiburgher Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline. They had the majority of the session with them, but the other party had the majority of the members, and retained the property. They met for fifteen years in an old barn, which they had fitted up as a place of worship. In 1763 a church was built, with 795 sittings. The material cost little more than ^100, as the work was done free of cost by tradesmen belonging to the congregation. Pathhead, though reckoned a part of Kirkcaldy, is in Dysart parish. First Minister. DAVID WILSON, a native of Scotlandwell, in the parish of Portmoak. Acceded to the Associate Presbytery when a student of divinity, as his father, an elder in that parish, had done some years before. Ordained, 7th June 1748, but in February 1750 the Synod decided that he should be transferred to Bow Lane, London, much against the wishes both of himself and of his people, but they deferred fixing the time. In August Kirkcaldy congregation petitioned to have the sentence reversed, and when a vote to that effect was taken the numbers were equal, and the Moderator declined to give a casting-vote. It was thereupon declared that this placed Mr Wilson in the same position as though the call to London had never come out. At next meeting in February 1751 that was pronounced a mis- take, and the transportation was still to go on. On ist May the connection with Kirkcaldy was severed, and the day of Mr Wilson's induction to his new charge appointed. In the preceding year 163 members of Pathhead congregation, including sixteen elders, engaged in covenanting. On 1 6th July 1751 Edinburgh Presbytery met at Duns, as there were "extraordinary and obvious difficulties in getting the said admission gone about in London," the distance being so great. Two representatives of Bow Lane congregation were present with written authority to act for their con- stituents. The edict had been duly served in London, and at the close of the services the two commissioners took their minister by the hand. A Minute of the induction was then drawn up, which the preacher supplying at Bow Lane should read from the pulpit, the Sabbath morning on which Mr Wilson was to enter on his labours. The London call was signed by only 38 (male) members and 15 adherents, and though there was gradual increase his congregation was never large, and owing to infirm health he often required assistance from Scotland. Mr Wilson died, 27th June 1784, 358 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. A volume of his sermons was published, but not till thirty-four years after his death, with Memoir by his colleague, Dr Jerment. In 1762 Mr. Wilson published, in two volumes, " Palemon's Creed Reviewed," a vindication of Hervey's "Theron and Aspasio," a book greatly prized in the days of our fathers. In 1808 the congregation removed from Bow Lane, and took possession of Oxendon Chapel, which became the meeting-place for the Antiburgher families in London. Second Minister. JAMES KAY, from Adam Gib's congregation, Edin- burgh. Ordained, 2ist November 1752. From among a large variety of session cases in his time we may cite a particular one to illustrate the attitude of minister and session towards the Burgess Oath. A member of the congregation had sworn to obey His Majesty King George and the Magistrates of the town " in lawful commands " ; but, unexceptionable as the Oath in that form may seem, they held that it could not be safely taken, because things lawful in the Magistrates' sense might not be in accordance with the Word of God. Much is made of the religious clause as the ground of offence in the Burgess Oath, but it was scarcely possible to bring that or any Government Oath into a form that would fit the Antiburgher conscience. Mr Kay died at Broughton, " near Edinburgh," 8th June 1755, in the third year of his ministry. From a manuscript journal of Mr Kay's niece, the mother of the Rev. David Wilson, Balbeggie, we learn the following particulars of his last illness : " Being to assist at the celebration of the Lord's Supper at Abernethy, his appointment was to preach first on the preparation day. This day being exceeding rainy, his clothes got wet, also his boots full of water on his journey to the place of worship. The hour appointed being expired, and himself of a stout, healthy constitution, and fearing no bad consequence, lest he should detain the work of the day, he proceeded to the church without changing his boots or wet clothes. He was from this time forward thrown into what is commonly called a galloping consumption, which in a few months ended in the dissolution of his mortal frame." Mrs Wilson states that the family were originally from St Monans. Third Minister. THOMAS THOMSON, from Adam Gib's congregation, Edinburgh. Ordained, 22nd November 1757. During his ministry cove- nanting was four times engaged in first in 1759, when 113 entered into the bond ; then there were 56 in 1764 ; 60 in 1773 ; and 34 in 1780. These and other important facts in this narrative are taken from "Memorials of Dunnikier Church, Kirkcaldy," by the Rev. William Fairweather, the present minister. Of Mr Thomson we have also some particulars from Mrs Wilson's manuscript. His parents died when he was a child, and Mr Kay's father adopted him. His inclination was towards the ministry, and her uncle James, she says, spared no pains in instructing him. She closes thus : "What was most remarkable in providential procedure, Mr Thomas Thomson, who a .ong with himself, as his brother, was educated and brought forward to the ministry, was called and ordained pastor of the same congregation." He died suddenly in the last week of July 1789, and was buried on the 2gth of that month. He was in the thirty-second year of his ministry, and, according to Mrs Wilson, about the sixtieth year of his age. Fourth Mitiister. JAMES THOMSON, the son of his predecessor. Called to be his father's colleague, but ordained as sole pastor, igth August 1789. Died after a lingering illness, 28th March 1801, in the thirty-seventh year of his age and twelfth of his ministry. Of him it is stated in the Christian Magazine that "he was much beloved by his brethren in the ministry, and continued to rise in the affection and esteem- of his people," PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 359 Fifth Minister. THOMAS GRAY, from Haddington (Antiburgher). Or- dained, 27th June 1802, the stipend to be ^100 in all. In 1820 Mr Gray was a protestor against the Union with the Burghers, when a large minority, amounting, we calculate, to about two-fifths of the membership, broke away, and formed what is now Union Church, Kirkcaldy. Although litigation about the property was threatened it was happily avoided, Mr Gray's people retaining the church, which was heavily burdened with debt, and relieving the other party of all liabilities. Mr Gray, as is stated on his tombstone, expired suddenly on Sabbath, 2nd July 1837, almost immediately after pro- nouncing over his people the apostolic benediction. He was in the sixty- seventh year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. Of his family, one daughter was the wife of Dr Wylie, author of "The History of Protestant- ism" and other works. His son David became Professor of Natural Philosophy in Marischal College, Aberdeen. The Rev. David Gray, a grandson of Mr Gray, came over to the United Presbyterian Church when a probationer, and was minister at Burra Isles, Shetland, in 1900. At the close of Mr Gray's ministry the communicants were upwards of 300. Of those in the habit of attending, three-sevenths were from other parishes Kirkcaldy contributing 88, Abbotshall 81, and Kinghorn 29, with a sprinkling from Markinch, Auchtertool, and other parishes. Eight families were from more than six miles. The minister's stipend had been raised to ^126, with expenses. The Rev. James Black, under whom the congregation enjoyed much prosperity, was ordained, I4th August 1839, and died, loth December 1880, in the sixty-second year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. In 1852 the congregation by a majority of 40 to 6 went into the Union with the Free Church. The present minister, the Rev. William Fairweather, M.A., was ordained on 28th July 1881. KIRKCALDY, UNION CHURCH (UNITED SECESSION) ON i2th June 1821 the United Secession Presbytery of Dunferrhline re- ceived a petition for advice from 9 members of the Antiburgher congregation of Pathhead. They had applied to Mr Gray to call a meeting of session in reference to the distracted state of the congregation, but he refused, and they came direct to the Presbytery. This led to the appointment of a com- mittee to meet with minister and congregation, but as Mr Gray was already in connection with the Protestor Synod the conference came to nothing. On roth July the former petition was followed by another from 104 members and 17 adherents for sermon, as they had withdrawn from Mr Gray's ministry, and meant to keep by the United Church. On the following Sabbath the Rev. John More of Cairneyhill preached to them, and this was the beginning of Union congregation, Kirkcaldy, there being elders among them to form the original session. The place of worship, with 750 sittings, was built in 1822 at a cost of ^1700. In the early part of that year a moderation was applied for, the stipend promised being ^130, with communion expenses, and taxes paid. At the Synod in May following Kirkcaldy sent an unsuccessful call up to Mr James Whyte. A year after- wards they appeared before the Synod again in competition with other two congregations for the services of Mr Robert Brown, when Cumnock carried. Another year and a half passed, and they called Mr William Nicol, but, believing success to be hopeless, they withdrew, and he became minister of Jedburgh (Blackfriars). This call was signed by 165 members and 85 adherents. First Minister. JAMES BAIN, from Kinkell. Ordained, 5th April 1826. 360 HISTORY OF. U.P. CONGREGATIONS The stipend was to be ,150 in all. In 1837 the communicants amounted to 440, whereas the mother congregation at Pathhead had only 300. About one-third resided in Kirkcaldy parish, another third in Dysart parish, and the remaining third were from Abbotshall, with a number from Kinghorn and Wemyss. The stipend was ,160, but there was no manse, and the debt on the property was much less than half the original cost. On i6th August 1853 Mr Bain's resignation of his charge was accepted. He then emigrated to Canada, where he became minister of St Andrew's Church, Scarborough, in connection with the Church of Scotland. He retired from active duty in 1874, and died at Markham, Ontario, gth December 1885, in the eighty- fourth year of his age and sixtieth of his ministry. Second Minister. WILLIAM FLEMING, from Hamilton (Auchingramont). Had previously declined Kirkintilloch and Maybole. At the moderation in Union Church 71 voted for Mr Fleming and 59 for Mr James Imrie. The spirit which defeat is apt to wake up on such occasions showed itself in a petition from 102 members and 55 adherents, who expressed their conviction that the interests of the congregation required Mr Fleming's call to be laid aside. But instead of that the Presbytery at once sustained it, and a com- mittee, appointed with the view of reconciling parties, never met, the opposi- tion having evidently collapsed. Mr Fleming was ordained, I2th April 1854, the stipend to be ,160, and a manse was afterwards added. On 2oth February 1866 he accepted a call to Lothian Road, Edinburgh. Third Minister. JAMES SCOTT, who had been eleven years in Bathgate. The stipend was .200, including expenses, and the manse. Inducted, 5th March 1867, and loosed, 2nd January 1877, on accepting a call to Parlia- mentary Road, Glasgow (now Bath Street). Fourth Minister. JOHN CLARK, M.A., son of the Rev. John Clark, Abernethy. Mr Clark had been ordained at Redcar, Yorkshire, on 2nd July 1874, after declining Victoria Street, Dundee. Inducted to Union Church, 2nd October 1877. The membership at the close of 1899 was 423, and the stipend ^250, with the manse. KIRKCALDY, LOUGHBOROUGH ROAD (EXTENSION CHURCH) IN the beginning of 1876 the attention of Kirkcaldy Presbytery was turned to the subject of Church Extension through an inquiry of the Synod anent the decrease, or inadequate increase, of Church membership within their bounds. One explanation they gave in reply was want of proper zeal in the matter of Church Extension, and this led on to the proposal to have another congregation in the Kirkcaldy district. Pathhead was first sug- gested as the most eligible quarter, and then Sinclairtown. This again narrowed in to the west end of Loughborough Road, a situation which Dysart session considered an undue encroachment upon their ground. However, in January 1878 it was reported to the Presbytery that a hall was in course of erection, and would be ready for use next month. On 4th June 25 Church members with certificates were erected into Lough- borough Road congregation, and in August a moderation was applied for, with the promise of ,190. The call, signed by 47 members and 28 ad- herents, was addressed to Mr Henry Drysdale, now of Mount Florida, Glasgow, but it was declined. First Minister. JOHN C. BAXTER, D.D., who had been translated from Dundee (Wishart Church) to Montreal four years before, but was now back to Scotland. Doubts were expressed as to whether he were eligible, but at the Synod a few weeks afterwards he was readmitted to his former connec- PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 361 tion, and all difficulty was removed. Inducted, 28th May 1879. The new church was opened on 6th October 1881, with accommodation for 800. The cost was ,5000, and, the principal supporter having died, minister and congregation found themselves ere long face to face with overmaster- ing difficulties. There was gratifying progress for a time, the membership at the close of 1883 amounting to 244, but as the congregation's liabilities came to be known, progress was arrested, and then came positive decline. There was debt on the building amounting to ^3000, and aid was urgently required. The Board came in with a loan of $oo, to be repaid in twenty half-yearly instalments, but not to begin for five years. In 1888 the Synod was also appealed to, and this brought a grant of ,6500, and a recommenda- tion of Loughborough congregation to the liberality of the Church. It was a weary struggle, but by the proceeds of a bazaar, and assistance under the Debt Liquidation Scheme, the burden became manageable, and gradually there was growing improvement, though the membership never came much beyond what it had been in 1883, and the stipend from the people continued ^30 beneath what had been originally named. There was the promise of better days, but Dr Baxter was now beyond his jubilee, and on loth April 1900 he retired to the emeritus list. The membership at that time was about 260, and the stipend from all sources 200. KIRKCALDY, VICTORIA ROAD (EXTENSION CHURCH) ON 6th October 1885 the Rev. Benjamin Martin of Leslie, who had been active in Church Extension work within the bounds, brought up in Kirk- caldy Presbytery that there was a property in the market which would fit for an Extension Church at Victoria Road, and with their sanction it was secured at the slight cost of .450. Of this sum the Board agreed to pay ^150, and they were also to grant ^50 for initial expenses. Sermon was commenced forthwith, and on ist December a congregation was formed with a membership of 57. In the course of a year they were prepared to proceed with a call, and to offer a stipend of ^120. The beginnings of Victoria Road Church were smooth, and the burdens light, compared with those of Loughborough Road. The place of worship which became theirs on so easy terms had been built a few years before at an outlay of at least ^iioo. The Rev. Robert Smith, formerly of Dundee, had officiated as locum tenens to the parish minister for several months, and a number of his admirers were disappointed when he was not elected to be his suc- cessor. Another having been inducted they withdrew, and, after wor- shipping in a hall for a time, built Victoria Road Church, but the cause, as was to be foreseen, proved a dead failure. To meet a bond of ^450 the property was advertised for sale, and in this way it came into the possession of the United Presbyterians. First Minister. ALEXANDER WEIR, from Sydney Place, Glasgow. Or- dained, 2 ist December 1886. The call was signed by 85 members and 71 adherents. In little more than a year it was announced to the Presbytery that the congregation had added ^30 to the stipend, relieving the Board to that extent. On Qth December 1890 Mr Weir accepted a call to Coat- bridge (Dunbeth), and was loosed from his first charge, of which the membership had now risen to 278. Second Minister. GEORGE JOHNSTON, translated from Burray, Orkney, where he had been four years. The stipend from the people was to be .150. Inducted, I5th July 1891, and loosed, 23rd January 1900, on accepting a call to Cathcart, Glasgow. The membership was now returned at 371. 362 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Third Minister. JOHN LEWARS, M.A., from Lesmahagovv, where he had been ordained in 1895. Inducted to Victoria Road, I2th September 1900. The stipend was then ,250. BURNTISLAND (ANTIBURGHER) MR JAMES THOMSON acceded to the Associate Presbytery, 7th June 1738, and a great part of his congregation went with him. On loth March 1741, when a committee of Presbytery came to declare the church vacant, the people made up to them, and said they were happy in their pastor, who had been with them for twenty-two years, nor could they promise themselves a con- tinuance of tranquillity if another were intruded upon them. The committee hearing this retired. It was not till i8th June 1743, as appears from the congregational records, that Mr Thomson ceased to occupy the old pulpit. He preached that day from a tent near by on "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." He also lifted up a protest against the many encroachments that were being made on the inheritance of Christ. That year a church was built, Mr Thomson granting a part of his garden for the site. This building was renovated in 1846, and ultimately, at least, it was seated for 700. Of a communion Sabbath there on 1 2th August 1739 we have a glimpse in the Caledonian Mercury of the following week : " At the sacramental occasion at Burntisland last Sunday t'le ministers of the As- sociate Presbytery came to assist their brother, Mr James Thomson There were forty-three double tables in the church, and at each there sat 106 com- municants." It was computed that there were above 11,000 people present from all corners of the realm, besides inhabitants of the town and neigh- bourhood. First Minister. JAMES THOMSON, from Kinglassie parish. Ordained, 7th May 1719, and was the last of the eight Secession Fathers to withdraw from the Establishment. He was called in 1742 to Jedburgh, but "the Presbytery, considering the present circumstances of Burntisland, laid aside the call." Regarding Mr Thomson an entry occurs of some interest in a Journal kept by Mr James Johnstone, the first minister of School Wynd, Dundee. When a student he heard him preach on a Sabbath evening at Dunfermline com- munion on "The Valley of Dry Bones." "He was declaiming more than any minister I ever heard," wrote Mr Johnstone, "against the defections and sins of the times in which we live." It was a subject on which he and his brethren had reason to use great plainness of speech, but they went beyond due limits sometimes. At the Breach of 1747 Mr Thomson went to the Antiburgher side, but took no leading part. He died in May 1766, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and when completing the forty-seventh of his ministry. The congregation during the three years' vacancy which followed first called Mr Robert Young, a probationer, who gave the Courts of the Church much trouble, and of whom more is given under Elgin, his behaviour favour- ing the impression that he was scarcely responsible either for his words or his actions. They next called the Rev. James Russell of Milnathort, but the Synod refused to translate. During that vacancy, instead of calling con- gregational meetings, the elders went round their districts when there was the wish to ascertain whether there was ripeness for a moderation. On one of these occasions they found that there was a majority of only 6 for going forward, exclusive of the Session, which consisted of 12 members. Second Minister. RICHARD JERMENT, previously of Peebles, where even his gifts as a preacher made little headway. One congregation after PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 363 another sought to secure his sen-ices, and at last the Synod, after much delay, agreed that he should be translated to Burntisland, where he was inducted, 2 ist June 1769. From an election of elders in 1771 we can outline the extent of the congregation. Two were needed for the village of Aberdour, three miles to the west, and one for the parish ; one for Kirkton ; and one for the parish and another for the town of Kinghorn, two and three quarter miles to the east. Mr Jerment died, loth April 1787, in the thirty-second year of his ministry, and, as the tablet to his memory states, aged sixty-six. Third Minister. DAVID Ross, from Leslie (West). Called also to Cairneyhill, and ordained at Burntisland, 7th July 1790. The stipend at first was only ^50, but it rose in 1792 to ^56, in 1800 to .68, in 1805 to ^84, and in 1809 to ,90. In 1820 the congregation and its minister went into the Union with the Burghers, a step which endangered the loss of their church property, and led to an action in the Court of Session. As already mentioned, the church was built on the-garden ground possessed by the first minister. In the disposition, dated some years before his death, Mr Thomson made over the meeting-house and yard to certain persons for the use and behoof of the congregation, but with this proviso, that if they departed from their present footing and withdrew from the Associate Presbytery and Synod to which they now belonged and joined any other Presbytery, whether of the Established Church or of Dissenters, they should forfeit all right to the said tenement and yard, which were then to revert to his own nearest heirs. On this footing a grand-nephew of Mr Thomson came forward in 1823 and claimed the church property. The plea was that by the Union of 1820 the congregation had departed from the standing it occupied when the disposition was made. It was pleaded, on the other hand, that in the Union complained of there was no original principle abandoned by either Synod, that the Oath which kept them apart was abolished, or not likely to be longer retained, and that forbearance on minor points was in accordance with Scripture. The Lord Ordinary laid on the pursuer the burden of proving that the defenders had done three things to forfeit their rights first, that they had departed from their former footing ; second, that they had departed from the Presby- tery and Synod to which they formerly belonged ; and third, that they had joined some other Presbytery. The pursuer's case now fell to pieces, but the expenses, even to the gaining party, were very considerable. An account of 80 came in, and had to be met, and the easiest way, it was thought, would be for each member to double his ordinary contributions for the following year. But to aid them in the process the Synod in 1827 allowed them .30, owing to the intimate connection the case had with the pro- prietary rights of other congregations. In November 1835 the congregation called Mr Adam Lind to be their junior minister, with the promise of ^75, which was raised before another moderation to ,80, Mr Ross to receive ^60, but a call to Elgin (Moss Street) supervened, which Mr Lind accepted. Fourth Minister. DAVID GRANT CRAWFORD, son of the Rev. Robert Crawford, Elgin (South Street). Ordained as colleague to Mr Ross, I7th January 1837, the call being signed by 214 members. Mr Ross died, I3th February 1838, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. In the following year Mr Crawford's stipend was 100, with the manse. In 1861 he became the victim of a serious ailment, and a colleague was required. Fifth Minister. JOHN ANDERSON MURRAY, from Perth (North). Called previously to Whitehill and East Calder, and ordained at Burntisland, I3th April 1863. The stipend was to be ,120, and the senior minister's retiring allowance was ^80, with the manse. Owing to some dispute with the choir, 364 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS which showed how great a fire a small spark will kindle, Mr Murray resigned, and was loosed from his charge, 3rd March 1868. He was admitted to Kirriemuir (Bank Street) in 1871. Towards the close of Mr Murray's ministry the manse, which had served its day, was rebuilt at a cost of ,750, of which ,200 came from the Manse Board. Sixth Minister. JAMES PARLANE, M.A., translated from Hawick (now Orrock Place), where he had been over eleven years. Inducted, i6th February 1869. Mr Crawford died, I4th September 1876, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. The membership at the close of 1899 was about 340, and the stipend ^220, with the manse. LESLIE, WEST (ANTIBURGHER) IN 1737 and 1738 several Praying Societies acceded at different times to the Associate Presbytery from the parishes of Leslie, Falkland, and Mark- inch, and in November 1739 Messrs Alexander Moncrieff and Thomas Mair observed a Fast at Leslie with the Dissenters in these parishes, along with those in Portmoak and Kinglassie. In June 1740 the "Correspondence" applied for a hearing of a certain preacher, and funds were to be provided to meet expenses by each of the four parishes contributing according to the number of acceders, and Leslie was fixed on as most " centrical " for the place of worship. On i8th September 1740 Mr Andrew Clarkson supplied a Sabbath when he was through assisting Mr Moncrieff at a Fast in the east of Fife. This was the first probationer they had, and the " Correspondence'"' paid a guinea for his services, besides 175. for the maintenance of his horse, and payment for a man and horse going with him to Queensferry. When lists were made up in the beginning of 1741 with a view to an election of elders the roll consisted of 36 men in Leslie, 26 in Markinch, 24 in King- lassie, and 15 in Falkland being 101 in all. Others afterwards came in from Auchterderran parish. Such was the constitution of the Secession Church at Leslie, and such its strength in its early beginnings. To account for the early hold which the Secession obtained in the parish of Leslie it may be stated that Mr Young, the minister, was accused of scandalous behaviour, and the Courts of the Established Church were alleged to have slurred over his offences. Thomas Mair of Orwell, in his Diary, and before he had seceded, speaks of people from Leslie coming to him in quest of baptism for their children. In the neighbouring parish of Kinglassie the minister was the Rev. John Currie, a man of a very different stamp, and stout in defence of the people's rights both by speech and pen. When Ebenezer Erskine was in Portmoak the two were close friends, but when the Secession took place they parted company, and Mr Currie in his "Essay on Separation" became the bitterest assailant of the Seceding Fathers. So highly did the General Assembly value his services that in 1741 they voted him ^60 by way of acknowledgment. However, the part which he took did not prevent a goodly number of his people from casting in their lot with the acceders in Leslie, Markinch, and Falkland. But Mr Currie, though he does not appear to advantage at this time, preserved his Christian character untarnished, and died in 1765, in the ninety-second year of his age and the sixtieth of his ministry. In September 1741 a probationer named Thomas Ballantyne preached two Sabbaths at Leslie, and when the four branches of the congregation were consulted it was found that Leslie, Markinch, and Falkland had as one man fixed on him for their minister. Those in Kinglassie, though they had not met owing to the busy season, would show, it was believed, like PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 365 unanimity. But Mr Ballantyne was already bespoke by the congregation of Sanquhar, and Leslie had to look for their first minister elsewhere. It is entered in the congregational records about this time that when sermon was held within doors "we cannot have access to hear, and with the multi- tude being so great the minister's voice cannot reach them." The first meeting of session was held on 25th March 1742, and of the three elders two were from Portmoak and one from Leslie. Others were ordained that day, but particulars are not given. ' First Minister. JOHN ERSKINE, son of the Rev. Ralph Erskine, Dun- fermline. The election took place on ist June 1743, and though 9 or 10 preferred Mr George Murray, afterwards of Lockerbie, the call was very harmonious, and it was signed by 1 10 male members. Ground on which to build a place of worship cost 1200 merks, or .66, \y>. 4d. and the congrega- tion was to be gone through to ascertain what each one would be willing to give. Mr Erskine was ordained, 3oth May 1744, and he was to receive 300 merks, or .16, 135. 4d., as stipend for the first half-year. In the beginning of 1746 the seating of the church was going on, and those who bore most of the charges were to have the first choice. The money received for the year from this source was fully ^50. The pews were to be numbered, with the prices put on, and heads of families were expected to take seats for themselves, their wives, and children, but servants might be left to their own choice. When the question of the Burgess Oath was brought up at a meeting of Perth and Dunfermline Presbytery Mr Erskine joined with Mr Brown of Perth in resisting its introduction, and during the discussions to which the subject gave rise in the Synod he went along with his father and uncle and elder brother in favour of forbearance. On the eventful evening when the Antiburgher members went off he remained, and was present in the Burgher Synod on the following day. The majority of his session, however, looked on the Burgess Oath as inconsistent with the Oath of the Covenant. How far this may have influenced their minister we cannot tell, but after a Sabbath or two he informed his people from the pulpit that he had gone over to the Antiburgher views. His father, accordingly, was grieved at next meeting of Presbytery to see "Johnnie" among the opposing brethren, and when the members of the Antiburgher Synod, two years afterwards, confessed their faults one to another, John Erskine acknowledged former engagements with the party to which his nearest relatives belonged, and was rebuked for the offence. He had the majority of his congregation with him now, though a number applied for sermon to the Burgher Presbytery. However, the saddest part is to follow. At a subsequent meeting of Synod, when it was resolved to proceed with the sentence of excommunication, he held back, but next day he desired to have it marked that he concurred with the resolution. The conflict between natural affection and a mistaken sense of duty must have been intensified when the Synod in 1750 took up a com- plaint against the minister of Midholm for having employed Ralph Erskine to conduct family worship one evening when he was a guest in his manse. This was like trampling on the Synod's authority and despising the highest censures of the Church. The culprit proved refractory, and at last he came under the same sentence as the separating brethren deposition and ex- communication. In the account which Dr MacEwen has given of this affair in his interesting book on "The Erskines " he has done injustice both to John Erskine and the Antiburgher Synod. He says : "With a harshness which was almost savage, John Erskine was appointed to conduct the devotions of the Synod which carried out the deposition," and " he fulfilled the 366 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS appointment without a word of filial protest." It is true that at the meeting of that Court in February 1751 John Erskine was one of three who con- ducted devotional exercises ; and it was afterwards arranged to meet again on 30th April, when, if Mr Matthew did not compear, they would go on to the greater excommunication. On that day Adam Gib, not John Erskine, was to begin with prayer ; and Mr Matthew's 'Case having been taken up, it was resolved to carry out the foresaid sentence on the following day. This was done accordingly, but John Erskine took no part in the work, as his absence through indisposition is entered, and he died in Adam Gib's house on 8th May 1751, after a week's illness. The Synod may have been appre- hensive that his sudden end might be ascribed to mental excitement, and hence when they met in August they recorded that it was fever John Erskine died of. He was in the twenty-ninth year of his age and seventh of his ministry. He is believed to have been buried in Greyfriars Church- yard, in ground belonging to the family of Mrs Balderston, his father's half- sister, but no tombstone bears his name. Of John Erskine, Dr Jamieson of Edinburgh gave the following account : " When a student he fell into such deep concern about his soul as had almost deprived him of the exercise of his reason. From this he obtained a gracious deliverance, but in consequence of it he was subject to habitual pensiveness, and to absence in conversation, although nothing of the kind appeared in his public ministry." This was written in 1798 in reply to some strictures of Rowland Hill on Antiburgher narrowness. In the Journal of his visits to Scotland that great evangelist had brought up the story that the Synod put the "amputating knife" into the son's hands, and assigned him the task of intimating the sentence of excommunication against his father. He also put into print a report that, after acting this unnatural part, John Erskine sank into a state of languor and depression which shortened his days. To this Dr Jamieson made answer that John Erskine died of a violent fever, and that his father visited him in his illness. He also showed what the Synod minutes attest, that the story of "the amputating knife" was a pure figment. However, Rowland Hill in a pamphlet which is little known renewed the charge in an altered form, and affirmed that the son on his death-bed would not allow his father to pray with him, an allegation which, I believe, was never contradicted. Indeed, for him to have done otherwise would have been to fall into the very offence for which the minister of Midholm was brought to the Synod's bar. This is merely saying that he was faithful to the dictates of a misguided conscience even in death. In this sense the tale which Dr MacEwen discredits, that John Erskine, when he was dying, "refused reconciliation with his loving father," is to be accepted as true. At the same time, though there was an iron barrier between them so far as uniting in prayer together was concerned, he no more believed his father to be an outcast from Christ than he did in early days, when he knelt under his father's wing at the family altar. After Mr Erskine's death Leslie congregation remained vacant for six years. It was a time when preachers were few and competing calls were many. First, they met with two disappointments the one in 1752, by the Synod appointing Mr John Heugh to Stirling, and the other in 1753, by the same authority appointing Mr John Wilson to Methven. Mr Wilson's call was signed by 161 (male) members. A third was addressed to Mr John Robertson, but he was already on trials for ordination at Dalkeith (Back Street), and while the call was signed by only 52 persons it was remonstrated against by 79, so that Dalkeith behoved to carry. Second Minister. SIMON DEMPSTER, from Milnathort. Ordained, loth May 1757. In the beginning of Mr Dempster's ministry the session had PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 367 some trouble with members found guilty of going to hear his old minister, Thomas Mair, who was now in a state of exclusion from the Synod, but more congenial work followed when the covenant was renewed, and 58 entered into the bond. Then came trouble through the Burgher 'party getting formed into a congregation, and putting in for possession of the property. This, however, belongs rather to the next heading. Mr Dempster died, I5th April 1799, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. In "The Gospel to the Africans" a daughter of his comes up as the grandmother of Mrs William Jameson. She is described as a woman of high spiritual attainment. The Christian Magazine states that Mr Dempster had been in failing health for two years ; that the congregation a short time before his death offered him a colleague, to which he consented ; that he was greatly beloved by his people, and that they were treating his family with much kindness. In the early part of this vacancy Leslie people called Mr Robert Muter, but he obtained a call to the Havannah, the mother church of the Antiburghers in Glasgow, and when the vote was taken in the Synod between the two Glasgow carried by a majority of one. Third Minister. DAVID MELLIS, from Perth (North). Ordained, gth February 1802, his minister, the Rev. Alexander Pringle, addressing minister and people. Resigned on account of bad health some time in the following year. He then studied medicine, and is said to have practised as a surgeon in Perth. All we know further of him is from a newspaper announcement that the Rev. David Mellis, M.D., died at Mundie (his native place), parish of Aberdalgie, on 27th January 1820. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM SCOTT, from Dennyloanhead. Ordained, 1 2th March 1805. The minutes of the provincial Synod of Perth show that he was also called to Balbeggie, but that Court gave Leslie the pre- ference. Knowing that Mr Scott was ultimately an unyielding upholder of orthodoxy we did not expect to find that in the early part of his ministry he was dealt with for alleged heresy. For this remarkable incident we are mainly indebted to Mrs Wilson's manuscript, referred to under Pathhead, Kirkcaldy. She tells that he took part in the dispensation of the Lord's Supper at Leith on 3rd October 1809, and that both on the preparation day and on the Sabbath evening he vented several things that appeared foreign to revealed truth. At the table he said : "Who could tell but God through His almighty power could have strengthened and borne up a mere creature under all that awful load of divine wrath ?" He never added, she said, that the sufferings of a mere creature could have no atoning merit. She tells that Mr Scott was dealt with by judicatories, and reprehended. The case was certainly taken up by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and handed over by them to the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, but the records of that Court being blank for fifty years we only know that nothing worse than rebuke or admonition can have followed. When James Morison's Case came before the Synod in May 1841 Mr Scott made a strong speech, declaring that this was a crisis unparalleled in the history of the Secession Church. A like attitude he consistently main- tained throughout the whole course of the Atonement Controversy. In 1844 he had a protest and appeal before the Synod against a decision of Cupar Presbytery, bearing on a letter he had written to the Fife Herald with charges of heresy against Mr Stewart, the newly-ordained minister of Kennoway. In dealing with him he had proved obstreperous, and, temper being in the ascendant, they suspended him on the spot. A committee was appointed to meet with parties, Dr Beattie of Glasgow, who had lived on very friendly terms with Mr Scott when in Leslie, being convener. After 3 68 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS efforts at adjustment failed Mr Scott came forward with a paper, in which he expressed regret for some things he had sent to the public press, and withdrew charges of dishonesty he had brought against his brethren. The Synod, feeling relieved, cancelled the sentence of suspension, which he had treated all along as null and void, and annexed Mr Scott to the highly Calvinistic Presbytery of Perth. But this arrangement only held good for a year. In May 1845, when the Synod homologated, as he alleged, gross errors on the Atonement, he gave in his declinature, declaring that he could not act otherwise if he were to be faithful to his ordination vows. Mr Scott was accordingly declared to be no longer a minister or member of the United Secession Church. The congregation decided at first to keep by their minister, but on I4th October 1845 a petition for sermon from 42 of their number was laid before the Presbytery of Perth. The total membership was given at 200. The Presbytery agreed to recognise the applicants as the First congregation of Leslie, and Ur Young of Perth preached to them on the following Sabbath. They had also hopes of securing the property, as the titles bound it very tightly to the denomination, but it was found that they had lost their hold, as no member had protested against the congregation's decision to leave the United Secession Church. Services were continued to this little party month after month, but as there was another Secession congregation in Leslie the Synod in May 1846 instructed the Presbytery of Perth to withdraw supply. The applicants felt much aggrieved, alleging that they had provided their own funds, and had been a burden to no one, but the decision was wise, and it wrought well in the end. Mr Scott after a time entered into Church fellowship with the Rev William Marshall of Leith, whose case is fully gone into under the proper heading. By the ordination of Mr Mitchell at Portobello in April 1847 a third minister was added to the Calvinistic Secession Presbytery, which then attained its maximum. Messrs Scott and Marshall did not pull comfortably together, as was testified by Mr Mitchell, and they seem to have got tired of each other's society. On 28th April 1848 Mr Marshall renounced connection with the young Presbytery, and on Sabbath, 27th August, partly owing to a dispute with his session, Mr Scott retired from the ministry. That day, as we find from the Scotsman, he intimated from the pulpit that he resigned his charge, so that the name of this denomination appeared no more in the clerical Almanac. But Mr Scott's congregation had decreased seriously by this time, so that of elders and male members there were only 33, and of female members 69 making a total of 102. It was a pressing question what they were to do, and to what quarter they were to look for a minister. Mr Scott's advice was to seek union with the Original Seceders, and when a suggestion to that effect was brought before the congregation it was gener- ally concurred in, so far as the holding up of right hands was concerned. Thus encouraged, the minister and one of the elders attended a meeting of the Original Secession Presbytery in Edinburgh, but Mr Scott made a full statement of his objections to covenanting, and as he had been an out- spoken Voluntary all along he became satisfied that admission to ministerial fellowship on his part was hopeless. He now wished a meeting of the congregation to be held speedily. He believed they would be re- ceived into the Original Secession Church without being required to acknow- ledge the descending obligation of the Covenants if they only declared themselves open to light on the subject. Then, in the event of obtaining a minister from that denomination, he would join in membership. On Thursday, 3ist August, the congregation met, when 23 male members attended. The form of a petition to the Original Secession Presbytery was PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 369 read, but when the question was put to present it or not only four voted in its favour. Then a motion to apply to the United Presbyterian Church was carried, the scales being now turned, and the same four voting against. The Clerk then read a letter from Mr Black, the Original Secession minister at Kirkcaldy, offering sermon on the evening of Sabbath first, but this pro- posal was not generally acquiesced in. After some delay steps were taken to have a meeting of Kirkcaldy Presbytery called pro re nata, at which six- commissioners were appointed to appear, and. on I7th October the report was brought back that regular sermon was to be supplied, beginning on Sabbath week. Thus the Calvinistic Secession congregation of Leslie was back into the old lines again. At this point a proposal for union came from the sister congregation, but terms acceptable to both sides could not be arrived at. In a few months a moderation was applied for, and though the membership was now much reduced, it included a large proportion of substantial families, and a stipend was promised of ^100, with ^5 for sacra- mental expenses. Fifth Minister. ARCHIBALD ALISON, from Strathaven (East), a brother of the Rev. George Alison, Kilbarchan. The call was signed by no more than 70 members, and while it was in dependence before the Presbytery another came out to Mr Alison from Largo, but he chose Leslie, and was ordained, 3ist July 1849. There was now a gathering together of the scattered fragments of Mr Scott's old congregation. For himself, he joined the membership of the Free Church, but in the course of a few years he returned to his old place of worship, and to fellowship with his old people. He died, 6th July 1860, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-sixth of his ministry. A sermon of his, entitled "The Great Trial of the Faith of Abraham," appeared in a collection of sermons by Antiburgher ministers published in 1820. Through his wife, who heired her father, Mr Thomas Inglis, who was long an elder in the congregation, Mr Scott was proprietor of Feal estate, in Portmoak parish. But for this substantial backing he might have been less forward in certain of his ecclesiastical movements. A manse was built for Mr Alison a few years after his ordination at a cost of ^800, and on Sabbath, i6th June 1861, a new church was opened by Dr Eadie, when the collection amounted to .193. It cost ^1700, and there are 600 sittings. The debt of ^320 which remained was cleared off in 1871, with the aid of .120 from the Board. In 1872 Mr Alison, after much hesi- tancy, declined a call to Baillieston, but on 6th June 1882 he accepted Prestwick, Ayrshire. The congregation then called Mr W. W. Beveridge, who preferred Port-Glasgow. Sixth Minister. JOHN CULLEN, D.Sc., from Grange Road, Edinburgh. Having declined St Paul's, Aberdeen, he was ordained at Leslie, nth September 1883. Loosed, I4th February 1893, on accepting a call to Darlington Presbyterian Church, from which he was translated to Greenock (Union Street) in 1896. Seventh Minister. JOSEPH HlBBS, M.A., from Buccleuch Street, Dum- fries. Ordained, 27th July 1893. Accepted a call to Princes Street, Kil- marnock, I4th December 1897. Eighth Minister. R. G. HUNTER, translated from Eday, Orkney, and inducted, I3th June 1898. The membership at the close of 1899 was about 260, and the stipend ,200, with a manse. LESLIE, TRINITY (BURGHER) WHEN Mr John Erskine went over to the Antiburghers most of his people kept by him. There were some tokens, however, of an opposing minority, such II. 2 A 37 o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS as a member petitioning the Burgher Presbytery of the bounds for baptism. In August 1748 this little party, which included elders to form a session, petitioned for sermon, and the petition was renewed in the following spring, and for the next two years they had supply at least once a month on an average. But by this time the families from about Falkland insisted on being disjoined from Leslie and annexed to Auchtermuchty, where there was now a fully organised Burgher congregation. This was agreed to by the Presbytery in June 1752, ."aye and until the people of Falkland, together with the community of Leslie, be in a case to support the gospel in con- junction." Next year the families on the east side were also disjoined, and annexed to Kennoway. It was vain now for the people of Leslie to think of going on, and the Presbytery granted " the south part of that community liberty to join with any congregation under this Presbytery most convenient for them." The description applied mainly to Kirkcaldy. Such was the winding-up of the Burgher cause at Leslie for a period of eight years. The reviving took place in 1761. On I2th May of that year a petition from Leslie bore that, since the rupture of the Synod in 1747, they had been in a very broken situation, and had joined themselves to some of the neighbouring congregations, but "only till such time as they, in Providence, should be in case to support the gospel among themselves." Believing that time to have come they craved the Presbytery to grant them sermon, but the Presbytery delayed the matter, not having sufficient evidence of ripeness for a dis- junction. On 28th July there was produced a deed of Kirkcaldy session disjoining the said people, and it was thereupon agreed to consider them entitled to supply like other vacancies. It is understood that the Burgher community at Leslie gained some accessions in 1758 from an unpopular settlement in the parish church, and this may account for the stand they now felt themselves prepared to make. About this time the newly-formed congregation attempted to obtain possession of the church occupied since the Breach by their Antiburgher brethren. For this purpose they raised an action in the Court of Session. What we know to a certainty regarding the case is that the other con- gregation applied to Ceres session in October 1766 for a contribution, "in order to defray the expenses in endeavouring to keep the right they had to the house for public worship." The cause, they said, was at that time in agitation before the House of Lords. Similarly, in the minutes of Perth session for February 1767 there is mention made of a petition "from our friends in Leslie craving some supply in their present circumstances under the Law Process, wherein they have been involved for five or six years by- past, and under which they continue to be severely persecuted." We also find from their own minutes that collections amounting to ,38 were received from nine sister congregations " to aid in the lawsuit." The interlocutors are said to have been in favour of the pursuers, but a compromise was arrived at, and both sides, no cloubt, saddled with heavy expenses. The church which served the Burgher congregation for nearly ninety years had 470 sittings, and was built in 1771. We recall the appearance of the interior narrow, with the pulpit on the side, and a gallery at each end ; while Mr Scott's was similar in construction, but wider, and with a gallery in one end only. As was common with Secession churches in those days, both were up narrow lanes, and the walls still remain to tell of what has been. In 1771 this congregation called Mr James Hamilton, but he was appointed by the Synod to Dunning, though he was never to be ordained. First Minister. JOHN MORTON, from the Whitburn division of Bathgate (Livery Street). Owing to the illness of the minister who was to preside the moderation did not take place on the day appointed, but the irregularity PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 371 was passed over, and the call sustained. Ordained, i6th September 1772. The stipend was to be ,50, and a house. Mr Morton's death was reported to the Presbytery on 27th December 1803, and he seems to have died immediately before, as the mort-cloth was paid for, ist January 1804, which was probably the funeral day. He was in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. A daughter of his was the wife of the Rev. Archibald Henderson, first of Carlisle and afterwards of St Andrews, Canada. The congregation had now a vacancy of four years to pass through, during which they issued four unsuccessful calls. The first was addressed to Mr Adam Thomson, but he was also under call to Horndean. Leslie he decidedly preferred, but, being in London at the time, he wrote his brother in Leeds to intimate his wishes to the Synod and support them by a speech. His brother lost the coach at Newcastle, and before he reached Edinburgh the Synod had appointed Mr Thomson to Horndean. But for this mishap Leslie might have obtained the man of their choice. A year afterwards they were on the point of calling Mr Thomson again, as it was known he refused to accept Horndean, but he wrote that he intended to take Cold- stream, and procedure was arrested. They now fixed on Mr David Stewart, who was appointed to the collegiate charge at Stirling. The third they called was Mr George Brown, but the call was not quite harmonious, and North Berwick was preferred. It was reported long afterwards in the locality that after he had supplied in Leslie some of his hearers followed him to Balgedie, where they got the same discourse, and that on a third Sabbath they had a similar experience at Kinross, and hence the opposition which arose. Then came a call, more largely signed than any of the others, to Mr Alexander Fletcher, but he was sent to be his father's colleague at Bridge of Teith. Second Minister. ALEXANDER O. BEATTIE, from Ecclefechan. The call was signed by 197 members, which was 35 fewer than Mr Fletcher had, and Mr Beattie was ordained, 6th January 1808. The stipend was to be ^90, with ^20 for house rent and sacramental expenses. Mr Beattie was greatly admired by his people, and the congregation assumed a flourishing look, but in four years he was called to Kincardine, and on 2Qth April 1812 he was, in keeping with his own wishes, loosed from Leslie. The people felt the wrench, and closed the pulpit against a farewell discourse. Amidst other marks of attachment to their young minister they had built a manse for him, and already he was leaving them. During this vacancy they called Mr Proudfoot, afterwards Professor Proudfoot of Canada, but he was appointed to Pitrodie, and Mr Robert Balmer, but he was appointed to Berwick. Third Minister. JOHN JOHNSTON, from Linlithgow (West). Ordained, 2ist December 1814. During his long ministry in Leslie Mr Johnston was known as an able and very instructive preacher, his lectures being specially valued. At the Synod in 1833 he advocated a change in the mode of dealing with competing calls, and an article of his in the Secession Magazine on the subject shows that he could wield a vigorous pen. The overture he supported carried, and the time-honoured system under which Church Courts decided the destinies of preachers or ministers came, to an end. It had its advantages, but the power it involved was liable to glaring abuses. In April 1852 Mr Johnston's son William got licence from Kirkcaldy Presby- tery, and the people, whose attachment to their minister and his family had always been strong, welcomed the prospect of securing him as his father's colleague. In September they applied for a moderation, the arrangement being that the stipend of each should be ^80, and the senior minister should 372 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS possess the manse, which they, no doubt, calculated would avail for both. Mr Johnston intimated cordial acquiescence, and the moderation took place on Monday nth October. The Presbytery met on Monday, the 25th, to sustain the call, and on the following; Monday the aged minister's life course was finished. He died, ist November 1852, in the seventy-first year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. One sermon of Mr Johnston's appeared in print not very long before his death. The text was : " I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star." It was said to have been taken down from his lips when he preached in Albion Chapel, London, and we still recall some of its graphic intro- ductory touches, such as John imprisoned " where rocky Patmos rears its head above the ^igean billows." Fourth Minister. WILLIAM JOHNSTON. Called, as we have seen, to be his father's colleague, but ordained on gth March 1853 as his father's successor. A new church, with sittings for 700, was built in 1859, and the old building, which had sheltered three generations, was turned in the first instance into a public hall. The debt of ^290 was met in 1870, with the aid of ,100 from the Board. On loth Februaiy 1863 Mr Johnston accepted a call to Alexandria, Dumbartonshire, but it may be surmised that he never again dwelt among his own people as he did during his ten years' ministry in Leslie. Fifth Minister. BENJAMIN MARTIN, M.A., from Newington, Edin- burgh. Ordained, I2th January 1864. In 1872 the old manse was replaced by another in a more open situation at a cost of some ^600, in addition to the sum realised by the sale, one-third of the outlay being obtained from the Manse Building Fund. The membership at the close of 1899 was about 340, and the congregation paid a stipend of ^210, with a manse. In 1876 Mr Martin published a volume, entitled " Messiah's Kingdom," which bears indirectly upon the freedom of the Church from State control, a question with which his name has long been prominent. KENNOWAY (BURGHER^ ON loth July 1 750 a body of people in Kennoway represented to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline that they were in a state of oppression through the judicatories of the Church obtruding a minister upon them. After three weeks' delay the Presbytery appointed the observance of a Fast day at Kennoway, and at a subsequent meeting it was agreed that Mr Swanston of Kinross should preach to them on the first Sabbath of Sep- tember. Occasional supply having been continued for nearly a year, a paper of accession was given in on 2nd July 1751 from a number of the applicants, and on the 23rd of that month they were recognised as a congrega- tion. Over against this narrative we have to place the history of the intrusion complained of. A young man, named Neil Beton, or Bethune, who had been schoolmaster in Leslie, was presented by the Crown to the parish church, but the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy decided to grant the people an open moderation. Their judgment was confirmed by the Synod, but the Assembly reversed it, allowing no one to be nominated except the presentee. The call in his favour was joined in by all the principal heritors, several elders, and about 50 heads of families, and, the Assembly having ordered the Presbytery to go on at once with the ordination, it took place, 30th August 1750. Prior to this, however, the opposing party had betaken themselves for relief to the Burgher Presbytery of the bounds' The church was built soon after ; but eight years passed before a fixed ministry was PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 373 obtained, and during that time, owing to the limited supply of preachers, the people would frequently require to attend at Kirkcaldy, eight miles off. The Secession, however, had footing much earlier in the parish of Kennoway. In May 1738 several of the people acceded to the Associate Presbytery, and Kennoway was one of the parishes from which Ceres drew its membership. The old session records also show that the elder for that district gave them trouble after the Breach. His sympathies being evidently on the Burgher side he held back from covenanting, and expressed dis- satisfaction with the censures that had been passed on the " separating brethren." Deputations from the session dealt with him, and he was sum- moned to answer for himself, but in the end Andrew Marshall became an elder in the Burgher congregation at Kennoway. In a similar manner those who left the. Established Church in 1750 would have their numbers increased by the accession of old Seceders in the parish and from round about. It was well to have stamina of this kind superadded, for they had trying dis- couragements to face. They first called Mr James Wylie, but he was already on trials for ordination to a charge in Ireland, and the Synod decided that that arrangement should stand. They then made two attempts to obtain placed ministers first, the Rev. David Telfer, Bridge of Teith ; and second, the Rev. John M'Ara, Burntshields, but on both occasions the translation was forbidden. In this way three years were lost. First Minister. WILLIAM ARNOT, from Kinross (West). Ordained, 27th December 1758, the call being signed by 101 members. He died, 15th November 1786, in the fifty-fourth year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry. The year before his death Mr Arnot published six sermons, entitled " Harmony of Law and Gospel." The family belonged to Carse- gower, a farm in Cleish parish, and their name figures in the early records of the Burgher congregation, Kinross. Second Minister. WILLIAM KlDSTON, son of the Rev. William Kidston of Stow, and best known as Dr Kidston of Glasgow. There had been a large upbuilding under his predecessor, as the call was signed by 321 members, 25 occasional hearers, and 35 young people. The stipend was to be ^60, or ^10 more than Mr Arnot had, with manse, garden, and office houses, besides ,6 for sacramental expenses. In September 1789 the Synod appointed Mr Kidston to Kennoway in preference to Hawick and Lanark, but before the ordination he was called to Campbell Street, Glasgow, which sisted procedure for the time. The Synod in May 1790 refused to sustain this belated call, whereupon Mr Kidston craved to be relieved from Kennouay, a request which was firmly refused, and the Presbytery was to suspend him in case of non-submission. On this subject Mr Husband of Dunfermline wrote as follows : " I am not one of the most zealous for the interposition of ecclesiastical authority in the last issue with regard to recusant probationers. At the same time, I am not able to approve of Mr Kidston's conduct. The congregation of Kennoway is a respectable one in number, circumstances, and character, and the call is unanimous. It appears to me, therefore, to be his duty to embrace it." He was at last induced to comply with the Synod's decision, and his ordination took place, 1 8th August 1790. In the prospect his Professor at Selkirk hoped the people of Kennoway would entertain no ill-will towards him on account of his aversion to be settled among them. There is no reason to suppose that they did ; but in less than a year East Campbell Street renewed their call, and on 7th September 1791 the Synod agreed to the translation. The separation from Kennoway occasioned Mr Kidston feelings more painful by much than he had anticipated. Third Minister. ALEXANDER MORISON, from Moffat. Ordained, 7th 374 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS August 1792. His ministerial course was brief, and its close romantic. The Rev. William Fraser of Alloa related in the Calvinistic Secession Magazine that Mr Morison preached in old Mr Eraser's church at Auchter- muchty on a Fast day in the following summer from the text : " As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." He was clad in deep mourning, and he only said by way of explanation : " It is for a friend." He was to come back to dine with the officiating ministers on Monday, but instead he left Kennoway abruptly and for ever. At the congregation's request the Presbytery kept the door open for his return month after month, but on nth February 1794 he wrote the Presbytery that he would return to Scotland no more, but might still be useful in some distant region of the world. The church was now declared vacant, and at next Synod the two ministers in London, Dr Waugh and Mr Easton, were commissioned to deal with Mr Morison. They reported that he refused to be questioned by them, but he confessed that, after being repeatedly challenged, he had been drawn in to fight a duel. He was thereupon declared a fugitive from discipline. Mr Fraser tells how Mr Morison's library remained long in the manse at Kennoway undisturbed. He afterwards conducted an Academy in Salisbury, and when a friend met him there many years afterwards he was living in a genteel house, and had conformed to the Church of England. His closing years were spent in Moffat, his native place, and he died there, 29th November 1848, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Fourth Minister. DONALD FRASER, son of the Rev. John Fraser, Auchtermuchty (East). Ordained, 3rd December 1794, when only twenty- one years of age. The parish minister at that time was unable for pastoral work, and the parochial schoolmaster acted as his assistant, having in general only one service, so that Mr Eraser's ministry was waited on by many besides his own people. This state of things continued for thirty years. At the time of the Old Light Controversy the congregation suffered the loss of about 50 members. It was Mr Eraser's father who introduced into the Burgher Synod the proposal to have the Formula modified in adaptation to growing liberality of opinion. This circumstance may have helped to turn the attention of Kennoway people to the subject, and theirs was one of the congregations from which members sent up remonstrances to the Synod in April 1797 against any such change. When the worst came Mr Fraser entered in one of his note-books that the party who had left him got sermon on 3oth March 1800 for the first time. The Rev. James Archibald, a minister from Ireland, who was out of a charge, and not in high repute, was the preacher who gave them a beginning. This inbreak on the communion roll must have been considerable, as the call issued by the rival congregation four years afterwards was subscribed by 96 members. In 1837 the parish minister, in drawing up the New Statistical History, entered Mr Eraser's membership at 428, of whom about one-third were from other parishes. The stipend was ^120, with house and garden. The Original Burgher congregation was vacant at the time. They had been very unfortunate in their first minister, and their membership was under 200. Their stipend was .75, with a manse and garden, and during the thirty-seven years of their existence they had been eighteen without a minister. In 1839 they held back from Union with the Establishment, and in 1845 they merged in what is now the Free Church congregation, and their place of worship was sold, but the price received did not clear the debt. The disruption of 1 800 entailed on them long years of struggle, and divided the resources of what would otherwise have been a strong country congregation. In 1831 Mr Fraser published his Life of Ebenezer Erskine, PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 375 which was well received, and brought him the degree of D.D. from Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1833. This was followed by the Life of Ralph Erskine, his great-grandfather, and the two books fill a very important place in our denominational literature. The author died, 28th December 1841, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. He had been partially laid aside by illness, and when Cupar Presbytery met that day they received the unexpected intelligence of his death. An interesting Memoir of Dr Fraser, from the pen of his brother William in Alloa, appeared in four numbers of the United Secession Magazine for 1842. In addition to the Lives of the Erskines Dr Fraser wrote a Memoir of his father, which is prefixed to a volume of his Essays and Sermons. He also contributed largely to the denominational magazines of his time. But, while deeply interested in everything connected with the Secession Church, Dr Eraser's sympathies did not go fully along with the Voluntary Con- troversy, as he made known in his Life of Ebenezer Erskine. This is the more remarkable, as in student and preacher days he took up New Light ground, and declined to accept licence unless allowed to take the questions of the Formula with explanations. But as he advanced in life he may have become more conservative. He drew back at least from pronouncing Civil Establishments of Religion in every case " unscriptural, impolitic, and unjust." Fifth Minister. ALEXANDER STEWART, from Stitchel. Called pre- viously to Lilliesleaf, but not with unanimity. The call to Kennoway was signed by 212 members, and the stipend was ^100, with manse and garden. Ordained, 26th April 1843. It was a time when there was the fear of Morisonian doctrine getting into Secession pulpits, and to test Mr Stewart's soundness in the faith he had trial discourses assigned him on the texts : " That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man " ; and "Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." He was also to give an exercise on the question : " Are there different kinds of faith?" Mr Stewart in his treatment of these subjects did not come up to the Calvinistic standard of the Rev. William Scott of Leslie, who dis- sented from the sustaining of his trials. On the ordination day, when the edict was returned, he also came forward as an objector, but it was ruled that the edict was addressed only to members of the congregation, and that Mr Scott had not the standing required. The services accordingly proceeded, but Mr Scott was away. He next went to the Fife Herald with his complaints, which involved charges of heresy against the young minister of Kennoway, and the case, as we have seen already, came before the Synod in May 1844. There Mr Scott professed himself satisfied that Mr Stewart had not taught the erroneous doctrines alleged, and admitted that he had erred in the course followed, and the Synod rested in this acknowledgment. As for Mr Stewart, though he did not consider the deliverance such as he was entitled to, he acquiesced in it, and desired "to regard the whole unhappy affair as though it had never been." But he was not in robust health, and this "unhappy affair" was not fitted to do him good. He died, 8th December 1846, in the twenty-eighth year of his age and fourth of his ministry. The congregation now called Mr Robert Russell, but another call from Rattray was out already, and there were indications at the time that it was to get the preference. Sixth Minister. DANIEL DOUGLAS, from Earlston (East). Called to West Linton some time before, and ordained at Kennoway, 26th April 1848. The church, which had stood for a hundred and twenty years, was extensively 376 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS repaired in 1872, and it is still serving its day and generation. Shortly afterwards the manse was similarly improved at a cost of ,208, of which the Board paid ^120. In 1888 Mr Douglas, at the close of a forty years' ministry, prepared to give place to a colleague. Seventh Minister. JAMES CAMPBELL BOYD, M.A., from Helensburgh. Ordained, I2th March 1889, the senior minister surrendering the manse and all share in the emoluments. Mr Douglas soon afterwards retired to Gatton- side, his native locality, and was living there at the time of the recent Union. The membership at the close of 1899 was 180, and the stipend from the people ,125, with the manse. COLINSBURGH (RELIEF) THIS village, in Kilconquhar parish, derives importance as the place where the Presbytery of Relief was first constituted. The congregation originated in the translation of Dr John Chalmers from the neighbouring parish of Elie. The settlement was strongly resisted, but the Assembly ordered it to go on, and Dr Chalmers was inducted on igth June 1760. The great body of the people, headed by the entire session except one, now set about building a meeting-house at Colinsburgh, about a mile from the parish church. For a time they were in an isolated state, not inclining, it is evident, to apply for sermon to either the Burgher or Antiburgher Presbytery of the bounds. At last Mr Gillespie, who was also out of all ecclesiastical connection, preached a day at Colinsburgh, and by his advice the people drew up an invitation to the Rev. Thomas Scott, a dissenting minister at Hexham, to settle among them. But the church was large, being seated for 850, and the congregation numerous, so that Mr Scott, on the ground of defective health, drew back from so weighty a charge. He was afterwards settled at Auchternuichty. First Minister. THOMAS COLIER, a native of Fife, according to David Gellatly, and previously minister of a dissenting church at Ravenstonedale, Westmoreland. Mr Colier had preached two Sabbaths at Colinsburgh, and then a call was made out for him, " and harmoniously subscribed by the elders and many hundreds of people in a public manner before witnesses/'' On 22nd October 1761 the Rev. Thomas Gillespie from Dunfermline and the Rev. Thomas Boston from Jedburgh inducted Mr Colier to be minister "of this great and numerous congregation," and after the service the three ministers, with an elder from each of their sessions, constituted themselves into the Presbytery of Relief. In 1764 Mr Colier was laid aside for a lengthened period by illness, and his place was filled by a probationer named Reikie, on whom a note may be expended.* In July 1768 the Presbytery * Patrick Reikie appears in the Secession records of 1746 as a student of Phil- osophy. In April 1748 the Antiburgher Synod recommended the Presbytery of Edinburgh to take him on trials for 'licence, but nothing followed. He reappears thirteen years afterwards as a Cameronian probationer. He had got licence from the Reformed Presbytery before the Breach of 1752, when he went with the smaller party, led by Hall of Edinburgh and Innes of Glasgow, but his ecclesiastical connec- tion did not prevent him occupying Colinsburgh pulpit at this time as a preacher at large. On I4th November 1765 he was ordained over the Societies in Ireland " all poor people, and in number not above 12 families, and far dispersed " but he never entered on this field of labour at all. He wished to succeed the Rev. Hugh Innes of the Gallon Church, Glasgow, the meeting-house which ultimately passed into the possession of the Relief. He pleaded that, as he was now "turned in years," it would be very prejudicial to his health to go where he behoved to preach in the open air, but the Presbytery, he alleged, were bent on preventing him being settled in Scotland. PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 377 recommended the seeking out of a proper person to be Mr Goner's assistant, as the congregation was suffering through his valetudinary state. What progress was made does not appear, but " Mr Goner's distress," as the session minutes relate, continued till it pleased the Lord to remove him on i gth July 1769 from his family and his flock " to the glorious presence of his Master/'' The state of the congregation at this time we have the means of outlining, and also their money arrangements. The stipend was ^60, and a few weeks before Mr Colier's ordination they bought a house, and some garden ground for a manse, at the cost of ^31, with ,15 for repairs. Among contributions for the building fund and other things there is mention of ,5, i8s. from Largo parish, ^4, i6s. from Newburn parish, and ^i, iis. from St Andrews parish, and when elders came to be chosen the wants of Earlsferry and St Monans had to be considered. But the formation of a Relief Church at Largo soon after Mr Colier's death must have narrowed in Colinsburgh on the west side, and the formation of Pittenweem some years later must have had a similar effect to the east. Still, throughout Mr Colier's ministry the communion roll continued large, and the church is said to have been often inconveniently crowded. Second Minister. JAMES COWAN, a native of the parish of Stow. As his brother Robert studied in the Antiburgher connection,* and the father is certi- fied to have been a Secession elder, we are left to infer that the family belonged to the Antiburgher congregation of Lauder. If so, James' early upbringing may account for his aversion to the Relief principle of Free Communion. Having completed his theological course at Edinburgh University he was licensed by the Newcastle Presbytery of Protestant Dissenters in the early part of 1770, and to him Colinsburgh people turned in quest of a successor to Mr Colier. On Saturday, loth March 1770, they received notice that " a young man lately come from England was to preach in Newburn Church to-morrow," but his name was to be kept concealed until it was known how they were satisfied with him. On the following Monday he was told that to all appearance he would be the people's choice. A moderation was obtained for 22nd April, and the call was signed by 430 communicants, no other candidate being proposed. But a majority of the Presbytery refused At last they libelled him for neglecting his congregation, for setting up a separate meeting in Glasgow, and for defaming his superiors. It ended in his deposition on 5th November 1766. Next year the Presbytery published a narrative of the case, which he and his friends met with a pamphlet, entitled "A loud Cry ; or, Groans of the Oppressed/' With this we lose sight of Mr Partick Reikie. * Robert Cowan was appointed to be taken on trials for licence by the Anti- Lurgher Presbytery of Earlston in April 1765, with a view to service in America, but he wrote the Synod in September refusing to go. His case was remitted to the Presbytery, who were to deprive him of licence if he persisted. This contest with his superiors was got over, and he settled down for years in probationer life at home. But towards the close of 1771 he ceased to fulfil his appointments, and Earlston Presbytery learned that he was preaching under the inspection of the Presbytery of Relief, though the change of connection appears to have brought him no nearer a fixed charge. What follows is taken from M'Kenzie's History of Newcastle, which, though inaccurate in dates, maybe treated as substantially correct. Mr Robert Cowan was ordained over Wall Knoll dissenting church in 1775, and died in July 1803, aged sixty-nine. He is described as an excellent linguist and a man of simple manners and blameless life, but destitute of popular talents, so that his congregation dwindled away, and for many years he received no stipend at all. This was the brother of the Rev. James Cowan of Colinsburgh, and as such his name comes up repeatedly in these pages. Dr George" Brown has confounded the two brothers, making them only one, and Dr Blair has fallen into the same error. 378 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to concur in the call, though Colinsburgh congregation was to be free to employ Mr Cowan for the time. In this state matters continued, and one or more commissioners appeared at successive meetings of Presbytery in prosecution of the call. It was irksome work, a journey to Glasgow on one occasion obliging one of their leading men to be a whole week from home, and the cost to the congregation being ^2, los. The ordination took place, 25th July 1771, when Mr Cruden of Glasgow preached, and the only other ministers who took part were Messrs Gillespie of Dunfermline and Scott of Auchtermuchty. The expenses incurred by the company and their horses amounted to nearly 7. Mr Cowan's stipend was to be the same as his predecessor had ,15 per quarter, and a house. It was the circumstances connected with the settlement at Colinsburgh, taken along with a converse case at Blairlogie, which led to a virtual disruption in the Relief Presbytery. (See vol. i. p. 708.) After the two parties had held separate meetings for about a year an attempt was made in May 1772 to reach an agreement so far as to constitute themselves into a Synod. It was then that Mr Cowan brought up the question of Free Communion. He wished to know whether they were to admit to the Lord's Table such as were unsound in the essentials of the Christian faith, as shown particularly by their publications to the world. This was Alexander Pirie, sure enough, and it was the reopening of an old wound. But there was unanimity in replying that their principles did not allow them to hold communion with such. Then it carried by a majority that they were free to hold communion with visible saints, though these should be of the Episcopal or Independent persuasion, and at the meeting in 1773 this decision was confirmed. Henceforth Mr Cowan and the majority of his people were out of connection with the Relief Church, and ranged under the banner of close denominational communion. But all was not harmony among themselves. In June 1773 an elder was put out of his seat in the session for venting Free Communion principles, but "his party, according to the best information, did not exceed 10 persons." A fortnight after this three representatives of the Synod were to visit Colinsburgh, but thirteen elders and four managers signed the paper forbidding them to enter the church, and to make this resolution effective all the doors and windows were fastened within, so that the attempt to have matters adjusted failed. But before many weeks had passed it was entered in the records that " some seats in the church are empty by reason of the former possessors deserting them." To a certainty Colinsburgh congregation was now on the slopes of decline. At the Synod in May 1775 Mr Cowan did not compear according to summons, and he was declared out of connection. During the next twenty years he stood alone, though on communion occasions he got assistance from his brother Robert, and certain other ministers, most of them seemingly in a nondescript state. Among these we may name Messrs Crookshanks and Blyth from England, Mr John Brodie from Aberdeen, whom Mr Cowan had ordained over the Shiprow congrega- tion, and Mr Reid from Portsoy or Findhorn. The expenses in bringing assistance from such distances were heavy, Robert Cowan again and again receiving the sum of ,3 or ,3, IDS. This state of isolation continued till 1794, when Mr David Gellatly identified himself with Mr Cowan, as is related under Haddington, Relief. Mr Cowan died, i5th April 1795, in the fifty-seventh year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. In the session minutes he is described as "in the pulpit an able minister of the New Testament, in private a warm friend ; in the course of his labours severely persecuted by his enemies, yet as warmly beloved by his friends." The persecution spoken of may refer specially to reports which had been in 379 circulation for years affecting his reputation for sobriety. Right or wrong, this led a party, headed by one who had been Mr Cowan's right-hand man from the beginning, to withdraw from his ministry. Hence the origin of what we shall call the New Relief Church at Colinsburgh. During the vacancy supplies had to be drawn from very narrow limits. The two ministers of what passed for a Presbytery were Messrs Gellatly of Haddington and Fraser of Lady Lawson's Wynd, Edinburgh, but the pulpit was chiefly occupied by Mr John Paton, a preacher of theirs who is described as " at large in Edinburgh." After labouring among them for some months he accepted their call, and was ordained at Colinsburgh, 17th March 1796. The stipend was the same as it had been from the very beginning .15 a quarter, but within a few years 20 is the sum named. The membership seems as yet to have kept up fairly well, for a congregational meeting shortly after Mr Cowan's death showed 134 men present. There was a law process going on about the rights of the meeting-house, and in defending the action there are traces of sums paid amounting to over ,50. In the general confusion there was likely to be loss in other ways, and the parish minister of Newburn could at least boast that one of the elders had returned to the Established Church. Mr Paton qualified as an M.D. of St Andrews in 1802, and in October 1803 he removed to Shiprow Church, Aberdeen, which, like Colins- burgh, was outside the Relief Synod. The congregation now entered on a slowly dying process. The minister they obtained was Alexander Scott, of whom we only know that he had been one of Haldane's missionaries, and from a pamphlet of his own it appears that he came from the North, and in 1798 was stationed at Cove-of-Nigg. An Edinburgh newspaper announced in August 1804 Mr Scott's call from Strichen to Colinsburgh. In 1837 the minister reported an average attend- ance of 50 in summer and 30 in winter. His stipend was about ^12 a year, and he had a manse and two gardens. The seats brought in ^5 annually, and the collections, amounting to 2s. 6d. or 35. each Sunday, were handed over to the minister. The place of worship was getting very dilapidated ; but it remained as aforetime with accommodation for 850. Mr Scott died suddenly, 28th July 1842, aged seventy-seven, while the Relief Presbytery of Dysart was negotiating with him for the purchase of the old building. Thus ended the once large and far-gathered Relief congregation of Colins- burgh, except in so far as it had transferred its existence to the rival church in the village. During the greater part of his ministry Mr Scott seems to have had no fixed denominational connection. He fraternised, however, with the Rev. David Arnot of Kinnesswood, one of the last representatives of the Camer- onian Presbytery, which at one time had four or five congregations under its inspection. The two assisted each other at communion times, and the tent services at Kinnesswood drew considerable audiences. On these occasions Mr Scott dealt in oratory of the homespun kind. Mr Duncan from Den- holm, a teacher of John Leyden's, and Mr Kirkaldy from Kirkcaldy, occasionally officiated, and twice at least those present constituted them- selves into a Presbytery, Mr Scott being one of the members. COLINSBURGH (NEW RELIEF) IN 1790 Mr Cowan and his people applied to the Relief Synod for admission, but though that Court was willing to receive the congregation the door was shut against the minister, there being unfavourable reports abroad con- cerning him. The same circumstance accounts for the setting up of an 380 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS opposition charge by a minority of his people. The law process, already referred to, followed for possession of the property. The decision turned on which party had the larger number of original subscribers and their heirs, and it was found that 34 of these were with the pursuers and only 22 with the defenders. This gave the church to the party adhering to the Relief Synod, but by this time they had built a church for themselves, and nothing more was done. The East Church, as it was called, accommodated 300 worshippers, and as it was cheaply built the debt resting on it was trifling. First Minister. JOHN JAMIESON, from St Ninians. Ordained, i8th June 1800. But from the first the congregation was to suffer from premature translations. Mr Jamieson was scarcely settled down at Colinsburgh when a movement was set agoing to have him transferred to Bellshill, and through much contention and partial disruption the object was accomplished, and on 2Qth July 1802 he was inducted there. Second Minister. WILLIAM REID, who had been loosed from Hadding- ton three years before. Inducted, 27th July 1803. The call was signed by 135 members, and the stipend promised was ^80, with a suitable house and a garden. Mr Reid died, yth September 1809, in the forty-first year of his age and fourteenth of his ministry. Third Minister. DAVID RUSSELL, from Tollcross, Glasgow. Brought up in the Established Church, but took licence from the Relief, and was ordained at Colinsburgh, 5th February 1811. The membership was put down at 200, and the stipend was to be increased ,4 for every addition of 20 to the membership. On 3rd December of the following year Mr Russell accepted a call to the newly-formed congregation of Hawick (Allars). Fourth Minister. JAMES TURNBULL, from Hutchesontown, Glasgow. Called also to Pittenweem, but preferred Colinsburgh, where he was ordained, 28th September 1813. Loosed, 3Oth May 1820, to be inducted into Calton, Glasgow, where troubles awaited him. Before he left Colinsburgh a tide adverse to the congregation appears to have set in, as the stipend was ^100 in arrears. During the three years' vacancy which followed the congrega- tion called Mr Patrick W. Peacock, but at two successive meetings of Pres- bytery he failed to appear, and the call was withdrawn. His subsequent history belongs to Langholm (South). Fifth Minister. WILLIAM MARSHALL, from Cathedral Street, Glasgow. Ordained, yth August 1823. In 1829, when the Relief denomination was disturbed by the introduction of instrumental music to Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh, Mr Marshall published "Seven Letters to the Rev. Robert Brodie, Moderator of Synod, on the Organ Question." On 8th DecembeV of that year he resigned his charge, the congregation not objecting, and in April 1832 he was received into connection with the Presbytery of New York, and on I3th November he was installed as pastor of a church at Pickskill, within their bounds. Though never popular as a preacher he remained there till I2th December 1843, when he was constrained to resign. After that he gave himself to educational work, for which he was well fitted by his scholastic attainments, and died in 1864. In 1834 he published a pamphlet in favour of marriage with a deceased wife's niece, being the sub- stance of a speech which he delivered on that question in the Synod of New York some time before. Much of the reasoning is ingenious, but far-fetched, and not very convincing. At Colinsburgh Mr Marshall had only ^70 from the people, which was increased regularly by a grant of .10 from the Synod Fund. The weak state to which they were nowVeduced may account for the vacancy of five years which followed. Sixth Minister. ARCHIBALD CUMMING, who had been loosed from Ceres in 1830. He had now reached the age of sixty-seven, but the con- PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 381 gregation was bent on having a fixed ministry again. He was inducted, 24th June 1834. Three years after this he returned the communicants at 70, and stated that he took for stipend whatever the people could afford to give him. Both the attendance and the membership had increased somewhat since he came among them. The original place of worship was now falling into decay, and in 1842 there was the wish to secure it for the Relief body, old associations lending it greater attractions and greater value. The few worshippers within its walls could hardly be dignified with the name of a congregation, and Mr Scott, the old minister, was reckoned the pro- prietor. A bargain was struck with him, and a money instalment paid, when he died suddenly, and the stately ruin came into the possession of Dysart Relief Presbytery. On I4th April 1844 a new church on the old site was opened, and through the kindness of friends, a grant from the Synod's Liquidation Fund, and the liberality of the people the debt was cleared off in less than a year. The other church, built in the beginning of the century, had been previously abandoned, and was now turned to everyday purposes. Mr Gumming by this time was among the infirmities of age, though he still gave one discourse each Sabbath as often as his strength permitted. He died, 5th February 1845, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. With a ne\v church it was to be expected that under a young and active minister Colinsburgh, with the Relief interest in a united state, would experience reviving prosperity. In June 1845 the congregation called Mr John Logan Aikman, but the signatures of members amounted only to 37, and, with better prospects before him, he declined the call. Seventh Minister. ANDREW DICKIE, from Irvine (Relief). Ordained, 1 6th December 1845, an d loosed, I3th July 1847, on accepting a call to St Paul's Street, Aberdeen. Eighth Minister. JOHN C. JACKSON, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Ordained, igth February 1850. There had been considerable increase during Mr Dickie's ministry of a year and a half, and the callers, including adherents, were more than doubled ; but it was still the day of small things with Colinsburgh. Mr Dickie's stipend had only been ,80, including ^30 from the Home Fund. It was now ^100, of which the people provided ^80. Some years after Mr Jackson's ministry began the membership got some advantage by the dissolution of Kilconquhar congregation, but less so than there might have been if good feeling had prevailed. As the two places were only one mile apart, and both churches required to be aided, an attempt was made to unite them during the former vacancy at Colinsburgh, but the negotiations only left elements of alienation behind them. However, under Mr Jackson's care there was progress, and when he left there were loo names on the communion roll. This was on 4th May 1869, when he accepted a call to Gorbals, Glasgow, to be colleague to the Rev. David M'Rae. This was followed by three unsucessful calls the first to Mr J. C. Ingles, who preferred Crieff ; the second to Mr John Dickson, afterwards of Peterhead ; and the third to Mr W. R. Inglis, afterwards of Holm, Kil- marnock. Ninth Minister. THOMAS BOSTON JOHNSTON, from Limekilns, and a nephew of Dr William Johnston. Called previously to Gateshead, New- castle. Ordained, 28th June 1871. Accepted a call to be colleague to the Rev. Robert Gemmell, Arthur Street, Edinburgh, on 2nd February 1875. Tenth Minister. ROBERT DICK, from Bread Street, Edinburgh. De- clined South Ronaldshay, Orkney. Ordained, 2ist December 1875. I n 1883 Mr Dick published a "History of Colinsburgh United Presbyterian Church," and in 1896 "Annals of Colinsburgh," which comprises a much 382 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS wider compass. From these two carefully got-up volumes I have drawn largely in compiling my brief account of the two Relief congregations in Colinsburgh. The membership at the close of 1899 was 89, and the people contributed ,90 of stipend. LARGO (RELIEF) IN the earliest records of this congregation its origin is ascribed to encroach- ments on the rights of the Christian people, and hence a considerable part of the Established Church congregation resolved to build " a house of God." A petition to be taken under their inspection was laid before the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow, 27th February 1771, and about this time the church was ready for occupancy. The local grievance which led to this decisive measure was the admission of a .minister into the parish church on I2th October 1769, though relief was not sought till sixteen months afterwards. In the erection of a place of worship they speak of having been assisted by others in the neighbourhood, and the work seems to have been carried on with much spirit. First Minister. ROBERT PATERSON, from Cupar. A number of the people had an opportunity of hearing him there in the summer of 1771, and a deputation was appointed to converse with him, but he was distant in his bearing, telling them he was not going to choose a place for himself. The Presbytery of Glasgow met at Colinsburgh on 25th July of that year for the ordination of Mr James Cowan. After the service was over they sat, it is stated, in a private room, and what was transacted there was not known, but the petition from Largo for a moderation was refused. The congregation appear now to have gone over from Gillespie's party to Baine's or in other words, from the Presbytery of Glasgow to the Presbytery of Edinburgh. On 1 7th September Mr Paterson was called, and on the 2gth the call from Largo was accepted in preference to another from Pirie's old congregation in Abernethy. Ordained, i8th March 1772. The stipend seems to have been ,15 per quarter. Mr Paterson was called to Kilmaronock in 1775, but remained in Largo. In June 1794 he declined a call to Balfron, but ac- cepted another to Biggar a few months afterwards. Second Minister. JAMES SMART, translated from Mainsriddell, where he had been minister for four and a half years. Admitted to Largo in the beginning of 1796, and accepted a call to Coupar- Angus on ist November 1803. Third Minister. JAMES GARDINER, from Auchterarder (South), but a native of Blackford. Ordained, 3Oth July 1805. In contrast with his two predecessors and five of his successors, he ministered at Largo till he reached an advanced old age. For some years before his death Mr Gardiner was almost entirely laid aside from ministerial work, and a colleague was required. Fourth Minister. JAMES HAMILTON, from Strathaven (East). The stipend was to be, meanwhile, ^70, but should he become sole pastor it would be ,90, with manse and garden. Mr Hamilton was ordained, 28th July 1840, and in memorable circumstances. Instead of assenting to the questions of the Formula he stumbled at them one by one. Qualifications and explanations were given to the Presbytery in the face of the congrega- tion. As for the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments being the word of God, he doubted the inspiration of certain verses in the Epistles, particu- larly those in which Paul spoke, as he himself said, by permission and not by commandment. Another question, bearing on his motives for entering on PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 383 the holy ministry, he declined to answer because he deemed it inquisitorial, and a third he objected to because it constituted the Presbytery into a Court of Conscience. As for solemn engagements, he drew back from them because he did not feel warranted to make vows with regard to the future. The proceedings were brought to a stand, and the congregation dismissed for an hour to afford the brethren time to deal with Mr Hamilton. Though in nearly every case dissatisfied with the answers they agreed, but not unanimously, to proceed with the ordination. But enough had emerged to suggest the fear that there were mental angularities involved, or a morbidity of conscience, which might cause inconvenience in the future. It happened, accordingly, that in no very long time Mr Hamilton came before the Presbytery again. On 6th July 1841, just as the first year of his ministry was expiring, he tendered his resignation. The congregation was unanimous in desiring to retain Mr Hamilton, but he kept by his resolution, and on 7th September the^pastoral bond was dissolved. The reason he assigned for the step he had taken was his objections to the Formula of Ordination, but he may have had no particular wish to give himself to the stated work of the ministry, and hence, perhaps, the fact that he was not ordained till after eleven years of preacher life. In the beginning of 1846 the neighbouring congregation of Leven, with the view of turning Mr Hamilton's gifts to permanent account, sent a deputation to ascertain whether he would become a candidate for their vacant pulpit. It was found that he had got very much over his former scruples, and they were of opinion that, if the Presbytery did not insist on him taking the Formula, he would accept their call if he were chosen. A moderation was about to be applied for when they received notice that he declined to come forward. He continued acting as pulpit supply for a long course of years, and in that capacity " Laird" Hamilton is still remembered by some elderly people, who recall his tastefully - composed discourses and his sing-song reading of the Psalms. He died at Edinburgh, 24th June 1860, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. Fifth Minister. BRYCE KERR, M.A., from Beith (Head Street). The same name was prominent in that place during the Controversy about the lifting of the communion elements before prayer. The Bryce Kerr of that time was a vehement supporter of old Mr Smyton, and like him withdrew from the Antiburgher fellowship. He was afterwards a pillar in the " Lifter" con- gregation at Dairy, but the family ultimately joined the Relief, and now the name reappears in that connection. Mr Kerr was first called to Dundee (now Dudhope Road), and then to the congregation of Irvine, but in the latter case the majority was so slight, and party feeling so strong, that the call had to be laid aside. Ordained at Largo, 2gth March 1843. The call was signed by 177 members and 49 adherents. The stipend arrangements were the same as before. Mr Gardiner died, 28th February 1843, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. The Presby- tery, at a special meeting on the funeral day, recorded their sense of his merits as a faithful and efficient minister of the gospel. By his death Mr Kerr entered at once on the sole pastorate and the full emoluments, ^90, with house and garden, but he died at Mossend, Beith, 25th October 1843, in the seventh month of his ministry and the twenty-seventh year of his age. Sixth Minister. ARCHIBALD MUIR, from Strathaven (West), a brother of the Rev. Francis Muir of Leith. At a moderation during the former vacancy 67 voted for Mr Muir and 66 for Mr A. Milligan, a preacher of whom particulars are given under Dunning (Relief). Some members of the Relief Synod used to maintain that one of a majority should necessitate the 384 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS sustaining of a call, but in the present instance even this plea was not avail- able. A vote had been declined by the Moderator, which, in the judgment of the Presbytery, should have been received, and this would have produced entire equality. After Mr Kerr's death the congregation came back on Mr Muir, who was carried over Mr Archibald Russell, afterwards of Nevvburgh, by 86 to 26. Ordained, 3ist July 1844, and resigned on account of ill-health, 2nd January 1849. Mr Muir then tried Jamaica, and officiated there for nine months in the mission station of Rosehill, but, being obliged to cease active service, he returned to end his days in the mother country. He died at Barrhead, gth December 1850, in the thirty-fourth year of his age and seventh of his ministry. The congregation now issued five calls in succession within little more than two years the first to Mr Archibald Alison, who preferred Leslie ; the second to Mr John Young, who preferred Newburgh ; the third to Mr George Morris, who preferred Dairy, Ayrshire ; and the fourth to Mr John Mathison, who preferred Monkwearmouth.* With the fifth they fell back on an ordained minister, and were successful. Seventh Minister. THOMAS SOMERVILLE, who had been fourteen years in Auchtergaven (Relief). But after the Union of 1847 it was felt that a second congregation in that place was superfluous, and the door which opened at Largo was welcomed. Inducted, yth May 1851. The stipend was now ^100, with manse and garden. Mr Somerville died, ist September 1857, in the forty-ninth year of his age and twenty-first of his ministry. Eighth Minister. DAVID HAY, from St Andrews. Ordained, loth August 1858. Caught cold his first winter there, and died, gth April 1859, in the twenty-seventh year of his age and the eighth month of his ministry. His tombstone in St Andrews Churchyard, the inscription states, was erected by the young people of his congregation, by whom he was much and dearly beloved. Ninth Minister. DAVID MALLOCH, from Tollcross, Glasgow. Or- dained, 1 3th March 1860. The congregation suffered some reduction of strength at this time through want of harmony among the members and in the session, but Mr Malloch, who had had considerable experience in mission work, laboured faithfully on during a long course of years. In the early part of his ministry he set about having the old church, the cost of which is put down under ^20 in money, displaced by another on a level with the times. His efforts were successful, and the new church was opened on 1 7th July 1872, with sittings for 400, and built at a cost of ,1200. Mr Malloch died, 2gth June 1896, in the seventy-third year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. Tenth Minister. GEORGE R. ATKINSON, M.A., from Edinburgh (Eyre Place). Ordained, 4th February 1897. The membership at the close of 1899 was 1 15, and the stipend from the people ^100. DYSART (RELIEF) THE date of this congregation's origin cannot be given with exactness, but their first place of worship was built in 1772. It cost ^600, and had sittings * John Mathison was from Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. Called to South Ronald- shay in July 1850, and to Largo in August, but declined both places. Ordained at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, on i8th June 1851. Resigned, and was admitted as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund in 1880, being worn out by the toil and anxiety connected with the building of a new church. Died, 5th February 1892, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 385 for 650 people, and, as was usual in such cases, the expense was largely met from borrowed money. There was no forced settlement in the parish at the time, so that the movement cannot be ascribed to local grievances. First Minister. WILLIAM CAMPBELL, M.A., a licentiate of the Church of Scotland, who is said to have been also parochial schoolmaster of Leuchars. Ordained at Dysart, 23rd October 1774. The Rev. Michael Boston of Falkirk, subsequently his brother-in-law, preached, and from a note annexed to the printed sermon we are able to give the above date. Mr Campbell's stipend seems to have been ^70, with .4 for sacramental expenses, and in 1786 .5 was added for house rent. The congregation had no manse till 1802, when one was built at a cost of over .150. In 1778 Mr Campbell came forth in defence of Relief Terms of Communion, which had been vigorously animadverted on in an anonymous pamphlet by the Rev. James Bennet, Antiburgher minister of Ceres. The reply was entitled, "Just View of the Principles of the Presbytery of Relief." Mr Campbell died, 8th March \ 792, and in the managers' books there is an entry of 2s. 6d. paid " to a man for inviting to the funeral." Mr Campbell and two of his co-presbyters were married to daughters of the Rev. Thomas Boston of Jedburgh. His mother-in-law died at Dysart in 1787, and his own widow, Margaret Boston, at Burntisland in 1830, aged seventy-three. She had sur- vived her husband thirty-eight years. Second Minister. WILLIAM BILLERWELL, who had been thirteen years Relief minister at Blairlogie. Inducted, 5th February 1794. In view of calling Mr Billerwell it was agreed at a meeting of the managers, seventeen being present, to give him ,100 of stipend, but off that he was to pay his own house rent, and " dispense the sacrament twice in the year." Two or three items of expenditure about this time may find a place here such as ^2, 145. lod. paid for ministers and horses at the induction ; carriages from Blairlogie, for men and horses, ^3, 135.; and a carriage to bring the minister's family, 2, 2s. Mr Billerwell died, 3oth November 1821, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Two years before his death he obtained a colleague. Third Minister. JAMES SPENCE, a licentiate of Edinburgh Presbytery. Ordained, 29th September 1819. On 3rd May 1827 the congregation applied to the Presbytery for advice in their embarrassed circumstances, and they were recommended to arrange for an assistant and successor to Mr Spence, but instead of this his resignation was accepted on 5th June, the congrega- tion having engaged to pay him ^40 for ten years. He died some time in September 1833, in the forty-eighth year of his age. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM ADAIR PETTIGREW, from Bridgeton, Glasgow (Greenhead). Ordained, I2th August 1828. Eight years after this Mr Pettigrew reported 425 communicants, an increase of 175 since the first year of his ministry. The stipend was ^100, with manse and garden, and with the exception of 20 members from Wemyss, 17 from Kirkcaldy, and a very few from Abbotshall, Markinch, and Kinglassie, the families re- sided in Dysart parish. At the Union of 1847 Mr Pettigrew opened the Relief Synod, and his sermon on that occasion appears in the little volume of " Union Memorials." In 1859 the people were engaged liquidating their debt of nearly ^600, aided by ^100 from the Board. Mr Pettigrew retired from active duty in 1862 with an annual allowance of .100 from the congre- gation. The junior colleague was to have ^100, which a continuance of the former supplement would raise so far, besides the manse, which Mr Pettigrew volunteered to surrender. Fifth Minister. JAMES R. HOUSTON, from Glasgow (Greenhead). Or- dained, I4th October 1862. The call was signed by 115 members and 34 II. 2B 386 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS adherents. The senior minister remained in Dysart for other two years, taking part occasionally in the work ; but he then removed to the house of his son-in-law at Leith, the Rev. James S. Mill, where he died on the last day of December 1868, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. His colleague and successor, Mr Houston, accepted a call to Carluke, 7th June 1870. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM GUTHRIE, M.A., from Dunblane. Called also to Middlesborough, and ordained at Dysart, 2ist February 1871. The present church, on a more prominent site, was built in 1867 at a cost of ^2600, with sittings for 650. The old building was then turned into a hand- loom factory. A new manse was built in 1876 at a cost of ,1120, of which the people were to raise ^870, and the Board allowed ,250. The member- ship at the close of 1899 was within a unit of 500, and the stipend ,280, with the manse. PITTENWEEM (RELIEF) ON 2Oth March 1776 Mr James Nairn, afterwards D.D., whose father and grandfather had been ministers of Anstruther, Easter, was ordained to the parish of Pittenweem in opposition to the wishes of the parishioners generally. This issued in an application to the Relief Presbytery for sermon, and in the erecting of a place of worship, with 500 sittings. An entry in the records of the Town Council, of date 8th August 1777, indicates the time the work was going on, and also the opposition encountered. It runs thus: "The Council being informed that there had been stones wrought for building a meeting-house in this town, without asking leave of the magistrates and council, they discharge any more stones to be wrought on the ground be- longing to this town, and order the officers to make intimation thereof to the oversmen of the said meeting." This building served for eighty years, but, according to the testimony of an outsider, it was "cold, damp, and un- suitable." First Minister. GEORGE HALIBURTON NICOLSON. In the absence of Presbytery minutes the date cannot be given, but the ordination took place in the latter part of 1777. Mr Nicolson appears to have been a man of superior gifts, but Pittenweem had the benefit of his services for not more than five years. Before coming there he had a call from Wamphray, and as it was first in order of time the impression that he did wrong in preferring Pittenweem, with its larger stipend, is said to have preyed upon his mind. Wamphray having fallen vacant again, he gave the people there to under- stand that he was willing now to repair the wrong he believed he had done them. They accepted the suggestion, and a call followed. He was loosed from Pittenweem prior to the Synod of May 1782. Second Minister. ALEXANDER HUNTER, a licentiate of the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh. Ordained some time in 1782. The Synod in May 1788 declared his connection with Pittenweem dissolved. He had been dealt with by Dysart Presbytery at a meeting on 6th November previous, and had appealed against elders and managers being received as witnesses against him. The Synod sustained the appeal, but found him guilty of prevarication, and confirmed the sentence of the Presbytery. After being rebuked he craved a testimonial of moral character, which was granted. He received licence anew from the Established Presbytery of Lauder on 7th October 1788. Having been presented to the parish of Heriot he was ordained as assistant and successor there, I2th April 1791. It does not seem, from his own account of Heriot in the Old Statistical History, that his work there was burdensome, the population being 300, half of whom were PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 387 Burgher Seceders, part of these going to Stow, about eight miles distant, and part to Fala, about six. Still, he did not find it all comfort even in Heriot. " The church," he said, " is an old and infirm building ; it is scarcely safe to perform public worship in it. It is neither dry above nor decently seated. It is, perhaps, the most bleak and miserable place of accommodation for divine worship in Scotland." The manse was little better, recent repairs having been superficial to the last degree. " Upon the least blast it draws water from every quarter, which overflows the rooms." As for the stipend, it was exactly 1000 merles (about ^56), including sacramental expenses. The glebe of about fourteen Scots acres, partly arable and partly fit for pasture, seems to have been the one redeeming feature in the situation. The transition from Pittenweem to Heriot was apparently not much to Mr Hunter's advantage. He died, 2oth January 1817. Third Minister. ALEXANDER SIMPSON, D.D., previously of Alnwick, to which place he had come after sojourning in London for a time. He now wished back to the Relief connection. The Synod in 1789 had the call from Pittenweem before them, but no adjustment of matters between him and them was arrived at. They wished him to acknowledge that he did wrong in leaving Duns without owning the Presbytery, or asking to have the pastoral relationship dissolved. He made answer that wrong- doing meant in his estimation a transgression of God's Law, and he knew of no Law of God which he had transgressed in that affair, and neither was he convinced that his conduct was inconsistent with Presbyterian govern- ment. Hearing this the Synod dismissed the case, leaving Dr Simpson outside the denomination. That he commenced work, none the less, at Pittenweem is more than likely, and at next Synod he gave in a paper containing an apology for leaving the congregation of Duns as he did, whereupon it was agreed to receive him back into the Relief body. The fact that he was son-in-law to Boston of Jedburgh, and that he had two brothers-in-law in Dysart Presbytery, may have inclined them to compass an accommodation with him. During what remained of his ministry he took an active part in Church affairs, specially in opposing what he con- sidered the dangerous errors of the Rev. James Smith, Dunfermline, against whom he published a vigorous pamphlet in 1792. He also acted as Presby- tery Clerk. Died, 6th January 1793, in the sixtieth year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. Had Dr Simpson possessed more stability, and been less self-willed, his talents might have been of much greater service both to the Relief cause and to the Church at large. Fourth Minister. DAVID WILSON, from Muckart. After completing his course of study at the Antiburgher Hall he joined the Smytonites, and became minister of a " Lifter" congregation in Perth. He appears to have been ordained there towards the close of 1789, as on i7th December of that year a female member of the North Church, Perth, was found fault with by the session for having attended the " Lifters " at the ordination of Mr Wilson and the Sabbath thereafter. But the cause made no headway, and Mr Wilson was received into connection with the Relief Synod in May 1793, and he was inducted into Pittenweem the following year. His stipend in 1797 was ,80, with 6 for house rent. Having resigned he was loosed from his charge, ist January 1811, and died at Pittenweem on 27th January 1813, aged fifty-two. One of his sons was ultimately known as the Right Reverend W T illiam Scott \Vilson, LL.D., Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway. He died at Ayr, I7th March 1889, in his eighty-third year. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM FYFE, from Kilmarnock (King Street). Or- dained, 3ist October 1811, the stipend to be ^95. Under Mr Fyfe there was a large increase in the collections, but on 6th July 1813 he accepted 3 88 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS a call to Bathgate (West), where there were better prospects. At this time there was a debt on the church of about ,200. Sixth Minister. JOSEPH PURDIE, who had previously been in Climpy, Wilsontown. After itinerating anew as a preacher for some months he was called first to Castlegarth, Newcastle, and then to Pittenweem, where he was inducted, igth July 1814. The stipend seems to have varied from ^80 to .110, and as collectors' districts we have Anstruther, Easter and Wester, and Cellardyke on the east, St Monans on the west, and Carnbee on the north. On nth October 1825 Mr Purdie tabled his resignation, on the ground of inadequate support. A committee of Presbytery met at Colins- burgh on the 24th to issue the case, and, no commissioner having appeared from Pittenweem, the demission was accepted. After that he retired to Crossford, Clydevale, where he died, 2ist February 1850, aged seventy-two. A daughter of his is the widow of the Rev. James Frame of Sydney Place Church, Glasgow. Seventh Minister. JAMES FINLAY, from Tollcross, Glasgow. Ordained, I2th June 1827. In January 1830 a case with remarkable features came before Pittenweem session. Two members from Anstruther father and son, apparently were complained of for frequently spending a considerable part of Sabbath evening drinking when they came through to Pittenweem, and that on the first Sabbath of the year they remained at least four hours in a public-house, when by the noise they made they committed an outrage on the sacred day. Called in, they said it had been use and wont with them to spend the evening of the first Sabbath of the year in that way, and the elder of the two declared that he had learnt about the doctrines of Christi- anity in the public-house as well as in the church, and if in Pittenweem next year he would do the very same. Indeed, rather than submit to the session's interference in this matter, he would leave the church. Some time after he appeared before the session complaining that he was kept back from the communion, but his language was such that the meeting was closed abruptly to get quit of his violence. Mr Finlay was loosed from his charge, 25th April 1837, and suspended sine die for immorality. He emigrated to America, where he was inducted into a church in the State of New York, having been restored to ministerial status before he left. Eighth Minister. JAMES R. KERR, a native of Camlachie. Passed through a theological course at Glasgow University in connection with the Church of Scotland. Joined the Relief congregation of Calton, and was received as a divinity student by the Synod in May 1836. After attending a session at the Relief Hall he obtained licence from Glasgow Presbytery. Having declined a call to Wall Knoll, Newcastle, he was ordained at Pittenweem, nth September 1838. On the following Sabbath he was introduced to his charge by his minister, the Rev. Alexander Harvey of Calton, a circumstance which led to the famous debate at Anstruther, three weeks afterwards, on the State Church question between Mr Harvey and Maitland Makgill, Esq. of Rankeillor. On 3rd January 1847 the old place of worship, which as stated above was cold, damp, and unsuitable, was displaced by another. It has 600 sittings, and was opened by the Rev. Daniel Gorrie of Kettle, "under very favourable circumstances." In 1858 the present manse was purchased with funds raised partly by sub- scription, partly by a bazaar, and partly by a grant from the Ferguson Bequest. The last time Mr Kerr appeared in the pulpit he was unable to finish his discourse. The loss of a son, who was drowned at sea, is believed to have told seriously on his health, and he died, i6th May 1865, in the fiftieth year of his age and twenty-seventh of his ministry. Ninth Minister. JAMES PITTENDRIGH, M.A., from Aberdeen (St PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 389 Nicholas' Church). Ordained, 3rd July 1866, the congregation promising ^145, with manse and garden. After a period of broken health, which necessitated his sojourn abroad for a year, Mr Pittendrigh resigned office, with all its duties and emoluments, and was enrolled on I2th December 1893 as minister-emeritus. He died, 27th June 1894, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry'. Tenth Minister.' DANIEL FlSHER, from Callander. Ordained, 2nd May 1894. The membership at the close of 1899 was I 9 2 i an d the stipend from the people ^160, with the manse. KIXGHORN (RELIEF AND BURGHER) THIS congregation began in 1778. On 27th May of that year the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow received a petition for sermon from the forming congregation of Kinghorn, but allowed it to lie on the table. The applica- tion was renewed at successive meetings, and at the last of these the Clerk was instructed to write them that "till the sacraments are over they cannot possibly afford them any supply," but they undertook to do everything in their power for them after the pressure was past. These are the earliest notices of Kinghorn congregation to be found in the records of the Relief Church. Why they applied to Glasgow rather than Edinburgh does not appear, but the reason they had for leaving the Established Church is pretty clearly given. The parish minister, Mr Webster, had made the place too hot for him, and he removed to London, leaving a preacher to act as his substitute. His demission was accepted on 24th November 1779. It is evident, however, from the date given above that the Relief con- gregation originated at least a twelvemonth before this. The church is also believed to have been built in 1779, with sittings for 550, but the cost is not known only a great part of the labour was gratuitous. First Minister. JOSEPH JOHNSTON, of whom we learn the following particulars from Scott's Fasti : He received licence from the Established Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1771, having been previously chaplain to the Charity Workhouse. Ordained as missionary to Zetland, where he re- mained for three years. He then joined the Relief, and was settled at Kinghorn prior to 24th February 1779. When, or in what circumstances, he resigned his charge cannot be discovered, but it is stated in the Old Statistical History a few years after that the seat rents and collections were not equal to his support and to pay the interest on borrowed money. He withdrew at least, and was received back into the Establishment by Edin- burgh Presbytery on 3oth April 1788. Having professed sorrow for his defection and waywardness "he was admonished to be more steady and uniform in his future conduct." He was admitted to Innerleithen parish, 1 6th March 1797, and died, 28th June 1808, in the thirty-eighth year of his ministry. Mr Johnston, as we have just seen, must have left Kinghorn not later than the beginning of 1788, and on I7th November of that year a paper signed by the Preses in name of elders, managers, and other members was laid before the Burgher Presbytery of Dunfermline to be taken under their inspection, which was at once agreed to. The change was of advantage in the way of increase, for they were by-and-by joined, as the Old Statistical History relates, by Burgher families in the town and neighbourhood who had been accustomed travelling to Kirkcaldy (Bethelfield) some three miles off. In their new connection they called Mr John Jamieson, whom the Synod appointed to Scone. The stipend promised was ^55, with a dwelling- house, and ^5 for sacramental expenses. 39 o HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Second Minister. GEORGE BLACK, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Or- dained, nth April 1792. Mr Black was called in 1801 to Miles Lane, London, but the Synod continued him in Kinghorn. He died, 3rd October 1822, in the fifty-second year of his age and thirty-first of his ministry. His character was thus summed up at the time : " Modest and unobtrusive in his manner, and a zealous minister of the New Testament." After his death the congregation called Mr Robert Brown, whom the Synod appointed to Cumnock. Kinghorn congregation showed well in regard to numbers on this occasion, the call being signed by 298 members and 69 adherents. Third Minister. JAMES HARDIE, from Dalkeith (East). Called also to Burghead, and ordained at Kinghorn, I5th July 1824. In 1837 the membership amounted to 258, of whom about one-sixth were from other parishes, most of them being old Burgher families from Burntisland, nearly three miles off. The stipend was ^100, with house and garden. There was a debt of .330, resting chiefly on the manse, which had been built about the end of the century. Two years after this the congregation, in extremity, sold their whole property for the amount of the debt, with the privilege of redeem- ing within five years. In 1841 the Liquidation Board came to the rescue, with the promise of ^100 if the people raised ,130. In 1843 the conditions were met, so that church and manse were their own again, with only a debt of ^100 remaining. But after the Disruption the congregation underwent still more serious decline. Fourth Minister. DANIEL M'KENZIE, from Glasgow (Cathedral Street). Ordained as colleague to Mr Hardie, 8th April 1862. Four years after- wards a new church was opened, with 320 sittings, and built at a cost of ^1138. On 3rd December 1867 Mr M'Kenzie's resignation was accepted, as he had decided on proceeding to Australia. Became minister first of St George's, Collingwood, Melbourne, and on gth April 1888 was admitted to Geelong, where he still remains. After his removal Kinghorn congrega- tion called Mr T. Cockburn, who preferred Hawick (now Orrock Place). Fifth Minister. JAMES JENKINS, from St Ninians, a nephew of the Rev. James Jenkins of Castle-Douglas. Ordained, 4th May 1869, and died, nth January 1874, in the thirty-first year of his age and fifth of his ministry. Sixth Minister. JOHN WILSON THOMSON, from Glasgow (Sydney Place). Ordained, i5th September 1874. The stipend was ,70, with the manse, and the supplement was ,70. Mr Hardie died, 22nd February 1879, in the eighty-fourth year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry. Till within a few weeks of his death Mr Hardie was able to act as chaplain to the Combination Workhouse at Kinghorn. The membership of the con- gregation has stood between no and 120 for a number of years, and the stipend from the people is ^88, with the manse. INNERLEVEN AND METHIL (ANTIBURGHER) ON i6th May 1738 several Praying Societies in and about Leven acceded to the Associate Presbytery, and several adherences are recorded within the next few years. They attended at Abbotshall, but on I5th June 1743 they were transferred at their own request to Ceres, where Mr Campbell had been recently ordained. In 1768 this branch of the congregation petitioned the session to grant them Sabbath services occasionally during the winter season, "in regard that both their aged and young are much detained from ordinances on account of their great distance from the ordinary place of public worship," a distance of not less than nine or ten miles. The session would consent to no such dismembering of their PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 391 minister's labours, holding, as they did, that the granting of the request would bring in similar applications from other corners, where there were members worse situated than even the petitioners. The Presbytery having upset this decision the session brought the case before the Syjiod, who recommended Mr Bennet, the minister, to give his people about Leven four Sabbaths in the year. Not satisfied with this meagre compromise 43 members in that district petitioned the session in 1771 to concur with them in asking to be formed into a distinct congregation. The reply was that a severance was uncalled for, but they left the Presbytery to take their own course and be responsible for the consequences. In the absence of authoritative records it is impossible to tell what form the decision took, but it is likely that Innerleven (or Dubbieside) began now to receive occasional supply apart from Ceres. Their own congrega- tional minutes show that they had a session in 1781, and were engaged seating their church, the outlay being slight. These entries carry both the origin of the congregation and the erection of the church much further back than the dates usually given. For some years at this time they were generally supplied on Sabbath by Mr James Smart, a probationer from Pathhead, who was long employed by the Antiburgher Synod in conducting the Philosophical Class, but died without obtaining a pastoral charge. The weekly expenditure was met by church-door collections and small sums handed in from Leven and Dubbieside. In 1793 disjunctions were applied for by 15 of the Ceres members, who wished to join Dubbieside, and with this increase the new congregation three years afterwards set about obtain- ing a fixed ministry. First Minister. JOHN M'DONALD, from Ceres, who had been ordained at Moira, in Ireland, 9th July 1789, but at the Synod in April 1796 it was reported that he had been loosed from his charge, and was back to Scotland in full status. He was admitted to Dubbieside on 8th November following. The members had met in a private house, and after subscribing among themselves they saw their way to promise ^50 of stipend. But though the putting in of a "loft" next year looked well they continued few in number, and in 1810 Mr M'Donald informed them that he had got an invitation to go to America, and the question came up : What were they to do ? All he wanted, he said, was an honest through-bearing. The resolu- tion come to was to pay punctually the sum promised, and more if they were able. But though the people contributed heartily the stipend kept beneath the minimum, and the Presbytery apologised to the Synod for them by telling that Dubbieside was a very weak congregation. In May 1817 Mr M'Donald's resignation was reported, and on gth September he was inducted to Thurso. Second Minister. WILLIAM HARPER, from Kilmaurs. Ordained, 28th April 1819. During Mr Harper's lengthened ministry the congregation must have grown considerably, since in 1837 the stipend was over ^84. The communicants were returned at 282, but all of the poor and working classes. Of the families under Mr Harper's care, more than a fourth came from Scoonie parish, and supplies from that side were likely to be lessened now that a Relief congregation was formed in Leven. The debt at this time was slight, but it had increased to ,200 in 1844, with a fast declining membership. The burden was cleared off shortly after, the Debt Liquidating Board giving one-half. Mr Harper died, loth October 1853, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. During this vacancy the Presbytery wished Dubbieside suppressed, Leven being so near, but attempts in that direction were firmly resisted, Antiburgher congregations generally possessing great tenacity of life. Being 392 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS determined to retain their corporate existence the people were given to understand that they were not to look to the central fund for assistance. Third Minister. ANDREW NICOL, from Kinross (West). Ordained, 1 3th Febtuary 1855. Mr Nicol had reached the age of sixty-seven, a case that never had its parallel in the United Presbyterian Church, or in any branch of which it is composed. He received licence on 2nd March 1819, so that he had been a licentiate thirty-six years. In addition to this, he had long laboured under the infirmity of almost total blindness. On account of growing frailty he was loosed from his charge, 24th September 1861. He died at Kinross, I4th July 1871, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, but of that long period less than seven years had been spent in a ministerial charge. During the Voluntary Controversy Mr Nicol figured on the platform as a debater, his principal opponent being Mr Charles Leckie, a Reformed Presbyterian who championed the cause of Establishments, and is credited by Peter Landreth with possessing " great fluency of disorderly speech." The report of a four nights' debate in Dundee between them was published, and is still to be met with. Mr Nicol was also the author of a pamphlet, entitled " National Churches Allied to Despotism," etc. During this vacancy the congregation called Mr Robert Hall, afterwards of Old Meldrum ; Mr George Philp, afterwards of Saltcoats ; the Rev. John James, afterwards of Wolverhampton * ; and Mr Charles G. Squair, now of New Deer, but all declined. Fourth Minister. ROBERT FISHER, from Perth (North), a brother of the Rev. William Fisher, New Leeds. Ordained, igth January 1864. Like his predecessor, though not nearly to the same extent, Mr Fisher was consider- ably beyond the average age, being in his forty-fifth year. In 1869 a manse was built at a cost of ^550, of which one half came from the Manse Fund, and the other half was raised mainly through the exertions of the minister. The present church, with sittings for 300, was opened in July 1878. The cost amounted to ,1300 or ^1400, but of this sum only ^400 remained un- paid when Mr Fisher withdrew. In October 1880 the circumstances of the congregation were found to be very discouraging owing to the stoppage of public works near by, and other things. The membership had come down within ten years from 80 to 49, and reviving was not to be looked for unless under new conditions. At this point Mr Fisher resigned, and was loosed from Dubbieside, ist December 1880, in the seventeenth year of his ministry. He was thereupon admitted an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, and died at Perth, 24th December 1890, in the seventy-second year of his age. Fifth Minister. JAMES W. DRENNAN, M.A., originally from Tarbolton * John James, from London Road, Glasgow, after attending our Divinity Hall four sessions, went to Canada. lie was ordained at Gait, in the Presbytery of Wellington, 2Qth September 1857. After being there three years he returned to Scot- land for change of climate, and had his name placed on the probationer list in 1861. Having declined Dubbieside he was located at Wolverhampton for 1863, but when the people there were taking steps to have him for their minister he left, having re- ceived a call to Brantford, Canada. Before he proceeded thither a movement was begun to form a congregation in Glasgow, on the south side of Eglinton Toll, with the view to Mr James, but owing to discouragements from the Presbytery the scheme was allowed to drop. He was thereafter settled in Paris, Canada West, from which he was invited back to Wolverhampton, where he was inducted, 25th May 1869. Resigned, nth April 1871, and returned to America. He next held a charge at Albany, New York, but was admitted to Knox Church, Hamilton, on Iith June 1877. In 1 899 he was residing at Paris, Canada, as a retired minister, with the" degree of D.D. Dr James is a brother of the Rev. G. F. James of Bristo Church, Edinburgh. PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 393 congregation, but the family removed to Ireland when he was a boy. During his student course he was connected with Kent Road, Glasgow. Having been located in Dubbieside for over a year, during which there was marked improvement in various ways, he was ordained, 25th May 1882. The name of the congregation was now changed to Innerleven, and in 1893 it became *' Innerleven and Methil," the latter place, which is a short distance to the west, having grown from a population of 750 in 1881 to more than double that number in 1891. Before the end of Mr Drennan's second year the membership reached over a hundred, and in 1888 he intimated to the Pres- bytery that the property was entirely free of debt. At the close of 1899 there were 105 names on the communion roll, and the stipend of ,73, los. from the people was made up by Supplement and Surplus to ,169, ios., besides the manse. BUCKHAVEN (BURGHER) ON nth June 1792 a number of people in Buckhaven applied to the Burgher Presbytery of Dunfermline for sermon. The vacancy in Kennoway, the church to which most of them belonged, was in course of being rilled up, and the call had not been harmonious. Mr Archibald Harper, afterwards of Bo'ness, was officiating within the bounds at the time, and this confirms the statement that he was the choice of the minority in opposition to Mr Alex- ander Morison, the successful candidate. Thus Buckhaven became the seat of a Secession congregation, an arrangement greatly needed in the interests of that large fishing village, Kennoway being three and a half miles distant, and no place of worship nearer than two miles. The application was granted, and either of the two colleagues at Dunfermline, Mr Husband or Mr M'Farlane, was to open the station on Sabbath first.- On 2ist July 1 794 a congregation was formed, with a membership of 90. From some old congregational records it appears that the church, with 600 sittings, was in course of erection at this time. First Minister. DAVID TELFER (his own spelling is Telford), from Stirling (now Erskine Church). The call was signed by 122 members, and the people agreed to give ^70 of stipend, with 4 for a house, and 6 for sacramental expenses. The collections, meanwhile, figure well, and the funds seem to have been ample enough to meet all obligations. After Mr Telfer's trials were delivered notice came of a competing call from Ports- burgh, Edinburgh. In some old papers which belonged to John Birrell, Michael Bruce's friend, there is reference to this call as involving an unwel- come contingency, Buckhaven being in the writer's opinion the more desir- able place. That was probably Mr Telfer's own view, and this may have contributed to the Synod's decision. He was ordained at Buckhaven, i2th July 1796. The congregation is said to have increased largely under his ministry, a fact which scarcely comes out in the collection lists or in the punctuality with which his stipend was paid. He died, 3rd May 1824, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry. In the Journal of Dr Hay, Kinross, there is the following testimony to Mr Telfer's worth : *' He was a man of unfeigned piety, great modesty, obliging disposition, and unpretending condescension. If not conspicuous for brilliant parts he possessed what was better adapted for the sphere in which Providence had placed him great affection of heart, amiability of temper, simplicity of manners, and no small measure of good sense." Dr M'Kelvie in a footnote adds : " It is doubtful if any minister of his denomination ever exercised a greater influence over his flock than he did." I know it used to be remarked that Mr Telfer was prophet, priest, and king in Buckhaven. 394 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS A considerable time after Mr Tetter's death the congregation called Mi- Peter M'Dowall, but he intimated his preference for Alloa, and the Synod decided accordingly. Second Minister. ROBERT POLLOK, a native of Neilston parish, and brought up in the Established Church. After joining the Secession he was connected with Mauchline congregation. Ordained, 7th November 1826. Eleven years after this the stipend was ,100, with house and garden, and the membership was over 500. On i6th October 1845 Mr Pollok abruptly handed in his resignation to the Presbytery, having as Moderator called a pro re nata meeting for that purpose. One reason he assigned for taking this step was " that he cannot obtain a sufficient number of elders, and those whom he has cannot discharge the duties of the office." This was breaking down the bridge behind him and making continuance in Buckhaven im- possible. When the Presbytery met with Mr Pollok and the congregation to accommodate matters they found this particular charge to be baseless. On nth November Mr Pollok, whose difficulties were not removed because he had determined othenvise, pressed the acceptance of his demission, and the commissioners signified their acquiescence. On being loosed from his charge he craved a Presbyterial certificate, which was granted. There was a general impression that a change of denominational connection was con- templated, the correctness of which was soon verified. Mr Pollok had figured as a pronounced Voluntary, and in his answers to the Commissioners on Religious Instruction he told that his church was used only for public worship and occasional lectures against Establishments. However, at the Assembly in 1846 his petition to be admitted into the State Church was granted, though Principal Lee moved its rejection. Possessing popular gifts he was inducted soon after to Kingston quoad sacra Church, Glasgow. He died, 2 ist March 1879, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. His son, Dr Allan Pollok, holds an important place in the Presbyterian Church of Canada, and a daughter of his was married to Dr Snodgrass, also of Canada, but now parish minister in Canonbie, Dum- friesshire. Third Minister. WILLIAM COWAN, from Selkirk. Prior to Buckhaven he received calls to Muirton, Pitrodie, Mainsriddell, West Linton, and Dum- fries (Buccleuch Street). Buckhaven came last, and secured his acceptance. The call was signed by 353 members and 83 adherents, and the ordination took place, 6th July 1846. On 29th May 1855 Mr Cowan demitted his charge, with the view of undertaking mission work in connection with Regent Place, Glasgow, and building up a mission congregation. This was the beginning of what is now Albert Street Church. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER C. RUTHERFORD, whose clerical ante- cedents are given under Erskine Church, Falkirk. After twelve years' activity as an Evangelical Unionist he was restored to his former connection by the Synod in 1855, and, his name being placed on the probationer list, he obtained calls within a few months, and almost simultaneously, to Buckhaven and St Andrews. In the latter case, though the call was technically unani- mous, there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction at work, and Mr Rutherford happily made choice of Buckhaven. Admitted, I3th November 1855, and loosed, 27th March 1860, on accepting a call to North Richmond Street, Edinburgh. Fifth Minister. ROBERT ALEXANDER, from Fenwick. Ordained, 25th March 1862. On Monday, I2th April 1869, the present church, seated for 860, and built at a cost of over ^2600, was opened by Professor Eadie, the collections that day and on the following Sabbath amounting to upwards of 300. On 1 2th August 1873 Mr Alexander accepted a call to Queen Anne PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 395 Street, Dunfermline. The new manse was in course of erection when Mr Alexander left. It cost about ,1050, exclusive of the sum received for the old manse, all, except ,200 from the Manse Board, being raised by the people. Sixth Minister. JOHN G. TRAIN, from John Street, Glasgow. Called also to Alloa to be colleague to Mr M'Dowall. Ordained at Buckhaven, 2nd June 1874. In 1878 Mr Train was called to Port-Glasgow (Clune Park) ; in 1881 to Stoke Newington, London; in 1882 to Edinburgh (St Mary's Free Church) ; in 1883 to Greenock (Sir Michael Street) ; in 1884 to Edin- burgh (Eyre Place); in 1886 to Glasgow (Anderston) ; and finally to Hull (Prospect Street). This last-named call he accepted, and the much-tried bond between him and Buckhaven was dissolved, 2nd March 1886. After remaining there for nearly seven years Mr Train was inducted to Upper Norwood, London, his present charge, I5th December 1892. Seventh Minister. WILLIAM SHAW STEWART, from the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. On 2nd May 1887 the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy at a meeting in Edinburgh during the Synod week received an application from Mr Stewart to be admitted to the status of a United Presbyterian proba- tioner, and a memorial from Buckhaven congregation to the same effect. It happened that a group of Buckhaven fishermen, when over one Sabbath on the Ulster coast, heard Mr Stewart preach, and on -their representation he was brought to supply the vacant pulpit for a day, and here we have the outcome. Being satisfied with his credentials the Presbytery, with the sanction of the Synod, received Mr Stewart in due form, and his name was placed on the roll of probationers. He supplied the first two Sabbaths of the quarter at Buckhaven, and a moderation was forthwith applied for, the stipend promised being ,250, with the manse. Then came the call, signed by 45 1 members. The ordination followed, 27th September 1887. On gth December 1890 Mr Stewart accepted a call to be colleague to Dr Wallace in East Campbell Street, Glasgow. Eighth Minister. WILLIAM DUNLOP, from Glengarnock. Ordained, 28th April 1891. The membership at the close of 1899 was 558, and the stipend was as before ^250, and the manse. The old church still stands, but it has been turned into dwelling-houses. BUCKHAVEN, MUIREDGE (EXTENSION CHURCH) IN June 1882 the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, when a report on evangelistic work was given in, adopted a suggestion about Church Extension at Buck- haven, and agreed to ask the Home Mission Board to aid in building a hall or iron church, with that design. In August a grant of ^300 was intimated, and a loan of ,400, so that the erection was to be proceeded with as soon as practicable. There was delay, however ; but on Thursday, 2nd July 1885, the church was opened, and the special services on that day and the two following Sabbaths brought collections amounting to ^125. Prior to this, Mr Train, who was the mainspring of the movement, had raised about ,800 for behoof of the new cause. On ist December of that year a petition from 77 members and 88 ordinary hearers to be formed into a congregation was granted, and Mr Train appointed to meet with the petitioners on the i6th, and proceed according to the Rules of the Church. In April next year a moderation was applied for under protest, and the Presbytery in the circumstances enforced delay. First Minister. JOHN BiSSETT, from Lathones. Ordained, 27th July 1886, the stipend promised being ^80. Accepted a call to Lochee Road, 396 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Dundee, on I3th February 1894. The membership when Mr Bissett left was 1 80. Second Minister. DAVID R. HUME, M.A., from St John's Wood, London, but a licentiate of the U.P. Church. Ordained, 5th July 1894. Muiredge is overshadowed by the parent church, and it may be doubted whether there was any special call for a second United Presbyterian con- gregation at Buckhaven. The membership at the close of 1899 was about 160, and the stipend from the people ,95, without a manse. CRAIL (BURGHER) ON 3rd March 1795 a petition for sermon from 55 persons in Crail and the neighbourhood was presented to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth, and partial supply granted, and on i6th March of the following year 67 persons were at their own request erected into a congregation. At the Synod in April 1797 they were to receive ^20 to aid them with their place of worship, if the Presbytery approved, and the church, with 300 sittings, must have been built about that time. The Secession got an early hold of most parishes in the east of Fife, but Crail is one of the few whose names nowhere occur in the early records of Ceres congregation. In Kingsbarns, again, from which St Andrews used to draw largely, the Seceders, according to the Old Statistical History, had dwindled down towards the end of the century to u, and in Denino to the same number. We may, therefore, look on Crail as almost entirely a new formation. In July 1798 a moderation was applied for, with the promise of ^65, and communion expenses paid. The call came out for Mr John Stewart, but the Presbytery preferred Pitcairn. Similarly, a year later, they appointed Mr Lawrence Glass to Aberdeen. This latter call was signed by 90 members, from which we can estimate the strength of the young cause at Crail. First Minister. WILLIAM FRASER, son of the Rev. John Fraser of Auchtermuchty. Ordained, I7th August 1803. At the Synod in May 1810 translating calls to Mr Fraser came up, one from West Linton and another from Alloa (West), when transportation was agreed to first, and then Alloa was fixed on as the place. Thus Crail became vacant, and in that state it continued eleven years. Though they had been favoured in their first minister the gathering up, it is to be feared, was slight, and during the interval which followed ground was sure to be lost. After a pause of seven years the congregation called Mr George Brown, but first he had difficulties, and then he declined. The Presbytery had previously decided that, if the preacher were unwilling to be settled on so small a stipend, they would use no constraint, and the call was accordingly set aside. Mr Brown was from Aberdeen (St Nicholas'). He was ordained at Ramsbottom or Holcombe, in Lancashire, on 27th August 1818, a year after declining Crail. Owing to unpleasant circumstances, which he himself has fully described, he was loosed from that trying position in May 1829. He then opened an Academy in Liverpool, where he remained till 1844, an d on 1 6th June of that year he was inducted to the pastoral charge of Brampton English Presbyterian Church. About this time he received the degree of .L.D. from Marischal College, Aberdeen. He resigned, 7th February 1851. During the remaining part of his life he was largely occupied draw- ing up in alphabetical order a list of all who had been enrolled as Secession students, numbering 2098 in all, with brief notes of their subsequent history. The merits of this work are remarked on in the Preface to our former PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 397 volume. The large, stoutly-bound manuscript volume is preserved in the archives of the United Presbyterian Church. Dr Brown died at Liverpool, 1 5th March 1869, in the eightieth year of his age. Second Minister. RALPH DRUMMOND, from Stirling (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 8th August 1821. The stipend promised was only ,70, including everything, and the call was signed by not more than 42 members and 5 adherents. On 2nd October 1838 Mr Drummond resigned on account of inadequate support, and the demission was accepted without any delay. The people regretted his leaving, but could not press him to remain, and the Presbytery testified that they had honourably fulfilled their engagements. He emigrated to South Australia, and became minister at Adelaide. On I5th July 1855 he retired on an annuity of ^100, and was succeeded by the Rev. Peter Mercer. He died, 26th April 1872, in the eightieth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. Third Minister. JAMES LUMSDEN, from Freuchie. Called first on 6th November 1839, but owing to sinister influences from St Andrews the call was withdrawn. Discovering, however, that the communications which had reached them were prompted by favour for another candidate, they renewed their call, which was accepted, and the ordination took place, i8th August 1840. The stipend was still ^70, but there was now a manse and garden in addition. Mr Lumsden preached as usual on the last Sabbath of January, took ill on Thursday, and died on the following Monday, 8th February 1841, in the thirty-second year of his age and sixth month of his ministry. During this vacancy the congregation called the Rev. Robert Paterson, formerly of Greenloaning and Sunderland, but he waited on, and afterwards accepted Midmar. They next made choice of a very gifted preacher, Mr John Riddell, but he was not prepared to settle down in a fixed charge as yet, and not till after three years was he ordained at Moffat. Fourth Minister. JOHN OGILVIE, from Keith. Ordained, 25th April 1843. The call was signed by 80 members, which was still beneath their original level. After going on for ten years he had to demit his charge owing to distressing family circumstances, and on the same day he applied for admission to the Established Church. This was on 2gth March 1853. Having acted for some time as assistant minister at Gamrie, he sailed with his family for Canada, but died of fever off Cape Breton on 23rd September 1855, in the fiftieth year of his age and thirteenth of his ministry. Before becoming a licentiate he was mathematical master in Banff Academy, and that was the place where he got his wife. Mr Ogilvie was a cousin of the Rev. Dr Ogilvie of Falkirk. Fifth Minister. ALEXANDER WALKER, a brother of the Rev. Robert T. Walker of Comrie, Dunfermline, and Ballarat. Mr Walker had been a preacher in connection with the Congregational Union, but was received by the Relief Synod in May 1847. Having previously declined a call to Keith he was ordained as colleague to the Rev. D. C. Browning, Blackett Street, Newcastle, 28th June 1848. A rupture having occurred in that congregation Mr Walker with his adherents withdrew, and formed what is now St George's Church, but he resigned on gth September 1851, and returned to the probationer list. During this period he declined calls to Lumsden, Burghead, and Oban, but accepted Crail, where he was inducted, 25th April 1854. The present church, with 250 sittings, was built in 1858, at a cost of under ^600. Mr Walker was loosed from his charge, i6th October 1877. The congregation would have given him temporary rest, but a medical certificate forbade all regular ministerial work. After residing in Edinburgh for some time he proceeded to South Africa, where he assisted at 39 8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, for six months, and then resided there till his death on 2gth January 1884, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Sixth Minister. JOHN C. JACKSON, from Elgin Street, Glasgow, where he had laboured for nine years, but now removed to a quieter sphere. In- ducted, I gth March 1878. Was invited back to Elgin Street in 1881, but declined. Retired from his charge, loth December 1889, preferring not to retain the status of senior minister nor his seat in the Presbytery. Mr Jackson at the time of the Union resided in Edinburgh. Seventh Minister. WILLIAM YOUNG, from Largs. Ordained, 24th June 1890. The membership at the close of 1899 was above 100, and the stipend from the people ,108, with the manse. ANSTRUTHER (BURGHER) ON i gth August 1817, when the Burgher Presbytery of Perth met at Auchtermuchty for the ordination of Mr Baird, a petition from Anstruther for sermon was renewed, coupled with the request that some of their mem- bers would give them in their infant state a day's preaching gratuitously. On loth March 1818 parties designating themselves "Managers of the Associate Society of Anstruther" craved supply, and expressed the wish to be formed into a congregation. In reply it was agreed to hold a meeting in that place on the last of the month, when Mr Dick of Kilconquhar gave an outline of Secession principles, and the three ministers present conversed separately with 14 applicants for admission to Church fellowship, who were forthwith erected into a congregation, and on 4th August three elders were ordained. The Synod in September 1820 granted Anstruther 20 to aid them in erecting a place of worship, and in February 1821 it was announced in one of the denominational magazines that the church was built and taken possession of. This new formation at Anstruther absorbed a weak congregation at St Monans, four miles to the west, which, though long in existence, had never risen much above the rank of a preaching station. So early as May 1751 the Praying Societies in and about Anstruther and St Monans craved Ceres session to arrange for occasional Sabbath services within their bounds. Then in the winter of 1752 some people in and about St Monans, "a remote corner of Ceres community," petitioned the Antiburgher Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline for a day of fasting and also supply of sermon. This was backed by a paper from a considerable number of persons not in accession, who wished preaching " in order to their instruction and information about the Testimony of the day." The joint petition had opposition from Ceres, though with no good grace, as that corner was distant a dozen or fifteen miles from the ordinary place of worship. The Presbytery delayed the matter from time to time, but in May 1753 it carried by the Moderator's casting-vote to grant supply at St Monans as they could afford it. Against this decision the elder from Ceres protested, and the question was put : Sist procedure or Not ? The numbers again were equal, but the Moderator refused to give his casting-vote the second time, and there the case rested. But in the following week a fast was observed at St Monans, and Mr Matthew Moncrieff preached there the Sabbath after. That was the be- ginning of supply at St Monans, and it was kept up at intervals for two generations. In 1768 the sessions of Abernethy and Ceres were applied to for aid in defraying the expense of purchasing a house for public worship, and, to the credit of Ceres especially, this was agreed to. In 1774 the people sought a grant from the Synod for the defraying of charges connected with PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 399 the meeting-house they had built, and for fifty years St Monans ranked in the list of Antiburgher vacancies without ever attempting to obtain a fixed ministry. In the Old Statistical History towards the end of the century the parish minister expressed his feelings with regard to the different sects of Seceders within his territories Relievers, Burghers, and Antiburghers. They had lately increased, he said, and owing to this the weekly collections at his church door for relief of the poor had greatly diminished. Forgetting the claims of the Ninth Commandment, he added : " They are always ready to break the public peace, a flagrant instance of which they lately gave in this corner by forming societies, which consisted, if not wholly but mostly, of persons of these sects, for circulating pamphlets and disseminating disaffection to King and Government by their meetings and private conversations." Of the three sections of Seceders mentioned, the Relievers had their place of worship at Pittenweem, the Burghers at Kilconquhar, and the Antiburghers, whom he placed last, in St Monans itself, but after the Union of 1820 they were to meet in Anstruther. Returning now to this new Secession centre we find that in 1822 they called Mr David Allison, whom the Synod appointed to Stewartfield, and next year Mr Joseph Hay, who was appointed in like manner to Arbroath. The signatures on both occasions showed between 40 and 50 members, and nearly as many adherents. In 1824 they called Mr Alexander Shaw, a name on which we shall linger for a little, but he was appointed to Sunderland. Mr Shaw's sadly interesting story is outlined by George Gilfillan in his "History of a Man." He describes him under the letters S. A. as "a man of very considerable talent, with a florid face, wild eye, beautiful style of language, as the simple villagers said of his sermons, much humour and good humour too in private, but reckless, void of caution and principle, and who ultimately died insane and a suicide." The Sunderland appointment did not hold, as reports affecting his character got into circulation. He was afterwards called to Newcastle, where he preached for a time without recognition, but at last, after being admonished at the Synod's bar, he was ordained minister of Carliol Street (now Barras Bridge) in 1830, and was " for a season very popular there, though much persecuted withal." The tragic end came within three years, and Dr George Brown gives North Middleton manse as the place. First Minister. JOHN THOM, from Tarbolton. Ordained, 2oth December 1825. The stipend was to be ^75, including everything. On 22nd June 1847 Mr Thorn resigned his charge on account of ill-health, and urged on the Presbytery its immediate acceptance. Commissioners from the congregation acquiesced, and gave a satisfactory account as to the meeting of pecuniar)' claims, and the Presbytery, sympathising with Mr Thorn in his affliction, dissolved the connection. He then removed to Edinburgh, had his name for many years on the list of occasional supply, and died, I3th February 1864, in the seventy-sixth year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. Second Minister. WILLIAM MEIKLE, from Ayr (now Darlington Place). The stipend was to be ^100, with ,3 for sacramental expenses, an arrange- ment with which the Presbytery was highly satisfied. The sum was large, considering that the call was signed by only 5 1 members. Mr Meikle after some hesitation accepted, and was ordained, 27th September 1848. On 29th November 1853 he intimated to the Presbytery that he had accepted an invitation to become minister of a Scottish congregation in Mobile, Alabama, and was to leave this country in a few days. He also mentioned that in his new sphere of labour he would require to exercise prudence, he 400 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS was told, in stating his mind on the subject of slavery, and the Presbytery in parting with him expressed the confident hope that he would continue to maintain the Church's testimony against the sin of man holding property in man. He ultimately removed to Oakville, Ontario, and was residing in 1899 at Toronto as a retired minister. On 29th February 1852 the present church at Anstruther was built, with sittings for nearly 400, to which vestry and classroom were added in 1870, the total cost being ^860. Third Minister. GABRIEL SMITH, from Craigs, Old Kilpatrick. Ordained, 2Oth December 1854. The call was signed by 85 members, which implies increase under Mr Meikle, but the stipend had to be reduced to ^85, which supplement raised to ^110. Seven years afterwards a manse was built, largely through the activity of the minister, there being no Manse Scheme as yet to smooth the way. In 1866 there were 149' names on the communion roll, and the stipend was ^100, with ^20 of supplement, and a manse, and in other ten years, though the increase in numbers was slight, the Augmentation Scheme raised the minister's income to ,197, ios., the congregation contributing ,112, ios. On I4th June 1898 Mr Smith was enrolled minister-emeritus, resigning all claim to a retiring allowance. He then removed to Stirling, where he has since resided. Fourth Minister. ANDREW M'LACHLAN, M.A., from Rothesay. Ordained, I4th December 1898. The membership a year later was 138, and the stipend from the people i 10. There is also a strong Free Church congregation in the town. LEVEN (RELIEF) IN the Old Statistical History the " Separatists " in Scoonie, the parish name for Leven, are numbered towards the end of last century at 150, nearly the half of these being Burghers, who would attend at Kennoway or Buckhaven, between two and three miles off; 35 Antiburghers, who would cross over to Dubbieside that is, Innerleven ; and 34 Relievers, who would walk to Largo, three and a half miles distant. Not till nearly forty years later had any of these sections a place of worship in this parish, but on 8th March 1831 a petition for sermon was presented to the Relief Presbytery of Dysart from more than 200 inhabitants of Leven and its neighbourhood. In presenting this paper they pleaded want of church accommodation, and stated that they had a large and convenient place of meeting secured. Messrs Gorrie of Kettle and Pettigrew of Dysart had broken ground in Leven some months before, and there being every prospect of success the applicants were at once recognised as a forming congregation. On ist September 1832 they exchanged the hall in which they had hitherto worshipped for a church of their own, with sittings for 650, and in the following February 230 persons sat down at the communion table. The building cost ,542, of which .358 was paid with borrowed money. First Minister. JAMES VALLANCE, from Paisley (Canal Street). At the moderation 108 voted for Mr Vallance and 82 for Mr Pettigrew of Dysart. The minority were not in the mood for acquiescing, and in a few days demands came in from five different individuals to have bills paid up, or to be relieved from money obligations. The call carried only 74 sig- natures, and over against these there were upwards of 100 members craving the Presbytery to withhold their concurrence. But in the Relief there was an undue tendency to uphold the action of majorities, however slight, and the call was both concurred in and accepted. A number of prominent names now disappear from the records, and the congregation as yet had no strength to PRESBYTERY OF KIRKCALDY 401 spare. But the prevailing party declared they wolild have the minister they voted for, and the ordination took place, igth February 1834. The stipend was to be ^95 in all, with the promise of other 6 for every 50 of increase in the membership. This contingent element wrought badly, and ought never to have been introduced. The enumeration was to begin at 250, and before the end of the year the minister claimed a rise of ,6, but instead of granting it the managers required to have the communion roll examined. In 1837 there was a like demand made, the session certifying that the communion roll had come up to 366, but now the managers insisted on having the genuineness of the names tested, and it does not appear that the stipend ever rose above ;ioi. In 1841 all ground of dispute on this point must have been removed, as the numbers were down to 202. The Relief cause in Leven was suffering for the self-willed spirit displayed eight years before. The funds going from bad to worse, Mr Vallance required to grant a discharge for all arrears, and agreed to accept whatever money might be over after other payments were made. In this state matters continued till 22nd April 1845, when a meeting of Presbytery was summoned at his request to receive the demission of his charge. After hearing parties they ad- journed to meet next day at Leven to endeavour an adjustment, but as an accommodation was desired on neither side, the resignation was accepted. It soon appeared that Mr Vallance had good reason for hurrying on the process, as the Presbytery were able to report to the Synod within three weeks that he had been received into the Established Church. Before long he was presented to the parish of Tinwald, Dumfriesshire, where he died, 6th February 1889, in the eighty-first year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry. Second Minister. JOHN MITCHELL, from St Ninians. Called a little before to Annan, and ordained at Leven, 8th September 1846. At the pre- liminary vote 36 declared for Mr Mitchell and 27 for Mr Gunion, ultimately Dr Gunion of Greenock. Even at this stage the people were much out of tune, though the debt had been considerably reduced a little before by a grant of ,75 from the Liquidation Board. The managers even intimated that, if aid were not given them from Central Funds, they had resolved to resign, and leave the affairs of the church in the hands of the Presbytery. The Synod agreed to allow them ^30 for the first year, ^25 for the second, and ^20 for the third, provided the whole stipend were fixed at not less than ^100, but pressure was needed to secure compliance with that condition. Mr Mitchell remained in Leven seven and a half years, during which con- solidating work went on, but on loth April 1854 he accepted a call to Kirkintilloch. In November of that year Mr George M'Queen was invited to become his successor, but he preferred Milngavie. Third Minister. JOHN S. HYSLOP, from Urr. The income at this time was about 110 a year, and that was the sum named for stipend. Mr Hyslop was ordained, 26th June 1855, the call being signed by 158 members and 38 adherents. In 1859 the entire debt of ,150 was cleared off, with the help of 50 from the Liquidation Board. In 1865 a manse was built at a cost of ,700, of which the people raised ^445, and the Board granted ^255. A greater achievement was accomplished when a new church, with sittings for 600, and built at a cost of ^2150, was opened on 2oth September 1871. The officiating minister was Dr Drummond, then in Erskine Church, Glasgow, whose father, the Rev. James Drummond of Irvine, had been one of the original elders, being at that time a teacher in Leven. In April 1886 Mr Hyslop, who had been requiring regular assistance for a considerable time, intimated to the Presbytery that steps would have to be taken to pro- vide him with a colleague. The people arranged for a retiring allowance of II. 2C 402 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS &o, and the junior pastor was to have ^120, with the manse, which the supplement would raise to ^160, besides a full share of the surplus. These arrangements were sanctioned on 6th May, and Mr Hyslop removed to Edinburgh. There was now a membership of 230, and the stipend from the people had gradually risen to ^170, with the manse. Fourth Minister. JOHN REID, M. A., from Ayr (Darlington Place). Or- dained, I7th May 1887. Mr Reid was highly spoken of when a student, but the demands of ministerial work proved too much for him, and in a very short time he was laid aside. A few months after his ordination, when the Presbytery met at Buckhaven to ordain Mr Stewart, Mr Reid was not forward to preach, as had been arranged, and it was intimated that he was unwell. In February commissioners from the congregation represented to the Presbytery that he had been incapacitated for five months, that the con- gregation was suffering greatly, and that it was vain to expect he would ever be able to resume work at Leven. There was some delay owing to his unstrung condition, but, being so far recovered, he tendered the de- mission of his charge, and was loosed, I5th May 1888. The congregation soon afterwards called Mr Thomas Crawford, but he accepted Perth (East) instead. Mr Reid, at the time of the Union, was still laid aside. Fifth Minister. ADAM SHAW, M.A., from Whitevale, Glasgow. Called previously to Gardenstown. Ordained at Leven, 29th January 1889. Was loosed, 22nd November 1892, on accepting a call to Gillespie Church, Glasgow. The membership, which had been 238 at Mr Shaw's ordination, was now over 350. Sixth Minister. W. J. PATTERSON, from Waterbeck. Ordained, I3th April 1893. During the vacancy before Mr Shaw's ordination it was arranged, with the sanction of the Presbytery and his own acquiescence, to pay Mr Hyslop a slump sum of ^320 in lieu of the ,80 a year originally arranged for. When Mr Shaw left, the congregation was at the self- sustaining level. Mr Hyslop, after being relieved from the responsibility of ministerial work, regained strength, and his usefulness was prolonged for years in the way of furnishing occasional, and very acceptable, pulpit supply. He died, 2oth September 1900, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. Leven congregation at the close of 1899 had a membership of 363, and the stipend was ^200, with the manse. MARKINCH (UNITED SECESSION) IN September 1831 Kirkcaldy became the seat of a United Secession Presbytery, and at their first meeting regular supply of sermon was requested by a number of individuals in Markinch and its neighbourhood. The petition was granted, and the station was opened by Mr Johnston of Leslie on the first Sabbath of November. From this time services were regularly kept up, and expenses met with the help of occasional grants from the Home Mission Fund. The pulpit of the parish church was very efficiently filled at this time by the Rev. James Sievewright, afterwards D.D., but he may not have had the hold of the people to which his able and evangelical preaching entitled him, as he was not a visiting pastor, whether from infirm health or from constitutional reserve. The Secession, moreover, obtained a hold of Markinch parish at an early time, and furnished nearly one-fourth of the membership of John Erskine's congregation at Leslie, but not till now had an attempt been made to form a congregation in the village. The cause making headway, a petition to be congregated was presented to the Presby- tery on 1 7th June 1834 from 144 persons, and, with the sanction of the PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 403 Synod, this was done on 22nd August, when two of the neighbouring ministers reported that they had conversed with 63 persons, and had received disjunction lines from other 7. This was followed in a few months by the ordination of four elders and the induction of a fifth, who had come from the session of Alyth. First Minister.- WILLIAM M. HALLEY, from Kinross (West). Ordained, 4th November 1835, and introduced on the following Sabbath by his brother, the Rev. Ebenezer Halley of Kirkgate, Leith. The stipend was to be ^90, with ^10 for sacramental expenses, and a manse or an equivalent as soon as their circumstances permitted. The call was signed by 135 members and 52 adherents. The church, with between 300 and 400 sittings, was ready for occupancy before this, and a debt of ,165 was cleared off in 1845 by the aid of ^75 from the Liquidating Board. After being eleven years in Mark- inch Mr Halley accepted a call to Dumbarton (High Street) on 2nd March 1847. Second Minister. ROBERT BROWN, from Falkirk (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 28th October 1847. The call was signed by 130 members and 16 adherents. The stipend was to be ,90, with io for sacramental expenses ; but there was no manse as yet, and before that was obtained a debt of .290 was incurred. But in August 1860 Mr Brown informed the congregation that he had raised ^195, which was to secure .95 from the Board, and would remove the entire burden. Ten years after this, when a new manse was needed to meet larger requirements, he was equally considerate. A sum of ,300 had to be raised, which, with other ,300 from the Board and the price received for the old manse, would meet the entire outlay. For this he became responsible, and at Martinmas 1871 he stated to the people that, through the kindness of friends, the commodious manse, built in a better situation, was free of debt. Mr Brown was the author of " Outlines of Religious Instruction," which has passed through several successive editions, and in 1876 he published his principal work : " The Fear of God in Relation to Religion, Theology, and Reason." He withdrew from active work, I3th June 1893, resigning all emoluments, but retaining his place as senior minister. He then removed to Edinburgh, where he died, after a few hours' illness, 26th March 1896, in the seventy-sixth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. When he retired the people testified how much they had profited under his long, able, and faithful ministry. Mr Brown left, besides his son in Auchtergaven, three sons-in-law U.P. ministers the Rev. J. S. Nisbet, formerly of Stromness ; the Rev. George S. Soutar, Sandwick ; and the Rev. Robert Law, Bridge of Allan. Third Minister. JOHN A. SHANNON, M.A., from Pollokshields. Or- dained as colleague to Mr Brown, igth December 1893. A new church, with sittings for 500, was opened on Thursday, I4th April 1898, by Dr Hutchison, Moderator of Synod. The entire cost was ,2800, of which all except ,600 had been previously secured. The membership at the close of the following year was 241, and the stipend from the people ,140, with the manse. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK BONKLE (BURGHER) CAMBUSNETHAN was long the name of this congregation, and sometimes Muirkirk of Cambusnethan. It became the meeting-point for the Seceders in twenty-two parishes West Calder, Carnwath, Symington, Dalserf, 4o 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Hamilton, Old Monkland, and Livingston being at different points of the circumference. We have no case of out-and-out Patronage in the parish to go back on, though Mr William Craig, who was ordained, 2Oth April ! 737j was looked on as the nominee of Lockhart of Cambusnethan. Still, at the election he had the votes of a majority, and his call was concurred in by about 90 heads of families. It appears, however, from a protest adhered to by seven of the nine elders, that the settlement was considered by a great part of the parishioners as an intrusion, and in consequence of this an accession was given in to the Associate Presbytery on I4th June 1 737 " signed by a large number of the inhabitants." On Wednesday, 3rd August, Messrs Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine observed a Fast among them, the latter entering in his Diary : " We had a very great auditory." At the close they baptised 26 children, the greater part of them from Carluke parish, where there had been an intrusion of a more offensive type in 1732. Of the above-named Mr Craig the Fasti records that "he inculcated the principles of morality and virtue more frequently than his audience had been accustomed to," which may be taken to mean that he was a good way from evangelical in his preaching. But he did not trouble Cambus- nethan long, as he got promotion through Patronage to the West Church, Glasgow, in the following year. At this time the Associate Presbytery had no preachers at command, and though Mr John Hunter got licence in 1738 they could never afford to send him to Cambusnethan. But on Sabbath, i6th September 1739, Messrs Thomson of Burntisland and Ralph Erskine preached to a numerous, far-gathered audience at Davies Dykes, where the first church was built in 1740, five miles east from the village of Cambusnethan. First Minister. DAVID HORN, from Milnathort (Burgher). Called also to Kilkenny, in Ireland. Ordained, 29th September 1742. In October 1743 eight elders were added to the session, two from Cambusnethan, two from Carluke, two from Carstairs, one from Shotts, and one from Dalziel. This made sixteen or seventeen in all. At the Breach of 1747 Mr Horn adhered to the Burghers, and took the bulk of the congregation with him. On 1 2th July 1768 he tabled the resignation of his charge, pleading that he had been twenty-six years in the ministry, that he was feeling himself in life's decline, and that the work was becoming burdensome to him owing to the bounds of the congregation and the badness of the roads. He was also impressed with the thought that not one-half of his people were able to attend regularly upon ordinances during the winter season, and, if so, what was to become of the aged and the young when visitation and diets of examination were withheld? He also stated that, as his family were remov- ing to Thomanean at Martinmas, a property in Kinross-shire which had come into his possession by his marriage, it behoved him to go with them, and see to their welfare. The Presbytery, however, refused to receive Mr Horn's demission on grounds like these, and he appealed to the Synod, by whom his resignation was accepted in October, though the pastoral tie was to continue till Martinmas. After the bond was severed Mr Horn insisted on retaining his seat in Presbytery and Synod, pleading that by laying down the key of doctrine he had not surrendered his rights to the key of government and discipline. The question was argued at great length by him in his reasons of dissent from the Synod's decision to the contrary effect. A discourse on the text : " How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" has been pronounced equal to any of those published by his Secession brethren, alike for ability in argument and perspicuity of diction. He died, i3th January 1790, not at Thomanean, but in his house at Kirkcaldy, in the forty-eighth year of his ministerial life. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 405 On tendering his resignation Mr Horn had hinged it partly on this, that Cambusnethan would compare with any other country congregation either in numbers, intelligence, or unity, and that with so many promising young men on the field it would be easy for them to find another minister. But another minister was not found till the seventh year was nearly finished and four unsuccessful calls had been issued. At the Synod in May 1769 the Rev. James Moir, the first they fixed on, was continued at Cumbernauld. A year later Mr William Ballantyne was appointed to Dundee in preference to Cambusnethan. Xext December calls to Mr George Henderson were brought up together to Glasgow Presbytery from Cambusnethan and Shuttle Street, Glasgow ; but the weightier charge carried, and the protest taken by the Cambusnethan commissioners came to nothing. In May 1772 the Synod appointed Mr William Richardson to Cambusnethan in prefer- ence to Bathgate, but he refused to be ordained, pleading the state of his health. After the case had hung in suspense for fifteen months the Synod decided that his settlement could not be carried out with the least hope that it would answer the ends of a gospel ministry. Mr Richardson had given in a representation, importing that bodily infirmity unfitted him for riding on horseback, and he offered to produce medical authority to that effect. This secured his release, and he was ordained soon after to Cartsdyke, Greenock. It was another disappointment to Cambusnethan, and the Synod thought it needful to send a committee to satisfy them as to the setting aside of their call. Second Minister. WILLIAM SCOTT, from Selkirk (First). Ordained, 2ist June 1/75. The call was opposed by 16 members, but the Synod pronounced their opposition ill-founded, and directed the ordination to go on. It appears, however, that, while Mr Richardson's call was signed by 486 members, Mr Scott's only mustered 344. In 1780 the church was rebuilt, but there is nothing to show either the expense or the accommoda- tion. The bounds of the congregation had already been narrowed in by the formation of sister churches at Biggar and Shotts. Other disjunctions followed at intervals in favour of Whitburn, Lanark, and Braehead ; but in 1800 there was a much more serious encroachment on the membership by about one-third of their number, including three elders, going over to the Old Lights, much to the advantage of Shotts and Carluke congregations. On nth March 1811 Mr Scott resigned his charge, pleading age and the alienation of affection on the part of his people. The congregation agreed not to oppose the acceptance, and were to give him ^30 as a compliment, and allow him to possess the glebe for two years. On 2nd April the con- nection was dissolved, but the case was not ended. Certain rumours having been inquired into, and evidence led, the Presbytery were unanimously of opinion that the congregation had good grounds for dissatisfaction with some parts of Mr Scott's behaviour. During her last illness his wife seems to have been in a weak state every way, and he had been too indulgent towards his servant in the exercise of her usurped authority. Worse still, he had afterwards lifted the servant into the vacant place by marrying her, a step which was fitted to bring his ministry to an end. Altogether, his brethren found that there was enough to warrant admonition. Mr Scott submitted at the time, but on I2th June 1812 he declined the authority of the Presbytery, assigning as the reason their action in his case. They had trouble afterwards from a demand he made for a certificate of membership on behalf of his second wife. He had now removed to a property in the parish of Carluke. which may have come to him through his deceased wife, who had means of her own. There he connected himself with the Original Burgher congregation, and died, 2ist August 1821, in the seventy-seventh 406 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS year of his age. A volume of his sermons was published in 1828, with a brief biographical preface by his successor in Cambusnethan. During the vacancy of five years which followed the congregation first called Mr John Tindal, who was afterwards ordained at Rathillet. The call was signed by little more than half the members, and after it had been sustained the Presbytery stopped further procedure, alleging that it wanted the signature of one of the witnesses. The next call came out for Mr Daniel M'Lean, whom the Synod appointed to Coupar-Angus. The membership was down now to 246 ; whereas in the last decade of the former century the dissenters, young and old, in Cambusnethan parish alone numbered 614. It marks the effects of the rupture which had inter- vened. Third Minister. ANDREW SCOTT, from Lanark (Secession). The call from Cambusnethan was signed by 224 members and 104 adherents. At the Synod it carried over Lilliesleaf and Auchtermuchty, and Mr Scott was ordained, gth April 1816. The stipend was to be ^80, with manse and glebe, and ^5 at each communion. In little more than a year he was invited to the newly-formed congregation of Girvan, but the Synod continued him in Cambusnethan. In 1818 the lease of the ground at Davies Dykes expired, and the congregation decided on removing to the little village of Bonkle, two miles to the west. There they would be about midway between Shotts Works and Wishaw, two places seven miles apart, from which they drew a large proportion of their membership. Here the new church was built, at a cost of ,650, with 560 sittings. A manse fol- lowed, involving an expenditure of about ^500, which, with subsequent improvements on the two buildings, raised the entire sum to ^1350. By 1843 this was liquidated, all except ^300, which was also cleared off a few years after. In 1859 circumstances favoured the arrangement for a col- league, the emoluments of Mr Scott to remain undiminished, with the manse, and the junior minister to have ,100, to be raised to ^150, with the manse, on his becoming sole pastor. Fourth Minister. JAMES H. SCOTT, who was already under call to Auchtermuchty (East), which, in view of something more attractive, he declined. Ordained as colleague and successor to his father, gth November 1859, the call being signed by 279 members and 88 adherents. Their joint ministry lasted ten and a half years, and was terminated by the father's death on I2th July 1870, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministry. His jubilee had been celebrated five years before, when he forbade all money gifts, receiving only congratulatory addresses. Mr Scott published a short treatise on "The Melchisedec of the Scriptures." It advocates the view that Melchisedec, instead of being " made like unto the Son of God" was the Son of God Himself, and a theory which many will deem untenable he supports with a great amount of vigorous reason- ing. Mr Scott's third son, Mr Andrew H. Scott, died, nth December 1852, at the close of his theological course. The present church, built or rebuilt on the same site, with 400 sittings, was opened by Dr Joseph Brown, free of debt, on 25th December 1878. It cost about ,1400 ; but, taking the old material into account, the value was 3 more, and additions made to the property in the following year amounted to a similar sum. Though there has been a large thinning out from the extremities the membership of Bonkle congregation at the close of 1899 was 220, and the stipend ^185, with the manse. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 407 BIGGAR, MOAT PARK (BURGHER) BIGGAR early became the gathering-point for the Seceders within a wide circle of surrounding parishes, among which Symington, Covington, and Carnwath have prominence. For example, in March 1739 an accession was given in to the Associate Presbytery from three elders and 23 private Christians in the first named of these parishes. On some rare occasions they had sermon for themselves, but in October 1742 they petitioned to be joined to the congregation of West Linton "till a nearer united body should cast up." At the Breach in 1747 some families in the far west went with the Antiburghers, and their fortunes are given under Elsridge- hill. The other and larger part kept by the mother congregation till 1755, when they petitioned to be disjoined and have sermon for themselves. But, though the applicants had a distance of eleven miles with which to enforce their plea, there was opposition to be overcome, and in May 1756 the case was submitted to the Synod. Of the two commissioners who appeared in support of the disjunction one was from Libberton and the other from Carnwath. On I4th June the Presbytery of Edinburgh met by directions of Synod, and that day Biggar was recognised as the seat of a Burgher congregation. The first church, with 450 sittings, was taken possession of in 1 760, and on 8th October of that year Mr Samuel Kinloch, afterwards of Paisley, was called to be the first minister, but a grievous fama, which proved well-founded, stopped further proceedings. The parish of Biggar had passed through a vacancy of five years some time before this, which ended in a way worth recounting. A Mr Haig got the presentation, but the people were pronounced in their opposition to his settlement. According to papers given in to the Church Courts from Dunblane parish in a litigated cause the only objection Biggar people had to Mr Haig " was his corpulence, which rendered him unfit to go about and visit the sick." Matters were compromised by the presentee exchanging places with Mr John Johnston, who was admitted to Biggar on 26th September 1754, while he himself obtained the chaplaincy of Edinburgh Castle. First Minister. JOHN Low, from Kinross (West). The Synod having preferred Biggar to St Andrews he was ordained, 3oth September 1761. The call was signed by 107 (male) members, including five elders. Next year an attempt was made to remove Mr Low to the mighty con- gregation of Stirling, and it was repeated some time afterwards, but the first call was set aside by Glasgow Presbytery " because of the flame in the congregation," and the Synod on the second occasion refused to translate, probably for the same reason. In the latter years of Mr Low's ministry the church was in a declining state, but the membership fell scarcely, if at all, below 300. He died, ist November 1804, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. His successor in Biggar, when newly ordained, received this advice from his father : "Always speak of Mr Low with esteem and reverence. He was a very worthy minister of Christ." Second Minister. JOHN BROWN, son of the Rev. John Brown of Long- ridge. There was a competing call from Stirling (now Erskine Church) signed by 937 members, whereas Biggar had only 118 ; but the candidate's father came forward at the Synod, and pleaded the cause of the smaller congregation, which thereby secured a majority when the vote was taken. Mr Brown was ordained, jth February 1806, in the time of a severe snow- storm, on account of which only three ministers were present. The stipend was to be ^90, with manse, garden, and a small piece of ground. Mr Brown, besides his general acceptability as a preacher, came into prominent notice by a sermon he preached before the Edinburgh Missionary Society in 4 o8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 1816. It was preceded by another publication entitled, " Strictures on Yates' Vindication of Unitarianism," which evinced his grasp and acuteness as a controversialist, and altogether it became manifest that Biggar was not to be the scene of Mr Brown's life-work. In 1817 he was called to the newly-formed congregation of North Leith, but the Synod, in accordance with 'his own wishes, continued him in Biggar, where he remained till i st May 1822, when his translation to Rose Street, Edinburgh, was carried "by a great majority." During his ministry in Biggar the congregation had grown nearly one-third, drawing its members even yet from fourteen parishes. Third Minister. DAVID SMITH, a native of Rattray, and brought up in the Established Church. Having joined Miles Lane congregation, in London, under the ministry of the Rev. Alexander Fletcher, he identified himself with the Burgher congregation of Coupar-Angus on returning to his native place, and during his theological course gave large aid and encouragement to its minister in his manifold struggles. Called first to Balfour, in Strathearn, a feeble cause which had with difficulty got con- gregated, but when the call from Biggar was reported theirs was allowed to drop. Ordained, igth August 1823. The stipend was ^114. with manse, garden, and the payment of house taxes. " The congregation being scattered over the face of the surrounding country," the Presbytery granted the moderation on condition that they would provide a horse for the minister. In 1829 Mr Smith was called to succeed Dr Waugh in Wells Street, London, but he had no wish to tempt the perilous position, and the Synod decided against the translation. In 1831 the Relief families in Biggar parish were 118, and those of the Secession only 48, but about that time, while the former congregation gave a stipend of \ 10, the latter could furnish .130. In 1834 Mr Smith wrote a minute and very interesting Memoir of his father-in-law, the Rev. John Brown of Whitburn, prefixed to his "Letters on Sanctification," and in 1847 he rendered a like service to his co-presbyter, the Rev. William Fleming of West Calder, in connection with a-little volume of sermons. In 1850 he had the degree of D.D. from Dart- mouth College, New York. On 27th June 1866 a new church, with 460 sittings, and built at a cost of over ^1500, was opened by the Rev. Dr Cairns of Berwick. Dr Smith died, 24th December 1867, in the seventy- fifth year of his age and forty-fifth of his ministry. A volume of his Sermons and Letters, with Memoir by his son-in-law, the Rev. David Cairns of Stitchel, was published in 1869. Of Dr Smith's other publications the best known is his Life of the Rev. Charles C. Leitch. The writer also recalls with interest some striking articles of his on Botanical Theology-, which appeared in the U.P Magazine for 1848. Dr Smith's widow 'died in Edinburgh on 2oth March 1900, in her hundredth year. Faurth Minister. ALEXANDER MlLES, from Leith (Junction Road). Ordained, 7th October 1868. The congregation had previously called Mr James H. Scott, who preferred Sanquhar (North). The stipend was ^160, with a manse, which was worthily replaced some years afterwards, without aid from the Manse Fund. The membership was 265, and though at the close of 1879 it was somewhat lower, the stipend had risen to ^250. Mr Miles died, 26th August 1893, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-fifth of his ministry. Fifth Minister. MILLAR PATRICK, M.A., from Kettle. Ordained, i;th May 1894. The stipend was now ^230, with manse and payment of income- tax. Mr Patrick was loosed from Biggar, 27th June 1899, on accepting a call to Trinity Extension Church, Ayr. SLrth Minister. . Ross LOWDOX, M.A., from Bank Street, Kirrierouir. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 409 Ordained, 6th March 1900. The membership at this time was 216, and the stipend .220, with the manse. BIGGAR, GILLESPIE CHURCH (RELIEF) THIS congregation originated in what a minority of the General Assembly pronounced " intrusion of an unprecedented kind." On the moderation day not a single signature was appended to the calL However, when the case came up at the Assembly it was urged that there were no objections tendered, and that four-fifths of the heritors and several heads of families had since expressed their willingness to have the presentee settled over the parish. With this concession to work on, it was decided by a majority of 85 to 77 to enjoin the Presbytery to go forward. The counter-motion was to proceed anew with a moderation, giving any who had come round to the presentee's side an opportunity of expressing this in a formal way. The dissents bore that the 6 heritors who concurred were most of them outside the communion of the Church of Scotland ; that the standing of the few parishioners gained over was such that even the presentees advocate ignored them. But on 28th September 1780 the ordination of Mr Robert Pearson was carried through under the protection of a troop of soldiers. An application followed to the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh for sermon, and sympathy with the move- ment was so widespread that, as stated in the Old Statistical History, the congregation in its early days drew its members from sixteen different parishes. We find, besides, that the first meeting of session was attended by ten elders, and a church was built in 1781, with sittings for 700. First Minister. ARCHIBALD CROSS, from Dovehil], Glasgow. The date of ordination cannot be ascertained, but Mr Cross got an extract of licence from Glasgow Presbytery in January 1782, and was to preach in Biggar on Sabbath first and the following Thursday, as if to complete his candidature. Loosed from Biggar, ijth February 1784, on accepting a call to St Ninians. Second Minister. JOHX RESTOX, from the same congregation as his predecessor. Mr Reston in 1783 acceded as a student of divinity to the Old Cameronian Presbytery, but he is no more heard of in that connection. In April 1 785 he got licence from the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow, and was at once applied for by Biggar congregation. Within three months a call in his favour was sustained from Strathaven, but it was at once lost sight of, and we infer that he was ordained soon after at Biggar. On I7th December 1793 Mr Reston abruptly resigned his charge. This step was taken with a view to Bondgate Church, Alnwick, of which the Rev. Michael Boston had once been minister, and which had never been in connection with the Relief. When Mr Reston, along with his congregation, applied years afterwards to be received into the Relief body, one of the Presbyteries reported to the Synod that he ought not to be readmitted without rebuke for his irregular conduct on leaving Biggar, and this was the course adopted. His circuitous history is resumed under Carrubber's Close, Edinburgh. Third Minister. ROBERT PATERSOX, who had been twenty-two years at Largo. His induction was to have been in December 1794, but owing to a great snowstorm it had to be delayed for eight weeks. The Scots Magazine for January 1795 says: "We have not, perhaps, since the year 1 740 experienced a track of severer weather than this month has afforded. One storm of snow has succeeded another.'" 7 In February it adds : " This month has proved equally trying and severe as the last." Mr Paterson died, loth August 1802, in the sixty-first year of his age and thirty-first of his ministry. His widow, Jean Boston, a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Boston of Jedburgh, died in Edinburgh, 8th January 1821. 4 io HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Fourth Minister. HUGH M'FARLANE, from Denny, but he seems to have belonged to the Relief congregation, St Ninians. Ordained, 23rd March 1803, with the promise of ^90 a year. But in July 1806 Mr M'Far- lane was libelled before the Presbytery by his managers. Through degrading himself, they alleged, a great part of the congregation had been scattered. Looked at in the light of after events he may, perhaps, be credited with mental weakness as well as with moral delinquency. But on 7th May of that year, after being rebuked, he was placed under suspension sine die, and his connection with Biggar was dissolved, the congregation paying over to the Presbytery .200 for his behoof. A year later he was restored to office, and in 1810 the congregation of Strathkinnes wished him located among them. In 1823 he received a grant of ,10 from the Synod. For the rest we are indebted to Hunter's " History of Biggar," which says of Mr M'Farlane : " It became evident that his reason was impaired. He became unsettled in his habits, and wandered from place to place, and received such gratuities as food, money, and clothing." In these circumstances we will not be ex- pected to know the date of his death. Fifth Minister. ANDREW FYFE, from Riccarton (now King Street, Kilmarnock). Ordained, 23rd July 1807, and on 4th May 1808 accepted a call to Dumfries (now Townhead), where he acquired unenviable notoriety. Sixth Minister. DANIEL M'NAUGHT, translated from Riccarton, his second charge, and inducted, I4th December 1808. The stipend was fixed at ;i2o, with a suitable house, and ^2 for each communion. Mr M'Naught died, ist May 1819, in the twenty-fifth year of his ministry, the congregation having been bettered under his pastoral care. Seventh Minister. HUGH GIBSON, from Irvine (Relief). Ordained, i6th May 1820. After occupying this position for fifteen years Mr Gibson petitioned the Presbytery to loose him from Biggar, where his usefulness, he believed, was at an end. At a congregational meeting the step he had taken was approved of, and on 3rd January 1 836 the relation was dissolved. After remaining in Scotland for some time he emigrated to America, and officiated first in Broadway Tabernacle, New York, a Congregational church with which the name of Dr W. M. Taylor has been since identified. He was inducted into Otis, Massachusetts, in the same connection, on 3oth June 1840, and was loosed on igth March 1850. After being four years in Chesterhill, Massachusetts, he occupied a charge in Peru, Massachusetts, and then re- turned to Chester county again. In 1856 he lost his second wife, a sister of Mrs Jack of Dunbar. He then went to reside with his daughter in Vine- land, New Jersey, where he died, i8th February 1871, in the fifty-first year of his ministry. Eighth Minister. JAMES CALDWELL, from Kilmarnock (King Street). Ordained, I7th January 1837. He was an animated preacher, but having accepted a call to Sir Michael Street Church, Greenock, where ill-fortune awaited him, he was loosed from Biggar, i3th May 1846. Ninth Minister. JAMES DUNLOP, M.A., from Irvine (Relief), a brother of the Rev. Hugh Dunlop, Bankhill, Berwick, and of the Rev. William Dunlop, Port-William. Ordained, I4th April 1847. The stipend was much the same as it had been under the last three ministers. But in 1852 the debt was lightened to the extent of about ^200. Mr Dunlop accepted a call to Motherwell, I2th June 1866. Tenth Minister. DAVID M. CONNOR, LL.B., a native of Shotts parish, but brought up in connection with Wellwynd, Airdrie. Called also to Inner- leithen, but ordained at Biggar, 26th June 1867. A new church was opened on 1 2th September 1878, which cost ,4200, and has accommodation for 470. The collections that day and on the following Sabbath amounted to ^222. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 411 On I4th January 1879 Mr Connor accepted a call to Govanhill, Glasgow. In filling up this vacancy the congregation first called Mr James Gardiner, but, deterred perhaps by the debt on the property, he remained on the preachers' list, and soon after obtained Uddingston. Eleventh Minister. JOHN SCOTT, M.A., from Leith (Junction Road). Called also to Fraserburgh, and ordained at Biggar, 27th January 1880, the stipend being ^200, with a manse, and the membership 277. In 1888 the debt of ,1350 which rested on the property was virtually extinguished, with the aid of ^200 from the Liquidation Fund. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 241, and a stipend of ^200, with the manse. ELSRIDGEHILL (ANTIBURGHER) AFTER the Breach the Antiburgher families about Biggar who had left West Linton became part of Peebles congregation, from which they were disjoined, 24th November 1754. It was not the town of Biggar, however, but the village of Elsridgehill, four miles to the north, that was fixed on as their centre, owing to an unpopular settlement in the parish of Walston, to which it belonged. Of this case we can only state that the presentee, who had been fourteen years a probationer, was ordained in May 1755, and that during his incumbency, as stated in the Statistical History, " the congrega- tion was dispersed, the church literally deserted, and the Lord's Supper not dispensed for many years." After Mr Gillespie's deposition in 1752 litigation before the Church Courts was felt to be more hopeless than ever, and the people of Walston, who were few in number, instead of adopting that course, sought redress from the Antiburghers. Encouraged by them they built a small church at Elsridgehill, a village near the southern extremity of the parish. Here those Antiburghers who had been recently disjoined from Peebles were now to find their meeting-place. First Minister. JOHN ANDERSON, a licentiate of Edinburgh Presbytery. Ordained, 28th May 1760. Of Mr Anderson little is known beyond what is given in the inscription on his tombstone : that " he was useful in all his neighbourhood, not only as a minister but as a surgeon, at all times ready to act the part of the good Samaritan." In 1782 he published a volume of " Essays relating to the present State of Religion." He died some time in August 1790, in the thirty-first year of his ministry, having served his day and generation faithfully, and, as the New Statistical History states, officiat- ing on a scanty subsistence. But the congregation, though feeble, never became burdensome to others, and only once do we find them receiving a small grant of 7 from the Synod Fund. When the congregation fell vacant the pulpit of Walston parish had a new occupant, and one very unlike his predecessor. Under him the Established Church revived, and that of Elsridgehill must have suffered a corresponding decline. In 1792 a moderation was refused, the stipend promised being pronounced "by no means adequate." At this time the parish minister put the Antiburgher communicants in Walston at 32, while the Relief church in Biggar had 54, and the Burgher church 28 the whole population being under 500. In 1802 it was suggested in Edinburgh Pres- bytery that Peebles and Elsridgehill should be united, as neither of them was able of itself to support a minister. The proposal was unanimously gone into by both congregations at first Peebles to provide a manse, pay two- thirds of the stipend, and have the minister's labours two Sabbaths out of three, the sacrament to be dispensed at the two places alternately. Elsridge- hill agreed to the terms, and besides paying the other third they were to 4 i2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS keep the manse in repair for the minister's accommodation when within their bounds. The Presbytery agreed to follow out this plan "so far as Providence would permit"; but on fuller consideration Peebles drew back, believing that the conjunction with Elsridgehill would be injurious to them, and so the affair was allowed to drop. Sermon was still continued generally at one of the two places, until Peebles, twelve miles distant, got a minister of its own. The last notice of Elsridgehill is in the beginning of 1818, when Mr MacEwen of Howgate stated to the Presbytery that he had preached there on the preceding Sabbath, that the congregation consisted of 1 1 communicants 3 men and 8 women and that only 5 of the 1 1 could con- tribute anything for the support of the gospel. Still, when they had an approach to regular supply, there was an audience of nearly 200. The name remained on the Presbytery list till 1820, and disappeared at the Union of that year. The members had gradually dropped away, some joining the Established Church, and some walking into Biggar, and in 1840 the minister of Walston recorded that the little chapel was fast hastening to ruin. But better days awaited the antique place of worship at Elsridgehill. It was bought by the Free Church after the Disruption, and a preaching station begun in the village. Having been in a very dilapidated condition for some years it was replaced by a new church, built very much through the exertions of the minister, and opened by Dr Thomas Guthrie on 7th October 1870, when the collection came close on ,60. At the Union of 1900 it had a membership of 98, and the people gave a.stipend of ,137, with the manse. LANARK (BURGHER) ON nth September 1750 the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow received a representation from the magistrates, council, and eldership of Lanark, setting forth the melancholy situation they were reduced to by what they called "a violent intrusion over the belly of a reclaiming people. 1 ' They asked the Presbytery to take their case into consideration, and send one of their number to preach to them, but the petition was coldly received, and no action followed. It was not Patronage itself that had stirred resistance, it was the claim of Lockhart of Lee to present to the vacant charge which was challenged, and when he carrried his point it led to riotous opposition, and issued in 3 women being sent to the House of Correction, and 3 men being banished from the country for three years. At that time, however, the Secession got a firm hold in Lanark, the adherents numbering over 100, though no congregation was formed in the place for more than a generation. It was on 4th October 1785 that some people in Lanark petitioned Glasgow Presbytery for sermon, which was granted, and they were recognised soon after as a congregation distinct from Cambusnethan. In three attempts to obtain a minister they were unsuccessful. In 1788 a call signed by 86 members and 65 adherents was addressed to Mr David Wilson, who was already on trials for ordination at Cumnock. They next called Mr John Smart, whom the Synod appointed to Stirling, and Mr William Kidston, whom the Synod sent to Kennoway. First Minister. ALEXANDER HARPER, from the Penicuik branch of West Linton congregation. The stipend was to be .60, with a free house, and a horse was to be furnished when required. It has been said that before a settlement was effected one of Lanark commissioners travelled twenty-six times to Glasgow, equivalent to a journey of 1300 miles. Ordained, 22nd September 1790. The church, with 690 sittings, was finished in the follow- ing year. Under Mr Harper's care the congregation prospered, till, through PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 413 the Old Light Controversy, it sustained a shock from which it never quite recovered. About 60 members withdrew at that time, and obtained sermon from the Original Burgher Presbytery. When this ceased they would have to amalgamate with Carluke, five miles off. In 1810 Mr Harper, who was apt to take a desponding view of matters, demitted his charge, assigning two reasons the want of adequate support and the apparent unprofitable- ness of his ministry. To remove the first of these the congregation under- took to make the stipend 100, with a rise in the communion allowances, and they were also to give ,10 for house rent as soon as their ability per- mitted. Mr Harper thereupon, by advice of his brethren, withdrew his resignation. It would have been well had nothing further come in to disturb ; but, instead of this, in his latter years he had to pass through a sea of troubles. This introduces us to a scene of confusion and strife which brought the oldest dissenting congregation in Lanark to ruin. Some sharp correspond- ence had passed between Mr Harper and his managers, which widened out till it took in the office-bearers generally, but an agreement was come to that the letters should be burnt and the past forgotten. The case was introduced to the Presbytery in May 1826 by a- petition from 85 members, which had been presented to the session, praying that David Ritchie be deposed from the eldership. He had broken the covenant, they alleged, entered into with the minister, and was incessantly setting himself to stir up strife in the congregation. A committee appointed to bring parties to terms failed, David stating frankly that he would not return "to the covenant of peace." The next we hear is that the managers are withhold- ing part of Mr Harper's stipend, preferring to expend the money on repairs ; and, what is worse, they afterwards declared that they would not consider themselves bound to pay any stipend at all after Whitsunday. At this stage Mr Harper stated to the Presbytery that, though pained at the prospect of being separated from the congregation, of which he believed the great body to be favourably disposed towards him, yet, considering the bad spirit which prevailed among the office-bearers, he felt inclined to demit his charge. On the Presbytery meeting with the people the feeling seemed to be that the pastoral tie should remain unbroken, and Mr Harper agreed to with- draw his demission. But discontent wrought on, and in August 1827 disjunc- tion was applied for by 134 members. In October eleven correspondents met by appointment of Synod with the Presbytery to investigate into the affairs of Lanark church, a business which occupied them two days. They unanimously declared that the character and conduct of Mr Harper were worthy of all approval, and that David Ritchie, as the chief cause of the disturbance, be excluded from office and membership. One effect of this decision was that on 27th December a petition for sermon was presented by a number of the malcontents to the Original Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh, which was granted, and this led at last to the formation of a congregation in that connection. But the mother church was no nearer a peaceful state than before. At a meeting of Presbytery on New Year's Day 1828 three of the ministers, Mr Brown of Longridge taking the lead, declared themselves out-and-out opposed to the deliverance at which the Synodical Committee had arrived, and four of the congregations had up petitions for the adoption of measures to prevent those persons, more than 100 in number, who were getting sermon from another body leaving the Secession Church. When the case came before the Synod in May it was agreed, with the acquiescence of all parties, to send preachers regularly to Lanark to assist Mr Harper, but this arrangement failed to mend matters, and in September the Synod decided 4 i 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to have it discontinued. At this latter meeting the Minutes bear that Mr James Harper was heard, and it was on this occasion that he said on the Synod floor : " I should not deserve to stand on God's green earth did I remain silent when I believed my father to be wronged." We can under- stand how, in the speech that followed, filial affection would mingle with indignant warmth, and I have heard an aged minister speak of that as the time when he first became aware of Dr Harper's superior powers. On 1 8th September 1829 Mr Alexander Harper sent up his demission to the Synod, which was accepted, and an annuity was allowed him of ^30. He then withdrew from the scene of contention, and sought peaceful retirement in Edinburgh, where he died, ist September 1832, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. Second Minister. ANDREW YOUNG, who had been loosed from Loch- maben two years before. Inducted, 3oth March 1830. The congregation must have been weakened every way by disputes and heart-burnings, and the call was signed by only 86 members and 10 adherents. The settlement was not auspicious. The Presbytery afterwards explained that " the call was pushed by a resolute party, the leaders of which very soon retired into the Establishment, leaving it to the congregation to discharge their obliga- tions as best they might." Still, in 1836 Mr Young reported an increase of 200 communicants in six years, making 270 in all. His stipend was ^100, with manse, garden, and 10 for expenses. But, promising as this looked, there was no rising to the level of true prosperity. First the stipend had to be reduced to ^80, and then Mr Young obtained a donation of 20 from the Synod Fund owing to severe and protracted affliction in his family. It ended with the acceptance of his resignation, nth June 1841, his intention being to emigrate to America. That purpose never took effect, and he died in Linlithgow, iQth August 1842, in the twenty-ninth year of his ministry, his having been a chequered course from first to last. The congregation was now at the expiring point, but they made an additional bid for prolonged existence. Early in 1842 they called Mr James Duncan, who declined, and was afterwards ordained at Alva. There were now the signatures of 55 members and 22 adherents. Still, the rasping experiences of fifteen years had not destroyed the congregation's resolve to hold on, though they were willing to be reduced to a mission station. On this footing sermon was kept up in the old place till loth September 1844, when the Presbytery agreed that it would not be expedient to ask further supply of preachers for Lanark. " This conclusion was come to with great hesitation and much regret." Still the people held together, and next year the Rev. George Arnot, formerly of Crossford, occupied their pulpit, but without ecclesiastical recognition. There was even an attempt made to have the cause reorganised under his pastoral care, but as his ministerial status was not attested it came to nothing. The building afterwards passed over to the Evangelical Union, and in this connection it is well attended. The party that withdrew from Mr Harper's ministry in 1827 and obtained sermon from the Original Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh built a church, with 273 sittings, in 1829. They obtained a minister in 1831, but his stipend was only ^60, and in three years he emigrated to Australia. He was succeeded by Mr Peter R. Sawers, who, along with the congregation, joined the Church of Scotland in 1839. Was translated to Newcastle in March 1840, and in the end was widely known as Free Church minister of Gar- gunnock. The congregation after Mr Sawers left "found it expedient to discontinue public worship," and the church stood unoccupied for years. At the Disruption the parish minister, the Rev. William Menzies, whose be- ginnings are given under the next heading, though a decided non-intrusionist, PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 415 remained in the Establishment. It followed that the Free Church in Lanark was comparatively weak at first, and they met in the Old Light place of worship for a long course of years. This winds up the history of the two parties which constituted what was once the Burgher congregation ot Lanark. LANARK, BLOOMGATE (RELIEF) ON 27th December 1793 Mr William Menzies, a decidedly evangelica preacher, was ordained minister of Lanark. The Crown in issuing the presentation had been influenced by some leading people who had the best interests of the parish at heart, but the fact that the bulk of the parishioners had neither seen nor heard the presentee furnished material for the spirit of discontent to work upon. In little more than a year this came to a point through the young minister having secured the adoption of " the run line " in the service of praise. On i8th March 1795 a remonstrance subscribed by too persons was laid before the kirk session urging that " singing without reading the line is prejudicial to many old people and the blind," and that " the old method can be detrimental to none, and therefore ought to be esteemed preferable by all." That paper having gone for nothing the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow, in response to the expressed wishes of certain persons in Lanark, appointed them sermon on the fourth Sabbath of April, and the adherents of the cause were recognised as a forming congregation on 29th June thereafter. A church was opened in the following year, built at a cost of over ^1200, with sittings for 960. In September 1796 a call was addressed to Mr Edward Dobbie, but he declined, and was ordained soon after at Mainsriddell. The next modera- tion found the people in a greatly divided state, and though Mr Decision Laing obtained a majority the call came to nothing, and Wamphray became his first charge. In September 1798 Lanark congregation was proceeding to procure a minister in what the Presbytery considered a lawless way. They had invited a stranger to occupy their pulpit as a candidate, but on applying for a moderation they were told they had acted contrary to Church order, and could receive no countenance from the Presbytery until they acknowledged their offence. This was met at next meeting by a penitent letter, and Lanark congregation was thereupon " restored to the Presbytery's care and protection." The same case, as we assume, came up with an altered front in June 1799, when the Rev. James Wood, Presbyterian minister of Falstone, Northumberland, petitioned the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow for admission. At another meeting three weeks afterwards he appeared personally, amply certified, but several Presbyteries refused their con- currence. Glasgow Presbytery had been informed, moreover, that Mr Wood meant to connect himself with the Relief only on condition of Lanark people giving him a unanimous call and also such temporal support as he had specified. This they characterised as a shameful trafficking with that congregation, and the case was referred to the Synod ; but that involved eleven months' delay, and it is never again met with.* First Minister. -JOHN M'FARLANE, from Canal Street, Paisley. The call came out in December 1799, so that the negotiations with Mr Wood * James Wood was ordained at Falstone in 1782 or 1783. Within three years of his application for admission to the Relief he was elected to the parish of Calton, Glasgow, and inducted in due time. His demission was accepted, 3rd August 1803, as he had decided to return to his former charge at Falstone, where he died, I2th September 1815. He was described as a "judicious, eloquent, and faithful preacher." The Rev. Dr J. Julius Wood of Dumfries was a grandson of his. 416 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS must have been cancelled long before the meeting of Synod to which the case was referred. Mr M'Farlane was ordained, 3oth April 1800. Under their first minister, though there is nothing from which we can gather that he was a man of remarkable gifts, the congregation acquired great strength, and must have overshadowed the other dissenting churches in the place. Mr M'Farlane died, 4th June 1835, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. The roll of members and adherents, according to a History of Lanark, increased in his time from 80 to uoo, a statement which derives confirmation from what occurred when a successor came to be chosen. Second Minister. JOHN W. BORLAND, from Hutchesontown, Glasgow. The proceedings at the moderation, and the rupture which followed, are given under Hope Street congregation, which originated at this time. Mr Borland was ordained, i;th June 1836, and the rival candidate was placed over the other party four months later. Before the end of the year Mr Borland reported the number of his communicants to be about 900, of whom nearly 200 were from Lesmahagow parish, and four-fifths of that number from other parishes, such as Carluke, Carstairs, and Carnwath. The stipend was .150, and the enlarging of the meeting-house in 1830 to afford 1085 sittings had entailed a debt of ^700. Some years after this the entire debt was liquidated. Each Wednesday evening the minister had classes for adults with an attendance of nearly 200, but that was when he had been only a few months in office. On 3Oth July 1844 Mr Borland was loosed from Bloomgate on accepting a call to a congregation in Glasgow, which developed into what is now Gillespie Church. Third Minister. PETER MACFARLANE, B.A., from Thread Street, Pais- ley. Ordained, iyth July 1845. Was loosed from his charge, 4th November 1856, his health having to appearance permanently given way. He then removed to Rothesay, where, on gradually regaining strength, he came to be relied on for regular assistance to the Rev. Samuel M'Nab. This passed into a fixed relationship and a long and successful pastorate. Bloomgate congregation during this vacancy called Mr Matthew Crawford, but he declined, and a few months afterwards was ordained over Sanquhar (South). Fourth Minister. JOHN M'LUCKIE, from Campsie. Ordained, 4th August 1858, and loosed, I2th December 1864, on accepting a call to the newly-formed congregation of Uddingston. Fifth Minister. DANIEL M'LEAN, son of the Rev. Daniel M'Lean, Largs. Ordained for Jamaica, 23rd December 1856, and became minister of Hampden congregation,* where he did valuable work, and where his name is still revered. Returned home owing to failure of health in 1864, and was inducted to Bloomgate Church, 25th July 1865. The stipend was ^150, and a manse was superadded soon after at a cost of ^720, of which the Manse Board contributed one-third. On Thursday, 2ist October 1875, a new church, with 520 sittings, was opened by Professor Cairns, when the * Hampden was the oldest and largest of our Jamaica churches, the place of worship accommodating over 1000. Mr M'Lean was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Downie, under whom the cause continued to prosper. Mr Downie was from College Street, Edinburgh. After a pastorate of seven years in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, he was appointed by the Mission Board to Jamaica, failure of voice requiring a change of climate, and was inducted to Hampden on igth April 1867. There he laboured fourteen years, but had to retire in 1881 owing to his wife's impaired health. The statistics for 1880 gave a membership of 755, a session of 23, with eight week-day schools, attended by 874 children. The income for the year was 457, and the stipend .300. Mr Downie since his return home has been chaplain to Morningside Asylum, and is an elder in Viewforth Church, Edinburgh. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 417 collection amounted to ,324. In 1878 only a debt of .750 remained, which was cleared off in three years. Mr M'Lean possessed scholarly attainments, and at the election to the Hebrew Chair of the U.P. Hall in May 1876 he had considerable support. Some time before this he published a volume of Expository Lectures on certain of the Messianic Psalms. He died, 7th October 1878, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM LOGAN, M.A., from East Campbell Street, Glasgow, son of Mr William Logan, a name long associated in that city with philanthropic work and far-reaching benevolence. Ordained, loth April 1879, having declined Wallsend and Banchory. The membership at the end of that year was 346, being slightly under that of Hope Street, and the stipend was 170, with the manse. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 461, and a stipend of ^210, and the manse. LANARK, HOPE STREET (RELIEF) AT the moderation in the Relief church, Lanark, on I7th March 1836 Mr Borland had 595 votes, while 347 were given to Mr George Johnston. Alongside of the call, which came up to the Presbytery with about 900 signatures, including adherents, there was a petition with about 700 names praying to be received as a forming congregation. This was at once agreed to, the Presbytery no doubt considering that a church with a membership of iioo could well afford to divide. The minority met at first in the United Secession place of worship, which they filled to overcrowding, and of which they had the occupancy each Sabbath from 2 to 5-30, but they proceeded at once to have a church built for themselves, with 800 sittings, of which the foundation stone was laid, a6th July. First Minister. GEORGE JOHNSTON, from Duns (South). Ordained, 3rd October 1836, the stipend to be ^120. A debt of ,700 on the building was long a heavy burden to the congregation, but the Liquidation Board reported to the Synod in 1860 that it was entirely cleared away. The membership at this time was 300, consisting, with few exceptions, of working people, but by hearty and combined exertions according to their ability they had raised ^500. All that remained now was to claim and receive the ,200 promised by the Board, and the work was crowned by a thanksgiving service on the communion Monday. Mr Johnston died, I3th June 1878, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. Lanark Presbytery testified in their Minutes that "he was a man who possessed great vigour of understanding, strength of judgment, and clear- ness of apprehension " ; that "he was mighty in the Scriptures" ; and that " his discourses were always marked with strong sense, if not with great beauty, and, while they took a wide range, they never lost sight of the Cross." Second Minister. WILLIAM W. DAWSON, from Kent Road, Glasgow. Ordained, 27th February 1879. Mr Alexander of Douglas presided, and gave the charge to the minister in long lines of blank verse. The address, which passed into print, takes in the whole round of ministerial duty, and evinces remarkable command of harmonious numbers. The membership at this time was 305, the roll having been recently purified, and the stipend was ,200, including house rent. In 1884 the building of a manse was pro- ceeded with at a cost of ,800, the Board furnishing one-fourth. At the close of 1899 the membership was 320, and the stipend .180, with the manse. The two congregations in Lanark have gone on for upwards of II. 2D 4 i8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS sixty years side by side, but Bloomgate has for the most part, though not always, kept the lead both in numbers and in resources. BRAEHEAD (BURGHER) ON 24th April 1798 some people about Carn \vath Muir, members of Long- ridge congregation, applied to the Burgher Presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk for sermon, and Mr Brown, their minister, was to preach to them on an early Sabbath. On 5th June another petition to the same effect came up from 153 persons, mostly heads of families, in the muirlands of Carnwath and Carstairs, but not yet in communion with the Secession. The com- missioner was John Shaw, a farmer in the locality, and the design of the whole movement was the formation of a new congregation. Though Mr Brown and his session intimated their hearty concurrence, the Presbytery had difficulties owing to a station having been opened a year before at Carn- wath, "which was likely to be essentially injured by the erection at Brae- head." A coalescence was now advised, Carnwath people being told that they should "rather join Braehead than overstrain themselves." This was agreed to, and that same year a church was built at Braehead, with accom- modation for 500, very much through the exertions of William Sommerville, Esq. of Coven Hill. In June 1799 tne young cause was strengthened by the annexation of 21 members from Cambusnethan Church, and in Novem- ber a moderation was applied for, the stipend promised being ,70, with a house or ^10 instead It was also stated that they contemplated taking a piece of ground for a glebe large enough to keep a horse and two cows, and, on condition that this should be given gratis to the minister, the moderation was granted. The result was a call, signed by 143 members and 179 adherents, to Mr James Blackwood, but the Synod in May appointed him to Galston. This was followed a year later by a call to Mr William Smart, but Paisley was assigned him as a more befitting field of labour. The regular hearers signing the call in this case were 208. First Minister. WILLIAM HORNE, from Falkirk (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 2ist September 1802, and laboured on in Braehead for thirty years. But by this time the members of the congregation residing in the Dale, as it was called, were tired of the long journey to Braehead on Sabbath, and erected a church at Carnwath. Their wish was to have this made the centre of the congregation, a proposal to which the people in the upland division would not agree. The Presbytery suggested to have unity pre- served by keeping both Braehead and Carnwath under Mr Home's ministry, the services to be regulated according to situation and circumstances. Parties were met with, but the recommendation was rejected, though Mr Fleming of West Calder laid before them "every consideration that was fitted to induce acquiescence." On i6th October 1832 a petition from two elders and 41 members to be disjoined from Braehead along with their minister, and formed into a congregation at Carnwath, was granted by the Presbytery. Second Minister. JOHN M'LELLAN, from Broughton Place, Edinburgh, but a native of Perthshire. Ordained, 27th August 1833. The call was signed by 117 members and 41 adherents, and the stipend was the same as before ,70, with manse, garden, and glebe, the people reserving their right to the plot of ground for a tent at the communion. In 1845 the present church was built at a cost of ,378, exclusive of old material. The member- ship at this time was slightly over 200. That year ,350 of the expenditure was met, with the aid of ,100 from the Liquidation Board, and what of debt remained on the property, part of it from former days, gradually melted PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 419 away. On 4th November 1845 Mr M'Lellan demitted his charge, having accepted an appointment to go to Australia under the Mission Board. On the 1 8th the demission was accepted, but he was wishful to occupy the pulpit till it was time to leave, and the kind offer was welcomed by Presby- tery and congregation. America, however, became his destination, and on 1 8th May 1847 he was inducted as minister of Detroit, Canada West. He died there, 23rd October 1876, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. During the vacancy which followed there were two anomalous calls issued. At a Presbytery meeting in March 1846 a moderation was applied for. which issued in a formal invitation to Mr M'Lellan to settle down anew at Braehead, with the same provision as before, it being understood that the appointment to Australia had lapsed. It turned out, however, that though the call was technically unanimous a want of harmony prevailed, and, Mr M'Lellan having intimated to the Presbytery his resolution not to accept, permission was given to withdraw it. A year afterwards the con- gregation cut before the point by calling Mr Robert Anderson, a Relief preacher, though the union between the two denominations was not yet con- summated. The call, none the less, was sustained without difficulty by the Presbytery, but was declined, and Mr Anderson became colleague and successor to his father at Kilsyth. Third Minister. ALEXANDER BANKS, M.A., from Saltcoats (now Trinity Church), a brother of the Rev. James Banks, then of Paisley. Or- dained, 1 8th January 1848. The call was signed by 154 members, which was 38 more than on last occasion, and there were also 59 adherents. The stipend from the people was the same as it had been from the beginning ,70, with manse and glebe, but a supplement of ^15 was expected from the Synod Fund. In the latter part of Mr M'Lellan's time the membership, which rose as high as 230 in 1837, declined considerably, owing in part to the stoppage of the Wilsontown Ironworks, but under Mr Banks there was a marked turn of the tide, and about the year 1860 the names on the com- munion roll numbered 264. The funds, moreover, yielded a stipend of ^120 or .130, besides expenses, so that the supplement looked for was not required. The old manse was replaced in 1866 at a cost of ^800, of which ^500 was raised by the minister or the people, and ,300 came from the Board. But within the last three dozen years old sources of supply have been cut off by the formation of churches round the old outskirts of the con- gregation, such as Forth and Wilsontown, Hay wood and Auchengray. The membership at the close of 1899 was no, and the stipend from the people ^70, the same as in former days. ROBERTON (RELIEF) Ix the Old Statistical History Roberton appears as a parish which had been annexed to the neighbouring parish of Wiston in 1772. The sparseness of the population suggested a measure of this kind, but the suppression was none the less -distasteful to the parishioners generally, besides causing them inconvenience. In 1786 a minister was ordained over the united parish, who is described as having been unpopular in the pulpit and unamiable out of it. This prepared the way for an accession to the Relief Presbyter)' of Glasgow on 1 4th August 1799, and the opening of a station at the village of Roberton on the first Sabbath of September. The Rev. James Hall of Rose Street Secession Church, Edinburgh, is said to have broken ground at Roberton in .the dissenting interest prior to this, but through the influence of several 420 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS families connected, with Biggar Relief church, nine miles off, for whom Roberton would be more convenient, application was made to that body for sermon, and in 1801 a church was built, with sittings for 400. First Minister. GEORGE CA\IPBELL, from Greenock, but not Sir Michael Street, as is stated in Dr M'Kelvie's Annals, that congregation not being in existence till 1806, whereas Mr Campbell was ordained, I2th May 1802. He had probably been brought up in the Established Church, but he acceded to the Relief when a student, and obtained licence from Glasgow Presbytery. In 1808 he received a call to Newlands, but the people failed to send com- missioners for its prosecution, and it lapsed. Situated in a pastoral district, the congregation never became numerous, and in 1834 the parish minister put the number of dissenting families within his bounds at 42, while the stipend he believed to be not over .40. To this it was answered that the ^80 promised at first had b2en raised to ^100 since then, besides manse and glebe. Mr Campbell died, i6th November 1847, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. His son, the Rev. George O. Campbell, was latterly minister of Arthur Street, Edinburgh, and one of his daughters was the mother of the Rev. William Morison, Rosehall, Edinburgh. Second Minister. ROBERT D. SCOTT, from Sir Michael Street, Greenock. Ordained as colleague to Mr Campbell, I5th April 1845. The Presbytery in reporting his ordination to the Synod added that aid would be required by this congregation with its two ministers, and the grant was fixed at ^20 a year. After the death of Mr Campbell it .became self-supporting, and con- tinued so till, under the Augmentation Scheme, it was included in the list of supplemented churches. For a number of years about this time the com- munion roll kept slightly under 120, but with a tendency to decline, and the people furnished a stipend of ,87, ios., which was raised from other sources,, including ,40 from the Ferguson Bequest, to ^197, ios., besides the manse. In 1889 Mr Scott, under advancing years, had to be provided with a colleague, but was to have the occupancy of the manse. He died, loth January 1894, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. His life at Roberton was portrayed in next month's magazine by a lady's pen, as we infer both from the style and the initials. She testified that they were no common sermons that were preached at Roberton to the farm folks and summer visitors, and tells how hearers came from Tinto's broad shoulders and along the meadows from Lamington and Abington. She added : " It is a beautiful life that is now closed, and a consistent one ; lived in daily and hourly view of the villagers, yet losing neither power nor dignity from its familiar intercourse." Third Minister. THOMAS W. PATERSON, from Carnwath, a family name of long standing in that congregation. Ordained, 3oth July 1889, as col- league and successor to Mr Scott. Roberton, like so many churches in rural districts, had been for years on the declining scale, so that the membership was now under 100, and the people had their portion of the stipend reduced to .50. On 1 8th September 1900 Mr Paterson was loosed from Roberton on accepting a call to Mid-Calder. Even under a young and vigorous ministry the congregation had declined to 90 ; but the funds had improved so that they furnished ^73 of stipend instead of ^50, and ^30 for missionary and benevolent purposes besides. The population of the parish, which was 940 in 1831, had now decreased to a little over 400. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 421 CLIMPY (RELIEF) WILSONTOWN is a village in Carnwath parish six miles N.N.E. of Carmvath village, where the parish church stands. It was a flourishing place in the year 1808, with a population of over 2000. Climpy is situated about a mile to the north-west, and a letter, of date 6th August 1 808, from George Craw- ford, Esq., the proprietor, to the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh, explains the origin of the congregation there. The writer states that he had, at least, 1 50 families employed upon his estate, consisting of miners, lime-workers, and labourers, that owing to the distance from the parish church he had built a place of worship for their accommodation at his own expense, which he wished the Presbytery to appoint one of their number to open as soon as convenient. This was big with promise which never reached fulfilment. First and only Minister. JOSEPH PURDIE, from Peeblesshire. Called unanimously by the proprietor and the congregation of Climpy, as the Edinburgh Advertiser put it, and ordained, I7th April 1810. The stipend was to be .100, with house, garden, four and a half acres of ground, ^4 for each communion, and ten tons of coal in the year. The paper was signed by 39 persons, some of them women, and among the names of the nine managers is that of George Crawford of Climpy. The collapse was sudden and complete. Owing to the stoppage of the Wilsontown Ironworks upwards of 100 families were discharged the week after the ordination, and the greater part of these were connected with the new church. The proprietor now came in with a claim for ^900 to repay him for his outlay, and wished the managers to sign a bill owning obligation to that extent. This was not agreed to, and when bankruptcy ensued the building and glebe were brought to the hammer, which " lessened the respectability of the Climpy church." In less than three years, owing to failure of trade and the draining away of population, the stipend was more than ,100 in arrears, and on 23rd February 1813 Mr Purdie, believing the cause to be hopeless, resigned. He stated that not more than 20 or 30 had been in attendance since the works stopped, and that sermon was regularly kept up at Wilsontown by other parties, so that Climpy church might be dispensed with. At next meeting, on 3oth March, no commissioner appeared, and Mr Purdie was loosed from his charge. All we know further is that Mr Wood, formerly minister of the Antiburgher church at Rattray, went over occasionally from Bathgate to conduct Sabbath services at Climpy about the year 1817. In 1863, when I was located in the district, the deserted walls were all that remained of what was once a Relief church. Mr Purdie was inducted into Pittenweem, his second charge, in July 1814. DOUGLAS (BURGHER) THIS name appears only once in the early records of the Secession. This was on 2ist July 1741, when some persons in Douglas adhered to a former accession from the neighbouring parish of Lesmahagow. But the hold seems to have been lost ere long, and in the list of twenty-two parishes, whose names appear on the Cambusnethan baptismal roll, we look in vain for that of Douglas. In 1785 a petition for sermon was presented to the Antiburgher Presbytery of Glasgow from 15 persons in Douglas, but this came to little. In 1793 the parish minister reported the Seceders within his territories to consist of 3 Antiburghers and 40 Cameronians. The next move came from the Burgher side in 1810, when the Presbytery of Lanark, understanding that there was an opening at Douglas " for the introduction 422 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of the glorious gospel," appointed Mr Brown of Biggar to preach there a Sabbath in the course of that summer. In 1815 evangelistic operations were resumed. Young men of mark followed in the early part of 1816, and the Secession cause got a hold of that old Covenanting centre, which it has never lost. In March of that year a petition from a number of people, " friends of evangelical religion in Douglas," expressed gratitude for services already given them, and in July they requested supply once a fortnight. On Tuesday, 2nd December, they were formed into a congregation with a membership of 32, and in May following elders were ordained. In the summer of 1817 they were requiring aid in the erecting of a place of worship, with 360 sittings, and they twice obtained a donation of 10 from the Synod. In May 1819, when a moderation was applied for, there was a membership of 70, and the stipend was pressed up by the Presbyter)' to .100, which was certain to overtax their resources. First Minister. JOHN JAMIESON, from Tarbolton. Ordained, 22nd August 1820, so that at the Union of the two great branches of the Secession Mr Jamieson was the Benjamin of the Burgher Synod. A year after this the Supreme Court granted ^10 to Douglas for the erecting of galleries in the church. This spoke of enlarged attendances, and in 1840 the Debt Liquidating Board reported a membership of nearly 170. A debt of ,275 they were clearing off at this time, the people raising by their own exertions half the sum required. But a Free church was organised in Douglas a few years after, and in 1848 the number of communicants was down to 140, the stipend from the people being ^65, with a manse and a supplement of ,30. On 3rd November 1863 Mr Jamieson, owing to age and infirmity, tendered his resignation, which was accepted, the people testifying to his long and faithful labours among them. They also agreed to pay him ,30 a year, of which he relinquished ^5 soon after. He died at Berwick, 6th November 1874, in the eighty-eighth year of his age and fifty-fifth of his ministerial life. Second Minister. JAMES RONALD, from Cambridge Street, Glasgow. Ordained, 3rd January 1865. The call was signed by 87 members and 41 adherents. Mr Ronald accepted a call to Annan on 5th December 1871, leaving Douglas with a membership of 112, and a manse considerably im- proved with the aid of a grant under the Manse Scheme. In March follow- ing the congregation called Mr John Elder, who declined, and afterwards obtained Busby. The stipend from the people was now to be ,50, besides the allowance to the retired minister. This, with ^60 of supplement and ,40 from the Ferguson Bequest Fund, would make ,150, besides the manse and what the surplus might yield. Next they called Mr James Drummond, but openings of a more inviting kind presented themselves, and Alexandria became his choice. Third Minister. ALEXANDER C. ALEXANDER, from Lochee. Or- dained, igth December 1872. In this quiet sphere Mr Alexander was to mature for work of a weightier kind, and on I4th August 1883 he accepted a call to Stoke Newington, London, where he was labouring at the time of the recent Union, with a stipend of ,450. Fourth Minister. ROBERT D. B. GEMMELL, M.A., son of the Rev. Robert Gemmell, Arthur Street, Edinburgh. Ordained, 29th April 1884. At the close of 1899 the members were returned at 91, and the stipend from the people was ^55, and the manse. As the population of Douglas parish is not much over 2000, with a Free church in the village and another at Douglas Water, decided increase is not to be expected. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 423 CARNWATH (UNITED SECESSION) ACCESSIONS to the Associate Presbytery from this parish date as early as i/th June 1741, the day of Mr Clarkson's ordination at Craigmailen, when 16 persons from about Henshehvood wished to be placed under his pastorate till such time as Providence should favour them with gospel ordinances more conveniently situated. Cambusnethan, at a later period, had a branch of its membership from the western division of the parish. After a Burgher church was commenced at Biggar the families from about Carnwath village gave attendance there, involving a Sabbath day's journey of fourteen miles going and returning. This continued for nearly forty years, but on 3oth May 1797 certain persons from Carnwath, not of the Secession communion, applied to the Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh for sermon. Biggar session on being consulted declined to give positive concurrence, but they would not oppose temporary supply, which was accordingly granted. This was followed in September 1 798 by Biggar session referring to the Presbytery an applica- tion for disjunctions from a number of their members residing in Carnwath, while the managers represented that, if these families were disjoined, they would be unable to pay their minister the stipend promised. The case having been referred to the Synod it was decided that to withhold disjunc- tions would not be to the advantage of Biggar congregation, and the session was instructed to grant them on arrears of seat rents being paid up. But instead of Carnwath being made the seat of a Burgher congregation Brae- head got the preference by a counter-movement, and thither the families about Carnwath had to resort for gospel ordinances, the distance being about three miles. While matters were in this transition state an attempt was made to originate a Relief church in the village, and sermon was kept up in that connection from 1798 to 1801, when supply was discontinued. Dissent seems to have had no further foothold in the place for a generation, but in September 1831 the Original Burghers opened a preaching station there, and after going on for a year 45 persons petitioned to have sermon continued, representing, however, that they could not pay the preacher more than los. each Sabbath. On 26th February 1833 the Presbytery withdrew supply, as the people found it impossible to support the gospel. But the United Secession congregation was now working its way into existence, to take deeper root, and retain permanent possession. In 1832 the families that had travelled so long up the heights to Braehead erected a place of worship in their own village, with its 800 inhabitants, and on 4th September they petitioned Lanark Presbytery to have the seat of the congregation trans- ferred thither. After this proved impracticable the families from about Carnwath craved to be disjoined from Braehead along with their minister and formed into a distinct congregation. Those in the northern division now stated that to all appearance they would be unable to support Mr Home if the Carnwath families were permitted to withdraw, while the petitioners declared they would do all in their power to provide him with a suitable maintenance. The minister thereupon expressed himself in favour of being transplanted, and the disjunction, as is stated more fully under Braehead, was agreed to on i6th October 1832. Disputes about money matters gave trouble for some time, but, worse still, Mr Home in a few months found his situation in Carnwath so dis- couraging that he demitted his charge. Commissioners from the congrega- tion appeared at next meeting, on 2nd April 1833, and expressed strong affection for their minister, but confessed their inability to remove the cause of his resignation, and he on his part, though his attachment to his people 42 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS was unchanged, had firmly resolved to emigrate, as he knew it was beyond their power to afford him adequate support. Thus amidst mutual regrets the connection was dissolved, and Mr Home sailed for Canada. Next year he was settled in Caledonia, Indiana, where he remained till October 1848. He then retired under heart disease to his son's house in Yorktown, Delaware County, and died suddenly on iyth December following, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-seventh of his ministry. Dr Scouller states that he had just finished writing a magazine article on The Use of the Moral Law, which was afterwards published, when he breathed his last. Carnwath congregation, having taken some time to gather up anew, called Mr John Inglis, promising a stipend of ^75, including a house and sacramental expenses, but having ascertained that Mr Inglis had accepted Hamilton they went no further. Second Minister. JAMES BARRIE, from Perth (Wilson Church). Or- dained, 2nd September 1835. In August 1844 a question about reuniting Carnwath and Braehead came before the Presbytery from the Debt Liquidating Board. A year before this Mr Barrie had stated to -his brethren that he was willing either to continue in his charge or demit, as might be thought best. The congregation now sent in a Minute, expressing their aversion to any change in present arrangements. It was true, they ex- plained, that the two churches were not more than three miles apart ; but a large number of Carnwath congregation were double that distance from Braehead, and a larger proportion of Braehead congregation were still more remote from Carnwath. Mr Barrie now fell back on his former offer, but he was recommended to remain in his present charge, and the affair closed with a grant of ^100 from the Board, which enabled the congregation to clear off their entire debt of ,240, and make a fresh start. Their worthy minister died, ist February 1864, in the sixty-second year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry, after a long period of declining strength. Third Minister. JOHN BLAIR, from Biggar (now Gillespie Church). Ordained, 6th September 1864, the stipend to be ^85. In 1865 the present commodious manse was built at a cost of ^862, the Board allowing ^275. At the close of 1899 the membership was 94, and the stipend from the people ^80, with some slight allowances. In 1880 Mr Blair published a beautiful and touching Memoir of his only child, a remarkable boy, early left motherless, who died after a brief, sharp illness in his tenth year. CROSSFORD (UNITED SECESSION) THIS village is in the parish of Lesmahagow, and about five miles from Lanark and Stonehouse, old centres of the Secession. On 2oth July 1829 a petition signed by no persons in Crossford and its neighbourhood was laid before the Secession Presbytery of Lanark. Not one of the petitioners belonged to the denomination, but they wished to have sermon for a few Sabbaths by way of experiment. Notice was given to the sessions of Lanark, Stonehouse, and Cambusnethan, and also to that of Blackswell, Hamilton, which still retained some hold of the district. Of these, the first and the last offered no objections, while Stonehouse cordially approved, though they believed the movement would diminish their numbers. Cam- busnethan also desired the petition to be granted, though more than 20 of their members were nearer Crossford. Accordingly, services were begun on the fifth Sabbath of August, and after that there was regular supply. Lanark congregation was in trouble at the time, and the names of the commissioners indicate that several of the dissatisfied became leaders in PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 425 the new formation at Crossford. On the first Sabbath of April 1832 the place of worship, built at a cost of ,350, was opened, with 350 sittings, and next day 49 members were congregated. First Minister. GEORGE ARXOT, from Inverkeithing. Ordained, 6th August 1833, a call from Whitehaven having been set aside. In the absence of the minister appointed to preach the Rev. Ebenezer Brown of Inver- keithing took his place. The stipend was to be ^80, with the promise of a house and sacramental expenses as soon as in their power. Much was expected of the young minister, but within four years a meeting of Presby- tery was called to deal with him about an act of serious self-forgetfulness when assisting at Mid-Calder communion. Confession was followed by rebuke and suspension, but at next meeting 142 members and 104 adherents petitioned for Mr Arnot's restoration. The request was granted, ministers and people making large allowances for physical or nervous weakness, and all inclining to hope for the best. But in October 1839 a like charge was found established. A pledge of entire abstinence for the future was offered, but a paper from the elders and managers declared that their ministers usefulness was at an end. Amidst Presbyterial negotiations Mr Arnot expressed his willingness to resign, but when his brethren took him at his word and dissolved the connection he appealed to the Synod. When the case came before the Supreme Court there was a petition forward from 76 members in favour of his continuance in his charge, and another from 71 against it. On 17th June 1840 the protest was dismissed, the com- missioners having previously engaged to raise a subscription for Mr Arnot's benefit. He was afterwards restored to his status as a preacher, and had charge of a shattered cause in Lanark for a time. He finally acted as a teacher about Inverkeithing, and died there, i6th April 1861, in the sixty- first year of his age. In 1845 Mr Arnot published his " Theocracy of the Bible," a series of letters to an East Lothian proprietor, the author of a rude all-sided attack on Christianity. The latter book found its way to Kinness- wood nearly sixty years ago, but I have never seen nor heard of it since. Second Minister. SLOAXE S. CHRISTIE, from Belfast. Ordained, 5th May 1841, having preferred Crossford to Letham. The membership must have suffered by recent convulsions, but the call was signed by 105 members and 30 adherents, and the stipend was the same as before. The magazine in reporting the ordination added that Springbank Cottage had been pur- chased for a manse, and that Crossford, like the orchards around, was again appearing in blossom. But Mr Christie died, 7th May 1842, his ministry having lasted only two days beyond a year. There was now a longer vacancy, and the stipend instead of 80 was to be ^70, with the manse and garden. The first call came out for Mr Thomas Pearson, who was already on trials for Galston, but afterwards accepted Eyemouth. Third Minister. ALEXANDER D. KININMONT, from Broughton Place, Edinburgh. Ordained, ist November 1843, having declined Broughty Ferry. In 1845 the debt of .190 was cleared off, with the aid of ,90 from the Liquidation Fund. Mr Kininmont was loosed from his charge, 26th June 1849, on accepting a call to Kirkgate, Leith. Fourth Minister. JOHN WEIR, from Cumnock. Ordained, 24th April 1850. The call was signed by 1 10 members and 27 adherents, and the stipend from the people was ,75, which was raised by supplement to jioo, but without a house. Mr Weir when a probationer preached with popular effect, and it was to be expected that Crossford would prosper under him. We find accordingly that in the course of a dozen years the debt of .233, incurred, it is presumed, in obtaining a manse, had been removed, with the aid of ^75 from the Board, and the name was dropped from the list of 426 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS supplemented congregations. It happened, however, that about this time the current of Mr Weir's official life was disturbed, and, though he continued to hold his post for another dozen years, his resignation was accepted on 8th June 1875. The membership at this time was nearly 200, though the con- gregation was not prepared to promise his successor more than ^82 of stipend. Mr Weir, whom the bequest of a wealthy lady had placed in easy circumstances, now went to reside at Kilmaurs, where he was available for pulpit supply. Later on he removed to Ayr, where he joined the member- ship of Cathcart Street Church. He died, I3th August 1900, in the seventy- ninth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministerial life. Fifth Minister. JOHN PRINGLE, B.A., son of the Rev. Dr Pringle, Auchterarder, which implies that he was trained to scholarship from his earliest days. Ordained, 5th January 1876. Like so many other country congregations Crossford has declined in numbers since then, though the funds have improved. The membership at the close of 1899 was 135, and the stipend from the people ^95, with the manse. CARLUKE (RELIEF) THE parish minister of Carluke from 1763 to 1812 was Dr Scott, a Moderate, and something more. It has. at least, been stated that when Mr Walker, afterwards of Carnwath, was ordained as his successor he found that one direct fruit of his ministry was the existence of a small Unitarian Society in Carluke.* Since 1818 Dr Wylie had been the minister, whose sympathies were with the Rev. John M'Leod Campbell at the time of the Row Contro- versy. In reply to an application from Carluke to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow on 4th September 1832 Mr Harvey of the Gallon was appointed to- preach there on Sabbath week. The large audiences gave promise of success, and on 6th November the petitioners were received as a forming congregation. At the laying of the foundation stone of the new church there was a document deposited, from which we learn the reasons assigned for leaving the Church of Scotland. Besides general corruption they complained of the civil magistrate's interference with matters purely spiritual, and emphasised the grievance of Lay Patronage. The church was opened on I7th November 1833 by the Rev. Peter Brown of Wishaw. It was seated for at least 770, but the cost is not given. First Minister. JAMES JARVIE, from Anderston, Glasgow. Ordained, 28th October 1834. At the moderation the voters were much divided, there being for Mr Jarvie 103 ; for Mr Alexander Watson, afterwards of Dron and Newburgh, 101 ; and for Mr James Hamilton, afterwards of Largo, 36. Under the Relief system there was no second vote, so that Mr Jarvie was declared chosen. The stipend was to be ^100, with ^5 in name of expenses. On 28th March 1837 Mr Jarvie accepted a call to Kelso (East). Second Minister. ALEXANDER NEILSON, from John Street, Glasgow. Ordained, nth October 1837, having declined Castle-Douglas some time before. In the early part of 1839 the membership was given as not under 500, and the stipend was ,110. At this time the Original Burgher con- gregation in the place, which was older by thirty years, had only 320 com- municants. On 8th June 1869 Lanark Presbytery appointed supply for Mr Neilson's pulpit, as a letter from him bore that he was seriously ill. Their next meeting was at Carluke on his funeral day. He died, 2ist August, in the sixtieth year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. * British and Foreign for 1857, p. 867. PRESBYTERY OF LANARK 427 Third Minister. J. R. HOUSTON, from Dysart, where he had been ordained nearly eight years before. Inducted, 28th June 1870. At the moderation fully a third of the votes went to the Rev. James Allison, then of Oxendon, London, but the call was signed by 368 members. In the beginning of 1873 ^ r Houston declined North Richmond Street, Edinburgh, but on gth October 1877 he accepted a call to the recently-formed con- gregation of Greenfield, Govan. Fourth Minister. ANDREW ALSTON, translated from Govanhill, Glasgow, his second charge, which he had held for only fifteen months. In- ducted, 3oth April 1878. Here he had a large, well-compacted congregation to work with, and a stipend of ,300, and a manse. The membership at the close of 1899 was 530, and the emoluments as before. LESMAHAGOW (RELIEF) IN 1691 this extensive parish had the good fortune to obtain the Rev. Thomas Lining as its minister, one of the little Cameronian party who acceded to the General Assembly at the Revolution. Mr Lining filled the first charge till his death in 1733, an d after a few years his nephew was admitted to the second charge. But though evangelical preaching was kept up in the Established Church the old covenanting spirit lingered, and on 6th November 1739 a Praying Society in the parish acceded to the Associate Presbytery. For some time the names of Lesmahagow and Lanark were conjoined, but not till 1741 is there mention of sermon being appointed to either place. In September 1743 the community of Lesma- hagow sought union with East Kilbride, the design being to call a minister conjointly, though the places are about fifteen miles apart. After this they had sermon for themselves occasionally, and for some years after the Breach the name appears at intervals in the list of preaching appointments made by the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow. But no ordination ever took place either at East Kilbride or at Lesmahagow, and both names are finally lost sight of. After Burgher congregations were organised at Lanark and Stone- house, Lesmahagow families adhering to that branch of the Secession would find the rights of membership within comparatively easy reach. In April 1 805 a petition was presented to the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow from a number of people in the parish of Lesmahagow craving supply, and assign- ing as the reason their distance from any place of worship in connection with the Secession. The sessions of Lanark and Stonehouse offered no objections, but there were no probationers available until the Synod, and the movement seems to have lapsed almost at once. It was in connection with the Relief Church that the U.P. congregation of Lesmahagow had its origin. On 26th July 1836 Mr M'Lay of Strathaven brought this place under the notice of Glasgow Presbytery as a very promising field for a preaching station, and at next meeting he reported that evening services had been carried on there for the last four Sabbaths, and laid on the table a petition subscribed by 30 male heads of families craving supply of sermon. From this time forth there was constant supply of preachers at Lesmahagow, and on 7th November 1837 the congregation was formed, consisting of 71 members, 12 of whom were from Relief churches, and most of the others from the Establishment. The church, with 724 sittings, had been so far finished in the beginning of the year as to accommodate the people, but it was not formally opened till the first Sabbath of August. First Minister. ALEXANDER LINDSAY, from Tollcross, Glasgow. Or- 428 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS dained, 22nd May 1838. The stipend was to be .80, and ,5 to be added for every ,100 of debt paid off. The call was signed by 95 members and adhered to by 198 others. Mr Lindsay laboured on for over seven years, and commended himself to his brethren by "his talents, piety, and Christian worth " ; but the congregation fell behind with the stipend, and at a meeting of Presbytery on 28th October 1845 he left the Moderator's Chair, and intimated his intention to demit his charge. At next meeting, on i8th November, the resignation was accepted. At the Assembly in 1847 Mr Lindsay applied through Paisley Presbytery for admission to the Free Church, but the case was left over as not ripe for decision. Next year he was received to the status of an ordained minister without a charge. He died at Edinburgh, 22nd April 1864, aged fifty-six, and a tombstone in Grange Cemetery marks where he is buried. His name is linked with that of his son, the Rev. Professor Lindsay of the Free College, Glasgow. Second Minister. ROBERT CORDINER, from Southend, Kintyre. Or- dained, i6th March 1847. The call was signed by 100 members, and adhered to by 43 others, most of whom were also in full communion. The Home Board was to supplement the stipend by ,35 the first year, ^30 the second, and ,20 the third, making it .100 in all, and as yet there was no manse. Under Mr Cordiner's pastoral care and vigorous pulpit work the congregation in no long time surmounted its difficulties. In course of time a manse was acquired, and in 1868 another was built at an outlay of .405, besides the price of the former, the people raising .230 and the Board allowing ^175. On nth October 1894 Mr Cordiner retired from active service, though still retaining his pastoral connection with the congregation. Third Minister. JOHN LEWARS, M.A., from Lanark (Hope Street). Ordained, 2oth March 1895. ^ was arranged that the junior minister should have ^120 from the congregation, and the senior colleague was to have .30 a year, with the manse. On I4th April 1896 Mr Cordiner's jubilee was celebrated, when he received a befitting testimonial. He died, 2oth November 1897, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. The Rev. James Cordiner of Charlotte Street, Aberdeen, was a nephew of his, and another nephew of the same name with himself is one of our probationers. On 3ist July 1900 Mr Lewars was loosed from Lesmahagow on accepting a call to Victoria Road, Kirkcaldy. The membership in the beginning of the year was 331, and the stipend from the people ,150. PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE STOW (BURGHER) AT the General Assembly in 1732 a case of disputed settlement came up from the parish of Stow. The presentee was Mr David Duncan, proba- tioner, who had been proposed for Cambuslang without success eight years before, but secured the favour of the Crown through having been "governor" in the family of Sir William Baillie of Bonnington. It was pleaded that the better part of the electors concurred, but no call was given. Instead there was a paper from some heritors and elders in favour of the patron's nominee, and a declaration to the same effect from certain heads of families and others. It was proposed to begin with a moderation, but the Assembly decided to proceed with the settlement, holding that there was a sufficient PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 429 concurrence of legal electors. The ordination took place in August 1733. Eleven of the fifteen elders now withdrew from attendance at the parish church, and in 1738 a large body of the leading parishioners represented to the General Assembly the hardships they were under through Mr Duncan having been settled in Stow. Lenient measures were counselled, with a view to temporary relief, but redress was sought without delay in a different direction. The first mention of Stow in the Minutes of the Associate Presbytery is on 7th June 1738, when two elders renewed a former accession, and on 1 8th July a paper was laid on their table from nearly all the members of the Praying Society there, with a formal accession to the Act and Testi- mony. On the second Wednesday of November Messrs Wilson of Perth and Mair of Orwell preached a few miles from the village, and baptised between 20 and 30 children. In 1740 they took possession of their first church, thatched with heather, and originally a malt barn, which was to serve as their place of worship for eighty years. First Minister. WILLIAM HUTTOX, M.A., from Muckart. Acceded to the Associate Presbytery on i8th July 1738, the day on which the Seceders in Stow were recognised as a congregation, and that same day he was appointed Presbytery Clerk. Ordained, igth November 1740. Before Mr Hutton had been two years in his charge there was an attempt to remove him to Falkirk, but in the Presbytery it carried unanimously to veto the translation. He seems not to have settled down contentedly at Stow, and some years after this he withdrew for a time from attendance on the Courts of the Church, though that was put to rights. At the meeting of Synod when the rupture took place he acted as Clerk, but when the decisive .vote was to be taken he held back from reading the roll, and another pressed in and did the work for him. The reason may have lain deeper than the headache which he" afterwards gave as his excuse. The break up which followed found its way into Stow congregation, which had to part with a number of its members, who took the Antiburgher side, and in course of time found their centre at Lauder. On the question of the Burgess Oath itself Mr Hutton, along with Mr Home of Cambusnethan, occupied a kind of middle ground. At the first meeting of the Burgher Synod after the severance they craved to have it inserted in the Minutes that, though they protested against the decision condemning the swearing of the Oath, and still disapproved of pushing the matter as the Antiburgher brethren had done, they now fell from their protest. The meaning was that, in their opinion, the Oath complained of was such as Seceders ought not to swear, but they did not think the non-swearing ought to be made a term of communion. This was very much the attitude of Mr Brown of Haddington towards that matter of burning disputation. But there was greater demand now for ministers than before, and, believing evidently that the minister of Stow was transportable, three vacant congregations called him in the early part of 1750 Perth, Haddington, and Dalkeith. The Synod first agreed to his removal, and then gave Dalkeith the benefit, and .he was loosed from Stow, 9th May 1750, after ministering there for nearly ten years. In 1748 Mr Hutton published a speech which he delivered before the Antiburgher Synod, when summoned as a culprit to their bar. The other brethren gave no heed to the citation ; but he bearded the lion in his den, and we have what he said in the form of a pamphlet, entitled " The New Constitution of the Pretended Synod unmasked," but for aught of merit it contains it might have remained unspoken. There is a blank in the records now, but we know from other sources that Mr John Brown was called to Stow when a preacher, and that the 430 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Presbytery of Edinburgh appointed him to Haddington. His preferences are said to have lain in the other direction, but he was too loyal to the Church Courts, and too lowly in his own esteem, to utter a murmur. This congregation then called Mr David Forrest, but he was a young man of a very different stamp unruly, crotchety, and impracticable. Midholm came in shortly after, but the Presbytery of Edinburgh gave the preference to Stow, saving them from a second disappointment, and the Synod confirmed this determination in opposition to Mr Forrest's declared wishes. From " Memoirs of his Life and Contending^ " we get insight into his mental exercise at this time, and the ingenuity with which he conjured up reasons for refusing compliance. For one thing, he fell back on an Act of Assembly more than a century old, which ordained that no preacher was to be eligible for a call until he had been at least half-a-year in public service. He also told the Synod, he said, that he could see no difference between intruding a congregation upon a minister and intruding a minister upon a congregation. Then further : " The people of Stow, seeing no appearance of my submitting to that settlement, gave up with their call in harvest 1754, and the Synod admonished and rebuked me, and put down in their Minutes that I sub- mitted, which was not fact." He was ordained at Inverkeithing, and, so far as Mr Forrest was concerned, the Synod had rest for some time. Second Minister. WILLIAM KIDSTON, from Stirling (now Erskine Church). Called on the same day to Selkirk, but the Presbytery appointed him to Stow, which, after a vacancy of six years, had superabounding claims. Ordained, I7th October 1756, and this was the beginning of a ministry which lasted fifty-two years. The stipend was to be .45, with a manse a fair allowance, judged by the standard of the times. In 1777 Mr Kidston complained to the Presbytery that he had only ,55 from his people, and sometimes it was neither regularly nor fully paid. At this time there were upwards of 600 names on the communion roll, and the congregation was spread over an enormous extent of territory, drawing its membership from five different counties ; but the process of reduction was about to com- mence. The first encroachment came from Fala, on the north, where a large branch of the congregation, along with others who attended at Dal- keith, wished to be favoured with supply of sermon, which was granted. In 1783 these several parties applied to their respective sessions to be dis- joined and allowed to have a place of worship for themselves, a proposal which was looked on as perilous to existing interests. Stow session gave answer that "from the multitude of poor in this congregation, and the dis- tressing circumstances of the times, it would be destructive to the congrega- tion to grant said petition." The Synod ultimately decided for the disjunction, and in 1786 the congregation, not unwilling, perhaps, to make manifest the bad effects, petitioned to have the stipend reduced. But there was no redress, the Presbytery having found on inquiry that the communicants amounted to upwards of 500, and the stipend of ^60, with a horse's main- tenance, they judged the people well able to pay. But a more serious cutting down was to follow, when a Burgher congregation was formed at Lauder in 1793. The petition which came before the Synod on this occa- sion was signed by 95 persons, chiefly members of the congregation at Stow. Galashiels followed in 1805, which involved the loss of 50 members at the outset, and probably a number more in course of time. The mother church, through the outfit of so many daughters, was reduced to less than half of what it had been, the membership being now entered at 228. On I2th January 1808 Mr Kidston sent in to the Presbytery the conditional resigna- tion of his charge, and the Synod to which the case was referred enjoined the session to call a meeting of the congregation to consider what provision PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 43 i they would be able to make for their aged minister ; but he died on 22nd April, in the eightieth year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. Mr Kidston of Stow was the father of Dr Kidston of Glasgow, who lived to a still greater age. In the previous summer the congregation called Mr Alexander Fletcher to be colleague to Mr Kidston, but the Synod appointed him to be colleague to his own father at Bridge of Teith. On 28th December 1808 the Rev. George Lawson, Galashiels, moderated in the election of a minister at Stow, and was called unanimously himself. But he seems to have had no mind to make the change, and the call was set aside by the Presbytery without a vote. Third Minister. ROBERT HAY, from Kelso (First). Called also to North Sunderland, but refused to accept, though much urged by the Presby- tery. Ordained, I4th March 1810. That year a new manse cost ^500, and in 1821 the second church was built at a similar price, with sittings for 430. The stipend was ^100, with communion expenses, and an occasional gift of ,10. For twenty-five years Mr Hay ministered to a well-compacted congre- gation ; then in 1835 his health declined, and but for the attachment of his people he would have resigned his charge. After a lingering illness he was found dead in bed on the morning of 22nd April 1837, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry. Mr Hay's brother Andrew was long a preacher, first under the Burgher Synod, and then in the United Secession Church. He was called in the early part of his course to Eccle- fechan, and under that heading he has been referred to. A sister of theirs was the wife of Dr Henderson of Galashiels. Fourth Minister. ANDREW ROBERTSON, from Paisley (St James' Street), and from under the ministry of Dr Baird, whose son-in-law he became. Called first to the newly-formed congregation of Wishart Church, Dundee, but accepted Stow, and was ordained there, 3ist January 1838. The stipend was ^112, and ^10 for sacramental expenses, with manse and garden. The call was signed by 218 members. Mr Robertson figured in the Atonement Controversy, taking a leading part in the Synod on the " New View" side, and particularly in antagonism to Dr Marshall of Kirkintilloch. He also wrote a " History of the Atonement Controversy in Connection with the Secession Church," which was published in 1846. All along he took intense interest in the Synod's proceedings, and at his last appearance there, speak- ing under deep feeling, he told that, during the twenty-five years he had been a member, he had never been absent from a single sederunt. Then it came out that he was on the point of demitting his charge, having resolved on emigrating to Australia, where he hoped for a larger field of usefulness. His resignation was accepted on loth June 1862, and he proceeded to the other side of the world. Soon after reaching Australia Mr Robertson was inducted into Castlemaine, but was invited to West Melbourne, a much more important position, in 1865, and removed thither in June of that year. In the Synod relations were strained with his brethren, very much through his own inborn impetuosity, and for a short time he threw off their authority, but that was got over. On 28th January 1875 ne suddenly dropped down, and expired. He was in the sixty-fifth year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. Fifth Minister. ALEXANDER MAIR, M.A., from Mauchline. Called in August 1862 to Burton-on-Trent, but declined, and was ordained at Stow, 1 9th June 1863. The membership was 235, and the stipend ^150, with the manse free from taxes, and with sacramental expenses. The present church, with 500 sittings, was opened on 3oth July 1872 by Dr Eadie. It was built at a cost of ^2300, of which ^200 came from the sale of the old church ; 432 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ,140 was bequeathed by a deceased member ; ,100 \vas received from the Ferguson Bequest ; and the opening collections realised nearly ,250. The large sum still required was completely made up from the people and their friends in little more than a year. On 2nd September 1873 Mr Mail- accepted a call to Morningside, Edinburgh. Sixth Minister. JOHN WILSON, M.A., translated from Canongate, Edinburgh, and previously of Stronsay, where he was ordained in 1867. Inducted, 7th April 1874. In 1879 the old manse was sold, and another erected beside the new church at a cost of ,1500. Over against this large outlay there was the fourth part of a legacy available, of nearly ,4500, by a lady of the congregation. On 6th December 1881 Mr Wilson accepted a call to Whiteinch, Glasgow. Soon afterwards the congregation called Mr Archibald B. D. Alexander, but the votes were almost equally divided between him and Mr John Mair, who was afterwards chosen Synod's librarian, and the call was declined. Next year he was settled in Langbank. Seventh Minister. JOHN BEVERIDGE, B.D., from Ayr (Cathcart Street). Called also to Berwick (Church Street), but preferred Stow, and was ordained, 26th December 1882. Accepted a call to the English Presbyterian Church, Wolverhampton, on 1710 October 1893, from which he was translated in 1900 to Bell Street, Dundee. Eighth. Minister. ANDREW M. GENTLES, M.A., from Maryhill. Or- dained, 1 7th April 1894. The membership at the close of 1899 was 176, and the stipend from the people was MIDHOLM (ANTIBURGHER) THE parish of Bowden, to which Midholm belongs, was the scene of an intrusion in 1742. The case came before the Assembly the year before, when the rights of the people were pleaded by one of their own number, " the miller of Bowden's man." A newspaper report states that he " appealed to the Book of Discipline, which he held in his hands, and insisted that nothing should be done contrary thereto or to the scriptures of truth." But Mr James Hume was the nominee of the Duke of Roxburgh, and the Assembly willed to have the claims of the patron upheld. The Presbytery drawing back, the Synod took the matter in hand, and the ordination was effected, 2oth April 1742. Against these proceedings an appeal was taken to the approaching Assembly, where the case occupied nine hours. It was pleaded, on the one hand, "that only four persons concurred with Mr Hume, and that they might as well pretend to fix a pastoral relation between him and the church walls as with the parishioners of Bowden." To this it was replied that there was a goodly concurrence, and a list of non-resident heritors is given, headed by the Duke of Roxburgh and other members of the aristocracy, along with several small feuars and principal tenants. The action of the Synod in ordaining Mr Hume was confirmed by a close vote 57 to 56. But so early as the last Sabbath of June 1740 the Seceders had entered on the ground, services having been conducted that day by Mr Clarkson, one of their preachers, at Midholm, a village which was to become the great Antiburgher centre for the counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk, and far beyond. First Minister. PATRICK. MATTHEW, from Dundee, and probably from under the ministry of Mr Willison. Acceded to the Associate Presbytery as a student of theology on 4th March 1740. After attending the prelec- tions of Mr Wilson of Perth for two sessions he obtained licence. Ordained at Midholm, nth May 1742, but the church was not built till 1746. At the PRESBYTERY .OF MELROSE 433 Breach of 1747 Mr Matthew went with the Antiburghers, and continued among them some years without entering fully into their councils. On 7th November 1749 the process of severance between him and them began. That day a paper signed by six elders and 6 members of Midholm congrega- tion was given in to the Antiburgher Presbytery in the name of the people generally. They were grieved and offended at their minister, because, having Ralph Erskine in his manse last August, he joined with him in religious exercises, well knowing that his guest was under sentence of the greater excommunication. Mr Matthew acknowledged the charge to be correctly laid, as he employed Mr Erskine to pray at evening worship on that occasion, and also next morning, but pleaded that this was simply a non-homologating of a sentence against which he had entered his dissent. He was inclined, however, to admit wrong-doing, and it was left for him to read an extract of the Presbytery's judgment on the case to satisfy his people. But the matter was not to rest there. Three months afterwards a petition from two elders and 18 other persons in name of the congregation of Midholm and Yarrow was presented to the Presbytery, complaining that their minister had not yet given them any satisfaction for his offence in holding religious fellowship with Ralph Erskine. At a meeting of Presby- tery in April 1750 Mr Matthew complained of Mr Gib that he had kept up underhand communication with the malcontents at Midholm both by letter and personal conference. Next day they suspended him from office. On 7th August following, when the case was taken up by the Synod, Mr Matthew came forward, and read a paper condemning their procedure in this affair, and also the sentence pronounced on the separating brethren. He con- cluded by declining their authority, and left the Court. What followed links itself with the origin of the Burgher congregation in Selkirk. Second Minister. ANDREW ARNOT, from Thomas Mair's congregation, Milnathort, but born and brought up in Kinnesswood. Ordained at Mid- holm, 8th July 1752. In view of his ordination it is stated in the Presbytery records that those in the west bounds wished to have his services at Etler- burn every third Sabbath according to the system adopted aforetime, but it was decided that he should only preach there six Sabbaths in the year, and choose his own time. Mr Arnot was missioned to Pennsylvania in 1753, the year after his ordination, but with permission to return when he and Mr Gellatly, the first ordained preacher sent across the Atlantic by either section of the Secession, had organised a Presbytery. Mr Arnot after accomplish- ing the work assigned him returned to his charge at Midholm, where he laboured till his death. Of the congregation's strength and workings we have some particulars in the Presbytery records for 1779. The number of examinable persons at that time was 625. They gave their minister ^45 in name of stipend and 3 at each communion, besides ^3 a year for horse hire when he required to travel. They also paid ^5 for the manse and the piece of ground attached. Mr Arnot was laid aside in a great measure from active duty the last two years of his life. He died, 24th May 1803, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. Portmoak register shows that he was baptised in September 1724, which makes him two years younger than is usually given. Third Minister. LAURENCE GLASS, from Craigend, but admitted to the Divinity Hall from Kinclaven. The call was signed by 98 male members and adhered to by 13 others in full communion. Ordained as colleague to Mr Arnot, nth January 1803. In less than four years his ministerial course came to an unhappy close, as he was deposed for immorality, 25th November 1806. The Presbytery soon after saw their way to receive him into Church membership again, though not without his good name being brought into II. 2 E 434 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS question on other grounds. He afterwards became a farmer in the locality, joined the Burgher Church at Newtown, and the last trace we have of him is in 1833, when he was tenant of Kittyfield, in the parish of Melrose. Fourth Minister. JAMES INGLIS, son of the Rev. William Inglis of Dumfries (Loreburn Street). When a preacher he was called first to Kirrie- muir, which was in a very weak state, but Midholm followed, and was pre- ferred by the Synod. Ordained, 28th February 1809. He was to have from the people ^100 of stipend, with manse, garden, and stable. The Presby- tery were of opinion that they should also pay the rent of the land attached, which consisted of about two acres, but the commissioners afterwards got it entered that there was no reason for expecting this to be done. As the call was signed by only 75 (male) members the congregation seems to have declined since last ordination. Mr Inglis, owing to strained relations with the Presbytery, partly in connection with pecuniary affairs, resigned his charge, 24th July 1828. He then removed to Edinburgh, where he became the head of a well-known bookselling business in Hanover Street, and joined Dr M'Crie's congregation. He died, I3th December 1844, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. His family, including the Rev. James Inglis of Johnstone, and Mr Charles Inglis, well known in connection with Sabbath school work, returned to the United Secession Church. Midholm congregation after Mr Inglis withdrew followed his example, and they applied for sermon to Edinburgh Original Secession Presbytery, and on the third Sabbath of August the pulpit was occupied by a minister of that connection. After being vacant for four years they obtained the Rev. David A. Sturrock, father of the Rev. John Sturrock, Victoria Terrace, Edin- burgh, for their minister. He died in 1853, and since then they have had the Rev. W. F. Aitken, M.A., afterwards Professor Aitken, Glasgow, and the Rev. Thomas Matthew, now of Kilwinning, ordained over them. The present minister is the Rev. John G. Boyd. Owing to the want of accessions the church has experienced inevitable decline. In 1884 the membership was only 63, and yet they gave a stipend of ,120, with the manse. EARLSTON, EAST (ANTIBURGHER) THIS congregation was originally part of Stitchel "community." In their own Minutes its origin is ascribed to dissatisfaction with the doctrine taught by the parish minister. This was Mr John Gowdie, a son of Professor Gowdie, Edinburgh University. The father was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1733, and it was by his casting-vote at the November Com- mission that it carried to proceed to inflict higher censure on the " Four Brethren." Thomas Boston, though he had a particular regard for Mr Gowdie, indicates that he had narrow views of the doctrine of free grace, and his son, who succeeded him as minister at Earlston in 1730, and occupied the pulpit for forty-seven years, belonged to the same school of theology. Hence a number of the parishioners joined the Secession at an early period. At the Breach of 1747 the majority of the Seceders about Earlston took the Antiburgher side. In February 1749 we have traces of matters working towards a severance between the east and west divisions of the Antiburgher community of Stitchel. Those to the west insisted on having the place of worship at Earlston, and they carried their point at last, the church, with sittings for 450, being built in 1750. Those on the east, with Hume for their centre, were left to provide for themselves, though the first arrange- ment was that the two places should have sermon alternately. PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 435 First Minister. JOHN DALZIEL, from Edinburgh (Nicolson Street). Ordained, ijth July 1751. The call was signed by 70 (male) members. The people from the east side were allowed to concur in the call, and were to be under Mr DalziePs pastoral care meanwhile. Hence it is entered that he was ordained over " the Associate congregation of Earlston and Stitchel." When the Presbytery met that day they had a petition laid before them from several Seceders in Gattonside to be disjoined from Stow (afterwards Lauder), seven miles off, and annexed to Earlston. which was distant only three miles. A similar petition came from Galashiels in November following, and in both cases the request was too reasonable to be refused. By the above additions, and another from Newstead, where the parties were disjoined from Midholm, four miles distant, and annexed to Earlston, there was strengthening during the first year of Mr DalzieFs ministry. Covenant- ing work was then engaged in, when 156 entered the Bond, and a year afterwards there were other 52, so that we may estimate the entire member- ship at not less than 250. Thus without any violent intrusion to stir feeling the Secession cause had grown into goodly proportions in Earlston and the parishes around. The session, when Mr Dalziel was ordained, consisted of three members, two of whom resided in the town, and when others came to be chosen there is mention of Legerwood, Smailholm, Redpath, and Huntlywood as districts for which elders were required. There was also one from Gatton- side who had held office in Stow congregation, and he was admitted without any formal election, the session giving him the right hand of fellowship " upon the ground of general satisfaction." One of the entries in the Minutes about this time makes it clear that women were permitted to attend the meetings of the Praying Societies, for a complaint was lodged with the session by one woman against another that she was guilty of divulging what passed in the Society, and that she " used intolerable freedom with the characters of some of the members." Of the state of matters in the congregation we have a glimpse in 1779, when the Presbytery ascertained that the examinable persons came to nearly 500, and that the people paid ^50, los. of stipend and ^6, IDS. for a glebe. The minister had also a manse and garden, with 2 for sacramental expenses in summer and ,1, los. in winter. It was much the same in 1798, but they intimated that they were about to make an increase. Mr Dalziel died, 2nd June 1804, in the seventy- ninth year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. Of his gifts as a preacher it was testified at the time that he was universally acceptable. All that remains of his pen is a controversial pamphlet on "The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness," in which he criticised with much asperity certain published opinions of the Rev. John Brown of Haddington on that subject. Of his family, it may be added that Lord Pearson is a great-grandson of Mr Dalziel's. Second Minister. WILLIAM LAUDER. The family belonged to the Established Church of West Calder, but having come under strong religious impressions when he was about the age of seventeen he connected himself with the Antiburgher congregation of Mid-Calder. After receiving licence he was fixed on by the Synod for missionary work in America, but pleaded exemption owing to the state of his health. On 4th April 1804 he was ordained at Earlston as colleague and successor to Mr Dalziel, who sur- vived only two months. There was some hesitancy about accepting the call, as the stipend offered was only ^60 meanwhile, the old minister being to receive a retiring allowance, with the manse. The call was signed by 71 male members, and adhered to by 33 others, some of whom may have been females. The existence of a Relief congregation in the place since 436 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the middle of Mr DalziePs ministry must have lessened the sources of increase. Resides this, the smaller farms were being united, and in 1824 as many as 70 persons left Earlston for Canada, as is related with some variations, and without mention of the name, in Turnbull's " Sketches of Real Life." Most of these are said to have been from Mr Lauder's con- gregation, but a considerable number were from Mr Crawford's, of the Relief. " They had all agreed to meet in the village, for they were to go by the same ship. They chose an hour well suited to their circumstances. They could not, or at least they did not, depart during the day. They went before the first beam of the morning had struggled out from the gloom of night." Annan was their seaport, which involved a journey of over fifty miles. By a process like this the two dissenting congregations of Earlston must have suffered in those days, and many sister congregations besides. About nine years before Mr Lauder's death, when he had reached three- score, he required a colleague. So far as we can learn his discourses were carefully prepared and richly evangelical, and in pastoral work he was much appreciated. Third Minister. DAVID HAMILTON, from Crossford. Ordained, 4th July 1843. The call was signed by 202 members. Mr Lauder, who con- tinued to preach occasionally, was to have ^40, with the manse, and Mr Hamilton ,70. In 1850 the aged minister removed to Lilliesleaf, giving up the manse, and part of the ,40 besides. He died, 6th June 1852, in the eighty-first year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. His col- league followed, the session Minutes state, on the afternoon of igth February 1854, in the forty-fourth year of his age and eleventh of his ministry. The record was made " with feelings of the deepest regret for his loss and regard for his memory." Three years before Mr Hamilton's death the congregation had its centenary celebration, when the Rev. John Cairns of Berwick preached from the text : " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER HENDERSON, from Dunfermline (St Margaret's). Soon after receiving licence he left for Canada, and was ordained at St Catherine's on 24th November 1847. Having returned to this country he was inducted to Hexham on 3151 December 1851, from which he retired on 4th April 1854. After declining Lilliesleaf he was settled at Earlston on i3th December of that year, where he remained till 3rd July 1866, when he accepted a call to the East Church, Perth. When a moderation was next applied for the membership was 204. Fifth Minister. ROBERT FINLAYSON, B.A., from Muirton. Ordained, 1 8th June 1867. In the second year of his ministry the people agreed to raise the stipend to ,130, and were to receive ^20 from the Supplementing Fund. Attempts at union with the West Church having failed, it was agreed to renovate the old building, which was described as "far from comfortable either for the minister or people." A sum of .400 was to be raised for this purpose, and, as showing the spirit of the people, it is enough to state that ,264, IDS. was subscribed for on the spot by 14 members. On 8th June 1872 the church, which was almost entirely new, was opened by the Rev. Joseph Leckie, Ibrox, Glasgow, the minister of Mr Finlayson's early days. The whole cost was ,724, exclusive of cartage, which was done by their own farmers. In 1874 the congregation became self-supporting. Mr Finlayson died, i7th December 1886, in the forty-sixth year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. We come now to Union negotiations, and then to the point where the two United Presbyterian congregations in Earlston merge into one. PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 437 EARLSTON, WEST (RKLIKF) THE parish church of Earlston having fallen vacant by the death of Mr John Gowdie on 6th June 1777, Mr Laurence Johnston received a presenta- tion from the Crown. This was followed by a call with 5 signatures, and Mr Johnston was ordained, 5th May 1778. A petition was now presented to the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh for sermon, and a church built, with 500 sittings. First Minister. THOMAS THOMSON, from Edinburgh (Nicolson Street). Though brought up under the ministry of the Rev. Adam Gib he never entered the Antiburgher Hall, but after passing through his theological course at Edinburgh University he took licence in connection with the Relief. The date of his ordination cannot be given, but he was a member of Synod in May 1780. In little more than three years he was translated to Duns (South), but he was long enough in Earlston to give the cause a successful beginning. Second Minister. ALEXANDER STEVENSON, who had been ordained over a congregation of Protestant Dissenters at Widrington, Northumber- land, and was inducted as Mr Thomson's successor in 1784. When in Earlston he bought the property of Braidwoodshiel, about two and a half miles away in the Lauder direction, and kept the farm in his own hands. This led to dissatisfaction, the people complaining that secular work came between him and his official duties, and he resigned in 1791. After a time he removed to Glasgow, where, we have some reason to think, he prac- tised as a physician, and died, but at what time cannot be ascertained. During the vacancy which followed Mr Stevenson's removal the congrega- tion narrowly escaped disaster, for they called Mr David Gellatly ; but Haddington obtained the preference, and became the victim. Third Minister. JAMES TAYLOR, of whose origin nothing has been ascertained. While a preacher he declined Wamphray, and accepted Earlston, where he was ordained, I2th March 1793, tne stipend promised being ^60, with ^5 for house rent and i, los. for expenses. Having qualified as a medical man he combined the two professions, but owing, it is said, to some blunder he made in treating a case of illness he re- signed, and the pastoral tie was dissolved, nth November 1806. He then removed to Yetholm, where he practised as a physician, and died, 7th July 1840, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Fourth Minister. JOHN WILLS, from Ochiltree, Ayrshire. Became a licentiate of the Relief Church, and was ordained at Earlston, 2oth August 1807. The stipend was now ^90, with 2 at each communion. Mr Wills died, I3th June 1814, in the fortieth year of his age and seventh of his ministry. His widow survived till I7th May 1863, during which time she had a small annuity from the Widows' Fund of the Relief Church, and resided in Earlston in a house granted her by a liberal and wealthy member of the congregation. During this vacancy the congregation called Mr James Porteous. but he preferred Jedburgh. Fifth Minister. DAVID CRAWFORD, from Glasgow (East Campbell Street). Ordained, 4th October 1815. The membership of the congrega- tion now increased, and throughout Mr Crawford's ministry it was drawn from a wide circuit of parishes. It shows how deep throughout that region was the feeling of aversion to the exercise of Patronage, or of dissatisfaction with the style of preaching which prevailed in the pulpits of the Established Church. In 1834 Mr Crawford resigned, feeling that a sphere of less exacting pastoral work was required. The resignation was accepted, 28th July, and in a few months he was inducted to the newly-formed Relief congregation 438 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of Portobello. For fourteen years prior to this Mr Crawford had been Clerk to the Relief Synod. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM DURIE, from Glasgow (Anderston). Or- dained, 3rd December 1834. In the New Statistical History it is stated that about this time the membership of the Secession congregation in Earlston might be slightly over 300, and the Relief slightly under it, but while the stipend in the former case was ,100, with a manse, the Relief was 20 more. In the sixth year of Mr Durie's ministry a phenomenon emerged which showed that the affairs of the congregation were out of their course. He reported to the Presbytery "that his session, having found for some time past the want of co-operation in forwarding the objects of the trust committed to them, had on Sabbath last by a unanimous vote dissolved." It was self-destruction of a remarkable type. The Presbytery, after satisfy- ing themselves as to the merits of the case, granted Mr Durie liberty to form a new session. But he came up two years after with the announcement that there was a crisis in his church which demanded the mediation of the Pres- bytery. According to Mr Tait, troubles had arisen in connection with money matters, and, reconciliation having proved impracticable, Mr Durie's demis- sion of his charge was accepted, nth May 1843. Mr Durie had moved in the Presbytery three years before "to petition the legislature for a total separation of Church and State ); ; but now he was among altered bearings, and in 1846 his application to be admitted into the Established Church was granted by the General Assembly. After acting for a time as assistant at Cardross he went to Canada, where he became minister of a congregation in that connection at Bytown, Upper Canada. He died there on I2th September 1847, "of typhus fever contracted during his ministerial attendance on sick emigrants." Seventh Minister. JOHN S. GIFFEN, B.A., from Strathaven (West), a nephew of Professor Thomson, Paisley, and an elder brother of the Rev. Mungo Giffen, Morebattle. Ordained, igth March 1844. Under his ministry the congregation regained a measure of prosperity ; but he early faded, and on igth July 1847 he died, in the twenty-ninth year of his age and fourth of his ministry. Eighth Minister. JAMES BALLANTYNE, brought up under the ministry of Dr Henderson, Galashiels, but became a student in the Relief Hall. All was not harmony, and the call was signed by only 118 members. The stipend was to be ^100, with manse and garden. Mr Ballantyne was or- dained, 24th May 1848, and loosed, 5th August 1850, on accepting a call to Arthur Street, Edinburgh. Ninth Minister. JOHN KECHIE, from Irvine (Relief). Had calls to Drymen, Chatton, Monkwearmouth, and Whitehaven, but preferred Earlston, and was ordained there, 7th May 1851. The call was signed by 149 members, and the stipend was as before. After the Union of 1847 the impropriety of having two sister churches in Earlston, with a population of 1000, came to be more perceptible. Times were changed since this was the metropolis of Dissent for the wide regions around. The thinning out from other parishes went on till, in 1875, tne two congregations, which had a united membership of 600 three dozen years before, were reduced, the one to 194 and the other to 195. They kept almost parallel for years, but gradu- ' ally the West Church fell somewhat behind both in numbers and in re- sources. In 1881 their old place of worship, which had served for a full century, made way for another, built at the slender cost of ,934, of which a bazaar, opened by Mr J. Knox Crawford, furnished ,522. But on the East Church becoming vacant at the close of 1886 successful measures were adopted for uniting the two. These come now to be traced. PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 439 EARLSTON (UNITED) WHEN the East Church fell vacant in December 1886 it had a membership of 180, and the West 172. The former gave a stipend of ^160, and the latter ,140, and the supplements were 24 and 44 respectively. Union was desirable, but attempts of this kind had hitherto been fruitless. How- ever, immediately after Mr Finlayson's death a Committee of Presbytery had been appointed to ascertain what was practicable in that direction. Accompanied by Dr Kennedy and Mr David M'Cowan they met with the two congregations on i6th February 1887. The East congregation stipulated that Mr Kechie should retire, but without harm to his pecuniary interests ; while the West stipulated that he should be sole pastor, with the addition of an assistant. In the latter case, however, the office-bearers would yield, if their minister's rights and interests were duly conserved. Mr Kechie felt keenly the prospect of being set aside, and concurrence he likened to the signing of his death warrant as a minister. He was little over sixty, and his natural force was not much abated, but he came to see that, if the object was to be gained, the sacrifice on his part and on the part of his people would have to be made. On 8th March it was arranged by the Presbytery that he should receive ^100 a year from the Home Board and .50 from the united congregation, with the life rent of the manse. On the 2Qth the Articles of Union, agreed on unanimously at a joint meeting of the two congregations, were ratified by the Presbytery. They amounted to this, that Mr Kechie should hold the status of senior minister, but retire into the emeritus positon ; that the West Church should be sold, and the price utilised for the enlarging of the East Church, any additional cost to he met from the Loan Fund till the way should be opened for the sale of the manse. At the close Mr Kechie expressed satisfaction with the issue arrived at, and his gratitude to the committee for their kindness to him and their prudence throughout. On Sabbath, 2Qth May, Dr Orr, to whom the success of the negotiations was largely owing, preached in the East Church, and declared the two congregations united, and next evening a soiree in the Corn Ex- change crowned the auspicious occasion. The united session consisted of five members three from the West and two from the East Church. When a minister came to be chosen, there was danger of the rent reappearing. On 4th October 1887 a call was brought up to the Presbytery in favour of Mr Thomas Crawford, probationer ; but it was signed by con- siderably less than half the membership, and at the moderation 68 had voted for Mr Crawford and 52 for the Rev. John Cullen, D.Sc., Leslie. Instead of sustaining it the Presbytery appointed the Union Committee to confer with the congregation. The meeting was held on Monday, the i8th, and after hearing parties the deputation urged the expediency of having the call set aside. It happened that on the previous day the pulpit was occupied by a preacher who had Earlston as his first vacancy, and on whom the people felt they might unite. It was accordingly agreed by a large majority to begin anew, in prospect of reaching entire harmony. Mr Crawford became the harmonious choice of Perth (East) some time after. First Minister. WILLIAM R. THOMSON, B.D., from Glasgow (London Road). At this moderation, though 3 voted for another candidate, the call was made unanimous, , and it was at once accepted. The ordination took place, 1 6th February 1888. The church, renovated and enlarged to accom- modate 470, was already taken possession of, and the stipend promised was ^200, and the manse, besides the allowance of ^50 a year to Mr Kechie. On ist April 1890 Mr Thomson accepted a call to Caledonia Road, Glasgow. Mr Kechie, having commuted his life interest in the manse for 1 20, had 440 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS removed to Edinburgh the year before, where he died suddenly, lyth February 1895, m tne seventieth year of his age. Over against the ex- penditure required in remodelling the place of worship there was the money received for the property of the West congregation 300 for the church and ,382 for the manse. Second Minister. HENRY BROWN, M.A., from Tillicoultry. Ordained, I2th March 1891. On 23rd January 1900 Mr Brown declined a call to Bell Street, Dundee. In the beginning of that year the membership was 326, and the stipend ^230, with the manse. SELKIRK (BURGHER) ON 1 3th April 1738 certain Praying Societies in the parish of Yarrow acceded to the Associate Presbytery, and Mr Moncriefif of Abernethy was appointed to preach to them on the following Sabbath. Two years later Ettrick, the parish which Thomas Boston had leavened with the pure gospel, and where his son was now minister, comes up along with Yarrow. In 1740 the people there petitioned the Presbytery for a moderation in a call with the view of having that district made the seat of a congregation, and re- newed their petition without success from time to time. But after the great exodus from the Established Church at Bowden, some eight or ten miles distant, Midholm, in that parish, was fixed on as the centre to which Seceders from the parishes around were to gravitate. It was arranged, however, that the minister of Midholm, should preach every third Sabbath at Etlerburn (Hutlerburn), in the parish of Ettrick, and now in the quoad sacra parish of Ladhope. But, as the supplying of two places eight miles apart tended to break Mr Matthew down, the Presbytery agreed in 1745 that he should confine himself to Midholm in winter, and do in summer as he deemed best. Meanwhile Selkirk, which lies midway between the two places, is never mentioned. After Mr Matthew, the first minister of Midholm, broke with the Anti- burghers and went over to the other side, Selkirk seems to have been the headquarters of his supporters. The earliest Minutes of session show that he had three of the elders with him, one of them being a Selkirk bailie. But it was deemed better that Mr Matthew should remove from Midholm, and on 7th April 1752 the Synod transferred him to Auchtermuchty (East). Soon after this the Burgher congregation of " Midholm and Yarrow" called Mr David Forrest, whom the Synod appointed to Stow, a decision which led to nothing in the end. In December 1754 they called the same preacher a second time ; but his strength of will prevailed, and he became minister of Inverkeithing. In April 1756 they called Mr William Kidston, but Stow again got the preference. Thus year after year the vacancy continued, and limited supplies besides. But by-and-by the Burgher cause gained strength at Selkirk through an unpopular settlement in the parish church. Mr William Trotter, of whom little is known, was presented in August 1753, and admitted to the benefice in July 1754, but not till the case had gone before the General Assembly. Some time after this there were 30 accessions from Selkirk, all men ; but the Oath of Abjuration was still a rock of offence in that locality, as in Boston's days, and several who had sworn it were kept back from membership for the time. In August 1755 the people petitioned the Presbytery to have Selkirk entered on the roll instead of Yarrow, and the congregation to be known as that of Midholm and Selkirk. The session had been strengthened before this by the ordination of five additional elders. First Minister. ANDREW MoiR, B.A., a native of Muthill, Perthshire. PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 441 Acceded to the Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh, 2oth February 1755, when usher of the Grammar School, North Leith. Being satisfied from the Associate Presbytery's Act and Testimony that they adhered to the Covenanted Reformation he withdrew from the Established Church and craved admission into their fellowship. From the Xcofs Magazine of 1754 we learn that Mr Moir had previously published a pamphlet, entitled "A Letter to the Author of the Ecclesiastical Characteristics," in which he charged the students of Edinburgh University with impious principles and immoral practices. It appears further that the Senatus took up the case, and, Mr Moir having acknowledged the authorship, he was "expelled and extruded from the University." He got licence in August 1 756 after attending the Burgher Hall one session, and was called to Falkirk, Torphichen, and Midholm or Selkirk, the last of which was preferred by the Synod. The ordination took place at Selkirk, I4th March 1758, and it is on this occa- sion that the new church is first mentioned in the session Minutes. There had been much work in the Presbytery before the place was fixed on. At one congregational meeting it was unanimously agreed to make it Midholm. Then it was proposed to have a church at both places, but here Mr Moir interposed : " By reason of bodily infirmity he is unable to undertake a charge so extensive, and with two places of worship.'' This kept back the ordination for nearly a twelvemonth, but his wishes were deferred to in the end, and Selkirk became the seat of the congregation. At the close of his first year's ministry there were eight elders added to the session, which was now fourteen strong. The Abjuration Oath was the subject on which they were not agreed, and at a meeting of session in 1760 it carried that in the case of members who had already sworn the Oath baptism should be granted, but that afterwards the non-swearing should be insisted on. From this decision six members dissented, and two others adhered at a subsequent meeting, making a majority, and the question comes up no more. Another matter which emerges later on is of a kind seldom met with in the Burgher connection. One of their number was dealt with for hearing Mr Arnot, the Antiburgher minister of Midholm, which he may have done on stormy days, and as a matter of convenience, but "he proved incorrigible." The Presbytery, on the case being referred to them, expressed dissatisfaction with such inconsistent conduct, and in the end the offender resigned, and the resignation was accepted. Mr Moir died, nth February 1770, in the thirty-ninth year of his age and twelfth of his ministry. Besides the above pamphlet, which I have never got hold of, Mr Moir published several stray sermons. He is also understood to have been the author of an anonymous pamphlet in which the Rev. Adam Gib is sarcastically handled for his treatment of three of his elders in connection with the Leith Case. A daughter of Mr Moir became the wife of Dr Lawson, his successor. She was at that time the widow of the Rev. Alexander Dickson, Burgher minister of Berwick. Second Minister. GEORGE LAWSON, from West Linton. Ordained, i;th April 1771. The extent of the congregation in 1780 may be estimated from the districts mentioned in connection with an election of elders. In addition to three for Selkirk, there were two required for Ashkirk, one for Ettrick, one for Yarrow, one for Tweedside, and Galashiels is named later on. In 1787 Mr Lawson was appointed Professor of Theology in room of the Rev. John Brown of Haddington, and in 1806 he received the degree of D.D. from Marischal College, Aberdeen. The second church was built in 1805, with about 850 sittings, and at a cost of .800. The old building must have re- quired extensive repairs eighteen years before, for we find from a session Minute that there was a thanksgiving day observed in November 1786 for 442 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the recent preservation of the congregation," when threatened with immediate destruction by the fall of the galleries." To enter into the particulars of Dr Lawson's ministry or to dwell upon his attainments would be superfluous in view of the graphic history of his " Life and Times," by Dr John Macfarlane. A brief entry in the session records gives the close in a simple form : "2ist February 1820. The Rev. George Lawson, D.D., our minister, died this evening. The congregation is therefore become vacant." He was in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. Besides his two sons, who filled in succession their father's pulpit at Selkirk, another son, John, entered the Hall along with his twin brother Andrew, but died, 2gth December 1813, after attending three sessions. Of Dr Lawson's published works those that used to be oftenest met with in Burgher families were his " Lectures on the Book of Ruth," " Lectures on the History of Joseph," and "Exposition of the Book of Proverbs." When the Controversy was beginning which issued in the severance between the Old and the New Lights, he wrote a pamphlet in favour of forbearance. The session held a meeting at that time for prayer and conference on the general subject. His judgment was that there ought to be freedom of opinion allowed on those articles in the Formula which relate to the power of the civil magistrate in religion, but to prevent a breach the overture to that effect ought not to be passed into an Act till it was more maturely considered. Of Dr Lawson Thomas Carlyle wrote : " A great name in my boy circle ; never spoken of without reverence and thankfulness by those I loved best." The three calls which Selkirk congregation now addressed to Professor Lawson's elder son, George, have been dealt with under Kilmarnock (Port- land Road). What followed has been forestalled by Ecclefechan. Then the vacancy of over four years came to an end. . Third Minister. ANDREW LAWSON, who had been ordained at Eccle- fechan eight and a half years before. One of the above calls was signed by 378 members and 316 adherents. The stipend promised at first was only ^120, with 9 for sacramental expenses, and a house, but under pressure they came up to 160 in all. Mr Lawson was inducted, ist June 1824. We have a view of the congregation's condition in 1836, about a month before Mr Lawson's death. The communicants numbered 876, being an increase of over i oo during the last five years. Of these, three-fourths belonged to Selkirk parish ; and of the others, two-fifths were from the parish of Yarrow,, and most of the others from Galashiels, Ashkirk, Ettrick, and Lilliesleaf.. Fifty families came from more than six miles. The stipend at this time was ,160, and the debt of ^420 was lessening year by year. Mr Lawson died T 28th October 1836, " after a short but severe illness," in the forty-fifth year of his age and twenty-first of his ministry. Fourth Minister. GEORGE LAWSON, translated from Kilmarnock, and inducted as successor to his younger brother, 3ist May 1837. The stipend was to be ,160, as before, and the congregation were also to pay an annuity of ^20 to their late minister's widow till the youngest child was fifteen. The call was less harmonious than aforetime, there having been a petition pre- sented to the Presbytery from 132 members, including five elders, against granting the moderation. Some might hesitate about inviting one to be their minister who had heen ordained more than thirty years, strong as were the attractions of the family name. Mr Lawson died, isth December 1849, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. He had been slightly indisposed for a few days, but on the last night of his life he- slept well, and awoke at the ordinary time. Then "he remarked that, as he felt some pain in his chest, he would lie for a little longer, when he turned, as if composing himself to rest again, and was dead." Nothing, so far as we are PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 443 aware, remains to attest the gifts which he was recognised as possessing. All we can point to of his in print are two letters in the United Secession Magazine in 1841, signed Agricola, which betoken rare controversial power, and a memoir of the Rev. John Clapperton of Johnstone in 1849. Fifth Minister. JOHN LAWSON, son of the Rev. Andrew Lawson, and nephew of his immediate predecessor. After declining a call to Lilliesleaf he was ordained at Selkirk, 25th September 1850, but over little more than half of the old congregation, as will be seen when we come to the history of the West Church. Still, the call was signed by 331 members. In the earlier part of Mr Lawson's ministry a manse was purchased, and on Thursday, 1 6th September 1880, a new church was opened by Dr Thomson of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, with accommodation for 850, and built at a cost of about ^5000. The collections that day and on the following Sabbath were over ,450. A gentleman who had been brought up in the congregation left ^1000 at his death in 1883 for the reduction of the debt. When about the age of seventy Mr Lawson required the services of an assistant, and this led on to the appointment of a colleague. He gladly accepted the relief which the proposal involved. Sixth Minister. JAMES L. MUNRO, M.A., from Tain, a grandson of the Rev. John B. Munro of Nigg. Ordained, 3oth April 1896. The stipend was to be 200 meanwhile, and Mr Lawson was to have ^100, with the manse. The revised communion roll at this time gave 577 names, and there was only ,50 of debt on the property. Mr Lawson died, I2th September 1898, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. With his decease the long-cherished family name disappeared from the Selkirk pulpit. The membership in December 1899 was 556, and the stipend ^325, with the manse. SELKIRK (ANTIP.URGHER) ON 6th December 1808 the Antiburgher Presbytery of Kelso received a petition from a number of Selkirk people setting forth the inconvenience of worshipping at Midholm, four miles off, and craving to be formed into a distinct congregation. A severance had been attempted in January 1803, on the day of Mr Glass' ordination at Midholm, but the Presbytery merely recommended Mr Glass to preach at least four Sabbaths in the year at Selkirk. Though it was questionable whether the applicants were able to support a minister for themselves it was now agreed to grant them sermon, and on 22nd November 1809 they were disjoined from Midholm. When the place of worship was built is nowhere entered, but early in 1813 they applied for a moderation. They did not see their way to promise more than ^,70 of stipend, and a free house, but under strong pressure, and to meet the Synod's minimum of ^100, they were brought up step by step to that figure. The call came out to Mr Robert Cranston, who was appointed to the collegiate charge at Morebattle. First and sole Minister. WILLIAM RATTRAY, from Coupar-Angus (First). Selkirk being carried over Moniaive, he was ordained, 2gth August 1815. The call was signed by only 23 (male) members. But jarrings in a short time arose between Midholm and Selkirk owing to several members of the old congregation crossing the boundary line and attending on Mr Rattray's ministry. It was even admitted that he and his session had taken in a family from the other side of the dividing line, but the boundaries were complained of as giving Midholm the advantage by three-fourths of a mile. The arrangements bespoke a remnant of the old parochial system. But, 444 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS however wide the territories of the congregation of Selkirk had been made, prosperity was scarcely attainable. For one thing, they were overshadowed by the Burgher church, and after the Union of 1820, when there was no longer a distinctive testimony to uphold, even old Antiburgher families coming into the place would incline to join the stronger congregation. Money difficulties thickened in and grants of ,10 or 20 from the Synod Fund brought no permanent relief. After struggling on for nine years Mr Rattray tabled his resignation. The congregation, he stated, had hitherto been unable to meet their obliga- tions unaided, and, with their diminished numbers, for him to remain longer in his charge would only increase their difficulties. The committee appointed to inquire into the whole circumstances gave in a very discourag- ing report. Their entire income was about ,87, IDS., and they had engaged to pay go of stipend and ^13 for house rent. Their debt, including arrears of stipend, amounted to over ^500, and altogether their expenditure exceeded their income by ,40 a year. The case being brought before the Synod they recommended collections to be made for the struggling cause, but declined to grant regular aid from their own funds u where there is a strong congregation which meets all the requirements of Selkirk." On 3oth March 1825 Mr Rattray's resignation was accepted, and he returned to the preachers' list. He was admitted to Swalwell, near Newcastle, on 5th October 1831, where he laboured the rest of his life. He died, 6th January 1851, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. "He was greatly loved," we read in a brief obituary notice, "and will be deeply lamented." On the Sabbath after Mr Rattray's demission was accepted the church was preached vacant, and an anomalous state of matters followed. No further supply was appointed for the pulpit, and yet, owing to their liabilities, the congregation could not be dissolved. Even before the vacancy occurred the session had begun to refuse disjunctions, that parties might not escape from bearing their share of the burden. The debt at Martinmas 1825 was ^475, and not more than ^130 was offered for the church, which left ,345 to be made up. There were 100 names on the communion roll, but 20 of these could pay nothing, and this left the other 80 liable to some 4 guineas each. It was agreed at a congregational meeting that disjunction lines should be given to members who paid their proportion of the debt, or gave security that they would pay it within five years. It was also suggested that occasional sermon should be granted to the vacant congregation till their affairs were finally wound up. In this state matters continued year after year, the Synod allowing a grant of ,20 again and again, with per- mission to apply to congregations and individuals for assistance in the liquidating of the debt. The Presbytery seems to have been sympathetic all through, and so was Mr Lawson, but it was laborious work making effective encroachments on the debt. Sealing ordinances were meanwhile enjoyed in connection with the other congregation, though not without remonstrance on the part of their own session, who were apprehensive of losing their hold. The next clear landmark is in June 1829, when the debt was reported as down to ,250. The church had now been disposed of, and it was applied for a time to ecclesiastical purposes. Sermon was obtained at intervals from the Original Seceders ; but no headway was made, and the building had to be secularised. In a thoroughly renovated form it is now occupied as a manse by the minister of the West U.P. Church. Most of Mr Rattray's old people were now under Mr Lawson's charge, who was instructed by the Presbytery to serve them with tokens at communion times. Very much PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 445 through the exertions of Dr Thomson of Coldstream, when on a visit to London, along with money raised in Selkirk and the neighbourhood, the debt stood in December 1833 at less than ^50. It was now thought that the first congregation might clear this away, but, much to the regret of the minister and session, they decided by a majority of 2 or 3 votes to reject the Presbytery's recommendation to that effect. All we know further is that so late as February 1845 there was still a bill of ^20 causing trouble, and the Presbytery was advising the parties responsible for the payment to set about raising subscriptions within the bounds, that the claim might be extinguished. SELKIRK, WEST (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS church was formed, i6th July 1850, in answer to a petition subscribed by 233 members of the first congregation and 64 adherents. It sprang from a divided call which was laid on the Presbytery's table that same day in favour of Mr John Lawson. The congregation fell vacant in the previous December, and there were tokens before long that a keen contest was impending. A large number had set their hearts on their late minister's nephew, the family name being a strong recommendation ; but opposition was threatened and the bringing forward of another candidate. In view of an election the advice of the Presbytery was asked as to the making up of the list of voters, and also whether the vote might not be taken by a poll. As a considerable number of members who were able gave nothing or next to nothing for the support of ordinances, some were of opinion that all such should be excluded from taking part in the election. The Presbytery, while recognising the support of the gospel as a Christian duty, gave instructions to the session to make up the roll the same as though there had been no moderation in prospect, and in taking the vote to keep by the Rules of the Church. It was coming events casting their shadows before. The minority got up a remonstrance against Mr Lawson's call, but they were willing to desist, provided the Presbytery formed them into a separate congregation. This was agreed to, and perhaps nothing was better fitted to stir up the membership on both sides to liberality. The building of a church was pro- ceeded with, to accommodate 500, and at next meeting of Presbytery a moderation was applied for. First Minister. WILLIAM RUSSELL, from Glasgow (Cathedral Street, now Kelvingrove), but originally from Lesmahagow. Selkirk was the first vacancy which Mr Russell supplied, and he was the candidate put up against Mr Lawson. Ordained, igth December 1850, the stipend promised being ^140, with sacramental expenses and house rent. Died, 3rd August. 1859, in the thirty-third year of his age and ninth of his ministry. Heart disease had taken hold more than a year before, and on the evening of Tuesday, 2nd August, it woke up as he laid himself down to rest. Medical aid was baffled, and, after four hours of intense suffering, he passed away. Second Minister. JOHN DALZIEL DICKIE, from Ayr (Cathcart Street). Mr William Miller had been previously called, but Falkirk (Erskine Church) was virtually accepted already, and to that decision he adhered. Mr Dickie was ordained, 2nd July 1861. On ist August 1865 he demitted his charge with the view of proceeding to Australia, and on the i5th the demission was accepted, with expressions of regret and of cordial good wishes on the part of the congregation. In the following year he was inducted to the charge of Colac and Ondit, in connection with the Presby- terian Church of Victoria, where he was "much liked and esteemed." He 446 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS resigned his charge a few years ago on account of age and failing health, and was recently living at Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, and preaching occasionally. Third Minister. JAMES DAVIDSON, M.A., son of the Rev. Dr Davidson, then of Queen Street, Edinburgh. Called also to Bishop Auckland. Or- dained at Selkirk, 5th July 1866. The call was signed by 206 members, besides adherents. In July 1870 Mr Davidson declined an invitation to succeed Dr King at Westbourne Grove, London. The stipend, which had been previously raised from ,140, besides the manse, to ,160, was now made .200, and in December 1875 another .100 was added. On i7th April 1877 Mr Davidson accepted a call to Sir Michael Street, Greenock. Fourth Minister. GEORGE M'CALLUM, from Alyth. Had Berwick (Wallace Green) also in his choice, to succeed Professor Cairns. Ordained, 26th February 1878. On 3rd July 1890 the present church was opened, with sittings for 700. It cost ^,4500. Of that sum .2000 was already sub- scribed, and the opening collection amounted to nearly ^700, and it was believed the remainder would be cleared off without having recourse to a bazaar. The property was free of debt prior to the Union. The member- ship at the close of 1899 was 422, and the stipend was ,425, with the manse. LADDER (ANTIBURGHER) THIS congregation was the gathering up of families throughout the wide bounds of Stow congregation, who separated from their minister, Mr Hutton, when he took the Burgher side at the Breach of 1747. On 5th January 1748 they craved advice from the Antiburgher Presbytery of Edinburgh, and ac- knowledged subjection to its authority, the paper being signed by three elders and 11 members. In the dearth of preachers there was no supply for them till July, and even then they had only a single Sabbath. For two years Stow is the place to which appointments are made, but these are few and far between. In April 1750 Uxton comes up instead, a village six miles north-east of Stow, and four north of Lauder. Going so far from their old seat cost them their hold of Galashiels district, the people there being an- nexed to Earlston, and others to the south-west went to form the congrega- tion of Peebles. After a few years' trial it was found advisable to remove from Uxton to Lauder, and on 315! August 1756 that was the place to which supply was granted. But the people of Earlston now felt uncomfortable at the thought of a sister congregation being set up so near as seven miles, and their objections were carried to the Synod. There the case was dismissed, but vacant communities were enjoined not to shift their place of worship without consulting the Presbytery. On 22nd February 1757 a petition for a moderation was presented to the Presbytery of Edinburgh signed by 78 persons, and next year a church was built, with 300 sittings. First Minister. LAURENCE REID, of whose earlier history little can be ascertained. We only know that before being a student of divinity he was present at a meeting of Presbytery in Kirkcaldy, and was appointed to act as Clerk for the time. Guided by the name, we have some reason to think that he was a native of Hillend, a hamlet in the parish of Inverkeithing. Ordained, 4th April 1759. Knowing that the position was beset with diffi- culties, the Synod missioned him to America the year after, but the appoint- ment was withdrawn. In the early part of Mr Reid's ministry there were jarrings between Lauder and Earlston about the marches, and the minister and session of Lauder were complained of for taking in members from within the bounds of Earlston, but it was decided at last that any new seceders PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 447 living nearer Lauder should be at liberty to join the church there, whatever the formal boundaries might be. In a few years the Presbytery had to in- quire into the state of the congregation as to the support they gave their minister. The stipend seems to have been only ^35, and they were ,50 in arrears. But worse still was the little hold Mr Reid had of his people. Thus at a congregational meeting called to consider what was to be done only two or three persons attended, and when the Presbytery talked of loosing Mr Reid from his charge the commissioners were silent, and then indicated that they had no view of matters being made better. The case having been re- ferred to the Synod, no person appeared from Lauder, and on 2nd October 1764 it was agreed to sever the connection. Mr Reid was at the same sederunt appointed to preach within the bounds of Perth and Dunfermline Presbytery, and in a few months he was inducted to Pathstruie. Second Minister. DAVID WILSON, from Howgate. Another call to Dunblane came too late, as the very day on which it was sustained Edin- burgh Presbytery, his trials being finished, arranged for his ordination at Lauder. The statement that he was also called to Whitburn is a mistake. Ordained, I5th March 1768. Died, as his tombstone in Penicuik Church- yard states, 7th August 1770, aged twenty-eight, so that his ministry extended over little more than two years. Third Minister. ROBERT COLVILLE, from Duns (East). Ordained, 3rd August 1780, after a vacancy often years. The call was signed by 60 (male) communicants, which sets aside the statement that the membership during his ministry never exceded 70. Of Mr Colville we have a glimpse in the Memoir of Dr Pringle of Perth. The two were room-mates their first session at college, when they were about the age of fifteen, and they kept up family worship together. On one occasion, when Mr Pringle was ill, we see his fellow-student sitting by his bedside singing, by his request the 63rd Psalm, and then reading the 8th chapter of Romans, and engaging in prayer. In 1808 the congregation sustained some damage by a number of members going over to the Constitutional Presbytery. They stated, on petitioning for sermon, that the moderator of session had signified his adherence to the Synod, but had nothing more to say on the subject. They were now taken under the inspection of the "Old Light" Presbytery, and were to receive as much supply as possible. The cause never came to anything, though probably the party would connect themselves with Kelso or Edinburgh, great as the distance was. In February 1818 Lauder reported 87 communi- cants, and a stipend of ,45, with house and garden. There was also a rig of land which a female member of the congregation had made over for the benefit of Mr Colville and his successors, of which the value was given at ^2, 55. a year. The case was one which the Presbytery considered entitled to aid from the Synod. Mr Colville died, 6th February 1824, in the seventy- third year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. His svidow, who was a daughter of the Rev. John Milligan, Antiburgher minister of Urr, died, 6th October 1841, aged eighty-six. The steps now taken towards the amalgamating of the two sister churches in Lauder, and what followed, belong to the history of the United congregation. LAUDER (BURGHER) AT the Burgher Synod in April 1793 a petition signed by 95 members of Stow congregation residing in Lauder district requested supply of sermon in that town. Supply was granted, and, in spite of opposition from the session of Stow, was continued, the services being held in a large barn. The 448 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS struggle went on till September 1794, when the Synod granted a disjunction from Stow, and on 7th October a Committee of Presbytery constituted the petitioners into a congregation. Next year the church, with 432 sittings, was opened by Dr Lawson of Selkirk, who preached from the text : " Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples," which would give him an opportunity of warning his hearers against trusting to the externals of religion. First Minister. GEORGE HENDERSON, from Ecclefechan. The call was signed by 88 members and 45 adherents, and the minister was to have ^65 of stipend, ,2, IDS. at each communion, and a manse and garden, with the promise of other ^5 when the membership reached 300. Ordained, 9th November 1796. Called to Aberdeen (now St Nicholas') a year afterwards, but owing to want of harmony the call was not prosecuted. In 1809 Mr Henderson, who seems to have had popular gifts, was called to Carlisle, but the Presbytery decided to continue him in Lauder. Mr Tail gives a peculiar experience Mr Henderson had from being bold enough to open a Sabbath school at Lauder. For this offence, and for employing "unqualified teachers " to aid him in work which pertained to the parish minister and the parish teacher, he was summoned to appear before the Established Presbytery of Earlston. Having disregarded the summons he was handed over to be dealt with by the Sheriff. That official, having applied for a sight of the books used in the school, Mr Henderson "satisfied production," and the New Testament and Shorter Catechism were forthcoming, and the case collapsed. But Mr Henderson's otherwise successful ministry got clouded before the close. On i6th December 1823 he requested the Presby- tery for pulpit supply, and also for a committee to meet with him and his office - bearers about the state of the congregation. A recommendation followed to abstain from ministerial duty. On i8th May 1824, after a long and friendly conversation, in which urgency was employed, he demitted his charge, assigning continued indisposition as the reason. The congregation, being appealed to, were satisfied that the resignation should be accepted, and with difficulty it was arranged that, besides paying stipend up to date and beyond it, they would give him an allowance of ,20 a year for ten years, or until he should be settled over another church. Then on 22nd June 1824 the second congregation of Lauder was declared vacant, and at this point its history merges in the history of the United congregation. At a subsequent meeting the Presbytery had some dealings with Mr Henderson as to the debility which led to the resignation of his charge. Deep grief was expressed for the past, and watchfulness promised for the future. With this acknowledgment his brethren rested satisfied. Mr Henderson must have lingered about the place for some time, as the Presby- tery found it needful on ist March 1825 to enjoin him to do no ministerial work within the bounds of Lauder congregation. He finally withdrew to Brydekirk, a village two or three miles from Ecclefechan, where he died, i8th October 1826, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. LAUDER (UNITED) AT the time the first congregation in Lauder fell vacant the other was requiring supply owing to Mr Henderson's unfitness for duty, and while his case was pending sermon was furnished to the two pulpits alternately. The membership of the first congregation was so much reduced that all thought of another minister seems to have been abandoned. When Mr Henderson's resignation was accepted in June 1824 the way was opened up for union on PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 449 equitable terms, though the end was not gained without impediments. On 4th January 1825 a petition from the elders and managers of the first con- gregation represented that, unless a certain grievance was removed, they could not unite on the basis proposed. This led to the appointment of a committee to put matters to rights, if that were practicable. On ist March the two congregations were declared to be henceforth one, the conditions of union being that each was to enjoy the property and privileges, and that the joint membership was to be equally eligible to the management, and equally under obligation to bear the burdens. Then, as a concession apparently to the first congregation, which was the weaker vessel, it was agreed on both sides that Mrs Colville should have her lifetime of the manse she was in, if she remained in Lauder, and, if she left, that those who formed the first con- gregation should have the disposal of the rent for two years. On this footing the amalgamation was effected, and a session constituted consisting of those who had been elders in either congregation. First Minister. WILLIAM LOWRIE, from North Leith. Ordained, lyth January 1826. At the first moderation three candidates were proposed, of whom Mr Lowrie stood first, and was declared chosen. But when the call was brought up to the Presbytery they found that it could not be sustained, as the presiding minister had not conformed to rule. Mr Lowrie not having an absolute majority, the name of the candidate who stood lowest should have been dropped, and the vote taken again, but this had not been done. Hence the ground had to be gone over again, and the result was a call signed by 212 members, which was unanimously sustained. The stipend was to be 100, including sacramental expenses, and there was the manse and garden. They were also to add ,20 at the end of nine years if their circumstances admitted, that being the time when Mr Henderson's allowance was to cease. But neither Mr Henderson nor Mr Lowrie was to see the expiry of that period. In the case of the young minister consumption set in, and he died, 6th July 1833, in the thirty-first year of his age and eighth of his ministry. The last months of his waning life were spent in the manse of his elder brother at East Calder, the Rev. Alexander Lowrie. The two brothers had passed through the preparatory course together, they received licence from Edinburgh Presbytery on the same day, and they were ordained within a fortnight of each other. Mr Lowrie took an active part in the Voluntary Controversy, and issued a pamphlet on the subject, entitled " The Whole Question of Ecclesiastical Establishments considered." A volume of his discourses was published in 1834, with a Memoir by the Rev. Thomas Williamson, Melrose. Second Minister. GEORGE ROBSON, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Though the union between the two congregations had now lasted for nine years the coalescence, it is to be feared, had never been perfect, and now there was what came to an open rupture. On the moderation day there voted for Mr Robson 150, and for Mr W. R. Thorburn 120.* As 197 members signed the call and only 95 opposed the sustaining, it is to be inferred that a considerable number of the minority acquiesced ; but there was a little party that refused to yield, and hence the origin of the Relief congregation in Lauder. As is usual in such cases, undue influence was alleged, but the Presbytery found nothing established to arrest procedure, * William R. Thorburn, M.A., was from the town of Blantyre and the con- gregation of Blackswell, Hamilton. Ordained at Halfold, a village near Rochdale, Lancashire, on 22nd October 1834. Resigned, I4th April 1847, an d became an Independent minister at Bury, where he died, 2nd March 1875, in the sixty -ninth year of his age. He was the author of a Memoir prefixed to a volume of sermons by Mr Robert Wardrop, referred to under Tay Square, Dundee. II. 2 F 450 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and after full consideration unanimously sustained the call, and Mr Robson was ordained, I4th October 1834. His experience at this time may have led him to look with disfavour on the proposal to unite with the Relief Church, and may have tempted him to take part in the little opposition that was going. Under his ministry the congregation increased till the membership reached a maximum of 420. The stipend in the end of 1854 was raised from ,100 to ^120, and there was also the rig of land which had been possessed since Mr Colville's time. There was besides this the interest on ,100 bequeathed by a female member of the congregation. In 1837 a new manse was built, most of the expense being met by the sale of the old manse and other property. In 1841 the present church, with sittings for 594, was erected at a cost of some ,600, and opened on loth October of that year. The old building was then fitted up as a schoolroom. In 1885 Mr Robson, owing to failing eyesight and the weight of years, was provided with a colleague. The membership at this time was 266, and the stipend from the people ,157, i os. Third Minister. THOMAS KEIR, M.A., from Scone, a younger brother of the Rev. David Keir, Dennyloanhead, and an elder brother of the Rev. William Keir, English Presbyterian Church, Bellingham. Ordained, 27th October 1885, having previously declined a call to Muckart. The junior minister was to have ^130, and the senior ,40, with the manse. Mr Robson died, 8th September 1893, in the eighty-seventh year of his age and fifty-ninth of his ministry. He left behind him a volume of sermons, entitled " Christ is all and in all," which was published in 1867. The member- ship of the congregation at the close of 1899 was 216, and the stipend from the people .180, with the manse. LAUDER (RELIEF) THE Secession Synod at their meeting in September 1834 had a cause from Lauder before them. The little party opposed to Mr Robson's settlement had been refused a disjunction by the Presbytery of Selkirk, and they pro- tested to the Synod. They were only 70 in number, and two congregations in Lauder, with iioo inhabitants, had already been found one too many. A committee was appointed to meet with both parties and endeavour to effect a reconciliation, but in the end the rupture was wider than before. " While the commissioners from the majority were willing to receive the others with open arms, and to apologise for anything that had occasioned irritation, the commissioners from the minority persisted in their determina- tion to demand a disjunction, unless the call to Mr Robson were laid aside, or Mr Robson declined accepting it." But it was too late to think of either alternative now, as the ordination was appointed to take place in a fortnight. At next meeting of Synod in April 1835 a protest, the same in purport as before, was brought up for judgment. The petition which the Presbytery had refused to grant was subscribed by only 26 members and supported by 17 others. Two motions were made the one for refusing the disjunction and the other for granting it. The first carried, and the petitioners ceased from all connection with the Courts of the United Secession Church. A new leaf is now to be turned. On 2nd June following the Relief Presbytery of Kelso received a petition from a number of persons in Lauder and its vicinity craving to be taken under their inspection and supplied with sermon. The petition was granted without hesitancy, and Mr Durie of Earlston appointed to preach there on Sabbath first. On 7th December the Presbytery agreed to have the applicants organised into a congregation, PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 451 and a roll of membership made up. Next came one petition and then another for aid from the Home Mission Fund, and these brought 16 to keep sermon going. Connections were also required once and again from the several congregations within the bounds. The Presbytery, however, reported to the Synod in 1837 that their station at Lauder was fast assum- ing a more promising aspect. A place of worship, with sittings for 330, was now in course of erection, though the people were much in want of money to pay for the mason work. In March 1838 we get fuller insight into the state of their affairs. The church, which was opened on Sabbath, 3rd January, cost ,355, and this was reduced by subscriptions and Presbytery collections to ^311. Including arrears for ordinary expenses, the debt amounted to at least .340, while over against this the income from collec- tions and seat rents was barely ^40 a year. The committee of inquiry pledged the Presbytery to widen the area of collections, and they strongly recommended the congregation to proceed without delay in making choice of a minister. Thus encouraged, the people addressed a call to the Rev. Thomas M'Creath, the first preacher sent to them, but he had been ordained soon after at South Shields. This movement came to nothing, as the Presbytery, on hearing the mind of Mr M'Creath, agreed to go no further. First Minister. JOHN HAMILTON, who had been ordained over the Congregational church at Blackburn, near Bath gate, in 1825. Inducted to Lauder on 2nd January 1839. The call was signed by 29 members and 30 adherents, and a stipend was promised of ^80. A ministry of six years followed, and then on 28th January 1845 Mr Hamilton wrote the Presbytery that, having delivered a series of discourses on the nature and extent of the Atonement, he had given offence to one or two of his brethren, who intended to carry the matter into the Church Courts. He had, therefore, made up his mind to retire from the present place of worship with those who adhered to him, " that they and I," he said, " may worship God in peace and harmony according to our conscientious views of His blessed Word," and he now tendered his resignation as pastor of the Relief church, Lauder. A meeting of Presbytery was held in the church, which the Moderator had summoned Mr Hamilton to attend ; but he made answer by letter that it would do no good for him to be present, and that any decision of theirs as to the extent of the Atonement would be nothing to him. On 25th February Mr Hamilton was declared out of connection with the Relief Synod. The other party had been getting sermon these Sabbaths from members of Presbytery, but how they would bear up under this disaster remained to be seen. We may now outline Mr Hamilton's course as a minister. In April 1838, when he applied for admission to the Relief, he had left Blackburn, and was preaching in Leith. His wish was to be received along with the congrega- tion he had gathered, but as they numbered only about 100 members, and had no permanent place of worship, this was not agreed to. It also came out that much of his time was occupied with teaching and acting as a city missionary. - When his application came before the Synod they instructed the Presbytery of Edinburgh to receive him as a licentiate if satisfied as to " his literary attainments, his aptness to teach, the unblamableness of his reputation, and the coincidence of his sentiments with the principles of the Synod." After delivering a discourse before them and signing the Con- fession of Faith he wasadmitted to the status of a probationer on 3oth October 1838, and in little more than two months he was inducted to Lauder. On withdrawing with his adherents from the Relief place of worship he joined the Evangelical Union, and left soon after to find some other field of labour in that connection. In 1848 he was in Wishawtown. From 1849-53 45^ HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS he was in Carluke. In 1854 he was in Dunbar, and in 1856 he was in Dalkeith. Next year his name is not to be found on the clerical list. He afterwards acted as a missionary- in Dalkeith, and died there, 2Oth September 1864, in the seventy-second year of his age. The Relief church at Lauder under Mr Hamilton's ministry had after a time to be aided regularly from the Home Mission Fund. Now their numbers and their resources were lessened through Mr Hamilton's with- drawal, but efforts were made to keep it going. At the Relief Synod of 1846 it was reported that they had received ^48 for preachers, and on the following year a similar sum was reported. At the first meeting of Presby- tery after the Union in May 1847 a statement of their circumstances \vas made, with an intimation of their desire to be dissolved. This being agreed to, Mr Blair of Galashiels was appointed to meet with them on the evening of Sabbath, 20th June, announce the deed of Presbytery, and grant certificates to members. But the creditors who had money lying on the building were still to be reckoned with, and this was a formidable affair for those on whom the burden rested. The cost, as has been stated, amounted to between 300 and .400, and we find that in 1845 there was a grant of ^100 received from the Debt Liquidating Fund, and the rule in those cases was that the aided congregations should raise an equal amount. Still, in the end a sum of 270 was owing, and the sale of the church only brought /"So. An appeal was now made to the Synod on behalf of the three men on whose responsibility the church had been erected, as they were not in circumstances to meet the demands or bear the loss. A committee was appointed to devise measures for the liquidation of the debt, but at next Synod they had scarcely succeeded in raising 20. It was now agreed to grant ,100 from the general fund as soon as enough had been raised to clear off what re- mained of the ^190. This is the last we hear of the Relief congregation in Lauder. The whole case may be taken as illustrating how hard it is to bring two congregations in the same place, though united, to work together in perfect harmony. At the time Mr Lowrie was called there was division and con- siderable opposition, but we are told it died rapidly away after his ordination. At the next moderation the rent widened, and at the head of the party which originated the Relief church there are two family names which had been prominent in the weaker congregation. One of these was Mr Robert Torrie, who appeared as a commissioner for the protestors against sustaining the call to Mr Robson, and he acted in the same capacity when it was found needful to have the Relief congregation dissolved. The movement was a mistake from the first, and it only brought disappointment, labour, and sorrow. It is to be hoped that after the affair had run its course a goodly number of the disruptionists settled down contentedly under Mr Robson's ministry. The church they built, 'whatever it may be now. was occupied at one time as a grocer's shop. NEWCASTLETON (BURGHER THE origin of this congregation links itself with an unpopular settlement at Castleton, the largest parish in the south of Scotland, being eighteen miles in length by fourteen in breadth, but very thinly peopled. Mr Simon Haliburton was the presentee, and we learn from the Scots Magazine that in November 1750 there were five persons imprisoned at Edinburgh for riotous conduct on the day appointed for reading the edict. The settlement was violently opposed, among others by Lord Minto, but the Presbytery found PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE they could not take objections into account unless these related to matters of life or doctrine. As for the use of notes in preaching, there was no law of the Church against it, and it was practised by several ministers of high standing. Accordingly, Mr Haliburton was ordained on 23rd January 1751, but so unpopular was he that in 1759 he was obliged to employ an assistant, and in 1763 he was translated to Ashkirk. On 3rd September 1751 some people in Liddesdale petitioned the Antiburgher Presbytery of Edinburgh for occasional supply. They belonged to the congregations of Midfaolm and Gateshaw, and were, they said, at a very great distance from their places of worship. For most of them this can hardly have been less than thirty miles, and it is remarkable that the attractions of the Secession pulpit told at a circumference so remote ; but beyond the services of a preacher on the third Sabbath of October, and the observance of a Fast on the following Wednesday, there was nothing done. About two years later a beginning was made by the Burgher Presbytery of Edinburgh with better success. In June 1753 they received a petition from Liddesdale for frequent supply, and the first church, a very primitive building, on the banks of the Liddle, must have been erected soon after, though eight years were to be lost before they obtained a fixed ministry. The first they called was Mr James Wyiie, but he had no favour for settling down in the corner of the Moss at Liddesdale, and, much to the chagrin of the Borderers, he was ordained at Scone. The next was Mr William Ronaldson, of whom little is known beyond this, that he was afterwards minister at Scarva, in Ireland. Next came a call to Mr James Mitchell, a rebellious subject who struggled with Presbyteries and Synod against the acceptance of one call after another, and ended by never being ordained at all. Newcastleton was the first to claim him, but the Presbytery may not have been anxious to forward proceedings, as they had fault to find with his unchristian conduct, and in their dealings with him he gave them little taflartMii (See Dunning, Burgher.) First Minister. J ABIES FLETCHER, seemingly from Dalkeith. Or- dained, 12th May 1762. Eleven years after this the Synod recommended collections to aid Liddesdale with the rebuilding of their place of worship, so that the first church must have been early displaced. As Mr Fletcher advanced in years his acceptability may have been impaired, and, according to the Old Statistical History, the congregation in 1793 was very much on the decline. His ministry ended in circumstances which merit narration. On 28th April 1801 the Presbytery of Selkirk was confronted with a report that he was preaching doctrine inconsistent with the standards of the Church, and he was to be required to attend next meeting, but he neither appeared nor sent an apology for absence. A committee, after going out to Liddesdale, reported that their efforts to convince him of error had failed, and the Presbytery, after long reasoning with him, charged him solemnly to be silent on the particular point involved. At next meeting they decided to refer the case to the Synod, but not "because they were in any dubiety whether Mr Fletcher's doctrine should be tolerated in the body.' At the afternoon sederunt, as they were proceeding to consider what should be done with the congregation, Mr Fletcher came forward, and read a demission of his charge. It is a long and artless production, which discloses to us the merits of the case, and may be briefly gone over as follows : Finding himself in a state of spiritual decline he had been praying for more light on the Doctrine of the Trinity, in order to the reviving of his faith and love. Going down one day to a low room in the manse he found an old pamphlet lying on the floor, without either title-page or conclusion. Opening it at random he saw that it bore on the personal properties of the 454 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Son and Spirit, and advanced proofs, weighty and strong, that they are every way equal to the Father, and in everything divine. From this he was led to the conviction that there is no such subordination on the part of the second person in the Godhead as the word Son implies, and that this term bears only on the relation in which He stands to the Father in the work of redemption. It is a phase of doctrine that has occasionally cropped up in the Church, but the conception had for Mr Fletcher all the attractions of novelty. Then, by studying a larger pamphlet on the same subject by the same author, but printed six years later, he was of opinion that his under- standing had been opened to understand the Scriptures better than before. The title was : " A Clear Display of the Trinity from Divine Revelation." Both pamphlets came into his hand in a way which he believed betokened the intervention of God. At this time he was also feeling that the next spring would end his days, " the former seasons having been so severe," and he was sure that he would have deep regrets if he did not declare that part of the counsel of God, " so I came out with it." The text he preached from that day was : " I will hear what God the Lord will speak." He told the people he did not desire them to alter their mind without good reason, but he hoped they would search the Scriptures whether these things were so. He was also satisfied that, had he got time to give his congregation line upon line, very few of them would have opposed him, but now that the affair had been dealt with by the Presbytery they united against him. Besides this, his brethren were binding him up from preaching what he believed to be true and scriptural doctrine, and for these reasons he now committed the Associate congregation of Liddesdale into their hands. On ist September 1801 the Synod accepted Mr Fletcher's demission, and instructed the Presbytery of Selkirk to en- deavour to reclaim him from his error. During the little of his life that remained Mr Fletcher resided in or near Dalkeith, and, though Edinburgh Presbytery had some dealings with him, his views were fixed. In February 1803 it was advertised in the Scots Magazine that his "Orthodox Scheme" was to appear immediately, but it is doubtful whether this promise was ever redeemed. He died soon afterwards, as the register of Newbattle parish shows that on 6th June 1803 the sum of IDS. 3d. was paid for the mort cloth at Mr James Fletcher's funeral, and his widow received the first payment of her annuity in the following year. Dr M'Kelvie's statement is that Mr Fletcher was charged with heresy in connection with a preface he had written to a new edition of a work by Dr Isaac Watts on "The Sonship of Christ," but there is nothing to that effect in the Minutes of Presbytery. According to Mr Tait, Mr Fletcher was fitted for attaining distinction in the exact sciences, but, if so, his cast of mind might tend to lead him astray when he ventured in among the deep things of God. The theory which fascinated him did not amount to palpable error, but its tendency was considered to be Unitarian. Dr Balmer tells some- where of similar views having been propounded by one of his students in a Hall discourse, and how he criticised it with a severity which he afterwards regretted. The congregation of Liddesdale was reduced almost beneath the level of a regular ministerial charge when Mr Fletcher left. But in January 1804 the name was changed to Newcastleton in the Presbytery records. This was a village of recent growth to \vhich they had removed from the old site, two miles off, and where they built a new church, with sittings for 400. Second Minister. WALTER DUNLOP, from Hawick (East Bank). The moderation was kept back because of the inadequacy of the stipend offered, though the Presbytery owned it was up to the ability of the people. At last PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 455 they named .70, with the manse, and the proceedings went on. When the call was brought up it was found to be signed by members and adherents promiscuously, but, two of the elders being present, they were asked to look over the names, and give in at next sederunt a list of those in full com- munion. They proved to be a diminutive company 64 in number but Mr Dunlop accepted, and was ordained, I5th August 1804. In February 1810 he was called to Dumfries, and on nth April Translate carried at the Synod by a great majority. The congregation had grown much during those six years, and they were now to offer ^ioo of stipend, with manse and garden. They were also to accommodate their minister with a horse till they had put the six acres of land which they possessed into a proper state of cultivation. When this was done it would be given him " to enable him to keep a horse for himself." The first call they issued on these terms was not successful, Mr William Willans, the object of their choice, being appointed to Pitcairn. Third Minister. JOHN LAW, from Linlithgow (West). Ordained, 26th August 1812. Mr Law had other two calls, one of them from Kilmarnock (now Portland Road), a congregation of at least three times the strength ever}' way, but Newcastleton, having been disappointed already, got the preference from the Synod. The present call was signed by 161 members. On gth September 1828 he was loosed from Newcastleton by deed of Synod and translated to Dunfermline (St Margaret's). Fourth Minister. JOHN BLACK, from Airdrie, but brought up in the parish church of New Monkland, under the ministry of the father of Dr Begg, Edinburgh. Entered the Secession Hall in 1821, and ordained, 7th October 1829. Even under Mr Black's able ministry controversy dis- turbed the peace of the congregation, of which the result was the erection of an Evangelical Union church, with sittings for 138. After a very brief ministry they were vacant from 1851 to 1866, and since then they have had eight ministers, with two wide blanks between. In 1875 Mr Black's church was transformed and the manse repaired. There was a member- ship at this time of 210, and the people furnished a stipend of ^156, with the manse, and there was a supplement of ^40. The outlay of ,500 on the property was met by subscriptions, two of the members heading the list with ^50 each. Mr Black died suddenly on 3oth November 1879, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. His jubilee had been celebrated on Tuesday, the 7th of August, when he was presented with a portrait of himself and a purse of 210 sovereigns. He was the father of Dr Armstrong Black, then of Palmerston Place, Edinburgh. Fifth Minister. JAMES SNADDEN, from Lochgelly. Ordained, 2oth July 1880. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 178, and the stipend from the people was .140, with the manse, which had recently undergone considerable improvement. HAWICK, ORROCK PLACE (ANTIBURGHER) THE parish pulpit of Hawick was filled from 1757 to 1783 by Mr James Laurie, whom Carlyle of Inveresk describes as "an uncommon character." He was a general romancer, making himself " amusing by the relation of fictitious stories." In student days he had joined a band of gipsies one season during his vacation, and this furnished him with exhaustless material for " fiction and rhodomontade." A visit to London, where he stayed for some time, was turned to like account, many stories being founded on it of his intimacy with the Lord Chancellor, the speaker of the House of Commons, and other personages of distinction stories which set truth and 456 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS credibility alike at defiance. Carlyle also records two specimens of his pugnacity after he had entered on the functions of the ministry. Such was the situation of affairs in the Established church of Hawick for some years before the Antiburgher congregation was formed. This was in or about 1763, when some families previously connected with Midholm, nine miles distant, obtained sermon for themselves. In April 1765 a call from Hawick to the Rev. Richard Jerment of Peebles was before the Synod, along with three others, but it carried not to transport. A year later they were in competition with Haddington for Mr Laurence Wotherspoon, but here again they were unsuccessful. The first church is believed to have been built about this time. First Minister. JOHN YOUNG, from Milnathort. Ordained, 7th October 1767. In 1780 the congregation reported some 400 examinable persons, and a stipend- of ,47, ios., with a dwelling-house, and ^3, IDS. at each communion, and in 1797 they were giving 12, ios. additional. In 1794 Mr Young published avolume of " Essays on Government, Revolution, etc.," which brought him the degree of D.D. from King's College, Aberdeen, before the end of the year, so that he was the first Secession minister, next to Dr Jamieson, who attained to that distinction. It also procured its author the offer of a pension from the Tory Government of the day, which was afterwards enjoyed by his daughters. But some of his brethren alleged that in these Essays he played fast and loose with Secession principles, as he went very much on the assumption that whatever is done by the powers that be must be right. A committee was even appointed by the Synod to examine the book, and report on its contents, but the matter went no further. Dr Young also took up Paine's " Age of Reason " in a series of Sabbath evening discourses, and got large audiences. He died, 25th March 1806, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. About a year before his death his voice became so much affected by palsy that he could not make himself audible to his congregation, and a colleague was required. To this period there is reference in the Life of Dr Heugh, who preached there as a candidate, and wrote down in his diary : " No degree of attachment to the people or the place. No spirit in the delivery of the discourses." A call followed, but he expressed strongly his dislike to the thought of being settled there, one reason being the illiberal manner in which the people seemed to treat the claims of Dr Young. It does not appear, however, that in the arrangement come to there was much to complain of, Dr Young being to receive the stipend hitherto paid him. But when the vote was taken Mr Heugh was appointed colleague to his father at Stirling instead of being sent to Hawick, which was now vacant by the death of Dr Young. Besides the pamphlet already referred to, the Doctor published three volumes of sermons, and a " History of the French War," in two volumes. A daughter of his was the wife of the Rev. William Patrick of Lockerbie, and another was married to Mr Alexander Davidson, lecturer on chemistry.* * Alexander Davidson was from the parish of Newbattle and the congregation of Dalkeith (Back Street). His application for admission to the Hall was submitted to the Synod in 1794, the Presbytery of Edinburgh being in difficulties how to deal with it, as he was totally blind. Mr Davidson explained that he would take no offence though the Synod should ultimately decline to receive him on trials for licence. He was enrolled at Whitburn as a student in 1795, the name standing with a cross beside it, and the words /it's mark. He attended four sessions, but went no further. He became an itinerant lecturer, especially in chemistry, in which his wife's services were indispensable. Died at Kendal, i8th March 1826, aged fifty-seven. His widow became the wife of Dr Thomas Dick. (See Viewfield, Stirling.) PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 457 Second Minister. ANDREW RODGIE, from Abernethy. Called to Jed- burgh as well as to Hawick, but the Presbytery unanimously decided for Hawick, on the ground that it had been "longer deprived of ordinances, and had been previously disappointed." Ordained, 1 8th August 1807. The strength of the congregation in the early part of the century can only be estimated from the fact that the (male) members who signed the call to Mr Heugh numbered 90, and there is nothing beyond this to fall back on till 1836. The communicants were then given at 400, and one-third of the congregation was from the parish of Wilton. The church, with sittings for over 600, was rebuilt in 1823 at a cost of fully ^900, and ,400 of this remained as debt on the building. The stipend was ^108, with a manse. In 1855 it was supplemented ,10, and made ^120 in all. Next year a colleague was arranged for, who was to have ^110, and Mr Rodgie .90, with the manse. Third Minister. JAMES PARLANE, M.A., from Helensburgh. Ordained, 4th August 1857, having declined a call to Perth (North) a considerable time before. In October of the previous year Mr Rodgie's jubilee was celebrated, and he was presented with a purse containing 90 sovereigns. He died, i6th January 1860, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. Mr Parlane remained sole pastor for nine years, and then on 5th January 1869 he accepted a call to Burntisland. The congregation in the course of that year called Mr Forrest F. Young, who preferred Kilcreggan. Fourth Minister. THOMAS COCKBURN, M.A., from Berwick (Wallace Green). Called previously to Burra Isles and Kinghorn. Ordained at Hawick, 22nd December 1869. The membership at this time was 250, and the stipend ,150, with the manse, which was sold in 1875, an d replaced by another at an additional expenditure of ,688, of which ,200 came from the Manse Board, and ^488 was raised by the people. The present church, with sittings for 580, and built at a cost of ^3300, including the site, was opened on Tuesday, 1 6th June 1874, by Professor Cairns. The collections amounted to ^220. The debt having been cleared off in 1881 the congregation became self-supporting, the stipend being raised to ^200. The membership at the close of 1899 was 300. HAWICK, EAST BANK (BURGHER) THIS congregation was formed by disjunctions from the Burgher congregation of Selkirk in 1773, but they may have had sermon occasionally a year or two earlier. Though distant twelve miles from the place of worship we find from the session Minutes that in 1766 they were numerous enough to require an elder for the district. But in September 1772 commissioners from that wing of the congregation appeared before Selkirk session craving a disjunction that they might be erected into a distinct congregation. In January 1773 a petition to the same effect was given in signed by 19 adult males. There was much demur expressed, and a meeting of the congregation summoned to pronounce on the matter ; but no person appeared, and on 7th March it was agreed to disjoin the people who desired it in the parishes of Hawick, Roberton, Wilton, and the west part of Minto. The Minutes of Edinburgh Presbytery for that period having disappeared, no further particulars as to the organising of East Bank congregation can be given. First Minister. GEORGE WILLIAMSON, from Alloa (West). Ordained, 1 4th September 1774. Wherever the blame may have lain this proved an unfortunate beginning. It is said, indeed, in a biographical notice of Mr 458 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Williamson's successor, that when he went "he found the congregation, through the offensive peculiarities of his predecessor, a mere wreck." In March 1783 a petition and representation came up to the Presbytery from Hawick praying for a reduction of their minister's stipend, but they were told in return that they were culpably deficient in this matter considering their .numbers. Confusion ensued, and on 3rd February 1784 Mr Williamson demitted his charge, "partly because of the torn and distracted state of his congregation, and partly because he could not, for certain reasons, join in sealing ordinances with the eldership of it, or with their strenuous partisans in carrying on an opposition to his ministry." It being found impractic- able, to heal differences and restore harmony, the resignation was accepted on 6th April, and after some years of probationership Mr Williamson was admitted to St Andrews. Whatever his "offensive peculiarities" may have been, there was a party in the congregation to befriend him, and a year afterwards they brought a complaint before the Synod against the Presbytery of Kelso for having dealt too leniently with his opposers ; but it was dis- missed and the Presbytery counselled to exert themselves to promote peace. If the congregation were faulty in relation to their first minister they had now a penalty to pay in the shape of a seven years' vacancy. Applications for a moderation were persistently refused, partly perhaps to give time for salutary reflection, and when, after long delay, they called, first Mr John Smart and then Mr William Kidston, the former was appointed to Stirling and the latter to Kennoway. Second Minister. JAMES HENDERSON, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Notwithstanding what Hawick had come through their call was signed by 249 members and 71 adherents, and it was preferred without a vote to other calls from Airdrie and Kirkintilloch. The time to favour this congregation had now come, and we are told that under Mr Henderson's ministry it soon became a large and prosperous community. He was ordained, 26th October 1791, and this was succeeded by forty years of order and peace. About the close of that period there was a break in his labours, and there is reference made to a constitutional malady which on some occasions laid him aside from his public work. In 1832 Mr Alexander Davidson was called to be Mr Henderson's colleague, but he was appointed by the Synod to School Wynd, Dundee. Third Minister. ADAM THOMSON, son of the Rev. Dr Thomson of Coldstream. A prior call to Dunoon had been pending for months, but when Hawick was coming into view Mr Thomson intimated to the con- gregation and the Presbytery that he was clear against accepting, and the call was taken out of the way. Ordained as colleague to Mr Henderson, 1 2th June 1833. Before proceeding further we may outline the state of the congregation in 1836. The communicants were fully 700, having increased 150 since Mr Thomson's ordination. Of families, much the larger number were from other parishes, most of them from Wilton, Cavers, Kirkton, Roberton, and Hobkirk. In Wilton alone there were only two-fifths fewer than in Hawick. The junior minister, on whom we may believe the burden of the work devolved, received ^100 a year, and the senior minister ,85, with manse, garden, and ground attached. The church, with 750 sittings, and built in 1780, carried a debt of ^380. Seventy-three families were more than four miles from the church, and nearly half of these more than six. A case of considerable interest came before the Synod in October 1837 from this congregation. A proposal to build a manse for the junior minister had been agreed to in regular form, but a few of the members afterwards came forward insisting that the mind of the people had not been fully ascertained, coupled with a demand for a second meeting. It was rather PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 459 late to interpose a barrier, as operations were begun ; nevertheless, threats were held out that, unless their demand were complied with, they would call in an interdict, and prevent the work going on. The session on this ground suspended five of the leaders from membership, but the Presbytery removed the sentence as unduly severe. Against that decision Mr Thomson and the whole of the elders appealed to the Synod, the old minister alone being on the other side. The case occupied two sederunts of the Synod, and led to strong speaking ; but while reprobating an appeal to a Civil Court, since the matter admitted of being otherwise dealt with, they decided to remove the suspension, and instruct the session to admit the parties to Church privileges on receiving from them an acknowledgment of their error. Mr Henderson died, I3th November 1840, in the eighty-first year of his age and fiftieth of his ministry. Mr Thomson remained sole pastor for nearly twenty years, but on 9th October 1860 he was loosed from his charge, having accepted an invitation to become minister of the United Presbyterian Church, Sydney, New South Wales. Owing to the state of his health he had spent the preceding winter in the south of Europe, and if his usefulnesss was to be conserved it was needful to remove to a more equable climate. The people expressed much regret at parting with him, and decided to pay him a half-year's stipend as a token of regard. Though Mr Thomson was the only U.P. minister in New South Wales he did much to promote the union of the Presbyterian churches in that colony, and as an acknowledgment of his services in this way, as well as of his high ministerial standing, he was chosen Moderator of the United Synod at its first meeting, in September 1865. He continued in his charge till September 1873, when he accepted the Principalship of St Andrew's College, Sydney, an office which he did not long retain, as he died, gth November 1874, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Fourth Minister. JAMES M.\cE\VEN, M.A., translated from Ford, where he had laboured for over five years. The congregation had previously called the Rev. John Riddell of Moffat, but he decided not to remove. Mr MacEwen was inducted, loth June 1862. The stipend was to be ^250, with sacramental and other expenses. On gth July 1872 he accepted a call to Sydney Place, Glasgow. After a time the congregation called the Rev. James Christie of Carlisle, but he declined. Fifth Minister. JAMES ORR, B.D., from Glasgow (now Bath Street). Called also to Redcar, a new formation on the coast of Yorkshire. Ordained at East Bank, 3rd February 1874. The stipend was to be ^300, and a manse, which was afterwards enlarged, and the membership was 520. In 1877 Mr Orr was invited to Tay Square, Dundee, but remained in Hawick. That year the church was enlarged at a cost of ^1974, of which sum a great part had been previously subscribed, and a year later the stipend was raised ^50. In 1885 Mr Orr received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University, and on 8th May 1891 he was chosen by the Synod to the Chair of Church History, and East Bank, Hawick, became vacant. In the early part of that year Dr Orr had delivered the Kerr Lectures the first of the series. They were published in 1893 under the title "The Christian View of God and the World." Three others were nominated for the Chair namely, the Revs. William M'Gilchrist, B.D., Ardrossan ; J. P. Mitchell, M.A., Edinburgh ; and Alexander Hislop, M.A., Helensburgh ; but Dr Orr was carried by a large absolute majority, and had the volume been out in time it is likely no other candidate would have been thought of. In 1897 Professor Orr published "The Ritschlian Theology," and this was followed in 1899 by a volume of special value, entitled " Neglected Factors in the Study of the Early Progress of Christianity." 460 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS .S'/.iV// J//V//.v/V.v. CHARLKS ALLAN, M. A., .from Partick (Newton Place). Ordained, ist March 1892. At the moderation 86 voted for Mr Allan and 84 for the Rev. Robert Primrose of Partick. The stipend named was ,300, with the manse and travelling expenses, but it was to be ,50 more if an ordained minister were chosen. On 24th April 1899 Mr Allan accepted a call to Finnart Church, Greenock. Seventh Minister. JAMES BRAND SCOTT, B.D., translated from Salt- coats (West), where he had been for ten years, and inducted, 6th February 1900. The membership at this time was about 580, and the stipend ^300, with the manse. HAWICK, ALLARS CHURCH (RELIEF) ON 24th April 1810 a petition for sermon was presented to the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh by 18 men belonging to Hawick and its neighbour- hood. The reasons they assigned for the application are scarcely coherent. They were under the necessity, they said, of opening communication either with the present Establishment or with 'such dissenting societies as were within reach, the opposing alternative being to connect themselves with no church at all. Some "religions," they held, were too lax in their discipline, and others were cramped with ceremonies which they set forth as terms of communion, making their principles too narrow "for those of more enlarged views to join with." As for the Relief, though they might not keep exactly by the old paths, they at least held forth the celebrated truths of the gospel with candour and moderation. Such is the general purport of their paper. Sermon was granted at once, and in the following year a church, with 750 sittings, was built at a cost of between ^800 and ,900, of which ^265 was advanced by members of the congregation in ^5 shares at 4 per cent., and the rest remained as debt on the building. First Minister. DAVID RUSSELL, translated from Colinsburgh, where he had been ordained the preceding year. Inducted to Hawick, 24th December 1812. In an over-sanguine mood the congregation promised a stipend of ^100, with ^20 for house rent, and ^3, los. at each communion. As it was, embarrassments arose, and in March 1819 Mr Russell petitioned the Presbytery to loose him from his charge. He explained that during his six years in Hawick there had been no diminution in the membership ; but trade was on the decline, and the people were unable to pay the stipend and meet other demands. The proper course for him to follow, he felt, was to ask for the dissolving of the pastoral connection. At next meeting, on 2jth April, this was agreed to, but Mr Russell was warned to take no steps to recover arrears of stipend without consulting the Presbytery. It comes out that two of the members had signed a bond for what was promised, and its terms could be enforced in a Court of Law. He officiated for some time within the bounds of Edinburgh Presbytery, and was then inducted at Errol. Second Minister. GEORGE CORSON, from Burnhead. Ordained, i8th October 1820. His stay at Hawick was to be still briefer than that of his predecessor. Recriminations came in between him and his people, and a libel was even talked of. Mr Corson inclined to remain, but the pressure was too much for him, and his resignation was accepted, 23rd July 1824. He joined the Established Church some time afterwards, and became rector of Irvine Academy, a fact which proves that he possessed greatly more than average scholarship. He died at Hillhead, Partick, i5th January 1868, aged seventy-eight, and a son of his, we believe, became parish minister of Girvan. PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 461 Third Minister. PETER BROWN, from Glasgow (Hutchesontown). Ordained, 2oth January 1825. The stipend named was ^80, with 2, IDS. for each communion. It was also agreed to give the minister the whole surplus till the sum of ^100 should be reached. On I5th November 1831 Mr Brown accepted a call to Wishawtown. Fourth Minister. ANDREW M. RAMSAY, from Glasgow (Tollcross). Ordained, 29th May 1833. Under Mr Ramsay's ministry there was marked improvement for a time. In 1836 he reported the communicants as 393, being an increase of 150 within three years. The debt was also in course of reduction, though it still amounted 10^530. The stipend was ,85, which included everything. Nearly one-fifth of the families were from Wilton, and a few from Cavers, Kirkton, and Roberton. On the last Sabbath of 1845 Mr Ramsay intimated to his congregation that he was about to leave. He had been with them for. nearly thirteen years, and though the membership was back to what it was at the beginning of his ministry the debt had been reduced from ^600 to ^200. His resignation was accepted, lyth February 1846, and he landed in Australia in the beginning of next year, where he became minister of Collins Street Church, Melbourne. On Voluntary grounds Mr Ramsay did not acquiesce in the Union there of 1859, but joined with two other ministers in forming a Presbytery by themselves, though they afterwards acceded to the United Church. He died on the last day of 1869, in the sixty-first year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. Fifth Minister. ANDREW J. GUNION, from Glasgow (Calton). Or- dained, gth December 1846. The stipend was now .105 in all, and the call was signed by 150 members, which confirms what Mr Ramsay indicated, that the ground gained during the early years of his ministry was afterwards lost. Mr Gunion was called to Dalkeith (King's Park) in 1850, but he agreed to remain in Hawick. On I3th January 1857 he accepted a call to Strathaven (West), but he is believed to have been more in his element among the literary and political activities of Hawick than he ever was else- where, and that the ten years he spent there were the happiest of his minis- terial life. In 1853 Mr Gunion published a lecture on "The Culture of the Imagination," which evinces his strong literary bent and richly-embellished graces of composition. Sixth Minister. THOMAS RUSSELL, son of the Rev. John Russell, Buchlyvie. Ordained, 1 3th October 1857. Under Mr Gunion the congre- gation had made headway, and the stipend was now ^140, with manse and garden, and the signatures at the call were 178. On 3rd February 1863 Mr Russell accepted a call to Albion Chapel, London, and went south, to head a sinking cause in the great metropolis. After struggling on there for five years he sought and found an opening for himself at Sydenham, and on 8th November 1869 his demission of Albion was accepted that he might engage in stated labour in a more promising locality. On 3ist October 1870 he was inducted over the congregation he had gathered round him at Forrest Hill, Sydenham. On 2nd January 1872 the connection was dissolved, and on 5th August thereafter he ceased to be recognised as a minister of the United Presbyterian Church. He died, I5th April 1880, in the fiftieth year of his age. Seventh Minister. ROBERT MuiR, M.A., translated from Holm of Balfron after a ministry of four years. Inducted to Allars Church, I3th July 1864, a position in which his acquirements had much fuller scope, and brought their reward. The call was signed by 295 members out of 317, and the stipend was to be ^150, with manse and travelling expenses. In 1871 the debt of over ^500 which had burdened the congregation so long was extinguished, with the aid of ,125 from the Liquidation Fund, and in 462 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 1 88 1 the present manse was built at a cost of ^624, exclusive of the sum received for the old manse, .200 coming from the Board. After a long period of broken health Mr Muir died, 2ist December 1882, in the fiftieth year of his age and twenty-third of his ministry. Eighth Minister. GEORGE DAVIDSON, M.A., from Dundee (Wishart Church). Was carried over the Rev. William Tees of Kettle by 91 votes to 71. Ordained, 6th November 1883. The stipend was ^250, with the manse. On 5th October 1897 Mr Davidson intimated his intention to resign, having received an invitation to Flinders Street Church, Adelaide. There he was to take the place of the Rev. James Lyall, a native of Leslie and a licentiate of the U.P. Church, who had occupied that important post for forty years, and was to retire as soon as a successor was appointed. The salary pro- mised was .600 a year. The selection had been left very* much with Dr Smith of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, who, after hearing Mr Davidson, was satisfied, and placed the call in his hands. With the sorrowful acquiescence of the commissioners from Allars congregation the resignation was accepted, 7th December 1897. Ninth Minister. JAMES WOTHERSPOON, B.D., from Dunbeth, Coat- bridge. Ordained, i8th May 1898. The membership at the close of the following year was 377, and the stipend ,225, with the manse. HAWICK, WILTON (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THE parish of Wilton comes close up to Hawick, and the town ranks as one of its suburbs. From 1772 to 1825 the parish pulpit was occupied by Dr Samuel Charters, who seems in his preaching to have concerned himself largely with religion in common life. Thus one of his published sermons is on Alms, another on the Duty of making a Testament, and a third gives Instruction regarding Oaths. It tempted Dr Young of Hawick to char- acterise his discourses, without naming the author, as having "no more relation to the gospel of Christ than the discourses of a heathen philosopher." Dr James Hamilton of London described Dr Charters as "a minister re- markable for this, that he did not preach anything that he did not fully understand. He did not fully understand the gospel, and he did not fully preach it, but those moral truths and personal duties which he did compre- hend he enforced with a downrightness, a simplicity, and minuteness which cannot be sufficiently admired." The wish for more of the evangelical might account for so many of Wilton parishioners getting in to attend the Secession and Relief churches in Hawick, their number, young and old, amounting in 1836 to 630. Still, it was not for over fifty years that a congregation was formed in Wilton itself. In the early part of 1888 the Presbytery of Melrose took steps to have a new preaching station opened in Hawick. The population of the town had doubled itself during the preceding forty years, and this was enough to prompt a movement in the direction of Church Extension. After a time Wilton, on the other side of the Teviot, was fixed on as the seat of the new congregation, and on the first Sabbath of January 1889 services were com- menced by Dr William Boyd, formerly of Milnathort and London (Forrest Hill), in an iron church, with 90 sittings already let. Here also the popula- tion had largely increased, though scarcely keeping pace with Hawick, and it was befitting that they should have the preference when Church Extension was going on. In the following May Mr William G. Macfee, who was about to get licence, began regular work at Wilton, and on I7th June a congrega- tion was formed with a membership of 59, which was increased to 90 before the end of the year. From the signatures at the petition given in to PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 463 the Presbytery it appears that of the 59 applicants 21 were from Orrock Place, Hawick, 17 from East Bank, and 13 from Allars. The remainder were from the Established church or from other U.P. churches, and one from the English Presbyterian church. On 4th August a session of six members was constituted three who had come from Orrock Place, two from East Bank, and one from Allars of whom five had been in office before. After four months' service Mr Macfee resigned, though the people were desir- ous to call him for their minister. He was soon after ordained over Pendleton E.P. Church, Manchester, to re-appear afterwards in Partick (East). First Minister. MALCOLM SMITH, B.D., from Gillespie Church, Glasgow. Ordained, 4th February 1890. The membership was now 196. Mr Smith met his death on 2ist August 1891. He was spending his holidays at Spittal, opposite Berwick-on-Tweed, and when bathing he was borne downwards to the sea. Though a good swimmer the strength of the current overcame him, and after the struggle was over his lifeless body was washed ashore. Some time after his death a little volume, with specimens of his discourses and a Memoir, was given to the public. Second Minister. JAMES W. SHANNON, M.A., translated from South Street, Elgin, where he had been two and a half years, and inducted to Wilton, 2nd February 1892. Next year the iron church, bought from Craig- more, Rothesay, at .320, when the station began, had to be abandoned as inadequate, and for fifteen months the congregation worshipped in the Temperance Hall. On ist November 1894 the new church, with sittings for 670, was opened by Dr Smith of Broughton Place, Edinburgh, when the collection amounted to ,190. The cost, inclusive of site, was ^4163. By the exertions of the people, along with a grant of ^500 from the Church Extension Fund, and the assistance of friends, the debt at the Union in 1900 had been reduced to ,1950, and at that time a Bazaar was about to be held, with the prospect of having it brought down at least to manageable compass. The membership at this time was close on 350, and the stipend ^205, but with no manse as yet. NEWTOWN (BURGHER) THE first distinct trace of this congregation's origin is met with in the Minutes of Selkirk session, 9th February 1773, when some members of that congregation residing in the parishes of Bowden and Melrose petitioned for a disjunction. They explained that they wished away simply because they found the distance to be a very serious disadvantage, and they stated that sermon had now been kept up for two years at Newtown, a place nearer to them by several miles than Selkirk was, and there a house had also been built for public worship. The paper was signed by 13 men, and the severance was at last agreed to. Thus a Burgher congregation was com- menced at Newtown, a small village three miles south of Melrose, on the boundary of St Boswells parish. In other two years a moderation was applied for, with the promise of ^45, and a dwelling-house. The call came out for Mr John Young, afterwards of Kincardine ; but it was poorly signed, though, after 19 additional names were added, it was sustained. On i6th July 1776 the Presbytery met at Newtown for Mr Young's ordination, but before proceeding they received hints that there was coldness on the part of many in the congregation towards the settlement. Elders and others having owned that it was so, the Presbytery resolved to proceed no further, believing that the weakness of the congregation made the utmost heartiness indis- pensable. The people being met, public worship went on, but the minister 464 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS who preached was to intimate that they would proceed no further. In 1777 Mr John Primrose was called, with an advance of $ on the former engage- ment, but after his trials were delivered a call from East Calder came in, and was preferred by the Presbytery. Disappointed at the eleventh hour Newtown people carried their case to the Synod, where it was dismissed. They were but a little company as yet, and scarcely in circumstances to sup- port a minister, the call being signed by only 24 members and 25 adherents. First Minister. ALEXANDER WAUGH, M.A , from Stitchel. Before being called Mr Waugh had been sent to supply the pulpit of Wells Street, London, and may have had expectations from that quarter. At least he held back from being settled at Xewtown, and when the Presbytery were about to fix the ordination day he gave in a remonstrance, in which he desired them to accept the resignation of his licence. Then the London call came out for another, and, his scruples being overcome, he was ordained, 30th August 1780. It was in this connection that his Professor, the Rev. John Brown, wrote him that, though he might feel mortified at the thought of being set over a very small congregation, he would think it large enough when he came to give in his account. But, independently of the humble sphere, there was the inconvenience of having to reside with a brother some eight miles distant. However, before he had been four months ordained he was called to Wells Street. When the cause came before the Synod in May 1781 he pleaded to be continued at Newtown, that the congregation might have time to become consolidated, and the Synod decided accordingly. Then another moderation was applied for in August, and the petition was granted by Edinburgh Presbytery on peculiar terms. It was impossible, they said, to get a minister sent up at that time to preside, but as elders have power to perform acts of government they appointed one or both of the members of session to moderate. Under their auspices a call signed by 194 members was brought out for Mr Waugh, but it also proved un- successful, though he indicated to the Synod his willingness to go. A third call followed, and on gth May 1782 the translation carried. On the 3Oth of that month his induction took place at Dalkeith, and not in the great metropolis. At the last hour a barrier was interposed from Bristo Church, Edinburgh, to which he had been called when it was too late. Certain parties insisted on being heard in opposition to the proceedings going on, but they could produce no commission from the congregation, and the Presbytery on this plea refused even to read their papers, and the induction went on. Of Mr Waugh, who received the degree of U.D. from Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1815, it is well known that in London he made for himself a remembrance and a name. He got hold of the Scottish element in the great modern Babylon to a remarkable degree, and built up a large and prosperous congregation. But full particulars of his life and work have been given in the joint Memoir, which was published in 1830, by his nephew, the Rev. Dr Hay of Kinross, and the Rev. Dr Belfrage of Falkirk. Dr Waugh, died I4th December 1827, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. Second Minister. WILLIAM ELDER, from Bathgate (Livery Street). Ordained, i6th January 1783, on a call signed by 141 members. On the first Sabbath of March 1802 disaster was threatened to the congregation, as was related in the Scots Magazine at the time as follows : " Last Sunday, .the Lord's Supper having been dispensed, the church was more than usually crowded, and in the middle of the service one of the galleries gave way. Providentially, no lives were lost ; but many were considerably hurt, and one woman so severely that little hopes are entertained of her recovery. Matters PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 465 were, however, adjusted at last, and the service proceeded, though the minister, Mr Elder, was so much agitated as to be unable to finish his discourse." Among the outlying districts of the congregation in those days were Bowden, Gattonside, and Earlston, the last of these including the Burgher families in the place, four miles off. On Sabbath, 28th November 1819, Mr Elder assisted at Lauder communion, and on Thursday of that week he preached in his own church at a meeting of the Bible Society, and on Saturday morning, the 4th of December, he suddenly expired when at breakfast. He was in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. Of his family, one daughter became the wife of his successor, and another was married to the Rev. William Willins of Pitcairn. Third Minister. WILLIAM RUTHERFORD, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). Called unanimously to Stranraer (West), but though Newtown congregation was much divided their call, which was signed by 168 members and 27 hearers, was preferred by the Synod. Ordained, 22nd August 1821. The stipend in 1836 was ^ioo, with manse and garden, and an additional S for sacramental expenses. Here, as in many other congregations, the weak point in the finances was the church-door collections, which were under ^20 a year. The debt on the property was ^240, most of which had been con- tracted in improving and enlarging the church, which now contained 452 sittings. There were 370 communicants, of whom less than one-third be- longed to the parish of Melrose. The others were drawn from other parishes, in the following order : Mertoun, St Boswells, Bowden, Maxton, Ancrum, and Earlston. The minister stated that he devoted a hundred days each year to pastoral visitation and public examination in the different districts. Mr Rutherford died, 2oth July 1843, in the forty-eighth year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. Much interest was felt in his family at this time, and a sum of at least ,450 was speedily raised for their benefit. So far as we know, the only specimen that remains of Mr Rutherford's pulpit gifts is a sermon of much merit on the grace of assurance, which appeared in the United Secession Magazine two years before his death. Fourth Minister. DAVID LUMGAIR, from Arbroath (now Princes Street). The family held an important place in that church, and his mother was a granddaughter of the Rev. Andrew Arrot, minister and proprietor of Dumbarrow. Mr Lumgair, who had declined Cambuslang a little before, was ordained, 28th February 1844. The call was signed by 163 members, and the stipend was much as before. A new church in a better position was opened by Dr Cairns on Wednesday, I7th June 1868. It is seated for 400, and the cost was about ,1100, which was speedily cleared away with- out any aid from outside funds, except ^50 from the Ferguson Bequest. After a ministry of thirty years Mr Lumgair died suddenly, 3ist March 1874, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. A heart ailment had been at work for years, and that afternoon, on reaching home from a day's angling on the Tweed, it seized him, and within twenty minutes the pains and the dying strife were over. Fifth Minister. GEORGE JAMES YOUNG, a native of Yetholm, but entered the Hall from Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Ordained, igth January 1875. The stipend was .170, with manse and garden, and the membership was 220. In little more than three years Mr Young had to demit his charge owing to ill-health, and on I5th May 1878 he was loosed from Newtown, the congregation presenting him with 100 guineas as a parting gift, and the Presbyter)' recording their belief "that in his case literary and scientific attainments of a high order have been employed in preaching the truth as it is in Jesus." He then proceeded to Australia, the land of his boyhood, which he reached with his health re-established. Next year he returned to II. 2G 466 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Edinburgh, where he passed through a full course of medical study, and took his diploma. He afterwards settled down in practice at Horsham, a town about 250 miles from Melbourne, but interested himself in Bible class work and the like. His health having again given way he was seeking back to Scotland, but died at sea, 2oth February 1898, in the forty-ninth year of his age Sixth Minister. ROBERT INGLES, M.A., from Paisley (Canal Street). Ordained, 7th January 1879. 1 J 88i a new manse was built at an expense of ^1000, of which ^250 was received from the Manse Fund. The membership at the close of 1899 was over 240, and the stipend ,200, with the manse. GALASHIELS, EAST (BURGHER) ON 2nd October 1804 a number of people in Galashiels and its neighbour- hood petitioned the Burgher Presbytery of Selkirk for some days' sermon by members of Court, but nothing was done at that time. On i6th November two petitions to the same effect were brought forward, one in name of members belonging to Selkirk congregation, and the other from 160 persons not in communion with the denomination. The commissioners stated their case, and the elder from Stow was heard, no doubt in antagonism, but it was agreed to grant occasional supply. In June 1805 a petition from 39 of their members in and about Galashiels for disjunction was referred by Selkirk session to the Presbytery, and on the application being granted Mr Kidston of Stow protested, and appealed to the Synod. His own congrega- tion was sure to suffer if Galashiels became the seat of a congregation, and, indeed, 50 of his own people were about to ask a severance, that they might co-operate with their brethren from Selkirk. The Synod found that the Presbytery ought not to have granted sermon at Galashiels till they gave notice to Stow session ; but, the deed having been done, it would be inex- pedient to alter it ; and as for the 50 petitioners from that congregation, since the change was to be for their convenience it was right that it should be agreed to. The building of a church was now proceeded with, and then steps were taken to obtain a minister. On the second and third Sabbaths of March 1806 Mr George Lawson, who had newly got licence, and was only in his twenty-first year, preached at Galashiels, and steps were forthwith taken to present him with a call. But before advancing further let us go back to Galashiels in the early days of the Secession. The minister of that parish at the time of the Marrow Controversy was the Rev. Henry Davidson, one of the twelve Marrowmen. Thomas Boston has described him as possessing a gift of heavenly eloquence such as he had never heard equalled. But after the Erskines and their coadjutors seceded Mr Davidson, like Mr Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, veered away into Independency, though both of them retained their charges and their livings. The form their Independency took is given in the Caledonian Mercury of 3oth April 1 739 as follows : " A new church of saints has sprung up in the parish of Maxton. They have frequent meetings for prayer and conversation. At their last meeting it was debated whether in the sacrament there ought to be distinct blessings at the bread and the wine, and if it is agreeable to Scripture to celebrate that ordinance once every week. Men and women are allowed to give their opinions." It was with this select company only that Messrs Wilson and Davidson participated in the communion ordinance. But some people about Galashiels preferred to adopt another course, and on iyth July 1739, three months after the PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 467 above newspaper notice, they gave in a paper to the Associate Presbytery signifying that they were in correspondence with the Dissenting Societies in Stow. Mr Davidson died in 1756, and after a successor had come and gone the Rev. Robert Douglas (afterwards D.D.) was promoted to the benefice, which he held for fifty years, a clergyman of literary acquire- ments, who did much for the prosperity of the place, and though he belonged to the school of Moderatism it seems to have been rather in Church politics than in his preaching. It was after he was aging that Galashiels became the seat of a Secession congregation. In 1791 the village contained only 581 inhabitants, but its growth was rapid and extensive. First Minister. GEORGE LAWSON, son of Dr Lawson of Selkirk. Or- dained, 4th November 1806. The call was signed by 110 members and 60 adherents, and the stipend was to be 100, with \o for a house. Invited two years afterwards to Stow in circumstances which have been given under that heading. Called in July 1809 to the newly-formed congregation of Dumfries (Buccleuch Street), and at next meeting another call to Mr Lawson from Bolton, in Lancashire, was laid on the Presbytery's table. The Synod first decided for translation, and then gave Bolton the preference by a large majority. Thus on 27th September 1809 the pastoral relation of Mr Lawson to the first of his four charges came to an end.* Second Minister. JAMES HENDERSON, from Stirling (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 2gth August 1810. The call was signed by 163 mem- bers, but the stipend was not to be more than was paid to the former minister. At that figure it seems to have continued till 1833, but it came up at last to ,150, besides the manse. Dr Henderson had the degree of D.D. conferred upon him by St Andrews University in 1844, and that same year the present church was built, at a cost of ^900, with sittings for 700. In 1854 steps were taken, with Dr Henderson's entire concurrence, to secure a colleague, the senior minister to retain his full stipend of ^150, with the manse, and the junior minister to have ^120, with ^20 for house rent, and ^150, with manse and garden, should he become sole pastor. Third Minister. ALEXANDER OLIVER, B.A., from Morebattle. Or- dained, 1 8th October 1854. Mr Oliver in his student days had proved him- self a vigorous reasoner and a skilful debater by some memorable encounters * Sermon was commenced at Bolton in November 1802 by the Burgher Presby- tery of Edinburgh in response to a petition for supply. On nth July 1805 James Smith, M.A., from Aberdeen (St Nicholas'), was ordained over them, but he died of pulmonary consumption on I4th June 1806, in the twenty-seventh year of his age. He was described as "a man of exalted piety and amiable manners, and possessed of highly popular pulpit talents." Now the Synod sent them one of their best men, and Mr Lawson was inducted, l8th October 1809. The stipend promised was ^"150, and though the call was signed by only 36 members it was hoped that they would speedily attain to strength and prosperity. But the beautiful and commodious chapel, built in 1804, involved them in heavy liabilities, and the pressure became greater as years passed. In 1813 they petitioned the Synod for pecuniary relief in their embar- rassed circumstances, and an arrangement was made to procure collections for them. In 1818 it came to be known that Mr Lawson could not remain much longer in Bolton, and three vacant congregations in Scotland competed to secure his services. It ended by the Synod in September 1818 appointing him to Kilmarnock (now Portland Road). A letter from Bolton testified to the people's warm attachment to Mr Lawson, but confessed that "their circumstances incapacitated them for insisting on his being continued as their minister." The building was bought soon after for Unitarian worship, and the congregation quietly broke up. It is a comment on the struggle it has cost Presbyterianism to make headway in England, even with high-class pulpit gifts in its favour, and a large population besides. 468 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS with Holyoake, who was on a propagandist mission in Edinburgh at the time. This also turned his attention to the subject of Popular Infidelity, on which he wrote several comprehensive articles in the U.P. Magazine for 1853. Dr Henderson, who had been in failing health for some time, was found dead in bed on the morning of 5th November 1858. He was in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. He left behind him a volume of sermons which had been published in 1843, and another appeared the year after his death, with a Memoir by Dr Cairns of Berwick, which is far from endorsing the editor's estimate of himself when he spoke of his " unbiographical turn." The best specimen of Dr Henderson's dis- tinctive excellence as a preacher is to be found in a sermon which appeared in the United Secession Magazine to? 1843, and was republished among his posthumous discourses, the text being : " I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star." It is marked throughout by mild, full-orbed beauty rather than by brilliant sparkle. Dr Henderson also wrote the well-executed Memoir prefixed to Dr Balmer's Academical Lectures and Pulpit Discourses. Mr Oliver continued in Galashiels after Dr Hender- son's death six years, but on 6th December 1864 he accepted a call to Regent Place, Glasgow. The stipend had been advanced to ,200 in 1861. Fourth Minister. JOHN BARR POLLOCK, from Edinburgh (Newington). At the moderation there was division, Mr Pollock being carried over Mr James Jeffrey, now of Pollokshields, by 146 votes to 114, but the call itself was "cordial and harmonious," and the stipend was now to be ^250, with the manse. The ordination took place, I2th September 1865. In 1868 the church was enlarged and improved at a cost of ^1500, and it has now 1000 sittings. In 1877 a new rnanse was built at a cost of not less than ^2600, and in December 1899 there was a membership of 543, and a stipend of ^400. GALASHIELS, WEST (RELIEF) ON 28th June 1836 the Relief Presbytery of Kelso commissioned Mr Durie of Earlston to make inquiry respecting Galashiels as a fit place for Church Extension, and on 2oth September he reported that he had preached there last Sabbath evening to an audience of 300 or 400. The service was kept up by members of Presbytery, and after a trial of five weeks the schoolroom in which they met was said to be crowded. In May 1837 it was reported to the Synod that a station had been opened at Galashiels with every promise of soon becoming a flourishing church, and that subscriptions were on foot for the erecting of a place of worship. On 3rd November two of the Presbytery met with the parties, and organised them into a congrega- tion with a membership of 56. They were meeting now in a hall which they had fitted up with accommodation for 380, and although not always free from money embarrassments their course was steadily progressive. The first mishap occurred in the beginning of March 1838, when, on proceeding to choose a minister, 38 voted for Mr James R. Kerr, afterwards of Pitten- weem, and 36 for Mr William Wyper, a name which comes up prominently under Annan (Relief). The understanding at the time was that all the minority except 9 had concurred in the choice of the majority, but after the call was sustained complaints of undue influence came in, and of attempts to injure the defeated candidate. The Presbytery found the charge estab- lished, and the conduct of one individual in particular they declared worthy of severe censure. The right thing they felt was to let the call drop, and advise the two parties to unite on another candidate. PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 469 First Minister. ROBERT BLAIR, originally from Buchlyvie. At the first meeting of Presbytery after the former call was laid aside a moderation was applied for with the view of renewing the contest, but the petition was refused on the ground that unanimity had not been restored. Two months afterwards the way was open for going forward, the two parties having come to terms. Mr Blair became their choice, and he was ordained, I7th October 1838, the call being signed by 101 members and 57 adherents. The stipend was to be ^80 in all, a sum hard to make up by reason of other burdens. An appeal had been made to the Presbytery some time before, as they were ^60 behind " owing to the seating of the church." This was not surprising, and all parties were satisfied that success would be attained in the end. But the debt on the building was oppressive, though it was lightened in 1846 by a grant of ,150 from the Liquidating Fund of the Relief Synod. In 1849 the case became more urgent, and 20 was needed from the Mission Board to raise the stipend to ^100. Still there was the resolute holding on in the prospect of better times. In 1860 there was a large inroad made on the debt, ^300 being cleared off with the aid of 70 from the Board. Five years later a manse was built at a cost of ^688, of which ,488 was raised by the people, and ^200 came from the Board. Towards the close of Mr Blair's ministry the stipend from the people was ^200, besides the manse, and the membership was about 450. In 1874 Mr Blair received the degree of D.D. from Philadelphia, United States. He died on Sabbath, i3th June 1880. in the seventy-fourth year of his age or thereby and forty-second of his ministry. On the following Thursday, his funeral day, the new church was opened by the Rev. Dr Jeffrey of London Road, Glasgow. It is built on the old site, with over 600 sittings, the cost being ^2139. The congregation now called, but without success, the Rev. William Duncan of Mid-Calder. Second Minister. WILLIAM MOWAT, M.A., from Edinburgh (North Richmond Street). Carried by an absolute majority over three others, and ordained, 2ist June 1881. In 1891 Mr Mowat was invited to remove to Leitrf that he might undertake the building up of what is now Ebenezer Church, but the claims of his present congregation, as he intimated, decided him to decline. The membership at the close of 1899 was 507, and the stipend was ,300, with the manse. GALASHIELS, SOUTH (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THE Presbytery of Melrose had the subject of Church Extension before them in the end of 1876, and it was thought that Galashiels was the best place to begin with, as there was room for a third congregation there. In February next they expressed gratification that the two sessions whose interests were involved approved of the proposal in a general way, and they appointed a committee to take such action in the matter as they might consider best. Accordingly, it was reported at a meeting on 3rd April that the station was opened on the last Sabbath of February by Mr Robson of Lauder in the town hall, and that sen-ices had been continued since by other members of Presbytery. The old Free Church had now been secured as the place of meeting, and Mr Walter Brown, a student on the point of receiving licence, had accepted a location for May and June. Self-support from the first was also to be aimed at, and with that view nearly ^120 had been guaranteed for three years by some liberal friends in the town, and there were also to be collections made by the congregations within the bounds in furtherance of the same object. On Monday, nth June, 55 470 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS members in full communion with the United Presbyterian Church were formed into what was to be known as the South congregation, and three elders were forthwith to be elected. First Minuter. WALTER BROWN, M.A., from Lilliesleaf. The whole number on the communion roll at this time was 77, and the stipend was to be ,250. Mr Brown was ordained, 15th November 1877, and in two years the membership amounted to 319. On Thursday, igth August 1880, the new church was opened by Professor Johnston, with sittings for 750, and built at a cost of .5000 in all. In March 1882 Mr Brown was called to Greyfriars, Glasgow, and in March 1884 to London Road, Edinburgh, but he decided on both occasions to remain in Galashiels. On 2nd February 1886 he accepted a call to the recently-formed congregation of Braid, Edinburgh. At the close of the preceding year there were fully 500 names on the communion roll. Second Minister. WILLIAM BURNET THOMSON, B.D., from Greenock (Union Street), grandson of the Rev. William Burnet, Boston Church, Cupar. Ordained, i4th July 1886. The stipend was .250, as at first, and the debt was .1580, which was reduced in ten years to ^650. The manse, which proved unsuitable, and for which the minister paid a rent, was disposed of in 1893 f r x7i with the intention of building another. In 1897 the debt was cleared off by a bazaar which yielded ,900, and the manse fund was raised above that sum. A commodious house was then purchased, costing, with repairs, about ,1200, the Board allowing ^140. But trade had for years been unpropitious, and at the close of 1899 the stipend was ,200, with the manse, and the membership 305. LILLIESLEAF (RELIEF AND BURGHER) THIS parish fell vacant on the death of the Rev. William Campbell, 28th September 1804. The parishioners petitioned the patron in favour of their late minister's son, but the presentation was given to the Rev. James Stalker, chaplain to the Royal Forces at Fort George, who had laid the patron, the Duke of Roxburgh, under obligation, and now came forward to urge his claims. His induction followed, 8th May 1805, without resistance before the Church Courts. Having taken time to test their new minister's gifts some 70 heads of families applied for sermon to the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh on 6th May 1806, and built a church for themselves in 1809, with sittings for 400. First Minister. JAMES COLQUHOUN, who had been minister of the Relief Church, Campsie, where he came to grief, and was placed under suspension. He then gave in his cleclinature, and was declared no longer in connection with the Relief body. He now disappears from our notice till October 1801, when it was announced in the Caledonian Mercury that " the Rev. James Colquhoun, who has been five years minister of a Congrega- tional church in Perth, publicly announced his acceptance of a unanimous call from the new Presbyterian Dissenting congregation of North Shields." All we know further is that he remained there for seven years. Next we have him preaching as a candidate at Lilliesleaf, and then, in view of receiv- ing a call, he petitioned the Presbytery of Edinburgh to be readmitted to the Relief. They wrote Glasgow Presbytery asking that the sentence of suspension passed against Mr Colquhoun thirteen years before be rescinded, but this was refused. The people of Lilliesleaf now took the matter into their own hands, and Mr Colquhoun settled down as their minister by mutual agreement. In this state matters continued till 1814, and then we PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 471 are among fresh developments owing to Mr Colquhoun having seen fit to return to England. On 2nd August 1814 a deputation from Lilliesleaf appeared before Dr Lawson's session at Selkirk stating that their minister had left them, and that they were desirous to join the Burgher Secession. They wished Dr Lawson to preach in their meeting-house on Sabbath first, but, health not permitting, he agreed to ask Mr Elder of Newtown to do duty for him "in that part of his congregation on that day." On ist September the Presbytery granted supply to Lilliesleaf, and on 2oth March 1815 the people were congregated anew, all the neighbouring sessions being favourable except Xewtown, which was likely to suffer more than any other by their reception. In August of that year they called Mr Andrew Scott, who was appointed by the Synod to Cambusnethan. The signatures numbered 246, of whom 195 were in full communion. They promised a stipend of ^120, with free house, and ",5 each sacrament." They next called Mr James M'Farlane, a preacher from Glasgow (now Greyfriars), but there was a shortcoming in the names, and for special reasons the call was afterwards withdrawn. He was ultimately suspended for intemperance. Second Minister. PATRICK BRADLEY, a native of Ireland, where he was brought up a Roman Catholic. Ordained, gth April 1817, Lilliesleaf being preferred to Yetholm by the Synod. Mr Bradley is said to have carried the warm, impulsive temperament with him all through, both in the pulpit and in the Presbytery. He died, 26th December 1841, in the fifty- eighth year of his age and twenty-fifth of his ministry. It was the com- munion Sabbath, and, having been indisposed for a few days, he was unable to be present. " Just as the text was about to be announced for the conclud- ing sermon a message was brought to the officiating minister that he was dead." The congregation now called Mr Alexander Stewart, a licentiate of Selkirk Presbytery, but he had only a slight majority over Mr Andrew M'Farlane, afterwards of Bathgate, and complaints were made that some had signed who were not members. It was well that Mr Stewart had the means of accepting a unanimous call to Kennoway. Third Minister. WILLIAM KIDDY, from Coldstream (West). Ordained, ist November 1843. ^ r Kiddy's ministry was brief, and the end sudden and solemnising. He preached on the preceding Sabbath as usual, and on Monday, 22nd October 1849, visited a case of cholera, the first in the village. He died early next morning, and was buried before night. He was in the thirty-first year of his age and sixth of his ministry. Deep interest was felt in his widow, a daughter of the Rev. Robert Cranston, Morebattle, and in her young family, and sympathy found expression in a sum of ^530 raised on their behoof, mostly from within the bounds of Selkirk Presbytery. The congregation now called Mr John Lawson, but the call from his native congregation in Selkirk followed, and was preferred. They then called Mr John Stevenson, but he declined, and accepted Haddington (West) some time afterwards. Fourth Minister. JOHN BALLANTYNE, from Galashiels (East), but he did not, like his brother James, become a student in the Relief Hall. After declining Coupar-Angus (Relief) he was called to Lilliesleaf, and ordained there, 6th May 1851. Some unpleasantness having arisen in the church in connection with the introduction of the hymn-book Mr Ballantyne resigned, and though 133 members petitioned for his continuance he kept to his purpose, and the resignation was accepted, 25th April 1854. After being a short time on the probationer list he removed, along with his brother, to Australia, and became minister at Emerald Hill, a suburb of Melbourne. His health having given way he returned to this country in 1860, and died 472 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS at Edinburgh, 4th October of that year, aged forty. A tombstone in the Dean Cemetery marks where he is buried. Three unsuccessful calls were issued from Lilliesleaf during this vacancy: the first to the Rev. J. S. Cowper, an ordained probationer who came from the Associate Reformed Church of America, and was admitted at the Synod in 1855 ; the second to the Rev. Alexander Henderson, late of Hexham, who was under call to Earlston (East) at the same time, and preferred to go there ; the third to Mr William Scott, who accepted Balerno. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM YOUNG, M.A., from Kirriemuir (West). Or- dained, 1 3th January 1857. On 2nd June 1874 Mr Young accepted a call to the newly-formed congregation of Parkhead, Glasgow. Sixth Minister. ALEXANDER PATERSON, M.A., from Montrose Street, Glasgow, a nephew of the Rev. Dr Paterson, Kirk wall. Ordained, 27th April 1875. O n Friday, I2th June 1891, a new church was opened free of debt, with sittings for 200, and, with the help of free cartage and the utilising of old material, the outlay was kept at the modest figure of 720. Mr Paterson having resolved to remove from Lilliesleaf to Edinburgh owing to family considerations, he was loosed from his charge, 2nd June 1896. He now resides at Portobello, and is available for pulpit supply. Seventh Minister. GEORGE MINTO, from Greenock (Union Street). Ordained, 2nd February 1897. The membership at the close of 1899 was 141, and the stipend from the people ^135, with a manse. MELROSE (UNITED SECESSION) ON ist October 1822 some people in Melrose and its neighbourhood petitioned the Secession Presbytery of Melrose to be formed into a con- gregation, and a committee of three ministers was appointed to meet in that place to receive disjunction certificates and examine applicants for admission to communion. At next meeting, on 26th November, they reported that the work was done, and a church formed at Melrose with 66 communicants, of whom 45 had been received from sister congregations. This was the outcome of a petition which had been presented to the Presby- tery on 24th April 1821 from parties not in connection with the Secession, that some of their number should preach there, and prepare the way for granting regular supply of sermon. On I5th May this was followed by a petition with 103 names to the same effect, and Mr Hay of Stow was appointed to open the station on the following Sabbath. Thus a beginning was made, and the congregating followed, as given above. The nearest churches were : Newtown, three miles to the south ; Galashiels, four miles to the north-west ; and Earlston, four and a half miles to the north each of which, it may be assumed, had to give up a number of families to constitute or strengthen the new cause. Newtown, which was least able to stand reduction, seems specially to have resisted the encroachment, for it was brought under the notice of the Presbytery that a number of persons belonging to that con- gregation had been refused testimonials on the ground of not having applied for them in person, and an order from the Presbytery was needed to put this matter to rights. In 1823 a church was built, with sittings for 450, at a cost of slightly under ,500, including some subsequent improvements. First Minister. THOMAS WILLIAMSON, from Stirling (Erskine Church). The call was signed by 117 members, and the stipend promised was ^90, which included everything. Mr Williamson was ordained, 3oth March 1825. In 1836 the communicants were given, at 240, and this is considered to have been about the average number during Mr Williamson's ministry, PRESBYTERY OF MELROSE 473 at least after the first few years. Except a few families all resided within the bounds of the parish. The stipend was now ,95, and it was gradually raised to ,120. A manse was also added in 1840. At the date specified above there was a debt on the property of ,200, which was gradu- ally cleared away. Mr Williamson died, 3rd October 1855, in the sixtieth year of his age and thirty-first of his ministry. Besides some contributions to periodicals he wrote a Memoir of the Rev. William Lowrie of Lauder, which has been characterised as "a faithful and graphic delineation of a lovely character." A brief sketch of his own life by the Rev. Alexander Lowrie, East Calder, was prefixed to a little volume of "Memorials" published in 1856, including several of his discourses and the sermon preached by Dr Henderson of Galashiels on the occasion of his death. Second Minister. JAMES Y. GIBSON, from Rose Street, Edinburgh. Previously called to Dunning. Ordained at Melrose, 3Oth July 1856. The call was signed by 137 members, and the stipend was ^120, besides manse and garden. There was also about 7 to be paid annually as part of a life assurance, an arrangement which had been adopted in Mr Williamson's time, and of which his sister got the benefit after his death. Mr Gibson resigned his charge on I5th June 1859 owing to failing health, which had unfitted him for some time for the discharge of his regular ministerial work. The congregation were sorry that he was obliged to take this step, but, in the circumstances, they had to acquiesce, and the demission was accepted on the 28th of that month. Mr Gibson, whose tastes were scholarly and refined, died at Ramsgate, 2nd October 1886, aged sixty, and was buried in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, where a tombstone marks the place. Third Minister. HUGH STEVENSON, from Kilmarnock (Princes Street), a younger brother of the Rev. Thomas Stevenson, then of Owen Sound, Canada, and of the Rev. James Stevenson, Dennyloanhead. Ordained, gth October 1860. In October 1867 the present church, built at a cost of ^2000, was opened by Professor Eadie, and in little more than two years it was announced that the debt was entirely cleared off. The stipend, which had been ^120, with a manse, at Mr Stevenson's ordination, was now ,200, besides the manse, taxes paid, and sacramental expenses. On i3th October 1872 the church, improved and enlarged to hold 500, the cost being ^1200, was opened anew by Dr Knox of Glasgow. The collections on this occasion amounted to ,274, leaving only a trifle of debt. Mr Stevenson was invited to Pollokshields in 1881, but he preferred to remain a fixture in Melrose. The stipend was raised to ,250 in 1875, and to ,300 in 1878, with the manse. At the close of 1899 the membership approached 350, and the stipend was as before. INNERLEITHEN (UNITED SECESSION) THIS town lies six miles south-east of Peebles, and, according to the testi- mony of the parish minister in 1797 there were few dissenters in the parish " fewer, perhaps, than in any other parish of the same size in this part of the country." They were numerous enough, however, and zealous enough to form the nucleus of what was to be a vigorous United Presbyterian con- gregation. On 7th September 1847 sixty persons residing at or near Innerleithen joined in getting up a petition to have a preaching station formed in the place. This movement may be looked on as suggested by the recent Union between the Secession and Relief, each of which had a congregation in Peebles, with adherents from about Innerleithen, and, as these congregations belonged to Edinburgh Presbytery, that was the Court 474 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to which the application was addressed. Edinburgh Presbytery welcomed the proposal, but as a matter of convenience the petitioners, at their own request, were transferred to the sister Presbytery of Selkirk, by whose appointment Dr Henderson of Galashiels opened the station on Sabbath, 2nd April 1848. Much interest was shown in the infant cause, and one after another the members of Presbytery supplied there for eight successive Sabbaths. On 7th November 48 members of the United Presbyterian Church and 77 adherents petitioned to be formed into a congregation, and as it was believed no opposition would come from Peebles or any other quarter this was agreed to. It was accordingly reported on gth January 1849 that the congregating had been gone through, and that there was a member- ship of 53, received by certificate or after examination. Already there had been an election of elders, of whom three were to be ordained forthwith. First Minister. JOHN LAW, translated from Uunfermline (St Margaret's), where he had ministered for twenty-two years, after having been in New- castleton sixteen years. It was fortunate for the young congregation of Innerleithen that they obtained a man of Mr Law's gifts and experience to begin with. Some untoward occurrences in Dunfermline when a col- league was being arranged for had made him decide on removing to an easier field of labour. He was inducted to his third charge on i8th Decem- ber 1850, and though now over threescore he had still at least fifteen years of active service before him. The stipend when he began was only ,80, with sacramental expenses, and a dwelling-house, and no assistance was to be asked from the Mission Board beyond the sum granted for the current year. A church had also been built, and a considerable amount of debt contracted, but by the aid of the Liquidating Board he saw this removed. Then in 1866, the foundations of the new congregation being firmly laid, and his own strength weakened by the way, Mr Law was prepared to hear the evening summons and give place to a younger man. The first whom the people called was Mr D. M. Connor, who preferred Biggar (South). At this transition time a house was secured for a manse, and afterwards enlarged, the entire cost being ^808, of which ,528 was raised by the people, and ^280 came from the Manse Board. Second Minister. WILLIAM L. A. NIVEN, son of the Rev. James Niven, Missionary at Friendship, Jamaica. Ordained, i6th April 1867. The money arrangements were that Mr Law was to receive ,30 a year, and the junior minister ^95, with ^15 for house rent, the Board to give ^25 in addition. The membership at this time was 234. Mr Law, in view of the ordination, wrote the Presbytery as follows : " The ends of edification to my people, and the comfort and usefulness of my colleague and successor, will be best pro- moted by my giving up to him the entire charge of the congregation, and abstaining from all ministerial work, public and private, except when he asks my assistance, and I shall find myself in circumstances to give it." It was the emeritus position pure and simple, but the Presbytery declined to express approval of the principle involved. Mr Law soon afterwards removed to Eskbank, Dalkeith, where he spent the evening of his days. His voice was heard in the Synod for the last time in May 1871, when he spoke with much fervour and animation on the case which came up from Dalkeith. He died, 29th November 1875, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and sixty-fourth of his ministry. He was buried in the Abbey Churchyard, Dunfermline, where he had long before taken possession of a burying-place. Among the productions of his pen we recall a masterly pamphlet on Infant Baptism, published in 1840. He also wrote a Memoir of the Rev. Andrew Elliot of Ford, which appeared first in the U.P. Magazine for 1856, and was afterwards prefixed to a volume of Mr Elliot's sermons. PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 475 The settlement of Mr Niven had an unfortunate ending, and his ministry was brief. Having appealed against a sentence of Melrose Presbytery, find- ing him guilty of serious misconduct, he was loosed from his charge by the Synod on i6th May 1872. The appeal was so far sustained that a verdict of Not Proven was brought in, but owing to the state of feeling in the con- gregation it was impossible to have him retained in Innerleithen. He finally emigrated to Jamaica, the island of his birth, but though he took ministers' pulpits at first he has long ceased to be available for work of that kind. Third Minister. ANDREW MORTON, son of the Rev. Dr Morton, St James' Place, Edinburgh. Ordained, I7th December 1872, as Mr Law's second colleague, but in reality sole pastor. Within a year it was announced to the Presbytery that Innerleithen had become self-supporting. In 1876 the stipend was raised other ,25, making it .182, ros. A new church, with 550 sittings, and built at a cost of ^2500, was opened in April 1878. The sale of the old building brought ^300, and .100 was obtained from the Ferguson Bequest. The membership at the close of 1899 was 265, and the stipend ^200, with the manse. PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY WICK (ANTIBURGHKR) IT is attested that the congregations of Wick and Thurso began simul- taneously about 1767, if they were not originally one, though separated by a distance of twenty-one miles. The first church was built at Newton, about a mile and a half out from the town, and hence the name of Newton-Wick is that which generally appears in the old Presbytery and Synod records. The history of this congregation affords an example of a struggle with over- mastering difficulties for a period of forty years, and yet the bruised reed was not broken, and the smoking flax was not quenched. First Minister. THOMAS DARG, of whose antecedents very little can be learned. We know he had the Gaelic language, but it is stated in Dr M'Kelvie's Annals that he acquired this while acting as tutor to a gentleman's family in Caithness. Having been licensed by the Antiburgher Presbytery of Glasgow in February 1 770 he was called soon after to Ayr, but another call having intervened from Wick Mr Darg's possession of the Gaelic tongue almost necessitated a decision in their favour. The ordination followed on I7th September 1771. In a meagre Journal kept by John Birrell, Kinnesswood, the writer records having crossed from Kinghorn to Edinburgh in April of that year with Mr Thomas Darg on his way to Caithness, which implies previous acquaintance, but how acquired we can scarcely conjecture. In April 1772 the Presbytery of Elgin laid before the Synod the necessitous circumstances of Wick congregation through being engaged in building a meeting-house, and other congregations were re- commended to make collections for them. A year later Mr Darg was granted a donation of ^10, to be applied to the same purpose. But when only a few years had passed, their young minister became subject to mental depression, owing partly, perhaps, to his lonely situation, and in the beginning of 1779 the congregation applied to the Presbytery for supply of sermon, and either to be declared a vacancy or to have their case referred to the Synod. The decision of Synod at their meeting in April runs thus : " Considering that 476 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Mr Thomas Darg is in the meantime deprived of the exercise of reason, without any appearance of the return thereof, they declare the relation between him and Wick congregation dissolved, recommending the Presby- tery to deal with the congregation to engage to contribute yearly according to their ability for his support." He now passes from our view, but in a biographical notice of Mr James Bryce, afterwards of Wick, it is stated that Mr" Darg was still living at the time of his ordination in 1795. Second Minister. ANDREW ARROT, grandson of the Rev, Andrew Arrot, Dunnichen ; but his father, instead of being the Rev. David Arrot of Markethill, Ireland, was Mr William Arrot, who succeeded to the proprietor- ship of Dumbarrow estate who had also two sons-in-law Antiburgher ministers, Messrs James Miller, Arbroath, and James Browning, Auchter- muchty. Mr Andrew Arrot's call to Wick was opposed by several of the leading members of the church, and this introduced bad feeling at the very first. The Presbytery blamed Mr Arrot for declaring he would not accept unless he were to be out of connection with those parties who were opposing his settlement. This they considered as only fitted to make reconciliation impossible. He acknowledged rashness, accepted the call, was ordained, I4th December 1780, and differences were got over for the time. But within four years Mr Arrot gave his people serious cause for com- plaint. In January 1785 the Presbytery were informed that he had left his congregation for thirteen or fourteen weeks, during which they had only had supply one Sabbath. W T hen summoned to answer for himself he pleaded that owing to the state of his wife's health he took her to Ireland, when they were south at the Synod, and that to his great concern he was detained in Edinburgh five or six weeks because he could not get north. The Presbytery sustained the excuse, but the wound refused to close ; and still papers of complaint came up, specially from certain of the elders, about Mr Arrot having stayed so long away, and having used indecent language towards them for remaining dissatisfied notwithstanding his explanation. For years irritation wrought on, till it was found that by far the larger part of the congregation had withdrawn from Mr Arrot's ministry. Meanwhile he had set about making himself master of the situation by bargaining with the tenant of the ground on which it stood for possession of the church. The Synod put down this attempt, and, to end the matter, loosed Mr Arrot from his charge at their meeting in May 1788. After this he seems to have supplied as a preacher sometimes in Scotland and sometimes in Ireland, and in 1793 he was called to Canone, near Donegal. His name ultimately appears in connection with the Constitutional Presbytery. It is understood that he finally settled down in Ireland about the year 1814. The family property at Dumbarrow had now passed into other hands, and all inquiry as to the time or place of Mr Arrot's death has been baffled. Third Minister. JAMES BRYCE, from Hamilton (Blackswell). Ordained, 2nd September 1795, which implies a prior vacancy of seven years. In a short time fresh troubles arose. Mr Bryce held strong views on the question of Church and State, and he satisfied himself that ministers ought not to celebrate marriages, that being a civil not a sacred function, and on that principle he acted as far as practicable in his own case. His bride was a Miss Annan residing in Auchtermuchty, who had been a pupil of his when he was teaching there some years before. Arriving at the town he applied to several magistrates one after another to marry them, but they refused. Since better could not be, when the company met, Mr M'Bean of Inverness began with prayer. Then bridegroom and bride took each other for husband and wife, and the service was closed by an Antiburgher PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 477 preacher who belonged to the district and had joined the Burghers. Notice of this irregularity was sent to the Synod when it met in May 1796, and Kirkcaldy Presbytery was ordered to meet at Auchtermuchty, where it was believed Mr Bryce was still to be found, and " deal with him as to his con- duct," but all they had to report at the autumn meeting was that he declined their authority. Members, however, had since conversed with him, and found him prepared to acknowledge that he had acted irregularly, and that his objections to ministers celebrating marriages were partly removed. Engaging to conform to established custom and guard against divisive courses, he was thereupon rebuked and restored. But collision on other points followed, and in May 1799 tne Presbytery of Elgin complained to the Synod that Mr Bryce had affirmed Presbyterian government to be a despotism, and the superiority of one Church Court over another to be lordship over God's heritage. Again suspension was invoked, but in Sep- tember he voluntarily appeared, and withdrew these offensive statements, though he avowed in their place the lawfulness of holding communion with Christians of other denominations, a doctrine which met with little tolerance in the Antiburgher Synod. The suspension was therefore continued, the Presbytery to give the congregation all the relief in their power. The expediency of loosing Mr Bryce from his charge began now to be considered, and in April 1800 opposing petitions came up to the Presbytery, the one for the dissolving of the pastoral tie signed by 25 (male) members, and the other for its continuance signed by 24. The Presbytery referred the case to the Synod, with a note appended that, though the parties were nearly equal in numbers, those in opposition bore the greatest weight in steadfast- ness to their principles, and the commissioners on that side had declared their determination not to submit to the ministry of Mr Bryce. The con- clusion come to was that to continue the pastoral bond would not be for edification, and in April 1800 it was dissolved without a contradictory voice. For other two years Mr Bryce remained under suspension, but at the Synod in May 1802 the votes for Restore and Not Restore were equal, and no decision was come to, as the Moderator refused to give his casting-vote. In September Mr Bryce came forward, and signified regrets for the past, whereupon it carried to relax the sentence, though there is no mention of appointments to vacancies. For some years at this time he was engaged in teaching, a profession in which he excelled, but having been invited to supply in Ireland he accepted a call to Killaig, where he was inducted, loth August 1805. In the earlier years of Mr Bryce's ministry at Killaig friction between him and the Courts of the Church was not wanting, but it was in 1809 that he came prominently into notice. That year it was arranged that the Regium Donum, which the Antiburgher Synod in Ireland had received in a slump sum for distribution among the ministers, was to be paid directly to each of them by the Government, on their taking the Oath of Allegiance, in sums of ^70, ^50, and ^40, the larger stipends to bring the larger supplements. But the most offensive condition was that each applicant should be approved of by the Lord Lieutenant before he could receive the gift. At first Mr Bryce's clerical brethren seemed unanimous against sub- mitting to these terms, and the more forward among them expressed them- selves on the subject in no measured terms, but in the end he was left in a minority of one. Complaints were brought up against him to the General Synod in April 1811. It was alleged that he had stirred up strife in other congregations by preaching hither and thither, and denouncing his brethren as sacrificing the interests of the gospel for paltry gain. Refusing to ac- knowledge a fault or consent to make the accepting or rejecting of the 4?8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Regium Donum an open question, he was once more placed under suspen- sion. From this time he was recognised as the standard-bearer of thorough- going Voluntaryism in Ireland, with six or seven congregations under his pastoral care. Being for five years the only minister they had, the Presbytery he formed consisted of the entire eldership, having in this respect the characteristics of a large session. But in course of time preachers trained and licensed by himself came to his aid, including his son, the Rev. R. J. Bryce, afterwards LL.D., minister of Belfast, and the Rev. James Fitzpatrick, who was ordained over Boveedy and Knockloughrim. This Presbytery, consisting of eight congregations, was united with the U.P. Synod in 1858, though not without having barriers to surmount. Mr Bryce, though liberal- minded, kept rigidly by the Antiburgher system of excluding from the praises of the sanctuary hymns and paraphrases, but this point had to be surrendered. He and his brethren, however, were left free to uphold their old testimony against the Regium Donum as an encroachment on the spirituality of Christ's kingdom. Mr Bryce died, 24th April 1857, and though in the ninetieth year of his age and sixty-second of his ministry he preached on the previous Sabbath. His family inherited their father's gifts, and made for themselves an honoured name, which has come down to his children's children. But it is more than time to return from this digression to Wick congregation. Before the ordination of Mr Bryce the Old Statistical History entered that they were much on the decline, and still later the Haldanes' Journal bears witness that the congregation had for some time been in a distracted state by the removal of ministers, which had probably retarded the progress of the gospel. One of the fathers of the Secession Church in Wick was Thomas Andrews, a man described as most attentive to family duties, and one who lived habitually in the fear of God. One who had been in his service said he saw true greatness there without the least approach to out- ward show. Thus the Secession cause survived in Wick. "The holy seed shall be the substance thereof." But after Mr Bryce was loosed from his charge the congregation had to pass through a vacancy of eight years. During this period they called the Rev. John Kirk, formerly of Balbeggie, but he refused to settle down there, and then Mr Andrew Kerr,* but this also came to nothing. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM STEWART, from Ayr (now Original Seces- sion). Ordained, i8th October 1808. The stipend was to be ^100, with a manse. The congregation now got in among smooth waters at least their affairs did not come up to trouble Presbytery or Synod. In 1815 they abandoned Newton, and built a new church, with 658 sittings, at Pulteneytown, which is connected with Wick proper by a bridge. In 1826 the minister had a house built for him close beside the new place of worship. Of Mr Stewart's ministry it is hard to glean anything definite, but we know that in 1844 ne had to be provided with a colleague. The old minister was to have 80 a year, with the manse, and the young minister ^90, with 10 additional if he married, which he never did. Fifth Minister. ANDREW KEY, M.A., from Letham, Forfarshire. Or- dained, i Qth June 1844, the ordination sermon being preached by the Rev. John Bisset of Nairn, who had been his close friend in student days. Mr Stewart died, loth December 1847, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and * Mr Kerr was from Dennyloanhead. Having entered the Antiburgher Hall in 1792 he attended four sessions, and was licensed in 1798. Next year he was missioned to America, but refused to go. He at last went to Nova Scotia, and was ordained minister at Economy. We only know further that he was alive about the year 1846, and had the Rev. James Watson, formerly of Waterbeck, for his colleague. PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 479 fortieth of his ministry. Mr Key, as even those who had but slight inter- course with him can attest, was a man of high-toned Christian character, a faithful, earnest preacher of the gospel, and unwearied in the discharge of his pastoral duties. In 1860 the writer found the plain building in which the people assembled quite filled, the evangelistic spirit abounding, and though there were said to be two parties in the church, to outward semblance all was harmony. The occupant of the pulpit to a certainty was a man with peace in his heart and the law of kindness on his lips. Mr Key died, 23rd August 1873, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. After more than a year's vacancy the congregation called Mr J. G. Crawford, but he declined, and obtained Limekilns soon after. Sixth Minister. JOHN MuNRO MACKENZIE, from Nigg. Ordained, igth July 1876. The membership three years after this was 235, and the stipend 200, with the manse. A new church was opened on Sabbath, 3rd August 1879, by Professor Cairns, with sittings for 700. It was a costly undertaking, the money absorbed amounting to nearly ,5000, and, what was worse, the acoustics did not minister either to comfort or edification. On 2oth July 1 88 1 the pulpit fell vacant through Mr Mackenzie accepting a call to Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. That once powerful congregation was now bound to decline through the dowering away of so many suburban daughters. In 1890 the statistics showed that, though the income kept well up, the membership was reduced to 321, and next year Mr Mackenzie was loosed from his charge. After living for some years in London he went abroad, but returned, and now resides in London. Wick church had now straitened experiences to pass through. In March 1882 they represented to the Presbytery that, after contributing upwards of ,3880 among themselves (with the assistance of friends, the proceeds of a bazaar, and a grant of ^280 from the Board), they were still burdened with a debt of ^1050, and as they had always been self-supporting they were most anxious to have the debt cleared off before proceeding towards a settlement. Aid was given, and three unsuccessful calls followed the first in October 1882 to Mr Joseph Rorke ;* and after more than a year one to Mr James Frame, who accepted Millport ; and another to Mr A. Miller Mar- shall, who accepted Newarthill. There was now a long pause, during which the requirements from Wick exhausted the probationer list, and, when in- formed that they would have to select candidates from among the preachers they had had, the reply they gave was that they had been favoured with a number of excellent young men, but the defect was they could not hear them. At this very time a new licentiate got Wick for his first vacancy, and his voice was such that the drawback was overcome, and a settlement accom- plished. Seventh Minister. JAMES STEEDMAN, B.D., from Bank Street, Brechin. Ordained, 4th February 1885. The stipend from the people was to be ^200, with the manse, though there was still a debt of 975. Mr Steedman's resignation of his charge was accepted, 22nd April 1889. Having returned to the preachers' list he officiated as locum tenens for a lengthened period at Pittenweem, and was inducted to Redcar, Yorkshire, on 4th April 1893, where he still labours. The debt on Wick property, which stood at ^1400 in 1 88 1, had now been reduced to less than ^500, with the aid of ^280 from the Liquidation Board. Eighth Minister. ROBERT AULD, M.A., from Kilwinning. Ordained, * Joseph Rorke, from Wellington Street, Glasgow. Ordained at Church Street, Berwick, aist June 1883, and translated in 1890 to Heaton, Newcastle, a congrega- tion which improved greatly under his ministry. 480 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 26th March 1890. The membership was about 200, and the stipend ,200, with the manse. On 29th November 1893 Mr Auld accepted a call to Eglinton Street, Glasgow. The stipend had meanwhile required to be reduced to .140. Ninth Minister. DAVID SHEARER, M.A., translated from Shapinshay after a ministry of five years, and inducted to Wick, igth July 1894. At the close of 1899 the membership was 166, and the stipend remained at ,140, with the manse. THURSO (ANTIBURGHER) THE date of this congregation's origin cannot be stated with exactness. Sir George Sinclair in his evidence before the Patronage Commission put it about 1767. He also stated that "at a previous period two of the parish ministers in succession were understood to have preached Arminian doctrine, in consequence of which a secession had taken place, the necessity of which the inhabitants much regretted." The law papers in the well-known Thurso Case give 1766 as the year. When Elgin Presbytery was formed four years after this Thurso, in conjunction with Wick, was placed as a vacancy under their inspection, and in September of that year a call from Thurso signed by 19 male members and adhered to by other 10 in favour of Mr Alexander Howison was set aside by the Synod. The people had previously petitioned the Presbytery to procure them a hearing of one or more probationers, and in particular two who were learning the Gaelic language, a description which applied to Mr Howison, who was in course of time ordained at Howford. First Minister. ROBERT DOWIE, from Abernethy. Ordained, nth September 1777. Their first church, with sittings for nearly 600, is under- stood to have been built that year. At the ordination there were only two ministers present Mr Buchanan of Nigg, and Mr Clark of Moyness, with the elder from Wick. Mr Dowie died, nth June 1797, in the fiftieth year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. He had been long in a declining state of health, but he preached on the previous Sabbath. Having gone to the country during the week he returned on Saturday evening, intending to occupy the pulpit on the following day, but he died next morning about ten o'clock. The Haldanes, who visited Thurso a few months afterwards, bore honourable testimony to his labours. They also stated in their Journal that, besides the members of his own congregation, some God-fearing people waited on his ministry, though adhering to the communion of the Established Church. The state of religion in Thurso they represented as very low, and they were informed that the town, with its 2000 inhabitants, had not been catechised these forty years. Mr Dowie's widow, after surviving her husband nearly forty-eight years, died, 8th March 1845, aged ninety-seven. Second Minister. JAMES SIMPSON, from St Andrew's Place, Leith. Ordained, 22nd April 1801. In the time of this vacancy the Old Statistical History reported the membership to be on the decline, and gave their numbers in the town and parish as not more than 70. A new church was erected about the beginning of Mr Simpson's ministry, as appears from the session of the North Church, Perth, having granted a donation to Thurso in 1803 to assist them in rebuilding their place of worship, and this was followed by a further sum of ,20 in 1805. In the minutes of Kirkwall session for 1 2th August 1802 there is also reference to a petition from Thurso for assistance by collections or otherwise. It represents the repairing and enlargement of their meeting-house as a matter of necessity, and adds that PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 481 the materials of the old building turned out to be of less value than was estimated. This indicates the date of the second church, which, along with the manse, became the subject of litigation two generations afterwards. Mr Simpson resigned in the early part of 1807, and the case was referred to the Synod, the congregation having petitioned for his continuance among them. The Synod, however, agreed on 4th May to loose him from his charge, and next year he was inducted to Potterrow, Edinburgh. He may have found himself in a discouraging situation at Thurso. Sir George Sinclair, in his evidence referred to above, stated that in 1804 a minister was ordained over that parish whom the magistrates and the principal inhabitants had petitioned for, and that he officiated there for upwards of twenty years with the greatest 'acceptance. In 1808 a party in the Antiburgher church obtained sermon from the Constitutional or Old Light Presbytery. Dr Scott in his Annals understood that the whole congregation separated from the New Light Synod ; but this seems to be a mistake, as Thurso all the while retained its place on the list of Elgin Presbytery. Third Minister. JOHN M'DONALD, who had been loosed from Dubbie- side some time before, and was now in the twenty-eighth year of his ministry. Inducted, Qth September 1817. Mr M'Uonald and his people kept aloof from the Union in September 1820, and in April 1822 Elgin Presbytery reported to the Synod that they had dropped his name from their roll. Distance did not permit him to mingle in the adverse movement, but he acceded to the Protestors. In 1827 Mr M'Donald came under bodily distress, and he died, 2Qth July 1828, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. His successor was Mr David Burn, who belonged originally to Potterrow Church, Edinburgh (now Hope Park), a congregation with which the family name had a long and honourable con- nection. Mr Burn attended the United Secession Hall in 1826, and then passed over to the Original Secession. He was ordained at Thurso on 2ist July 1831, the stipend promised being only 70. In 1852, when the Original Secession Synod, of which he was Moderator, decided, by 32 votes to 31, to unite with the Free Church, Thurso congregation at a regular meeting agreed by a majority of one to do the same. The question of legal rights now passed into the Court of Session, and hence arose the famous Thurso Case, in which it was declared that the property belonged, according to the title-deeds, to the minority, who stood by the binding obligation of the Covenants. Mr Burn and his adherents now vacated the old building, and formed the West Free Church, Thurso. The party who kept by the Original Secession Synod had inevitably to face decline, and in 1884 their member- ship was down to 50, and the stipend, though liberal for their numbers, was only ^94, with a manse. Mr Burn died, 2Qth April 1882, in the seventy- eighth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. KIRKWALL (ANTIBURGHER) FROM the Journal of the Haldanes' visit to Orkney in 1798 we have a vivid picture of Church life in these islands at the time the Secession cause was rising to importance in Kirkwall. Except in one or two instances, accord- ing to the " Itinerant Missionaries," the gospel of salvation by the Cross of Christ was not preached, and, indeed, preaching was but slimly attended to. They state that ministers had often two parishes, which they were to supply on alternate Sabbaths ; that it was not uncommon for one of the churches to get dilapidated ; and hence every second Sabbath the minister lay aside, and thus far " leaves both his parishes totally destitute of gospel ordinances." An Orcadian, writing a year earlier in the Christian Magazine, gave a II. 2 H 482 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS similar account, and islands are spoken of in which the communion had not been dispensed above once or twice for half-a-century. These isolated regions had also seen the workings of Patronage and other Establishment abuses in their most aggravated forms. In Orphir, a parish bordering with Kirkwall, a minister was ordained in May 1746. The intrusion was to have been nine months before, but the people resisted and had the church shut up, so that nothing was done, and, that the Presbytery might not be thwarted a second time, a troop of soldiers was brought over from Caithness to clear the way, with the result that one woman was killed and several persons were wounded. Twenty years later a flagrant case of scandal occurred, when a parish minister lived in open concubinage with another man's wife, both before and after his marriage. The Synod contented them- selves with enjoining him to put his paramour away within four months ; but while his brethren were dallying with the demerits the Court of Justiciary took hold of the culprit, found him guilty, and banished him to the Plantations for life. The introduction of the Secession into Kirkwall we have the means of tracing from original documents or from testimony gathered up at the time and on the ground. The foremost name in this connection is that of John Rusland or Russell, " who had been apprenticed to a pious tradesman in Kirkwall, and went to Newcastle, where he attended the ministry of Mr Graham, the Antiburgher." On returning to his old centre with new light and altered views he drew a few like-minded associates into a weekly meeting for prayer and religious fellowship. Dissatisfied with the lack of evangelical preaching in their own parish church, of which one of the ministers was specially obnoxious, they joined together in the resolve to have a place of worship built, in which they might have " gospel ordinances dispensed in their purity and simplicity according to Christ's appointment." Thus the building went on, twenty bills of ^5 each being made out as security for the cost. On 25th August 1795, an d while the work was in progress, a petition was drawn up for the Antiburgher Synod " praying them to send over an ordained minister to preach the gospel of Christ unto them." The petition did not get forward in time, but in May 1796 two members of Edinburgh Presbytery, Messrs Chalmers of Haddington and Culbertson of Leith, were commissioned to supply at Kirkwall, the one in June and July of that summer and the other in August and September. Bu.t certain faded letters in manuscript let us know how the work was going on prior to this. First, a letter of 6th January 1796 informed Mr Culbertson of Leith that the house was covered in ; that it had a very genteel appearance ; and that they were erecting a pulpit as fast as possible. The writer was not the Rev. William Graham of Newcastle, as has been supposed, but a Kirkwall man of the same name, with whose interference the others were dissatisfied, and he is no more heard of. On ist March it is intimated that the pulpit is finished, and the interior of the church is in course of being fitted up with 800 sittings. The people, moreover, have subscribed so liberally that the guarantee bills are not required. The place of worship was opened on ist July by Mr Chalmers of Haddington. A session had now to be arranged for, and with this view 15 of the original petitioners met under the presidency of Mr Chalmers, when 6 of their number were nominated to office, and after being unanimously elected by the congregation they were ordained on I4th August. The first communion was dispensed in the open air on i6th July 1797, Mr Stuart from Falkirk presiding. There was a membership of 196, with whom the Rev. John Bunyan, afterwards of Whitehill, had con- versed, and whose names he had reported to the session for approval. PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 483 First Minister. WILLIAM BROADFOOT, from Whithorn. The petition for a moderation had been drawn up in February 1798, and Mr MacEwen of Howgate was sent by Edinburgh Presbytery to preside. The call, which came out unanimously for Mr Broadfoot, was signed by 44 male members, but the adherents, under which name female members were included, numbered 287. Mr Broadfoot had another call from Bo'ness, but the Synod treated this as of no account compared with Kirkwall. The ordination took place in the open air on 3rd August. The meeting-house, which would have borne no proportion to the vastness of the audience, had been already taken down for needed enlargement. There were four ministers present, but only the Moderator, Mr M'Crie of Edinburgh, was a member of Edinburgh Presbytery. The others were Messrs Colville of Lauder, Gray of Brechin, and M'Ewan of Dundee. During this visit applicants for admission to Church fellowship to the number of 256 were examined by Mr M'Ewan, and were to be admitted if the session had nothing against them. At the com- munion on Sabbath week after the ordination 300 took part in the observ- ance. At next communion in the following May 202 were admitted after examination, and the extent to which the Secession had taken hold of the Orkney Islands is indicated by the fact that on these two occasions 105 from Holm parish took part, 10 from Stromness, 27 from Shapinshay, 15 from Orphir, 8 from Stronsay, 19 from St Andrews, and a few from Evie, Birsay, and Firth. In their choice of a minister Kirkwall people were pre-eminently for- tunate. Before supply reached them at all one of their members wrote Mr Culbertson that some would be best pleased with a great orator, but an orthodox preacher was what he wished, though he knew it was best when the two came together. In Mr Broadfoot they had gifts and graces in happy combination. Year after year there was the gathering in and the building up, till early in 1814 he estimated his regular Sabbath attendance at 1250, of whom fully three-fourths were members. The stipend at this time was ,150, with sundry allowances, besides house and garden, and a manse for which they had been gathering up for years was to be entered at Whitsunday. But a month after this Mr Broadfoot informed his session that, at the urgent request of Dr Jerment, he was about to leave for London to supply Oxendon pulpit for a time. His stay there seems to have been lengthened out till November, and it had weighty consequences. On 24th April 1817 Mr Broadfoot moderated in Kirkwall session for the last time. The next meet- ing, on nth June, was constituted by the Rev. James Pringle of Newcastle. Moderator of Synod, who had been sent north to intimate that their worthy and respected pastor had been removed from them by a decision of Synod, and translated to London. Owing to distances and the exigencies of the case forms had been dispensed with, and the matter summarily disposed of. Under Mr Broadfoot's ministry the congregation had grown all on, and the summer before he left the stairs were removed to the outside to allow an additional number to hear the gospel. After Mr Broadfoot was gone one of his leading men testified that in civil society as well as in the pulpit his commanding abilities appeared to advantage ; that in all schemes of benevolence he generally took the lead ; that his conspicuous talents and moral worth secured respect even from the avowed enemies of the Secession in Orkney ; and that, while firm as a rock where truth and duty were concerned, he was liberal and catholic on matters of minor moment. The session, however, kept very much on Antiburgher lines. At one of their first meetings the Mason Oath, which had travelled as far north as Kirkwall, caused them trouble ; and in 1805 one of their members was sharply dealt with for leading people into a scheme for build- 484 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ing an Independent meeting-house, when he insolently declared himself no longer in their communion. Having afterwards maintained that in baptism ministers ought not to take parents under obligation to discharge parental duty he was thrown out of membership. It was then that the Congrega- tional Church of Kirkwall had its origin. In 1808 the session, under advice from Edinburgh Presbytery, refused to tolerate the occasional attendance of members upon public ordinances in any church against which testimony was borne in the public deeds of the Secession. For thirteen years Mr Broadfoot laboured in Oxendon Chapel, preaching three times every Sabbath. His voice having failed, he had to be relieved of his charge in October 1830, but he was able some time after to enter on the duties of theological tutor at Cheshunt College in Lady Huntingdon's connection. This did not break the tie between him and the Secession Church, and he even continued to act as the Clerk of London Presbytery. He died, 6th June 1837, in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministerial life. He was buried in Bunhill Cemetery, where Kirkwall congregation a generation afterwards erected a handsome granite obelisk over his grave. Mr Broadfoot had three sons British officers two of whom fell on the battlefields of India, and one of them, Major George Broadfoot, is the subject of a stately volume, bearing on his military career. In the early part of the vacancy at Kirkwall the people called Mr Pringle of Newcastle, to compensate themselves as far as possible for the loss he had come north to announce. There was not, indeed, perfect unanimity among them, some members from the country alleging that Mr Pringle was not dis- tinctly heard, while 3 or 4 were not clear about calling an ordained minister, but all of them declared they would throw no obstacles in the way. The call came before the Synod in May 1818, but after hearing Mr Pringle they continued him in Newcastle. The Rev. Thomas Stark of Forres was then fixed on by the congregation, and appointed to Kirkwall by the Synod, but as he was not present it was left in his own hands whether to obtemper the decision or not. In November 1819 a letter came north from Mr Stark declining the call, and the resolution was now formed to fall back on a probationer. With this view their long-tried friend, Mr Culbertson of Leith, was appealed to, and he, as Presbytery Clerk, sent them Messrs James Whyte and Robert Paterson, informing them that there were none better. The former of the two surpassed all his contemporaries in popularity ; but he was under obligation to go to America, and when the moderation day came, though he had a party in his favour, he was not even proposed. Second Minister. ROBERT PATERSON, from Hamilton (now Saffron- hall). The call was signed by 202 male members, and the stipend was to be ^200, exclusive of manse, garden, and the payment of taxes. Mr Paterson, after being appointed to Orkney, intimated to Edinburgh Pres- bytery that it was doubtful whether, owing to the state of his health, he would be able to go ; but the threatened barrier was surmounted, and it had far-reaching issues. A prior call came out from Muirton, but the people were counselled by their Presbytery to withdraw it, as successful competition with Kirkwall was hopeless. The ordination took place, 24th October 1820, and that day the large blank which Mr Broadfoot's trans- ference to London had made was worthily filled up. At this time the pressure for accommodation in the large meeting-house was great, and in 1822 there was a proposal to build a second place of worship, which would have involved a colleagueship, but the session after inquiry satisfied the petitioners that the matter ought not to be pressed. Next year the demand for seats could not be met, but relief came in a regrettable way by-and-by. In 1824 a party withdrew and got sermon from the Protestors, PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 485 which led to the formation of another church in Kirkwall. The petition was signed by 1 1 members and 53 adherents, and this was followed by a de- clinature with 17 -names being handed in to their own session, and enforced by "calumnious statements." The new cause never came to much, though their first minister, the Rev. Ebenezer Ritchie, was a man of high character and superior talent. The congregation struggled on through money diffi- culties under three brief pastorates till 1852, when it united with the Free Church, and soon after was dissolved. The extent to which Kirkwall Church under Mr Paterson's ministry proved a nursing mother to the young and feeble congregations in Orkney will be indirectly brought out as we pass over their several histories. Its liberality did extensive service in days when Augmentation Schemes were unknown. But in 1849 there were heavy demands to be met at home by the building of a new church, with 1400 sittings, which was opened on 2Oth September. In 1855 Mr Paterson received the degree of D.D. from St Andrews University, and on Wednesday, 24th October 1860, the completion of his forty years' ministry was celebrated with much interest. His work during that period had left its impress not only on his own congregation but throughout Orkney. In four years the monitions of failing strength were such that both minister and congregation felt that it was time to have the long and heavy burden lightened by the appointment of a colleague. Third Minister. DAVID WEBSTER, from Letham. Having removed to Ireland he became connected with the Irish Presbyterian Church. Admitted to the U.P. Hall from Trinity College, Dublin, as a second-year student by the Synod in 1860. Called to Stromness, but Kirkwall intervened, and was accepted. Ordained, loth January 1865, the money arrangements being that the senior minister's stipend should remain as before ,250, with the manse and the junior should have .200, with ,20 for a house. Preparations were being made for celebrating Dr Paterson's jubilee, when it was intimated from the pulpit on Sabbath, 2oth February 1870, that he had died that morning. He was in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His Life, by his brother, the Rev. John Paterson, formerly of Rattray, was published in 1874. ^ r Paterson was too busy with the duties of his charge to have much time to make demands upon the press, but in 1835 he published a discourse, entitled "The Divinely Appointed Method of Sup- porting the Christian Ministry," which brought him into slight collision with his neighbour, the Rev. Ebenezer Ritchie. After going on single- handed for six years Mr Webster was called to Stratford, where the work would have been greatly lighter, but he decided to keep by his important post in Kirkwall. Since then the membership of the congregation has been chiefly conditioned, on the one hand by the influx of people from the islands into Kirkwall, and on the other by the efflux from Kirkwall to the south. At the close of 1899 there were over 950 names on the communion roll ; the stipend was ,366, with the manse ; and the Sabbath school had an attend- ance of nearly 400 and a staff of teachers numbering 46. STRONSAY (ANTI BURGHER) THE first notice we have of this congregation is in the Missionary Magazine for September 1799, where it is stated that there was a meeting-house in course of erection in the island of Stronsay. In the Minutes of Synod that same month it is entered that the people there had procured a piece of ground for a place of worship, and the work was begun, but money was so scarce as to render them unable to defray the necessary expenses. It was 486 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS accordingly agreed to have a statement of the case drawn up, and an appeal made for collections on their behalf. There is no trace of any formal application for sermon having come before Edinburgh Presbytery prior to this, but several ministers were in Orkney about the time of Mr Broadfoot's ordination a year before, and one or more had probably preached in Stronsay. Hence the state of progress the cause there had now reached. First Minister. JAMES SINCLAIR, from Leslie (West). Mr Sinclair was appointed to be taken on trials for licence in May 1798, and he was to proceed to Orkney in the following spring. In May 1799, when he was supplying there, the Synod missioned him to Kentucky, but at their meeting in September letters came from Mr Broadfoot and himself, bearing that about 500 people in Stronsay were earnest to have him continued among them with a view to his settlement as their minister. He was thereupon released from proceeding to America. The next notice comes . from the Missionary Magazine again, to the effect that Mr Duncan of Mid-Calder preached in Stronsay on I7th June 1800, when four elders were elected and Mr Sinclair called unanimously. The ordination followed on the 25th, his trial dis- courses having evidently been already given in and sustained to facilitate matters. The Synod at their September meeting granted ^50 to assist with the place of worship, information having reached them that the work was at a stand. The next account we have is that the greater part of the inhabitants were attending Mr Sinclair's ministry, and that there was a membership of about 50. We are guided now by manuscript letters from Mr Sinclair to his relatives in Leslie. In one of them he tells that at the Lord's Supper on the second Sabbath of June (1801) 255 communicated, about 20x3 of these belonging to the island, while others were from Sanday, and a few from Kirkwall. He was now at Johnshaven, waiting for a vessel to take him and his bride, a sister of Mr Murray, the minister there, to their northern home. A London smack had called at Stronsay early on Monday morning, when he was abruptly summoned out of bed, and got on board within half-an-hour. It reached Aberdeen on Wednesday afternoon, after which he had a journey of thirty miles by the mail-coach. They had now people at all the post towns in the neighbourhood on the outlook for smacks passing to convey him and his "partner" from Johnshaven to Stronsay. It gives us a glimpse of how communication was kept up between Orkney and the mainland in those days. Four years afterwards Mr Sinclair relates how the congregation, contrary to what was expected, had rather increased, owing to a change in the parish incumbency. Since then an elder of the Established Church, a merchant who had long headed the opposition against him, was brought under serious convictions, and one Sabbath Mr Sinclair was summoned to visit him in his distress. The strain of anguish was such that the mental balance was destroyed for a time ; and when it was restored, his own minister an elderly man recently translated from Shetland "only told the awakened man to keep a good heart and there was no fear of him." Mr Sinclair was not clear as to any abiding change having been wrought, but, he added, "he has since taken seats for himself and (his) wife with us the servants were members before." Mr Sinclair's work went on with devotedness and success till the spring of 1811, when exposure and extra exertion induced inflammation of the liver, "which terminated in confirmed induration." He removed to Edinburgh, but the ailment baffled the power of medicine. In a short Memoir of Mr Sinclair written by Professor Paxton there is an affect- ing account of his submissive and hopeful state of mind during his illness. In the latter part of 1812, when the cold weather was coming in, he went over to Leslie to take farewell of his father and other near relatives ; but the PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 487 journey was too much for him, and he died there on 2gth November, in the forty-second year of his age and thirteenth of his ministry. In a letter written some months before to his sister he thanks her warmly for her offer to take some of the children, who were soon to be left fatherless. How they were to be provided for, he said, was a dark prospect indeed, but the Lord was all-sufficient. His widow became matron of the Charity Workhouse, Edinburgh, and died, and May 1822. One of his daughters, ten years after, was married by Dr Ritchie of the Potterrow to the rector of the Grammar School, Dumfries. A kind Providence seems to have met their wants and opened up their way. In 1814 Stronsay congregation called Mr James Miller, but Edinburgh Presbytery had intimated on granting the moderation that they would not undertake to sustain the call unless the people engaged to give ^80, with the manse, and the congregation having refused to move, the call was laid aside. In May 1815 the Synod was asked by Stronsay congregation to revive their call, as they had now complied with the Presbytery's demands, but Mr Miller was appointed to Huntly. They now called iMr Thomas Ketchen, but he firmly refused to accept, and the Presbytery having handed him over to the Synod he was rebuked and suffered to go free.* Second Minister. WlLLIAM TAYLOR, from Logiealmond. The call was sustained in October 1816, but Mr Taylor held back, as he did not consider it a call of God, and the Presbytery thought fit to suspend him. At next meeting he acknowledged that he had been too unbending, and agreed to go, but with this proviso, that " if the climate did not agree with him, or the people did not fulfil their engagements, the Presbytery would not stand in the way of his demission." Ordained, 3rd June 1817, and after remaining in Stronsay for six years he demitted his charge, but it was for neither of the above reasons that the step was taken. Mr Taylor had married the daughter of a farmer in the island who had gone in for agricultural improve- ments, which brought him into disfavour with his neighbours, and the son- in-law was made so uncomfortable that he resolved to leave. The five Orkney ministers met at Stronsay on gth October 1823, with Presbyterial powers, to deal with the demission. They found that for eight or ten months a great part of the congregation had been refusing to pay seat rents ; that many had withdrawn from attendance on ordinances ; and some had formed themselves into a private meeting for prayer and conference on the Lord's Day. The Presbytery decided that there was nothing in Mr Taylor's deportment to warrant this line of action ; that umbrage had been taken at matters over which he had no control, and in connection with surmises and rumours which were baseless. Still, as Mr Taylor was urgent to be loosed from his charge, they accepted his resignation on obtaining security that arrears of stipend would be paid before Whitsunday. The session was also enjoined to proceed against those members who had set up a private meeting in opposition to the Sabbath ministrations of Mr Taylor. Ample apologies for wrong-doing followed, as they well might. At next meeting of Synod Mr Taylor's name was put on the probationer list, and in 1829 he received a call to Burghead, which he declined to entertain. He continued to itinerate as a probationer till 1846, and then became chaplain of St Cuthbert's Poorhouse, Edinburgh. He died in * Thomas Ketchen was from Howgate. He emigrated to America in 1820, and was ordained minister of Shiloh and Neily's Creek, in South Carolina, on 2Oth Decem- ber of that year. In 1832, when the Associate Synod issued a pointed warning against slavery as a moral evil, he renounced their connection, and joined the Associate Reformed Synod of the South. After this he engaged in teaching and as occasional pulpit supply. He died, a6th September 1855. 488 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Atholl Place, where he had long resided, on nth May 1865, in the eighty- fourth year of his age. In 1824 Stronsay congregation issued a call to Mr Robert Allan, afterwards of Tillicoultry, but they did not face the trouble of prosecuting their claims. Third Minister. JAMES MUDIE, from Bell Street, Dundee. Ordained, 2nd December 1825, the call being signed by 173 members and 64 adherents. In the thirteenth year of his ministry Mr Mudie reported a membership of 368. The minister's stipend was ^85, with a manse and garden. The church was situated towards the south-eastern extremity of the island, and owing to this 52 families had to come from a distance of over four miles. To remedy this evil a site was obtained much nearer the centre, and a church, with sittings for 450, erected in 1858, with a befitting manse beside it, the entire cost being ^875, exclusive of labour and cartage. The Presby- tery undertook to raise ^100 if the congregation contributed ,300, and ^200 was obtained from the Ferguson Bequest. In July 1860 Mr Mudie's illness was recorded by the Presbytery, and on I4th August it was found that he was permanently disabled for public work, and a colleague became indispensable, who would undertake the whole responsibility. Fourth Minister. JOHN THOMSON, from John Street, Montrose. Or- dained as colleague to Mr Mudie, I7th April 1861, the stipend to be ,120, with the manse. Mr Mudie after seeing his place filled removed to Blair- gowrie, the people allowing him a small annual grant of ,10. He died at Carnoustie, 22nd September 1863, in the seventy-third year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. His widow, a daughter of the Rev. Alexander Balfour of Lethendy, was a woman of good understanding and devout spirit, as the writer had occasion to know, and one of their daughters is the wife of ex-Provost Moncur of Dundee. On 6th March 1866 Mr Thomson was loosed from Stronsay on accepting a call to Henderson Church, Edinburgh. At this stage the congregation raised the stipend to ^150, with manse and garden, and called Mr David Thomas, who declined, and was afterwards settled in Howgate. Fifth Minister. JOHN WILSON, M.A., from Whitehall. Ordained, i6th October 1867, and loosed on accepting a call to Canongate, Edinburgh, I4th November 1871. This was followed by a call to Mr James M. Rae, who preferred Maryhill. Sixth Minister. DAVID BUCHANAN, from Kirkintilloch, who had previously declined a call to Bolton. Ordained, 3oth April 1873. A year after this Mr Buchanan intimated to the Presbytery that the people had agreed to raise his stipend to ,180, a step which wrought for evil in the end. Within four years the financial condition of the congregation required the attention of the Presbytery, the stipend being in arrears to the extent of ^36, and Mr Buchanan was blamed for having urged the advance, and other matters of complaint forced their way into notice, and widened out into a sea of troubles. The minister, it was alleged, made an ill-judged statement from the pulpit in the beginning of his ministry, reflecting on the treatment their fathers gave Mr Taylor, one of his predecessors, and though regret was expressed for this blunder of his the wound had never healed. The case gave perplexing work to the Presbytery for three years, but the two parties in the congregation, those adhering to the minister and those bent on having him removed, were irreconcilable. A protest from Mr Buchanan and his friends against certain decisions of the Presbytery should have come before the Synod in 1882, but owing to illness in his family Mr Buchanan could not attend, and the cause had to lie over for another year. Meanwhile a memorial signed by 184 members expressing strong dis- satisfaction with Mr Buchanan's ministry was lying on the Presbytery's table, PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 489 and arrears of stipend ran up till they reached ,240. In May 1883 Stronsay Case in all its length and breadth was laid before the Synod, with documents to the number of 63. It ended in the appointment of a Commission to visit Orkney, confer with parties, and issue the case if they saw fit. The result was that on 3ist May Mr Buchanan gave in the demission of his charge, which was accepted, the congregation to pay up all arrears, and his name to be placed on the probationer list. After two years he was inducted to Smethwick, near Birmingham, where he has laboured ever since. Seventh Minister. CLAUDE BROWNLIE, from Coatbridge (Dunbeth). Ordained, 4th March 1885. Mr Brownlie was considered by those who knew him as a man well fitted to assuage the troubled elements in Stronsay Church. The membership in the beginning of 1900 was 383, and the stipend from the people ^155, with the manse. BIRSAY (ANTIBURGHER) BIRSAY is one of two Secession congregations that find no place in Ur M'Kelvie : s Annals. It is also passed over in Dr George Brown's manu- script volume, and the stepping-stones of its early history are few and far between. The first notice of Birsay relates to the conducting of Sabbath services there on ijth June 1800 by the Rev. James Robertson of Kilmar- nock, who had been sent north to Orkney to take part in the ordination of the first minister at Stronsay, and on 3rd August 1801 the session of Kirkwall, twelve miles distant, granted a petition, signed by 9 men resid- ing in the parishes of Birsay and Evie, to be disjoined with the view of forming a distinct congregation. They had the prospect of securing a piece of ground "for building a house," and the Synod in May 1802 recommended collections to assist them in erecting a place of worship. Their progress was delayed by an interdict from a proprietor in the place, who complained that the quarry formed by taking stones from the common would be dangerous to his cattle, and the building was not completed till 1804. That year the Synod sent Mr Andrew Ogilvie, of whom more is given under Wigtown, to supply specially at Birsay, and that he might be better equipped for his duties in that remote region he obtained ordination. In May 1805 a call from Birsay to Mr John Wallace came before the Synod in competition with another from Dunblane, when the latter was preferred. He probably wished this, Orkney being looked on in those days as scarcely within the confines of civilisation. First Minister. ARCHIBALD WiLLiSON, who had left Montrose (now St Luke's) in 1804 after a ministry of six years. He then removed to Denny, where he had a small property, and returned to preacher life again. While he was thus engaged Stirling Presbytery took up certain reports which had got into circulation against him, some of them affecting his general character and others his ecclesiastical consistency. It was found, under his own handwriting, that he had been finessing for admission to the Relief body, the reason assigned being that there were better vacancies there than in his own connection. He had also taken possession of some clerical note-books when putting up in Tillicoultry manse, and it was alleged that one of the sermons they contained did service for him in a neighbour- ing pulpit. Worse even than this, he was declared to be, by habit and re- pute, a tale-bearer and an evil speaker, another epithet being added which trenched on the libellous. But meanwhile he was sent to supply at Birsay, where he got into the people's good graces, and obtained their call. It was 490 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the time of the rupture between the Constitutionalists and the General Synod, and Mr Willison, finding himself hardly bestead through the action of Stirling Presbytery, got over his Relief proclivities, and resolved to cast in his lot with the Old Light party. His case came before the Synod in 1807, when the charges against him were found substantially established. It was also certified that he had been striking out against the New Testi- mony, endeavouring to detach Birsay congregation from the connection, and damage the character of his brethren. The Synod felt keenly on the matter, Birsay having owed much to their fostering care. But Mr Willison had betaken himself to his fastness in Orkney, where he kept possession of the pulpit, and they had no means of dislodging him. Sentence of de- position, however, was pronounced against him, and a preacher was sent north armed with an extract of the Minute, to be used as he found oppor- tunity. Mr Broadfoot of Kirkwall was also requested to ascertain whether it would be practicable to get possession of the property ; only, the Presby- tery would not come good for the law expenses. Mr Willison and the great majority of Birsay congregation now kept together without any formal link between them ; but a few adhered to the Synod, and sought membership in Kirkwall Church. Matters continued in this state till 1809, when Mr Willison applied to be recognised by the Constitutional Presbytery. They conversed with him on several matters that had been laid to his charge, when he denied that he had sought admission to the Relief, though he had held communication with two of their ministers. As for the stolen note-books, he knew nothing about them, and finding nothing proved against him they admonished him to be watch- ful over his whole deportment, and received him into their fellowship. But there was difficulty with his induction at Birsay. The journey was formid- able, the members of Presbytery were few, and the call was two years old. At last the way was cleared by the congregation signifying their adherence to their former call and by Mr Willison sending in a letter of acceptance. In August 1812 the edict was served, and if there were any objectors they were invited to appear at the distant town of Kirriemuir to state their case. Mr Willison was next requested to send up a written declaration of his continued adherence to his ordination vows. This being done, the Presby- tery across the wide distance declared the pastoral bond formed, and a preacher was to read this Minute in presence of the congregation on an early Sabbath. It is found that the roll of membership kept for a long time about 200, but evil days were in reserve. In November 1817 the congregation reported to the Presbytery that Mr Willison had left them in painful circumstances, and had gone to reside near Denny. Friendly relations between him and them had been disturbed prior to this with com- plaints about their failure to afford him needed support. The Presbytery now summoned him three times to appear before them ; but ill-health was certified as a reason for absence, and he also wrote that, though he were well, he would not attend. On 2nd March 1818 he was deposed for con- fessed immorality, the sentence to be intimated at Birsay, and also at Falkirk, "the nearest to where he is." After this he lived at East Boreland, and betook himself to teaching. He seems to have died in the early thirties, and, so far as we can make out, he had attended at Dennyloanhead, his native congregation. Birsay O. S. Church had 190 members in 1884. STROMNESS (ANTIBURGHER) STROMNESS is a seaport fourteen miles west of Kirkwall, and in the begin- ning of the century it had a population of 2200. Notwithstanding the PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 49I distance a number of the inhabitants began early to attend the ministry of Mr Broadfoot at Kirkwall, and in September 1802 the Synod arranged to have a catechist stationed at Stromness, and also recommended Mr Broadfoot to preach there as he found opportunity. A year later they appointed a collection to be made in the several congregations on behalf of Stromness, with this stipulation, that if the house they proposed to build were not used for a place of worship the money should be refunded. It appears from a letter written by Mr Sinclair of Stronsay that in July 1805 the work was begun, and in the following year 30 communicants, including two elders, were disjoined from Kirkwall and formed into a separate con- gregation. The church when finished cost ^600, and was seated for 643- First Minister. ANDREW WYLIE, from Auchtergaven. He had other calls from Sanday and Thurso, but Stromness was preferred by the Presbytery as the most important place of the three. Though the male members subscribing were only 17 in number the adherents were 160. Mr Wylie was ordained, nth October 1809. A successful ministry followed, though it was disturbed at one time by contention about the mode of con- ducting the psalmody, and the minister was recommended to have recent innovations discontinued, and that only one person should be employed to conduct the praise. For a twelvemonth the strife went on, and to re- move a prominent stumbling-block the Presbytery counselled that there should be no " band " collected in any particular part of the church, and that those tunes which were most obnoxious should be discontinued. Mr Wylie died, 27th July 1826, at his brother's house in Auchtergaven, and was buried in the family resting-place. He was in the forty-third year of his age and seventeenth of his ministry. Second Minister. WILLIAM STOBBS. Shortly after falling vacant the congregation called Mr Stobbs, who was then a preacher ; but the Synod in May 1827 appointed him to Ellon, though between the two places there was no comparison. After waiting on for a year and a half Stromness people renewed their call, and, the translation having carried, Mr Stobbs was inducted to his new charge, nth June 1829. His stipend was to be ^120, with some additional items, but no manse. In 1837 he reported 544 communicants, of whom 60 were from Stennis parish and 37 from Orphir. Of the families under his care 36 came from over four miles and 16 from over six. The stipend, including sundry allowances, was about 13$, and a manse had been recently built, the debt on which was in course of being liquidated. There was also a subscription going on to effect a needed enlargement on the church. At this time the minister superintended a Sabbath-evening school for two hours with an attendance of 310, and at his monthly prayer meeting he had between 200 and 300. Mr Stobbs died, 2 ist March 1863, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. A new church was in course of erection at this time, and it was opened on 28th June of that year, with sittings for 780, and built at a cost of .1800. Of Mr Stobbs' family relationships it may be stated that his son, the Rev. Simon S. Stobbs, as is given under Ardrossan, joined the Established Church about the time of his father's death. Another son, Alexander, attended our Theological Hall four sessions, but became in- capacitated for study, and died at Partick, loth April 1875, aged thirty- eight. John, the youngest of the three was certified to the Hall by Orkney Presbytery in 1861, but after attending one session he, like his brother Simon, joined the Established Church. Having emigrated to Australia he was ordained on 2gth April 1875 over a congregation in West Melbourne, left vacant by the death of the Rev. Andrew Robertson, formerly of Stow. 492 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS His death on loth August 1882 was much lamented by his brethren. Their mother was a daughter of the Rev. Simon Sommerville, of Elgin. Third Minister. JAMES S. NlSBET, from Mauchline. Ordained, 4th July 1865. The congregation had previously called Mr David Webster, but Kirkvvall came between them and the object of their choice. At both moderations Mr Thomson of Stronsay was proposed, and on the first occasion he had 67 votes against 177. The present call was signed by 362 members and 104 adherents, and the stipend promised was ^150, with manse, taxes, and travelling expenses. On 4th May 1874 Mr Nisbet was loosed from Stromness, having accepted the office of travelling secretary for the National Bible Society, with its headquarters in Edinburgh. Fourth Minister. THOMAS KlRKWOOD, from Beith (Head Street). Ordained, 2oth July 1876, and translated to Kelso (First), 7th June 1880. During this vacancy the congregation issued two unsuccessful calls the first to Mr James G. Crawford, now of Limekilns, and the other to Mr James Lanclreth, who afterwards accepted Brechin (Maisondieu Lane;. Fifth Minister. DAVID WOODSIDE, B.D., from Darlington Place, Ayr. Ordained, 7th December 1881. Called to Gillespie Church, Dunfermline, in June 1885, and accepted Woodlands Road, Glasgow, on 4th August there- after. After a vacancy of nearly a year a call from Stromness was declined by Mr Andrew Gemmell, who some time after was ordained at Ford. Sixth Minister. PETER M. M'DOUGALL, a native of Renfrew, but was ordained over a Congregational church at Ringwood, Hampshire, in September 1881. Not finding himself comfortable in that situation he withdrew from his charge and from the Independent connection in 1884, and was admitted to the U.P. Church as an ordained probationer at the Synod in the following May. In his paper of application he stated that before receiving licence he attended classes in Arts and Theology five sessions of nine months each at Nottingham Independent Institute and Cheshunt College. Having experienced the evils, as he believed, of ill- balanced power under the Congregational form of Church government he came to regard the Presbyterian system, with its checks and counter-checks, as nearer the Scripture model, and more in keeping with practical require- ments. On points of doctrine and on the relations between Church and State he was at one with the Church to which he had already transferred his membership, and from which his relatives, though residing in England, had never really been disjoined. Mr M'Dougall after his admission acted for some time with much acceptance as locum tenens for the Rev. John Young of Newington, now our Home Mission Secretary, and he was inducted to Stromness, 7th December 1886. There his course was both brief and abruptly ended. On Tuesday, I5th December 1891, he accompanied to the steamer the minister who had been assisting him at the communion. Returning home, he was stricken with heart disease in a violent form, and on the 25th, while preparing to go out for a short walk, he suddenly expired, in the forty-third year of his age and eleventh of his ministry. On New Year's Day he was laid to rest in Glasgow Necropolis. After a vacancy of nearly a year and a half the congregation called Mr David Mackie, who preferred Townhead, Dumfries. Seventh Minister. THOMAS SIMPSON, from Newcastleton. Ordained, 20th March 1894. The membership at the close of 1899 was 381, with a stipend of .200, and the manse. PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 493 SAN DAY (ANTIBURGHER) THIS is one of the most northerly islands, as well as the largest, in the Orkney group, and in the beginning of the century it had a population of little under 2000. In the year 1800 sermon was occasionally obtained from Antiburgher ministers supplying at Kirkwall, and Stronsay congregation had members from Sanday at the communion in June 1801. In 1807 the first church was built, with sittings for 420. The Synod in September 1808 granted the Presbytery of Edinburgh permission to proceed with a moderation. The stipend promised was ^50, with a house, and grass for two cows, and the people hoped to make it 60 the second year, and meanwhile the Synod would grant them the additional ,10. But there was a wearisome waiting on for nearly six years ere a fixed pastor was obtained. First they called Mr Andrew Wylie, the call being signed by 29 male members and 23 male adherents, but Stromness, with fewer signatures, was preferred. Then Mr John Miller was chosen, but the Synod appointed him to Linlithgow, though by a very small majority. Immediately after this disappointment, we read, the sacrament was dispensed to the people of Sanday, a rare thing till a congregation was fully formed ; but it comforted them not a little, and a considerable number acceded. In 1810 a call to the Rev. John Kirk, formerly of Balbeggie, was set aside at the urgent request of the congregation, rumours having got afloat in the island to his disadvantage. First Minister. WILLIAM RAM AGE, from Howgate. Ordained, I2th July 1814. But Mr Ramage was not to find a lasting abode in the Orkney Islands. In the beginning of 1818 it was reported to the Presbytery that there were 130 communicants, and that the stipend aimed at was .80, with other items, but within the space of three years they had fallen nearly ^100 behind. It was also ascertained that 40 of the members contributed nothing to the support of the gospel, a fault for which there was not abject poverty to plead. The explanation was that they had lately come over from the Established Church, and the session was, with all due tenderness, to stir them up to exertion. It ended with Mr Ramage resigning his charge, pleading deficiency in the sum promised and the irregularity with which payments were made. The congregation petitioned for their ministers continuance among them, and urged that four of the session were to become personally responsible for the stipend. The resignation was to lie on the table till it should be seen whether the proposed arrangements were to work satisfactorily, but on nth August Mr Ramage came forward, in- sisting on its acceptance, which was agreed to. He was inducted into Kirriemuir the following year. Sanday congregation next came forward with a call to Mr James Whyte, the first of over a dozen which that probationer received, but when the call was presented to him by Edinburgh Presbytery he pleaded that he was under a previous appointment to go to America, and had prosecuted his theological studies with that design, and after long dealing with him the call was set aside. His name will come before us in other connections. The next call was addressed to Mr William Parlane, afterwards of Tranent, but, without any equivalent reason to assign, he was at least as unbending as Mr Whyte in his refusal to accept. In July 1821 a third call, signed by 50 male members and 30 adherents, was sustained. It was addressed to Mr Adam D. Gillon, afterwards of Newcastle, but "he could not make up his mind" to be settled in Sanday. The circumstances of the congregation at this time were far from inviting. In building their church and providing a manse for their minister debt had been incurred which, with their slender means, they were unable to meet, now that payment was demanded. An 494 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS appeal for aid was needed, and in this way the jioo required appears to have been forthcoming, and Sanday was reserved for more prosperous days, though trouble had in the first instance to be passed through. Stctmd Afinistfr. JOHN CRAWFORD, from Lochwinnoch. Ordained, 8th April 1823. The stipend promised was .80, and a manse, " with a quantity of peat for fuel." Mr Crawford's beginnings as a divinity student had not been hopeful. His first homily was not sustained, his trials for licence were rejected, and Glasgow Presbytery, after the specimens they had had of his qualifications, advised him to turn his attention to some secular employment. None the less he held on, and in due time was admitted to the charge of Sanday, in Orkney. The first evidence we have that things were going wrong is on 5th July 1827, when the Orkney ministers met at Sanday, under the title and with the powers of Edinburgh Presbytery, to inquire into certain complaints made against Mr Crawford by eleven of his elders. The finding was that he had acted recklessly in the charges he had brought against members of session and others. But the knot was cut by Mr Crawford giving in his demission, which was accepted on the spot, and he was laid under suspension for three months. There was a reaction now in the minister's favour, and at the end of that period a petition for bis restoration signed by 46 members and 326 seat-holders was addressed to the Synod but not transmitted by the Presbytery. Mr Crawford was also informed that the sentence was now removed, and he was free to be employed as an ordained minister, a privilege which he was not much longer to enjoy. At next Synod he was allowed ^10 " owing to his peculiarly distressed situa- tion." This was followed by a darkening down into hopeless insanity. Ten years afterwards an annual grant of .24 was allowed for his behoof. He was now in Hillhead Asylum, Greenock, and Mr Finlayson was requested to take charge of the money and watch with kind attention over the poor invalid. The sum was afterwards increased to ^30, and payment continued till his death, which took place in Morningside on ijth April 1859, in the sixty-third year of his age. During this vacancy the congregation called Mr Robert Black wood, and the call was preferred by the Presbytery to another from South Ronaldshay, but after part of his trials had been delivered notice came of a competing call from Banff, and the people of Sanday agreed to stand out of the way. Third Minister. JOHX PAUL, from Muirton. Ordained, I4th December 1830. The call was signed by 46 male members and 59 adherents, and the stipend was to be j8o, with manse, garden, supply of fuel, and sacramental expenses. In 1850 a new church was built two miles nearer the centre of the island at a cost of 700, the sittings being 600. In 1868 Sanday con- gregation reached the self-supporting point, having made the stipend i-,o. Six years after this, when Mr Paul was completing the forty-fourth year of his ministry, his people at his own request arranged to provide him with a colleague. On his partial retirement they were to give him ^50 a year, and the junior minister was to have ^180, with the occupancy of the manse. Fourth Minister. DAVID CALDERWOOD, M.A., from East Kilbride. Ordained, 22nd November 1876. The call was signed by 470 members and 92 adherents. The communion roll four years after this numbered 561 ; whereas there were not more than 1 50 at Mr Paul's ordination half-a-century before. A new church, with between 700 and 800 sittings, was built in 1881 at a cost of ^2000, of which sum ^1000 was subscribed by the congregation at the time. Mr Calderwood became sole pastor on the death of his col- league, i^th November 1884, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and fifty- fourth of his ministry, leaving his name deeply engraven on the island of Sanday. For Mr Calderwood a long period of uncertain health followed, by PRESBYTERY OF ORKMEY 495 which his labours were freqnendy interrupted ; bat a can to Mimgavie opened a way of escape from die demands of the Orkney cfimate, and was art^r^ 4* March I89J5. In tte following February tbe congregation caS3Mr John Deas Logic, who declined, Fifth Minister. GEORGE LUKE, B.D., from Kinross (tEast). Ordained, 26th August 1896, In die beginning: of dot year there was still a debt of ^77000 die church, bat before its dose die congregation raised 300. realised nearly yx> by a bazaar, received 100 from die KirkwaU Trust, and die remainder was cancelled by die Mission Board. Three years after dns die membership was 491, and die stipend ^190, with die manse. The popula- tion of die island has decreased almost exacdy 200 widrin die last tea years. HOLM (AsmBCTRGHEXJ) THIS parish is on die mainland of Orkney, and about six miles south-east of KirkwalL For some account of die minister who occupied die Established church pulpit for a short time in die latter part of die eqghteeiidi centmy we are indebted to die Journal of die Haldanes when dieywete on dieir mission- ary tour dnongh die nordi of Soodand. At Kirkwaffl diey heard a minisua preach from die text : " Behold, die fear of die Lord dot is wisdom, and to depart from evil that is understanding. 3 ' It is added : "The whole of die fear of God and of rehgion he compiehended indie discharge of die social duties, of which die chief that he insisted on was honesty. This was die only way in which man could ronnm ml himself to die favour of God. The name of Christ was not once mentioned.'' Visiting Hohn a fortnight latter the writer says : "'That minister was about to be translated to dns parah We learned diat only 7 had signed his catt." Tins was Mr W. Anderson. He was mdnctrd to Hohn, jist May 1798; and removed to St Fergus within five months. Bnt the Si-rfSftinH ransg mas, netm finding wiA ^nrqpjanry fa KirkwalL and many famines from the parish of HoBm were received into membership there. The distance being' consaderaBste ttSney applied to Ednv- bnmh Presbytery far sermon on jdi Xovcmber 1814, arod, asssaming dns step had been taken with die fall concurrence of daeir own npp?nr and C ** OC "1 1 " 1 , die Presbytery agreed to giant die application in so far as supply might be available. The church, ""which was compBetdhr fml of people sealed on temporary boards,* was opened next month by Mr Broadfoot of Kktwal, and at die dose of die service six prrsom were elected to die ddersUp. Im May 1815 a call from Hohn to Mr Charles Robertson was qngfyinf^ of whom some particulars are given under Handy. Tine stipamd was to be j8o, with house rent, meanwhile, and 3 once every third year for Symod- ical expenses. But Mr Robertson, JM^dA*^ consideiing' die *JJ|*IMI in- adequate, dpJitfd die desolate apprauiirr of die cminliy, and Hohn people were immriDnH; diat he should come among dtem widi iclmcaamce, or diat die Presbytery should proceed to extieme meaauies with Mnm, amid die call was set aside. First Minister. THOMAS CHRISTIE, from Affloa ' now Townhead)X Or- dained, 2ist Moccmber 1816, the call bemg s%ned by 72 male inimbii and 84 adherents. In 1818 die stipend was 90^, with ^8 for a honsc, and 4 at each communion. A manse was now in course of erection, and in 1821, most of the debt on the property being paid oft; die stipend was raised jfijo, Mr Christie resigned, lodi Jury 1852. The congregation aawed die Pres- bytery to Auisxnajf him from leaving' diem, and a commiitrttee was appointed to confer widi him in die evening. Mcxtday dae PieaJniay met at Shapin- shay for die ordination of Mr Brown, and on the i2tth they were constituted anew at KirkwalL The committee reported diat Mr Christie gave as his 496 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS reasons for demitting his charge that he believed he had the call of God to go to Canada ; that his stipend did not meet the wants of his increasing family ; that he did not wish to be burdensome to the congregation ; and that his offer of missionary service had been accepted by the Synod's committee. His people had also sent a deputation to induce him to remain with them, but they found that he was fully determined to go. His resignation was therefore accepted by his brethren, but with sincere regret. In Canada Mr Christie became minister of West Flamborough, where he continued in the active discharge of his duties till within a fortnight of his death. He died, 8th September 1870, in the eighty-eighth year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry. It is stated that Mr Christie was never quite reconciled to the Union with the Free Church of Canada in 1861. Second Minister. PETER BUCHAN, M.A., who had been ordained at Sandwick two and a half years before. The call was signed by 227 members and 43 adherents, and some explained that they held back from subscribing owing to sympathy with Sandwick. The stipend promised was ^90, with manse, garden, and sacramental expenses. They were also to provide their minister with fuel if the proprietor allowed, and they would give him 2 guineas as half of his contribution to the Widows' Society. Inducted, loth July 1833. In 1835 Mr Buchan published a pamphlet on the Voluntary question in reply to a Defence of Church Establishments by the Rev. Ebenezer Ritchie, minister of the Original Secession Church, Kirkwall. He died at Glasgow, igth September 1859, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and twenty- ninth of his ministry. Third Minister. JOHN PETTIGREW, from Glasgow (Hutchesontown). Ordained, 22nd January 1861. There was want of harmony from the first, and at the moderation, while 137 voted for Mr Pettigrew, 60 voted for Mr W. R. Murray, afterwards of Ardrossan, now of Manchester. A large number also held back from signing the call, but a majority of the Presby- tery felt themselves shut up to sustain it, only they were to apprise Mr Pettigrew how matters stood, hoping, probably, that he would decline. On 5th July 1864 conflict began with a memorial from the elders of Holm representing that they were " in great trouble and perplexity with respect to the conduct and actings of their minister and the state of the congregation." Some heavy charges were brought forward, and two of their number were instructed to prosecute the case by framing a libel against their minister. The proceedings into which this opened out convulsed Orkney and split Holm congregation. After prolonged accumulation of evidence in the Presbytery, and a succession of " scenes " on the part of the accused, the case came at last before a Synodical Committee, which, though setting aside some of the counts declared proven by the Presbytery, found there had been much in Mr Pettigrew's conduct that was reprehensible, and pronounced the charge of " untruthfulness, deception, and wilful non-fulfilment of promises " established. At the close the Synod continued his suspension from office, and appointed a committee to proceed to Orkney, and, in conjunction with the Presbytery, make further investigations, and issue the case. At next Synod the report given in was that on I5th August 1865 Mr Pettigrew had been loosed from his charge. His suspension was also to remain unlifted till that meeting, a decision in which Mr Pettigrew acquiesced, but saw reason to change his mind after it was too late. When Presbytery and committee met at the opening of the Synod it was found that he had been retaining possession of the manse, and for this and other disorderly mani- festations the sentence was prolonged. He then protested and appealed, but having made no appearance in the hour of cause he was laid under suspension sine die, and in that state he remained to the end. PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 497 It had fared ill, meanwhile, with Holm congregation. In dissolving the pastoral tie care should have been taken to see that the minister, whose demeanour while the proceedings went on had been " respectful and seemly," should at once give up the manse. There were no family entangle- ments to detain him on the ground, and his presence there was only fitted to irritate feeling and keep the wound open. No good could come to anyone from Mr Pettigrew remaining in Holm, absenting himself from public worship, and writing characteristic letters to the Orkney newspapers. The attendance in what used to be a well-filled church had now come down from about 500 to less than half that number, and in November of that year a petition to be erected into a congregation under their inspection was laid before the Free Church Presbytery of the bounds signed by 179 members and 86 adherents. Their last minister, they alleged, had been treated most unconstitutionally, as well as themselves, by the U.P. Presbytery, and they had no confidence in the session of Holm. To return to their former communion was an idea not to be entertained, and inconsistent with the hope of receiving spiritual edification. Communications passed between the two Presbyteries, but in the end the petition was granted, and a Free Church minister ordained over the new formation in 1869. Before passing from this subject we may glance back at the early part of Mr Pettigrew's probationer life. Having a highly popular though theatrical delivery he was acceptable as a preacher, and in no long time obtained a call to Johnshaven. It happened, however, that he supplied at Muirton when in that locality, and the Presbytery saw reason for communicating with him about some " gross imprudences " of which he had been guilty during his brief stay in that place. He replied in a tone of levity, assigning a tem- porary ailment as his reason for oftener than once betaking himself to a tavern in no very select company. He also told them that in like circum- stances he might do the same thing again. The Presbytery, with the consent of the commissioners from Johnshaven, laid the call aside, and intimated to Mr Pettigrew that such disregard to his own character and the honour of the sacred office would be tolerated in no preacher, and allowed the matter to drop. Had they acted with more thoroughness the church in Orkney might have been spared reproach, and the Holm Case been unheard of. It might even have saved Mr Pettigrew from many ups and downs in his after life. Twice, we believe, he attempted for a time to resume clerical functions ; but moral gravitation was at work, and at his death in Glasgow on igth November 1887 he was entered as a railway company's storekeeper. He was a widower, and though only in his sixty-first year he was certified to have died of " senile decay." Such was the end of one who under better control might have adorned a pulpit in a higher position than that of Holm in Orkney. The congregation in its now reduced state ceased to be self-supporting, and during the vacancy of four and a half years which followed they issued five unsuccessful calls, with long breathing times between. The first was addressed to Mr James M. Copland, now of Catrine ; the second to Mr Thomas Kirk, now of Haymarket, Edinburgh ; the third to Mr Henry Glen, now of Mitchell Church, Beith ; the fourth to Mr William Rutherford, now of Chirnside ; and the fifth to Mr James Paton, afterwards of Holm of Balfron. Fourth Minister. CHARLES RUNCIMAN, frpm Glasgow (Anderston). Ordained, 8th February 1870. The membership was only 150, and the stipend from the people had to be reduced to ^80, with the manse, ground, and sacramental expenses. At the end of 1899 there were in the parish of Holm, with its population of not more than 700 or 800, besides the Established church, the U.P. church, with 166 communicants, and a II. 2 I HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS total income of ,127 for the year, and a Free church, with 165 communicants, and a total income of ,90. WESTRAY (UNITED SECESSION) THIS island, which lies about ten miles north-west of the mainland of Orkney, began to be supplied with missionary preachers in 1821. After going on for two years in this way a place of worship was built, with 440 sittings, and the expense met by subscriptions from the people and their friends, with the addition of ,20 from the Synod Fund. The church is situated near the centre of Westray, which, along with two or three little islands adjoining, had a population of about 2000, its greatest length being ten miles and its greatest breadth six or seven. In October 1823 it was agreed to erect the members into a congregation. First Minister. GEORGE REID, from what had been the Burgher con- gregation at Lauder. Ordained, I5th June 1825, and a session of four elders had been constituted shortly before. The call was signed by 39 members and 27 adherents. In 1830 he was called to Newcastle (Blackett Street), but when the case came before the Synod a communication was read from Mr Reid, the purport of which may be gathered from the fact that without a vote he was continued in Westray. In 1838 the communicants numbered 205, and the stipend was ^85, with a manse and small glebe. About this time Mr Reid published a sermon in the Secession Magazine on The Spiritual Leaven, in which he went back beyond the beginning of his ministry, and said : " Fifteen years ago you had no existence as a Christian society ; now you are a congregation consisting of some hundreds. You had no meetings for social prayer and mutual instruction ; now you have them in every neighbourhood. You had no Sabbath-school teaching ; now you are afford- ing religious instruction to no less than 300 of the rising generation, who might otherwise have been entirely neglected." Still, these marks of pro- gress did not prevent Mr Reid turning his thoughts towards mission work in America, and with this in view he resigned his charge in July 1839. But the congregation having earnestly pleaded for his continuance among them, and the Presbytery having thrown their influence into the same scale, he asked a little time for deliberation, and then agreed to relinquish his purpose. After this he settled down for his life work in Westray, where he died, 7th July 1862, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. Second Minister. ALEXANDER WITHER, from Wellington Street, Glasgow. At the moderation Mr Wither had a majority over Mr James Graham, afterwards of Broughty Ferry, and he was ordained, i6th July 1862, a week after his predecessor's death. At the close of three years Mr Wither intimated to the Presbytery that during eight months of the year he found it impossible to accomplish pastoral work owing to the state of his health in Westray, and begged to be loosed from his charge. The congre- gation gave expression to the good feeling that had subsisted all along between them and their minister, and their wish to retain him. But on 7th August 1865 his demission was accepted. A year afterwards Mr Wither was welcomed into the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and laboured in that connection till the beginning of 1871, when he returned home with his status fully certified. On 27th May 1873 ne was inducted into Bolton (St Stephen's), from which he was loosed on I3th July 1874, and the congrega- tion some time afterwards amalgamated with the English Presbyterian Church in Bolton. He next obtained a permanent settlement in Cabrach. Third Minister. JAMES M. CRUICKSHANK, from Springburn. Ordained, PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 499 1 8th October 1866. Though Mr Cruickshank's ministry in Westray lasted much longer than that of his predecessor it closed with like explanations. It recalls what the parish minister testified a generation before: that the dampness of the climate, the frequent rains, and the total want of made roads rendered a considerable part of Westray nearly impassable during the winter and spring months. In this situation Mr Cruickshank's health suffered, and he was warned that if he remained it might be permanently injured. The people, from their wish to retain him, proposed to give him leave of absence for six months, but he felt it would be for their interest as well as his own to abide by the resolution he had formed, and accordingly the bond was dissolved, 2oth April 1874. Within a year and a half he was admitted to St Rollox, Glasgow, having been called in the interval to Logie- almond ; Auchterarder (North); Banff; and Holm, Kilmarnock. As for Westray, it had a vacancy of considerably more than two years to pass through, during which the congregation called, without success, Mr Wilson Baird, now of Mauchline, and Mr James Landreth, afterwards of Brechin. Fourth Minister. ANDREW CHAPMAN, M.A., from Bell Street, Dundee. Ordained, 29th August 1876. The stipend from the congregation was fixed at 1 60 in all. The membership three years later was not under 300. Mr Chapman, having decided on emigrating to Queensland, was loosed from Westray, 26th May 1890. He was afterwards settled at Gympie, in that colony, but in 1899 he is entered as a minister without a charge. Fifth Minister. ROBERT JAMES, M.A., from Glasgow (Erskine Church), a nephew of the Rev. George F. James, Bristo Church, Edinburgh, and a brother of the Rev. David James, then in Galston. Ordained, igth March 1891. The climate again counselled a change, from family considerations, and on 2oth July 1894 Mr James accepted a call to Gorebridge a much smaller congregation and was loosed from Westray. Next February the congregation called Mr William Mackenzie, who accepted Alexandra Parade, Glasgow. Sixth Minister. DONALD Ross, from Bathgate. Ordained, 6th June 1895. The membership on the eve of the Union was 250, and the stipend from the people ^120, which was made up from other sources to ,180, besides the manse. SOUTH RONALDSHAY (UNITED SECESSION) THIS is the most southerly of the Orkney islands, being separated from the mainland of Scotland by only six and a quarter miles of water. It came but slightly under Secession influence till 1825, when a station was opened, and a church built, with 342 sittings, at a cost of .450. The congregating followed in January 1827. Before obtaining a pastor the congregation ex- perienced three disappointments. In 1828 they called Mr Peter Mather, but after giving part of his trials he was sent to West Kilbride by the Synod. In 1829 they called Mr John Hunter, who declined, and was afterwards minister at Belford.* They next called Mr Robert Blackwood, whom the Presbytery assigned to Sanday, but Banff became his destination. First Minister. PETER M'GUFFIE, from Wigtown. Ordained, 2nd December 1830, the first of three preachers who were settled in Orkney * John Hunter was from Penicuik. After declining South Ronaldshay he itiner- ated two years as a probationer, and then was ordained at Belford on I7th August 1831. He was nominally junior minister till the death of his aged colleague, the Rev. John Thomson, on 25th February 1845. ^ r Hunter died, 2nd August 1866, in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. 500 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS vacancies within a fortnight. In 1838 the communicants present at the summer celebration numbered 1 54. The stipend was ^90, a contribution to the Widows' Fund, and fuel to the value of ,3 a year. The minister had also a manse, which cost over ,450, and the debt on the property was only ^50, thanks very much to Kirkwall congregation. Some families in Hurray were also under the minister's care, and one of the three services was occa- sionally performed there. In 1840 Mr M'Guffie was sent to Lerwick to preside at a moderation, and the call came out for himself. He declined the first offer, but accepted another a twelvemonth later, and on i4th July 1841 was loosed from South Ronaldshay. Second Minister. ALEXANDER MILLER, M.A., son of the Rev. James Miller, Huntly. Ordained, 7th June 1843. Earnest, unostentatious work now went on for five years, when Mr Miller was constrained to resign owing to his wife's health, though, under strong inducements, the sever- ance was put back for a time. The step was repeated on 2nd January 1849, and the connection dissolved, and that same day a call was addressed to Mr Miller from Keith, where he was inducted on the 25th. The congregation during the vacancy of four years which now intervened issued four unsuccess- ful calls the first, in November 1849, to Mr George Morris, afterwards of Dairy, Ayrshire ; the second, in July 1850, to Mr John Mathison, afterwards of Monkwearmouth. of whom there is more under Largo ; the third, in January 1851, to Mr James Galloway, who had his trials prepared, but accepted Sutton instead, as is given under Dunning (Burgher) ; and the fourth, in November 1852, to Mr R. S. Drummond, now Dr Drummond of Glasgow, who began in Carlisle. Third Minister. ANDREW WHYTE, M.A., from Glasgow (now Cathedral Square). Ordained, 2ist December 1853. In the following year it was decided with the Presbytery's approval to have the church removed from its former situation to St Margaret's Hope, at the north-west corner of the island, about half-a-mile distant. The place of worship was to be less con- venient for the people of Burray, and in April 1855 they were formed into a distinct congregation, which entailed a loss of 60 members. The new church at South Ronaldshay was finished about the close of 1856, with sittings for 315 people. To meet the cost of ,387 the sum of ,187 was previously secured. Of the other ^200 the congregation hoped to raise .75, and an unexpected grant of ^150 was obtained from the Ferguson Bequest. Kirk- wall also sent in ^10, and in the early part of 1858 the congregation was pronounced free of debt. By the change of position the church was brought into close proximity with the original manse. After nearly fourteen years' service in South Ronaldshay Mr Whyte, on 2 1st October 1867, accepted a call to Clackmannan, a congregation with not half the membership, but much nearer the home centre. Fourth Minister. ROBERT EDGAR, from Glasgow (now Elgin Street). Ordained, 2oth October 1868. The membership when Mr Whyte left was little under 200, and the stipend arrangements were now ,80 from the people and ,40 of supplement, with the manse. Mr Edgar preached usually once a month in the south parish, five miles off, and drew 30 members from that part of the island. Some years before there was the promise of a fair congregation there ; but the movement was not encouraged at headquarters in Orkney, and the Established Church stepped in. Still, the above figures prove that our hold of that corner was not altogether lost. Mr Edgar was loosed from South Ronaldshay on 7th October 1873, having accepted an invitation to undertake the upbuilding of a mission church in connection with Wellington congregation, Glasgow. This led to the formation of what is now Cranstonhill Church. In their vacant state South Ronaldshay people PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 501 called Mr John Meiklejohn, who accepted Kirkmuirhill, and Mr Thomas Sclater, who preferred, though an Orcadian, to settle down in Inverkeithing. Fifth .\finister.~ ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, from College Street, Edin- burgh, who had at the same time the choice of Rousay. Ordained, ;th December 1875. There was a membership now of 235, and the people engaged for ,120 of stipend, with sacramental expenses, and the manse. They also expressed the hope of reaching the self-supporting point by another year. The stipend was then announced to be .157, ids. On 1 8th October 1 88 1 Mr Robertson's demission was accepted owing to the need for a change of climate. His name afterwards became closely associated with San Remo, where he did good work among the English-speaking visitors for a period of years. He was also active in carrying through the building of a beautiful but costly church, which he described as an ornament to San Remo. It was estimated that ^1000 would meet the expenditure, but it went to .2400, besides ,1300 for the site, and at the end of 1888 the debt was found to be over ,2000. One doubts the wisdom of that large investment on a building which stands unused during half the year. In 1890 Mr Robertson's engage- ment with the Colonial Committee terminated, and he entered on regular work at Venice, where he had already conducted services part of the year. In 1894 he published " Fra Paolo Sarpi, the greatest of the Venetians," and some time afterwards he received the degree of D.D. from M'Gill College, Montreal. Since then, besides other things, he has written sharp exposures of Popery from an Italian point of view. At the General Assembly in 1900 he petitioned to have his station at Venice recognised as belonging to the Church of Scotland, with the petitioner as its minister, and was admitted accordingly. Sixth Minister. PETER SMITH, from Braehead. Ordained, igth De- cember 1882, after an unsuccessful call had been given to Mr James Milroy, subsequently of Freuchie. Mr Smith only remained two years in South Ronaldshay, having accepted a call to Clune Park, Port-Glasgow, on 6th January 1885. Seventh Minister. WILLIAM BALDWIN, from Wallace-Green, Berwick. Ordained, 22nd September 1885. In the beginning ot 1900 the membership was 190, and the stipend from the people ^120, with the manse. SANDWICK (UNITED SECESSION) THE first notice of Sandwick in the Secession records is on 6th January 1829, when a petition for sermon from 17 persons in that parish was granted by Edinburgh Presbytery. A church, with 400 sittings, was built the same year. Sandwick was originally joined to Strbmness parish, and the appli- cants complained that they used to have service only once a fortnight, and enjoyed neither pastoral visitation nor a regular ministry, and the Lord's Supper had not been dispensed among them from time immemorial. First Minister. PETER BUCHAN, M.A., from Johnshaven. Ordained, 8th December 1830. Mr Buchan had received a prior call to Muirkirk, from which the Synod relieved him in April of that year at his own request, and Orkney was now to be the scene of his life work. In Sandwick, how- ever, he was so uncomfortable at first that before a year elapsed he tendered his resignation. Unwilling to be deprived of their minister's services in so short a time the congregation met and subscribed a considerable sum. This put matters to rights, and, believing that the Presbytery would aid in providing him with suitable accommodation, Mr Buchan agreed to stay on in Sandwick. The church and manse together cost ^600, an expenditure 502 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS which was met, all but ,120, through liberal aid from their brethren in Orkney, and specially, we may believe, in Kirkwall. But severance between minister and people came soon after, owing to a call from'the larger and more important congregation of Holm. The translation was agreed to on igth June 1833, and Sandwick was left vacant. Second Minister. WILLIAM S. M'GOWAN, from Wigtown. Ordained, I4th July 1835. The stipend, including an allowance from the Synod Fund, was to be ^80, besides a manse, a piece of ground, and sacramental expenses. In 1848 it was ^90, of which the congregation raised ,50, and as a token for good they contributed that year from their scanty resources ^25 for missions. In 1855 Mr M'Gowan arranged to leave for Canada under the auspices of the Mission Board, but was prevailed on to remain. Other ten years of labour at Sandwick followed, and then his resignation was accepted in compliance with an appointment to a mission congregation in New Zealand. With this view he was loosed from his charge on 24th April 1865, being now in his sixtieth year, a stage of life with which his appear- ance fully corresponded. In his adopted country Mr M'Gowan was inducted to Hull, 8th January 1866, from which he was translated to Littleton in October 1870. He resigned, owing to advanced years, in October 1876, and died, 1 3th March 1877, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. During the year 1866 Sandwick congregation called Mr Thomas Kirk, now of Haymarket, Edinburgh ; Mr Alexander M 'Donald, now of Loch- maben ; and Mr Robert Lindsay, afterwards of Creetown, but all three preferred to remain on the preachers' list for the time. Third Minister. JAMES TORRY, from Dunbar (East). Ordained, i6th August 1867. The stipend was now to be ,120, with the manse ,75 from the congregation and ^45 from the Board. In a few years dissensions arose over some unhappy rumours regarding Mr Torry, which the Presby- tery, after investigation, pronounced baseless. None the less, a change of sphere became eminently desirable, and in August 1872 he tendered his demission. Of the congregation, 73 expressed full confidence in their minister, while 88 pleaded for full and impartial investigation. The demis- sion was accepted on ist October. Having emigrated to New Zealand, like his predecessor, he was inducted to Hawera, i6th November 1879, with a stipend of ^226 in all. He died there after a protracted illness, 1 9th July 1885, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and eighteenth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. GEORGE S. SOUTAR, M.A., from Carnoustie. The congregation had suffered through the commotion connected with the removal of their former minister, and the membership came down from 191 to 124. In July 1873 they called Mr John Campbell, afterwards of St Andrew Square, Greenock, but without success ; and they had even been told that, unless they learned to study the things that make for peace, they might have difficulty in obtaining a minister at all. But Mr Soutar accepted their invitation, and was ordained, 22nd September 1874. Five years after- wards there was a membership of 169, and at the end of 1899 it amounted to 195, the stipend from the people being .80, which was made up from other sources to ^173, with the manse. SHAPINSHAY (UNITED SECESSION) THIS island, which is about four miles N.N.E. from Kirkwall, seems to have early sent in a number of families to Mr Broadfoot's ministry. It is about PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 503 seven miles long by five broad, and in the early part of the century the population was about 1000. In August 1797 the Haldanes, who visited Shapinshay, recorded that there had been only two or three sermons preached there since last General Assembly, the minister having been detained in Edinburgh to give evidence in a trial. They brought this forward to show the neglected state of many parishes in Orkney. In Sep- tember 1830 the members of Kirkvvall congregation residing in Shapinshay petitioned the Synod to erect them into a congregation, which the Presby- tery of Edinburgh was authorised to do. The need for gospel ordinances among themselves had been painfully emphasised by a distressing accident nine years before, of which particulars are given in our notice of the Rev. William Berwick, Bell Street, Dundee. But 'it was not till 1831, when Orkney Presbytery was formed, that a church' was organised, and a year later the Synod agreed to allow ,15 for three years in the event of a settled ministry being obtained. About the same time a church was built, with accommodation for 400. First Minister. JAMES BROWN, from Methven. Ordained, nth July 1832. The stipend at first was only .60, with sacramental expenses, and house accommodation till the manse was built. About twenty years after this the island suffered much from emigration, and the congregation had to receive a grant of ,45 for two years from the Synod. In 1854 the church required to be rebuilt, which was accomplished at the humble figure of ,185, of which the congregation contributed .460, the Presbytery a like sum, and ^65 remained to be arranged for. Quietly and unobtrusively Mr Brown's work went on till 1864, when he was prostrated by sudden illness, and on 22nd July 1865, after lying for eight months "on a bed of trouble, calm, submissive, and devout," he wrote a letter to his people thanking them for all the respect and kindness they had shown him, and telling them that, as he had no hope of restoration at his advanced age, he was about to resign his charge into the hands of the Presbytery. He died on 8th August, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-fourth of his ministry. There was a membership now of over 230. After a year's vacancy the congregation called Mr William Cuthbertson, who declined, and went in 1868 to Portadown, Ireland. He comes up again under Holm, Kilmarnock. They next called Mr Alexander M. Dalrymple, who likewise declined, and was afterwards ordained at Smethwick,* near Birmingham. The third unsuccessful call was addressed to Mr James Cordiner, who soon after obtained Charlotte Street, Aberdeen. Second Minister. HENRY M. FLEMING, from Loanends, Ireland. Or- dained, 1 8th February 1868. The call was signed by 206 members and 80 adherents, and the stipend from the people was .130, with the manse. On 6th July 1875, native partialities having prevailed, Mr Fleming accepted a call to Cullybackey, in Ireland, where he still labours. Special difficulty was experienced at this time in obtaining a minister probationers, as a rule, having more vacancies than usual at command. In 1876 Mr G. F. Dewar declined, preferring Musselburgh (Bridge Street), and in 1878 Mr John Brown declined, preferring Kinclaven, and Mr Adam Baillie declined, pre- ferring Errol. Then, turning in the direction of an ordained minister, they called the Rev. W. B. Melville, who remained in Burray for the time. Third Minister. ROBERT E. HUTCHISON, from Dunning, where he had been brought up in connection with the Original Secession Church. Admitted * Alexander M. Dalrymple, M.A., from Kirkgate, Leith. Ordained at Smeth- wick, near Birmingham, gth June 1868, a year after declining Shapinshay. Emi- grated to New Zealand in 1885. Occupied at first a vacant pulpit in Dunedin, and was afterwards inducted into Clutha, in the Presbytery of the same name. 504 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS as a probationer by the U.P. Synod in May 1878, and ordained at Shapinshay, 2 1st October 1879. In July 1887 Mr Hutchison offered himself to the Colonial Board for Australia, but after some delay they advised him to continue his work in Shapinshay, in the hope that his troubles, whatever they may have been, would soon be got over. Thus another year passed, and then, an agent of the Church in New South Wales having undertaken to pay his passage money to that colony, he gave in his resignation, which was accepted by the Presbytery on i8th September 1888. There he was inducted to Walchet by the Presbytery of New England, and he is now in charge of two young congregations within the same bounds. Fourth Minister. DAVID SHEARER, M.A., from Stromness. Ordained, 22nd October 1889. A new church, which had been spoken of years before as greatly needed, was opened by Mr Webster of Kirkwall on Sabbath, 1 3th March 1892, free of debt. It has accommodation for about 300, and cost ^800, towards which the congregation contributed ^200, the minister raised ,400, and a grant of ,200 was obtained from the Central Board. On igth June 1894 Mr Shearer accepted Wick. Mr Thomas Scott, M.A., from Larkhall, was now called, but he preferred to remain on the list. Fifth Minister. ANDREW AITKEN, from Newtown, St Boswells. Or- dained, nth June 1895. The membership at the time of the recent Union was about 190, and the stipend from the people ^75, which the supplement raised to ^159, with the manse. ED AY (UNITED SECESSION) IN 1824 Mr Paterson of Kirkwall, having visited this island, set up a library in it, and arranged to have the people provided to some extent with sermon. Eday in those days was dependent on the parish minister of Stronsay for religious ordinances, and he officiated there only every fourth Sabbath, and observed the communion only every fourth year. The sailing distance is four miles, and owing to the state of the currents few would think of crossing for public worship, and as for education, there was not a school in the island till 1827. Such was its ecclesiastical position, though it had a population at that time of over 900, and covers an extent of six and a half by two and a half miles. The next distinct notice we have of Eday is in May 1827, when the Synod appointed the Rev. Alexander Balfour of Lethendy to preach six Sabbaths there that summer a suitable arrangement, the Rev. James Mudie of Stronsay, the neighbouring island, being his son-in-law. Five years after- wards the Presbytery of Orkney was authorised to erect the preaching station at Eday into a congregation, and in July 1833 this was found to have been done, and two elders ordained, the total membership being 86. A church, with 300 sittings, had been built two years before. Without delay the congregation called Mr John Inglis, afterwards of Blackswell, Hamilton, but he promptly declined. The stipend promised, with the aid of ^20 from the Synod Fund, was ^75, along with house, glebe, and sacramental expenses. In April 1834 a call was sustained to Mr George Deans, which was also rejected, and Portobello became his destination. But about this time a missionary was sent by a committee of the Established Church to labour in Eday, and the Presbytery had to report that in the altered circumstances it was doubtful whether the young congregation could expect an early settlement. The people, however, pressed forward, and in October of that year they made choice of Mr William M'Queen, afterwards of Pathstruie, and in April 1835 of Mr Alexander M'Gregor, afterwards of Kilvvinning; but probationers PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 505 might be less willing now than before to face the situation, and the end was a double disappointment. A location of the Rev. Adam D. Gillon, formerly of Newcastle (Carliol Street) was then secured, but he left at the end of six months, and his sojourn in Eday did the cause no good.* First Minister. JAMES INGRAM, M.A., from Aberdeen (George Street). Called in 1837, but did not see his way to accept. After a brief location later on the offer was renewed, and the call signed by 102 members and 41 adherents. The ordination took place, 26th March 1839. "The day was fine, the church was full, and the services were solemn and impressive." At the first communion under Mr Ingram the accessions were considerable, making up the whole membership to 160. One serious drawback was the distance of the minister's residence from the place of worship, necessitating the erectipn of a suitably situated manse. This again involved the people in a debt of ,235, of which ^100 was liquidated next year, the Board allow- ing one half. In 1858, very much through Mr Ingram's exertions, a new and much more comfortable church was built, and quiet work went on, the cause of Gospel Temperance being also steadily and successfully upheld. Mr Ingram died after a few hours' illness on 8th October 1887, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. Like Mr Taylor of Stronsay, he married a daughter of the enterprising farmer referred to in that connection, but in his case the relationship entailed no disabilities. In his family history, however, there was one distressing incident. A son of his, who was home from Edinburgh as a newly-qualified chemist, in attempting to rescue a drowning man, was himself washed away into the wide, rough sea. A daughter is the wife of the Rev. James West- water, E.P. minister at Blyth, Northumberland. Second Minister. THOMAS R. MACKAY, from Queensferry. Ordained, 1 9th September 1888. The manse had now passed into the hands of the proprietor, but by the advice of the Presbytery it was secured for nineteen years by the congregation at a rent of ^14, all repairs or improvements to be executed at their own expense. Mr Mackay was loosed, 24th July 1891, on accepting a call to the E.P. Church, Victor Street, Grimsby. The population of Eday had decreased to 700 now, and the membership at the close of the preceding year was 166, the stipend from the people being ,46, i os. Third Minister. ROBERT G. HUNTER, M.A., from Newport-on-Tay. Ordained, 5th October 1892, and loosed, 25th April 1898, on accepting a call to Leslie (West). A membership of 182 was given in the previous return, and the stipend from the people had risen to ,70. Fourth Minister. JAMES MACKAY, M.A., from Queensferry, an elder * Adam D. Gillon was from Linlithgow (West). Having declined Sanday he was ordained colleague to the Rev. John Smith, Sallyport, Newcastle, 4th September 1822. A young minister, it was hoped, would get the congregation out of its embarrassments, but this hope not being realised Mr Gillon resigned, and in September 1828 the Synod, "understanding that he demitted his charge solely because the congregation is unable to support him," added his name to the list of probationers. In that capacity he was located at Eday, but a report of improprieties on his part brought the engagement to an end. In June 1839 the Synod continued him under sentence of suspension on account of his exceedingly imprudent intercourse with a young woman who served in the house where he lodged, holding private meetings with her on Sabbath. In 1840 he withdrew from connection with the Secession, and joined the Baptists. Dr George Brown states further that he next became a Roman Catholic priest, but recanted on his death-bed, which, however, was not at Liverpool, as he supposed. This appears from the following announce- ment in the Witness: "Died here [Edinburgh], 3 1st October 1844, the Rev. A. Dawson Gillon, several years minister of Carliol Street, Newcastle." 506 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS brother of their last minister's predecessor. Mr Mackay had been located in Orkney for some years, first at Kendall and then at Egilshay. He now very befittingly became the minister of a regular charge. Ordained, 2ist December 1898. The population is still on the decline, but the stipend keeps as before. BURRAY (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS island is separated from South Ronaldshay by a sound little more than half-a-mile in breadth at its narrowest point. On 25th April 1855 tne Presbytery of Orkney disjoined 60 members and 60 adherents from South Ronaldshay, with the entire approval of their minister and session, and formed them into a distinct congregation. Subscriptions were now begun, and on I3th July 1856 a church, with accommodation for 180, and built at a cost of .300, was opened. In April 1857 a moderation was applied for. The people expected to raise ^60, with assistance from friends, and they were to receive ^40 from the Mission Board, and a manse was also to be provided. The call, signed by 66 members and 57 adherents, came out in favour of Mr David Mair, M.A.,* but was declined. In August 1858 they called Mr John Squair, who also declined, and was ordained at Wigtown soon after. The population of the island was under 800. First Minister. ROBERT S. PATERSON, from Glasgow (Renfield Street). Ordained, 2Oth April 1859. Finding Burray a very limited field he offered himself to the. Colonial Committee for an appointment to New South Wales, and was loosed from his charge, nth August 1863. There in June 1864 he became minister at Byrmont, where, after labouring thirty-six years, he retired, and was placed as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund in 1900, being then in his seventy-fifth year. Second Minister. ADAM B. ROGERSON, from Glasgow (Gillespie Church). Ordained, I7th October 1865. The Presbytery, as before, were to raise ^20 a year to make up the people's part of the stipend to ,60, and there was to be a supplement of ^40. The call was signed by 107, members and 60 adherents. After being nearly ten years in Burray Mr Rogerson accepted a call to Banff, and was loosed, 5th October 1875. Third Minister. WILLIAM B. MELVILLE, from Stronsay. Mr Melville had been ordained to Barrow-in-Furness, a new congregation, 25th August 1868. Ten months afterwards he required to demit his charge, and for five years taught a private academy in Dalkeith, during four of which he was constantly engaged as pulpit supply. His name having been restored to the preachers' list in 1875 he was inducted to Burray, gth May of the following year. Called to Shapinshay in 1878, and to Fraserburgh in 1879, and finally to Busby, which he accepted, 4th February 1884. Within three months the congregation called Mr A. Miller Marshall, but he declined, and was ordained at Newarthill. Fourth Minister. THOMAS D. MACNEE, from Old Kilpatrick. Ordained, 5th February 1885, and loosed, 2oth July 1887, on accepting a call to Wester * Mr Mair was from Kirriemuir (Bank Street), and was ordained at Killaig, Ireland, on Qth August 1860. He died there on 25th October 1895, in the seventy- third year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. He preached on Sabhath, but, having caught a chill on Monday, he passed away on the following Friday. Mr Mair's son, of the same name, but a B.A. , entered the Theological Hall the previous week, and the people resolved to keep the pulpit open, till he should be ready to take his father's place. He was accordingly ordained at Killaig, and November 1898. PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 507 Pardovan. The membership at this time was between 1 10 and 120, at which it continued for the next seven years. Fifth .Ifinister.GEORGK JOHNSTON, from North Leith. Ordained, 7th February 1888, and loosed, 24th June 1891, on accepting a call to Victoria Road, Kirkcaldy. This introduced a break of a year and a half owing to some difficulty with the Supplementing Board, which was happily surmounted. Sixth Minister JOHN D. M'CUBBIN, from Barrhead. Ordained, nth January 1893. In little more than a year the Presbytery had trouble from Burray, as if vague rumours had been struggling to get breath, but they were evaded on the ground of the accuser being under scandal. None the less, it was patent that both the attendance and the funds were falling off, an ominous matter in that little island, in which there was an Established church to compete with. On 2oth July 1894 Mr M'Cubbin was loosed from his charge and suspended from office, having been convicted of contracting an irregular marriage when residing in London before entering on his probationer life. On 7th May 1896 Orkney Presbytery, after com- municating with the Presbytery of Edinburgh, within whose bounds he had been residing, *emoved the sentence of suspension, and the Synod in May 1898 placed his name on the probationer list, where it was when the Union came. Seventh Minister. DAVID S. BROWN, M.A., from Lauriston Place, Edinburgh. Had been previously called to Holywell, in Cumberland, and also to Fala ; but in the latter case there was want of harmony, and Mr Brown surrendered his rights rather than imperil the fortunes of a much reduced congregation. Ordained at Burray, 8th September 1896. The communion roll was now down to 84, and the stipend from the people to ^45, and in both figures there was a slight reduction at the date of the Union. ROUSAY (UNITED SECESSION) THIS island lies nine miles north-west of Kirkwall, but at one point it is separated from the mainland of Orkney by a sound only a mile and a half broad. Along with Egilshay and two smaller islands it forms a parish which in 1831 had a population of 1262. In the Journal of the Haldanes in 1798 it is stated that their minister had been entirely disabled from preaching for six or seven years, and had never provided a helper. The people met in the church on the Sabbath, and had sermons read to them by the pro- prietor of the island. One of the evangelists went over and preached to upwards of 300 people, and as he spoke of their destitute situation the whole congregation seemed deeply affected, and some of them wept aloud. He lodged, by invitation, at the parish manse, but on arriving he found the minister near his end, and he died that night. Next Sabbath the lay preacher had upwards of 400 hearing him in Egilshay, to whom he applied the solemn event. The Secession congregation in Kirkwall was now telling for good throughout Orkney, and numbers from Rousay were drawn into its membership, though a stretch of waters lay between. In the beginning of 1833 the members of Kirkwall congregation residing in Rousay and Egilshay applied to their session for advice about going forward with the building of a church, and they were encouraged to proceed if they felt able to face such an undertaking. In September of that year they received ^20 from the Synod Fund, and at next Synod, in April 1834, the Presbytery of Orkney was authorised to erect them into a congregation. In September following they got the promise of ^30 for three years in the 5o8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS event of obtaining a minister, and immediately after this Kirkwall con- gregation aided them in the erecting of their meeting-house by a grant of 15 guineas in addition to subscriptions taken up privately. They now called Mr William B. Berwick ; but though they had Orcadian affinities to favour them Mr Berwick declined, and soon after obtained Bell Street, Dundee. There were now nearly three years of waiting on before another attempt of the kind was made. First Minister. JOHN M'LELLAN, from Wigtown. Ordained, ist November 1837. In view of a settlement the Sabbath attendance improved considerably, and with the aid of ^50 from the Liquidation Fund the debt on the building was reduced to a slight figure. Revival influence came in soon after to stir into blissful activity. In 1843 there was a membership of 170 and an attendance of about 250. The mother congregation in Kirkwall still stood by, and voted year by year a sum of at least .10 to help the funds at Rousay. Religious meetings were also kept up at Egilshay, an island severed from Rousay by a sound of a mile's breadth. There a hall had been fitted up for worship through the kindness of the proprietor. In 1855 Mr M'Lellan accepted an appointment to Canada from the Mission Board, but, the congregation being in earnest to retain him, he agreed to remain. There was a membership now of 193, and the people contributed for stipend .55. On 24th November 1874 Mr M'Lellan's resignation was accepted, and after some special inquiry he was admitted to the benefit of the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, the Presbytery testifying to the good work he had carried on in Rousay during a long period of years. He died near Edin- burgh on 23rd June 1885, in his eightieth year, leaving a son-in-law in the ministry of our church, the Rev. Alexander Wither of Cabrach. Second Minister. ALEXANDER ALLARDYCE, from Campsie. Ordained, I4th March 1876. The membership at this time was fully 200, and con- tinued much the same during Mr Allardyce's brief ministry of six years. He died, 2nd May 1882, in the fortieth year of his age. In the minutes of Presbytery there is a tribute paid to the assiduity, zeal, and great acceptance with which he laboured in Rousay. Before the year ended the congregation called Mr William Yule, who preferred Baillieston. This call was signed by 184 members and 84 adherents. Third Minister. ALEXANDER IRVINE PIRIE, who had been ordained over the Congregational Church, Kirkwall, gth November 1873. ^ r Pirie was received into the ministry of the U.P. Church by the Synod in May 1883, having been warmly recommended by the Presbytery of Orkney. Inducted into Rousay, I7th July thereafter. The population of the island has decreased considerably since then, so that the membership of the congregation at the Union was but slightly over 160, and the stipend from the people ,50, with the manse. FIRTH (UNITED SECESSION) IN the summer of 1835 a mission station was opened at Firth, a place about six miles from Kirkwall, on the road to Stromness. In the parish there were about a dozen families connected with the congregation of Kirkwall, and several in neighbouring parishes. The people were fortunate in obtaining almost at the first a location of Mr William Jameson for three months, and before that period was expired he agreed to continue with them during the winter. Then a voice came from Jamaica, and Mr Jameson obeyed. " It is believed there was scarcely a dry eye in the district when his resolution to PRESBYTERY OF ORKNEY 5 oq leave them was made known." In 1837, the place in which they now met being found utterly inadequate, they proceeded with the building of a church to accommodate 370, the congregation having already raised (x> or ,70 to meet the outlay, and the Synod allowing them a grant of 20. It was to the mother church in Kirkwall, however, that they mainly looked for aid, and that congregation one year expended ^70 on Firth, besides ministering to the necessities of other churches in Orkney. After this the young cause sank into a spiritless state, and it seemed doubtful whether it would ever reach a fixed ministry at all. The constant change of supply must have told unfavourably, but under a brief location of Mr Alexander Miller, who was ordained soon after at South Ronaldshay, there were tokens of reviving, and in 1845 the members were disjoined from Kirkwall and erected into a congregation. First Minister. ROBERT REID, from Limekilns. Ordained, igth November 1845, having wisely declined a call to the Secession Church, Campbeltown, Argyleshire, two months before. At this time Firth had a membership of 80, and the people were to contribute a stipend of ^40, which the Board made up to .90, besides the manse. Within four years the membership was doubled, but the stipend remained as before. The writer is old enough to remember hearing Mr Reid when a preacher, and being struck with his pulpit power. To him it seemed strange that Firth, in Orkney, should be the destination of such a man, unless there were draw- backs of another kind. After Mr Reid's ministry of forty-seven years came to an end the Presbytery entered in their records the following estimate of his merits : " He was a man of considerable talent and pronounced char- acteristics, of extensive theological learning, great readiness and eloquence of utterance, and profound convictions of the truth of the gospel. He was a preacher who was welcomed throughout the whole of the Islands." He died, loth February 1893, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Second Minister. ALEXANDER S. BERRIE, from Earlston (East). Ordained, 27th September 1893. The membership at this time was 131, and the stipend from the people was ^70, with the manse. During the vacancy it was felt that a sum of not less than .250 would require to be laid out on the property ; but it was agreed to make the manse comfortable in the meantime, and instead of repairing the church to set about securing a site for a new erection work in which no progress was made for years. On 8th February 1897 Mr Berrie accepted a call to Arthur's Hill, Newcastle, and was loosed from his charge, leaving a membership of 148. Third Minister. JOHN G. TAYLOR, M.A., from Princes Street, Arbroath. Ordained, i6th September 1897. There was now a unanimous wish on the part of the congregation to have a new church built, the other having served its day. The cost was estimated at ,800, and from their own limited resources they hoped to raise ^140. Union with the Free Church congre- gation was looked on as very desirable, but the Presbytery, like the two ministers, were of opinion that any attempt to push the matter at that time would only do harm. Still, with amalgamation in prospect, it was decided to provide accommodation ample enough to serve both congregations, and a joint-committee was appointed to overlook and adjust the plans. In March 1900 Mr Taylor intimated that a site had been obtained at last, but owing to the enlargement arranged for and the increased price of material the entire cost would not be under ,1200. At the final meeting of Presbytery before the Union application was made to the Board for a grant of .400 instead of ,300, which, with .250 raised by the minister, and .100 con- tributed by the congregation, would make 750 in all. Thus the matter stood at that important landmark. The membership at the time was about 5io HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 140, and the stipend from the people ,70, with a manse, as it had long been. In the Free Church the numbers were about a dozen higher, and the total income was slightly under &o. PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY BURNTSHIELDS (BURGHER) THE church of Burntshields stood on the heights about a mile to the west or south-west of Kilbarchan, which was the scene of an unpopular settle- ment on 1 3th September 1739. There was a similar intrusion two years before into the parish of Kilmalcolm, and from the latter of these parishes came an accession to the Associate Presbytery in July 1738, and from the former in July 1739. The Seceders in Kilbarchan are entered as "a numerous body of people," and had the ascendency from the first. The congregation in those days stretched southwards to Kilbirnie and Beith, and westwards to Greenock and Inverkip. The first time they were visited by members of the Associate Presbytery was on the last Sabbath of August 1738, when Messrs Thomson of Burntisland and Moncriefif of Abernethy preached at a farm near Kilmalcolm. Preachers and ministers followed as circumstances could afford. In May 1740 the acceders in this locality began to insist on a hearing of young men with a view to a moderation, but their design was not gained till other four years had passed. First Minister. JOHN M'ARA, who seems to have been a native of the Highlands, as the Synod in 1742 recommended him to reside in the north for the recovery of the Gaelic language. Ordained, I2th September 1744. The call was from Kilmalcolm, Kilbarchan, and Greenock, and the ordina- tion was appointed to take place at " Bronchhill." There a church, with accommodation for 600, was taken possession of in the following year. But already there were virtually two congregations, the seceding families from about Greenock and the far west having built a second place of worship, with Mr M'Ara to preach to them every third Sabbath. A letter preserved by Dr M'Kelvie shows that there was jealousy between the eastern and western divisions of the congregation so early as 1740, each standing out for their full share of the limited supplies, with the forecasting of a parting asunder. Union could not be permanently maintained across a distance of twelve or fourteen miles, and accordingly in the beginning of 1751 they were in ripeness for being disjoined, and from this time Mr M'Ara's labours were limited to the Burntshields community. A record of the numbers that took part in the first communion observance at Burntshields, in May 1746, shows that of these Kilbarchan furnished 80, Lochwinnoch 50, Paisley 47, Kilmalcolm 32, Houston 20, and 12 were from other parishes. The western division again, including Greenock, Port- Glasgow, and Inverkip, furnished 69 making 310 in all. This gives us the Correspondence of Burntshields and Greenock in its strength as well as in its ramifications. In the summer of 1756 we have a specimen of Presbyterial visitations in early Secession times. In the first instance Mr M'Ara preached a discourse which was accepted by the Presbytery as " a very good specimen of his orthodoxy in the faith, and application to study." It was also taken as evidence that he treated his subjects in a way adapted to the edification of his people, and the same was duly intimated to him in presence of the congregation. Minister, elders, and people were then PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 5 n taken separately, and questioned as to their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with each other. In one Presbytery we find inquiry made on such an occasion as to whether the minister preached a catechetical discourse every Sabbath, whether the elders were attentive to the visitation of their districts, and whether the people gave regular attendance on public worship, and were attentive to family duties. The wish was to remove abuses, and set in order the things that were wanting. In the case of Burntshields there was found to be a deficiency in the payment of stipend, but the Presbytery rested in the promise of the managers that arrears would soon be paid up and in the bringing forward of a feasible scheme to that effect. The minister on his part signified that recently some of the elders had given him grounds of offence, and that several of the congregation did not keep up due attend- ance upon ordinances. Exhortations followed from the chair to the parties concerned, but inquiry as to Mr M'Ara's complaint against some of the elders was held in reserve. At next meeting of Presbytery a paper, drawn up by Mr David Smith, a student of divinity, and afterwards minister in St Andrews, was dealt with. He alleged that he was prompted by certain elders to act the part he did in formulating five distinct charges against Mr M'Ara. The first was that their minister concerned himself too much with secular affairs, frequently digging and quarrying stones, and was observed ofttimes to be very little in the house even on Saturdays, besides frequenting public markets, and that these things tended to alienate the affections of the people both from him and from the Secession cause. Second, As for Sabbath work, public worship was usually put off till after eleven o'clock, making it inconvenient for the people getting home in the winter season. Third, Pastoral visitation and attention to the sick were much neglected, which was the less excusable, as the congregation was not very far scattered, the greatest distance, except in a very few cases, not exceeding five miles. Fourth, The minister, when spoken to on such matters, gave way to temper, so that they had to desist from further interference. Last of all, he was not at due pains to promote harmony among his people or to study the things that make for peace. It was a heavy indictment ; but the elders who signed the paper resiled, and gave in a written acknowledgment to the effect that several of the charges they found to be false, and all of them groundless as laid. Mr Smith was now taken sharply to task. At first he affirmed that he had the authority of trustworthy people for believing the articles of accusation to be well founded, but after protracted dealings with him he confessed the " heinously aggravated sin " of inventing several manifest falsehoods in the paper given in to the Presbytery. At a subse- quent meeting the case was terminated, with the resolve to administer rebuke to Mr Smith in the face of Burntshields congregation. Scarcely was this affair got over when a call to Mr M'Ara was announced from Kennoway. A change might have been advantageous for all parties, but a representation was given in from Burntshields, with about 120 sub- scribers, testifying the greatest affection for their pastor, and expressing their fear that the congregation would be ruined if he were transported. Appealed to in this way the Synod in September 1757 vetoed the transla- tion. Mr M'Ara in a few years got deeply involved in the Stirling conten- tions, resisting the settlement of Mr Robert Campbell at every point, and after the will of the majority prevailed he even went through and preached to the malcontents. But by this time matters of offence pronounced ground- less ten years before had taken shape anew, and were not to be got rid of this time. Tersely put, the indictment ran thus : that " Mr M'Ara mounted the roof of the house and mended the thatch ; that he repaired the fences 512 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of his little farm ; that he quarried stones when he needed them ; and that he could be seen between the stilts of the plough." His people, perhaps, forgot that with a stipend of only ^50 he might require to help his income by the cultivation of the ground. Brought before the Presbytery he met the charges in a good spirit, admitted that he had given himself too much to secularities, and promised amendment. In the minutes there is also reference to entanglement with the affairs of Mr John Kirkwood, a former elder of his, by whose will, as stated by Dr M'Kelvie, he had gained sub- stantial benefit. But the alienation of the people was not to be overcome, and the Synod on 28th August 1767 declared the charges against him so far made good that, after rebuking him, they loosed him from Burntshields, as " it was not for edification to continue the connection." He then removed to Stirling, possibly in the hope that the dissatisfied party in the Back Row Church would rally around him, and form a congregation outside the Burgher connection. He died there on 4th September 1769, in the twenty-fifth year of his ministerial life. Burntshields congregation had now to face a vacancy of nearly six years, and a struggle with straitened means besides. The arrears of stipend due Mr M'Ara amounted to ,129, but these seem to have been incurred less from inability to pay than from the resolve to have the relationship ter- minated. Of this sum ,58 was paid down to the Presbytery on 27th August 1766, and the remainder was to follow. Now the congregation first called Mr John Baillie, whom the Synod appointed to Newcastle (afterwards Barras Bridge), where he acquired notoriety. (See Crieff, Relief.) Then after a delay of two years they called Mr William Fletcher, who had already a divided call from Glasgow, with a large minority in strong antagonism. The Synod in these circumstances gave Burntshields the preference ; but Mr Fletcher refused to be settled there, and when the Presbytery fixed the ordination day he protested, which led the congregation to intimate at next meeting that they had agreed to drop their call, and Doune became his destination. Second Minister. JOHN LINDSAY, from Cambusnethan. Ordained, I4th April 1773. The stipend promised was ^55, with the manse and a piece of ground. The Presbytery gave it as their opinion that the glebe ought to be large enough to keep a horse and a cow, though in view of past experi- ences the people might have questioned the expediency of allowing the minister a glebe at all. On nth October 1791 the congregation of Burnt- shields met, several ministers being present to guide their deliberations. It was then and there resolved, in the interests of the gospel and for the convenience of members, to divide into three separate congregations, with places of worship at Burntshields, Johnstone, and Lochwinnoch ; that their minister should remove to Johnstone, where there was the best prospect of increase ; that the meeting-house, manse, and glebe should remain the undivided property of the Burntshields branch ; and that, as the congrega- tion assembling there was sure to be much weakened, they should be commended to the tender care of Glasgow Presbytery. The arrangement having been duly sanctioned Burntshields became vacant on the first Sabbath of February 1792. Third Minister. DAVID S. WYLIE, from Kilmarnock (now Portland Road). Ordained, igth March 1793. The call was signed by 214 members. On 1 8th February 1796 the Burgher Presbytery of Kilmarnock met at Saltcoats for the ordination of Mr Henry Fraser, but Mr Wylie, who was to have presided, had in a letter renouncing connection with the Secession Church. At next meeting, on 1 5th March, the committee appointed to converse with him reported, that though dealt with at considerable length, he could not PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 5 ! 3 be prevailed on to withdraw his declinature, and it was agreed simply to declare him no longer " in our communion." In a letter written a fortnight after this his former professor in Selkirk adverted to Mr Wylie's case as follows : " He was a young man for whom I entertained, and still entertain, a high esteem. I hope he won't be left to revolt from the doctrine of the gospel. God preserve us from mistaking our path in these days of clouds and thick darkness." Opposed, it is said, to the swearing of the Covenants he had gone over to Independency, and some people in Paisley hearing that the minister of Burntshields sympathised with their tenets invited him to be their pastor. In the Rev. James Ross' History this is given as the origin of the Independent church in Paisley. Two years after betaking him- self to this new connection Mr Wylie published a volume, still to be met with, entitled " Christ and Anti-Christ Displayed ; or, a Dissertation on Christ's Kingdom," in which his views on the constitution of the Christian Church are set forth with much vigour. But, as has often happened in such cases, the author went on to Baptist views, and after a short ministry in Paisley he removed to Liverpool, where he became the pastor of a Baptist church and the head of a Classical Academy. About the year 1812 he came into conflict with the Rev. John Stewart, the founder of Mount Pleasant Church, Liverpool, on the Baptist question, and published a pamphlet in reply to a letter of Mr Stewart's on that subject. Mr Wylie died, 6th August 1856, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and sixty-fourth of his ministry. After being vacant for a year Burntshields congregation called the Rev. William Willis of Greenock, the stipend promised being 70, with manse and garden, but Glasgow Presbytery disallowed the transition, and the people before obtaining another minister were to pass through years of convulsion. They got early into the very heart of the Old Light struggle, the majority making common cause with the little party of which Mr Willis was the leader. The proposal to modify the Burgher Formula was no sooner launched than most of the elders, with the body of the people at their back, assumed an attitude of resistance to Kilmarnock Presbytery. In August 1798 they had papers forward to be sent on to the Synod, and one of the ministers was appointed to preach at Burntshields, and constitute the session, that these documents might be transmitted in the regular way. All was got quietly over at this time, but it was otherwise a few months after. Another meeting was to be held in Burntshields manse on 25th February 1799, and Mr Schaw, then of Lochwinnoch, was appointed by the Presbytery to preside. The hour came, and two elders appeared, who declared they would not allow him to constitute the session, as he was of dif- ferent principles from them, neither would they have preaching imposed upon them. A friendly elder subsequently came forward, but for want of a quorum there could be nothing done, and Mr Schaw "did not think it proper to engage in prayer in the midst of confusion and determined opposition." These things being reported to the Presbytery on 7th March, they pro- nounced sentence of deposition on the two refractor)' elders, and declared all who should adhere to them out of communion with the Associate Synod. The Rev. William Willis of Greenock in his pamphlet, entitled " Little Xaphtali," goes into all the particulars. He dwells on the " apostacy of the Synod from their principles" and on "their sinful and treacherous conduct." They had, however, upwards of 30 members in Burntshields congregation on their side, and this led to troublesome complications. The Presbytery of Kilmarnock on petition sent a preacher to supply Burntshields pulpit on a particular Sabbath, but Mr Willis was forward at the request of the other party to perform the same service. The Greenock minister, by his own II. 2 K 514 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS account, dealt very faithfully with the leader on the other side, telling him "he would, perhaps, find he was planting thorns around the pillow of his own death-bed." This was late on Saturday evening, and next morning Mr Willis took possession of the pulpit, and though the Presbytery's nominee came to the place of worship he did not enter, but walked off with a few of his adherents. Mr Willis and another minister had given in their declinature to the Synod the week before, and on the following Monday Burntshields congregation met, and agreed to adhere to said declinature They thus came under the inspection of the Old Light Presbytery, and, said Mr Willis, "they now enjoy the ordinances of the gospel in their Scriptural purity and simplicity, and are delivered from the unfeeling persecution and heretical sentiments of apostates." On i2th November the minority asked the Presbytery's advice as to legal proceedings about the property, but the case seems to have proved hopeless, as the body of the congregation retained undisturbed possession. Their first minister under the new Presbytery was Alexander Brown, from Shotts. Ordained, 2Oth October 1801. The call was signed by 1 13 members, and the stipend was ^60, with house and garden. The families who had left never attempted to set up an opposition cause, but would have to amalgamate with their former brethren at Johnstone or Lochwinnoch, and to make up for the defection a number came in from Johnstone to supply their place. Mr Brown died, 25th February 1819, and in the Gazetteer of Scotland for 1845 there is the following note: "The Rev. Alexander Brown, minister of the church of Burntshields, left instructions that his body should be buried within that edifice, which was accordingly done. The church was afterwards sold and converted into a byre and a barn, an act of desecration which the good man could not have contemplated." This was in 1826, when the congregation removed to Bridge of Weir. In 1859 the building was taken down, and the grave, which was where the communion table stood, is now scarcely, if at all, distinguishable. The next minister was Mr Wm. Scott-Hay, from Paisley, who had passed over to the Old Light Synod when a divinity student. Ordained, 2oth March 1821. The members signing the call were down now to 82, but the stipend was ,5 higher than before. The minister and congregatipn of Burntshields entered the Church of Scotland in 1839, and withdrew at the Disruption in 1843. Mr Scott-Hay retired some time after, and became Free Church minister at Midmar, where he died, i5th December 1851, in the fifty-third year of his age and thirty-first of his ministry. During the next twenty-two years Bridge of Weir congregation had four ministers, one of them being afterwards Principal Douglas of the Free Church College, Glasgow. At the Union in 1900, when the distinction between Old and New Lights had been long forgotten, and charges of apostasy were turned into empty echoes, this congregation had a member- ship of over 200, and the stipend was .230, with a manse. PAISLEY, OAKSHAW STREET (ANTIBURGHER) AT the commencement of the Secession Paisley was privileged with an earnest, evangelical ministry throughout, and it was from the neighbouring parish of Neilston that the first adherents in that locality were drawn. Dr M'Kelvie, indeed, speaks of three elders in the Abbey Church having been suspended in 1738 for refusing to submit to the ministry of a Mr M'Vey, who had been intruded upon that parish, and that in these circumstances they sought and found connection with the Associate Presbytery. It happens, PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 5 ! 5 however, that Mr M'Vey was intruded into Mearns, not into Paisley, and it was to the parish of Mearns that these elders belonged. It was not till i;th October 1739 that an accession from several persons in Paisley was given in to the Associate Presbytery. They united with others in Neilston, and, like them, they were annexed to the forming congregation at Mearns. On 2nd January 1745 some Praying Societies in Paisley craved to be disjoined from Mearns and annexed to Burntshields, which was more convenient, and on 2,th June the Presbytery granted the transference. At the Breach two years afterwards, when the greater part of Burntshields congregation with 'their minister adhered to the Burgher party, those who took the Antiburgher side would have to resume connection with Mearns, which was distant eight miles. This was an arrangement that could not last, and accordingly on 4th March 1751 Mr Thomson of Mearns met in session with two elders in Paisley, which betokens the time when Oakshaw Street congregation was organised. In April 1752 it was agreed to have an election of two elders and two deacons for Paisley, two elders and one deacon for Greenock, and one deacon for Houston, the Praying Societies to prepare the leet. In the records of this period there is mention also of Linwood, Kilbarchan, Erskine, Lochwinnoch, and Beith as places from which members were drawn. First Minister. JAMES ALICE, from Alloa (now Townhead). The call was signed by 75 (male) members, and 13 others who were necessarily absent sent up their names. Mr Alice was ordained as minister of the united con- gregation of Paisley and Greenock, 2ist September 1756. On 3oth October 1759 the Greenock section was disjoined and formed into a separate con- gregation, as is more fully stated under the proper heading. In 1762 Paisley people built their first church, but we can say nothing about either its cost or its dimensions. From the session records of that early period we extract a reference to dealings with a member of the church who had taken the Mason Oath. This person related that during the ceremony he bent on his knee with a book between his hands, but whether it was the Bible he could not say, as he was blindfolded at the time. When the napkin was removed the first thing he saw was three candles, which he was told represented the sun, the moon, and the master mason the three great lights. The verse in I Kings, 7th chapter, was read to him about the setting up of two pillars in the porch of the temple, the one called Jachin and the other Boaz. Some signs were made by a man's arm for want of a compass, and he had to take an oath before knowing its terms or purport. He was also stripped of all metal kind, and a square was applied to his breast, and was put three times round him. He had to bend on the ground all the while with uncovered knee, his bare elbow resting on the Bible. Such was the senseless mummery, edged with profanity, which our fathers set themselves to put down by admonition and rebuke. Can we greatly blame them when all is known ? In 1781 the church required enlargement, and in December 1784 it was unanimously agreed at a congregational meeting to take steps for providing Mr Alice with a colleague, but two years passed without any progress being made. At that time there was the wish to have a further hearing of Mr James Muckersie, afterwards of Alloa, but when the moderation day came another was proposed and carried without a division. The stipend of the junior colleague was to be ^70 for the time. Second Minister. WILLIAM FERRIER, from Perth (North). The call was signed by 226 (male) members, which bespeaks a large congregation. Mr Ferrier was ordained, 28th August 1787. The collegiate relation lasted nearly eleven years, and was ended with the sudden death of Mr Alice on loth June 1798, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. He was on his way to join his family at the seaside, and went 516 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to spend the Sabbath at Beith, in Mr Mitchell's manse, whose wife was a sister of his, but in the morning he was found dead in bed. The remarkable sermon preached by his colleague on the following Sabbath from the text : " My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof," appears among Dr Terrier's " Remains." Regarding the relation between him and Mr Alice, the preacher testified that it was a union of which the harmony was never for a moment interrupted, and that in publishing the sermon he was only " erecting his frail memorial in honour of a person so highly venerated by him, and of a character than which none could suffer less or gain more by a just display." In 1818 the stipend was ,200, with the manse, and next year the mem- bership numbered 450. In 1822 Mr Ferrier had the degree of D.D. from Princeton College, and in 1826 a new church, with 954 sittings, was built on the old site, at a cost of fully ^4000, for which ^1500 had been already contributed, in addition to meeting a debt of ^500. In 1832 the congrega- tion issued a belated call to Mr John Robson to be Dr Ferrier's colleague, but he was appointed to Lasswade by the Synod. Third Minister. WILLIAM FRANCE, son of the Rev. James France of Moniaive. Called also to Cupar (Bonnygate), and to Dunfermline (Chalmers Street), but having expressed a preference for Paisley he was sent thither without a vote. Ordained, 2nd July 1833. The stipend was to be ,120, with sacramental and travelling expenses, and the call was signed by 324 members and 130 adherents. The senior minister never preached after this, and he died, 2Oth December 1835, m tne seventy-third year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. Dr Ferrier's wife was Isabella Muckersie, a daughter of the Rev. John Muckersie of Kinkell, and a granddaughter of the Rev. William Wilson of Perth. He left a son in the ministry of the Secession Church, the Rev. Andrew Ferrier, then of Newarthill, and a son- in-law, the Rev. John Bruce of Newmilns. In 1841 his Life was published by his son, with a few of his sermons appended. In the beginning of the century Dr Ferrier replied to Ramsay's " Flight from Persecution," in a pamphlet wnich, though dignified and reasonable, was little better than labour thrown away on an opponent so perverse and abusive. In Dr Ferrier's death the United Secession Synod was said to have lost one of its ablest men. In the fifth year of Mr France's ministry the membership of Oakshaw Street was returned at 440. The stipend was ,170, with the manse, and the debt on the property was over .2600. This burden was reduced ^1400 in 1845 by a special effort. Mr France occupied the Moderator's chair at the Synod of 1877, and soon afterwards a colleague was required. In 1879 the congregation called Mr Matthew Dickie, who preferred Sanquhar ( South). Fourth Minister. JOHN PORTEOUS, B.D., from Dalkeith (now Buccleuch Street). Ordained, L3th April 1880, and became sole pastor in little more than a year, Mr France having died, 2oth April 1881, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. Mrs France was a daughter of the Rev. William MacEwen of How-gate, and a sister of Dr Alexander MacEwen, Claremont Church, Glasgow. The membership of Oakshaw Street Church at the close of 1899 was 3 JI > and the stipend was ^270, with the manse. PAISLEY, ABBEY CLOSE (BURGHER) ON 3oth June 1766 a petition to the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow from parties residing in the Abbey parish of Paisley bore that, though they did PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 5I? not see it to be their duty to break with the better part of the Established Church, they were dissatisfied both with the principles and the practices of the prevailing party therein, and craved some supply of preaching as a means of perpetuating the gospel to posterity. Sermon having been granted them for two Sabbaths, Mr M'Ara, the minister of Burntshields, complained at next meeting that his bounds had been encroached on owing to "a slight call from a few not of our communion." None the less, applications were regularly renewed from people in the Abbey parish of Paisley, and supplies granted them about once a month. On 2ist March 1769 the Burgher families in Paisley applied to be disjoined from Burntshields, six miles distant, that they might identify themselves with the new cause, and though the session stood in the way the disjunction was granted. That year the first church was built, with sittings for 1045, and steps were taken to secure a fixed pastorate. First Minister. SAMUEL KiNLOCH, from Whitburn. Called to Biggar and Alnwick in 1760 shortly after obtaining licence, and appointed by Edinburgh Presbytery to be ordained at Alnwick ; but during his pre- paratory trials a serious charge was brought against him, and not denied, which necessitated suspension as a preacher sine die. Having been after- wards restored he was missioned to North America in 1766, where his services were much appreciated, and he received calls to Londonderry and Truro, both in Nova Scotia. However, he returned to Scotland in 1768, and was ordained at Paisley, I4th June 1769. On the ordination day notice came from the Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline that they had sustained a call from Dundee to Mr Kinloch, with a request to sist procedure ; but the answer was that they must go on now, as the congregation were met, the edict returned, and the Presbytery just on their way to the place of worship. The stipend engaged for was ,60, with the promise of increase ; but there was no rapid inflow of prosperity, and the Presbytery ascertained five years afterwards that their affairs were in a very embarrassed state, and they appointed every congregation within their bounds to be active in collecting for the relief of their brethren in the important town of Paisley. In 1775 Mr Kinloch had the offer of New Cambridge, in the United States, but he preferred to remain where he was, though the situation was beset with difficulties. At next meeting the Synod recommended all their con- gregations in Scotland to make public collections at once to prevent Paisley congregation " sinking under their present burdens." In these circum- stances it is not surprising to find that up to 1780 no increase had been made to Mr Kinloch's stipend, though the ,60 originally promised was inadequate for his support. The Presbytery urged an advance, but without success, and got a satisfactory reason given them. Other fifteen years passed, and then, in the midst of protests, steps were taken with a view to a colleague. By the intervention of a Presbyterial Committee differences among the people were smoothed down, and a petition for preachers was granted, with Mr Kinloch's acquiescence. In September 1796 the Presbytery after inquiry gave it as their opinion that a second minister was essential to the congregation's prosperity. A call was now presented to the Rev. John Smart of Stirling, but the Synod, in compliance with his own pleadings, refused to translate. The stipend was to be ^uo, and the signatures were 282. The Rev. Hector Cameron of Moffat obtained a majority of votes at next moderation ; but only 108 members subscribed, and the congregation agreed almost unanimously to withdraw the call. They next united on Mr Thomas Brown, but the Synod appointed him to Dalkeith. The fourth call brought what was probably their worst disappointment. It was addressed to Mr Peter Thomson, and 5i8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the competition lay between Paisley and Whitby. The latter was first in the field, but both the membership and the temporalities were very small. Still, as Mr Thomson declined to say a word in favour of either, the Synod gave Whitby the advantage.* These successive failures had been spread over two and a half years, and now in April 1800 the Presbytery, having met with the congregation, found they were far from being in a prosperous situation. Though professing warm attachment to their pastor members complained of " Mr Kinloch's exhibitions in the pulpit," and while some voted for a colleague the great majority were in favour of demission. It only remained now to inform the minister of the turn matters had taken, and await the issue. After a pause of two months, during which he pre- served unbroken silence, the congregation agreed to pay him 70 a year if he would retire, and on this understanding his resignation was accepted, 6th August 1800. He died, 2ist November 1808, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. A high estimate of Mr Kinloch's gifts as a theologian, and his kindly qualities, appeared soon after in both the Christian and the Evangelical Magazine. Second Minister. WILLIAM SMART, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars), a brother of the Rev. John Smart of Stirling, the congregation's earlier choice. Called also to Kirkintilloch and Braehead, but the Synod gave Paisley the preference. Ordained, Qth February 1802. The stipend was ^no, and it was to be increased as they were able, which would be sure to happen at Mr Kinloch's death. We know at least that it ultimately amounted to ^260. In 1827 the present church, with 1178 sittings, was built on the old site at a cost of about 2600. Mr Smart died, nth July 1837, in the sixty-second year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. He had long felt himself under the workings of heart disease, and that day, on setting- homeward from a meeting of Presbytery, he took ill, stepped into a druggist's shop, sat down on a chair, and all was over. A volume of his sermons was published in 1838, with a Memoir by his son, the Rev. William Smart of Linlithgow, on whom death came eleven years afterwards with even greater suddenness. Of Mr Smart Professor Graham of London wrote from among early recollections : " He was the most majestic figure I ever saw ascend a pulpit." Third Minister. WILLIAM NlSBET, from Cowgate, Edinburgh (now Fountainhall Road), where he had been ordained eight years before. In- ducted, 26th April 1838. The membership at this time was over 700, and the stipend in all was to be ,270. The chief drawback was a debt of ,1800 on the property ; but this was little compared with the burden which oppressed Mr Nisbet's former congregation, and within eight years it had been reduced at the rate of ,160 a year, and a nearly equal sum had gone to the relief of poor members. Mr Nisbet mingled in the Voluntary Controversy, and published a lecture on the Arguments alleged from Scripture in favour of Civil Establishments of Religion, and a sermon on the Voluntary Support of the Christian Ministry. He died, I4th March 1854, in the fifty-second year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. * Peter Thomson, from Coldstream, was an elder brother of Dr Adam Thomson. Ordained, nth December 1799, and for the convenience of the Presbytery the ser- vices were conducted at Coldstream. Loosed, 22nd February 1804, and inducted to Leeds, 5th April. In both his charges Mr Thomson preached three times every Sabbath, and, as a rule, wrote his discourses, and committed them to memory. Died, 1 7th February 1806, in the twenty-eighth year of his age and seventh of his ministry, leaving a widow and three children, the youngest of whom was born four months after the father's death. Dr Thomson published a Memoir of his brother shortly after, accompanied by several sermons preached at Leeds on occasion of the death. PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 5 ! 9 A Memoir by Dr Eadie, which appeared first in the U.P. Magazine, was prefixed to a volume of Mr Nisbet's sermons published in 1857. A daughter of Mr Nisbet was the wife of the Rev. Dr Oliver, Regent Place, Glasgow. Fourth Minister. ANDREW HENDERSON, previously of Coldingham, where he had been ordained in 1847. Inducted, i7th April 1855. Received the degree of LL.U. in 1887 from St Andrews, where he had distinguished himself as a student, specially in the department of Mathematics. Hence, in seconding Dr Henderson's nomination to the Moderator's chair at the Synod in 1891, Dr Hutton remarked that when any of his brethren had forgotten how to square the circle Dr Henderson was the man to go to. Of special service to the Church was his seven years' convenership of the Hymnal Committee, which issued in the Joint Hymnary of 1898. At the recent Union Dr Henderson, though in the fifty-fourth year of his ministry, showed few marks of failing vigour. At that time there was a membership of 500 in Abbey Close Church, and the stipend was ,400. PAISLEY, CANAL STREET (RELIEF) ON 25111 June 1780 a petition signed by about 280 persons, mostly heads of families, was presented to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow craving to be taken under their inspection as a forming congregation. The town was growing fast, and in this connection they would secure a minister of their own choice, and full freedom to manage their own affairs. A church was built in 1781-2, with sittings for scarcely fewer than 1600, and the cost, together with that of the manse, was somewhere about ^2800. First Minister. PATRICK HUTCHISON, M.A., who had been ordained at St Ninians eight and a half years before, and had become a prominent member of the Relief Synod and the ablest defender of its distinctive principles. Inducted to Paisley, 22nd May 1783. On the induction day Mr Hutchison represented to the Presbytery that in the congregation there were none who had been elders before, and he was instructed to make up a list of names to be given in at a subsequent meeting. During the latter half of that century the population of Paisley increased from 4000 to six times that number, and, under Mr Hutchison's able and decidedly evangelical ministry, no wonder though the large church in Canal Street was filled to overflowing in less than nineteen years. He died, loth January 1802, in the sixty-second year of his age and twenty-eighth of his ministry. Mr Hutchison's publications have been characterised under St Ninians, his first charge. In all of them he brings out very clearly the weak points in the Antiburgher system with regard to covenanting. He presses the question whether it is safe to assert with the certainty of an oath "that the sins of the land are increased by the kind reception that many ministers and people gave to Mr George Whitefield," and so with other matters of doubtful disputation. But he is specially severe on their contracted terms of communion and their anti-toleration principles. In the Established Church, again, he declares it to be abundantly evident that the Christian people "are no more regarded in the election of ministers than a broom- stick." Mr Hutchison argued out the evil of enforcing religious uniformity by civil pains and penalties as opposed to the spirit of Messiah's kingdom ; but he disclaimed all sympathy with the toleration of Popery, believing that every Protestant State ought to guard against the growth of that system as much "as against the increase of lions, tigers, hyaenas, panthers, and other devouring animals." As for National Churches, he was no advocate for them, "as it were easy to demonstrate them to be foreign to the nature 520 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and constitution of the Christian Church." Yet he conies in to speak of the Relief ministers doing service to the Church of Scotland by keeping the people under their inspection, " in readiness to fall back into her bosom when her ministers shall be found preaching the pure and uncorrupted doctrines of the gospel and asserting the liberties of Christians." This is far short of the unfaltering Voluntaryism with which Canal Street, Paisley, has been long familiar. Second Minister. JOHN M'DERMID, who had laboured in Banff for six years with great energy and success. Inducted, igth May 1802. After being little more than a year in his new charge Mr M'Dermid got entangled among profitless theological refinements through some ill-judged pulpit utterances of his. One of his people complained to the Presbytery that he had been propounding unscriptural tenets. One of these was that the human nature of Christ, in consequence of His mediatorship, was made under the law as a created nature, and another was that the human nature of Christ will worship the Godhead in heaven, a conclusion which he held followed from Christ's intercession. Surely the spirit of the Rev. Robert Imrie of Kinkell had possessed him for the time. Neither of these posi- tions, the Presbytery held, rested on clear Scripture grounds, and they recommended him to avoid all such expressions on divine subjects as are not clearly founded on the Word of God. He acquiesced, and, it is to be hoped, ever after avoided foolish questions, which gender strifes rather than godly edifying, which is in faith. Had Imrie learned the same lesson it would have been well for himself and all concerned. Thirty years now passed, and in 1833 the congregation, with his own concurrence, petitioned the Presbytery to have Mr M'Dermid provided with a colleague. He went on with his pulpit work for the greater part of another year ; but one Sabbath forenoon he finished a course of lectures on Revelation, and on returning home he was struck down with illness, and never appeared either in pulpit or pew again. He died, 22nd March 1834, in the seventy-first year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. A volume of his sermons was committed to the press shortly afterwards. Third Minister. JAMES BANKS, from Saltcoats (now Trinity Church). Another call was issued to Mr Banks on the same day by the overgrown congregation of Strathaven to succeed the Rev. John French, but he accepted Paisley. Ordained, 2ist May 1834. Before beginning his studies for the ministry Mr Banks passed through a full medical course, and practised for a time in Saltcoats. After his first four years in Canal Street Church the communicants numbered 885, and the stipend was ^150, with manse and garden. Of the debt which had rested on the property ^450 still remained, but no weighty effort would be needed to have it cancelled. Mr Banks was characterised all along by entire consecration to the work of the ministry, but after fifteen years of devoted labour in Paisley he was compelled by failing strength to withdraw. His heart at the same time lay in the direction of mission work, and to this he meant to devote himself should vigour be restored. The demission of his charge was accepted, ryth April 1849. A necessitous field of labour opened for him afterwards at Holm, Kilmarnock, where we trace the after chapters of his long and self-denying life. It was more than two years now till Canal Street congregation got out of the vacant state, and owing to some signs of unrest an impression even went abroad that they were about to seek connection with another denomination. To prevent the property being alienated the Presbytery interposed ; but the danger, if it ever existed, disappeared. The Rev. William Wood of Campsie was now called, but he did not accept. Then Mr George M. Middleton became the people's eager choice, but he fixed PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 521 on Kinross (West). At next moderation Mr James Stevenson, now of North Leith, had a majority of 2 over Mr William Clark, who soon after obtained Barrhead. Then the Rev. Matthew Dickie of Cumnock was called, but he declined. Fourth Minister. GEORGE C. HuTTON, from Perth (North). Ordained, 9th September 1851. Mr Hutton published in 1860 his "Law and Gospel, 1 ' being discourses on primary themes, and in 1875 ne received the degree of D.D. from William's College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Seven years before this the huge place of worship in Canal Street was remodelled at a cost of ^1050, and the sittings reduced to 900. At the Synod in 1884 Dr Hutton filled the Moderator's chair, and in 1892 he was elected to the principalship of the Theological Hall, an office which he held till in 1900 the approach of the Union necessitated readjustments. In 1891 he gave to the Christian public a minor volume, entitled " The Word and the Book," in which the root principles of inspiration are firmly grasped and clearly unfolded. But it is as the advocate of uncompromising Voluntaryism that Dr Hutton is specially recognised among his brethren, and in his assaults on the State Church system even those who may demur to some of his conclusions admire the way in which he ever and again makes keen wit brighten up and give point to solid argument. At the close of 1899 the membership of Canal Street Church was 641, and the stipend ^350, with the manse. PAISLEY, THREAD STREET (RELIEF) ON 6th July 1807 a petition was laid before the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow signed by 3 persons in name of themselves and their constituents. It proceeded from a meeting which had been held to consider what should be done to remedy the inconvenience experienced in obtaining accommodation either in the Established churches or in the Relief church. They also brought up the extravagant rate at which the town sittings were let. Papers had been sent out to ascertain what support might be expected for the erection of a second Relief church, and upwards of 260 persons had re- sponded, and sermon was applied for and granted meanwhile. A church, with 1640 sittings, was built next year at a cost of over ,3000. About 600 of the pews were held by proprietors at a certain price, of which one half was required at the time, and those who had paid up the whole sum were only held liable for their share of repairs. First Minister. JAMES THOMSON, who had been ten years minister in Campsie. Inducted, 23rd December 1808. A bond for the stipend was produced, but the amount is not given. When the Relief Synod decided in 1824 to have a Theological Hall of their own, Mr Thomson was appointed their Professor of Theology, an office which he held till his death. The classes met in Paisley three months in the autumn season, and during that time the Professor had his pulpit partially supplied. He also received an allowance of ^50 to meet incidental expenses. In 1827 he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow, the first dissenting minister who attained to that distinction from that source. In 1838 Thread Street congregation had 700 communicants, and the stipend was rather more than ^200. The debt was now under ,500. Dr Thomson died, 25th June 1841, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, forty-third of his ministry, and seven- teenth of his professoriate. During the following session the Chair was vacant, the Rev. William Beckett reading the late Professor's lectures, and the Rev. George Brooks conducting the examinations of the students and 522 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS performing the other duties of the class. Among the Relief ministers Paisley and Professor Thomson continued long to be sacred names. Second Minister. WILLIAM M'DouGALL, translated from Kilmarnock (King Street), and inducted, 4th April 1842. Mr M'Uougall was renowned for his pulpit oratory, and the call, with paper of adherence, was subscribed by upwards of 700. It is doubtful, however, whether the fervour of his delivery when in Campbeltown, his first charge, or the power which he put forth in Kilmarnock, did not abate considerably some time after he came to Paisley, the place where fully the greater part of his ministerial life was spent. He died, 2Oth February 1867, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. A memorial volume, including the sermons preached on occasion of his death, was published shortly afterwards. Mr M'Dougall's letters on " Ministerial Communion," written before the Union with the Secession, evince catholicity of sentiment and grasp of thought. The membership of Thread Street Church was little over 400 now, and it declined somewhat during the protracted vacancy. In October of that year they called the Rev. Thomas Dobbie of Stranraer (West), but he declined to remove. In 1868 they called the Rev. Robert W. Thomson of Kirn, with a like result, and in 1869 they fell back on a probationer, Mr Peter B. Gloag, who preferred to become colleague to the Rev. Dr Johnston of Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Third Minister. ANDREW G. FLEMING, who had been ordained almost exactly ten years before at Alva. Inducted, 22nd February 1870. The stipend was to be ,400. On Sabbath, 2ist April 1872, Thread Street Church was reopened after being reconstructed to fit requirements less extensive than those of sixty-five years before. The collections that day amounted to ^450, which, added to the subscriptions previously obtained, made a total of ^1628, meeting nearly the whole expenses. The sittings are now 860. In the course of other seven years the membership rose to 526, and the stipend to ^470. At the Synod in 1880 Mr Fleming was appointed editor of the Juvenile Magazine, an office for which his success in addressing children marked him out, and the duties of which he has since discharged with thorough efficiency. Thread Street congregation at the close of 1899 num- bered 658 members, and the stipend was as before. Mr Fleming has two sons-in-law in the ministry the Rev. David Christie, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, and the Rev. Jarnes Adams, St Andrew Square, Greenock. PAISLEY, ST JAMES' (UNITED SECESSION) ON gth December 1823 about 80 persons belonging to an Independent con- gregation in Paisley petitioned the Secession Presbytery of Glasgow for sermon "to prepare the way for a more intimate connection." Their minister had lately removed to the Shiprow Church, Aberdeen, and at a meeting of the male members this transition had been resolved on. Their place of worship, with sittings for 1200, had been built in 1820 at a cost of nearly ^2000. Supply was granted at once, and after delay and some conversation with the applicants they were erected into a congregation on 2Oth July 1824. First Minister. ARCHIBALD BAIRD, from Auchtermuchty (East), where he had been ordained seven years before. Inducted, 8th November 1825. The call was signed by only 77 members, but there were 158 adherents. In 1838 the communicants were returned at nearly 700, the number having been doubled within seven years. The stipend was the same as at the beginning ^200, with an allowance of ,20 for sacramental and travelling expenses. PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 5 2 3 But for the heavy debt, which they were engaged in getting reduced, it might have been a good deal more, as the income was now ,400. Though the burden was in course of being lightened, it weighed down more or less during the whole of Mr Baird's ministry. The church seems to have been built very much on speculation, and when it passed over to the Secession there was money resting on it about up to its value. Mr Baird took a very active part in the Voluntary Controversy, and wrote a pamphlet, entitled "A Com- pulsory Establishment of Religion, Rebellion against the Sovereignty of Christ," a. title which brings out the aspect in which he looked at the question. In 1844 he had the degree of D.D. from Washington College, Pennsylvania. On 3ist October 1857 Dr Baird died, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Five days before this he awoke during the night in the agonies of angina pectoris, which continued for some hours, and then abated. Now at the same hour the deadly assailant returned, but a touch sufficed, and without a struggle the end came. Ur Baird left a son-in-law, well known in the U.P. Synod the Rev. Andrew Robertson of Stow. At the memorable Synod of 1841, when the Rev. James Morison's Case was discussed and disposed of, Mr Baird occupied the Moderator's chair. Dr Heugh's motion originally proposed to give the committee appointed to deal with the accused power to restore him to office if they saw fit ; but at the close of the discussion the Moderator left the chair, spoke warmly on the general question, and declared he would never consent to have the matter left to the disposal of any committee. This led to the power of restoration being kept by the Synod in their own hands. At the close of the proceed- ings, when Mr Morison was declared out of connection, Mr Baird was appointed to preach in Clerk's Lane Church and intimate the decision, and, says Dr Morison's biographer, "the Moderator was not the person to shrink from such a disagreeable task." The disagreeable task consisted in con- ducting public worship and reading the brief sentence from a paper put into his hands. Entrance being, of course, denied, the intimation was read outside without any tumult or commotion. This is what "an errand of a most difficult kind," as Dr Adamson describes it, came to. Second Minister. JAMES BROWN, son of the Rev. Robert Brown of Cumnock. Ordained, 3Oth August 1859, having declined Albion Chapel, London, shortly before. The congregation had previously issued a call to Mr Peter Duncanson. The membership was now under 400, with consider- able burdens, and he did not accept, but was ordained at West Calder some time after. Under the young minister the debt of ^835 was at once grappled with, and, a grant of ^150 being obtained from the Board, it was extin- guished before the close of 1860. The stipend promised at first was only .180, but before the ordination ,30 was added, and the way was now cleared for better things. Under Mr Brown's energetic ministry there was steady progress, so that in twenty years the membership increased from 366 to 759. In 1878 he received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow Uni- versity, and on ist March 1884 the new church, with sittings for 1 100, and built at the fabulous cost of ,29,000, was opened by Principal Cairns. It was a great occasion, and the collections that day and on the following Sabbath came up to well-nigh ,5000. Sir Peter Coats was now a pillar in St James' Church, much to the loss of Oakshaw Street congregation. But Dr Brown also abounded in literary labours. In 1877 he published "The Life of a Scottish Probationer," and this was followed next year by his Life of Pro- fessor Eadie. After an interval of eleven years his Life of Dr William Robertson appeared, books which have gained for their author an honoured place in the ranks of literature. From 1880 he also edited the Missionary Record, work which must have absorbed a large amount of time, to say 524 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS nothing of mental tear and wear. Rest was demanded, and rest came all too soon. At Christmas 1888 a severe attack of angina pectoris heralded the end, and after a resolute bearing-up under broken health he died, gth November 1890, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. A volume of Dr Brown's sermons, with a befitting Memoir by his son, was published in 1892. Third Minister. WILLIAM AINSLIE WALTON, B.D. Was translated from Wallace Green, Berwick, and inducted into St James' Church on 28th January 1892. Mr Walton, who was a licentiate of the Free Church, had been ordained over the English Presbyterian Church, St George's, Sun- derland, in 1873, an d in 1886 he succeeded the Rev. John Smith at Berwick. The membership of St James' Church at the close of 1899 was 1030, and the stipend ^520. PAISLEY, NEW STREET (UNITED SECESSION) THIS congregation was formed in the Laigh parish church, which had been exchanged for a more modern building fifteen years before. It was rented from the magistrates for ten years at the rate of ,40 a year, and had accommodation for 1400, and on loth June 1834 the parties who had taken it obtained supply of sermon from the Secession Presbytery of Glasgow. In November, when a wish was expressed to be congregated, the three Paisley ministers were instructed, along with their sessions, to examine applicants for admission to Church fellowship, and on oth March 1835 a congregation was formed with a membership of 37. This was followed in September by the ordination of two elders and the induction of a third. They were in readiness now to proceed with a moderation. First Minister. ROBERT CAIRNS, translated from Cumbernauld, where he had ministered with success for nearly eight years. The call was signed by 72 members and 96 adherents, and it was unanimous. Inducted, 2nd February 1836. Within two years Mr Cairns reported a membership of 332, and his stipend had increased from ,110 to ^156. But there were disadvantages arising from the terms on which the building was held, the magistrates having reserved to themselves the power of applying it to other purposes on week-days, and the congregation began to raise money for the erection of a new church. It happened, however, that before the end of another year they effected a junction with the sister congregation worship- ping in George Street, and the building passed over to the Evangelical Union in 1846. This brings us to the history of the United con- gregation. Shortly after coming to Paisley Mr Cairns got painfully involved in what came to be widely spoken of as the Eclipse Case. The occasion is thus referred to in M'Cheyne's Journal, Sabbath, I5th May 1836: "This day an annular eclipse of the sun. Kept both the services together in order to be in time. Truly a beautiful sight to see the shining edge of the sun all 'round the dark disc of the moon." Like many other ministers the minister of my early days among the rest Mr Cairns had no afternoon service leaving his people free to observe this wonder in the heavens. But it happened that on the previous Thursday most of the Paisley ministers attended a private meeting, at which they agreed to petition Parliament in favour of Sir Andrew Agnew's Bill to promote the better observance of the Lord's day, and Mr Cairns was among the number present. He was now charged by some of his brethren with glaring inconsistency, and to blunt the edge of the accusation he explained that, for reasons of his own, PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 5 2 5 he did not sign the paper in question. This led to his veracity being ques- tioned, as several of the ministers could testify that they had seen his signature at the paper, and, on the ground of a serious misunderstanding between the brethren in Paisley, the Presbytery in November following took up the case. Meetings, chiefly in committee, were held, documents were read, and witnesses examined, and it was not till August 1837 that a decision was reached. The petition was believed to have disappeared in a fire which, up in London, had consumed an accumulation of such documents, but through the efforts of the M.P. for Paisley it was recovered and the ministers who said they had seen Mr Cairns' signature at the paper were found to have been completely mistaken. It only remained now for the Presbytery to express their satisfaction that the veracity of their brother had been providentially and entirely vindicated. Verily, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. PAISLEY, GEORGE STREET (UNITED SECESSION) THIS congregation originated first of all in a secession of 31 members including an elder, from the Burgher congregation of Abbey Close, Paisley' at the time of the Old Light Controversy. Their supply from the Original Burgher Presbytery began on the second Sabbath of January 1800 and after struggling on for twenty-two years they made a bold bid for importance by building a church in George Street, with sittings for 1058. The cost was ^700, of which by far the greater part was paid with borrowed money. Their first minister, Mr Andrew Thomson, was ordained in November 1823 and the connection was dissolved in June 1834, the year in which the Original Burgher Synod arranged to open negotiations for Union with the Established Church. This was a proposal which did not fit the atmosphere of Paisley, and in a petition to their own Presbytery for sermon in April 1835 George Street congregation animadverted on what their superiors were doing, and were exhorted in return to keep fast by the great principle of national religion. Next month they met, and resolved by three-fourths of a majority to join the United Secession Church, and on i2th May they presented a petition to the Secession Presbytery of Glasgow asking to be recognised as a congregation under their inspection. The reply was that T as the two churches agreed in everything excepting what relates to the magistrate's power, which the United Synod made matter of forbearance they could be received without difficulty, and Mr Baird of St James' Church was appointed to preach to them on Sabbath first, and intimate this decision. There was no time lost now in having the pulpit filled. First Minister. JOHN BOYD, from Melville Street, Glasgow (now St Vincent Street;. Ordained at Hexham, 23rd October 1833, a d inducted into George Street, Paisley, igth November 1835. The call was signed by 80 members and 19 adherents, not half the number who subscribed Mr Thomson's call twelve years before. The minority had withdrawn, and were worshipping elsewhere, and, besides this, it is scarcely possible for a church to pass from one denomination to another without suffering serious disintegration. Mr Boyd's stipend was to be i 10, and in the beginning of 1838 he reported a membership of 180. But in the course of another year his former congregation had reason to believe that, if asked, he might return to them again, and he made up his mind to go. Accordingly, on i4th May 1839 he accepted a call to Hexham. Mr Boyd's subsequent course comes up under West Kilbride. Second Minister. ROBERT CAIRNS. Instead of going outside Paisley 526 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS for a successor to Mr Boyd, George Street congregation sought a coalescence with their brethren in New Street. The two congregations had been running parallel almost from the beginning, and circumstances favoured the proposal, as the one had a church but no minister, and the other a minister but no church. Accordingly, on I2th November 1839 the vacant congregation presented a paper to the Presbytery signed by 154 members and 49 adherents intimating that they had come to an agreement with New Street congrega- tion as to pecuniary matters, and requesting the Presbytery to sanction the union arranged for. To this the other party had agreed with unanimity at a congregational meeting, and Mr Cairns, their minister, now expressed his hearty concurrence. The Presbytery, looking on this peaceful and spon- taneous junction as "unprecedented almost," declared the congregations and sessions united under the name of George Street Church, with the Rev. Robert Cairns as their minister. Better prospects were now opened up for all parties, though even in harmonious congregational unions the advantage is often less than might be looked for. In this case the burden of debt remained oppressive, and Mr Cairns, as appears from an Obituary Notice written for the magazine by Dr Baird, had many discouragements to face until the end. He died, after a short illness, on 26th April 1857, in the fifty- eighth year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. A discourse on "Ever- lasting Life : the Reward of the Righteous," so impressed his hearers that they requested its publication. It appeared in 1853, and remains a little memento of its author's pulpit efficiency. Third Minister. JOHN WILSON, from Kilbarchan. The call was signed by 242 members and 84 adherents, and the stipend was to be ,175, which included everything. Ordained, gth February 1858. There was a debt at this time of ,1700, the original cost of the building, but under the impulse of a new ministry and a grant of ,200 from the Board ,812 was now cleared off. Still, even with the gift of rhetorical speech in their midst, it was hardly in the nature of things that the congregation could meanwhile be built up in holiness and comfort. On i7th October 1865 Mr Wilson was deposed for gross immoralities. He had absconded in circumstances which involved bigamy, though the earlier marriage was kept secret. He had also been deep in debt from the first, and his office had given him the means of fleecing members of his own congregation. He was now beyond the Atlantic, where, according to report, he found employment about the news- paper press in New York. Fourth Minister. ANDREW ELDER, from the little congregation of Kin- kell, where he had been ordained a few years before. Inducted to George Street, 5th February 1867. The membership was 257, and the stipend ^150. In the end of 1873 M r Elder was called to the Extension church, Parkhead, Glasgow, but he was not prepared to face a new array of diffi- culties, and remained in Paisley. In 1879 ar >d for a number of years after there was a membership of over 350, and the funds afforded a stipend of ^230, but in 1894 the Presbytery was made aware that the tide was fast* going back, and that debt was accumulating at the rate of ^80 a year. Then commenced a succession of complicated dealings, which brought out that the annual income, which approximated at one time to ^400, was now down to half that sum. It appeared, moreover, that most of the better-class families had left within recent years, and it was stated that the decrease in membership and their financial embarrassments were all owing to want of harmony. The gearing was out of order, and within seven years eleven elders had resigned, and the whole of the. managers were now resolving to do the same. Differences had arisen over the election of a church officer, and on one occasion, at a joint-meeting of elders and managers, held to con- PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 52? suit about the reducing of the debt, the time was consumed in battling over the question whether the preses of the congregation or the minister was entitled to take the chair. The whole case was referred to the Synod in 1896, and they appointed assessors to act along with the Presbytery in bringing it to an issue. Mr Elder, who was acknowledged to be much respected for his moral and Christian character, had intimated months before that he would remain at his post, and accept whatever the people could give him. Matters gradually settled down in the old channel, the Presbytery testifying to "improvement in spirit, organisation, and effort," and the Mission Board regretting that the signs of improvement were not more manifest. Aid from central funds had not been forthcoming, and George Street Church began the year of the Union with a membership of 280, and a stipend to the minister of ,120. PAISLEY, MOSSVALE (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation sprang from the missionary efforts of St James' Church, which had been carried on in a destitute part of Paisley for a number of years. On igth October 1880 a memorial signed by 86 members of the Mossvale Mission asked the Presbytery to have them constituted into a regular congregation. The paper was presented by Dr James Brown, accompanied by a Minute of St James' Street session to the same effect. No objections having been offered a congregation was formed on 7th December with a membership of 90, and on ist March 1881 a moderation was applied for. There were now no names on the communion roll, and the attendance on Sabbath was put at 200. The people undertook to raise 70 of stipend, and this was to be supplemented by ^50 from St James' Street, and by the addition of supplement and surplus it was expected that 220 would be made up. First Minister. DAVID COOK, from the Independent Church, St Andrews, a congregation in which the family had long held a prominent place. Having passed through a regular course of training at St Andrews University and in the Congregational Hall at Edinburgh, Mr Cook was ordained at Peterhead in 1845. Thence he removed to Lindsay Street, Dundee, a town which was, and is, a stronghold of Congregationalism in Scotland. Here he did important work, and George Gilfillan, with whom he was on terms of intimacy, characterised him as "a man of extraordinary knowledge, great philosophic culture, and earnest, onward-moving aspira- tions." In 1872 he removed from Dundee, and before the close of the year he became pastor of North Hanover Street Church, Glasgow, which he resigned in 1876. His experience there had strengthened his predilection for the Presbyterian system, with its checks and counter-checks, and in May 1878 he was admitted by the Synod to the ministry of the U.P. Church. He had now been in charge of the mission station at Mossvale for about two years, and there was the wish to have the pastoral bond formed. Accord- ingly a call, signed by 76 members and 63 adherents, was addressed to Mr Cook on 2 ist March 1881, and his induction followed on 5th April. On 1 3th March 1884 the present church was opened, which, with the gallery, gives 620 sittings, and cost about ,3500. At the close of 1888 there was a membership of 144, and the funds afforded fully ^100 of stipend. But Mr Cook's life course was now finished. After being laid aside from active duty for a considerable time he resigned on I2th April 1887, a medical certificate attesting that he was permanently incapacitated for work by reason of brain irritation, the penalty, we may believe, of persistent mental 528 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS strain. In this state he lingered till 3ist May 1888, when he died, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and in or about the forty-third of his ministry. Second Minister. DAVID HALL, originally from Regent Place, Glasgow. Ordained, 7th June 1887, it being felt very desirable that the vacancy should be brief. The burden on the church must have been formidable for what was essentially a mission-class congregation, but before the year closed a bond of ^1400 had been met, with aid from the Presbytery, and in 1893 Mr Hall announced that the property was entirely free of debt. Still, it was not to be expected that the self-supporting point would be reached. At the close of 1899 the membership was 149, and the stipend from the people .105. PAISLEY, LYLESLAND (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation owed its origin to the fostering care of Thread Street Church and the interest taken in it by the minister and session. On 4th March 1884 Mr Fleming informed the Presbytery that the station had been opened on the second Sabbath of February with an encouraging audience, and in June he announced further that Mr James B. Nicholson was engaged to conduct the services for six months. The new church was opened on Saturday, 2Oth June 1885, by Dr Aikman, Moderator of Synod. The cost was about ^2400, and the sittings 354, to which no were added by the erection of a gallery. Applicants for sealing ordinances were meanwhile taken into fellowship with Thread Street Church, but on ist June 1886 a petition from 48 members and 56 adherents was submitted to the Presbytery asking to be formed into a distinct congregation. The consideration of this paper was delayed in the hope that before another meeting the way would be better cleared by the entire debt on the property being liquidated. On 7th September the petition was granted, and the infant congregation put provisionally under the care of Thread Street session. First Minister. JOHN M'COLL, M.A., from Pollokshields. Mr M'Coll had conducted the mission for over a twelvemonth, and he was ordained, 2oth December 1886. There were now 66 names on the communion roll, and the stipend undertaken by the people was ^60, which it w r as expected would be made up to at least ,180 from other sources. By the end of next year both the membership and the stipend from their own funds were exactly doubled. In 1896 the church was further enlarged, and other im- provements made, at an outlay of .2200, towards which the Board made a grant of ^400, and ^1400 was raised by means of a bazaar, so that the building was reopened free of debt. After this stage was reached the rate of increase behoved to slacken, but at the time of the Union there was a membership of 380, and a stipend of ^200. BEITH, MITCHELL STREET (ANTIBURGHER) BEITH, like most of the parishes in Ayrshire, sent a quota of its inhabitants to Kilmaurs when that place became the seat of the first Secession con- gregation in that region. The name, however, does not occur in the records of the Associate Presbytery, Dr M'Kelvie's error on this point having arisen from confounding Beith in Ayrshire with Beath in the western division of Fife. The number of families attending at Kilmaurs, nine miles distant, cannot have been large, as only two baptisms are entered for 1754, and not one for the two preceding years. But on i3th June 1758 a petition was presented to PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 52t) Kilmaurs session craving concurrence in an application to the Presbytery for sermon. It was explained that several persons in that place wished frequent preaching " in order to bring them to further light anent the Testimony." The General Assembly on the 5th of that month had ordered the Presbytery of Irvine to proceed with the settlement of Mr David M'Lellan as parish minister in the face of strong opposition, and this accounts for the step that was now taken. In the following year the first church was built, regarding which we can give no particulars. First Minister. JOHN LAIDLV, M.A. (his own spelling), from Lockerbie. He also states that, bred a Seceder, he was admitted to swear the Covenants at fourteen years of age, and got licence when he was twenty-one. Or- dained at Beith, nth February 1761. On i2th November 1763 a farewell address, afterwards published, was read by Mr Laidly to his people, most of whom knew that he was giving up his charge, and was about to leave the place. On that occasion he entered largely into matters of dispute between the Established Church and the Secession, striking out against the principles to which he had hitherto professed adherence. He maintained that the Antiburghers, in condemning Toleration and upholding the design of the Solemn League and Covenant, would fain establish a Jewish Theocracy. As for Patronage, so much complained against, he was satisfied that " the choosing of their own ministers would, in a National Church, be attended with a great many inconveniences." Besides, he said, people are not obliged to submit to the ministrations of those whom they called hirelings and intruders. It ended with Glasgow Presbytery reporting to the Synod that -Mr John Laidly having apostatised from the Lord's cause and testimony, they had on i6th November loosed him from his charge, and deposed him from the ministry. In the Old Statistical History it is stated that Mr Laidly joined the Established Church, but we have not succeeded in tracing him further, only it appears that he never held a charge in that connection. Second Minister. ANDREW MITCHELL, from Alloa (now Townhead). The call was signed by 77 (male) members and 15 adherents, and Mr Mitchell was ordained, i,th May 1765. About the seventeenth year of his ministry Beith congregation was turned into a troubled sea, and the minister, though a man of forbearing temper, exposed to a storm of bitter hostility. It was the Lifter Controversy, with its headquarters in Ayrshire, that had come in to cause all this turmoil and distress. The malcontents, who insisted that the lifting of the elements before the consecration prayer was essential to the right administration of the communion ordinance, were headed by Bryce Kerr, an elder by whose name the party in the place was generally known. In the session minutes of nth September 1782 it is entered that he, with other three elders and a deacon, had withdrawn from office. This left six elders and one deacon. We here go back to a meeting of session on 3rd June of that year, when arrangements were to be made for having the Lord's Supper dispensed. After warm disputings the question was put, Proceed to sacramental work or Xot, and it carried Not, from which the Moderator dissented. Bryce Kerr and two of the others were the objectors, and "owing to the mournful confusion which now sub- sisted in the session and congregation the other brethren were so grieved and confounded that they could not vote at all," except one. who said Proceed. Another meeting on 2nd September gives us insight into the inner machinery : " Some conference taking place among members relative to the present differences as to the administration of the sacrament, John Kerr signified that he had no freedom either to join in communicating work as a Christian or to officiate as an elder at the ensuing solemnity. The 530 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Moderator spent some considerable time in dealing with him as to his present rash mistaken views, in the course of which dealings he threw out a variety of abusive language and false aspersions on the Moderator and Synod, and then went off in a fit of passion, signifying that he would never sit in session more. After some conversation upon his conduct the session had reason to believe that the whole proceeded from that undue influence which his nephew, Bryce Kerr, elder, has used with him to take this step, who has all along acted as an incendiary in this affair, and some members expressed their fears that others of their brethren in session were likely to take the same disorderly and irregular course under the same influence." This scene recalls Ramsay of Glasgow's experience of the Lifter Controversy a tempestuous time in session and out of it, he said, " chiefly because those engaged in it would listen to no instruction, hear no reasoning, bear no contradiction. It seemed as if lambs had been transformed into wolves, and the tamed lion had become wild in short, as if all nature had run out ot course." Dr Mitchell, the minister's son, remembered seeing Bryce Kerr haranguing the people with the foam flying from his lips, and winding up by charging them to stand to it, else they would rot in their graves. From this state Beith congregation emerged greatly weakened, and in 1785 the Synod allowed their minister a small grant in respect of the people's deficiency in the payment of stipend. Next year the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow responded to a petition for sermon from Beith ; but after going on for fully, a year supply was discontinued, and it was well that it should. Mr Mitchell died at Garnethill, Glasgow, 8th February 1812, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty-seventh of his ministry, leaving a son and a son-in-law, who both obtained a high place in the Secession ministry Dr John Mitchell of Wellington Street and Dr Robert Muter of Duke Street. Third Minister. JAMES MEIKLE, from Strathaven (First). Called also to Saltcoats (West), but the Presbytery decided in favour of Beith. Or- dained, 1 5th September 1812. The stipend was to be 100 guineas, with 8 for sacramental expenses. In addition to this a manse was built that year at a cost of ^550, and in 1816 there was the rebuilding of the church, with sittings for 400, at a cost of ^650. But the congregation was overshadowed by the Relief Church in Beith, so much so that the parish minister in 1836 assigned 969 parishioners, young and old, to the latter, and only 388 to the former. The communicants at this date were 170, and the debt was reduced to ^240. Mr Meikle published his best-known work : The Edenic Dispensa- tion, in 1849, the year of his Moderatorship, and in 1856 he received the degree of D.D. from Princeton, New Jersey. The book was vigorously as well as rigorously criticised by Dr Eadie in the U.P. Magazine when it appeared, but it was believed to stamp the author as an able theologian. It was followed by two volumes on the Mediatorial Dispensation its Nature, and its Administration the former in 1853 and the latter in 1859. On 1 2th November 1861 Dr Meikle's jubilee was celebrated, and he was pre- sented on that occasion with a gift of 406 sovereigns. For other six years he discharged regular ministerial work, and then arrangements were made for a colleague. In March 1868 the congregation was much satisfied with Mr Peter Stewart, preacher, Campbeltown ; but he took ill the Monday after his second Sabbath among them, and died, 2nd April, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. Fourth Minister. HENRY GLEN, from East Campbell Street, Glasgow. Ordained, ith December 1868. Dr Meikle's stipend had been ultimately raised to .120, and he was now to have ,30, with the manse, and the junior minister was to receive ^150 in all, the membership being 130. On PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 53I i6th September 1870 the aged minister died, in the fifty-ninth year of his ministry, having entered on the eighty-third year of his age four days before. In 1871 the congregation expended ^312 in renovating the manse for the occupancy of the young minister, ^100 of which came from the Board. Mr Glen's stipend at the close of 1879 was ,160, with the manse, and there were 170 names on the communion roll, the same as in 1836. The present church, with sittings for 480, and built at a cost of over ,2000, was opened on Thursday, 6th July 1893, by Dr Ferguson of Queen's Park, Glasgow. The collections that day and on the following Sabbath enabled the con- gregation to take possession free of debt. In January 1900 there was a membership of 210, and a stipend of ,180, besides the manse. BEITH, HEAD STREET (RELIEF) ON 24th January 1783 we find the earliest trace of steps taken to form what came to be Beith Relief Church. That day " The Free Presbyterian Society was founded," with Rules and Articles, in which a testimony was borne against " the unscriptural yoke of Patronage." After a time the building of a place of worship was proceeded with on the proprietor system, the subscribers, who numbered 155, being to receive a deduction off their seat rents for the sums they advanced. The intention at this time was to have a minister in connection with the Established Church, but the Presbytery of Irvine frowned down the whole proposal as hostile to the rights of the parochial incumbent, and the result was an application for sermon to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow on 25th May 1784. On the following Sabbath Mr Pinkerton of Campbeltown conducted the services, the petition mean- while lying on the table, and on 28th June the Presbytery promised the commissioners all the supplies in their power. The church was now finished, with sittings for about 1000 at first, but reduced in course of time to 850. Before getting under a fixed ministry the congregation had troubled waters to pass through. The Rev. William Heriot, who had been loosed from the Relief Church, Strathaven, for grave misconduct fully established, preached at Beith for a considerable time, and as he possessed pulpit gifts he drew away a great part of the people after him. The Presbytery, fearing what the end would be, tried to arrest procedure ; but a moderation had to be conceded, and in January 1787 Mr Heriot was called by a majority of one or two, but the call was unanimously rejected by the Presbytery, and the parties exhorted to mutual forbearance. Complaints now cropped up against Mr Heriot for intemperate behaviour, to which he had added the offence of preaching in opposition to the Presbytery's authority. On gth October he was deposed from the ministry. He died some time between that and May 1791, when his widow petitioned the Synod for the repayment of the money he had paid into the Fund for the support of Widows and Orphans. This paragraph winds up what is known of the last chapter in the life of the first Relief minister of Strathaven. First Minister. WILLIAM THOMSON, from Doune, Stirlingshire. Passed from the Established Church to the Relief when a theological student. The call from Beith was accompanied by a paper of adherence, in which 307 persons declared their wish to have Mr Thomson for their minister, but notice came of another call from Perth (East Church), and Mr Thomson's decision was delayed. At next meeting, being at a loss as to present duty, he submitted himself to the judgment of the Presbytery, who were unanimously of opinion that he should accept Beith. He acted accordingly, and was ordained, 23rd January 1788. Attempts to remove 532 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS him were twice withstood, the first coming from Clackmannan within a twelvemonth, and the second from Old Kilpatrick in 1795 5 but a third, from Hutchesontown, the church with which his name was long to be connected, prevailed, and on 29th July 1800 Mr Thomson was loosed from Beith. Those twelve years under a powerful ministry like his must have given the Relief cause a strong standing in the place. The next call was addressed to Mr William Auld, afterwards of Greenock, but he explained that he had already accepted another to the forming congregation of Burnhead. Second Minister. JAMES ANDERSON, from Campsie. Ordained, I2th April 1802. Between this and 1836 there is little to record, but at the close of the latter year there were 530 names on the communion roll. About one-sixth of the families were from the parishes of Dairy, Kilbirnie, and Lochwinnoch. The stipend was ,120, with a house and ground valued at ^17 a year, and also sacramental expenses. Though a few of the seats were still allocated to persons who subscribed for the erection of the church the proprietor system was evidently dying out, and the debt that remained was under ,100. But Mr Anderson was now nearing the period of failing health when a colleague had to be provided. Third Minister. WILLIAM C. WARDROP, who had laboured in the newly-formed congregation of Rutherglen for four years. Inducted, 24th March 1840. The senior minister died on the last day of 1841, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and fortieth of his ministry, and Mr Wardrop followed within a twelvemonth, dying on I7th December 1842, in the twenty- ninth year of his age and seventh of his ministry. Fotirth Minister. JAMES MARTIN, from Bloomgate, Lanark. Ordained, 25th July 1843, having previously withdrawn his acceptance of Airdrie (now South Bridge Street). The stipend was to be ,110, with manse and glebe. The bond between Mr Martin and the congregation was strengthened soon after by his marriage into the family of Mr Anderson, their former minister. In 1879 the congregation had a membership of 350, and when a colleague came to be thought of three years later the stipend was ,200. But at this time harmony was disturbed by a protested moderation and a divided call, when Mr John W. Slater had a majority over Mr P. B. Crowley, now of Stonehaven, but he promptly intimated that he had accepted Scone. When they next approached the Presbytery the money arrangements were on a less liberal scale than before. Fifth Minister. JOHN LENNOX, from Newmilns. Ordained, i8th November 1884. The senior minister was to have ^80, with manse and glebe, and the junior ^150, which the Board raised to ^180, including house rent. After the settlement of his colleague Mr Martin only preached occa- sionally. In 1892 Mr Lennox was called to Gillespie Church, Glasgow, but he preferred to go on in Beith. At his jubilee soiree on the evening of igth September 1892 Mr Martin was presented with a casket containing ,320 in gold, and there was special mention made of his services to the community in the cause of education. He died, i8th March 1895, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. The membership of Head Street Church at the Union was about 320, and the stipend ,200, with the manse. KILBARCHAN (RELIEF) THE Rev. John Warner, whose settlement as minister of Kilbarchan in 1739' gave origin to a Secession congregation at Burntshields, died, 8th March 1786, having held the parish pulpit under the sway of Moderatism for forty- PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 533 seven years. On 23rd May thereafter "a respectable body of people" in Kilbarchan and its neighbourhood petitioned the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow to be received as a forming congregation, and the Rev. Thomas Bell of Dovehill Church preached to them on the following Sabbath. This application had been resolved on at a largely attended meeting held a fort- night before, and without waiting to see how the vacancy was to be filled up. In July the patron issued a presentation to Mr Patrick Maxwell, who had been tutor in his family, a circumstance to which he owed his promotion. Like the former minister he belonged to the Moderate class, and trie fact that he was a licentiate of ten years' standing was not fitted to recommend him to the people. At the end of that month a circular was issued for the erection of a place of worship, which was pronounced indispensably neces- sary, because, the parish church belonging to the landed interest, the people could not be accommodated with seats, and also "that they might have a free choice of their pastor according to the Word of God." Subscribers ot not less than i were to be proprietors, with interest at five per cent, deducted from the yearly rent put upon their seats, but on proceeding to call a minister all who intended to put themselves under his inspection, whether contributors or not, were to have a vote, provided they were of good character. In March 1787 the foundation stone was laid, and Mr Maxwell was not ordained till 5th July, after a year's enforced delay. The building, which was meant to accommodate 1 100, was not finished till the summer of 1789, but the congregation found shelter within its walls during the preceding winter. The proprietors at first were 125 in number, and the church cost ^1000, so that a considerable part must have lain as debt on the building. First Minister. JOHN M'LAREN, of whose origin we only learn that he was served heir to his father, a feuar in Callander, in 1795. He had calls from Hamilton (Auchingramont) and Kilbarchan, and, having preferred the latter, he was ordained, I3th May 1788, the services having to be conducted in the open air owing to the unfinished state of the church. The stipend at first was only ,90, but by successive additions it was brought up to ,130. The organisation of the church was completed on 2ist November by the ordination of nine elders, of whom four resided in Kilbarchan and two in Johnstone. Mr M'Laren died somewhat suddenly on 26th March 1808, in the forty-fifth year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. The stone tablet erected to his memory bears that he was " beloved, honoured, and lamented as a man, a husband, a father, and a friend." Second Minister. JOHN KESSON, a licentiate of St Ninians Presbytery. Ordained, 2Oth July 1809. The stipend was to be ,160 in all, a token of the strength the congregation had acquired under its first minister. Mr Kesson, who is said to have been less successful than his predecessor, died, 1 2th December 1815, in the thirty-fourth year of his age and seventh of his ministry. Of his family connections we only know that his wife was a sister of Mr John M'Gregor, afterwards of Bridge Street, Stranraer. The congre- gation now, after a brief vacancy, called Mr John Nichol, but the call was dismissed when he announced his acceptance of another from Ayr (Cathcart Street). It has been stated that they next called Mr Gavin Struthers, but, though they were prepared to do so, they stopped short, as he informed them that he intended to accept Anderston, Glasgow. Third Minister. MATTHEW ALISON, from Strathaven (East). Or- dained, 1 8th August 1818. At the moderation the Rev. James Turnbull of Colinsburgh, afterwards of Calton, Glasgow, was proposed, as he had been on the former occasion, but his following was now much reduced, and the harmony of the congregation appears to have been little interfered 534 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS with. The stipend was fixed at ^140, including expenses, but the minister was also to be provided with a comfortable dwelling-house. This latter part of the engagement was fulfilled in the following year by the erection of a manse. In 1838 the communicants were estimated at 700, and the con- gregation had 33 families from Houston and Killallan, 10 from Lochwinnoch, and 9 from Abbey parish, Paisley. The stipend was ^140 as before, and it was secured by bond on the property. There was also the manse and a garden of half-an-acre. There was a d.ebt of ^120, besides a sum of ,260 due the original subscribers, which they were not at liberty to call up. On 3ist May 1841 Mr Alison was loosed from his charge, having decided, much against the wishes of his people, to emigrate to America. There he ministered two years to a congregation in Paterson, New York ; but in August 1843 it was announced to Glasgow Presbytery that he had returned for the health of his family, and he was received as a preacher. He re- mained in this country till the following spring, and then went back to the United States, where he was inducted to the charge of Mifflintown, Penn- sylvania. He laboured there nearly twenty-eight years, and died, 8th July 1872, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. GEORGE ALISON, a nephew of his predecessor, and, like him, from Strathaven (East). Ordained, 23rd March 1842. The con- gregation must have suffered by the formation of Johnstone (East) in 1829, as that involved the disjunction of a considerable branch of the membership. There was also the setting up of a Chartist church in the village towards the close of the former ministry, which may have done something to mature Mr Matthew Alison's resolve to leave for America. Kilbarchan was a place in which Radicalism was not unlikely to run into extreme forms. But, whatever may have been the reason, the stipend was now down to ,100, with the manse, but ^5 was to be added for every ^100 of debt cleared off. To have the long burden of ,500 removed the congregation, headed by their young minister, now set to work, without having recourse to external aid, and in 1849 the end was gained. In 1872 the church was remodelled and renovated at a cost of over ^1200, and on Sabbath, 9th March 1873, it was reopened by Professor Eadie, when the collections amounted to ,164. There was still a slight debt remaining, but it was speedily defrayed. In May 1893 a moderation was applied for with the view of providing a colleague for Mr Alison, who had now completed his seventy-fourth year, and entered on the fifty-second of his ministry. His own suggestion was that he should give up ,200 of the stipend, which would leave him ^40, with the manse. He would thus continue to dwell among his own people with the status of senior minister, preaching occa- sionally, his colleague to have the entire responsibility in the session and congregation. Fifth Minister. ROBERT RUSSELL, M.A., from Cumbernauld. Called to Bethelfield, Kirkcaldy, but preferred Kilbarchan, where he was ordained, 28th June 1893. The membership at the beginning of 1900 was 420, and the stipend of the junior minister ,230 in all, Mr Alison's position being the same as was previously arranged for. JOHNSTONE, WEST (BURGHER) ON I4th June 1791 the session of Burntshields laid a petition for sermon before the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow from some members of their congrega- tion and a large number of adherents from other communions. In reply to this application Mr Moir of Tarbolton was appointed to preach at Bridge- PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 535 of-Johnstone on the first Sabbath of July. This place, which had not attained even to the dignity of a hamlet ten years before, was now a growing town with a population of at least 1200, and the Burgher families residing therein were disinclined to travel longer to Burntshields, a distance of three miles, believing themselves strong enough to have a minister for themselves. Their prospects having been tested by three months of occasional supply, a meeting was held at Burntshields on nth October to consider the ex- pediency of dividing themselves into two or more independent branches, with the result as given already. Those present were also of opinion that the minister should be transferred to Johnstone. The resolutions adopted were sanctioned by the Presbytery on the igth of that month. A church was built before the end of the year at least, 1791 is the date engraven on one of the inner corbels and the cost is supposed to have been not less than ,900. First Minister. JOHN LINDSAY, who began the exercise of his ministry at Johnstone Bridge on the first Sabbath of February 1792, that being probably the time when the church was ready for occupancy. The people were to pay him ^100 a year in all, or 90, with a free house. That year they raised a sum of .200, but a debt of ^456 remained on the building, and instead of making an effort to clear it off they allowed it to increase year by year through non-payment of interest. But at the climax of the Old Light Controversy worse evils emerged, and required the intervention of the Presbytery. The managers were in distress over the failure in the funds, and when the Presbytery met with the parties all were in a state of deep depression. The mother congregation of Burnt- shields had gone off to the New Presbytery, and the separating party there were doing their best to draw others after them. Mr Lindsay's want of decision with respect to the matters in dispute had also been improved to his disadvantage, illustrating what Dr Hay of Kinross spoke of when recalling with thankfulness the firm stand he took at that trying time : " The vacillation of many of my brethren both injured their congregations and brought reproach upon themselves." The proceedings closed with an agreement on Mr Lindsay's part to take meanwhile what stipend the people could afford to give him. The situation of affairs remained in much the same state till his death on 24th March (O.S.) 1806, in the seventy-second year of his age and thirty-third of his ministry. He was one of three Burgher ministers who were married to sisters of the Rev. James Hall, Rose Street, Edinburgh. Second Minister. JOHN CLAPPERTON, from Stow. Ordained, I4th April 1807. Though the congregation was still considered in an enfeebled state the call was signed by 224 communicants, and as the population of Johnstone was more than doubled since the church began, there were ample means of increase. We find accordingly that in 1838 there was a member- ship of 440. The stipend, including expenses, was ^162, 125., and the minister had recently entered on the occupancy of a manse, the cost ot which had raised the debt from ,350 to ,850. The great bulk of the congregation resided in the Abbey parish of Paisley, which means Johnstone and its neighbourhood, but ten or a dozen families were from Houston parish, and nearly double that number from Kilbarchan. During the Atonement Controversy Mr Clapperton adhered uncompromisingly to the old paths, as he reckoned them, and had no sympathy with talk about the Atonement having a general reference. One utterance of his in the Synod will bear quotation. He objected to the statement that in the gospel the door of mercy is open to all, and said that it was enough to tell a man that if he came to the door of mercy he would find it open. It is similar in purport 536 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to the position taken up by the Rev. James Forsyth of Craigend in a pamphlet that is dealt with in its proper place. It shows how extremes meet, and how to avoid the semblance of Arminianism mercy's gate is made to turn upon the action of the individual will. Mr Clapperton's name in this connection also helps to set aside an impression entertained in those days, that the leaders on the more strictly Calvinistic side were Old Anti- burghers. So far from this Drs Marshall and Hay, not to mention Messrs Clapperton of Johnstone, Fraser of Alloa, and Law of Kirkcaldy, were all trained in tne Burgher Hall, and had been members of the Burgher Synod. Whatever divergence there might be in Secession theology at that restless time it did not run on old lines of separation. Mr Clapperton died, 28th June 1849, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-third of his ministry. By his marriage he was a brother-in- law of the Rev. Dr Nicol of Jedburgh, and he left a son-in-law in the U.P. ministry the Rev. John Hunter of Savoch. One production of his pen was a pamphlet on Competing Calls. One or two imperious decisions of Synod had stirred feeling in favour of leaving the question in all such cases with the party himself, and Mr Clapperton seeing that innovation was threatened came forward to reason it down. But though ingenuity, backed by earnest- ness, failed to gain its end it is interesting to hear what could be said in support of a state of things that has passed away. Third Minister. JAMES INGLIS, son of the Rev. James Inglis, formerly of Midholm, but then residing in Edinburgh. The family, along with their father, were in connection with Dr M'Crie's Church, but on coming to years the sons sought back into the United Secession Church, and in 1842 James was enrolled as a student in the United Secession Hall. Ordained at Johnstone, i6th April 1850, having declined Huntly nearly two years before, a place where a man of his stamp was much needed. The membership ot Johnstone (West) at this time was 212, of whom 202, along with 82 adherents signed the call. Still, these numbers show decline since last ordination, almost exactly forty-three years before. Under Mr Inglis there was careful and un- wearied building up. Possessing what seems to have been a family gift he threw himself with special ardour into Sabbath -school and Bible-class work, and by his pen extended his influence in this way far beyond his own congrega- tion. Here his " Bible Texts' Cyclopaedia," published in 1861, is entitled to special mention. During his lengthened ministry, with a large population to work on, the congregation increased, and at the end of thirty years it numbered 272 communicants, and furnished a stipend of ^230. But in the beginning of 1887 Mr Inglis felt so enfeebled that he told his session he must withdraw entirely from ministerial work for the time, and left the situation in their hands. The congregation promptly resolved to provide him with a colleague and successor, the senior minister to have ,100 and the junior ,200, the one to occupy the manse and the other to have ,30 instead. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM WESTWOOD, M.A., from Dunning. Or- dained, ist November 1887. After seeing the pulpit filled Mr Inglis arranged to remove to Edinburgh, where he was to spend the remaining years of his life. There he and his family joined the membership of Rose- hall Church. On Monday, 3Oth November 1891, the centenary of the con- gregation was celebrated, the senior minister being present, but a history of the church, which he had drawn up with much care, and which was after- wards published, had to be read by another. Mr Inglis died on 8th May 1894, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. His son James was ordained as a missionary to Manchuria on iSth Decem- ber 1890, where he still labours, and one of his daughters is married to Dr PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 537 Dugald Christie, of the same missign. Mr Westwood was called to Frederick 'Street, Glasgow (now Alexandra Parade) in 1894, but remained in Johnstone. At the close of 1899 the church had a membership of 389, and the stipend was ,240, with the manse. JOHNSTONE, EAST (RELIEF) THE first attempt to form a Relief congregation in this growing town was a failure. It began with a petition on 5th July 182 5 from inhabitants of Johnstone and its neighbourhood for supply of sermon. The first who preached was the Rev. Matthew Alison of Kilbarchan. From him and others who followed favourable reports were given in, and supply was kept up for fourteen months, but on 5th September 1826 the people intimated by letter that, owing to the great expense incurred, they declined to make any further application for preachers. The Presbytery felt disappointed after the great exertions made -on their behalf, and a committee was instructed to advise with them, but for nearly three years the name is lost sight of. On I4th April 1829 they gave in the draft of a constitution, and they had a church, with 800 sittings, either built or in course of building. Preachers were sent them at once, of whom the second was Mr William Lindsay, who became their choice. The church cost .1500, including the session-house, which was added some time after, and a debt was incurred of ^1280. First Minister. WILLIAM LINDSAY, from Irvine (Relief). Ordained, 27th April 1830, and on 6th November 1832 he accepted a call to Dovehill, Glasgow (now Kelvingrove). The stipend during his short ministry was ^120, with expenses, and the membership when he left was 180. Second Minister. GEORGE BROOKS, from Musselburgh, Millhill. At the moderation 193 voted for Mr Brooks and 50 for Mr James Russell, after- wards of Old Kilpatrick, but the minority acquiesced, and signed the call. Ordained, igth September 1833. In the beginning of 1838 the communicants numbered 366, and the stipend was ,128 in all, the debt draining away a good part of the income, an evil which continued, more or less, for a long course of years. The pressure was so great at the close of 1842 that the good offices of the Presbytery were called in, and by a speedy subsidy of ,200 the pinch of the difficulty was got over. In 1845 the burden was further lightened by a grant of 160 from the Debt Liquidation Fund, which would imply corresponding exertion on the part of the people. But it was not till 1873 that the final sum of ,576 was cleared off, with the aid of ^210 from the Liquidation Board. On 2nd December of that year Mr Brooks' demission of his charge was accepted, which he had tendered owing to failing health, the congregation agreeing to a retiring allowance of ^75 a year, which he surrendered eleven years before his death. He was also admitted as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. He soon afterwards removed to Edinburgh, where he became a member of Nicolson Street Church, and died, 25th November 1892, in the eighty-third year of his age and sixtieth of his ministerial life. In 1863 Mr Brooks published " Five Hundred Plans of Sermons," a book in the preparation of which he had scope for those gifts of analysis which used to impart rare interest and value to his criticisms of students' discourses. The contents, though of very unequal merit, emphasise the importance of having sermons " laid out " in a memorable and methodical way, but some stray articles of his in the denominational magazine give a better view of the author's powers and acquirements. No Memoir of Mr Brooks appeared after his death. 538 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS It recalls the words of John Howard when the end was near : " Lay me quietly in the earth, place a sundial over my grave, and let me be forgotten." Third Minister HUGH. GEMMILL, B.D., from Fenwick. Ordained, I7th March 1874, after declining St Paul's, Birkenhead. The membership at the Union was 415, and the stipend ,260, with a manse. LOCHWINNOCH (BURGHER) A NUMBER of families in this parish had been connected with Burntshields congregation almost from the beginning, and their number was augmented in 1750 by the settlement of Mr John Cooper in the face of keen opposition. Of Mr Cooper one of his successors, Dr Smith, says : " He was the only minister of this church who belonged to what is called the Moderate party." But Dr Smith also testified that Mr Cooper was an excellent scholar, irreproachable in character, and most attentive to his parochial duties. The village having largely increased, the Seceders about Lochwinnoch petitioned the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow on 26th July 1791 to be formed into a distinct congregation, and a letter was read from some members of Burntshields congregation declaring their willingness to support their minister though Lochwinnoch people were disjoined. Sermon was granted, and a church, with 500 sittings, was built in the following year. The money ultimately laid out on the property, including the manse, was about ^1200. The congregation in its beginnings issued three unsuccessful calls. The first was to Mr Alexander Easton, whom the Synod appointed to Miles Lane, London, and of whom there is more under Hamilton (Avon Street). This call was signed by 126 members. The second was addressed to Mr Andrew Lothian, who was appointed to Port-Glasgow, and the third to Mr Henry Belfrage, who became his father's colleague at Falkirk. First Minister. WILLIAM SCHAW, from Falkirk (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 26th August 1795. The stipend promised was ^80. Mr Schaw was loosed on 4th August 1801 on accepting a call to the recently-formed congregation of Ayr (now Darlington Place). Second Minister. JAMES ROBSON, from Kelso (First). Ordained, 2oth April 1803. The call was not harmonious, and through dissension the con- gregation was weakened every way. Mr Robson had previously entertained the idea of emigrating to America, and in February 1809 he informed the Presbytery that his stipend was inadequate, and as his people declared they were unable to give more it was his purpose to demit his charge. The com- municants at this time were ill, and the income, which reached over ,100 in 1805, was down to .68, and they had a debt of ^300. It carried on 28th March to accept the demission instead of referring the case to the Synod. After lingering in this country for two years as a preacher Mr Robson removed to Nova Scotia, and on I3th May 1812 was inducted to Halifax, where he remained till the summer of 1820, when, owing to dispeace in the congregation, he resigned his charge. In 1824 he was inducted to Pictou, and died there, 8th December 1838, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. Of Mr Robson a brother minister testified : " He was a man of cultivated tastes, and exceedingly attentive to his pulpit exhibitions, and he was not surpassed as a preacher by any minister of the place." The congregation of Lochwinnoch had now a dreary vacancy of fifteen years to pass through, and it is pitiable to go over the unsuccessful calls they issued during that period, most of the preachers they fixed on becoming in course of time men of decided mark. They began with Mr PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 539 Robert Balmer, although not till 1813, but he was appointed to Berwick. The stipend undertaken was ^100, with expenses, and there was no manse as yet. In 1815 they called Mr George Donaldson, but they had no chance with School Wynd, Dundee. A year later they called Mr Henry Angus, who declared for Aberdeen, though his inclination lay towards Lochwinnoch at first, as nearer the centre and nearer home. The next call was delayed till 1819. It was one of five addressed to Mr Alexander Waugh, and it was signed by 153 members and 249 adherents, but the claims of Miles Lane, London, were pre-eminent (see vol. i., p. 197). The fifth was given to Mr George Wood, and it led to a long discussion at the Synod in September 1 820, but Kirkcudbright carried, as is stated fully under that heading. A letter was sent to Lochwinnoch at this time in name of the Supreme Court expres- sive of deep interest in the congregation's welfare and satisfaction to know that, amidst so many disappointments, the people had neither abandoned their principles nor sunk into despondency nor indulged in harsh and peevish reflections. Two other unsuccessful calls were still to follow one to Mr David Young, afterwards Dr Young of Perth, which the Presbytery laid aside, deeming the prosecution hopeless, and the other in 1822 to Mr William Johnston, which was withdrawn in consequence of another from Limekilns. The stipend named at this time was ^100, with a house, which the Presbytery reckoned inadequate, but Abbey Close, Paisley, was to add ^10 for three years if found necessary. Third Minister. JOHN SHOOLBRAID, from Kennoway. Ordained, 25th November 1824. In the fourteenth year of his ministry Mr Shoolbraid re- ported a membership of 185, of whom 160 belonged to the village. The stipend was ^106, and there was a manse now, in the building of which assistance had come from sister congregations. The entire debt on the property was ,220. In September 1841 Mr Shoolbraid tendered his demis- sion, stating that the congregation required more vigorous efforts to keep it up than the state of his health allowed. The people testified their satis- faction with his labours of seventeen years, and the resignation was accepted on 1 2th October. Mr Shoolbraid then removed to Elgin, with attestations of high esteem from the Presbytery. On I2th November 1844 he applied to Elgin Presbytery for a certificate of ministerial status, as he intended to withdraw from the fellowship of the Secession Church. The imperious element being strong in that Presbytery, the certificate was withheld on the plea that he had not told what denomination he intended to join, nor assigned any reason for making the change. Two months later he asked them to review their decision, but they refused, and the case came before the Synod in July 1845. Members agreed that the certificate had been held back on unjustifiable grounds, and astonishment was expressed that the refusal had ever been thought of. At the Inverness Assembly in August following Mr Shoolbraid was received into the Free Church, and in 1846 he became minister of Mortlach, where he died, i8th February 1875, m tne seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. Fourth Minister. JAMES MONTEITH, from Howgate. Ordained, 26th April 1843, the stipend being much as before. During 1846 the debt, which had increased to ^300, was cleared off by a vigorous effort, the friend who took the lead giving ^100, and two brothers giving ^40 between them. But the congregation, though freed from the encumbrance of debt, did not ad- vance, partly owing to the strength of the Free Church, and on i6th October 1877 Mr Monteith's resignation, tendered owing to infirm health, was ac- cepted, the people agreeing to give him 10 for three years out of their slender resources. The membership at this time was only about 70. Mr Monteith afterwards removed to Edinburgh, where he joined Morningside 54 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Church, and died, 27th June 1891, having completed the seventy-ninth year of his age the day before. Fifth Minister. JOHN BLACK., from Glasgow (now Woodlands Road). Called previously to Belfast, Lumsden, and Alva. Ordained, 6th May 1878, and died, I4th April 1889, in the forty-fifth year of his age and eleventh of his ministry. Sixth Minister. 1 1 K.XRV 15. ('.KAY, M.A., from Ibrox, Glasgow. Ordained, igth November 1889. Under Mr Gray's ministry the congregation pro- gressed considerably, and in the beginning of 1900 he announced to the Presbytery that by means of a bazaar they had raised over .1300, which, after meeting the renovation of the church, left ^440 for hall accommodation. On 2nd October 1900 Mr Gray intimated to Paisley Presbytery that he had accepted an invitation to become minister of St Andrew's, Auckland, New Zealand, and, much to the regret of his congregation, the relation between him and Lochwinnoch was dissolved. There was a membership now of 157, and the stipend from the people was ^130, with the manse. KILMALCOLM (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN THIS congregation was the outcome of a persistent struggle against the law of Patronage, three patrons and three presentees being withstood in succes- sion. A beginning was made when a certain Mr Russell, who seems to have been an ordained minister, received and accepted the presentation. Resist- ance was offered, but he died before the merits were pronounced on. An- other patron then appointed the Rev. William Law of Auldfield Chapel, near Pollokshaws, to the living, but again objections were tendered, most of which the Presbytery of Greenock sustained. The case passed to the Synod, which took the other side, and then to the Assembly, one special complaint against the presentee being that he had been unsuccessful in two charges already. In the court of last resort Principal Tulloch spoke warmly in favour of the objectors, and by a vote of no to 71 the door was closed against the presentee. A heritor of the parish, who had been stoutly opposed to Mr Law, now acquired the patronage, and presented the Rev. Alexander Leek of Martyrs Chapel, Glasgow, who proved less acceptable to the people generally than either of the other two had been. They com- plained that owing to an impediment in his speech it was difficult to make out what he said, and he was also disqualified by his lameness for overtaking the pastoral work of a large parish like that of Kilmalcolm. But to give the objectors another victory would have been like nullifying Patronage alto- gether, and it was also understood that Mr Leek had done good work in Glasgow, and the General Assembly instructed the Presbytery of Greenock to proceed with the induction without delay, which was done on 3oth July 1858. On 7th September a petition for sermon came up from Kilmalcolm to the U.P. Presbytery of Greenock. The paper was signed by 245 persons, of whom 138 were members of the Established Church, and 20 were United Presbyterians. The Sabbath on which Mr Leek was introduced to his new charge Mr Alison of Kilbarchan had preached by request at Kilmalcolm. They met in what had been the Reformed Presbyterian church, which was unoccupied now through the congregation having changed its seat to Port- Glasgow. The attendance was large, and services had been kept up during the intervening Sabbaths. The building they were to have for a year free of expense from the proprietor, who was one of themselves, and of the 400 sittings all but 25 had been let. On igth October a Presbyterial Committee PRESBYTERY OF PAISLKY 54 , reported that 1 16 persons after being conversed with had been admitted ta membership, and these were now formed into a congregation. This was followed on 23rd January 1859 by the ordination of seven elders, and in May a unanimous call was addressed to the Rev. William Sprott of Alexandria who declined. There was a membership now of 160, and the stipend pro- mised was ,125, with a house. At the end of the first year the managers' books brought out an income of ^221. First Minister. JAMES ECKFORD FYFE, from Newbigging, Dundee, a nephew of Mr John Eckford, a former minister there. Ordained, 27th March 1860, having declined a call to Killaig, Ireland, a considerable time before. On 8th June 1862 a new church, with sittings for 450, and built at a cost of ^1250, was opened by Professor Eadie, and a manse was added in 1865 at an additional cost of ^750, for which the Board allowed ,250. With this exception the heavy expenditure seems to have been met by the people and their friends without drawing from central funds. In 1879 there were very nearly 300 names on the communion roll, and the stipend was up to- ^200, with the manse. During the discussions in the General Assembly on the disputed settlement at Kilmalcolm that parish was credited with being in a sunk condition spiritually. Reviving came, and a waking up to activity by the formation of a vigorous dissenting congregation under a minister of their own choice. Mr Fyfe, after doing good work at Kilmalcolm for thirty- eight years, died, 3rd October 1898, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. The Rev. D. Ritchie Key was called soon after from London Road, Edinburgh^ but declined. Second Minister. ALEXANDER J. B. PATERSON, M.A., from Duns (East), where he was ordained as colleague to Dr Ritchie eight years before. Inducted, 25th May 1899. The stipend was to be .300, with the manse, and there was a membership of 300 or thereby. RENFREW (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) A\ AII. ING themselves of openings for evangelistic work the Presbytery ot Paisley and Greenock decided on i6th April 1861 to begin evening services in a hall at Renfrew on the following Sabbath, when they hoped to ascertain what facilities there might be for permanent operations there. At their June meeting 41 persons sent in a petition for the erection of a preaching station in the place, and it was agreed to hold regular diets of public worship during the day, with the concurrence and aid of the Mission Board. A local committee now intimated that they expected to raise ,94 for current expenses during the year, which was nearly three-fourths of the sum re- quired, and on the first Sabbath of September the town hall, with larger capacity, was entered on as the place of meeting. On 4th March 1862 a congregation of 35 members was formed, 21 of these from U.P. congrega- tions in Paisley, 1 1 from other denominations, and 3 by examination. The first-named group may be taken as exhausting the denominational element in Renfrew, other families having connected themselves with other churches. In June three elders were elected, and in due time ordained. The young congregation, after having Mr Mungo Giffen located among them for some months, had a succession of preachers, and in October 1863 a moderation was applied for. In their unsettled state there had been little progress made, the names on the communion roll being set down at 50 and the average attendance at 65. First Minister. JOHN HUTCHISON, B. A., from Renfield Street, Glasgow. Ordained, i6th February 1864. In June 1865 the new church was opened,. 542 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS with sittings for 500, and in 1869 a commodious manse was added, at a cost of .1300, fully three-fourths of which was raised by the people, and ,320 came as a grant from the Manse Board. The total outlay was put down .at over ^3000. In 1874 Mr Hutchison, whose scholarly attainments were widely known, received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University, and on 1 6th January 1877 he accepted a call to the newly-formed congregation of Bonnington, Leith. Renfrew had a membership now of 133, and they were to give a stipend of ^180, with the manse, and travelling expenses. In a few months they called Mr James M. Scott, who declined, having decided to accept Waterbeck. They next called Mr Alexander Borland, who soon after obtained Cumbernauld. Second Minister. CHARLES MOVES, from Glasgow (now Cathedral Square). Ordained, i8th September 1878, having set aside Muirkirk shortly before. After long and gradual decline of strength there came a period of sick-supply, and then resignation under a medical certificate that he ought not to resume work in Scotland. The demission was accepted, 3rd Nov- ember 1885. His design was to set out for Australia, but the Colonial Committee did not feel at liberty to appoint him owing to the state of his health. Contributions, however, were being raised to secure the end con- templated, when Mr Moyes died on 25th December, in the fortieth year of his age and eighth of his ministry. Third Minister. JOHN P. HOGARTH, M.A., son of the Rev. Robert Hogarth, Ivy Place, Stranraer. Ordained, ist June 1886. Towards the close of the next year the proceeds of a bazaar cleared the debt of ^1000 on the property, leaving a goodly surplus over, and an addition of ,50 was afterwards made to the stipend, which, with ,40 from the Ferguson Bequest, raised it to ^203, with the manse. Since then Sabbath-school halls have been erected, larger sitting accommodation has been provided in the church, and the membership, which was 168 at Mr Hogarth's ordination, had reached 508 at the Union, while the church funds yielded a stipend of ^263. LANGBANK (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) LANGBANK is a village in Erskine parish, with a population which has kept between 400 and 500 during the last fifty years. The parish minister in the earlier part of the century was the Rev. Andrew Stewart, M.D., a brother of Dr John Stewart, Secession minister, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, and of the Rev. David Stewart of Stirling. Having joined the Establishment he was presented to Bolton, in East Lothian, by Lord Blantyre in 1804, and was transferred by the favour of the same nobleman to Erskine in 1809. Before his ordination he had the medical diploma, and afterwards acquired distinction in that department of study. He has been described as "the author of the bracing or antiphlogistic mode of treatment in consumptive cases, which is now almost universally adopted." Through his skill the Hon. Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter of his patron, Lord Blantyre, was cured of pulmonary disease, and in 1809 they were married. He died in 1839, aged sixty-four, his son, the Rev. Robert Walter Stewart, having been ordained two years before as his colleague and successor. At this time dissent had scarcely a foothold in Erskine parish, as in 1842 there were only 3 belonging to the Secession and 4 to the Relief among the whole population, young and old. Mr Stewart came out at the Disruption, resigned his charge in 1845, and is best remembered now as Dr Stewart of the Free Church Mission at Leghorn, Italy. He was Moderator of the Free Assembly in 1874, and died at Leghorn, 23rd November 1887. As Dr Stewart's PRESBYTERY OF PAISLEY 543 mother was a daughter of Lord Blantyre, his wife was a daughter of Lord Cockburn. On 5th December 1865 the Rev. James E. Fyfe of Kilmalcolm suggested to the Presbytery of Paisley and Greenock the propriety of opening a preaching station at Langbank, and on the igth a committee of their number reported that they had met with 7 residenters in that village ; that a local committee had been formed ; and that half of the inhabitants seemed favourable to the movement. The result was that Dr M'Farlane of Greenock preached there on the second Sabbath of January 1866, when the collection amounted to ^33. On lyth April 24 certified members were formed into a congregation, and in July the induction of four elders was reported. First Minister. JAMES MATHER, from Eaglesham. Called first to Balfron and then to Dundee (Bell Street) ; but in the latter case there was want of harmony, and Mr Mather made choice of Langbank instead. Ordained, 26th March 1867, the call being signed by 33 members and 32 adherents, and the ordinary attendance placed at 100. The stipend was to be ^155. On Thursday, 26th May 1867, the new church, with 300 sittings, was opened by Dr Eadie, and the collections that day and on the following Sabbath reached ^100. The cost of the building was .1300, and the last of the debt, amounting to .245, was cleared off in 1870, with the help of a grant of ,100 from the Liquidation Board. But the erection of a manse followed, and it proved a more formidable affair. The expense was estimated at ,900, of which the Board was to pay one-third, but in the end it reached ^1445, and as the Board kept by their ^300 the other .545 behoved to be met in some way by the people. On i7th January 1882 Mr Mather, who was now a widower, resigned his charge, and retired with his family to Lasswade. Next year he entered on probationer life anew, and in 1885 he was inducted to his present charge at Dairy, in Galloway. Second Minister. ARCHIBALD B. D. ALEXANDER, M.A., from Helens- burgh. Having declined Stow he was ordained at Langbank, 27th July 1882. In the following year the debt of .960 resting on the property was liquidated, ^760 being raised by the people, and ^200 received from the Board. The membership at the beginning of 1900 was 90, and the stipend ^200, with the manse. The prospects of increasing population, entertained when the church was formed, have not been realised, and the communion roll has kept at a low figure in proportion to the income. BRIDGE OF WEIR (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) A STATION was opened on Sabbath, I2th January 1890, by the Rev. George Alison of Kilbarchan. This was arranged for by Paisley Presbytery in the line of Church Extension, and it had been ascertained that suitable premises were to be had on easy terms. The village had a population of about 1600, and it had become within recent years a favourite resort for Glasgow mer- chants, who brought with them a large infusion of the U.P. element. Some _6o had already been raised to meet necessary expenses, and the cause was put at once under the supervision of Kilbarchan session, certain ministers being conjoined with them as assessors. Through this medium sealing ordinances were to be dispensed to all qualified persons in attendance. On gth February it was announced in the Presbytery that Mr Adam Wilson, probationer, had been secured to conduct the Sabbath services, and on the evening of i5th June the committee met at Bridge of Weir by appointment, and formed 52 Church members into a congregation. 544 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS First Minister. ADAM WILSON, B.D., son of the Rev. Andrew Wilson- of Dryraen. Ordained, i8th December 1890. The stipend was to be ,200, including everything. On 23rd May 1891 the memorial stone of a new church was laid, of which the cost was estimated at ,2500, and of this sum all except ,350 was already subscribed, so that the building almost to a certainty would be opened free of debt. At the close of 1899 there was a membership of 163, and the stipend was ,250. PRESBYTERY OF PERTH PERTH (ASSOCIATE) First Minister. WILLIAM WILSOX, a native of Glasgow, and the son of covenanting parents. Ordained, ist November 1716, as one of three col- leagues who preached in each of the two town churches by rotation. Full particulars of Mr .Wilson's life were first given to the world in 1830 by his great-grandson, the Rev. Andrew Ferrier of Newarthill, and since then in more compact and artistic form by Dr Eadie in one of the volumes of the " United Presbyterian Fathers." On Sabbath, i8th May 1740, Mr Wilson was debarred from his pulpit by order of the magistrates of Perth, and this completed the severance between him and the Established Church. There had, however, been a rupture in the session prior to this, arising from the ordination of Mr David Black as one of the town ministers. He was the choice of the Magistrates and Town Council, and on that footing he was ordained, I4th June 1/37, but when his name was entered on the roll of session 14 members protested and left the meeting. These after- wards formed a distinct session, with Mr Wilson as their moderator. Later on 3 others joined them, so that their number was increased to 17, leaving only 9 behind. On Thursday, 2oth November 1740, the church erected for Mr Wilson was opened by holding the week-day service in it "at nine o'clock in the morning, being the ordinary time." Next summer " lofts " were needed, and three collections, yielding about .80, were taken to meet expenses. During the three years between the constituting of a separate session and his exclusion from the Established Church, Mr Wilson occupied an anomalous position. He preached as before in the two town churches when his turn came, but there being three ministers for the two pulpits he was disengaged, forenoon and afternoon alternately, two Sabbaths out of ever)- three. On these occasions he conducted public worship in the Glovers' Yard, and there he likewise dispensed the Lord's Supper to his own adherents on communion Sabbaths. There also he had preached on the forenoon of the Sabbath on which, when afternoon came, he found the church gates closed against him. " Having twice demanded admission he retired, and went to the Glovers' Yard, and the people followed him without the least disturbance or indecency." But Mr Wilson's days were now draw- ing to a close. In labours he had been over-abundant, ministering to a large congregation, training the students, and upholding with his pen the Secession cause. He died, I4th November 1741, in the fifty-first year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry'. Of the four Fathers of the Secession William Wilson is the only one in whom Burghers and Antiburghers could claim an equal interest. It used, indeed, to be said that, had he lived, his weight of character and moderation PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 545 in counsel might have availed to prevent **the mournful rupture." From a letter to the Rev. Alexander Moncrieff by a member of Perth Burgher session it would appear that Mr Wilson saw dangers ahead, and was in- strumental in keeping Mr Moncrieff and others from going to extremes with regard to terms of communion. Second Minister. GEORGE BROWX, born at Carkettle. in the parish of Lasswade, as a manuscript in his own handwriting states. On 12th August 1740 a paper of accession was given in to the Associate Presbyterv from Roslinlee, and one of the subscribers was George Brown, student of divinity. Ordained at Perth, 26th August 1742, the call being signed by 275 mate communicants. A prior call from Haddington had been set aside in the interests of Perth congregation, which required "to have an able, faithful, and well-qualified minister set over them as soon as possible." When the controversy about the Burgess Oath began to stir, Mr Brown did his utmost to keep the question from being plunged into the Synod, apprehending "calamitous results," but in the end he sided with those who pronounced the swearing of the Oath sinful At the first meeting of session after the Breach two of the elders protested against the disorderly step Mr Brown had taken in breaking away from his brethren, and he protested that he could not sit longer in session with these two men. At next meeting Mr Brown began by pressing the question whether they were to constitute in subordination to the Antiburgher Synod. The majority answered in the negative, whereupon he withdrew, and along with him five elders and one deacon. The number remaining was eleven, and four took the same side, who, for special reasons, had ceased to officiate. The names of other three disappear from the records altogether about that time. At this point the history of the Secession cause in Perth divides itself into two. For the sake of continuity we keep by Mr Brown, and take the Antiburgher section first. PERTH, NORTH (AXTIEURGHER} FOR eighteen months Mr Brown kept possession of Wilson Church pulpit, and then comes the following entry in his manuscript book : " Excluded by the Burghers, 27th October 1748. Having preached a year in die yard I possessed to such as continued with me I entered into another church built by them, 2Oth October 1749." His reduced session had been enlarged through the addition of elders and deacons from the parishes around three from Rhynd, two from Kinnoul two from Tibbermnir, one from Dumbarnie, and one from Aberdalgie. Three others afterwards took their seats, so that the members were eighteen in all This arrangement gave the North Church a hold over Seceders in surrounding parishes such as the* rival congregation never possessed. In the early part of 1761 Mr Brown was for the most part laid aside from public work, and he died on Tuesday, nth August 1761, in the forty-fifth year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry. He has recorded that he was married in 1744 to Margaret Hengh. "daughter of the late Rev. John Hengh, minister of Kingoldrmn, in Angus." Their son Colin was long minister at Abernethy. Though Mr Brown took no prominent part in the Burgess Oath Contro- versy be was Moderator of Synod in August 1749, when excommunication was pronounced on certain of the "separating brethren.' A newspaper records how on that occasion he rose from his Chair and read the wrathful sentence, during which time he was seized with such a panic of trembling that his language could scarcely be understood by the auditory. Mrs Brown was II. 2M 546 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS one of three sisters who became the wives of Antiburgher ministers, and her brother, the Rev. John Heugh, father of Dr Heugh of Glasgow, was Anti- burgher minister of Stirling. She died at Perth, 3rd July 1812, in the eighty-eighth year of her age, and during her long widowhood she was partially provided for by the North congregation. Third Minister. ALEXANDER TROUP, who had been fifteen years minister at Elgin. On the moderation day he was carried by an over- whelming majority over three other ordained ministers. The induction took place, 8th March 1763. The congregation had now become oppressively large, and there was some talk about making the charge collegiate. Mr Troup died, nth February 1773, in the fifty-eighth year of his age and the tenth year of his ministry at Perth. It is recorded that he was beloved of all denominations, and that his funeral " was attended by the largest assemblage of the kind that was ever seen in the town." After being vacant a year and a half the congregation called Mr Andrew- Thomson, son of the minister at Mearns, and the call was signed by 534 (male) members ; but Mr Thomson was already on trials for ordination as his father's colleague, and the Synod confirmed that arrangement. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER PRINGLE, from Morebattle. Three other probationers were nominated along with him, but their united supporters only amounted to 23, and most of these acquiesced in the choice of the majority. But another call came up to Mr Pringle from Moniaive, signed by 44 male members in contrast with fully 500, and Perth being preferred, Mr Pringle was ordained, I4th August 1777. The Synod recommended the people to provide a colleague for him as soon as possible, and they also enjoined them " to lessen their present place of worship on account of its excessive largeness, and to fit up two commodious houses in which it might be no hardship for ministers to speak." This brings us to outline the history of five abortive calls, stretching over a period of ten years. The first call came out in favour of Mr James Aitken, who had been brought up in the North Church ; but it was far from harmonious, the opposition being ascribed by some to the fact that he was of humble parentage. Mr Aitken was at the same time called with unanimity to Kirriemuir, and the Presbytery decided to send him thither. The Synod upheld this decision, and the two parties in Perth church were enjoined " to bury in oblivion all animosities and heart-burnings, and live and love as brethren." The next they called was Mr Ebenezer Russell, a preacher from Falkirk or Cumbernauld. Accessions to the membership were numerous at this time, 119 being received within two months, and all looked bright, but an arrest came in a form which admitted of neither remonstrance nor protest. Mr Russell had shown symptoms of weak health before he was licensed, and now " a violent cold terminating in a speedy consumption seized him, and put an end to his work on earth." So says the Preface to a little volume of his discourses, which was published after his death. The third they called was Mr John Jamieson, afterwards Dr Jamieson of Nicolson Street, Edinburgh ; but he had been already appointed by the Synod to Forfar, and the call seems to have been quietly set aside. The fourth call was addressed to Mr James Hay after a pause of three years ; but as it was somewhat divided, and as he was already on trials for ordination at Alyth, the Presbytery refused to sustain it. The Synod allowed the two calls to be brought into competition, and then 26 voted for Alyth with its 40 names, and only 9 for Perth with twelve times that number. Thwarted in their endeavours to obtain a second minister Perth congregation decided to be done with preachers. The managers by a majority forbade the Treasurer to pay for supply, and Mrs Troup was also instructed not to give them PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 547 maintenance at the congregation's expense, and as the preacher's pony had to be entertained as well as himself they ordered the hay loft to be locked up. But by-and-by a better spirit asserted itself; only, Mr Pringle was recommended to see " that any probationers who may be sent here are such as may be heard through the church." The way was opened up now for the fifth call. They made choice, with apparent unanimity, of the Rev. James M'Ewan, formerly of Workington, Cumberland. At the Synod the vote lay between Perth and Dundee, and it carried in favour of Dundee. An explosion of bitter feeling followed, of which Mr Pringle was in some measure the object, the impression being that he was averse to have Mr M'Ewan for his colleague. It verifies what Dr Young has said about the vexation Dr Pringle experienced through one party or another accusing him of opposing their wishes. Fifth Minister. RICHARD BLACK, from Urr. Though the call was accompanied by a petition from 93 members not to sustain, the Presbytery decided to go straight on, and the Synod confirmed that decision, the counter- motion being for delay, " that it may be properly ascertained whether he be sufficiently heard in the church at Perth, that being the chief or only objection." Ordained, 3rd April 1787. In view of that event there was a proposal to fit up a second church, the plea being that, " as we are going to get two ministers, they did not think it for edification that they should both be employed in one house." A meeting was held to consider the matter, when " Delay " carried, and the proposal was laid upon the shelf for ever. The need for a second church must have been perceptibly lessened since the Synod's injunction was issued. Craigend congregation had been formed in 1780, making a large encroachment on the membership, and in 1785 the Relief got footing in Perth, and now the " Lifters," taking advantage of the opposition to Mr Black's settlement, were also putting up a place of worship. So the two colleagues were to occupy the one pulpit and divide the work between them. In view of Mr Black's ordination it was agreed that he should have ^80 a year, without a manse, or, if he chose to possess the flat designed for a dwelling-house, the money to be .70. Six years afterwards Mr Pringle, who had a wife and family, was to receive ^100, and Mr Black, who was unmarried, ^80, along with a flat to each minister. In 1806 the stipend of both colleagues was raised to ^130. A paragraph is here given on the money affairs of the North Church. When Mr Wilson was put out of the Established Church it was decided to pay him his former stipend of loco pounds Scots, or .83, 6s. 8d. sterling. The figure continued much the same for over forty years ^80, with allowances, and occasional extras when thought to be required. In those days the raising of the stipend was left with the managers, and came mostly from seat rents, which were fixed at very moderate rates, and were often irregularly paid. As for the ordinary church-door collections, they were understood to be devoted to the poor a system which the first Seceders brought with them from the Established Church. In this way one source of congrega- tional revenue was nearly dried up. In Perth, for example, in the early part of Mr Pringle's ministry, the Sabbath collections did not average 305. The impression would be that this sufficed to meet the requirements of charity, and hence the greater part of the congregation gave nothing at all. The contributions were on a very different scale when special demands were made. Thus in 1755 there was a collection of 13 guineas for Dundee and Errol, "to assist in building houses for public worship." Similarly, in the early part of the century, an appeal for aid came from Stronsay, and the session appointed a collection to be taken at the evening service, and it brought 40. Congregations from far and near appealed to Perth in 548 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS straits or emergencies. It was the strong helping the weak in days when central funds were scarcely thought of. Messrs Pringle and Black wrought on together with a large measure of harmony till the question of Union between the two great branches of the Secession emerged, and then Ur Pringle (he received the degree of D.D. from Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1819) became an active member of the Union Committee, while Mr Black was foremost in the ranks of dissent. The Union was consummated on Friday, 8th September 1820, and of the nine ministers who had protested against the adoption of the Basis the Christian Magazine says : "All abstained from a present rupture, and craved time for further consideration, if we except, perhaps, one the Rev. R(ichard) B(lack) of P(erth)." Mr Black never entered the pulpit of the North Church again, and, amidst grief and reluctance, matters moved on to a formal separation. Dr Pringle wrote to a friend : "What shall I tell you ? My good colleague has begun to preach by himself. I really feel much disappointed and sorry that he has taken this step. Long intercourse and harmony had brought us into settled friendship." Six weeks after the Union the session complained to the Presbytery that Mr Black had deserted his place as one of their ministers, and three of his former brethren were appointed to converse with him. At next meeting they reported that he felt he could not take his seat in the United Presbytery of Perth without violating his Covenant engagements. The pastoral tie between him and the North Church, Perth, was dissolved, 2 1st November 1820. From the records of the Original Secession congregation of Perth, almost illegible through decay, we have the means of tracing the course of events from Mr Black's standpoint. On the Sabbath before the Synod he read a paper from the pulpit declaring that he would not go into the United Church, "and warning the people of the clanger of apostasy from their good profession." "A place of public worship," Mr Black continues, "was providentially found, with much ease. Only one elder came away from the old session, though several were far from satisfied." They met in Paul's Chapel, which had been built by the " Lifters," and after they broke up had passed through many vicissitudes. The elder who followed Mr Black was Alexander Grimmond. They were joined forthwith by Thomas Smith, an elder from Craigend, the grandfather of the Rev. William Smith, Bonhill, so that a quorum was obtained. Professor Paxton assisted at the first communion, and there were three tables with about 40 at each. In the following year they built a church, costing ^1000, of which ^500 was con- tributed by the minister. In 1836 they had a membership of 170, being exactly 1000 fewer than those in the congregation they had left. Sixth Minister. DAVID YOUNG, from Methven, a preacher widely known already as a man of massive intellect and large possibilities. Though he was not to be supplying within the bounds the North Church secured him for a Sabbath in January 1821, and then for another some time after. In March he was called, and it was stated in the public prints that " the anxious unanimity displayed by the people was almost unprecedented in so large a congregation." At the Synod Perth was preferred to Arbroath and Barrhead, two other calls from Carnoustie and Lochwinnoch having been set aside by their respective Presbyteries. From this decision Mr Ferrier of Paisley dissented, because the hearings of Mr Young by the congregation of Perth " were obtained by irregular, private interference." Mr Young was ordained, i7th July 1821. The stipend of each minister was to be .180, with a house, and payment of all public burdens. In 1839 Mr Young obtained the degree of D.D. from Washington College, Pennsylvania. Dr Pringle died, I2th May 1839, in the sixty-second year of his ministry. In PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 549 his Memoir, by Ur Young, we read of a farewell meeting between the two aged ministers, who had long been colleagues, but had parted asunder by the way. Dr Pringle was now in his eighty-seventh year, and on his death-bed, and Mr Black was eighty-four. On the river's brink the sever- ance of nineteen years was forgotten, and heart joined with heart among the gathering shadows. Mr Black died five months afterwards, on 28th October 1839. Dr Pringle was a son-in-law of Mr Moncrieff of Culfargie. A daughter of his was the wife of the Rev. John Jameson of Methven. We recall her husband's words after her death: "The voice of my sweet psalm-singer, which gave rapture to my family worship, has ceased, and the heart that beat for me beats no more." Dr Pringle's son William, after itinerating some years as a probationer, went to America. He was ordained at Rygate, Caledonia, Vermont, 2Qth June 1830, and retired, 2ist June 1852. He died suddenly, of heart disease, I4th December 1858, while sitting at the break- fast table. He is described as a man of scholarly attainments, but was held back as a preacher by a bad delivery. Reference may also be made to two nephews of Dr Pringle not brothers, but cousins the Rev. James Pringle of Newcastle, and Thomas Pringle, a literary man of fine tastes and poetic gifts, best known for his tender verses, beginning : " My native land, my native vale ! A long, a last adieu ! " After Dr Pringle's death Dr Young went on with the work for a dozen years single-handed, and during that period the debt on the property, which amounted to ^uoo, gradually melted away. The stipends had been raised to ^200 some years before Dr Pringle died, and Dr Young's was now .300. In 1850 it was arranged to have the collegiate state resumed, and a second minister procured, but six years passed before the object was accomplished. Dr Young was now over sixty-five, and it was time to have his labours lightened. It should have been mentioned earlier that a new church was opened in 1792, costing ^1000, exclusive of the money received for old material. To meet the outlay subscription papers were sent through the several districts ; but the yield was far short of the requirements, " a consider- able number known to be able having given nothing." This, along with a burden resting already on the dwelling-house, where the two ministers lived under one roof, and outlay for session premises, accounts for the debt referred to above. Here, again, the history of five unsuccessful calls has to be outlined. The first was signed by 696 members and protested against by 117. It was in favour of Dr Young's nephew, Mr David Young, and the argument urged against it was that Mr Young had never preached as a candidate. The Presbytery sustained the call, and the Synod upheld this decision, but added, on the general question, " that in a matter of so much importance it is highly desirable and, proper that congregations should have a distinct understanding as to the steps they are taking." But Mr Young had already accepted Milnathort. At the next moderation two candidates were proposed Dr Jeffrey of Denny, and Mr John M'Laren, probationer, afterwards of Cow- caddens, Glasgow. The voting was very close, there being 359 for the former and 352 for the latter. The spirit of an earlier period had now wakened up in the church, and the call was declined. Another followed eight or nine months afterwards to Dr Jeffrey, with signatures up from 609 to 690, but it only brought a second refusal. The fourth call was addressed to Mr W. R. Thomson, but he accepted Bethelfield, Kirkcaldy ; and the fifth 550 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to Mr James Parlane, who feared to undertake so weighty a charge, and was afterwards ordained over the West Church, Hawick. Seventh Minister. ROBERT CAMERON, from Abbey Close, Paisley. Called very harmoniously, and ordained, 2gth October 1856, much to the gratification of Dr Young. The troubles of the last six years were to be remembered "as waters that have passed away," but in six weeks the Doctor was dead. On the afternoon of Tuesday, gth December, after a brief illness, "he turned himself on his left side, arranged the bedclothes with his right hand, fell asleep," and in a little while breathed his last. He was in the seventy-third year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. A volume of his discourses was published in 1858 with Memoir by his son-in-law, the Rev. Wm. Marshall, Coupar- Angus. Dr Young was the author of Introductory Essays to "Edwards on the Religious Affections," and similar works in Collins' Series of Select Christian Authors, which Essays were afterwards collected into a volume by themselves. He also wrote the Life of the Rev. Alexander Moncriefif in the " United Presbyterian Fathers," and Memoirs of his colleague, Dr Pringle, and of the Rev. John Jameson of Methven. In the Voluntary Controversy Dr Young took a prominent part both on the platform and by his pen, and at a later period he warmly opposed all grants of public money either for schools or for churches. To Dr James Taylor's objection that by identifying State aid to education with State aid to religion he was loading Voluntaryism with a weight it is unable to bear, he replied : " If it be expense which alarms, will the expense be lessened by drawing it through the windings of Her Majesty's exchequer?" And with regard to the training alike of old and young he concluded by saying : " It is moral renovation that we require ; and if moral renovation is to come from the State our history is a fable and our experience a dream." Mention may be here made of a powerful lecture of Dr Young's on " The Tendency of a Pure and Free Christianity to Leaven the Politics of Nations." In the end of 1859 Mr Cameron was called to Egremont, Liverpool, but decided, perhaps in opposition to his better judgment, to remain in Perth. The call being repeated half-a-year later was accepted, 5th June 1860. He told the congregation that the charge was more than his strength could bear, and they refrained from urging him further, while cherishing towards him strong affection. Mr Cameron was translated to Cambridge Street, Glasgow, in 1864. Eighth Minister. JAMES M'OwAN, M.A., who had been ordained at Bannockburn a year and a half before. Inducted, 7th May 1861. Called to Eglinton Street, Glasgow, in 1863, and to John Street in 1865, but declined both calls. On 9th February 1875 Mr M'Ovvan's resignation was accepted, the people acquiescing "in consequence of his deliberate and fixed purpose," bearing testimony at the same time to his high pulpit abilities. Before the end of the year he was inducted into St Andrews. Perth congregation called the Rev. David Macrae of Gourock, the stipend offered being .400, but he did not accept. Their next endeavour trenched on the romantic. They petitioned the Synod in May 1876 to clear the way for the admission of a young minister from Ireland into the United Presby- terian Church. This was the Rev. J. L. Rintoul of Lisburn, who had preached to them on the preceding Sabbath, and had taken them by storm. But after being received as a United Presbyterian minister, and before an- other step could be taken, Mr Rintoul * wrote his friends in Perth that he * Mr Rintoul was a son of the Rev. J. L. Rintoul, Ballymoney, and a member of a many-branched clerical family in the Irish Presbyterian Church. He was ordained at Lisburn, I7th October 1872, from which he passed to the English Presbyterian Church, St George's, Sunderland. In 1893 he became parish minister of Cambus- PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 55I could not accept their call ; that the magnitude of the work forbade him. There remained nothing now for the North congregation but to commence hearing candidates anew. Ninth Minister. ROBERT LYON, who had been colleague for twelve years to Dr Harper, North Leith. Inducted, 3oth January 1877, the stipend being .500, with sundry allowances. On Sabbath, nth November 1880, a new church was opened, with sittings for 1200, and built at a cost of 7000. Of this large sum ^5000 had been previously raised, and of the rest not more than ^200 or .300 remained at the Union, which, along with debt since contracted for the erection of a hall, is covered by income derived from outside property. After a period of broken health and severe family affliction Mr Lyon died, 6th September 1896, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-second of his ministry. Tenth Minister. }. W. D. CARRUTHERS, M.A., translated from Stewarton, where he had laboured six years. Inducted, 3ist March 1897. The membership at the close of 1899 was about 950, and the stipend some- what over ,450. PERTH, WILSON CHURCH (BURGHER) ON 1 2th April 1748 a petition for advice was presented to the Burgher Presbytery of the bounds from a majority of Perth session. They stated that their minister, *' Mr Brown, was still proceeding in his separating courses." Their first meeting as a Burgher session was held on Monday, 24th October, Ralph Erskine, who had conducted services at a tent on the previous day, being Moderator. On the following Thursday Mr Brown and his adherents were interdicted from occupying the church, and from this time forward sermon was supplied by the Burgher Presbytery almost every Sabbath either at Perth or Scone. In September 1749 a call was addressed to Mr Hutton of Stow, but the Synod appointed him to Dalkeith. First Minister. JOHN JERVIE, from Stirling. Ordained, 2ist March 1751, the Synod having set aside a prior call to Ballybay, in Ireland. Perth call was signed by 175 members. Understanding these to have been male members we cannot estimate the communion roll at less than 400. Theordinary collections were about two-thirds of what they had been before the severance. In Penny's History of Perth it is stated that Mr Jervie's sermons were of a very primitive stamp, and also that "he was for many years troubled with gout, and had to preach from a high stool." Owing to his frequent indis- position the congregation in August 1779 asked the Presbytery to grant them a moderation for a colleague, Mr Jervie, who was only a few years over fifty, going heartily into the movement. It was Andrew Swanston they had in their eye, a son of Professor Swanston, who got licence only three weeks before. At a meeting in January 1780 Mr Swanston finished his trials ; but the ordination had to be delayed, and not till October 1781 did this state of suspense come to an end. Here now was a letter from him explaining that he gave up any right his licence might be supposed to confer to teach publicly in the Church of Christ. The letter being referred to the Synod he was pronounced out of connection. Of Andrew Swanston it is explained that, towards the close of his student course, he passed through a period of spiritual conflict, and it is to be feared that, though he came forth victorious from the struggle, the inner balance nethan, and died there, I3th July, 1900. "Mr Rintoul," says the Rev. W. T. Latimer, "had a very powerful voice and great oratorical talent. He was conse- quently a most popular preacher, and almost certain of success in any vacancy when he got a place on the list." 552 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS was disturbed. At first there was only a recoil from Presbyterianism to Independency, but from that he went on to Baptist views. Then, some difference having arisen between him and his co-religionists, he was ex- cluded from their society. He died at Glasgow on i5th November 1784, in the thirty-third year of his age, a cold which he caught when away preaching having passed into consumption. A volume of his discourses, with Memoir by the Rev. David Greig of Lochgelly, was published in 1800, and a second followed some time after. Another fellow-student of his, after- wards known as Professor Lawson, wrote him after he had left the Burgher communion : " Whatever your connections are you will find them to be men like us ; in heaven only you will find perfection of goodness ; and there I hope we shall in a short time be, never to be separated, or to entertain discordant thoughts any more." After these two years of hope deferred Perth congregation called Mr George Hill on 2nd May 1782 ; but his ordination at Cumbernauld was already fixed for the i6th, and for this reason, and also for want of un- animity, the call was not sustained. Second Minister. JEDIDIAH AlKMAN, from Currie parish, and Bristo congregation, Edinburgh. The call was signed by 256 members, or nearly 100 fewer than the number enthusiasm had secured lor Andrew Swanston. Mr Jervie was to have .75, the same as before, and Mr Aikman ^70. The junior minister was to conduct two of the three services each Sabbath, and the senior was to take forenoon and afternoon alternately. Mr Aikman was ordained, 3rd June 1783, Mr Jervie addressing minister and people. There was the forecast of harmony that day, but party feeling began to stir in the church before long. In 1796 Mr Jervie was commended in the Old Statistical History by a minister of the Established Church for his zeal in opposing French principles. But there was more of this than some of his people cared for, and in 1794 two of the members were dealt with for maligning Mr Jervie and accusing him of preaching politics. There is also reference in the session minutes to " mournful differences," and four of the elders withdrew from office about this time. When the proposal to relax the Formula was coming before the Synod in 1797 Perth session resolved to intimate that they were strongly opposed to any change whatever. Mr Aikman now stated that he could not go along with them in this matter, and thereupon Mr Jervie took the chair. After this it was scarcely to be ex- pected that a great majority of the elders would come over to New Light views in the end. Meanwhile the Synod, instead of changing the Formula, introduced an explanatory preamble, which was to be read before the questions were put to ministers or elders at their admission to office. "You are not required to approve of anything which teaches compulsory principles in religion." It was unfortunate for the Old Light party in Perth that this was nearly verbatim what they themselves memorialised the Synod to adopt, the paper being signed by Mr Jervie as moderator of session, and by Mr James Craigdallie, his henchman all through. But by-and-by the preamble proved a stumbling-block to Mr Jervie and his friends. He himself was now frail, and in distress, and owing to his indisposition the congregation had wanted evening exercise for some time. But in August 1799 the Old Light party came before the session with a petition signed by 108 persons to be trans- mitted to the Synod. They also wished intimation to be made from the pulpit that the document would lie several days in the session-house for names, a request which the session refused to grant. Mr Jervie, however, made the intimation, "and at the same time declared in the strongest terms his disapprobation of the declaration prefixed to the Formula." The crisis PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 553 among them was brought on by 22 members of the congregation complaining to the session that Mr Jervie for some time had been "often entertaining them from the pulpit with inferior points instead of preaching Christ Jesus the Lord." At a meeting of Presbytery on 2ist October in Newburgh James Craigdallie and another presented a paper from Mr Jervie empower- ing them to give in his declinature, and after this had been read it was agreed to drop his name from the roll. Earlier in the proceedings a committee had been appointed to converse with Mr Jervie, but on meeting with him he handed them a paper bearing that he would have no communication with them so long as the preamble remained prefixed to the Formula. On 4th November 1800 he acceded to the Old Light Presbytery. In his paper of accession he related how on Sabbath, 26th October, his pulpit was taken possession of before eight in the morning by Mr Aikman and the minister appointed to intimate the vacancy ; that when he came to conduct the service he was refused access ; and that with a goodly number of his people he retired to his own house, and spent a part of both forenoon and afternoon in prayer, praise, and reading the Word of God. On the following Wednesday Mr Jervie and two of his supporters applied to the Sheriff-Substitute to be restored to the possession of the church. The interim decision was that they should occupy it in the forenoon, and Mr Aikman and his supporters should have it afternoon and evening. Thus the law process was entered on which proved so wearisome and so costly. The whole session, thirteen in number, took the New Light side except one. Of the congregation, about a third adhered to Mr Jervie and two-thirds to Mr Aikman, but a number, includ- ing some better-class families, withdrew altogether, and joined the Estab- lished Church. Mr Jervie died, igth November 1801, having fallen down in a fit of apoplexy while accompanying the remains of a member of the congregation to the place of interment. He was in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. Each party petitioned the Court of Session to have the other party removed from the premises, and on i6th November 1803 the Lord Ordinary gave effect to the plea that the meeting-house belonged to the Westkirk Society. This body consisted originally of members of the congregation who had contributed not less than 2. towards the building of the place ot worship. Besides claiming the rights of proprietorship this association regulated the money affairs of the congregation. Hence, when Mr Aikman was about to be ordained they intimated to the Presbytery what stipend they had agreed to give each of the ministers. It was this society that excluded Mr Brown from the meeting-house, and, the majority of their representatives being on the Old Light side, they calculated on excluding Mr Aikman and his supporters in the same way. But the Lord Ordinary reviewed his decision, and found that the property was held for behoof of a congregation in connection with the Burgher Presbytery and Synod, and thus set aside the claims of the Westkirk Society to absolute control, and gave the property to the New Light party. The case being carried into the Inner House the opinion of the whole Court was taken, and the opinion con- firmed by 7 to 6. Encouraged by the majority being so narrow the Old Lights appealed to the House of Lords, and there the case was kept at a dead stand for years. Not till 1812 did the cause obtain a hearing, and by this time both' parties were suffering from an exhausted treasury. The Original Burgher Synod that year appointed a committee to advise with the pursuers, but they were not to be involved in any claim that might be made by lawyers or others. About the same time the other Synod granted Mr Aikman's people ^20, and recommended sister congregations to aid them 554 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS by collections or otherwise. When at last the House of Lords, under Lord Eldon's guidance, came to a rinding, hope brightened for the appellants. The case was sent back to the Court of Session to ascertain which side adhered to the original principles of the Secession, and on this question the final decision was to turn. Mr Jervie's place was now rilled by the Rev. William Taylor, previously of Renton, who was inducted, 8th August 1805. Dr Hay of Kinross has recorded in his Autobiography that " the protestors were not men of tolerant minds," and this was specially true of Mr Taylor, as will be seen by reference to his antecedents at Renton. Such the man who was to steer the Old Light cause at Perth through fifteen years of stormy weather, and see it wrecked in the end. After twelve years had passed, with each congregation in partial possession, it would have been seemly to attempt a friendly adjust- ment, but, with Mr Taylor at the helm, the motto was : War to the knife. In answer to the question as to which party adhered to the original principles of the Secession it was urged by the pursuers that the defenders had departed from them in introducing a preamble to the Formula. Now came up another question : Does that change amount to a change of principle ? The Court of Session decided in the negative. This was on 2Oth February 1815, and on the following day, at a meeting of the Original Burgher Presbytery, the session of Perth came forward in their constituted capacity, "submitted the Interlocutor of the Court of Session as altogether against them, and declared that it was entirely beyond their ability to proceed one step farther.'' This is probably the crisis to which Mr Taylors son refers in the Memoir of his father when he says : vk In consequence of one unfavourable judgment 200 members and adherents left the congrega- tion within a few weeks." A second appeal to the House of Lords entailed a further delay of three years, and after hearing the pleadings Lord Eldon took away the papers, and kept them in retcntis for two years. " Delays in his time," says Lord Brougham, "obstructed the course of justice, and well- nigh fixed the current in perennial frost." On 6th July 1818 his Lordship intimated, according to the newspapers, that if time permitted he would on Monday give judgment on a case, the names of which he did not recollect, but it related to a quarrel between Scottish Seceders as to the doctrines to be taught in their chapel. But Monday came and went, and there was nothing done. At last, on 2ist June 1820, the long silence was broken, and the Lord Chancellor confessed himself baffled to make out in what respect Mr Aikman and the other defenders had departed from the original principles of the Secession. So the final award was given in their favour, and on 24th June letters arrived in Perth from London announcing the decision. It was the terminus reached and the agony of suspense ended. All that remained now was for each party to count the cost, and it is for posterity to gather up the lessons. The expenses on the gaining side have been placed at .2350, of which .1100 remained to be paid. But the Old Lights found themselves not only churchless but burdened with a debt of ^1600, and though Mr Taylor held on for other fourteen years the con- gregation was ruined. He died, 2oth December 1836, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and fiftieth of his ministry. Mr Taylors better qualities and trying fortunes have ample justice done them in an attractive Biography by his son, the Rev. James Taylor, D.D., Free Church, Flisk. In 1838 the membership of the Original Secession congregation, Perth, was put down at 40, and there was a debt of ,700 upon the building. The rival congregation, on the contrary, when the law process was ended, began to renew its strength ; but Mr Aikman, who during those twenty years had preached very generally three times each Sabbath, was now aging, and in February PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 555 1822 the congregation called Mr James Whyte to be his colleague, a preacher with an unprecedented run of popularity. He had six calls besides, but when the vote was taken Perth was preferred by an absolute majority! The reign of trouble they had experienced may have secured them this distinction, yet the Synod's kindness led to nothing but disappointment. In May 1822 Mr Whyte had trials for ordination assigned him, but when the Presbytery met to receive them he neither appeared nor gave in an excuse for absence. The cause was referred to the Synod in September, and at the request of Perth congregation he was sent back to the bounds of Perth Presbytery, in hopes that his difficulties would be removed. On 5th November the call was laid aside, Presbytery and congregation feeling that it was vain to delay the matter any longer. What remains of Mr Whyte's history has come up in connection with Queen Anne Street Church, Dunfermline. After he joined the Protestors an attempt was made to secure him for Perth in that connection. The Original Secession congregation there were about to call him, but before the moderation day arrived they were certified that he had embarked for America, "having resolved that he would not have a settled charge in Scotland." Third Minister. JOHN NEWLANDS, from Glasgow (East Campbell Street). Ordained as colleague to Mr Aikman, lath August 1823, the Swod having appointed him to Perth in preference to Falkirk (now Graham'"s Road) and Largs. Mr Aikman was to retain two-thirds of his former stipend, and Mr Newlands was to have ^150, with communion expenses. The call was signed by 362 members, and there was large increase for a time under the young minister, the accessions at the first two communions amounting to 100. On ijth July 1827 Mr Aikman retired from active duty on the ground of growing infirmities. The congregation agreed to allow 'him ^75 a year, but, considering the state of the rands, he had asked them to promise no more than 60. They kept, however, by the first-named sum. He died, I5th October 1833, in the eighty-third year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. Five years after this Mr Newlands reported the number of communicants as about 600. The slight hold which Wilson Church had of the country parishes around, compared with the North Church, was brought out at this time. While the North Church had 214 persons, old and young, in Kinnoul parish, Wilson Church had only 78, and in the parishes of Redgorton and Tibbermuir the North Church had 117, and Wilson Church only 14. In May 1847, when the Union with the Relief was accomplished, Mr Newlands was Moderator of the Secession Synod. In the following year he received the degree of D.D. from Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. In 1856 Dr Newlands, who had entered on his ministerial work when he was little beyond his minority, felt his natural force abating, and it was deemed needful to have a colleague. When the moderation day came Mr Peter Whyte was nominated and carried ; but the minister who pre- sided was complained of for refusing to allow a negative vote, the opposi- tion alleging that, as they had no other candidate to propose, the refusal left them helpless. To meet any such contingency the Synod afterwards introduced the rule that at moderations the question should always be put at the outset : Is the congregation prepared to go on ? On the present occasion harmony had been disturbed at the eleventh hour, and before the Presbytery met Mr Whyte put himself out of the calculation by accepting a call to Denny. But meanwhile Dr Newlands had found himself at a place where two seas met, and after the call was disposed of "he stated that a due regard to his own happiness and the good of the church now 556 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS called him to resign his charge." But at next meeting the wishes of the congregation and the pleadings of his brethren prevailed, and the resigna- tion was withdrawn. Fourth Minister. THOMAS MILLER, from Regent Place, Glasgow. Ordained, iyth June 1857, having previously received a call from Sanquhar (South), but not from Kilmaurs, as has been understood. Dr Nevvlands died, loth January 1861, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. A volume of his sermons, with Memoir by the Rev. John Lamb of Errol, was published in 1862. Dr Newlands was also the author of several other discourses, including the sermon preached at the opening of the last Secession Synod, on the text : " O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity." His successor, Mr Miller, died, 291)1 December 1878, in the fiftieth year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. His last words were : " I will be with God." At the first moderation after this Mr W. S. Dickie, now of Trinity Church, Irvine, was called, but he declined, as did also the Rev. J. S. Rae, then of Sunderland. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM DICKIE, M.A., from Rosehearty, where he had been ordained two years before. Inducted, nth January 1881, the stipend being ^300. Accepted a call to Dowanhill, Partick, I2th February 1889. Sixth Minister. JOHN ADDIE, M. A., from Glasgow (Elgin Street). Called to Kettle a few weeks before, and to Blantyre somewhat earlier. Ordained, 5th September 1889. In November 1894 the church, erected in 1740 and the oldest in the denomination, was demolished, having been bought up with a view to city improvements. Close, to the former site another, seated for 900, with suitable equipments, was built at a cost of over jio,ooo, and opened on Sabbath, i ith October 1898, with a remaining debt of only ,300. The membership at the close of 1899 was a good way over 700, being an increase of some 250 since Mr Dickie's induction. Mr Addie's stipend has been ^400 all along. PERTH, EAST (RELIEF) IN the Old Statistical History the origin of this congregation is ascribed to the refusal of the Established Presbytery to sanction the erection of a Chapel of Ease to meet the requirements of the town. Then application, it is stated, was made to the Relief, "and a church was immediately built, and soon filled with people." The feu charter bears date 1 1 th February 1786, and they had sermon from Glasgow Presbytery some weeks before this. The working-class element was strong among them, for of the fourteen managers in whose name the titles were made out all were weavers except three. The church appears to have been opened towards the end of 1786, with sittings for 915, and built at a cost of ,700. In April 1787 the con- gregation called the Rev. James Colquhoun of Campsie, who declined acceptance, and then Mr William Thomson, probationer, who preferred Beith. First Minister. DAVID SANGSTER, who was taken on trials for licence by Edinburgh Presbytery in August 1785. On 3Oth June 1788 he is entered in the Minutes of St Ninians Presbytery as a corresponding member, and as he was not a member of Synod in May of that year he was probably ordained between these dates. There is reason to surmise that the con- gregation was bettered by the break up of the " Lifters " in 1 793. They consisted of malcontents from the North Church ; but the building had to be sold, and the minister, the Rev. David Wilson, afterwards of Pitten- PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 557 \veem. applied for admission to the Relief. It was Mr Sangster who introduced Mr Wilson to the Presbytery, a fact which bespeaks friendlv relations between them, and was fitted to smooth the way for amalgamation with such as were inclined. On 5th June 1806 Mr Sangster craved aid from the Presbytery ''in his present infirm state," and on 23rd September it was reported from the Chair that he had died that morning. His tombstone bears that he was in the fifty-eighth year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry This latter figure negatives what Dr M'Kelvie has stated, that Mr Sangster was translated from Banff after a ministry of thirteen years. Circumstances* however, favour the surmise that he belonged originally to Banff. He married a daughter of the Rev. John Baillie of Crieff, a man whose career is sketched at the proper place. Second Minister. FORREST FREW, who had been eight years in Ceres (East). Prior to this they had looked in the direction of the Rev. Alexander Paterson, Dundee, who states in his Journal that Mr Sangster "had been prevented for a considerable time from working in the Lord's vineyard," and that after his death he was asked to allow himself to be chosen as hi's successor. The call to Mr Frew was brought up amidst contention, but it was pleaded that, out of 800 communicants, more than 500 had subscribed. The Synod, on the ground of irregularities, such as the Presbytery " leaving it open to parties to adhibit their names at any time," set the call aside. The majority forthwith applied for another moderation, and the minority, who claimed to number 200, were formed into a new congregation, and .hence the origin of Canal Street Church. Mr Frew was inducted, 22nd July 1807, and entered on abounding labours. The membership was large, amounting, so late as 1838, to about 700, and for thirty years he usually preached three times each Sabbath. But of the ^700 which the church- cost only a small sum was raised at the time, and the debt grew, till in 1839 it amounted to not less than .1600. Perhaps flattering themselves that a young minister would work wonders amongst them, they petitioned the Presbytery in July 1835 for liberty to call an assistant and successor to Mr Frew. The request was granted, when a recommendation to put forth a vigorous effort to get from under their burdens might have been more opportune. But in the face of opposition the movement went on,, the stipend of each minister to be ^90. Third Minister. WILLIAM LINDSAY, son of the Rev. William Lindsay of Clackmannan. Ordained, i3th September 1836. Of the three services each Lord : s day one was conducted, as I understand, by the senior minister, and this went on till Sabbath, 3oth January 1842, when, after lecturing in the forenoon, Mr Frew went home, to come back no more. He died on the following Sabbath, 6th February, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. The Presbytery recorded i-n their minutes that "he was a superior classical scholar, a sound divine, a devout man, a zealous labourer, an indefatigable pastor, and a man given to hospitality, whose house was a second home to many a stranger." He was the father of Dr Frew of St Ninians. Mr Lindsay's ministry involved a long struggle with oppres- sive difficulties. After his colleague's death the congregation raised his stipend from ,90 to ,120, and this sum they were to pay "as long as they were able." In 1839 the young men in the church attempted to have the debt reduced, but instead of the end being gained ill-feeling was stirred, and the membership reduced. The certainty that in addition to present liabilities the building of another church would have to be faced was enough to make the faint-hearted seek away. How the congregation in its weakened state managed to grapple successfully with their load of debt we know not ; but, thanks to the female members, it was done, and in 1859 the last of the 558 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS sad entail was cleared away. But now the house which had sheltered them for seventy-five years was pronounced unsafe to meet in. A church, built on the old site, with sittings for 650, was opened on the first Sabbath of 1863, the cost being .1350, which was entirely met within the next two years. But Mr Lindsay was not to enjoy the sense of relief very long. He died, 25th September 1865, after a painful illness, in the sixty-second year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. He was a son-in-law of the Rev. John Jamieson of Bellshill. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER HENDERSON, translated from Earlston (East), and inducted, 28th August 1866. The call was signed by only 151 members, but a stipend of ^200 was promised, liberality much in advance of their fathers' times. At the centenary in 1886 the membership of the East Church was 253. After a year and a half of broken health Mr Henderson died, 2 ist June 1888, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Mr Henderson's elder son, the Rev. Robert Henderson, was minister of Innellan. Fifth Minister. THOMAS CRAWFORD, B.D., from Xarbolton. Ordained, 4th December 1888, after having been assistant for some time to Dr Hutchi- son of Bormington, whose son-in-law he became. The membership was given as 249, of whom 200 signed the call. At the close of 1899 it was 376, and the stipend had been raised from ^200 to ,230. PERTH, CANAL STREET (RELIEF) IN connection with the first call to the Rev. Forrest Frew the dissentients complained of being ill-treated by the elders and managers, and on igth May 1807, when the majority applied anew for a moderation, they petitioned to be formed into a distinct church. The paper was signed by " nigh 200," but how many of these were communicants is not stated. The representa- tive of the session announced that " the greater part of the congregation approved of the disjunction," and the Presbytery, without further inquiry, gave the petitioners their own way, and they had Paul's Chapel to worship in. This was the church that had been built for the Smytonite congregation, alias the " Lifters." The cause having collapsed the building came into private hands. In 1794 an attempt was made to have it converted into a Chapel of Ease, but the sanction of the Presbytery to that effect was annulled by the General Assembly. In January 1798 a petition in name of the proprietors, managers, and other hearers in Paul Street Chapel was presented to the North Church session asking their concurrence in an application for sermon to the Antiburgher Presbytery of Perth. This was renewed in March 5 the paper being signed by 79 persons " not in our communion except one." The session refused to transmit, but the Presbytery, on appeal, granted supply as request'ed. Preaching was kept up for a few months, and then all mention ceases. The chapel was now rented to the Independents at ^70 a year, and in their occupancy it continued till they removed to a more commodious church of their own. It was now in Paul's Chapel that the second Relief congregation in Perth was constituted, and it was there that for nine years they had their first local habitation. First Minister. ROBERT ARTHUR, a preacher who got licence from Edinburgh Presbytery, 5th July 1803. Ordained, gth February 1808, and on 3ist May 1814 he accepted a call to Castlegarth, Newcastle. It now comes out that during his stay of six years in Perth " only a small portion of his stipend had been paid up," a fact which brought serious consequences. Second Minister. JAMES Bow, from Kilsyth." Ordained, 8th March PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 559 1815. But the people were not done uith their former minister nor their former minister with them. What the system of legal bonds for payment of stipend rendered possible is seen to perfection in the experience of Canal Street congregation. The first notice of what was coming appears in the records of Edinburgh Relief Presbytery four weeks after Mr Arthur's induction at Newcastle. It was Perth congregation appealing to them to advise their late minister " to sist present action in the prosecution against the members." Procedure was stayed for the time ; but there was no girding up on their part to satisfy Mr Arthur's pecuniary claims, and in February 1816 Perth Presbytery learnt that the people were attempting to evade their liabilities by getting quit of their congregational identity. They were abandoning Paul's Chapel, and intended to erect a place of worship on a new footing, and leave the old managers to defray the old debts. In April it came out that Mr Arthur had got an Interlocutor in his favour. Mar- shall's History of Perth gives the final outcome: "Such of the members as had subscribed a bond for the payment of stipend had actions raised against them. Several were incarcerated, and others had their goods and furniture sold by public auction." The accuracy of this statement has been confirmed by private inquiry. Mr Arthur was the only Relief minister who ever settled down perman- ently in Newcastle and died there. We lose sight of him till a few years before the close. In 1835 the Home Mission Committee reported that his church had been for a considerable time without sermon owing to the minister's illness, but it was now getting occasional supply from ministers in the neighbourhood. In the following year it was stated that during the summer he had officiated himself, but with difficulty, and the meeting-house was now offered to the Synod for a mission station. On this footing it was taken over by the Presbytery of Kelso, and sermon kept up for a few months, " but seeing no prospect of reviving the cause, except at a ruinous expense, they resolved to discontinue the supply." Mr Arthur died, 3rd August 1838, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and thirty-first of his ministry. In- formation bears that as a preacher he was suspected of having come partially within the current of down-grade influence which carried so much of the Presbyterianism of England in the direction of Unitarianism. If his hold of central truth relaxed, his pulpit power was sure to suffer. As for Mr Bow and his congregation at Perth, after leaving Paul's Chapel they met for a time in the old Grammar School, but in November 1817 they removed to a chapel in Canal Street which had been occupied by the Independents. The purchase money of ^450 was paid by the minister, who was henceforth the sole proprietor. The legal proceedings above referred to are said to have thinned their numbers ; but Mr Bow laboured on among them for thirty-six years, a man of plain habits, unfailing diligence, and much esteemed by his people. In 1838 he put the membership at 250, "all of the poor and working classes." At the meeting of the Relief Synod in 1847 he petitioned for aid in repairing the place of worship, and .25 was granted on condition that the property should be held in connection with the denomination. In May 1851 the Presbytery referred to the Synod a memorial from Mr Bow for authority to sell the church, " that a certain debt thereon due to him might be liquidated." The Synod in expressing con- currence recommended the Presbytery to consider whether it would not be practicable to keep up the congregation. But though this was attempted, and appointments were made by way of trial, the managers " resolved to discontinue," and the Presbytery found they could do no more. On I5th September 1851 Mr Bow died, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and thirty- seventh of his ministry. The building was sold to the Second Congrega- 560 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS tional Church, Perth, for .250, and on I4th October it was intimated that the business was wound up, and about ,240 handed over to Mr Bow's representatives. The whole history of the Relief church, Canal Street, Perth, is a comment on the malign results of division in churches, when frivolous grounds alone are involved. PERTH, YORK PLACE (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation consisted originally of a party which broke off from St Leonard's Free Church when their former minister, the Rev. John Milne, returned from India, and was invited to resume the pastorate of his old charge. They met for a time in the Guild Hall, where they had to depend on accidental supply, and sometimes had no supply at all, till one of their number entered into communication with the Rev. John Zeigler Huie, who had succeeded Mr Milne in St Leonard's, but left under a cloud. He returned to Perth, where the City Hall was taken for him, and as he was an eloquent preacher he attracted good audiences at first, and it was re- solved to proceed with the building of a church. Matters continued in this state for two and a half years, and then the people who had chosen him for their helmsman were compelled to throw him overboard, and some of their principal men had substantial reasons for regretting that they put their trust under his shadow. A number found their way back to the Free Church, but about loo of the members kept together, and, guided by Mr Marshall of Coupar-Angus, they applied on 5th February 1861 to be recognised as a congregation by the United Presbyterian Presbytery ot Perth. They stated that they had a place of worship, seated for 800, and built at a cost of ,1900, of which ^600 had been paid, and that they expected to be self-sustaining. At next meeting, on the 26th, they were formally admitted, the sessions of the North Church and Wilson Church not objecting, and that of the East Church making no appearance, as they considered admission to be a fore- gone conclusion. Of the Rev. John Z. Huie a few well-authenticated facts may be noted down. In the beginning of 1847 he arrived in Australia, having been sent out by the Colonial Committee of the Free Church to take charge of a con- gregation at Geelong. Then "after prosecuting his labours with success for a few years he returned to Scotland." In 1853 he was translated from Dirleton to St Leonard's, Perth, where he remained four years, when there came something like enforced separation. Then, as we have seen, he was recalled by a section of his former flock after a lapse of a twelvemonth, and in 1858 he began to exercise his ministry among them, out of all ecclesiastical connection. To the Rev. John Milne, who was now reinstated into St Leonard's, he may have been as far superior in gifts of oratory as he was inferior in consecration of life. A month or two after York Place congrega- tion had been received into the U.P. Church he turned up at a meeting of Synod in Victoria. The brethren had heard an unfavourable report with regard to Mr Huie's family relations, but having satisfied themselves they received him to labour as a minister within the bounds. His wife was a sister of Dr Main, Free St Mary's, Edinburgh, and it was known that she had left him. But, again, Mr Huie's gifts still upheld him, and having received a call to Geelong signed by 152 residenters he was inducted there on 1 8th September 1861. But within three months, having renounced con- nection with the Synod, his resignation was accepted on the spot, and " his name was dropped from the roll of the ministry." He was now on the "down grade," and, according to the testimony of an Australian minister, he PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 5 6r came at last to exercise his old functions on the street, denouncing the recent Union in Victoria, and winding up with a collection from the crowd. Within a few years at most he was buried in a nameless grave. Such was the man who succeeded the Rev. W. H. Hewitson at Dirleton, and the Rev. John Milne at St Leonard's, Perth. But we return to York Place. First Minister JAMES FRAME, from Peterhead, where he had been minister for seven and a half years. Inducted, 24th July 1861. The call was signed by 82 members, and the stipend was to be .200. On 28th July 1863 Mr Frame accepted a call to Sydney Place, Glasgow, to be colleague to the Rev. John Ker. During his two years in Perth the congregation was consolidated, and the membership about doubled. There was now a pause of eight months, and then they called Mr Fergus Ferguson, but he ultimately preferred Dalkeith. Second Minister. WILLIAM GIRDWOOD, from Penicuik, where he had become his father's successor three years before. The present call was signed by 178 members, but, as there was still a burden of debt to remove, the stipend was kept at ,200, the only increase being .10 for sacramental expenses. Mr Girdwood was inducted, 3ist January 1865, but for family reasons a change of climate was needed, and on i5th January 1867 his resignation was accepted. Kaffraria was his destination, under the auspices of the Mission Board, and there he still labours. Third Minister. ARCHIBALD SUTHERLAND, M.A., from Lossiemouth, a brother of the Rev. John Sutherland of Dunbar. The signatures of members amounted to 198, and in addition to the former stipend the minister was now provided with a manse. Mr Sutherland was ordained, gth July 1867. The debt, which was not under ^1300 at first, was reduced in 1871 from ^1000 to ,500, the congregation having raised ,375, and .125 being received from the Liquidation Fund. In 1878 an offer of aid from the Board in the same proportion was brought before the managers through the Presbytery.' They made answer that on a particular Sabbath they had collected ,252 for the liquidation of debt, and this, with ^84 of a grant, reduced the entire sum to ,164, which after some years was in like manner cleared away. The membership at the close of 1899 was 374, and the stipend ^250, with the manse. PERTH, BRIDGEND (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) AFTER the question of Church Extension at Perth had been before the Presbytery for years, Bridgend was fixed on as a suitable centre, and in May 1892 a site was secured at a cost of ^500. The movement promised at one time to take shape at Craigie, half-a-mile south of Perth, but there was far more to be said in favour of the present selection. From Kinnoull parish, which includes Bridgend, the four Secession and Relief churches in the city drew fully 400 members and adherents in 1838, and the population had more than doubled itself since then. A new formation on the farther side of the river might encroach slightly on Scone congregation, but the session there made no objections to the proposal. So building operations went on, and on Wednesday, 2gth August 1894, the new church was opened by Dr Smith of Broughton Place. Edinburgh, the collections on that day and on the follow- ing Sabbath amounting to ^1000. Ten months before this, at the laying of the foundation stone, it was intimated that .1160 had been subscribed. These rich providings for a congregation yet unborn were sure pledges of success. On Sabbath, I4th October 1894, the congregation was constituted. Of II. 2N 562 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS certificates given in 21 were from the North Church, 9 from Wilson Church, 2 from Scone, I from York Place, i from Free St Leonard's, and 6 from other localities making 40 in all. Before the end of the year a moderation was obtained, the stipend being .250, of which the Board engaged to pay ,120 the first year, ^80 the second, and ^50 the third. The cost of the church, including the site, was ,3600, of which ,2600 was met by subscrip- tions, by collections at the opening of the church and at the induction services, and by a grant of ,300 from the Synod's Extension Fund. This left only ,1000 of debt, of which ,500 rested on the property, and ,500 was due to the Permanent Loan Fund. First Minister. GEORGE ROBSON, D.D. Called unanimously from Inverness, and inducted, 7th February 1895. They had no session of their own as yet, but four of their number had been in office already two in tht North Church, one in Wilson Church, and one in Scone and these, after being duly elected, were set apart to the eldership in Bridgend congregation. During the first six months of Dr Robson's ministry the membership of 40 was exactly doubled, all the additions except 5 having been by certificate. At the close of 1899 the communion roll numbered 158. The stipend had been raised to ^300, and during the year the income of the congregation was considerably over ^600, nearly one-third of it being for missionary and benevolent purposes. CRAIGEND (ANTIBURGHER) THIS was a branch from the North Church, Perth, almost exclusively. On 25th November 1779 members residing in the parishes of Rhynd, Dumbarnie, Forgandenny, and Forteviot, and to the south of the town itself, petitioned their session to concur with them in taking regular steps for having a place of worship at Craigend. Concurrence had been readily obtained when con- gregations were formed at Errol and Methven, but this proposal made the session pause "that the mind of the congregation might be got." But meanwhile the leaders in the movement had secured a site at Craigend, the original lease of ninety-nine years dating from Whitsunday 1780. Though the Presbytery records are lost we may set down July or August 1780 as the time when the congregation was organised. The pressure for accommoda- tion in the North Church was now to be lessened in a more natural way than by having two places of worship within the town itself for the undivided congregation. It is doubtful, however, whether the disjunction was looked on with favour by the session of the parent church, and though Craigend people applied to them for help in building their meeting-house there is nothing to show that there was any response. But the church, with sittings for over 400, was finished without let or hindrance. First Minister. JAMES DRYSDALE, from Kinkell. Ordained, 8th April 1783. In March 1786 the Presbytery began to appoint sick-supply to Craigend pulpit, and on 25th June a Minute of session records that another acted as moderator, their own minister "being deceased." The register of Trinity-Gask parish has among mort-cloth dues: "To Rev. Mr Drysdale, Antiburgher minister of Craigend, John's son, 35." The date is 2nd July 1786. The words "John's son" are suggestive of paternal hopes laid in an early grave. The same register gives "James, a child of John Drysdale, in Nether Gask, baptised, i6th December 1757," so that at his death he was in his twenty-ninth year and the fourth of his ministry. Next summer the congregation called Mr Frederick M'Farlane, the two Perth colleagues presiding on the occasion. The signatures numbered PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 563 151, and as these would be all male members the communion roll must have been over 300. The Synod in August 1787 appointed Mr M'Farlane, much against his will, to Montrose. Similarly in April 1789 Mr George Paxton was appointed to the United congregation of Kilmaurs and Stewarton in preference to Craigend. A third moderation took place next November when two probationers, who had received licence from Perth Presbytery ori the same day and were both sent forthwith to supply -at Craigend, were balanced against each other. The written report shows the order obs'erved on such occasions. After public worship the presiding minister "desired the male members of the congregation to remain," and then pronounced the benediction. Having again prayed, he stated the design for which they were met, intimated who had a right to take part in the election, and asked for nominations, when Mr Samuel Gilfillan and Mr William Syme were proposed. A show of hands having been taken it was found that 62 were for the one and 63 for the other, " but upon that side for which 63 voted 2 votes were objected to." The equipoise being as near perfection as odd numbers would allow, it was thought proper to announce that there was no election. At next meeting of Presbytery' another moderation was applied for, probably with the view of again measuring strength against each other, but the Presbytery, on the ground that there was no appearance of harmony among them, rejected the petition. Second Minister. ROBERT FORSYTH, from the parish of Lochmaben and the congregation of Dumfries (now Loreburn Street). The signatures were down to 106, and there were 19 members opposing, but after com- missioners were heard the call was sustained, and the ordination took place, 26th August 1790. Two years afterwards a manse was built. In a brief Memoir of Mr Forsyth by his son and successor it is stated that a few years after his settlement, "owing to a change in the mode of agriculture, the district was to a great extent depopulated, so much so that at a single term upwards of 30 families were ejected from their houses and deprived of the means of subsistence." In 1838 the communicants were found to be reduced from over 300 to 188. The stipend at this time was ,100, with house, garden, and ^8, 8s. for sacramental expenses. Of young and old from other parishes, Rhynd furnished about 100 ; while Dumbarnie and Forteviot together gave another 100, and there were a few from Forgandenny. To the rural district south from Perth and included, like the church itself, in the East parish, the remaining 115 belonged, the total number being 332. After Mr Forsyth had ministered for more than fifty years at Craigend the people proceeded to provide him with a colleague. Along with the petition for a moderation there was a letter from the aged minister bearing that " through the kindness of Providence he does not require or desire the congregation to burden themselves by coming under any specific obligation on his behalf, nor would he wish anything of this kind to be proposed by the Presbytery." Third Minister. JAMES FORSYTH, who had been in Auchtermuchty (North) for fifteen years. Inducted, i6th December 1841, the call being signed by 162 members. The Rev. Robert T. Walker of Comrie preached from the text : " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good," and the discourse was talked of far and wide, as a "facer-up" to his antagonists on the Atonement question in Perth Presbytery. It was also reported that, instead of waiting to meet his brethren at the induction dinner, he made tracks for home. Next Sabbath the father introduced the son to his new charge by discoursing from the text with which he began his ministry fifty- one years before : " Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." It was his last sermon, though he survived for some years. He died, 2nd 564 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS June 1846, in the eighty-eighth year of his age and fifty-sixth of his ministry. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. John Milligan, the first Secession minister of Urr. At Craigend, though the field was narrow, and the stipend less than he had in his former charge, Mr James Forsyth dwelt among his own people, and must have had quiet comfort instead of the strain and worry of an over-churched place like Auchtermuchty. The only time he came prominently forward at the Synod was when the Union with the Associate Presbytery of Ireland was arranged for. He did not sympathise with the strong attitude that Presbytery maintained on the regium donum question. But though other members of court were opposed to amalgamation Mr Forsyth's name stands alone at the reasons of dissent. For him the end came suddenly, when he was a great way short of the years of his father. On Tuesday, 26th February 1861, he appeared at the Presbytery in his usual health. Next evening he took ill, and on Thursday forenoon he died, in the sixtieth year of his age and thirty-fifth of his ministry. In 1845, \vhen the Atonement Controversy was at its height, Mr Forsyth published "Remarks on Dr Heugh's Irenicum." This pamphlet, the only production of his pen we have, marks a mistaken recoil from old Marrow- doctrine and from early Secession views on the unfettered freeness of the gospel offer. The text " God so loved the world" has its meaning narrowed in, Mr Forsyth argued, by the words " whosoever believeth." The phrase " removal of legal bars " to the salvation of mankind sinners he objected to, maintaining that legal bars are only removed in the case of those who betake themselves to Christ by faith. Ralph Erskine in his preaching exclaimed : " To you, O sinners, is the door of salvation opened " ; but Mr Forsyth would have said it is enough to tell the sinner if he come to the door of salvation he will find it open. Such were the Anti-Marrow positions into which several besides Mr Forsyth were driven by the exigencies of controversy. In their anxiety to keep clear of "a general reference" in the Atonement every text was looked at on the guarding side, and the gospel lost the broad air of universal welcome. Though the Secession Fathers kept unswervingly by the doctrine of Particular Redemp- tion, and made the vicarious element an essential in atoning work, this did not hamper them in telling the members of Adam's family, without distinc- tion and without exception : All things are ready ; come to the marriage. Fourth Minister. JAMES WARDROP, now Professor Wardrop, from Avonbridge. When an Arts student Mr Wardrop gained the prize of ^100, offered by a Russian nobleman who had studied in Edinburgh, for an essay on Byzantine Literature. His theological course was completed in 1850, but owing to other engagements he did not receive licence till the summer of 1856, and on 26th November 1861, having previously declined a call to Muckart, he was ordained at Craigend. Though reduced in numbers the congregation there undertook ^120 of stipend, or ^20 more than Mr Forsyth was promised. In 1867 Mr Wardrop, by some freak of fortune or miscalculation of affinities, was called to Ollaberry, in Shetland, but he declined the occupancy of that distant outpost. On 1 2th February 1878 he accepted a call to West Calder. By this time, through the steady thinning out of population, the membership of Craigend had declined to 94, and everything seemed on the verge of collapse. At next meeting of Presbytery it was intimated that since the vacancy occurred many of the members had either left or were intending to leave. Besides this, their lease of the ground had only a year to run, and extensive repairs were needed on the manse, and they saw no prospect of being able to continue, even as a preaching station. Perth Presbytery took it with great PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 565 composure, and preparations were made for the formal dissolution, but at a meeting of the congregation on 8th July Mr Foote, an energetic member of the Mission Board, appeared among them. He spoke of the assistance they might calculate on from the funds of the Church. He could guarantee help from Glasgow to carry out needed repairs, and they might rely on a nineteen years' lease of the property at an annual rent of .10. This in- spirited them, and a deputation was forthwith appointed to attend the Presbytery with a request to be put on the list of vacancies. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM T. WALKER, M.A., from Glasgow (Caledonia Road). Ordained, 4th February 1879. The stipend from their own funds was to be ^70, with manse and garden, but when the call was brought up it was intimated that they had spontaneously raised the figure from 70 to ^90. On 3rd June 1884 Mr Walker accepted a call to Oban, and Craigend again became vacant ; but there was no talk now of dissolving, and the vacancy was not of long duration. Sixth Minister. THOMAS S. NEWLANDS, B.D., from Glasgow (Clare- mont), and a nephew of the Rev. Dr Nevvlands, Wilson Church, Perth. Ordained, 2nd December 1884. The membership at the close of 1899 was 91, and the stipend of ,90 from the people was still maintained. COUPAR-ANGUS AND THE EASTERN DIVISION COUPAR-ANGUS (ANTIBURGHER) ON I4th March 1740 the Associate Presbytery received accessions from Coupar-Angus and the neighbouring parishes, and in October others followed. On I4th July 1743 the seceders in that quarter were, at their own request, joined to Dundee, though the places are fifteen miles apart, and the call to Mr Johnstone in May 1745 was adhered to by 5 members from Coupar-Angus, who could not be present at the moderation. At this time there was a proposal to divide Mr Johnstone's labours between the two places, but the Presbytery refused to sanction any such arrangement. But, after all, Mr Johnstone was accustomed preaching at Coupar-Angus every third Sabbath, and this went on till the Breach in 1747, when the families there took the Antiburgher side, and parted company with Dundee. First Minister. ROBERT CARMICHAEL, of whom we only know that in student days he kept a school at Milnathort, and acted as precentor to Mr Mair's congregation. Ordained, 2ist August 1751. The growth of the Secession cause at Coupar-Angus must have been considerable at that period, since in 1757 we can count up a session of at least eleven elders and five deacons. However, during the last years of Mr CarmichaePs ministry progress was arrested, there being only 4 accessions in 1759, and 6 in 1760. By the formation of a congregation at Rattray, four and a half miles off, there was also in 1757 a narrowing in to the north and north-west, and a corresponding encroachment on the membership. Up till then the nearest sister church was Kinclaven, about eight miles distant, with the Tay between. But a change was now impending, Mr Carmichael being the first of several Antiburgher ministers who came under the influence of John Glass and went over to Independency. On nth November 1761 his case was brought before the Presbytery by complaint from his session and congregation. The doctrines propounded by him were such as these : that faith is not the instrument but the fruit of justification ; that there is no 566 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS authority in Scripture for making the gospel call universal ; and that in exhorting unbelievers about what they are to do to escape the wrath and curse of God we only encourage them to work out a righteousness of their own. He must also have startled his people when he told them that there is no warrant in the New Testament for National Churches or national covenanting, and that the Presbyterian system of Church government never had a being until Calvin. Refusing to retract, Mr Carmichael was suspended from the exercise of his ministry, and the case went before the Synod. This was not the first time Mr Carmichael had been dealt with for alleged errors in doctrine. When a preacher he supplied in London for a prolonged period, and after he had been a year ordained the session there sent up a list of charges against him to the Presbytery. Having acknow- ledged the use of rash and unguarded language on various heads, he was ad- monished " to more circumspection with respect to his expressions in public in time coming." Now, on being suspended, he removed to Dundee, where he identified -himself with John Glass, but there is nothing to indicate that he ever had the slightest following from among his own people. In September 1762 he appeared at the bar of the Synod, and read a paper, entitled " Declaration and Confession of Robert Carmichael." They characterised it as " a very deep and general attack on the whole system of our received principles, and those of all Protestant Churches," though they admitted it was done " with all appearance of ingenuity (ingenuousness) and sobriety in the manner thereof." A committee was appointed to report on the paper at next meeting, and meanwhile he was to have access to converse with them, a privilege he was not likely to exercise. In April 1763 he did not compear, and, the congregation being urgent to have the way cleared for a successor, it carried unanimously to depose and excommunicate. That year he with- drew from the Glassites, and joined the Independents. In 1765 he became pastor of a Baptist church in Edinburgh with a membership of 9, and four years afterwards he removed to Dundee, where a like society was being organised. In 1772 his health gave way, and "his affliction was doubly augmented by the unworthy conduct of several of those under his pastoral care." He now returned to Edinburgh, where he died in the beginning of March 1774. These particulars are taken from the Memoir of Archibald M'Lean, who along with Mr Carmichael may be reckoned the founder of the Scottish Baptists, though they had a little community in Caithness at an earlier time. In April 1766 there is reference in the Synod Minutes to a call from Coupar- Angus to Mr Robert Young signed by 73 (male) members. This preacher had given offence to both Presbyter}' and Synod by his behaviour on various occasions, and after he had been rebuked and admonished this call, as well as another from Elgin, was laid aside. At the latter place we have met with him already. Second Minister. THOMAS SMALL, from Abernethy. Ordained, i8th November 1767. There are tokens of prosperity having attended this brief ministry, there being at a communion not long before the close 25 acces- sions. Mr Small died, 5th May 1772, in the twenty-ninth year of his age and fifth of his ministry. The substance of the Latin inscription on his tombstone runs thus : Here lie the ashes of Mr Thomas Small, a true Christian and faithful minister, as we believe, in the Associate Church, Coupar-Angus, who laboured diligently in the work of the gospel until it pleased God to call him away to the joy of his Lord. One specimen of Church discipline at Coupar-Angus in Mr Small's time may illustrate how it was exercised for salutary ends. As an antidote against a certain distemper among their cattle some members of the con- PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 567 gregation had resorted to a notable expedient. " They put out all the fires of the town, and produced new fire by the friction of wood, by means of a wheel, and, kindling some whins or broom, caused their cattle to pass through the ashes, and then drove them into the water." The parties pleaded that they acted in this way merely because they heard of others doing it with success ; but the session were of opinion that, as they had no notion of there being anything medicinal in the case or pertaining to natural causes, they " depended upon the effect following in some secret, mysterious way, and were guilty, therefore, of meddling with the works of darkness.'"' The culprits professed sorrow " for the offence they had given the people in this corner," and were to be rebuked after public worship. Third Minister. JAMES BISHOP, from Kinkell. In 1748 Mr Bishop, then a divinity student, was conducting a school at Craigmailen, but owing to heinous misconduct he was arrested in his course, and suspended from Church fellowship. Having given evidence of repentance he had the sentence removed, and in 1762 he was appointed to teach the Philosophical Class at Alloa, an office which he held for ten years. He was then remitted to Stirling Presbytery for licence, and on i5th November 1774 ne was ordained at Coupar-Angus. During his ministry there must have been a fair measure of increase, 23 being admitted to membership in July 1776, 19 in August 1778, and 28 in June and October 1779; but at the last of these dates the end came, as a session minute has recorded. It tells that, after being censured by the Presbytery of Perth for drunkenness, " he did at last fall into the same sin during the solemn work of communicating in the meeting-house, I7th October 1779." In April 1780 the Presbyter)' re- ported to the Synod his suspension, and then that he had resigned and been loosed from his charge. In 1783 he applied to be restored to office, and the case was remitted to the Presbytery of Perth. For the next ten years Mr Bishop itinerated as a preacher, and he was receiving appointments within the bounds of Perth Presbytery towards the end of 1793, but until recently we could meet with no further trace of him. Now, however, we are able, from a newspaper paragraph, to give the close. It reads thus : "On 25th November last (1793) Mr James Bishop, preacher of the gospel, in returning from Perth to his place of residence in Auchterarder, mistook his way, and fell into the River Earn, and perished." It states further that he was upwards of seventy years of age, which makes him over fifty when he was ordained ; and it explains that, as he was travelling alone, no one saw him fall into the water, and his body was not found till 28th December. It adds that the piety "which ran through his public discourses recom- mended him as an agreeable preacher to all who relished the doctrines of the gospel in their primitive simplicity." Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER ALLAN, from Dennyloanhead, his minister being the Rev. John Walker, whose son-in-law he became. Com- peting calls came up from Ayr and Kilmaurs, but the Synod, "considering the many distressing trials which that congregation has met with, and the appearance the settlement has of peace and edification among them, did, and hereby do, prefer Coupar-Angus." Ordained, 22nd August 1781, when the Rev. Alexander Pringle of Perth preached from the text : " Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine." Mr Allan, instead of passing through a University curriculum, entered the Philosophical Class at Alloa in 1769, but was told that he " must endeavour a more exact acquaintance with the Latin language." At the Theological Hall his attendance was very frag- mentary, and it extended on that account from 1771 to 1779. One session he was present " about three weeks, the gentleman in whose family he teaches allowing him only about a month's absence, part of which time is 568 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS taken up in coming and going." During Mr Allan's ministry we have the workings of the covenanting system in an exaggerated form at Coupar- Angus. In June 1784 this solemn act was engaged in among them, 22 men and 55 women entering into the bond. Some time afterwards the session dealt with one of their own number for neglecting the recent opportunity, and it was only on his declaring that he would be guilty of no such omission again that he was allowed to continue in office. On two occasions also members elected to the eldership were held back from or- dination for the same reason. But the high ground taken by minister and session on the binding obligation of the covenants was preparing the way for the formation of a Relief church at Coupar- Angus. Although Mr Allan was very pronounced on this question, he took an active part in the New Light cause when the Constitutional Presbytery was formed. Indeed, his two publications : " The Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters of Religion " and " A View of Religious Covenant- ing," were in reality the Synod's apology for the New Testimony. A number of Coupar-Angus people at this time took up Old Light ground, and withdrew from Mr Allan's ministry, though it was not till they were joined by a party of the Anti-Unionists of 1820 that they obtained a minister or had a regular place of worship. In 1819 Mr Allan was entirely laid aside from public duty, and it was needful to provide him with a colleague, the arrangement being that he should have ^80 a year, with manse, garden, and payment of public burdens, while the junior minister was to receive ,90 in all. First came a call to the Rev. David Wilson, who had recently resigned Balbeggie, but as it was much divided, and as a negative vote had not been allowed, the Presbytery set it aside. In the early part of 1822 Coupar-Angus went in for Mr James Whyte, and increased the promised stipend by 20. At the Synod in May the commis- sioners urged in favour of their claims " the great anxiety manifested by their old and infirm pastor for the object of their choice," but when the vote was taken between the seven calls not a single voice pronounced for Coupar-Angus. After Mr Whyte was set free from Perth the call was repeated, but acceptance was hopeless. Mr Allan died, 3oth January 1824, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-third of his ministry, having been quite incapacitated for more than five years. The membership at this time was about 300. Fifth Minister. CHARLES MuiRHKAD, from Buchlyvie. The first application for a moderation was opposed by seven elders and 38 members, and, when granted, a protest and appeal was taken, but the Synod left the determining of future action to the Presbytery. The call, when it came out, was signed by only 58 male members, and was preferred to another from Kinkell. The opposing party had already applied to the Protestors for sermon, the petition being signed by four elders and 24 (male) members. This need not have happened had the majority been less persistent. Mr Muirhead was ordained, 3oth March 1825. He died, 2nd August 1830, and on his tombstone there is the following tribute to his memory : " The course of his ministry was brief, but the extent of his great literary acquirements, the maturity of his judgment as a theologian, the enlightened fidelity of his official labours, the sanctified sweetness of his disposition, and the heavenly serenity of his dying hour will be long remem- bered by the surviving few who had the happiness of knowing his worth." I recall the testimony borne by a very intelligent elder to Mr Muirhead's talents as a preacher, whom he had heard in a Fife vacancy forty years before. He dwelt specially on the wealth of material which opened out before him as his discourses went on. PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 569 Sixth Minister. WILLIAM MARSHALL, from Logiealmond. Procedure was hastened, Mr Marshall being under call to Whithorn, and seven weeks after Mr Muirhead's death the Synod appointed him to Coupar-Angus Keeping by the old Antiburgher system, only male members signed the call, numbering in this case 69. The stipend was to be ^110, with house, garden, and sacramental expenses, but it was raised soon after to ^120! Ordained, 28th December 1830. In 1836 there were 280 communicants^ and the debt on the property was 212. In numbers they were much behind the Relief congregation, but their hold on surrounding parishes was greater, especially on Bendochy, where Mr Reston had only 5 families and Mr Marshall had 78 individuals, young and old. In the early years of his ministry the Voluntary Controversy began, and Mr Marshall was drawn into the thick of the battle. He was a man of formidable power, but in Perth Presbytery his gifts were not always exercised to the best advantage, and for much of the awe he inspired as a debater he owed more to the roughness of the weapon than either to the strength or the skill of the arm that wielded it. When the Union question was introduced to the Synod in 1863 the discussion took him on the soft side, and to the surprise of many he declared himself favourable out and out. At meetings of the joint com'- mittee he proved himself a man of weight, though, as appears from the letters of Dr Cairns, his bearing sometimes caused uneasiness, and on one occasion almost produced a crisis. "This speech," he wrote, "uttered with great vehemence, and seconded by many blows and knocks, seemed not unlikely to shiver the Union vessel to pieces, and we sat trembling." In appreciation of his services in this cause he was appointed to the Moderator's chair in 1865, and within two months two American colleges bestowed on him the degree of D.D. In 1867 the old manse was sold, and the proceeds were devoted, along with ,680, to the erection of another, ,430 being raised by the people, and ^250 being allowed by the Board. Dr Marshall's health having given way, it was arranged in the latter part of 1872 that he should retire from active duty on an allowance of ,52 a year, with manse and garden. A fortnight later he was presented with 1500 from friends throughout the denomination " in recognition of his services to the church of which he had been so long a minister, to Christian union, and to the cause of civil and religious liberty." In May 1873 the congregation presented a call signed by 180 members to Mr Walter Duncan, but he declined, and afterwards accepted Dumbarton (Bridgend). Seventh Minister. THOMAS GRANGER, from Hamilton (Blackswell). Having refused Lumsden he was ordained as colleague and successor to Dr Marshall, 28th October 1873, the stipend being ^157, los. in all. In May 1865 the present church had been opened, with over 500 sittings, and built at a cost of about ,1250, but without any entail of debt to burden their future. However, after some years the pressure of the double pastorate began to be felt, and, owing partly to a collapse of trade, the income, instead of rising to meet additional requirements, fell off to the extent of ,34 a year. In adjusting money matters at a transition time there is danger of too little allowance being made for adverse contingencies, and in 1878 it was agreed that Dr Marshall's retiring allowance of ,52 a year should be paid from the central fund, and the junior minister should also have 20 for house rent and a share in the surplus. Dr Marshall had meanwhile regained strength, and was largely employed in preaching, though he resigned the pulpit at Coupar-Angus to his colleague. Having gone to supply at Dysart he took seriously ill in the vestry on Sabbath morning, and died next day, 23rd August 1880, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and fiftieth of his ministry. Of the 570 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS works he left behind him that which bears the deepest stamp of his own personality is the book entitled "Principles of the Westminster Standards Persecuting." There is much in it which reminds us of Adam Gib, but with less of keen-edged insight and more of broad, rough momentum. His Memoir of his father-in-law, Dr Young of Perth, gives with a vigorous pen the facts of his life rather than the man himself. His " Historic Scenes " in Forfarshire and Perthshire and his " Men of Mark in the British Churches" rilled up his years of partial retirement agreeably and not unprofitably. His successor labours on with a membership which has come down to little more than half of what it was in pre-Disruption days. As in similar cases, families who used to come from a distance of some miles have dropped into other churches, and the population of the parish has been reduced by more than one-fifth within thirty years. At the close of 1899 there were 150 names on the communion roll, and the people gave ,120 of the stipend, besides the manse. COU PAR-ANGUS (RELIEF) THE earliest reference to a Relief congregation in Coupar-Angus is found in the Minutes of St Ninians Presbytery, I4th April 1789, when sermon was applied for. But this takes us back to July 1788, when the Antiburgher session held a conference about a Weavers' Association with which some members of the congregation were connected, and which had recently acquired notoriety by marching in procession through the streets. It came out that on being admitted to this society the parties engaged, with the solemnity of an oath, to keep certain things secret of the nature of which they were as yet entirely ignorant. The session referred the matter to the Presbytery, who advised them to deal with the offenders as to the sinfulness of their conduct. This action, coupled with the high ground taken up on covenanting, seems to have led to the formation of the Relief church at Coupar-Angus. The rights to their plot of ground were made out in March 1790, and by that time the church, with 700 sittings, and the manse were finished. First Minister. JAMES GRIMMOND, from Kinclaven. Having attended the Philosophical Class for two sessions he entered the Antiburgher Hall in 1778 ; but from 1781 he is lost sight of till 1788, when he applied for licence to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow. When a preacher he was called to Waterbeck and Coupar-Angus, and, preferring the latter place, he was ordained some time in 1790. That day he asked the Presbytery's permission to proceed to an election of elders, and in due time three were ordained, and other three were added in the following year. In those days this session do not seem, any more than Mr Allan's, to have erred on the side of laxity in their exercise of discipline. At a meeting in 1793, for example, a member compeared, and was admonished for having set out on a Sabbath evening to a distance in order to be ready for his marriage on Monday. Mr Grim- mond's stipend when he went to Coupar-Angus was to be ,75, and a manse. On 25th November 1802 he accepted a call to Dumbarton (now Bridgend), and was loosed from his charge. Glasgow Presbytery, being much dis- satisfied that this was done without their representative being present, though the commissioners from both congregations were forward, com- plained to the Synod, and Perth Presbytery was censured for having transgressed the laws of the Church. When Mr Grimmond was in Coupar-Angus his near relatives occasioned much trouble to the Antiburgher session of Perth. Before he was ordained at all two sisters of his were dealt with for attending a service in the Relief PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 571 communion, probably when their brother was preaching. In 1798 his father, William Grimmond, who had long been an elder in Kinclaven, was brought up for going ever and again to the Relief church. He claimed liberty to hear his own son as occasion offered, and altogether the session found him " in a very unruly and obstinate disposition." Denied the rights of membership he appealed to the Presbytery, who dismissed his complaint as groundless. The affair got publicity through a pamphlet of Rowland Hill's. William Grimmond, he says, had to quit the Antiburgher connection for the above reason after he was in his eighty-third year. Second Minister. JAMES SMART, translated from Largo, and had been ordained at Mainsriddell twelve years before. Inducted, 23rd November 1803. The stipend was now ^95, with house and garden, and ^5 was to be added for every ^100 of debt paid off. Mr Smart died, 28th July 1807, in the forty-fifth year of his age and seventeenth of his ministry. The congrega- tion spoke of him as "their late worthy pastor," and the certificate he brought with him from Dysart Presbytery bore that "he had laboured with much success in his former charge." Third Minister. WILLIAM DUN, M.A., from the Antiburgher church, Dennyloanhead. Soon after obtaining licence he was called to Milngavie, but he held back, and the call was allowed to lapse. Then came Coupar- Angus, amidst opposition from a party whose withdrawal was the beginning of a Burgher congregation in the place. Mr Dun was ordained, 3Oth November 1808, and the stipend appears to have been .130, with manse and garden. The communion roll must have suffered from the partial dis- ruption, and the session had some dealings with an elder years aftenvards for speaking against the minister and the way in which he was elected. At a conference with office-bearers in 1821 Mr Dun cheerfully agreed to sur- render ^10 of his stipend, the reduction to continue until the debt of the congregation was reduced to .600, which implies that the burden was great. In 1824 a remarkable arrangement was come to : " It was settled that con- gregational meetings should be given up, and that a meeting should be called in every elder's quarter once a year to give a statement of the con- gregational funds, and choose a manager if required." This would be de- signed to meet the difficulty of getting the people together for the transacting of ordinary business. In October 1825 steps were taken to have an assistant and successor appointed to Mr Dun. Though he was little over fifty his health had suffered through the bursting of a blood-vessel. He explained to the Presby- tery that, owing to his late indisposition, and his fear that the whole work would retard his restoration, he went in with the proposal. His stipend was ..110, and he was to give not less than ,30 nor more than ^40 to the junior minister, retaining the manse and garden, and the colleague's stipend was to be made up to ,70 in all by the congregation. Mr Dun was not bound to preach more than once each Sabbath, but if able he would be expected to take his full share of pastoral duties. Of the adjustments made in the Presbytery one reads: "While Mr Dun is able to do any part of his minis- terial duties he shall hold the Presidency in the religious worship and government of the congregation, he shall preside as Moderator of Session, administer the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, examine those who are elected to the eldership, and applicants for admission to membership." No wonder that this caused dissatisfaction and had to be expunged, the two ministers being assigned equal powers. Fourth Minister. DAVID RESTON, from Tollcross, Glasgow, an elder brother of the Rev. James Reston, afterwards of Dundee. Ordained, I5th March 1826. Mr Dun died, I7th May 1829, in the fifty-sixth year of his age 572 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and twenty-first of his ministry. A tombstone in remembrance of his un- wearied exertions also records that his wife died at Melbourne in 1852, " separated 15,000 miles from the dust below." One of their daughters was the wife of Dr George Turner of Samoa. Mr Dun published a number of books, of which the most important was a Life of St Columba, and the most interesting a biographical notice of his daughter Martha, who died young. The pamphlets which passed between him and Mr Allan of the Antiburgher Church on covenanting leave the question much as it was, and the warfare between them would not sweeten the atmosphere of dissent at Coupar-Angus. Mr Reston's stipend was now to be ^100, with house, garden, and some ground attached. In 1836 he returned the communicants at 450, and 85 of the families were from other parishes. As the annual income at this time was about ,160, and as the incidental expenses were slight, there must have been a big sum required to meet the interest on borrowed money. In 1845 they received ^120 from the Debt Liquidating Fund, but what amount the congregation raised is not stated. On 22nd February 1848 Mr Reston laid his resignation on the table of Perth Presbytery. Differences had arisen between him and his people, and a committee was appointed to effect a reconciliation, but Mr Reston had a definite end of another kind in view. On 2 ist March he urged the acceptance of his resignation, and, the commis- sioners having made a request to the same effect, the Presbytery dissolved the pastoral tie. Mr Reston now declared himself out of connection with the U.P. Church, and two months afterwards his petition to be received into the Establishment was laid before the General Assembly. The reasons he assigned for making the change were that the Voluntary principle is inade- quate for the support of religion throughout the country, and that loose views on the Atonement prevailed in the denomination he had left. This last was a kind of makeweight which did service on such occasions. Having been received without gainsaying he was inducted in 1850 into the quoad sacra church at Elderslie, where he died, I7th April 1877, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. At his jubilee in March 1876 he had been presented with an address, " expressive of the admiration in which he was held by the Presbytery of Paisley." After Mr Reston's removal from Coupar-Angus the congregation first called Mr George Morris, who was ultimately ordained at Dairy, Ayrshire. The stipend was now reduced to ^90, with manse and garden. After a considerable time they called Mr John Ballantyne, but either cordiality was wanting or large defections had intervened, as the signatures were down from 156 to 106. Mr Ballantyne declined Coupar-Angus, and obtained Lilliesleaf. On 25th February 1850, commissioners appeared before the Presbytery, and stated that the congregation had become connected with another body. It was the Evangelical Unionists they joined, and in that connection they still remain. The property, according to the original charter, was " to be held for the use and behoof of those subscribers who adhere to the reverend Synod of Relief." This might have furnished a foothold for litigation, but, fortunately, there was no protesting minority to claim possession, and the property was probably burdened beyond its market value. Since then the congregation has had a succession of ministers, but though connected first with the Evangelical Union, and now with the wider Congregational Union, it seems to have adhered to the old name. This is shown by a tombstone, which reads thus : " Erected by the Relief congre- gation, Coupar-Angus, in memory of James Stewart, builder here, who died, 3rd August 1861, aged 85, and who generously conveyed his whole property, heritable and movable, for the support in all time coming of the preaching of the gospel in the Relief Church, Coupar-Angus." PRESBYTERY OF PERTH COUPAR-AXGUS (BURGHER) 573 WHKX the Relief congregation in Coupar-Angus was about to call Mr William Dun a number of the members opposed the movement ; but the majority persisted, carried their point, and obtained their man. A year and a half passed without healing the breach, and on i2th June 1810 a petition for sermon signed by 52 persons was laid before the Burgher Presbytery of Perth, who without further inquiry granted supply. On ist October 1811 an accession was given in from 46 persons, who were recognised as a congregation. This was followed in September 1812 by a grant of 20 from the Synod " to enable them to build a meeting-house,'' and next month a moderation was applied for, with the promise of ^100 for stipend, with .5 for each communion. The Presbytery wished to know in what way they were to make up that money, and recommended them " to let their seats." It would seem from this that the church, which had accommodation for 400, was already finished. At next meeting they represented that they could let 232 sittings, which would yield ^29 in the half-year. In April 1813 four elders were ordained and one inducted who had held office in Scone. They now called Mr Andrew Young, but he was appointed by the Synod to Lochmaben. They now tried an ordained minister, the Rev. William Proudfoot of Pitrodie, but though his congregation was small the Presbytery without a vote decided not to translate. First and only Minister. DANIEL M' LEAN, from Mauchline. The call was signed by 47 members and supported by 333 adherents, either a tribute to the attractions of novelty or evidence of an extensive beating up for names. Mr M'Lean was already on trials for ordination at Cumbusnethan, but the Synod decided for Coupar-Angus, influenced, probably, by the appearance of a large and flourishing congregation, and Mr M'Lean was ordained, 28th June 1815. For the next five years we meet with no signal of distress, but in April 1820 the Presbyter)' was appealed to for advice by reason of pecuniary embarrassments. Of the 333 who joined the handful of members in inviting Mr M'Lean to Coupar-Angus how many may have placed them- selves under his ministry ? The mixed multitude had gone their several ways, and left the faithful few to look realities in the face. But they found encouragement at this time from a student who came from Alyth, a distance of six miles, to worship with them, taught the Sabbath school, and took much interest in the struggling cause. This was Mr David Smith, afterwards Dr Smith of Biggar. To meet the difficulties of the situation the Presbytery suggested that Mr M'Lean should obtain collections from some of the ablest congregations of the body, and members would preach for him during his absence. A grant of ,20 was also obtained from the Synod, but these things only put back the evil day. No effective help came, though the North Church, Perth, on one occasion sent the minister 12, ics. to meet arrears of stipend. In the summer of 1823 deliverance came to Mr M'Lean in the shape of a largely-signed call from the congregation of Largs, and on i6th September the Synod without a vote sanctioned the translation. What might remain for the congregation now ? As the sister church in Coupar-Angus was virtually vacant the circumstances were favourable for union, but within half-a-year a moderation was applied for, the stipend promised being ^100. The membership was given at 120, but at none of the calls which followed did the signatures come up to half that number. The moderation was granted, but the person called was to be informed that if he accepted "he had no reason to expect the concurrence of the Presbytery' in any application for foreign assistance." Most of the members of that Court were from the 574 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Antiburgher side, and the feeling among them might be that the Burgher church in Coupar-Angus ought never to have had existence. This call was addressed to Mr James Garrett, with 58 names appended. There was delay in sustaining, because there were reports of improper correspondence between the parties ; but Mr Garrett accepted Muirkirk, where he was ordained, and the affair was allowed to drop. A year later Mr William Carswell, afterwards of Eaglesham, was asked to fill the situation, but he wrote decidedly declining acceptance. They now called Mr Robert Paterson, who was afterwards in Greenloaning. A paper given in to the Presbytery at this time showed that the people, not without reason, were out of temper. On i3th March 1827 Mr Paterson appeared, stated reasons for declining, and the call was set aside. This brought the winding-up, and Coupar-Angus (Second) never again appears on the list of vacancies. One reason for holding on so long may have been that, if it ceased to be a going concern, their liabilities might never be met. The property was heavily burdened, and a church in a place like Coupar-Angus is not, in ordinary circumstances, a marketable commodity. Union was now aimed at, and after prolonged manipulation the First congregation agreed to receive the members of the Second congregation as individuals, and allow them Church privileges, it being understood that, instead of contributing to the funds, they would exert themselves to clear away their own congregational burdens. We find that 30 members acceded to Mr Muirhead's congregation on the above terms, but what the debt amounted to, and whether it was ever entirely discharged, is nowhere dis- closed. One bill, we know, had ultimately to be met by Dr Smith of Biggar, who from friendly feeling in former days had, along with some others, made himself responsible for payment. Such was the sombre history of the Burgher Church in Coupar-Angus, and such was the troubled close. ERROL (ANTIBURGHER) THE earliest notice of Errol in the Secession records is on ist July 1740, when three men from that parish, one of them an elder, acceded to the Associate Presbytery. On 23rd November 1752 the session of the North Church, Perth, had a paper laid before them from members in and about Errol asking to be erected into a distinct congregation. They had been getting supply before this, and the session agreed to fall in with their wishes, as it would probably strengthen their hands " in promoting the cause and work of the Lord in that corner." In July 1755 Perth session granted them j " to assist in building a house for public worship," and a collection was made that summer at Abernethy for the same purpose. On gth January 1759 the application to be congregated was renewed, and a paper was also given in from 53 persons not in accession earnestly desiring the Presbytery to send as frequent supply of preaching as possible to Errol. The death of the parish minister in the previous June may have done something to prompt this outside movement. The congregating was agreed to, and on 8th May four of their number were ordained to the eldership, and these, along with another from Perth, formed the original session of Errol. About this time there was some talk of a coalescence with Dundee, the design being to have the two places served by one minister, but it came to nothing. First Minister. ROBERT WATSON, from Brechin. Ordained, 22nd October 1760. As the call had 57 signatures we conclude that these could not be all male members, as was common in Antiburgher calls. That number of men would make the congregation as large at its origin as it PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 575 ever was afterwards. In a biographical notice of Mr Watson in the Christian Magazine he is spoken of as methodical in his style of preaching and in all his ways. But the Secession cause did not make much progress in Errol, and towards the close of the century the rise of a Relief congrega- tion in the town lessened the chances of increase. Mr Watson died, 2nd February 1813, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. All that remains of his pen is a sermon he preached at the opening of the Provincial Synod of Perth in March 1789, entitled "The Reply of Faith to the Enemies of Zion considered." It is ingenious in arrangement, precise in language, and thickly set with Bible texts. In less than three months after Mr Watson's death the Synod appointed Mr James Harvey to Muckart in preference to Errol. There is also mention of Mr James Reid, afterwards of Sanquhar, having been called to Errol, but on the ground of ill-health he refused to undertake a pastoral charge at that time. Second Minister. JOHN LAMB, from Brechin (City Road). Ordained, 1 2th April 1814, "the attendance," says the Christian Magazine, "being very large, and the services conducted in the open air." Nearly fifty-four years had passed since the former ordination, and nearly fifty-seven were to pass before there was another. In a Memoir of Mr Lamb which appeared in the U.P. Magazine for 1876 it is stated that his father left the Established Church towards the end of last century on account of an unpopular minister being thrust into the collegiate charge of the parish, but there must be some mistake here. The two young ministers ordained at Brechin about that time were James Burns and Robert Coutts, both of whom were wel- comed by the people, and proved themselves devoted and evangelical ministers. There was, however, a case from Brechin before the Assembly in 1798, when Mr James Garie, who had received the presentation, was declared by the Moderates to be disqualified, the ground alleged being that he had not received his education at one of the Scottish Universities. The decision was ascribed to want of sympathy with a pure gospel, and it gave rise to much dissatisfaction. But, whatever was the occasion, the adhesion of that family to the Secession when Mr Lamb was in his boyhood brought strengthening to the Antiburgher cause in Brechin. Errol congregation in the earlier part of Mr Lamb's ministry was much beholden to the mother church at Perth. In 1822 they received from that source 12, IDS., in 1823 ^15, and in 1825 it is entered : " Errol requires a new manse ; the old manse has been burnt, and it is impossible to find suitable accommodation for the minister in the village." This brought them first 11, and then ^7, 155. Errol also shared in the little the Synod had to give, amounting generally to ;io a year. In 1838 the membership of the congregation was 120, and of those in attendance all were parishioners except 1 1 from St Madoes, 5 from Kinfauns, and 3 from Inchture. In 1839 the debt of ,216 on the church property was almost cleared away, the people raising ^75 and the Board allowing ,125. The second church, built in 1809, with 240 sittings, and the new manse in 1826, had cost between them 710. Of this sum the congregation, though weak in numbers, contributed ^356, and received ,140 from sister congregations, leaving fully the above sum still to be paid. On this burden being removed the grant from the Synod Fund ceased for the time. In 1854, through the dissolution of what had been the Relief congregation, there was the accession of a few families, with better means of increase, and the communion roll rose from 107 in 1854 to 122 in 1858. For Mr Lamb the monotony of ministerial work in a narrow sphere was varied by the duties of Presbytery Clerk, an office which he held for thirty 576 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS years, and in which his sagacity was often of much service. In 1870, when he had reached the advanced age of eighty-three, he retired from active duty, and went to spend his closing years in Brechin. He died there, igth October 1875, in the eighty-ninth year of his age and sixty-second of his ministry. Third Minister. JAMES S. SCOTLAND, from Wilson Church, Perth. Called previously to Keith and to Aberdeen (now Garden Place). Ordained as colleague to Mr Lamb on loth January 1871, and loosed, 2oth May 1879 on accepting a call to Newport-on-Tay. The congregation now called Mr Robert Mackenzie, who declined, and was afterwards settled at Blantyre. Ffliirt/i Minister. ADAM BAILLIE, from Nigg, in Ross-shire. It was a time when openings were numerous, and Mr Baillie, after declining Nairn, Shapinshay, Fenwick, and Portree, was ordained at Errol, I2th April 1880. The membership in December 1899 was 116, and the stipend from the people ,105. ERROL (RELIEF) IN December 1794 Mr David Dow, son of the minister of Dron and a brother of the minister of Kilspindie, was presented to the parish of Errol. Through opposition the ordination was kept back for ten months, but it was effected on 24th September 1795. O '6th March 1796 a number of people about Errol represented to the Relief Presbytery of Perth their destitute condition, and craved supply of sermon. The Minute bears that after hearing the commissioners the Presbytery were persuaded that the people had been deprived of their rights and stood in need of the gospel. Sermon followed on alternate Sabbaths till fuller supply was arranged for. The church, with sittings for 700, was built that year, and the minister stated in 1838 that it was said "to have been erected chiefly by voluntary contribu- tions, and that much of it was done gratuitously." First Minister. CHARLES GUMMING, a native of Greenock, and brought up in the Established Church. Having obtained licence from the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow he was sent to supply at Errol five successive Sabbaths, and when a moderation was granted he was sent back other four Sabbaths. As a rule the Relief were more on their guard than the Secession against premature action in the matter of calls. Ordained, 9th February 1 797. The stipend was to be ^80, with a house, and > in name of expenses. In the early part of 1815 pulpit supply was needed for Mr Gumming, as he was in distress, and he died on 26th August of that year, "after a long and painful illness, which he bore to the- last with that sub- mission and patience which become a true believer in the doctrines he taught." He was in the forty-ninth year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry. Mr Gumming was twin-brother to the Rev. Archibald Gumming of Colinsburgh, and his eldest son, Mr Peter (i. Gumming, who was about fifteen when his father died, became a licentiate of the Established Church, and died at Colinsburgh, igth January 1875, m h' s seventy-fifth year. During this vacancy the congregation called the Rev. Thomas G. M'Innes, a name on which we are tempted to linger. He was a native of Stirlingshire and a graduate of Edinburgh University. On 25th August 1815 he was ordained for Halifax, Nova Scotia, but in 1819 Errol people invited him to return and become their minister. The Presbytery delayed concurrence, and in July they laid the call aside, as requested by the congregation. From Dr Struthers' History, and from an American source of information, we gather some particulars about Mr M'Innes. In student days his mind was unhinged, and in Halifax he early showed symptoms of PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 577 the same malady. This must have been about the time Errol congregation brought out their call. In the beginning of 1820 he left abruptly for the United States, and regained mental composure during the voyage. Having arrived at Philadelphia he was engaged as a home missionary, and after preaching in several parts of the city, where he drew large audiences, he was installed as pastor of the Ninth Presbyterian Church on i2th May 1820. But his old enemy woke up anew, and he died, 26th August 1824, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, having sunk, says Dr Struthers, under a severe paroxysm of his disorder. The testimony comes from Philadelphia that, besides being an excellent preacher, he was " a man of great integrity and benevolence of character," and that the congregation erected a hand- some gravestone to his memory. Second Minister. DAVID RUSSELL, who had resigned Hawick (Allars) some time before, and was inducted to Errol, 2ist June 1820. The stipend was to be ,85, with house rent, and ^5 for expenses. In 1838 there were 256 members, which was more than double the Secession congregation, and all except some two families resided within the parish. The seats were let at an average of scarcely 45. a year, and did not produce ,40 in all. At the end of 1846 the communicants were reported to the Presbytery at 176. The debt was ,90 and arrears of stipend ,115. The ordinary collections amounted to nearly ,70, but the seat rents gave only 14 guineas. To make matters worse, Mr Russell became incapacitated for work through a mental ailment, and Perth Presbytery reported to the Relief Synod in 1847 "that Errol Church had been receiving regular supply of sermon since November last, owing to the severe and protracted illness of their minister." In May 1848 the United Synod arranged for an allowance of ,30 to Mr Russell, the congregation to pay him other ,20. In this connection a bond in his possession for stipend required to be cancelled, a concession to which his family, acting for him, readily agreed, and the people were thus relieved of legal liability for the ,90 a year which they had engaged for. In the summer of 1848 a deputation from a Committee of Synod went to Errol with a view to the union of the two churches under the pastorate of Mr Lamb, but this congregation preferred to remain separate. In January 1849 they put in for another minister, though, after deducting the 20 promised to Mr Russell, they could not go beyond ^80. The moderation was granted, but five of the Presbytery " craved to have it marked that they took no part in this decision." It had an ungracious look, especially as all the five belonged to the Secession side of the church. The minister called was the Rev. Robert Gemmell of Temple Lane, Dundee, and the signatures amounted to 193 in all, 46 of these being adherents. The call was declined, and another followed forthwith to Mr George Morris, who accepted Dairy, Ayrshire. When matters were in this state Mr Russell felt himself able to resume work, and the people desisted from further attempts to procure a colleague ; but in January 1854 the Presbytery received a memorial from the congregation "bearing that their pastor was again subjected to the affliction under which he formerly laboured," and they also intimated that they were no longer able to support the ordinances of religion among them. The last notice comes up on 6th January 1855 in the form of a petition "craving that their affairs be finally settled " ; but the Presbytery refused to take any part in the winding-up, the congregation having, without sanction, "discontinued public worship and every form of Christian communion as an associated body." The Rev. John Caird was now parish minister of Errol, and the congrega- tion in their disheartened state were in the mood for being attracted back to the church their fathers had left half-a-century before. The family of II. 20 578 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS their aged minister and two or three others placed themselves under the ministry of Mr Lamb ; but numbers had already joined the parish church, and those who kept together to the end followed, it is believed, in a solid body. A difficulty now arose over the provision promised to Mr Russell. The Synod continued to pay the ^30 year by year ; but the 20 was beyond recovery, and the deficit was not made up till 1857, when he was admitted an annuitant on the Fund for Aged and Infirm Ministers. Mr Russell died, 1 2th July 1868, in the eighty-fourth year of his age and fifty-seventh of his ministry. He was dead to the world many years before. One of his sons was Mr Scott Russell, the well-known engineer. PITRODIE (BURGHER) THIS congregation originated in connection with an unpopular settlement in the parish of Kilspindie, though the hamlet of Pitrodie is within the bounds of Errol parish. In August 1788 Mr Anthony Dow, afterwards D.D., son of the minister of Dron, was appointed to the vacant charge by the Presbytery, and ordained, I2th February 1789. Dissatisfied, probably, at not being allowed their choice under the jits devolutiun Act, some people in and about Kilspindie petitioned the Burgher Presbytery of Perth for sermon, 7th October 1788, which was granted at once. The station was opened on the third Sabbath of October, and a session was constituted on I4th July 1790. But prior to this the building of a meeting-house was pro- ceeded with, as in October 1789 the Burgher congregation of Perth collected ;8, I2s. 6d. to assist in erecting a place of worship in Kilspindie, but they stipulated that the money was to be returned if a settlement were not obtained. According to a brief account of the congregation by the Rev. John Hunter, their fourth minister, it was a clay church, and built for the most part by voluntary labour. He also mentions that one of the leading men in the movement was a farmer who had been a member of the Antiburgher church in Errol, but owing to a dispute with the session had withdrawn. In this way the new formation had at least one germ of old Secession life at its centre from the beginning. First Minister. JOHN KYLE, from Kinross (West), where he had laboured for fourteen years amidst much discomfort. The first call was laid aside owing to informalities and because it was not written on stamped paper. Another followed, and Mr Kyle was inducted on I5th June 1791. The call was signed by 51 members, and the stipend was to be ^50 a year, with house, garden, and the upkeep of a horse. But even this stinted pro- vision proved too much for the people's ability, and within a few years Mr Kyle represented that all they could give him was ^30 a year, but if the ,10 he received from the Synod Fund were raised to ^15 he was willing to con- tinue. The Synod were under obligation to care for him, for they constrained him to accept a divided call to Kinross in the face of his own remonstrances, and when the place got too hot for him they transferred him to Pitrodie. From the report of a Presbyterial Committee we can gauge with accuracy the state of the congregation. There were about 50 members and between 10 and 20 ordinary hearers. They had 62 seats let, yieiding ,9, IDS. a year. At the summer communion they raised ,5 and at the winter communion 2. The weekly collections averaged 6s. 8d. and the special quarterly collections i. From the entire income of not over ,36 they had to deduct 4 for the feu and .2, IDS. for a house to the minister. Still, at a meeting with the Presbytery's Committee they all testified " that they were in earnest PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 579 for the continuance of the gospel among them, and would do their utmost to support their minister." As for Mr Kyle, when the Synod suggested Nova Scotia to him he preferred to keep by Pitrodie. Towards the end of 1796 there was a disruption in the parish church of Errol, and though the great body of the dissentients combined to form a Relief congregation in the town, a few families joined Pitrodie. It appears accordingly, from the Presbytery Minutes that there was at this time an improvement in the state of their affairs, there being in March 1797 the following entry : " Kilspindie gives their minister ^8 more per annum " A manse, with five rooms, was also erected on the church property, both it and the stable, as Mr Hunter states, being, like the meeting-house, built of clay. Mr Kyle had also half-an-acre of ground, and the farmers drove what coals were needed. Such were the arrangements which this little body of people made for the sustenance of their minister. Mr Kyle died, 24th January 1800. He was in the twenty-third year of his ministry, and it appears from the register of Cathcart parish that he was born in June 1744, so that he was in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Mr Hunter has described him as an able preacher, but not popular from the manner of his delivery. His son is referred to under Kirkintilloch. Not till after eight years were Pitrodie people prepared to face the re- sponsibilites of a second pastorate. During that period their circumstances had been greatly bettered, and instead of 38 they now undertook ^80, and it is explained that "a few of the members had agreed to subscribe a certain sum annually to enable the congregation to give this." Their call, addressed to Mr Alexander Campbell, was preferred by the Presbytery to another from St Andrews, but the Synod ultimately assigned him to Irvine. Now came a further delay of three and a half years at Pitrodie. Second Minister. WILLIAM PROUDFOOT, from Peebles, but a native of Manor parish. The call was signed by 80 members and 75 adherents, and it carried in the Synod over another from Leslie (Trinity) with more than double the names. The stipend was to be ^85, with house and garden, and ^5 for each -communion. Ordained, nth August 1813. The membership at this time Mr Hunter gives as 92, and he adds that 35 joined the church at the first communion, and in a few years the membership rose to 200. Within a twelvemonth Mr Proudfoot was invited to undertake the building up of a Burgher congregation in Coupar-Angus, but he was continued at Pitrodie. In 1816 the clay-built church gave place to a larger and more substantial edifice, which cost ^700, and was seated for 320. This accounts fora heavy debt on the property, entailing difficulties out of which Mr Proudfoot's popu- larity failed to extricate the congregation, and on 5th June 1832 he demitted his charge. The Synod at its recent meeting had fixed on Canada as a field of Foreign Mission operations, and Mr Proudfoot had accepted an appoint- ment to go there as one of the pioneers. The congregation sent up a paper expressive of strong affection for their minister, but the demission was accepted with best wishes for his success in his destined field of labour. After taking his bearings in Upper Canada Mr Proudfoot settled down at New London, a growing village, with a population of 500. For a number of years he also supplied two other stations, one of them nine miles distant. In 1848 he was appointed Professor of Theology, but his connection with the congregation of New London remained as before. He died there on i6th January 1851, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-eighth of his .ministry. He was succeeded by his son, now the Rev. Dr Proudfoot, Lecturer or Professor in Knox College, Toronto. In the Religious Encyclo- paedia, edited by Dr Schaff, Dr Ormiston sums up Mr Proudfoot's character- istics as follows : "As a theologian he was scholarly and profound ; as a 580 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS scholar, erudite and accurate ; as a preacher, instructive and impressive ; as a teacher, clear, logical, and inspiring." Third Minister. THOMAS NiCOL, from Selkirk. Called also to Sunder- land (Smyrna Chapel), but the Synod, after a letter had been read from him expressing his preferences, appointed him to Pitrodie. The right of deter- mining in such cases was now passing from their hands, and they were chary about running counter to the wishes of the preacher. The ordination took place, 25th September 1833. The stipend was now ^80, with manse and garden. In 1838 the membership was 178, nearly two-thirds being in the parish of Errol, another third in that of Kilspindie, and very few in Kinfauns, Inchture, Kinnoull, and Kinnaird. The sittings yielded ,40, being let at an average of 55. a year, and the collections ,60. Mr Nicol's minis- terial course came to a troubled close. We have a vivid description of his condition from George Gilfillan's pen : " He was ambitious, but got only a small church in a rural district, where he was diligent, and for a time pros- pered considerably. Bad times, however, arrived, and a large portion of his flock were compelled to emigrate to America. He came into the seaport along with 30 of his members, and bade them farewell on board the ship in which they had taken their passage amidst fervent prayer on his part and bursting tears on theirs. He called on me immediately after, and told me in the quiet but gloomy tones of despair that his congregation was ruined." Then, left among his own thoughts, " his mind became soured almost to frenzy, and a cloud of fierce hypochondria began to gather over his gifted soul." In September 1843 the congregation brought before the Presbytery their peculiar circumstances owing to the state of Mr Nicol's health, he having been for about a year confined to his room. In March 1844 Mr Nicol was prevailed on to demit his charge, and on i6th April his connection with Pitrodie was dissolved. Having had pulpit supply to provide for, the congregation was ^25 in arrears with the stipend ; but they were taking measures to have this paid up, and the Presbytery hoped they would assist afterwards in supporting Mr Nicol. But a grant of ^20 received from the Synod Fund, with the above payment, must have sufficed. He died in Perth Infirmary on 23rd August 1845, m the forty-second year of his age. "Thus passed away," says Mr Gilfillan, "in the prime of his days, a man who in happier circumstances might have been a distinguished ornament either of the world or of the Church." After a year and a half Pitrodie called Mr William Cowan, being the first of six vacancies which offered him welcome, but Buckhaven was accepted. Fourth Minister. JOHN HUNTER, from West Linton. A year before this Mr Hunter accepted Campbelltown, Ardersier, where he had been located, but hostility arose, and he withdrew his acceptance. Now a door opened at Pitrodie, a more desirable place. The call was signed by 109 members, or 20 more than for Mr Cowan. The ordination took place, 23rd March 1847. The debt, which had been reduced to ,300 before Mr Nicol's illness, increased to ^380 during the troubled years which followed. How these liabilities were met does not appear; but by 1858 the amount was reduced to ,50, and before Mr Hunter's death the whole encumbrance was cleared away. The communion roll, which stood at 132 when he was ordained, rose gradually, till in 1860 it reached 173, but from that time there was a faint decline. Mr Hunter died after an illness often days on I2th May 1865, in the fifty-first year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry. He was buried in the churchyard of Kirkurd, his native parish. Fifth Minister. CHARLES NAISMITH, from Rothesay. He had also the choice of Smethwick, in Lancashire, and Burray, in Orkney, but was ordained at Pitrodie, 27th March 1866. The congregation, though fewer in PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 5 8i numbers, still kept by the .80, "the stipend paid to their late pastor," with manse and garden. The membership as reported to the Presbytery was now 127 ; but the statistical returns from Pitrodie at that period baffle the powers of arithmetic. Thus in 1861 the communion roll fell from 141 to 113, though the removals exceeded the accessions by only 13, and in 1869, when the accessions exceeded the removals by i, the total membership sank from 1 08 to 80. On gth June 1868 Mr Naismith penned a note to the Presbytery resigning his charge, that the interests of the congregation might not suffer, he said, on account of a late serious event in his domestic circumstances. At next meeting, on 3oth June, the committee which had travelled in the case intimated that the congregation was unanimous in favour of the resig- nation being accepted, which was agreed to. Mr Naismith showed a sub- missive spirit, and was to abstain from preaching till he should be able to inform them that matters were put right. The end having been gained he appeared before the Presbytery to be admonished, and the way was pro- nounced clear for his return to the probationer list. He kept, however, by an educational situation in Leith, and while he was there the rent was reopened. In March 1870 he applied to Perth Presbytery for a certificate of ministerial standing, as he intended to go abroad. Having obtained legal redress on the ground of desertion he removed to Boston, United States, where he remained three years. He then spent two years in Liverpool. Next, he resided in Helensburgh, where he joined the Free Church, and under its auspices went to Australia about twenty years ago. After holding a charge there for a considerable time he retired, and took up his residence at South Yarra, Melbourne. Sixth Minister. ALEXANDER BURR, from Cambridge Street, Glasgow, but a native of Aberdeen. Ordained, 4th May 1869. The membership was now about 90, but they still maintained the former stipend, and the Home Board was to grant other ,60. After going on for three years Mr Burr resigned, explaining that "his health had not been good for some time past, and that in the hope of its improvement he had offered himself, and had been accepted, as a missionary to Trinidad." The congregation feeling constrained to acquiesce the resignation was accepted, i6th April 1872. Mr Burr set out in the beginning of May to be inducted at San Fernando ; but after officiating there for a few months he left, under medical advice, for the United States with his family, where he had charge of three different stations. He died at North Dakota, United States, 5th May 1897, in the sixty- seventh year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry. The commissioners from Pitrodie now requested sermon for six months that their prospects might be tested. A year afterwards, when the Rev. John Munro, formerly of Creetown, was fulfilling a location among them a modera- tion was applied for. Though the communion roll was down to 53 the people were willing to promise the time-honoured sum of ,80, with manse and garden ; but the Presbytery looked on this as an overstrain, and thoughts of a fixed ministry were dropped. For several years the place was filled by one theological student after another, the remuneration being ^60 from the congregation, with the manse, and ^30 from the Home Board, but in 1878 an arrangement was adopted which has gone far to combine the advantages of a location and a stated pastorate. The Rev. William White, who had been minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Carnoustie, from 1863 to 1873, and was now a Free Church minister without a charge, had officiated at Pitrodie. The people unanimously requested him to give them his services for the ensuing year, to which he agreed, and with the sanction of the Presbytery ordinances have been kept up in that way ever since. Eighteen years ago a union was suggested with the Free Church at 582 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Kinfauns, but the people " unanimously resolved that, owing to the present attitude of the two denominations no such proposal could be entertained." In like manner the negotiations of the Free Church Presbytery at Kinfauns ended in failure. The membership of Pitrodie at the close of 1899 was 63, and the money contributed for stipend was still ^60. In 1885 Mr White was formally admitted by the Synod to ministerial fellowship with the United Presbyterian Church. BALFOUR (BURGHER) Ox igth June 1819 a petition from 37 persons in the parishes of Abernyte, Inchture, and Longforgan was laid before the Burgher Presbytery of Perth setting forth the great want of the gospel in these parishes, and expressing dissatisfaction with the judicatories of the Established Church. Their request for supply of sermon being granted, 26 of the applicants nine months after- wards craved to be recognised as a congregation. On 3oth May 1820 the two members of Presbytery nearest them retired after sermon to separate houses, where between them they examined 20 candidates for admission to Church fellowship, and these, along with other 9 who subsequently came forward, were formed into a congregation. On 2ist April 1821 three of their number were ordained to the eldership, and at the ensuing meeting of Synod they were allowed 10 for initial expenses. In the end of that year it was announced in the Christian Recorder that the congregation of Balfour had purchased the meeting-house at that place belonging to Mr Haldane, who at the time he built it was a heritor of Abernyte parish. In February 1822 they called Mr David Smith, promising ,75, with a glebe of two acres, besides house and garden. The communion roll was now over 50, and of these 44 signed the call, and also 40 ordinary hearers. As if considering that this little congregation was aiming too high the Presbytery allowed meeting after meeting to pass, and though the people petitioned them to forward Mi- Smith's settlement they failed to move a finger. At last notice came of a call to Biggar, and the congregation intimated at next meeting that, if Mi- Smith showed no preference for Balfour, they would forego all claims to his services. He was ordained at Biggar soon afterwards. In 1827 a second and last attempt was made to secure a minister. The membership was down now to 40, and the stipend to ^65, with no mention of the two acres of land. The call was addressed to Mr Robert Blackwood, but he held -himself in reserve, and was ordained at Banff three years later. All parties seem now to have settled down into the belief that Balfour was never to be a fully-equipped congregation. There was henceforth the moving on in a noiseless way, with a grant of ^27 a year from the Home Mission Fund. In 1835 the Rev. James Blyth, formerly of Urr, and now residing in Perth, was located at Balfour for three months at the request of the people, and his labours were reported to have been highly acceptable. It was only by some arrangement answering to a regular pastorate that the cause could receive justice. But instead of this preachers came and went, the order at one period being that they were to preach during the day at Balfour and conduct a service at Longforgan in the evening. Of these evening meetings the Rev. A. Philip in his History of Longforgan parish has given the following account : "They were held in sheds and barns, and frequently in the open air. They were largely attended, and, compared with the canny preaching common in most country places, the barn preachings were much enjoyed." Thither went Mr Gilfillan of Dundee once a year, and Mr Nicol of Pitrodie oftener, and, says Mr Philip, "all these helped, without a doubt, to cherish the higher life of the people." PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 583 In 1844 the Synod's report returned the membership at 50, and the money contributed by the people at 46, but by another year the roll was down to 33, and the income to ^27. The parishes of Abernyte and Long- forgan had each a Free church now, and it may have been felt that the services kept up at Balfour for a quarter of a century might be dispensed with. The end came on 3oth December 1845, as appears from the Presby- tery Minutes: "The Clerk reported that since last meeting the Balfour people, finding themselves unable to support the station any longer, had requested the preachers to be withdrawn, which he had done accordingly." This was approved of, and the name appears no more in the records of the denomination. ABERNETHY AND THE SOUTHERN DIVISION ABERNETHY (AXTIBURGHER) First Minister. ALEXANDER MoxcRiEFF, M.A., a grandson of the Rev. Alexander Moncrieff of Scoonie, who was both a marked man and a man of mark in the days of the persecution. Ordained, I4th September 1720, as minister of Abernethy, the parish to which belongs the estate of Culfargie, of which he was proprietor. All along he upheld the cause of evangelical truth, and sometimes in an ungenial atmosphere, of which Mr Wilson of Perth has given a memorable specimen in his Diary. Referring to a co- Presbyter who had preached a very offensive Synod sermon, he wrote down : "This same man some short time after, when Mr Moncrieff of Abernethy remarked on a young man's discourse before the Presbytery of Perth that there was nothing of Christ in it, had the assurance to reply : ' And must Christ still be the burden of the song?'" The particulars of Mr MoncriefPs personal history have been given by Dr Young of Perth in one of the volumes of " The United Presbyterian Fathers," and may be passed over here. All along he was the most unbending of the Four Brethren, and for the Breach over the Burgess Oath he and Adam Gib were largely responsible. When the time came to decide for or against accession to the Associate Presbytery there was not entire unanimity in the session of Abernethy. At a meeting on 2oth October 1736 the question was put : "Shall we take up the Act and Testimony?" when of the ten members present seven said Yes, two said No, and one was silent. Mri Moncrieff occupied his old pulpit for other three years, and worshippers went up to Abernethy from a wide stretch eastward, extending along the Haugh of Fife as far as the German Ocean. After the Eight Brethren were deposed, "Mr Moncrieff, with characteristic determination," says Dr M'Kerrow, "refused to enter the parish church " ; but this is far from harmonising with the session records for August 1744. The Secession church, with accommodation for 1300, was now finished, and Mr Moncrieff brought up the question before his elders whether they ought not to continue to worship in the churchyard till winter came on. He had weighty reasons, he said, for asserting his right to his former place of worship. In July 1746 the minister informed his session that the heritors and others, in addition to locking and nailing the church doors, which they did long ago, had now nailed and locked up the doors of the churchyard.' Then outside the gate, where the congregation was assembled, he said : " I have kept this public place of worship till now that I am violently thrust out from it." 584 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS On the death of Mr Wilson of Perth in 1741 Mr Moncrieff was appointed Professor of Theology. He was among exhausting labours, though after Ceres became the seat of a congregation his territories to the east were brought within reasonable limits. But, weighted for three months of the year with class duties, Mr Moncrieff felt the need of a colleague, though he was only a few years over fifty, and as he took no stipend the people would have only one minister to provide for. Second Minister. MATTHEW MONCRIEFF, Culfargie's eldest son. Or- dained, ist February 1749. The moderation took place sixteen months before ; but there was a dearth of preachers, and the Presbytery might reckon the claims of Abernethy to be no way urgent. Though the congregation was reduced at the Breach by large withdrawals from the parishes of Auchter- muchty, Strathmiglo, and Collessie, the call was signed by 294 (male) members. In 1754 the congregation of Peebles called Mr Matthew Moncrieff, but the Synod, in deference, we may believe, to the wishes of both father and son, decided not to transport. Of young Moncrieffs pulpit gifts we may insert the following account from George Gilfillan : " He preached very short, never longer than half-an-hour, but it was like one of the bursts of Vesuvius all force and passion and fire. He never used notes, nor even wrote his sermons." In floating traditions of that kind we may assume a basis of reality. On 7th October 1761 Mr Alexander Moncrieff died, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. At successive meetings he had been urging the Synod to lay a representation of their grievances before the King, but he only got one of his brethren to support him. Mr Gib resisted the proposal with characteristic energy, alleging that the step was unwarrantable, impracticable, unreasonable, improper, irregular, unscrip- tural, and premature ; but Culfargie was very persistent, and brought up the subject at five successive meetings. On the last occasion he got it marked that he claimed to have the door left open "for his exoneration," but before another meeting death intervened. His younger son, William, minister of Alloa, was chosen Professor of Theology in his father's place. Dr M'Kelvie understood that the two brothers studied Theology in connection with the Established Church before they joined the Associate Presbytery, and in this he saw evidence of Culfargie's liberality of spirit. It is true when they formally acceded to the Associate Presbytery they were divinity students, but it was their father's class they had attended. Of Mr A. Moncrieffs daughters, three were married to Antiburgher ministers Agnes to the Rev. Robert Cunningham of Eastbarns ; Margaret to the Rev. George Murray of Lockerbie ; and Jane to the Rev. Dr Pringle of Perth. Mr Moncrieff took part with his pen in the Burgess Oath Controversy, but it is enough to give the title of one of his pamphlets : "Artifices of the Burghers to hide their Defections considered." At that troubled time his words contrast with what he wrote in his student days : " One way of thinking and an entire harmony of judgment is reserved as a valuable jewel of that crown of glory which shall encircle the happy heads of the Church Triumphant." In 1766 Mr Matthew Moncrieff expressed the wish to have a "helper," and a committee was appointed to confer with the managers relative to ways and means. His father's generosity in taking no stipend from the people was unfavourable to the development of liberality in Abernethy Church, and the son, who may have got the estate under heavy burdens, could not afford to act with like self-surrender. A short time after he became sole pastor the following Minute occurs in the congregational records: "The managers, finding that their minister was in a strait for money, agreed to borrow." At this time the ordinary income was under ^90 a year, though PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 585 the congregation had some 700 communicants. Now came an application to the Presbytery for supply of preachers, and in January 1767 the elders were going round their districts to ascertain whether there was ripeness for a moderation. But before a colleague could be obtained the whole situation was changed, as Mr Moncrieff died on nth June 1767, in the forty-second year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry. One of his daughters was the second wife of Dr George Jerment of London, and the grandmother of the Rev. George Barlas of Musselburgh. Third Minister. COLIN BROWN, son of the Rev. George Brown of Perth. At the moderation Mr William Moncrieff of Alloa was proposed for colleague to his brother, but he received only five votes. The Presbytery appointed Mr Brown to Brechin ; but their decision was appealed to the Synod, and while the case was pending Mr Moncrieff died. The Synod in the altered circumstances gave the preference to Abernethy, and Mr Brown was ordained, loth November 1767, having entered on his twenty- first year a few days before. Of the young minister there is little to be recorded. In the Old Statistical History he is described as "a very prudent, sensible man, quiet and conscientious in the discharge of his duties." In 1783 the congregation was seriously diminished by the disjunction of a large branch to form an Antiburgher congregation in Auchtermuchty, four miles to the south. It appears from the session Minutes that whilst in 1771 over 600 intended to communicate, the entire number on the roll in 1786 was only 410. In Mr Brown's case the premature beginning was followed by an early break- down. In the Presbytery records for I4th April 1801 it is entered that he was absent from distress, and there was a petition from Abernethy for frequent supply. Though only a few years over fifty he had been struck with palsy, which affected his right side, and he was never himself again. Fourth Minister. DAVID LAWRIE, the son of a farmer in the congrega- tion. The Presbytery were not satisfied with the stipend promised, which was only ^60 ; but they put no arrest on the movement, and Mr Lawrie was ordained as colleague to Mr Brown, 2oth June 1803. The call was signed by 1 68 (male) members. With Mr Brown the close came suddenly. He died, 8th July 1805, having attended public worship the day before, and having preached on a recent Sabbath. He was in the fifty-eighth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. Under his successor the tendency of the congregation was to narrow in ; but so late as the close of the century the Secession had the ascendency in Abernethy. In the Old Statistical History the parish minister gave 774 of the population, young and old, as Anti- burghers, and 628 as belonging to the Established Church. Prior to the Union of 1820 a goodly number of families, as appears from the baptismal register, were from the town and parish of Newburgh, but most of these were now disjoined. The formation of a church at Edenshead in 1825 also drew off a section from Arngask and the upper part of Strathmiglo parish. Minister and people in those days were reckoned rigidly Antiburgher in their leanings, of which we have a lifelike forthsetting in James Skinner's Autobiography. In keeping with these characteristics Mr Lawrie held back from union with the Burghers, and when the Basis was adopted he was one of fourteen who " protested for leave to exoner themselves, if they shall see cause." He was absent, however, from next meeting of Synod, and did nothing further. Like his predecessor, Mr Lawrie entered on heavy ministerial work before reaching his majority, and like him he was disabled at a comparatively early age. In 1837 the dispensing of the communion had to devolve on others, and from that time Abernethy required constant supply. But more was needed if the work of the congregation was to be efficiently carried on. 586 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Fifth .Minister. JOHN CLARK, from Morebattle, where his brother-in- law, the Rev. Robert Cranston, was minister. Having set aside a call from Kendal Mr Clark was ordained, 27th March 1839. When the congregation was arranging for a second minister the Presbytery foresaw difficulties on the score of liberality, and appointed a committee to compass proper ad- justments. It is known that in 1812, when they were larger in numbers, the stipend was only 70, with the manse, and a glebe of four or five acres Culfargie's bequest to the congregation. They proposed now to give the senior minister his lifetime of the manse and glebe, and they were to allow the colleague ^100 in all. A section of the people, along with the Presby- tery, urged a better provision for Mr Lawrie, and it was at last agreed that the infirm minister should receive ^20, in addition to the first proposal, and the junior minister ^80. Mr Lawrie survived other ten years, but he was entirely laid aside from active service. He died, 2ist December 1849, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and forty-seventh of his ministry. On 2ist July 1867 the present church was opened, with accommodation for 610, and built at a cost of ,2700. Mr Clark, who had been in failing health for a consider- able time, died on the evening of 3rd May 1885. When the Synod met on the following day his death was announced from the chair which he had occupied in 1881. He was in the seventy-second year of his age and forty- seventh of his ministry. Mr Clark was a son-in-law of Dr Young of Perth. His son, of the same name, is minister of Union Church, Kirkcaldy, and a daughter is the wife of the Rev. John P. Hogarth, Renfrew. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM M. PATON, B.D., from St James' Church, Paisley. Ordained, i3th May 1886. The membership at the close of the preceding year was 256, and the stipend from the people was to be .175, with the manse. Accepted a call to Sandyford Church, Glasgow, 3rd December 1895. Seventh Minister. -WILLIAM T. CAIRNS, M.A., son of the Rev. David Cairns of Stitchel. Ordained, nth June 1896. The membership in De- cember 1899 was 177, and the stipend from the people 175, as before. ABERNETHY (BURGHER) First and only Minister. ALEXANDER PIRIE, whose name appears in 1757 as a member of Mr MoncriefPs congregation. Appointed in 1760 to conduct the Philosophical Class at Abernethy, an office which he held for two seasons. He was then remitted by the Synod to the Presbytery of the bounds for licence that he might be missioned to America. Adam Gib explains that he had been teaching his students " some modish affectations," and they did not think it expedient to employ him as their tutor any longer. At the Synod in April 1763 he assigned " indisposition " as his reason for not fulfilling the appointment, and at that meeting one of his students, Mr Laurence Wotherspoon, afterwards of Haddington, was accused of heresy. It was next alleged that Mr Pirie had ridiculed the Synod's action in this matter, and, worst of all, it was ascertained that he had recommended Karnes' Essay on Liberty and Necessity to his class a most dangerous book, according to Mr Gib. Failing to convince him that he had done wrong the Synod decided that he should be rebuked and deprived of his licence. The finish is best given from their own records, which bear that Mr Pirie, in a very passionate manner, protested against their procedure, and appealed to the court of heaven, and immediately went off "uttering some indecent and offensive speeches." At their next meeting in April 1764 the Synod were informed that Mr PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 587 Pirie was preaching at Abernethy ; that a number of the people there were countenancing him ; and that the result was the stirring up of violent ani- mosities in that congregation against their minister and against the Synod. His admirers by-and-by resolved to have him ordained over then), and accordingly, in November following, Mr Pirie applied to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth to be taken under their inspection. Queries, fifteen in number, were proposed to him, to test his orthodoxy, and his written answers showed him to be as sound as a bell. Then, having preached before them, he was received into Church fellowship, and recognised as a licentiate. At the same meeting a petition was submitted by a consider- able body of people in and about Abernethy to be formed into a congrega- tion. After some demur, in the interests of Auchtermuchty Church, this was agreed to on i8th December, and an election of elders was appointed. Then a call issued in favour of Mr Pirie, and he was ordained on I7th July 1765. Another storm ere long began to gather. In 1766 a pamphlet appeared, arguing strongly against National Covenanting, and Mr Pirie was believed to be the author. In standing up for the binding obligation of the Covenants the Burghers were at a disadvantage, as in none of their congregations had the bond been renewed since the Breach, and Mr Pirie told them he could not see the use of " squabbling about a moral duty, which may not be duty once in 70, 700, 7000 years, or to eternity." But while the Presbytery were engaged with this question a rumour reached them that, in one or more dis- courses preached at Abernethy, Mr Pirie had taught that the germs of the Saviour's body were of heavenly origin, and from this the heretical doctrine could be drawn that He was not flesh of our flesh. Witnesses were ex- amined as to the purport of what he had said, and on 27th June 1767 the Presbytery unanimously suspended him from office and Church fellowship, though there is nothing to show that, on the subject of the Incarnation, he taught anything inconsistent with the standards of the Church. At the Synod in August he brought forward a complaint against the Presbytery of Dunfermline, but the affair was delayed. In May 1768 the case was dismissed as informal ; but, says Mr Pirie, " I told the Synod that the Presbytery are men guilty of the grossest dissimulation, and that in their paper they have asserted the most notorious falsehoods." After returning home he set himself to scrutinise the publications of the Seceders, and found that "their distinguishing principles were not the principles of the oracles of God/' He now sent in his declinature to the Presbyter)', and after a time the matter was allowed to drop. Mr Pine's congregation vouched for their ministers orthodoxy both by representation to the Church Courts and in a printed pamphlet. He was standing alone now ; but on loth July 1770 the Relief congregation of Blair- logie called him to be their minister, and, amidst strife and confusion, he entered on his new field of labour. Having occasioned convulsions, first in the Antiburgher and then in the Burgher section of the Secession, he was now to be instrumental in rending the Relref Presbytery asunder ; but the particulars belong to the history of Blairlogie Church. After he left Abernethy his people kept together for a time, and got sermon from the Relief Presbytery of Edinburgh. All we know of them further is that they presented a call to Mr Robert Paterson in September 1771, on the day he accepted Largo. But applications had been coming in before this to the Antiburgher session from some of Mr Pirie's people to be received back into membership ; and the process went on at intervals for the next four years, though the whole number was only about 20, among whom were two elders. As usually happens when a congregation breaks up, there would 588 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS be a general dispersion. The place of worship still stands, but it is now used as a stable. Passing the intervening chapter in Mr Pirie's life we find that he removed from Blairlogie to Xewburgh in 1778, where, according to Dr George Brown, he became a vendor of medicines. He also ministered to a little Independent or Glassite congregation ; but no baptisms by Mr Pirie are entered in the parish register till April 1782, four years after he left Blairlogie. He died suddenly at Xewburgh, 23rd November 1804, in the .sixty-eighth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. The newspaper notice adds : " In his public character he discovered a deep acquaintance with the Scriptures, an enlightened mind, and great liberality of sentiment." His collected works were published in six volumes after his death, and are still occasionally met with. They include, besides much miscellaneous material, " A Dissertation on Baptism,'" and evince great mental vigour and acuteness. His controversial pamphlets are scathing in their denunciations, and intensely clever. In the treatment he received in each of the three denominations, and specially among the Burghers, he had much to induce a burning sense of wrong, but his might have been both a happier and more useful life had he been less given to right his own wrongs, and to fight his own battles. DUNNING (BURGHER) IN July 1768 Mr Lewis Dunbar was presented to Dunning by the Earl of Kinnoull. On the moderation day, out of 25 heritors, 15, including Lord Rollo and others of high name, signed the call. The heads of families numbered 136, of whom 30 subscribed. The elders seem to have been all hostile, but the call was sustained. On i4th October a petition for sermon was presented to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth from " several people in and about the parish of Dunning." The station was opened on the fifth Sabbath of that month by Mr James Mitchell, a preacher whom they called some time after. Then came attempts to checkmate the people at every move, as is fully related in a valuable paper drawn up in 1844 by a com- mittee of the congregation. First a site could not be obtained, and then building materials were denied them. Owing to such discouragements "few seceded from the Establishment," and the church they built was of a very superficial kind. On I4th August 1769 they had five elders ordained, and that same day they brought out a unanimous call to Mr Mitchell, the probationer already named. In due course the ordination was fixed for 6th March 1770, but when the Presbytery met there were only the Moderator from Scone present, and his elder, and the minister from Rathillet. Of the 12 clerical members 10 were absent, including the 2 who were to officiate. The weather must have been exceptionally severe to account for failures so extensive. Worst of all, Mr Mitchell was not forward ; but there was a letter from him, in which he wrote : " I have no freedom to submit to ordination at present, though you should proceed to take my licence from me." After public worship the people requested supply, and held forth their distressed state by reason of this miscarriage. At next meeting Mr Mitchell, who had been refused further appointments, compeared, pro- fessed to look on his past conduct as sinful, and was rebuked. Thus en- couraged, the people, after months of delay, renewed their call, but only by a majority, and the Presbytery dismissed it. This early failure, as the manuscript account puts it, "greatly disappointed them, and some of them returned to the Establishment." Mr Mitchell's action in relation to Dunning was in perfect keeping with PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 589 his antecedents. While he was on trials for licence before Glasgow Presby- tery fault was found with him, and he went off abruptly, "without leave asked or given." When a preacher he was in the way of disappointing con- gregations and "preaching at his own hand in other places." He had now been twelve years on the probationer list, and during that time he received three calls, but in each case there was declinature. Dunning was the final move. His name appears on the preachers' list till May 1775, and we have no means of tracing him further. This trying chapter in the experience of Dunning congregation was to repeat itself with sundry variations. They entered into competition with Leslie for Mr James Hamilton, much against the mind of the- Presbytery. The earlier call being preferred the commis- sioners protested and appealed, having a presentiment, perhaps, that the Synod would befriend them on account of what they had already passed through. If so they calculated rightly, as the Presbytery's decision was upset, and Mr Hamilton appointed to be ordained at Dunning. It was in September 1771 that the case was issued, but when the Presbytery met on 23rd October Mr Hamilton was neither to be seen nor heard of. He was written to, but at next meeting he was not present, nor had he replied to their letter. The Presbytery now thought it best to leave the Synod to enforce their own sentence, and this involved a wearisome hanging on for five months. Before the Supreme Court Mr Hamilton succumbed, and signified his willingness "to enter upon trials," but at the first meeting of Presbytery he was ready with none of his discourses. Rebuke and firm injunctions had not brought him one step nearer when they met again. Next week his case was submitted to the Synod, and of what was done there the Rev. Patrick Hutchison, Relief minister of St Xinians, gave the follow- ing account : " I had occasion to attend the Burgher Synod a few years ago, when a young gentleman who had received a call to Dunning was called to the bar to answer for his conduct and to be censured for non-acceptance. After the poor young man, for whom my heart bled, had offered to the Synod the best apology he could for not accepting the call from Dunning a reverend member rose up in the open Synod and moved that his licence be taken from him." By this time the congregation, " wearied of their struggle with his obstinacy, dropped the call," and Mr Hamilton was rebuked, with certification that, should he give similar offence again, he would be suspended from preaching the gospel. His name remained on the preachers' list other ten years. It comes up for the last time in November 1782. Of Mr Hamilton we only know further that he belonged to Cambusnethan. First Minister. JOHN MACKIE, who acceded as a student of theology to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth in January 1772. He explained in the paper he gave in that he became dissatisfied with the preaching and deportment of his parish minister, and having examined the Act and Testimony of the Associate Presbytery he joined the Antiburghers, and had been several sessions in attendance at their Hall. He further confessed that he had no acquaintance at this time with the distinction between the two sections of Seceders, a statement which leads to the conclusion that he belonged to some locality where the Burghers had not got footing. On examination, he became satisfied that approbation or disapprobation of swearing the Burgess Oath was no fit term of communion, neither did he approve of the system the Antiburghers had of dragging people into the work of covenanting. Having attended the Burgher Hall at Haddington one session he got licence, and on 5th August 1773 he was ordained at Dunning. During his brief ministry there was progress, at least in one way. When he went, there was no dwelling-house for the minister ; but on ist July 1775 it is minuted that the session met in the "new manse." On 590 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS 2nd April 1776 he intimated to the Presbytery by letter that he had recently fulfilled an appointment of theirs, but within six days a small sum is entered in the parish register as having been paid for the mort-cloth at Mr Mackie's funeral. Second Minister. JOHN BEUGO, from Dunfermline (Queen Anne Street), a congregation in which the family name figured at an early period. Con- sidering that they would have a struggle to support the gospel with decency, the Presbytery sought and obtained the sanction of the Synod before granting a moderation. The call was signed by no members and 37 adherents, and the ordination took place on gth August 1780. On the morning of Sabbath, 6th October 1805, Mr Beugo expired, when in the act of dressing for the pulpit. Dr George Brown has described him as "of low stature, with stentorian voice fitted for tent preaching." He was in or about the sixty-second year of his age and the twenty-sixth of his ministry. He left a widow with five children under fourteen years of age, the youngest being only seven months old. One son, who bore his father's name, got licence from Dunfermline Presbytery in 1826, and withdrew from the preachers' list in 1835. " Removed to Monkwearmouth." Mr Beugo's death was followed by a vacancy of six and a half years, during which the congregation issued two unsuccessful calls, each of them signed by 82 members. The first was to Mr Alexander Brown, from Perth (Wilson Church) ; but the Synod appointed him to Bellingham, in Northumberland, where he was ordained, 24th August 1808, and died, 4th May 1828, aged forty-nine years. The second was to Mr Archibald Henderson, from Bridge of Teith. Ordained at Carlisle, 3Oth October 1810, and resigned, 8th April 1818, with the view of proceeding to Canada. At St Andrews in that colony he long occupied an isolated position, through being in receipt of ^100 a year as a State-paid minister. In 1859 he retired from active duty owing to loss of sight, but retained his status and the "regium donum," and in 1860 he was received into connection with the Presbyterian Church of Canada. He was also present at the Union of 1875, an d, as the father of the Assembly, offered up prayer. He died, igth January 1877, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. John Morton of Leslie. Third Minister. JAMES SMITH, born in Dunning parish but entered the Hall from Lochgelly. When a student Mr Smith was engaged three successive seasons teaching a school at Gauldry, in the neighbourhood of Kilmany, and acted as amanuensis to the Rev. Thomas Chalmers when he was writing the early part of his article on Christianity. The influence he came under at that time may partly account for the energy of his own pulpit delivery. Ordained at Dunning, 25th March 1812, Perth Presbytery having preferred it to Newbigging, in Forfarshire. In 1806 the present church, with 30x3 sittings, was built, and now it was found necessary to provide the minister with a new manse. This double undertaking, notwithstanding the exertions of the people and a grant of ^15 from the Synod in the one case, and of ,20 in the other, left them with a debt of over ,300. During the first eight or nine years of Mr Smith's ministry the communion roll increased by more than one-third ; but about 1828 an adverse tide set in, and within two years between 60 and 70 members removed beyond the bounds of the congregation, while only 10 came in to supply their places. It was enough to tempt despair, but instead of this the minister and people set themselves earnestly to have the debt reduced. Application was made to a few sister congregations for collections, and "the minister in the year 1832 went to London, and by the aid of a friend realised 77." Thus 104 was cleared off, leaving .215. In 1844 the Debt Liquidating Board promised ^115 if PRESBYTERY OF PERTH S9 , the people would make up the other .95. This was agreed to, and in a short time the oppressive burden was removed. When Mr Smith's ministry began the stipend promised was .90, with house and garden. About the year 1827 Dunning began to receive aid from the Synod, averaging 10 a year. The parish at this time was over- churched, there being five places of worship within its bounds, and of these four were in the village, while the whole population was only about 2000. But by the Union of 1847 a way was opened for uniting the Secession and Relief congregations if right feeling had prevailed. In 1849 the Presbytery and the Home Mission Board pronounced strongly in favour of Union, the combined membership amounting to 160. In November 1850 Mr Thorburn, the Relief minister, was called to Gatehouse, and the Board suggested that, if this call were accepted, Mr Smith, who was now seventy-four, might retire, to secure the desired amalgamation. Accordingly, on I7th December he gave in his resignation, but the end was not gained. After the demission he received an annual allowance of ,55 from the Synod Fund, and had his lifetime of the manse. He died, 6th June 1856, in the eightieth year of his age, the Rev. William Boag, a former minister of the Relief congregation, who was some years his senior, having predeceased him by eleven days. After a vacancy of a few months Dunning congregation called Mr James Galloway. The stipend of ^80, with manse and garden, and the callers, 85 in number, answer to their state in former days. Mr Galloway was from Glasgow, where he was in business before entering on his course of preparatory study. For nine years he was city missionary in connection with Dr Eadie's Church, Cambridge Street. He was called first to South Ronalclshay, then to Dunning, and then to Sutton, in Lancashire. The last of these he preferred, and was ordained there, I7th June 1851. After fully three years of energetic labour he died, i6th September 1854, in the forty- third year of his age. This was Saturday, and he had preached as usual on the preceding Sabbath. Fourth Minister. PETER BAR RON, from Craigdam. Ordained at Dunning, I4th January 1852. On the second Sabbath of December 1854, when the congregation met for public worship, Mr Barren was unable to preach owing to the bursting of a blood-vessel in his lungs that morning. He never resumed work again. The Synod in May 1855 granted ,20 to aid minister and people in their trying circumstances, and on 5th June the Presbytery authorised their Clerk to draw .10 of this money ; but Mr Barron died that day, in the thirty-fourth year of his age and fourth of his ministry. His son, Mr Douglas G. Barron, after being several years a probationer of the U.P. Church, joined the Establishment, and since 1885 he has been parish minister of Dunnottar, in Kincardineshire. His father left the Church of Scotland in his earlier days and joined the United Se- cession, much to the displeasure of his relatives ; but next generation saw the process inverted. Fifth AfimsteriHEXKV STIRLING, from Perth (North). Like his predecessor, he was brought up in the Establishment, but joined the U.P. Church when an Arts student at St Andrews. Ordained, i4th January 1857, exactly five years after Mr Barron. But prior to this Dunning had called Mr James Y. Gibson, who accepted Melrose. In the course of Mr Stirling's ministry, or some time before, the Relief congregation, which had become Evangelical Union, passed out of existence, and some years later, when Dalreoch was dissolved, 17 of its members joined Dunning, so that the membership within the next two years rose from 130 to 146, and the stipend from the people was raised from ^95 to ^100. In March 1863 Mr Stirling tabled the demission of his charge with the view of going abroad, but in 592 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS compliance with the urgent entreaty of the congregation he agreed to remain. Other eighteen years passed,iand he then retired from the ministry, assigning the state of his health as the reason, and on nth January 1881 the bond was dissolved. Mr Stirling died at Auchterarder, 2nd November 1883, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. Si.\-t/i Minister. THOMAS WATT, from Glasgow (John Street). Or- dained, 7th February 1882. Though there are only three congregations in the parish now, this reduction has been attended by a nearly proportionate decrease in the population, which is not two-thirds of what it was fifty years ago. The membership at the close of 1899 was 90, and the stipend from the funds of the congregation .105. DUNNING (RELIEF) THE history of this congregation dates from i8th April 1803, when certain petitioners from Dunning were taken under the inspection of the Relief Presbytery of Perth. Mr Sangster of that town had preached to them on the previous Sabbath, and gave a favourable account of their prospects. The station was opened on the first Sabbath of May, and it is understood that their place of worship was built in the following year. There was nothing special to account for the new formation, but the move- ment probably owed its origin to some families connected with the Relief church in Auchterarder. Though the population of Dunning parish in the early part of the century was only 1500 it had now three dissenting con- gregations within its bounds. Having erected a meeting-house they called Mr James Scott in the beginning of 1805, and, being evidently in a sanguine mood, they promised him ,86, with a manse and garden, implying that their building operations were completed. Within three weeks notice came that Mr Scott had accepted a call to Dalkeith. The Relief system, allowing the preacher to decide for himself in such cases, prevented an enormous loss of time. First Minister. JOHN LAIDLAW, from Banff, where he had been minister for three years. Happening to be up at the Synod he was appointed to preach at Dunning the two Sabbaths following. A unanimous call followed, and he was inducted, loth October 1805. As was customary in the Relief Church, he asked authority at the close of the service to take steps for an election of elders, and this was left in his own hands, without the appoint- ment of any provisional session. The Presbytery had previously higgled with the commissioners about the driving of the minister's coals, but on the morning of the induction they were bluntly told that the congregation would come under no obligation of the kind, as they had already undertaken more than they might be able to perform. On 6th October 1813 the con- gregation petitioned the Presbytery for sermon, informing them that their late pastor had left them. On nth August he had presented a petition to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth, stating objections to his present religious connection, and requesting to be received into their communion. Several of the members having given a very favourable account of Mr Laidlaw, his application was recommended to the Synod, and on 2ist September he was admitted to Christian and ministerial fellowship, on the understanding that he was to go as a missionary to Nova Scotia. Mr Laidlaw's former brethren now took action against him, and the affair was not terminated till May 1815, when the Relief Synod found that he had violated his ordination vows, and they declared him no longer a member of the Relief body. But by this time the Atlantic was between PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 593 him and them, and that summer, on 29th June, he was inducted to the charge of Musquodoboit, in Nova Scotia. At the Union between the Burghers and Antiburghers in that province in 1817 Mr Laidlaw's name appears on the roll of Synod. How long the connection lasted between him and his new congregation I have not ascertained, but it is said to have been " unhappy and short-lived." He then removed to the United States, and died at Pittsburg in October 1824. Mr Laidlaw is said in Gregg's History of the Presbyterian Church in Canada to have been "a superior preacher, meek, humble, and faithful," but he was unfortunate in his successive spheres of labour. For three years Dunning congregation now held back from a fixed pastorate, and then they were informed by the Presbytery that if they had no thought of calling a minister they were to expect no more sermon. This stirred them into activity, and within three months they applied for a moderation. Second Minister. WILLIAM BOAG, from Strathkinnes, where he had been inducted five years before. The Presbytery, when the call was pre- sented, declared they could not transmit it to Dysart Presbytery unless they had a legal bond for the stipend, and at next meeting the document, deemed indispensable, was produced in due form. Mr Boag was inducted, 6th March 1816. But the inability of the congregation to meet their liabilities came to the surface in a few years. Inquiry brought out a membership of 1 10, and of these a number, owing to the present state of trade, were unable to contribute anything. Had the two struggling congregations in Dunning, the Burgher and the Relief, contrived to conquer their antipathies and combine into one it would have been to both like life from the dead. But, being satisfied that Mr Boag was doing everything in his power for the good of the cause, as were also the leading men, the Presbytery made application to the Synod for a grant, and this brought ^10 to the funds. Similar allowances followed, but they never enabled Dunning Church to make up its leeway. We find next that they owed Lord Rollo a considerable sum for feu duty, a circumstance which may have endangered their hold of the property, and then contention arose between minister and congrega- tion about money matters. In February 1828 the Presbytery learned that Mr Boag, wishing to turn the bond they procured for him to practical account, had either gone or was going to law with his people for arrears of stipend, and they summoned him before them to say whether this was the case. The intertangled affair was wound up by the congregation paying him ^20, and the Synod becoming security that he would get other y> within three years. On this footing the connection was dissolved, 27th May 1828. Twelve years before this the Presbyter)' gave the congregat on their choice between a fixed ministry and extinction. Better to have kept them a preaching station, and waited for better times, than to bring them under burdens which they were unable to bear. Mr Boag now settled down as a teacher in Dunning, work which he had probably carried on before along with ministerial functions. I have been informed that when in Strathkinnes he both taught a school on week-days and preached on Sabbath. In 1848, when infirmities must have been press- ing, he began to receive from the Synod Fund \o a year, which was increased 10^15. He died, 26th May 1856, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. His son George was for a short time minister of Brandon Street, Hamilton, but predeceased his father by twenty-three years. It would be tedious to do more than outline the windings of distress through which this congregation passed during the vacancy of eighteen years which followed Mr Boag's removal. In the end of 1830 the creditors II. 2 P 594 HISTORY OF* U.P. CONGREGATIONS brought the property to the hammer, when it was purchased for 13 members of the church taking shares of ^10 each. But the sum paid was a great way from meeting liabilities, and the parties who had become security for the debt, being pressed for payment, instituted a process before the Sheriff Court to ascertain whether certain individuals did not equally with themselves share the responsibility. The Interlocutor of the Sheriff- Substitute, pronounced i8th October 1839, ran thus : "That all who are, or formerly were, members of the Relief Church, Dunning, and the representa- tives of such as are deceased, are liable for the debts contracted previous to the year 1830." This decree was not left inoperative, for in 1841 the Pres- bytery found that "^40 has already been paid by assessment on those who are liable, reducing the sum to ^248." The Secession congregation enforced their claim on the Board for effective aid in the extinction of their own debt by bringing forward that this legal decision had excited fears in the minds of the public, and was preventing accessions to the ranks of dissent. " Some of the Relief people," they said, "have been seriously injured, and no one can tell what may happen." Those trying years were marked by persistent appeals to Presbytery and Synod for aid to keep the lamp burning, and in 1832 they requested sermon to be discontinued. The congregation was now for ten months in a state of suspended animation, but in March 1833 preaching was resumed. How the people had heart to pull through is hard to understand, but so it was. In 1841 the Home Mission Committee reported to the Synod that Dunning "had been long hanging in the wind"; but they gave a rose-coloured view of the situation, and the Presbytery were enjoined to visit the church, investi- gate into its pecuniary affairs, and inquire as to a law process in which they were engaged. Next year the congregation was bold enough to apply for a moderation, which issued in a unanimous call to Mr Archibald H. Milligan, a preacher from Burnhead. At this time Mr James Drummond, afterwards of Cupar, wrote of Dunning to a friend as follows : " It is a small society. My audience yesterday was not fifty. It is wonderful to see any after having had no minister for fourteen years. They have called Milligan, and I think he will take it." Milligan, however, did not take it, but after a long pause declined. In January 1843 the offer was renewed, and they expected with the help of the Synod to give him ,70, but he finally intimated that "the infirm state of his health rendered it altogether inadvisable for him to under- take the charge of any congregation." Two years afterwards he resolved to try his fortunes in the Established Church, into which he was received by the General Assembly of 1845. Next year he was ordained to the East Parish, Airdrie, but removed in 1852 to the quoad sacra church, Pulteney- town, Wick. In 1853 he emigrated to Canada, where he was admitted to the charge of Norvaltown, near Montreal, and in that city he died suddenly on 7th February 1855. At the time of Mr Milligan's final declinature the Disruption of 1843 was approaching, and this tempted the thought that the church might be dis- posed of to advantage. On 24th April the Presbytery met at Dunning to avert the danger. The rights, they found, belonged now to six shareholders, one of whom had written a non-intrusion minister in the neighbourhood on the subject. A vote of the congregation being taken "a considerable number of hands were held up for retaining the property in the interest of the Relief Synod," and none against. Next came an offer of ,50 or ^60 from the Debt Liquidating Fund, if this would relieve them from their present difficulties. But at the Synod of 1844 there was a backward step taken, the decision being " that Dunning be withdrawn from the list of stations supported by the Home Mission Fund from and after the first PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 595 Sabbath of June." This was putting on the extinguisher, and bringing the weary struggle to an end. In 1845 the Presbytery reported that the church had been shut up for a time, but " the want of ordinances was severely felt." The people, it seems, with the decree of extinction gone forth against them, had strung themselves up to activity, and had raised .40 for the reduction of the debt. This, with the ,60 promised from the Liquidation Fund, was to leave only ^25 ; but how the .248 of four years previous was brought down to this humble figure is nowhere explained, and the only feasible sup- position is that the creditors had consented to a large abatement of their claims. The Home Mission report concluded thus : "There is no doubt the field is excellent, and a pious, faithful minister would soon collect a flourishing congregation." To bring prosperity it was now agreed that, in view of a fixed pastorate, the congregation of Dunning should receive help for three years ,30 the first year, ^25 the second, and 20 the third. Third Minister. JOHN THORBURN, who, after being four or five years in Aberdeen, had returned to the preachers' list. In the circumstances even Dunning with its dim outlook may have been welcome. Inducted, 2oth May 1846. At the close of 1848, though Mr Thorburn seems to have secured the attachment of his own people, the "flourishing congregation" the Home Mission Committee spoke of was still a desideratum. The membership was 60, and the ordinary income for the preceding six months was scarcely .30, and the three years of supplement were now closing. The churches in Dunning were both weak, and the natural course at this juncture would have been for the two congregations to come together under the joint pastorate of the two ministers, Mr Smith retiring into the background, and Mr Thorburn to be responsible for the whole work. It was not to be expected, however, that union difficulties would be got over in this way. In October 1850 Mr Thorburn was called to Gatehouse, and before the call was laid on the table of Perth Presbytery a deputation from the Home Board visited Dunning to secure the consent of the two congregations to unite. It may have made Mr Thorburn's people feel that their minister's removal was looked on as a foregone conclusion. They seemed, however, to acquiesce in the proposal of the deputation, but they afterwards met, and came to the resolution " that the proposed union on the terms of the removal of both ministers is not practicable." On iyth December, the day for hearing parties and deciding on the call from Gatehouse, Mr Thorburn wished to hold back till prospective adjustments at Dunning were considered, but this was not permitted. Brought to the point, he accepted Gatehouse. Mr Smith now laid on the table the resignation of his charge, the terms on which he was to retire having been previously arranged. A paper was also read from his congregation agreeing to the union ; but the commissioners from the other church had left when Mr Thorburn's case was concluded, and on starting to their feet they declared that their constituents would not concur in the union, and had already been promised support from another quarter. It was but fair that the burden should go round. Next Sabbath, when Mr M 'Queen of Pathstruie went to the church door, he was refused admittance, and was told that the congregation did not wish any more sermon from the U.P. Church. So, after reading the deed of Presbytery, he retired. After this the congregation was connected with the Evangelical Union fora few years, but they never had another minister. In 1855 Dunning appears on the list of churches in that connection for the first and last time. In the County Almanac, however, it is entered as existing in the beginning of 1858. At last the dying process ended, and the old, plain-looking building disappeared, the site to be occupied by a bank. Some years earlier the Original Secession congregation in Dunning, composed of protestors against 596 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the Union of 1820, also reached the terminus of its life journey. It was not till 1841 that they had a minister set over them, and he left for another charge in 1843. The Relief and they had long been rivals in weakness and in the stand they made against extinction. In 1844 Mr Smith's people re- ported : "The Relief have accommodation for about 300, and betwixt 20 and 30 individuals attend. The Original Seceders have accommodation for 176, and about 40 attend." The two little societies had now yielded to dire necessity, and were away into the past. AUCHTERARDER (RELIEF) THE name of this congregation for the first few years was Blackford, and it is believed that but for the difficulty of procuring a site in that parish the place of worship would have been built there. On the removal of the Rev. Sir Henry Moncrieff to St Cuthbert's in 1775 Mr John Stevenson, who had been fourteen years a licentiate, and had attained the age of forty-seven, was presented to the vacancy, but owing to opposition he was not ordained till 25th September 1777. Aware of what was coming the dissentients applied for sermon to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow, and the station was opened by the Rev. Michael Boston of Falkirk on the third Sabbath of the preceding August. In May 1780 Auchterarder takes the place of Blackford in the records, which makes it probable that the church, with its sittings for 550 people, was now finished, and in possession. First Minister. JOHN BROWN, from Jedburgh (High Street). Ordained, 25th April 1781. The stipend was to be ^70, with house and garden. Three of those who signed the call had been elders in the Established Church, and at the close of the ordination services they were " adopted to be the session." On i6th April 1787 Mr Brown was loosed from Auchterarder,. having accepted a call to Falkirk, as successor to Mr Boston. Second Minister. DAVID FERGUS, who seems to have been from Strath- aven, as he was introduced for licence by the minister there. Ordained, 1 2th December 1787. Called to Cupar in 1793, but procedure was arrested, as he could give them no encouragement. Translated to Campbeltown, Argyleshire, on i6th April 1805, where, though his sphere of labour was much more important, he may have sometimes looked back with regret to the scenes of his early ministry, and wished that the change had never been made. A Kintyre elder of mine, who grew up under the ministry of Mi- Fergus, used, in speaking of him, to lay special emphasis on the solemnity of his pulpit address and the gravity of his whole demeanour. Third Minister. JOHN KING, believed to have been also from Strath- aven. In the beginning of 1802 Mr King accepted a call to the Relief congregation in Lady Lawson's Wynd, Edinburgh, and then drew back, announcing that he had gone into another line of life, meaning the medical profession, whereupon the Presbytery deprived him of licence. In 1805 he was readmitted to the preachers' list, and having declined a call to Ford he was ordained at Auchterarder, 6th February 1806, after he had reached the age of forty. The stipend was to be ^110, with manse, garden, a small glebe, and ^5 for sacramental expenses. Towards the end of the century the parish minister had only about ,90, so that the Relief church does not suffer by comparison. From the managers' books, which begin at this time, we find that the funds were amply sufficient to meet all ordinary demands, and the money transactions reveal an open-handedness not generally to be looked for. The income from seat rents averaged about ^100 a year, and the Sabbath collections came up to between ^40 and ,50 ; while over PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 597 against these sums there were only the stipend of i 10 and the precentor's salary of ,3. This left a large margin for repairs and improvements. Among the districts of the congregation in 1814 there are the names of Blackford, Smithyhaugh, Kinkell, Gleneagles, Tulliebardine, and even Bridge-of-Fossoway. Mr King died, 3rd June 1833, after "a brief illness, occasioned by water in the chest." Though only in the twenty-eighth year of his ministry he was in the sixty-ninth of his age. It is recorded that he was a regular attendant at sick and dying beds, not only as a minister but as a physician. All on from the beginning of the congregation until now there is no trace of harmony having been imperilled. The secular affairs of the church appear to have been in the hands of men gifted with discretion. But, unhappily, the congregation in passing through the present vacancy had its unity impaired. In May 1834 a short leet of three was agreed on, but it was distinctly understood that, should any of these receive a call in the interim, a new nomination was to take place. In a few days one of the three Mr William Ritchie was called to Auchtergaven, and while matters were in this state a preacher newly licensed appeared on the ground, and secured acceptance with the majority. Fourth Minister. GEORGE JACQUE, a native of Douglas, and brought up in the Established Church. While apprenticed to business in Glasgow he became a dissenter, and in student days he was connected with Calton Relief Church. When Auchterarder congregation met to adjust the short leet anew, Mr Jacque had 199 supporters and the Rev. James Finlay of Pittenweem 102, the others being nowhere. Accordingly, these two" were to be pitched against each other on the election day. Had it been agreed before the tentative vote was taken that the minority should fall in with the majority, and the two parties combine in a unanimous call, the arrange- ments might have had a happier issue. At the moderation the proportion was much as before 263 voting for Mr Jacque and 133 for Mr Finlay. Unpleasantness followed, and a complaint was made to the Presbytery that there had been much canvassing for signatures, and that " a number of minors not yet in communion with the Church, and members of other congregations, had subscribed." The objections being pronounced groundless Mr Jacque was ordained, I4th January 1835. The stipend was the same as before .110, with appendages and the membership was between 620 and 630, and by various expedients the sittings had been increased to 583. Before Mr Jacque's ministry began, there were tokens that the church had well-nigh served its day. But the old manse had first to be set aside, and in 1836 it was agreed to build another. In 1838 the debt on the whole property was put down at ^310, which was being liquidated by weekly subscriptions, but it was not till 1847 that the burden was entirely removed. Better than slight exertions protracted to weariness would have been a strong united effort, though it might have involved a severe strain for the time. During those years the membership was slightly on the decline, the want of harmony at the moderation time having probably led to some formidable withdrawals. Still, in 1838 Mr Jacque put the number of com- municants at 600, considerably more than a third being from the parish of Blackford. Twenty-five families came from beyond four miles, a circum- stance certain to bring decrease as Free churches sprang up round about. Accordingly, in 1879 the number was returned at little more than 350 ; but the funds had not fallen off, the stipend being now ,200. In 1848 the managers were called to consider " what was to be done with the east stair," and to keep it from falling it had to be fixed to the church wall by bolts and 598 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS screws. Stimulus for the building of a ne\v church came from the Sabbath scholars, who intimated to the elders and managers that they had sub- scribed ^40 among themselves to aid in the undertaking, and one of the managers offered 100 if the rest of the congregation would subscribe ^500. A canvass having brought out that nine-tenths of the members were in favour of going on, the work was proceeded with, and on 3Oth December 1849 the church was opened, their own minister preaching from the words : " And the name of the city shall be, The Lord is there." The afternoon and evening services were conducted by Drs M'Michael and Eadie, and the collections amounted to ,140. The sittings are over 600, but the cost, instead of .700 or .800, the sum that was to be kept by, came to between ^iioo and ^1200. The church records present peculiar features in the workings of the congregation. At one meeting they decided that tent preaching should be discontinued, and at another that the practice of public rebuke "is only painful to all concerned," and ought to be abandoned. They also declared that Church members who were irregular in their attendance on ordinances ought to be dealt with, and a twelvemonth later they inquired what the session had done in this matter, and urged increased exertions. On another occasion they unanimously agreed that the number of elders was quite inadequate for the work assigned them. Even collections for Synodical purposes were under the control of the managers, who decided whether they should be made, and, if so, on what Sabbath, while the Session Minutes record nothing but cases of discipline. Mr Jacque's ministry lasted fifty-seven years, and to the end he had not even an assistant. He died on 1 5th February 1892, a few minutes before the stroke of the midnight hour, and his last utterance was : " Raise me higher." He entered on his eighty- ninth year a few weeks before. As a poet he is best known by his two hymns in the U.P. Hymnal, the former of which is retained in the Hymnary, " Hark ! how heaven is calling " and " O Thou in whom are all our springs." He was also the author of " Tales and Sketches of Scottish Character." Fifth Minister. HENRY HAMILTON, M.A., from Dennyloanhead. Called previously to Eday and Burnhead. Ordained, gth August 1892. The membership at the close of 1899 was 336> and the stipend ,?.oo, with the manse. AUCHTERARDER, NORTH (BURGHER) THIS was, in its beginnings, the old congregation of Kinkell with a new centre and on altered lines. When Mr Imrie was deposed by the Anti- burgher Synod in April 1812 the bulk of his people kept by him, and in 1813 they built a church in Auchterarder at a cost of between .400 and ^450, with sittings for 500. There he preached, out of all ecclesiastical connection, till his death on i9th February 1816. In one of Dr Heugh's letters we find the following reference to the sad event : " You have no doubt heard of the sudden call which poor Imrie has at last received, so far as I can learn, unexpected to himself. It would have been very interest- ing to have known, but I suppose we never can know, what was' the state of such a man's mind on the verge of the eternal world, and whether the fortitude which supported him like a rock when he was most furiously assailed by his fellow-creatures sustained or abandoned him at the last. He was an uncommon man, no doubt, and now, I suppose, it will soon appear that he too has gone into the land of deep forgetfulness." A rustic epitaph in verse to his memory says : " He left his bleating flock with none PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 599 to lead." The next two Sabbaths seem to have been blank, and then the Rev. Michael Gilfillan, Burgher minister of Dunblane, was asked to favour them with a day's preaching. He consented, and in his reply he spoke of Mr Imrie having been a particular acquaintance of his. Mr Gilfillan was to be through among them by Friday afternoon, and it was by his advice, we may believe, that they applied next Tuesday to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth for sermon. From that time they had almost uninterrupted supply, and on i8th June they were received as a congregation under the inspection of the Presbytery, and though they were newly come from under Mr Imrie's ministry it was not felt that they required to be cleansed from the taint of heresy. First Minister. WILLIAM PRINGLE, from Tranent. As the call was signed by only 106 communicants we infer that they adhered to the Anti- burgher principle of none but male members voting at moderations or signing calls. The stipend promised was ^100, with house and garden, and 5 for expenses. But Mr Pringle held back from delivering his trial discourses till the people got impatient, and in a petition couched "in very unbecoming and disrespectful language" they urged the Presbytery to have him brought within the bounds for ordination. Being a young man of scholarly attain- ments he may have been procrastinating in hopes of a better place, and even when he did come forward he had only one of his discourses ready. To bring matters to a point the Presbytery fixed the ordination day, leaving the bulk of his trials to be gone through at an interim meeting, where a quorum of members, they said, would suffice. Ordained, I7th September 1817, the Presbytery adjourning from the church to "the place of meeting in the fields," and there the services were conducted. Thus Auchterarder had now a Burgher as well as a Relief church fully equipped. In those days it was a place of busy activity, and between 1801 and 1831 the popula- tion of the parish increased from 2000 to 3300. In 1838 Mr Pringle reported his membership at 350. The stipend then, and so late as 1845, was st iH at tne original figure of ^100, but by-and-by there was an increase made. For a course of years the congregation had been struggling to get rid of their debt, much of which had been incurred in building a new manse. A deputation from the Debt Liquidating Board met with them in February 1842, and the people recorded with gratitude that the chairman of the Board, Mr David Anderson of Glasgow, "gave them a handsome donation of 10 to commence with." It was finally arranged that they were to receive 60 if they made up the other ^316. On 7th March 1846 it was reported at a meeting of the congregation that the condition was fulfilled, and " the discharged bills having been produced in confirmation of the above statement, the congregation expressed thanks- giving to God for the happy result." One incident in Mr Pringle's ministerial life is not to be passed over Assisting at Kinkell communion in November 1828 he preached on Saturday from the text : " It is finished." Mr Forrester, the minister of the church had a sermon prepared for Sabbath on " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," and he was to make out that this meant the sin of the elect world. They got into argument that evening on the extent of the Atonement, the other assistant, Mr Ramsay of Crieff, coinciding with Mr Forrester, till Mr Pringle, feeling, perhaps, that temper was getting in, " abruptly left the room, and went home." Next morning he was back in time to hear Mr Forrester's action sermon, and on Monday he returned to his former subject, in which he spoke of a finished Atonement, and laid down the principle, it was alleged, that if Christ did not die for all men there was no foundation for the universal offer of the gospel. After a pause 600 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of eight months Mr Forrester tabled a paper before the Presbyteiy chal- lenging Mr Pringle's soundness in the faith. A libel followed, and four wit- nesses were examined for the prosecution, the most important of the four being the Rev. William Ramsay. Then other two, one of them from Auchterarder church, were examined for the defence, and the evidence was closed. It was testified on the one hand that Mr Pringle was under- stood to have affirmed that Christ died not for the elect only but for all men ; and, on the other hand, that his statements only amounted to this, that there is sufficiency of merit in the Atonement to avail for all men. But remembrances were hazy after the lapse of a twelvemonth. The satisfactory course would have been to produce the manuscript, if there was a manu- script to produce. The Synod, to which the case was referred, heard the deposition of witnesses read, and found " that the libel was groundless, it appearing evident that Mr Pringle had taught no doctrines inconsistent with the standards of our Church." This case may be looked upon as the earliest uprise of the Atonement Controversy in the Secession Church, for, though Thomas Mair was deposed for alleged heresy on the subject of Universal Redemption, his case proceeded on other lines. But though Mr Pringle stood by Mr Walker of Comrie both in Presby- tery and Synod, he afterwards assumed ground in connection with the extent of the Atonement which did his congregation no good. In June 1853 he brought up to Perth Presbyter)' an appeal from a refusal of his session to grant him liberty to put some questions to one of his elders, who was suspected of having embraced Morisonian opinions. The Presbytery sus- tained the appeal, which means that they upheld a ministers right to put an elder at any time to the test for heresy, even though the session should with one voice say, No. To end the matter on the spot they agreed to ask the accused whether he still adhered to the subordinate standards of the Church, and, his answer not being deemed satisfactory, they handed him over to Mr Marshall of Coupar-Angus and Dr Young of Perth to be further dealt with. The report presented at next meeting was looked on as bringing the case to a comfortable termination, but in a few weeks Mr Pringle asked the Presby- tery for a provisional session, as the whole of his elders had resigned. Three ministers sent out to Auchterarder prevailed on four of them to resume their functions, but in the rear of this report Mr Pringle informed the Presbytery that the agreement had been resiled from. The managers had previously attempted a reconciliation ; but the object was not gained, and in the end disjunction certificates were in large demand. In the follow- ing year Auchterarder appears in the list of Evangelical Union churches with a minister set over them. We have here the outcome of displacements in Mr Pringle's session and congregation. In 1860 Mr Pringle received the degree of U.D. from Princeton, New Jersey, an honour to which his translations of Calvin's Commentaries and similar work fully entitled him. At the celebration of his jubilee, on 9th October 1867, he was presented with 1000 guineas by friends throughout the denomination, specially in acknowledgment of his long services as Convener of the Scholarship Committee. He died, i6th February 1873, m tne seventy- seventh year of his age and fifty-sixth of his ministry. At the Union one of his sons was minister of Crossford, and his brother, the Rev. John Pringle of Elgin, was, like himself, distinguished for scholarly acquirements. During this vacancy a faint attempt was made to effect a union with the South Church an object for which there was no urgent need. The com- missioner from the North congregation pleaded that they had been self- supporting till within the last three years ; that they were willing to make exertions in order to be self-supporting again ; and that the losses they had PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 6oi sustained in numbers and strength arose from causes which had exh ai themselves. But it was a time when preachers had large choices succession of disappointments followed. In fulv 187- the -,iLn M in r nneceme J W Pringle who declined, and obtained Jedburgh a year later. Then came a pause of a twelvemonth during which a peculiar" case emerged to treble them. A person who had deserted Dr Pringle's ministry applied for readmiss.on, and old wounds were opened afresh. He professed himsc sorry for the part he had acted, and nothing remained, it J5?fcf ifiSf but to restore such an one in the spirit of meekness" ; but instead of this &" ^rT^ Cen f' } ^ he d f ^ ^^^ion, anS it was found that there were some at the one extreme and some at the other " The elders were opposed to his reception ; but at long and last two of the three a ' W^ n MT ty ' Hfter bei "S ad hed, was received into felfowshtp again While this case was pending a call was brought out for the Rev L^t U1 f P k 'f rmerly f WeStmy: but k was not harmonious and a committee of Presbyter)' reported "considerable bitterness of feeling" Happily an important held, m St Rollox, Glasgow, had already taken Mr Cruickshank out of the way. In March ,875 they called Mr William S eedman, who accepted Eaglesham, and in October Mr George K. Heugh who became colleague to Dr William Robertson of Irvine ^^^^.-THOMAS S DICKSON, M.A., from Buccleuch Street, Dumfries. Ordained, i8th April 1876. The stipend, including / 2 o of supplement was to be ^157, los, with the manse. This call was signed by not fewer than 160 out of a membership of 175. In the following year a new manse was bu.lt at a cost of i ioo\ ^250 being received from the central fund On 2ist January 1880 Mr Dickson accepted a call to Bell Street Dundee but the people were better able now to face discouragement 1 hey had raised their part of the stipend ^12, los. the year before, and the membership had increased to 216. Third Minister. WILLIAM S. MUIL, from Moss Street, Elgin Or- T "foA I 5th May l88l > havin S previously declined a call to Rosehearty in 1888 the congregation removed to another place of worship. The church built for the Evangelical Unionists had passed into private hands, and the proprietor, who had expended a big sum of money in fitting it up as a hall for semi-religious purposes, was now willing to part with it on very reason- able terms. The old place of worship, erected in 1813, required to be super- seded in some way, and here was a fitting opportunity. The modern building, with all its equipments, was secured at the moderate figure of /g;o and taken possession of in February 1889. It is seated for some 400, and has extensive sideroom accommodation. The liabilities were met by sub- scriptions and a small sum received for the old church. In 1893 the'funds of the congregation availed to pay other \o of stipend. The membership in December 1899 was 235. DALREOCH (ANTIBURGHER) AN accession was given in to the Associate Presbytery from a Praying Society in Dunning on i8th July 1738, and this was followed by another from Dalreoch on I7th October. Further accessions came in from Forgan- clenny and Forteviot ; but the only Sabbath supply granted to that district for the time was a day of Mr David Smyton on ist May 1740. By-and-by Kinkell became the gathering-point for Strathearn, and continued so for nearly forty years ; only by the formation of a church at Pathstruie in 1755 602 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS relief was given to those at the south-east extremity. But with a distance of five or six intervening miles severance was bound to come, and in 1779 the Synod was called to pronounce on an attempt to have a congregation formed at Dalreoch. The Presbytery had refused to disjoin, being always afraid of injuring existing interests, and the Synod upheld their decision, assigning as the reason that the formation proposed would greatly weaken the congregations of Kinkell and Pathstruie. Dalreoch they also spoke of as distant only four miles from Kinkell and three from Pathstruie ; but to make these measurements correct we would need to reckon by long Scots miles. Towards the close of Mr Muckersie's ministry Kinkell session received a petition from 126 of their members asking their concurrence in an applica- tion to the Presbytery of Perth for sermon at Dalreoch. This being refused, the case came by protest before the Presbytery on 3ist August 1789. Equity requiring that the neighbouring sessions be consulted Mr Wilson of Methven intimated that, although a considerable number of their con- gregation would naturally fall off to Dalreoch, his session would offer no opposition to the formation of a church there. In December Mr Muckersie's death was reported, an event which altered the Kinkell bearings ; but, on the other hand, the master difficulty now came to the front. Pathstruie session reported that, if the disjunction were granted, it would render their congregation " incapable of supporting the gospel," and the Presbytery agreed to refer the whole cause to the General Synod. They suggested that Pathstruie congregation should remove to Dunning and coalesce with the petitioners from Kinkell, but the way was blocked by the majority declin- ing to entertain such a proposal. The Presbytery now sought for a site north of the Earn, and at a safer distance from Pathstruie, but without success, and then on 3rd August 1790 it was carried by the Moderator's casting-vote to grant sermon to the people in and about Dalreoch. The case was protested, and a final decision was not arrived at till May 1791, when the General Synod erected the 112 petitioners from Kinkell into a distinct congregation. The first public services were conducted by Mr Gilfillan of Comrie on Wednesday, 8th June, which was observed as a Fast day, or rather as a day of thanksgiving. It was also agreed that the place of worship should be built at " The Broom " of Dalreoch. The congregation consisted as yet of none but the 112 who had been disjoined from Kinkell, including two elders, who were formed into a session, and a third was to be admitted as soon as he obtained a formal disjunction. On 3rd July 29 members who had been disjoined from Methven were received at Dalreoch, and thus a fourth elder was obtained. Then came other 26 from Kinkell, " residing in the adjacent bounds, but not formerly annexed with the first number." Last of all came the con- tingent from Pathstruie 15 men and 25 women residents in and about Dunning, including an elder, who likewise took his seat in the session. These three groups added to the original 112 would give a communion roll of at least 200. In April 1794 a call from Dalreoch to Mr John Thomson came before the Synod, with 96 signatures, but he was appointed to Duns. First Minister. JAMES CLARK, from Ray, in Donegal, Ireland ; but his father was not minister there, as has been stated, nor a minister at all. The son, when a divinity student, taught a school at Craigend ; but owing to a dangerous disorder in one of his knees, which unfitted him for travelling, even on horseback, he received \o from the Synod and from Craigend congregation to defray the expenses of his journey home. In April 1795 Mr Clark was admonished by the Synod for refusing to be settled at Peterhead and the call he had received from Dalreoch was set aside. PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 603 Another followed, and he was ordained there, i;th September 1795. He died, 1 4th February 1821, in the sixty-first year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry. On the preceding Sabbath, when he commenced the morning prayer, "his voice in a few minutes became weaker and weaker. He reclined on the side of the pulpit until some of his people came to his assistance, and kept him from falling. They wished to convey him immedi- ately to the manse, but he softly whispered that they might delay for a little, seeming to think that he might so far recover as to go on with the work of the day." But his work was done, and he died on the following Wednesday. Mr Clark's daughter, and only surviving child, was married to her cousin, the Rev. Robert Clark, Ireland, a few months before, an event which, no doubt, cleared the way for what was to follow at Dalreoch. The minutes of session in Mr Clark's time are disfigured by fewer blemishes than were common in those days, and they show that minister and elders sought faithfully to keep up the standard of religious character. Two cases are given in which members were dealt with for neglect of family worship, and dismissed with suitable exhortations. Another acknow- ledged that he had been chargeable with drunkenness and late hours. Having promised amendment he was admonished by the moderator ; but he relapsed, and had to appear before them again' About the time of Mr Clark's death the congregation suffered through the loss of 50 or 60 of their number who refused to acquiesce in the Union of 1820. They received sermon from the Protestors in 1821 ; built a church at Dunning in 1825 ; had a minister set over them in 1841 ; were left vacant again in 1843, and were dissolved in 1852. They used to be known as " Blackites," from the Rev. Richard Black of Perth, whose congregation some of them joined after their own had ceased to exist. But for that rupture Dalreoch might have been going on to this day. Second Minister. ROBERT CLARK, from Ray, in Ireland, where his maternal grandfather was the first Secession minister. Ordained at Newton- Hamilton on 22nd December 1818. Perth Presbytery, when Dalreoch fell vacant, made some inquiries about arrears of stipend, but they were in- formed that it was probable the matter would be settled quietly and amicably. The idea was to have Mr Clark's daughter brought back to the home of her youth, and to have his nephew and son-in-law installed as his successor. The call was signed by only 44 (male) members, and the stipend was to be ^85, with house, garden, and expenses. Mr Clark being a minister of the Secession Church of Ireland the case was referred to the Synod, and by their directions the call was to be prosecuted in the usual way, a deed from which five ministers dissented. As Mr Clark was in receipt of the regium donum some may have thought that he ought not to have been eligible for a United Secession vacancy. He was inducted at Dalreoch, 25th September 1822. During the twenty-six years of Mr Clark's ministry the membership must have been under a constant tendency to decline. The congregation drew largely from Dunning, where there was a Burgher church which the Union of 1820 had brought into fellowship with themselves, and at the same time the population in other districts was declining. Mr Clark's life came to a sadder and more sudden close than that of his predecessor. From the brief Memoir written by the Rev. William Ramsay of Crieff we learn that on the evening of 4th October 1848 he was out visiting among his people. "His family and some of their near neighbours were alarmed by his horse, a spirited animal, coming home at full speed without his rider." Search being made, he was found lying quite dead on the public road, about half-a-mile from the manse. He was in the fifty-fourth year of his age and thirtieth of his 604 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ministry. This distressing event, say the session minutes, " produced a very deep sensation among his friends and others in this neighbourhood ; by his congregation he was much respected." There was no inclination at this time to have ordinances discontinued at Dalreoch. The debt of ,213 which rested on the property was cleared off in 1840, the people having raised ^133, to meet 80 from the Board. The membership was little above 100 now, and the stipend was ^65, with manse and garden ; but supplement was certain, and there were preachers for whom Dalreoch, with its quiet surroundings, might have attractions. In July 1849 they called Mr George Morris, now of Dairy, Ayrshire, and in December 1850 Mr Alexander M'Lean, afterwards of Kirriemuir, but in both cases preferable openings came. Third Minister. MATTHEW ORR, from Greyfriars, Glasgow. Ordained, 3Oth December 1851. But the process of diminution went on, as it was bound to do. Times were changed since twice at an election of elders it was arranged that two should be from Dunning quarter, the one for the east and the other for the west division. Still, though the decrease averaged scarcely more than a single unit each year, the return for 1869 gave only 79 members. On the first Sabbath of September 1870 Mr Orr preached as usual. Next Wednesday, on retiring to rest, he was struck with paralysis, and died on the 25th of that month, in the fifty-third year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry. The session records contain a testimony "to his faithful labours in preaching the Word of Life, in sym- pathising with and comforting the dying, and in otherwise discharging the duties of the ministerial office." At a meeting of the congregation held in November to consider what was to be done in their present circumstances Mr Andrew Robertson, the session clerk, resigned office, with the fixed intention of withdrawing alto- gether. He resided in Dunning, and, having been an elder in Dalreoch for forty-five years, even the distance of two miles at his age may have been too much for him. The present being the best time to make the transition he and his family were disjoined, and, after a brief interval, his name appears on the Synod roll as the representative elder from Dunning. Other re- movals followed, and in June 1871 it was decided "that the regular dis- pensation of ordinances be discontinued." On 27th May 1872 the congregation met to wind up their secular affairs. They formed a little company fully one-half of those who were members when Mr Orr died having already received disjunction lines. At the close a paper of special interest was read, giving the leading facts in the history of the congregation, and, among others, that twenty-three elders had held office in the course of these eighty years. With shaded faces we can suppose them parting with each other at the door of the church, within which they were to meet no more. The sale of the property realised ,137, and with its allocation the Presbytery expressed their entire satisfaction. The weak congregations of Kinkell, Pathstruie, and Greenloaning received each ^10; ,77 went to the Augmentation and other Funds of the Church ; ,20 to the poorer members of the congregation ; and the remaining ,10 was reserved to meet any obligations that might be incurred in the winding-up. Of the members, u joined Kinkell, 4 or 5 went to Methven, and 17 to Dunning, but a number must have been lost to the denomination. PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 605 GREENEND (RELIEF) THIS congregation had its centre at Aberargie, a small village in the western extremity of Abernethy parish. In February 1835 Mr Patrick J. M'Farlane, the son of a well-known physician in Perth, and himself both M.A. and M.D., was presented to the parish of Dron. On the moderation day the call was signed by 14 persons, including the principal farmers and all the heritors ; but, when dissents were asked for, the Presbytery found that they had no roll of heads of families to go by. Worse still, there had been no kirk-session for twenty-eight years, and it was only the kirk-session that the Veto Act empowered to make up the roll. To get over the difficulty the Presbytery prepared a list of 65 communicants, but the question arose : Is it allowable to receive objections on this basis ? and the case was referred to the Assembly, where a motion by Lord Moncrieff carried, that, as no dissents were offered on the moderation day, the settlement be proceeded with. At next meeting of Presbytery a paper, purporting to be from 146 parishioners, was given in objecting to the presentee, and it was reckoned the safe course to delay the whole matter till next Assembly. There the former decision was confirmed, and Mr M'Farlane was ordained, nth August 1836; but "he suffered from severe bodily affliction during the greater part of his short incumbency, and the duties of the parish were performed by assistants." He died on 28th January 1844, in the eighth year of his ministry. Twelve days after Mr M'Farlane's ordination Mr Cross of Dundee re- presented to Perth Presbytery that Mr Gorrie of Kettle and Mr Somerville, under call to Auchtergaven, had preached at Dron to a very large audience on the preceding Sabbath. Regular supply followed, and it was reported to the Synod in May 1837 that building operations were in progress, though stones and timber had been refused. On 24th August, at the close of Fast services, "the people attending Dron station were received into Church con- nection with the Relief." Next Sabbath the communion was dispensed by Messrs Frew of Perth and Gorrie of Kettle in presence, it was calculated, of about 1500 people. It was as if the Presbytery had been right in telling the Synod that a numerous and flourishing congregation was confidently expected. In the end of 1838 a moderation was applied for, and, though the people could offer no fixed stipend, they were to make every exertion to render their minister comfortable. First Minister. ALEXANDER WATSON, from Kilmarnock (King Street). Ordamed, 3oth January 1839, and on the following Sabbath he was intro- duced by the Rev. Alexander Harvey of Glasgow. "The church was crowded to excess, both during the day and in the evening, and numbers were compelled to stand without at the door and windows." The number of members at this time was 44, and the average attendance between 80 and too. The place of worship was as yet without pews, and the people were unable to provide the necessary funds. But at this juncture College Street Church, Edinburgh, stepped in, and undertook to seat the church. They also furnished other articles "necessary for the dispensation of religious ordinances," which may be understood to mean a baptismal and communion service. The church was formally opened on i;th March 1839, the minister himself preaching during the day, and Dr John Taylor being brought over from Auchtermuchty for the evening. But now ad- versity set in, and there was no stamina to overcome difficulties. The legal expenses incurred years before in opposing the presentee had not been paid, and they were found to be " so appalling that the hearts of the peasantry began to quail." When the leaders at Greenend were in a state 606 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of alarm they got the assurance that, if they returned to their own parish church, they would hear nothing more about legal claims. So by-and-by the Perth Constitutionalist was able to tell the public that the only in- dividuals from Dron connected with the new erection were 2 women and a young lad nor was this contradicted. The report of the Home Board to the Synod was not so sanguine now, but it was still hoped the con- gregation would prosper, having a pastorate of their own choice. Whatever Mr Watson's gifts may have been he had scarcely a chance at Greenend, and on 2;th April 1842 he accepted a call to the forming congregation of Newburgh. Second Minister. JAMES STEWART, from Bridgeton, Glasgow. Or- dained, i gth October 1842. Before coming to this all parties had reason to pause and consider. But Greenend had been well subsidised hitherto, and so they went in for another minister without hesitation, and though they could promise him no particular sum they would allow him "a free Sabbath occasionally that he might preach elsewhere in order to increase his stipend." On i8th July 1843 Mr Stewart complained to the Presbytery that the people had failed to give him a suitable maintenance, and had also advertised the property for sale. At next meeting, on the 25th, the Presby- tery found that the latter danger was averted, but, as Mr Stewart felt it his duty to resign, the connection was dissolved. After being a year on the preachers' list he received a certificate of ministerial status, as he was going to America, and at this point he is finally lost sight of. Greenend people were still in the mood for continuing, and the Home Board agreed to grant them assistance for two months by way of experiment. In February 1844 they expressed the wish to have a pastor ; but they could not promise him more than ^30, and they looked for aid from headquarters. In May the Synod intimated that if the people would contribute ^30, exclusive of board for the preachers, they would be allowed ,20, but if this condition were not complied with the name should be dropped from the list of aid-receiving stations. In 1845 it was reported that Dron had only had occasional sermon since last meeting, and that the congregation was small, and also without energy. They had, however, got ^25 for the liquidation of debt, leaving only other 6 or thereby, and the property would be made over to the Synod on payment of this sum. But the breaking up, as if with axes and hammers, was already begun, the Presbytery having received notice that certain persons styling themselves managers had sold the congregational library, and had " removed the pulpit and desk, Bible and Psalm-books, and the baptismal and sacramental utensils from the con- gregational custodier." It was found on inquiry that 49 or 50 individuals claimed membership in the church, so far as civil rights were concerned. The little building stood long unoccupied at Aberargie, but it has since been cleared away. The last notice was in 1867, when the U.P. Presbytery of Perth "agreed to resign the Church's right to the property, on condition of the proprietor freeing the Presbytery of all liabilities attaching thereto." KINKELL AND THE WESTERN DIVISION KINKELL (ANTIBURGHER) THE workings of patronage in Madderty, a parish six or seven miles west of Dunning, probably determined the seat of this congregation. Mr George PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 607 Blaikie had been presented to the vacant charge, but his settlement was stoutly resisted by the people, and both Presbytery and Synod refused to induct. The Commission in May 1739 agreed to approach Lord Dupplin, the patron, entreating him to waive his claims, but he refused, " as he would thereby weaken, through his example, the rights of Patronage." The Commission felt in a dilemma, knowing that, if they settled the presentee, the parish of Madderty "was in danger of being foundered in faith by the Seceders." It carried to go forward, but it was reported at a subsequent meeting that Mr Blaikie was about to proceed as an ordained minister to America. This, however, did not prevent an accession from Madderty to the Associate Presbytery a few months after, and another from Trinity-Gask. In October 1740 it was intimated that "the corresponding societies in these bounds are now united into one congregation." The church is believed to have been built in 1743, and in the early part of 1744 the name of the congregation changes from Strathearn to Kinkell. First Minister. JOHN MUCKERSIE, from the congregation of Abernethy and the Correspondence of Strathmiglo. Ordained, 3rd June 1747, the service, as he states in one of his pamphlets, being attended by several thousands. At the Breach, eight weeks before, Mr Muckersie took the Anti- burgher side, and he has somewhere told that, having been previously called to Kirkcaldy, " he resisted, because he knew many of them were opposed to his views of the Burgess Oath." His interest in that question drew him on twenty years later to mingle in the war of pamphlets, but the merits of his pen appear to more advantage in what was long known among Seceders as " The Mother's Catechism." Before Mr Muckersie had been a year in Kinkell an attempt was made to have him removed to London ; but the minister who presided at the moderation had gone forward without due authority, and the call, with its 40 signatures, was not sustained. Strathearn was to be his field of labour to the end, and during his time the congregation continued large. He spoke in 1767 of having under his care upwards of 1000 examinable persons. The aspect of the crowded church in those days has been graphically described ; the men in their homespun clothes, and their bonnets on till the minister appeared, and when these were doffed they made the bookboards look like blue fungi tipped with red. In 1787, when Mr Muckersie had passed beyond threescore, there was a movement to provide him with a colleague. His son James was now a licentiate, and the Presbytery of Perth at the congregation's request applied to Stirling Presbytery to allow him to preach two Sabbaths at Kinkell, but instead of granting this request they granted a moderation to Alloa, which resulted in a call to Mr James Muckersie, and his ordination followed. Frequent supply was needed now " on account of Mr Muckersie's con- tinued frailty," and towards the close of 1788 they called Mr James Pringle, but there was opposition on the part of 1 1 members, and the Presbytery appointed him to Kinclaven, a decision which the Synod confirmed. We read now of "confusions" in the congregation, and the Presbytery was asked by Mr Muckersie to interpose. They met at Kinkell, and a paper was given in expressing dissatisfaction with some parts of their minister's conduct in connection with the recent call. Mr Muckersie ultimately acknowledged, in presence of the congregation, that he had acted imprudently in some instances, and they on their part admitted that they had not mani- fested due mildness of spirit towards their minister. It was then agreed to forgive, forget, and live in harmony with each other. It ended in a way that was honourable to all parties, but had the Presbytery set themselves to vindicate their aged brother all through, the issue might have been different. 6o8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Mr Muckersie died on the morning of Sabbath, 22nd November 1789, when preparing for church. He was in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty- third of his ministry. Mr Muckersie's widow was a daughter of the Rev. William Wilson of Perth. She died, igth August 1798, at Cultmalundie, near Methven, the residence of one of her sons, the father of Nicolis Muckersie, the wife of the Rev. William Jameson of Jamaica and Calabar. Mr Muckersie's son James, as already stated, was minister of Alloa, and one of his daughters was Dr Ferrier's (of Paisley) first wife. An older son of Kinkell manse parted company with the Secession before commencing his theological course, and, on the day that his father was asking the Antiburgher Presbytery of Perth to compose differences at Kinkell, John Muckersie, junior, received licence from the Established Presbytery of Auchterarder. In due time he became parish minister of West Calder. Second Minister. ROBERT I MRIE, from the North Church, Perth. Or- dained, nth April 1792. The congregation was much narrowed in now, having suffered a serious encroachment recently by the formation of a church at Dalreoch. Still, Mr Imrie's call was signed by 156 (male) members, and the Presbytery considered that the stipend, even with the large glebe, ought not to be under 60. Of Mr Imrie it has been said that so long as he contented himself with simply preaching the gospel and attending to his pastoral duties, he had around him an attached congregation. But this was not to continue, and his pulpit utterances gave trouble to Presbytery and Synod for ten or twelve years. Perhaps the most offensive specimen of his pulpit work is found in a paper of charges tabled against him by one of his hearers. In the blood of Christ, considered materially, he said, there is nothing more than in the blood of an animal, and here he actually digressed into a disquisition on the quality of blood that this depended upon diet, and so on. It was not heresy this, it was the debasement of the pulpit through want of common-sense. The triumphant winding-up was that the actual blood shed on the cross had no more value for atoning purposes than a wave of his glove. But Mr Imrie behoved to say something that would startle, and what he gained was not fame but notoriety. To trace Mr Imrie's case all through would occupy time to little purpose. A beginning was made before Perth Presbytery by one member bringing up 13 charges against his minister, and another adducing 29 scruples. In most of these the scent would not hold, and in others there was nothing to complain of. When, for example, it was alleged against Mr Imrie that he said there was nothing more in the wooden cross on which the Saviour died than there was in the crosses of the malefactors one wonders what there was in this to make any Protestant stumble. But it also came out that time-honoured customs had fared ill at his hands ; no warrant in Scripture for debarrances before the communion ; no warrant for the consecration prayer ; no warrant for asking a blessing even on ordinary food, as " Meat is equally nutritious in the stomach of a dog and in the stomach of a saint, naturally considered." Through profundities like these the Presbytery of Perth, the Provincial Synod, and the General Synod had to work their way year after year. It accords with what one of his people alleged at an earlier stage : "The greater part of Mr Imrie's discourses are conducted in a style of obscure and tedious reasoning rather than in clear scripture deductions." The Synod tried admonition first, and then rebuke, but these appliances, though unresistingly submitted to, went for nothing. The affair slumbered from June 1802 till September 1806, when it comes up again in the Minutes of Synod. He was not now occupying the attention of his people with questions as to whether there is Bible warrant for a minister engaging in PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 609 regular family visitation. In April 1807 it was found that Mr Imrie had been putting the federal system of theology to rights. No covenant between the Father and the Son, such a conception being inconsistent with the unity of Godhead ; neither could he admit that there was merit in the Saviour's death, because as Mediator He was the Father's servant, and had nothing to give but what He received. Suspension from office carried over deposi- tion, and further dealings with him were deferred. At four successive meet- ings the case occupied long sederunts ; but in April 1810 the business resolved itself into the question, Restore or Not Restore? and, the roll being called, the former carried by a majority of 7. There was now, on the one hand, a protest given in by nineteen ministers and four elders ; and, on the other hand, the Rev. Thomas Stark of Forres was reprimanded from the Chair " for offensive and disorderly conduct in clapping his hands at the conclusion of the vote." Two years before this, Mr Imrie dictated to the Synod Clerk an acknowledgment to the effect that he was unfeignedly sorry at the offence he had given, and that he was resolved to avoid such things in future. But no sooner was he back to his pulpit than his regrets and resolves were alike forgotten. At the Synod in April 181 1 it was known that Perth Presbytery were deep in a new process against Mr Imrie, and it was deemed necessary to reverse the above decision, and close his mouth once more. For other two years the suspension lasted. Mr Imrie had been striking out now against the expres- sion, Three persons in the Godhead : " Those who say three are right, if they mean three modes of subsistence, and those who say one are right, if they mean one agent or will." But patience was exhausted now, and the issue foreseen by all parties. Dr Heugh wrote to a brother minister when the close was near : " I think with you that all is over with him, but I confess that I have scarcely any other than melancholy reflections upon the whole occasion." The motion to depose was carried by 40 to u, silent 14. Sen- tence was pronounced late on Friday, ist May 1812, or perhaps at an early hour on Saturday, for both dates are given. A newspaper notice bears that on Sabbath, the loth, Mr Imrie occupied his own pulpit, and preached to a very crowded meeting from the text : " But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." A tent had been erected for the Synod's deputy near at hand, and at the close of the afternoon service he declared the church vacant. But though the great majority of the congregation adhered to their minister he and they had to forego all right to the property and remove to Auchterarder, where the narrative will be resumed. Third Minister. JOHN CRAIG, from Duke Street, Glasgow, whom the Synod appointed to Kinkell in preference to Tillicoultry. The congregation had called Mr James Blyth, afterwards of Urr, two or three years before ; but Mr Blyth was ill to satisfy, and we assume that the call had been firmly refused and allowed to drop. Mr Craig was ordained, igth November 1817 ; but that he or any other man would bring back prosperity to the deserted building was beyond being hoped for. In the beginning of 1821 the people complained to the Presbytery that they found themselves unable to make up the stipend, and on I3th March Mr Craig tabled his resignation, which the Presbytery accepted on the spot. In 1823 Mr Craig was inducted into City Road, Brechin, where we have met him already. After three years the congregation called Mr Charles Muirhead, but Coupar-Angus was preferred, without a vote, by the Presbytery. They soon afterwards made choice of Mr James B. Miller, from Anderston, Glasgow. The stipend was to be ^70, with manse, garden, and sacramental expenses a big offer for a congrega- tion represented by only 38 male members. Having been set aside owing II. 2Q 6io HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS to informalities, this call was followed up by another, but it was ultimately declined. Mr Miller was never ordained, and the following notice in a Glasgow newspaper gives the end : " Died suddenly on the morning of Tuesday, i6th February 1830, at his uncle's house in Anderston, James B. Miller, preacher of the Secession." He was in the thirty-seventh year of his age. A volume of his sermons was published, with Memoir by his minister, the Rev. Dr Mitchell. Fourth Minister. JAMES FORRESTER, from Alyth. Ordained, 5th September 1826, when he was slightly beyond middle life. The New Statistical History states in 1836 that the utmost the congregation could give Mr Forrester was ^5 a year to defray sacramental expenses, in addition to paying the rent of a farm on which he resided, which seems to have been .32. The chapel, it adds, " is seated for 800, and might contain 1000, and in former days it was crowded every Sabbath, people coming from distances of twelve or sixteen miles." There were 80 members now, and an attendance of about 100. A supplement of .15 or ^20 was obtained soon afterwards. Mr Forrester came up to the Synod in 1852, but took suddenly ill while in Edinburgh. At the last sederunt, towards midnight on Friday, 7th May, a sum of ,15 was voted to him, and it was mentioned that to all appearance he was on the brink of the eternal world. He died on Sabbath, the gth, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry. His remains were removed to Kinkell, and on Thursday he was buried in the churchyard of Trinity-Gask. Kinkell had now to struggle for thirteen years against attempts to have it extinguished, and during the great part of that time they had sermon only on alternate Sabbaths. The case was battled over in Presbytery and Synod, Mr Marshall of Coupar-Angus figuring as the champion of the endangered cause. Though the membership was only 60, and the attendance from 50 to 80, it was pleaded that a large proportion of the families were five or six miles from any other church of the denomination. They were prepared, moreover, to offer ^50 a year and a free house, and they urged that if the congregation were dissolved the church and manse would fall into private hands. Towards the close of 1861 they called Mr John Paterson, after- wards of Whitehill ; and then in 1862 they called Mr James Patrick, now minister-emeritus of Patna, but both calls were declined. Fifth Minister. ANDREW ELDER, from Eaglesham. Ordained, ist July 1863, and accepted a call to George Street, Paisley, I5th January 1867. There was no thought now of sermon being discontinued, and in a few months a call was issued to Mr Thomas Kirk ; but he declined, and was ordained at Brechin (Maisondieu Lane) in the following year. Sixth Minister. GEORGE DUTHIE, from Glasgow (Wellington Street). Ordained, igth January 1869. By the closing of Dalreoch Church in 1872 Kinkell gained 1 1 members, and the people added ^20 to their part of the stipend. For a few years at this time there was a regular rise in the com- munion roll, till it came up in 1875 to 89. Here, however, owing to the decrease of population, retrogression began anew, till the number came down to 60 or slightly under. In December 1899 the membership was 70, and the entire stipend ,178, with a manse, ,70 of this sum being contributed by the people. COMRIE (ANTIBURGHER) IN the Minutes of the Associate Presbytery there is mention of an accession from two persons in Comrie parish on I4th March 1739, one of whom was probably James Drummond, the father of Dr M'Gregor, the apostle of Nova PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 6n Scotia. When sojourning in the neighbourhood of Stirling, a young man, he had been attracted to Ebenezer Erskine's ministry. Accessions had previously come in from the" parishes of Muthil and Monzie, and in the end of April Fast day services were conducted at Comrie by Messrs Moncrieff and Nairn. In October they applied for an eldership, an indication that their numbers were considerable, and on the last Sabbath of April 1740 they had regular services for the first time, the preacher being Mr David Smyton, afterwards of Kilmaurs. At a meeting of Presbytery in the following August Mr Mair of Orwell read the names of some people in and about Comrie who had declared their accession before him at a meeting of the societies there. Comrie now disappears from the records for years, being merged in Kinkell, which had become the meeting-place for the Seceders in the west of Perthshire. As the distance was between twelve and fourteen miles meetings for prayer and Christian conference must often have supplied the want of public worship on the Lord's day. The next we hear of Comrie is in 1752, when it appears as an Anti- burgher vacancy with a session of at least three members. In September of that year Comrie and Logiealmond applied for moderations with the view of calling Mr Hector Chisholm, a preacher who had Gaelic, and the Presby- tery resolved to treat them as one congregation, though they were fourteen miles apart, the minister to preach at Comrie every fourth Sabbath. But when the moderation day came the people there refused to take part in the call on such conditions. Having obtained a lease of ground for two thousand years they were now engaged in the building of their first church, and on 5th January 1753 they petitioned Kinclaven session for a collection " to defray the charges of a house they have erected for public worship." During that year they had sermon appointed for only fifteen Sabbaths, Mr Chisholm, now of Logiealmond. being in special request. His last appear- ance in their pulpit was on the first Sabbath of March 1754, and they never asked him back, as his behaviour on that occasion, under the influence of drink, had been worthy of a madman. One witness put it as follows : " She saw him in the time of singing, at the evening exercise on the Lord's night, strike a child with his whip out of the pulpit ; that the child belonged to one Hugh Clark at Comrie, and she supposed it to be about two years of age." A weeping scene ensued, and this was the beginning of the deplorable Logiealmond Case. Worst of all, the disgrace brought on the Cultibracken family, who had joined the Secession, was fitted to harm the struggling cause at Comrie far more than though their newly-built church had been swallowed up by an earthquake. But the evolvings belong to the history of Logiealmond congregation. First Minister. JOHN FERGUSON, a licentiate of Perth and Dunferm- line Presbytery. Ordained, 4th March 1760, over the united congregation of Comrie and Strathallan, his labours to be equally divided between the two places, which are thirteen miles apart from each other, but as both the moderation and the ordination were at Comrie we may look on it as the more important partner. The call was signed by 80 (male) members and adhered to by 5 1 not in full communion. The ordination sermon, preached by Mr Muckersie of Kinkell, was published, and in the Appendix he tells them : " God let your eyes see this teacher for the space of four months and some days," from which it appears that Mr Ferguson died about the second week of July, having taken fever when assisting at Muckart communion. Mr Muckersie also says that he seemed "particularly suitable to your congrega- tion (being) of a robust and strong constitution." Better prospects now opened up for Comrie, and on 3rd February 1762 the people applied to Stirling Presbytery to be disjoined from Strathallan, 612 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS their design being to combine with Crieff, where, owing to the character of the parish minister, a goodly number had acceded to the Secession. In September the Synod agreed to the joint formation, and it was ultimately arranged that the minister should reside in Criefif, and preach at Comrie every third Sabbath. Under the pastoral care of the Rev. James Barlas, who was ordained in 1767, affairs moved on for eight years ; but in 1775 Crieff wished a larger share of the minister's labours, and a great many in Comrie division, including several Established Church people, complained of having sermon so seldom, and never in the "Irish" tongue. Constant supply in both places was suggested, and this proposal being referred to the Synod they sent Mr William Laing into the bounds a preacher who had the Gaelic language mainly with a view to Comrie. Next year Crieff people decided that they must have supply every Sabbath, and let Comrie brethren either come in to Crieff or maintain the gospel in a separate way. In April 1776 the Presbytery met on the spot, and pronounced against dis- junction ; but Mr Barlas was henceforth to preach at Comrie only six Sabbaths in the year, and the Lord's Supper was to be dispensed invariably at Crieff. On nth March 1778 the petition of Comrie to be disjoined was granted, and the arrangement for the two places having a minister between them came to an end. At Comrie every effort was now made to obtain a moderation, but the Presbytery had no evidence of ripeness for a step so important. The wish might be to secure Mr Laing,* as they were satisfied that if services were conducted part of the day in the Irish tongue it would tend greatly to pro- mote both the knowledge of the gospel and the cause of the Secession. Other ten years intervened before they emerged from the vacant state ; but in the early part of 1789 they called Mr David Black, whom the Provincial Synod of Perth appointed to Dunfermline (Chalmers Street). Second Minister. SAMUEL GILFILLAN, from Buchlyvie. While on trials for ordination at Comrie Mr Gilfillan was called to Barry, now Car- noustie, and then to Auchtergaven, and the issues were left to the con- tingencies of Synodical procedure. Between the three there was little to draw in point of numbers, Comrie showing 32 (male members), Barry 29, and Auchtergaven 37 ; but Comrie was preferred, the reason being : " It is of long standing in the Secession, and is meantime in great need of the gospel." This was in April 1790, but when the Presbytery met in June Mr Gilfillan was not present, and in August he was not prepared to accept. Being allowed time for consideration he looked carefully at the matter on both sides, taking into account the unanimity of the Synod and the harmony of the people. He also ran over the points in their history : " Short time settled at first ; only joined to Crieff about ten years ; hope deferred which maketh the heart sick ; steadfast amid all their trials ; continuing about the same number since the beginning." So Mr Gilfillan yielded, and was or- dained, I2th April 1791. The membership was 65, and the stipend ,50 a year. About this time the old place of worship was superseded, and an application to Alyth session in December 1794 for a collection bore that they had lately built both a church and a manse. Interest attaches to the now dilapidated pile, the manse crumbling away, and the church partially converted into a stable. Though seated for 500 there was the prospect that this accommodation * William Laing finished his theological course in 1772. After obtaining licence he was sent north along with Mr Alexander Howison to supply at Howford, but neither of them had Gaelic sufficient to keep them going. Then he was located within Perth Presbytery, chiefly for the sake of Comrie. He was ordained at Newry, in Ireland, 25th October 1880, and died, 22nd July 1806. PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 613 might be required, as the membership was doubled within three years. But the want of Gaelic on Mr Gilfillan's part must have narrowed in his possession of the ground at least if, as his son George has stated, two-thirds of the parishioners did not understand English. In 1792 the bonds between Crieff and Comrie were renewed in an altered form by Mr Gilfillan's marriage with the eldest daughter of Mr Barlas. In 1803 the stipend was only 55. A balance sheet, which found its way into print a dozen years ago, presents, over against this slender income, the year's expenditure in its several items, illustrating the frugality which presided over the household arrangements. The only outlay we incline to quarrel with is that for " Beer, Spirits, and Wine," which came close upon .5 ; but such was the order of things in those days. The eye rests with surprise on such entries as " Fee of Servant, ^3, ios.," and " Milk, i, i8s." The balance for that year came out on the right side, but how this could be maintained amidst growing family burdens, unless by increase of liberality on the part of the people, is hard to conceive. Mr Gilfillan's attitude towards the Union of 1820 was very peculiar. He had hailed the prospect with lively satisfaction, and his feelings on the sub- ject found expression in a paper he contributed to the Christian Magazine on " The Divisions of Reuben." However, when matters were coming to a point, he could not accept the Basis of Union, but instead of breaking away, as most of the Protestors did, he occupied middle ground till his death. During the six years that intervened he never identified himself with the Courts of the United Church, and even when his son James was ordained at Stirling the father was not present as a corresponding member. Invited by the United Secession Presbytery of Perth to take his seat among them he wrote declining. He was waiting, his son in Stirling explains, until the New Testimony should appear, and " reserving to himself the right of holding and preaching all his former peculiarities." Before the New Testimony was enacted death intervened, and whether the contents would have satisfied him, or the terms on which it was adopted, "cannot now be determined." After a painful illness of a very few days he died, I5th October 1826, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. It was Sabbath, and most of his people were at Crieff com-munion, where he was to have been one of the assistants, and there they heard the announcement that all was over. In 1804 Mr Gilfillan published an "Essay on the Sanctification of the Lord's Day," which passed through eleven editions, one of them in Gaelic. This was followed in 1822 by a volume of "Short Discourses for the Use of Families," consisting mostly of papers which he had contributed to the Christian Magazine, and which Hugh Miller, in his "Schools and School- masters," describes as written " with all the concise weight and gravity of the old divines." Mr Gilfillan's last work, which appeared shortly before his death, is on "The Holy Spirit." There are, in addition, his "Letters, chiefly to Afflicted Friends," published in 1828, with a Memoir prefixed by his son in Stirling. During the vacancy which followed Mr Gilfillan's death Comrie con- gregation first called Mr David Duncan, whom the Synod in September 1827 appointed to Howgate. After a long pause they issued a divided call to Mr James Blair,* but at a subsequent meeting of Presbytery it was * James Blair, a son of the Rev. John Blair of Colmonell, having declined Comrie, was ordained at Warkworth, in Northumberland, 25th August 1829. Re- signed under strong advice, 24th March 1835, the Presbytery testifying that "the state of his health, and not anything affecting his ministerial character, had led to this painful result." In compliance with his own request, they proposed that his name should be placed on the preachers' list, but the Synod, while sympathising with 6i 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS intimated that the majority did not urge the sustaining in the face of so large a minority, a course too seldom followed on such occasions. Third Minister. JAMES MITCHELL, from Brechin (City Road). Or- dained, 8th September 1830, the stipend being ^90, but no manse. It is attested that the congregation was quadrupled under Mr Gilfillan, which would give a membership of 260 ; but it suffered seriously from removals, and there was the emigration at one time of nearly one-fifth to America. Mr Mitchell had a high reputation among his compeers for talent and attainments ; but it is testified that he paid no attention to bodily exercise, and that " he was irregular in his domestic arrangements, even to criminality." Acute illness supervened, and he died, 2nd January 1835, m tne thirty-sixth year of his age and fifth of his ministry. To his excellences George Gilfillan bore the following testimony : " His sermons often, and his lectures always, were excellent ; characterised by a correctness, a precision, a subtlety, and occasionally by a severe grandeur of imagery, which I have seldom hoard equalled in the pulpit." In the summer of that year the congregation called Gilfillan himself, but, warmly~as he cherished his fathers memory, he was not inclined to become his father's successor. In October they fixed on Mr Adam Lind, but in his case Comrie was displaced by Burntisland, and Burntisland by Elgin (Moss Street). The congregation agreed at this time " that, in order to enable a minister to live more comfortably among them, it was desirable that they should build a manse." The work went on, and the house, erected on a new site, was ready for occupancy before the vacancy was filled up. Fourth Minister. ROBERT T. WALKER, from Alloa (now Townhead). Ordained, i8th January 1837. Mr Jameson of Methven was to have pre- sided, but he died suddenly five days before. To the ^90 previously under- taken a house and garden were now added. Fourteen months afterwards Mr Walker returned the number of communicants at 177, Monivaird being almost the only outside parish from which a few families were drawn. The debt on the property was .120, most of it contracted probably in building the new manse. During the troubled period between this and 1845 it increased to ^160 ; but it was all cleared away under the Debt Liquidating Scheme, the congregation raising ^90 and the Board allowing ^/o. On 2nd March 1841 a matter of serious import emerged. Reports were afloat respecting Mr Walker's soundness in the faith, and he appeared that day before the Presbytery of Perth to be conversed with, as the summons bore. The conversation turned into an examination, and at three successive meetings the process went on, and the questions 81 in number with the answers he gave, were all taken down to be kept in retentis. In the end the Presbytery "judged Mr Walker to be highly culpable and deserving of censure," and, along with certain findings which led up to this conclusion, they referred the whole case to the Synod. This was the meeting at which the Rev. James Morison's connection with the Secession Church came to an end. But in Mr Walker's case the motion which carried was that he should be exhorted to be more careful in the language he employed on the subject of the Atonement and related doctrines, and a committee was appointed "to deal with him with a view to obtain further satisfaction." Mr Mr Blair, agreed that this would not be expedient. However, before the end of the year, his wish was granted, and he acted as a probationer till 1837. The ailment was a distressing delusion, which caused discomfort in manses where he went to supply. He had now an allowance of 20 a year from the Synod Fund, and this continued till 1858, when he was one of the first admitted as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. He died in Gilmour House Asylum on iSth March 1872, aged sixty-eight. PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 615 Walker was in the mood for giving satisfaction, and the committee were m the mood for receiving it On the one hand the general reference of the Atonement as opening the door of mercy to mankind-sinners got prominence, and on the other its special reference to the elect as securing their salvation. The report was cordially received by the Synod, and entered in the record " as a comfortable termination of this cause." On resuming pulpit work at Comrie Mr Walker gave his people an account of the Synod's decision, but its onesidedness was such that a party in the church complained of it to the Presbytery. They were headed by an old elder, named James Campbell, who also attested that " Mr Walker con- tinues to preach the same unsound and pernicious doctrines as before." At a subsequent meeting he entered by letter into particulars, as required, and the wish was to get Mr Walker to assume the defensive, but he declined to say a word. The question was how to get a new process entered on, as the worthy elder refused to become the prosecutor, even though the Presby- tery commissioned two of their number " to direct him as to the proper mode of procedure." After matters had remained in this state for over a year the Presbyter)' furnished Mr Walker with a copy of James Campbell's paper, and intimated to him that they were to meet in a fortnight, to con- verse with him in a committee of the whole house ; but he declined to avail himself of the perilous privilege, and they were left to record in their minutes that they considered his conduct " unbrotherly." Had they gone back to a speech Mr Walker delivered at the dose of their former " con- versations " with him they might have understood his unwillingness to pass through like experiences again. Referring to Mr Marshall of Coupar- Angus, he said : " I cannot now forget, nor will I soon forget, the continued threats for threats I must term them of one member of Court," and again : " Many of the questions proposed by at least one of my examinators were of a kind calculated rather to try my temper than to test my views, to lead me into error rather than to elicit truth." The Presbytery now resolved to cite Mr Walker to attend next meeting, when they were to ask him whether he held by the opinions contained in his former answers. This brought them no nearer their design, and to the Synod in May 1843 the whole case was referred, when a committee was appointed to communicate with parties, and examine into the facts. The end might have been better gained by transferring the minister and congre- gation of Comrie to the Presbytery of Stirling. The committee reported in October that they had no evidence of Mr Walker having violated his pledge to be more careful in his language on the doctrines in question. This arrested further discussion in Church Courts, and on 24th September 1844 Mr Walker accepted a unanimous call to Dunfermline (Chalmers Street), and Comrie was declared vacant. The congregation, which had increased one-eighth within the first fourteen months of his ministry, was now reduced from 177 to lyO or thereby. The next four years were attended by four disappointments. In De- cember 1844 they called Mr John Brown Johnston, and he intimated his acceptance ; but a more important sphere opened at Newcastle, and Comrie was left behind. A year after this they had the prospect of securing as their minister Mr James Cursiter, who had preferred Comrie to Carnoustie ; but he was never able to go on with his trial discourses, and he died at Kirkwall, his native place, on 25th June 1846, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. In December of that year they called Mr Alexander Pettigrew, but he accepted Balbeggie. At this time the members were returned at 160, and the stipend was to be ^90, with manse and garden. The fourth they called was Mr Robert Gardner, who was ultimately settled in Annan. 616 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Fifth Minister. WILLIAM F. SWAN, from Ayton (Springbank). Having declined Aberchirder he was ordained at Comrie, 28th June 1848. On Thursday, I5th August 1867, a new church, which cost about ,1500, and is seated for 350, was opened free of debt by the Rev. Dr Johnston of Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, who was from the same congregation as Mr Swan, a circumstance which is certain to have drawn out his warm-hearted aid. In 1879 Mr Swan's health became very precarious, and on 25th June 1881 he was relieved of all responsibility for the work of the congregation, retaining the manse meanwhile, and having a retiring allowance of ^10 a year. Sixth Minister. WILLIAM HALL, from Innerleithen. The call was signed by 91 members out of 98, and Mr Hall was ordained, nth January 1882. Mr Swan vacated the manse, and removed to Edinburgh, where his health revived considerably, so that he was available for pulpit supply. He died there, 8th November 1890, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty- third of his ministry. The membership at the close of 1899 was 113, and the stipend from the people had risen from ^90 to ,1 10. LOGIEALMOND (ANTIBURGHER) THE first mention of this name in the Minutes of the Associate Presbytery is on 9th October 1744, when a petition for supply was received from Logie- almond and Glenalmond, and one of their probationers, who was to be at Kinclaven on the third Sabbath of December, was appointed to have sermon with them on the following Thursday. Dr M'Kelvie has stated that Logie- almond people had a moderation granted them on I5th January 1745, but this is manifestly incorrect. The Presbytery, indeed, held a meeting that day, but nothing carne before them from Logiealmond except a petition for sermon. On 26th March an accession was given in from 16 persons, who formed the nucleus of the congregation that was to be. During the next year and a half Logiealmond had Sabbath supply only eight or nine times, the preacher being generally either Mr Christie or Mr Beugo, who were both fixtures on the list. An alleged connection of Mr Moncrieff of Aber- nethy with that region is favoured by the fact that the fourth meeting of the Associate Presbytery was held at Condiecleuch, a place in Glenalmond. The wants of the district go far to explain the application for sermon ten years afterwards. The parish of Logiealmond was suppressed after the Reformation, and sermon, which had been kept up in the old church for a long period, was now discontinued, while the churches of Moneydie, Foulis, and Methven were each about five miles distant. Thus the Associate Pres- bytery became " a repairer of the waste places, a restorer of paths to dwell in." The building of the first church, though sometimes put much earlier, we assign, as Dr M'Kelvie has done, to 1751, as the session of the North Church, Perth, granted Logiealmond ,5, 125. in November 1750 "to help to defray their charges for building a house for public worship." First Minister. HECTOR CHISHOLM, from the parish of Latheron, in Caithness. The name comes up in the Presbytery Minutes on I3th July 1742, when his accession was declined till he should get himself further attested. On I2th August the adventurer from the north was allowed 205. sterling, and on i4th October he was taken under their inspection, but only " as a private person." We find next from a minute of Ceres session that Mr Chisholm was applying himself to the study of Latin, probably at St Andrews, and on three occasions he received aid from their funds. In a like connection the name comes up in Abernethy records some years later. Having received licence he was called to Logiealmond in October 1752, his PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 617 command of Gaelic being a decided recommendation ; but there was delay in sustaining the call, and though the difficulty was got over, Mr Muckersie of Kinkell refrained from voting. On 24th May 1753 Mr Chisholm was ordained at Kendrum, the place where the church stood. The call was signed by 69 (male) members. But though he was ordained over Logiealmond alone, Comrie was to come in for Sabbath services about once a month. Gaelic was needed there, and the Presbytery also recommended Mr Chisholm to have a service in that language at Logiealmond on the first Lord's day of each month, " for the sake of those in the bounds who do not understand the English." This, in a perverse spirit, he would not comply with, and irritation was provoked ; but these things were forgotten amidst matters of graver moment. On 1 5th May 1754 the Presbytery met at Abernethy to take up some reports bearing on Mr Chisholm's behaviour one Sabbath at Comrie. At their meeting a week before they had a letter from him, in which he "abso- lutely refused, and offered to disprove the charge." He now came forward, ready to brazen it out, and the 5th of June was fixed on for the examination of witnesses at Kinkell. On the day appointed he did not appear, but, according to the Minutes, it was "notour" that he had gone off abruptly from that part of the country, "deserting his flock and family." It further appeared that he had taken provision with him for a long journey, having borrowed money from many people in the locality. Worst of all, it was ascertained from the testimony of their mother, the widow of the proprietor of a small estate in Comrie parish, called Cultibracken, that two of her daughters had gone far too much about Logiealmond manse, and now the elder of them had disappeared along with Chisholm. On 2nd July the Presbytery met at Muckart, and at the close of their deliberations the Rev. William Moncrieff of Alloa, their Moderator, went to the pulpit, and, after solemn prayer, he pronounced the foresaid Mr Hector Chisholm to be de- posed from the office of the holy ministry, and cast out from the communion of the Church. Did the scene suggest to none a contrast between this case, "with its heinous and atrocious sins and scandals," and the offences of "the separating brethren " in not seeing eye to eye with others on the demerits of the Burgess Oath ? A petition from Logiealmond came up that day for supply of sermon and the observance of a day of fasting and humiliation among them. They also represented " the melancholy and mournful situa- tion they are now reduced to," their minister having deserted both them and his wife and children. At the Synod in April 1756 an affair from Logiealmond gave some trouble. A call to Mr William Bannatyne had been sustained, but after his ordination was appointed the Presbytery, on the ground of opposition, stopped procedure and laid the call aside. Mr Bannatyne, believing himself ill-used, craved the Synod to grant him a testimonial that his ordination was not prevented "in consequence of any objection against his life and doctrine." The Synod found that the Presbytery ought to have made fuller inquiry before deciding not to go on, and with this deliverance they dismissed the whole affair, and Mr Bannatyne's name is met with no more. Second Minister. ALEXANDER PRESTON, from Abernethy. Ordained, 22nd December 1756. From some fragmentary minutes of session it appears that in 1776 Mr Preston had nine elders, and in the exercise of discipline they were faithful to Antiburgher requirements. Thus one of the members, who had invited some of his neighbours to dine with him on a Sabbath evening after his child was baptised, was dealt with for encroaching on the sacredness of the day. A warning had been previously given from the pulpit " against the evil of such practices," and the parties implicated under- 6i8 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS took now to guard against such things for the future. As to temporalities, the Old Statistical History gives the following account: "The minister has a pretty good living, and rents a farm. Most of the people of the Established persuasion have seats in the church, and from local convenience attend divine service there, but communicate in the parish church." In the winter of 1795 Mr Preston's health gave way, the ailment being a severe rheumatic affection. Applications for preachers now became frequent, particularly in winter, and in April 1798 steps were taken to provide him with a colleague. They first called Mr Thomas Beveridge, but he refused to accept. Then the Presbytery held a meeting at Logiealmond, when Mr Beveridge assigned as his chief reason for refusing to be settled there that Mr Preston had managed opposition against him, and had animadverted on a Fast day sermon of his. The Presbytery found that Mr Preston had spoken imprudently about that discourse, as he himself frankly acknow- ledged, and also that Mr Beveridge had acted rashly in bringing forward this charge in the face of Logiealmond congregation. The call was now laid aside, and Mr Beveridge became the first minister of Kinross (East). This case widened out till it led to Mr Preston resigning his charge. Within nine weeks of the winding-up with Mr Beveridge the Presbytery met again at Logiealmond, if haply they might have roots of bitterness removed. The people had tabled a paper of complaints against their minister, and we read of an "unseasonable" speech by Mr Preston which had given offence. Pacific measures were advised ; but at next meeting Mr Preston petitioned the Presbytery to loose him from Logiealmond, and on 25th June 1799 the pastoral relation was dissolved. The arrangement was that he should have ,10 a year, with two acres of land, and the old manse enlarged, but if he were to leave the place he would receive ^15 in all. He chose the latter alternative, and went to spend his remaining years in his nephew's manse at Auchtergaven. It was a remarkable turn of affairs. During the whole time the congregation there was struggling into existence Mr Preston had been unbendingly hostile. He was averse to granting them sermon at all, and when it was agreed to admit certain parties in the locality into fellowship with the Secession he gave in reasons of dissent, which were answered with a terseness and fiery edge such as, perhaps, none of his co-Presbyters except Mr Pringle of Perth could have given them. It happened that all the while Auchtergaven people were preparing a sphere of labour for Mr Preston's nephew when Howford failed him. To the manse at Muirend, which, had he got his own way, would never have been built, Mr Preston now retired, and found in it a quiet resting-place under the the pressure of years. He died, I4th May 1809, in the eighty-second year of his age. He and his wife are reputed to have made a fortune of ^3000 at Logiealmond by growing flax and selling it. If this was so, the allow- ance given by the congregation need neither have been, urged by the Pres- bytery nor accepted by himself. Third Minister. ALEXANDER YOUNG, from Alloa (now Townhead), a nephew of the Rev. William Barlas of Whitehill. Ordained, i6th April 1800. "The services," says the Christian Magazine, "were conducted in the open air, and though the day was intensely cold a great congregation assembled." The stipend at the outset was only j6o, with manse and glebe, and the call was signed by 84 (male) members. In 1811 the present church, with accommodation for 450, was built at a cost of over ,400, and the manse and office-houses, erected for Mr Young ten years before, involved an outlay of between ^200 and ,300. In 1833, though adverse times had set in, the communicants numbered 334. The minister stated that in the year 1829-30 there was an emigration of nearly 100 souls to America, and, PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 619 with the exception of three families, they all belonged to his congregation. The stipend at this time was ^96, with a glebe, which the people rented for \2. Of those under Mr Young's care nearly one-half were from the parishes of Foulis, Methven, Redgorton, and Monzie. For about seven months in the year the minister preached two discourses in the forenoon and one in the afternoon each Sabbath. During the five winter months there were two discourses, and no interval. In 1863 Mr Young was chosen to be Moderator of Synod. He was then in the sixty-fourth year of his ministry, and still in full harness. Next year he preached the opening sermon, which was published ; but, though still vigorous, he was drawing near the end. He died, i8th October 1864, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Of Mr Young's family one son was minister of Ceres (West) the Rev. William Barlas Young and another was the Rev. John Young of Newburgh ; while the Rev. Dr Davidson of Queen Street, Edinburgh, was his son-in-law. Fourth Minister. ROBERT SCOTT, M.A., from Milnathort. Though the population was declining, Mr Scott wisely preferred Logiealmond to Dunbar (East). Ordained, 26th April 1866. Within the first year of Mr Scott's ministry there was an increase of about 20 to the communion roll, and the people raised their part of the stipend from ^100 to 110, and afterwards to ,112, ios., making the whole .157, los. But there was no bearing up against the ebbing tide, and when Mr Scott, on ist April 1873, accepted a call to Garscube Road, Glasgow (now St George's Road), the membership, which had been between 130 and 140 at Mr Young's death, was under 120. During the vacancy of more than two years which followed, the con- gregation called Mr J. G. Crawford, now of Limekilns, and the Rev. James M. Cruickshank, previously of Westray, but both preferred to keep by the probationer list for the time. The stipend was again ^100, with manse and glebe. Fifth Minister. DAVID GOODWIN, M.A., from Port-William. Ordained, 2/th July 1875. The first two years of Mr Goodwin's ministry saw a faint uprise in membership, but after that there was ground lost year by year, till the number was reduced to between 80 and 90. Mr Goodwin died, 2ist August 1885, in the thirty-seventh year of his age and eleventh of his ministry, after an illness of eleven days, much lamented by the members of his little flock and by all who knew him. He is buried among his kindred in Mochrum Churchyard. Sixth Minister. DAVID MARSHALL FORRESTER, B.D., son of the Rev. James Forrester of Keith, and grandson of the Rev. David Marshall of Lochee. Owing to continuous decrease in numbers the people could not offer more than ,70, with manse and glebe, a sum with which the Presby- tery expressed their satisfaction. Ordained, 8th June 1886. On Sabbath, 1 3th January 1895, the ter-jubilee of the congregation was celebrated by special services, the preacher being the Rev. Dr Oliver, a Moderator of Synod, and next evening amid a violent snow-storm a soiree was held in the church. The date was fixed under the impression that the Seceders of Logiealmond were congregated on 1510 January 150 years before; but it was as if external nature had been up in protest against the blunder. This commemoration may have led Mr Forrester to become the historian of Logiealmond Church in his interesting little volume, entitled "The Edge of the Heather." It proved a service done to his people before bidding them farewell. Having declined a call to Overnewton Church, Glasgow, in the end of that year, he accepted Wellfield, Springburn, on 7th July 1896. 620 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Seventh Minister. JAMES EDMOND M'OUAT, B.D., from Balfron, a nephew of the Rev. Dr Edmond of London. Ordained, 8th April 1897. The membership had now declined to little over 60, without the slightest prospect of increase. At the close of 1899 it was rather under that figure ; but the liberality of the people, gauged by their numbers, was praiseworthy, being 70 in name of stipend, which was about half of what it was when they were well-nigh 400 strong. In Logiealmond we have an extreme type of what has been the experi- ence of United Presbyterian churches in rural districts throughout the land. For eighty years the Secession had the field very much to itself, and one is almost surprised that under Mr Young's long and popular ministry the assimilation was not more extensive. But in 1834, when a chapel of their own was opened, the seat-holders in membership with the Established Church withdrew, and the decrease in attendance became marked and decided. At the Disruption a third congregation rose up to dispute the ground. Meanwhile the population was being thinned out, till from 1114 in 1838 it was reduced to 511 in 1891, dissenting families finding no special favour in the eyes of their superiors. Small farmers, moreover, such as formed the strength of Logiealmond congregation, are the very class who have enterprise for emigration in times of agricultural distress. These considerations account largely for the change that has come over the old, and once widely-attended, congregation of Logiealmond. METHVEN (ANTIKURGHER) THIS congregation originated in a forced settlement on i2th December 1750, when the Rev. James Oswald was inducted into the parish church by four ministers, members of a " riding committee." The call had been signed by only 22 heads of families, most of them the dependents of the patron, and the case had been contested before the Courts of the Church for nearly two years. Resistance having been overpowered, the entire eldership and the great body of the people obtained sermon from the Anti- burgher Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline. In the summer of 1752 they were engaged in the erection of a church, and in March 1753 it was taken possession of. As confirmatory of these dates, we find that in July 1752 the North Church, Perth, had a collection of 11 "for helping them to build a place of worship." In common with other vacancies they had many blank Sabbaths ; but there was generally sermon at Logiealmond, five miles off, and Perth was within available distance. First Minister. JOHN WILSON, son of the Rev. William Wilson of Perth. Got licence when scarcely out of his teens. The call was signed by 131 (male) members, and Mr Wilson was appointed to Methven in pre- ference to Leslie, Howgate, and Peebles. The ordination took place, 8th November 1753. On the day before the ordination six families, including an elder, were disjoined from Kinkell, and 24 persons residing in the west end of Tibbermuir parish had been disjoined from the North Church, Perth, shortly before. This process was renewed in the early part of Mr Troup's ministry at Perth, when there is mention in the North Church records of disjunctions to 42 members from Cairney and Burnside, in Forteviot parish, to 1 8 from Tibbermuir, and to 28 from Moneydie. About the year 1796 Mr Wilson found himself disabled by infirmities for carrying on the various parts of his ministerial work, and the congregation abruptly resolved to have a colleague. Second Minister. JOHN JAMESON, son of the Rev. William Jameson PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 621 of Kilwinning, and a nephew of Mr Wilson. The call was signed by 231 (male) members ; but another from Ceres was preferred by the Synod, the wishes of the preacher and the claims of kindred being alike set aside. Mr Jameson, however, though pre-eminently a man of peace, firmly refused compliance, and, all efforts to induce him to yield having failed, he was re- buked, and the call was allowed to drop. He was ordained at Methven, I4th March 1798. We read in the Christian Magazine that, as the day was cold, and the service in the open air, many went away at the interval, but in the afternoon there were congregations both in the church and school- house. The entire work devolved upon the junior colleague his uncle, who was unable to appear at the ordination, being recommended at the close of the services to desist from all parts of the ministerial office. Amidst family trials and his own ailments he was in danger of betaking himself to delusive aid, and the recommendation was never formally withdrawn. He died, 3ist January 1803, in the seventieth year of his age and fiftieth of his ministry. From the notices of the day we gather that he was "endeared to all his acquaintance by an amiable disposition and sweetness of temper"; while "the plain, warm, and affectionate manner of his preaching made his public ministrations very acceptable." Under Mr Wilson's pastoral care the con- gregation grew strong, so that Methven used to be spoken of as one of the most decidedly seceding parishes in Scotland, and in 1794 the Old Statistical History gives 171 families as belonging to the Established Church and 226 to the Secession. Mr Jameson is best known by his " Letters to Afflicted Friends," which are marked by a rare mingling of the beautiful and the pathetic. His sermon on "True Fame" generally forms part of the same volume. The Rev. David Nicol of Aberlady, who was brought up under his ministry, spoke of Mr Jameson as "the godliest man he ever knew" ; while George Gilfillan, with abounding enthusiasm, designated him " one of the uncrowned princes and unappreciated moral giants among our kind." He died on 13th January 1837, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. Having returned from some pastoral visitation he retired to his study, and a short time afterwards he was found to have fallen over on to the floor, the placid smile on his face, but the spirit gone. By Mr Jameson's marriage with a daughter of Dr Pringle of Perth the family had a double connection with the founders of the Secession Church, the father being the grandson of the Rev. William Wilson of Perth and the mother the granddaughter of the Rev. Alexander Moncrieff of Abernethy. It is enough to name his son William, first of Jamaica and then Calabar, leaving "The Gospel to the Africans" to tell the rest. Third Minister. GEORGE BRUCE WATSON, from Ayton (Summerhill), but belonging to Chirnside, where in his student days he took an active part in originating a United Secession church. Mr Watson's preacher course was not all smoothness. First, he received a call to Sunderland, and before it was sustained he had a letter forward stating his readiness to accept. At next meeting he declined the call, and the congregation com- plained that he had broken his word. Mr Watson having taken no notice of a summons to appear before the Presbytery, they wrote him again with certification, and were told in reply that he declined their jurisdiction. At next Synod he was brought up for failure on two occasions to fulfil appoint- ments ; but, as his name was about to be taken from the list, it was agreed to proceed no further. Mr Watson, having declined a call to Chirnside, was ordained at Methven, 26th June 1838. The call was signed by 386 members, and the stipend was ^140, without a manse. In May 1841 the chapter of confusion opened, to be followed by the 622 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS shattering of the Secession cause at Methven. Disagreements had arisen in the session, the managers also mingling in the quarrel, and the Presbytery on being appealed to exhorted the minister and his elders to bury their past differences. In July 1842 the Presbytery, having ascertained that the congregation had adopted a resolution calling on the greater part of the elders to resign, heard parties, and found " that the present discord has originated in the session, and that the Moderator is chiefly to blame for it," and thev appointed two of their number to interview the disputants on an early day. They reported that, while Mr Watson expressed his readiness to forget and forgive, he firmly refused to meet with the elders as a session, because "he had no confidence in them." He also protested against the above decision of Presbytery, and appealed to the Synod, a step which necessitated the hanging up of the case for other ten months. In May 1843 the Synod appointed a committee to visit Methven, and "endeavour to heal the breach " ; but without effect, and meanwhile confusion got worse con- founded. On nth July papers bearing on the state of the congregation were brought to the Presbytery, but not through the session, because Mr Watson had refused to call a meeting for their transmission. On 2ist August his conduct in this respect was adduced as a charge against him ; but instead of vindicating himself he tabled a protest against further pro- cedure, and walked to the door. The scene ended with the suspension of Mr Watson from office and membership ; but, of course, the sentence was treated as null and void. At the Synod in October Mr Watson was more in the yielding mood, and a new committee was appointed, with better prospects of success. A fortnight passed, and on 25th October the Presbytery met at Perth, the members of committee who had been engaged at Methven the day before being with them, and having the right to speak and vote. It appeared that Mr Watson and his party were ready to abide by the concessions they had made in Edinburgh, whatever these may have been ; but those on the other side were utterly unprepared to come to terms. A final effort in the interests of peace was essayed, but to no avail. It was proposed to give Mr Watson another chance ; but the motion carried by a majority of two to restore him to office, ''while they declare it inexpedient that his ministry be continued longer at Methven, 3 and the congregation was rent asunder. The sentence being disregarded, his narce was dropped from the roll on 5th December 1843, an< i those who adhered to him were declared out of connection. The Presbytery and the Synod's Committee having been empowered to issue the case, the door was closed against formal appeal. The Synod, however, at their meeting in May 1844 took up a complaint from Mr^Vatson ; but by a majority they confirmed the Presbytery's decision, dissolving his connection with the congregation of Methven. On the Sabbath after the Presbytery's sentence Mr Lamb of ErroL, who had been appointed to declare the church vacant, preached in a tent, Mr Watson keeping possession of the pulpit for this and the four following Sabbaths. He and his party had then to leave the building in the hands of the minority," which included about two-fifths of the membership. A plain church was built for Mr Watson without delay, where he ministered apart from all ecclesiastical connection till May 1864, when he was admitted into the Established Church. It was explained to the General Assembly that the building was bis own property, and that the session and congregation were unanimous in making the application. Accordingly, it was agreed that Mr Watson be received "as an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland, with power as such to minister to his own congregation,'" but on the con- nection between him and them being dissolved die church should be closed- PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 623 A transference came three years after, and oo i ids Jane 1867 Mr Watson was inducted as assistant to the parish minister of Firth and Steams, in Orkney. His congregation, winch consisted of about 300 mmJjeii> at the time of the severance, but was now scarcely 200, went over to the Estab- lished Churchy with the exception of 19 members, who returned to *J M *"T foimer communion. Tbe deser&ed place of worship, "Mansion Nook ChapeL 17 stiD stands, and is used OB rare rragjn^y as a fan fa p^lifa- meetnigs. Mr Watson icruuied in 1869 to New Brampton, Chatham, where, besides fining die office of Army rfcnpfal^ be minim^^d to a little congregation in connection with Ac rbnuli of Scotland. He died at Maidstone, jist March 1898, in die nuwtf-first year of his age and sixtieth of his ministry. Of nor sons, one. ja. parish mini&aa of 1*ndrr t but died in 1876 ; another is minister of Cavers ; and two are in the Church of England the one a curate at Sooth MeMbrd, Yorkshire, and the other chaplain of the State Prison, Mja^n^ Kent. In April 1845 the party adhering to die Synod called Mr Henry Erskine Eraser, who decnned, and was settled in North Shields. Ther next called Mr Robert M'Lanrin, who obtained West Calder soon amawaidk. Fourth JfflKjfor. JOKX Mm^it from ADoa (Townhead}, who had been ordained at Norm MMtPMwr,, zotfa September 1844. lnAylHI to Mednren, jctth June 1846. Tbe stipend promised was jioo in aO, and die OMOJhii hip, which had been 500 or Ihucbf at Mr Watson's ordination, was down now to 190. A new rJimil^ with sittings lor 280, was *ynl on loth August 1868, die cost being 1525. Of tins sum Dr M*Knuay of dw? Andersonian College, Glasgow, a bmdwa of Mrs MiDar, gave ^1000, and no burden was left on dte building. On lads Janaary 1892 Mr Mnfar witbdie* from die active duties of the pastorate, ironing at die same time all claim to any retiring allowance. Fifth Mimuiar.A. M. CHRISTIE, >[_A_ from Locfaee. Hnint got - - : : - . -- ..... .': - - - :- ~ -: - June 1887. On account of iD-heahh in his CunDy bis res%nation was \ - - - - _ ;::-.,-- - . - . , . : - - . __ - , - - - -..--;- . ..;' . - - _ _ '---- ..... :'-.-; -:-r i '- T -^ - - - ' - :. ':'.<: .' - - : - - - . . : 7 . - - : . . : v : : : ' ' 7 : . - r ;. i , - - - - -:..i- :.:-":- ..... . -v. .- . : -':._: _-----:-': ..... .-._:.-- '- e : :-:-'.:' . : :: . - _ - ; - . , : > ' '- . .; - .".-.; - - . of 1899 was 130. CRIEEF (AKTOC-RGHER - - .- - -_ ; - - . Rev. John Drominond, a dioroi^dy erangeni^ preacher, and an cphpBder of de Marrow dortrines m a Tery pronoiniced form. Under his nwnastry Crieff shared in die Reriral inftnence of 1 742, and eight prayer meetings were started widm die boinids at that time. ^ Drnwonond died in 1754, in Ms seventy-eigfcth year, and it is Jtti Hid in the Onfl Sllnliia1 History -"- _- - - :- :' ; - : "-'- -.-_ ..... v :- "v - - -'---- catent a number of Episcopalians This sets aside Dr M e Kehrie r s well- known formula to die effect that several of Mr Diummawfs people, dis- of his conduct in co-operating so far widi die Four Brethren 624 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Presbytery. It was under Mr Drummond's successor that the Secession took root in the parish of Crieff. This was the Rev. Thomas Stewart, who, after holding on for a dozen years, was deposed in 1767 for being "habit and repute a drunkard." In the early part of his ministry a number of Crieff parishioners betook themselves to Kinkell for gospel ordinances. On 3rd February 1762 a petition for sermon from some people about Crieff came before the Presbytery of Stirling, but they had been receiving occasional supply before this. A coalescence with the Seceders at Comrie was now in prospect, but Kinkell session refused to let go their hold of Crieff, though six and a half miles distant. The case being referred to the Synod they erected Crieff and Comrie into a congregation, with two places of worship and a joint session. In 1763 they called Mr James Russell, whom the Presbytery appointed to Orwell. This call was signed by 70 (male) members, of whom Crieff must have furnished considerably more than the half. Their church was built in 1765. First Minister. JAMES BARLAS, from Perth (North). Ordained at Crieff, 3rd March 1767, Comrie to have a third of his labours. A note-book of Mr Barlas' shows that he lectured straight on, no matter at which of the places he preached, an indication that the people travelled the intervening six miles the days when their own church was closed. But discontent over so many blank Sabbaths took an acute form in Crieff after a number of years, and a change was pronounced indispensable. Their funds were falling off, and it was only by having constant supply that they could hope to increase and prosper. It was with Comrie and its inability to stand alone that the Presby- tery had difficulties ; but these were got over, and on nth March 1778 the union between the two divisions of the congregation the eastern and the western came to an end. In 1804 Mr Barlas sent up a remonstrance to the Synod against the New Testimony, and in 1805 he tabled a protest against their proceedings in the New Light direction, but he did not, like Professor Bruce and the others, carry the matter to open severance. The alterations gone into may, however, have hastened his determination to retire, and in July following he preached his farewell sermon to his congregation, though he still ranked as their minister. At this juncture a Constitutionalist church was formed in Crieff, which, after waiting fourteen years, got Mr Thomas M'Crie (afterwards Dr M'Crie the younger) for their minister, and as the call was signed by 48 men the movement must have seriously weakened the old congregation. But even under Mr M'Crie the cause did not succeed, and in 1826 he demitted his charge "on account of the inadequacy of the support afforded him." The vacancy was never filled up, though the congregation was in existence so late as 1838, with 21 communicants, and sermon on alternate Sabbaths. In 1807 the Rev. James Simpson, formerly of Thurso, was called to Crieff, but he was appointed to Potterrow, Edinburgh. In April 1810 Mr ' Barlas' resignation was reported to the Synod, and he died, loth Decem- ber 1811, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and forty-fifth of his ministry. From a brief notice in the Christian Magazine by his son-in-law, the Rev. Samuel Gilfillan of Comrie, we learn that his father was a merchant in Perth, and that the Rev. William Barlas of Dundee was his brother. The con- gregation next called Mr James Reid, whom the Synod appointed to Newmilns, but who was ordained at Sanquhar. Second Minister. ANDREW SCOTT, from Dennyloanhead, a brother of the Rev. William Scott of Leslie. Ordained, 2oth September 1814, Crieff having been preferred to Auchinleck and Saltcoats (West) by the Synod. Shortly before this the Burgher Presbytery of Perth opened a preaching PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 625 station at Crieff, and supply was kept up till the Union of 1820 was drawing near, when the Presbytery Clerk got intimation to have it discontinued. This was wise, and it is to be hoped the other congregation got the benefit. Mr Scott died suddenly, 2ist February 1824, in the thirty-fourth year of his age and tenth of his ministry. Mrs Scott, like Mrs Gilfillan of Comrie, was a daughter of Mr Barlas, the former minister. At the close of 1828 the congregation agreed "if there be a surplus after paying the minister's stipend, etc., to give a small present to Mrs Scott's children, as a testimony of regard for her husband, their late pastor." Third Minister. WILLIAM RAMSAY, from Kinclaven. Ordained, 2nd February 1825, when Mr Jameson of Methven preached, and "at the close many were affected to tears by the impressive allusions to the sudden and distressing manner in which their late pastor was taken from them." Mr Ramsay's call was subscribed by 59 (male) members, only 1 1 more than the Constitutionalists mustered for Mr M'Crie three years before. The two companies combined would have formed a goodly array, but disunion is weakness. In 1837 the old place of worship was taken down, and another, built on the same site, was opened on the first Sabbath of January 1838, with sittings for nearly 550, the cost being about 600. The communicants were between 230 and 250, of whom nearly one-fourth came from other parishes, chiefly Monivaird ; while Monzie, Madderty, Foulis, and Muthil furnished three or four families each. The stipend was .105, with ^8, 8s. for sacra- mental expenses ; but there was no manse, and the debt amounted to ^300. About that time a Committee of Presbytery reported " that the management of their pecuniary affairs has been careless and slovenly." Accordingly, seat rents were greatly in arrears, and subscriptions to the building fund not paid up. The session came close to the root evil \yhen they set about deal- ing with members who were neglecting Church ordinances. Spiritual reviving is the best security for reviving all round. During the Atonement Controversy Crieff congregation was much dis- turbed through its proximity to Comrie. When Mr Walker was under examination before Perth Presbytery the church officer was found guilty of applying unbecoming language to the doings of that venerable Court. He also found fault with the doctrine of a particular Atonement, and had caught up a phrase about the Saviour's death having placed all men in a salvable state. For these things, and for circulating pamphlets " full of gross Arminian errors," the session suspended him from Church fellowship. This was in 1841, and next year certain members ceased to attend Mr Ramsay's ministry. They were travelling to Comrie on Sabbath, and, to make amends, a number of Comrie people were worshipping regularly at Crieff, among others Mr Walker's old elder, James Campbell, who had changed his residence to Crieff, " but had been unable to get a disjunction." These things led Mr Ramsay to speak at the Synod "of the jealousy, distrust, and opposition manifested by the people of Crieff and Comrie, which he contrasted with the 'brotherly love and harmony which formerly existed between them." With Mr Walker's removal to Dunfermline the excitement would abate, but both congregations must have suffered damage in various ways while it lasted. In 1845 an effort was made to have the debt on Crieff Church removed, and by the aid of the Liquidation Board, which made a grant of one-half, ,240 was cleared away. The session records in Mr Ramsay's time reveal an unhappy system of dealing with offenders. A member of the congregation has been active in getting up a preaching station at Muthil, and they refuse him an attestation of character till he shall acknowledge this irregularity. They also bring in that he has been calling them tyrants, and the case finds its way to the II. 2R 626 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Presbytery. An elder's son is refused a disjunction, and in replying to his protest the Moderator explains to the Presbytery that they have certain charges against him. It ends in a triumph for the protestor and in the father withdrawing from office and membership. In 1854 the pecuniary affairs of the church were in a very unsatisfactory state, the stipend being 126 in arrears. In 1860 there was additional outlay owing to the minister's temporary failure of eyesight, and special subscriptions were required. But always the machinery dragged, and at last, in December 1866, the congrega- tion agreed to request the session to confer with the minister about retiring. Mr Ramsay had now reached the age of seventy-four, and the proposal may not have been altogether out of place. But a union between the two Crieff churches was also in prospect, though the movement ended in failure. Even in preparing the way for amalgamation there was a sad lack of the kindly spirit. For example, it had been customary for some time, when either of the ministers was from home, for the two congregations to worship together, the other minister occupying his own pulpit in the forenoon and the vacant pulpit in the afternoon. But the attendance on these occasions was disappointing, and Mr Ramsay's session quietly suggested that it might be advisable to have the practice discontinued. This brought an ill-judged Minute from the session of the South Church, and such things were unfavour- able to harmonious action at a later time. In February 1867 the session of the North Church, by directions of Presbytery, drafted certain articles to be given in as a Basis of Union, on most of which there could be no room for difference of opinion. But they stipulated that the North Church, being the larger and more commodious, should be the regular place of meeting, and they enforced this by an argument which should have set the matter at rest. It ran thus : " By the North leaving their property they lose it, but though the South leave their place of worship they still retain it." While these points were under discussion the session of the South Church requested a conference with their brethren of the other session, and at the hour appointed most of the elders and several of the managers appeared. It transpired, however, that they had not come in a sessional capacity, and the Moderator, instead of welcoming them as individuals, put the question from the Chair, what proposal they had to make to the session of the North Church. The answer being given that they only wished some conversation he then asked what they wished to converse about, "and dead silence followed, which lasted for some time." Had this affair been better guided it might have helped to kindly feeling. The turn negotiations now took belongs rather to the history of the South Church. To open up the way it was understood that the two ministers, who were each midway between seventy and eighty, would retire. Mr Martin's people had already been arranging for a colleague, and Mr Ramsay was prevailed on to express his willingness to withdraw, if this were deemed expedient. It was accordingly resolved by a Synodical Committee to have the union carried through on the first Sabbath of March 1869, the two* congregations to meet together that day as one in the South Church, and when the committee met again four weeks afterwards they agreed to regard the union as completed, the united congregation to worship regularly in the North Church. This sounds well, but the union did not bring a single additional elder to the North Church session, and the members who acceded were only between 20 and 30, though others have joined since, some of them quite recently having withdrawn from the ministry of the Rev. Alexander Robinson, the present pastor. But from this time forward the North Church enjoyed a flow of good fortune. The pulpit was occupied Sabbath after Sabbath by outstanding PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 627 ministers of the denomination, thanks to the warm interest of the Synod's Committee, and specially of Dr James Taylor, its convener. A new church in a better part of the town was deemed indispensable, and to aid in the good work " it was intimated that the lay members of the committee had raised the sum of ,500." The two aged ministers had been declared united in the joint pastorate of the congregation ; but no time was lost in providing for their retirement, Mr Ramsay being to receive an allowance of .30 a year, and Mr Martin ,15, along with the manse he occupied. They were also to be placed as annuitants on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. On I3th July 1869 their resignations were accepted, their names being retained on the Presbytery roll, and on the following Sabbath the pulpit was declared vacant. Fourth Minister. JOHN C. INGLES, from School Wynd, Dundee. Having preferred Crieff to Colinsburgh he was ordained there, gth February 1870. The call was signed by 1 1 1 members, a token of no great increase in numerical strength ; but the feeling among all concerned may have been that, with denominational forces no longer divided, Crieff congregation was entering on an era of prosperity. Mr Ramsay died, 23rd August thereafter, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. His lectures on the Book of Revelation, the volume by which he is best known, show him to have been a man of very considerable mental vigour. In 1881 a com- modious manse was built at a cost of slightly over ^1000, of which ^300 came from the Board, and fully ^700 was raised by the people. On loth August 1884 the new church was opened by Principal Cairns, with sittings for 533, and built at a cost of nearly ^6000. This large expenditure they met by subscriptions, collections, and the like, but without a bazaar, so that in 1891 they were free of debt. The communion roll at the close of 1899 was approaching '300, and the stipend was ^200, with the manse. CRIEFF (RELIEF) ON 1 5th July 1782 some of Crieff people applied to the Relief Presbytery of St Ninians to be taken under their inspection, and Mr Brown of Auchter- arder was appointed to preach to them on a convenient Sabbath. Two other members of Presbytery supplied thereafter on separate days, and then the Presbytery delayed granting sermon further till pecuniary matters were settled with the elders and managers of Auchterarder, of which they had formed a branch. This barrier being removed it was agreed on 23rd December to recognise them as a forming congregation. Soon afterwards a church was built a little way to the east of the town ; but for the next three years, owing to the dearth of preachers, they had only seven Sabbaths filled up, at least by appointment of Presbytery. First Minister. JOHN BAILLIE, a man with a history behind him. When a student of divinity he professed to be grieved with the backslidings of the Established Church, and was received into the Burgher fellowship by the session of Dalkeith. Having obtained licence he was called to New- castle and Burntshields, and, the Synod having preferred the former, he was ordained in 1769 over what came to be known as Barras Bridge con- gregation. Fourteen years afterwards his elders and managers lodged a complaint against him before Edinburgh Presbytery, as did also certain "aggrieved members." On 6th April 1784 he resigned his charge, withdrew from the Burgher communion, and was suspended sine die. Charltpn's History of Newcastle brings to the front "his too great love of conviviality," and this, according to another authority, "led him into irregularities 628 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS peculiarly inconsistent with his profession." It is also stated that after being put out of his church he passed some time in Newgate for debt, but escaped into Scotland through the misplaced confidence of one of his keepers. He was then admitted to ministerial status by the Relief Presby- tery of Edinburgh, and was even chosen to act as Clerk of Synod in 1785. Now Crieff people fixed on Mr Baillie for their minister, and he was inducted to his second charge, 28th June 1786. The membership at this time cannot have been large, as the second call, five years later, was signed by only 32 men and 18 women, and the parishioners of all ages connected with the Relief were given not long after at 96. The Old Statistical History ascribes the congregation's origin to an unpopular settlement in a neighbouring parish, but this cannot be correct. It is probable, however, that the cause, after being fully formed, was helped by accessions from Madderty, where a minister was ordained about the time of Mr Baillie's induction, though this did not figure as a case of violent intrusion. Towards the end of 1788 commissioners represented to the Presbytery the extreme distress of the congregation. On loth February 1 789 a member of Presbytery was appointed to preach at Crieff, and pub- licly rebuke Mr Baillie for his conduct "in the irregular way of marrying his daughter," but the people shut the doors against him. On I2th May the representatives of the congregation, by direction of Presbytery, brought up a libel against their minister, with a list of witnesses, and he was summoned to appear at next meeting. When the appointed day came, it was announced that the managers had paid him ^40, and he had engaged to demit his charge. Three of the leading men had also signed a paper attesting Mr Baillie's character as a man and a minister. All that remained for the Presbytery now was to carry out the infliction of censure upon the offender, and as it would be inconsistent with their dignity to preach to the people of Crieff until they gave satisfaction for "shutting the church doors on a deputy of theirs" the rebuke was to be administered at Auchterarder. On 28th June it was announced that Mr Baillie had "cordially submitted to discipline," and he was loosed from his charge. He now returned to Newcastle, where he joined Mr William Tinwell, author of a system of Arithmetic, in conducting an academy, his department being Classics and his partner's Mathematics. This connection coming to an end, some of his friends fitted up a chapel for him in 1797, where he preached, and at the same time assisted his daughter, who kept a school. We read that after her death he suffered many pecuniary difficulties. He died on I2th December 1806, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. Mr Baillie, besides Lectures on Revelation, wrote "An Impartial History of Newcastle" and also a " History of the French War." Altogether he seems to have been not only "a clever" but an accomplished man, and one who under the sway of a higher inspiration might have filled an honourable place in the Church. Among his publications was a " Funeral Sermon occasioned by the Death of his daughter Frances," probably the daughter above referred to. The eldest was married to the Rev. Robert Sangster, Relief minister of Perth. Second Minister. WILLIAM BELL, from Paisley (Oakshaw Street). After he had attended the Antiburgher Hall two sessions, there was a break by reason of his wavering attachment to Antiburgher principles ; but in March 1787 he appeared anew before Glasgow Presbytery, when his minister, the Rev. James Alice, complained that for some time Mr Bell had attended the Relief minister and sometimes the Burghers and the Established Church. Mr Bell stated that he had not been satisfied as to the system of covenanting ; but he " never had any proper peace of mind PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 629 during his apostacy," and he wished to be restored to his former status. He was accordingly rebuked, and allowed to attend the Divinity Hall, which he did other two sessions. But the Scripture text: "Will ye also go away?" lost its power to detain him on Antiburgher lines, and in June 1790 he was introduced to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow as a candidate for licence by the Rev. Patrick Hutchison of Paisley. He was ordained at Crieff, ijth October 1791. Outward prosperity did not visit Crieff congregation along with the young minister. The people appear to have felt that the situation of the meeting-house outside the town stood in the way of progress, and in May 1795 they requested the Presbyter)' of St Ninians to befriend them in removing to a better centre. That same month the Synod was appealed to for aid, but owing to other demands they could do nothing. The building, however, with 450 sittings, went on, but at what cost is not known. Towards the close of Mr Bell's ministry his stipend was not fully paid, and in 1822 the Synod aided for once to the extent of 10. Soon afterwards it was arranged that he should retire on an allowance of ^30 a year from the congregation, and this being acquiesced in the pastoral tie was dissolved on 6th January 1824. Having removed to Paisley Mr Bell died there on 6th January 1825, in the seventieth year of his age and thirty-fourth of his ministry. Third Minister. JOHN MARTIN, from Hutchesontown, Glasgow. Or- dained, i6th March 1825. The stipend was to be ^90, and there was the promise of other ^5 for every additional 50 seat-holders. The members at this time were supposed to be 150, and in 1838 they numbered 235. About a fifth of the families were from Muthil and Madderty, with a few from Monzie, Foulis, and Monivaird. The stipend was still ^90, but with an additional ^4 if the funds allowed. The managers' books show that in 1836 the payments began to fall behind, till in 1847 the arrears of stipend were upwards of ,200, but Mr Martin freely remitted this debt. In 1856 Crieff (Second) appears on the Synod's list of supplemented congregations, the people paying ^82 and the Board \o. Next year the present church, with 350 sittings, was erected at a cost of ,565, and the minister was also provided with a manse close by. But meanwhile there had been steady decline in numbers, till from 235 in 1838 there were 136 reported in 1857, and ten years later there was a further reduction to 112. The stipend was now ^85, with a supplement of ^25, which was more altogether than Mr Martin had in the congregation's best days. In the beginning of 1867 it was resolved to provide Mr Martin with a colleague. In proportion to their numbers the congregation devised liberal things. Besides ^10 to the senior minister, with the manse, they were to make the stipend ^120, without aid from the Synod Fund. The Presby- tery struck in at this point with a unanimous opinion "as to the extreme desirableness of a union between the two congregations in Crieff," and a committee was appointed to confer with both parties, and report. When Crieff Case came up in July it was stated by the convener that the South congregation required as a term of union that the North congregation raise ^300 as a set-off against the value of their manse. Meanwhile deputies from the Home Mission Board and the Presbytery met with the South congregation, but found the people in strong opposition to union on any conceivable terms. A motion of approval, provided the North Church raised the ^300, had only 4 supporters, while the counter-motion that negotiations forthwith terminate had 28. At the meeting in the North Church that same evening a unanimous wish was expressed in favour of union, believing that it would be to the benefit of the U.P. cause in Crieff, 630 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS and the people engaged to do their utmost to raise the ,300 insisted on. It was all in vain. The South congregation pressed their petition for preachers with a view to a colleague, and they now undertook to provide ,150 a year for stipend and retiring allowance together. The Presbytery resolved to refer the case to the Synod, with the ex- pression of their conviction that " the time has come when the South con- gregation ought to be enjoined that which is convenient." The case stirred a warm discussion, the commissioners pleading that, with the prospect of an increasing population, there was room for the two churches in Crieff, and Mr Marshall of Coupar-Angus urging that, though the South congregation was promising ^150 a year, there was neither security nor likelihood that they would be able to pay it. A bold stand was made for the rights of the people by Professor Calderwood and others, but a motion carried to appoint a large committee "to confer with both congregations in order to secure if possible a harmonious settlement of present difficulties, with full powers to issue the case." Under the convenership of Dr James Taylor the committee went into their work with great heartiness. Within six weeks they had the two congregations worshipping together in their respective churches alternately, the services being conducted by " ministers of high standing," and all at the Synod's expense. But, notwithstanding these attractions, only a section of the South congregation were present at divine service when it was conducted in the North Church. It was time to ask : Is this not labour lost, and the Synod's money besides ? The arrangement lasted some months without amalgamation being brought one iota nearer. It was next proposed to have stone and lime partialities superseded by the erection of a new place of worship, but by a majority of 33 to 8 the South congregation refused to surrender. However, at a subsequent meeting the suggestion to sell both properties and apply the proceeds to the building of a new church, "with assistance from friends of the cause in Glasgow" and elsewhere, was favourably entertained, and a resolution to this effect was described as having been unanimously agreed to. Here was a foothold for decisive action now. That the united congregation might proceed as speedily as possible to choose a pastor it was arranged that the two aged ministers should retire on an allowance equal to ,80 a year, including the grant from the Annuity Fund. Then on I5th February 1869 the committee resolved that the union should take place forthwith. The North and the South congregations were appointed to meet together in the South Church on the first Sabbath of March, and Dr Frew, the Moderator of Synod, was to preach and declare them henceforth united. The marriage arrangements were perfect, but, unfortunately, there were neither to be responses nor the joining of hands. On the evening of the previous Thursday the South congregation met, and by a very large majority decided against the union. A small minority on the other side had for some time been making their presence felt at church meetings, and they were now to combine with the North congregation. But on Sabbath morning, when Dr Frew and his friends came to the door of the South Church, they found it locked against them, and the services had to be conducted in the other and larger place of worship. On Thursday evening, ist April, the anti-unionists met, and resolved unanimously to go over to the Congregational Union, and before the year was out they had a minister set over them in that connection. A successor of his drifted into Unitarianism, and this prompted some families to seek back to the fellowship of the U.P. Church. The little congregation is still enrolled under the same flag, and they have now for their minister the Rev. Alexander Robinson, B.D., formerly of the Established Church, Kilmun, the author of a book, entitled PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 631 " The Saviour in the Newer Light," which gave the General Assembly much trouble, and threw the author out of his church. After the bulk of his congregation joined the Independents, taking the property with them, Mr Martin occupied an anomalous position. The Minutes of Synod for 1869 recorded that the North and South congregations, Crieff, had been united into one by a Committee of Synod empowered to that effect, and, in consistency with this declaration, Messrs Ramsay and Martin appear on the Synod roll that year as colleagues. Mr Martin occu- pied the manse as aforetime, the question of legal rights not being stirred ; but he worshipped in the North Church, and received ^15 a year from its funds. He died, 2nd February 1879, m tne eighty-sixth year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry, leaving the remembrance of his unobtrusive worth behind him. Had the leading men in the congregation approximated to his peaceful ways, the gathering of the United Presbyterianism in Crieff into one would not have proved a bootless endeavour. A number of years after this the Presbytery of Perth assigned " the uniting of congregations " as a reason for the decrease of membership within their bounds. Of seven Relief churches which had their names dropped from the roll of that Presby- tery Crieff was the oldest, and its very tenacity of life evinced that it was not ill-compacted. It furnishes an illustration of what ill-boding attempts at union are apt to come to. It is true that the supreme court has to keep the central funds from being misapplied, but in the present case the minimum stipend was engaged for. Still, the right idea was one vigorous congregation in Crieff, and had there been less of rude imperiousness in the Presbytery, and less of nimble dexterity in the Synod's Committee, union might without much loss of time have become an accomplished fact instead of being little more than a fiction or a name. PITCAIRN (BURGHER) TOWARDS the end of last century Cromwell Park, in the parish of Redgorton, became a seat of manufacturing activity. This led to a petition being pre- sented to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth for sermon on loth January 1797. The paper giving reasons for leaving the Established Church was signed by loo persons, most of them heads of families, and the station was opened on the fourth Sabbath of January. Four elders were ordained on 22nd February 1798, and a fifth, disjoined from Wilson Church, also became a member of session. In November 19 members of that congregation residing in the locality were likewise transferred to strengthen the new formation. In March 1798 the name changes in the Presbytery records from Cromwell Park to Pitcairn, which may be taken as marking the time when the new church, with sittings for 450, was ready for occupancy. The cost of the building, including manse and session-house, was given in 1838 as ^1000. How much of that large outlay was met at once, or how the heavy laurden was reduced, there is nothing to show. In September they called Mr James Harrower, promising a stipend of ,70, with manse and garden, but a prior call to Denny was preferred by the Synod. First Minister. JOHN STEWART, from the parish of Kirkpatrick- Fleming, but brought up under the ministry of the Rev. John Johnston, Ecclefechan. A call to Mr Stewart from Crail was already lying on their table, and another from Newbigging was brought up along with that from Pitcairn, but the three congregations being all under the jurisdiction of Perth Presbytery a reference to the Synod was not required, and Pitcairn carried by an absolute majority. The call was signed by 50 members and 632 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS adhered to by 153 ordinary hearers, and to the stipend formerly offered a sum of ^4 for sacramental expenses was added, and coals were to be supplied instead of being merely driven. Mr Stewart was ordained, 28th February 1799. ''The whole service," says the Christian Magazine, " was in a field adjoining the meeting-house, and, the day being favourable, the audience was very numerous." Mr Stewart moved on comfortably at Pitcairn for eight years, but in October 1807 he wrote Edinburgh Presbytery expressing his willingness to undertake a mission to England any time that winter. Some Scottish people residing in Liverpool were combining to form a Secession congregation there, and the Presbytery, availing themselves of Mr Stewart's offer, appointed him to the new station for three months, and about midsummer he was unanimously called to this larger field of labour. The names reached 108, and the stipend at the beginning was to be ,150, with expenses. The Synod, however, in September 1808 decided against the change ; but Liverpool people, believing that this was not a final award, renewed their call, and on 25th April 1809 the transportation was agreed to, and on ist June he was admitted to his new charge. As Mr Stewart will not come within our compass again, it may be stated that soon after his removal to Liverpool the congregation there exchanged their temporary meeting-place for a church they had built, with accommoda- tion for 500. In 1827 they took possession of Mount Pleasant Church, with sittings for 1200, and built at a cost of ^6500. But before this position was reached Mr Stewart, who had the degree of D.D. conferred upon him by Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1813, had to bear the heat and burden of the day. For several years, in addition to preaching often three times on Sabbath and once during the week, he conducted an academy exertions which were enough to bring premature decline. In 1838 he obtained the Rev. Hugh Crichton, Duntocher, for his colleague, and on 7th October 1840 he died, in the seventy-second year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. A daughter of his was the wife and widow of the Rev. George Hill of Musselburgh. Two brothers of his were also ministers the younger of them being the Rev. David Stewart of Stirling (Erskine Church), and the other Dr Stewart, who was long minister of Erskine parish, of whom more is given under Langbank. Mr Stewart left Pitcairn in a much improved state, so that in view of calling another they were able to afford a stipend of i 10, with manse and garden, and a piece of ground adjoining the meeting-house. Second Minister. WILLIAM WlLLANS, from Blackfriars, Jedburgh. The call was signed by 205 communicants. On this occasion also there were two calls besides one from Kincardine and the other from Newcastleton but Pitcairn carried, and Mr Willans was ordained, 27th August 1811. The congregation by this time had reached its maximum, and in a few years we meet with signs of decadence. At the Synod in September 1817 they applied for aid, their funds having suffered through the stoppage of the public works, and they were found fully entitled to a grant of ^20. They had undertaken a larger stipend than their altered circumstances warranted. In this straitened state matters continued till 23rd May 1837, when Mr Willans resigned his charge. In keeping with a resolution of the congrega- tion the demission was accepted, and had he not taken this step the case might have come before the Presbytery in another form. In September he came forward asking a testimonial of ministerial standing, as he intended to go abroad ; and when this was refused meanwhile, he appealed to the Synod, with the result that the Presbytery were instructed to meet on the following week, and bring matters to an issue. Mr Willans had been avowing his intention to prosecute his people for arrears of stipend, and also to " expose PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 633 them through the Press"; but the Presbytery found that his claims were baseless, though they earnestly advised the congregation to pay him 20, and bring the contention to an end. Mr Willans after a pause of some months renewed his demand for a ministerial certificate, and this led to the bringing forward of the root evil. Two years after his ordination he married a daughter of the Rev. William Elder of New town St Boswells, and at her "death his servant had been lifted out of her place. This had been the main ground of severance between him and his congregation, and after removing to lodgings in Perth he persisted in keeping this woman about his house, "to the injury of his reputation." He was now told by the Presbyter)' that when he brought this unworthy state of matters to an end they would consider his demand for a testimonial, but he declared he would not be dictated to on a matter with which they had no concern. He had withdrawn, moreover, from attending public worship, and he avowed that he had no intention of having fellowship with the United Secession Church. The examination of witnesses disclosed a grievous want of self-respect and indifference to the comfort of his family. On 1 4th May 1839 he was suspended sine die from office and membership "for conduct grossly imprudent and scandalous." After this, according to Dr George Brown's manuscript History, Mr Willans went to Australia, but returned, and died at Newcastle in 1859. Had he attended more to the proprieties of family life, and learnt to rule his own spirit, he might have had a smoother descent into the vale of years. Third Minister. ANDREW Ross, from Regent Place, Glasgow. The communicants were now put at 150. Mr Ross' acceptance was deferred for a little owing to another call from Hexham, but he was ordained, loth July 1838. Of the families belonging to the church at this time about two-fifths resided in Redgorton parish, and the other three-fifths in Methven and Tibbermuir. In 1849 Mr Ross published a religious novel, entitled " Mina : A Tale of the Days of Nero and the Early Christians." The recognition this venture received may have matured his resolve to seek another sphere of labour, and on gth October 1850 his connection with Pitcairn came to an end and it was well for Mr Ross every way that he resolved on a change of scene. On 5th September 1851 he was inducted to Portland, Victoria, where he was successful, says Dr Hamilton, in maintaining a respectable and influential congregation. But after a few years he became a great sufferer from ophthalmia, and, being in danger of losing his sight, he re- signed in 1856, and was never again able to resume ministerial work. " After a long course of indifferent health, and an experience of trying changes, he died at a good old age in Echuca in April 1883." Fourth Minister. ROBERT NELSON, from Perth (North). Ordained, 24th June 1851, having been also called to Newbigging. The stipend was to be ,90, with house and garden. A debt of 226 on the property had been liquidated in 1845 i 16 being raised by the people and i 10 granted by the Board. In 1859 Pitcairn began to share in the benefits of the Scheme for the Better Support of the Gospel Ministry, the stipend being raised to ^120, of which the people contributed ^100. 'in 1879 Mr Nelson sustained a heavy family stroke in the death of his son, Mr James Sidey Nelson (the mother was a sister of the Rev. David Sidey, Napier, New Zealand), who got licence as a preacher on 3rd June of that year, and after fulfilling a few pulpit appointments died on I3th July at the age of twenty-three. In the beginning of 1890 he retired from the active duties of the pastorate, and in a few months the congregation called Mr James Brand Scott, who accepted Saltcoats (West). Fifth Minister. JOHN ALEXANDER, M.A., from Birkenhead (Grange 634 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Road). Ordained, 8th January 1891. The membership at the close of 1899 was 132, being 16 higher than it was twenty-eight years before, and the stipend from the people was .102, ios., with the manse. Mr Nelson has for many years resided in Blairgowrie. PITCAIRN-GREEN (ANTlKURGHKR) THE parish of Redgorton is one in which the Secession was long in getting more than a slender foothold. Beyond a reference to an elder from that locality the name is scarcely to be found in the early records of the North Church, Perth, and Kinclaven does not seem to have been indebted to it for a single family. This may have been largely owing to the fact that they had an evangelical minister in the Established Church. Accordingly, it is stated in the Old Statistical History that towards the end of the century the various sects of Seceders, including also Relievers and Independents, did not number more than one-twentieth part of the population. But about this time, when, owing to the uprise of public works in the district, sermon was obtained from the Burgher Presbytery of Perth, the Antiburgher element kept apart. This led, in the course of six months, to the formation of two rival churches within five minutes' walk of each other. It is with the latter of these in its unfortunate beginnings that we have now to deal. It was on 27th June 1797 that a petition from 62 members was laid before the session of the North Church, Perth, for transmission to the Presbytery, craving to be erected into a congregation at Pitcairn-Green, a village about midway between Perth and Methven, which are seven miles apart. The disjunction carried by the Moderator's casting-vote, and the station was opened on the third Sabbath of July. At next meeting 50 members were disjoined from Methven and annexed to Pitcairn-Green, and the following year a church was built, with sittings for 300, and on I3th June 1798 five elders were ordained, and a sixth, who had held office in the North Church, Perth, was to take his seat along with the others, an election being considered unneces- sary. The ground on which the church was erected, including a glebe of an acre and a quarter, was secured for ninety-nine years at ,2, 125. a year. Then came a call to Mr Thomas Beveridge, whom the Synod in April 1799 appointed to Kinross (East). First Minister. JOHN BROWN, a young man who entered the Hall from Auchtermuchty (North), and whose behaviour when a probationer had come under the notice of the Synod. At their meeting in September 1799 the committee of supplies suggested that this gentleman should be conversed with, as he was reported to have been guilty of improper conduct at Auchter- muchty, and, when brought to the point, he acknowledged " culpable im- prudences." Stirling Presbytery, being enjoined to follow up like rumours, found that " Mr Brown has got into a way of joining in drinking companies with persons of low, and some of them of bad, character, and using great freedoms among them." Having expressed contrition he was rebuked, and let loose among the vacancies again, and on 25th June 1800 he was ordained to the pastoral oversight of Pitcairn-Green. Had Antiburgher strictness done its part faithfully at the proper time, damage would have been spared to a young and promising congregation. In less than two years the process of retribution began. First came a complaint from the injured party that Mr Brown, in the face of a seven years' courtship, was proclaimed for mar- riage with another. Then, "late in a public-house" in Perth, and in a state of intoxication at Comrie. The case being referred to the Synod he was suspended, and handed back to the Presbytery of Perth. He now professed PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 635 sorrow, and owned that the reports were true ; but by next meeting of Presbytery the old evil had reappeared, and, to outward seeming, the case was hopeless. The Minutes of Synod tell the rest: "Mr Brown, in the most intemperate language, laid grievous charges against his congregation," and also heaped insults on the Synod and the members thereof. Deposition carried unanimously on 8th September 1802, but it came years too late. There are traces of Mr Brown making Perth his headquarters after this, but nothing definite can be condescended on. Second Minister. WILLIAM BEATH, from the congregation of Leslie West), and from the parish of Ballingry, five miles off. The call was signed by 48 (male) members, and was preferred by the Synod to another from The Close, Newcastle. Ordained, ist November 1803, when the assembly was so great, according to the Christian Magazine, that the meeting-house could not have contained one-third of the people ; but the weather was favourable, and the work was gone about in a field. The stipend, it is stated in his Memoir, was never above ^80 ; but as he remained unmarried, he had enough and to spare. After the Union of 1820 Mr Beath, like Mr Gilnllan of Comrie, occupied middle ground for a time, but on gth July 1822 he appeared before the Presbytery of Perth, and expressed his willingness to accede under certain reservations, which he got inserted in the Minutes. He was also to be free to withdraw if the New Testimony was unsatisfactory or was not speedily forthcoming. The conditions were agreed to, his neighbour, the Rev. William Willans of Pitcairn, dissenting, but on 23rd July 1823 Mr Beath intimated by letter "that for a time at least he ceases to occupy his seat in the Presbytery, and has joined another religious body." He was now a member of the Protestor Synod, and, so far as appears, he took his entire congregation with him. On Wednesday, ijth May 1827, the union of the Protestors with the Constitutional Presbyter)' was consummated, and on the following Sabbath Mr Beath occupied Professor Paxton's pulpit. " Having spoken for about twenty minutes he paused, as if to recall his notes, and then went on again, but not with ease or accuracy." It was an apoplectic stroke. He died the following afternoon, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. A discourse of his, entitled " The Source, Character, and Result of the Saviour's Sufferings," appeared in a volume of sermons by ministers of the Antiburgher Synod published in 1820. On agth April 1829 Mr Andrew Lambie from Auchinleck was ordained as Mr Beath's successor. In 1838 the communicants were above 120, and the ordinary income was between ^70 and ^80 a year. In 1842 Mr Lambie, led on by the Rev. James Wright of Edinburgh, declined the authority of the Original Secession Synod, because "by their union with the Original Burghers they had given up the Antiburgher profession." From this time, and before it, the church in its isolated state made steady progress towards extinction. In 1851 Mr Lambie published a second address which he had delivered to his congregation, showing why he had withdrawn from com- munion with the Rev. James Wright. Minister and congregation now stood' entirely alone. At what time the last spark went out it is hard to tell, but in the end the church was sold, and taken down. I remember some thirty years ago seeing the venerable man seated at a window in his humble manse, bending over a book which my friend suggested was probably the Hebrew Bible, his close companion. From about the year 1874 he ministered for a few years in Forrest Road, Edinburgh, to a little party which had separated from the ministry of Mr Wright, but owing to some dispute this connection also came to an end. He died in Edinburgh, 23rd May 1886, in the eighty- fourth year of his age. 636 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS KINCLAVEN AND THE NORTHERN DIVISION KINCLAVEN (ANTIBURGHER) OF the four earliest centres of the Secession this was the least important. First Minister. JAMES FISHER, son of the Rev. Thomas Fisher, minister at Rhynd. Ordained over the parish of Kinclaven, 23rd December 1/25. In the session records there is the following entry for 8th October 1732 : "Service this day by Mr Ebenezer Erskine, minister of the gospel at Stirling," and on the following Tuesday he opened the memorable Synod at Perth. When the motion to censure him for his discourse was carried, the Committee on Bills refused to transmit Mr Fishers reasons of protest against the sentence, alleging that he had wrought himself into the process, " not for the vindication of truth, but on account of his connection with the delin- quent." On 25th October 1736 the session of Kinclaven agreed unanimously to accede to the Associate Presbytery, twelve of the thirteen members being- present. Sentence of deposition was pronounced on Mr Fisher, as one of the Eight Brethren, on I5th May 1740, and in less than a month he was called to Glasgow. Moncrieff was bent against the translation, and in order to retain Mr Fisher at Kinclaven a proposal was made to widen his field of labour. The Seceders in Strathearn petitioned to have him eveiy third or fourth Sabbath, and that he should also give them diets of examina- tion as his time and bodily strength would allow, and in that case they would concur according to their ability for his support. But though the decision was long delayed the Presbytery agreed on 22nd July 1741 to loose him from Kinclaven. On i3th August there was enforced surrender of the church and manse, and, during the few Sabbaths between this and his induction at Glasgow, Mr Fisher, as appears from one of his note-books, preached in a tent at Kinclaven braeside, his wife and family having removed to Perth. The following announcement, which appeared in the Caledonian Mercury some time after, may account for the delay which occurred in filling up the vacant living : " We learn from Perth that Mr James Bishop, probationer, having lately received a presentation to the parish church of Kinclaven, he, by appointment, went yesterday to preach in the said church, but that some unruly people, mostly women, not only threatened him to give it up, but also, on his continuing to discourse, haled him out of the pulpit, and, dragging him out of the church door, cast him down on a gravestone." It was perilous work, but we read nothing of after pains and penalties. When Mr Fisher left, there may have been doubts as to whether it would be practicable to keep up a Secession congregation at Kinclaven, but after being meagrely supplied with sermon for a few years the people set about building a place of worship. A stone above one of the doorways bears the date 1744, and in the session minutes of Perth for i6th May 1745 there is a collection entered for Kinclaven : "To assist to finish their church, ^15." "The Kirk o' the Muir" still stands the oldest in the denomination since Wilson Church, Perth, was taken down. It looks as if there had been disturbance while the work was going on, for 51 members acceded to Perth congregation from Kinclaven on 7th April 1745. Second Minister. ALEXANDER BLYTH, from Abernethy. His father was one of Mr Moncrieff s elders, and a sister became the wife of the Rev. Patrick Buchanan, the first Secession minister at Nigg. The call was sub- scribed by 159 members. Mr Blyth was ordained, 25th November 1747, and five days afterwards, when the session met, the seven elders present agreed unanimously to constitute in subordination to the Antiburgher Synod, PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 637 though attachment to their former minister might have been expected to sway them the other way. In December 1748, when steps were taken to have an addition made to their number, the qualifications laid down were these (i) Full accession to the Testimony ; (2) The worship of God in their families daily, morning and evening, in all the parts thereof ; and (3) Members of Praying Societies. The boundaries of the congregation and its numerical strength in the early years of Mr Blyth's ministry can be ascertained from the list of communicants in June 1751 : Kinclaven, 128 ; Auchtergaven, 39; Little Dunkeld, 39; Caputh, 15 ; Clunie, 12 ; and St Martin's, Collace, and Cargill, 8 making 241 in all. But in 1766 the membership stood at exactly 300, and in 1780 it had risen to 385, which may be taken as its maximum strength. The formation of congregations at Auchtergaven and Lethendy encroached by-and-by on the old territories of Kinclaven. The account-book kept by the session discloses the defectiveness of their financial arrangements, the ordinary church-door collections averaging between 2s. and 35., and so late as the close of Mr Blyth's ministry they were only about double that sum. Out of this fund the rent of i, IDS. for the glebe was paid, and also sums for corn, straw, and specially coals. In 1759 they were engaged with the building of a manse, and for some time quarterly collections of nearly 305. were handed over to the managers " for the use of the community." In 1762 a collection was asked from Perth (North) "for enabling them to defray the charges of building a mansion- house for their minister." The response was liberal, according to the standard of the times, when weak congregations applied to them for aid. From these records we also get back among sacramental arrangements in the olden times. Thus, at the communion in the summer of 1758 two ministers preached on the Fast day, and other two on Saturday. On Sabbath the minister preached " before the Action," and five brethren were with him during the day. The collections altogether amounted to nearly 6. Per contra Kinclaven Church was closed seven Sabbaths, the minister assisting his brother-in-law at Stirling in April ; at Kinkell in June ; at Abernethyand Perth in July ; at Methven and Logiealmond in August ; and at Coupar- Angus in October. When a student Mr Blyth was appointed Presbytery Clerk, an office which he held till his death, but of the records during that long period only some fragments remain. Like Mr Brown of Perth, he married a daughter of the Rev. John Heugh of Kingoldrum. The date of his death cannot be ascertained with precision. His grandson, the Rev. Thomas Myles of Aberlemno, gave it as May 1784, and his death was reported to the Synod on the 4th of that month. He was in the sixty-fourth or sixty-fifth year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. The details of funeral expenses borne by the congregation reveal a state of things which has happily passed away, nearly ,5 having been expended on refreshments of a kind we have learnt to dispense with. At this point we give an example of how in families an extreme type of ecclesiastical character may be lost in the course of two generations. In 1754 a warning was read from Kinclaven pulpit " against countenancing the ministers of the Established Church in the exercise of any part of their office." Over against this, place the ordination of Mr Blyth's grandson as minister of the parish of Aberlemno the year after the Disruption.* In 1786 Kinclaven congregation gave a seemingly unanimous call to Mr William Wilson, a preacher from Urr, of whom the Synod, in the beginning * Mr Blyth's daughter, the widow of Mr James Myles, Perth, died in her son's manse at Aberlemno, 7th January 1868, in her ninety-fourth year. 638 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of his theological course, asked the Presbytery to report how far he ought to be encouraged as a student. On the day when his trials for ordination were to be finished a letter from a majority of the elders was read bearing that they were afraid Mr Wilson's settlement would rend the congregation. The objections when inquired into related chiefly to imprudence, and it was reported to the Presbytery that of the 179 male communicants only 79 adhered to the call. The shaping of specific charges and the examination of witnesses came to little, Mr Wilson having denied that in his pulpit utterances which had given offence he had any party in the congregation in view. Accordingly, the Synod in September 1787 appointed the Presbytery to proceed with his ordination. Now came a petition presented by the managers, with 24 names, craving to be disjoined if the settlement were to be gone on with, and also to be freed from all burdens as tacksmen of the church and manse. At next meeting five of the six elders were dealt with to fall from their opposition, but one by one they refused. Mr Wilson was now heard, but we infer that he was determined to claim his rights. The Presbytery by the Moderator's casting-vote appointed the ordination ; but the case was carried to the Synod by protest, and there, owing to " the continued flame in the congregation," the call was laid aside. Mr Wilson was ordained at Clenanees, in Ireland, on 4th November 1789, and in 1800 his Presbytery reported to the Synod that they had deposed him from the office of the holy ministry. The opposition party at Kinclaven may have had the better cause after all. Third Minister. JAMES PRINGLE, from Pathhead. When the modera- tion was applied for it was stated that there was " the present appearance of peace and harmony," but the embers of former dissensions woke up in a remonstrance against sustaining the call. However, the Presbytery gave Kinclaven the preference over Kinkell, and though an appeal was taken against this decision it had only the effect of delaying the settlement for five or six months. Mr Pringle was ordained, i6th June 1789, after a trying vacancy of five years. It was thought by the Presbytery that matters had righted themselves now, but human nature asserted itself anew. Three elders who had taken the lead in opposing Mr Wilson consented to resume their seats in the session, and this reopened old wounds. In these circum- stances the three resigned office, and thus far the case took end. During the long stretch of Mr Pringle's ministry harmony appears to have been maintained in the church, and kindly relations between him and his people. The communion roll must also have been well kept up, as the names of 238 members were appended to his successor's call. He died, 4th February 1840, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. His preaching, I have heard, was largely doctrinal, Justification by Faith being a favourite theme. " Mr Pringle," said a newspaper notice, " was much distinguished for the suavity of his manners, for diligence in the discharge of his pastoral duties, and for the affectionate interest which he took in the spiritual and temporal concerns of his flock." The Rev. John Craig, first of Kinkell, and then of Brechin, was his son-in-law. The Rev. J. W. Pringle, late of Jedburgh, is his grandson. Two years before Mr Pringle's death there was a movement to have sermon at Stanley, a growing place two miles to the south, from which Kinclaven drew a large number of its families, and a larger proportion of its money strength. Members in the village belonging to dissenting churches amounted about that time to 153, and of these the great majority attended at Kinclaven. From the session there, and also from Auchtergaven, opposi- tion came, and at the time when a petition for regular supply was lying on the Presbytery's table Mr Pringle died. The interests of Kinclaven con- PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 639 gregation had now to be considered. Accordingly, on 28th April 1840 the petition from Stanley was dismissed, and the extinguisher put on. Fourth Minister. DAVID YOUNG, from Perth (Wilson Church). While a probationer Mr Young was located for some time in Liverpool, if haply he might revive Russell Street congregation, which was on the verge of extinction. The people called him in March 1840 ; but at that very time he was supplying at Kinclaven, where a far more inviting field opened, and there he was ordained, I2th August 1840. "The day being fine," says the magazine, "the whole service was conducted in the open air, a tent having been erected for the purpose in the immediate neighbourhood of the church." ' The stipend arranged for was ^100, with manse, garden, a large glebe, and some other perquisites. On i3th September 1864 Mr Young, to the surprise and regret of the Presbytery, tendered the resignation of his charge, assign- ing as his reason a change of view on the subject of baptism. Mr Marshall of Coupar-Angus, a close friend of his, had heard that Mr Young was interesting himself in that question, but he never supposed it would come to this. A long conference having ended as it began, Mr Young's connection with Kinclaven was dissolved on 4th October, the Presbytery recording " their regret at thus losing a brother who has for twenty-four years laboured with much zeal and acceptance in the sen-ice of the Church." After this Mr Young resided in Glasgow, where he ministered to several Baptist churches in succession. He removed in 1867 to Blairgowrie, where his worth would be better understood, but in 1870 he had to desist from preaching owing to a severe affection of the throat. On retiring he received a presentation of over ^200 from the inhabitants of the town. He died in Glasgow, 6th August 1885, in the eighty-first year of his age, and was buried in New Cathcart Cemetery. Fifth Zfinister. JOHN BROWN, from Douglas. Ordained, 3rd October 1865. He had Buckie in his choice, but preferred Kinclaven. The con- gregation had kept well up hitherto, as appears from the fact that 221 members signed Mr Brown's call. In the parish the Secession had always continued strong, and so late as 1843 it could claim 96 families, while 86 belonged to the Establishment. But between 1851 and 1891 the population declined from over 900 to little more than 500. It was fitted to suggest whether the congregation ought not to have removed to Stanley at the time sermon was applied for. That town was well churched now, and most United Presbyterians settling down there, instead of undertaking the walk of two miles, were certain to drop into nearer churches. Steady decline set in, and the "Kirk o' the Muir," well filled as I remember it in 1852, has yielded to the inevitable. The membership at the close of 1899 was 122, and the stipend from the people i 10. SCONE (BURGHER) IN August 1745 the parish of Scone fell vacant by the death of the Rev. Thomas Schaw, an evangelical minister of high repute, and Viscount Stormont did not exercise the right of presentation within the allotted six months. It was now for the Presbytery to come in, and, as usual in such cases, the people were allowed considerable latitude of selection. Mr Lachlan Taylor was the popular candidate, his call being signed by seven elders and 150 heads of families ; but the 30 heritors who took part were equally divided, 15 of their number, with Lord Stormont at their head, being in favour of Mr William Currie, son of the Rev. John Currie of Kinglassie. On the Presbytery sustaining the call to Mr Taylor his Lord- 640 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ship and the others appealed to the General Assembly, and that Court reversed the decision of the Presbytery, and gave directions to proceed anew. Both candidates were now set aside, and Mr Taylor became the choice of Larbert and Dunipace soon after. On 25th February 1748 Mr David Craigie was ordained without opposition ; but on 3rd March 56 of the parishioners sent in a paper to the Burgher Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline setting forth "their distressed situation through the intrusion of one to be minister of that congregation contrary to their consent," and Ralph Erskine was appointed to preach to them on the following Sabbath. On 1 2th April a paper of like import, with other 67 names, was presented, along with a suggestion that Mr Johnston of Dundee might have Scone assigned him every third Sabbath, but the proposal passed out of notice. It is understood that the first place of worship at Scone was finished and taken possession of in the autumn of 1748. The first they called was Mr Thomas Clark, who had acceded to the Associate Presbytery in 1740. In 1743 ne entered the Philosophy Class at Abernethy, and in 1749 he became the choice of Scone congregation. After his trials for ordination had been put off for a year and a half he wrote the Presbytery "explicitly and in plain words giving up with the call from Scone." On 23rd July 1751 he was ordained at Ballybay, in Ireland, and is described as the most distinguished of the early Secession ministers in the sister island. Having endured many wrongs there, he removed to America in 1764 with 300 of his people, where they formed the well-known congregation of Salem. Mr Clark died suddenly of apoplexy on 25th December 1792, about the age of seventy. " His tall and gaunt figure," says one, " stands out prominently before us, as he rode rapidly about from place to place through the country, with his Highland bonnet and his homely attire, the zeal of the Lord eating him up." The second call came out in July 1751 in favour of Mr James Robertson, a preacher who had got licence along with John Brown. But when he delivered an exercise for ordination the Presbytery " were all of opinion that they could not approve of it as evidence of his ability for the work of the ministry." The Synod, having heard the discourse, recommended that each member of Presbytery take Mr Robertson to live with him for a month, to get him instructed in systematic theology. Meanwhile Scone congrega- tion adhered to their call ; but after waiting a year they came up to the Presbytery asking for a peremptory decision as to Mr Robertson's fitness for a pastoral charge. He was now to be tested by another discourse, but he passed outside the bounds with the advice to give himself to the study of divinity for the space of six months. Mr Robertson persevered, and in May 1759 he was ordained over the Burgher congregation of Newcastle, where he died, in the fortieth year of his age and ninth of his ministry. His tombstone bears the inscription : " Here lies the body of the Rev. James Robertson, late minister of the gospel in Sally Port Meeting-House, who departed this life, 23rd September 1767. ' Modest, yet resolute in virtue's cause, Ambitious not of man's but God's applause,' " etc. First Minister. JAMES WYLIE, from Stow. He was about to be or- dained at Donagheloney, in Ireland, a year and a half before, when a more inviting field opened for him at Kennoway, but the Synod in September 1753 refused to allow this new call to intervene. Mr Wylie now got rebellious, and pleaded that the system of swearing upon the Bible and the paying of tithes to prelates debarred him from settling down in Ireland. In April 1754 he was censured, and enjoined to "more dutiful behaviour for PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 641 the future." At the September Synod he pleaded the state of his health, and, with the consent of Donachclony congregation, was set free. In October he was called to Liddesdale (now Newcastleton), and accepted ; but, Scone congregation having intervened, the Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline went straight on with his ordination, which took place, 2nd January 1755. The stipend promised Mr Wylie when he went was only ^30, and this sum they did not always manage to pay. In May 1773 tne congregation repre- sented to the Synod that they required to rebuild their meeting-house, and sister congregations were recommended to aid them with collections ; but the second church was not built for other sixteen years. In the beginning of 1784 it was intimated to the Presbytery that, on account of his infirmities, Mr Wylie required assistance in his pulpit work. The precise date of his death cannot be given, but we find from the Presbytery Minutes that he was alive on 3rd April 1785, and the parish register has the following entry for the roth of that month : " Mort-cloth to Mr Wylie, 35. 6d." Of the first minister of Scone there is little to be added beyond the fact that he published a pamphlet in opposition to Pirie of Abernethy on Covenanting, and in Dr Brown's Life of Fisher it is stated that he was a good Hebrew scholar. In April 1786 Scone congregation called Mr John Dick. The stipend named was now ,50, with .5 for a manse. Remembering that Mr Wylie never had more than ^30, and that during his last illness there were arrears to pay up, we are taken aback to find that the call was signed by 280 members. After Mr Dick had delivered part of his trials other calls came in, and the Synod in September appointed him to Slateford. Mr Thomas Aitchison was now their choice, and it was not the fault of the Church Courts that disappointment followed. The case came before the Synod in May 1788 by a protest of Mr Aitchison's against a deed of Presbytery deciding to proceed with his ordination. His specific reason, I used to hear, for refusing compliance was put into words at a meeting of Presbytery at Milnathort, when he stated that he was likely by-and-by to get married, and Scone stipend did not provide for such a contingency. The Synod in September rebuked him, and dismissed the call. Before the end of the year he was ordained over Kirkgate Church, Leith. Second Minister. JOHN JAMIESON, from Dunbar. Ordained, i6th March 1791, Scone having been preferred by the Synod to Kinghorn. Under pressure from the Presbytery the stipend was now raised to ,60, with ^5 for a house. The ministry now commencing was to last within a fortnight of sixty-two years. In the beginning of 1815 Mr Jamieson was called to St Nicholas' Lane, Aberdeen, where the stipend was .150 ; but as the Synod decided unanimously against the translation, we may feel certain that this was in accordance with his own wishes. The church and manse were at Old Scone, little more than a mile from Perth, till 1810, when, by agreement with Lord Mansfield, the site was changed to the present village, and new buildings erected. To aid in meeting the expense his Lordship allowed the congregation ,620, besides the old materials : but in connection with the new church and manse there was an outlay of ^1466. This in- volved a deficit of fully ,800, one-fifth of which was met by subscription, and the other four-fifths left to be cleared away from surplus funds. In 1838 the stipend was ,120, with house and garden, and .8 for expenses. The communicants were 418, of whom about one-sixth were from other parishes, most of them from St Martin's and Kinnoull. Mr Jamieson, who received the degree of D.D. from Jefferson College, United States, in 1841, died, 5th March 1853, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. Till within a few Sabbaths of the end he discharged the entire duties of the pastorate. An incident II. 2 S 642 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS given in the Autobiography of Mr James Skinner, probationer, helps to illustrate Dr Jamieson's effectiveness as a preacher. At the ordination of Mr Milne at Edenshead Mr Mitchell of Comrie, who was to give the ordination sermon, did not come forward, and the minister of Scone was fixed on abruptly to take his place. On the following Sabbath one of the people was overheard saying : " He's just like a man with plenty of cash who has nothing to do but put his hand into his pocket, and out come the yellow geordies." Third Minister. JAMES HILL, from Lothian Road, Edinburgh, and a native of Cramond parish. In the following month Mr Hill was also called to Urr and to Sanquhar (South) ; but he kept by Scone, and was ordained there, 4th January 1854. The stipend was as before ^120, with manse and garden. After going on in Scone for nine years Mr Hill demitted his charge, with the view of removing to the other side of the world, and the congregation, finding him unalterably fixed in his resolve, acquiesced, and on 5th May 1863 the resignation was accepted. In New Zealand he held four important charges in succession. On 7th April 1896 he retired from active duty owing to declining health, and died, after a short illness, on the last day of 1897, in the seventy-third year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. JOHN M'NEIL, from Partick (Newton Place). Or- dained, gth August 1864. The stipend at Scone in 1870 was ,135, and the Board complained that a congregation of 322 members should require a supplement of ^22, los. to reach the minimum then aimed at. In 1877 Mr M'Neil declined Mordaunt Street (now Dalmarnock Road), Glasgow, but accepted a call to Busby on I5th January 1883. Fifth Minister. JOHN W. SLATER, B.D., from Kirkwall. Called pre- viously to Head Street, Beith, and ordained at Scone, I4th August 1883. The stipend was to be ,180, with the manse, and it has been raised since to ,190. The membership at the close of 1899 was 270. LETHENDY (ANTIBURGHER) ON 1 5th March 1785 the Antiburgher Presbytery of Perth received a petition from 85 persons in and about Lethendy " setting forth that they had been for a long time in a desolate way through the gospel not being preached to them to their edification," and it was agreed to grant them some days' supply. Next came, five months afterwards, a request that the Presbytery would appoint some of their number to converse with applicants for admis- sion to sealing ordinances. This was followed on 2oth September by a petition from members of Kinclaven congregation on the north and east side of the river craving a disjunction, that they might join with the people of Lethendy, " who are appearing for the Lord's cause and testimony." This brought an accession of one elder and 25 members to the new cause, and it was decided that henceforth the Tay should form the boundary between the two congregations. In like manner, on i6th May 1786 six members from the west part of Rattray congregation, and the same number from Coupar-Angus, were annexed to Lethendy. On 3ist July four elders were ordained, and the elder from Kinclaven was appointed, at the request of the congregation, to exercise his office along with the others. First Minister. ALEXANDER BALFOUR, from Milnathort. Ordained, 3 ist July 1787, and this was the beginning of a ministry which extended over sixty years. The call was signed by 30 (male) members, and adhered to by 49 ordinary hearers, " who take seats, but are not yet in full com- PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 643 munion." The place of worship, with 300 sittings, was finished before the ordination took place, as the session Minute that day is dated " at the new church of Lethendy." Two years later a new manse figures in the same connection. In 1790 the membership was little over 100, and the population of the parish was between 300 and 400. The stipend is nowhere given, but it cannot have been large, as the collections, including from 7 to 9 at the communion, averaged little more than .30 a year. Much might turn on the glebe of fifteen acres in the hands of a minister who had been familiar with farming operations in his early days. Sister congregations were also help- ful, Kinclaven in particular, and in 1796 they received fully .30 in this way. In 1799 Perth (North) sent them ^18, and in 1805, being in arrears with stipend, they received a grant of .50 from the Synod. Thus minister and people moved on from year to year with slender resources, but adhering faithfully to the good cause. Mr Balfour was strongly conservative in his ecclesiastical leanings. He held back in 1820 from the Union with the Burgher Synod, but acceded a year later on being allowed an insertion in the Minutes, part of which runs thus : " As I have come under very solemn vows, at ordination and at other times, I claim the right of holding by these engagements, and of avowing them in all relations and on every proper occasion." In 1824 he laid a representation on the Presbytery's table respecting the Paraphrases, departure from rigid adherence to the Psalms of David being a matter on which many of the Antiburghers, both ministers and people, felt strongly. In June 1840 the Synod dropped the question on covenanting from the Formula, and when the Presbytery met at Kinclaven soon after to ordain Mr Young, Mr Balfour gave in a paper in which "he requests the Presbytery not to consider him as coinciding with the Synod in blotting put the fourth question of the Formula," though he join in the act of ordination. In 1844 Mr Balfour, being unable to attend, sent up a remonstrance to the Synod against a former decision of theirs on the doctrine of the Atonement. Thus did he move on in the old paths, performing ministerial work, with slight interruptions, till the fourth Sabbath of January 1847, when he preached his last sermon from the text : " They that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut." He died on igth March, in the eighty- fifth year of his age and sixtieth of his ministry. Of Mr Balfour's family, one daughter was the mother of the Rev. James Anderson, D.D., of Forteviot Parish Church. Residing in Blairgowrie, she adhered faithfully to the Secession congregation in Rattray, though her husband belonged to the Establishment. Another daughter was the wife of the Rev. James Mudie of Stronsay. Though the membership of Lethendy was little more than half what it had once been, there was no thought of discontinuing when Mr Balfour died, and within six months the people were prepared to go on for another minister. They would provide a stipend of ^47, ios., and the Home Board was to allow an annual grant of .25. There was also the glebe, valued at ^25, and the entire feu was only one-fifth of that sum. It equalled in all what the parish minister had up to 1806, when Lethendy and Kinloch were united. The first they called was the Rev. John B-isset of Nairn, but unless the element of health were involved a declinature was a foregone conclusion. In April 1848 they called Mr David Young, who became minister of Chatton, in Northumberland.* Second AfitfUler.JOSXPB HAY, from Perth (North), a kinsman of his * Mr Young was from St James' Place, Edinburgh. Ordained over the newly- formed congregation of Chatton, I 4 th October 1851, and died of influenza, 25th February 1890, in the seventy-third year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. 644 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS namesake, the Rev. Joseph Hay of Arbroath. For several years during his student course Mr Hay was employed as a town missionary in Dunfermline, and at the time of his ordination he was considerably over forty. Having pre- ferred Lethendy to Letham he was ordained there, 22nd March 1849. The communion roll was down to 60 when his ministry began, and with a sparse and declining population on every side there were no means of increase. Even in Mr Balfour's time it was stated that there were only four or five dissenting families in the united parish of Lethendy and Kinloch, and I infer from the Minutes of session that the main portion of the congregation came from the parish of Caputh and the district of Meikleour. But Mr Hay kept on his course of quiet usefulness, and the membership was rather on the way of increase till the time of his retiring, when there was a shrinking up to between 40 and 50. In the beginning of 1877 Mr Hay applied to be admitted on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, but at this time he was too weak to sign the schedule of application. The people arranged that he should have the manse, garden, and glebe for the residue of his days, the understanding being that he would have no successor. On igth September 1882 he died, in the eightieth year of his age and thirty-fourth of his ministry. "The Home Committee, having respect to the earnestness and fidelity with which in former days Mr Hay had discharged the duties of his office," most cordially agreed to grant an additional half-year's payment of his annuity to his widow and daughter. Supply of ordinances was kept up for some time at Lethendy, there being reluctance to have the candlestick removed out of its place, but the Presby- tery found the people to be unanimously of opinion " that the circumstances of the congregation and the state of the district did not warrant or require the continuance of a settled ministry." Besides this, the ninety-nine years' lease of the church property, including the glebe of fifteen acres, was to expire at Whitsunday 1885. Accordingly, on Thursday, 28th May of that year, Mr Brown of Kinclaven and Mr Russell of Blairgowrie conducted Fast day services, and on Sabbath, the 3ist, Dr Hutton of Paisley dispensed the com- munion. This, it is entered, was done in a manner most appropriate and solemn, the large audience present being visibly affected. All that remained now was to have their financial affairs wound up. There were some ^37 to dispose of money derived, it appears, from the sale of trees that grew on the glebe. Of this sum, ,20 went to the Home Mission Fund, $ to the minister's widow, $ to Mr Brown, who for eight years had acted as moderator of session and been ever at their service, $ to their own treasurer, and 2 to the poor of the congregation. On ist December 1885 the Presbytery arranged for the granting of disjunction certificates to the remaining members, " the congregation of Lethendy having now ceased to exist, from circumstances over which it had no control." AUCHTERGAVEN (ANTIBURGHER) THIS congregation's origin we trace back to I5th August 1786, when a petition was presented to the Antiburgher Presbytery of Perth from 56 persons residing in the parish of Auchtergaven. It set forth that they were sensible of their want of pure gospel ordinances, and they judged it their duty to make application to this Presbytery for supply of sermon. But a letter from some Kinclaven people warned the Presbytery to be cautious, as they believed the movement to be prompted, by members of their congrega- tion residing in that parish. Logiealmond was also on the alert, and had commissioners forward to set forth the hurt they might sustain if the petition PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 645 were granted. The Presbytery, however, appointed some days' supply. Kin- claven had reason to intervene, there being only some three miles between them and Auchtergaven, but Logiealmond, eight miles distant, might have remained silent. It was from that side, however, that the strength of the opposition came, though the question turned mainly on where the place of worship was to be. For the first two years they met at Muirend, under the shelter of a barn in winter and among the whins in summer ; but Mr Preston of Logiealmond was unbendingly hostile to the fixing of their centre there, and to appease him the Presbytery required them to seek a site farther east by "three-quarters of a measured mile." After three months the people pleaded for liberty to remain at Muirend, and permission was granted, only Mr Preston's voice being lifted up in resistance. On 26th June 1787 twenty-seven outsiders, being examined by members of Presbytery and attested as to character, were admitted to Church fellowship, and recognised as the nucleus of Auchtergaven congregation. Then an acre of ground was secured for fifty-seven years at a rent of 255. The building of the meeting-house was begun, it is stated, on the last day of September 1787, but the work was not finished till two winters had intervened. The cost was about ,200, expenses being kept down by free cartage and such things. There were accessions now from other churches. On 8th April 1788, with the session's concurrence, 29 members were disjoined from Kinclaven and annexed to Auchtergaven, the parish in which they resided. A year later 25 of the Logiealmond members belonging to the same parish petitioned the Presbytery to the same effect. The session consented to disjoin 20 of the applicants ; but the other 5 they refused to part with, on the ground that they were not away at a sufficient remove, and the Presbytery agreed to have it so. Among those disjoined at this time were the Fenvvicks of Drumtochnie, including the mother of Robert Nicoll, the poet. On 2nd April 1789 an election of elders was proceeded with, the Praying Societies having been recommended to meet and agree among themselves in fixing on one for each quarter, and seven of the eight appeared at an interim meeting of Presbytery at Perth, and were examined. We find that three of the seven had come from Logiealmond, one had been received from outside, and the remaining three were presumably from Kinclaven. One name occurs in this connection, that of John Fenwick, known long afterwards as "elder John," a respectable farmer of the old school, and described as the patriarch of Auchtergaven. He survived to the venerable age of ninety-two, in the enjoyment of nearly uninterrupted health, and with the full possession of his mental faculties. Robert Nicoll, his grandson, has commemorated his merits in the verses entitled " My Grandfather," and also his functions " in the muirland kirk," his daily fireside worship, his prayers so prophet-like, a man whose "marrow," take him all in all, he had never met with either among rich or poor. Such men were the strength and ornament of early Secession times. A session being now formed, the way was opened for calling a minister, but they had to satisfy the Presbytery that they would be able to give him a stipend of ^50 a year, with a house and "a competent glebe." Mr Samuel Gilfillan was their first choice, but the Synod in May 1 790 appointed him to Comrie. The call was signed by 37 male members and adhered to by 52 ordinary hearers. Three years of hope deferred followed. First Minister. ALEXANDER HOWISON, who had been ordained at Howford thirteen years before, but was loosed by the Synod in May 1792. Inducted to Auchtergaven, 23rd April 1793. He died > Ioth Au ust 1805, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-sixth of his ministry. The Christian Magazine testified that Mr Howison was "a modest, pleasant, and evangelical 646 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS preacher, and attentive to the duties of his office." During his ministry Auchtergaven congregation prospered so much that at his successor's ordina- tion the membership amounted to 186. Second Minister. JAMES THOMSON, from the parish of Wamphray and the congregation of Lockerbie. Ordained, 22nd October 1806. He made a fair beginning, 21 members being added at the July communion. But adverse times set in, as the leases of small holdings expired, and at Whit- sunday 1809 the communion roll sustained a loss of 32 at a stroke. The process went on till the total membership was scarcely more than 140, and in the midst of discouragements Mr Thomson turned in the direction of America. In October 1815 the Presbytery of Perth brought before the Synod Mr Thomson's demission of his charge, and the advice given them was u to loose his relation to the congregation of Auchtergaven at their first meeting, and to deal with them to advance him a half-year's stipend." In May 1816 he was appointed to Miramichi, New Brunswick, from which an application for a minister had recently arrived. He was inducted to the pastorate there in August 1817, and died on nth October 1830, in the fifty-first year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. Dr James Robertson in his History of the Mission to Nova Scotia says of Mr Thomson that he was " indefatig- able in his labours, affable and kind in his manners, and universally respected." Third Minister. JAMES PATERSON, from Mr Allan's church, Coupar- Angus. Along with the call to Auchtergaven another from Kirriemuir came before the Synod in May 1818, and they agreed to hear Mr Paterson as to his preferences, but he declined expressing himself. Auchtergaven carried, but the Synod enjoined the Presbytery to see that the congregation came up to the minimum stipend, which meant ,80 and a house. Ordained, 26th August 1818, after a vacancy of three years. In 1823 it was resolved to remove the church from Muirend to Bankfoot, a village which had recently become the centre of population for Auchtergaven parish. The proposal produced irritation, and "a considerable minority either opposed the measure or did not actively support it." The advantages the change would bring were manifest, but on such occasions disapproval is a convenient pre- text for refusing to contribute. The new church, with 400 sittings, was opened in February 1824. On i6th December 1834 Mr Paterson demitted his charge, and a letter from the Synod's Committee on Foreign Missions informed the Presbytery that he was going to Jamaica. Auchtergaven people were very earnest to retain him, and Mr Paterson on his part testified that, though they had never been able to do so much as they wished, they had creditably exerted themselves for his comfort. Among members of Presbytery there was a wish expressed to retain Mr Paterson in his home charge ; but the claims of the heathen carried, and his connection with Auchtergaven was dissolved. The congregation before he left presented him with an address, in which they made mention of his bearing as a member of society, " setting such an example of ardent piety, Christian benevolence, and extensive charity as commanded the greatest respect and esteem from the whole country round." Mr Paterson's field of labour in Jamaica was New Broughton, where he was devoted and successful ; but his life came to a sudden and distressing termination. Driving to a meeting of Presbytery on 23rd January 1843 he was thrown from his gig, and killed on the spot. In Dr M'Kelvie's Annals it is stated that he was in the forty-fifth year of his age and twenty-fifth of his ministry, but the parish register shows that he was verging on fifty-one. In 1821 Mr Paterson married the only daughter of the Rev. John Robson of Cupar-Fife, but she died some years before he left Auchtergaven. One of their daughters was the wife of the Rev. W. PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 647 Paxton Young of Mount Zion, Jamaica, and is now the widow of the Rev. John Campbell of Lucea, Jamaica, of whom there are particulars on page 657. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM BAYNE, from Dunblane, Second (now extinct). Ordained, 22nd November 1836. The call was signed by 93 members, and the stipend was to be .70, with house and garden. Next year they proceeded with the building of a new manse, which left them with a debt of 170 ; but this was liquidated in 1840, the Board allowing 80. The membership was now about 150, and twelve years afterwards it was only 114, but in 1853, when the Relief congregation was dissolved, increase began till in 1858 there were 138 names on the communion roll. Mr Bayne died, 1 2th November 1864, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and twenty- eighth of his ministry. Fifth Minister. MATTHEW HowiESON, from Limekilns, where he con- ducted a school for many years, and was also in the eldership. As his day was well advanced when he entered St Andrews University the Synod stretched a point in his favour, and he was admitted to the Theological Hall between his second and third years at college. Ordained, 4th July 1865, when he was in his forty-second year. Then began a course of quiet, unostentatious usefulness. The stipend from the people was to be ^75, with the manse, and a supplement of ^35. In 1870 these figures were raised to ^90 and ^60 respectively, and two years later the congregation readily agreed to give ^100, that the minimum of ^157, los. might be reached. In 1882, as the building showed signs of giving way, it was agreed with great cordiality to have another erected in its place, and, though few in number, the people subscribed upwards of ^300. Where liberality was concerned the minister was sure to take the lead and stimulate by his example. The estimated cost was between ^700 and ^800, and by the aid of a grant from the Church Building Fund and the assistance of friends the new place of worship was opened virtually free of debt. Mr Howieson died suddenly, 2gth May 1886, in the sixty-third year of his age and twenty- first of his ministry. The writer calculated on being with him on an early Sabbath, but instead of assisting at his communion he had the text sug- gested for a discourse nearer home: "There was silence, and I heard a voice." Great was Mr Howieson's respect for his old minister, Dr Johnston of Limekilns, and all unconsciously he caught up the Doctor's manner in the pulpit, and the very inflections of his voice. Sixth Minister. ROBERT BROWN, B.D., son of the Rev. Robert Brown, Markinch. Ordained, nth January 1887. The people were to raise ^95 of stipend, and to that sum they still adhere. The membership at the end of 1899 was close on 100. AUCHTERGAVEN (RELIEF) THIS congregation originated in opposition to the settlement of Mr Thomas Nelson as minister of the parish of Auchtergaven in 1831. He had been a licentiate of the Church since 1810 ; but in 1822 he published "A Historical Account of the Visit of George IV. to Scotland," in which he did ample justice to his sovereign's merits, commemorating the people's " demonstra- tion of affection to his sacred person," and telling how he displayed ever and again " an affability and grace peculiarly his own." Promotion followed in the shape of a Crown presentation to Little Dunkeld in 1824; but Mr Nelson's settlement was successfully resisted, on the plea that he was un- acquainted with the Gaelic language. The Crown now assigned him 648 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Muckart, to be assistant and successor, but the people being hostile the old minister refused his sanction, and here also the door was closed. In 1830 Auchtergaven got the benefit, but an evasion was thereupon attempted of a very remarkable kind. The parish was not technically vacant, but the minister, the Rev. William Chalmers, had been laid aside for twenty years owing to mental derangement, the work being carried on by ordained assistants. The people now petitioned the Presbytery to have Mr Chalmers restored to them, and he was willing to concur in this arrangement. At the General Assembly it came out that the worthy man was seventy-six years of age, and the minister of Rattray, in whose parish he resided, testified that he was unfit for ministerial duty. Mr Chalmers not being available even for a stop-gap, the Presbytery were enjoined to proceed with the settlement of the Crown presentee. On 2ist July 1831, when the Presbytery of Dunkeld met at Auchtergaven for the ordination of Mr Nelson, they were confronted with a libel in which the presentee was accused of gross error in doctrine. In a published catechism he had "deliberately put forth the statement that miracles were events strictly natural," and in certain of his discourses he had also taught error on the divinity of Christ. But the proceedings went on, and when the ase came before the Assembly, the conduct of the Presbytery was approved of and the ordination sustained. It was explained that Mr Nelson in a new edition of the Catechism had cancelled the expressions about miracles, and that the Presbytery observed nothing heretical in the discourse complained of when it was delivered before them. The opposing party now sought redress in another way. For a time they seem to have been uncertain what denomination to join, but on 26th June 1832 the Relief Presbytery of Perth were happy to learn that they had unanimously decided to place themselves under their inspection. According to Dr George Brown the church was bought from the Independents in November 1832, which probably means the transference of recent building operations from the one name to the other. On the third Sabbath of June 1833 the congregation had the Lord's Supper dispensed among them ; but they had no session as yet, and we are in the dark as to how the communion roll was made up. There had been an attempt to form a Relief congregation in that district forty years before. On 22nd August 1791 a petition from upwards of 80 people in Little Dunkeld and Auchtergaven was presented to the Relief Presbytery of Perth to be recognised as "the forming Relief congregation at Slogan- hole." They were at once received, and sermon appointed for two Sabbaths. After ten months preachers were to be sent to Sloganhole for four Sabbaths ; but this arrangement was cancelled, and two of their own number were to preach there a Sabbath each instead. The name comes up no more, and the place itself, which was near Murthly, has passed out of existence. What induced this short-lived movement, there is nothing to explain ; but, as a remnant of what had been, Auchtergaven is credited in the Old Statistical History three years later with having 10 families belonging to the Relief connection. First Minister. WILLIAM RITCHIE, from Ayr (Cathcart Street). Or- dained on a unanimous call, 23rd July 1834, the managers obliging them- selves to give him ^90 a year, with house and garden. The planting down of another dissenting church in the village of Bankfoot may have brought the claims of Jamaica closer to Mr Paterson, the Secession minister, and decided him to leave for that distant field of labour. But Mr Ritchie had preached to the Relief congregation of Berwick-on-Tweed in the previous December, " and secured not only their esteem but their affection." The pulpit not being vacant as yet, they could do nothing ; but exactly four weeks PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 649 after his ordination they came forward with a call signed by upwards of 430 members, and the promise of a stipend of ^160, but as there was a non- concurring minority of over 100, Mr Ritchie wrote them that he would not accept. Understanding soon after that he had changed his mind, Berwick people called him a second time, and by a larger majority than before. Perth Presbytery now strained the Rules of Procedure in the interests of Auchtergaven Church. On 25th November, when a commissioner from Kelso Presbytery appeared to prosecute the call, they refused to hear him because he had no written attestation with him. He returned on 3oth December with the missing link supplied, and tabled the call from Berwick. On 27th January 1835 he appeared a third time, but, not having his com- mission renewed, he was only allowed to speak ex gratia. The representatives from Auchtergaven were up in full force, and parties being heard, by a vote unprecedented in the Relief since 1777, when the Synod forbade the removal of the Rev. Thomas Bell from Jedburgh to Glasgow, the Presby- tery decided not to translate. On 3ist March the Kelso commissioner had reasons of protest and appeal tabled, but the Presbytery refused even to have them read. Mr Ritchie himself now stepped in with a protest, and got the case brought before the supreme court. The Synod found that the Presbytery had erred in the course followed, and they instructed them to meet that evening to give Mr Ritchie an opportunity of accepting or rejecting the Berwick call, and acceptance followed as a matter of course. The commissioners from Auchtergaven now craved payment of the expenses incurred through Mr Ritchie's ordination. No adjustment being arrived at, Mr Ritchie " engaged in the presence of the Synod to see the expenses repaid to the church of Auchtergaven," and the Presbytery on I4th May 1835 relieved him of his charge. Within a few months Auchtergaven congregation called Mr Robert Frew, but a fortnight later St Ninians made the same selection, and was preferred. But matters were not yet put to rights between them and their former minister. The sum claimed in name of ordination expenses and other things, amounting to ,31, 135., was promptly handed in to the Presby- tery, but after some correspondence a letter was received from Mr Ritchie " stating his determination not to settle the Auchtergaven account." He might plead that the pledge he gave did not bind him to see every item paid which people out of temper might put down under the head of expenses. The case bade fair to come before the Synod again, but as we hear no more of it we may presume that Auchtergaven congregation and Perth Presbytery carried their point. Second Minister. THOMAS SOMERVILLE, from Hutchesontown, Glasgow. Ordained, I4th September 1836. Towards the close of 1840 Mr Somerville was called to Aberdeen (now St Paul's) to be junior minister, and on a vacancy occurring there five years later the offer was renewed, but on both occasions he remained at Auchtergaven. Four years afterwards Largo presented to him what was described as " the most numer- ously signed call that had proceeded from the congregation." Prospects were said to be encouraging, and at Largo he would be free at least from the drawback of having another U.P. church to struggle against. On 8th April 1851 the call was accepted, Mr Somerville stating that, though he had lived harmoniously and affectionately with his flock, he now felt that, under the circumstances, he must leave them. The commissioners from Auchtergaven asked for sermon, which was granted, though in the Presbytery the general feeling would be against the continued existence of two congregations in Bankfoot. But matters 650 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS moved quietly on, and that summer there was a stir in favour of calling- Mr William Drummond, afterwards of Whitehaven. The membership at this time was only about 100, having fallen off greatly during the latter years of Mr Somerville's ministry, owing to removals from the district ; but the stipend of ,90, with house and garden, was kept up to the close. In June 1852 the financial difficulties of the congregation were laid before the Presbytery, and a committee with a fair infusion of the Relief element was appointed to confer with the people, the result being that, though numbers were dropping away, sermon was to be kept up among them some time longer. On igth April 1853 a petition from the congregation bore that they were no longer able to pay for supply of preaching, and they did not incline to burden others with that duty. The Presbytery having devolved the responsibility over on the Synod some attempt was made by their advice to persuade the people to unite with the other congregation ; but the disintegrating process was over, and the membership had dispersed. Some two dozen of their number placed themselves under Mr Bayne's ministry, and the others went back almost in a body to the church from which they or their fathers had separated twenty-two years before. The deserted building was disposed of, and turned into a factory. The debt on the church had been cleared off under Mr Somerville, and the proceeds of the sale sufficed to meet the remaining burdens. BALBEGGIE (ANTIBURGHER) ON i6th May 1786 the Antiburgher Presbytery of Perth had a petition for sermon laid before them "subscribed by 14 persons belonging to the Established Church in the parishes of Cargill and St Martin's," and a beginning was to be made on Sabbath first by the Rev. John Wilson of Methven. In Dr M'Kelvie's Annals the congregation is said to have originated in a sermon preached by Mr Wilson when baptising children to members of his congregation residing in that district ; but St Martin's and Cargill were outside the bounds of Methven congregation altogether, besides having the Tay between. That summer sermon was kept up at a place called Craigmakenan about once a month ; but on I2th December the centre was changed to Melginch at the people's request, and on 2ist June 1788 they obtained liberty to build their meeting-house at Balbeggie. This village is four and a half miles north-east of Perth, and Melginch is fully a mile farther on, while Craigmakenan is three miles north-west of Balbeggie. All three are now in the parish of St Martin's. Towards the end of 1789 the little company received ^10 from Perth session, apparently to aid them in erecting their church. At this time an attempt was made to form a Burgher congregation in the same locality. On 4th August 1789 the rival Presbytery received a petition for sermon from St Martin's and Collace, and at next meeting it was agreed to grant them preaching as frequently as possible. During winter there was a blank, but in spring the attempt was renewed, and in June a member of Presbytery was appointed to preach at St Martin's and meet with the people, but the name never comes up in the minutes again. The Antiburghers being left in possession of the ground, steps were taken in 1791 to have a congregation organised. On 4th January of that year 6 families and 2 male members were disjoined from the North Church, Perth, and on ist March they were erected "into a congregation by them- selves, under the name of the Associate congregation of Balbeggie." Their number was increased on 3rd September 1792 by the addition of 5 men and PRESBYTERY OF PERTH 651 5 women from Coupar-Angus, and around this double nucleus a goodly membership was to be gradually gathered, and assimilated to Secession requirements. First Minister. JOHN KIRK, from the parish of Glendevon and the congregation of Muckart. Ordained, loth May 1796, which was nearly ten years after sermon was first obtained. In May we find them petitioning the mother church for assistance in building a manse, and three months later some of their number represented to Perth session that the members in their quarter were willing to be annexed to Balbeggie. The paper was transmitted to the Presbytery, and to a certainty the transference would be agreed to, the gain to Balbeggie being tenfold more than the loss to Perth. Thus matters progressed till September 1802, when the first token of coming troubles appeared in an application to the session for certificates from a family consisting of father, mother, son, and daughter. This was followed up before the Presbytery by a paper of complaint against the minister in the daughter's name alleging something like breach of promise. It was pleaded in explanation that the engagement was to be cancelled if it proved dis- tasteful to the congregation, and that on this ground it had been broken ofF years before. Owing to heat of temper on his part, and the throwing out of unworthy aspersions, it was thought proper to suspend Mr Kirk from office ; but he came forward with expressions of regret, and the Presbytery agreed to Rebuke and Restore. But the complainers were irreconcilable, and the congregation took different sides on the merits of the quarrel. On 4th January 1803 Mr Kirk tabled his resignation, and on ist February two peti- tions were brought before the Presbytery through Balbeggie session, the one from four elders and 7 members asking to be disjoined, the other from three elders and 16 members asking that the resignation be not accepted. In these circumstances Mr Kirk adhered to the demission of his charge, which the Presbytery agreed to accept, although not unanimously. He then returned to the probationer list, and was called in the following year to Wick, but persistently refused acceptance. In 1810 he was offered Sanday, in Orkney, but owing to some unpleasant surmises the call came to nothing. He afterwards settled down as a farmer at Kaimknow, in Glen- devon, where his father had been before him. His connection with Muckart, his native congregation, was kept up to the end, and he very regularly took part in the communion services there. He seems to have been much respected there all through. He died, 8th March 1848. The next notice of Balbeggie occurs in the Minutes of the Provincial Synod of Perth in October 1804, when a call they had given to Mr William Scott was set aside in favour of another from Leslie. Second Minister. DAVID WILSON, from Leith (now St Andrew's Place). After accepting Balbeggie he was called to Muckart, a far more important place, but the Synod decided against its claims. From a journal kept by Mr Wilson's mother I am able to outline what followed. " David," she said, " for some time desisted from meeting with the Presbyter)', and sent in his reasons for not complying with the deed of Synod." At last he agreed to appear before them, when he was gained over, and consented to be taken on trials for ordination. This grieved and perplexed his father, who, foreseeing the possibility of his son being fixed down in a place like Balbeggie, had "insisted aga'inst his coming forward to the ministry under the inspection of the Associate Synod." So strongly did the worthy man feel on the matter that, after the day was fixed, he went over to Perth to persuade his son not to submit. But, though hesitating as to present duty, David "observed to his father that if he insisted in his opposition, especially considering the length matters had gone, he would in all times afterwards 652 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS be under the singular reproach of contumacious obstinacy." It might also be like " crushing in the bud a congregation of whom there was such high expectation entertained." These arguments had great weight with his father, and the mother states that, with his consent, she went over to Balbeggie, and witnessed the ordination.* This was on 24th October 1805. Mr Wilson was considered a preacher of more than average ability, but he may have been scarcely adapted to the sphere of labour assigned him. During his ministry of sixteen years at Balbeggie there was little progress made, and on I9th June 1821 he demitted his charge. The people peti- tioned to have him continued as their minister ; but there had been disaffec- tion among them, arising, probably, from money difficulties, and the resignation was accepted. It said much for his acceptability that soon after he was thought of for the neighbouring congregation of Coupar- Angus. In 1826 he was inducted into Clerk's Lane, Kilmarnock, a church identified with the Rev. James Morison and the Atonement Controversy. A call from Balbeggie was one of seven to Mr James Whyte at the Synod in April 1822 ; but the array of names on it was the smallest of all, only 30 (male) members, and when the vote was taken Balbeggie was nowhere. Third Minister. JAMES BROWN, from Milnathort. Ordained, 5th October 1825. The membership at this time was only about 100, and the stipend was .75, with house, garden, three acres of ground, and sacra- mental expenses. Under Mr Brown's ministry there was steady growth. In 1838 the communicants numbered 250, and were increasing at an average of 10 annually. Six years before this the old church, which had become too strait for them, was superseded by another, with sittings for 440, and built at a cost of ^500. Mr Brown was a duly qualified medical practitioner, and, " his attendance and prescriptions being entirely gratuitous, applications were numerous, not only ifrom his own congregation but from the whole district of country around." Combined with his readiness to be helpful, there is mention made of his bright and happy disposition, so that, as his father-in-law, the Rev. Dr Hay of Kinross, expressed it, " never, perhaps, was there 'a man more loved and esteemed by all classes and all religious denominations." Amidst labours so abundant Mr Brown's health failed, and he died at Kinross, 2ist February 1846, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and twenty-first of his ministry. Fourth Minister. ALEXANDER PETTIGREW, from East Campbell Street, Glasgow (now Sydney Place). Ordained, I5th July 1847. The call was signed by 145 members, and preferred to another from Comrie. The stipend was to be ,100, with manse, garden, and sacramental expenses. Mr Pettigrew laboured on amidst the discouragements incident to so many country charges until 24th July 1877, when he retired from the active duties of the pastorate. The Presbytery minuted their appreciation of "his great generosity in giving up his whole stipend, as also the manse, to facilitate the settlement of a colleague." The congregation soon after called Mr Alexander A. Robertson, who preferred Campbelltown, Inverness- shire. Fifth Minister. ROBERT M'MASTER, M.A., from Girvan, who had previously declined Stornoway 'and Portree. Ordained, I5th October 1878. The membership was 108, and the stipend was to be ^105 from the con- gregation, with manse and garden, the Home Board allowing ^55. The senior minister was now residing in Perth, where he died, 9th June of the following year. He had returned that day from a brief sojourn at * Mrs Wilson was brought up under the ministry of Adam Gib, and her journal shows her to have been a woman of good understanding, high religious character, and a staunch Antiburgher besides. PRESBYTERY OF SHETLAND 653 Gourock somewhat ailing, but with nothing to alarm. Having laid him- self down to sleep he gave a sudden cry, breathed his wife's name, and all was over. He was to report to the Presbytery next day the result of a moderation in Wilson Church, but it devolved on his colleague to an- nounce instead that the great silence had come on. During the twenty- one years of Mr M'Master's ministry the decrease has been very slight, the membership at the close of 1899 being 99, and ^105 being still main- tained. PRESBYTERY OF SHETLAND LERWICK (UNITED SECESSION) AT their meeting in May 1836 the attention of the United Secession Synod was drawn to the wants of Shetland by a petition from the island of Yell. The matter having been remitted to Orkney Presbyter}', these regions were visited before winter by Mr Paterson of Kirkwall and Mr David Scott, preacher, who reported favourably as to the prospects of mission operations there. In the following summer the Rev. William Johnston of Limekilns conducted Sabbath services at Lerwick for two months, besides extending his evangelistic work to other parts of the mainland, and he was succeeded by the Rev. William France of Paisley. The result was that on 23rd August 1837 Orkney Presbytery received a petition from 41 persons in Lerwick for continuance of sermon. After this supply was kept up with as much regularity as distance, infrequent sailings, and stormy weather permitted. In August 1838 Mr Paterson announced that, as appointed by the Synod, he had gone a second time to Lerwick, when he examined 55 applicants for Church privileges, and on 7th November he further stated that 54 persons had been formed into a congregation. A further advance was made when Mr Buchan of Holm opened the new church about midsummer of 1839, with sittings for 500. There was now the wish to have a minister of their own ; but the people could not undertake to raise more than ^55 a year for his support, and, unless the Mission Board agreed to a grant of a similar sum, the Presbytery could not go forward. The difficulty was got over by a letter from Mr Johnston of Limekilns with the welcome intelligence that the con- gregation in Dalkeith, of which his relative, the Rev. Joseph Brown, was minister, had agreed to aid Lerwick at the rate of ^50 a year. The modera- tion was now granted in the hope that the people would make up the entire sum to ^110. First Minister. PETER M'GUFFIE, who had been ordained at South Ronaldshay in 1830. Mr M'Guffie, who had been appointed to preside at the moderation, returned from Lerwick with a call addressed to himself signed by 28 members and 50 adherents. He had obtained a majority over Mr Andrew Reid, preacher, afterwards of Lossiemouth, who had been in location there for five months. The call was declined in July 1840, want of unanimity, perhaps, standing in the way ; but when it was renewed a year later without a division, and with the signatures of members more than doubled, he accepted, and the induction took place, gth August 1841. In the report submitted to the Synod in May next the communicants were entered at 80, there having been 28 additions during the nine months. At the afternoon service there was an attendance of 300 and in the evening about 450, while the forenoon was devoted to Sabbath-school work, at Avhich the full muster reached 250. But there was a falling off when the 654 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS novelty wore past, the membership remaining at the same figure year after year, and the attendance sometimes giving a much lower average than the above. It was fortunate, at least, that the feeble energies of the congrega- tion were not fettered by debt, the 70 that remained on the property being cleared off in 1845 under the stimulus of a grant from the Liquidation Board of ^25. In March 1849 the Presbytery of Orkney received a com- munication from Lerwick bearing upon the ill-health of the minister and the declining state of the congregation. Inquiry was to be made ; but Mr M'Guffie died on i8th July, in the forty-third year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry, leaving a widow and four young children unprovided for. The Orkney brethren combined to raise subscriptions for their behoof, and no doubt a goodly response would be made to the appeal, with Kirkwall congregation leading the way. Second Minister. ANDREW M'FARLANE, from Irvine (Relief). Or- dained, 3oth June 1851. The call was signed by 48 members and 59 adherents. The stipend from the people continued at ,60, and the supplement of ,50 was to come from the Mission Fund and not from Dalkeith congregation. During the next ten years the only change to be recorded is the transference of Lerwick congregation and the Shetland stations to the care of Edinburgh Presbytery. For some time Mr M'Farlane seems to have been restive under the jurisdiction of Orkney, and as that Presbytery favoured the severance the Synod consented to an arrangement which involved extra inconvenience to all parties. Year after year the work went on at Lerwick much as aforetime ; but in 1879 the membership re- mained at 80, and the funds of the congregation only yielded ^50 of the stipend. In 1867 the building of a manse was compassed at a cost of ^830, the Board contributing ,430, and the people, largely by outside aid, raising ^400. In the beginning of 1882 Mr M'Farlane wrote the Presbytery of Edinburgh expressing his wish to retire from active duty on account of advancing years, and the election of a colleague was sanctioned, on the understanding that the acting minister would have ^50 from the congrega- tion, with the manse, and ^90 of supplement Mr M'Farlane to receive .20 over against the manse, which he was to vacate, and to be admitted an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. Third Minister. JOHN WlLLCOCK, B.D., from Mount Pleasant, Liver- pool. Ordained, 6th December 1882. The call had some opposers, and perhaps owing to feeling stirred at this time the senior minister removed to Glasgow, where he died, 2gth August 1886, in the seventy-first year of his age and thirty-sixth of his ministry. In connection with the ordination and preliminary matters three ministerial deputations had to be sent from Edinburgh to Shetland, and the date fixed for Mr Willcock's admission was qualified with the words: "Wind and weather permitting." On nth July 1 886 a new church, described as an ornament to the town, was opened by the Rev. Fergus Ferguson, D.D., Glasgow, with sittings for 320, and erected at a cost of ^2000. By a special effort, supplemented by a legacy of .500, the debt was entirely cleared away within two years. Since then a hall has been added at an additional cost of .560. In 1897 Mr Willcock published a book of real value, entitled " The Life of a Shetland Minister," the materials being drawn for the most part from the Diary of the Rev. John Mill, who was minister of Dunrossness from 1742 to 1805. Prior to this he had gone into the homiletical, including, among other things, a Commentary on St Luke's Gospel. The membership of Lerwick Church at the close of 1899 was 113, and the people contributed .70 of the stipend, which was made up otherwise to ^186, besides the manse. PRESBYTERY OF SHETLAND 655 MOSSBANK (UNITED SECESSION) SOON after a congregation was organised at Lerwick and a minister or- dained, the Secession got footing at the north-east extremity of Delting, a parish occupying the north-east quarter of the mainland of Shetland. This was at Mossbank, from which a petition signed by 34 persons was pre- sented to the Presbytery of Orkney on 6th July 1842 to be admitted to Church fellowship and recognised as a congregation. They had been already examined by Mr M'Guffie of Lerwick, along with a probationer who was on the ground. The Presbytery rejoiced in the opening afforded them for the introduction of the gospel into that part of Shetland, and iMr M'Guffie was instructed to proceed at once to Mossbank and congregate the applicants, work in which he might expect to be assisted by the Rev. James Robertson of Portsburgh, Edinburgh. In October the membership num- bered 52, of whom 3 had been chosen for elders. The congregation in its infant stages owed much to the principal residenter of the place, a proprietor, and also a merchant on a large scale. He fitted up a storehouse for Sabbath services, with accommodation for 300, and also undertook to board the preachers free of expense. The station was opened on the third Sabbath of January' 1842, and, though the weather was stormy, the audience during the day came up speedily to 250, and at the Bible class there was an attend- ance of 40 or thereby. The position of Shetland generally in relation to gospel ordinances is illustrated by the state of matters at Mossbank. Delting parish, to which it belongs, has a stretch of some fourteen miles by four or five, and, though provided with two churches, for most of the people the distance from even the nearest was great. Owing, besides, to the age of the incumbent, there were times when both were closed for months together, and an attempt to impose an unpopular assistant and successor upon the people did not improve matters. Now that the claims of Shetland were brought vividly before the Secession Synod and Orkney Presbytery, there was the earnest wish to meet, if practicable, their spiritual necessities. Miss Catherine Sinclair's " Shetland and the Shetlanders " had recently appeared, in which that lady unveiled with much effect the neglected state of these islands in many cases. She instanced the Fair Isle, which lies midway between Orkney and Shetland, with a population of 400, and told how for years it had felt the touch of no minister's foot, and that the last time a clergyman dispensed baptism there some of the children brought forward were well grown up, and one boy was so far advanced that, when the service was performed on himself, he swore most violently. At the same time, the anxiety of the people to hear the gospel was such that they would row their boat far distances to bring a preacher, looking on a single sermon as ample remuneration for a voyage of fifty miles. Thus Mossbank, an important fishing station on the mainland, became the seat of the second Secession congregation organised in these islands, the population within available reach, so far as we can calculate, being about 700 or 800. After meeting three years for public worship in the storehouse a strong desire arose among the people to have a regular church built, but, as their own resources were very limited, they were requested by the Presbytery in the first instance to bring forward their plans and a statement of the estimated cost. The movement, however, went on, and in the beginning of 1848 the Presby- tery records bear that the church, though unfinished, had been opened for public worship. It contains 236 sittings, but it was nine years before it was fitted up with seats. About this time Orkney Presbytery were using efforts to secure the location of a suitable preacher, but without making much pro- 656 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS gress, and before anything like permanence was gained the cause came very near extinction. For three months in the early part of 1848 the station wanted supply, and when opened anew the attendance was under 40, young and old. The Sabbath school had dwindled down to 5 children, and no person at all appeared at the first week-evening meeting. But visitation on the part of the new arrival did its work, and an audience varying from 100 to 250 was speedily secured. The aim of the Presbytery and the Mission Board was now to compass a fixed ministry, and with this view a stipend of ^100, or ,90 with a house, was arranged for. A call to Mr A. L. Wylie, probationer, followed in September 1851 signed by 63 members and 74 adherents, but it was not accepted.* In November 1852 they attempted the translation of the Rev. J. R. Scott from Creetown, but were again unsuccessful. In August 1854 Mossbank congregation, under the guidance of the Presbytery, called Mr William Stewart, probationer, who had been located among them. After long delay Mr Stewart intimated his willingness to accept if the church were seated and if he were to have 100 a year, with a dwelling-house. But another letter followed, in which he stated that, owing to painful family bereavements, he was doubtful whether he could take Mossbank. The call was finally declined.! After other two years had passed, Orkney Presbytery appointed a committee to urge forward the seat- ing of the church, but the Mission Board was unwilling to incur this expense in addition to what would be required for building a manse. There was now the prospect of having Mr Robert Brown ordained and located at Mossbank ; but after the arrangements were acquiesced in Mr Brown drew back, and the Presbytery could do nothing further.! The next thing was the fitting up of the church's interior, which was accomplished mainly by outside aid. But other two years went past before a settlement was effected. First Minister. DUNCAN MILLER, from Perth (North). Ordained, 24th August 1859. In 1861 a manse was built, which required to be enlarged and improved under the Manse Scheme some years later at a cost of ,245, the Board contributing fully one-half. A glebe of a few acres was also provided for the minister. The membership at this time was 180, but the * Mr Alex. L. Wylie was from Montrose (Mill Street). In March 1852 he sailed for Nova Scotia, the last preacher or minister sent to that colony by the Synod. There he was ordained over the congregation of Great Village, Londonderry, where he laboured nearly forty years. He died, 3oth January 1892, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. A brief Obituary Notice in the Minutes of the Canadian Synod testifies : " He was a good man, willing for work and faithful in service." A brother minister adds : " I can cordially assent to what is above said of him, as I knew him very well." t Mr William Stewart was from the congregation of Craigend. He got licence from Perth Presbytery in 1836. About the time of his call to Mossbank he lost his father and mother, a brother and a sister, in little more than a year. He resided afterwards at Burntisland with his only surviving sister. They had means to keep themselves comfortable, and for fifteen years he acted as Chaplain to the Combination Poorhouse at Kinghorn. He also interested himself much in educational matters, and specially in the welfare of our Burntisland congregation. He died, 2nd September 1895, a g d eighty-six. J Robert Brown, like his brother, Dr Joseph Brown, was from Abbey Close, Paisley. Entered the Hall in 1839, but did not complete his course till the session of 1853, and got licence the following year. As a probationer his manner was that of a quiet, earnest instructor. Ordained, igth August 1857, over the congregation of Zion Chapel, Newcastle, which removed to a new place of worship in 1860, and has since been known as Erskine Church. Translated to Brampton in December 1888, after he was threescore and ten, where he died very suddenly, igth March 1896, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. PRESBYTERY OF SHETLAND 657 resources of the people only enabled them to contribute (x> of the stipend. Mr Miller died, 6th June 1874, in the fifty-sixth year of his age and fifteenth of his ministry. Second Minister. JAMES CRAIG, brought over from Burra Isles, where he had been ordained five years before. Inducted, 27th October 1874, and translated from Shetland to Willington Quay, Newcastle Presbytery, 2nd January 1877, where he was labouring in 1900. Third Minister. THOMAS ROBERTSON, from Bridge of Teith. Ordained, i7th August 1877. Two years after this the membership was 109, and the stipend from the people .49, with the manse, the decline in both items being accounted for by emigration. At the close of 1899 both figures were almost exactly the same as before. OLLABERRY (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation owed its origin to the exertions of Mr M'Farlane of Lerwick, who in the autumn of 1853 conducted religious services at Olla- berry, thirty-five miles distant, dnd secured the gratuitous use of a warehouse for his meetings from the proprietor of the place. Several mission agents followed, one of whom comes specially before us in connection with a call he received from Mossbank. On i8th March 1859 the adherents who had been received into Church fellowship were organised into a congregation with 37 members. First Minister. ANDREW BAILLIE, from Stow. Ordained, i8th September 1861. The various figures in this connection come to little, the membership being only 40, and the stipend from the people ^30, which was quite up to their ability. At the Synod in 1862 the claims of Ollaberry were treated as exceptional. A church, with sittings for nearly 300, and a manse, were in course of erection with the approval of Edinburgh Presbytery, and it was agreed to grant .100 from the Home Mission Fund to each of these objects, and recommend the case to the sympathy and aid of our congrega- tions generally. The church was opened on Sabbath, 22nd February 1863, when the collection reached ^12, a large sum, all things considered. The cost of the two buildings was ^1150, of which only ,45 was contributed in the locality. Through Mr Baillie's exertions .800 had been raised already, and the rest was obtained in a similar way from outside sources. On ist January 1867 Mr Baillie was loosed from Ollaberry on accepting an invita- tion from the Foreign Mission Committee to take charge of Ebenezer Church, Jamaica. From this he was transferred to Lucea in 1871 to succeed the Rev. John Campbell.* In 1873 he returned home in impaired health, but went back in three years to become minister at Mount Olivet. In the interval he was located for a time in Ramsay, Isle of Man. He still holds * Mr Campbell was from Lauriston, Glasgow (now Erskine Church). Having declined a call to Wallsend, Newcastle, he was ordained in Rose Street Church, Edinburgh, on 29th September 1846, for Goshen, Jamaica, to succeed the Rev. William Jameson, who had undertaken missionary service in Old Calabar. After three years Mr Campbell entered on a larger field of labour at Lucea, where there was a membership of 430 and an attendance of 900. Having laboured faithfully in that heavy charge and in that trying climate for twenty-one years he resigned in 1871, and returned home ; but in 1873 he went back to take Mr Baillie's place, and remained other three years. In Edinburgh he was a member of Lauriston Place session, and made himself active in promoting the welfare of the Jamaica churches. He died, loth February 1882, in his sixty-third year. His widow, as already mentioned, is a daughter of the Rev. James Paterson, New Broughton. II. 2 T 658 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS the status of senior minister at Mount Olivet, but is completely incapacitated for work, which devolves entirely upon his colleague. Second Minister. JAMES Y. THIRDE, from Dundee (Tay Square). Ordained, loth July 1868. The congregation in the early part of the vacancy had called the Rev. James Wardrop of Craigend, now Professor Wardrop, D.D., perhaps from overestimating the influence of marriage affinity, but he respectfully declined. On 6th July 1874, when about to complete the sixth year of his ministry, Mr Thirde was loosed from Ollaberry, having decided on removing south to Muirton, a little congregation in Kincardineshire. Third Minister. PETER H. RUSSELL, from Carmvath. Ordained, i6th July 1875. The membership is found at the close of 1899 to have increased under Mr Russell from 69 to 106, and the stipend from the congregation was ^43, which was made up by supplement and surplus to ^146, with the manse. BURRA ISLES (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 2nd June 1863 Mr M'Farlane of Lerwick had a letter before Edinburgh Presbytery enclosing a petition from his session for the appointment of a missionary to Burra and the adjacent isles. He urged the destitute con- dition of the inhabitants as to the means of grace, and the Presbytery's Mission Committee were empowered to recommend the case to the Home Board if on further inquiry they saw fit. Supply was now kept up even in winter, and in April next year Lerwick session and Lerwick minister asked the Presbytery to concur with them in an application to the Synod for the erection of a congregation there. The need for a location was next to be brought under the notice of the Mission Board with the request to provide suitable accommodation for the preacher. The station having been visited by the Home Mission Secretary and a representative of Edinburgh Presby- tery, Mr M'Farlane reported that on 3oth September 1865 he had formed the members of the Church residing in Burra Isles into a congregation. Up to this time the meetings for public worship had been held in a building formerly occupied by the Free Church, but within two months the fabric came to grief through the roof being blown off by a gale. The harm done was not fully made up for till I4th April 1867, when a church of their own was opened by Mr M'Farlane, and on the following Sabbath the communion was dispensed, 50 members partaking. The parish minister of Quarfif, Burra, it may be here explained, came out at the Disruption ; but a vacancy occurred, and the united parishes appear in the list of Free Church congregations for the last time in 1853. Hence the opening for" the United Presbyterians at Burra, and also a place to meet in. Six months after this a call was given to Mr W. B. Melville, now of Busby, but he declined, and was ordained next year at Barrow-in-Furness. In July 1868 a call to Mr Thomas Cockburn met with the same reception, and after a time he was ordained at Hawick (Orrock Place). First Minister. JAMES CRAIG, from Gorebridge. Ordained, 26th August 1869. Under Mr Craig the work was certain to be carried on with vigour, but on 6th October 1874 he agreed to remove to Mossbank. A pause of more than a year followed, and then Mr John Goold, now of Elgin Street, Glasgow, was invited, but without effect, to take his place. During this vacancy one of the preachers who was there on supply gave a very graphic- description of Burra in the magazine. There were the East and the West Isles coming so close to each other at one point that they were connected by a wooden bridge. There was the neat little church, seated for fully 200, close by, with the manse attached, "which is quite as good as could be expected.'' PRESBYTERY OF SHETLAND 659 Within the area of the two islands there were other three churches one in which the assistant to the parish minister preached every Sabbath afternoon another where the Baptists, and a third where the Methodists, had occasional services and slender audiences, our own being about 160. The money arrangements were on a lowly scale, the sittings, at 2s. a year, yielding not more than 18, and the collections averaging 6s. or 75. each Sabbath. Most of the population were engaged in the joint occupation of fishing and agri- culture, but the largest of the farms was not over six acres. In consequence the people had little money among their hands, and very little to spare for Church purposes. The population at this time was about 750. The writer of the letter found the people deeply regretting the removal of Mr Craig, to whom they were warmly attached. Second Minister. JAMES S. BUTCHART, from Broughty Ferry (Union . but brought up in the Free Church. Ordained, 3rd October 1877. The number of members in 1879 was 73, and the stipend from the people 42, with the manse. On 6th November 1883 Mr Butchart accepted a call to New Leeds. Third Minister. DAVID GRAY, from the Original Secession Church, Ayr, and a grandson of the Rev. Thomas Gray, Pathhead, one of the pro- testors against the Union of 1820. Mr Gray was also connected by marriage with a well-known clerical family in the Original Secession Church, his wife being a granddaughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Ritchie of Kirkwall. His application for admission to the U.P. Church as a licentiate came before the Synod in May 1878, and was readily granted. He explained as his reason for making the change that he considered there was no sufficient ground for keeping up divisions in the Church by standing out on points which are obsolete or ought to be made open questions. Ordained, I2th June 1884. The membership at the close of 1899 reached 100, and the stipend from the people was ,50, which was supplemented by special arrangements up to .159, ios., besides the manse. SCALLOWAY (UNITED SECESSION) IN 1839 Orkney Presbytery reported to the Synod that they had sent occa- sional supply of sermon to Scalloway, a village about seven miles from Lerwick, and that there had been a promising attendance. Interest had previously been stirred in the religious welfare of Shetland, and the con- gregation of Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, volunteered to take this station under their fostering care. The place had a population of about 500, and was one of the few villages which these islands contained. The people were ill-situated for gospel ordinances, the parish church in Tingwall being at a distance of three miles. But in 1842 the report to the Synod bore that a chapel had been built by the Independents some years before, and another was in course of being finished in connection with the Established Church, the former to afford sermon each Sabbath forenoon, and the other on the evening of alternate Sabbaths. The attendance at our station, which had been between 200 and 300, was now given at 100 in the forenoon and 200 in the evening. So far as membership was concerned there had not hitherto been much to report, there being not more than 12 names on the communion roll, but in 1844 the number rose to 39. Nicolson Street congregation still stood by with helping hand, contributing ^50 a year for the support of a missionary agency, besides meeting other demands; but in 1847, owing to the discouraging outlook, this subsidy was withdrawn, and Scalloway came to be spoken of as a place where the Secession once had a station, 660 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS but it had ceased to exist. In this state matters continued for about forty years. It was" 1 under the Synod's Evangelistic Scheme that work was resumed for a few weeks in the summer of 1883. This widened but into a location of Mr William Falconer, evangelist, for three and a half years, beginning in November 1884 and ending in February 1888. During that period good work was reported, though the want of a suitable place of meeting was much felt, and also a proper residence for the missionary agent. The services were conducted at first in the Wesleyan Chapel, which was described as " a dirty, damp, ill-lighted place," and the Home Board had doubts as to the ad- visability of proceeding with the erection of a church, as they were informed that there were four regularly organised congregations in the village already. The Presbytery explained in reply that the parish church provided only one service on Sundays, that the minister resided three miles off, and that the Congregationalist minister was the only one who resided in the village. As for the Wesleyans, they had only services occasionally, which were con- ducted on Sabbath evenings by an assistant from Lerwick or by a poorly educated local preacher. The Plymouth Brethren again were scarcely to be taken into the calculation. Though in Scalloway itself the population might not be over 600 there were double that number within a distance of a mile and a half, including an island with some 30 families, who were dependent on Scalloway for gospel ordinances. In addition to this there was an influx of hundreds to the village at the fish-curing season. These arguments prevailed, the purchase of a site was arranged for, and the new building was to be ready for occupancy on 25th September 1885, when all the members of Presbytery were invited to be present. In June 1884 the station at Scalloway was placed under the care of Lerwick session, with authority to dispense sealing ordinances to such as might be admitted to Church membership after examination. Two elders were afterwards elected and ordained, who would rank as members of Lerwick session, Scalloway being technically a branch of that congregation. In 1888 the Presbytery thought it desirable to have probationers introduced to carry the work into a higher stage than that of lay agency, and prepare the way for a settled ministry. Supply was partially drawn for a time from the Students' Recess Scheme, but in 1892 Presbytery and congregation were fortunate in securing the services of the Rev. Thomas Forsyth, formerly of Gorebridge. After this location had lasted for two years the people, wishing to have a closer bond formed, pressed for a moderation, stating that they were certain the granting of their request would be for the pros- perity of the cause. They were also to do their best in the way of subscribing for stipend, though they were not safe to name a higher figure than ,14 ; but there was a manse, and no debt upon the property. The application was referred to the Synod with cordial recommendation. The petition came up to the Supreme Court in May with 46 names appended, and the Presbytery were authorised to let a moderation go on as soon as the congregating was over. This was done on yth August, the two elders already in office to constitute a session. A unanimous call was followed by the induction on 1 8th October 1894. Mr Foi-syth was a welcome accession to the little Presbytery of Shetland, in w%ose business he had taken part since coming within the bounds, acting as examiner of Sabbath-school papers work in which he had been of service for years to the large Presbytery of Edinburgh. Scalloway was now highly favoured as a congregation, though large increase either in numbers or in funds was not to be looked for. At the Union the membership was slightly over 50, and the contributions in the estimation of the Presbytery were quite up to the ability of the people. PRESBYTERY OF SHETLAND 661 ESHANESS (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN " ESHANESS, near Ollaberry," is a phrase we meet with in our Church records ever and again ; but the two places are on different sides of the mainland, though both are in the parish of Northmaven. An intervening distance of ten miles counts for little among the stretches of Shetland. Before Mr Baillie left Ollaberry, and very much through his exertions, the walls of a little chapel were built at Eshaness, for the conducting of mission services occasionally. It was afterwards finished, and in the summer of 1879 regular evangelistic work was begun there by a student under the Recess Scheme. He was succeeded by one evangelist and then by another, who carried on operations during the winter. This arrangement was prolonged for years, successive students going north to Eshaness at the close of the Hall session to hold the post till it was time to return. The first three winters, the services were conducted, as the Mission Board testified, by the same evangelist, " with increasing interest and apparent profit on the part of the people, who on Sabbath evenings have crowded the little chapel in which the meetings are held." A stimulus was given to Church Extension work in these islands by the formation of a Shetland Presbytery in 1883. Next October Mr Russell of Ollaberry obtained authority to administer sealing ordinances at Eshaness to such as might be received into Church fellowship, and on the first Sabbath of April 1884 he dispensed the communion to 17, who had become members of the U.P. Church. About this time Mr Scobie, student, now minister of Plantation Church, Glasgow, reported an average attendance of 70 in the morning and from 100 to 150 in the evening. The Central Board were so well satisfied with the progress made that they sug- gested to the Presbytery the propriety of having the station raised to the rank of a congregation. In March 1885 other 10 members were admitted, and a year later four elders were chosen and ordained with the approval of Ollaberry session, and, we may assume, were recognised as members thereof. A small house was now to be built for the agent in charge, at the slender cost of ^90. In 1888 the Presbytery were of opinion that the station had outgrown the evangelistic stage, and ought to be supplied by licentiates, and in 1892 the services of Mr William Wilson,* probationer, having been secured for at least twelve months the cause was found to have made a new start. A year later the membership had increased from 28 to 44, the chapel had been repaired by the people themselves, and the Board had made a liberal grant for a dwelling-house. It was as if the way had been opened for a fixed ministry ; but the state of Mr Wilson's health forbade the idea of having him settled there, and the employment of another probationer was recommended. On 7th August 1894 the members of the mission station at Eshaness, including two elders and six managers, petitioned to be formed into a con- gregation, which was done on i6th September, "the two elders to constitute its session, and the six managers to form an ad interim committee of * William Wilson, M.A., from Bothwell, got licence from Glasgow Presbytery (North) in March 1888. After being on the probationer list for two years he was located at Lismore for ten months, and then came his engagement at Eshaness. In both places he was diligent and energetic, and but for a serious ailment the latter might have become his fixed sphere of labour. On leaving he returned to preacher life, and, though subject to attacks of epilepsy, he persevered in the hope, we may believe, that his assailant would withdraw. At the time of the Union he was fulfilling preaching appointments. (Mr Wilson died, 2nd January 1902, aged forty- five. His old fellow-students presented him with a testimonial of their regard some time before his death.) 662 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS management." Next year the Mission Board expended on the manse at Eshaness, the payment of mission agents, and in other ways, ,327. At the Synod in May 1896 a petition for liberty of moderation came up from Eshaness signed by 48 persons in full communion. They could only promise 10 of stipend to begin with ; but there was a manse valued at 6 a year, and there was no debt on the property. The petition was granted, subject to stipend arrangements by the Mission Board. A call was now brought out to Mr John G. Taylor, who declined, and soon after got Firth, in Orkney, instead of Eshaness, in Shetland. First Mtttts^f.SlHSGK WALLACE, from Leven. Ordained, 7th April 1897. The call was signed by 32 members and 19 adherents, and the diminutive stipend from the people was to be supplemented by ^104 from the Board. In the year of the Union there were 52 names on the com- munion roll. CLOUSTA (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) EVANGELISTIC services were conducted in this district of Shetland for six weeks in the autumn of 1884, and the question was raised as to the desira- bility of establishing a mission station there on a permanent basis. In the following February 39 members in full communion with other churches and 100 adherents petitioned the Presbytery to be placed under the supervision of Lerwick session, and to have sealing ordinances dispensed among them, which was cordially agreed to. In April 1887 the care of the station was transferred from Lerwick to Mossbank, and in the course of another year elders were chosen and ordained, who would rank as members of Mossbank session. For three years prior to October 1895 Mr George Henderson, evangelist, had been doing good work at Clousta ; but at this point the Presbytery gave it as their opinion that a probationer should take the place of a lay agent, and that no one should be located there for a shorter period than six months. The field, they represented to the Mission Board, was virtually in the hands of our Church, and it would be very unfortunate if we failed to turn our opportunity to the best advantage. The station had been in existence for ten years, and they trusted to have a congregation formed, and a regular minister settled, before long. The former part of this anticipation was realised on 23rd September 1897, when 70 members of the mission station at Clousta petitioned to be congregated. This was done at the close of public worship on 3rd October, and the four elders already in office were constituted into a session. The Rev. Alexander Duncan, formerly of Mount Pleasant, Greenock, had been in charge of the station since March, and may have been expected to remain permanently; but in June 1898 it is entered in the Minutes of the Home Mission Board that probationers were to take up the work, each to serve for at least three months, the " Rev. Alexander Duncan having intimated his desire to be relieved of the charge." At the Synod in May 1899 there was a further development in a petition for liberty of moderation, as the people were most anxious to have a minister set over them. There was no debt on the property, which included a manse, but they could not promise more than 10 a year for stipend to begin with. This accorded with the homoeopathic scale on which money affairs in Shetland required to be conducted. For example, an Independent place of worship in the same parish was reported to the Religious Commissioners in 1838 to have cost only ?o, and the 80 sittings let brought a return of not more than 2. a year, the charge for each being sixpence. The minister's emoluments were PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 663 .30 m all, of which ^8 came from the congregation. In the several dissent- ing churches, Independent, Baptist, and Wesleyan, the standard of liberality was very similar, but alongside of this we have to place the meagre income of the people. Crofters with a few acres of unkindly ground had scanty funds to draw from, even though fishing came in to supplement. The Synod made ample allowances, and agreed that Clousta should have the benefit of a fixed pastorate. First Minister. JOHN F. MlLLER, from Dairy, Ayrshire. Ordained, 1 9th October 1899. Owing to so many of the people 'being away at the herring fishing the signatures at the call only numbered 60, including adherents, but the membership at the end of the year was 99. Clousta, it may be stated in closing, is in the northern part of the united parishes of Sandsting and Aithsting, which have an extension of ten miles in length by eight miles in breadth. The parish church is towards the southern extremity, so that a large district about Clousta Bay came to depend fifteen years ago on the U.P. Church for gospel ordinances, and in executing the weighty trust in this, and in other parts of Shetland, neither money nor labour has been spared. PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING STIRLING, ERSKINE CHURCH (BURGHER) ON 8th July 1731 (not 6th September) Ebenezer Erskine, M.A., was inducted to Stirling. The charge was new, the place of worship new, and there were two other Established Church ministers in the town. After being twenty- eight years in the rural parish of Portmoak, during which time he had been called, but without effect, to Burntisland, Tulliallan, Kirkcaldy, and Kinross, transportation carried at that comparatively late hour. Mr Mair of Orwell was through at the induction, and found some leading people in Stirling apprehensive that Mr Erskine might disturb the harmony of the place. They knew he had been a foremost man in the Marrow Controversy, and had championed the rights of the Christian people all through, but Mr Mair assured them of his pacific disposition and high-toned character. The sermon preached at the opening of the Synod of Stirling and Perth, and what it led to in the General Assembly of 1733, need not be gone over. Then came the sentence of suspension by the Commission in November, followed by the meeting at Gairney Bridge on 5th December, and the for- mation of the Associate Presbytery. On Sabbath, i8th May 1740, Mr Erskine was excluded from the West Church, Stirling. For six and a half years he and his brethren, though retaining possession of their pulpits, had been outside the judicatories of the Church, and this anomalous state of things could not go on inter- minably. There had been a split in Stirling session some time before, eleven of the elders siding with Mr Erskine and five adhering to the Estab- lishment, but their places were more than filled by the admission of eleven seceding elders from other parishes, seven of them from St Ninians. At the Breach Mr Erskine and his brother headed the Burgher party, who went in for forbearance, and in the following year he published a pamphlet, entitled "The True State of the Question/' brief, calm, and convincing. In his History of Scotland John Struthers, whose mind was warped in favour of the Antiburghers, speaks as if Ebenezer Erskine had lost his powers of 664 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS discernment at this time, and Hew Scott puts down that he never afterwards engaged in anything of importance. These statements are groundless, though Mr Erskine's hopes of the Secession movement must have been sadly blighted by what he witnessed at this trying juncture. In 1742 the large church in the Back Row was completed. Years were now telling upon Mr Erskine, and the burden of an overgrown and far- scattered congregation dictated permanent assistance. Accordingly, in 1745 the congregation called Mr William Mair to be his colleague ; lout that preacher was in great demand, and the Synod gave Muckart the preference. Other five years passed, during which Mr Erskine's pulpit labours were lightened by assistance from his brethren. In a letter of oth August 1750, addressed to the Rev. James Johnston of Dundee, we have insight into his feelings at this time. He tells that with him the threescore and ten years are fulfilled, and that several parts of his ministerial work he is utterly incapable of discharging. His congregation got their eyes years before upon Mr William Mair, but the Lord said : " This is not he." Now his thoughts are turned towards his nephew, Mr James Erskine, who is about to be taken on trials for licence by Uunfermline Presbytery, and he hopes Mr Johnston and the other members will not forget his claims and the claims of his congregation. He pleads his growing infirmities, his insup- portable work, and his crushing trials, which are like to bring his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. The urgency of the case prevailed with his brethren, and in due time the end was gained. Second Minister. JAMES ERSKINE, youngest son of the Rev. Ralph Erskine, Dunfermline. Called first to succeed Mr Johnston at Dundee, and then to be colleague to his father and his uncle respectively. The Synod, much to his father's chagrin and his own disappointment, sent him to Stirling, " beyond dispute the most numerous in the whole Association." For a time it looked as if James would not submit, but he must have felt that the Synod's appointment was strictly just. His uncle was older than his father, more infirm, and burdened with even a heavier charge. He yielded, and was ordained at Stirling, 22nd January 1752. His uncle died on 2nd June 1754, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry. The works of Ebenezer Erskine consist chiefly of sermons pub- lished at various times, and collected into four volumes by the Rev. James Fisher in 1760, with a volume edited by his son David five years earlier. He was also the author of Answers to the Queries on the Marrow of Modern Divinity, and it was he who drew up the "Act of the Associate Presbytery concerning the Doctrine of Grace," a masterly performance. He left two sons-in-law in the ministry James Fisher, Burgher minister of Glasgow, and James Scot, Antiburgher minister of Morebattle. The work of Stirling congregation was too much for a single man, and in September 1756 the session applied for a hearing of probationers with a view to a second minister. The Presbytery found they had no young men under their inspection, and procedure was delayed. Mr Erskine died, after a short illness, gth March 1761, in the thirty-first year of his age and tenth of his ministry. His widow, Mr Fisher's (of Glasgow) eldest daughter, survived him little more than a year. Her mother wrote to her sister, Mrs Scot, in April 1762 : "Your niece, Mrs Erskine, is to all appearance dying of what is called a galloping consumption. She is in much the same way as her husband was." , After her death their orphan son Ralph lived with his grandparents in Glasgow ; but he grew up a reckless lad, and perished at sea. In 1770 Mrs Fisher wrote in another letter to her sister: "Poor man, he was a great trial to his grandfather and me ; but nobody knows what sovereign grace may have done even in his last moments." She also PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 665 tells how, on receiving the sad news, Mr Fisher " burst out into tears, which was very affecting." A long and troubled chapter in the history of the Burgher church in Stirling is now to commence. Six months after James Erskine's death the congregation applied for a double moderation, but in granting it the Presbytery recommended them not to attempt to call two ministers at once. It issued in the choice of Mr John Low, who had been ordained in Biggar since the moderation was granted. Though the call carried 633 signatures the Presbytery rejected it owing to a protest by about three dozen members against having it sustained. In January 1762 Mr Robert CampbeH'got licence from the same Presbytery, a preacher whom some of the ministers looked on as the very man for Stirling, and who filled the vacant pulpit soon after for at least seven Sabbaths. At a second moderation in July Mr Low was again chosen, being carried over Mr Campbell by a majority of 200, but the Synod refused to translate. In February 1763 the congregation called the Rev. George Coventry of Stitchel with apparent unanimity, but it ended in an " unexpected disappointment." Meanwhile Mr Campbell had been called to London (afterwards Wells Street), and, as he was holding back, the same Synod ordered Edinburgh Presbytery "to expede his ordination." He now wrote the London session pleading the difficulty of building up a congregation on Secession principles in the great city, and giving it as his opinion that the only accessions they had from those of English descent were gained through marriage. That summer Mr Campbell occupied Stirling pulpit other five Sabbaths, but when a call followed it was protested against. Mr Fisher of Glasgow was credited with the resolve that Mr Campbell, whose father-in-law he became, should be settled at Stirling, and this intensified the spirit of hostility to the choice of the majority. At next meeting of Synod the divided call claimed preference to that from London ; but the Synod adhered to their former decision, and virtually ruled the new importation out of Court. At the Synod in May 1764 the London call was dismissed, and Mr Campbell rebuked for his conduct in this affair. The field was now clear for a hand- to-hand struggle between the two parties in Stirling congregation. The vacancies of Pollokshaws and Cumbernauld were meanwhile putting in for Mr Campbell, whose popularity placed him above all the other pro- bationers of his day, and this action would stimulate his friends in Stirling to press on for another moderation. The majority of the session petitioned to that effect, but the Presbytery gave instructions that in the first instance each elder should go through his district accompanied by an elder from the other side. " to pulse the congregation." The reports they brought in bore that 633 were for Mr Campbell, 411 for a new leet, and 62 had other pro- posals to make. It ended in a call to Mr Campbell with 959 signatures being laid before the Synod in October 1764, and preferred to the two from Pollokshaws and Cumbernauld combined. The majority of the Presbytery would willingly have carried this decision into effect, but at their first meeting they were met by a paper from 864 members, refusing to subject themselves to Mr Campbell's ministry. The Presbytery first attempted to ascertain the real state of the church, and after three days of investigation it was found that 694 communicants and 436 non-communicants were for proceeding, and 493 communicants and 214 non-communicants were for delaying. These figures reveal the strength of the congregation, and yet it was alleged the totality was not much more than half the number on the examination roll in James Erskine's time. . At its meeting in May 1765 the Synod was clear that a day of fasting and humiliation should be observed with the divided congregation. 666 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS now that the famous "Stirling Covenant'' emerges, with its promise ot shelter from prolonged contention. The terms were" agreed to under the mediation of four members of Synod : (i) That as the largeness and the extent of the congregation required the services of two ministers, each of the contending parties should choose one, and have them admitted on the same day. (2) That the two calls should be issued and signed simultaneously by both parties. (3) That if either of the calls proved abortive the other should lie over till they were in a position to have the two charges rilled up at one time. With some misgivings on the part of the Presbytery and some objections from a few of Mr Campbell's opposers the Articles of agreement were sanctioned, signed, and put upon record. On the above footing two calls were brought out the one to Mr Robert Campbell, probationer : the other to the Rev. John Swanston, minister at Kinross. The question of Mr Swanston's transportation lay over till May 1766, and then it carried to con- tinue him in Kinross. The congregation were at the same time recommended to "make no undue delay in bringing out another call to a second object." The Rev. George Coventry of Stitchel they now came back on, the call being signed by 1419, of whom upwards of icoo were communicants ; but at their meeting in September the Synod's decision was again hostile, and the terms of the Stirling Covenant were as far from being met as ever. It may be that neither Mr Swanston nor Mr Coventry was inclined to face the contingencies at Stirling, nor even to be planted down alongside of a young man with Mr Campbells gifts of oratory. There seem also to have been misgivings among members of Synod as to the validity of the compact, and so the case was now to take another form. Mr Campbell's friends had already shown an inclination to have their own candidate ordained, though there should be no other in readiness, and for himself, he complained of being kept in suspense from year to year. To this course the Synod, in the midst of strong opposition, agreed, and instructed the Presbytery to pro- ceed towards Mr Campbell's settlement with all convenient speed. His trials having been sustained, Glasgow Presbytery met at Stirling for the ordination on 27th November 1766. But along with the return of the edict objectors appeared with a list of charges against Mr Campbell, intended to stop further procedure. There had been attempts before this to brand him with error in doctrine, and now an array of statements, said to have been caught up from his lips, was tabled for investigation. Talked with on the subject by the Presbytery Mr Campbell declared that, whatever his language may have been, he abhorred the sentiments imputed 'to him ; and, as the accusers had given neither time nor place nor connection nor a list of witnesses, the services went on. Third Minister. ROBERT CAMPBELL, M.A., from Glasgow ^now Grey- friars). The ordination, as entered above, did little to abate prevailing dis- tractions, though a subsequent movement promised well. A month after Mr Campbell's settlement a moderation was applied for, with the view of obtaining a second minister, and a third time Mr Coventry of Stitchel was called. In May 1^67 the question of transportation was once more submitted to the Synod, and once more the Synod said No, a decision which only Mr Coventry's aversion to accept could justify. Mr Campbell at least showed his readiness to welcome him as a true yoke-fellow by appearing at the Synod as a commissioner in prosecution of the call. But the opposition party still kept up their hostility to the young minister, and the Synod at this meeting felt called on to review the case in all its bearings. They confessed error on their own part at the first in preferring a divided call from Stirling to two unanimous calls from Pollokshaws and Cumbernauld, and also in finally appointing Mr Campbell's ordination upon a call which came out on PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 667 the footing of the " Stirling Covenant, 3 and ought for that reason to hare been laid aside. The commissioners on Mr Campbell's side now suggested to the Synod that their brethren should either join with them in their next call to a second minister or be erected into a separate congregation. In the latter case they might depend on assistance from them in building a place of worship. Accordingly, at their next meeting in August the Synod authorised the protestors to apply to the Presbytery for a disjunction any time they thought riL But even this did not satisfy, the plea being that 'it required them to turn their backs on their former contendings and acquiesce in an act of intrusion. Two publications in 1768 throw light on the condition of affairs at that time. The one is a pamphlet of 272 pages, entitled "The Cry of Oppression/"' in which the opponents of the recent settlement detail the Presbytery's misdoings, Mr Campbell's bad qualities, and their own empty protests and accumulated wrongs. The other is a sermon on " The Triumphs of Grace," preached by Mr Campbell to his own people on I3th March 1768. From the subject he draws the lesson of Christian forgiveness, and in a foot- note to a second edition, published in 1793, he explains that the reference bore on the conduct of a part)' in the congregation who outrageously opposed his settlement and insulted him with very opprobrious language.' But he added, speaking of himself in the third person : u Not long after his ordina- tion, however, numbers of these people cordially received him as their pastor, and some of them died members of his session. 3 Mr Campbell also speaks of his opposers having acted under the in- stigation of some whose duty it was to have advised differently. This remark applies specially to the Rev. John M'Ara of Burntshields, against whom Stirling session brought up a complaint to the Presbytery five weeks after Mr Campbell's ordination. He had preached in a tent on the previous Sabbath, read an inflammatory paper, caballed with the disaffected, and it was hinted that he looked for a permanent settlement in Stirling. Instead of this the malcontents who still held out, after waiting nearly two years, had a disjunction granted them in May 1769. But before the new cause had gone on many months Mr Campbell's session represented to the Presbytery the impropriety of the step that had been taken. It was a setting up of altar against altar, and unlike what it would have been had St Ninians or Bannockburn been fixed on as the seat of the new formation. It was also urged that the favour was undeserved, as the greater number had been habitually attending Antiburgher places of worship, and some of them had even gone for sealing ordinances to the Established Church. The Synod at its meeting in August 1769 refused to confirm the disjunction granted by Glasgow Presbytery, as it would cause a flame of contention in the churches around. We have the last of this dreary case in September 1772. when the Synod granted the protestors liberty to join themselves to such of the neighbouring congregations as they pleased, a description which could apply only to Dunblane and Doune, neither of them less than six miles distant " this agreement to be final for the settling of harmony.-'' We now pass over a period of fifteen years. In July 1787 the session and congregation of Stirling petitioned to be recognised as a collegiate charge, and on this footing a call was brought out to the Rev. Ebenezer Brown of Inverkeithing with 1229 signatures, members and adherents. The Synod, however, decided against translating, influenced as on other occasions, we believe, by Mr Brown's aversion to remove from his first charge. But several members dissented, and got it marked in the Minutes that they would not be answerable for the disagreeable consequences to Stirling. They may have been apprehensive 668 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS that the spirit of a former day would awake, but, fortunately, a harmonious settlement was effected in good time. Fourth Minister. JOHN SMART, from Jedburgh (Blackfriars). At a meeting of Presbytery on loth December 1788, Mr Campbell asked pulpit supply, and Mr Smart was sent to preach at Stirling the next two Sabbaths. A petition for a moderation was granted in the hope that the .90 promised to the junior minister would be made up to what Mr Campbell had. The mode of procedure on the day appointed is minutely given. The session were first asked whether they had a leet to propose, and one of them named Mr John Smart. This was the method adopted in the Church of Scotland so early as 1638: "The session to nominate with the consent and good liking of the people." Hence Principal Rule said they did not so put the election into the hands of the multitude as either to exclude the eldership or put the people from under their guidance. The same system crops up again and again at moderations in the Secession ; but there was liberty to add to the session's leet, and on this occasion two ordained ministers were named. The vote being taken, about forty hands were lifted up for the Rev. Ebenezer Brown, and a fourth of that number for the Rev. George Hill of Cumbernauld. Mr Smart was then declared chosen, and the call was ultimately signed by minister, elders, and members to the number of 1225. Another call to Mr Smart from Hawick (now East Bank), had gone before, and another followed from Lanark, but the Synod preferred Stirling, and the ordination took place, 24th June 1789. Mr Smart wrote soon after- wards to a friend : " f speak to about 3000 every day. The meeting-house is, perhaps, the largest in the land." Eight years after this the Old Light Controversy woke up in Stirling at its fiercest, and threatened to bring the colleagueship to a close. At the Synod in May 1797 two transporting calls to the junior minister came up for disposal, the one from Kirkcaldy (Bethelfield) and the other from Paisley (Abbey Close). In his speech on that occasion Mr Smart acknow- ledged that there was much in his present situation to prompt the wish for a change, but a sense of duty bound him to keep by his colleague in the midst of the storm. The Synod endorsed this resolve, and next October the two ministers were brought into close family bonds by Mr Smart becoming Mr Campbell's son-in-law. How they both felt while the strife was at its worst, we have from their own correspondence, given in Dr Smart's Memoir by his son. At the outset the party opposed to all inter- ference with the Formula were in the ascendant. In April 1796, when the session petitioned the Synod to dismiss the overture which pleaded for a change, only two of the elders joined Mr Smart in his dissent. A year later, when the calls were up from Kirkcaldy and Paisley, the congregation had a representation forward against innovating on the standards of the Church, and in 1798 liberty was asked "to receive sealing ordinances from those ministers who are striving to maintain our excellent standards." At the meeting of Synod in September 1799, when formal severance began, papers of remonstrance, one from the session of Stirling and another from the congregation, were in the foreground, the latter in particular marked by great bitterness of speech. But the bond of dispeace was now to be broken, and a rival community organised. It was not till the end of April 1800 that supply was sent to Stirling by the Original Burgher Presbytery ; but Mr Shirra of Kirkcaldy, who had gone to spend his last years in his native place, was heart and soul with the dissentients, and his gifts would be at their service. The filing away of so many must have told on the appearance of the pews, including a number of the more prominent. The Old Light party proceeded without PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 669 delay with the building of a church, which cost ,1600, and had 800 sittings. The second call, addressed to the Rev. William Willis of Greenock, who became their first minister, was signed by 317 members, but the loss was made up for by the storm being changed into a calm. Mr Campbell died, 3oth June 1803, in the sixty-sixth year of his age and thirty-seventh of his ministry. For two years Mr Smart continued sole pastor, but in June 1805 the session and congregation represented to the Presbytery that the burden was far too heavy for him. By this time they had been favoured with the services of Mr John Brown, probationer, and were harmonious in their wish to have him for Mr Smart's colleague. This eventuated in a unanimous call signed by 937 members, besides adherents, but at the Synod the claims of Biggar prevailed. Fifth Minister. DAVID STEWART, from Ecclefechan, a younger brother of the Rev. John Stewart of Pitcairn, afterwards Ur Stewart of Liverpool. Called also to Leslie (now Trinity Church) and Horndean, but Stirling carried. Ordained on 26th November 1806, the stipend to be ^110. Throughout a joint ministry of nearly forty years the two colleagues laboured on with unbroken harmony. In this connection Dr Smart of Leith in his Memoir of his father beautifully remarks : " Writing of this friend, faithfulness requires us to say that Dr Smart's opinion of him was highest, and his love for him strongest at the last. The whole family beg to offer him grateful acknowledgments for untiring kindness towards their father, and for unchanging friendship towards themselves/' In 1826 a new church was built, with 1417 sittings, at a cost of ,3100, of which ^looo rested as debt on the property twelve years afterwards. In 1838 the communicants numbered 822, of whom about one-third were from the parish of St Ninians, with a number of families from Logic, Kincardine, Lecropt, and Gargunnock. The stipends paid the two ministers amounted to .400, which was little more than the yearly sum raised from seat rents alone. The charge being collegiate there was a third service every second Sabbath. At this time the membership of the Original Burgher congregation was 280, and the stipend .130, with a manse. In the following year they joined the Established Church, and left again at the Disruption. Soon afterwards their minister, the Rev. William Mackray, a man of large literary acquirements, who had succeeded Mr Willis in 1824, was translated to Huntly, and the church was sold to the Free South congregation. Mr Mackray removed to Edinburgh not later than 1850, and died there, 2jth June 1870, in his seventy-first year. Sixth Minister. JOHN STEEDMAN, from Milnathort. In 1839 Mr Smart's jubilee was celebrated, and for other two years he went on with his regular work amidst tokens of advancing infirmity. A third minister was then arranged for, the first instance of the kind in any branch of what is now the U.P. Church. Mr Stewart, though exemplary as a pastor, had never approached his colleague in pulpit power, and he also was now declining into the vale of years. Mr Steedman became the harmonious choice of the congregation, though a goodly number of votes went for Mr Thomas Stevenson, afterwards of Auchtermuchty. He was ordained, I7th August 1842, having previously refused Belfast and withdrawn his accept- ance of Craigdam. The call was signed by 502 members and 90 adherents. The entire membership was about 750. The money arrangements were not marked by liberality so far as the third minister was concerned. Mr Smart was to have ,100, Mr Stewart ,150, and Mr Steedman .100 for the time. In 1843 Mr Smart had the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University, and it is matter of regret that it was so long in coining. He died, 4th November 1845, in the eighty-second year of his age and fifty-seventh of his ministry. 670 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS A volume of his high-pitched discourses, with a Memoir already referred to, was published in 1846.- Dr Smart's only surviving daughter became the wife of her cousin, the Rev. William Smart of Linlithgow. On 5th October 1852 the Presbytery sanctioned an arrangement, come to a year before, by which Mr Stewart retired from public work, as his increasing infirmities rendered " what was once a pleasant duty not in- frequently a painful task." The congregation decided to pay him an annual allowance of ^140, Mr Steedman's stipend to be ^200. Mr Stewart died, 30th August 1854, in the eighty-first year of his age and forty-eighth of his ministry. In a few years Mr Steedman's powers of vigorous manhood yielded to chronic asthma, and the congregation insisted on the appointment of a colleague, pleading that the services of a second minister would be much to the advantage of both pastor and people. Seventh Minister. JOHN T. GOWANLOCK, from Edinburgh (Bristo Street). Ordained, 24th September 1861. Was disjoined along with part of the congregation on 2nd January 1866, as is fully related under Allan Park. Mr Steedman was now sole pastor again, and as such passed through a succession of burdened years, but on 4th April 1876 he requested the Presbytery to relieve him of the work of the pastorate. The congregation at the same time applied for a moderation, Mr Steedman to have ^140, with the annuity from the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, and his colleague ^250. Eighth Minister. ANDREW F. FORREST, from Caledonia Road, Glasgow, a brother of the Rev. John Forrest, then of Hull, and afterwards of Kilmarnock. Ordained, 4th July 1876, having previously declined Willington Quay, Bannockburn, and St Nicholas' Lane, Aberdeen. Was called in the following year to Bethelfield, Kirkcaldy, but remained in Stirling. Translated to Bristol, 5th April 1881, but returned to Scotland in 1885 on accepting Renfield Street, Glasgow. Erskine Church called the Rev. A. L. Henderson of Durham, in January 1882, who declined. Ninth Minister. ANDREW RITCHIE, translated from Yetholm after a ministry of eighteen years, and inducted, I7th August 1882. Mr Steedman died, 2Oth February 1884, in the seventy-first year of his age and forty-second of his ministry, leaving a son minister of Eaglesham. Mr Ritchie's stipend was now advanced to ,310. He died, I7th January 1893, leaving Erskine Church with a membership of 394. He was in the sixtieth year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry. Tenth Minister. THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A., from Johnstone (East). Ordained, 24th October 1893. The membership at the close of 1899 was 491, and the stipend ,310. STIRLING, VIEWFIELD (ANTIBURGHER) THIS congregation began with a sprinkling of families that withdrew from Ebenezer Erskine's ministry at the Breach in 1747. They had four elders among them from the first, and two others followed, one of them two years afterwards confessing that he had joined for some time with the pretended session of the place in the way of burying the Act and Testimony of Jesus Christ. The other acceded in a similar manner three years later, and each after being exhorted to more steadfastness took his seat. The baptismal lists for the first twenty years give evidence that a very small proportion of the Antiburghers were from Mr Erskine's original congregation in Stirling. A larger number belonged to families who had acceded from Logic parish. PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 67, and especially from St Xinians. In 1752 the first church was built with accommodation for 610. First Minister. JOHN HEUGH, son of the Rev. John Heugh, minister of Kingoldrum parish, in Forfarshire, who died in 1731. The fathers sympathies had lain with the evangelical party in the Church of Scotland and this, together with the violent settlement of his successor, brought the family into the ranks of the Secession almost from the first. John, the only surviving son, studied under Mr Moncrieff of Culfargie, and three of his sisters were married to Antiburgher ministers. During the latter part of his theological course Mr Heugh taught the Philosophical Class at Aber- nethy, and having obtained licence in 1752 he was called to Leslie (West) in the course of a month, and Stirling followed. At the moderation the presiding minister intimated that "males come to the years of discretion, free of public scandal, and adhering to the Lord's cause and testimony, and in conjunction with this congregation, were allowed to vote." The call was signed by 79 (male) members, and was preferred by the Synod to that from Leslie with its 131 signatures. Mr Heugh was ordained, 24th October 1753. The membership must have increased largely in view of this event, there having been 53 accessions on the moderation day and 33 some time after. Of Mr Heugh's ministry there is little to be recorded. The congregation was overshadowed all along by the parent church ; hence, in 1792, while the Burghers, young and old, in the town and parish of Stirling totalled 1415, the Antiburghers only reached 172, with probably a much larger number from other parishes. In the Old Statistical History of that date there is mention of a clause having been introduced into the Burgess Oath for Stirling to relieve the Antiburgher conscience. In swearing it the party only promised to obey the magistrates in matters purely civil, and in so far as agreeable to the Word of God, so that there was an entire elimination of the religious element. Second Minister. THOMAS DICK, from Dundee (now Bell Street), where in the early session Minutes his father's name frequently occurrs. Mr Heugh was now over seventy, and Mr Dick was ordained as his colleague on 3oth November 1803. We would gladly be excused adding that the junior minister within two years was under process for flagrant immorality, and on I7th December 1805 he was deposed. He was invited some time after by Mr Jameson of Methven and his session to conduct a school in connection with their congregation, and in this humble position he remained for ten years. Other ten were spent in kindred work at Perth ; but in 1824 he published a book, entitled "The Philosophy of Religion." This was the first of a series in which scientific discovery was popularised in the interests of natural and revealed religion. It is enough to run over the titles " The Christian Philosopher," The Philosophy of a Future State," " Celestial Scenery," and others of similar import. But we recall specially and with grateful remembrances his volume on " The Improvement of Society by the Diffusion of Knowledge." Mr Dick received the degree of LL.D. from Union College, Schenectady, New York. In 1827 he had removed to the well-known abode in Broughty Ferry where he passed the remainder of his busy and useful life. He died, 29th July 1857, in the eighty- third year of his age. Two years before his death he received a pension of .50 from Government. It was long in coming, but it was welcome when it came. Dr Dick was twice married, first in 1804 to a sister of the Rev. Andrew /Edie of Forfar, and second in 1830 to a daughter of the Rev. Dr Young of Hawick, and the widow of Mr Alexander Davidson, Lecturer on Scientific subjects (see p. 456). In the notice of her death in 1840 she was thus referred to in the public prints : " Well known for her acquisitions 672 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS in experimental philosophy and chemistry, and for the elegance and dexterity with which she conducted experiments on these subjects." For a tasteful and appreciative biographical notice of Dr Thomas Dick we may refer to Hoggs Instructor for 1850. Third Minister. HUGH HEUGH. Ordained as colleague to his father, 1 4th August 1806, the call being signed by 69 (male) members. At the pre- ceding Synod other calls from Hawick and Greenloaning to Mr Heugh came up to be disposed of, but when the vote was taken Greenloaning, which was scarcely able to support a minister, was first put aside, and then Stirling was preferred to Hawick. The senior minister died, i8th September 1810, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-seventh of his ministry. The stipend of his son and successor in 1812 was ,150, "with as much fuel as is needed."' But Mr Heugh's gifts as a preacher were too much for his contracted sphere of labour at Stirling, and after two calls from Regent Place, Glasgow, had been laid aside by the Synod, partly because he was averse to leave his own and his father's congregation, a third call from Glasgow, and another from Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, came up to be disposed of in September 1821. The translation to Regent Place carried, but only by a majority of 55 to 52. At next Synod Stirling joined in the competition for Mr James Whyte, and secured a small proportion of votes. Their call was signed by 202 members and 37 adherents. Fourth Minister. JAMES GILFILLAN, son of the Rev. Samuel Gilfillan, Comrie. The competition in this case lay between Largs, Brechin (City Road), and Stirling, two others from Lochwinnoch and Whitehill having fallen short by the way. Stirling carried without a vote, and Mr Gilfillan was ordained, 24th December 1822. In 1838 the communicants were about 350, of whom nearly one half were from other parishes, most of these from St Ninians and Logie, with a very few from Kincardine and Lecropt. The stipend was ,150, with ,14 for sundry expenses. On Sabbath, 8th April 1860, a new church was opened, the officiating ministers being Dr Sommer- ville, Foreign Mission Secretary, Mr Gilfillan himself, and his brother from Dundee. The cost was ,2000. In 1862 Mr Gilfillan published a standard work on ''The Sabbath," and in 1866 he received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. In June 1869 he intimated to the Presbytery his wish to demit his charge, believing that for the work of keeping up a third United Presbyterian church in Stirling youthful energy was required, and though not opposed in all circumstances to the collegiate relation he was of opinion that in the present case such an arrangement would be inexpedient. Instead of a retiring allowance Dr Gilfillan, not willing to be burdensome to the congregation, told them that he would be perfectly satisfied with a single payment of ^200, and this was agreed to. On 5th October the pastoral tie was dissolved, and Dr Gilfillan removed to Portobello, where he died, 28th January 1874, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-second of his ministry. In an interesting Memoir by Dr Blair, which appeared in the magazine soon after, we have Dr Gilfillan as he walked in his father's footsteps, "examining as well as visiting his people, beginning the service himself on Fast days, abstaining from wearing a gown and from giving out paraphrases to be sung in the church." Besides his massive book on the Sabbath he left behind him a volume of sermons, published in 1866. Fifth Minister. ALEXANDER F. KNOX, from Glasgow (John Street). Having declined Blackswell, Hamilton, Mr Knox was ordained, 27th Sep- tember 1870. The congregation had previously called Mr John Sellar, who chose Sanquhar (South) for his first charge. Mr Knox, after a period of struggle with broken health, resigned Viewfield for Australia, and was loosed, 28th July 1874, the Presbytery testifying to his gifts and devotedness. PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 673 Having joined the U.P. Church in Victoria he was on loth May 1875 in- ducted to Emerald Hill, which had been vacated by the Rev. Hugh Darling a little before. In May 1876 he became minister of Seymour, but demitted in the course of a year. He was now in Adelaide for a time, but was re-ad- mitted by the Synod of Victoria in 1882 on acknowledging that he had acted irregularly in forming a new congregation at Emerald Hill, the pastorate of which he afterwards declined. He seems now to have lost his ecclesiastical bearings, and in June 1884 he withdrew from connection with the Church of Victoria, and got a certificate of disjunction. He ministered finally to a small congregation unconnected with any Christian denomination, and died near Melbourne on 3rd August 1889, in the forty-fifth year of his age and nineteenth of his ministry. His old people in Stirling on hearing of his death raised about ^40 for behoof of his widow and family, but the members of the church to which it was sent had difficulties about accepting the gift from parties whom they looked on as little better than the heathen. It betokens the ecclesiastical latitude into which Mr Knox had drifted before the end. Sixth Minister. WALTER SCOTT, M.A., from Selkirk (First). Ordained, 25th May 1875 The call was signed by 140 members and 31 adherents. Mainly with the view of improving the acoustics, which were very faulty, a gallery was erected in the church next year, raising the number of sittings to 990. The membership at the time of the Union was 205, and the stipend from the people ,160. There is no manse, and has never been. STIRLING, ALLAN PARK (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) THIS congregation, like Byron's daughter, was born in bitterness and cradled, if not nurtured, in convulsion. Mr Steedman, the minister of Erskine Church, got sick-supply from the Presbytery in the beginning of 1858, and owing to confirmed asthma his health was never again reliable. Two years later commissioners from the congregation represented to the Presbytery that he had been under the necessity of going to the island of Jersey for some months, and they requested another day's supply from each of the members. In October 1860 Mr Steedman wrote the congregation suggesting a choice of three alternatives to meet the emergency. They might either go on as they had been doing, or they might secure a locum tenens for a year, or they might provide a colleague. At a meeting held to consider what was best to be done a great majority declared in favour of a colleague, and the minority acquiesced, the present stipend to be reduced at once from ,300 to .200. But when the resolution was submitted to the Presbytery Mr Steedman stated that Professor Christison gave it as his opinion that, if he spent the winter and spring months in a milder climate, there was reason to hope that by the month of June he might be able to resume his labours with his health quite confirmed. The Presbytery thereupon recommended the congregation to take no further steps towards the choosing of a second minister till this trial should be made. The advice ought to have commended itself to the acceptance of the people. Their minister was still several years short of fifty, and might be excused disliking to face at that early stage the hazards of a collegiate charge. They declined, however, to wait longer, pleading the extent and widely-scattered state of the congregation. Mr Steedman having notified that he offered no objections, the Presbytery allowed the moderation to go on. The majority of votes went to Mr John T. Gowanlock, the other candidates proposed being Mr John Mitchell Harvey, afterwards of Alloa, and Mr Richard Leitch, now of Newcastle, each of whom had a considerable II. 2 U 674 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS amount of support. Mr Gowanlock stood high among the probationers of his year, and might have waited on the " List " with safety, but the call was at once accepted, and the ordination took place on 24th September 1861. For the first year the entire pulpit work devolved on the junior minister, but when the two years' leave of absence expired Mr Steedman began to take his full share of the work, and all went on with comparative smoothness till December 1863. Then a question as to the faithfulness of the statistical returns for the two preceding years was introduced into the Presbytery, with a request for investigation. Much that emerged was pronounced "not important enough to occupy the time of the Court," and the whole matter might be summed up by saying that while those on the one side were bent on minimising the increase of membership under the young minister, those on the other were resolved to make the most of it. The Presbytery thought to end the disturbance by declaring that, so far as the schedules were con- cerned, both parties had been actuated by thorough honesty, a decision in which a majority of the elders and managers refused to acquiesce. These represented the party hostile to Mr Steedman, but there must have been roots of bitterness deeper down. A minister on applying for admission to the U.P. Church some years after this complained of the Congregationalist system allowing democratic interference with ministers in ways detrimental to their peace, comfort, and usefulness. In a step which a party in Erskine Church took at this time we have a specimen of the extent to which a Presbyterian congregation may trespass on similar lines. One Sabbath, when Mr Steedman was away assisting at a communion, the session arranged between services to call a congregational meeting for the following evening, " to promote the peace and prosperity of the congregation." The party opposed to Mr Steedman, finding themselves in the majority, carried a resolution declaring that the senior minister's usefulness was at an end, and that he should be asked to resign, and appointing a committee to arrange with him as to the terms. To deal with this abnormal state of affairs the Presbytery was summoned to meet pro re nata, when Mr Steedman read a memorial bearing on the treatment he had been receiving. He also stated that a paper had been already signed by 419 members and adherents requesting him to remain in his charge, a number nearly four times as great as that of those who voted for his removal. The Presbytery unanimously pronounced the conduct cf the congregation most irregular in itself, and unkind to their senior minister, and six of the leaders were to be summoned before them to answer for their conduct. At next meeting the parties appeared, tabled a protest against the Presbytery proceeding further with this case, appealed to the Synod, and left the room. Six months now intervened, during which the two parties worshipped together, and the two colleagues shared the pulpit work between them. At the Synod in May 1865 a multiplicity of papers was given in from Stirling with intertangled protests, and the case in its various phases under- went long discussion, preceded by longer pleadings ; but, though four motions were made on the main point, it was declared by an absolute majority that the proceedings at the foresaid congregational meeting were "unconstitutional, disorderly, and reprehensible." Mr Steedman was also sympathised with, and a committee was to be appointed to seek the healing of divisions in Erskine Church. It was an object worth attempting ; but the cleavage was too wide to be got over, and, though Mr Steedman and his friends acceded to certain terms of accommodation proposed, the other party were unyielding, and on 7th November 1865 they presented a petition signed by 283 members and 103 adherents to be formed into a separate PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 675 congregation. This step had been approved of by a majority of the Synod's committee, and the severance was agreed to on 2nd January 1866. Mr Gowanlock had already expressed his full concurrence in the petition for a disjunction, and even Mr Steedman was satisfied that the strife must, sooner or later, end in separation. At the head of the party that went to form Allan Park congregation there were, besides the junior minister, thirteen elders and thirteen managers. The entire membership was put at 675 before the colleagueship was formed, so that we may compute the number who withdrew at fully two-fifths of the whole, but having among them the money power in an inverse proportion. On the following Sabbath they worshipped in a public hall, and continued to meet there till Monday, 2ist October 1867, when their new church, with 750 sittings, was opened by the Rev. Dr King of London. The collection that day amounted to 811. The buildings cost ,5000, which was all cleared off within three years, without aid either from bazaar or central funds. In 1879 the stipend was ^410, fully more than both ministers received before the Disruption. In the year of the Union the membership was almost 400, and the stipend as before. BRIDGE OF TEITH (BURGHER) THIS congregation included at the outset, according to their own records, all the dissenters "in the parishes of Kilmadock, Callander, Dunblane, Lecropt, and part of Port." There had been stray accessions from that district for years, and on I7th July 1740 the elders among them were con- stituted into a session by Ebenezer Erskine. These were six in number, and a leet of candidates was that day given in from the Praying Societies \vithin the bounds, which resulted on 3rd September in the ordination of seven others. Next February a further accession of five elders and about 50 private persons was followed by a petition for supply of preaching, with a representation of their clamant circumstances. Though provided with a session of their own, they still formed part of Mr Erskine's congregation, and very rarely had sermon for themselves. At such times Thornhill village was the usual place of meeting, but on i8th September 1743 tne seat of the congregation was removed to Bridge of Teith, three miles to the north-east, and there the church was built, overlooking the river from the south side. In 1746 the elders reported that, as appointed, they had traversed each his own district to ascertain whether there was ripeness for a moderation, and they found the people desirous that it be brought about as soon as possible. First Minister. DAVID TELFAR, of whom we only know that he was born within Monteith bounds. Licensed in May 1746, and ordained at Bridge of Teith, igth March 1747. It was a troublous time, and ten days afterwards Mr Telfar informed his session that at the approaching Synod the question was to come up : Should the Act condemning the Burgess Oath be made a term of ministerial and Christian communion? and he wished their advice as to how he should vote in the circumstances: The session were unanimously of opinion that their minister and representative elder should go against the above proposition, unless its concord with the Scriptures of truth should be more clearly made good. This promised harmony at Bridge of Teith, but when the crisis came the congregation did not' steer clear of disaster. In 1749 the session was so much reduced by deaths, and " by the awful Breach in the Associate Synod," that a new election of elders was required. We find besides that the Antiburgher 676 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS congregation of Stirling drew a considerable part of its strength from within the territories of Monteith. But there was now the probability that Mr Telfar might be removed to another sphere of labour. He must have been an acceptable preacher, and vacancies far and near believed him to be transportable. In 1749 he was called to Ballybay, in Ireland ; a year after to Auchtermuchty ; in 1755 to Torphichen, and to Donaghcloney, another congregation in Ireland; and in 1756 to Donaghcloney again, and also to Kennoway. The Synod each time determined that he should remain at Bridge of Teith, where affairs were about to have a more promising development. In 1757 there was an extensive disruption in the Parish Church of Dun- blane, as will be narrated at the proper place, and after a time the new seceders there set about coalescing with their brethren in Bridge of Teith, four and a half miles distant, and placing themselves under Mr Telfar's ministry. The terms of agreement were that the minister should preach at the two places alternately, and that they should contribute equally for his support. They were also to form one congregation under a conjunct session, which should meet alternately at Dunblane and Bridge of Teith, but cases of discipline in the one place were not to be intimated from the pulpit of the other, as that would only give scandal needless publicity. But the arrangement could not be more than temporary, and in 1765, under pressure from Dunblane, it came to an end. Formed into a distinct con- gregation the people there began by calling Mr Telfar ; but though the call was backed by 350 signatures the Synod once more decided against translation, and next year they missioned him to America, where a great part of his ministry was to be spent. We read in Bridge of Teith session Minutes for i6th February 1766 that another moderated : " In regard, Mr David Telfar, our minister, had gone off for Philadelphia, in America, by appointment of Synod." The pastoral tie between him and them was meanwhile to remain unbroken, and on ist November 1767 it is entered that he had arrived safely home. When away a union, in which he took an active part, had been effected between the two sections of Seceders in America, and when the Antiburgher Synod met in April 1768 Mr Telfar repaired to Edinburgh, and wrote them that he would be glad to give them full information on the subject if they were disposed for peace and agreement, but the answer he got was that they could hold no correspondence with him except in the way of receiving satisfaction for the offences which led to his deposition in c'onnection with the Burgess Oath. But Dr M'Kerrow, who was in a good position to know, ascertained that Mr Telfar brought home with him more than the terms of agreement between the Burghers and Antiburghers. He was accompanied by an American wife, who never settled down contented on the banks of the Teith. Her heart turned incessantly towards the vast forests and majestic rivers of the West. The result was that Mr Telfar might not be unwilling to accept the Synod's appointment in April 1771 to return to Philadelphia, i where he became pastor of a church in Shippen Street. In August 1780 Mr Telfar passed over to the Reformed Presbyterians, taking his congregation with him. He joined in the formation of the Associate Reformed Church in 1782, and six years afterwards he retired from the ministry. On 29th April 1789 he died in Philadelphia, and was laid in the burying-place connected with his old church there. A few months later an extract of a letter from New York appeared in the Evening Courant with the following particulars : " He had just drunk a dish of tea with his family, when he was seized with a violent fit of coughing, and expired im- mediately. He came over to Philadelphia twenty-three years ago, and PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 677 preached to a congregation there without a stipend. His wife had a good business, and his family are left in affluent circumstances." According to another American authority he was very acceptable as a preacher, but rather vacillating in principle. Second Minister. WILLIAM FLETCHER, from Ettrick, where the Burghers had a preaching station. In September 1 770 Mr Fletcher had two competing calls laid before the Synod one from Glasgow, which was opposed by a large minority, and the other from Burntshields, which in the circumstances was preferred. However, as he expressed strong aversion to being settled among them, the congregation asked the Presbyter)' to allow the call to drop. Bridge of Teith now came in, where he was ordained, 25th March 1772, the call being signed by 242 members. The provision made for the minister's support was slight, the congregation stating in 1784 that they gave Mr Fletcher .45 per annum in cash, and the Presbyter)' told them in reply that the money stipend was top small. But the language suggests support in other forms, a system specially common in agricultural districts. When Mr Fraser of Auchtermuchty brought up his Overture to the Burgher Synod in 1795 f r an alteration of the Formula on the subject of the magistrate's power, Mr Fletcher was one of two ministers who wished the door barred against any such proposal. As the Controversy went on he kept consistently by the conservative side. It was a question on which he had indirectly expressed himself in a pamphlet published in 1784, en- titled "The Scriptural Loyalist," and again, eleven years later, in "The Scriptural Loyalist Defended." Though it was rather the principles of the Old Cameronians that he was in conflict with, the subject had a bearing on the question that was now in agitation nearer home. This brings us to the equivocal ground Mr Fletcher took up in the end. Several members of Synod had now renounced connection, but Mr Fletcher, instead of following their example, published a pamphlet on "The Evil and Danger of Schism." Though unchanged in his views he could not see that the adoption of the Preamble was important enough to neces- sitate separation, and he was not prepared to incur the guilt of schism by breaking away from his brethren. This, however, did not prevent a large body of his people, including four elders, breaking away from under his ministry. He had indoctrinated them with Old Light principles, and Mr Taylor of Levenside tells that, when he was challenged by the assistant ministers at Bridge of Teith for coming out against threatened innovations on a communion Monday, Mr Fletcher approved of what he had done, and expressed the wish that his flock had such doctrine preached to them every Sabbath. But now minister and people were to reap the fruits of separation. Sermon was obtained from the Original Burgher Presbyter)' in 1800, and an opposition church set up, which furnished as many as 127 signatures to a subsequent call, and the mother congregation was so much weakened- that the Synod, at the request of the Presbyter)', granted them a donation of ^15, assigning as the reason that they were at present in a confused state. In 1802 aid had to be repeated, and the people called on to exert themselves by extraordinary collections for the support of their minister. The other party had more trying fortunes all along. They began in 1806 with the promise of ^60 and a house to their minister; but in three years they were falling far behind, and the pastoral relation was dissolved. In the call to their second minister they made a fair appearance, 140 members subscribing, and for some time they made the stipend 90, including house rent ; but in less than seven years the minister demitted his charge, left the denomination, and went to Canada, where he became 678 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS an Episcopal clergyman. The third minister, the Rev. Thomas Hyslop, was inducted in 1824, and, with his congregation, joined the Church of Scotland in 1839, and left at the Disruption. When he retired in 1871 the members were formally united with the other Free church in Uoune, but about 20 returned to Bridge of Teith, and a few went over to the Establishment. Mr Hyslop died, gth September 1879, in his little ivy-covered, nest-like abode near the Bridge, in the ninetieth year of his age and sixty-third of his ministry. He was a son of the Rev. Ebenezer Hyslop of Shotts, and acquired some notoriety in his first charge at Kirkcaldy by raising an action against his people for arrears of stipend. Third Minister. ALEXANDER FLETCHER, ordained as colleague to his father, i6th September 1807. Called besides to Leslie (now Trinity) and Stow, but the Synod favoured Bridge of Teith, partly from family con- siderations, and partly in kindness to a weakened cause. As for stipend, the son was to receive ,80, and a free house, should he have occasion for it, besides twenty carts of coal yearly. His father was to continue in receipt of ^60 a year, with manse and garden. But young Mr Fletcher was not to be long confined either to Bridge of Teith or to his early home. The Synod, indeed, in 1 8 10 forbade his removal to Kincardine, but in September of next year the pressing claims of Miles Lane, London, prevailed, and his translation was agreed to. Up till now this congregation had made little progress, and, though they promised a stipend of ^300, the present call was signed by only 128 members. But under Mr Fletcher it was not long in entering on a course of high prosperity. In the first instance, however, his old people at Bridge of Teith invited him back to be his father's colleague, but they withdrew their call, from having no hope of success. Before long more accommodation was needed in London, and Albion Chapel was finished in 1816 at a cost of ^9000, with 1000 sittings, and thither the bulk of the congregation removed with their minister. Owing, however, to an unhappy turn of affairs Mr Fletcher's connection with the United Secession Church was brought to an end at the Synod in May 1825. The case stirred a world of talk at the time, and cannot be entirely passed over. Instability of affection led him to play fast and loose, it was believed, with a marriage engagement, renewed after it had been broken off, and, though public opinion ran strongly in his favour, the verdict went against him not only in a unanimous Synod but in a Civil Court. Albion Chapel had now to be surrendered, but what in itself was a misfortune proved a stepping-stone to greater things. In 1826 Finsbury Church, in the same neighbourhood, with sittings for 3000, took the place of Albion, and Mr Fletcher's pulpit gifts attracted corresponding audiences. Recognised now as a power in ecclesiastical London he received the degree of D.D. from Delaware Col- lege, U.S.A., in 1845, and at the Synod in May 1849 he was restored to ministerial fellowship with the Church of his fathers. During those twenty- four intervening years he had been out of ecclesiastical connection, and, as his congregation remained in its former state of aloofness, its minister could not regain his seat in the Church Courts, though welcome to U.P. pulpits. Dr Fletcher died, 3oth September 1860, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry. Space will not permit us to go over even the titles of the published sermons and other writings, of which the best known is his " Guide to Family Devotion." We close by referring to the Biographical Sketch of Dr Fletcher by Dr Blair of Dunblane, under the expressive title : " The Prince of Preachers to the Young." Fourth Minister. JOHN M'KERROW, from Mauchline. The Synod having preferred Bridge of Teith to Ecclefechan Mr M'Kerrow was or- dained, 25th August 1813. The call was signed by 230 members, and the PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 679 stipend was to be ,100 meanwhile. He became sole pastor in 1815, Mr Fletcher having died on 7th April of that year, in the forty-fourth year of his ministry. The tombstone erected to his memory by Dr Fletcher makes his age ninety, but it was given in the Scofs Magazine at the time as eighty-three. It was stated in a brief Memoir in the Christian Repository that, having gone to Stirling to attend a meeting of the Bible and Missionary Society, he was seized with fever, and died there. His illness must have been brief, as the inscription on the tombstone records that he preached on the preceding Sabbath. Mrs Fletcher was a sister of the Rev. Michael Gilfillan of Dunblane, and a woman of energetic character. With a large family to be provided for she supplemented her husband's meagre stipend by the manufacturing of thread, turning Bridge of Teith manse into a beehive of busy activity. Another of their sons was Robert, who ministered for some years in Hamilton (now Avon Street), and one of their daughters was the wife of the Rev. John Brown of Whitburn by a second marriage, and her name has honourable mention through her children and their descendants. In 1837 Mr M'Kerrow took the leading part in preparing the Life of Dr Belfrage of Falkirk, and in 1841 he received the degree of D.D. from Washington College, U.S.A. But this was the year in which the work was published by which he is best known "The History of the Secession Church," a faithful record of the growth and progress of the denomination during the previous century of its existence. The style contrasts unfavour- ably with the racy vigour of Dr Struthers and the tasteful finish of Dr Andrew Thomson, but there is compensation in the closeness with which the writer adheres to authentic documents. In 1846 Dr M'Kerrow gained the prize of .50 for an able treatise on " The Office of Ruling Elder in the Christian Church," and on 25th August 1863, the day on which he completed the fiftieth year of his ministry, his jubilee was celebrated, when he was presented with 600 sovereigns. As his last service to the denomination he wrote a "History of the Foreign Missions of the U.P. Church," which was published a few days before his death. It was work for which he was specially qualified, having for many years conducted gratuitously the corre- spondence of the Foreign Mission Committee. The Synod of 1867 was now approaching, at which he intended to take part, but on the evening of I3th May, the day on which it was opened, he passed away. He was in the seventy-seventh year of his age and fifty-fourth of his ministry. Fifth Minister. W T ILLIAM HUIE, from Campbeltown, Argyllshire. Called to be Dr M'Kerrow's colleague, but ordained, 25th July 1867, as his successor. On Sabbath, 6th July 1890, the church was reopened by Principal Cairns after undergoing extensive and costly alterations. The liberality displayed in this connection brought out the hold which Bridge of Teith still has on the surrounding country after the lapse of 1 50 years, and the respect entertained for their fifth minister. The congregation at the be- ginning of 1900 had a membership of 224, and the stipend from the people was ,174, with the manse. ALLOA, TOWNHEAD (ANTiBURGHER) ON loth October 1738 the whole of the Praying Societies in this parish acceded to the Associate Presbytery. They took strong ground at the very first declaring that they withdrew not only from all who were carrying on a course of defection in the Established Church but also from those who were sinfully silent. Other accessions followed from Alloa, along with Logic and 680 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Tillicoultry, and also from a Praying Society in Clackmannan. But beyond a day of fasting sermon was not yet applied for, the distance to Stirling not being reckoned formidable in early times. Thus matters continued for years, with the exception of week-day services, conducted on one occasion by Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine at Gartlet, in the Clackmannan district. On 1 2th June 1744 the seceders in Alloa petitioned to be disjoined from Stirling, and on loth May 1745 this was agreed to by the Synod. We find that at this time the congregation had elders sufficient to constitute a session, but we cannot ascertain how many there were or what was the strength of the membership. The place of worship is believed to have been built in 1747, the year of the Breach. Alloa might have been expected to go with Ebenezer Erskine at that time, but instead of this they took the Antiburgher side, and the minority, if such there were, would resume their former con- nection with Stirling. First Minister. WILLIAM MONCRIEFF, son of the Rev. Alexander Moncrieff of Abernethy. Ordained, i4th March 1749, when he had scarcely reached his majority. In August following the parish was thrown into commotion about the appointment of a minister ; but after a struggle of fifteen months Patronage prevailed, and Mr James Syme, the maternal grandfather of Lord Brougham, was ordained, 2ist November 1750, a guard of soldiers being within reach to prevent disturbance. In connection with the serving of the edict there had been riotous proceedings, for which several of the ringleaders were punished to the extent of banishment beyond seas. The presentee is said to have secured the respect of the parish after all ; but he died in the beginning of 1753, and how far his settlement conduced to the increase of the Secession congregation in Alloa is only matter of conjecture. In 1762 Mr Moncrieff was chosen to succeed his father as Professor of Theology, an office which he held for twenty-four years. During that period the students met in Alloa for three months in spring or early summer ; but the censor's book shows that in most cases the session was grievously cut down, some coming up late, and others leaving to open their schools ere the time was half over. Five years before Mr Moncrieff s death the congregation made an effort to secure his son Alexander as his colleague and successor. Though their minister was little over fifty they pleaded "the hardships which he and they laboured under through his being employed a fourth part of the year in teaching the students." They also stated their belief that a proper fund could be raised among them for the support of another minister. On receiving licence Mr Alexander Moncrieff was sent to supply Alloa and Muckart, and at next meeting of Stirling Presbytery both congregations applied for a moderation. The calls were brought up together, that from Muckart signed by 187 male members, or 1 6 more than the one from Alloa. In May 1782 the Synod decided in favour of Muckart by a great majority. The Minutes of session for the early part of Mr MoncriefPs ministry have been preserved, and to them we are indebted for sundry specimens of Anti- burgher ways. At an election of elders in 1750 three questions were to be put to the candidates before the leet was made out : (i) Do you keep up worship in your family morning and evening ? (2) Are you a member of a Praying Society ? and (3) Will you embrace the first opportunity of entering into the bond for renewing the Covenants ? On this last point some had difficulties, and when the solemn work was first engaged in two of the eight elders held back, but professed to be "lying open to light," and in course of time they saw their way to meet the requirements. At this early stage we also get an example of the rigid care with which the fringes of the Sabbath Avere guarded from secular encroachments. One of the elders-elect had PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 681 given offence two years before by buying a halfpennyworth of snuff on the sacred day. This was now brought up against him, and having made full acknowledgment he was rebuked, and his ordination delayed. The con- tention would be that in such a case it was the principle that ruled and not the extent of the purchase. There is reference also to a female member who, for a flagrant scandal, had to appear seven times before the congregation to be rebuked the only instance I have met with in old Secession records in which censure was so persistently inflicted. In another entry we get a side view of the Mason Oath. The person who had taken it admitted that he swore to keep something secret before he knew what it was, that some things he swore to keep secret were trifling and beneath the solemnity of an oath, and specially an oath with a capital penalty annexed. There were also ceremonies gone through similar to those narrated under Oakshaw Street, Paisley. He was rebuked, with certification that if he attended any meeting at which this Oath was administered he would make himself liable to higher censure. Was this action of the session improper or uncalled for ? In the spring of 1786 Mr Moncrieff was unable to meet with the students, so that there was a blank session, and on the I4th of August (not the 4th, as given on the tombstone) he died, in the fifty-seventh year of his age and thirty-eighth of his ministry. Mr Moncrieff was the author of an essay on National Covenanting, and two of his sermons are appended to a collection of his father's practical works. His family consisted of three sons and nine daughters, of whom a son and daughter died in infancy. Of the eight sur- viving daughters, five were married to Antiburgher ministers viz. Drs Jerment of London and Stark of Dennyloanhead, Messrs Taylor of Ayr, Stuart of Falkirk, and Blair of Cairneyhill. Second Minister. JAMES MUCKERSIE, son of the Rev. John Muckersie of Kinkell, and grandson of the Rev. William Wilson of Perth. The moderation was granted in the face of a petition from 30 members for delay, and though no other name was mentioned at the election 16 voted, No. The call was signed by 145 (male) members, but there was a minority petitioning the Presbytery to set it aside, the plea being "that his gifts do not edify them as they could wish." At first Mr Muckersie laboured under difficulties about accepting, and after his trial exercises had been all sus- tained three or four of the congregation took a protest against the settlement, and though the protest was withdrawn the leader reserved the right to state objections when the edict was served. He was better advised, however, and the ordination took place on 2ist February 1788, nine months after the call was issued. It illustrates what ministers of mark may have had to face on their way to distinction. In 1792 the second church was built at Town- head, with 680 sittings, a good part of the cost being borne by the Earl of Mar as the price of removal. But the congregation under Mr Muckersie's pastorate seems to have grown ever}' way. His stipend at first was what his predecessor received ^70 a year, with horse hire, but no house. Twenty years afterwards it was ^140, and in 1822 it was raised to ,180. The only decided encroachment on the communion roll was in 1797, when the families from Tillicoultry and Alva were disjoined and formed into a distinct congregation. In 1824 steps were taken to provide Mr Muckersie with a colleague. A regular supply of preachers was obtained, but after a time the request was fallen from. Then a hearing of a particular probationer was obtained, and this led to a harmonious settlement. Third Minister. PETER M'DOWALL, M.A., from Stranraer (Ivy Place). The call, signed by 217 members and 60 seat-holders, came up to the Synod in competition with another from Buckhaven, but Mr M'Dowall "gave his 682 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS opinion decidedly in favour of Alloa," and he was sent thither without a vote. The ordination took place on 2ist February 1826, and on 8th March 1827 Mr Muckersie died, in the sixty-seventh year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. In a letter addressed to his widow Dr Heugh speaks of the suddenness and the severity of the blow, and refers to the departed as his oldest and earliest friend in the ministry. Dr Eadie, in his Life of William Wilson of Perth, brings Mr Muckersie up graphically before us, with his portly aspect, and his broad, expressive countenance. As a preacher mention is made of "his ingenuity in extracting so many racy deductions, so many happy and unexpected inferences from the passage of discourse " under consideration. Mr Muckersie's daughter was married to her cousin, the Rev. Andrew Ferrier of Airdrie, ultimately Dr Ferrier of Caledonia, Canada West. Four years after becoming sole pastor Mr M'Dowall was invited to Oxendon, London, but he was too wise to be overcome by the fallacious attractions of the great metropolis. At the Synod in May 1831, when the translation was pleaded for, the purport of his speech may be inferred from the fact that the Synod, without a contradictory voice, con- tinued him in Alloa, and in his charge there he went on earnestly and successfully during a long ministerial course. In 1838 the communicants were placed at 630, of whom about 100 were from Clackmannan parish, and a few from Tillicoultry and Alva. The fixed stipend was ,160, with manse and garden. The meeting-house had been enlarged during the preceding year to furnish sitting accommodation for 722. In February 1851 the present church, with sittings for 988, and built at a cost of nearly ^2300, was opened with only .600 of debt, which was entirely cleared away in 1862. Towards the end of 1861 Mr M'Dowall, owing to declining years, suggested the obtaining of a colleague, that the interests of the congregation might be fully attended to. This was sym- pathetically acquiesced in. Fourth Minister. ADAM SCOTT MATHESON, from Jedburgh (Black- friars). His stipend was to be ,200, with the manse, and that of the senior minister .250, as before. Ordained, 26th November 1862. In 1871 Mr Matheson was called to Sydney Place, Glasgow, to be colleague to Dr John Ker, but declined. However, on 23rd July 1873 he was loosed from Alloa on accepting a call to Bootle, Liverpool, from which he was translated to Claremont Church, Glasgow, in 1877. In 1874 Townhead congregation called Mr John G. Train to be their junior minister, but he preferred Buckhaven. Fifth Minister. DANIEL M'LEAN, B.D., from Largs, like the Rev. Daniel M'Lean of Lanark, though not a kinsman. Ordained as Mr M'Dowall's second colleague, 29th October 1874, after having declined St Andrews and Dunfermline (Gillespie Church). In February 1876 Mr M'DowalFs jubilee was fitly celebrated, and on nth April he intimated to the Presbytery that, owing to failing health, he had decided to leave the entire charge of the pulpit and the congregation to his colleague, and that his people had unani- mously voted him a retiring allowance of ,200. Mr M'Lean's stipend was now raised from ,350 to ,450. Mr M'Dowall died, loth September 1878, in the seventy-ninth year of his age and fifty-third of his ministry. At the close of 1899 Townhead Church had a membership of 751, and the stipend was .570, but no manse. ALLOA, WEST (BURGHER) ON 1 6th April 1765 the Burgher Presbytery of Perth and Dunfermline received a petition and representation from several people in the town and PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 683 parish of Alloa bearing an adherence to Reformation principles, and craving supply of sermon. The Presbytery agreed at once to receive them under their inspection, and the redoubtable Alexander Pirie of Abernethy was appointed to preach there on the fourth Sabbath of that month. From the first they were recognised as a vacant congregation, and on i4th May 1766 they had two elders ordained over them. The church, which did service for nearly a century, was finished about this time, with sittings, at least ulti- mately, for 640, and in March 1767 a call was issued in favour of Mr James Clunie, probationer ; but he was already on trials for ordination at Dundee (School Wynd), and the Presbytery, considering that that congregation had the first claim, decided accordingly. A protest was taken by the com- missioners from Alloa, but the Synod confirmed the Presbytery's decision without a vote. First Minister. THOMAS WATERS, from Dalkeith (now Buccleuch Street). In May 1767 Mr Waters, who had recently got licence, was missioned to America ; but at next Synod he pleaded indisposition, and the matter is never again heard of. Ordained, igth April 1769, the stipend promised being ^50. On that day the Antiburgher congregation in the town had Fast day services, and the session dealt some time after with one of their members for absenting himself from the observance. He pleaded that he looked on it as a Fast for strife and debate, and the session urged in their own defence that, though the ordination furnished ground for humilia- tion, remembering the opposition the Burgher party had made to the Lord's cause, still that was not intended in the making of the appointment. Under the ministry of Mr Waters everything seems to have gone smoothly on till the Old Light Controversy arose, and made a serious breach in the congregation. About a year after the Original Burgher Presbytery was formed they received an accession from a number of people in Tullibody a place two miles west of Alloa and this was followed by an application for sermon from a more formidable body of people in the town itself. The extent to which the communion roll of the West Church was cut down at this time may be inferred from the fact that one of the calls given by the party who left was signed by 310 members and 160 adherents. But Alloa was a grow- ing place, and the lost ground might be gradually regained. Mr Waters died, is-t May 1809, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-first of his ministry. Second Minister. WILLIAM FRASER, who had been ordained at Crail six years before. Transferred to Alloa by the Synod in May 1810, and inducted on 7th June thereafter. This call differed little in numbers from that of the Old Light congregation given above. Mr Fraser, as befitted a great-grandson of Ralph Erskine, interested himself greatly like his brother, Dr Fraser of Kennoway, in Secession antiquities. But meanwhile the work of his own church went on, and in 1811 the place of worship was reseated at a cost of about ^450. A few years later a manse was built, which, with its appendages, involved an outlay of other .600. In 1838 the communicants were upwards of 400, and the stipend was ,125, with sundry allowances, besides the manse and garden. The debt at this time amounted to .646. In the latter part of his ministry Mr Fraser was oftener than once involved in controversy. First, he published a pamphlet, entitled " Candid Reasons for not joining Temperance Societies," a question on which he and his co- Presbyter in Alloa, the Rev. Peter M'Dowall, were diametrically opposed. It was not that Mr Fraser set himself against the principles involved ; it was only that he wished them merged in something broader and more sacred. When the Atonement Controversy was raging he was active on the conservative side, taking part in the Synodical discussions, and his 684 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS " Three Sermons on the Nature and Extent of the Atonement " brought him into keen collision with the Rev. Alexander Rutherford of Falkirk. The contention was so sharp between them that the Presbytery interposed, and found both parties blameworthy. Mr Fraser's " Manual for Christian Parents" is on more catholic lines, and helps us to a better conception of the man. In 1851 the congregation called Mr David M'Ewan to be Mr Fraser's colleague and successor ; but he accepted Cathcart Street, Ayr, and in 1852 they called Mr John M'Farlane, but, unwisely for himself, he gave Albion Chapel, London, the preference.* Third Minister. JOHN MORE, son of the Rev. John More of Cairney- hill, and grandson of Professor Paxton. Accepted Alloa in preference to Longridge and Troon, and was ordained as Mr Erasers colleague, 2oth April 1853. The call was subscribed by 162 members and 51 adherents, and the stipend was meanwhile to be .120. The senior minister was to have 70, and the manse ; but he died on 3rd September following, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and fifty-first of his ministry, leaving a son, the Rev. Henry Erskine Fraser of North Shields, afterwards of Langside, Glasgow. Mr More, owing to failure of health, spent the winter of 1859 in Algiers, from which he returned in the early summer to resume work on alternate Sabbaths, when his first sermon was from the text : " The Lord hath chastened me sore, but He hath not given me over to death." When the inclement season was coming on he had again to seek shelter in Algiers, where he landed, ist November 1860. For a little all looked well, but on the evening of the loth, after he had conducted family worship, and lain down in bed, a blood-vessel burst near the heart, and with a brief prayer on his lips he entered into rest. A tender tribute to his memory appeared soon after in the U.P. Magazine from the pen of his brother-in- law, Mr W. J. Slowan, Glasgow. He was in the thirty-first year of his age and eighth of his ministry. Fourth Minister. JOHN MITCHELL HARVEY, M.A., from Wellington Street, Glasgow. At the moderation Mr Harvey had 106 votes against 62 for Mr Richard Leitch, now of Newcastle. Ordained, 24th December 1861. Declined a call to be colleague to the Rev. George M. Middleton, St Vincent Street, Glasgow, in 1864, but accepted College Street, Edinburgh, on gth July 1867. A new church, with sittings for 630, and erected at a cost of ^3700, was opened three years before this by Dr Cairns of Berwick. Fifth Minister. JOHN YOUNG, translated from Ford, where he had been ordained five years before, and inducted to Alloa, 3oth June 1868. The stipend was now ^250.- Loosed, 3rd February 1874, on accepting a call to Greenock (nosv Trinity Church). Sixth Minister. WILLIAM THOMSON, from Cathedral Street, Glasgow, but a native of Stonehouse. Declined a call to Stranraer (West), and was ordained at Alloa, 27th October 1874. Mr Thomson died, 26th September 1887, in the forty-fourth year of his age and thirteenth of his ministry. At the end of that year there were 463 names on the communion roll, and the population of the town and parish was much on the increase. Seventh Mim'sfer.RoEEV.'T MACKENZIE, M.A., previously of the Livingstone Memorial Church, Blantyre, where he had been ordained in * John M'Farlane, B.A., was from Regent Place, Glasgow. Ordained to Albion Chapel, London, 26th January 1853. Tired of struggling against an adverse tide, he resigned, 8th March 1858. He then changed his denominational connection, and was inducted to a Congregational church in Maidenhead. On 23rd March 1881 he died in the vestry of Bonnyrigg Free Church, when about to deliver a lecture. He was in the fifty-fourth year of his age and twenty-ninth of his ministry. PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 685 1880. Inducted to Alloa, 28th June 1888. The West Church in the year of the Union had a membership approaching 650, and the stipend was .350, with the manse. GREEN LOANING (ANTIBURGHER) THE hamlet of Greenloaning was originally in the parish of Dunblane, and not far from the boundaries of Muthil and Blackford, but in 1834 it was included in the quoad sacra parish of Ardoch. The church, with sittings for 200, was built in 1752, the year with which the records of Perth and Dunfermline Antiburgher Presbytery commence. Strathallan, the name the station then bore, was supplied at that time as a distant branch of Kinkell congregation. This continued till the close of 1754, and from that time there is a blank of nearly five years in the minutes. In 1759, when we get hold of the broken thread, Strathallan is in coalescence with Comrie. The first minister during his brief course of four months preached at the two places alternately, though they are thirteen miles apart. Soon after Mr Ferguson's death Strathallan consented to a severance from Comrie, and was to receive sermon by itself. In April 1764 a call to Mr Patrick Buchanan signed by 50 (male) members was preferred by the Synod to another from Pathstruie, and there was the prospect of a speedy ordination. However, another call supervened from Nigg, to which Mr Buchanan a year after was appointed, without a contradictory voice, owing to his possession of the Gaelic language. There had been doubts about granting a modera- tion to Strathallan, but the difficulty was lessened by the Antiburgher families about Monteith, who had withdrawn from Bridge of Teith in consequence of the Breach, agreeing to form part of Strathallan congrega- tion till they should be able to support a gospel ministry for themselves. It was further arranged in 1763 that there should be sermon occasionally at Dunblane, six miles to the south of Greenloaning, arid about an equal distance to the north-east of Monteith, and it came to this, that sermon was kept up for years in nearly equal proportions at the three places. In February 1768 a call was brought out to Mr David Wikon, who finished his trials that same day for ordination at Lauder, and the Presbytery of Edinburgh went straight forward. This call was signed by 65 (male) members and 18 adherents, but Stirling Presbytery desisted from the prosecution. First Minister. THOMAS RUSSELL, whom the Presbyter)- of Glasgow had previously loosed from Colmonell, where he had ministered for nine years, but with inadequate support. This cleared the way for his removal to Greenloaning, into which he was inducted, I3th July 1769. The arrange- ment was that his Sabbath labours were to be divided between Greenloaning and Dunblane, but that he was to preach five Sabbaths each year at Monteith, or rather Thornhill, that place to have further supply as the Presbytery might be able to afford it. This adjustment led in a few years to chronic dissatisfaction, Greenloaning people insisting on having 26 Sabbaths out of the 52. They were also deeply aggrieved at Dunblane having a monopoly of Fast day sen-ices. The Presbytery attempted by compromises to smooth matters down, but one committee after another had to report that "all parties adhered to their own views." Matters were further complicated by the Thornhill section of the congregation refusing to give up the collections taken on the Sabbaths they had sermon, and at last the Presbytery deemed it better to grant them disjunctions than keep them in fellowship with Greenloaning and Dunblane against their will. But 686 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Mr Russell, the minister, now took the case by appeal to the Synod, and the Presbytery's decision was upset. Confusion now became worse con- founded, and in the end the families about Thornhill were allowed to connect themselves with the congregations of Stirling and Buchlyvie. They must have been few in number, as in July 1780 a paper given in to the Presbytery from Thornhill bore that two elders and 5 male members to the east of the town were to place themselves under the inspection of Stirling session, and 6 male members to the west of the town were to be under that of Buchlyvie, while 3 were not in readiness to decide. These, it is added, were all the heads of families they had within the bounds. The Antiburgher place of worship at Thornhill came to be occupied as a schoolroom. Mr Russell's labours were afterwards confined to Greenloaning and Dunblane, but entire harmony between the two sections was never arrived at, and they only waited their opportunity to part asunder. Their minister died on 3rd December 1803, in the eightieth year of his age and forty-fourth of his ministry. A daughter of his was married in 1812 to the Rev. Peter M'Master, parish minister of Girvan, and died in 1815. She has been often identified with Tannahill's "Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane," but in Chambers' " Eminent Scotsmen " this is demonstrated to have been an entire mistake. A few months after Mr Russell's death a Committee of Presbytery which had met with the two divisions of the congregation reported that, owing to differences about money matters, they were both fixedly resolved to be dis- connected, and on 25th June 1804 the Presbytery, though fearing that neither would be able to support a settled ministry, agreed to have them disjoined. Greenloaning obtained a moderation soon after, promising a stipend of ^65, with house, garden, and the driving of coals. The call, signed by 33 (male) members and 16 adherents, was addressed to Mr Hugh Heugh, but at the Synod the claims of Greenloaning were of little account compared with those of his father's congregation in Stirling. A weary vacancy of twenty years succeeded, during which the lamp somehow held on to burn. In 1814 the Presbytery found the membership to be rather dimin- ishing, and, believing that the people were never likely to obtain a minister for themselves, they recommended a reunion with Dunblane, but this sugges- tion was not entertained. As it was, the usual supply of preachers was only once a fortnight, but in June 1826 they went forward with a call, the stipend to be ,60, a house, and sacramental expenses. Second Minister. ROBERT MEIKLEJOHN, from Alloa (West). Ordained, 5th September 1826. This settlement did nothing to improve the situation, and lasted little more than a year. In October 1827 the people represented to the Presbytery that the state of their minister's health had on various occasions unfitted him for public duty, and that visitation work had never been engaged in. Mr Meiklejohn concurred, and wished the pastoral rela- tion dissolved, which was agreed to on 25th December. He then removed to Alloa, his native place, where he is lost sight of till 1839, when the Pres- bytery, after previous dealings, suspended him from Church membership, not deeming nervousness a satisfactory reason for neglecting gospel ordin- ances. He died, 23rd May 1851, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. Third Minister. ROBERT PATERSON, from Dunbar (East). Ordained, 1 3th January 1829. Hopeless of progress, and finding the stipend inade- quate, Mr Paterson, after a trial of nine years, resigned, and was loosed on 8th May 1838. He was admitted to Sunderland (Smyrna Chapel) on 27th June 1839. When about to leave Greenloaning Mr Paterson gave a desponding account of the congregation's affairs. The stipend was only ,67 in all, with a manse and a piece of land. The communicants numbered PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 687 80, and had decreased 20 within a year. In Sunderland he was still more unfortunate, being constrained after two and a half years to resign, and the congregation did not very long survive. He was next inducted to Midmar. Greenloaning congregation in the latter part of this vacancy called Mr Andrew Gardiner, who declined, and obtained Kincardine instead. Fourth Minister. JOHN M'INTYRE, M.A., from Mauchline. Ordained, 25th May 1841. The call was signed by 61 members and 12 adherents. In 1849 there was a communion roll of 88, and the stipend from the people was ^55, with a manse, there being a supplement of ^30. Mr M'Intyre during his long ministry endeared himself to his people by his pastoral and pulpit work. His medical skill was utilised for the good of the wide locality, and though the congregation could never be large the thinly-peopled sphere was filled up to much advantage. A paper of Mr M'Intyre's, which appeared in the "Transactions of the Alloa Archaeological Society" for 1864, shows him to have been a man of scholarly acquirements. It relates to the Roman camp at Ardoch, in the neighbourhood of Greenloaning, and carries true antiquarian value. On i2th January 1886 the worthy minister was relieved of active service, and he removed some time after to Stirling, leaving the manse, which needed large repairs, and the whole emoluments to his suc- cessor. He died, 22nd January 1888, in the eighty-third year of his age and forty-seventh of his ministry. Fifth Minister. JOHN SCOTT, from Cathedral Square, Glasgow. Or- dained nominally as colleague to Mr M'Intyre, 26th October 1886. The membership at this time was about 90, and the stipend from the congregation ^70, which was raised in all to .180, including a temporary allowance for house rent. At the close of 1899 the numbers had declined to 62, and the stipend from their own funds to ^60, so that some ecclesiastical rearrange- ment may be looked for in the near future. None the less, Greenloaning church has done good work in its day. BUCHLYVIE (ANTIBURGHER) THIS was originally a branch of Holm of Balfron congregation, and its own records begin with 25th October 1750, at which date a meeting was held to take steps for the purchase of ground on which to erect a place of worship. The distance between the village of Buchlyvie and the Holm Church is four and a half miles, so that the wish to have ordinances for themselves was perfectly natural. The work went on with spirit, the farmers in the several " quarters " getting notice in rotation to turn out with their horses and " sleds " to convey the materials. In this way the outlay in money amounted to little more than ,150. In February 1752 the Presbytery of Glasgow met in Mr Cleland's manse in answer to a memorial from the people at Buch- lyvie, and the result was the transference of the minister, no doubt with his own approval, from the Holm of Balfron to Buchlyvie. The new church was opened on the third Sabbath of March, and he removed to his new sphere of labour on the first Sabbath of May. It is stated that the con- gregation suffered somewhat about the year 1761 through Mr Moncrieff of Abernethy urging the Antiburgher Synod to lay their claims for redress of grievances before George III., whose reign had recently begun. Mr Cleland, in common with almost the entire Synod, did not concur in this proposal. Some of the elders and members of Buchlyvie congregation, however, took the other side, and are said to have joined the Reformed Presbyterians, a step the very reverse of what was to have been expected. Mr Cleland died, I4th January 1768, in the seventy-third year of his age and 688 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS twenty-sixth of his ministry. He has been described as a plain, practical, and edifying preacher. Second Minister. JOHN FRANCE, from the parish of Blackford and the congregation of Kinkell. Ordained, 28th March 1769. The call was signed by 146 male members. In 1803 Mr France required a colleague, and a call was issued to Mr John Moncrieff, whom the Synod appointed to Blackswell, Hamilton. Third Minister. ANDREW M'GREGOR, from Methven. Ordained as colleague to Mr France, i6th August 1804. At the ordination the multitude in attendance was so great that the services had to be held out of doors ; but, unfortunately, as sermon was beginning in the afternoon, a thunder- storm compelled a great part of the hearers to seek shelter in the neighbour- ing houses, and those who remained repaired on a signal to the place of worship, where the work of the day was concluded. The manse being retained by the senior minister, Mr M'Gregor settled down in lodgings, and was deposed for immorality on i4th February 1809, four and a half years after his ordination. It is said that he afterwards ministered to a Congrega- tional church somewhere in England, but when or where he died has not been ascertained. Mr France had died, 3rd August 1808, in the seventy-sixth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry, leaving one son, James, minister of Moniaive, and a younger son, John, was ordained soon after in Kirriemuir. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM SPIERS, from Dennyloanhead. Called also to Muckart, and the Presbytery found it very difficult to decide between the two, they were in the most important respects so much alike. To secure Mr Spiers Buchlyvie came up ,30, and Muckart undertook to pay his taxes in addition to the stipend promised. It was felt desirable to know the mind of the candidate, who hesitated to express a preference, but at last decided for Buchlyvie, to which he was unanimously appointed. Ordained, 27th April 1813, and died, 28th August 1825, in the thirty-fifth year of his age and thirteenth of his ministry. During the whole progress of his last illness he manifested a childlike submission to the will of God and a calmness of mind, which never forsook him. He is described as having been universally acceptable as a preacher. Fifth Minister. JOHN YOUNG, M.A., from Glasgow (Wellington Street). Ordained, I3th March 1827, the service having been deferred for a week owing to a snowstorm which prevented Mr Young from getting forward. The people met, and after a sermon had been preached by the Rev. John Smart of Leith, a corresponding member, the congregation was dismissed. Mr Young's connection with Buchlyvie closed in noteworthy circumstances. The gift of romancing brought him to grief. On 2nd February 1836 some of his people complained to the Presbytery that their minister had given forth certain baseless statements in the manse at Holm of Balfron as realities, one of them being that he had recently visited a person of dis- tinction, who was ascertained to have been outside Scotland at the time. He also related the outline of the conversation between them and the dress the gentleman wore. Cornered in by his brethren Mr Young affirmed that, though satisfied now that the stories he retailed were false, he believed them at the time to be true, and that it was "physically and morally im- possible" for him to have given them currency otherwise. More surprising still, he knew himself to be under the guidance of an angel on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of every week, but when sharply questioned on this mystery he owned that, though the angel influenced him to make the statements complained of, it did not vouch for their truth. None the less, the things he told appeared to him to take place as certainly as any PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 689 event of his life. Had nothing more been known, we might have suspected ourselves in contact with some psychological phenomenon. The committee, however, took a more everyday view of the matter, and coolly told him not to preach next Sabbath. It now came out that Mr Young had been boasting about being em- ployed to preach a public sermon in Stirling, a thing no one ever heard of but himself. At next meeting of Presbytery, escape being impossible, a written acknowledgment of wilful and deliberate falsehood was forthcoming, followed by rebuke and the resignation of his charge on I5th March. The elder from Buchlyvie stated that the congregation would not interfere either for or against, and Mr Young, after being loosed from his charge, was suspended from office and Church membership sine die. He afterwards left Scotland, had the charge of a high school in Ancaster, and died, 5th January 1884, in his eighty-second year. The case altogether had features scarcely paralleled in the annals of Presbyterial discipline. An Antiburgher student two generations before had to be dealt with for a like infirmity, but he redeemed his character, and obtained an honoured place in the Secession ministry. Buchlyvie congregation, thus deprived of their pastor, now called Mr Hamilton M. MacGill ; but the collegiate charge of Duke Street, Glasgow, intervened, and secured his acceptance. Sixth Minister. JOHN RUSSELL, from Glasgow (now St Vincent Street). Called to Hexham, Rousay, and Freuchie in regular gradation, and then ordained at Buchlyvie, i8th July 1837. In December 1846 the elders and managers of Buchlyvie Church, stimulated by a Synodical recommendation, met to plan for the extinction of their debt, amounting to ,190. Promissory cards were issued simultaneously throughout the congregation ; and, when they were gathered in, the encumbrance was found to have been got quit of by a single stroke. Mr Russell laboured on among an attached people till one Sabbath in February 1857, when he was seized in the pulpit with an affection of the brain, confusing his command of words and names. After this, though able to go about and converse, he only twice attempted to preach, and he died, 5th September 1858, in the fifty-third year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. A brief but highly appreciative sketch of his life appeared in the U.P. Magazine soon after, with internal evidence of being from the pen of his friend, Dr Eadie. In 1853 Mr Russell published a " Centenary Sketch of Buchlyvie Congregation," to which the writer has been much indebted. He was the father of the Rev. Thomas Russell, first of Allars, Ha wick, and afterwards of London. Seventh Minister. JAMES BERRY, from Gillespie Church, Glasgow, but brought up in the Free Church. Ordained, 2nd May 1860. Under Mr Berry earnest work was carried on for nearly forty years in the midst of a slowly declining population. But by reason of some bodily ailment, which impaired his efficiency, he tabled his resignation on 7th February 1899, in- timating that he intended to remove from Buchlyvie, so that the manse, as well as the money emoluments, would be surrendered. On 4th April his name was placed on the emeritus list, and he was presented soon after with a piece of silver plate and ^130. The membership of the congregation at this time was only 125, and that of the Free church in the place was not more than 80. In conjunction with the Free Presbytery of Dunblane and the Advisory Committee of the two denominations a union was now arranged for, the other minister, the Rev. George Ross, having expressed his willing- ness to retire in order to facilitate the union negotiations. The movement went on without let or hindrance, and the two congregations worshipped together in the U.P. church on Sabbath, i8th June 1899, the services being conducted by a Free Church minister from the neighbourhood. On the II. 2X 690 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS following Sabbath the Lord's Supper was observed, when Mr Ross gave the post-communion address, the only drawback being that Mr Berry, through illness, was unable to take part likewise. It was believed that none of the members on either side would fail to enter into the union. After the pulpit had been supplied for some time by Free and U.P. probationers on alternate Sabbaths, a moderation was applied for, the stipend from the people to be ^168, with a manse, the united membership being 197. Mr Berry died at Dunoon, 7th February 1900, in the seventy-sixth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. Eighth Minister. GEORGE W. S. COWIE, Free Church probationer. Ordained, 8th March 1900. There was the fear that division might arise when a minister came to be chosen, but, though three candidates were nominated, the minority at once acquiesced, so that the danger was har- moniously surmounted. DUNBLANE (BURGHER) FROM its proximity to Stirling it was to be expected that the parish of Dunblane would respond at an early date to the influence of the Secession. This, indeed, was the case throughout the bounds of Dunblane Presbytery generally, as is seen in connection with the origin of Bridge of Teith con- gregation. But most of the acceders from the town and parish itself seem to have been reckoned under the pastoral care of Ebenezer Erskine, and hence in 1750 two elders for that district were ordained to office in Stirling session. The Seceders in the western part of the parish would be much nearer Bridge of Teith, and it may be assumed that it was there they went for the enjoyment of gospel ordinances. But on nth January 1757 a large ac- cession from Dunblane was handed in to the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow. The paper, signed by 92 persons, gave as their grounds of secession the defec- tions of the Established Church Judicatories from Reformation attainments, and wished a Fast appointed among them, "that they might humble them- selves before the Lord for the sins of the land." They were received under the Presbytery's inspection, and the two nearest ministers, Mr David Telfar, Bridge of Teith, and Mr James Erskine, Stirling, were to conduct week-day services at Dunblane on Wednesday, the 26th of that month. Mr Telfar was also to preach there every second Sabbath till next meeting, an arrange- ment which afterwards secured permanence for years. On 2ist June there was a second accession of 23 residenters, and as these included three elders a session was to be constituted. The families about the place, who had hitherto been in the membership of Stirling Church, would now find them- selves provided with the gospel in its purity at their own doors. It was a special grievance that had opened a wide door for the entrance of the Burgher Secession into Dunblane. The former parish minister had been much respected, but after his death in October 1755 an unpopular candidate got the presentation from the Crown to be his successor. Re- monstrances urging the universal aversion of the people to Mr Robertson were addressed to headquarters in vain, and, in compliance with orders from the Commission of Assembly, the presentee was ordained, I2th May 1757. An attempt was made in a few months by the minister and the Presbytery "to promote the peace of the parish, and prevent the people being seduced to a secession by the busy enemies of the Established Church." Mi- Robertson applied for an assistant, who was ordained, ist February 1758 ; but this expedient, it would seem, did little to provide the parish with an evangelical ministry, and in a few years the assistant was transferred to a PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 691 parish of his own. In the year 1758 the first Burgher church was built in Dunblane, as is shown by the deed of contract, and that same year eight elders were ordained, making the entire number sixteen. But instead of going in for a minister of their own, the acceders in Dunblane were now bent on coalescence with their brethren at Bridge of Teith, four miles distant. On i;th May 1758 union on this footing under a joint session was unanimously approved of by the Presbytery. As a rule the minister was to preach at the two places on alternate Sabbaths. After five years' experi- ence of the conjunct arrangement that part of the congregation in and about Dunblane petitioned the Presbytery to disjoin them from Bridge of Teith and give them Mr Telfar's entire services. They felt the disadvan- tage of not having a minister residing among them, and, besides, they were quite able " to maintain the gospel in a respectable way." Those from the Monteith side resisted, and after tantalising delays from one meeting to another the Presbytery handed over the case to the Synod for decision. There also the way was not clear at first ; but in the end the wishes of the Dunblane section prevailed, and the Presbytery were appointed to disjoin them, should they apply for a moderation, which was done on 2nd April 1765. The contest between the two parties now changed its form. The call from Dunblane came out unanimously for the Rev. David Telfar, Bridge of Teith, and again the Presbytery resorted to the policy of delay, and ended by again referring the case to the Synod. It was the sixth time that unsuccessful attempts had been made to remove Mr Telfar to another sphere of labour, and once more the motion, Not transport, carried. During those months the congregation complained repeatedly to the Presbytery of the great hurt the cause was receiving "by the many silent Sabbaths they had been trysted with since the disjunction." Indeed, during eleven weeks they had only had sermon two days, and this was the more to be regretted, because the Antiburghers were sparing no pains to break and scatter them. There was the promise that a better state of things was at hand, and in February 1767 a call was brought up from Dunblane to Mr David Walker ; but Pollokshaws was abreast of them, and the Presbytery gave the prefer- ence to the latter place. First Minister. MICHAEL GILFILLAN, from Stirling (now Erskine Church). Ordained, 28th April 1768. The call, which is still extant, carries the names of 400 members, of which number 218 were put down by the presiding minister. Mr Gilfillan's stipend at first was ^55, with no mention of a house, and sixteen years after it was only 60. Of three attempts made in 1780-1781 to remove Dunblane minister to Edinburgh all that requires to be recorded is given under Bristo. In 1788 the church had to be renovated, and to a good extent rebuilt, the season being chosen when the weather was likely to permit the congregation to worship in the open air. The expense, deducting the sum received for old material, did not amount to ^,100, and was all raised by private subscription. During the controversy stirred by proposals to alter the Formula Mr Gilfillan came to the front. It was he who proposed the motion which carried, that to end the strife, instead of making alterations in the manner suggested, the Synod should prefix a Preamble to the questions of the Formula, explaining that candidates for licence or ordination were not required to approve of anything in the standard books, which was interpreted as favouring com- pulsory measures in religion ; and as for the obligation of our national covenants on posterity, they left the nature and extent of that obligation an open question. It was understood at first that this would satisfy the party in the Synod who were opposed to all change, and under this impres- 692 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS sion Mr Gilfillan wrote Mr Taylor of Levenside, the keenest at the head of the minority, pleading with him to come forward, and, on the footing of the victory he and his friends had gained, do his best to bring about a reconciliation. The Preamble, however, came ere long to be the bone of contention and the ground of severance. The part which Mr Gilfillan acted at this time occasioned an inbreak on the integrity of his own congregation. A body of malcontents, 73 in number, obtained supply of sermon from the Old Light Presbytery on the third Sabbath of August 1800, and in 1808 five of their number were ordained to the eldership. In 1812 they were united with the dissentients in Doune, who had left Bridge of Teith Church, and the united congregation had a minister, Mr Samuel Armour, ordained over them on 25th August 1815. Five years after this Dunblane again got sermon for itself; but the cause never prospered, and in 1822 the name disappeared from the list of Original Burgher congregations. Whether they ever possessed a place of worship of their own we have not ascertained, but their existence is certain to have intensified sectarian feeling in the place, and done the general cause no good. After the break up some of the Original Burgher families would be sure to attach themselves to Doune congregation, four miles off. Mr Gilfillan died, i6th December 1816, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. In Dr Belfrage's "Sketches of Life and Character" it is stated that he was seized with apoplexy in Stirling, while attending a meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society in the end of August. There was partial recovery, but as he was stepping into bed on the evening of the above date a blood-vessel burst in his head. His niece, who resided with him, was speedily in attendance, but he only gave her a farewell look, and immediately expired. His death was a serious loss not only to his own congregation and to the Secession Church, but to the town of Dunblane, in which Mr Gilfillan had long taken a leading part in every good work. He was never married, but he drew much of the family element from Bridge of Teith manse, his sister being the wife of the Rev. William Fletcher. The congregation after a vacancy of some months called Mr Archibald Baird, Mr William Pringle (afterwards Dr Pringle of Auchterarder) being the other candidate proposed. The call was signed by 435 members, reveal- ing strength of membership ; but Auchtermuchty (East), though much inferior in numbers, got the preference from the Synod. Second Minister. JAMES ANDERSON, from Leslie (now Trinity). Or- dained, 1 5th April 1818. The services were conducted in the open air, on the spot where his predecessor had been ordained fifty years before. A competing call from Girvan to Mr Anderson had been withdrawn in deference to his own avowed preference. In 1819 the Relief attempted to get footing in Dunblane, but after a twelvemonth or thereby sermon was withdrawn. In 1835 the present church, seated for 600, was built at a cost of over ^1500. Mr Anderson has been described by his successor as a man of classic taste, with an attractive delivery, and beautifully composed discourses. However, as years passed the fine gold lost something of its lustre, and on i2th September 1854 his resignation was accepted. He then removed to Leslie, his native place, where he died, igth March 1858, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. Third Minister. WILLIAM BLAIR, M.A., from Lochgelly. Called previously to Whitby, Yorkshire, and ordained at Dunblane, ibth April 1856. The call was signed by 255 members and 92 adherents. The property was now free of debt, and the stipend was to be ,150, including house rent, and 6 was allowed for communions, with travelling expenses besides. In 1858 PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 693 the congregation built their present large and handsome manse. In 1874 Mr Blair was invited to remove to Glasgow, to build up what is now White- vale Church, and in the following year a more attractive offer came from Blantyre, but he preferred on both occasions to remain at Dunblane. In 1879 he received the degree of D.D. from St Andrews University, and five years afterwards he was chosen one of the Clerks of Synod, carrying the appointment over several strong competitors. Dr Blair's pen, besides being largely engaged in periodical literature, has done important service to the denomination, as was fitly acknowledged in 1898, when he was raised to the Moderator's Chair. It was under his editorial care that Dr M'Kelvie's Annals and Statistics were published in 1873. To him also was entrusted the preparing of the " Outline of the History and Doctrine of the U.P. Church." He was also convener of the committee which drew up the " Me- morial of the Jubilee Synod " of 1897, and on him most of the work devolved. In another field honourable mention must be made of Bishop Leighton's Life, but specially it behoves the writer to express his obligations to Dr Blair for his compact and carefully drawn-up "Centenary of Dunblane Congregation," a Memorial to which he has been largely indebted in making up the present sketch. In the year of the Union the membership of Dunblane congregation came very near 300, and the stipend, with some extras, was .208, along with the manse. DUNBLANE (ANTIBURGHER) THIS congregation, as we have seen, was one with Greenloaning till 1804, and at that date its separate history begins. The union had never wrought well, and so early as 1773 Greenloaning people complained that the sick among them were not visited owing to the minister, whose residence was at Dunblane, having no horse, though they allowed him 5 a year for this purpose. They also brought up that the place of worship was built at Greenloaning, when few about Dunblane were owning the Antiburgher cause. After Mr Russell, their minister, was in among age's infirmities Dunblane people pressed the Presbyter}' to give them the whole of his labours, pleading his inability to go to Greenloaning on alternate Sabbaths. At his death on 3rd December 1803 matters were ripe for a severance, and on 25th June 1804 this was sanctioned amidst misgivings. Within two months a moderation was granted to Dunblane congregation, the Presbytery- believing that, though the stipend of ,60, with the driving of coals, was inadequate, it was as much as the people were able to give, but it was to be left in the preacher's option to accept or decline the call. First Minister. JOHN WALLACE, from Glasgow (now Cathedral Square). Ordained, 3oth May 1805. Another call from Birsay, Orkney, had inter- vened, but the Synod preferred Dunblane. Within four years money difficulties became serious. The membership was not over 100, and after deducting those who could do nothing or almost nothing the managers had scarcely more than half that number to draw from. No idea, they said, was more painful to them than that their pastor, whom they esteemed and loved, should be uncomfortable in his worldly estate or that they should be deprived of his labours, but it was beyond their power to do more for him. Their case was represented to the Synod, and a grant of .15, which was renewed year by year, was obtained. Three years after this the stipend was ^69, and the Presbytery testified that their pecuniary exertions, in proportion to their numbers, far exceeded those of any other congregation in the bounds. Thus, even with aid from the Synod, there was the constant strain to meet 694 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ordinary demands and the interest on a considerable amount of debt. The Union of 1820 also told on their resources, involving the loss of some mem- bers who, for convenience, joined Bridge of Teith. In the beginning of 1828 Mr Wallace's health was such that he required regular sick-supply from the Presbytery, and on igth August he died, in the fifty-first year of his age and twenty-fourth of his ministry. His name receives honourable mention in connection with Dr Young of Perth and the help he afforded him amidst his early struggles. Second Minister. ALEXANDER HENDERSON, from Alloa (Townhead). Ordained, 23rd July 1829. The call, though unanimous, was signed by only 66 members and 14 adherents, and the stipend promised was ,60, with house rent and sacramental expenses. Mr Henderson's professional income, which he put in 1848 at ^40, he had to supplement by conducting an Educa- tional Institution. His health having given way under this double burden he petitioned the Synod at that time to grant him supplement, and measures were adopted by the Presbytery and the Mission Board to have the affairs of the congregation placed on a better footing. The Sabbath collections were found to average not more than a halfpenny for each person present, and the accounts were carelessly kept besides. A stipend of ,50 was now- engaged for, which was to be augmented by .35 from the central fund. But before the new lines were entered on, Mr Henderson resigned his charge, informing the Presbytery that he had received an invitation from Canada West to proceed thither as a missionary, and wished to leave forthwith. The congregation acquiescing, the demission was accepted on nth May 1849, an( i tne East Church, Dunblane, declared vacant. Towards the end of that year Mr Henderson was settled at St Catherine's, Canada West, and after a brief stay there he removed to Fitzroy. He subsequently had the charge of stations or congregations at Packenhatn, Tarbolton, and Fitzroy Harbour, not all in succession. He also supplied Arnprior, besides founding a Classical and Theological Seminary which it was proposed to establish in that place. He died, 23rd October 1858, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and thirtieth of his ministry. In 1839 Mr Henderson appeared as the author of a poem, entitled "The Pilgrim," suggested by the earlier sections of Bunyan's immortal work. It is in Spenserian measure, but, though manifesting skill in versification, and adorned here and there with brilliant conceptions, the encouragement it received did not tempt the author to bring out a second volume. Dunblane congregation, deprived of its minister, and amidst reduced fortunes, resolved to let go its former connection. The membership was now returned at 71, and some change of front was desirable with a view to prolonged existence. Besides this, attachment to the denomination had been reduced towards zero by friction with the Mission Board and the impression that their minister had got unkindly treatment at headquarters. His own feelings on this matter even found expression in a pamphlet, which very nearly came under the Synod's censure. It happened, besides, that the way was prepared for going over to the Evangelical Union by some irregu- larity which was gone into about a year before. The Rev. John Kirk of Edinburgh, who had a close marriage connection with Dunblane, agreed, at the request of some outsiders, to preach a Temperance sermon in the East Church on a particular Sabbath evening. Mr Henderson, who was to be from home that day, left his pulpit vacant, and Mr Kirk conducted the ordinary services. The Presbytery took up the case, and expressed censure with a sharpness which went beyond the requirements. Now was the time to make amends by acceding to Mr Kirk and his party altogether. This was done ; but the change brought no new lease of life, and after appearing on PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 695 the list of E.U. churches till 1853, the name of Dunblane was dropped The old building gradually crumbled into ruin, all that remained forming part of a garden wall. Many years afterwards an aged elder in Dr Blair's session was one who belonged originally to the membership of the East Church. BLAIRLOGIE (RELIEF) INTEREST attaches to this congregation from the fact that it was the first which acceded to the recently-formed Presbytery of Relief. From its proximity to Stirling the parish of Logic, to which the village belongs, had come early under the sway of Secession principles, though there were many adversaries, as the following extract from the Caledonian Mercury of 3oth April 1740 makes manifest : " Last Tuesday there was a numerous meeting of followers of the Seceding Presbytery upon the hills near Logic ; but the people from the neighbourhood went up against them in battle array and, breaking their tents to pieces, dismissed them. They then repaired to Kippenross Muir, near Dunblane, where they erected a tent with plaids. Messrs Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, Moncrieff, and Nairn, with another gentleman, were present." But dissent of a milder type was to find a local habitation within the bounds of the parish twenty-two years later, and, as usual, this arose from the enforcement of Patronage. The people had set their minds on the Rev. William Cruden of Logic- Pert, and, as the six months allowed the patron to exercise his rights had expired, they expected the Presbytery to give effect to their wishes. However, the Earl of Dun- more came forward after his time with a presentation in favour of Mr James Wright, who was ordained by order of the General Assembly on 1 2th May 1761. But instead of resisting, the bulk of the people quietly withdrew from the Establishment, arranging to secure freedom of election in another way. First Minister. JOHN WARDEN, of whom little is known except that he came from Cuderston, in England, where he had presided over a Presbyterian congregation. On i6th June 1762 Messrs Gillespie, Boston, and Colier met at Blairlogie, perhaps for the first time since 22nd October 1761, when they had constituted themselves into a Presbytery at Colinsburgh. Mr Gillespie preached, and after the sermon solemnly admitted Mr Warden to his new charge. It was another unit added to their number and another congrega- tion placed under their inspection. The session consisted at first of eight elders, but two others, probably from beyond Logic parish, were entered soon after. The place of worship, which dated from 1762, we may assume to have been ready for the induction. Mr Warden died, 2Q.th December 1768, in the seventh year of his ministry at Blairlogie. His widow, we find, was married in April 1770 to another Relief minister, the Rev. Thomas Scott of Auchtermuchty. In looking out for a successor to Mr Warden, Blairlogie congregation had their attention drawn to the Rev. Alexander Pirie of Abernethy by his neighbour, the Rev. Thomas Scott above mentioned, and on three occasions elders and others of their number went through to hear him. The reports they brought back being favourable, the Relief Presbytery at a meeting held at Dunfermline in June 1769 were petitioned for a moderation with a view to having him for their minister. But Pirie was a marked man, his trial for heresy before the Burgher Presbytery of the bounds, which ended in de- position, having caused great commotion in the kingdom of Fife. Members of Presbytery were now at sixes and sevens about what was to be done. Cruden of Glasgow was determined that Alexander Pirie should never be in 696 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS fellowship with them, and Gillespie threatened to leave the Presbytery if a moderation with any such design were granted. Bell of Jedburgh and Mr Scott, strange to say, took that same side. Hence it carried to refuse the moderation, a decision against which Messrs Baine, Monteith, and Simpson protested and dissented. The eighth clerical member at that time, the Rev. James Pinkerton of Campbeltown, we may presume, was absent owing to distance. Blairlogie people waited four months, and then petitioned again. Bell was now prepared to give way, and had even written Gillespie, Cruden, and Scott that they ought to let the congregation go on with their call, and had he been present at the meeting this would have carried. But there was the elder from Edinburgh on the other side, and the motion which carried was : " Grant the moderation of a call, exclusive of Mr Alex- ander Pirie, minister of the gospel at Abernethy." Mr Simpson of Bellshill gives these particulars in a pamphlet, in which he denounced the attempt to limit Blairlogie in the choice of a minister as destructive of the foundation principle on which the Presbytery of Relief stood. The moderation was fixed for 25th January 1770, Mr Gillespie to preside ; but the people and the Moderator were at cross-purposes, and there could be nothing done. Only Mr Gillespie's brother Robert, who was through from Edinburgh, harangued the people in the porch, telling them : " If you knew Mr Pirie as well as I do,, you would thank the Presbytery for what they have done." The current of events now dips out of sight, but on two points we get hold of certainty : (i) The Presbytery of Relief broke into two, divided counsels as to the filling up of the vacancy at Colinsburgh coming in to intensify the alienation ; and (2) Blairlogie congregation and the Rev. Alexander Pirie entered into marriage bonds with no ceremony beyond mutual consent. From a particular pamphlet we learn that he preached to them on Sabbath, igth August 1770, and on the following Sabbath he closed his ministry at Abernethy. Then he returned to Logic and, says the writer, " he and his family are now settled there." The relation, however, was not to be permanent. In the course of a few years the congregation wished back into their old connection, and at the Synod in 1776 a petition to that effect from Blairlogie was laid on the table. In May 1777 it was agreed without a vote not to receive this paper, as it was not from the minister and people, but they were left to take what other steps they might think proper against next meeting. But Mr Pirie made no application to be admitted to the ministry of the Relief Church, and from what followed we may surmise that his mind was running in the direction of Independency. On Sabbath, I4th June 1778, he preached his farewell sermon from the text : " Grace be with you all. Amen," and next day a petition from the congregation was presented to the Relief Presbytery of Glasgow. The records of the congregation give the winding-up with Mr Pirie in a few words: "On Thursday, the 1 8th, he and his family left this place, and is gone to Newburgh." What followed is given under Abernethy (Burgher). When the Presbytery met again, a fortnight after, the commissioners were able to answer, Yes, to the two questions : Did Mr Pirie officiate for some time as their minister? and, Had he now left them? Blairlogie congregation was then recognised as under the inspection of the Relief Synod once more. In July 1779 heritors, elders, managers, and heads of families met to consider what steps should be taken to obtain a settlement. Without much delay they called Mr Thomas Monteith, formerly of Duns, but then in Alnwick, one of three members of Presbytery whom they spoke of as having encouraged them much ten years before, when they were contending for an unlimited choice of a minister. But Mr Monteith wrote declining to accept, and the call was allowed to drop. PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 697 Second Minister. WILLIAM BILLERWELL, from Jedburgh (High Street). Ordained, 27th December 1780, and loosed, i4th January 1794, on accepting a call to Dysart. The population of the village at this time was about 100, and of families in the parish 163 attended the Relief, and a nearly equal number were connected with other dissenting churches, most of them, we may believe, with what is now Erskine Church, Stirling. Third Minister. JOHN WATT, from St Ninians. Ordained, 25th December 1794, little more than three months after receiving licence. The stipend was to be ,70, with office-houses and garden. Mr Watt was called in 1797 to Campsie, and in 1798 to Dovehill, Glasgow ; but the latter call was much divided, and he declined to accept. His supporters then built a church for themselves in Hutchesontown, to which he was called in 1800, but he still decided to remain in Blairlogie. However, on 7th March 1809 he accepted a call to Old Kilpatrick. Fourth Minister. WILLIAM ANDERSON, from Dovehill, Glasgow (now Kelvingrove). Ordained, 24th April 1810. In November 1845 tne church, owing to the overheating of the stove, was virtually burned to the ground. In this emergency Mr Anderson preached for collections in the wealthier churches of the denomination, taking for his text the words : " Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee, is burned up with fire." Blairlogie congregation was at the same time recommended by the Presby- tery to friendly assistance, and in this way nearly ^600 came in to meet the ^630 which the rebuilding cost. In the latter years of Mr Anderson's ministry there appears to have been a toning down, and his hold of several families was lost. In the end of 1849 afama arose against the minister, which became public property at once through the newspaper press, and on 8th January 1850 the Presbytery suspended him sine die, but on 3rd December he was restored to Church fellowship. He afterwards removed to Auchter- arder, where he died, 8th May 1855, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, leaving a son-in-law in the ministry, the Rev. William Burnet of Cupar. Fifth Minister. WILLIAM M'LAREN, from Dennyloanhead, an elder brother of the Rev. John M'Laren, afterwards of Cowcaddens Church, Glasgow. Ordained, 12th August 1851, there being then a membership of 80. Without the abounding energy of his brother, or his high-strung ardour for aggressive work, Mr M'Laren found in Blairlogie a sphere befitting his thoughtful, scholarly ways, and under his ministry there was the quiet restoring and compacting. In 1866 the present manse was built at a cost of ,560, for which a grant of ,200 came from the Board, and the people raised ^360, the minister himself being a large contributor. In 1884 Mr M'Laren, whose vitality had been declining, retired under medical advice from stated labour, and his resignation was accepted on 4th November, the status of senior minister being reserved. He then removed to Glasgow, bearing with him the respect of his people and the good wishes of his co- presbyters. He died there on I5th October 1893, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. In July 1885 the congregation called Mr James Milroy ; but Freuchie came in forthwith, and obtained the preference. Sixth Minister- ROBERT F. ANDERSON, M.A., son of the Rev. David Anderson, East Church, Ceres. Ordained, 1 6th March 1886. In 1892 the congregation lengthened its cords by the erection of a hall at Menstrie, a manufacturing village of 900 inhabitants fully a mile to the east. It cost ^1000, and was entered free of debt, the people having subscribed 156, and friends outside ^360. while two sales of work realised ^350, and 150 was received from the Extension Fund. It may be a question whether the seat of the congregation might not have been fitly transferred to this place at the time the old church was burnt. But in 1880 Menstrie was provided 698 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS with a Chapel of Ease, and has since been formed into a quoad sacra parish. There is room, however, for regular Sabbath evening services and other Christian agencies being maintained in this United Presbyterian hall, and the congregation is now designated Blairlogie and Menstrie. At the close of 1899 it had a membership of 105, and the stipend from the people was ,90, with the manse. ST NINIANS (RELIEF) THE intrusion in which this congregation originated has had its general features set forth again and again, but in the present outline there will be some corrections made. The parish of St Ninians fell vacant on gth October 1765, and the Rev. David Thomson of Gargunnock got the presentation to the benefice in April 1766. For some reason procedure was arrested till May 1767, when the General Assembly instructed the Presbytery " to proceed in the affair with all convenient speed.'' On 5th August the Presbytery met at St Ninians to moderate in a call to Mr Thomson, but when the opportunity was given, no elder or head of a family came forward to subscribe, and of the heritors who appeared in person or by proxy the Presbytery held that not one had a right to vote. The conclusion was now reached that they could not proceed towards a settlement on a bare presentation without a call or even a shadow of concurrence. The Synod found, however, that eleven of the rejected heritors were entitled to vote, and they instructed the Presbytery to hold another meeting, and give them the opportunity. This was done, but the Presbytery still refused to sustain, the number of heritors who signed being so few, and all of them non- resident except three. This decision both Synod and Assembly confirmed, and it seemed as if the case were ended. But in November 1768 the patron petitioned the Presbytery to proceed anew, alleging that five additional heritors were now prepared to sign. The reply was that the deliverance of last Assembly was final, a decision which next Assembly by 105 to 78 reversed, and again the claims of patron and presentee were in the ascendant. The Presbytery, in submission to the dictum of the Supreme Court, now arranged for a second moderation, and on 28th August 1770 a paper in the presentee's favour was signed by 7 additional heritors and 40 heads of families. Again the Presbytery decided that there was no call, and the Synod that it was not a sufficient call, and again the Assembly reversed their finding, and ordered the settlement to take place. It is mentioned in Struthers' History of Scotland that the presentee was aged and very infirm, but this strong statement is scarcely borne out by the fact that Mr Thomson when he received the presentation was only in his fifty-sixth year, and had only been twenty-four years a minister. We find besides that the objections urged against him at the bar of the Assembly were " a weak voice and delicacy of constitution," allegations which the other side denied. The Presbytery were now ordered, though only by 106 to 104, to carry through the induction by 2oth September 1771 at latest ; but they fell back instead on an old Act of Assembly, which enjoined them in the case of a transporting call to compare the state of the two parishes, and decide as the greater good of the Church might require. This was a right which they alleged the Assembly could not take from them, and, thus supported, they declared unanimously that Mr Thomson must remain in Gargunnock, a judgment which the Synod unani- mously confirmed. But the Assembly were not thus to be thwarted, and at their meeting in 1772 they renewed their orders to go on with the induction PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 699 forthwith. There was now the hope of an accommodation being arrived at through the appointment of an ordained assistant, a measure which a Committee of Assembly were of opinion would be satisfactory to all parties. This brought another year of temporising policy on the part of Stirling Presbytery. As a reason for not proceeding with the induction they pleaded that the patron had not fulfilled his promise to provide for an ordained helper, and till this was done they were not bound to induct Mr Thomson into St Ninians. The Assembly of 1773 took them close, and by 138 votes to 69 fixed the admission for the last Tuesday of June all the members to be present, or answer for their absence at the bar of next Assembly. The turn which the proceedings took on that eventful day became matter of notoriety. The Rev. Robert Finlay of Dollar had volunteered to preside out of his turn at the induction ceremony, and at the appointed hour he mounted the pulpit, and after praise and prayer which had no special bearing on the work of the day, he called on Mr Thomson, who stood up. Then, in an address of considerable length, he conjured him to renounce his claims to the charge of St Ninians ; reminded him that he was opposed by 60 heritors, 600 heads of families, and all the elders, he believed, except one ; that he had been always esteemed an orthodox and evangelical preacher, but if he persisted in pressing himself into this new charge he could never have more relation to the parish than that of stipend-lifter. These con- siderations he finally enforced by the mercies of God, by the wish for peace of mind in a dying hour, and by thoughts of appearing at the great tribunal. The response made to this appeal was : " Proceed to obey the order of your superiors." Nothing remained now for the presiding minister but to declare Mr David Thomson admitted to be minister of the parish of St Ninians "in the true sense and spirit of the late sentence of the General Assembly." The above must have been the purport of Mr Finlay's address, but nothing more. When brought to book for what he said, he alleged that the words he spoke were different in every sentence from the charge as laid against him, so that there is no reason to believe they were taken down from his lips. But the impression they left behind them was such that certain heritors and parishioners complained to the Commission in November about Mr Finlay's behaviour that day, and a committee was appointed to elicit in- formation, and report at next Assembly. The accused made certain acknow- ledgments in the end, confessing that he spoke with "too much edge," but pleaded that he expected the address to be given at the Presbytery's table, with few looking on. It was not till he came to St Ninians. and found a throng assembled, that he woke up to the fact that the induction would be in a crowded church. In the pulpit he had no sermon in readiness, and was obliged to keep by what he had prepared. In the Assembly of 1775 it carried by 100 to 94 that he should be sharply rebuked, the other motion being to suspend him from his "judicative" functions for life, and thus the famous St Ninians Case took end, so far as the Courts of the Established Church were concerned, after the windings and doublings of nine years. The date of Mr Thomson's induction was 29th June 1773, and the Relief Church at St Ninians was opened on I4th July. This shows that the people must have acceded to the Relief a considerable time before the intrusion was consummated. Dr Struthers gave the origin of the congregation as 1772, and the earliest set of tokens bore the same date, implying that not only was sermon obtained but the communion observed thus early a rare occurrence until a fixed ministry was obtained. The place of worship had sittings for 1340, and cost about ^iioo, and of twenty-one elders only one remained in the Establishment. First Minister. PATRICK HUTCHISON, M.A., from Dunblane, where 700 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS his father is understood to have been an Antiburgher elder. In his early years he himself was strongly attached to what he calls the Secession scheme, but, as he relates in one of his pamphlets, he was led to test the foundation principles by the word of God, " and by some other performances that fell in his way," and at last he was satisfied that they had no Scriptural basis to rest on. "The consequence was," he said, "that I immediately disconnected myself with the Seceders, as my convictions of truth and duty required." Dr Struthers was of opinion that prior to this he had passed through his theological course at the Antiburgher Hall, and that "he was just about applying for licence when his views underwent a change." But in the foresaid pamphlet on " Messiah's Kingdom " he complained that young men in that connection were obliged to swear the Bond before being admitted to the study of divinity, or before getting licence to preach the gospel, and he added: "This information I have received from some who were once connected with them." This surely implies that it was a subject on which he could only speak from hearsay. Having obtained licence from the Relief Presbytery Mr Hutchison was assistant for some time to Mr Baine of Edinburgh, and his name appears in the list of elders at the Relief Synod in May 1773. He was ordained at St Ninians, igth November 1774, and, according to the Old Statistical History, his stipend was fixed at ^50. In 1779 Mr Hutchison came forward as the advocate of Relief principles in three publications. The first is entitled "A Compendious View of the Religious System maintained by the Synod of Relief" ; the second, " A Few Animadversions on the Re-exhibition of the Burgher Testimony" ; and the third, "A Dissertation on the Nature and Genius of the Kingdom of Christ." The first of these was assailed with characteristic edge by the Rev. James Ramsay, Antiburgher minister in Glasgow, and likewise a year later, with sarcastic vigour, by the Rev. David Walker, Burgher minister of Pollok- shaws. These two pamphlets brought Mr Hutchison into conflict with both divisions of the Secession, and entitled him to be regarded as the champion of the Relief cause, in opposition to strait-laced terms of communion and the binding obligation of the Covenants. On 26th March 1783 Mr Hutchison accepted a call to the forming con- gregation of Paisley, and his work at St Ninians was brought to an end. In his new and weighty sphere of labour he ceased to figure as a contro- versialist, reckoning, perhaps, that the battle was fought out. He had done his part amidst much provocation, and had reasoned out principles of per- manent value in the ecclesiastical world. In a very interesting history of St Ninians Relief Church, which appeared in the Christian Journal for 1844, Dr Frew has recorded, no doubt on what appeared ample authority, an incident to illustrate Mr Hutchison's tenderness towards opponents. A few days after writing a sharp letter to Mr Walker of Pollokshaws he noticed in the newspapers an announcement of his former antagonist's death. The remembrance filled him with self-accusings and bitter regrets till he found, much to his relief, that his wife had held back "the warlike missive." It turns out, however, that, while Mr Hutchison died in 1802, Mr Walker sur- vived till 1810. Our sole design in not passing over this glaring inaccuracy is to evince how unreliable oral testimony is, if it ventures outside mere generalities or goes back beyond a single remove. Second Minister. ARCHIBALD CROSS, translated to St Ninians after a ministry of less than three years in Biggar. Inducted, 22nd April 1784. The Established Church was now about to regain something of its lost ground. Mr Thomson died in March 1787, and during the vacancy the right of Patronage was purchased for the people at a cost of ^600 or ^700, and the choice of a minister was to lie henceforth with the heads of families PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 701 who were in full communion with the parish church. The new arrangement would be regarded by many as equivalent to cancelling the need for a Relief congregation in the place, and it brought in a succession of popular ministers to fill the parish pulpit. Mr Cross, who had more to contend with now, died, nth March 1803, in the forty-fourth year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. Third Minister. JAMES LOGAN, M.A., who had been five and a half years in Balfron. Inducted, 29th November 1803, the stipend being ,125, with manse, garden, and other grounds. St Ninians parish had all along been largely drawn from by the two Secession churches in Stirling ; but the Relief kept a powerful hold, and in 1838 the communicants numbered 1250. Of the congregation nearly 50 families were from Stirling, a few from Kin- cardine, and the merest sprinkling from Dunipace, Logic, and Denny. There was a debt on the property at this time of ,400. Mr Logan's stipend had been ,180, with manse, garden, and an acre of land, but in 1835, when a colleague was appointed, it was reduced to ^105, the junior minister to have .120 in all. Fourth Minister. ROBERT FREW, son of the Rev. Forrest Frew, Perth (East). Ordained as colleague and successor to Mr Logan, 25th November 1835, having declined a call to Auchtergaven (Relief). St Ninians had previously called Mr Neil M'Michael, but he preferred Dunfermline. Mr Logan seems to have been able to take partial work for some time after he became senior pastor, but, becoming entirely incapacitated, he removed to Leith, where he had a daughter married to the Rev. Francis Muir. He died there, 4th October 1841, in the seventy-fifth year of his age and forty- fourth of his ministry. Another of his family requires passing mention Sheriff Logan, a name well known both in the legal and literary world. A few years after their aged minister's death the congregation set about liquid- ating their debt of .400, and upwards of half the sum required was sub- scribed in the course of a week or two. In 1856 Mr Frew received the degree of D.D. from the University of St Andrews, and in 1868 he was promoted to the Moderator's Chair of the U.P. Synod. On Sabbath, 28th December 1884, his jubilee was celebrated in St Ninians church, the ser- vices being conducted by Drs Robertson of Irvine, Black of Wellington Church, Glasgow, and Aikman of Anderston, and at the soiree next evening, amidst congratulatory addresses, he was presented with a cheque for ^1200. The fiftieth year of his ministry being now entered on, it was a fit time to arrange for having partial relief from the burden of heavy ministerial work, and in this opinion pastor and people were agreed. Fifth Minister. DAVID SMITH, M.A., from St Andrew's Place, Leith. Ordained, 3rd December 1885, having previously declined to settle down at Slateford. For several years Dr Frew took his full share of the work, but gradually he retired into the background, as was befitting under the pressure of advancing age. On Monday, 26th November 1895, a largely attended soiree was held in the church, the junior minister in the chair. The day was opportunely chosen, as that day Dr Frew entered on the sixty- first year of his ministry. He took part in the Union of 1847, and he has been spared to enter into the larger Union of 1900, retaining much of his old mental vigour, and having survived the changes and the exactions of eighty- seven years. Even yet his voice is occasionally heard taking part in the services of the sanctuary, though now the entire work of the congrega- tion devolves of necessity upon the junior pastor. St Ninians at the Union had a membership of over 460, and Mr Smith's stipend was .355, Dr Frew having relinquished everything except the manse. 702 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS CLACKMANNAN (RELIEF) THE Rev. Thomas Oswald was minister of this parish from 1778 to 1787, and there was irritation among the people both when his ministry began and when it closed. He had been ordained over Crown Court Church, London, in 1752, and the simple fact that he filled that difficult position twenty-one years leads us to infer that he was a man of more than average ability, but, being possessed of a considerable fortune through his marriage, he retired in 1773, and obtained the presentation to Clackmannan four years afterwards. His settlement was resisted in Presbytery and Synod by a large body of the people ; but in May 1778 the General Assembly ordered the proceedings to go on, and he was inducted on ist September of that year. No traceable disruption took place at the time, but materials may have been preparing for such an event at a future day. Nine years later Mr Oswald was desirous to have an assistant, but inclined to consult the wishes of the people in the selection. At this juncture he died, and the popular candidate was passed by in favour of the nominee of the heritors and the patron. The consequence was that Mr Robert Moodie was ordained, 2nd September 1788, much to the chagrin of the baffled parishioners. But instead of contesting the matter in the Courts of the Church the dissentients on igth February 1788 applied to the Relief Presbytery of St Ninians for sermon, which was granted at once. A church was built before the end of the year, as is attested by an old stone with the inscription : " This Relief House was built at the expense of this congregation Anno Dom. 1788." The sittings at first were 450. This stage reached, the congregation began by giving an unsuccessful call in February 1789 to the Rev. William Thomson of Beith, but better known from his subsequent connection with Hutchesontown, Glasgow. First Minister. DAVID LINDSAY, from the Established Church, Dum- barton, but acceded to the Relief at the close of his theological course. Ordained, 3rd September 1789. Some years after this the parishioners were apportioned among the different Presbyterian churches as follows : ' Established, 391 ; Relief, 180 ; Burgher, 59; and Antiburgher, 51. Most of the two latter parties would travel to Alloa, two miles off, the Relief being the only dissenting church within the bounds. From a brief Memoir of Mr Lindsay, which appeared in the Christian Journal, it is manifest that, though not popular as a preacher, he was a man of scholarly attainments, several students, whose names came to be widely known, having removed to Old Kilpatrick, where he taught a public school in his youth, that he might aid them in their classical studies, and, though his sphere of labour was limited, he gave standing to the Relief cause in Clackmannan. He died, 2 ist October 1834, after a protracted illness, in the seventy-eighth year of his age and forty-sixth of his ministry. He left two sons in the ministry the Rev. William Lindsay, Relief Church, Perth, and the Rev. John Lindsay, who joined the Established Church when a student, and became minister of the quoad sacra church, Helensburgh. The Rev. W. S, Thomson, Relief minister, Dumbarton, was Mr Lindsay's son-in-law. Second Minister. JAMES A. MILLER, from Duns (South). Ordained, 25th December 1834. Three years after this Mr Miller put the number of communicants at 260, and stated that they had increased about one-third since his ordination. The stipend, however, was only ^75, with sacramental expenses, though he had often received more. There was a slight debt of ^70 on the property, and he had no manse. In November 1840 the con- gregation applied to the Presbytery for aid, and were told that the Court would cheerfully render them all the assistance in their power if they PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 703 showed a disposition to help themselves. In the following May there was evidence of friction between minister and people, and both parties were exhorted to study forbearance and kindness. Mr Miller had already announced from the pulpit his intention to resign, and on ist June the connection was dissolved. For some years Mr Miller remained on the preachers' list, but at the General Assembly in May 1845 ne was received into the Established Church. Before the close of that year he became minister of the High Meeting-House, Berwick-on-Tweed. He died there, 8th August 1874, m tne seventy-second year of his age and fortieth of his ministry. Third Minister. WILLIAM BROWN, previously of Leitholm, which he had resigned nearly two years before. Inducted, 25th January 1842. This position was not reached without difficulties of several kinds. On applying for a moderation the commissioners stated that Mr Brown was the candidate the people had in view ; but at the congregational meeting only 30 had voted, and 12 of these were for delay. Their late minister had also a letter forward pressing certain money claims against them, and Kelso Presbytery had up a charge against Mr Brown for defaming his former congregation. However, these hindrances were got over, and Mr Brown entered on his second charge with a stipend of .65. In 1845 the small burden of debt mentioned above seems to have been removed with the aid of ^25 under the Liquidation Scheme of the Relief Synod. Still, prosperity was not arrived at, and in the beginning of 1849 the Presbytery found that the number of members able to contribute was only 80, and all of the working-classes, and though they were doing their utmost they could not provide a stipend of more than ,50, which was raised to ,80 by supplement. In February 1865 Mr Brown required sick-supply from the Presbytery, and after resuming partial work for a time he found himself unable to go on with comfort, and wished the way cleared for his demission by being received as an annuitant on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund. The attendance was now placed as low as 60, and the membership at 65. The demission was accepted on 2nd April 1867, and Mr Brown died, 4th May 1868, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-third of his ministry. Fourth Minister. ANDREW WHYTE, M.A., who had been fourteen years in South Ronaldshay, and was prepared to welcome removal nearer the centre. The stipend was to be 70, with ^50 of supplement, and the induction took place, I7th December 1867. The membership two years after this was returned at 200, a great improvement within a brief period, and the funds afforded ^100 of the stipend. A manse had also been recently built at a cost of j8io, of which .510 was raised by the people, and ^300 came from the Manse Board. Mr Whyte died, iQth November 1895, in the seventieth year of his age and forty-second of his ministry. Fifth Minister. THOMAS BIGGART HOGARTH, son of the Rev. Robert Hogarth, Ivy Place, Stranraer. Ordained, 2$th June 1896. The member- ship at this time was put at fully 200, and the stipend from the people ^90, with the manse, the figure at which it has since continued. Mr Hogarth accepted a call to Milngavie on 26th February 1900. The commissioners from Clackmannan deplored the prospect of losing his services, and stated that Clackmannan congregation had resolved to increase his stipend should he remain, but he adhered to his purpose. Before next meeting, the Free Presbytery of Stirling raised the question of Union with the Free Church congregation in Clackmannan, which had never been strong, and had a membership at this time of under 140 ; but, after a joint committee of the two Presbyteries and the Advisory Committee of the two denominations had travelled some way in the matter, a union was pronounced impracticable, and the attempt had to be abandoned. yo 4 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Sixth Minister. HUGH CARMICHAEL, M.A., from Milngavie. Ordained, 24th October 1900, the last ordination in the U.P. Church. At the close of the preceding year there were 160 names on the communion roll. TILLICOULTRY (ANTIBURGHER) THIS parish, like others at the foot of the Ochils, came under the influence of Stirling and Ebenezer Erskine in the early years of the Secession. In 1745 they found their centre at Alloa, where an Associate congregation was formed, the distance being only four miles. In this connection they remained till nth April 1 797, when, along with their brethren in Alva and Coals- naughton, they were formed into a distinct congregation, and that year their church was built. The petition for sermon was signed by 30 members of Alloa congregation, by 7 Burghers, and by 22 from the Established Church owing to an unpopular settlement in 1795. While the proposal was under consideration Mr Muckersie of Alloa wrote the Presbytery that "they were very agreeable members, and he would be sorry to part with them, but if it turned out well it would give him great satisfaction." A dreary period had to be passed through before the movement could be said to have " turned out well." First Minis-ter. WILLIAM BREINGAN, a native of Dollar, who had been loosed from Peebles by the Synod in April 1800. His name was then placed on the probationer list, and while acting in that capacity he had to be dealt with by Stirling Presbytery for not fulfilling his appointments. Inducted to Tillicoultry, ist October 1801, and though the day was extremely cold the services were conducted in the open air. Under Mr Breingan's ministry the elements of real success were wanting, as the close makes manifest. In July 1806 he was censured by the Presbytery for an act of intemperance, admitted by himself, and weightier work followed. In the beginning of 1807 the congregation complained about some parts of their minister's conduct. It gives a humiliating view of ministerial character to read that one Saturday night he was in a public-house in Tillicoultry, where he remained till eight or nine on Sabbath morning, and that he owned the season to have been unseemly, the time ill-spent, and the company improper. He pleaded, indeed, that he had no fixed place of residence, but it comes out that the house in which he lodged was close at hand. No wonder though the people felt much discouraged, and alleged that several had left the church, and others who had been favourably inclined towards Secession principles were prevented acceding. The case ought to have been pressed to a severance at once, but, though Mr Breingan was never allowed to enter the pulpit again, months passed before attempts at reconciliation were ended. Finding at last that the congregation was utterly averse to a continuance of the pastoral relation, the Presbytery on 2Oth October 1807 dissolved the connec- tion, and referred the case in its essential merits to the Synod. There had been previous improprieties, but of a less flagrant kind, established against Mr Breingan, and on 2Qth April 1808 the Synod deposed him from the office of the ministry, and the fellowship of the Church. In January 1827 the following notice appeared in an Edinburgh newspaper : " Died at Lyn Mill, near Alloa, on I5th curt, Mr William Breingan, late minister of the gospel at Tillicoultry." It was a time of keen frost, and he perished from exposure. A vacancy of ten years followed, during which the congregation came to the verge of extinction. In 1815 the question was put to the Presbytery whether they should continue to receive sermon. This led to a meeting at Tillicoultry, when it was found that the number of families connected with PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 705 the church was 32, and that 12 or 14 other families usually attended at Alloa or Muckart. In 1817 two members of Presbytery did not fulfil their appointments to preach at Tillicoultry, as notice was sent them that the con- gregation did not think it advisable to accept even the gratuitous supply provided them, having no prospect of maintaining the dispensation of ordin- ances. A second meeting with the people svas now arranged for, at which the Presbytery suggested that, if all the members of the Secession within the bounds would connect themselves with the congregation, as they ought to do, it might yet prosper. A regular eldership was at the same time arranged for, with the promise of sermon from members of Presbytery and aid from the funds. Thus inspirited they applied for a moderation in April, when Mr John Craig was unanimously called, but the Synod appointed him to Kinkell. Second Minister. ARCHIBALD BROWNING, from Strathaven (First). Ordained, 22nd January 1818, at Alloa, "as their own place of worship was too small for the probable audience on such an occasion." The call was subscribed by only 25 male members, and, as the stipend was meagre, Mr Browning took in boarders, along with some day scholars, almost from the beginning. His aptitude for educational work having developed, there was a widening out in this capacity, until on 2Qth March 1825 he retired from ministerial work, and was loosed from his charge. In 1830 the congregation of Queen Anne Street, Dunfermline, knowing his pulpit gifts and his demo- cratic sympathies, invited him to become their minister, but, fearing that the strain would be too much for him, he declined the call. Meanwhile the academy flourished, the number of boarders frequently being close on forty. In 1841 Mr Browning sent intimation to Stirling Presbytery that he had withdrawn from the Secession Church, and about this time he began to preach regularly without seeking ecclesiastical connection. He died sud- denly, 6th February 1858, aged seventy-two. In his doctrinal views Mr Browning must have approximated latterly to Unitarianism if the writer may judge from having heard him preach one Sabbath in the Unitarian Chapel, Edinburgh, his text being : " This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Two of his sons-in-law, who, like Dr Eadie, had been tutors in his household, were the Rev. David Connel, Bo'ness, and the Rev. William Smith, Bannockburn. Third Minister. ROBERT ALLAN, from Linlithgow (East). The call was signed by 120 members, and was preferred by the Synod to another from Kilwinning, a third from Stronsay having previously lapsed. Ordained, 1 5th August 1826, and deposed for immorality, 2$th March 1829. Became a teacher in Edinburgh, where he died, 26th August 1855, in the sixty-first year of his age. The congregation next called Mr Sutherland Sinclair, -whom the Synod appointed to Greenock (now Greenbank). Fourth Minister. JAMES YOUNG, from Kinross (East). Ordained, i8th August 1831. On Sabbath, 4th October 1840, the present church was opened, with sittings for over 600, the old building being soon after taken possession of by Mr Browning. On 25th July 1843 Mr Young's resignation was accepted, and he removed to Edinburgh, where he joined the Original Secession congregation under Dr M'Crie, and passed into the Free Church at the Union of 1852 as a minister without a charge. In his Memoir of the Rev. Robert Buchanan of Dalkeith, Mr Young has indirectly given his reasons for leaving the United Secession. He died, 2oth March 1865, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. His wife, who predeceased him, was a daughter of John Cunningham, Esq. of Balgonie, and a granddaughter of the Rev. Robert Cunningham of Eastbarns. In 1866 Mr Young's " Life of John Welsh," John Knox's son-in-law, was published, a book carefully pre- pared, and of lasting value. II. 2Y 706 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Fifth Minister. GEORGE HUNTER, from Dundee (Tay Square). With Tillicoultry in prospect Mr Hunter declined Girvan and Tarbolton, and was ordained, 2oth August 1844. The call was signed by 118 members and 36 adherents, and the stipend promised was ^100, with a manse. During Mi- Hunter's ministry the congregation enjoyed a track of prosperity, owing much to the zeal and liberality of Mr James Paton, woollen manufacturer, and other members of that well-known family. Mr Hunter died, 2nd March 1871 in the sixty -third year of his age and twenty - seventh of his ministry. A daughter of his is married to the Rev. Dr Aitken, Ryehill, Dundee. Sixth Minister, WILLIAM GALLETLY, who had resigned Peterhead in 1869, and since then had been Superintendent of the Edinburgh City Mission. The congregation had previously called Mr George L. Carstairs, but, unfortunately for the permanence of harmony, he declined, preferring Berkeley Street, Glasgow. When the next moderation was applied for, it was stated that 78 had voted, Proceed, and 71 had voted, Delay, and with parties so equally balanced the Presbytery might very well have dictated a pause. Instead of that proceedings were allowed free course, and the Rev. William Galletly was carried over Mr James Fraser, now of Dalkeith, the result being a divided call, signed by 161 members and opposed by 146. A Committee of Presbytery now recommended the names of both candidates to be laid aside, and the work of selection to be begun anew, a recommenda- tion which the successful party refused to entertain. The case went to the Synod, by whom the call was sustained, and Mr Galletly was inducted, Qth July 1872. The membership a little before was 341, and the stipend was to be ,210, and the manse. The minority now got sermon from the Congrega- tional Union, and, after worshipping three years in the Popular Institute Hall, they built a church of their own at a cost of ^3000, and thus another congregation was formed in Tillicoultry. The United Presbyterian member- ship at the close of 1899 was 203, and the stipend ^177, with the manse, but the diminution in numbers is largely accounted for by the erection at Coals- naughton. BANNOCKBURN (BURGHER) THIS was an offshoot from Stirling (now Erskine Church). On I2th May 1795 Ae session of that congregation brought before the Presbytery a petition from 69 of their members residing in and about Bannockburn for a disjunction. However, the commissioners now limited themselves to a request for occasional supply " till they saw how matters turned out, 1 ' and accordingly one of their own ministers, Mr Campbell or Mr Smart, was to preach to them on the fifth Sabbath of that month. In September a protest against a decision of Stirling session refusing a disjunction to 98 members who had applied for the same, brought the matter anew before the Presbytery. The case was now submitted to the judgment of the Synod, and in compliance with their instructions the representatives of the session were asked by the Presbytery to what extent their funds might suffer if the families about Bannockburn were disjoined. The answer was that it might be some 20 annually ; but the commissioners from Bannockburn answered that their constituents held only 100 sittings in the Back Row Church, which yielded ^15 or thereby. They also were able to tell that the attend- ance at Bannockburn, when they had sermon, was between 300 and 400. The result was that the Synod in April 1796 granted the petitioners the disjunction craved, and the wonder is that, considering the overgrown bulk PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 707 of Stirling congregation and the intervening distance of two and a half miles, the application was ever opposed. Next year the new congregation built a church, and in July 1798 they called Mr Thomas Brown, not only harmoniously but unanimously. The call was signed by 169 members, which may be looked on as gauging the strength of the new formation, and the people undertook ^90 of stipend, with a free house, and the driving of the minister's coals. But Mr Brown was in demand for more important places, and the Synod appointed him to Dalkeith (now Buccleuch Street). Meantime the mother congregation in Stirling was in convulsions over the Old Light Controversy, and the sympathies of Bannockburn people, fretted, perhaps, by their recent dis- appointment, went with the minority. The consequence was that on 12th January 1800 they handed in to Stirling Presbytery a paper of declinature, renouncing connection with the Burgher Synod. Being invited to confer in a friendly way with them on the grounds of offence, they replied in bitter and disrespectful language, and on nth March they were declared out of connection with the Secession body. Any of their number who took the other side had only to place themselves anew under the ministry of Messrs Campbell and Smart. Having already acceded to the Original Burgher Presbytery the con- gregation, after a delay of nearly five years, had a minister, Mr William Raeburn, ordained over them, the stipend to be ^90 in all, and the call was signed by 153 members. During the time of the Voluntary Controversy the congregation was in a state of deep decline, and at their own Synod of 1836 it was intimated that Mr Raeburn had been loosed from his charge. Over against this development a petition for sermon had been presented to the United Associate Presbytery of Stirling from a large body of people, who were assembling for public worship in Bannockburn, requesting to be erected into a congregation. In the Voluntary Magazine the applicants were said to represent 160 families, and they numbered among them three or four of Mr Raeburn's elders. At a public meeting of the inhabitants it had been decidedly resolved to have sermon from the Secession rather than the Establishment, with which the Original Burgher Synod was beginning to negotiate for union. On 27th September of that year the petitioners were congregated, and next year they purchased the Original Burgher meeting- house, the congregation having passed out of existence. Worship had been kept up in a hall hitherto, but after renovating the church at a cost of ^468 they took possession, the sittings being now 450. Mr Raeburn died at Glasgow, 7th May 1853, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. First Minister. WILLIAM SMITH, from Kirkwall. Ordained, i6th April 1839. Under their young minister, and in their new connection, the con- gregation enjoyed a smooth flow of prosperity. But Mr Smith's life course came suddenly to an end. On Saturday, I4th August 1858, he was in Aberdeen assisting at the communion, and walking along by the bay in the sultry warmth he was tempted to venture on a bathe. Caught in a cross- current, of which he had been warned, the swimmer showed signs of distress, and as the boat which put out to his aid was nearing him he sank. He was in the forty-sixth year of his age and twentieth of his ministry. Mr Smith's widow was a daughter of the Rev. Archibald Browning, Tillicoultry, and one of their sons, of the same name with his father, after a trial of pro- bationer life turned to literary work, and had a pla"ce on the staff of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He died, nth January 1878, in his thirty- fourth year. Second Minister. JAMES M'OWAN, M.A., from Balbeggie. Called first to Forfar, and then to Duntocher, but declined both. He then carried 708 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Bannockburn over Mr James Brown, afterwards Dr Brown of Paisley, by a single vote. Ordained, i6th August 1859. Instead of ^100 a year the con- gregation were now able to give their minister .126, with a manse. In February next they sustained a heavy loss every way by the sudden death of their foremost man, Mr Andrew Robertson of Auchenbowie. " He has been carried off by heart spasms," wrote his brother in Irvine, "that have been assailing him periodically for some time, and that have struck the heart at last." He was the eldest of Greenhill family. On 2nd April 1861 Mr M'Owan accepted a call to the North Church, Perth. Third Minister. ANDREW L. DICK, from Paisley (Oakshaw Street). Ordained, 251)1 February 1862, and loosed from Bannockburn, 5th October 1875, on accepting a call to Bothwell. During this vacancy the congregation called Mr A. F. Forrest, who was ordained soon after as colleague to the Rev. John Steedman, Erskine Church, Stirling. Fourth Minister. ANDREW MORRISON, from London Road, Glasgow. Ordained, 3ist October 1876. The membership has risen since then to 289, and the stipend has kept at ,200, with a manse. ALVA (UNITED SECESSION) ON 25th September 1838 a petition from Alva for sermon was presented to Stirling Presbytery from 25 members of the Secession and 34 adherents, partly persons from other denominations. There being no opposition from neighbouring sessions, the station was opened by Mr Fraser of Alloa on the third Sabbath of November. In April following it was intimated to the Presbytery that a congregation had been formed with a membership of 55, of whom 1 6 were from Mr M'Dowall's church, Alloa, most of the others being from Tillicoultry. The church, with 600 sittings, was built in 1842, and the population being rapidly on the increase, there was the promise of a vigorous Secession congregation in Alva. There was material already at hand, as the parish minister reported two years before that the dissenting families in the parish numbered 60. The first call was addressed to Mr John Edmond ; but another from Berwick (Church Street) caused suspense, and a third, from Dennyloanhead, led to a declinature. First Minister. JAMES DUNCAN, son of Professor Duncan, Mid-Calder. The call was signed by 94 members and 39 adherents, and the stipend promised was ^100, with sacramental expenses. Mr Duncan declined at first, but at next meeting commissioners intimated that, as the congregation had agreed to proceed at once with the building of a place of worship, he was willing to accept. The ordination took place, I5th February 1843, having been delayed through illness. Mr Edmond, the earlier choice of the congregation, preached, and Mr Duncan had three brothers taking part in the act of consecration. A manse was built alongside of the church soon after. In negotiating for the ground they occupy the congregation was generously dealt with by the proprietor, James Johnstone, Esq. of Alva. The congregation had a good beginning, but the circumstances in which Mr Duncan's ministry closed must have tended to discourage them. In July 1846 Mr M'Dowall of Alloa brought up in the Presbytery that reports as to Mr Duncan's deportment had been in circulation for some time, and three of his brethren were commissioned to make inquiries, as they might see fit. At an early meeting they reported that after examining witnesses for eleven hours they came to the conclusion that the fama was groundless, though on some occasions Mr Duncan had not been sufficiently careful to keep up the dignity of his office. PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 7 o 9 The Presbytery did not meet again till September, and then Mr M'Dowall, who had been absent when the above report was given in expressed his readiness to produce evidence which would substantiate what had been alleged. A libel followed, with its troublesome windings, and an examination of witnesses extending over five days. The verdict on each of the six counts in succession was Not Guilty, and in each case it was unani- mous, except in one instance, where a solitary vote was given for Not Proven. At the meeting in December Mr M'Dowall intimated that he would not appeal the case to the Synod ; that he had no unfriendly feeling towards Mr Duncan ; and that he would cordially rejoice in the success of his future labours. The Presbytery, however, were not prepared to. let the matter rest there. They held that he ought to have been satisfied with the result of the former investigation, and they thought, perhaps, that his zeal in the Abstinence cause had carried him beyond the limits of discretion. They decided, therefore, to admonish him to be more charitable and cautious for the future, and Mr Duncan was also to be exhorted to walk with special circumspection. Mr M'Dowall protested against being censured, however mildly, and in the end a sheaf of protests and appeals were brought before the Synod, when it met in May 1847 to have the Union consummated with the Relief Church. Time being limited the whole case was handed over to a large committee, and by their advice the several appeals were withdrawn one by one. The admonition objected to was never tendered, but under the new arrangement of Presbyteries Mr M'Dowall and his congregation were at their own request transferred to the Presbytery of Dunfermline. In the beginning of November 1856 Mr Duncan informed his session of the step he was about to take, and on the 27th of that month he wrote the Presbytery from his brother's manse at Howgate tendering the demission of his charge, on the ground of ill-health and mental depression. His minis- terial course now terminated abruptly, and the pastoral tie was dissolved on 6th January 1857. He afterwards settled down as a chemist at Penicuik, and when advanced in years he appeared sometimes at Edinburgh Presbytery as the representative elder for Howgate, with ministerial status. He died, 9th June 1900, in the eighty-eighth year of his age, the last of the six brothers. Alva congregation during this vacancy experienced three disappointments. The first they called was Mr Matthew Crawford, who accepted Sanquhar (South) ; the second, and not till a year had intervened, Mr William Salmond, who preferred North Shields * ; and the third, Mr Peter C. Duncanson, now of Hamilton, who preferred West Calder. * William Salmond, B.A., was from College Street, Edinburgh. After completing his theological course in 1857, and delivering part of his trial discourses, he intimated to Edinburgh Presbytery that he did not intend to take licence in connection with our Church, and a committee was appointed to converse with him. Difficulties were soon got over, and he was ordained at North Shields, loth November 1858, having declined calls to Alva and Sunderland (now Trinity Church). When minister there Mr Salmond published a pamphlet on "The Christian Theory of Morals versus Utilitarianism," and on 5th October 1875 he was loosed from North Shields, having accepted an appointment to a Chair of Theology in Otago College, New Zealand. In 1885 he received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University, and on agth January 1886 the Synod of Otago transferred him to the Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy, Larger Hope, meeting of the Synod of Otago and Southland a motion to declare him no longer a minister of the Church was rejected, and he continues to hold the same important situation. 7io HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Second Minister. ANDREW G. FLEMING, from Strathaven (West). Ordained, 2ist February 1860, having previously declined a call to Muirton. The membership was about 140, and the stipend .125, with the manse. On 8th February 1870 Mr Fleming was loosed from Alva on accepting a call to Paisley (Thread Street). Third Ministi,: WILLIAM D. MOFFAT, from Glasgow (Claremont). Ordained, 4th October 1870. Three years after this a new manse was built at a cost of .686, in addition to the sum realised for the old manse, the people raising 520, and the Board allowing ^166. In April 1875 M f Moffat declined a call to Leicester, but accepted Rose Street, Edinburgh, jn 5th October thereafter. The congregation next year called Mr John Black, who was ordained two years later at Lochwinnoch. Fourth Minister. MATTHEW DICKIE, eldest son of the Rev. Andrew Dickie, St Paul's, Aberdeen. Ordained, 6th March 1877. The membership three years after this was 312, and the stipend from the people ,230. In the year 1888 the church was renovated and enlarged at a cost of ^800. It has accommodation for 500. On 2oth August 1890 Mr Dickie died at Christiansand, in Norway, whither he had gone in quest of restoring. He was in the forty-third year of his age and fourteenth of his ministry. Fifth Minister. JOHN KING, M.A., from Stuartfield. Ordained over the English Presbyterian Church, Seaham Harbour, County Durham, on 28th February 1882, and translated to Alva, where he was inducted, i6th April 1891. At the jubilee celebration in January 1893 it was stated that during the preceding five years ,1000 had been spent in enlarging and beautifying the church, and, without either bazaar or canvassing for sub- scriptions, the congregation was now free of debt. The membership at the close of 1899 was 295, and the stipend ^210, with the manse. BRIDGE OF ALLAN (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN ON i8th January 1848 a petition for supply of sermon from members and adherents of the U.P. Church residing in Bridge of Allan was presented to the Presbytery of Stirling. Their wish was to have a place of worship built in the place, the nearest churches of the denomination being in Stirling, three miles to the south, and Dunblane, three miles to the north-west, while Blairlogie, to the south-east, was somewhat farther away. There was a population at that time of about loco within a radius of a mile, and there was the prospect of rapid increase. Neighbouring sessions making no opposition, Mr Steedman of Stirling was appointed to open the station on the fourth Sabbath of February. On I4th November a congregation was formed with a membership of 67, of whom about one-half were from Erskine Church, Stirling, and the others from Viewfield Church and Dunblane. Next year a church, with 350 sittings, was built, and on the second Sabbath of April five elders were inducted and one ordained. In June 1850.1 call was addressed to the Rev. Robert Mitchell of Craigs signed by 49 members and opposed by 35, which the Presbyter)-, after hearing parties, sustained. A letter was then read from Mr Mitchell intimating that, owing to the state of feeling in the congregation, it was vain to think of prosecuting the call, as he would not accept. This might have ended the matter, but it was thought needful to consult the people, the result being that 23 voted to proceed no further and 4 to go on. Here Mr Mitchell had to interpose a second time, urging the Presbytery to set the call aside, but it was not till other two months had passed that this simple expedient was adopted, and the matter took end. PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING ?II First Minister. JAMES MUIR, from Glasgow (now Sydney Place Recent proceedings had not conduced to harmony, which may account for the call being signed by only 55 members and 16 adherents, and Mr Muir wrote declining it. However, when the Presbytery met be requested to be heard, and having stated that some of his difficulties were removed, and acting on the strong advice of the Presbytery, he ended by intimating his cordial acceptance. The ordination followed on 1st July 1851. Mr Muir had previously declined Kirriemuir (West). The stipend at Bridge of Allan began at ^125, including house rent and sacramental expenses. In 1868 galleries were required, which with other improvements cost ^450, and raised the sittings to 450. Since the congregation began, the population of Logic parish had risen from 2500 to nearly double that number, and the increase had been chiefly at Bridge of Allan. Eleven years later this con- gregation had a membership of 224, and gave a stipend'of ^250, besides the manse, and raised for missionary and benevolent purposes close on 200. In the early part of 1890 Mr Muir arranged to be relieved from active sen-ice, and his circumstances enabled him to dispense with the emoluments of office, only he was to retain the occupancy of the manse. Second Minister. GEORGE A. JOHNSTON Ross, M.A^ son of the Rev. Donald Ross, Queen Street, Inverness. Ordained, 26th August 1890. The stipend was to be 300 in alL In 1893 Mr Ross was called to Wellington Church, Glasgow, but he remained in Bridge of Allan, where a new church, with 650 sittings, was built on the old site, and opened on Wednesday, 25th September 1895, when the collection amounted to ^1050. The entire cost w as .8350, of which fully 5000 was already provided. On 2nd February 1897 Mr Ross agreed to remove to Westbourne Grove, London, to take the place of Dr Walter Morison. In 1900 Wellington Church came back on him again, to be colleague to Dr Black, but he very unexpectedly declined. Bridge of Allan after a brief vacancy of eight weeks invited the Rev. James G. Goold, from Dumbarton (Bridgend), to become Mr Ross 1 successor, but without effect. Third Minister ROBERT LAW, B.D., translated from Kilmarnock ( Princes Street), and inducted to Bridge of Allan, his third charge, on 8th July 1897. Mr Muir died, 25th February 1900, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-ninth of his ministry. The membership at that time was about 340, and the stipend ^400, to which the manse now fell to be added. DOLLAR (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) ON 28th July 1868 a petition was presented to Stirling Presbytery by some members of the U.P. Church residing in Dollar to have a mission hall in that place taken under their inspection. In this application the Rev. John Paterson, formerly of Rattray, who had a boarding-school in Dollar, took the lead. It was stated that Sabbath evening services and other forms of Christian work had been kept up in the hall with more or less regularity for at least ten years. The building belonged to John Millar, Esq. of Sheardale, and he was willing to grant the use of it for the purposes of the mission free of charge. The Presbytery having agreed to avail themselves of this opportunity for Church Extension, and the Mission Board having allowed ^>o to meet necessary expenses, a senior student was engaged to conduct evangelistic operations there for the next twelvemonth. On 7th June 1870 a congregation was formed with a membership of 51, of whom 43 were received by certificate. Next December a session was constituted by the ordination or induction of five elders, one of them being the Rev. 7i2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS John Paterson. In their first attempt to obtain a minister Dollar was unsuccessful. The preacher fixed on was Mr John Boyd, but from among a multiplicity of calls he selected that of Wemyss Bay or Skelmorlie. First Minister. WILLIAM B. ROBERTSON WILSON, from Irvine (now Trinity Church), and the first child baptised by the well-known minister whose name he bears. Ordained, 23rd January 1872. The stipend was to begin at ^107 from the people and ^60 from the Board, and the call was signed by 71 members and 39 adherents. The hall in which the congrega- tion worshipped had been previously made over to the congregation as a free gift by Mr Millar, and along with it the surrounding property, which yielded ,25 a year. In 1876 a new church, with 360 sittings, was built at a cost of ^4500, and the last ,100 of debt was paid off in 1882, the Board allowing ^25. In 1887 there was a communion roll of over 100 and a total income of ^228. The population of the town being little more than stationary, the church was not to be expected to make rapid increase, but at the close of 1899 it had a membership of 134, and the stipend from the people was ^122, los. It is seen from the above sketch that the U.P. Church was long in obtaining a foothold in the town of Dollar. Families adhering to the denomination walked to Tillicoultry, two and a half miles distant, or to Muckart, which was farther off still. Until the Disruption, there was only one dissenting congregation in the parish, which dated back to 1827. It belonged to the Original Secession, but though it obtained the Rev. James A. Wylie, M.A., for its minister on 2Oth April 1831, it made but slow progress and took little hold of the community. On 2ist August 1846 Mr Wylie was loosed from his charge, the congregation regretting that, from the smallness of their number, they had been unable to give him a competent stipend. But there was now a Free church in Dollar, and with it the members of the Original Secession united about the year 1852. COALSNAUGHTON (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) COALSNAUGHTON is a mining village a mile south-east of Tillicoultry. A mission station had been kept up there for about forty years, and sealing ordinances had been dispensed for half that time, those enjoying them being recognised as in the membership of Tillicoultry Church. But on 3rd March 1888 a step was taken in the direction of independent existence. Those connected with the station were to be placed under the charge of the Presbytery, with power to elect elders for themselves. Accordingly, it was announced on 2nd June that five of their own number had been ordained to office, but they ranked as a branch of Tillicoultry session. At the end of 1890 there was a membership of fully 200, and on 6th December 1892 they were congregated. During these two years the number had increased to 257, and there was a Sabbath school with 280 names on the roll. In view of the meeting of Synod in May 1893 a petition came up to Stirling Presbytery from Coalsnaughton signed by 213 members. They had en- joyed for five years the preaching and oversight of Mr James Smith, elder and catechist, and their unanimous wish expressed at a congregational meeting was to know whether there was any way by which he might be ordained as their minister without passing through the usual curriculum of study. The question being referred to the Synod it was decided that, " taking into account the successful gathering of the people and their for- mation into a congregation through the devoted labours of Mr Smith, and the gifts for the ministry over this people which he has been proved to PRESBYTERY OF STIRLING 713 possess, (the Synod) resolves to grant the prayer of the petition, and authorises the Presbytery of Stirling to regard Mr Smith as eligible for a call by Coalsnaughton." The way being now cleared Mr Smith was ordained, i;th October 1893. He was from Dairy congregation, Ayrshire ; was accepted as one of the Synod's evangelists in 1882 ; had Fishcross and Sauchie under his care for five years ; and was then transferred to Coalsnaughton, with the above result. The mission station there had been long fostered by Messrs. James and David Paton, and when the former of the two brothers died in 1882 the survivor took the work upon himself, till he too passed away, on Sabbath, i3th July 1890. One of his last acts of Christian liberality was the enlargement of Coalsnaughton Chapel, which was reopened for public worship by Dr William Boyd, formerly of Forest Hill, London, on the very day of the donor's death. Mr Smith's stipend at first was 70 from the people, ^50 from Mr David Paton's trustees, and ^4 of supplement. In December 1899 Mr Smith tendered his resignation, explaining that he felt called to give himself more entirely to the work of helping Christians to a fuller development of the spiritual life and into more active service for Christ, but after a time he consented to continue in Coalsnaughton. There was a membership at this time of 240, and the people had raised their pro- portion of the stipend to ^80, while their total income was almost exactly double that sum. Mr Smith, besides exercising the regular functions of the ministry, has published three volumes of sermonettes for Christian workers and Bible students, entitled " Handfuls on Purpose." He is also the author of a volume on " Spiritual Patterns," being lessons drawn from the Taber- nacle, its vessels, priesthood, and sacrifices. The church property, which belonged absolutely to Mr James Paton, was made over to the congregation by his son, Mr John Paton, in October 1892. CALLANDER (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN) BRIDGE OF TEITH congregation drew a few members from this parish in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and in the year 1806 the Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow agreed to grant occasional sermon to the families resident there. But this was merely matter of convenience owing to the distance of eight miles from their own place of worship, and the setting up of a congregation was never thought of. It was not till May 1884 that the U.P. Presbytery of Stirling attempted to form a preaching station at Callander. Taking advantage of the summer season, when visitors were in the village, they engaged a public hall for four months, and hoped to get eminent ministers to conduct the services. But before next spring appear- ances were so discouraging that, with the advice of the Mission Board, the experiment was discontinued. In the parish there were three churches the Established, the Free, and the Episcopal and the resident population was under 2000. But eight years after this a door was opened, and the Presby- tery of Stirling was pressed to enter in and take possession. At a modera- tion for a colleague and successor to the Free Church minister in October 1892 the Rev. John Miller of Eyemouth received 109 votes, and Mr Geddes, probationer, now of Largs, 95. This was followed by a moderation at large, when Mr Miller again had a majority, but as only 165 members signed the call out of 364 it was not sustained. After considerable delay the opposing parties agreed that two candidates should be voted upon, and that the candidate having the majority should be unanimously elected, but the arrangement was departed from. The supporters of Mr Miller were dis- 7M HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS appointed at not obtaining the man of their choice, and on 4th April 1893 they sent commissioners to the U-P. Presbytery of Stirling with a view to being received as a forming congregation. A fortnight later a petition for sermon was forthcoming signed by 97 members, and a deputation was appointed to visit the locality. The applicants had taken no part in the second moderation, which issued in a technically unanimous call to the present minister. They now explained that they were dissatisfied with the result and, as we understand, with the procedure of the Presbytery in setting aside the former call to Mr Miller ; that they had withdrawn from the Free Church, and were determined not to return. They believed, moreover, that they could raise 160 of stipend without difficulty, and they would aim at being self-supporting. Instead of the preaching station attempted eight years before, here was a congregation ready to assume full-grown dimen- sions. But first of all it would be courteous to consult the Free Presbytery of Dunblane, and with this view two members of Stirling Presbyter}' waited on that Court, but were informed that the conference was fixed for a week later. When the appointed day came, a letter from the two U.P. brethren intimated that on reflection they felt their commission to have ceased at the former meeting, and all they could do was to report their procedure to their own Presbytery. Stirling Presbyter}- approved of what their representatives had done, and on 28th August 82 certificates were given in, and a U.P. congregation formed at Callander. A church was also erected at a cost of ^640, without external aid. In less than a month eight elders were con- stituted into a session, five of whom had held office before, and in another month a call was addressed to the Rev. A. J. B. Paterson, junior minister of Duns (East), but he declined. First Minister. A. MILLER MARSHALL, from J arrow, to which he had been transferred three years before from Newarthill. Inducted. 2oth February 1894. The call was signed by 119 members and 26 adherents, and the people ventured to promise a stipend of ^220. This was more than up to the level of self-support, and it would all have been well if success had answered to high-strung expectation. But in 1896 the people found their resources overtaxed, and in recommending their case to the Supplementing Board the Presbytery attested that their average contributions per member for congregational purposes were the highest in the Presbyter}-. The sum was now reduced to i6o, which was raised by supplement and surplus to ^206. But before this the congregation purchased a house to be a manse for their minister, and this involved them in a heavy debt, under which they moved on till June 1899, when, owing to heavy losses by deaths and removals, they found they were unable to meet the interest on the manse bonds. The best thing, they believed, would be to hand over the building to the bond-holders, a course of which the Presbyter}- approved, and which was carried out in the early part of 1900. The membership, which stood at 135 three years before, had now declined to 106, but the stipend was still maintained at ,160. CONGREGATIONS OVERLOOKED 715 CONGREGATIONS OVERLOOKED CAM PH ILL (PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW) Ox ist June 1872 a church hall, with 430 sittings, was opened on the margin of Queen's Park for public worship. The locality is in the parish of Catbcart, and attracts interest from having been the scene of the first induction services at Glasgow in connection with the Secession Church. The present move- ment originated in June of the previous year with a few members of Erskine Church, who, when Dr Drummond left for London, took the opportunity to form a new congregation a mile and a half ferther south, and hence much more convenient for themselves. On I2th August 1873 members were con- gregated to the number of 93. On loth October a session of eight elders was constituted, six of whom had held office before, most of them in Eglinton Street or Erskine Church, and at least one in Langside Road. Among them was the Rev. A. R. Johnstone, formerly of Letham. On loth February 1874 a moderation was granted, the stipend promised being .500, besides expenses. First Minister. JOSEPH CORBETT, translated from Manchester (Coupland Street) in the twelfth year of his ministry, the first seven of which had been spent at Kilcreggan. Inducted, 6th May 1874. On Sabbath, 8th October 1876, the church was opened by Dr Drummond of St John's Wood, London, who preached in the forenoon. The collections reached ^1218, and the buildings cost ; 18,000. Of this sum only a small proportion remains, and it is counterbalanced by the money resting on mission premises at Tradeston, which were opened in 1892. In 1884 Mr Corbett received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. At the close of 1899 Camphill had a membership of 1044, and the stipend for at least a dozen years had been 800, ANNIESLAND CROSS (PRESBYTERY or GLASGOW) THIS district was marked out for Church Extension purposes in September 1898, but the hall, which accommodates 300, was not opened till August 1899. It is situated on the Great Western Road three-fourths of a mile out from Kelvinside, at a meeting-point between the three counties of Lanark, Dum- barton, and Renfrew, and has public works of various kinds within a circum- ference of a mile. The nearest churches were Temple quoad sacra, in New Kilpatrick parish, a little to the north, and Jordanhill Free Church, consider- ably farther to the south. The station was placed under the care of the Rev. J. W. Pringle, formerly of Jedburgh, who fostered it till it was ready for being congregated. This was done on 26th February 1900, the petkioB to that effect bearing 50 signatures. First Mixis/er. ROBERT L. BROWNING, M.A, who had been fourteen years in Mid-Calder. Inducted, igth June 1900. The call was signed by 53 members and 21 adherents. The stipend which the people undertook to raise was i 10, and to make it up to ^250 there was to be a grant from the Board of 14 *"" the &r3t J* 631 "* lt S ft*" * second, and .90 for the third. The hall in which the congregation meets cost ^1450, of which i 150 came from the Presbytery's Extension Fund. 716 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS ARDEER (PRESBYTERY OF KILMARNOCK AND AYR) IN December 1881 the Presbytery of Kilmarnock fixed on Stevenston as a suitable field for mission work. The town is fully a mile to the east of Saltcoats, and in the parish there was a population of between 5000 and 6000, with only the Established and the Free churches. Next July a school- room was leased at Ardeer, which lies a little farther to the east, with large public works, and Mr Robert Hamilton, now of Grangemouth, was chosen to conduct regular evangelistic services. Towards the end of 1882 the Presbytery proceeded with the building of a mission hall at a cost of ^500. After another year Mr Hamilton, in compliance with a largely-signed petition from the people among whom he laboured, consented to go on with the work for the time, and defer entering the Divinity Hall. This continued till the session of 1887, and shortly afterwards his place was taken by Mr James Westwater, a probationer from Union Church, Kirkcaldy. On nth November 1890 the station at Ardeer was congregated, and in March following Mr Westwater accepted a call to Blyth, Northumberland, where he has since laboured. In the beginning of 1892 liberty of moderation was granted, the membership being 108, and the people promising to contribute yo of stipend, which was to be raised by supplement, surplus, and a grant of ^35 from the Ferguson Fund, to ^192 in all. First Minister. ANDREW M. MOODIE, from Limekilns. Ordained, 28th June 1892. At the close of the year there were 139 names on the communion roll and a total income of ,215. The church, with 470 sittings, was opened on Friday, I4th June 1895, by Dr A. R. MacEwen of Claremont Church, Glasgow. To aid with the cost of ^2650 the Extension Fund allowed ^250, the Ferguson trustees ,250, and the Debt Liquidation Board ^200, making up ,700. In July 1900 the remaining debt of ^275 was cleared off, the odd 75 being remitted on condition that the other 2O was made up. The membership at the beginning of that year was 180, and the stipend from the people ,90. Ardeer had now a population of some 3000, and formed a part of Stevenston. FOOTNOTES OMITTED Page 351. Ernest F. Scott, father of our minister at Prestwick, was from Erskine Church, Arbroath. Ordained at Towlaw, Durham, on 2ist June 1864. The congregation was of recent origin, and mainly through their minister's exertions the church and manse, costing ,1300, were erected in the following year. The Presbytery calculated from the first that whoever went to Towlaw would have much to discourage, partly from limited population, and though under Mr Scott there was gratifying increase at first, after seventeen years, largely from family considerations, he removed to Glasgow. There for other seventeen years he was Chaplain at Gartnavel Asylum, and most of that time in the eldership of Lansdowne Church. He died, 28th December 1899, in his sixty-seventh year. In the U.P. Magazine for 1890 we have from Mr Scott's pen a comprehensive sketch of Dr Leckie of Ibrox, with whom he had been on terms of warm friendship since the Doctor's Muirton days. Page 495. Charles Robertson, believed to have been a native of Caputh parish, which links him with the congregation either of Kinclaven or of Lethendy. Having completed his theological course under Professor Paxton he was called to Huntly in 1814, and to Holm, in Orkney, in 1815, FOOTNOTES ?I? but would accept neither. His name disappears from the probationer list in 1832, and he settled down as a farmer north from Perth, retaining few traces of his former avocation about him, and becoming widely known. George Gilfillan has described Charles Robertson under a fictitious name, and amid fictitious surroundings, as "a natural sage, the first rude shapings of a Socrates." He says : " His nature in its homely width seemed to adjust itself to all varieties of company and character," and " He had a racy vein of sarcasm, which was fed by an extensive knowledge of human nature, and a little embittered by disappointment/' He lived during his closing years in a cottage near Scone, where he died, nth April 1862, aged seventy-six. Some may still remember, as Gilfillan did, "his tall, clumsy form, his big brow, sagacious face, and broad, Lowland accent." He was never married, and by his will he showed kindly interest in his minister, the Rev. James Hill. Page 642. James Skinner was from the Abernethy section of Edens- head congregation. Got licence from Perth Presbytery in April 1850, that of Kinross not being then formed. After completing his probationary course he spoke sometimes of going back to farming, but he continued on the list of occasional supply to the end. He died, I7th April 1890, aged seventy -two. Mr Skinner's Autobiography, published three years afterwards under the kindly editorship of the Rev. Robert Smith, Kinross, is a book that deserves to be much better known than it is, with its graphic forthsettings of preacher life as it was fifty years ago, and of much besides. It is supplemented by ten discourses which Mr Skinner designated "The Majors of an Old Probationer," well thought out and thoroughly evangelical. It was in pronunciation and delivery that the want of broad effectiveness lay. His " Dissertations on Metaphysics " carry interest as disclosing the author's favourite field of study and his acquirements therein, but from the nature of the subject the volume is never likely to make headway in the world. Page 649. William Ritchie was inducted into his second charge, at Chapel Street, Berwick, on 26th May 1835. He had much trouble during his first years owing to a serious misunderstanding between the two Relief sessions in the place. His resignation, on the ground of ill-health, was accepted, gth May 1859, preparatory to the ordination of Mr James M'Leish, a native of Auchtergaven, as his successor, and, at the time of the Union minister of Towerhill Church, Wooler. Mr Ritchie was inclined to retain connection with the congregation, while giving up the greater part of his stipend, but the arrangement adopted was deemed preferable. He after- wards studied Medicine, and had his degree of M.D. from St Andrews. He also joined the Congregationalists, and conducted religious services in Liskeard and other places in England. He retired to Anstruther as years advanced, and died there, 3oth November 1882, aged eighty-two. In 1857 he had appeared as the author of a book, entitled " Azuba ; or, the Forsaken Land," a series of lectures published after his return from a tour in the East, and described as " addressed to his own people and to various congregations on the Borders and throughout Scotland." APPENDIX THE CHURCH CASE IN THE LIGHT OF SECESSION AND RELIEF HISTORY THIS field, with its wide and varied bearings, has been little entered during recent discussions. Yet it was to an early Secession case that of Craig- dallie v. Aikman that the five adverse judges of the House of Lords successively appealed as their leading authority for the conclusion at which they arrived, and it was partly that case, we take it, which led Lord Davey to speak of " the fetters forged by an earlier generation." 1. Lord Eldon laid down the broad principle in the above case that the property was not to go to those "who have departed altogether from the religious principles of those who founded this place." In quoting the deliverance, is no weight to be attached to that word " altogether " ? Lord Eldon also spoke of those assembling in a particular church, " to join in the worship prescribed by the founder," being deprived of the benefit intended for them. In quoting these words, did Lord Davey not observe that they bore on a lawsuit in which certain Orthodox Dissenters complained that Unitarians had usurped possession of their place of worship, which was a departure " altogether" from the religious principles of the founders ? Is the making of the Establishment theory an open question exactly parallel ? 2. Lord Davey cannot pronounce any tenet or doctrine professed by an association as not fundamental " unless the parties have themselves declared it to be so." Now, in the estimation of Lord Davey and his four brethren, Dr Chalmers was the man who fixed the foundations of the Free Church from the Moderator's Chair in 1843. Yet, before the echoes of that speech had died away, Dr Chalmers was avowing his conviction that the points of difference between him and his former antagonists on the State Church question were to the points of agreement like the mint, the anise, and the cummin to the weightier matters of the law. Was that not a declaration that, in his opinion, this particular point of difference was neither "vital, essential, nor funda- mental"? But had Lord Davey been present he would, perhaps, have inter- posed saying : " Too late ! By your speech as Moderator of Assembly you have nailed the colours to the mast, and under these colours the vessel must sail till she reaches the shores of eternity." 3. If more were needed we might draw from the utterances of Dr Candlish, next to Dr Chalmers the leader of the Disruption. He asked on the same occasion : " Is division or schism of the Christian Church to be kept up by the question as to the duty of another party over whom we have no control ? " But judge-law represents the millions of money poured into the coffers of the Free Church for the next fifty-seven years as all designed to keep the Establishment theory above board, and perpetuate schism over a question which Dr Cunningham pronounced to be with them "purely theoretical." Yet Lord Davey tests essentials by the utterances of the parties themselves. 4. The Perth Case centred in a brief Preamble or Declaratory Act by which students at licence and ministers at ordination were freed from 718 APPENDIX 719 approving of anything in their standard books favouring compulsory measures in religion. This made the magistrate's duty to suppress heresies, as taught in the Westminster Confession, an open question. It made the sin of tolerating a false religion, as taught in the Larger Catechism, an open question. Kings and those in authority bound " to root out of their empire all heretics and enemies to the true worship of God," as taught in our National Covenant it made that an open question. This was playing fast and loose with the foundation principles of the Burgher Secession at least Lord Chancellor Halsbury would have pronounced the evidence to that effect "overwhelming." It is certain that the Preamble of the Burgher Synod diluted the doctrines of the standards on magistracy far more than the Declaratory Act of 1892 has diluted the Calvinism of the Westminster Confession. 5. Perth congregation divided into Old Lights and New Lights the senior minister heading the one party and the junior the other. Lord Eldon, when the case came before him, brushed aside all questions about majorities either in point of numbers or of interest. Their property, he said, must go to those who have kept by the doctrines of the Secession at the time the church was built. The Court of Session applied Lord Eldon's dictum, and found that the New Lights had done nothing to destroy their identity with the first Seceders or entail the loss of the building. They had merely declared that " they could not agree to those compulsory measures which the other party alleged were required by the Covenants." The fetters of which Lord Davey speaks were not yet in working order or rather, the sound legal principle laid down by Lord Eldon had not yet been turned into a yoke of bondage. 6. When the case came back to the House of Lords, Lord Eldon pro- nounced it be "one of the most difficult and distressing" that he ever met with. "Tell me," said Sidney Smith, "that Lord Eldon has assented to the fact of two and two making four without shedding tears or expressing the smallest doubt or scruple tell me anything absurd or incredible." It would have been well for his own comfort had he possessed a little of the expertness with which the present Lord Chancellor cleared up the doctrine of Predestina- tion. Lord Eldon on this occasion confessed himself baffled to make out that the New Light party in Perth had swerved from the original principles of the first seceders by adopting the Declaratory Act with the open questions which it involved. Yet the five lords of the majority in the present Case, while they made much of Lord Eldon's general remarks, ran counter to Lord Eldon's final decision. 7. In the Campbeltown Case the vital question was : Can a Relief con- gregation abandon Establishment principles without forfeiting all right to their church property ? A small minority in Campbeltown Church kept by their minister, who had declared for union with the Establishment. They next attempted to oust their brethren from their place of worship because they adhered to the Synod, which had taken exception to the Confession of Faith in so far as " it recognises the power of the magistrate to interfere in religious matters." Was this not enough to cost the congregation the loss of all things ? So thought the Scottish Guardian of that day, as it boasted that " the Campbeltown chapel will be merely the first of a number of their chapels which will be wrested from the grasp of Voluntary usurpation." 8. Here the minority were entitled to plead that what they called "old Relief principles" on the head of magistracy were simply those of the Westminster Confession, and that Gillespie, Boston, and Baine, when they passed outside the Establishment, did not leave their Establishment principles behind them. The language of their Supreme Court at an early time ran thus : " They do not consider themselves as seceders from the Church of 720 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Scotland, but as of the same principles as the clergy of the popular interest of the said Church profess." But now the Relief Synod had turned against the State Church as " a Church which stands in opposition to the truths of the Bible." Indeed, the evidence in favour of the minority's contention that the Longrow Church in Campbeltown must be theirs if property were to go with old principles, important or unimportant, the present Lord Chancellor would have pronounced "overwhelming." 9. The Lord Ordinary was troubled with the question whether the point in dispute was one of the essentials, "the least departure from which will affect the use of the property." He was not aware, as Lord Davey is, that the only touchstone of non-essentials " is the utterances of the parties them- selves." But in the Inner Court the touchstone of common-sense sufficed. One of the judges maintained that the minority had failed to prove the Establishment principle to have been held originally " as a fundamental and essential tenet of the Relief Church." Another explained that the religious opinions, departure from which is to forfeit the property, must be no abstract opinion such as influences character and conduct ; and the third stated that he had set himself to discover whether there had been on the part of the Synod any such deviation from the principles of the Relief as " essentially changed the character of the tenets and faith originally pro- fessed," and he had reached a negative conclusion. The majority had not, as Lord Eldon expressed it, " departed altogether from the religious principles of those who founded this house." The fetters still refuse to take hold, and the majority are left in undisturbed possession of their place of worship. 10. A rigid application of Lord Eldon's sound legal principle would have had noteworthy results at the Union of 1820. Covenanting as hitherto practised among the Antiburghers was now made an open question. The Article of Agreement reads thus : " Every scriptural facility shall be afforded to those who have clearness to proceed in it, but its observance shall not be required of any in order to Church communion." But the renovation of the covenants was with the first seceders the term "of Christian communion in the admission of people to sealing ordinances," and from this foundation principle the Antiburghers had never departed. Now eleven of their ministers refused to be guilty of "apostacy from their good profession," and besides their own congregations generally they had a few followers through- out the denomination. These parties the recent decision would have made masters of the situation, and the Antiburgher Synod would have been found to have lost its identity. 11. Apply now Lord Eldon's principle to a case which occurred in the United Presbyterian Church in 1872. That year the use of instrumental music in public worship was made an open question by the Synod. This was going dead against the principles of the early Secession and Relief Churches. In 1758 the Antiburgher Synod issued a warning against corrupt- ing the spirituality of gospel worship by " chanting of prayers and instru- mental music," and the Relief Synod in 1829 excluded a minister and congregation in Edinburgh from their fellowship for refusing to part with an organ which they had introduced into their chapel. Now, in 1872, the Rev. James S. Taylor of Glasgow renounced connection because he regarded the United Presbyterian Church "as having on a point of vital importance ceased to be a witness for truth in the land." Had he and the few members who adhered to him claimed Hutchesontown Church they would have been bound on present-day principles to succeed. The opposing plea that the question was of subordinate importance would have failed, as we have no authority, it appears, except the utterances of the founders themselves, for treating any tenet of a religious association as non-essential or subordinate. APPENDIX 721 Even the plea that the building was bound to the denomination would not avail, for the Synod by changing one of its tenets of doctrine would be held to have lost its identity. 12. This brings us to the Kirkintilloch Case, in which Lord Eldon's dictum began to be turned to disunion purposes. Dr Marshall, through bitter disagreement with his brethren, had broken away from the Secession Synod in view of their union with the Relief. He was accompanied by the bulk of his congregation, but a small minority adhered to the Synod when the junction came, and took steps to reclaim the meeting-house. The decision was that the property belonged to the majority, and that no congregation could be compelled to go into a union with another denomi- nation. This was equity, and it might have been well for all parties had the decision been brought to the foreground within recent years. 13. But in this Case one of the judges said for the defenders what they could not have said for themselves : " This congregation have not changed one opinion or tenet of their forefathers of the Secession." Did he not know that at the head of that congregation and that law case was the great champion of Voluntaryism, the man who in one of his publications had characterised establishments as a method of supporting religion, " which does more to swell the ranks of infidelity than all the other causes put together." Yet the Doctor at his jubilee spoke of adherence to " the principles for the maintenance of which the property was acquired," and added : "We ought to have claimed the M'Phail Legacy, the Synod house, the library." It was the anti-unionism of the present hour speaking half-a- century before its time. 14. But in 1847 there was one specimen of anti-unionism on the Relief side also. Their Synod, according to Dr John Craig of Cupar, had pulled down the denominational flag of free communion, and, come what might, he would none of it. After two years he and his handful of adherents were received into the Established Church. They at the same time made over to the Church of Scotland "the rights and titles to all funds and properties which, as the last and sole just and legal representatives of the Relief Church and Synod, they can lawfully and justly claim." Certain of their number were also armed with full power "to sue and defend in all actions respecting the same." It turned out that they had nothing to convey and nothing to litigate about, but the recent decision of the House of Lords gives meaning to the above exhibition and lifts it from the ridiculous into mock sublimity. 15. In Thurso Case we have the anti-union spirit of judge-made law in fuller development. A "scrimp" majority of Thurso Original Secession congregation had voted to go along with a "scrimp" majority of their Synod into union with the Free Church, but in the Court of Session, Lord Wood being the chief speaker, it was declared that any minority, however small, opposing a union, had a legal right to the property. "The material thing is the adherence to the Church as originally constituted and the refusal to give up the name of the body and its testimonies." In Thurso Case there were specialities which might justify the decision arrived at, but here was the principle laid down that a non-union minority, however minute, may wrest the property from the Union majority, however large, even though no change should be alleged in fundamentals. 1 6. We have now reached a height from which we see the union of churches frowned on by Scottish legislation. Yet in the Disruption year Dr Chalmers said, in the second Free Assembly : " I think every man whose heart is in its right place will be delighted with such movements. They are movements quite in my favourite direction, because one and all II. 2Z 722 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS of them are movements of convergency." But a few years after this the Second Division of the Court of Session placed themselves not only in antagonism to Dr Chalmers' fraternal aspirations, and to the better feelings of the Church universal, but to the Saviour's Intercessory Prayer: "That they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee." It was Lord Eldon's words misapplied about property being forfeited by those " who have departed altogether from the religious principles" of the founders. 17. But though union on equal terms is frowned on, Lord Robertson urges nothing against absorption, as when the Original Seceders coalesced with the Free Church. Being sound, he says, on the Establishment principle they were admitted svith full honours. Yes ; but the speeches delivered on the Thurso Case make manifest that the step the Original Seceders took exposed them to the spoiling of their goods according to the decree of our high court functionaries. The Original Seceders believed that they might maintain their principles in communion with the Free Church, but could they retain their property ? So little tolerance has judge-made law for "movements of convergency" that in a Union congregation a non- Union minority, however small, can appropriate the place of worship without even alleging "departure from original principles" on the part of the majority. 1 8. "Surely," said Lord James, "there is a great gulf between the principle of Establishment and that of Voluntaryism." It resembles a pronouncement of Dr Burns of Toronto more than fifty years ago : "The Secession Church of Canada is separated from the Free Church by the mare magnum of social infidelity." Both the great gulf and the mare magnum contrast with Dr Chalmers' estimate of the mint, the anise and the cummin. If the question of National Establishments was with the Free Church in 1843 "a purely theoretical one," as Dr Cunningham testi- fied, how has it become a sea so vastly broad and so profoundly deep ? But Lord James, like Lord Davey, is alive to the difficulty of reaching a standard of distinction between essentials and non-essentials ; only he thinks that "the donors who may have responded to Dr Chalmers' appeal" must have understood that the two sister Churches united in 1900 were like two rivers, perpetually to flow apart, and refuse to mingle. 19. The great gulf of which Lord James speaks was bridged over many years ago by the Churches in Canada, Nova Scotia, Victoria, New Zealand, Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales, and in these colonies the mare magnum has disappeared altogether. In each case there was a relaxing of the standards on the question of magistracy, and in Canada specially the fullest forbearance was allowed on the subject of State En- dowments. If so, the Lord Chancellor would, perhaps, say again : " It becomes but a colourable union, and no trust funds devoted to one form of faith can be shared by another communion" on any such terms. His Lordship speaks as if different views on the relations of Church and State constituted "different forms of faith." When Paul wrote about "the unity of the faith," does his Lordship understand that he meant oneness of opinion among his converts as to the authority and duty of the Emperor Nero to establish and endow the Apostolic Church ? 20. The Lord Chancellor has recently explained that the judges are determined to do justice, and, as Lord Robertson remarked at the time : " Justice is done by giving people, not what fits them, but what belongs to them." The Free Church Assembly in 1867 found by a majority of almost three to one that "there does not seem to be any insuperable barrier" to union between the negotiating churches. Yet the funds and legacies made over to the Free Church since that expressive declaration was made are APPENDIX ?23 turned into a hostile channel, that justice may be done by giving people what belongs to them. We are tempted to say, in the Lord Chancellor's words on another occasion : " No one could suppose that an enlightened community would regard in the slightest degree such a determination." 21. Lord Robertson is not so well acquainted with the closing chapter of Reformed Presbyterian History as he is with Free Church "funda- mentals." He alleges that the Free Assembly admitted " the extreme right in Presbyterian orthodoxy" into fellowhip with them after being satisfied that "they were sound on the Establishment principle." Their soundness on this point consisted in their Synod declaring unanimously nine years before in favour of making that essential tenet of the faith an open question for the sake of union. We may add that, in Lord Alverstone's opinion, "maintenance of the Establishment principle was the Basis of Union between the Free Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church." If so, it was a basis which both had avowed their readiness to abandon at the first suitable opportunity. 22. The recent Union has been characterised as a clerical affair which it required engineering to compass. This clamour recalls Edmund Burke's words : " Faction will make its cries resound through the nation, as if the whole were in an uproar." Still, it might have been of advantage had the people been more fully consulted while negotiations were going on. When the Union of 1847 was first discussed at full length in the Secession Synod, the proposal was sent down to Presbyteries and sessions for de- liberate and prayerful consideration. The Relief Synod, which was more democratic in its leanings, remitted the subject to Presbyteries, sessions, .and churches, with instructions to report. At a later stage the largest Presbytery on that side ordered the Basis of Union to be laid before every congregation under their inspection. Dr Struthers, their leading man, tells that he proceeded as follows : " I first gave an account of the Basis at a congregational prayer meeting ; next I laid it before the session, and had it discussed ; and lastly I called a congregational meeting expressly for the purpose of reading and considering it, and the report of that meeting I carried to the Presbytery." True, the adoption of any such method might in some cases bring latent opposition to the surface, but confidence in the people will have its reward in the end. 23. The United Church, Lord Alverstone has ascertained, makes an open question of whether it is within the province of the civil magistrate "to endow the Church out of the national resources" that is, whether it is right or wrong to let her wring part of her maintenance from men of any religion or of no religion at all. The Free Church might surely be excused doubting whether this constitutes "a right connection between Church and State," or at least whether it is wrong to make that an open question. Indeed, it may be thought that such an application of public funds is as bad as their own alleged breach of trust, an offence which the Moderator of the anti-Union Assembly thinks would be fitly atoned for by penal servitude. 24. Of more serious import than this is the strong position which the anti-Union Church is taking up on the freeness of the gospel offer. One of their leading men gives out that the gospel is to be preached to every creature, "but it is in connection with the presentation of divine sovereignty in grace." The meaning is that in discoursing from the text " Ho, every- one that thirsteth," if we liken the mercy of God in Christ to the long, abundant flow from the smitten rock, we must wind up, as a certain minister is said to have done, with words like these : " But, my friends, I must be as honest as tell you that unless you be among the number of the elect, not 724 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS one of you will ever participate." That is the universal offer, "in connection with the presentation of divine sovereignty in grace." But that doctrinal attitude may be thought needful if the anti-Union Church is to keep fully aloof from "the Arminianism of the Declaratory Act" and evince due respect for the theological acquirements of the Lord Chancellor. 25. The convulsions occasioned by the decision in the Church Case will affect higher interests than those of property. Our younger ministers especi- ally are certain to have their respect lessened for creeds and standards. Over against this, we have a leader in the councils of the anti-Union Church declaring that every sentence in the Westminster Confession is " taken from and proved by the Word of God." Does he think, then, that the action of Herod the Great in calling the chief priests and scribes together, and demanding of them where Christ should be born, is proof from the New Testament that the civil magistrate has power " to call Synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the Word of God ? " As for reckless criticism of the sacred records, it is to be pointedly condemned, but the spirit of awakened inquiry will not be suppressed though the anti-Union Assembly should make traditionary views of Scripture the Article of a standing or falling Church. 26. These two volumes illustrate in ample measure the evils of disunion among Christian brethren. The Breach in the early Secession stirred un- hallowed feelings, led to the setting up of altar against altar, and turned attention away from better things. Surveying the field of disaster, the Burgher Synod proclaimed a fast throughout their congregations, saying : " The Lord had divided us in His anger, and covered the daughter of Zion with a thick cloud, giving us the wine of astonishment to drink." Dr Chalmers welcomed " movements of convergency " with the promise of incorporation in the end ; but meanwhile antipathies are at work keener than prevailed when the highest censures of the Church were going. We are now in course of seeing rival Churches rising in poor, thinly-peopled districts, especially in the Highlands, with sectarian animosities poisoning the religious atmosphere around that is scarcely the sense in which God makes the wrath of man to praise Him. 27. Much has been said during recent years about the reconstruction of our National Establishment, but very clearly this must lie aside for the time. How can its chief advocate widen out his scheme to embrace a Church which his brethren consider to have no right to existence as a Church at all ? Will the distinction which the Moderator of the anti-Union Assembly emphasises between clean beasts and unclean be got over by enlarging the dimensions of the ark which contains them ? But perhaps, beneath unpromising appear- ances, there are hidden affinities at work, and, sooner than we anticipate, a brighter day may dawn on the fortunes of the sorely disrupted Presby- terianism of Scotland. INDEX I. CONGREGATIONS Abernethy Antiburgher, 583 Burgher, 586 Airdrie South Bridge Street, 126 Wellwynd, 123 Alloa Townhead, 679 West, 682 Alva, 708 Anniesland Cross, 715 Anstruther, 398 Ardeer, 716 Ardrossan, 319 Auchinleck, 325 Auchterarder North, 598 South, 596 Auchtergaven Antiburgher, 644 Relief, 647 Ayr Antiburgher, 327 Cathcart Street, 330 Darlington Place, 328 Trinity Church, 332 Wallace Street, 332 Baillieston, 134 Balbeggie, 650 Balfour, 582 Bannockburn, 706 Barrhead, 142 Beith Head Street, 531 Mitchell Street, 528 Bellshill, 222 Biggar Gillespie Church, 409 Moat Park, 407 Birsay, 489 Bishopbriggs, 160 Blairlogie, 695 Blantyre, 241 Bonkle, 403 Bothwell, 133 725 Braehead, 418 Crail, 396 Bridge of Allan, 710 Creetown, 15 Bridge of Teith, 675 Crieff Bridge of Weir, 543 Antiburgher, 623 Buchlyvie, 687 Relief, 627 Buckhaven Crossford, 424 Burgher, 393 Cumnock, 333 Muiredge, 395 Burntisland, 362 Dalreoch, 601 Burntshields, 510 Dairy, Ayr, 302 Burra Isles, 658 Darvel, 321 Burray, 506 Dollar, 711 Busby, 145 Douglas, 421 Dunblane Callander, 713 Antiburgher, 693 Cambuslang, 130 Burgher, 690 Campbeltown Dunning Relief, 185, 720 Burgher, 588 United Secession, 189 Relief, 592 Campsie, 156 Dunoon, 198 Carluke, 426 Dysart, 384 Carnwath, 423 Cathcart, 148 Eaglesham, 140 Catrine, 347 Earlston Clackmannan, 702 East, 434 Climpy, 421 United, 439 Clousta, 662 West, 437 Coalsnaughton, 712 East Kilbride, 235 Coatbridge Eday, 504 Blairhill, 129 Elsridgehill, 411 Coatdyke, 130 Errol Dunbeth, 128 Antiburgher, 574 Coldstream Relief, 576 East, 272 Eshaness, 66 1 West, 270 Colinsburgh Fen wick, 313 Relief, 376 Firth, 508 New Relief, 379 Colmonell, 323 Galashiels Comrie, 610 East, 466 Coupar- Angus South, 469 Antiburgher, 565 West, 468 Burgher, 573 Galston, 316 Relief, 570 Gatehouse, 19 Craigend, 562 Giffnock, 149 Craigmore, 211 Girvan, 341 726 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Glasgow Albert Street, 85 Alexandra Parade, 78 Anderston, 36 Bath Street, 72 Belhaven, 110 Bellgrove, 86 Berkeley Street, 97 Blackfriars Street, 68 Burn bank, 81 Caledonia Road, 91 Calton, 58 Cambridge Street, 67 Campbell Street (East), 42 Camphill, 715 Cathedral Square, 27 Claremont, 93 Cranstonhill, 89 Cumberland Street, 88 Dalmarnock Road, 107 Dennistoun, 104 Eglinton Street, 65 Elgin Street, 80 Erskine Church, 6l Gillespie, 75 Govanhill, 108 Greenhead, 52 Greyfriars, 22 Hutchesontown, 50 Ibrox, 1 02 John Street, 46 Kelvingrove, 32 Kelvinside, 113 Kent Road, 100 Langside Road, 97 Lansdowne, 101 London Road, 71 Maryhill, 92 Mount Florida, 109 Newlands, 115 Nithsdale, 112 Oatlands, 109 Overnewton, Henderson Memorial, III Parkhead, 106 Plantation, 106 Pollok Street, 94 Polmadie, 114 Queen's Park, 103 Regent Place, 55 Regent Place (East), 70 Renfield Street, 76 Rockvilla, 90 St George's Road, 104 St Rollox, 84 St Vincent Street, 64 Sandyford,- 83 Shamrock Street, 77 Shettleston, 114 Glasgow continued Springbank, 87 Springburn, 95 Wellfield, 96 Sydney Place, 39 Tollcross, 54 Wellington, 44 Whitevale, 98 Woodlands Road, 73 Glengarnock, 321 Glenluce, 14 Gourock, 201 Govan, 119 Fan-field, 121 Greenend, 605 Greenloaning, 685 Greenock Cartsdyke, 168 Finnart, 181 Green bank, 171 Mount Pleasant, 180 Sir Michael Street, 177 St Andrew Square, 179 Trinity Church, 174 Union Street, 178 Kennoway, 372 Kilbarchan, 532 Kilcreggan, 206 Kilmalcolm, 540 Kilmarnock Clerk's Lane, 287 Holm, 294 King Street, 291 Portland Road, 284 Princes Street, 293 Kilmaurs, 277 Kil winning Antiburgher, 281 United Secession, 282 Kinclaven, 636 Kinghorn, 389 Kinkell, 606 Kirkcaldy Bethelfield, 352 Loughborough Road, 360 Pathhead, 357 Union Church, 359 Victoria Road, 361 Kirkcowan, 20 Kirkintilloch Hallside, 245 United Secession, 154 Hamilton Kirkmaiden, 13 Auchingramont, 215 Kirkmuirhill, 244 Avon Street, 218 Kirk wall, 481 Brandon Street, 220 Kirn, 205 Burnbank, 222 Saffronhall, 211 Lanark Hawick Allars Church, 460 Bloomgate, 415 Burgher, 412 East Bank, 457 Orrock Place, 455 Hope Street, 417 Langbank, 542 Wilton, 462 Largo, 382 Holm, 495 Largs Hurlford, 322 Burgher, 191 Innellan, 208 Innerleithen, 473 Innerleven and Methil, 390 Inveraray, 200 Irvine Relief, 298 Relief, 192 Larkhall, 240 Lauder Antiburgher, 446 Burgher, 447 Relief, 450 United, 448 Trinity, 30x3 Leitholm, 276 Jedburgh Blackfriars, 253 Castle Street, 256 High Street, -258 Johnstone East, 537 Lenzie, 159 Lerwick, 653 Leslie Trinity, 369 West, 364 Lesmahagow, 427 West, 534 Lethendy, 642 Leven, 400 Kelso Lilliesleaf, 470 Antiburgher, 266 Lismore, 163 Burgher, 262 Lochwinnoch, 53$ East, 268 Logiealmond, 616 INDEX 727 Markinch, 402 Mauchline, 337 Maybole, 338 Mearns, 135 Melrose, 472 Methven, 620 Midholm, 432 Millport, 207 Milngavie, 158 Morebattle, 246 Mossbank, 655 Motherwell First, 242 Dalziel, 243 Muirkirk, 344 Newarthill, 237 Newcastleton, 452 New Kilpatrick, 160 Newmilns, 296 Newton-Stewart, n Newtown, 463 Oban, 161 Ollaberry, 657 Paisley Abbey Close, 516 Canal Street, 519 George Street, 525 Lylesland, 528 Mossvale, 527 New Street, 524 Oakshaw Street, 514 Ralston, 745 St James', 522 Thread Street, 521 Partick Dowanhill, 115 East, 118 Newton Place, 117 Victoria Park, 119 Patna, 349 Perth- Associate, 544 Perth continued Bridgend, 561 South Ronaldshay, 499 Stewarton, 312 Canal Street, 558 Stirling East, 556 Allan Park, 673 North, 545 Erskine Church, 663 Wilson Church, 551, 718 Yiewfield, 670 York Place, 560 Stitchel, 250 Pitcairn, 631) Stonehouse, 233 Pitcairn Green, 634 Stornoway, 167 Pitrodie, 578 Stow, 428 Pittenweem, 386 Stranraer Pollokshaws, 138 Bellevilla, 6 Pollokshields, 122 Bridge Street, 8 Trinity, 122 Ivy Place, 4 Port-Glasgow West, 9 Clune Park, 195 Strathaven Princes Street, 193 East, 227 Portree, 165 First, 225 Port William, 17 West, 228 Prestwick, 351 Stromness, 490 Renfrew, 541 Stronsay, 485 Roberton, 419 Rothesay, 182 Tarbolton, 335 Rousay, 507 Thomliebank, 147 Rutherglen, 144 Thurso, 480, 721 Greenhill, 145 Tillicoultry, 704 Troon, 342 St Ninians, 698 Saltcoats Uddingston, 134 Antiburgher, 310 Burgher, 307 West Kilbride, 317 Relief, 305 Wemyss Bay, 209 United, 311 Westray, 498 Sanday, 493 Whitburn, 232 Sandwick, 501 Whithorn, 9 Scalloway, 659 Wick, 475 Scone, 639 Wigtown Selkirk' Antiburgher, I Antiburgher, 443 Relief, 3 Burgher, 440 Wishaw, 239 West, 445 Shapinshay, 502 Yetholm Shotts, 230 Burgher, 273 Southend, 196 Burgher New LigVi 728 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS II. MINISTERS AND OTHERS Adam, Rev. Alexander, 166 Adam, Rev. James, 17 Adam, Rev. William, 85 Adams, Rev. James, 180, 522 Adamson, Rev. William, D.D., 289 Addie, Rev. John, 556 /Edie, Rev. Andrew, 671 Aikman, Rev. John Logan, D.D., 38, 342 Aikman, Rev. Jedidiah, 552 Aird, Rev. John, 344 Aitchison, Rev. Thomas, 355 Aitken, Rev. W. F., 434 Aitken, Rev. Andrew 504 Aitken, Rev. James, D.D. , 706 Alexander, Rev. Alexander C. , 422 Alexander, Rev. Archibald B.D., 543 Alexander, Rev. John, 633 Alexander, Rev. Robert, 394 Alice, Rev. James, 171, 515 Alison, Rev. Archibald, 351, 369 Alison, Rev. George, 534 Alison, Rev. Matthew, 533 Allan, Rev. Robert, 705 Allan, Rev. Charles, 182, 460 Allan, Rev. Alexander, 567, 572 Allardyce, Rev. Alexander, 508 Allison, Rev. David J., 317 Alston, Rev. Andrew, 108, 297, 427 Anderson, Rev. Andrew H., 94 Anderson, Rev. Andrew, 282 Anderson, Rev. James (Norham), 190 Anderson, Rev. James (Beith), 532 Anderson, Rev. James, D.D., 643 Anderson, Rev. James (Dunblane), 692 Anderson, Rev. John, 411 Anderson, Rev. Robert F., 697 Anderson, Rev. Robert, D.D., 105 Anderson, Rev. R. S. J., 105 Anderson, Rev. Thomas R., 121, 214 Anderson, Rev. William, 697 Anderson, Rev. William, LL.D., 24, 47, 134 Andrew, Rev. Robert B., 321 Armour, Rev. Samuel, 692 Arnot, Rev. Andrew, 433 Arnot, Rev. David, 379 Arnot, Rev. George, 414, 425 Arnot, Rev. William, 373 Arrot, Rev. Andrew, 476 Arthur, Rev. Robert, 558, 559 Atherton, Sir William, 249 Atkinson, Rev. George R., 384 Auld, Rev. James M., 55 Auld, Rev. Robert, 67, 479 Auld, Rev. William (Greenock), 177 Auld, Rev. William (Tollcross), 54 B Baillie, Rev. Adam, 576 Baillie, Rev. Andrew, 657 Baillie, Rev. James, 222 Baillie, Rev. John, 557, 627 Bain, Rev. James, 359 Baird, Rev. Archibald, D.D., 522 Baird, Rev. John A., 189 Baird, Rev. John, 257 Baird, Rev. William, 132 Baird, Rev. Wilson, 338 Balderston, Rev. James C. , 319 Baldwin, Rev. William, 501 Balfour, Rev. Alexander, 488, 642 Ballantyne, Rev. James, 438 Ballantyne, Rev. John, 471 Banks, Rev. Alexander, 419 Banks, Rev. James, 294, 520 Bankhead, Rev. William T., 102 Bannatyne, Mr William, 617 Bannatyne, Rev. Peter, 133 Barclay, Rev. David, 276 Barclay, Rev. George (Dunscore), 137 Barclay, Rev. George (Greenock), 173 Barclay, Rev. John, 349 Barlas, Rev. George, 585 Barlas, Rev. James, 612, 624, 625 Barr, Rev. Alexander, 127 Barr, Rev. John, 34 Barr, Rev. William, 221, 261 Barras, Rev. William, 87 Barrie, Rev. James, 424 Barron, Rev. Douglas G., 591 Barron, Rev. Peter, 591 Bathgate, Rev. William, 290 Battersby, Rev. Matthew R., 217 Baxter, Rev. John C., D.D., 360 Bayne, Rev. William, 647 Beath, Rev. William, 635 Beattie, Rev. Alexander O., D.D., 64, 371 Beckett, Rev. William, 145 Bell, Rev. Benjamin, 210 Bell, Mr James, 34 Bell, Rev. Thomas, 33, 260 Bell, Rev. William, 628 Berrie, Rev. Alexander S., 509 Berry, Rev. James, 689 Beugo, Rev. John, 590 Beveridge, Rev. John, 432 INDEX 729 Beveridge, Rev. William W., 195 Biggart, Mr Thomas, 6 Billerwell, Rev. William, 385, 697 Birkmyre, Mr Henry, 195 Bishop, Rev. James, 567 Bissett, Rev. John, 395 Black, Rev. Alexander W., 17 Black, Rev. Armstrong, D.D., 207 Black, Rev. George (Kinghorn), 390 Black, Rev. George (Walker), 16 Black, Rev. James, D.D., 45 Black, Rev. James, 359 Black, Rev. John (Lochwinnoch), 540 Black, Rev. John (Newcastleton), 455 Black, Rev. Richard, 547 Black, Rev. Robert, 219 Black wood, Rev. James, 316 Blair, Rev. George, 109 Blair, Rev. James, 613 Blair, Rev. John (Carnwath), 424 Blair, Rev. John (Colmonell), 324 Blair, Rev. John F., 50 Blair, Rev. Robert, D.D., 469 Blair, Rev. William, D.D., 692 Blantyre, Lord, 542 Blyth, Mr Thomas, 79 Blyth, Rev. Alexander, 636 Blyth, Rev. George, 78 Blue, Rev. Alexander W., 50 Boag, Rev. George, 220 Boag, Rev. William, 593 Bonar, Rev. John, 258 Bonnar, Rev. James, D.D., 236 Boreland, Rev. James, 307 Borland, Rev. Alexander, 241 Borland, Rev. John W., 75, 416 Boston, Rev. Michael, 32, 260 Boston, Rev. Thomas, 32, 259, 376 Boyd, Rev. James, D.D., 188 Boyd, Rev. James C., 376 Boyd, Rev. John, 210 Boyd, Rev. John, D.D., 319, 525 Boyd, Rev. John G., 434 Boyd, Rev. William, 314 Bow, Rev. James, 558 Bowman, Rev. Thomas, 384 Bradley, Rev. Patrick, 471 Brand, Rev. John, 50 Brash, Rev. William, 40 Breingan, Rev. William, 704 Bright, John, 26 Broadfoot, Rev. William, 483 Brodie, Rev. John, 33 Brodie, Rev. Robert, 43 Brodie, Rev. W. C., 176 Brooks, Rev. George, 521, 537 Brougham, Lord, 554 Brown, Mr John, 163 Brown, Rev. Alexander (Pollokshields), 122, 292 Brown, Rev. Alexander (Bellingham), 590 Brown, Rev. Alexander (Burntshields) SM Brown, Rev. Colin, 585 Brown, Rev. David S. , 507 Brown, Rev. Ebenezer, 23, 667 Brown, Rev. George, LL.D., 396, 588 Brown, Rev. George, 545, 551 Brown, Rev. Henry, 440 Brown, Rev. James (Campsie), 157 Brown, Rev. James (Balbeggie), 652 Brown, Rev. James, D.D., 334, 523 Brown, Rev. James (Shapinshay), 503 Brown, Rev. James (Creetown), 16 Brown, Rev. John, D.D. (Biggar), 407 Brown, Rev. John, D.D. (Langton), 218 Brown, Rev. John (Falkirk), 224, 596 Ij Brown, Rev. John (Haddington), 263, 429 Brown, Rev. John (Kinclaven), 639 Brown, Rev. John (Pitcairn-Green), 634 Brown, Rev. John (Whitburn), 219, 408 Brown, Rev. Joseph, D.D. , 100 Brown, Rev. Peter, 240, 461 Brown, Rev. Robert (Auchtergaven), 647 Brown, Rev. Robert (Brampton), 656 Brown, Rev. Robert (Cumnock), 334 Brown, Rev. Robert (Markinch), 403 Brown, Rev. Walter, 470 Brown, Rev. William (Clackmannan), 276, 703 Brown, Rev. William (Newarthill), 237 Browning, Rev. Archibald, 705 Browning, Rev. James, 476 Browning, Rev. Robert L. 715 Brownlee, Rev. Robert D. , 356 Brownlie, Rev. Claude, 489 Bryce, Rev. James, 476 Bryce, Rev. R. J., LL.D., 478 Bruce, Michael, 24 Bruce, Rev. Archibald, 232 Bruce, Rev. John, D.D., 282, 296 Bruce, Rev. Robert S., 240 Brunton, Rev. Alexander, 85, 162 Buchan, Elspeth, 298 Buchan, Rev. Peter, 496, 501 Buchanan, Rev. David, 488 Buchanan, Rev. James (Glasgow), 26 Buchanan, Rev. James (Greenock), 181 Buist, Rev. John, 172 Burgess, Rev. William, 66 Burn, Rev. David, 481 Burns, Rev. David, 112 Burns, Rev. James, 575 Burns, Rev. John, 142 Burnet, Rev. William, 697 Burr, Rev. Alexander, 581 Burton, Rev. John T., 118, 297 Butchart, Rev. James S., 659 73 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Caird, Rev. John, D.D., 577 Cairns, Rev. David, 253 Cairns, Rev. John, 295 Cairns, Rev. Peter, 313 Cairns, Rev. Robert, 524, 525 Cairns, Rev. William T. , 586 Calderwood, Rev. David, 159, 494 Calderwood, Rev. Henry, LL.D., 25 Caldwell, Rev. Archibald M., 271 Caldwell, Rev. James, D. D., 177, 410 Cameron, Mr John, 68 Cameron, Mr Thomas, 88 Cameron, Rev. David, 137 Cameron, Rev. James, 211 Cameron, Rev. James R., 207 Cameron, Rev. Robert (East Kilbride), 236 Cameron, Rev. Robert (Glasgow), 68, 550 Campbell, Rev. Alexander, 301 Campbell, Rev. George, 420 Campbell, Rev. George O., 229 Campbell, Rev. John (Glasgow), 61 Campbell, Rev. John (Jamaica), 647, 657 Campbell, Rev. John K., 180 Campbell, Rev. J. M'Leod, D.D., 197 Campbell, Rev. John (Tarbolton), 336 Campbell, Rev. Robert (Glasgow), 60, 86 Campbell, Rev. Robert (Stirling), 23, 138, 666 Campbell, Rev. William, 260, 385 Carlyle, Rev. Alex., D.D., 455 Carlyle, Thomas, 21, 66, 442 Carslaw, Rev. Robert, 15 Carmichael, Rev. Andrew W. , 243 Carmichael, Rev. Hugh, 704 Carmichael, Rev. Robert, 565 Carrick, Rev. John, 340 Carrick, Rev. William, 216 Carruthers, Rev. James W. D. , 313, 551 Carstairs, Rev. George L. , 97 Carswell, Rev. William, 141 Chalmers, Rev. James, 201 Chalmers, Rev. John C., 281 Chalmers, Rev. John, D.D., 376 Chalmers, Rev. Robert, 233 Chalmers, Rev. William, 648 Chapman, Rev. Andrew, 499 Charters, Rev. Samuel, D. D. , 462 Chisholm, Rev. Hector, 611, 616 Chisholm, Rev. Walter, 95 Christie, Rev. Anthony L., 283 Christie, Rev. A. M., 623 Christie, Rev. David, 522 Christie, Rev. Francis, 280 Christie, Rev. James, 246 Christie, Rev. Sloane S. , 425 Christie, Rev. Thomas, 495 Clapperton, Rev. John, 535 Clark, John, Esq., 192 Clark, Rev. Andrew. 20 Clark, Rev. James, 602 Clark, Rev. James G. , 20 Clark, Rev. John A., 272 Clark, Rev. John (Abernethy), 143, 249, 586 Clark, Rev. John (Glasgow), 39 Clark, Rev. John (Kirkcaldy), 360 Clark, Rev. Robert, 603 Clark, Rev. Thomas (America), 640 Clark, Rev. Thomas (Eaglesham), 140 Clark, Rev. William, 144 Clarke, Rev. James, 257 Clarkson, Rev. John, 57, 327 Cleland, Rev. John, 687 Cock, Rev. John, 89 Cockburn, Lord, 543 Cockburn, Rev. Thomas, 457 Colier, Rev. Thomas, 376 Colquhoun, Rev. James, 156, 470 Colville, Mr John (Campbeltown), 244 Colville, Mr John, M.P., 34, 244 Colville, Rev. Robert, 447 Connor, Rev. David M., 108, 410 Cook, Rev. Daniel, 169 Cook, Rev. David, 527 Cooper, Rev. John, 538 Copland, Rev. George, 331 Copland, Rev. James M., 349 Corbett, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 206, 715 Cordiner, Mr Robert, 428 Cordiner, Rev. James, 428 Cordiner, Rev. Robert, 428 Corson, Rev. George, 460 Coutts, Rev. Robert, 575 Coventry, Prof. Andrew, 252 Coventry, Rev. George, 25, 252, 665 Cowan, Mr Henry, 330 Cowan, Rev. James, 377 Cowan, Rev. Robert, 377 Cowan, Rev. Robert J. R., 246 Cowan, Rev. William, 85, 394 Cowie, Rev. George W. S., 690 Cowper, Rev. J. S. , 472 Craig, Rev. James, 657, 658 Craig, Rev. John, 609 Craig, Rev. John, D. D., 298 Craig, Rev. John Kerr, 80 Craig, Rev. William, 404 Craigdallie, Mr James, 552 Craigie, Rev. David, 640 Cranston, Rev. Robert, 249 Crawford, Rev. David, D.D., 437 Crawford, Rev. David G., 363 Crawford, Rev. George, 120 Crawford, George, Esq., 421 INDEX 731 Crawford, Rev. John, 494 Crawford, Rev. Matthew, 31 Crawford, Rev. Robert, 325 Crawford, Rev. Thomas, 558 Crichton, Maitland M., Esq., 252, 388 Crichton, Rev. James, 114 Cross, Rev. Archibald, 409, 700 Cruden, Rev. William, 32 Cruickshank, Rev. James M., 84, 498 Cullen, Rev. John, D. Sc., 179, 369 Gumming, Mr Peter G., 576 Gumming, Rev. Archibald, 380 Gumming, Rev. Charles, 576 Cunningham, Rev. Robert, 584, 705 Currie, Rev. John, 364 Currie, Rev. William, 639 Cursiter, Mr James, 615 Cuthbertson, Rev. William, 295 I) Dalgleish, Rev. James W., 297 Dalrymple, Rev. Alexander, 336 Dalrymple, Rev. Alexander M., 53 Dalrymple, Rev. James R., 148 Dalrymple, Rev. William, D.D., 330 Dalziel, Rev. John, 435 Darg, Rev. Thomas, 475 Darling, Rev. Hugh, 252 Davidson, Mr Alexander, 456 Davidson, Rev. George, 462 Davidson, Rev. Henry, 466 Davidson, Rev. James, 178, 181, 446 Davidson, Rev. Robert, 166 Davidson, Rev. W. B. Y., 157 Dawson, Rev. James A., 13 Dawson, Rev. John, 21 Dawson, Rev. William W., 417 Dempster, Rev. James T., 256 Dempster, Rev. Simon, 366 Dewar, Rev. George F. , 227 Dewar, Rev. Hugh, 315 Dewar, Rev. James, 315 Dick, Mr A. Coventry, 25 Dick, Rev. Andrew L., 133, 708 Dick, Rev. Charles, 161 Dick, Rev. George H., 67 Dick, Rev. James, 146 Dick, Rev. John, D.D., 25 Dick, Rev. Robert, 249, 381 Dick, Rev. Thomas, LL.D., 671 Dickie, Rev. Andrew, 105, 381 Dickie, Rev. John D., 445 Dickie, Rev. Matthew (Alva), 710 Dickie, Rev. Matthew (Cumnock), 334 Dickie, Rev. William, 117, 556 Dickie, Rev. William S., 302 Dickson, Rev. James, 141 Dickson, Rev. Thomas S., 601 Dobie, Rev. John, D.D., 77 Dobbie, Rev. Thomas, 8, 9, 101 Donaldson, Rev. Alexander W., 228 Douglas, Rev. Daniel, 375 Douglas, Rev. G. H. 350 Douglas, Rev. James, 4 Douglas, Rev. John, 259 Douglas, Rev. Robert, D.D., 467 Dowie, Rev. Robert, 480 Downie, Rev. Thomas, 416 Drennan, Rev. James W. 392 Drummond, Mr James, 610 Drummond, Rev. David, 193 Drummond, Rev. James, 299 Drummond, Rev. John, 623 Drummond, Rev. Ralph, 397 Drummond, Rev. Robert J., D.D., 294 Drummond, Rev. Robert S., D.D., 63, ill Drysdale, Rev. Henry, 110 Drysdale, Rev. James, 562 Drysdale, Rev. William, 4, 6 Duff, Rev. John, 238, 304 Dun, Rev. Andrew, 261 Dun, Rev. James, 42 Dun, Rev. William, 571 Duncan, Rev. Alexander (Glasgow), 30, 70, 341 Duncan, Rev. Alexander (Greenock), 181, 347, 662 Duncan, Rev. Andrew, 194 Duncan, Rev. David, 428 Duncan, Rev. James, 78 Duncan, Rev. John, 307 Duncan, Rev. Walter, 29, 70, 72 Duncan, Rev. William, 92 Duncanson, Rev. Andrew, 123 Duncanson, Rev. Peter C., 217 Dundas, Rev. John, 347 Dunlop, Rev. Hugh, 18 Dunlop, Rev. James, 18, 243, 410 Dunlop, Rev. James M., 140 Dunlop, Rev. Walter, 454 Dunlop, Rev. William (Buckhaven), 395 Dunlop, Rev. William (Port William), 17 Dunn, Rev. John, 172 Durie, Rev. William, 438 Duthie, Rev. George, 610 Dykes, Rev. Alexander B., 20 Eadie, Rev. John, D.D., 67, 101 Eason, Rev. James, 89, 180 East, Rev. Timothy, 81 Easton, Rev. Alexander, 218 Eckford, Rev. John, 280 Edgar, Rev. Robert, 89, 500 73 2 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Edmond, Rev. John, D.D., 57 Edwards, Rev. John, D.D., 53 Elder, Rev. Andrew, 526, 610 Elder, Rev. John, 147 Elder, Rev. John L., 273 Elder, Rev. William, 464 Eldon, Lord, 554 Ellis, Rev. James, 309 Erskine, Rev. Ebenezer, 22, 248, 663 Erskine, Rev. Henry, 308 Erskine, Rev. James, 23, 664 Erskine, Rev. John, 365 Erskine, Rev. Ralph, 22, 131, 683 Ewing, Mr John, 305 Ewing, Rev. David, 305 Ewing, Rev. James C., 117 F Fairgrieve, Rev. George, 311 Fairlie, Rev. John K., 316 Fairweather, Rev. William, 359 Falconer, Rev. James, 19 Fenwick, Mr John, 645 Fergus, Rev. David, 187, 596 Fergus, Rev. John, 236 Ferguson, Rev. Alexander, 281, 317 Ferguson, Rev. Fergus, D.D., 103 Ferguson, Rev. James, 221 Ferguson, Rev. John, 611 Ferrier, Rev. Andrew, D.D., 126, 238 Ferrier, Rev. William, D. D., 297, 515 Findlater, Rev. Alexander, 212 Findlay, Rev. Adam F., n Finlay, Rev. James, 388, 597 Finlay, Rev. Robert, 699 Finlayson, Rev. Robert, 436 Finlayson, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 178 Fisher, Rev. Daniel, 389 Fisher, Rev. James, 22, 131, 636 Fisher, Rev. Robert, 392 Fleming, Rev. Andrew G., 522, 710 Fleming, Rev. Henry M. , 503 Fleming, Rev. James, 1 1 Fleming, Rev. John R. , 224 Fleming, Rev. William, 360 Fletcher, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 678 Fletcher, Rev. James, 453 Fletcher, Rev. Robert, 219 Fletcher, Rev. William, 677 Forrest, Rev. Andrew F., 76, 670 Forrest, Rev. David (Glasgow), 84, 343 Forrest, Rev. David (Inverkeithing), 430 Forrest, Rev. David W., D.D., 46, 210, 214 Forrest, Rev. James, 290 Forrest, Rev. John, 287 Forrest, Rev. Robert, 309 Forrester, Rev. David M., 96, 619 Forrester, Rev. James, 599, 610 Forsyth, Rev. James, 563 Forsyth, Rev. John, 262, 284 Forsyth, Rev. Robert, 563 Forsyth, Rev. Thomas, 660 France, Rev. John, 688 France, Rev. William, 516 Frame, Mr James, 177 Frame, Rev. James (Glasgow), 41, 388, 561 Frame, Rev. James (Millport), 208 Fraser, Rev. Donald, D.D., 374 Fraser, Rev. Henry, 308 Fraser, Rev. Henry E., 98 Fraser, Rev. John, 88 Fraser, Rev. Norman, 215 Fraser, Rev. William (Alloa), 374, 396, 683 Fraser, Rev. William (Stonehouse), 234 French, Rev. John, 228 Frew, Rev. Forrest, 557 Frew, Rev. Robert, D.D., 701 Fyfe, Rev. Andrew, 410 Fyfe, Rev. James E., 541 Fyfe, Rev. William, 387 G Galbraith, Rev. Walter, 278, 312 Galbraith, Rev. William, 185 Galletly, Rev. William, 706 Galloway, Rev. James, 591 Gardiner, Rev. James (Largo), 382 Gardiner, Rev. James (Uddingston), 134 Gardiner, Rev. John H., IO Garie, Rev. James, 575 Garrett, Rev. James, 344 Gellatly, Rev. David, 378 Gemmell, Rev. John, M.D., 303 Gemmell, Rev. Robert D. B., 422 Gemmill, Rev. Hugh, 538 Gentles, Rev. Andrew M., 432 Gib, Rev. Adam, 22, 232, 586 Gibb, Rev. Colin M., 250 Gibson, Rev. Hugh, 410 Gibson, Rev. James, 1 1 Gibson, Rev. James Y. , 473 Gibson, Rev. Robert M., 118 Giffen, Rev. James, 306 Giffen, Rev. John S., 438 Giffen, Rev. Mungo, 249 Gifford, Lord, 310 Gifford, Rev. John, 310 Gilchrist, Rev. Alexander, 96 Gilfillan, Rev. George, 91, 580, 584 Gilfillan, Rev. James, D.D., 672 Gilfillan, Rev. Michael, 679, 691 Gilfillan, Rev. Samuel, 612, 624 Gillon, Rev. Adam D., 493 INDEX Gilmour, Rev. John, 222 Girdwood, Rev. William, 561 Glass, Rev. John, 565 Glass, Rev. Laurence, 433 Glassford, Rev. Peter, 276 Glen, Rev. Henry, 530 Goodall, Rev. William S., 27, 313 Goodfellow, Rev. George, 239 Goodwin, Rev. David, 619 Goold, Rev. John, 81 Gowanlock, Rev. John T., 670, 673 Gowans, Rev. James, 283 Gowdie, Rev. John, 434 Gowdie, Rev. Prof., 434 Graham, Mr George, 297 Graham, Rev. George, 167 Graham, Rev. John, D.D., 30, 69, 98 Grahame, Rev. James, 182 Granger, Rev. Thomas, 569 Gray, Prof. David, 359 Gray, Rev. Adam, 206 Gray, Rev. Andrew, 280 Gray, Rev. David, 659 Gray, Rev. Henry B., 540 Gray, Rev. James, 149 Gray, Rev. John (Baillieston), 135 Gray, Rev. John (Glasgow), 105, 300 Gray, Rev. John (Rothesay), 185 Gray, Rev. Thomas, 359 Gray, Rev. William, 132 Green, Rev. George G., 89 Greig, Rev. James, 296 Greig, Rev. Robert, 252 Grimmond, Mr Alexander, 548 Grimmond, Mr William, 571 Grimmond, Rev. James, 570 Gunion, Rev. Andrew J., LL.D., 179, 229, 461 Guthrie, Rev. William, 386 11 Haldanes, The, 481, 495, 507 Haliburton, Rev. Simon, 453 Hall, Rev. David, 528 Hall, Rev. James, D. D., 139, 333, 419, 535 Hall, Rev. Robert (Glasgow), 107 Hall, Rev. Robert (Kelso), 264 Hall, Rev. William, 616 Halley, Rev. William M., 403 Hamilton, Mr James, 589 Hamilton, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 286 Hamilton, Rev. David, 436 Hamilton, Rev. Henry, 598 Hamilton, Rev. James, 382 Hamilton, Rev. James, D.D. , 462 Hamilton, Rev. John (Hamilton), 218 Hamilton, Rev. John (Lauder), 451 733 Hamilton, Rev. Robert, 716 Hannay, Rev. Peter, 2, 16, 162 Hardie, Rev. James, 390 Harper, Rev. Alexander, 412 Harper, Rev. Archibald, 393 Harper, Rev. James, D.D., 413 Harper, Rev. William, 391 Harrower, Rev. David A., 196 Harvey, Rev. Alexander, 59, 292 388 Harvey, Rev. John M., 684 Hastie, Rev. John, 274 Hay, Mr Andrew, 431 Hay, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 276 Hay, Rev. David (Glasgow), 1 1 1 Hay, Rev. David (Largo), 384 Hay, Rev. James, 120, 200 Hay, Rev. James, D.D., 393 Hay, Rev. Joseph, 643 Hay, Rev. Robert, 431 Hay, Rev. William, M.D., 83 Henderson, Mr Samuel, 295 Henderson, Rev. Alexander L., 38 Henderson, Rev. Alexander (Dunblane), 694 Henderson, Rev. Alexander (Perth), 436, 558 Henderson, Rev. Andrew, LL.D., 519 Henderson, Rev. Archibald, 371, 590 Henderson, Rev. David, 304 Henderson, Rev. George (Glasgow), 23 Henderson, Rev. George (Lauder), 448 Henderson, Rev. James, 458 Henderson, Rev. James, D.D., 431, 467 Henderson, Rev. James F., 208 Henderson, Rev. Robert, 209 Henderson, Rev. Thomas W., 160 Henderson, Rev. William, 22 Henderson, Rev. William T., 208 Heriot, Rev. William, 227, 531 Heugh, Rev. Hugh, D.D., 56, 74, 327, 456, 598, 672 Heugh, Rev. John (Kingoldrum), 545, 637 Heugh, Rev. John (Stirling), 671 Heughan, Rev. George K., 140, 302 Hewitson, Rev. W. H., 561 Hibbs, Rev. Joseph, 294, 369 Hill, Rev. George (Musselburgh), 67, 632 Hill, Rev. George (Shotts), 231 Hill, Rev. James, 642 Hill, Rev. John, 130 Hill, Rev. Rowland, 366 Hill, Rev. Thomas, 14 Hislop, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 53 Hislop, Rev. Robert, 290 Hobart, Rev. R. R., 232 Hog, Rev. David, 183 Hog, Rev. James (Carnock), 240 734 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Hog, Rev. James (Kelso), 233, 267 Hogarth, Rev. John P., 542, 586 Hogarth, Rev. Robert, 5 Hogarth, Rev. Thomas B., 159, 703 Holmes, Rev. James, 168 Holyoake, Mr George J., 468 Home, Rev. Alexander, 250 Horn, Rev. David, 404 Home, Rev. William, 418, 423 Houston, Rev. James R., 98, 121, 385, 427 Howie, Mr James, 330 Howieson, Rev. Matthew, 647 Howison, Rev. Alexander, 645 Hugh, Rev. Thomas A. , 242 Huie, Rev. John Z. , 560 Huie, Rev. William, 679 Hume, Rev. David R., 396 Hume, Rev. James, 432 Hume, Rev. Walter, 275 Hunter, Rev. Alexander, 386 Hunter, Rev. George (Stranraer), 6 Hunter, Rev. George (Tillicoultry), 706 Hunter, Rev. James H. S., 168, 229 Hunter, Rev. John (Belford), 499 Hunter, Rev. John (Morebattle), 247, 250 Hunter, Rev. John (Pitrodie), 580 Hunter, Rev. John (Savoch), 536 Hunter, Rev. R. G., 369, 505 Hutchison, Rev. James, 163 Hutchison, Rev. John, D.D., 541 Hutchison, Rev. Patrick, 519, 589, 699 Hutchison, Rev. Robert E. , 503 Hutton, Rev. George C., D.D., 521 Hutton, Rev. William (MofTat), 335, 338 Hutton, Rev. William (Stow), 429 Hyslop, Rev. Ebenezer, 231, 678 Hyslop, Rev. Henry, 189 Hyslop, Rev. James, 114 Hyslop, Rev. John S. , 287, 401 Hyslop, Rev. Thomas, 355, 678 Imrie, Rev. David, 76 Imrie, Rev. James, 75 Imrie, Rev. Robert, 608 Imrie, Rev. William, 76 Ingles, Rev. John C. , 627 Ingles, Rev. Robert, 466 Inglis, Mr Charles, 434 Inglis, Rev. David, 194 Inglis, Rev. David M., 341 Inglis, Rev. John, 214 Inglis, Rev. James (Johnstone), 536 Inglis, Rev. James (Midholm), 434 Inglis, Rev. William, 249 Inglis, Rev. W. R., 225, 270, 295 Ingram, Rev. James, 505 Innes, Rev. Hugh, 58 Irving, Rev. William, 7 Isaac, Rev. Andrew, 326 Jack, Rev. James, 298 Jack, Rev. Robert, D.D., 174 Jackson, Rev. John C. , 81, 381, 398 Jackson, Rev. Robert, 68 Jacque, Rev. George, 597 Jaffray, Rev. Robert, 285 James, Rev. David, 317, 357 James, Rev. George F. , 286 James, Rev. John, D.D., 392 James, Rev. Robert, 499 Jameson, Rev. John, 549, 620 Jameson, Rev. William (Calabar), 508, 621 Jameson, Rev. William (Kilwinning), 281 Jamieson, Rev. David T. , 146, 293 Jamieson, Rev. John, D.D., 641 Jamieson, Rev. John (Bellshill), 224, 380 Jamieson, Rev. John (Douglas), 422 Jamieson, Rev. John (Glasgow), 27 Jardine, Rev. James, 12 Jarvie, Rev. James, 269, 426 Jeffrey, Rev. George, D.D., 71 Jeffrey, Rev. James (Pollokshields), 63, 122 Jeffrey, Rev. James (Greenock), 177 Jeffrey, Rev. Robert T., D.D., 71, 91 Jenkins, Rev. James, 390 Jerdan, Rev. Charles, 178 Jerment, Rev. George, D.D., 585, 681 Jerment, Rev. Richard, 362 Jervie, Rev. John, 551 Johnston, Rev. Alfred W., 138 Johnston, Rev. George, D. D. , 27 Johnston, Rev. George (Glasgow), 149, 36l, 507 Johnston, Rev. George (Lanark), 417 Johnston, Rev. James A., 96 Johnston, Rev. John Brown, D.D., 31, 120, 355 Johnston, Rev. John (Glasgow), 66 Johnston, Rev. John C., 199 Johnston, Rev. John (Leslie), 371 Johnston, Rev. Joseph, 389 Johnston, Rev. Matthew, 322 Johnston, Rev. Thomas B., 381 Johnston, Rev. William, 372 Johnstone, James, Esq. , 708 Johnstone, Rev. James, 565 Johnstone, Rev. Robert, D.D., 72 INDEX 735 K Kay, Rev. James, 358 Kechie, Rev. John., 438 Keir, Rev. Thomas, 450 Kellock, Rev. W. H., 100, 281 Kennedy, Rev. Angus R., M.D., 196 Ker, Rev. John, D.D., 40 Kerr, Mr Bryce, 529 Kerr, Rev. Andrew, 478 Kerr, Rev. Bryce, 383 Kerr, Rev. Daniel, 275 Kerr, Rev. James, 12 Kerr, Rev. James R., 388 Kerr, Rev. John, 223 Kerr, Rev. Robert, 245 Kesson, Rev. John, 533 Ketchen, Rev. Thomas, 487 Key, Rev. Andrew, 478 Kidd, Rev. James, D.D., 63 Kiddy, Rev. William, 249, 471 Kidston, Rev. William, D.U., 39, 373 Kidston, Rev. William, 430 King, Rev. David, LL.D., 25, 206 King, Rev. John (Alva), 710 King, Rev. John (Auchterarder), 596 Kininmont, Rev. Alex. D. , 425 Kinloch, Rev. Samuel, 517 Kirk, Rev. John, 651 Kirk, Rev. John, D.D. 694 Kirkaldy, Rev. James, 353 Kirkland, Rev. Alexander, 100 Kirk wood, Rev. James, 291 Kirkwood, Rev. John (Strathaven), 227 Kirkwood, Rev. John (Troon), 343 Kirkwood, Rev. Thomas C. , 265, 492 Knox, Rev. Alexander F. , 672 Knox, Rev. James, D.D., 94, 329 Kyle, Rev. James, 150 Kyle, Rev. John, 578 Laidlaw, Rev. John, 592 Laidly, Rev. John, 529 Laing, Rev. Alexander, 197 Laing, Rev. Benjamin, D.D., 324 Laing, Rev. William, 612 Lamb, Rev. John, 575 Lambert, Rev. John C. , 149, 313 Lambie, Rev. Andrew, 635 Lambie, Rev. James, 197 Langlands, Rev. John, 18 Lapslie, Rev. James, 156 Latimer, Rev. W. T., 551 Lauder, Rev. William (Earlston), 435 Lauder, Rev. William (Port-Glasgow), 195 Laughland, Rev. David, 239 Laurie, Rev. James, 455 Law, Rev. James, 355 Law, Rev. John, 455, 474 Law, Rev. Robert, 138, 294, 403, 711 Law, Rev. William, 540 Lawrie, Rev. David, 585 Lawrie, Rev. Thomas M., 116 Lawson, Rev. Andrew, 442 Lawson, Rev. George, 285, 442, 467 Lawson, Rev. George, D.D., 441, 552 Lawson, Rev. John, 443, 445 Leek, Rev. Alexander, 540 Leckie, Mr Charles, 392 Leckie, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 102, 208 Leech, Rev. John, 191 Lennox, Rev. John, 532 Lewars, Rev. John, 362, 428 Leys, Mr George M., 227 Leys, Rev. Peter, 226 Limont, Rev. William, 291 Lindsay, Rev. Alexander, 427 Lindsay, Rev. David, 702 Lindsay, Rev. James, 95, 286 Lindsay, Rev. John (Helensburgh), 702 Lindsay, Rev. John (Johnstone), 512, 535 Lindsay, Rev. Robert, 17 Lindsay, Rev. Thomas M., D.D., 428 Lindsay, Rev. William, 224, 557 Lindsay, Rev. William, D.D., 34, 537 Lining, Rev. Thomas, 427 Logan, Rev. James, 701 Logan, Rev. William, 417 Logic, Mr Deas, 236 Logic, Rev. John, 202 Lothian, Rev. Andrew, 194 Low,. Rev. George, 143 Low, Rev. John, 349, 407 Lowdon, Rev. C. Ross, 408 Lowrie, Rev. William, 449 Luke, Rev. George, 495 Lumgair, Rev. David, 465 Lumsden, Rev. James, 397 Lyon, Rev. Robert, 551 M MacEwen, Rev. Alexander R., D.D., 38, 94, 365 MacEwen, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 93 MacEwen, Rev. James, 42, 459 MacEwen, Rev. William, 516 MacFarlane, Rev. Hugh, 162 MacFarlane, Rev. Peter, 184, 416 Macfee, Rev. William G., 119 MacGill, Rev. Hamilton M., 30, 57, 73 Mackay, Rev. James, 505 Mackay, Rev. Thomas R., 505 Mackie, Rev. James, 133 736 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Mackie, Rev. John, 589 Mackenzie, Rev. John M., 479 Mackenzie, Rev. Patrick, 268 Mackenzie, Rev. Robert, 242, 684 Macknight, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 260 Mackray, Rev. William, 669 Macleroy, Rev. Campbell, 236 Macmillan, Rev. James, 102, 115 Macpherson, Rev. A. Scott, 121 MacRae, Rev. David, 203 M'Ara, Rev. John, 169, 510, 667 M'Callum, Rev. George, 446 M'Cheyne, Rev. Robert M., 269 M'Cheyne, Rev. William, 269 M'Coll, Rev. Alexander, 306 M'Coll, Rev. John (Paisley), 528 M'Coll, Rev. John (Partick), 118 M'Conchie, Rev. William G., 137 M'Creath, Rev. Thomas, 35 M'Crie, Rev. James, D.D., 5 M'Crie, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 624 M'Cubbin, Rev. John D., 507 M'Culloch, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 139, 312 M'Culloch, Rev. William, 130 M'Derment, Rev. Peter, 282, 326 M'Dermid, Rev. John, 520 M 'Donald, Rev. Alexander, 335 M'Donald, Rev. Donald, 202 M'Donald, Rev. John, 391, 481 M'Dougall, Rev. Peter M., 492 M'Dougall, Rev. William, 187, 292, 522 M'Dowall, Rev. Andrew, 241 M'Dowall, Rev. Peter, 681, 708 M'Ewan, Rev. David, D.D., 49, 331 M'Ewan, Rev. James, 226 M'Ewing, Rev. Charles, 54, 168 M'Fadyen, Rev. James, 350 M'Farlane, Rev. Andrew, 654 M'Farlane, Rev. Andrew, D.D., 176 M'Farlane, Rev. Hugh, 410 M'Farlane, Rev. James, D.D., 53 M'Farlane, Rev. John (Glasgow), 53 M'Farlane, Rev. John (Hamilton), 214, 216 M'Farlane, Rev. John (Lanark), 415 M'Farlane, Rev. John (London), 684 M'Farlane, Rev. John, LL.D. , 41, 62 M'Farlane, Rev. John T., 221 M'Farlane, Rev. Patrick, M.D., 605 M'Gavin, Mr William, 325 M'Gavin, Rev. James, D.D. , 125 M'Gavin, Rev. Matthew, 125, 234 M'Gilchrist, Rev. William, 320 M'Gowan, Rev. William S., 502 M'Gregor, Rev. Alexander, 283 M'Gregor, Rev. Andrew, 688 M'Gregor, Rev. John, 8 M'Gregor, Rev. John L. , 240 M'Guffie, Rev. Peter, 499, 653 M'llquham, Rev. William, 54, 158 M'Innes, Mr John, 133 M'Innes, Rev. John, 329 M'Innes, Rev. Robert M., 329 M'Innes, Rev. Thomas G. , 576 M'Intyre, Rev. Isaac K., 166 M'Intyre, Rev. J. B. K., 166, 192 M'Intyre, Rev. John (Baillieston), 135 M'Intyre, Rev. John (Greenloaning), 6g7 M'Intyre, Rev. John (Wishaw), 239 M'Kenzie, Rev. Daniel, 390 M'Kenzie, Rev. William, 80 M'Kerrow, Rev. John, D.D., 583, 678 M'Knight, Rev. John, 233 M'Lachlan, Rev. Andrew, 400 M'Laren, Rev. Archibald, 299 M'Laren, Duncan, Esq., 265 M'Laren, Rev. John (Glasgow), 82 M'Laren, Rev. John (Kilbarchan), 533 M'Laren, Rev. William, 697 M'Laurin, Rev. James C. , 104, 139 M'Lay, Rev. Walter, 228, 427 M'Lay, Rev. William, 252 M'Lean, Rev. Alexander T., 135 M'Lean, Rev. Archibald, 569 M'Lean, Rev. Daniel (Alloa), 682 M'Lean, Rev. Daniel (Lanark), 416 M'Lean, Rev. Daniel (Largs), 192, 573 M'Lean, Rev. Robert, 207, 208 M'Lellan, Rev. John (Braehead), 418 M'Lellan, Rev. John (Rousay), 508 M'Leod, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 49, 229 M'Leod, Rev. Angus, 165 M'Luckie, Rev. John, 134, 416 M'Master, Rev. Peter, 686 M 'Master, Rev. Robert, 652 M'Millan, Rev. John, 58 M'Nab, Rev. Samuel, 184 M'Naught, Rev. Daniel, 291, 410 M'Naughton, Rev. Alexander, 158 M'Naughton, Rev. Matthew, 159 M'Nee, Rev. Thomas D., 506 M'Neill, Rev. John, 145 M'Neil, Rev. John, 147, 642 M'Owan, Rev. James, 550, 707 M'Ouat, Rev. James E. , 620 M 'Queen, Rev. David, 65 M 'Queen, Rev. George, 158 M'Rae, Rev. David, 80, 162 M'Rorie, Rev. James, 229 Mair, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 431 Mair, Rev. David, junior, 506 Mair, Rev. David, senior, 506 Mair, Rev. James, 310 Malloch, Rev. David, 384 Marshall, Rev. Andrew, D.D., 151 Marshall, Rev. Archibald M., 239, 714 Marshall, Rev. William, D.D., 550, 569, INDEX 737 Marshall, Rev. William (ColinsburgM 380 Marshall, Rev. William (Leith). IC7 368 Martin, Rev. Benjamin, 372 Martin, Rev. James, 532 Martin, Rev. John, 629 Marwick, Rev. Isaac E., 356 Mason, Rev. John M., D. D., 309 Mather, Rev. James (Maybole), 339 Mather, Rev. James (Dairy), 543 Mather, Rev. Peter, 318 Matheson, Rev. Adam S., 93, 682 Mathison, Rev. John, 384 Matthew, Rev. Patrick, 365, 432 Matthew, Rev. Thomas, 434 Matthews, Rev. George D. , 8 Matthewson, Rev. Thomas, 317 Mearns, Rev. Peter, 67, 271, 334, 345 Meikle, Rev. James, D.D., 530 Meikle, Rev. Gilbert, 201 Meikle, Rev. William, 399 Meikleham, Rev. M. Bruce, 90 Meiklejohn, Rev. John, 245 Meiklejohn, Rev. Robert, 686 Mein, Mrs Renton, 265 Mein, Rev. B. R., 265 Mellis, Rev. David, M.D., 367 Melville, Rev. William B., 147, 506 Menzies, Rev. William, 415 Methven, Rev. James, 312 Middleton, Rev. George M., 64 Middleton, Robert T., Esq., M.P., 160 Miles, Rev. Alexander, 408 Mill, Rev. James S., 386 Millar, John, Esq., 711 Millar, Rev. A. Johnston, 96 Millar, Rev. John, 623 Miller, Mr James B., 609 Miller, Rev. Alexander, 500 Miller, Rev. David K., 81, 276 Miller, Rev. Duncan, 656 Miller, Rev. James, 476 Miller, Rev. James A., 702 Miller, Rev. John, 713 Miller, Rev. John F., 663 Miller, Rev. John K., 348 Miller, Rev. Thomas, 556 Miller, Rev. William G., 129, 321 Miller, Rev. William (Lenzie), 159 Miller, Rev. William (Sandyford), 83 Milligan, Rev. Archibald H., 594 Milligan, Rev. James, D. D., 121 Milligan, Rev. John, 447, 564 Milne, Rev. John (Glasgow), 90 Milne, Rev. John (Perth), 560 Minto, Rev. George, 472 Mitchell, Mr James, 588 Mitchell, Rev. Andrew, 30, 516, 529 Mitchell, Rev. David F., 21 II. 3 A Mitchell, Rev. James, 614 Mitchell, Rev. John, 155, 401 Mitchell, Rev. John, D.D., -10 44 Moffat, Rev. William D., 710 ' Moir, Rev. Andrew, 440 Moir, Rev. James, 335 Moncrieff, Rev. Alexander, 549, 583 Moncrieff, Rev. John, 213 Moncrieff, Rev. Matthew, 584 Moncrieff, Rev. Sir Henry, 596 Moncrieff, Rev. William, 680, 327 Moncur, Ex-Provost, 488 Monteith, Mr James, 36 Monteith, Rev. James, 539 Moodie, Rev. Andrew M., 716 Moodie, Rev. John, 291 Moodie, Rev. Robert, 702 More, Rev. John (Alloa), 684 More, Rev. John (Cairneyhill), 279 Morgan, Rev. David M., 118 Morgan, Rev. William, 337 Morison, Rev. Andrew, 708 Morison, Rev. Alexander, 373 Morison, Rev. George, 202 Morison, Rev. James, D.D., 288, 293, 33.2, 523 Morison, Rev. Walter, D.D., 66, 331 Morison, Rev. William, 420 Morris, Rev. George, 305 Morrison, Rev. David, 248 Morrison, Rev. James, 248 Morton, Rev. Andrew, 475 Morton, Rev. Andrew, LL.D., 177 Morton, Rev. John, 370, Morton, Rev. Peter, 229 Morton, Rev. William, 202 Moscrip, Rev. George, 171 Mowat, Rev. William, 469 Moyes, Rev. Charles, 254 Muckersie, Rev. James, 238, 68 1 Muckersie, Rev. John, 238, 607 Muckersie, Rev. Walter, 79 Mudie, Rev. James, 488 Muil, Rev. William S. , 601 Muir, Rev. Archibald, 383 Muir, Rev. Francis, 701 Muir, Rev. James, 711 Muir, Rev. John, 356 Muir, Rev. Robert, 461 Muirhead, Rev. Charles, 568 Muirhead, Rev. John, 266 Muirhead Rev. William, 9 Munro, Rev. James L., 443 Munro, Rev. John, 16 Munro, Rev. John B., 131 Munsie, Rev. William, 99 Murray, Prof. Alexander, 12 Murray, Rev. George, 584 Murray, Rev. James L., 104, 293 Murray, Rev. John, 486 738 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Murray, Rev. John A. , 363 Murray, Rev. William R., 320 Muter, Rev. Robert, D.D., 82 Myles, Rev. Thomas, 637 N Nairn, Rev. James, D.D., 386 Nairn, Rev. Thomas, 352 Nairn, Rev. William, 52 Naismith, Rev. Charles, 580 Napier, Rev. G. M., 253 Neil, Rev. Joseph, 37 Neilson, Rev. Alexander, 426 Nelson, Mr James Sidey, 633 Nelson, Rev. Robert, 633 Nelson, Rev. Thomas, 647 Newlands, Rev. John, D.D., 555 Newlands, Rev. Thomas S. , 565 Ney, Rev. William, 54 Nichol, Rev. John, 330 Nicholson, Rev. James B. , 52 Nicholson, Rev. Thomas B. , 221 Nicol, Rev. Andrew, 392 Nicol, Rev. Robert, 263 Nicol, Rev. Thomas, 580 Nicol, Rev. Wiliiam (Airdrie), 124 Nicol, Rev. William (Barrhead), 142 Nicol, Rev. William, D.D., 255, 536 Nicoll, Robert, 645 Nicolson, Rev. George H., 386 Nisbet, Rev. James S. , 403, 492 Nisbet, Rev. William, 518 Niven, Rev. Robert, 92 Niven, Rev. William L. A., 474 Ochterston, Rev. Arthur, 305, 317 Ogilvie, Mr Alexander, 2 Ogilvie, Mr Andrew, 2 Ogilvie, Rev. Andrew, i, 4 Ogilvie, Rev. John, 397 Oliver, Rev. Alexander, D. D. , 58, 467, 5i8 Oliver, Rev. William, 212 Orr, Rev. James, D.D., 459 Orr, Rev. Matthew, 604 Orr, Rev. William, 315 Oswald, Rev. James, 620 Oswald, Rev. Thomas, 702 Parlane, Rev. James, 364, 457 Paterson, Rev. Alexander, 472 Paterson, Rev. Alexander J. B., 541 Paterson, Rev. Henry A. , 235 Paterson, Rev. James, 45, 646 Paterson, Rev. John (Airdrie), 125 Paterson, Rev. John (Rattray), 711 Paterson, Rev. Robert (Biggar), 260, 382, 409 Paterson, Rev. Robert (Greenloanine). 686 Paterson, Rev. Robert, D.D., 484 Paterson, Rev. Robert S., 506 Paterson, Rev. Thomas W. , 420 Paton, David, Esq., 713 Paton, James, Esq., 706, 713 Paton, Rev. John, M.D., 379 Paton, Rev. William M., 84, 586 Patrick, Rev. James, 350 Patrick, Rev. Millar, 333, 408 Patrick, Rev. William, 456 Patterson, Rev. W. J., 402 Paul, Rev. John, 494 Paxton, Rev. George, D.D., 279, 312 Pearson, Lord, 435 Pearson, Rev. Robert, 409 Peden, Rev. John, 70 Pettigrew, Rev. Alexander, 652 Pettigrew, Rev. John, 496 Pettigrew, Rev. William A., 385 Philip, Rev. A., 582 Philp, Rev. George, 306 Pinkerton, Rev. James, 1 86 Pirie, Rev. Alexander (Blairlogie), 586, .695 Pirie, Rev. Alexander (Glasgow), 24 Pirie, Rev. Alexander L, 508 Pirret, Rev. David, 82 Pirret, Rev. Joseph Brown, 100 Pitcairn, Rev. John, 46, 269 Pittendrigh, Rev. James, 388 Pollock, Rev. John, 78 Pollock, Rev. John B., 468 Pollock, Rev. Robert, 300 Pollok, Rev. Allan, D.D., 394 Pollok, Rev. Robert, 394 Poison, Rev. John, 256 Porteous, Rev. James, 261, 272 Porteous, Rev. John, 516 Potts, Rev. John, 251, 262 Preston, Rev. Alexander, 617 Primrose, Rev. James, 32 Primrose, Rev. Robert, 83, 119, 180 Pringle Mr Thomas, 549 Pringle Pringle Pringle Pringle Pringle Pringle Pringle Pringle Pringle Rev. Alexander, D.D. , 546 Rev. James (Kinclaven), 638 Rev. James (Newcastle), 549 Rev. James (Pollokshaws), 139 Rev. John, 426 Rev. John W. , 262, 715 Rev. William, 549 Rev. William, D.D., 599 Sir Robert, 250 INDEX 739 Proctor, Rev. William, 162 Proudfoot, Rev. William, 579 Pullar, Rev. James, 15 Pullar, Rev. Thomas, 250 Punton, Rev. James, 212 Purdie, Rev. Joseph, 388, 421 Purves, Rev. James W., 312 R Rae, Rev. George, 205 Rae, Rev. James M., 92 Raeburn, Rev. William, 707 Ramage, Rev. William, 493 Ramage, Rev. William, D.D., 43, 97, 292 Ramsay, Rev. Alexander, 129 Ramsay, Rev. Andrew M. , 461 Ramsay, Rev. James (Glasgow), 27, 212, 700 Ramsay, Rev. James (Kelso), 262 Ramsay, Rev. John, 215 Ramsay, Rev. William, 625 Rankine, Rev. Thomas P. , 95 Rattray, Rev. William, 443 Reid, Rev. George, 498 Reid, Rev. Henry, 300 Reid, Rev. John, 402 Reid, Rev. Laurence, 446 Reid, Rev. Robert, 509 Reid, Rev. William (Colinsburgh), 380 Reid, Rev. William (Newton-Stewart), 13 Reikie, Rev. Patrick, 376 Rennie, Rev. James, 65 Renton, Rev. Alexander, 265 Renton, Rev. Henry, 264 Renwick, Rev. Robert, 330 Reston, Rev. David, 571 Reston, Rev. James, 12 Reston, Rev. John, 53, 409 Richardson, Rev. John, 147 Richardson, Rev. William, 169 Riddoch, Rev. John, 270 Rintoul, Rev. J. L., 550 Ritchie, Rev. Andrew, 275, 670 Ritchie, Rev. Archibald, 190 Ritchie, Rev. Ebenezer (Kirkwall), 485, 659 Ritchie, Rev. Ebenezer (Paisley), 232 Ritchie, Rev. John, 232 Ritchie, Rev. John, D.D., 71, 288, 487 Ritchie, Rev. William, 648, 717 Roberts, Rev. Walter, 104, 125 Robertson, Mr Andrew (Bannockburn), 708 Robertson, Mr Andrew (Dalreoch), 604 Robertson, Mr Charles, 716 Robertson, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 501 II. 3 A 2 Robertson, Rev. Andrew, 431, 523 Robertson, Rev. Archibald, 224 Robertson, Rev. David, 280 Robertson, Rev. Eric S., 77 Robertson, Rev. George, 146 Robertson, Rev. George, D.D., 186 Robertson, Rev. James, D.D., 77 Robertson, Rev. James (Kilmarnock), 287 Robertson Rev. James (Newcastle), 640 Robertson, Rev. John (Ayr), 328 Robertson, Rev. John (Jedburgh), 256 Robertson, Rev. John (Stranraer), 4, 183 Robertson, Rev. John D., 322 Robertson, Rev. Peter, 299 Robertson, Rev. Thomas (Kilwinning), 282 Robertson, Rev. Thomas (Mossbank), 657 Robertson, Rev. William, 278 Robertson, Rev. William B., D.D. , 301 Robinson, Rev. Alexander, 630 Robson, Rev. Charles, 95, 196 Robson, Rev. George, 449, 450 Robson, Rev. George, D. D., 562 Robson, Rev. James, 538 Robson, Rev. John, D.D., 45, 178, 265 Rodgie, Rev. Andrew, 457 Roger, Rev. George, 327 Rogers, Rev. James, 265 Rogerson, Rev. Adam B., 506 Ronald, Rev. David, 310, 311 Ronald, Rev. James, 422 Ronald, Rev. John, 313 Rorke, Rev. Joseph, 479 Ross, Rev. Alexander, 164 Ross, Rev. Andrew, 633 Ross, Rev. David, 363 Ross, Rev. Donald (Lismore), 163 Ross, Rev. Donald (Westray), 499 Ross, Rev. George, 689 Ross, Rev. George A. J., 711 Ross, Rev. George F. , 273 Runciman, Rev. Charles, 497 Russell, Mr Ebenezer, 546 Russell, Mr John, 482 Russell, Mr Scott, 578 Russell, Rev. David, 380, 460, 577 Russell, Rev. George, 304 Russell, Rev. John, 689 Russell, Rev. Peter II., 658 Russell, Rev. Robert, 534 Russell, Rev. Thomas (Greenloaning), 323, 685 Russell, Rev. Thomas (Hawick), 137. 461 Russell, Rev. William, 445 Rutherford, Rev. Alexander C., 394 Rutherford, Rev. John, 211 740 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Rutherford, Rev. Peter, 35 Rutherford, Rev. William, 465 Rutherford, Rev. William, D.D., 344 Rutherford, Rev. W. G., LL.D., 744 Salmond, Rev. William, D.D., 709 Sandie, Rev. George, 202 Sangster, Rev. David, 556 Sawers, Rev. Peter R., 414 Schaw, Rev. Thomas, 639 Schaw, Rev. William, D.D., 329, 538 Scobie, Rev. Andrew, 107 Scot, Rev. James, 247 Scotland, Rev. James S. , 576 Scott, Mr Andrew H., 406 Scott, Rev. Alexander (Colinsburgh), 379 Scott, Rev. Alexander (Kirkcowan), 21 Scott, Rev. Andrew (Bonkle), 406 Scott, Rev. Andrew (Crieff), 624 Scott, Rev. David R. W., 322 Scott, Rev. Ernest F. (Prestwick), 351 Scott, Rev. Ernest F. (Towlaw), 716 Scott, Rev. Hew, D.D., 664 Scott, Rev. James, D.D., 426 Scott, Rev. James (Glasgow), 73, 360 Scott, Rev. James (Jedburgh), 261 Scott, Rev. James B., 311, 460 Scott, Rev. James G., 76 Scott, Rev. James H. , 406 Scott, Rev. James R. , 16 Scott, Rev. John (Biggar), 411 Scott, Rev. John (Greenloaning), 687 Scott, Rev. John (Shotts), 231 Scott, Rev. Robert, 272 Scott, Rev. Robert, M.D., 105, 619 Scott, Rev. Robert D., 420 Scott, Rev. Walter, 673 Scott, Rev. William (Bonkle), 405 Scott, Rev. William (Leslie), 367, 375 Scott-Hay, Rev. William, 514 Shanks, Rev. Alexander, 254 Shannon, Rev. James W. , 463 Shannon, Rev. John A., 403 Shaw, Rev. Adam, 76, 402 Shaw, Rev. Alexander, 399 Shaw, Rev. Robert D., 221 Shaw, Rev. Robert, D.D., 233 Shearer, Rev. David, 480, 504 Shearer, Rev. John, 241 Shields, Rev. Allan, 275 Shirra, Rev. Robert (Kirkcaldy), 353 Shirra, Rev. Robert (Yetholm), 273 Shoolbraid, Rev. John, 539 Sievewright, Rev. James, D.D., 402 Sim, Rev. David, 341 Simpson, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 222, 260, 387 Simpson, Rev. James, 480 Simpson, Rev. Thomas, 492 Sinclair, Rev. James, 486 Sinclair, Rev. Robert, 128 Sinclair, Rev. Sutherland, 173 Sinclair, Rev. William, 88 Sinclair, Sir George, 480 Skerret, Rev. Joseph L. , 31 Skinner, Mr James, 195, 342, 717 Skinner, Rev. John, D.D., 115 Slater, Rev. John W., 642 Slowan, Mr W. J., 684 Smail, Rev. Thomas, 21 Small, Mr Andrew, 9 Small, Rev. Robert, D.D., 198 Small, Rev. Thomas, 566 Smart, Mr James, 391 Smart, Rev. James, 382, 571 Smart, Rev. John, D.D., 668 Smart, Rev. William (Linlithgow), 670 Smart, Rev. William (Paisley), 518 Smellie, Rev. William, 7 Smith, Mr Alexander, 325 Smith, Mr Thomas, 548 Smith, Mr William, 707 Smith, Rev. Andrew M., 215, 330 Smith, Rev. Andrew W., 131, 317 Smith, Rev. David, D.D., 253, 408, 573 Smith, Rev. David (St Andrews), 511 Smith, Rev. David (St Ninians), 701 Smith, Rev. Ephraim, 13 Smith, Rev. Gabriel, 400 Smith, Rev. James (Campbeltown), 187 Smith, Rev. James (Coalsnaughton), 712 Smith, Rev. James (Dunning), 590 Smith, Rev. James (East Kilbride), 235 Smith, Rev. James, D.D., 62 Smith, Rev. James S., 6 Smith, Rev. John (Jedburgh), 253 Smith, Rev. John (Whithorn), 10 Smith, Rev. John B., 179 Smith, Rev. Malcolm, 463 Smith, Rev. Peter, 68, 71, 196, 501 Smith, Rev. Robert (Auchinleck), 325 Smith, Rev. Robert (Dundee), 361 Smith, Rev. Robert (Kilwinning), 282 Smith, Rev. William, 705, 707 Smyton, Rev. David, 277, 312 Snadden, Rev. James, 455 Snodgrass, Rev. W., D.D., 394 Somerville, Rev. Thomas, 384, 649 Somerville, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 258, 260 Somerville, William, Esq., 418 Sommerville, Rev. David, 225 Sommerville, Rev. George, 124 Sommerville, Rev. Simon, 492 Soutar, Rev. George S., 403, 502 Spence, Rev. James, 385 Spence, Rev. Prof., 327 INDEX Spiers, Rev. William, 688 Spittal, Rev. James, 165 Sprott, Rev. Andrew, 318 Sprott, Rev. William, 103, 140 Squair, Rev. John, 3, 15 Stalker, Rev. James, 470 Stark, Rev. James, 171 Stark, Rev. James, D.D., 68 1 Steedman, Rev. James, 479 Steedman, Rev. John, 669, 673 Steedman, Rev. William, 141 Steel, Rev John, D.D., 53 Steel, Rev. William, 35 Steven, Rev. William, 192 Stevenson, Rev. Alexander, 437 Stevenson, Rev. George, 282 Stevenson, Rev. George, D.D. , 328 Stevenson, Rev. Hugh, 473 Stevenson, Rev. John, 2 Stewart, Mr Peter, 530 Stewart, Mr William, 656 Stewart, Rev. Alexander (Ayr), 332 Stewart, Rev. Alexander (Kennoway), 367, 375 Stewart, Rev. Andrew, M.D., 542 Stewart, Rev. David, 669 Stewart, Rev. James (Glasgow), 37 Stewart, Rev. James (Greenend), 606 Stewart, Rev. James G., 60 Stewart, Rev. John, D.D., 631 Stewart, Rev. Robert W., D.D., 542 Stewart, Rev. Thomas (Crieff), 624 Stewart, Rev. Thomas (Strathaven), 225 Stewart, Rev. W. Shaw, D.D., 44, 395 Stewart, Rev. William, 478 Stillie, Rev. John, D.D., 342 Stirling, Rev. George, 284 Stirling, Rev. Henry, 591 Stirling, Rev. Hugh, 136 Stirling, Rev. James, 137 Stirling, Rev. Timothy W., 112 Stirling, Rev. William (Coatbridge), 129 Stirling, Rev. William (Rutherglen), 145, 201 Stobbs, Mr Alexander, 491 Stobbs, Rev. John, 491 Stobbs, 'Rev. Simon S., 319 Stobbs, Rev. William, 491 Strang, Rev. William, 12 Struthers, Mr John, 663 Struthers, Rev. Gavin, D.D., 37, 576 Struthers, Rev. Thomas, 219, 339 Stuart, Rev. John, 68 1 Sturrock, Rev. David A., 434 Sutherland, Rev. Archibald, 561 Swan, Rev. William F., 616 Swanston, Mr Andrew, 551 Swanston, Rev. John, 251 Symington, Rev. John, 292 Tail, Rev. Hugh, 121 Tail, Rev. James, 143 Tail, Mr James, 248, 438, 454 Taylor, Rev. Alexander, 155 Taylor, Rev. James, D.D. (Flisk), 554 Taylor, Rev. James, D.D. (Glasgow), 56, 76, 550 Taylor, Rev. James (Ayr), 327 Taylor, Rev. James (Earlston), 437 Taylor, Rev. James D., 284, 306 Taylor, Rev. James S., 51, 159, 272 Taylor, Rev. John, M.D., D.D., 146 Taylor, Rev. John G. , 509 Taylor, Rev. William (Polmadie), 114 Taylor, Rev. William (Stonehouse). 233 Taylor, Rev. William M., D.D., 280 Taylor, Rev. William (Perth), 554 Taylor, Rev. William (Stronsay), 487 Taylor, Sir Thomas W., 147 Telfar, Rev. David, 675 Telfer, Rev. David, 393 Tennant, Mr Daniel, 208 Tennant, Rev. John, I Thirde, Rev. James V., 658 Thorn, Rev. John, 399 Thomas, Rev. David, 338 Thomson, Rev. Adam, 458 Thomson, Rev. Adam, D.D., 270, 272 Thomson, Rev. Andrew, junior, 136 Thomson, Rev. Andrew, senior, 136 Thomson, Rev. David, 698 Thomson, Rev. George (Campbeltown), 189 Thomson, Rev. George (Rathillet), 24, 58 Thomson, Rev. George A. , 342 Thomson, Rev. Hugh, 277 Thomson, Rev. James (Auchtergaven), 646 Thomson, Rev. James (Burntisland), 362 Thomson, Rev. James (Kirkcaldy), 358 Thomson, Rev. James (Maybole), 339 Thomson, Rev. James, D.D., 157, 521 Thomson, Rev. James B., 174 Thomson, Rev. John (Campbeltown), 189, 488 Thomson, Rev. John (Dairy), 305 Thomson, Rev. John (Kirkintilloch), 24, 15 Thomson, Rev. John M., 340 Thomson, Rev. John W., 390 Thomson, Mr Joseph, 174 Thomson, Rev. Peter, 518 Thomson, Rev. Robert W., 205 Thomson, Rev. Thomas (Earlston), 437 Thomson, Rev. Thomas (Girvan), 341 Thomson, Rev. Thomas (Kirkcaldy), 358 742 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Thomson, Rev. William (Alloa), 684 Thomson, Rev. William (Hutcheson- town), 51, 531 Thomson, Rev. William (Maybole), 340 Thomson, Rev. William (Plantation), 107, 245 Thomson, Rev. William B. , 470 Thomson, Rev. William R. (Belhaven), 58, in, 178, 356 Thomson, Rev. William R. (Caledonia Road), 91, 439 Thomson, Rev. W. S., ^Q2 Thorburn, Rev. John, 20, 595 Thorburn, Rev. William R., 449 Torrance, Rev. Archibald, 275 Tome, Mr Robert, 452 Torry, Rev. James, 502 Towers, Rev. James, 2 Train, Rev. John G., 395 Trench, Rev. Thomas S., 220 Trotter, Rev. William, 440 Troup, Rev. Alexander, 546 Turnbull, Rev. James, 58, 380 Turner, Rev. George, D.D., 572 Turner, Rev. William, 199 Vallance, Rev. James, 400 W Walker, Rev. Alexander, 397 Walker, Rev. David, 138, 700 Walker, Rev. George, 17 Walker, Rev. John, 297, 337 Walker, Rev. Robert T., 289, 614 Walker, Rev. William T., 87, 162, 565 Wallace, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 43 Wallace, Rev. John, 693 Wallace, Rev. Simson, 662 Walton, Rev. William A., 524 Warden, Rev. John, 695 Wardlaw, Rev." Ralph, D.D., 23 Wardrop, Rev. James, D.D. , 564 Wardrop, Rev. William C. , 144, 532 Warner, Rev, John, 532 W'aters, Rev. Thomas, 683 Watson, Rev. Alexander, 605 Watson, Rev. George B., 621 Watson, Rev. John, 46 Watson, Rev. John M., 276 Watson, Rev. Robert, 574 Watson, Rev. William (Glasgow), 39 Watson, Rev. William (Old Kilpatrick), 191 Watt, Rev. T- Anderson, 71 Watt, Mr James, M.D., 328 Watt, Rev. John, 51, 697 Watt, Rev. Thomas, 592 Waugh, Rev. Alexander, D.D., 464 Webster, Rev. David, 485 Weir, Rev. Alexander, 129, 361 Weir, Rev. John, 425 Welch, Rev. Adam, 100 Wells, Rev. Laurence, 230 Westwater, Rev. James, 505, 716 Westwood, Rev. William, 536 Whillas, Rev. Thomas F., 244 White, Rev. Hugh, 298 White, Rev. William, 581 Whitefield, Rev. George, 130 Whitelaw, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 35, 292 Whyte, Rev. Alexander, 113 Whyte, Rev. Andrew, 500, 703 Whyte, Rev. Ebenezer E., 275 Whyte, Rev. Robert, D.D., 140, 265 Wield, Rev. Andrew, 148 Willans, Rev. William, 465, 632 Willcock, Rev. John, 654 Williams, Rev. John, 82 Williamson, Rev. George, 457 Williamson, Rev. Thomas, 472 Willis, Rev. Michael, D.D., 171 Willis, Rev. William, 169, 513, 669 Willison, Rev. Archibald, 489 Wills, Rev. John, 437 Wilson, Rev. Adam, 544 Wilson, Rev. David (Cumnock), 334 Wilson, Rev. David (Kilmarnock), 288, 651 Wilson, Rev. David (Kirkcaldy), 357 Wilson, Rev. David (Lauder), 447 Wilson, Rev. David (Pittenweem), 387, 556 Wilson, Rev. Gabriel, 247, 466 Wilson, Rev. John, Ph.D., 83 Wilson, Rev. John (Bellshill), 224 Wilson, Rev. John (Methven), 620 Wilson, Rev. John (Paisley), 526 Wilson, Rev. John (Partick), 119, 432, 488 Wilson, Rev. John M., 73 Wilson, Rev. Peter, 119 Wilson, Rev. Robert (Partick), 118 Wilson, Rev. Robert (Thornliebank), 148 Wilson, Rev. Robert, D.D., 175, 178 Wilson, Right Rev. W T . S. W., LL.D., 387 Wilson, Mr William, 661 Wilson, Rev. William (Greenock), 175 Wilson, Rev. William (Ireland), 637 Wilson, Rev. William (Perth), 238, 282, 544, 583 Wilson, Rev. William B., 225 Wilson, Rev. William B. R., 712 Winchester, Rev. James, 258 INDEX 743 Wither, Rev. Alexander, 498, 508 Witherow, Rev. James M., in Wood, Rev. James, 415 Wood, Rev. J. Julius, D.D., 415 Wood, Rev. William (Campsie), 157 Wood, Rev. William (Lismore), 163 Woodside, Rev. David, 26, 74, 492 Wotherspoon, Rev. John, 462 Wright, Rev. James, 279, 635 Wright, Rev. Thomas, 670 Wylie, Rev. Alexander L. , 656 Wylie, Rev. Andrew, 491 Wylie, Rev. David S., 512 Wylie, Rev. James, 640 Wylie, Rev. James A., LL.D., 359 712 Y Young, Rev. Alexander, 618 Young, Rev. Andrew, 285, 414 Young, Rev. Andrew M., 198 Young, R e v. David (Chatton), 643 Young, Rev. David, D.D. (Glasgow) 74 Young, Rev. David (Kinclaven), 639 Young, Rev. David (Muirkirk), 346 Young, Rev. David, D.D. (Perth), 143, 548 Young, Rev. Forrest I-\, 207 Young, Rev. George J., 465 Young, Rev. James, 705 Young, Rev. John (Buchlyvie), 688 Young, Rev. John (Catrine), 348 Young, Rev. John (Greenock), 176, 684 Young, Rev. John, D.D., 456, 462, 671 Young, Rev. Peter, 255 Young, Rev. Thomas M., M.D., 176 Young, Rev. William (Berwick-on- Tweed), 279 Young, Rev. William (Crail), 398 Young, Rev. William (Glasgow), 106, 472 Young, Rev. W. P., 647 Yule, Rev. William, 135 CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS VOL. I Preface, page vii. 1. 35. " Finlay" should read " Findlay." Page 9. John Bryce, though connected with Carsphairn, was a native of Falkirk. Page 41, 1. 20. Kilwinning should read Dairy. Page 45, footnote. It was to George Johnston, not to Andrew Lawson, that James Carlyle applied the words " Let the hireling go." Page 46, 1. 13. Though the cost of Ecclefechan new church was estimated at ; 1 7 50 it came to ,1000 more. Page 64, 1. 45. " Gave an address" should read " Attended a meeting'' 1 Page 84, 1. 52. Dr Grieve is a native of Smailholm parish, but entered the Hall from Braid Church, Edinburgh. Page 87,1.10. "Third" should read " Thirde" all through. Page in. " Presbytery of Banff" should read " Presbytery of Banff- shire" all through. Page 134, . 5. " Strathhaven " should read " Strat haven." Page 138, .21. "Banff" should read " Buc/ian." Page 141, . 34. " Sanquhar (South} " should read "Irvine (Trinity)." Page 145, . 39. " Village" should read "district." Page 159, .40. "Step-brother" should read "half-brother:' 744 HISTORY OF U.P. CONGREGATIONS Page 171, 1. 20. "Nineteenth" should read "eighteenth? Page 1 8 1, 1. 33. " Glendarvel" should read " Glendaruel? Page 194, 1. ii. I am now satisfied that this is the Condiecleuch (Condu- cloich) where the Associate Presbytery held an early meeting. Page 21 1, 1. 42. " 1773 " should read " 1737." Page 227, fourth paragraph. A manse was bought for ^1000 in 1894, and two years afterwards ^350 of that sum, as well as other requirements, was met by means of a bazaar. The ,20 allowed by the Board in name of house rent goes to meet the interest on the remaining ^650. The reduction in membership, the roll having come down 50 in one year, was owing to the session's faithfulness in dealing with nominal members in a church hastily collected. Mr Marr, we may state, is a native of Newhills parish, Aberdeenshire. Page 247, 1. 31. " Queeris" should read "King's? Page 252, 1. 5. " David B. Alexander" should read " David R. Alexander. " Page 356, 1. 39. " Born " should read " brought up." Page 368, 1. 7. Read "^170, besides the senior minister's ^40 from the congregation, and ,30 of supplement, and the manse." Page 388, 1. 45. " Sibbts " should read Sides'." Page 389, 1. 27. "Subject" should read "subjects? Page 392, 1. 13. "Partick" should read " Patrick? Page 396, 1. 9. " 1865 " should read " 1868." Page 438, 1. 1 1. " Columba " should read " Columbia? Page 470, 1. 47. "December" should read "November? Page 502. "St Andrew Place" should read "St Andrews Place" all through. Page 512. The paper headed " Defence League," and put into print, was never handed in to Junction Road session, but was allowed to drop. Of the elders who resigned office, nine was the number that left the church, and one of these returned some time afterwards. Page 536, 1. 38. Manse was built in 1884. Cost ,1250, of which ^320 came from the Manse Board. Another sum of ,1250 was expended in renovating the church in 1889. Page 545. Mention should have been made of Dr Robertson's work on Conscience, published in 1894. It brought out his philosophic bent of mind, and prepared the way for the professorial dignity to which he has since attained. Page 555, 1. 5. At the moderation 246 voted for Mr David King and 182 for Mr Walter Duncan. Page 589. Here the name of Dr W. G. Rutherford, Headmaster of Westminster, should not be passed over. Though he has taken orders in the Church of England he is still a son of the Relief manse at Mountaincross. -*age 590, ist paragraph. Mr King had conducted three services on the fourth Sabbath of August, and Mr Duncan had done the same on the fifth Sabbath, the day before the moderation. The newspaper report at the time was inaccurate. CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS 745 Page 644, 1. 40. " Two and a half years " should read " six and a half." Page 674, 1. 4. ''James Chalmers " should read ''John C. Chalmers." Page 674, 1. 19. "Gra/taw's Road" should read " Erskine Church? The names of the Rev. David Anderson, Ceres, and the Rev. George Deans, Portobello, were inadvertently omitted in the Index. VOL. II Page 89, 1. 45. " Seven and a half'' years should read "five" years. Page 89, 1. 50. " St Andrew's Square" should read " St Andrew Square." Page 133,1. 7. "Rev.Jo/tn M. M'Innes" should read "Rev. Robert M. M'Innes." Page 640, 1. 49. " Donagheloney " should read " Donaghcloney '." Ralston (Paisley Presbytery) was congregated on 2nd October 1900. It began in Extension work in the east end of Paisley, and had been placed under the charge of Mr J. B. Young, M.A., probationer, on ist March. The church buildings were estimated to costal 170, of which the Board consented to allow ,500. THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH BY THE SAME AUTHOR " THE ENDURING IN CONTRAST WITH THE PERISHABLE" A SERMON DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION OF THE CENTENARY OF SOUTHEND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH TUESDAY, i8ra MAY 1897 BY THE Rev. ROBERT SMALL, D.D., Edinburgh (Published in a Volume, entitled "Southern Kintyre in History." by Rev. A. M'LAREN YOUNG, Southend) In Fancy Paper Covers. Price 1s. net. Post free, Is. Hd. DAVID M. 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