**Ewing’s Annals of the Free Church – Documents**

The earlier decades of the nineteenth century were marked by notable movements in British political, social, and religious life. It was at a time when such questions as the Abolition of Slavery, Catholic Emancipation, and Electoral Reform were agitating the public mind that the Church of Scotland awoke from the spiritual lethargy into which the long predominance of Moderatism had plunged her.

The chief instruments in this revival were two of her ministers, endowed by God with commanding gifts and high religious principle, namely, Dr. Andrew Thomson of St. George’s, Edinburgh, and Dr. Thomas Chalmers of the Tron Church, Glasgow. Their preaching and influence profoundly stirred the community in these two great centres, while many of the younger ministers all over the land caught the fire of their fervid and winning evangelism. Signs of a quickened spiritual life and of a deeper responsibility for the religious wellbeing of the people became everywhere apparent.

A new interest was aroused in the improvement and spread of education throughout the country. Sabbath schools began to be established, and measures were taken for the amelioration of those dwelling in populous districts, in crowded city areas. Christ’s command, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel” had fallen on deaf ears in the General Assembly of 1796. Now there was a general willingness to hear, and many were eager to obey. In 1829 the Church sent forth her first missionary to India, in the person of that apostolic teacher and evangelist, Alexander Duff. There was manifest also a growing interest in the evangelisation of Israel. On the report of the memorable mission of inquiry to the Jews, in 1839, the Assembly appointed a committee, of which the saintly Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a member, to institute missionary work among our Lord’s kinsmen according to the flesh.

Meanwhile the remarkable change in the Church’s aims and methods became strongly reflected in the proceedings of the General Assembly itself. The relative positions of the Moderate and Evangelical parties were reversed, and the latter was now a growing majority. The new reforming spirit in the Church demanded scope for exercise of the freedom understood to have been secured to her by the terms of her compact with the State; and it was inevitable that encroachments by the State on that freedom, which might have been accepted when the Church was under the Moderate sway, should be met on the part of the Evangelical majority with unfaltering resistance.

Such was the position of parties and of church life in the year 1834; and then it was that the Supreme Court placed among her legislative Acts two affirmations which made good her claim to be the Church of Knox, Melville, and Henderson, while they vitally affected her immediate future. The affirmations concerned the rights of the people and the spiritual independence of the Church of Christ. One is known as the Veto Act, and it declared that no minister should be intruded on a congregation contrary to the will of the members; the other was the Chapel Act, in which the Church asserted her right to assign parishes quoad sacra to chapel-of-ease ministers, and to give them seats in her courts. It was round these two affirmations that the conflict of the Ten Years raged.

Collision between Church and State followed quickly after the declaration by the former of non-intrusion and her autonomy in things spiritual. Before the close of that year the Presbytery of Auchterarder was cited in the Court of Session over a call to which only three names had been adhibited, while 287 heads of families recorded their veto against a minister who was the nominee of the Earl of Kinnoul. A majority of the Scottish judges decided in favour of patron and presentee, and in 1839 the House of Lords confirmed their decision, and declared that it was ultra vires for a state established and endowed Church to pass the Veto Act.

Case followed case in close succession. While that of Auchterarder was still pending the Presbytery of Dunkeld was interdicted from performing a purely spiritual function, that of ordaining a presentee of the Crown to the vacant charge of Lethendy, and when it disregarded the interference the Presbytery was summoned to the bar in Parliament House and sharply rebuked by the Lord President. In a third case, that of the patron versus the congregation of Marnoch, the Court of Session ordered the Presbytery of Strathbogie to ordain and induct an unacceptable licentiate who had been vetoed by an overwhelming number of parishioners. The ordination was actually carried out by a majority of the Presbytery—an ordination, as has been said, “altogether unparalleled in the history of the Church, performed by a Presbytery of suspended clergymen, on a call by a single communicant, against the desire of the patron [who had yielded to the popular will], in face of the strenuous opposition of a united Christian congregation, in opposition to the express injunction of the General Assembly, at the sole bidding and under the sole authority of the Court of Session.”

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2. PREPARATION FOR APPROACHING CRISIS

The situation was now supremely critical. Every judgment of the Law Courts had been adverse to the Church. Interviews and correspondence with Cabinet ministers and Parliamentary leaders, both Whigs and Tories, had failed to discover a via media; while the intervention of well-wishing earls, dukes, and baronets had proved so much ploughing of quicksands. The Church found herself perilously near the parting of the ways. When the last milestone on the road that terminated in separation was reached, the Evangelical Non-Intrusion majority made their final stand and carried the matter from Scottish Lords of Session to the Crown and the country.

By the Assembly of 1842 there was issued a cogently reasoned and luminously stated manifesto directed against the encroachments of the Court of Session. The manifesto, for the drafting of which the Church was indebted to Alexander Murray, advocate, Member of Parliament for Greenock and afterwards legal adviser of the Free Church, has taken its place alongside one belonging to the Revolution era in our national history—the Claim of Right—under the title of The Claim, Declaration and Protest. The Claim is to possess and exercise the liberties, government, disciples, rights, and privileges of the Church of Scotland according to law; the Declaration is that it is impossible for the Church to intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations or carry on the government of Christ’s Church subject to the coercion attempted by the Court of Session; the Protest solemnly declares that the Acts of Parliament, all sentences of Courts in contravention of the great doctrine of the sole Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ over His Church and of the liberties and privileges of office-bearers or people, which rest upon it, are and shall be in themselves null and void, and of no legal force and effect.

This nineteenth-century Claim of Right concluded with a call to such office-bearers of the troubled Church as were willing to suffer for their allegiance to their adorable King and Head to stand by the Church and by each other, and to unite in supplication to Almighty God that He would be pleased to turn the hearts of the rulers of this kingdom and keep unbroken the faith pledged in former days ; otherwise, that He would give strength to the Church to endure resignedly the loss of the temporal benefits of an Establishment, and any personal sufferings and sacrifices to which they might be called.

In response to that appeal 465 parish ministers, gathered out of every county in Scotland, met at Edinburgh in November 1842, and continued in prayer and conference from the 17th to the 24th of that winter month. Before the Convocation closed, two series of resolutions were adopted, one of these setting forth the situation, the other the remedy. The ground traversed in the resolutions, transmitted in memorial form to Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister, and other members of the Cabinet, was substantially that of the Claim, Declaration, and Protest: but there was added a formal pledge by those who signed the document to abandon the Establishment if the Claim of Right was refused.

By the third month of the following year it was manifest that the crisis was imminent. The Government had written across the Claim, in the hand-writing of Sir James Graham, the Home Secretary, the word “unreasonable”; and the House of Commons had by a majority of 135 rejected a motion for the appointment of a Committee of Inquiry, made by the Hon. Fox Maule, afterwards Lord Panmure and Earl of Dalhousie, eventually an elder in the Free Church—a motion, be it noted, supported by 25 out of the 37 Scottish Members present when the vote was taken. After the 17th of March 1843 no doubt remained that on the 18th of May there would take place Separation from the Erastian State and Disruption of the vitiated Establishment.

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3. THE DISRUPTION—THE SCENE, WHAT IT MEANT AND WHAT IT ACHIEVED

1843

Dr. David Welsh, Professor of Church History in Edinburgh University and a front-rank leader of the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland, was Moderator of the last unbroken Assembly. Following an ecclesiastical usage of long standing, Dr. Welsh conducted divine service on the 18th of May 1843 in the High Church within St. Giles Cathedral, in the presence of the Lord High Commissioner,—that year the Marquis of Bute ; Sir James Forrest, Lord Provost of the capital; the Lord Advocate, afterwards Lord Colonsay ; and other official magnates. Thereafter the Moderator proceeded to St. Andrew’s Church, George Street, in which the Assembly had been appointed to meet. As early as four in the morning that building had been besieged by a crowd of applicants eager to witness an unparalleled spectacle.

When High Commissioner and Moderator took their places every inch of space was occupied, the areas and the galleries were densely crowded, every passage was blocked. The proceedings were opened with a brief, uplifting prayer. Then to the ministers and elders gathered round him, but not yet constituted a court of Christ’s Church, Dr. Welsh addressed a few words, explaining how it was that although the time had come for making up the roll he could not constitute the Assembly. Certain proceedings sanctioned by Her Majesty’s Government and the Legislature, an infringement of the liberties of the Church, and a violation of the terms of union between the State and the Church—these things rendered impossible the constituting of a free and legal Assembly in that place and in the presence of the representative of Royalty.

In impressive tones, and amid the unbroken silence of the vast multitude, the Moderator read a document signed by 203 ministers and elders. This particular charter of the Free Church is known as The Protest of Commissioners to the General Assembly. While it explicitly asserts the right and duty of the civil magistrate to recognise and support an Establishment of religion in accordance with God’s Word, the Protest emphatically affirms the right of the subscribers and of all adhering to them to separate from the existing unscriptural Establishment. The reading ended, Dr. Welsh laid the document on the Clerk’s table, bowed with courtly grace to the High Commissioner, lifted his hat and left the building. He was followed by Dr. Chalmers, Dr Gordon, Dr. M’Farlan, and other senior ministers and elders. Then there filed out the younger standard-bearers in the fighting line of the Church, Cunningham, Buchanan, Candlish, Dunlop, and others. Slowly and steadily seat after seat became empty of occupants; longer and longer grew the procession that wended its way to Tanfield Hall on the north side of the city, evoking the ringing cheers of the dense throng that crowded the windows, the balconies. and even the roofs of the houses that were on the line of march.

The place of meeting that had been fitted for the accommodation of the first Free General Assembly was capable of holding 3000 persons, but long before the van of the procession reached Canonmills the structure was full to overflowing in every part accessible to the public. When the last commissioner had taken his place in the space reserved for members, Dr. Welsh constituted the Assembly with prayer, and Dr. Chalmers was appointed Moderator of the first General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

From Thursday the 18th till Tuesday the 30th of May meetings were held in the Hall at Canonmills, at which deputations were received from other Churches; measures were taken for the prosecuting of missions, the building of churches, the training of students, the support of Gospel ordinances; and the general interests of the liberated Church were attended to. But the palmary act of the Disruption Assembly was the signing of a document by the clerical members having for title Act of Separation and Deed of Demission by Ministers. Each minister who signed that legal instrument thereby separated himself from and abandoned the existing Establishment in Scotland; he also abdicated and renounced the status and privileges of a parochial clergyman, with all rights and emoluments pertaining to him by virtue thereof. The signing took place on the 23rd of May. It was witnessed by a vast gathering of onlookers, who followed the procedure with keen interest and in solemn silence as one after another answered to the roll-call, advanced to the table and affixed his name to a deed in which he surrendered manse and benefice for the Crown Rights of Immanuel.

By the time the last signature was adhibited more than £100,000 a year had been signed away, and when the names of those who were unable to be present were afterwards added the number amounted to 474, fully one-third of the undivided Church.

Thus was completed the “Great Exodus” of 1843. When a copy of the Act of Separation and Deed of Demission was sent to the Assembly sitting in George Street, the Church of Scotland Free made formal intimation to the Queen’s Commissioner and the remanent Establishment that she had broken away from connection with the State, and from the bondage of State control.

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4 . THE SUBSEQUENT ACCESSIONS

1839-1876

(1) OLD LIGHT BURGHERS, OR ASSOCIATE SYNOD OF ORIGINAL BURGHER SECEDERS

Although it took place four years prior to the Disruption, the union of the majority of Old Light Burghers with the Church of Scotland in 1839 was virtually an accession to the Free Church while yet within the Establishment. For the Moderate party in the State Church opposed the union and declined to take any part in the negotiations which began in 1835. In spite of this, the Assembly of 1839 passed an Act of Union with what in Secession nomenclature was known as the Associate Synod of Original Burgher Seceders. On the 31st of July in that year the Synod held its last meeting and the Moderator dissolved the Court.

All through the conflict that ended in disruption the quondam Seceders ranged themselves on the Evangelical side. The receiving of one of them—the Rev. James Clelland—and the assigning to his congregation a district quoad sacra by the Presbytery of Irvine gave rise to the Stewarton Case, in which, for the last time, the harassed Church found herself in collision with the Court of Session; the adverse judgment of a majority (8 to 5) of the judges being given only four months before the Disruption took place. When that came it was noted that, with only two exceptions, the Secession ministers who joined the Church of Scotland in 1839 and were in it in 1843 adhered to the Free Church.

(2) MISSIONARIES, LICENTIATES, STUDENTS

Regarding the labourers in the foreign fields, all that could be said at the Disruption Assembly was that they were likely to join the Free Church, but a few months after it was officially announced that all the missionaries to the Jews and in India had cast in their lot with the Church which had separated from the State.

At one of the crowded evening meetings of the first Assembly a deputation of licentiates was received. They presented a memorial subscribed by upwards of 200 Scottish Probationers, in which was expressed warm approval of the Exodus. On the same occasion it was incidentally stated that ninety-three students of the Edinburgh University Divinity Hall had become Free Church students, and that four-fifths of the Glasgow Divinity students and majorities in Aberdeen and St. Andrews had pledged themselves to follow this example.

(3) THE SYNOD OF UNITED ORIGINAL SECEDERS

After the Secession had split into two parts over the lawfulness of taking a certain Burgess oath, each section subdivided into New Lights and Old Lights, the former moving in the direction of Voluntaryism, the latter adhering to what they called the Establishment principle. As has been stated, a majority of “Old Light Burghers” were received into the Church of Scotland in 1839. The remanent Old Light Burghers, in 1842, united with the Associate Synod of Original Seceders, which had been formed in 1827 by the union of the Constitutional Associate Presbytery, generally known as the Old Light Anti-Burghers, with the Associate Synod commonly called Anti-Burghers. The resulting body took the name of the Synod of United Original Seceders. When, in 1851, the Free Church General Assembly adopted an “Act and Declaration” in which her identity, not only with the Church of the First and Second Reformations but also with the Church of the Covenants was affirmed, a majority of both ministers and members were convinced that the reason for their separate existence had passed away. Accordingly, in 1852, the Synod agreed as a Synod to accede to the Free Church of Scotland. A deputation to announce this decision appeared in Tanfield Hall during the sittings of the Assembly, and received an ovation. The union was consummated on the first day of June of that year.

The ablest of the three Seceders who addressed the Assembly expressed the conviction that “Ebenezer Erskine and William Wilson, if they had been living, would this evening have ceased to be Seceders by joining the Free Church of Scotland.”

(4) THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS

Before and after the Disruption there was in Scotland a small body of Presbyterians outside the National Church. They neither seceded from the Church nor separated from the State, because they never were members of the Establishment. These were the associates of Richard Cameron, who fell at Airsmoss in 1680, hence the popular designation “Cameronians,” which, however, had long given place, prior to the Union, to the name “Reformed Presbyterians.”

In 1743 this earliest communion of Nonconformists formed themselves into a Presbytery under the name of The Reformed Presbytery, and ultimately they became The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. To the Synod of this Church there came in May 1864 an invitation to take part in the negotiations then on foot in the interests of union between the United Presbyterians and the Free Church, an invitation which was heartily accepted. The negotiations were broken off in 1873, but in the following year the Free Church placed herself in communication with the Reformed Presbyterians in the hope that the result would be an incorporating union of the oldest and youngest of Scotland’s Presbyterian battalions. The hope was realised to the full.

On the 22nd of May 1876 the last of the long series of Synods met in Martyrs Church, Edinburgh, with Dr. Goold as Moderator, and on the 25th the union was consummated. Thirty-five ministers and 34 elders marched to the Free Church Assembly Hall, and took possession of the seats set apart for them. To the words of welcome addressed to them by the Moderator, Dr. M’Lauchlan, on behalf of the Free Church, Dr. Goold replied in a speech of singular dignity and power. Thus the earliest of the non-Established Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, the Church of the Martyrs and the Hillmen, from Argyll and Guthrie to Cameron and Renwick, identified herself with the Church of the Claim of Right and of the Disruption.

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5. AFTER FIFTY YEARS

1893

On the fiftieth anniversary of her life and work the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland met in her own Assembly Hall, with Dr. Walter C. Smith, the poet preacher, in the Moderator’s chair.

The reports submitted to that historic Assembly told of extension of field, enlargement of agency, and increase of revenue. The Committee on the Conversion of the Jews reported that, in addition to the old Continental stations, new missions had been opened at Tiberias and Safed in the Holy Land. The report on Foreign Missions showed that apart from the development of the older missions taken over in 1843, new missions had been established in India (Central Provinces [Nagpur], Santalia, Upper Bengal, Haidarabad, Deccan), Africa (Kaffraria [North and South], Natal [Pietermaritzburg, Impolweni, Gordon Memorial]), Syria (Mt. Lebanon), New Hebrides (by union with the Reformed Presbyterian Church), and South Arabia (Aden). In 1843 there were 13 missionaries; in 1893 there were 155.

In the department of revenue the largest annual sum contributed for Foreign Missions by the unbroken Church prior to the Disruption did not exceed £8000, in the Jubilee Year of the Free Church the sum was upwards of £108,000.

Turning to home life and work, the position taken up by the Church which had disestablished herself was worthy of a Church which aspired to the character of national, and the service she rendered was such as no other ecclesiastical body in the land ever rendered or could possibly render. The Disruption fathers proclaimed on the floor of the Assembly, that the Free Church could only fulfil her mission if she provided for the training of the young from the lowest elementary schools to the most advanced institutions of science and learning, that they were in the land a Missionary Church, with a great Home Mission to see to, and as that was the character of their Church ecclesiastically viewed, so should it be the character of their Church viewed scholastically and educationally. That view of the situation was endorsed and acted upon by all parties concerned. At the Glasgow Assembly of 1843 it was intimated that no fewer than 360 parish schoolmasters had cast in their lot with the Free Church. In 1845 the fund raised for building schools was £60,000. By 1850 there were 657 Free Church schools in receipt of Government grants in aid, and some 74,000 children receiving education, secular and religious, in Free Church schools. When, in 1872, the national educational system was inaugurated which now holds the field, there were 548 Free Church schools with 584 Free Church teachers receiving grants from the Free Church Education Fund. After the Act came into operation, 139 schools were transferred to School Boards, 282 were discontinued, and 119 congregations elected to carry on their schools, at least for a time. To what was thus done by the Free Church from 1843 to 1872 in covering Scotland with schools and in providing a complete education for her children is due in large measure the present national system of education.

The scheme for the maintenance of ordinances and of ministers was launched by Chalmers six months before the Free Church came into existence. The charm of the “Sustentation Fund” lay in its simplicity and its spirituality. It bound the strong and the weak together in a fresh and healthful spirit of brotherhood, it gave to every member of the Church a new and purer motive for his liberality, supplying it with a nobler aim and a wider area. And so the record of the Fund was one of progress. During the first ten years of the Free Church the average income of the Fund was £85,000 a year; during the second ten years it was £108,312; during the third it was £128,000; in the Year of Jubilee the amount contributed was £176,297, the highest figure reached in the history of what Chalmers loved to call the great Home Mission enterprise of sending the Gospel among our people.

When called upon to report on the General Finance of the Church, the Convener was able to state that the grand total of contributions for the fifty years was £23,352,809. To complete the statement of revenue it may be added that the income of the Church from 1843 to 1900 was £26,038,837.

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6. THE UNION

1900

From 1863 to 1873 the Free Church was in conference with the next largest of non-Established Presbyterianism in Scotland—that of the New Light Seceders, by that time the United Presbyterians, in the interests of union. Unhappily, six of these ten years were years of agitation and controversy within the gates of the Free Church.

When the Assembly of 1873 met, all ideas of immediate union were abandoned; before the Assembly closed, negotiations with the United Presbyterian Church were suspended, and the Union Committee discharged. But in the hour of disappointment and frustrated endeavour there were those who believed in and prayed for the speedy renewal of the union movement. In their judgment negotiations were not definitely closed, they were only “interrupted,” and the law of Mutual Eligibility was accepted simply “for the present.”

When twenty-three years had passed away, and when all the protagonists of the thwarted union were in their graves, with one notable exception (Dr. Rainy) the two leading sections of national Presbyterianism outside the State Church addressed themselves with all earnestness to the work of constructing a platform upon which incorporation might be effected. By that time some things had taken place which brightened the outlook and lightened the labours of the Joint Committee.

For one thing, the accession of the Reformed Presbyterians to the Free Church had taken place. If the Church of the Covenants could unite, without sacrifice of principle and testimony, with the Church of the Disruption, what was there to hinder the Church of the Secession uniting with both? Then each of the negotiating Churches had placed among their subordinate doctrinal standards what they styled the Declaratory Acts, the United Presbyterian Church doing so in 1879, the Free Church in 1892. These declarations, while differing slightly in form and sequence, are similar in substance. They deal with such matters as the mind of God concerning fallen men, Divine foreordination, the possible extension of mercy to such persons as are beyond the ordinary means of grace, human depravity, intolerant or persecuting principles, questions that do not enter into the substance of the Reformed Faith.

As soon as the Free Church passed her Declaratory Act another important step was taken which tended to bring the two Churches more visibly together. In 1893 the Supreme Court of each Church sent “corresponding members” to that of the other. Such members possessing all the rights and exercising all the functions of Commissioners, but not taking part in voting. The pleasantness of co-operation thus experienced fostered the desire for incorporating union.

The work of reconstructing a basis of union was begun in 1897; and on the 30th of October 1900 the Supreme Courts of the negotiating Churches met separately for the last time. In the United Presbyterian Synod the Uniting Act, which had been approved by all the Presbyteries and by 467 Sessions, was adopted by a rising vote, not a hand being lifted in opposition. In the Free Church Assembly the Act, approved by 71 out of 75 home Presbyteries and by 7 out of the 8 foreign judicatories (one failing to make a return), was adopted by a majority of 643 to 27. On the following day—Wednesday, the 31^st of October – the two bodies met at the foot of the Mound. They formed into one procession, and marched four abreast to the Waverley Market, which had been converted into an Assembly Hall for the occasion. There the Supreme Courts were constituted by their respective Moderators. The adoption of the Uniting Act was moved by the oldest missionary of the Free Church, Dr Murray Mitchell, and seconded by Dr. Henderson of Paisley, the oldest minister of the United Presbyterian Church. It was agreed to by a standing vote of the whole Assembly and Synod.

The first General Assembly of the United Church was then constituted with prayer by the Moderator of the Free Church, Dr. Ross Taylor, and so the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church became one Church in Christ Jesus under the designation of “The United Free Church of Scotland.”

The first item of business was the election of a Moderator. Only one man had ever been thought of, so only one name was submitted by the Moderator of the United Presbyterian Church, Dr. Alexander Mair—that of Robert Rainy, who “had so wisely fought, and so earnestly prayed to bring about the result reached that day”.

Thus ends the chapter contributed to Scottish Church history by the Free Church of Scotland. She started on her career of fifty-seven years with a grand act of Separation from the State; and she consummated her career by an equally grand act of Union — Union between two of the three largest branches of Presbyterianism.

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THE STANDARDS OF THE CHURCH

ACT AND DECLARATION

ANENT THE PUBLICATION OF THE SUBORDINATE STANDARDS AND OTHER
AUTHORITATIVE DOCUMENTS OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND

At Edinburgh, the 31st day of May 1851 years. Sess. 19.

Which day the general assembly of the free church of scotland being met and duly constituted,

Inter alia,

The General Assembly, on considering the Report of the Committee to which this matter was referred at a previous diet, unanimously agreed to sanction, as they hereby sanction, the publication of a volume, containing the subordinate standards, and other authoritative documents of this Church. And with the view of directing attention to “all the way by which the Lord has led us,” as well as to the testimony which He has honoured this Church to bear for the whole truth of God regarding His Church, and His glory therein, the General Assembly did, and hereby do, adopt the following Act and Declaration:—

When it pleased Almighty God, in His great and undeserved mercy, to reform this Church from Popery by presbyters, it was given to the Reformers, amid many troubles, to construct and model the constitution of the Church, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, according to the Word of God, and not according to the will of earthly rulers. Our fathers, accordingly, in singleness of eye and simplicity of heart, without regard to the favour or the fear of man, so applied themselves to the work to which they were called, that they were enabled, with remarkable unanimity, to settle it upon the basis which, by the blessing of God, has continued unaltered down to the present time.

Of this settlement, besides that profession of the evangelical faith which is common to all the Churches of the Reformation, the peculiar and essential features are:—I. The government of the Church by presbyters alone or by that order of men which is indicated in the New Testament indiscriminately by the terms presbyters and bishops or overseers— and ,—and, IL The subjection of the Church, in all things spiritual, to Christ as her only Head, and to His Word as her only rule.

From the beginning these principles have been held as fundamental by the Reformed Church of Scotland: and as such they were recognised in her earliest standards,—the First and Second Books of Discipline,—adopted by her own independent authority, before the full sanction either of the Crown or of the Parliament was given to the Reformation which God had accomplished on her behalf. For these principles, the ministers and members of this Church, as well as the nobles, gentlemen, and burgesses of the land, from the first united in contending: and on more than one occasion, in the course of these early struggles,—as in 1580 when the National Covenant was signed,¹—our reforming ancestors bound themselves one to another, as in the sight of God, to maintain and defend them against all adversaries.

Farther: while this Church has ever held that she possesses an independent and exclusive jurisdiction or power in all ecclesiastical matters, “which flows directly from God, and the Mediator, Jesus Christ and is spiritual, not having a temporal head on earth, but only Christ, the only King and Governor of his Church”; she has, at the same time, always strenuously advocated the doctrine taught in Holy Scripture – that nations and their rulers are bound to own the truth of God, and to advance the kingdom of His Son. And accordingly, with unfeigned thankfulness, did she acknowledge the good hand of the Lord, when, after prolonged contests with the enemies of the Reformation,—and, in particular, with certain parties who sought not only to uphold a form of Prelatic government in the Church, but to establish the supremacy of the Crown in all causes, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as well as civil and temporal,—a national recognition and solemn sanction of her constitution, as it had been settled by her own authority, according to the Word of God was at last obtained;—first, in the Act of Parliament 1567, and again, more completely, in the Act of Parliament 1592,—then and since regarded by her as the great constitutional charter of her Presbyterian government and freedom.

Thus the first Reformation was accomplished.

But before a generation had elapsed, a sad change for the worse took place. Through defection in the Church, and tyrannical invasion of her independence by the civil power, the Presbyterian polity and government were overturned, and manifold abuses and corruptions in discipline and worship were insidiously introduced. A second Reformation accordingly became necessary.

And here, again, it pleased Almighty God, as in that former Reformation of the Church from Popery by presbyters, to give to our fathers light and grace, so that, taking His Word as their only rule and owning His Son as their only King in Zion, they were enabled not only to restore the constitution of the Church as it had stood when her first Reformation seemed to be completed, but to aim, also, at carrying out more fully the great essential principles of that constitution, and securing more effectually than before the prevalence of these principles over all the land, as well as their permanency through all coming ages.

In seeking this noble end, our fathers were again led, for their mutual security, as well as for the commending of so righteous a cause to Him by whom it was committed to them, to have recourse to the solemnity of a holy confederation.

The National Covenant was renewed at the beginning of the contendings for this second Reformation with an extension of its weighty protests and censures, to meet whatever new fruit the old stock of Prelatic and Erastian usurpation had been bearing. And the Solemn League and Covenant was afterwards entered into in concert with England and Ireland, “for the reformation and defence of religion, the honour and happiness of the king, and the peace and safety of the three kingdoms”; and, in particular, for endeavouring to bring the Churches of God in the three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, confession of faith, form of Church government, directory for worship and catechising.”²

Thus religiously bound and pledged to God and to one another, our fathers were enabled to effect the reformation of this Church from Prelacy, even as their fathers in like manner effected its reformation from Popery. In the ever-memorable Assembly held at Glasgow in 1638, as well as in subsequent Assemblies, it was declared that “all Episcopacy different from that of a pastor over a particular flock was abjured in this Kirk”; and provision was made, accordingly, for its complete removal, and for the settlement of Church government and order upon the former Presbyterian footing.

In all this work of pulling down and building up, the independent spiritual jurisdiction of the Church flowing immediately from Christ her only Head, was not only earnestly asserted, but practically exercised. For the whole work was begun and carried on without warrant of the civil power. And it was only after much contending, and with not a little hesitation, that the civil power began to interpose its authority in the years 1639 and 1641, to support and sanction what the Church had, by the exercise of her own inherent jurisdiction, already done.

Thereafter, for the better prosecution of the work on hand, and in the face of the manifest promise of the king and his adherents to crush it altogether, this Church, by commissioners duly named by the General Assembly, took part in the Assembly of Divines which met at Westminster in 1643. And having in view the uniformity contemplated in the Solemn League and Covenant, she consented to adopt the Confession of Faith, Catechisms, Directory for Public Worship and Form of Church Government agreed upon by the said Assembly of Divines.

These several formularies, as ratified, with certain explanations, by divers Acts of Assembly in the years 1645, 1646, and particularly in 1647, this Church continues till this day to acknowledge as her subordinate standards of doctrine, worship, and government;—with this difference, however, as regards the authority ascribed to them, that while the Confession of Faith³ contains the creed to which, as to a confession of his own faith, every office-bearer in the Church must testify in solemn form his personal adherence;—and while the Catechisms, Larger and Shorter⁴, are sanctioned as directories for catechising;—the Directory for Public Worship, the Form of Church Government, and the Directory for Family Worship⁵, are of the nature of regulations, rather than of tests,—to be enforced by the Church like her other laws, but not to be imposed by subscription upon her ministers and elders. These documents, then, together with a practical application of the doctrine of the Confession, in the Sum of Saving Knowledge⁶,—a valuable, treatise, which, though without any express Act of Assembly, has for ages had its place among them,—have, ever since the era of the second Reformation, constituted the authorised and authoritative symbolic books of the Church of Scotland.

Nor is it to be overlooked here, in connection with these proceedings, but, on the contrary, it is to be owned as a signal instance of the Divine favour, that when the civil dissensions and wars – all of which this Church unfeignedly deprecated and deplored—issued in a brief interval of quiet, and when the Parliament of Scotland was at last moved to own the Reformation work of God in the land, this Church obtained a ratification of her spiritual liberties much more full and ample than had ever previously been granted. This appeared, as in other things, so especially in the matter of presentation to benefices, with appointment to the oversight of souls. In that matter, this Reformed Church had from the beginning maintained a testimony and contest against the right of patronage, as inconsistent with “the order which God’s Word craves.” And now, both the Parliament and the Church being free to act according to the will of God, and professing to be guided by His Word, it was enacted by the Parliament in 1649, that ministers should be settled “upon the suit and calling, or with the consent of the congregation” ; and the Assembly, in the same year, laid down wholesome rules and regulations for securing the orderly calling of pastors by the congregations of the Church, with due regard at once to the spiritual privileges of the people and the spiritual jurisdiction of those appointed to bear office among them in the Lord.

Thus, by God’s grace, in this second Reformation, wrought out by our fathers amid many perils and persecutions, this Church was honoured of God to vindicate and carry out the great fundamental principles of her constitution—the government of the Church by presbyters alone; her inherent spiritual jurisdiction, derived from her great and only Head; and the right of congregations to call their own pastors.

And thus the second Reformation seemed to be happily accomplished and secured; and the Church and nation of Scotland abjured Prelacy, as they had formerly abjured Popery.

That the men whom God raised up for this great work proved themselves to be fallible in several of their proceedings, does not detract from our conviction that the work itself was the work of God. The principles of religious liberty not being so thoroughly understood in that age as they are now, it is not surprising, however much it is to be lamented, that our fathers should have given some occasion the charge of intolerance in the laws enacted, though seldom enforced, with a view to inflict civil penalties for offences partly, if not entirely, religious. It is to be confessed, also, that in prosecuting their great work in circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, instances were not wanting of an undue commingling of religion with the passing politics of the day, and an undue reliance on an arm of flesh for the furtherance of the cause of God. These defects some of the worthiest and ablest of the actors in that great crisis lived to deplore; and to such causes may be traced, in a great measure, the bitter animosities that too speedily ensued between the parties of the Resolutioners and the Protesters—in consequence of which the Church of Scotland was found divided against herself at the very time when union was most essential, and at the restoration of Charles II was thrown helpless and fettered into the furnace of a bitter and unrelenting persecution.

But notwithstanding these evidences of the hand of man in the transactions connected with the Second Reformation, we would grievously err and sin were we not to recognise, in the substance of what was then done, the hand and spirit of God; and were we not to discern in it such an adaptation to the exigencies of the times, and such an amount of conformity to the Divine mind and will, as must ever be held to give to the attainments then made by this Church and nation a peculiar force of obligation, and to aggravate not a little the guilt of subsequent shortcomings and defections.

Passing over the dark period of the closing years of the Stuart dynasty, and descending along the line history to the era of the glorious Revolution, we find the Church, which had been twice before brought out of great troubles in her contendings against Popery and Prelacy, once again rescued from the oppression of arbitrary power, and lifting her head as the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The bloody acts of the preceding time were repealed; on the petition of the ministers and professors of the Church of Scotland, the civil sanction was given to the Confession of Faith: Presbyterial Church government was re-established in the hands of those who had been ejected by Prelacy in 1661; and to the wonder of many, and the confusion of her enemies, this Church rose from her ashes, and was recognised as the same Church which, whether in freedom or in bondage—whether under the shade of royal favour or hunted as a partridge on the mountains—could trace its unbroken identity downwards from the very beginning of the Reformation.

That the “ Revolution Settlement,” by which the liberties of the Church were secured, under the reign of William and Mary, was in all respects satisfactory, has never been maintained by this Church. On the contrary, various circumstances may be pointed out as hindering the Church from realising fully the attainments that had been reached during the second Reformation. Not only were the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland unprepared for prosecuting the work of “reformation and uniformity in religion,” to which they had pledged themselves; but even in Scotland itself the reluctant concessions of statesmen were limited to what a people, worn out by long and heavy tribulation, were barely willing to accept as a relief, and did not thoroughly undo the mischief of an age of misrule.

Thus, for instance, in the civil sanction then given to Presbytery, the Parliament of 1690, overlooking altogether the higher attainments of the second Reformation, went back at once to the Act 1592, and based its legislation upon that Act alone, as being the original charter of the Presbyterian Establishment. Accordingly, it left unrepealed the infamous “Act Recissory” of King Charles, by which all that the Church had done, and all that the State had done for her, in the interval between 1638 and the Restoration, had been stigmatised as treasonable and rebellious. Thus the Revolution Settlement failed in adequately acknowledging the Lord’s work done formerly in the land; and it was, besides, in several matters of practical legislation, very generally considered by our fathers at the time to be defective and unsatisfactory. Some, and these not the least worthy, even went so far as to refuse all submission to it. But for the most part, our fathers, smarting from the fresh wounds of anti-Christian oppression, weary of strife, and anxious for rest and peace, either thankfully accepted, or at least acquiesced in it; in the hope of being able practically to effect under it the great ends which the Church had all along, in all her former contendings, regarded as indispensable.

For it would be in a high degree ungrateful to overlook the signal and seasonable benefits which the Revolution Settlement really did confer upon the Church, as well as upon the nation. Not only did it put an end to the cruel persecution by which the best blood of Scotland had been shed in the field, on the hill-side, and on the scaffold; not only did it reinstate in their several parishes the pastors who had been unrighteously cast out in the reign of the second Charles, and set up again the platform of the Presbyterian government; but by reviving and re-enacting the Statute of 1592, the original charter and foundation of Presbytery, it recognised as an inalienable part of the constitution of this country the establishment of the Presbyterian Church. It secured also effectually, as was then universally believed, the exclusive spiritual jurisdiction of the Church, and her independence in spiritual matters of all civil control. And by the arrangements which it sanctioned for the filling up of vacant charges, it abolished those rights of patronage which had been reserved in 1592⁷, and made provision for enforcing the fundamental principle of this Church, that “no pastor shall be intruded into a congregation contrary to the will of the people.” On all these grounds, the Church was well entitled to rejoice in the deliverance wrought out for her in 1688 and 1690; to thank God for it, and take courage; and to cherish the warm and sanguine expectation of reaping now the fruit of her struggles and her trials, in a career of undisturbed, united, and successful exertion for the glory of her great Head, the good of the land, and the saving of many souls.

How far that expectation might have been fulfilled, if faith had been kept with the Church and people of Scotland by the British Parliament, according to the terms of the Revolution Settlement, subsequently ratified by the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England,—and if the Church had received grace to continue faithful to her principles,—is a question which can now be little more than matter of speculation and conjecture. For the breach made upon her constitution by the restoration of patronage in 1711,—a measure passed against her own earnest remonstrance and protest,—concurring with that unhappy declension from sound doctrine and spiritual life which began to visit this as well as other Churches of the Reformation during the early period of the last century,—not to speak of the leaven of unsound principle transmitted from the too easy admission at the Revolution of the Prelatic curates into the Presbyterian Church, without any evidence of their sincere attachment to its doctrines; these things led to abuses in the administration of the Church’s discipline and government,—such as, to a large extent, prevented the Revolution Settlement from obtaining a full and fair trial.

The abuses to which we refer regarded matters of vital import, such as the toleration of heresy and immorality; the tyrannical exercise of Church power over brethren, with the unjust denial of the right of protest for the exoneration of individual consciences; the arbitrary enforcing of the law of patronage by corrupt Presbyteries and Assemblies, acting upon their own discretion, and with no compulsion from any civil authority; the grievous oppression of congregations, by the forcible intrusion of ministers into parishes against the will of the people, and other proceedings of a similar kind; in consequence of which, not only were multitudes of godly ministers and people compelled, for conscience’ sake, to withdraw from her communion and to form themselves into separate ecclesiastical societies, but the Church itself from which they seceded was found willing—though always, blessed be God ! with a protesting minority in her courts – to make a practical surrender of the most important and distinctive principles of her ancient Presbyterian polity.

Hence it happened, that when, in the good providence of God, and through the gracious working of His good Spirit, this Church once more, for the third time, was led to take up the work of the Reformation,—entering though, alas! with much shortcoming, into the labours of our fathers, by whom she had been reformed from Popery and Prelacy,—she encountered, as was most natural, no small measure of the same opposition with which they had been obliged to contend, from a formidable body of her own ministers and members, as well as from the civil power; whose aid was called in to coerce and control the Church courts in the exercise of their spiritual functions, and, through them, to crush the liberties of congregations in the calling of ministers to be over them in the Lord.

For it ought to be on record to coming ages, that this Church began the work of reformation, on this third great occasion in her history, in 1834, by refusing to allow any pastor to be intruded upon a reclaiming congregation.

At the same time, also, while thus securing such a protection to her congregations, this Church resolved to give practical effect to another fundamental principle of her Presbyterian polity which had been grievously violated, namely, that “the pastor, as such, hath a ruling power over the flock”; or, in other words that all ordained pastors are equally entitled to rule, as well as to teach and minister, in Christ’s house. This accordingly the Church did, in an Act of Assembly, 1834, recognizing all pastors of congregations as members of her Church judicatories, and assigning to each, along with the elders of his congregation, the administration of discipline among his own flock, and the oversight of souls, in whatever local or territorial district the Church might be pleased to place under his spiritual care.

It was in carrying out these measures of indispensable practical reform, adopted in 1834, that the Church was visited with the interference of the courts of civil law, in those various forms of unconstitutional aggression and invasion of, her sacred functions as a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, owning no head on earth but only Christ, which are set forth at large in the Claim, Declaration, and Protest, adopted by the |General Assembly in 1842 and laid before Her Majesty, and before the Parliament of Great Britain in the course of the year thereafter.⁸

These manifold invasions of her spiritual jurisdiction by the courts of civil law, this Church received grace steadfastly to resist, at the expense of much loss, obloquy, and suffering, borne by her faithful ministers and people.

But this was not all; for she was enabled also, during all her harassing and painful contendings, to carry forward still further the work of revival throughout her borders, as well as to lift up a still more decided testimony for the purity and liberty of Christ’s house,—His Church on earth,—especially in the explicit condemnation which the General Assembly in 1842 passed of the entire system of patronage, as a grievance to be utterly abolished. And, through the blessing of God, she was not left without manifest tokens of the Divine countenance favour,—such as, in like circumstances, had been vouchsafed in former times – in the remarkable pouring out of the Holy Spirit on not a few portions of the chosen vineyard of the Lord.

Among other tokens for good, the Church humbly considered them, it may be mentioned as one of the most gratifying, that a beginning was made, during this reforming period, of the work of reunion among the true-hearted branches of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Overtures towards a junction with the Church of Scotland having been made by a highly esteemed body of those whose fathers had seceded from it, and ample deliberation having taken place on both sides, the end in view was happily and harmoniously attained in the year 1839, when the General Assembly, with the consent of the Presbyteries of the Church, passed an Act to the following effect:—

“Whereas proposals have been made by the Associate Synod for a re-union with the Church of Scotland, and a considerable number of overtures have been sent at the same time to the General Assembly from the Synods and Presbyteries of the Church favourable to that object; and it has been ascertained by a committee of the General Assembly, that the course of study required for a long time past of students in divinity in connection with said Synod is quite satisfactory, and that their ministers and elders do firmly adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and other standards of our Church: and whereas the members of the Associate Synod do heartily concur with us in holding the great principle of an ecclesiastical establishment, and the duty of acknowledging God in our national as well as our individual capacity; and we, on the other hand, do heartily concur with the members of the Associate Synod in confessing the great obligation under which we lie to our forefathers in the year 1638, and several years of that century immediately following, and the duty, in particular circumstances, of uniting together in public solemn engagement in defence of the Church, and its doctrine, discipline, and form of worship and government: and whereas our brethren of the Associate Synod have declared their willingness, in the event of a re-union, to submit to all the laws and judicatories of this Church, reserving only to themselves the right which the members of the Established Church enjoy of endeavouring to correct, in a lawful manner, what may appear to them to be faulty in its constitution and government,—the General Assembly, with the consent of the Presbyteries of this Church, enact and ordain, that all the ministers of the Associate Synod, and their congregations in Scotland, desirous of being admitted into connection and full communion with the Church of Scotland, be received accordingly.”

This step was hailed with lively satisfaction by the supporters of the old hereditary principles of the Scottish Reformation, as not only a testimony to the returning faithfulness with which these principles were now maintained, but a pledge and presage also of other movements of a similar kind which might be expected to follow, as the work of reformation and revival went on: thus holding out the hope of this Church being honoured to be successful in healing the breaches of Zion as well as rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

Thus, with much cause to sing of mercy as well as of judgment, the Church for ten years continued to testify, to contend, and to labour, in the great and good cause. But as time rolled on, and the causes of collision between the ecclesiastical and the civil courts became more embarrassing, it was apparent to all that an emergency was at hand, such as would call for the utmost wisdom of counsel as well as the firmest energy of action.

All along, indeed, while the contendings of this third Reformation period were going forward, not only did “they that feared the Lord speak often one to another,” but most solemn consultations of the brethren were held at every step, with much earnest prayer, and many affecting pledges of mutual fidelity to one another, and to God. And as the crisis manifestly drew near, the whole body of those ministers of this Church by whom the contest was maintained met together in convocation, in November 1842, being convened by a large number of the fathers of the Church, and, after a sermon preached by the late lamented Dr. Chalmers, continued in deliberation for several successive days, spending a large portion of the time in united supplication for the guidance and grace of God; and did not separate till, with one mind and one heart, they were enabled to announce, in resolutions having, in the circumstances, all the force of the most impressive vows and obligations, their final purpose, at all hazards, to maintain uncompromised the spiritual liberty and jurisdiction of this Church. And this they resolved to do, not by prolonged resistance to the civil courts, should the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain refuse the redress craved in the above mentioned Claim of Rights, but by publicly renouncing the benefits of the National Establishment,—under protest that it is her being Free, and not her being Established, that constitutes the real historical and hereditary identity of the Reformed National Church of Scotland.

The Claim of Rights adopted by the General Assembly in 1842, having been denied and disallowed, first by Her Majesty’s Government, in a letter addressed to the Moderator by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and thereafter by the Commons’ House of Parliament, in a vote taken on the 7th March 1843, and carried against a large majority of the members representing Scotland ; it became apparent that the system of patronage,—to which this Church, although viewing it as a grievance, had submitted, under the impression that the right was restricted to the disposal of the benefice, while the Church was left free in the matter of admission to the cure of souls,—must be held, as now interpreted and maintained by the supreme power of the State, to be altogether contrary to the Word of God and the liberties of the people of |Christ; and that this Church, therefore, in that as well as in other departments of her administration, had no choice or alternative but submission in things spiritual, to civil control, or separation from the State and from the benefits of the Establishment. Holding firmly to the last, as she holds still, and, through God’s grace will ever hold, that it is the duty of civil rulers to recognize the truth of God, according to His Word, and to promote and support the kingdom of Christ, without assuming any jurisdiction in it, or any power over it; and deeply sensible, moreover, of the advantages resulting to the community at large, and especially to its most destitute portions, from the public endowment of pastoral charges among them : this Church could not contemplate without anxiety and alarm the prospect of losing, for herself, important means of general usefulness,—leaving the whole machinery of the Establishment in the hands of parties who could retain it only by the sacrifice of her fundamental principles,—and seeing large masses of the people deprived of the advantage of having the services of a gospel ministry provided for them independently of their own resources. But her path was made plain before her. For the system of civil interference in matters spiritual being still persevered in, so as to affect materially the very constitution of the General Assembly, in the election of commissioners from the Presbyteries to that supreme court, it became the duty of those of the said commissioners who were faithful to the crown of Christ,—and who formed decidedly the major part of the members chosen according to the laws of the Church,—to protest⁹, in presence of Her Majesty’s representative, on the 18th of May 1843, against the meeting then convened being held to be a free and lawful Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Under which protest, and in the terms thereof, the said commissioners withdrew to another place of meeting, where, on the same day, and with concurrence of all the ministers and elders adhering to them, they proceeded to constitute, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only King and Head of the Church on earth, the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, and to take measures for the establishment of the Church apart from the State in the land.

How signally God opened for her, in her new position, both a door of utterance and a door of entrance, not only in this, but in other countries also—how mercifully He disappointed all her fears, and procured for her acceptance among the people—how wonderfully He disposed all hearts so as to continue to her the means of missionary enterprise, both at home and abroad—how graciously He cheered her, by giving to her the signal privilege of finding all her missionaries, to the Jews and the Gentiles, true to herself and to her principles in the hour of trial; and in general, how large a measure of prosperity and peace He was pleased to grant to her,—though with some severe persecution and oppression in certain quarters,—this Church cannot but most devoutly acknowledge: mourning bitterly, as she must at the same time do, over many shortcomings and sins, and lamenting the little spiritual fruit of awakening and revival that has accompanied the Lord’s bountiful and wonderful dealing with her. In deep humiliation, therefore, but at the same time in the holy boldness of faith unfeigned, she would still seek to retain and occupy the position which the fore-going summary of her history assigns to her; humbly claiming to be identified with the Church of Scotland, which solemnly bound herself to the Reformation from Popery, and again similarly pledged herself to the Reformation from Prelacy; deploring past shortcomings from the principles and work of these Reformations, as well as past secessions from her own communion, occasioned by tyranny and corruption in her councils; and, finally, resolved and determined, as in the sight and by the help of God, to prosecute the ends contemplated from the beginning in all the acts and deeds of her reforming fathers, until the errors which they renounced shall have disappeared from the land, and the true system which they upheld shall be so universally received that the whole people, rightly instructed in the faith, shall unite to glorify God the Father in the full acknowledgement of the kingdom of His Son, our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whose name be praise for ever and ever. Amen.

Extracted from the Records of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland by

Thomas Pitcairn,
Patrick Clason,
Cl. Eccl. Scot. Lib.

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1. CLAIM, DECLARATION, AND PROTEST

ANENT THE ENCROACHMENTS OF THE COURT OF SESSION

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1842.—ACT XIX.

Edinburgh, 30th May 1842. Sess. 17.

The general assembly of the church of scotland, taking into consideration the solemn circumstances in which, in the inscrutable providence of God, this Church is now placed; and that, notwithstanding the securities for the government thereof by General Assemblies, Synods, Presbyteries, and Kirk-Sessions, and for the liberties, government, jurisdiction, discipline, rights, and privileges of the same, provided by the statutes of the realm, by the constitution of this country, as unalterably settled by the Treaty of Union, and by the oath, “inviolably to maintain and preserve” the same, required to be taken by each Sovereign at accession, as a condition precedent to the exercise of the royal authority;—which securities might well seem, and had long been thought, to place the said liberties, government, jurisdiction, discipline, rights, and privileges, of this Church, beyond the reach of danger or invasion;—these have been of late assailed by the very Court to which the Church was authorized to look for assistance and protection, to an extent that threatens their entire subversion, with all the grievous calamities to this Church and nation which would inevitably flow therefrom;—did and hereby do solemnly, and in reliance on the grace and power of the Most High, resolve and agree on the following Claim, Declaration, and Protest: That is to say:—

Whereas it is an essential doctrine of this Church, and a fundamental principle in its constitution, as set forth in the Confession of Faith thereof, in accordance with the Word and law of the most holy God, that “there is no other Head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ” (ch. xxv. sec. 6); and that, while “God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under Him over the people, for His own glory, and the public good, and to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword “ (ch. xxiii. sec.1); and while “it is the duty of people to pray for magistrates, to honour their persons, to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority for conscience’ sake,” “from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted” (ch. xxiii. sec. 4); and while the magistrate hath authority, and it is his duty, in the exercise of that power which alone is committed to him, namely, “the power of the sword,” or civil rule, as distinct from the “power of the keys,” or spiritual authority, expressly denied to him, to take order for the preservation of purity, peace, and unity in the Church, yet “The Lord Jesus, as King and Head of His Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hand of Church officers distinct from the civil magistrate” (ch. xxx. sec. i); which government is ministerial, not lordly, and to be exercised in consonance with the laws of Christ, and with the liberties of His people:

And whereas, according to the said Confession, and to the other standards of the Church, and agreeably to the Word of God, this government of the Church, thus appointed by the Lord Jesus, in the hand of Church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate or supreme power of the State, and flowing directly from the Head of the Church to the office-bearers thereof, to the exclusion of the civil magistrate, comprehends, as the objects of it, the preaching of the Word, administration of the Sacraments, correction of manners, the admission of the office-bearers of the Church to their offices, their suspension and deprivation therefrom, the infliction and removal of Church censures, and, generally, the whole “power of the keys,” which, by the said Confession, is declared, in conformity with Scripture, to have been “committed” (ch. xxx. sec. 2) to Church officers, and which, as well as the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments, it is likewise thereby declared, that “the civil magistrate may not assume to himself” (ch. xxiii. sec. 3):

And whereas this jurisdiction and government, since it regards only spiritual condition, rights, and privileges, doth not interfere with the jurisdiction of secular tribunals, whose determinations as to all temporalities conferred by the State upon the Church, and as to all civil consequences attached by law to the decisions of Church Courts in matters spiritual, this Church hath ever admitted, and doth admit, to be exclusive and ultimate, as she hath ever given and inculcated implicit obedience thereto:

And whereas the above mentioned essential doctrine and fundamental principle in the constitution of the Church, and the government and exclusive jurisdiction flowing therefrom, founded on God’s Word, and set forth in the Confession of Faith and other standards of this Church, have been, by diverse and repeated Acts of Parliament, recognized, ratified, and confirmed;—inasmuch as,—

First, The said Confession itself, containing the doctrine and principles above set forth, was “ratified and established, and voted and approven as the public and avowed Confession of this Church,” by the fifth Act of the second session of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary, entituled, “Act ratifying the Confession of Faith, and settling Presbyterian Church Government” (1690, c. 5): to which Act the said Confession is annexed, and with it incorporated in the statute law of this kingdom.

Second, By an Act passed in the first Parliament of King James VI., entituled, “Of admission of ministers: of laic patronages” (1567, c. 7), it is enacted and declared, “That the examination and admission of ministers within this realm be only in the power of the Kirk, now openly and publicly professed within the same”, and, while the “presentation of laic patronages” was thereby “reserved to the just and ancient patrons,” it was provided, that, if the presentee of a patron should be refused to be admitted by the inferior ecclesiastical authorities, it should be lawful for the patron “to appeal to the General Assembly of the whole realm, by whom the cause being decided, shall take end as they decern and declare.”

Third, By an Act passed in the same first Parliament, and renewed in the sixth Parliament of the said King James VI., entituled, “Anent the jurisdiction of the Kirk” (1567, c. 12. Fol. Edit.) the said Kirk is declared to have jurisdiction “in the preaching of the true Word of Jesus Christ, correction of manners, and administration of the holy sacraments” (1579, c. 69); and it is farther declared, “that there be no other jurisdiction ecclesiastical acknowledged within this realm, other than that which is and shall be within the same Kirk, or that flows therefrom, concerning the premises”; which Act, and that last before mentioned, were ratified and approven by another Act passed in the year 1581, entituled, “Ratification of the liberty of the true Kirk of God and religion, with confirmation of the laws and Acts made to that effect of before” (1581, c. 99); which other Act, and all the separate Acts therein recited, were again revived, ratified, and confirmed by an Act of the twelfth Parliament of the said King James VI., entituled, “Ratification of the liberty of the true Kirk,” &c. (1592, c. 116); which said Act (having been repealed in 1662) was revived, renewed, and confirmed by the before-mentioned statute of King William and Queen Mary (1690, c. 5).

Fourth, The said Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI. ratified and approved the General Assemblies, Provincial Synods, Presbyteries, and Kirk-Sessions “appointed by the Kirk” (1592. c. 116), and “the whole jurisdiction and discipline of the same Kirk”; cassed and annulled “all and whatsoever acts, laws, and statutes, made at any time before the day and date thereof, against the liberty of the true Kirk, jurisdiction and discipline thereof, as the same is used and exercised within this realm “; appointed presentations to benefices to be directed to Presbyteries, “with full power to give collation thereupon, and to put order to all matters and causes ecclesiastical within their bounds, according to the discipline of the Kirk, providing the foresaid Presbyteries be bound and astricted to receive and admit whatsoever qualified minister, presented by His Majesty or laic patrons” (the effect of which proviso and of the reservation in the Act of the first Parliament of King James VI., above mentioned (1567, c. 7), is hereinafter more fully adverted to); and farther declared that the jurisdiction of the Sovereign and his Courts, as set forth in a previous Act (1584, c. 129), to extend over all persons his subjects, and “in all matters,” should “noways be prejudicial nor derogate any thing to the privilege that God has given to the spiritual office-bearers of the Kirk, concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation, or deprivation of ministers, or any such like essential censures, grounded and having warrant of the Word of God”; by which enactment, declaration, and acknowledgment, the State recognized and established as a fundamental principle of the constitution of the kingdom, that the jurisdiction of the Church in these matters was “given by God” to the office-bearers thereof, and was exclusive, and free from coercion by any tribunals holding power or authority from the State or supreme civil magistrate.

Fifth, The Parliament holden by King Charles II. (1662, c.1), immediately on his restoration to the throne, while it repealed the above recited Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James, and other relative Acts (1592, c. 116), at the same time acknowledged the supreme and exclusive nature of the jurisdiction thereby recognized to be in the Church, describing the said Acts, as Acts “by which the sole and only power and jurisdiction within this Church doth stand in the Church, and in the general, provincial, and presbyterial assemblies and kirk-sessions,” and as Acts “which may be interpreted to have given any Church power, jurisdiction, or government to the office-bearers of the Church, their respective meetings, other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon, and subordination to, the sovereign power of the King, as supreme.”

Sixth, The aforesaid Act of King William and Queen Mary (1690, c. 5),—on the narrative that their Majesties and the estates of Parliament conceived “it to be their bounden duty, after the great deliverance that God hath lately wrought for this Church and kingdom, in the first place, to settle and secure therein the true Protestant religion, according to the truth of God’s Word, as it hath of a long time been professed within this land; as also, the government of Christ’s Church within this nation, agreeable to the Word of God, and most conducive to true piety and godliness, and the establishing of peace and tranquillity within this realm,”—besides ratifying and establishing as aforesaid the Confession of Faith, did also “establish, ratify, and confirm the Presbyterian Church government and discipline ; that is to say, the government of the Church by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies, ratified and established by the 116 Act of James VI., Parliament 12, anno 1592, entituled, ‘Ratification of the liberty of the true Kirk,’ &c. (1592, c. 116), and thereafter received by the general consent of this nation, to be the only government of Christ’s Church within this kingdom”; and revived and confirmed the said Act of King James VI.

And whereas, not only was the exclusive and ultimate jurisdiction of the Church Courts, in the government of the Church, and especially in the particular matters, spiritual and ecclesiastical, above mentioned, recognized, ratified, and confirmed—thus necessarily implying the denial of power on the part of any secular tribunal, holding its authority from the Sovereign, to review the sentence of the Church Courts in regard to such matters, or coerce them in the exercise of such jurisdiction ;—but all such power, and all claim on the part of the Sovereign to be considered supreme governor over the subjects of this kingdom of Scotland in causes ecclesiastical and spiritual, as he is in causes civil and temporal, was, after a long-continued struggle, finally and expressly repudiated and cast out of the constitution of Scotland, as inconsistent with the Presbyterian Church government established at the Revolution, and thereafter unalterably secured by the Treaty of Union with England; by the constitution of which latter kingdom, differing in this respect from that of Scotland, the Sovereign is recognized to be supreme governor, “as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things and causes as temporal”: Thus :—

First, The General Assembly having, in the year 1582, proceeded to inflict the censures of the Church upon Robert Montgomery, minister of Stirling, for seeking to force himself, under a presentation from the King, into the archbishopric of Glasgow, contrary to an Act of the General Assembly discharging the office of Prelatic bishop in the Church, and for appealing to the secular tribunals against the infliction of Church censures by the Church Courts, and seeking to have these suspended and interdicted—and having deposed and excommunicated him, notwithstanding of an interdict pronounced by the Privy Council of Scotland, the then supreme secular court of the kingdom—and having at the same time declared it to be part of the subsisting discipline of the Church, that any ministers thereof who “should seek any way by the civil power to exempt and withdraw themselves from the jurisdiction of the Kirk, or procure, obtain, or use any letters or charges, &c., to impair, hurt, or stay the said jurisdiction, discipline, &c., or to make any appellation from the General Assembly to stop the discipline or order of the ecclesiastical policy or jurisdiction granted by God’s Word to the office-bearers within the said Kirk,” were liable to the highest censures of the Church; although their sentence of excommunication was declared by one of the Acts of Parliament of the year 1584, commonly called the “Black Acts,” to be void, yet ultimately the King and Privy Council abandoned their interference. Montgomery submitted to the Church Courts, and the statute of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI., already mentioned (1592, c. 116), cassed and annulled “all and whatsoever acts, laws, and statutes made at any time before the day and date thereof, against the liberty of the true Kirk, jurisdiction and discipline thereof as the same is used and exercised within this realm” ; since which enactment, no similar interference with the discipline and censures of the Church was ever attempted till the year 1841.

Second, It having been declared by another of the “Black Acts” aforesaid (1584, c. 129), entituled, “An Act confirming the King’s Majesty’s royal power over all the estates and subjects within this realm” that “his Highness, his heirs and successors, by themselves and their councils, are, and in time to come shall be, judges competent to all persons his Highness’ subjects, of whatsoever estate, degree, function, or condition that ever they be of, spiritual or temporal, in all matters wherein they or any of them shall be apprehended, summoned, or charged to answer to such things as shall be inquired of them by our sovereign lord and his council,” it was, by the said before-mentioned Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI. (1592, c. 116), declared that the said Act last above mentioned “shall noways be prejudicial, nor derogate any thing to the privilege that God has given to the spiritual office-bearers of the Kirk, concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or deprivation of ministers, or any such like essential censures, specially grounded and having warrant of the Word of God.”

Third, It having been enacted, on the establishment of Prelacy in 1612 (1612, c.1), that every minister, at his admission, should swear obedience to the Sovereign as “the only lawful supreme governor of this realm, as well in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical as in things temporal,” the enactment to this effect was repealed on the restoration of Presbyterian Church government (1640, c. 7).

Fourth, A like acknowledgment, that the Sovereign was “the only supreme governor of this kingdom over all persons and in all causes” (1661, c. 11), having been, on the second establishment of Prelacy consequent on the restoration of King Charles II., required as part of the ordinary oath of allegiance, and having been also inserted into the “Test Oath” (1681, c. 6), so tyrannically attempted to be forced on the subjects of this realm during the reigns of Charles II. and James II.; and the same doctrine of the King’s supremacy in all causes, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as well as temporal and civil, having farther been separately and specially declared by the first Act of the second Parliament of the said King Charles II. (1669, c. 1), entituled, “Act asserting his Majesty’s supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesiastical,” whereby it was “enacted, asserted, and declared, that his Majesty hath the supreme authority and supremacy over all persons, and in all causes ecclesiastical, within this kingdom” (Estates, 1689, c. 18),—the Estates of this kingdom, at the era of the Revolution, did set forth, as the second article of the “Grievances” of which they demanded redress under their “Claim of Right,” “That the first Act of Parliament 1669 is inconsistent with the establishment of Church government now desired, and ought to be abrogated.”

Fifth, In compliance with this claim, an Act was immediately thereafter passed (1690, c. 1), of which the tenor follows:—“Our Sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen’s Majesties, taking into consideration that, by the second article of the Grievances presented to their Majesties by the Estates of this kingdom, it is declared, that the first Act of the second Parliament of King Charles the Second, entituled, ‘Act asserting his Majesty’s supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesiastical,’ is inconsistent with the establishment of the Church government now desired, and ought to be abrogated: Therefore their Majesties, with advice and consent of the estates of Parliament, do hereby abrogate, rescind, and annul the foresaid Act, and declare the same, in the whole heads, articles, and clauses thereof, to be of no force or effect in all time coming.” In accordance also therewith, the oath of allegiance above mentioned, requiring an acknowledgment of the King’s sovereignty “in all causes” (1689, c. 2), was done away, and that substituted which is now in use, simply requiring a promise to be “faithful, and bear true allegiance” to the Sovereign; and all preceding laws and Acts of Parliament were rescinded, “in so far as they impose any other oaths of allegiance and supremacy, declarations and tests, excepting the oath de fideli.” By the which enactments, any claim on the part of the Sovereigns of Scotland to be supreme rulers in spiritual and ecclesiastical, as well as in temporal and civil causes, or to possess any power, by themselves or their judges holding commission from them, to exercise jurisdiction in matters or causes spiritual and ecclesiastical, was repudiated and excluded from the constitution, as inconsistent with the Presbyterian Church government then established, and secured under the statutes then and subsequently passed, “to continue, without any alteration, to the people of this land, in all succeeding generations” (1706, c. 6).

And whereas, diverse civil rights and privileges were, by various statutes of the Parliament of Scotland, prior to the Union with England, secured to this Church, and certain civil consequences attached to the sentences of the Courts thereof, which were farther directed to be aided and made effectual by all magistrates, judges, and officers of the law; and in particular :—

It was, by an Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI. (1592, c. 117), enacted, “That all and whatsoever sentences of deprivation, either pronounced already, or that happens to be pronounced hereafter by the Presbytery, Synodal or General Assemblies, against any parson or vicar within their jurisdiction, provided since his Highness’ coronation, is, and shall be repute in all judgments, a just cause to seclude the person before provided, and then deprived, from all profits, commodities, rents, and duties of the said parsonage and vicarage, or benefice of cure; and that either by way of action, exception, or reply; and that the said sentence of deprivation shall be a sufficient cause to make the said benefice to vaike thereby”:

As also, by the fifth Act of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary (1690, c. 5), it was enacted, “that whatsoever minister, being convened before the said general meeting, and representatives of the Presbyterian ministers or elders, or the visitors to be appointed by them, shall either prove contumacious for not appearing, or be found guilty, and shall be therefor censured, whether by suspension or deposition, they shall, ipso facto, be suspended from or deprived of their stipends and benefices”;

As also, by an Act passed in the fourth session of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary (1693, c. 22), entituled an “Act for settling the peace and quiet of the Church,” it was provided, that no minister should be admitted, unless he owned the Presbyterian Church government, as settled by the last recited Act, “to be the only government of this Church”; “and that he will submit thereto, and concur therewith, and never endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof”; and it was statute or ordained, “that the lords of their Majesties’ Privy Council, and all other magistrates, judges, and officers of justice, give all due assistance for making the sentences and censures of the Church, and judicatories thereof, to be obeyed, or otherwise effectual as accords”:

As also, by an Act passed in the fifth session of the foresaid Parliament (1695, c. 22), entituled an “Act against intruding into churches without a legal call and admission thereto,” on the narrative, “that ministers and preachers, their intruding themselves into vacant churches, possessing of manses and benefices, and exercising any part of the ministerial function in parishes, without a legal call and admission to the said churches, is an high contempt of the law, and of a dangerous consequence, tending to perpetual schism”; such intrusion, without an orderly call from the heritors and elders—the right of presentation by patrons being at this time abolished—and “legal admission from the Presbytery,” was prohibited under certain penalties; and the lords of the Privy Council were recommended to remove all who had so intruded, and “to take some effectual course for stopping and hindering those ministers who are, or shall be hereafter deposed by the judicatories of the present Established Church, from preaching or exercising any act of their ministerial function, which” (the said statute declares) “they cannot do after they are deposed, without a high contempt of the authority of the Church, and of the laws of the kingdom establishing the same.”

And whereas, at the Union between the two kingdoms, the Parliament of Scotland, being determined that the “true Protestant religion,” as then professed, “with the worship, discipline, and government of this Church, should be effectually and unalterably secured,” did, in their Act appointing commissioners to treat with commissioners from the Parliament of England (1705, c, 4), as to an union of the kingdoms, provide “That the said commissioners shall not treat of or concerning any alteration of the worship, discipline, and government of the Church of this kingdom, as now by law established”; and did, by another Act, commonly called the Act of Security (1706, c. 6), and entituled, “Act for securing the Protestant religion and Presbyterian Church government,” “establish and confirm the said true Protestant religion, and the worship, discipline and government of this Church, to continue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeeding generations”; and did “for ever confirm the fifth Act of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary” (1690, c. 5), entituled, “Act ratifying the Confession of Faith, and settling Presbyterian Church government, and the whole other Acts of Parliament relating thereto”; and did “expressly provide and declare, That the foresaid true Protestant religion, contained in the above-mentioned Confession of Faith, with the form and purity of worship presently in use within this Church, and its Presbyterian Church government and discipline,—that is to say, the government of the Church by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods and General Assemblies, all established by the foresaid Acts of Parliament, pursuant to the Claim of Right shall remain and continue unalterable; and that the said Presbyterian government shall be the only government of the Church within the kingdom of Scotland”: And farther, “for the greater security of the same” did, inter alia, enact, “That, after the decease of Her present Majesty, the sovereign succeeding to her in the royal government of the kingdom of Great Britain, shall, in all time coming, at his or her accession to the crown, swear and subscribe, That they shall inviolably maintain and preserve the foresaid settlement of the true Protestant religion, with the government, worship, discipline, rights, and privileges of this Church, as above established by the laws of this kingdom, in prosecution of the Claim of Right”; which said Act of Security, “with the establishment therein contained,” it was specially thereby enacted “should be held and observed in all time coming as a fundamental and essential condition of any treaty or union to be concluded betwixt the two kingdoms, without any alteration thereof, or derogation thereto, in any sort forever”: It being farther thereby provided, that “the said Act and settlement therein contained shall be insert and repeated in any Act of Parliament that shall pass, for agreeing and concluding the foresaid treaty of union betwixt the two kingdoms; and that the same shall be therein expressly declared to be a fundamental and essential condition of the said treaty of union in all time coming.” In terms of which enactment this Act of Security was inserted in the Treaty of Union between the two kingdoms, as a fundamental condition thereof, and was also inserted in the Act (1706, c. 7) of the Parliament of Scotland ratifying and approving the said Treaty, and likewise in the corresponding Act of the Parliament of England, entituled “An Act (Anne 5, c. 8) for a Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland “:

And whereas at the date of the said Treaty of Union, the right of patrons to present to churches stood abolished by statute, after the following manner,—viz., By the Act of King William and Queen Mary (1690, c. 5) herein before mentioned, the Act of James VI. (1592, c. 116), also herein before mentioned, then standing totally repealed, was only revived, subject to the express exception of “that part of it relating to patronages” which consequently remained repealed and unrestored, and “which,” the Act 1690, c. 5, farther bore “is hereafter to be taken into consideration.” The part of the said Act thus left repealed and unrevived, was the provision that Presbyteries “be bound and astricted to receive whatsoever qualified minister presented by his Majesty or laid patrons,”—a provision which, while it subsisted, was held to leave the Church free to proceed in the collation of ministers, “according to the discipline of the Kirk”; and non-compliance with which implied only a forfeiture of the fruits of the particular benefice, which it did by virtue of the immediately succeeding statute 1592, c. 117, whereby it was enacted, that, “in case the Presbytery refuses to admit any qualified minister presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful to the patron to retain the whole fruits of the benefice in his own hands.” This subject having accordingly been thereafter taken into consideration in the same session of Parliament was definitively settled by an Act (1690, c. 23), entituled, “Act concerning Patronages”,” whereby the right of presentation by patrons was “annulled and made void,” and a right was vested in the heritors and elders of the respective parishes “to name and propose the person to the whole congregation to be approven or disapproven by them,” the disapprovers giving in their reasons “to the effect the affair may be cognosced upon by the Presbytery of the bounds, at whose judgment, and by whose determination” (as is declared by the said Act) “the calling and entry of a particular minister is to be ordered and concluded”;

And whereas the said Act last mentioned formed part of the settlement of the Presbyterian Church government effected at the Revolution and was one of the “Acts relating thereto,” and to the statute 1690, c. 5, specially confirmed and secured by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union; yet, notwithstanding thereof, and of the said Treaty, the Parliament of Great Britain, by an Act passed in the 10th of Queen Anne (10 Anne, c. 12), repealed the said Act, “in so far as relates to the presentation of ministers by heritors and others therein mentioned,” and restored to patrons the right of presentation, and enacted that Presbyteries should be “obliged to receive and admit in the same manner, such qualified person or persons, minister or ministers, as shall be presented by the respective patrons, as the persons or ministers presented before the making of this Act ought to have been admitted”:

And whereas, while this Church protested against the passing of the above-mentioned Act of Queen Anne, as “contrary to the constitution of the Church, so well secured by the late Treaty of Union, and solemnly ratified by Acts of Parliament in both kingdoms,” and for more than seventy years thereafter uninterruptedly sought for its repeal, she at the same time maintained, and practically exercised, without question or challenge from any quarter, the jurisdiction of her Courts to determine ultimately and exclusively, under what circumstances they would admit candidates into the office of the holy ministry, or constitute the pastoral relationship between minister and people, and, generally, “to order and conclude the entry of particular ministers”:

And whereas, in particular, this Church required, as necessary to the admission of a minister to the charge of souls, that he should have received a call from the people over whom he was to be appointed, and did not authorize or permit any one so to be admitted till such call had been sustained by the Church Courts, and did, before and subsequent to the passing of the said Act of Queen Anne, declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Church, as set forth in her authorized standards, and particularly in the Second Book of Discipline (ch. iii. sec. 5), repeated by Act of Assembly in 1638, that no pastor be intruded upon any congregation contrary to the will of the people:

And whereas, in especial, this fundamental principle was, by the 14th Act of the General Assembly 1736 (c. 14), re-declared, and directed to be attended to in the settlement of vacant parishes, but having been, after some time, disregarded in the administration of the Church, it was once more re-declared by the General Assembly 1834 (c. 9), who established certain specific provisions and regulations for carrying it into effect in time to come:

And whereas, by a judgment pronounced by the House of Lords, in 1839¹⁰, it was, for the first time, declared to be illegal to refuse to take on trial, and to reject the presentee of a patron (although a layman, and merely a candidate for admission to the office of the ministry), in consideration of this fundamental principle of the Church, and in respect of the dissent of the congregation; to the authority of which judgment, so far as disposing of civil interests, this Church implicitly bowed, by at once abandoning all claim to the jus devolutum,—to the benefice, for any pastor to be settled by her,—and to all other civil right or privilege which might otherwise have been competent to the Church or her Courts; and anxiously desirous, at the same time, of avoiding collision with the Civil Courts, she so far suspended the operation of the above-mentioned Act of Assembly, as to direct all cases, in which dissents should be lodged by a majority of the congregation, to be reported to the General Assembly, in the hope that a way might be opened up to her for reconciling with the civil rights declared by the House of Lords, adherence to the above-mentioned fundamental principle, which she could not violate or abandon, by admitting to the holy office of the ministry a party not having, in her conscientious judgment, a legitimate call thereto, or by intruding a pastor on a reclaiming congregation contrary to their will; and farther, addressed herself to the Government and the Legislature for such an alteration of the law (as for the first time now interpreted), touching the temporalities belonging to the Church (which alone she held the decision of the House of Lords to be capable of affecting or regulating), as might prevent a separation between the cure of souls and the benefice thereto attached:

And whereas, although during the century which elapsed after the passing of the said Act of Queen Anne, Presbyteries repeatedly rejected the presentees of patrons on grounds undoubtedly ultra vires of the Presbyteries, as having reference to the title of the patron or the validity of competing presentations, and which were held by the Court of Session to be contrary to law, and admitted others to the pastoral office in the parishes presented to, who had no presentation or legal title to the benefice, the said Court, even in such cases, never attempted or pretended to direct or coerce the Church Courts, in the exercise of their functions in regard to the collation of ministers, or other matters acknowledged by the State to have been conferred on the Church, not by the State, but by God Himself. On the contrary, they limited their decrees to the regulations and disposal of the temporalities which were derived from the State, and which, as the proper subjects of “actions civil,” were within the province assigned to the Court of Session, by the Constitution refusing to interfere with the peculiar functions and exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of the Church. Thus,—

In the case of Auchtermuchty¹¹, where the Presbytery had wrongfully admitted another than the patron’s presentee, the Court found, “That the right to a stipend is a civil right; and therefore that the Court have power to cognosce and determine upon the legality of the admission of ministers in hunc effectum, whether the person admitted shall have right to the stipend or not” ; and simply decided, that the patron was entitled to retain the stipend in his own hands.

So also, the same course was followed in the cases of Culross, Lanark, and Forbes¹²; in reference to one of which (that of Lanark), the Government of the country, on behalf of the Crown, in which the patronage was vested, recognized the retention of stipend by the patron, as the only competent remedy for a wrongful refusal to admit his presentee; the Secretary of State having, in a letter to the Lord Advocate of Scotland (January 17, 1752), signified the pleasure of His Majesty, “directing and ordering his lordship to do every thing necessary and competent by law, for asserting and taking benefit in the present case of the said right and privilege of patrons by the law of Scotland to retain the fruits of the benefice in their own hands till their presentee be admitted.”

So farther, in the before-mentioned case of Culross¹³, the Court refused, “as incompetent,” a bill of advocation presented to them by the patron, for the purpose of staying the admission by the Presbytery of another than his presentee.

So likewise, in the case of Dunse¹⁴, the Court would not interfere in regard to a conclusion to prohibit the Presbytery “to moderate in a call at large, or settle any other man,” because “that was interfering with the power of ordination, or internal policy of the Church, with which the Lords thought they had nothing to do.” And so, in the same manner, in the case of Unst¹⁵, where the party concluded to have the Presbytery ordained to proceed to the presentee’s settlement, as well as to have the validity of the presentation and the right to the stipend declared, the Court limited their decree to the civil matters of the presentation and stipend:

And whereas, pending the efforts of the Church to accomplish the desired alteration of the law, the Court of Session—a tribunal instituted by special Act of Parliament for the specific and limited purpose of “doing and administration of justice in all civil actions” (1537, c. 36), with judges appointed simply “to sit and decide upon all actions civil” (1532, c. 1),—not confining themselves to the determination of civil actions” – to the withholding of civil consequences from sentences of the Church Courts, which, in their judgement, were no warranted by the statutes recognizing the jurisdiction of these Courts,—to the enforcing of the provision of the Act 1592, c. 117, for retention of the fruits of the benefice in case of wrongful refusal to admit a presentee or the giving of other civil redress for any civil injury held by them to have been wrongfully sustained in consequence thereof,—have, in numerous and repeated instances, stepped beyond the province allotted to them by the Constitution, and within which alone their decisions can be held to declare the law or to have the force of law, deciding not only “actions civil,” but “causes spiritual and ecclesiastical,” – and that, too, even where these had no connection with the exercise of the right of patronage, – and have invaded the jurisdiction, and encroached upon the spiritual privileges of the Courts of this Church, in violation of the constitution of the country—in defiance of the statutes above mentioned, and in contempt of the laws of this kingdom: as for instance—

By interdicting Presbyteries of the Church from admitting to a pastoral charge¹⁶, when about to be done irrespective of the civil benefice attached thereto, or even where there was no benefice—no right of patronage – no stipend—no manse or glebe, and no place of worship, or any patrimonial right connected therewith¹⁷.

By issuing a decree¹⁸, requiring and ordaining a Church Court to take on trial and admit to the office of the holy ministry, in a particular charge, a probationer or unordained candidate for the ministry, and to intrude him also on the congregation, contrary to the will of the people;—both in this, and in the cases first mentioned, invading the Church’s exclusive jurisdiction in the admission of ministers, the preaching of the Word, and administration of Sacraments—recognized by statute to have been “given by God” directly to the Church, and to be beyond the limits of the secular jurisdiction.

By prohibiting the communicants¹⁹ of the Church from intimating their dissent from a call proposed to be given to a candidate for the ministry to become their pastor.

By granting interdict against the establishment of additional ministers to meet the wants of an increasing population²⁰, as uninterruptedly practised from the Reformation to this day: against constituting a new kirk-session in a parish, to exercise discipline; and against innovating on its existing state, “as regards pastoral superintendence, its kirk-session, and jurisdiction and discipline thereto belonging.”

By interdicting the preaching of the gospel, and administration of ordinances²¹ throughout a whole district, by any minister of the Church under authority of the Church Courts; thus assuming to themselves the regulation of the “preaching of the Word” and administration of the Sacraments,” and at the same time invading the privilege, common to all the subjects of the realm, of having freedom to worship God according to their consciences, and under the guidance of the ministers of the communion to which they belong.

By holding the members of inferior Church judicatories liable in damages²² for refusing to break their ordination vows and oaths (sworn by them, in compliance with the requirements of the statutes of the realm, and, in particular, of the Act of Security embodied in the Treaty of Union), by disobeying and setting at defiance the sentences, in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical, of their superior Church judicatories, to which, by the constitution of the Church and country, they are, in such matters, subordinate and subject, and which, by their said vows and oaths, they stand pledged to obey.

By interdicting the execution of the sentence of a Church judicatory, prohibiting a minister from preaching or administering ordinances within a particular parish²³, pending the discussion of a cause in the Church Courts as to the validity of his settlement therein.

By interdicting the General Assembly and inferior Church judicatories from inflicting Church censures; as in one case, where interdict was granted against the pronouncing of sentence of deposition upon a minister found guilty of theft, by a judgment acquiesced in by himself²⁴; in another, where a Presbytery was interdicted from proceeding in the trial of a minister accused of fraud and swindling²⁵; and in a third, where a Presbytery was interdicted from proceeding with a libel against a licentiate for drunkenness, obscenity, and profane swearing²⁶.

By suspending Church censures²⁷, inflicted by the Church judicatories in the exercise of discipline (which, by special statute, all “judges and officers of justice” are ordered “to give due assistance” for making “to be obeyed, or otherwise effectual”), and so reponing ministers suspended from their office, to the power of preaching and administering ordinances; thus assuming to themselves the “power of the keys.”

By interdicting the execution of a sentence of deposition from the office of the holy ministry, pronounced by the General Assembly of the Church²⁸; thereby also usurping the “power of the keys,” and supporting deposed ministers in the exercise of ministerial functions; which is declared by special statute to be a “high contempt of the authority of the Church, and of the laws of the kingdom establishing the same.”

By assuming to judge of the right of individuals elected members of the General Assembly to sit therein²⁹, and interdicting them from taking their seats; thus interfering with the constitution of the Supreme Court of the Church, and violating her freedom in the holding of General Assemblies, secured to her by statute.

By, in the greater number of instances above referred to, requiring the inferior judicatories of the Church to disobey the sentences, in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical, of the superior judicatories, to which, by the constitution in Church and State, they are subordinate and subject, and which, in compliance with the provisions of the statutes of the realm, their members have solemnly sworn to obey;—thus subverting “the government of the Church by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies,” settled by statute and the Treaty of Union, as “the only government of the Church within the kingdom of Scotland.”

By all which acts, the said Court of Session, apparently not adverting to the oath taken by the Sovereign, from whom they hold their commissions, have exercised powers not conferred upon them by the Constitution, but by it excluded from the province of any secular tribunal,—have invaded the jurisdiction of the Courts of the Church,—have subverted its government,—have illegally attempted to coerce Church Courts in the exercise of their purely spiritual functions,—have usurped the “power of the keys,”—have wrongfully acclaimed, as the subjects of their civil jurisdiction, to be regulated by their decrees, ordination of laymen to the office of the holy ministry, admission to the cure of souls, Church censures, the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the Sacraments,—and have employed the means intrusted to them for enforcing submission to their lawful authority, in compelling submission to that which they have usurped,—in opposition to the doctrines of God’s Word set forth in the Confession of Faith, as ratified by statute,—in violation of the Constitution,—in breach of the Treaty of Union, and in disregard of divers express enactments of the Legislature:

And whereas farther encroachments are threatened on the government and discipline of the Church as by law established³⁰, in actions now depending before the said Court, in which it is sought to have sentences of deposition from the office of the holy ministry reduced and set aside³¹, and minorities of inferior judicatories authorizcd to take on trial and admit to the office of the holy ministry, in disregard of, and in opposition to, the authority of the judicatories of which they are members, and of the superior judicatories to which they are subordinate and subject:

And whereas the government and discipline of Christ’s Church cannot be carried on according to his laws and the constitution of his Church, subject to the exercise, by any secular tribunal, of such powers as have been assumed by the said Court of Session:

And whereas this Church, highly valuing, as she has ever done, her connection, on the terms contained in the statutes herein before recited, with the State, and her possession of the temporal benefits thereby secured to her for the advantage of the people, must, nevertheless, even at the risk and hazard of the loss of that connection and of these public benefits—deeply as she would deplore and deprecate such a result for herself and the nation—persevere in maintaining her liberties as a Church of Christ, and in carrying on the government thereof on her own constitutional principles, and must refuse to intrude ministers on her congregations, to obey the unlawful coercion attempted to be enforced against her in the exercise of her spiritual functions and jurisdiction, or to consent that her people be deprived of their rightful liberties:

THEREFORE, the General Assembly, while, as above set forth, they fully recognize the absolute jurisdiction of the Civil Courts in relation to all matters whatsoever of a civil nature, and especially in relation to all the temporalities conferred by the State upon the Church, and the civil consequences attached by law to the decisions, in matters spiritual, of the Church Courts,—DO, in name and on behalf of this Church, and of the nation and people of Scotland, and under the sanction of the several statutes, and the Treaty of Union herein before recited, claim, as of right, That she shall freely possess and enjoy her liberties, government, discipline, rights and privileges, according to law, especially for the defence of the spiritual liberties of her people, and that she shall be protected therein from the foresaid unconstitutional and illegal encroachments of the said Court of Session, and her people secured in their Christian and constitutional rights and liberties.

And they declare, that they cannot, in accordance with the Word of God, the authorized and ratified standards of this Church, and the dictates of their consciences, intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations, or carry on the government of Christ’s Church, subject to the coercion attempted by the Court of Session as above set forth; and, that, at the risk and hazard of suffering the loss of the secular benefits conferred by the State, and the public advantages of an Establishment, they must, as by God’s grace they will, refuse so to do: for, highly as they estimate these, they cannot put them in competition with the inalienable liberties of a Church of Christ, which, alike by their duty and allegiance to their Head and King, and by their ordination vows, they are bound to maintain, “notwithstanding of whatsoever trouble or persecution may arise.”

and they protest, that all and whatsoever Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, passed without the consent of this Church and nation, in alteration of or derogation to the aforesaid government, discipline, right, and privileges of this Church (which were not allowed to be treated of by the Commissioners for settling the terms of the union between the two kingdoms, but were secured by antecedent stipulation, provided to be inserted, and inserted in the Treaty of Union, as an unalterable and fundamental condition thereof, and so reserved from the cognizance and power of the federal Legislature created by the said Treaty), as also, all and whatsoever sentences of Courts in contravention of the same government, discipline, right, and privileges, are, and shall be, in themselves void and null, and of no legal force or effect; and that, while they will accord full submission to all such acts and sentences, in so far—though in so far only—as these may regard civil rights and privileges, whatever may be their opinion of the justice or legality of the same, their said submission shall not be deemed an acquiescence therein, but that it shall be free to the members of this Church, or their successors, at any time hereafter, when there shall be a prospect of obtaining justice, to claim the restitution of all such civil rights and privileges, and temporal benefits and endowments, as for the present they may be compelled to yield up, in order to preserve to their office-bearers the free exercise of their spiritual government and discipline, and to their people the liberties, of which respectively it has been attempted, so contrary to law and justice, to deprive them.

and, finally, the General Assembly call the Christian people of this kingdom, and all the Churches of the Reformation throughout the world, who hold the great doctrine of the sole Headship of the Lord Jesus over His Church, to witness, that it is for their adherence to that doctrine, as set forth in their Confession of Faith, and ratified by the laws of this kingdom, and for the maintenance by them of the jurisdiction of the office-bearers, and the freedom and privileges of the members of the Church from that doctrine flowing, that this Church is subjected to hardship, and that the rights so sacredly pledged and secured to her are put in peril; and they especially invite all the office-bearers and members of this Church, who are willing to suffer for their allegiance to their adorable King and Head, to stand by the Church, and by each other, in defence of the doctrine aforesaid, and of the liberties and privileges, whether of office-bearers or people, which rest upon it; and to unite in supplication to Almighty God, that He would be pleased to turn the hearts of the rulers of this kingdom, to keep unbroken the faith pledged to this Church, in former days, by statutes and solemn treaty, and the obligations, come under to God Himself, to preserve and maintain the government and discipline of this Church in accordance with His Word; or otherwise, that He would give strength to this Church—office-bearers and people—to endure resignedly the loss of the temporal benefits of an Establishment, and the personal sufferings and sacrifices to which they may be called, and would also inspire them with zeal and energy to promote the advancement of His Son’s kingdom, in whatever condition it may be His will to place them; and that, in His own good time, He would restore to them these benefits, the fruits of the struggles and sufferings of their fathers in times past in the same cause; and, thereafter, give them grace to employ them more effectually than hitherto they have done for the manifestation of His glory.

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2. ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN

ON THE SUBJECT OF THE FOREGOING CLAIM OF RIGHT

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1842.—ACT XX.

May it please your majesty,

We, your Majesty’s most loyal, dutiful, and devoted subjects, the Ministers and Elders of the Church of Scotland, met in General Assembly, relying with undoubted confidence on the gracious assurance repeatedly vouchsafed to us of your Majesty’s determination to maintain inviolate the government, worship, discipline, rights, and privileges of this Church, humbly approach your Majesty, in order to lay before your Majesty a statement of the invasions which have recently been made on the said government, discipline, rights, and privileges of this Church.

We deeply lament that the invasions of which we complain have proceeded from the Court of Session, to whose determinations, in their own province, we have ever yielded and inculcated implicit obedience. We most respectfully submit to your Majesty’s favourable consideration the Claim, Declaration, and Protest which we have adopted with reference to this matter; wherein are fully set forth the legal and constitutional securities for the rights and privileges of this Church, and the encroachments thereon from which we desire to be protected.

We fully rely on your Majesty’s determination to uphold and maintain the government, discipline, rights, privileges of this Church; and while we cannot, in accordance with the dictates of our conscience, and our views of the Word of God, submit to the coercion attempted over us in the exercise of our spiritual functions by the said Court, and must refuse to do so, even at the hazard of the loss of the temporal advantages we at present enjoy, we earnestly trust that such measures may be directed by your Majesty as will preserve to us the peaceable possession of those rights and privileges secured to us by statute and solemn treaty.

Given at Edinburgh, this 30th day of May 1842, by your Majesty’s most faithful, obedient,
and loyal subjects,

The Ministers and Elders of this National Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
D. Welsh, Moderator.

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3. PROTEST

BY THOSE COMMISSIONERS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPOINTED TO MEET ON 18TH MAY 1843, BY WHOM THIS ASSEMBLY WAS CONSTITUTED

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1843.—ACT I.

At Edinburgh, and within a large Hall at Canonmills,
the 18th day of May 1843 years. Sess. 1.

The Commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, appointed to have been holden this day, having met in St. Andrew’s Church, the Ministers and Elders, Commissioners thereto, whose names are appended to the Protest then and there made, and hereinafter inserted, having withdrawn from that place, and having convened in a large Hall at Canonmills, in presence of a great concourse of Ministers, Elders and People, and having duly constituted themselves in the name of the Head of the Church, and appointed the Rev. Dr. Chalmers to be their Moderator, the Protest above mentioned was produced and read and thereafter ordered to be recorded as follows:—

We, the undersigned Ministers and Elders, chosen as Commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indicted to meet this day, but precluded from holding the said Assembly by reason of the circumstances hereinafter set forth, in consequence of which a Free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in accordance with the laws and constitution of the said Church, cannot at this time be holden—

Considering that the Legislature, by their rejection of the Claim of Right adopted by the last General Assembly of the said Church, and their refusal to give redress and protection against the jurisdiction assumed, and the coercion of late repeatedly attempted to be exercised over the Courts of the Church in matters spiritual by the Civil Courts, have recognized and fixed the conditions of the Church Establishment, as henceforward to subsist in Scotland, to be such as these have been pronounced and declared by the said Civil Courts in their several recent decisions, in regard to matters spiritual and ecclesiastical, whereby it has been held inter alia, –

First, That Courts of the Church by law established, and members thereof, are liable to be coerced by the Civil Courts in the exercise of their spiritual functions; and in particular in the admission to the office of the holy ministry, and the constitution of the pastoral relation, and that they are subject to be compelled to intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations in opposition to the fundamental principles of the Church, and their views of the Word of God, and to the liberties of Christ’s people.

Second, That the said Civil Courts have power to interfere with and interdict the preaching of the gospel and administration of ordinances as authorized and enjoined by the Church Courts of the Establishment.

Third, That the said Civil Courts have power to suspend spiritual censures pronounced by the Church Courts of the Establishment against ministers and probationers of the Church, and to interdict their execution as to spiritual effects, functions, and privileges.

Fourth, That the said Civil Courts have power to reduce and set aside the sentences of the Church Courts of the Establishment deposing ministers from the office of the holy ministry, and depriving probationers of their licence to preach the gospel, with reference to the spiritual status, functions, and privileges of such ministers and probationers—restoring them to the spiritual office and status of which the Church Courts had deprived them.

Fifth, That the said Civil Courts have power to determine on the right to sit as members of the supreme and other judicatories of the Church by law established, and to issue interdicts against sitting and voting therein, irrespective of the judgment and determination of the said judicatories.

Sixth, That the said Civil Courts have power to supersede the majority of a Church Court of the Establishment, in regard to the exercise of its spiritual functions as a Church Court, and to authorize the minority to exercise the said functions, in opposition to the Court itself, and to the superior judicatories of the Establishment.

Seventh, That the said Civil Courts have power to stay processes of discipline pending before Courts of the Church by law established, and to interdict such Courts from proceeding therein.

Eighth, That no pastor of a congregation can be admitted into the Church Courts of the Establishment, and allowed to rule, as well as to teach, agreeably to the institution of the office by the Head of the Church, nor to sit in any of the judicatories of the Church, inferior or supreme—and that no additional provision can be made for the exercise of spiritual discipline among the members of the Church, though not affecting any patrimonial interests, and no alteration introduced in the state of pastoral superintendence and spiritual discipline in any parish, without the sanction of a Civil Court.

All which jurisdiction and power on the part of the said Civil Courts severally above specified, whatever proceeding may have given occasion to its exercise, is, in our opinion, in itself inconsistent with Christian liberty, and with the authority which the Head of the Church hath conferred on the Church alone.

And farther considering, that a General Assembly, composed, in accordance with the laws and fundamental principles of the Church, in part of commissioners themselves admitted without the sanction of the Civil Court, or chosen by Presbyteries composed in part of members not having that sanction, cannot be constituted as an Assembly of the Establishment without disregarding the law and the legal conditions of the same as now fixed and declared;

And farther considering, that such commissioners as aforesaid would, as members of an Assembly of the Establishment, be liable to be interdicted from exercising their functions, and to be subjected to civil coercion at the instance of any individual having interest who might apply to the Civil Courts for that purpose;

And farther considering, that civil coercion has already been in divers instances applied for and used, whereby certain commissioners returned to the Assembly this day appointed to have been holden, have been interdicted from claiming their seats, and from sitting and voting therein; and certain Presbyteries have been, by interdicts directed against their members, prevented from freely choosing commissioners to the said Assembly, whereby the freedom of such Assembly, and the liberty of election thereto, has been forcibly obstructed and taken away;

And farther considering, that, in these circumstances, a free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, by law established, cannot at this time be holden, and that an Assembly, in accordance with the fundamental principles of the Church, cannot be constituted in connection with the State without violating the conditions which must now, since the rejection by the Legislature of the Church’s Claim of Right, be held to be the conditions of the Establishment.

And considering that, while heretofore, as members of Church judicatories ratified by law and recognised by the constitution of the kingdom, we held ourselves entitled and bound to exercise and maintain the jurisdiction vested in these judicatories with the sanction of the Constitution, notwithstanding the decrees as to matters spiritual and ecclesiastical of the Civil Courts, because we could not see that the State had required submission thereto as a condition of the Establishment, but, on the contrary, were satisfied that the State, by the acts of the Parliament of Scotland, for ever and unalterably secured to this nation by the Treaty of Union, had repudiated any power in the Civil Courts to pronounce such decrees, we are now constrained to acknowledge it to be the mind and will of the State, as recently declared, that such submission should and does form a condition of the Establishment, and of the possession of the benefits thereof; and that as we cannot, without committing what we believe to be sin—in opposition to God’s law—in disregard of the honour and authority of Christ’s crown, and in violation of our own solemn vows,—comply with this condition, we cannot in conscience continue connected with it, and retain the benefits of an Establishment to which such condition is attached.

We, therefore, the Ministers and Elders foresaid, on this the first occasion, since the rejection by the Legislature of the Church’s Claim of Right, when the commissioners chosen from throughout the bounds of the Church to the General Assembly appointed to have been this day holden are convened together, do protest, that the conditions foresaid, while we deem them contrary to and subversive of the settlement of church government effected at the Revolution, and solemnly guaranteed by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union are also at variance with God’s Word, in opposition to the doctrines and fundamental principles of the Church of Scotland, inconsistent with the freedom essential to the right constitution of a Church of Christ, and incompatible with the government which He, as the Head of His Church, hath therein appointed distinct from the civil magistrate.

And we farther protest, that any Assembly constituted in submission to the conditions now declared to be law, and under the civil coercion which has been brought to bear on the election of commissioners to the Assembly this day appointed to have been holden, and on the commissioners chosen thereto, is not, and shall not be deemed, a lawful and free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, according to the original and fundamental principles thereof; and that the Claim, Declaration, and Protest, of the General Assembly which convened at Edinburgh in May 1842, as the act of a free and lawful Assembly of the said Church, shall be holden as setting forth the true constitution of the said Church; and that the said Claim, along with the laws of the Church now subsisting, shall in nowise be affected by whatsoever acts and proceedings of any Assembly constituted under the conditions now declared to be the law, and in submission to the coercion now imposed on the Establishment.

And, finally, while firmly asserting the right and duty of the civil magistrate to maintain and support an establishment of religion in accordance with God’s Word, and reserving to ourselves and our successors to strive by all lawful means, as opportunity shall in God’s good providence be offered, to secure the performance of this duty agreeably to the Scriptures, and in implement of the statutes of the kingdom of Scotland, and the obligations of the Treaty of Union as understood by us and our ancestors, but acknowledging that we do not hold ourselves at liberty to retain the benefits of the Establishment while we cannot comply with the conditions now to be deemed thereto attached—we protest, that in the circumstances in which we are placed, it is and shall be lawful for us, and such other commissioners chosen to the Assembly appointed to have been this day holden as may concur with us, to withdraw to a separate place of meeting, for the purpose of taking steps for ourselves and all who adhere to us—maintaining with us the Confession of Faith and standards of the Church of Scotland, as heretofore understood—for separating in an orderly way from the Establishment; and thereupon adopting such measures as maybe competent to us, in humble dependence on God’s grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit, for the advancement of His glory, the extension of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, and the administration of the affairs of Christ’s house, according to His holy Word, and we do now, for the purpose foresaid, withdraw accordingly, humbly and solemnly acknowledging the hand of the Lord in the things which have come upon us, because of our manifold sins, and the sins of this Church and nation; but, at the same time, with an assured conviction, that we are not responsible for any consequences that may follow from this our enforced separation from an Establishment which we loved and prized—through interference with conscience, the dishonour done to Christ’s crown, and the rejection of His sole and supreme authority as King in His Church.

(Signed)

David Welsh, m.
Thomas Chalmers, m.
Henry Grey, m.
Patrick Clason, m.
Walter Fairlie, m.
Robert Gordon, m.
Wm. Cunningham, m.
Rob. S. Candlish, m.
Jas. Fairbairn, m.
Robt. Elder, m.
Alex. E. Monteith, e.
Pat. Fairbairn, m.
John Thomson, m.
W. Bruce Cunningham, m.
John Thomson, m.
Andw. Baird, m.
John Wallace, m.
John Fairbairn, m.
Geo. Fulton Knight, m.
Geo. Hastie, m.
Henry Duncan, m.
P. Maxwell, e.
Robt. Brydon, m.
John R. Mackenzie, m.
Robt. Crawford, m.
Jas. Mackenzie, m.
Philip Forsyth, e.
Robt. Moncrieff Rome, e.
John Gordon, e.
Thomas B. Bell, m.
Matthew Kirkland, m.
Claud Alexander, e.
David Landsborough, m.
Matthew Dickie, m.
Thomas Findlay, m.
Thomas Main, in.
W. H. Craufurd, e.
P. B. Mure Macredie, e.
Robert Smith, m.
Duncan Macfarlan, m.
J. Macnaughtan, m.
Alex. Renfrew, e.
Thomas Carlile, e.
Jas. Smith, m.
Jas. Drummond, m.
Rob. Buchanan, m.
John Forbes, m.
John Thomson, m.
Al. N. Somerville, m.
Wm. Burns, m.
John Smyth, m.
Andrew King, m.
Thos. Brown, m.
Wal. McGilvray, m.
Wm. Collins, e.
Patrick M’Farlan, m.
Henry Dunlop, e.
Wm. Wilson, e.
Alex. Bryce, e.
John Wright, e.
Peter M’Adam, e.
Alex. Campbell of Monzie, e.
Joseph Stark, m.
Duncan Maclean, m.
John Grant, e.
Archd. M’Indoe, e.
James Pearson,m.

Alex. Cameron, m.
Wm. Fraser, m.
Michael Stirling, m.
John Mackenzie, m.
Wm. Grant, m.
Jno. Murray, e.
John Bonar, m.
George Cupples, m.
Alex. Beith, m.
W. Mackenzie, m.
Wm. Watt, m.
James Sievewright, m.
John Alexander, m.
Alex. Hutchison, e.
Andw. Melville, m.
Jno. Macfarlane, m.
Adam Cairns, m.
D. Maitland Makgill Crichton, e.
Robt. Brown, m.
Chas. Nairn, m.
Jas. Miller, m.
Geo. Lewis, m.
D.B. Mellis, m.
William Stewart, m.
James Ewing, m.
Tho. Wilson, m.
Thomas Dymock, m.
William Wilson, m.
Wm. Andson, e.
Jas. Brewster, m.
William Nixon, m.
J. G. Wood, e.
Alex. L. R. Foote, m.
P. Dalmahoy, e.
John Murray, m.
James Foote, m.
James Stewart, m.
Robert Forbes, m.
Alex. Spence, m.
Alex. Thorn, e.
Thos. Shepherd, e.
R. J. Brown, m.
Wm. Anderson, m.
David Scott Fergusson, m.
James M’Gown, m.
Wm. Henderson, e.
James Forrest, e.
Hugh Gordon, m.
Wm. Garden Blaikie, m.
Neil Smith, jun., e.
George Innes, m.
Fra. W. Grant, m.
Ludovic Stewart, e.
Duncan Grant, m.
George Mackay, m.
William Barclay, m.
John Matheson, m.
Thos. M’Lauchlan, m.
Wm. Stothert, e.
Geo. Mackay, e.
Alex. Stewart, m.
Henry Paul, e.
John M’Rae, m.
Maurice Lothian, e.
C. R. Matheson, m.
John Munro, e.
Hector Allan, m.

G. Smyttan, e.
John Macdonald, m.
G. M. Torrance, e.
John Macmillan, m.
Thos. Davidson, m.
Colin Mackenzie, m.
Don’d. M’Rae, m.
A. Dunlop, e.
Rob. Finlayson, m.
John Finlayson, m.
Cha. Gordon, m.
Geo. R. Kennedy, m.
James Bridges, e.
James Blackadder, e.
John Munro, m.
W. Ross Taylor, m.
Peter Petrie, m.
John Cadell, e.
W. S. Hay, m.
John A. Rankine, e.
John Brown, e.
Wm. Nicolson, m.
Geo. Darsie, jun., e.
James Howden, e.
James Wyld, e.
Alex. Balfour, e.
J. Somerville, D.D., m.
Patrick Don Swan, e.
Tho. Ramsay, e.
C. M. Christie, e.
Geo. W. Hay, e.
Pat. Tennent, e.
Geo. Duncan, e.
John Turnbull, m.
David Craig, e.
James Crawford, jun., e.
Jas. C. Brodie, e.
John C. Brodie, e.
George Tulloch, m.
Henry Tod, e.
Duncan M’Intyre, e.
James Henderson, e.
John Howden, e.
Geo. Paton, e.
Charles Jameson, m.
Wm. Fergusson, e.
Alex. Lillie, e.
H. M. Mackenzie, m.
Adam Spence, e.
David Reid, e.
Andrew Urquhart, m.
Abercromby L. Gordon, m.
John Robertson, m.
G. M. Gray, e.
Archd. Bonar, e.
Robert Hislop, e.
Rich. Kidston, e.
David Brewster, e.
Wm. Black, e.
Adam Rettie, m.
George Davidson, m.
John Murray, m.
Hu. Fraser, m.
Robert Johnston, jun., e.
Duncan Darroch, e.
David Dickson, e.
Ralph Robb, m.

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4. ACT OF SEPARATION AND DEED OF DEMISSION BY MINISTERS³²

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1843.—IV.

23rd May 1843.

The General Assembly having approved of and adopted the draft of an Act and Deed to be subscribed by Ministers adhering to the Protest, renouncing and demitting their status, rights, and privileges, held by virtue of the Establishment, and the said Act and Deed having thereafter been extended in due and proper form, and subscribed by the parties, was ordered to be recorded.

The Ministers and Elders subscribing the Protest made on Thursday, the 18th of this instant May, at the meeting of the Commissioners chosen to the General Assembly appointed to have been that day holden, against the freedom and lawfulness of any Assembly which might then be constituted, and against the subversion recently effected in the constitution of the Church of Scotland, together with the ministers and elders adhering to the said Protest, in this their General Assembly convened, did, in prosecution of the said Protest, and of the Claim of Right adopted by the General Assembly which met at Edinburgh in May 1842 years, and on the grounds therein set forth, and hereby do, for themselves, and all who adhere to them, separate from and abandon the present subsisting Ecclesiastical Establishment in Scotland, and did, and thereby do, abdicate and renounce the status and privileges derived to them, or any of them, as parochial ministers or elders from the said Establishment, through its connection with the State, and all rights and emoluments pertaining to them, or any of them, by virtue thereof: Declaring, that they hereby in no degree abandon or impair the rights belonging to them as ministers of Christ’s gospel, and pastors and elders of particular congregations, to perform freely and fully the functions of their offices towards their respective congregations, or such portions of them as may adhere to them; and that they are and shall be free to exercise government and discipline in their several judicatories, separate from the Establishment, according to God’s Word and the constitution and standards of the Church of Scotland, as heretofore understood; and that henceforth they are not, and shall not be, subject in any respect to the ecclesiastical judicatories established in Scotland by law; Reserving always the rights and benefits accruing to them, or any of them, under the provisions of the statutes respecting the Ministers’ Widows’ Fund: And farther declaring, that this present act shall noways be held as a renunciation on the part of such of the ministers foresaid as are ministers of churches built by private contribution, and not provided or endowed by the State, of any rights which may be found to belong to them, or their congregations, in regard to the same, by virtue of the intentions and destination of the contributors to the erection of the said churches, or otherwise according to law; all which are fully reserved to the ministers foresaid and their congregations; And farther, the said ministers and elders, in this their General Assembly convened, while they refuse to acknowledge the supreme ecclesiastical judicatory established by law in Scotland, and now holding its sittings in Edinburgh, to be a free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, or a lawful Assembly of the said Church, according to the true and original constitution thereof, and disclaim its authority as to matters spiritual, yet in respect of the recognition given to it by the State, and the powers, in consequence of such recognition, belonging to it, with reference to the temporalities of the Establishment, and the rights derived thereto from the State, hereby appoint a duplicate of this Act to be subscribed by their Moderator, and also by the several ministers, members of this Assembly, now present in Edinburgh, for their individual interests, to be transmitted to the clerk of the said ecclesiastical judicatory by law established, for the purpose of certiorating them that the benefices held by such of the said ministers, or others adhering to this Assembly, as were incumbents of benefices, are now vacant; and the said parties consent that the said benefices shall be dealt with as such. And they authorize the Rev. Thomas Pitcairn, and the Rev. Patrick Clason, conjunct clerks to this their Genera! Assembly, to subscribe the joinings of the several sheets hereof, and they consent to the registration hereof in the books of Council and Session, or others competent, therein to remain for preservation : and for that purpose constitute their procurators, &c.
in testimony whereof, these presents, written upon stamped paper by William Petrie Couper, clerk to James Crawford, junior, Writer to the Signet, are, with a duplicate thereof, subscribed by the whole parties in General Meeting assembled, and the joinings of the several sheets by the saids Rev. Thomas Pitcairn and Rev. Patrick Clason, as authorized as aforesaid, all at Edinburgh, the 23d day of May 1843 years, before these witnesses—Mr. John Hamilton, advocate; William Fraser, Writer to the Signet; John Hunter, junior, Writer to the Signet; and the Rev. John Jaffray, preacher of the gospel, and Secretary to the Provisional Committee, Edinburgh.

(Signed) Thomas Chalmers, Moderator.

George Muirhead, Cramond.
William Nisbet, Edinburgh.
John Bruce, Edinburgh.
Patrick Clason, Edinburgh.
Wm. Simpson, Edinburgh.
Alexander W. Brown, Edinburgh.
Geo. R. Davidson, Edinburgh.
Robert Elder, Edinburgh.
Thomas Addis, Morningside, Edinburgh.
Henry Grey, Edinburgh.
John Sym, Edinburgh.
Robert Gordon, Edinburgh.
James Buchanan, Edinburgh.
James Noble, Edinburgh.
James Manson, Dean, Edinburgh.
Alexander Gregory, Edinburgh.
Thomas Chalmers, Professor of Divinity, Edinburgh.
Thomas Guthrie, Edinburgh.
Rob. S. Candlish, St. George’s, Edinburgh.
Charles J. Brown, Edinburgh.
Wm. K. Tweedie, Edinburgh.
Wm. Cunningham, Edinburgh.
John Thomson, Leith.
James Lewis, Leith,
James Begg, Liberton.
James Fairbairn, Newhaven.
And. Mackenzie, Edinburgh.
Walter Fairlie, Gilmerton.
David Welsh, Professor of Divinity and Church History, Edinburgh.
Lewis H. Irving, Abercorn.
Samuel Martin, Bathgate.
Thomas Gordon, Falkirk.
John Laing, Livingstone.
William M. Hetherington, Torphichen.
James Proudfoot, Culter.
William Hanna, Skirling.
Walter Paterson, Kirkurd.
George Burns, Tweedsmuir.
Thomas Pitcairn, Cockpen.
David Brown, Roslin.
Robert Court, Heriot.
James Bannerman, Ormiston.
Selby Ord Dods, Garvald.
Angus Makellar, Pencaitland.
Archd. Lorimer, Cockenzie.
Patrick Fairbairn, Salton.
John Ainslie, Dirleton.
W. Bruce Cunningham, Prestonpans.
John W. Wright, Haddington.
John Thomson, Yester.
James Dodds, Humbie.
William Sorley, Belhaven.
Andrew Baird, Cockburnspath.
John Thomson, Prestonkirk
Adam Forman, Innerwick.
David Thorburn, South Leith.
Archd. M’Conechy, Bunkle and Preston.
John Wallace, Abbey St. Bathans.
John Baillie, Fogo.
William Cousin, Boston Church, Dunse.
John Fairbairn, West Church, Greenlaw.
George Fulton Knight, Mordington.
John Turnbull, Eyemouth.
George Craig, Sprouston.
Horatius Bonar, Kelso.
John Purves, Jcdburgh.
Walter Wood, Westrother.
Thomas Jolly, Bowden.
John Edmonston, Ashkirk. [His surname is Edmonstone in the List of ministers.]
Henry Duncan, Ruthwell.
William Brown Clark, Half Morton.
George Hastie, Kirkpatrick Fleming.
John R. Mackenzie, Dumfries.
Rob. Crawford, Irongray.
Rob. Brydon, Dunscore.
George J. Duncan, Kirkpatrick Durham.
Rob. Kinnear, Torthorwald.
Patrick Borrowman, Glencairn.
Thomas Hastings, Wanlockhead.
Thomas B. Bell, Leswalt.
A. Urquhart, Portpatrick.
Alexr. Forrester, Sorbie.
Rob. Jeffrey, Girthon.
Thomas Burns, Monkton.
E. B. Wallace, Barr.
Ninian Bannatyne, Old Cumnock.
Andrew Thomson, Maybole.
James Stevenson, Newton-upon-Ayr.
Matthew Kirkland, New Cumnock.
John Speirs, Patna, Ayr.
William Grant, Wallacetown.
George Orr, Symington.
David Landsborough, Stevenston.
Thomas Findlay, West Kilbride.
David Arthur, Stewarton.
Thomas Main, Kilmarnock.
Matthew Dickie, Dunlop.
Neil Brodie, Kilmarnock.
Peter Campbell, Kilmarnock.
John Hamilton, Saltcoats.
John Macnaughtan, Paisley.
Duncan Macfarlan, Renfrew.
Alexr. Salmon, Barrhead.
Robert Smith, Lochwinnoch.
Peter Henderson, Paisley.
John Campbell, Paisley.
Patrick M’Farlan, Greenock.
Jas. Smith, Greenock.
Jn. Js. Bonar, Greenock.
Donald MacLeod, Gourock.
James Stark, Greenock.
James Gemmel, Fairlie.
James Drummond, Cumbrae.
Angus Macbean, Greenock.
John Dow, Largs.
Robert Walter Stewart, Erskine.
Wm. Laughton, Greenock.
Jas. Morison, Port-Glasgow.
James Anderson, Blantyre.
James Clason, Dalziel.
Alexander Rankin, Strathaven.
David Paton, Chapelton.
James Findlay, Airdrie.
Robert Stirrat, Airdrie.

Thomas Stark, Lanark.
A. B. Parker, Lesmahagow.
John Pollock, Baldernock.
James Smith, Dumbarton.
Andrew King, Glasgow.
James Gibson, Glasgow.
Thomas Duncan, Kirkintilloch.
John Cochrane, Cumbernauld.
Walter M’Gilvray, Glasgow.
John Thomson, Shettleston.
John Smyth, Glasgow.
James Macbeth, Glasgow.
Robert Buchanan, Glasgow.
Thos. Brown, Glasgow.
John Forbes, Glasgow.
William Arnot, Glasgow.
James Henderson, Glasgow.
John G. Lorimer, Glasgow.
Alexander N. Somerville, Anderston, Glasgow.
Jon. R. Anderson, Glasgow.
Wm. Burns, Kilsyth.
David Menzies, Glasgow.
Peter Currie, Glasgow.
Alex. S. Patterson, Glasgow.
John Lyon, Banton, Kilsyth.
Paterson, Glasgow.
Michl. Willis, Glasgow.
Alexr. Wilson, Glasgow.
James Mackinlay, Glasgow.
Hugh Mackay, Glasgow.
James Munro, West Rutherglen.
W. S. Hay, Bridge of Weir.
William Chalmers, Dailly.
John Mackenzie, Dunkeld.
James Mackenzie, Dalbeattie.
Peter M’Bride, New Parish, Rothesay.
Alex. Macbride, North Bute.
Hector M’Neill, Campbeltown.
M. Mackay, Dunoon and Kilmun.
Alex. Cameron, Kilchoman.
James Pearson, Kilmeny.
Hugh Fraser, Ardchattan.
Wm. Fraser, Kilchrenan and Dalavich.
Michael Stirling, Cargill.
John Waddell, Burrelton.
Andrew Kessen, Lethendy and Kinloch.
Francis Gillies, Rattray.
George Millar, Clunie, Dunkeld.
Wm. Grant, Tenandry.
James Grierson, Errol.
John W. Thomson, Moneydie.
James Drummond, Forgandenny.
John Young Walker, Perth.
Andrew A. Bonar, Collace.
John Milne, Perth.
Alex. Cumming, Dunbarney.
James Thomson, Muckart.
Finlay Macalister, Crieff.
J. R. Omond, Monzie.
Alex. Beith, Stirling.
John Wright, Alloa.
John Dempster, Denny.
John Bonar, Larbert and Dunipace.
William Mackray, Stirling.
Chs. Stewart, Perth.
Alexander Leitch, Stirling.
James M’Lagan, Kinfauns.
James Duncan, East Kincardine.
William Watt, Buchlyvie.
Thomas Hislop, Doune.
David Black, Gartmore.
James Thornton, Milnathort.
William Gilston, Carnock.
Charles Marshall, North Church, Dunfermline.
Wm. Wallace Duncan, Cleish.
David Couper, Burntisland.
Alex. O. Laird, Abbotshall.
John Thomson, Dysart.
Charles Jameson, Pathhead.
Robert M’Indoe, Kirkcaldy.
James Sievewright, Markinch.
John Isdale, Invertiel.
And. Melville, Logie.
Adam Cairns, Cupar-Fife.
Angus M. M’Gillivray, Dairsie.
George Smeaton, Falkland.
William Nicolson, Ferry-port-on-Craig.
William Ferrie, Anstruther Easter.
David White, Airlie.
Will. Clugston, Forfar.
D. Fergusson, Dunnichen.
Daniel Cormick, Kirriemuir.
D. B. Mellis, Tealing.
James Ewing, Dundee.
William Reid, Dundee.
Samuel Miller, Monifieth.
Robert Aitken, Dundee.
James Miller, Monikie.
Patrick L. Miller, Dundee.
William Nixon, Montrose.
William Wilson, Carmyllie.
James Lumsden, Barry.
Alexr. Leslie, Arbroath.
Robert Inglis, Edzell.
John Laird, Invcrkeillor.
Thos. Wilson, Friockheim.
James Brodie, Monimail.
John Murray, Dunbog.
Thomas Dymock, Carnoustie.
John Montgomery, Arbroath.
Thomas Brown, Kinneff.
John Roxburgh, Dundee.
Robert Forbes, Woodside.
James Bryce, Gilcomston.
Alexander D. Davidson, Aberdeen.
Alex. Spence, St. Clement’s, Aberdeen.
Robert Thomson, Peterculter.
George Moir, New Machar.
James Stewart, Aberdeen.
William Primrose, Aberdeen.
William Anderson, Banchory Ternan.
David Scott Fergusson, Strachan.
James M’Gown, Bankhead.
Donald Stewart, Glengairn.
Farquhar M’Rae, Braemar.
Alexander Philip, Cruden.
James Yuill, Peterhead.
R. Simpson, Kintore.
Geo. Garioch, Meldrum.
Henry Simson, Chapel of Garioch.

David Simson, Oyne.
William Garden Blaikie, Drumblade.
George Innes, Deskford.
Fra. W. Grant, Banff.
James Foote, Aberdeen.
Alex. Anderson, Boyndie.
Robert Shanks, Buckle.
David Dewar, Bellie.
A. Tulloch, Kirkmichael.
Duncan Grant, Forres.
Mark Aitken, Dyke.
Alexander Topp, Elgin.
Alexander Gentle, Alves.
William Barclay, Auldearn.
Archd. Cook, Inverness.
John Matheson, Ardersier.
John M’Rae, Knockbain.
Donald Kennedy, Killearnan.
George M’Leod, Maryburgh.
John M’Donald, Urquhart.
Alexander Anderson, Kinlochluichart.
John Macalister, Nigg, Ross-shire.
Hugh M’Leod, Logie Easter.
C. R. Matheson, Kilmuir Easter.
Donald Gordon, Edderton.
Hector Allan, Kincardine, Ross-shire.
Charles Calder Mackintosh, Tain.
Gustavus Aird, Croick.
Cha. Gordon, Assynt.
George R. Kennedy, Dornoch.
Peter Davidson, Stoer.
Geo. Tulloch, Eddrachillis.
David Mackenzie, Farr.
H. M. Mackenzie, Tongue.
William Mackenzie, Tongue.
Wm. Findlater, Durness.
W. Ross Taylor, Thurso.
Finlay Cook, Reay.
George Davidson, Latheron.
John Munro, Halkirk.
Thomas Gunn, Keiss.
Samuel Campbell, Berriedale.
Dond. M’Rae, Poolewe.
George Corbett, Glenelg.
John Macmillan, Ballachulish.
Thomas Davidson, Kilmallie.
William Lauder, Glengarry.
Cha. Stewart, Fort-William.
Rodk. M’Leod, Snizort, Skye.
John R. Glass, Bracadale.
John Swanson, Small Isles.
Norm. Macleod, Trumisgarry.
John Finlayson, Cross, Lewis.
Duncan Matheson, Knock, Lewis.
Robert Finlayson, Lochs.
Adam Rettie, Evie and Rendall.
Peter Petrie, Kirkwall and St. Ola.
Peter Learmonth, Stromness.
W. Malcolm, Firth and Stenness.
Adam White, North Ronaldshay.
Alexander Stark, Sandwick, Shetland.
James Gardner, Quarff.
John Elder, Walls, Shetland.
John Ingram, Unst.
William P. Falconer, Ladhope.
J. A. Wallace, Hawick.
Wm. Buchan, Hamilton.
William Logan, Lesmahagow.
William Jackson, Airdrie.
John Macpherson, Rothesay.
John Anderson, Helensburgh.
Joseph Stark, Kilfinan.
Duncan Maclean, Kilmodan.
Robert Craig, Rothesay.
Finlay Macpherson, Kilbrandon.
John Glen, Portobello.
Archd. Bannatyne, Oban.
Donald M’Vean, Iona.
Charles C. Stewart, Aberdalgie.
Wm. Mather, Stanley.
W. A. Thomson, Perth.
Andrew Gray, Perth.
John Harper, Bannockburn.
George Cupples, Stirling.
James Carment, Comrie.
W. Mackenzie, Dunblane.
Thomas Doig, Torryburn.
John Alexander, Kirkcaldy.
Jno. Macfarlane, Collessie.
Charles Nairn, Forgan.
Robert Brown, Largo.
Robert Macdonald, Blairgowrie.
Geo. Lewis, Dundee.
Alex. L. R. Foote, Brechin.
John Kirk, Arbirlot.
David Crichton, Inverbrothock, Arbroath.
Jas. Brewster, Craig.
Alex. Keith, St. Cyrus.
James Falconer, Paisley.
Alex. Keith, jun., St. Cyrus.
David Simpson, Aberdeen.
John Murray, Aberdeen.
William Mitchell, Aberdeen.
John Longmuir, Aberdeen.
Abercromby L. Gordon, Aberdeen.
Joseph Thorburn, Forglen.
Hugh Gordon, Monquhitter.
David Brown, Ord.
Alex. Reid, Portsoy.
Alex. Stewart, Cromarty.
David Campbell, Tarbat.
James M’Donald, Urray.
John Robertson, Gartly.
David Henry, Aberchirder.
Geo. Shepherd, Kingussie.
William Robertson, Kinloss.
Alex. Flytcr, Alness.
Alexander Fraser, Kirkhill.
J. Mackenzie, Carnoch.
Mungo F. Parker, Brechin.
Thos. M’Lauchlan, Moy.
David Sutherland, Inverness.
Colin Mackenzie, Shieldaig.
James M’Cosh, Brechin.
George Mackay, Rafford.
A. Sutherland, Dunfermline.
Andrew Noble, Blairingone.
Alex. Macpherson, Dundee.
R. J. Brown, Aberdeen.
Charles Watson, Edinburgh.
J. Somerville, D.D., Drumelzier.
John Duncan, Ceres.

J. Hamilton, witness.
John Hunter, jr., witness.
Wm. Fraser, witness.
John Jaffray, witness.

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5. SUPPLEMENTARY ACT OF SEPARATION AND DEED OF DEMISSION

BY MINISTERS NOT PRESENT AT THIS ASSEMBLY

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1843.—ACT VI.

Edinburgh, 24th May 1843. Sess. 10.

The General Assembly having approved of the following Supplementary Act of Separation and Deed of Demission, to be signed by those Ministers adhering to the Protest who are not present at this Assembly, or who have not had an opportunity of subscribing the original Act and Deed, ordered the same to be recorded.

The Ministers hereto subscribing, considering that, on the twenty-third day of May in this present year eighteen hundred and forty-three, an Act of Separation and Deed of Demission was executed of the following tenor,—viz. (See Act of Separation and Deed of Demission by Ministers). Which Act of Separation and Deed of Demission is signed by three hundred and eighty-six ministers, lately holding benefices or charges in the Church of Scotland; and seeing that we had previously signified our adherence to the Protest therein referred to, but that, in consequence of our absence from Edinburgh, or other causes, we were prevented from adhibiting our subscriptions to the said deed; therefore we do hereby declare our accession to, and concurrence therein; and we do each of us for ourselves confirm and homologate the same, in the whole heads, articles, clauses, tenor, and contents thereof: And we consent and agree to be bound thereby in all respects, as fully as if we had subscribed the said original deed.

(Signed)

William R. Moncur, Botriphnie.
Thomas Bain, Mortlach.
William Taylor, Glass.
Christopher Greig, St. Ninians.
Robert Ferguson, Edinburgh.
Ebenezer Johnstone, Plean.
Matthew Barclay, Old Kilpatrick.
Robert Reid, Glasgow.
David Buchan Douie, Dryfesdale.
William Anderson, Kippen.
Robert M. Wilson, Maryhill.
Thomas Wright, Rhynie.
William Alexander, Duntocher.
H. M’Bryde Broun, Brydekirk.
Robt. Burns, Paisley.
George Ritchie, Rousay.
William Hutcheson, Catrine.
James Monteith, Dalkeith.
David Wilson, Fullarton, Irvine.
Samuel Grant, Ardoch.
Robert Lorimer, Haddington.
John Ferguson, Monzievaird.
Dad. Davidson, Broughty Ferry.
Robert Cowe, Whitsome.
Andrew Milroy, Crailing.
John Balfour, Culross.
Samuel Smith, Borgue.
John Macmillan, Kirkcudbright.
Robert Donald, Sheuchan.

J. Lamb, Kirkmaiden.
Robert M’Neil, Stoneykirk.
Arch. Sinclair, Edinburgh.
A. Moody Stuart, Edinburgh.
James Julius Wood, Edinburgh.
William Stewart, Lochee.
Charles Macalister, Dundee.
John Baxter, Dundee.
Robt. S. Walker, Longforgan.
Andw. Fergusson, Maryton.
James Glen, Benholm.
Hugh Mackenzie, Aberdeen.
Alex. Black, Professor of Divinity in Marischal College and University, Aberdeen.
John Stephen, John Knox’s, Aberdeen.
John Allan, Aberdeen.
Gavin Parker, Aberdeen.
John Wilson, missionary, Bombay.
Simon Fraser, Fortrose.
John Fraser, Kiltarlity.
David Carment, Rosskeen.
Duncan M’Nab, Campbeltown.
John Logan, Lawers.
Donald Mackenzie, Ardeonaig.
Peter Sawers, Gargunnock.
John Duncan, missionary.
Dond. Campbell, Ballater.

Dun. M’Gillivray, Lairg.
Duncan Campbell, Kiltearn.
David Waters, Burghead.
John Manson, Fyvie.
Henry Anderson, Tillicoultry.
Hugh Laird, Portmoak.
George Innes, Seafield, Cullen.
John Grant, Pettie.
Alex. Macleod, Uig.
Robert Dunbar, Pluscarden.
Duncan M’Lean, Glenorchy.
Alexander Mackinnon, Strathfillan.
S. F. M’Lauchlan, Cawdor.
John Noble, Fodderty.
Alex. Gunn, Watten.
Wm. Mackenzie, Olrig.
Robt. R. Mackay, Halkirk.
Charles Thomson, Wick.
A. Stewart, Killin.
Angus Kennedy, Dornoch.
John D. Kennedy, Rosehall.
Alexander M’Watt, Rothes.
Patrick Tulloch, Strathglass.
James Ingram, Unst.
J. W. Taylor, Flisk.
Alex. Macdonald, Urquhart.
Alexander Duff, Calcutta.
John Anderson, Madras.
Robert Nesbit, Bombay.

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6. ACT ANENT QUESTIONS AND FORMULA

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1846.—ACT XII.

Edinburgh, 1st June 1846. Sess. 24.

Whereas it has become necessary, in consequence of the late change in the outward condition of the Church, to amend the Questions and Formula to be used at the licensing of Probationers, and the ordination of Deacons, Elders, and Ministers respectively, the General Assembly, with consent of a majority of Presbyteries enact and ordain, that the following shall be the questions so to be used; And, considering that the Formula to this act subjoined, embodies the substance of the answers to the said questions, the Assembly appoint the same to be subscribed by all Probationers of the Church before receiving licence to preach the gospel, and by all office-bearers at the time of their admission: And the General Assembly, in passing this act, think it right to declare, that, while the Church firmly maintains the same scriptural principles as to the duties of nations and their rulers in reference to true religion and the Church of Christ, for which she has hitherto contended, she disclaims intolerant or persecuting principles, and does not regard her Confession of Faith, or any portion thereof, when fairly interpreted, as favouring intolerance or persecution, or consider that her office-bearers, by subscribing it, profess any principles inconsistent with liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment.

1.—ELDERS AND DEACONS

Questions to be put before Ordination

1. Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and the only rule of faith and manners?

2. Do you sincerely own and declare the Confession of Faith, approven by former General Assemblies of this Church, to be the confession of your faith; and do you own the doctrine therein contained to be the true doctrine, which you will constantly adhere to?

3. Do you own and acknowledge the Presbyterian Church government of this Church, by Kirk-sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies, to be the only government of this Church; and do you engage to submit thereto, concur therewith, and not to endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof?

4. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, as King and Head of the Church, has therein appointed a government in the hands of Church-officers, distinct from, and not subordinate in its own province to, civil government, and that the Civil Magistrate does not possess jurisdiction or authoritative control over the regulation of the affairs of Christ’s Church; and do you approve of the general principles embodied in the Claim, Declaration, and Protest, adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1842, and in the Protest of Ministers and Elders, Commissioners from Presbyteries to the General Assembly, read in presence of the Royal Commissioner on 18th May 1843, as declaring the views which are sanctioned by the Word of God and the standards of this Church, with respect to the spirituality and freedom of the Church of Christ, and her subjection to Him as her only Head, and to His Word as her only standard?

5. Do you promise to observe uniformity of worship and of the administration of all public ordinances, in this Church, as the same are at present performed and allowed?

6. Do you accept of the office of an Elder [Deacon] of this Congregation, and promise, through grace, faithfully, diligently, and cheerfully to discharge all the duties thereof?

2.—PROBATIONERS

Questions to be put to Probationers before they are Licensed to preach the Gospel

1. Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and the only rule of faith and manners?

2. Do you sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine of the Confession of Faith, approven by the General Assemblies of this Church, to be the truths of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and do you own the whole doctrine therein contained as the confession of your faith?

3. Do you sincerely own the purity of worship presently authorised and practised in this Church, and the Presbyterian government and discipline; and are you persuaded that the said doctrine, worship, and discipline and Church government, are founded upon the Holy Scriptures, and agreeable thereto?

4. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, as King and Head of the Church, has therein appointed a government in the hands of Church-officers, distinct from, and not subordinate in its own province to, civil government and that the Civil Magistrate does not possess jurisdiction or authoritative control over the regulation of the affairs of Christ’s Church; and do you approve of the general principles embodied in the Claim, Declaration and Protest, adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1842, and in the Protest of Ministers and Elders, Commissioners from Presbyteries to the General Assembly, read in presence of the Royal Commissioner on 18th May 1843, as declaring the views which are sanctioned by the Word of God and the standards of this Church, with respect to the spirituality and freedom of the Church of Christ, and her subjection to Him as her only Head, and to His Word as her only standard?

5. Do you promise that, through the grace of God, you will firmly and constantly adhere to, and in your station, to the utmost of your power, assert, maintain, and defend the said doctrine, worship, and discipline, and the government of this Church, by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods and General Assemblies?

6. Do you promise that in your practice you will conform yourself to the said worship, and submit yourself to the said discipline and government of this Church, and not endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion of the same?

7. Do you promise that you shall follow no divisive courses from the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of this Church?

8. Do you renounce all doctrines, tenets, or opinions whatsoever, contrary to, or inconsistent with, the said doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of this Church?

9. Do you promise that you shall subject yourself to the several judicatories of this Church? Are you willing to subscribe to those things?

3.—PROBATIONERS AFTER BEING CALLED BY A CONGREGATION

Questions to be put to Probationers before Ordination (and also to a Minister already ordained, at his admission to a Pastoral Charge)

1. Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and the only rule of faith and manners ?

2. Do you sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, approven by former General Assemblies of this Church, to be founded upon the Word of God; and do you acknowledge the same as the confession of your faith; and will you firmly and constantly adhere thereto, and to the utmost of your power assert, maintain, and defend the same, and the purity of worship as presently practised in this Church ?

3. Do you disown all Popish, Arian, Socinian, Arminian, Erastian, and other doctrines, tenets, and opinions whatsoever, contrary to, and inconsistent with, the foresaid Confession of Faith ?

4. Are you persuaded that the Presbyterian government and discipline of this Church are founded upon the Word of God, and agreeable thereto; and do you promise to submit to the said government and discipline, and to concur with the same, and not to endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof, but to the utmost of your power, in your station, to maintain, support, and defend the said discipline and Presbyterian government by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies ?

5. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, as King and Head of the Church, has therein appointed a government in the hands of Church-officers, distinct from, and not subordinate in its own province to, civil government, and that the Civil Magistrate does not possess jurisdiction or authoritative control over the regulation of the affairs of Christ’s Church; and do you approve of the general principles embodied in the Claim, Declaration, and Protest, adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1842, and in the Protest of Ministers and Elders, Commissioners from Presbyteries to the General Assembly, read in presence of the Royal Commissioner on 18th May 1843, as declaring the views which are sanctioned by the Word of God, and the standards of this Church, with respect to the spirituality and freedom of the Church of Christ, and her subjection to Him as her only Head, and to His Word as her only standard ?

6. Do you promise to submit yourself willingly and humbly, in the spirit of meekness, unto the admonitions of the brethren of this Presbytery, and to be subject to them, and all other Presbyteries and superior judicatories of this Church, where God in His providence shall cast your lot; and that, according to your power, you shall maintain the unity and peace of this Church against error and schism, notwithstanding of whatsoever trouble or persecution may arise, and that you shall follow no divisive courses from the doctrine, worship, discipline and government of this Church?

7. Are not zeal for the honour of God, love to Jesus Christ, and desire of saving souls, your great motives and chief inducements to enter into the function of the holy ministry, and not worldly designs and interests?

8. Have you used any undue methods, either by yourself or others, in procuring this call?

9. Do you engage in the strength and grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, to rule well your own family, to live godly and circumspect life, and faithfully, diligently, and cheerfully to discharge all the parts of the ministerial work, to the edification of the body of Christ?

10. Do you accept of and close with the call to be pastor of this congregation, and promise, through grace, to perform all the duties of a faithful minister of the gospel among this people?

4.—FORMULA

(To be subscribed by Probationers before receiving Licence, and by all Office-bearers at the time of their admission)

I,———————, do hereby declare, that I do sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, approven by former General Assemblies of this Church, to be the truths of God; and I do own the same as the confession of my faith; as likewise I do own the purity of worship presently authorised and practised in the Free Church of Scotland, and also the Presbyterian government and discipline thereof; which doctrine, worship, and church government, I am persuaded, are founded on the Word of God, and agreeable thereto: I also approve of the general principles respecting the jurisdiction of the Church, and her subjection to Christ as her only Head, which are contained in the Claim of Right and in the Protest referred to in the questions already put to me; and I promise that, through the grace of God, I shall firmly and constantly adhere to the same, and to the utmost of my power shall, in my station, assert, maintain, and defend the said doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of this Church, by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies, together with the liberty and exclusive jurisdiction thereof; and that I shall, in my practice, conform myself to the said worship, and submit to the said discipline, government, and exclusive jurisdiction, and not endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion of the same; and I promise that I shall follow no divisive course from the doctrine, worship, discipline, government, and exclusive jurisdiction of this Church, renouncing all doctrines, tenets, and opinions whatsoever, contrary to, or inconsistent with, the said doctrine, worship, discipline, government, or jurisdiction of the same.

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OTHER INFORMATION

GENERAL ASSEMBLIES, MODERATORS, PLACES OF MEETING, AND ASSEMBLY OFFICIALS

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH

THE first Assembly of the “Church of Scotland Free and Protesting” held its historic and notable sessions in Tanfield Hall, at Canonmills, a northern suburb of Edinburgh. With the undernoted exceptions the meetings of the Supreme Court of the Church were held in this outwardly plain but commodious and historically interesting structure, from ‘43 to ‘55. The October Assembly of 1843 was held in Glasgow, and the August Assembly of 1845 in Inverness. From 1856 to 1858 inclusive, the place of meeting was the Music Hall, George Street, Edinburgh. In 1857 a site, extending back from the quadrangle of the New College to the Lawnmarket, was secured upon which a Hall with adjoining rooms was built at a cost of £18,000. Of this sum upwards of £4365 was gathered by ladies of the Free Church. In May 1859, with Principal Cunningham as Moderator, the Assembly entered upon the occupation of a structure worthy of the Church to which it belonged, and of the city in which it was reared. The Assembly of 1878 was held in Glasgow, and that of 1888 in Inverness.

MODERATORS FROM 1843 TO 1900 INCLUSIVE

May 1843 Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh
Oct. 1843 Thomas Brown, D.D. Glasgow
May 1844 Henry Grey, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1845 Patrick M’Farlan, D.D. Greenock
Aug. 1845 Patrick M’Farlan, D.D. Greenock .
May 1846 Robert J. Brown, D.D. Aberdeen
May 1847 James Sievewright, D.D. Markinch
May 1848 Patrick Clason, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1849 Mackintosh Mackay, LL.D. Dunoon
May 1850 Nathaniel Paterson, D.D. Glasgow
May 1851 Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh
May 1852 Angus Makellar, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1853 John Smyth, D.D. Glasgow
May 1854 James Grierson, D.D. Errol
May 1855 James Henderson, D.D. Glasgow
May 1856 Thomas McCrie, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1857 James J. Wood, D.D. Dumfries
May 1858 Alexander Beith, D.D. Stirling
May 1859 William Cunningham, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1860 Robert Buchanan, D.D. Glasgow
May 1861 Robert S. Candlish, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1862 Thomas Guthrie, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1863 Roderick McLeod Snizort
May 1864 Patrick Fairbairn, D.D. Glasgow
May 1865 James Begg, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1866 William Wilson, D.D. Dundee
May 1867 John Roxburgh, D.D. Glasgow
May 1868 William Nixon, D.D. Montrose
May 1869 Sir Henry W. Moncreiff, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1870 John Wilson, D.D. Bombay
May 1871 Robert Elder, D.D. Rothesay
May 1872 Charles J. Brown, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1873 Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. (bis) Edinburgh

May 1874 Robert W. Stewart, D.D. Leghorn
May 1875 Alexander Moody Stuart, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1876 Thomas McLauchlan, LL.D. Edinburgh
May 1877 William H. Goold, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1878 Andrew A. Bonar, D.D. Glasgow
May 1879 James C. Burns, D.D Kirkliston
May 1880 Thomas Main, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1881 William Laughton, D.D. Greenock
May 1882 Robert Macdonald, D.D. Leith
May 1883 Horatius Bonar, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1884 Walter Ross Taylor, D.D. Thurso
May 1885 David Brown, D.D. Aberdeen
May 1886 Alexander N. Somerville, D.D. Glasgow
May 1887 Robert Rainy, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1888 Gustavus Aird, D.D. Creich
May 1889 John Laird, D.D. Cupar
May 1890 Thomas Brown, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1891 Thomas Smith, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh
May 1892 William G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh
May 1893 Walter C. Smith, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh
May 1894 George C. M. Douglas, D.D. Glasgow
May 1895 James H. Wilson, D.D. Edinburgh
May 1896 William Miller, C.I.E., D.D., LL.D. Madras
May 1897 Hugh Macmillan, D.D., LL.D. Greenock
May 1898 Alexander Whyte, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh
May 1899 James Stewart, D.D. Lovedale
May 1900 Walter Ross Taylor, D.D. Glasgow
Oct. 1900 Walter Ross Taylor, D.D. Glasgow

PRINCIPAL CLERKS OF ASSEMBLY

1843-1854 Thomas Pitcairn, D.D. Cockpen.
1843-1867 Patrick Clason, D.D. Edinburgh
1855-1883 Sir Henry W. Moncreiff, Bart,, D.D. Edinburgh.

1868-1888 William Wilson, D.D. Dundee
1884-1900 Andrew Melville, D.D. Glasgow
1888-1900 Archibald Henderson, D.D. Crieff

DEPUTE CLERKS

1843 James Crawford, W.S. 1864 George Meldrum, C. A. 1877 Robert Russell Simpson, W.S.

LEGAL ADVISERS

Alex. Murray Dunlop, Advocate
Andrew Jameson, Advocate

Neil C. Campbell, Advocate
Charles J. Guthrie, Advocate

LAW AGENTS

JamesCrawford, W.S. Patrick Dalmahoy, W.S. John Cowan, W.S.

PRECENTORS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1843-1867 Thomas Legerwood Hately 1867-1888 Walter Strang 1888-1900 Duncan Fraser, F.E.I. S.

ASSEMBLY OFFICERS

Gavin Anderson, appointed 22nd May, 1843; died, 6th July 1862.
Alexander Stocks, appointed 2^nd officer 26th May 1845; 1st officer, 26th May 1863; resigned, 22nd May 1879.
William Fyfe, appointed 2nd officer 26th May 1863; resigned, 20th May 1869.
Peter Forbes, appointed 2nd officer, 20th May 1869; died in 1889.
James Brittain, appointed 1st officer, 22nd May 1879; resigned, 23rd May 1889.
John M. Graham, appointed 2nd officer, 22nd May 1889; 1st officer, 23rd May 1890.
James Murray, appointed 2nd officer 23^rd May, 1890.

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THE COLLEGES AND THE PROFESSORS OF THE CHURCH, 1843-1900

NEW COLLEGE EDINBURGH

ONE of the earliest Acts passed by the Disruption Assembly related to the education of the students of the New Church. The first institution established for the purpose was in the Scottish Capital. As the tests at that time imposed on University professors excluded from the chairs all who were not members of the Established Church, the Free Church contemplated the provision of a curriculum in Arts as well as in Theology. Professors of Logic, Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, and Natural Science, with tutors in classics and mathematics, were therefore appointed. The abolition of Theological tests, however, in all the University faculties except Divinity, led the Free Church later on to depart from her original intention; and when Professors Macdougall and Fraser were elected University professors, the vacant chairs in the New College were not filled up.

For some time the work of the classes was conducted in hired rooms in No. 80 George Street, but after a few years a handsome building was erected on the site of the old palace of the Guises at the head of the Mound, the High Church being subsequently erected on the East side of the quadrangle, while behind the College, at a still later period, was built the General Assembly Hall. The architectural design was that of Mr. W. H. Playfair, the total cost being about £50,000. On 4th June 1846 the foundation-stone was laid by Principal Chalmers, and in 1850 the New College was formally opened by Dr. N. Paterson of Glasgow, then Moderator of the General Assembly. Subsequent additions, including new class rooms, and greater Library accommodation, largely increased the efficiency of the institution.

PRINCIPALS

1843 Thomas Chalmers
1847 William Cunningham

1862 Robert Smith Candlish
1874 Robert Rainy

PROFESSORS

1843-1847 Thomas Chalmers: Systematic Theology
1843-1845 David Welsh: Church History
1843-1861 William Cunningham: Apologetics, Historical Theology
1843-1870 John Duncan: Old Testament Language and Literature
1844-1856 Alexander Black: New Testament Exegesis
1844-1856 Patrick C. Macdougall: Moral Philosophy
1845-1868 James Buchanan: Apologetics, Systematic Theology
1845-1857 John Fleming: Natural Science
1846-1856 Alexander Campbell Fraser: Logic and Metaphysics
1847-1848 Robert S. Candlish: Apologetics, etc.
1849-1868 James Bannerman: Apologetics, Pastoral Theology
1857-1889 George Smeaton: New Testament Language and Literature
1862-1900^33 Robert Rainy: Church History
1863-1900^ Andrew B. Davidson: Old Testament Language and Literature
1864-1900^ John Duns: Natural Science
1867-1878 Alexander Duff: Evangelistic Theology
1868-1881 James Macgregor: Systematic Theology
1868-1897 William G. Blaikie: Apologetics, Pastoral Theology
1880-1892 Thomas Smith: Evangelistic Theology
1881-1900^ John Laidlaw: Systematic Theology
1889-1900^ Marcus Dods: New Testament Language and Literature
1897-1900^ Alexander Martin: Apologetics

ABERDEEN COLLEGE

From the first the Free Church deemed more than one Divinity Hall desirable, and so the Assembly of 1843 appointed Professor Black of Aberdeen University to be her Theological Tutor in that city. When he was transferred to Edinburgh, in 1844, the Rev. Dr. Maclagan took up the work, and two years later Marcus Sachs became Hebrew Tutor. In 1852 Dr. Maclagan died, and Dr. Patrick Fairbairn was appointed in his place. Through the munificence of several local gentlemen the building of a College was commenced in 1847, and the opening took place in 1850. In 1854 a second professor, the Rev. Dr. Smeaton, was appointed, and in the year following the Hebrew tutorship was raised to a professorship, while the Principalship was instituted in 1864. Through the liberality of George Thompson, Esq., of Pitmedden, the chair of Church History was endowed in 1875, and three years later a Lectureship on Theology and Natural Science was instituted. Since 1850 the accommodation has been increased by the addition of a spacious hall for the Library and the Museum, which, along with the College buildings, occupies a central site at the head of Union Street.

PRINCIPALS

1864 James Lumsden 1876 David Brown 1898 Stewart D. F. Salmond

PROFESSORS

1843-1844 Alexander Black: Theology
1846-1852 James Maclagan: Theology
1853-1856 Patrick Fairbairn: Theology
1853-1857 George Smeaton: New Testament Exegesis
1855-1869 Marcus Sachs: Hebrew and Old Testament Literature
1856-1875 James Lumsden: Systematic Theology
1857-1897 David Brown: New Testament Exegesis
1870-1881 W. Robertson Smith: Hebrew and Old Testament Literature
1875-1886 William Binnie: Church History
1876-1900 S. D. F. Salmond: Systematic Theology, New Testament Exegesis
1882-1900 George G. Cameron: Hebrew and Old Testament Literature
1887-1900 James Iverach: Apologetics, etc.
1887-1900 James Robertson: Church History

GLASGOW COLLEGE

In 1855 Dr. William Clark of Wester Moffat offered to devote to the setting up of a Free Church Theological College in Glasgow the sum of £20,000, provided an equal sum was contributed by others. The offer was accepted, and the General Assembly of that year sanctioned the proposed institution. In May of the following year the site and plans of the building in Lynedoch Street, with its massive and imposing campanile, were approved of. The work of tuition began in session 1856-57, but appointments to two of the chairs did not take place till the Assembly of 1857, and the entire building was used for the classes in the session 1857-58. By 1869 it was estimated that there had been contributed from all sources for the erection of the edifice, for endowments, the equipment of the Library and the institution of scholarships upwards of £71,000. A room was afterwards erected for the use of the Natural Science class, which also served the purpose of a Museum.

PRINCIPALS

1857 Patrick Fairbairn 1875 George C. M. Douglas.

PROFESSORS

1856-1874 Patrick Fairbairn: Theology
1856-1871 James Gibson: Apologetics and Church History
1857-1865 William M. Hetherington: Apologetics
1857-1892 George C. M. Douglas: Hebrew and Old Testament Literature
1864-1872 Islay Burns: Church History
1872-1900 Thomas M. Lindsay: Church History
1872-1897 James S. Candlish: Systematic Theology
1875-1899 Alexander B. Bruce: Apologetics. New Testament Exegesis
1883-1897 Henry Drummond: Natural Science
1892-1900 George Adam Smith: Old Testament Language and Literature
1897-1900 James Denney: New Testament Language and Literature

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THE NORMAL SCHOOLS AND TRAINING COLLEGES

GLASGOW

DAVID STOW, a Glasgow cotton-spinner, was the founder of model or normal schools in Britain. With impulse caught from Chalmers, and while working as a Sabbath-school teacher, he opened in 1817 an Infants’ Model School out of which grew in 1836 the first Normal College in the country. To the completion of the institution, then under the charge of the Glasgow Educational Society, Government made a grant of £5000 on condition that the building became the property of the Church of Scotland.

The first Rector of the Glasgow Normal Seminary, as it was called, was Mr. John M’Crie, third son of the biographer of Knox, who, after visiting several educational institutions abroad, particularly those of Prussia, commenced his labours in the autumn of 1836, but fell a victim to typhus fever in October of the following year, when only in the twenty-ninth year of his age.

When the Disruption of 1843 took place all the Directors of the Seminary with one exception, and all the Masters without exception, left the Establishment; but the fabric remained in the possession of the State Church. Mainly through the efforts of Dr. Robert Buchanan, funds were gathered for the erection of a new building in the Cowcaddens district of the city at a cost of £10,000, which was opened, free of debt, on the 12th of August 1845. Afterwards additions, costing respectively £500, £1930, and £5800, rendered the Glasgow Free Church Normal College so complete that it could stand comparison with any similar institution in the Kingdom.

RECTORS AND DATES OF APPOINTMENT

Robert Cunningham, M.A.

On his return from America, where he had been vice-president of Lafayette College, Mr. Cunningham became rector of the Glasgow Normal Seminary. He adhered to the Free Church in 1843, and was first rector of the Free Church Normal School. See biographical notice in minister’s list.

—— Hislop, M.A. (possibly Robert Hislop, who signed the Protest as an elder).

Mr. Hislop seems to have been one of the masters of the Glasgow Normal Seminary who joined the Free Church in 1843. He is mentioned as rector in a minute of 1st August 1845 ; but there is no record of his appointment. He left in December 1851.³⁴

Thomas Morrison, M.A., LL.D.

Appointed in January 1852, died 26th April 1898.

John Adams, M.A., B.Sc.

Appointed June 1898.

EDINBURGH

Following in the wake of Glasgow, in 1835 Edinburgh made a commencement in Normal School work by starting a Sessional School in the Tron parish. In 1841-42 a building was erected, and as in the case of Glasgow, a Government grant allied the institution to the State Church.

At the Disruption the Rector was the distinguished educationist, Mr. Thomas Oliphant, who then severed his connection with the Establishment, all his staff and the great majority of his scholars following his lead. For four months from the 18th of May, the work of the Free Church Normal School was carried on in Whitefield Chapel, at the foot of Carrubber’s Close, and in 1843 rooms were leased in Rose Street, connected with the Music Hall. Here the school remained until 1848, when Moray House in the Canongate having come into the market, that historic fabric was purchased at a cost of £2862, and was taken possession of on the 31st May 1848. The entire cost, including the site which extended to about two acres of ground, as also the outlay of adapting the structure to educational purposes, was reported to the General Assembly of 1849 to be £8599. In 1876-77 additional buildings were erected at an expenditure of £7500; in later years a class-room was added and furnished, costing £900 ; a dining-hall was provided at an outlay of £200; while the construction of a means of connection between the Boarding-house and the College involved a further expenditure of £200.

RECTORS AND DATES OF APPOINTMENT

Thomas Oliphant, M.A.

Appointed in 1843, resigned in 1846 to commence Charlotte Square Institution.

James Fulton, M.A.

Appointed in 1846, retired in ill health in 1854.

James Sime, M.A., F.R.S.E.

Appointed in 1854, resigned in 1864 to start Craigmount School.

Maurice Paterson, B.A., LL.D.

Appointed in 1864.

ABERDEEN

In the beginning of 1875 the Free Church took steps to extend the system of education of teachers to Aberdeen.

On the initiative of Principal Lumsden a local committee acquired, at the price of £1200, a piece of ground in St. Andrew Street, adjoining the Free South Church. Difficulties raised by the Scotch Education Department stood in the way of the buildings being erected; and it was not until 1880 that the new Normal College was opened. By 1896, in view of the increasing number of students and the inadequacy of the accommodation, a school, which was the property of the Free East Church, was secured for £450, the additional space thus acquired being used partly to supply extra accommodation for the Practising School, and partly to provide new class-rooms.

RECTORS AND DATES OF APPOINTMENT

Alexander Ramage, M.A.

Appointed in 1875, died in 1889.

John Adams, M.A., B.Sc.

Appointed in 1890, transferred in 1898 to Glasgow Rectorship.

George Smith, M.A., LL.D.

Appointed in 1898.

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span style=”color: #ff0000;”>THE COMMITTEES OF THE CHURCH, AND LECTURESHIPS

[In some cases dates of Convenerships, etc., cannot now be ascertained.]

SUSTENTATION FUND COMMITTEE

Conveners.—Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L.; Rev. W. K. Tweedie, D.D.; Rev. Robert Buchanan, D.D.; Rev. Principal Rainy, D.D.; Rev. Wm. Wilson, D.D.; Rev. Walter Ross Taylor, D.D.

Secretaries.—Rev. John Gardner, M.D.; J. Macdonald; Hugh Handyside; George Meldrum; Rev. Wm. Wilson, D.D.; Rev. And. Melville, D.D.; Rev. Alexander Lee, M.A.

HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS COMMITTEE

Conveners.—Rev. Mackintosh Mackay, D.D.; Rev. Principal Candlish, D.D.; Rev. Thos. M’Lauchlan, LL.D.; Rev. Principal Rainy, D.D.

Secretary.—Rev. Alexander Lee, M.A.

HOME MISSIONS

Conveners.—Rev. Dr. Makellar; Rev. Dr. Candlish; Rev. Dr. W. K. Tweedie; Rev. Dr. Begg; Rev. Mr. Sym : Rev. Dr. Hanna; Rev. Dr. Roxburgh; Rev. Dr. Wilson; Rev. Dr. Blaikie; Rev. Dr. Adam; Rev. Dr. James Wells; Thos. Binnie; Rev. J. M. Sloan, M.A.; Rev. Dr. Howie.

Secretaries.—Robert Johnston; Hugh Handyside; Geo. Meldrum; Rev. Dr. Adam; Rev. Dr. Andrew Melville.

CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING

Conveners.—John Hamilton; Robert Paul; Rev. James Begg, D.D. ; Rev. Sir H. W. Moncreiff, Bart., D.D.; Rev. John Alexander, D.D.; Rev. W. Wilson, D.D.; Geo. Meldrum; Rev. Prof. Macgregor, D.D.; Rev. Prof. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.; Rev. Andrew Melville, D.D.; Col. Young ; R. R. Simpson, W.S.; Rev. N.D. Maclachlan, B.D.

Secretaries.—Hugh Handyside; J. Auld.

AGED AND INFIRM MINISTERS’ FUND

Convener.—John Cowan, W.S.

FOREIGN MISSIONS

Conveners.—1843, Rev. Robert Gordon, D.D.; 1846, Rev. Professor James Buchanan, D.D., LL.D.; 1847, Rev. James Henderson, D.D. (Joint Convener); 1848, Rev. William K. Tweedie, D.D.; 1862, Rev. William Hanna, D.D., LL.D.; 1863, Rev. Robert S. Candlish, D.D.; 1864, Rev. Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D. : 1878, Rev. Thomas Main, D.D.; 1881, Colonel A. G. Young; 1886, Rev. Professor Thomas M. Lindsay, D.D., F.R.S.E.; 1900, Rev. Archibald Henderson, D.D.

Secretaries.—1843, Henry Tod, W.S.; 1853-1891, Robert Young, Association Secretary; 1872, John Logan, W.S.; 1873 Rev. J. Murray Mitchell, LL.D.; 1879, George Smith, C.I.E., LL.D.

LIVINGSTONIA MISSION

Conveners.—1878, James Stevenson of Haillie, F.R.G.S.; 1880, James White of Overtoun; 1884, The Right Honourable Lord Overtoun.

Secretaries.—1877 (Oct.) Robert M’Clure; 1879 (June) George Smith, C.I.E., LL.D. joint

CONVERSION OF THE JEWS

Conveners.—1843, Rev. Professor Duncan, LL.D., pro tem.; 1844, Rev. Alexander Keith, D.D.; 1847, Rev. A. Moody Stuart, D.D.; 1854, Rev. David Brown, D.D.; 1857, Rev. A. Moody Stuart, D.D.; 1858, Rev. Professor Smeaton, D.D.; 1860, Rev. A. Moody Stuart, D.D.; 1884, Rev. A. Moody Stuart, D.D., Rev. J. Hood Wilson, D.D.; 1889, Rev. J. Hood Wilson, D.D.; 1890, Rev. James Wells, D.D.; 1896, Rev. J. G. Cunningham, D.D.

Secretaries.—1843, J. G. Wood, W.S.; 1859, Rev. Walter Wood, Elie (acting); 1863, Rev. Walter Wood, Elie; 1866, F. Brown Douglas, Advocate; 1883, Rev. W. Affleck, B.D.; 1892, Rev. George Milne Rae, D.D.

COLONIAL COMMITTEE

Conveners.—1843, Rev. D. Welsh, D.D., Rev. John Sym; 1844, Rev. John Sym; 1845, Rev. James Buchanan, D.D., LL.D.; 1846, Rev. John Bonar, D.D. (In 1848 the Continental Committee was amalgamated with the Colonial Committee.) 1864, Rev. Lewis H. Irving, Principal Lumsden. (In 1868 the Colonial and Continental Committees were again separated.) 1868, Rev. John Adam, D.D.; 1874, Rev. R. G. Balfour, D.D.; 1882, Rev. J. C. Burns, D.D.; 1889, Rev. R. Boog Watson, LL.D.; 1893, Rev. R. S. Duff, D.D.; 1899, Rev. R. M’Intosh, D.D.

Secretaries.—1843, James Balfour, jun., W.S.; 1849, Rev. John Jaffray; 1853, James Balfour, W.S.; 1863, vacant; 1864, Rev. G. Divorty; 1870, Rev. Peter Hope; 1878, Rev. J. G. Mackintosh, interim; 1879, Rev. J. G. Mackintosh; 1892, Rev. George Milne Rae, D.D.

CONTINENTAL COMMITTEE

Conveners.—1844, Rev. Dr. J. G. Lorimer, Glasgow. (In 1848 this Committee was amalgamated with the Colonial Committee, and in 1868 they were again separated.) 1868, Rev. Dr. Stewart of Leghorn; 1860, Sheriff Cleghorn; 1875, David Maclagan; 1878, James Stevenson; 1879, David Maclagan, Colonel Young; 1882, David Maclagan; 1883, F. Brown Douglas, Advocate; 1886, James Balfour, W.S.; 1893, F. A. Brown Douglas, Advocate.

Secretaries.—1844, Rev. John Jaffray; 1868, Rev. Dr. Stewart; 1869, Rev. G. Divorty; 1870, Rev.
Peter Hope; 1878, Rev. J. G. Mackintosh (interim); 1879, Rev. J. G. Mackintosh; 1892, Rev. Dr. George Milne Rae.

PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDS COMMITTEE

Conveners.—1845, Rev. Dr. Candlish; 1846, Rev. Dr. Begg; 1847-1849, Rev. Dr. Macfarlan; 1849-1865, Rev. Dr. Begg; 1866-1875, Rev. Dr. Rainy; 1875-1879, Rev. Alex. Cusin; 1879-1889, Rev. Dr. J. G. Cunningham; 1889-1894, Rev. Thos. Crerar; 1894-1899, Rev. Dr. Geo. Steven; 1899-1900, Rev. Thos. Crerar.

PROBATIONERS

Conveners.—1858-1860, Rev. John Roxburgh, D.D.; 1860-1863, Rev. W. Wilson, D.D.; 1863-1869, Rev. Jas. Mackenzie; 1869-1880, Rev. T. Smith, D.D.; 1880-1890, Rev. R. Gordon; 1890-1895, Rev. P. C. Purves; 1895-1900, Rev. John Tainsh.

Secretaries.—1853-1873, Rev. R. Gordon; 1873-1889, J. Sinclair; 1889-1900, D. Cameron.

CHURCH AND STATE

Convener.—1875-1900, Rev. Dr. Rainy.

COLLEGE COMMITTEE

Conveners.—1843-1845, Rev. Dr. David Welsh; 1845-1847, Rev. Dr. Chalmers; 1847-1852, Rev.
Dr. Cunningham; 1852-1856, Rev. Dr. Buchanan; 1856-1867, Rev. Dr. Jas. Henderson; 1867-1868, Rev. Dr. Blaikie; 1868-1883, Rev. Dr. Laughton; 1883-1888, Rev. Dr. W. H. Goold; 1888-1890, Rev. A. Cusin; 1890-1895, Rev. Dr. D. D. Bannerman; 1895-1900, Rev. Dr. J. Stalker.

Secretaries.—1844-1868, James Bonar; 1868-1890, Rev. Dr. J. Duns; 1890-1900, J. A. Dalmahoy, W.S.

TEMPERANCE COMMITTEE

Conveners.—Rev. Dr. Macfarlan; Rev. Dr. Wm. Wilson; Professor James Miller, M.D., Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria; Wm. Kidston of Ferniegair; Rev. Dr. D. D. Bannerman; Rev. Wm. Ross; Rev. James Hunter, B.D.; Rev. Wm. Muir, B.D., B.L.

CHURCH PRAISE

Different Committees from time to time dealt with the subjects falling under this head.

(1) The Committee on Church Music, 1843: Convener.—James Bridges.

(2) The Committee on Psalmody, 1845-1884: Conveners.—1845, James Bridges; 1865, Rev. Neil
Livingston, D.D.; 1871, Rev. A. B. Bruce, D.D.; 1875, Rev. Andrew Melville, D.D.; 1877, Rev. John Thomson; 1882, Rev. R. G. Balfour, D.D. Secretaries.—1877, Colin Brown; 1880, James S. Wyllie; 1882, Colin Brown.

(3) Praise Committee, 1884-1900: Conveners.—1884, Rev. Professor Bruce, D.D.; 1898, Rev. John
Tainsh. Secretary.—R. R. Simpson, W.S.

(4) Committee on Paraphrases and Hymns, 1866-1876: Conveners.—1866, Rev. R. Buchanan, D.D.; 1870 Rev. Dr. Adam.

(5) Committee anent the Hymnal, 1877-1884: Conveners.—1877, Rev. Professor Bruce, D.D.; 1878, Rev. Professor Bruce, D.D., and Rev. Dr. Hugh Macmillan (Joint Conveners).

CHALMERS LECTURES

(First Series) The Free Church Principle: Its Character and History. By the Rev. Sir Henry Wellwood Moncrieff, Bart., D.D.

(Second Series) Free Church Principles. By the Rev. William Wilson, D.D.

(Third Series) Church and State in Scotland. By the Rev. Thomas Brown, D.D.

(Fourth Series) Chapters from the History of the Free Church of Scotland. By the Rev. Norman L. Walker, D.D.

(Fifth Series) Presbyterianism in the Colonies. By the Rev. R. Gordon Balfour, D.D.

(Sixth Series) The Doctrine of the Church in Scottish Theology. By the Rev. John Macpherson, M.A.

(Seventh Series) The Confessions of the Church of Scotland, Their Evolution in History. By the Rev. C. G. M’Crie, D.D.

CUNNINGHAM LECTURES

(First Series) The Fatherhood of God. By the Rev. Robert S. Candlish, D.D.

(Second Series) TheDoctrine of Justification, an outline of its History in the Church, and of its Exposition from Scripture. By the Rev. Professor James Buchanan, D.D.

(Third Series) The Revelation of Law in Scripture, considered with respect to its own nature, and. to its relative place in successive dispensations. By the Rev. Principal Patrick Fairbairn, D.D.

(Fourth Series) The Theology and Theologians of Scotland, chiefly of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By the Rev. James Walker, D.D.

(Fifth Series) Delivery and Development of Christian Doctrine. By the Rev. Principal Robert Rainy, D.D.

(Sixth Series) The Humiliation of Christ in its Physical, Ethical, and Official Aspects. By the Rev. Professor A. B. Bruce, D.D.

(Seventh Series) The Bible Doctrine of Man. By the Rev. Professor John Laidlaw, D.D.

(Eighth Series) Unbelief in the Eighteenth Century as contrasted with its earlier and later History. By the Rev. Principal John Cairns, D.D., LL.D.

(Ninth Series) The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. By the Rev. Professor George Smeaton, D.D.

(Tenth Series) The Kingdom of God Biblically and Historically Considered. By the Rev. Professor James S. Candlish, D.D.

(Eleventh Series) The Scripture Doctrine of the Church Historically and Exegetically Considered. By the Rev. D. D. Bannerman, D.D.

(Twelfth Series) The Preachers of Scotland from the Sixth to the Nineteenth Century. By the Rev. Professor W. Garden Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.

(Thirteenth Series) The Christian Doctrine of Immortality. By the Rev. Principal S. D. F. Salmond, D.D.

(Fourteenth Series) The Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland Historically Treated. By the Rev. Charles G. M’Crie, D.D.

(Fifteenth Series) Recent Researches and Discoveries in Connection with Biblical Archaeology. By the Rev. Hugh Macmillan, D.D., LL.D.

(Sixteenth Series) St. Paul’s conception of Christ, or the Doctrine of the Second Adam. By the Rev. David Somerville, D.D.

(Seventeenth Series) The Christology of Jesus: Being His Teaching concerning Himself according to the Synoptic Gospels. By the Rev. Professor James Stalker, D.D.

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LIST OF THE MISSIONARIES

FOREIGN MISSIONARIES 1843-1900

N.B. – The date of original appointment is given in the case of pre-Disruption Missionaries, although, of course, they did not become Free Church Missionaries till 1843.

1. INDIA

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	(1) BENGAL, INCLUDING SANTALIA
	Ordained Missionaries
1829	Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D.	Died 1878
1831	William S. Mackay, D.D.	Died 1865
1834	David Ewart, D.D.	Died 1860
1838	John Macdonald, M.A.	Died 1847
1839	Thomas Smith, M.A., D.D., LL.D., Emeritus Professor	Resigned 1858
1841	William C. Fyfe [See list of ministers for alternative dating.]	Died 1884
1846	Ebenezer Miller, M.A. (formerly at Rotterdam)	Died 1857
1848	David Sinclair	Died 1852
1853	Thomas Gardiner (after 1859 of Old Aberdeen) [See list of ministers for alternative dating.]	Died 1877
1854	John Powrie (after 1857 Minister, Calcutta) [His surname is Pourie in the List of ministers.]	Died 1867
1861	Kenneth S. Macdonald, A.M., D.D. [List of ministers says he was ordained 1862.]	Calcutta
1862	John D. Don (after 1867 Minister, Calcutta) [See List of ministers for alternative datings.]	In King William’s Town, S.A., from 1877.
1871	James Robertson, M.A., D.D. (Professor after 1887)	Resigned 1887 to become Professor in Aberdeen.
1871	Archibald Templeton, M.D. (afterwards in Glasgow Medical Mission)	Resigned 1876
1871	John Hector, M.A., D.D.	Calcutta
1871	Andrew Campbell, D.D.	Santalia
1875	J. A. Dyer, F.R.A.S. & P. Ed.	Santalia
1876	Roderick N. Macdonald, M.A. [List of ministers says he was removed in 1887.]	Pensioned 1886
1876	W. H. Stevenson, Santalia [List of ministers says 1888.]	Died 1889
1882	William M’Culloch [List of ministers says he was ordained 1883.]	Calcutta and Chinsurah
1888	Alexander Tomory, M.A. [List of ministers says he was ordained 1887.]	Calcutta
1888	A.P. Telfer, M.A.	Invalided 1896
1889	John Watt, M.A. . [Ordained 1888 according to List of ministers.]	Calcutta
1889	J. M. Macphail, M.A., M.D., Santalia [List of ministers says this was in 1888.]	Chakai
1891	W. E. White, B.A. (Chaplain and Missionary) [Ordained 1890 according to List of ministers.]	Sylhet, Assam
1893	Malcolm Macnicol, M.A., M.B., C.M.	Kalna
1897	John Scrimgeour, M.A. [Ordained 1896 according to List of ministers.]	Calcutta
	Unordained Missionaries
1858	Alexander Thomson	Resigned 1862
1861	Gilbert G. Ross	Resigned 1864
1862	William Robson, M.D. (afterwards Inspector of Schools, Bengal)	Resigned 1867 Died 1878
1866	Martin Mowat, M.A. (afterwards Professor and Principal in Bengal)	Resigned 1876
1867	James Bruce, V.D.	Resigned 1869
1881	Henry Stephen, M.A.	Calcutta
1882	Alexander Thomson, M.A.	Calcutta
	(2) BOMBAY AND POONA Ordained Missionaries
1822	Donald Mitchell (Scottish Missionary Society only)	Died 1826
1822	James Mitchell, from 1835	Died 1866
1826	Robert Nesbit, from 1835	Died 1855
1828	John Wilson, D.D., F.R.S., from 1835	Died 1875
1838	J. Murray Mitchell, LL.D.	Resigned 1873
1844	James Aitken	Died 1870
1852	W. K. Mitchell (afterwards of Cluny)	Died 1876
1855	Adam White, M.A.	Died 1864
1855	J. S. Beaumont, M.A., Poona	Invalided 1889
1856	Jas. W. Gardner, M.A., Poona [See list of ministers for alternative dating – including death date of 1888.]	Died 1889
1860	Richard Stothert, A.M.	Died 1898
1863	John Small, Poona	Died 1899
1865	R. Angus (resigned in 1872)	Minister in Victoria after 1879.
1869	W. Stephen (afterwards of Kelty)	Resigned 1873
1874	D. Mackichan, M.A., B.D., D.D.	Bombay
1876	B. Blake, M.A., B.D. (afterwards of Clydebank) [List of Ministers says he resigned 1884.]	Resigned 1885
1876	A. C. Grieve, M.A. (afterwards of Liverpool) [List of ministers says he resigned 1889 and died 1894.]	Died 1885
1879	Robert Scott, M.A.	Bombay
1886	W. M. Alexander, M.B., D.Sc., Bombay	Resigned 1898
1886	Robert MacOmish, M.A., B.D. [List of ministers has him in Madras.]	Bombay
1888	James F. Gardner, B.D.	Bombay. Died 1896
1889	Alexander G. Mowat, M.B., C.M. [List of ministers says 1890],	Jalna
1890	John Torrance, M.A., B.D. [List of ministers says he was ordained in 1892.]	Poona
1894	W. Wilkie Brown, M.A.	Alibag
1894	R. Baillie-Douglas, M.A., B.D. [In List of ministers his surname is Douglas.]	Bethel-Jalna
1895	Nicol Macnicol, M.A.	Bombay
1897	Robert Strachan, M.A., B.D.	Bombay
[1897?]	Dhanjhibal Nauroji (see List of Ministers)]
1898	W. G. Robertson, M.A., B.D.	Bombay
	Unordained Missionaries
1845	W. Henderson (at first Government Professor)	Died 1850
1859	J. Dewar	Died 1862
1862	James Scorgie (retired in 1866)	Died 1895
1865	E. Rehatsek, M.C.E. (resigned in 1871)	Died 1891
1868	D. Macdonald, M.B., C.M., B.Sc., Bombay	Resigned
1884	John Jack, M.A.	Bombay
	(3) MADRAS Ordained Missionaries
1836	John Anderson	Died 1855
1838	Robert Johnston	Died 1853
1840	John Braidwood, M.A. [List of Ministers says he resigned 1860 and died 1878.]	Died 1875
1850	James Drummond (afterwards of Clackmannan)	Resigned 1851
1852	R. B. Blyth, A.M. [List of Ministers says he resigned 1860.]	Resigned 1858
1852	A. B. Campbell (afterwards of Markinch)	Resigned 1863
1853	J. M. Mackintosh, A.M. (after 1862 of Skene)	Died 1879
1854	William Moffat	Died 1859
1855	Alexander McCaIlum	Died 1862
1859	Alexander Blake, A.M., Missionary to the Maories. [Resigned 1875 – see List of Ministers.]	Died 1868
1862	William Miller, M.A., D.D., LL.D., C.I.E., Member Madras Legislative Council	Madras
1863	G. J. Metzger	Resigned 1871
1864	W. Stevenson, M. A. (afterwards Secretary, Women’s Foreign Mission Society) [List of ministers says 1883.]	Resigned 1884
1864	J. Macmillan, A.M. (afterwards of Stellenbosch) [List of ministers says that he returned to Scotland in 1877.]	Resigned 1879
1867	G. Milne Rae, M.A., D.D., Jewish Colonial and Continental Secretary	Resigned 1892
1874	Charles Cooper, M.A., LL.D., Madras	Resigned 1899
1876	Alex. Todd, invalided 1879	Died in New Zealand
1877	Alex. Alexander, M.A. (later of Dundee	Resigned 1885
1878	William Elder, M.D. (later of Bristol) [See List of ministers for alternative starting date.]	Resigned 1884
1879	Adam Andrew	Chingleput
1884	William Skinner, M.A., D.D.	Madras
1884	J. C. Peattie, M.A. (later of Bearsden)	Resigned 1894
1886	George Pittendrigh, M.A.	Madras
1886	A. S. Laidlaw, M.A.. B.D. (later of Huntly)	Resigned 1893
1887	James M. Russell, M.A., D.D.	Madras
1890	E. Monteith Macphail, M.A., B.D.	Madras
1893	John Stewart, M.A. [List of ministers says he was ordained 1892.]	Madras
1895	William Meston, M.A., B.D.	Madras
1895	J. H. Maclean, M.A., B.D. .	Sriperambudur
1896	Alexander Moffat, M.A., B.Sc.	Madras
1899	John Mackenzie, M.A.	Madras
	Unordained Missionaries
1855	D. H. Paterson, F.R.C.S.E.	Died 1871
1859	James Houston	Resigned 1863
1870	William Ross, M.A.	Died 1876
1876	C. Michie Smith, B.Sc. (Madras Astronomer)	Resigned 1892
1884	W. B. Morren, M.A.	Madras
1885	J. R. Henderson, M.B., C.M., F.L.S.	Madras
1888	William Walker, M.B., C.M.	Walajabad
	(4) CENTRAL PROVINCES Ordained Missionaries
1844	Stephen Hislop, M.A.	Died 1863
1846	Robert Hunter, M.A., LL.D. (returned 1855)	Died 1897
1855	John G. Coopcr (invalided 1890)	Died 1900
1864	James Dawson, Chindwara (for Gonds)	Died 1885
1869	David Whitton	Nagpur
1878	John Douglas, M.A	Nagpur
1885	Alexander Robertson, M.B., C.M.	Nagpur
1888	J. Sandilands, M.A., M.B., C.M.	Bhandara
1889	Dugald Revie, M.B., C.M.	Wardha
1893	John Lendrum, M.A. (afterwards of Elgin) [List of ministers says he was ordained 1892.]	Invalided 1899
1899	James V. MacFadyen, M.A.	Nagpur
	Unordained Missionaries
1864	William Young	Resigned 1875
1864	John Dalziel	Died 1876
1876	P. Nordfors, Kampti (later in Lapland)	Resigned 1885
1885	James Bremner	1892

2. ARABIA

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	Ordained and Unordained Missionaries
1885	Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, M.A., Cambridge. Not ordained. Founder	Died 1887
1886	B. Stewart Cowen, M.B., C.M. Not ordained	Resigned 1887
1887	W. R. W. Gardner, M.A. Ordained [See List of ministers for alternative dating.]	Resigned 1895
1887	Alexander Paterson, M.B., C.M. Not ordained (afterwards of Hebron)	Resigned 1891
1892	John C. Young, M.B., C.M. (Acting Military Chaplain also). Ordained	Aden
1895	W. D. Miller, M.B., C.M. (later in Cape Colony). Ordained	Invalided 1897
1898	J. R. Morris, L.R.C.S. & P. Ed.	Sheikh Othman

3. SYRIA

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	Ordained Missionaries
1872	John Rae, M.A. (afterwards of Aberdeen)	Died 1885
1863 / 1876	William Carslaw, M.D., formerly of Madras	Shweir, Lebanon

4. AFRICA

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	(1) KAFFRARIA AND NATAL Ordained Missionaries
1821	John Bennie	Died 1869
1823	John Ross, A.M.	Died 1878
1830	James Laing	Died 1872
1840	William Govan	Died 1875
1850	Bryce Ross, M.A., D.D., Pirie [List of ministers says he died 1887.]	Died 1898
1856	Richard Ross, Cunningham	Invalided 1893
1857	R. Templeton, A.M.	Resigned 1864
1865	James Stewart, M.D., D.D,, Hon. F.R.G.S. and F.R.S.G.S.	Lovedale
1867	James Allison	Died 1875
1867	James G. Robertson	Resigned 1880
1870	James Dalzell B.D., M.B., C.M.	Gordon Memorial
1873	Donald Macleod, M.A.	Died 1878
1873	John Stalker, M.A., Maritzburg	Resigned 1891
1873	W. J. B. Moir, M.A., Lovedale	Blythswood
1875	James Macdonald (later of Reay)	Resigned 1888
1876	D. Doig Young	Main
1877	James Scott	Impolweni
1880	William Stuart, M.A.	Burnshill
1882	James McLaren, M.A. (later Inspector Schools)	Resigned 1897
1882	John Bruce	Pietermaritzburg
1885	T. Durrant Philip, M.A. (Congregational)	Lovedale. Resigned
1886	Dundas L. Erskine	Somerville
1889	D.D. Stormont, M.A., L.C.P. [List of ministers says he was ordained 1891.]	Lovedale
1889	John Thomson	Idutywa
1893	John Lennox, M.A. [List of ministers says he was ordained 1892.]	Lovedale
1893	Brownlee J. Ross, M.A.	Cunningham
1893	Murdo J. C. Matheson	Ross
1896	James Dewar, M.A.	Natal
1897	William Gavin, M.A. [See List of ministers for alternative dating.]	Pondoland
	Unordained Missionaries
1827	James Weir, Lovedale	Died 1886
1827	Alexander M’Diarmid	Died 1875
1860	Simon Colquhoun	Resigned 1865
1863	John A. Bennie, Lovedale	Died 1886
1866	Andrew Smith	Died 1898
1874	Alexander Welsh, Gordon Memorial	Resigned
1877	W. G. Duncan, Lovedale	Resigned 1883
1877	Alexander Geddes	Lovedale
1879	Angus M’Phail, M.A., Lovedale	Resigned 1882
1880	John Bond, M.B., C.M., Blythswood	Resigned 1881
1883	Thomas Waidlaw, Blythswood	Resigned 1886
1883	Alex. W. Roberts, D.Sc., F.R.S.E.	Lovedale
1884	Hector Calder, Lovedale	Died 1893
1893	A. F. Lyon	Blythswood
1894	D. A. Hunter, F.R.S.G.S. (Honorary)	Lovedale
1898	James M’Cash, M.B., C.M. (Honorary)	Lovedale

	(2) CENTRAL AFRICA.— LIVINGSTONIA
1875	Rev. Robert Laws, M.A., M.D., D.D., F.R.G.S. and (Hon.) F.R.S.G.S.	Livingstonia Institution
1875	Mr. E. D. Young, R.N.	Led First Expedition. Died 1896
1875	Rev. W. Black, M.B., C.M.	Died 1877
1875	Mr. G. Johnston, Carpenter	Resigned and graduated M.B., C.M.
1875	Mr. J. MacFadyen, Engineer	Now M.B., C.M.
1875	Mr. A. Simpson, Engineer Planter B.C.A.	Joined A. L. Co.
1875	Mr. A. Riddell, Agriculturist	Minister in Australia.
1875	Mr. W. Baker, Seaman	R.N. Reserve.
1875	Mr. I. Crooks, Seaman	Recalled.
1875	Mr. J. Gunn, Agriculturist	Died 1880
1876	Mr. R. S. Ross, Engineer
1876	Mr. A. C. Miller, Weaver .	Died Zambezi.
1877	Mr. W. Koyi. Kaffir from Lovedale	Died 1886
1877	Mr. Shadrach Ngunana. Kaffir from Lovedale	Died 1878
1877	Mr. Mapas Ntintili. Kaffir from Lovedale	Died 1897
1878	Mr. James Stewart, C.E., F.R.G.S.	Died 1883
1878	Mr. George Benzie. Master of Ilala	Died 1880
1878	Mr. Robert Reid, Carpenter	Invalided
1878	Mr. J. Paterson, Engineer	Resigned 1882
1878	Mr. Wm. Reid, Seaman	Resigned 1881
1879	Miss Waterston, M.D. (later in Cape Town)	Resigned 1880
1880	Mr. James Sutherland, Agriculturist	Died 1885
1880	Mr. George Fairley, Master of the Ilala	Resigned
1880	Mr. William Harkess, Engineer of the Ilala	African Lakes Co.
1881	Mr. R. Gowans, Master of Ilala	Died 1882
1881	Mr. J. Smith, Teacher	Blantyre Mission
1881	Mr. P. McCallum, Carpenter	Retired 1900
1881	Rev. R. Hannington, M.B., C.M., afterwards in Jewish Mission, Constantinople	Invalided
1881	Mr. Donald Munro, Builder	Resigned
1882	Mr. George Williams (from Lovedale)	Resigned 1888
1883	Rev. J. Alexander Bain, M.A.	Died 1889
1883	Mr. W. Scott. M.B., C.M.	Resigned
1884	Mr. W. M’Ewan, C.E.	Died 1885
1884	Rev. Walter A. Elmslie, M.B., C.M.
1885	Rev. D. Kerr Cross, M.B., C.M. (later in the Administration Service)	Resigned 1897
1885	Mr. George Rollo, Teacher	Died 1886
1886	Mr. Macintosh, Carpenter
1886	Mr. M. M’Intyre, Teacher	Died at Quilimane
1886	Mr. J. B. M’Currie, Teacher	Resigned
1886	Mr. R. Gossip, Bookkeeper (later under African Lakes Corporation, Glasgow)	Invalided
1887	Rev. George Henry, M.A., M.B., C.M.	Died 1893
1887	Mr. C. Stuart, Teacher	Ekwendeni
1888	Mr. W. Murray, Carpenter	Livingstonia
1889	Mr. W. Thomson, Printer	Livingstonia
1890	Rev. George Steele, M.B., C.M.	Died 1895
1890	Mr. James Aitken, Teacher	Died 1894
1890	Mr. George Aitken	Invalided 1898
1890	Rev. D. Fotheringham, M.B., C.M.	Resigned 1893
1891	Mr. Govan Robertson, Teacher	Later of L. M. Society
1891	Mr. A. C. Scott, Teacher	Port Elizabeth
1891	Mr. Donald Macgregor, Agriculturist	Invalided
1891	Mr. W. Morrison	Recalled
1892	Mr. W. Duff MacGregor, Joiner	Livingstonia
1892	Mr. Roderick Macdonald, Joiner	Invalided
1893	Rev. A. G. M’Alpine	Bandawe
1893	Mr. R. D. McMinn, Printer	Bandawe
1893	Rev. A. Dewar, F.R.G.S.	Karonga
1894	Miss L. A. Stewart	Livingstonia
1894	Mr. M. Moffat, Agriculturist	Livingstonia
1894	Mr. Hugh Steven, Joiner	Died
1894	Rev. George Prentice, L.R.C.S. & P. Ed.	Bandawe
1895	Rev. James IIcnderson, M.A.	Livingstonia
1896	Mr. Walter J. Henderson, Builder	Livingstonia
1896	Rev. Donald Fraser	Ekwendeni
1896	Rev. J. C. Ramsay, L.R.C.S. & P. Ed. (later with Field Force S.A.)	Invalided 1898
1896	Mr. J. M. Henderson, Teacher	Karonga
1897	Miss M’Callum, Teacher and Nurse	Married 1900
1897	A. W. Roby-Fletcher, B.Sc., M.B., C.M.	Died 1898
1898	Robert Scott, M.B., C.M.	Resigned 1900
1899	Mr. John M’Gregor, Joiner	Livingstonia
1899	Frank Innes, M.A., M.B., Ch.B.	Karonga
1900	Miss M. J. Fleming, Nurse	For Livingstonia
1900	James A. Chisholm, L.R.C.P. & S. Ed.	Mwenzo
1900	William Sutherland, Builder	Livingstonia
1900	James Gauld, jun.	Livingstonia
1900	Miss J. Martin (Honorary)	Livingstonia

5. MELANESIA

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	NEW HEBRIDES ISLANDS
1852	John Inglis, D.D. [List of ministers says he died 1891.]	Died 1892
1858	Joseph Copeland, Futuna (later in Australia)	Invalided
1866	Thomas Neilson, Tanna	Resigned: in Australia
1878	James H. Lawrie, Aneityum	Minister in Australia
1882	William Gunn, L.R.C.S. & P. Ed.	Futuna and Aneityum
1896	Fred. G. Bowie, M.A.	Tangoa, S. Santo
	[Robert S. Boyd – see List of Ministers.] [Alexander Gillies – see List of Ministers.]

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MISSIONARIES TO THE JEWS

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	Ordained Missionaries
1841	William Owen Allan, Missionary at Budapest and Damascus, in two periods, 1841-50; 1874-78	Resigned 1878
1892	Alexander Bisset, Constantinople	Resigned 1895
1847	James Dennistoun, Constantinople	Resigned 1849
1841	John Duncan, D.D., Budapest	Resigned 1843
1847	Alfred Edersheim, D.D., Ph.D., Jassy	Resigned 1847
1841	Daniel Edward, M.A., Jassy, Lemberg, and Breslau	Died 1896
1888	William Ewing, M.A., D.D., Tiberias	Resigned 1893
1872	Alexander Furst, D.D., Prague, Strassburg, Amsterdam	Resigned 1887
1884	Robert Hannington, M.B., C.M., Constantinople	1900
1845	Rudolf Koenig, Constantinople and Budapest [In the List of ministers his surname is Konig.]	Resigned 1890
1862	Theodore Jonas Meyer, Galatz, Ancona, and Amsterdam	Resigned 1871
1864	Andrew Moody, D.D., Budapest and Prague	1900
1841	Hermann Philip, Jassy	Resigned 1848
1878	James Pirie, Prague and Breslau	1900
1844	Carl Schwartz, D.D., Constantinople, Berlin, and Amsterdam	Resigned 1864
1841	Robert Smith, D.D., Budapest, Amsterdam	Resigned 1859
1893	John Soutar, M.A., Tiberias	1900
1845	Alexander Thomson, D.D., Constantinople	Resigned 1860
1895	J. E. H. Thomson, D.D., Safed	Resigned 1899
1847	Alex. Tomory, Constantinople	Died 1895
1884	David Watt Torrance, M.B., C.M., Tiberias	1900
1852	Duncan Turner, Constantinople [List of ministers says ordained 1851.]	Resigned 1857
1895	George Pexall Wallace, B.D., Constantinople	1900
[1897	James T. Webster – Vol.1]
1842	William Wingate, Budapest	Resigned 1852

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MISSIONARIES OF THE WOMEN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY

1. INDIA

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	(1) BENGAL, INCLUDING SANTALIA
1840	Miss Laing, Calcutta	Resigned 1858
1848	Miss Adamson, Calcutta	Married 1850
1852	Mr. and Mrs. Fordyce, Calcutta	Resigned 1855
1858	Miss Goulding Calcutta	Married.
1859	Miss C. M. Don, Calcutta	Died 1860
1864	Miss Taylor, Calcutta	Resigned 1870
1866	Mrs. Chatterjee, Calcutta	Died 1891
1867	Miss Falkiner, Calcutta	Married 1879
1867	Miss Hubbard, Calcutta	Resigned 1879
1875	Miss Griffin, Calcutta	Resigned 1877
1876	Miss Margaret T. Manson, Calcutta (Afterwards Mrs. K. S. Macdonald)
1877	Miss Helen Skirving, Calcutta	Married 1887
1880	Miss Mary E. Warrack, Calcutta
1881	Miss Nicolson, Calcutta	Resigned 1889
1884	Miss Eliza Stewart, Calcutta	Married
1886	Miss Margaret E. Brown, Hugli	Married 1896
1886	Miss Annie E. Colvin (Hon.), Calcutta	Resigned
1887	Miss Hettie Sprot, Pachamba (Afterwards Mrs. P. R. Mackay)
1888	Miss Emily White, Calcutta
1890	Miss Jessie Scott, Calcutta	Resigned 1892
1890	Miss Mary S. Gilchrist, Pachamba	Died
1890	Miss Jessie Gilchrist, Pachamba (Afterwards Mrs. Torrance (of Poona))
1891	Miss Ferguson, Calcutta	Resigned 1893
1892	Miss Margaret Dalziel, Calcutta	Died 1895
1892	Miss Catherine McMicking (Hon.), Calcutta	Resigned 1895
1892	Miss Margaret Grant, Calcutta
1894	Miss Mary H. Park, Calcutta
1894	Miss Mary J. Symington, Hugli
1894	Miss Annie B. Nairn, Pachamba
1896	Miss Harriet Ross Taylor, Pachamba	Resigned 1899
1897	Miss Jeannie Jameson, Calcutta
	(2) BOMBAY AND POONA
1838	Miss Reid, Bombay	Died 1840
1841	Miss Shaw, Bombay (Afterwards Mrs. James Mitchell)
1841	Mademoiselle Jallot, Bombay	Died 1842
1842	Mrs. Edwards, Bombay	Married
1842	Miss Beach, Bombay	Married
1844	Miss Joanna Shaw, Bombay	Married
1847	Mrs. Seitz, Bombay	Resigned 1853
1858	Miss Ann Laird, Bombay	Married 1863
1861	Mrs. Miller, Poona	Resigned 1882
1863	Miss Elizabeth McNiven, Bombay	Resigned 1867
1867	Miss Catherine Ewing, Bombay (Afterwards Mrs. Stothert)
1870	Miss Brown, Bombay	Resigned 1875
1875	Miss Eliza MacRitchie, Bombay (Afterwards Mrs. Mackichan)
1878	Miss Janet S. Paterson, Bombay	Resigned 1887
1878	Miss Christina S. Paterson, Bombay
1884	Miss Hetta Gardner, Bombay
1886	Miss Charlotte W. Crawford, Bombay (Afterwards Assistant Secretary of the Women’s Foreign Mission)	Resigned 1898.
1887	Miss Lizzie S. Dhanjibhai, Bombay
1887	Miss Isabella G. Dhanjibhai, Bombay
1887	Miss Lilian Plunkett, Poona
1889	Miss Jessie Paxton, Poona
1892	Miss Louisa Taylor, Poona	Died 1893
1892	Miss Alexa Clerihew, Poona
1893	Miss Charlotte Ligertwood, Poona
1895	Miss Seitz, Bombay
1896	Miss Annie E. Douglas, Jalna
1896	Miss Annie D. Brown, Bombay
1897	Miss Eva Plunkett, Poona
1899	Miss Leila C. Sutherland, Bombay
	(3) MADRAS
1846	Miss Locher (Afterwards Mrs. Anderson)	Died 1887
1850	Miss Eliza Locher	Died 1851
1859	Miss Janet McCarter	Resigned 1863
1863	Miss Urquhart (Afterwards of Calcutta)	Resigned 1868
1872	Miss Jane Sloan	Married
1874	Miss Ann Liddell	Died 1875
1875	Miss Agnes Ross (Afterwards Mrs. W. Joss of Lond. Miss. Soc.)
1878	Miss L. J. Wolff	Resigned 1881
1883	Miss Mary Stephen
1884	Miss Susan Rajagopaul	Resigned 1896
1885	Miss Strachan	Resigned 1889
1886	Mrs. Theophilus	Died 1891
1887	Miss A. Matilda Macphail, L.R.C.P. & S.E.
1889	Miss Agnes Smart
1889	Miss Agnes S. Falconer (Afterwards Mrs. Pittendrigh)
1889	Miss Janet Hunter, M.D.	Died 1892
1892	Miss Caroline G. Milne	Resigned 1897
1893	Miss Jessie Maclaren
1893	Miss Anna H. Church, M.B., B.Ch.	Resigned 1898
1894	Miss Catherine Howie, L.R.C.P. & S.E.	Resigned 1899
1894	Miss Mary Sinclair
1898	Miss Ella T. Hogg
1899	Miss Margaret W. H. McNeiI, M.B., B.Ch.
1899	Miss Penelope Miller
1900	Miss Helen McGregor
1900	Miss Isabella S. Binnie
	(4) CENTRAL PROVINCES
1876	Miss Berry	Resigned 1878
1876	Miss Annie H. Small Chindwara, afterwards Poona. Afterwards Superintendent of Women’s Missionary College, Edinburgh.	Resigned 1892.
1877	Miss Alexina Mackay	Married 1888
1880	Miss Maggie Mackay (Afterwards Mrs. Danielsen, Swedish Mission)
1883	Miss Jane M. Small
1884	Miss Isabella Small	Married
1886	Miss Isabella Mayor	Resigned 1891
1887	Miss Barbara Black	Married
1889	Miss Isobel Miller
1890	Miss Agnes E. Henderson, M.D.
1890	Miss Ida Gregory (Hon.)
1891	Miss Whitton	Resigned 1896
1893	Miss Jenny R. Wells, L.R.C.P. & S.E. (Afterwards Mrs. Macphail, Santalia)
1896	Miss Annie L. Steen
1897	Miss Jessie B. Brown
1898	Miss Margaret Brodie, L.R.C.P. & S.E.

2. AFRICA

appointed	name	death, retirement, or station in 1900.
	SOUTH AFRICA
1842	Miss Isabella Thomson, Lovedale	Resigned 1867
1845	Miss Isabella Smith, Lovedale (Afterwards Mrs. Thomson)
1852	Miss Ross, Lovedale
1852	Miss Bennie, Lovedale
1860	Miss Weir (Afterwards Mrs. Doig Young)
1866	Miss Jane Waterston, Lovedale (Afterwards Dr. Waterston, Cape Town)	Resigned 1873,
1873	Miss MacRitchie, Lovedale	Resigned 1879
1876	Miss Blair, Pirie
1877	Miss MacDonald, Lovedale	Resigned 1881
1880	Mrs. Muirhead, Lovedale	Died 1891
1880	Miss Mary J. Weddell, Impolweni	Resigned
1881	Miss Caroline Alexander, Lovedale	Resigned
1882	Miss Lorimer (Hon.), Gordon Memorial	Died 1900
1882	Miss M. G. Lorimer (Hon.), Gordon Memorial
1883	Miss Barnley, Lovedale
1884	The Misses Ross, Cunningham
1886	Miss Ferguson, Impolweni	Invalided 1887
1887	Miss Howie, Impolweni	Married 1891
1887	Miss Norman, Impolweni	Resigned 1891
1888	Miss M’Dermid, Blythswood	Resigned 1891
1889	Miss Crawford, Main	Resigned 1891
1891	Miss Petrie, Burnshill	Resigned 1899
1892	Miss Violet Miller, Impolweni	Resigned 1898
1892	Miss Mary J. Dodds, Lovedale
1892	Miss Campbell, Blythswood (Afterwards Mrs. Anderson)
1894	Miss Mary MacDougall (Hon.), Blythswood
1894	Miss Geils MacDougall, Blythswood
1894	Miss A. Christie, Blythswood
1894	Miss Ethel Coombs, Lovedale
1894	Miss Prowse, Lovedale
1895	Miss J. Coombs, Lovedale
1896	Miss Mary M. Hay, Blythswood
1899	Miss Lizzie Taylor, Impolweni
1899	Miss M. J. Mitchell, Impolweni

1National Covenant etc, p.337

2 Solemn League etc p.345

3 Confession with relative Act of Assembly, p.15.

4 Catechisms, with relative Acts of Assembly, pp.125, 285.

5 Directories with relative Acts of Assembly, p.361.

6 Sum of Saving Knowledge, p.317.

7 Act 7^th June, 1690, p.14.

8 Claim etc. p.427.

9 Protest etc. p.443

10 Auchterarder Case, 1839.

11 Moncrieff v. Maxton, Feb. 15, 1735.

12 Cochrane v. Stoddart, June 26, 1751. Dick v. Carmichael, March 2, 1753. Forbes v. M’|William, February, 1762.

13 Cochrane, November 19, 1748.

14 Hay v. Presbytery of Dunse, February 26, 1749.

15 Lord Dundas v. Presbytery of Shetland, May 15, 1795.

16 1^st Lethendy Case.

17 Stewarton Case.

18 Marnoch Case.

19 Daviot Case.

20 Stewarton Case.

21 Strathbogie Cases.

22 2^nd Auchterarder Case.

23 Culsalmond Case.

24 Cambusnethan Case.

25 Stranraer Case.

26 4^th Lethendy Case.

27 1^st and 2^nd Strathbogie Cases.

28 3^rd Strathbogie Case.

29 5^th Strathbogie Case.

30 4^th Strathbogie Case.

31 3^rd Auchterarder Case.

32 This Act and Deed of Demission is registered in the Books of Council and Session, of date 8^th June 1843.

33 Alive in 1900 and in active occupation of the chair.

34 [Note the Scottish Census of 1841 shows a Robert Hislop, teacher, living at the Normal Seminary, New City Road, Glasgow. This seems to confirm that this master was indeed Robert Hislop. In 1851 he is living at 11 Buccleuch Street, Glasgow, the keeper of a Normal Seminary. He was born about 1816 in Duns, Berwickshire. He was the brother of Alexander and Stephen Hislop, Free Church ministers. The biographer of Stephen Hislop writes of him: “Robert was an enthusiastic entomologist; as the head of the Training College in Glasgow, and afterwards of Blair Lodge Academy, he wielded an influence akin to that of Arnold at Rugby” (The Life of Stephen Hislop, George Smith, John Murray, London, 1889, p.2.)]

Documents

Ewing’s Annals of the Free Church – Documents

Contents

THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND – ITS ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND ACCESSIONS

1. ORIGIN

2. PREPARATION FOR APPROACHING CRISIS

3. THE DISRUPTION—THE SCENE, WHAT IT MEANT AND WHAT IT ACHIEVED

1843

4 . THE SUBSEQUENT ACCESSIONS

1839-1876

(1) OLD LIGHT BURGHERS, OR ASSOCIATE SYNOD OF ORIGINAL BURGHER SECEDERS

(2) MISSIONARIES, LICENTIATES, STUDENTS

(3) THE SYNOD OF UNITED ORIGINAL SECEDERS

(4) THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS

5. AFTER FIFTY YEARS

1893

6. THE UNION

1900

THE STANDARDS OF THE CHURCH

ACT AND DECLARATION

1. CLAIM, DECLARATION, AND PROTEST

2. ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN

3. PROTEST

4. ACT OF SEPARATION AND DEED OF DEMISSION BY MINISTERS32

5. SUPPLEMENTARY ACT OF SEPARATION AND DEED OF DEMISSION

6. ACT ANENT QUESTIONS AND FORMULA

OTHER INFORMATION

GENERAL ASSEMBLIES, MODERATORS, PLACES OF MEETING, AND ASSEMBLY OFFICIALS

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH

MODERATORS FROM 1843 TO 1900 INCLUSIVE

PRINCIPAL CLERKS OF ASSEMBLY

DEPUTE CLERKS

LEGAL ADVISERS

LAW AGENTS

PRECENTORS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

ASSEMBLY OFFICERS

THE COLLEGES AND THE PROFESSORS OF THE CHURCH, 1843-1900

NEW COLLEGE EDINBURGH

ABERDEEN COLLEGE

GLASGOW COLLEGE

THE NORMAL SCHOOLS AND TRAINING COLLEGES

GLASGOW

EDINBURGH

ABERDEEN

span style=”color: #ff0000;”>THE COMMITTEES OF THE CHURCH, AND LECTURESHIPS

SUSTENTATION FUND COMMITTEE

HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS COMMITTEE

HOME MISSIONS

CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING

AGED AND INFIRM MINISTERS’ FUND

FOREIGN MISSIONS

LIVINGSTONIA MISSION

CONVERSION OF THE JEWS

COLONIAL COMMITTEE

CONTINENTAL COMMITTEE

PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDS COMMITTEE

PROBATIONERS

CHURCH AND STATE

COLLEGE COMMITTEE

TEMPERANCE COMMITTEE

CHURCH PRAISE

CHALMERS LECTURES

CUNNINGHAM LECTURES

LIST OF THE MISSIONARIES

FOREIGN MISSIONARIES 1843-1900

MISSIONARIES TO THE JEWS

MISSIONARIES OF THE WOMEN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY

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**Ewing’s Annals of the Free Church – Documents**

THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND –
ITS ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND ACCESSIONS

4. ACT OF SEPARATION AND DEED OF DEMISSION BY MINISTERS³²