In the Scottish church of the 18th and 19th centuries, a burgher was a person who upheld the lawfulness of the Burgher Oath. [1] [2]
The Burgher Oath was the oath that a town burgess was required to swear on taking office. [3]
The Burghers' position was in opposition to the Seceders and Anti-Burghers.
The Rescissory Act 1661 stated that all ministers and preachers in Scotland needed to acquire a patron (usually a local laird who would choose which minister would preach in their area). A quarter of the clergy refused to hand over authority to a person outside the church and consequently lost their jobs. They continued to preach independently and illegally, which led to armed rebellion and to The Killing Time in the 1680s. Patronage in Scotland was halted in the 1690s. [4]
A new Patronage Act was legislated in 1711. According to Dale Jorgenson, "The Patronage Act, enacted under the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), gave lay patrons the right to present ministers to parishes. This act of patronage was an affront to classic Presbyterianism, and resulted in a division between Burghers who accepted the Burghers' Oath and its consequent patronage, and the Anti-Burghers who would not accept the oath".
The First Secession occurred in 1733 and was triggered by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland giving priority in the appointment of minister to the parish's patron. Dissenting attendees to the General Assembly stated that church ministers should be chosen by church elders. That led to the creation of the Associate Congregation in 1740, commonly called the "Secession Church".
The "Secession Church" then split in 1747 into the Burghers and the Anti-Burghers over the lawfulness of the forms of the civil oath expected of Burgesses of Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The contentious clause required the burgess, or oathgiver, to profess that the true religion was the one professed within the realm.
The Burghers continued to meet as the Associate Synod, and the Anti-Burghers created the General Associate Synod.
Both groups later had internal splits, with the Burghers splitting in 1798 into the "Auld Licht" Calvinist group, which held to the Solemn League and Covenant, and the "New Licht", which was more liberal and influential. The Auld Lichts created the Original Associate Synod.
In 1820, many of the Burgher and Anti-Burgher congregations united into one denominations. Some churches did not wish to unite and went on to form a separate church denomination.
In 1842, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland wrote to the newly-crowned Queen Victoria and urged the end of patronage. That did not happen and several ministers went on to form the Free Kirk. [5]
Patronage was finally abolished by Parliament in 1874, after 300 years.
1. William Wilson (1736-1741)
2. Alexander Moncrieff (1741-1761)
2. John Swanston (1764-1767)
3. John Brown of Haddington (1768-1787)
4. George Lawson (1787-1800). [6]
1. George Lawson (1787-1800). [6]
2. John Dick (1820)
1. William Willis (1800-1803) [7]
2. George Hill (1803-1819)
3. William Taylor (appointed interim Professor, 1818) (1819-1833) (died 1836)
4. Michael Willis (1835-1839)
The United Presbyterian Church (1847–1900) was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination. It was formed in 1847 by the union of the United Secession Church and the Relief Church, and in 1900 merged with the Free Church of Scotland to form the United Free Church of Scotland, which in turn united with the Church of Scotland in 1929. For most of its existence, the United Presbyterian Church was the third largest presbyterian church in Scotland, and stood on the liberal wing of Scots Presbyterianism. The church's name was often abbreviated to the initials UP.
Adam Gib was a Scottish religious leader, head of the Antiburgher section of the Scottish Secession Church. He reportedly wrote his first covenant with God in the blood of his own veins. Gib was born in the parish of Muckhart, in southern Perthshire on 15 April 1714.
Ebenezer Erskine was a Scottish minister whose actions led to the establishment of the Secession Church.
The United Secession Church was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination which existed between 1820 and 1847.
The Anti-Burghers were opponents of the Burgher Oath on theological grounds.
Thomas M'Crie was a Scottish biographer and ecclesiastical historian, writer, and preacher born in the town of Duns, and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He became the leading minister of the Original Secession Church. His work: "Life of Knox" (1813) was a means of vindicating the Scottish reformer John Knox who was a unpopular figure at the time. It was followed by a "Life of Andrew Melville" (1819). Melville was Knox's successor as the leader of the Reformers in Scotland. M'Crie also published histories of the Reformation in Italy and Spain. He received an honorary degree of D.D. in 1813, the first Secession minister to receive such an award.
Thomas M'Crie was a Presbyterian minister and church historian. He was a Scottish Secession minister who joined the Free Church of Scotland and served as the Moderator of the General Assembly to that church 1856/57.
The First Secession was an exodus of ministers and members from the Church of Scotland in 1733. Those who took part formed the Associate Presbytery and later the United Secession Church. They were often referred to as Seceders.
Robert Balmer (1787–1844), was successively a minister of the Burgher Seceder, New Licht Burgher Seceder and United Associate Synod of the Secession Churches in Scotland.
Archibald Bruce (1746–1816), was a Scottish theological writer.
James Fisher (1697–1775) was one of the founders of the Scottish Secession church. He was born at Barr, on 23 January 1697, the second son of Thomas Fisher, minister of Rhynd. He was educated at University of Glasgow. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Perth on 31 October 1722 and subsequently called and ordained on 23 December 1725. He dissented and joined with his father-in-law Ebenezer Erskine in his appeal and complaint to the Assembly of 1733. He was one of the four original members of the Associate Presbytery founded at Gairney Bridge on 6 December 1733. He was deposed by the General Assembly on 15 May 1740, but continued to preach in the parish church till 13 August 1741, when he was forcibly ejected on a sheriff's warrant. He then preached in a tent on Kinclaven brae during the time he remained in the district. On 8 October 1741 he became minister of Shuttle Street Associate Congregation, Glasgow. He was deposed by the Associate (Antiburgher) Synod on 4 August 1748 over the question of the Burgess Oath. He was appointed Professor of Divinity by the Associate (Burgher) Synod in 1749. He died on 28 September 1775.
The Secession Synod was the Presbyterian Synod of Ireland from 1743 to 1840.
George Paxton was a Scottish secession minister and poet. He was the professor of divinity of the 'New Licht' Anti-Burgher General Associate Synod.
The Southside Community Centre is a community centre in the Southside, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. The centre opened in 1986 and occupies the former Nicolson Street Church, which was completed in 1820.
Thomas Mair was a Scottish Anti-Burgher minister and moderator of the Anti-Burgher Associate Synod.
John Reid was a Presbyterian minister from Scotland who was also active in England and Australia. Born in Ayrshire, he was ordained into the United Secession Church in 1829, but later led independent and Burgher churches. He joined the established Church of Scotland in 1839, and in 1845 took over an expatriate congregation in Liverpool, England. Reid immigrated to Australia in 1852, living in Melbourne until 1858 and then in Sydney. He left the Church of Scotland and for a while ministered in John Dunmore Lang's schismatic sect, eventually ending his career at a non-denominational Bethel Union congregation. His son George Reid became the fourth Prime Minister of Australia.
Alexander Moncrieff (1695–1761) was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. He was the son of Matthew Moncrieff of Culfargie and Margaret Mitchell. His paternal grandfather, also Alexander Moncrieff, was a well known minister of Scoonie. He was educated at Perth Grammar School and St Leonard's College, St Andrews. He graduated with an M.A. and then attended a course of theology at Leiden under John a Marck and Wesselius. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Perth 29 April 1719 and called 26 April, and by Presbytery jure devoluto, 24 August, and ordained 14 September 1720. He sympathised with Ebenezer Erskine, and the Commission of Assembly on 9 August 1733 suspended him and three associates from the exercise of their ministry. As they refused obedience, on 16 November the Commission declared them no longer ministers of the Church. Moncrieff with his brethren met at Gairney Bridge 6 December 1733, and formed the Associate Presbytery. The General Assembly of 1734 reponed him to office. From 1734 to 1740 he preached from the parish church pulpit, occupied the manse, received the stipend, yet protested against the jurisdiction of the Church, declined to attend Presbytery meetings, or in any way to be amenable to ecclesiastical authority. He was finally deposed by the Assembly on 15 May 1740. He was appointed by the Associate Presbytery Professor of Divinity in February 1742. He joined with those who were against the Burgess Oath, and was one of the founders of the General Associate Synod 10 April 1747. He died on 7 October 1761.
Bristo Church was a Presbyterian church located in the Bristo area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded in 1741 as a Secession church, it reunited with the Church of Scotland in 1929 before being dissolved in 1937. The University of Edinburgh afterwards used the building as the Pollock Memorial Hall until its demolition in 1967.
Life Church is a congregation of the Apostolic Church located in the Southside, Edinburgh, Scotland. The church's building was constructed for a congregation of Auld Licht Anti-Burghers in 1813.
George Lawson D.D. (1749–1820) was a Scottish minister of the Secession Church, known as a biblical scholar. Thomas Carlyle, in an 1870 letter to Lawson's biographer John Macfarlane, called him "a most superlative steel-grey Scottish peasant ".
Citations
A member of that party, among the Scotch seceders, which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath (in which burgesses profess the true religion professed within the realm"), the opposite party being called antiburghers.
Sources