Church History
This timeline follows the line of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), from the Reformation in Scotland to the Presbytery of the United States and Nobleford Presbyterian Church. Select a point for a short summary and its sources, and a link to the full account.
- Our line
- Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland
- Associate Presbytery (the Secession)
- Church of Scotland
- Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland
- United Free Church of Scotland
- Free Church of Scotland
1500s
The Parliament that met at Edinburgh in August 1560 charged the ministers to set down the sum of the doctrine they would maintain. Within four days they presented the Confession of Faith, which the Three Estates ratified on 17 August. On 24 August Parliament passed Acts against the Mass and the Pope’s jurisdiction.
Sources: Knox, History, ed. Laing, vol. 2, pp. 92, 120, 123; Laing, Works of John Knox, vol. 6, Preface, pp. xl–xli; MacPherson, History, pp. 110–111.
Read the full account of The Reformation Parliament and the Scots Confession →On 20 December 1560 the ministers and commissioners of the particular kirks of Scotland met at Edinburgh in the first General Assembly of the Reformed Church. Six of those named in its record were ministers.
Sources: Booke of the Universall Kirk, vol. 1, p. 3; Calderwood, History, vol. 2, p. 44; M'Crie, Life of Knox, p. 218.
Read the full account of The first General Assembly →The First Book of Discipline, drawn up by six ministers, set out the order of the Reformed Church: ministers chosen by their congregations, superintendents, readers, elders and deacons, schools, and care for the poor. A great part of the nobility subscribed it in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh on 27 January 1561.
Sources: Knox, History, ed. Laing, vol. 2, pp. 128–129, 183–260; Calderwood, History, vol. 2, pp. 41, 50; MacPherson, History, pp. 112–113.
Read the full account of The First Book of Discipline →The Second Book of Discipline, in whose making Andrew Melville “had a chief hand”, was agreed by most of the General Assembly in October 1577. The Assembly of April 1578 heard no further objection and sent it to the King and Council.
Sources: Booke of the Universall Kirk, vol. 1, pp. 397–398; Booke of the Universall Kirk, part 2, pp. 406–408; M'Crie, Story, p. 67; MacPherson, History, pp. 133–134.
Read the full account of The Second Book of Discipline →On 28 January 1581 (1580 in the old Scottish reckoning) King James and his household subscribed a short Confession of Faith at Edinburgh, and the General Assembly ordered it to be subscribed through the kingdom. It was subscribed again in 1590, and in 1638 it became the first part of the National Covenant.
Sources: Booke of the Universall Kirk, part 2, pp. 515, 526–527; Peterkin, Records, p. 9; Calderwood, History, vol. 3, p. 501; M'Crie, Story, p. 71.
Read the full account of The King’s Confession: the first National Covenant →In May 1592 the General Assembly asked that the Acts of 1584 against the Church’s discipline be annulled and its discipline ratified. In June Parliament passed the Act that ratified General Assemblies, synods, presbyteries and kirk sessions, which historians call the Church’s great charter. It left the patron’s right to present ministers in place.
Sources: Booke of the Universall Kirk, part 2, pp. 786–787; Calderwood, History, vol. 5, pp. 156, 162–166; M'Crie, Story, p. 82; Hetherington, Church of Scotland, p. 94.
Read the full account of Presbytery ratified by Parliament →1600s
In February 1638 Alexander Henderson, minister of Leuchars, and Archibald Johnston, advocate, drew up the renewed National Covenant: the Confession of 1581, the Acts of Parliament for the true religion, and a new bond for the time. Noblemen and barons subscribed it in Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, on 28 February, and ministers and burgesses the next day.
Sources: Rothes, Relation, pp. 70–71, 78–79; Wariston, Diary, pp. 318–323; Peterkin, Records, p. 7; Hetherington, Church of Scotland, p. 154; Kerr, Covenants, pp. 17–18.
Read the full account of The National Covenant drawn up and renewed →The General Assembly met at Glasgow on 21 November 1638, with Alexander Henderson as Moderator. It sat on after the King’s Commissioner left, annulled the Assemblies of 1606–1618, condemned the Service Book, deposed the bishops, restored the Church’s courts, and closed on 20 December after twenty-six sessions.
Sources: Acts 1638–1842, pp. 1–35; Baillie, Letters, vol. 1, pp. 123–175; M'Crie, Story, pp. 162–163.
Read the full account of The Glasgow Assembly →By an Ordinance of 12 June 1643 the English Parliament called an Assembly of learned and godly divines to advise it on the government, worship and doctrine of the Church. It first met at Westminster on Saturday 1 July 1643. Commissioners from the Church of Scotland took their places from September.
Sources: Firth and Rait, Acts and Ordinances, vol. 1, p. 180; Lightfoot, Journal, p. 3; Hetherington, Westminster Assembly, pp. 99, 109.
Read the full account of The Westminster Assembly meets →The General Assembly approved the Solemn League and Covenant at Edinburgh on 17 August 1643. It was subscribed in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, on 25 September 1643.
Sources: Kerr, Covenants, Act of the General Assembly, 17 August 1643; Introduction.
Read the full account of The Solemn League and Covenant →The Westminster Assembly finished the Confession of Faith in December 1646 and added its Scripture proofs in April 1647. On 27 August 1647 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland approved it, with two explanations, one of them concerning the calling of synods.
Sources: Mitchell and Struthers, Minutes, p. 308; Mitchell, Westminster Assembly, pp. 366–367; Acts 1638–1842, p. 158; Confession of Faith (1855), p. 14.
Read the full account of The Westminster Confession received →In 1661 the first Parliament of Charles II annulled the Parliaments of 1640–1648 and all their Acts, and in 1662 it restored bishops and declared the National Covenant and the Solemn League unlawful oaths. When the Privy Council at Glasgow ordered ministers admitted since 1649 to seek presentation and collation or leave their parishes, nearly four hundred ministers were put out.
Sources: Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 7, pp. 86, 372; Kerr, Covenants, pp. 402–406; Wodrow, Sufferings, vol. 1, pp. 282, 323; M'Crie, Story, pp. 255, 269.
Read the full account of The Act Rescissory →On 22 June 1680 Richard Cameron and about twenty armed men rode into Sanquhar and published at the market cross a Declaration disowning Charles II as king. The Reformed Presbytery later declared its adherence to it, and Hutchison calls it the first public announcement of the Reformed Presbyterian Church’s separate position.
Sources: Reformed Presbytery, Act, Declaration, and Testimony, pp. 35, 205; Kerr, Covenants, pp. 26, 416–418; Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 42–47; Herkless, Richard Cameron, p. 120.
Read the full account of The Sanquhar Declaration →On 7 June 1690 Parliament ratified the Westminster Confession and restored Presbyterian church government on the basis of the Act of 1592, and on 19 July it abolished patronage. The General Assembly met on 16 October 1690. The United Societies, the persecuted remnant who had met in select societies and general meetings since 1681, did not join it as a body; their three ministers did, but many of the people stayed apart, and from them came the Reformed Presbytery.
Sources: Confession of Faith (1855), p. 16; Acts 1638–1842, p. 221; M'Crie, Story, pp. 418–419; Hetherington, Church of Scotland, p. 303; Shields, Faithful Contendings, title page; Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 105–107, 110; Hetherington, Church of Scotland, p. 304; Kerr, Covenants, pp. 28–29.
Read the full account of The Revolution Settlement →1700s
In 1706 John Macmillan, the deposed minister of Balmaghie, acceded to the United Societies. In October they called him to be their minister, and in December he began to preach among them: the first ordained minister they had had for sixteen years.
Sources: Reformed Presbytery, Act, Declaration, and Testimony, p. 49; Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 150–152; Reid, Cameronian Apostle, pp. 143–147; Kerr, Covenants, pp. 28–29.
Read the full account of John Macmillan joins the Societies →In 1712 Parliament passed an Act restoring to patrons the right to present ministers to the parish churches. The House of Commons’ Journal records the royal assent on 22 May 1712 (MacPherson and Cunningham give 22 April). The General Assembly approved its Commission’s protest to the Queen that the bill was “contrary to our Church constitution, so well secured by the treaty of union”.
Sources: Acts 1638–1842, pp. 467, 470; Commons Journal, vol. 17, pp. 233–234; Dissenting: MacPherson, History, p. 304 (22 April); Dissenting: Cunningham, Church History, vol. 2, p. 236 (22 April).
Read the full account of Patronage restored →On 24 July 1712, after a day of humiliation on the 23rd, on the moor at Auchensaugh near Douglas, in the parish of Crawfordjohn, the United Societies with John Macmillan and John Macneil renewed the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, with an Acknowledgment of Sins and an Engagement to Duties. On the Sabbath following Macmillan dispensed the Lord’s Supper.
Sources: Auchensaugh Renovation (1712; 1820 edn), title page and Preface, pp. 6, 15, 29; Reid, Cameronian Apostle, pp. 176–181; M'Crie, Story, p. 446; Dissenting: Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 163–165 (“in August, 1712”); Dissenting: MacPherson, History, p. 305 (“in August, 1712”).
Read the full account of The Covenants renewed at Auchensaugh →On 20 May 1720 the General Assembly condemned passages of The Marrow of Modern Divinity, reprinted at Edinburgh in 1718, and forbade its ministers to recommend the book. Twelve ministers, among them Thomas Boston and Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, asked for the Act’s repeal; on 21 May 1722 the Assembly refused and had them rebuked and admonished.
Sources: Acts 1638–1842, pp. 534–536; Acts 1638–1842, pp. 548, 556; Boston, Memoirs, pp. 332, 348; Beaton, “Marrow”, pp. 117–121.
Read the full account of The Marrow condemned →In November 1733 the Commission of the General Assembly loosed Ebenezer Erskine, William Wilson, Alexander Moncrieff and James Fisher from their charges for refusing to withdraw their protest, and the four declared a Secession from the prevailing party in the Church. They met at Gairney Bridge, near Kinross, on 5 December 1733, and on 6 December constituted themselves the Associate Presbytery (so Wilson, one of the four, and Gib and M’Kerrow; M’Crie and MacPherson give 5 December).
Sources: Wilson, Continuation, pp. 152–153; Gib, Display, vol. 1, pp. 35–36; M'Kerrow, Secession Church, vol. 1, pp. 81–84, 93; M'Kerrow, Secession Church, vol. 2, Appendix, p. 541; Fraser, Ebenezer Erskine, pp. 369–371; Dissenting: M'Crie, Story, p. 467 (5 December); Dissenting: MacPherson, History, p. 320 (5 December).
Read the full account of The Secession →On 1 August 1743, at Braehead, John Macmillan and Thomas Nairn, who had left the Associate Presbytery, with ruling elders constituted themselves a presbytery “under the name of ‘The Reformed Presbytery’”. It gave the Societies, for the first time, a church court of their own that could license and ordain ministers.
Sources: Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 187–188; Reid, Cameronian Apostle, p. 191; Keddie, “Disruption of 1863”, p. 33; Naismith, Sketch, p. 80; Couper, “Breach in the Reformed Presbytery”, p. 2.
Read the full account of The Reformed Presbytery →At the Associate Synod in Edinburgh in April 1747 the dispute over the religious clause of the burgess oath divided the Secession. The members who held that the oath could not be sworn withdrew and claimed to be the lawful Synod, the Anti-Burghers; those who remained became known as the Burghers.
Sources: M'Kerrow, Secession Church, vol. 1, pp. 283, 289–291; MacPherson, History, pp. 326–327; Cunningham, Church History, vol. 2, p. 330.
Read the full account of The Breach: Burghers and Anti-Burghers →In April 1753 the Reformed Presbytery divided over what Hutchison calls “the doctrine of a universal satisfaction”, taken from a book by James Fraser of Brea, and the minority left, taking the Presbytery’s records with them. John Macmillan died that year on 20 November (Old Style), 1 December by the New Style, after forty-seven years as minister of the Societies.
Sources: Reformed Presbytery, Act, Declaration, and Testimony, Introduction, p. iii; Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 194, 198–201; Couper, “Breach in the Reformed Presbytery”, pp. 3–4; Reid, Cameronian Apostle, pp. 197–198, 204.
Read the full account of The division of 1753 and Macmillan’s death →Meeting at Ploughlandhead on 6 June 1761, the Reformed Presbytery gave its final sanction to its Act, Declaration, and Testimony for the Whole of Our Covenanted Reformation: a history of the Church of Scotland’s testimony, the grounds of the Presbytery’s dissent from the Revolution settlement and from the Secession, and a summary of its principles. Hutchison writes that it remained the Church’s authoritative statement for more than seventy-five years.
Sources: Reformed Presbytery, Act, Declaration, and Testimony (1777), p. 7; Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 204–205.
Read the full account of The Act, Declaration, and Testimony →On 22 May 1752 the General Assembly resolved to depose one of six ministers of the Presbytery of Dunfermline who would not induct the patron’s nominee at Inverkeithing, and the next day it deposed Thomas Gillespie of Carnock. On 22 October 1761, at Colinsburgh in Fife, Gillespie, Thomas Boston of Jedburgh and Thomas Colier, each with an elder, formed the Presbytery of Relief.
Sources: Acts 1638–1842, pp. 707–710; Struthers, Relief Church, pp. 158–160; Cunningham, Church History, vol. 2, p. 359; MacPherson, History, pp. 331–332.
Read the full account of The Relief Presbytery →1800s
In 1810 the Reformed Presbytery divided its congregations into three presbyteries, and in May 1811 the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland held its first meeting, in Glasgow, with thirteen ministers and ten elders.
Sources: Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 255, 259; Couper, “Reformed Presbyterian Church”, p. 173.
Read the full account of The Reformed Presbyterian Synod →On 8 September 1820 the Associate (Burgher) and General Associate (Anti-Burgher) Synods united in Bristo Street Church, Edinburgh, as the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church. A few Anti-Burgher ministers stayed out, and in 1827 joined others in the Synod of Original Seceders.
Sources: M'Kerrow, Secession Church, vol. 2, pp. 408–410, 423 note; MacPherson, History, pp. 364–365; Scott, Original Secession, p. 120.
Read the full account of The United Secession →On the motion of Lord Moncreiff, the General Assembly of 1834 declared that no pastor should be intruded on a congregation against the will of the people, and passed an Interim Act letting a majority of the male heads of families veto the patron’s presentee. In the Auchterarder case the Court of Session, by eight judges to five, held the Act illegal, and the House of Lords confirmed the judgment.
Sources: Acts 1638–1842, pp. 1037–1038; M'Crie, Story, pp. 533, 539–540; Cunningham, Church History, vol. 2, pp. 459–460, 470.
Read the full account of The Veto Act →On the motion of Dr Chalmers, the General Assembly of 1842 adopted the Claim, Declaration, and Protest anent the Encroachments of the Court of Session, recorded as Act XIX of 30 May 1842. It claimed the Church’s liberties under the statutes and the Treaty of Union, and declared that the Church could not intrude ministers on congregations that objected or govern under the coercion of the civil courts.
Sources: Acts 1638–1842, pp. 1130–1141; M'Crie, Story, p. 555; Hanna, Memoirs of Chalmers, vol. 4, p. 299.
Read the full account of The Claim of Right →On 18 May 1843 Dr David Welsh read a Protest in St Andrew’s Church, Edinburgh, and led the commissioners who adhered to it to a hall at Canonmills, where they constituted the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland with Dr Chalmers as Moderator. On 23 May the ministers signed the Act of Separation and Deed of Demission.
Sources: FCS Acts 1843–1845, May 1843, pp. 5, 57 (PDF pp. 3, 29); FCS Acts 1843–1845, May 1843, p. 19 (PDF p. 10); Proceedings, May 1843, pp. 4–9.
Read the full account of The Disruption →From its first Assembly the Free Church of Scotland carried on the Colonial Scheme. Its deputies visited America and Canada in 1844, and in July 1844 the minority of the Synod of Canada withdrew and placed themselves in fellowship with the Free Church. In 1845 the Assembly thanked Dr Burns, Mr Macnaughtan and Mr King for their work in Canada.
Sources: FCS Acts 1843–1845, May 1843, p. 36 (PDF p. 19); FCS Acts 1843–1845, May 1845, p. 12 (PDF p. 140); Brown, Annals, pp. 561–562.
Read the full account of Free Church deputies to Canada →On 1 June 1852 the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland agreed to the Representation and Appeal of the Synod of United Original Seceders and passed an Act for “an incorporating union”, and that evening the union was consummated. The Synod had voted for it by a majority of one; about twenty-three of its ministers joined and thirteen did not.
Sources: FCS Acts 1852, pp. 414–419 (PDF pp. 59–61); Scott, Original Secession, pp. 193–197, 211; MacPherson, History, p. 406.
Read the full account of The Original Seceders join the Free Church →In May 1863 the Reformed Presbyterian Synod enacted, by 46 votes to 11 with 7 not voting, that members who voted at elections or took the Oath of Allegiance should no longer be suspended or expelled. The Rev. William Anderson protested and withdrew; four ministers in all left, and the minority constituted a separate Synod.
Sources: Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 337–338, 341; MacPherson, History, p. 407; Keddie, “Disruption of 1863”, pp. 42–44.
Read the full account of Division in the Reformed Presbyterian Synod →On 25 May 1876 the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland and the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church met together in the Free Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, where their Moderators and Clerks signed the Act of Union, by which the two Churches became “one united Church” under the name of the Free Church of Scotland. One minister, Thomas Easton of Stranraer, stayed out.
Sources: FCS Acts 1875–1879, pp. 273–275 (PDF pp. 20–21); FCS Acts 1875–1879, p. 281 (PDF p. 24); Hutchison, Reformed Presbyterian Church, pp. 379–381; MacPherson, History, p. 413.
Read the full account of The Reformed Presbyterians join the Free Church →On 26 May 1892 the General Assembly of the Free Church, with the consent of Presbyteries, passed the “Act anent [concerning] Confession of Faith”, commonly known as the Declaratory Act. In six sections it declared the sense in which the Church held certain doctrines of the Westminster Confession, and it was passed in the face of protests and dissents.
Sources: FCS Acts 1890–1894, pp. 478–479 (PDF p. 42); FCS Acts 1900–1909, PDF p. 32; MacPherson, History, pp. 422–423.
Read the full account of The Declaratory Act →On 28 July 1893 the Rev. Donald Macfarlane of Raasay and the Rev. Donald Macdonald of Shieldaig, with an elder, met at Raasay as a separate Presbytery, and on 14 August 1893 at Portree they signed a Deed of Separation from the Free Church. The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland dates its separate existence from that year.
Sources: Beaton, Macfarlane, pp. 29, 293–294; Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, “History”, “Formation 1893”; A&P 2021, pp. 79–83.
Read the full account of The Free Presbyterian separation →1900s
On 31 October 1900, in the Waverley Market, Edinburgh, the majority of the General Assembly of the Free Church united with the Synod of the United Presbyterian Church to form the United Free Church of Scotland. A minority refused to enter the union, met as the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, and on 2 November, in its own words, appealed to its people to adhere to “the Westminster Confession of Faith and the other Standards of the Church of 1843 as heretofore understood”.
Sources: FCS Acts 1900–1909, PDF p. 9; Orr, Free Church of Scotland Appeals, pp. 16, 19–20; MacPherson, History, pp. 439–440; Scott, Sketches, p. 116; Ross, “Union of 1900”, p. 241.
Read the full account of The Union of 1900 →On Monday 1 August 1904 the House of Lords, by five judges to two, reversed the Scottish courts and directed the Court of Session to declare that the minority who had refused the union of 1900, and those adhering to them, “lawfully represent the said Free Church of Scotland”. Parliament then passed the Churches (Scotland) Act 1905, which set up a Commission to allocate the property between the Free Church and the United Free Church.
Sources: FCS Acts 1900–1909, PDF p. 30; Orr, Free Church of Scotland Appeals, pp. 562, 619; Orr, Free Church of Scotland Appeals, p. 3; Scott, Sketches, p. 118; Morrison, Manual, p. 23; Churches (Scotland) Act 1905, ss. 1, 3 (Morrison pp. 90, 96).
Read the full account of The Free Church Case →On 24 May 1906 the General Assembly of the Free Church, with the consent of Presbyteries, rescinded and annulled the Declaratory Act of 1892, “and all Acts and resolutions involving approval thereof”. Presbyteries and synods had sought the repeal by overtures since 1901, and the Assembly of 1905 had passed it as an Interim Act [an Act in force until the presbyteries had given their consent].
Sources: FCS Acts 1900–1909, PDF pp. 36–37; FCS Acts 1900–1909, PDF p. 15; FCS Acts 1900–1909, PDF p. 32.
Read the full account of The Declaratory Act repealed →On 2 October 1929 the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland and of the United Free Church of Scotland met separately for the last time and then united as the first General Assembly of the re-united Church of Scotland.
Sources: Fasti, vol. 8, title page and Prefatory Note; Campbell, Two Centuries, pp. 311–312.
Read the full account of The United Free Church reunites with the Church of Scotland →On 24 May 1956 the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, at Edinburgh, gave effect to “the wish of Ministers and Kirk Sessions in Canada and Detroit” and formed the Presbytery of Ontario and Western Canada, with seat at Toronto, from the congregations of Toronto, Detroit, Fort William, Winnipeg and Vancouver. In 1995 the General Assembly directed that its name “be altered to the Great Lakes and Western Canada Presbytery”.
Sources: FCS Acts 1950–1959, p. 52; Free Church of Scotland, “Act 6, 1956”; Acts 1990–1999, p. 98.
Read the full account of The Presbytery of Ontario and Western Canada →2000s
On 20 January 2000, at Edinburgh, twenty-two ministers and eighteen elders signed the Declaration of Reconstitution, pledging themselves to continue the Free Church of Scotland and taking, “solely for purposes of administration”, the name Free Church of Scotland (Continuing). The other body continues under the name Free Church of Scotland.
Sources: A&P 2000–2013, PDF p. 15; A&P 2000–2013, PDF p. 20; Declaration of Reconstitution, PDF p. 4; FCS Acts 2000–2004, p. 27; Free Church of Scotland, “General Assembly”; FC(C), “History”, “Division”.
Read the full account of The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) →On 22 May 2008 the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) altered the bounds of the Free Presbytery of Great Lakes & Western Canada to the United States of America and renamed it the Free Presbytery of the United States of America. A Presbytery of Ontario and Western Canada had been formed in 1956 and renamed Great Lakes and Western Canada in 1995.
Sources: A&P 2000–2013, PDF p. 106; Acts 1990–1999, p. 98; FCS Acts 1950–1959, p. 52.
Read the full account of The Presbytery of the United States →In the summer of 2023 the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)’s Presbytery of the United States erected the Nobleford Preaching Station, having received the congregation’s petition in August 2023. Reporting in 2024, the Presbytery wrote that the group had begun with around thirty people and grown to a regular attendance nearing one hundred.
Sources: A&P 2025, p. 74; Presbytery, “Nobleford, Alberta”; Reports 2024, p. 66.
Read the full account of The Nobleford Preaching Station →On 20 May 2025, at Glasgow, the General Assembly raised the Nobleford Preaching Station to a fully Sanctioned Charge within the bounds of the Presbytery of the United States of America, on petitions from the Nobleford Session and the Presbytery.
Sources: A&P 2025, pp. 74–76; A&P 2025, p. 13.
Read the full account of A fully sanctioned charge →
Today
The lines still continuing today, from left to right:
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
- Free Church of Scotland
- Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland
- Church of Scotland
- Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland
Sources
Citations marked (OCR) are taken from machine-read scans of the original printed volumes, and have not yet been checked against the scans.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Principal Acts of the General Assembly and Commission, 2000–2013 (compiled volume without printed page numbers; cited by PDF page).
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Acts & Proceedings of the General Assembly, 2001.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Acts & Proceedings of the General Assembly, 2014.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Acts & Proceedings of the General Assembly, 2020.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Acts & Proceedings of the General Assembly, 2021.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Acts & Proceedings of the General Assembly, 2024.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Acts & Proceedings of the General Assembly, 2025.
- Acts of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1638–1842, reprinted under the superintendence of the Church Law Society (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Printing and Publishing Company, 1843) (OCR).
- Free Church of Scotland, The Principal Acts of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland 1990–1999.
- The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 7, A.D. 1661–1669 (printed by command of King George IV, 1820).
- John Aiton, The Life and Times of Alexander Henderson (Edinburgh: Fraser & Co., 1836).
- The National Covenant, and Solemn League & Covenant, with the Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement to Duties: As They Were Renewed at Auchensaugh, near Douglas, 24th July 1712 (Paisley: Stephen Young, 1820; “compared with the first edition, MDCCXII”) (OCR).
- Robert Baillie, The Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, ed. David Laing, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Robert Ogle, 1841).
- Robert Baillie, The Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, ed. David Laing, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Robert Ogle, 1841).
- Donald Beaton, “The ‘Marrow of Modern Divinity’ and the Marrow Controversy”, Records of the Scottish Church History Society 1, part 2.
- Donald Beaton, Memoir, Diary, & Remains of the Rev. Donald Macfarlane, Dingwall (Inverness: Northern Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing Company, 1929) (OCR).
- Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland [the Booke of the Universall Kirk], part 2, 1578–1592 (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1840) (OCR).
- Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland [the Booke of the Universall Kirk], part 3, 1593–1618 (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1845).
- Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland, from the Year M.D.LX. [the Booke of the Universall Kirk], vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1839).
- Thomas Boston, Memoirs of the Life, Times, and Writings of Thomas Boston of Ettrick, Written by Himself, new edn (Glasgow: John M’Neilage, 1899) (OCR).
- Thomas Brown, Annals of the Disruption, new edn (Edinburgh: Macniven & Wallace, 1892) (OCR).
- Robert Buchanan, The Ten Years’ Conflict: Being the History of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland, vol. 1 (Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: Blackie and Son, 1849) (OCR).
- Robert Buchanan, The Ten Years’ Conflict: Being the History of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland, vol. 2 (Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: Blackie and Son, 1849) (OCR).
- Robert F. Burns, The Life and Times of the Rev. Robert Burns, D.D., F.A.S., F.R.S.E., Toronto, including an Unfinished Autobiography (Toronto: James Campbell & Son, 1872) (OCR).
- David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. Thomas Thomson, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1843) (OCR).
- David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. Thomas Thomson, vol. 3 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1843) (OCR).
- David Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. Thomas Thomson, vol. 5 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society) (OCR).
- Andrew J. Campbell, Two Centuries of the Church of Scotland, 1707–1929 (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1930), an expansion of his Hastie Lectures in the University of Glasgow.
- Churches (Scotland) Act, 1905 (5 Edw. 7, c. 12), 11 August 1905, as printed in Hew Morrison (ed.), Manual of the Church Question in Scotland (Edinburgh: Keith & Co., 1905), pp. 89–104.
- Journals of the House of Commons, vol. 17 (7 December 1711 – 1 August 1714) (OCR).
- The Confession of Faith; the Larger and Shorter Catechisms … with Acts of Assembly and Parliament, relative to, and approbative of, the same (Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter, 1855).
- The Confession of Faith; the Larger and Shorter Catechisms … with Acts of Assembly and Parliament (Glasgow: Francis Orr & Sons, 1843).
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), The Right of Continued Protest (finding of the General Assembly, May 2013).
- W. J. Couper, “A Breach in the Reformed Presbytery, 1753”, Records of the Scottish Church History Society 1, part 1 (1926).
- W. J. Couper, “The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland: Its Congregations, Ministers and Students”, Records of the Scottish Church History Society 2, part 1 (1925) (OCR).
- John Cunningham, The Church History of Scotland, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Edinburgh: James Thin, 1882) (OCR).
- Declaration of Reconstitution of the Free Church of Scotland (Edinburgh, 20 January 2000).
- Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, vol. 8, revised under a committee appointed by the General Assembly (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1950).
- “History”, Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), https://www.freechurchcontinuing.org/history/ (read 24 October 2026).
- “Testimony”, Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), https://www.freechurchcontinuing.org/testimony/ (read 24 October 2026).
- Free Church of Scotland, Acts of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, with the Proceedings of that Assembly: May 1843, October 1843 (Glasgow), May 1844 and May 1845 (Edinburgh, 1843–1845), scanned as one PDF on the Free Church of Scotland’s website (each year has its own page numbers; cited by year, printed page and PDF page).
- Free Church of Scotland, Acts of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, Convened at Edinburgh, May 1852 (Edinburgh: printed for the Free Church of Scotland by John Greig, 1852), in the scanned volume Acts 1850–1854 published at freechurch.org (cited by printed page, with the PDF page).
- Free Church of Scotland, The Principal Acts of the General Assembly, 1875–1879 (bound volume; cited by printed page and PDF page).
- Free Church of Scotland, The Principal Acts of the General Assembly, 1890–1894, with the index of each year’s Proceedings (image scan, freechurch.org; cited by printed page and PDF page).
- Free Church of Scotland, Principal Acts of the General Assembly, 1900–1909 (cited by PDF page).
- Free Church of Scotland, Principal Acts of the General Assembly, 1920–1929.
- Free Church of Scotland, Principal Acts of the General Assembly, 1950–1959.
- Free Church of Scotland, Principal Acts of the General Assembly, 1970–1979.
- Free Church of Scotland, Principal Acts of the General Assembly, 1980–1989.
- Free Church of Scotland, The Principal Acts of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland 2000–2004 (the record of the body that did not reconstitute in 2000).
- C. H. Firth and R. S. Rait (eds), Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660, vol. 1 (London: HMSO, 1911).
- Donald Fraser, The Life and Diary of the Reverend Ebenezer Erskine, A.M., of Stirling, Father of the Secession Church (Edinburgh: William Oliphant, 1831) (OCR).
- “Act 6, 1956 (VI) – Act anent Formation of Presbytery of Ontario and Western Canada and Synod of North America. 24th May 1956”, Free Church of Scotland, Acts in force, https://freechurch.org/acts-in-force/act-vi-1956-act-anent-formation-of-presbytery-of-ontario-and-western-canada-and-synod-of-north-america-no-6-of-class-ii-edinburgh-24th-may-1956/ (read 28 October 2026).
- “General Assembly”, Free Church of Scotland, https://freechurch.org/general-assembly/ (read 24 October 2026; lists its Acts of Assembly from 1843 to 2026).
- “History of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland”, Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, https://www.fpchurch.org.uk/history/history-of-the-free-presbyterian-church-of-scotland/ (read 24 October 2026).
- The Free Presbyterian Magazine and Monthly Record, vol. V, no. 6 (October 1900).
- The Free Presbyterian Magazine and Monthly Record, vol. IX, no. 6 (October 1904).
- Adam Gib, The Present Truth: A Display of the Secession-Testimony; in the Three Periods of the Rise, State, and Maintenance of that Testimony, vol. 1 (1774).
- William Hanna, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D., vol. 4 (Edinburgh: Thomas Constable and Co., 1852) (OCR).
- John Herkless, Richard Cameron (Famous Scots Series; Edinburgh and London: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1896).
- W. M. Hetherington, History of the Church of Scotland (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1854) (OCR).
- W. M. Hetherington, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (New York: Mark H. Newman, 1843) (OCR).
- Matthew Hutchison, The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland: Its Origin and History, 1680–1876 (Paisley: J. and R. Parlane, 1893) (OCR).
- Gordon J. Keddie, “The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Disruption of 1863. I: Disruption and Recovery”, Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 11.1.
- James Kerr (introduction), The Covenants and the Covenanters: Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation (Edinburgh: R. W. Hunter, n.d.; prefatory note dated December 1895).
- John Knox, The History of the Reformation in Scotland, ed. David Laing, vol. 1, in The Works of John Knox, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1846).
- John Knox, The History of the Reformation in Scotland, ed. David Laing, vol. 2, in The Works of John Knox, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1848) (OCR).
- David Laing (ed.), The Works of John Knox, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: Thomas George Stevenson, 1864).
- John Lightfoot, Journal of the Proceedings of the Assembly of Divines, in The Whole Works of the Rev. John Lightfoot, ed. John Rogers Pitman, vol. 13 (London: J. F. Dove, 1824) (OCR).
- Thomas M'Crie, “The Leading Incidents and Characters of the Westminster Assembly”, in Bicentenary of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster (Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy, 1843).
- Thomas M'Crie, Life of John Knox (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, n.d.) (OCR).
- Thomas M'Crie, The Life of Andrew Melville, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1819).
- Thomas M'Crie, The Story of the Scottish Church from the Reformation to the Disruption (London, Glasgow and Edinburgh: Blackie & Son, 1875) (OCR).
- John M'Kerrow, History of the Secession Church, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Oliphant, 1839) (OCR).
- John M'Kerrow, History of the Secession Church, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Oliphant, 1839) (OCR).
- James Lachlan MacLeod, “The Influence of the Highland-Lowland Divide on the Free Presbyterian Disruption of 1893”, Records of the Scottish Church History Society 25, part 3, pp. 400–425 (OCR).
- John MacPherson, A History of the Church in Scotland (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1901) (OCR).
- Alex. F. Mitchell and John Struthers (eds), Minutes of the Sessions of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1874).
- Alexander F. Mitchell, The Westminster Assembly: Its History and Standards (London: James Nisbet, 1883) (OCR).
- Hew Morrison (ed.), Manual of the Church Question in Scotland: Being a Handbook to the Churches (Scotland) Act, 1905, together with the Report of the Royal Commission, 1905 (Edinburgh: Keith & Co., 1905) (OCR).
- Robert Naismith, Historical Sketch of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, to Its Union with the Free Church in 1876 (Edinburgh: Johnstone, Hunter & Co., 1877).
- Robert Low Orr (ed.), The Free Church of Scotland Appeals, 1903–4: Authorised Report (Edinburgh: Macniven & Wallace; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1904) (OCR).
- Henry Paton (ed.), Register of the Rev. John Macmillan: Being a Record of Marriages and Baptisms Solemnised by Him among the Cameronian Societies (Edinburgh: Lorimer & Chalmers, 1908).
- Alexander Peterkin (ed.), Records of the Kirk of Scotland, containing the Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies, from the year 1638 downwards, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: John Sutherland, 1838) (OCR).
- “Home”, The Presbytery of the United States, https://www.westminsterconfession.org/ (read 26 October 2026).
- “Nobleford, Alberta”, The Presbytery of the United States, https://www.westminsterconfession.org/congregations/nobleford-alberta/ (read 24 October 2026).
- “Preaching Stations”, The Presbytery of the United States, https://www.westminsterconfession.org/congregations/preaching-stations/ (read 26 October 2026).
- Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, May 1843, ed. J. Baillie (Edinburgh, 1843; prefatory note dated 26 June 1843) (OCR).
- The Reformed Presbytery, Act, Declaration, and Testimony for the Whole of Our Covenanted Reformation (emitted 1761; Philadelphia: Rue & Jones, 1876 edn, with a Historical and Declaratory Supplement) (OCR).
- The Reformed Presbytery, Act, Declaration, and Testimony, for the Whole of Our Covenanted Reformation, as Attained to, and Established in Britain and Ireland; Particularly, Betwixt the Years 1638 and 1649, Inclusive, 3rd edn, “with several additions” (Edinburgh, 1777).
- H. M. B. Reid, A Cameronian Apostle: Being Some Account of John Macmillan of Balmaghie (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1896) (OCR).
- Remarks upon the Late Disruption and Present Position of the Synod of Canada, Addressed to the Editor of “The Banner” Newspaper (Toronto: Banner Office, 1844) (OCR).
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Reports to the General Assembly, 2024.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Reports to the General Assembly, 2025.
- Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Reports to the General Assembly, 2026.
- Kenneth R. Ross, “The Union of 1900 and the Relation of Church and Creed in Scotland”, Records of the Scottish Church History Society 23, part 2.
- John, Earl of Rothes, A Relation of Proceedings concerning the Affairs of the Kirk of Scotland, from August 1637 to July 1638 (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1830).
- Report of the Royal Commission on the property of the Free Church and the United Free Church (the Earl of Elgin, Lord Kinnear and Sir Ralph Anstruther), signed 12 April 1905, as printed in Morrison, Manual, pp. 37–87.
- The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1424–1707 [The Scots Statutes Revised] (Edinburgh: William Green & Sons, 1908) (OCR).
- David Scott, Annals and Statistics of the Original Secession Church till its Disruption and Union with the Free Church of Scotland in 1852 (Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 1886) (OCR).
- Marcus Scott, Sketches of Scottish Church History: Historical and Descriptive (Detroit: Press of Frank H. West, n.d. [c. 1906]).
- Michael Shields, Faithful Contendings Displayed, ed. John Howie (Glasgow: John Bryce, 1780) (OCR).
- The Statutes of the Realm, vol. 9 (London, 1822) (OCR).
- Gavin Struthers, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Principles of the Relief Church (Glasgow: A. Fullarton, 1843) (OCR).
- William Symington, “Historical Sketch of the Westminster Assembly of Divines”, in Commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, by the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland (Glasgow, 1843), excerpts as published on this site.
- Ross Taylor, Religious Thought and Scottish Church Life in the Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh and London: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1900).
- Diary of Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston, 1632–1639, ed. George Morison Paul (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1911).
- William Wilson, A Continuation of the Defence of the Reformation-Principles of the Church of Scotland (1741) (OCR).
- Robert Wodrow, The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution, ed. Robert Burns, vol. 1 (Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton & Co., 1828) (OCR).
- James A. Wylie, Disruption Worthies: A Memorial of 1843, new edn (Edinburgh: Thomas C. Jack, 1881).