The Disruption

The morning of 18 May

The Assembly’s printed Proceedings describe the day. Thousands had come to Edinburgh, and from an early hour the streets from the High Street to St Andrew’s Church were crowded. The Lord High Commissioner, the Marquis of Bute, held his levee [formal reception] at Holyrood. Divine service in the High Church was conducted by Dr David Welsh, Moderator of the last Assembly, on Romans 14:5, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” The Assembly then adjourned to St Andrew’s Church.¹

Hugh Miller, editor of the Witness, wrote that at the levee “a large portrait of William III. that had held its place in Holyrood for nearly a century and a half dropped heavily from the walls. ‘There,’ exclaimed a voice from the crowd, ‘there goes the Revolution Settlement.’”²

The Protest

Dr Welsh took the chair at twenty-five minutes to three and opened with prayer. Then, the Proceedings record, he rose and said that “in consequence of certain proceedings affecting our rights and privileges,—proceedings which have been sanctioned by her Majesty’s Government, and by the Legislature of the country, and more especially in respect that there has been an infringement on the liberties of our constitution, so that we could not now constitute this court without a violation of the terms of the union between Church and State in this land, as now authoritatively declared, I must protest against our proceeding further.”³

The Protest begins: “We, the undersigned ministers and elders, chosen as commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indicted [summoned] 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 … cannot at this time be holden [held]”. It names the Legislature’s “rejection of the Claim of Rights adopted by the last General Assembly”, and lists eight powers the civil courts had claimed over the Church’s courts.⁴

It protests “that it is and shall be lawful for 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”.⁵

Its last words are: “we do now … withdraw accordingly, humbly and solemnly acknowledging the hand of the Lord in the things which have come upon us … 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.”⁶

The Protest also holds “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 [held] as setting forth the true constitution of the said Church”. And it asserts “the right and duty of the civil magistrate to maintain and support an establishment of religion in accordance with God’s word”.⁷

The signatures begin with David Welsh, Thomas Chalmers, Henry Grey, Patrick Clason, Walter Fairlie, Robert Gordon, William Cunningham and Robert S. Candlish. The Proceedings add that the Protest “was concurred in by upwards of 300 ministers, not members of Assembly.”⁸

The withdrawal

The Proceedings continue: “Immediately on reading the protest, which was listened to with breathless attention, Dr Welsh handed it to the Clerk, left the chair, and proceeded to the door of the Assembly, followed by Dr Chalmers, Dr Gordon, Dr Macfarlane of Greenock, Dr Brown of Glasgow, Dr Macdonald of Ferintosh, and the whole body of adhering ministers and elders.” Hugh Miller saw the benches empty “in a long, unbroken line, which for several minutes together continued to thread the passage to the eastern door, till at length only a blank space remained.”⁹

Brown quotes Mr Kerr of the Office of Works, who had charge of the church, that “in the course of about twenty minutes there did not remain inside the church above one hundred human beings.” Miller heard a whisper run along the benches that were left: “‘How many?’ ‘How many?’ ‘A hundred and fifty.’ ‘No.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Four hundred.’ ‘No.’”¹⁰

Outside, the Proceedings record, the ministers and elders “formed into a line of procession, four abreast, and proceeded down by North Hanover Street, Dundas Street, Pitt Street, &c., to the Hall at Tanfield, Canonmills”, where “upwards of 3000 persons” were waiting. Miller wrote that the procession “extended three in depth for a full quarter of a mile”, and that “Rather more than 400 were ministers of the Church—all the others were elders.”¹¹

Brown and Hanna tell how the news reached Lord Jeffrey, the judge, as he sat reading: “More than four hundred of them are actually out!” He sprang to his feet: “I am proud of my country. There is not another country upon earth where such a deed could have been done.”¹²

The first General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland

The Free Church’s Acts record the meeting “At Edinburgh, and within a large Hall at Canonmills, the 18th day of May 1843 years. Sess. 1.” The commissioners, “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”.¹³

Prayer was offered by Dr Welsh, who proposed Dr Chalmers as Moderator. The Proceedings give his words: “the eyes of every individual in this Assembly—the eyes of the whole Church and country—the eyes of all Christendom are directed to one individual, whom to name is to pronounce his panegyric [speech of praise].” The proposal “having been unanimously agreed to, Dr Chalmers took the chair.”¹⁴

The Acts record that “A portion of the 43d Psalm having been sung, the Moderator engaged in prayer, after which he delivered a suitable address.” Brown writes that as Dr Chalmers gave out the Psalm, “O send thy light forth and thy truth, let them be guides to me,” a heavy cloud broke and “the full sunlight came pouring through the windows”. Mr Thomas Pitcairn of Cockpen and Dr Patrick Clason of Edinburgh were appointed Clerks.¹⁵

In his address Dr Chalmers said: “though we quit the Establishment, we go out on the Establishment principle—we quit a vitiated Establishment, but would rejoice in returning to a pure one. To express it otherwise—we are the advocates for a national recognition and national support of religion—and we are not Voluntaries [those against State endowment of churches].”¹⁶

The same sitting passed an Act assuming as members all ministers who had declared their adherence to the Protest, with one adhering elder from each session, and the Acts print the “Roll of Members of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, holden at Edinburgh, 18th to 30th May 1843”, synod by synod and presbytery by presbytery.¹⁷

The Act of Separation and Deed of Demission

The Proceedings report that on Tuesday 23 May Dr Candlish read the draft Act, and proposed that it be adopted “not by acclamation, but by the expressive votes of ministers”, and after prayer by Mr M’Lagan of Kinfauns, the roll was called: “Ten names of members were called over at one time, each answering to his name, and saying, ‘Agree.’ These proceeded to the platform behind the Moderator’s chair, where they signed the document”. The signing went on until half-past four, and again from six until past eight.¹⁸

In it the ministers and elders, “in prosecution of the said Protest, and of the Claim of Right”, did “for themselves and all who adhere to them, separate from and abandon the present subsisting Ecclesiastical Establishment in Scotland”, and “abdicate and renounce the status and privileges derived to them … as parochial Ministers or Elders, from the said Establishment, through its connection with the State, and all rights and emoluments [income] pertaining to them”.¹⁹

They declared 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”, and that they were 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”. The Deed was executed at Edinburgh “the twenty-third day of May one thousand eight hundred and forty-three years”, and registered in the Books of Council and Session [the public register of deeds] on 8 June 1843.²⁰

Buchanan writes that the first signature after the Moderator’s was that of Dr George Muirhead of Cramond, “who was ordained in the year 1788”. The next day a Supplementary Act was approved for ministers not present, and on 30 May a Deed of Demission for elders.²¹

How many went out

The sources count different things, at different dates:²²

• The Supplementary Act of 24 May: the original Act and Deed “is signed by Three hundred and eighty-six Ministers, lately holding benefices [paid parish livings] or other charges in the Church of Scotland”.
• The Proceedings (June 1843): 386 signed on 23 May, 25 signed the Supplementary Deed, 48 more adhered before the Assembly rose and 10 since: “Total 469”.
• James Hamilton, quoted by M’Crie: 470 ministers subscribed.
• Buchanan: “Including a few who afterwards gave in their adherence to this deed, 474 ministers” signed. Wylie also speaks of “the 474 men who constituted their first Free General Assembly”.
• Cunningham: of the whole clergy, 1,203 including quoad sacra ministers, “451 seceded, and 752 remained”.

Afterwards

Wylie, writing for the Free Church in 1881, saw the day this way: “it was the Church herself protesting against and dissolving her connection with the State.”²³

Hamilton wrote that “it would not be easy to estimate the sacrifice which that Deed of Demission implied”, and recalled “that recent Sabbath, when minister and people took their last look of the beautiful house where they and their fathers had worshipped, and gathering up their Psalm-books and Bibles, which had lain on the book-board so long, they left the vacant pulpit and the empty pews”.²⁴