Free Church deputies to Canada

The Colonial Scheme carried on

Wylie writes that “The first country for whose religious necessities provision was made by the mother Church was British North America”. In 1832 the Church of Scotland’s Assembly sanctioned presbyteries and synods there, and in 1836 “Missions to Colonial Churches” became a separate scheme. Brown writes that the Glasgow Colonial Society had been formed in 1825 “for the purpose of supplying religious ordinances to the Canadians”, and that “Dr. Burns, of Paisley, had been the very life and soul of the movement”.¹

On 29 May 1843 the first Free Assembly appointed a Committee, Dr Burns of Paisley among its members and Dr Welsh its Convener, “with power to continue in their several spheres of exertion, all those ministers and others now employed in connection with the Colonial Scheme who may adhere to this Church”, and “to take such measures as shall most effectually accomplish the grand object which the Church has in view of supplying our countrymen in other lands with the means of grace.” Wylie writes: “The Disestablished Church, without a moment’s hesitation, resolved to carry on the scheme.”²

In the same Assembly, the Proceedings report, Dr Welsh read the Colonial Committee’s report, and “Mr Bain of Upper Canada, who had been in Edinburgh all last winter, gave very encouraging accounts of the progress of the work there.” A speaker reported a letter from Mr Isaac Buchanan, who “mentioned that nine-tenths of the Synod of Canada would attach themselves to the Free Church of Scotland.”³

Brown writes that “An affectionate address was sent to all the Synods, inviting them to place themselves in connection with the Free Church”, and that “From the Synod of Canada there came a courteous, but hesitating reply.”⁴

Deputies to America

At Glasgow on 24 October 1843 the Assembly resolved “to appoint, as they hereby do appoint, a Deputation to visit the United States, to plead the cause of this Church in her present difficulties, to convey her earnest wishes for more of friendly intercourse and brotherly communication with the Evangelical Churches of that country”.⁵

Dr Robert Burns was asked to join Dr William Cunningham, who had gone before him. Burns wrote that “Dr. Cunningham and I were together as deputies from the beginning of February till the beginning of April.” Wylie writes that “In 1844, along with Dr. Cunningham, and other deputies from the Free Church, he visited the United States and Canada, to plead the cause of the ‘Building Fund’”.⁶

Dr Burns in Canada

Burns’s journal, printed in his Life, takes him by steamer to Toronto on 10 April 1844, then to Hamilton, Cobourg and Kingston, where he “waited on the Governor”, then by Brockville and Prescott to Montreal and Quebec, and back through the United States to Nova Scotia. The Life records that “On the 3rd of June he left Halifax in the steamship Britannia”.⁷

Mr Smart, who met him there, wrote that “Delegates from the greater part of the churches in these parts met Dr. Burns at Brockville and Prescott to confer with him as to the future proceedings of the Church in Canada. His reception was most enthusiastic. He was escorted from Brockville to Prescott by a long train of men on horseback, and men, women, and children in all kinds of waggons [wagons] and carriages, so that when the procession was joined by that from Prescott, it extended, it was said, for upwards of half a mile.”⁸

The Synod of Canada divides, July 1844

Brown writes that the Synod was told its Government allowances would continue if it voted unanimously to join the Free Church, but would go to those who adhered to the Scottish Establishment if it divided. “Unanimity was found to be impossible, and the result was that in July, 1844, a Disruption took place. By a majority of 39 to 21 (23) the Synod resolved to continue in the old connection. The minority protested, withdrew, and constituted themselves into a separate Synod, taking the original name, ‘The Presbyterian Church of Canada,’ and placing themselves in fellowship with the Free Church of Scotland.”⁹

Thomas Alexander, then of Cobourg, one of the minority, wrote to Burns’s son: “When the Synod met at Kingston, before our disruption, I remember going with him to the Governor, to ascertain his mind in regard to the Government grant … He told us that if we were unanimous all our privileges would be confirmed; but if any remained they could claim them. … But the majority would not venture, and so about twenty-three of us broke off, and organized the Canada Presbyterian Church.” A letter of John Redpath’s, dated Terrace Bank, 27 July 1844, told Burns of “the Disruption which has taken place in the Synod of Canada”.¹⁰

In Nova Scotia, Brown writes, “the vote went the other way, the Synod, by a majority of two-thirds, setting itself free from its connection with the Established Church of Scotland”.¹¹

A college at Toronto

Brown writes that a grant of £200 was voted “to enable them to make a beginning at Toronto”, and that Mr King of Glasgow was sent “to supply temporarily one of the pulpits, and begin a divinity hall”. A local newspaper, as Brown quotes it, reported that “He teaches the divinity students five days a-week [a week]”. Of seven theological students at the college at Kingston in 1844, “when the Disruption (Canadian) took place, six of these went over to the Free Church.”¹²

On 29 May 1845 the Assembly heard “the Rev. Andrew King of St Stephen’s, Glasgow, one of the Church’s Deputies to Canada, who has been engaged for some time in the training of students of Divinity connected with the Presbyterian Church in that country adhering to the principles of the Free Church.” On 3 June it expressed “their thanks to Dr Burns and Mr Macnaughtan, for their very efficient services as deputies from the Free Church to Canada, and to Mr King, for the admirable manner in which he conducted the Theological Seminary, and discharged the duties of a pastor at Toronto during last winter.”¹³

The Life records that Knox’s Church, Toronto, called Burns to be its pastor, and on 13 January 1845 the Colonial Committee sent its reasons, among them “The peculiar circumstances in which the brethren of the Presbyterian Church of Canada have been placed in consequence of the disruption”. Wylie writes that “In 1845, he became pastor of Knox Church, Toronto”, and that he was “Moderator of the Canadian Synod the first year after his arrival”. Brown records that the Canadian Synod grew from “the twenty-three ministers of 1844” to seventy ministers in settled congregations four years later.¹⁴