Patronage restored

What patronage was

Patronage was the right of a patron to “present” [nominate] the minister of a vacant parish church. The Commission of the General Assembly told the Queen in 1712 that “from our first reformation from Popery, patronages have been reckoned a yoke and burden upon the Church of Scotland, as is declared by the First and Second Books of Discipline”. They had been “restored with Prelacy, in the year 1661 and 1662”, and continued “till the year 1690, that Prelacy was abolished, and Presbyterian government again established”.¹

The Church’s address of 1736 records that in 1690 “the patrons obtained a recompence [recompense], and were also allowed to retain all the temporal benefits of patronage which they had formerly enjoyed”. MacPherson gives the same history: patronage “had been abolished in 1649 as obnoxious to presbyterianism, and only restored with the introduction of episcopacy in 1660. At the Revolution it had been again abolished, and the patrons had been on that occasion compensated”.²

The bill in Parliament

MacPherson writes that “The Act of Toleration was passed in March, 1712”, and that “Immediately after the passing of the Toleration Act, a bill was introduced into the House of Commons, and passed almost unopposed, by which it was resolved to restore to patrons the right of presentation to the parish churches.”³

When the bill reached the House of Lords, MacPherson continues, “a deputation from the Established Church of Scotland, including Carstares, now principal of Edinburgh University, appeared to oppose its progress”. But “the bill was passed by a majority, and received the royal assent on the 22nd of April.” Cunningham gives the same day: “The bill passed both Houses by large majorities, and on the 22d of April it received the royal assent and became law.”⁴

The Commons’ own Journal gives a later day. It records the bill’s passage through the House: leave to bring it in on 13 March 1712, the third reading on 7 April, when it passed by 173 votes to 76, the Lords’ amendment on 14 April, and the Commons’ agreement to it on 28 April. Under Thursday 22 May 1712 the Speaker reported that the Queen, in the House of Peers, “had been pleased to give the Royal Assent” to a list of bills that includes “An Act to restore the Patrons to their ancient Rights of presenting Ministers to the Churches vacant in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland”. No stage of the bill in the Journal falls on 22 April, the day MacPherson and Cunningham give.⁵

The Act’s number and year differ between editions. Statutes of the Realm lists it among the statutes of the tenth year of Queen Anne as chapter 21, with the footnote “This is Chapter XII in the Common printed Editions”, so older books cite it as 10 Anne c. 12. The Journal for the session opens on 7 December 1711, and it heads 22 May “Anno 11° Annæ Reginæ, 1712”: the session began in 1711, in the tenth year of the reign, and the Act passed in 1712, in the eleventh. Until 25 March the Journal also still numbers the year 1711 under the old reckoning, so it dates the bill’s first stages “1711”. The Act gave patrons their right “from and after the First Day of May One thousand seven hundred and twelve”.⁶

Cunningham summarises the Act’s preamble: that presentation “had belonged to patrons till the year 1690, when it was taken from them and bestowed upon the heritors and elders [the landowners and elders of the parish], and that this new way of calling ministers had occasioned great heats and inconveniences”. The Church afterwards cited it as the Act “in the 10th year of the late Queen Anne”.⁷

The year 1712 is also given by Wylie and by Marcus Scott, who writes that “in 1712 the English Parliament set aside the Act of Security and restored lay patronage.” Naismith gives 1711.⁸

The Church’s protest

While the bill was before Parliament, the Commission of the General Assembly [the committee that acts for the Assembly between its meetings] addressed the Queen. It took notice of “another bill presented in the Parliament of Great Britain for restoring of patronages, which we conceive is contrary to our Church constitution, so well secured by the treaty of union, and solemnly ratified by the Acts of Parliament of both kingdoms, and will inevitably obstruct the work of the Gospel, and create great disorder and disquiet in this Church and nation.”⁹

The Commission argued that the abolition of patronage in 1690 was “a part of our Presbyterian constitution, secured to us by the Treaty of Union for ever”, and that restoring it “can only gratify a few, while, on the other hand, it must necessarily disoblige a far greater part of your Majesty’s good subjects”.¹⁰

The Commission warned of “simoniacal pactions [bargains to buy a church office] betwixt patrons and those presented by them”, and that “ministers were imposed upon parishes by patrons who were utterly strangers to their circumstances, having neither property nor residence therein.” The address was signed by William Mitchell, Moderator.¹¹

The General Assembly met in May. On 13 May 1712 it “unanimously approve[d] and ratif[ied]” the Commission’s representations “as having been most faithful and seasonable”, ordered them to be “inserted verbatim” in its Acts, and ordained its new Commission “to use all dutiful and proper means for obtaining redress”.¹²

Two days later the Assembly’s own address to the Queen, signed by William Hamilton, Moderator, said that “the late occurrences that have happened do so nearly affect our well settled and secured Church establishment, that we cannot possibly be silent”.¹³

A grievance for 130 years

The Assembly of 1715 adopted a memorial to Parliament which said: “By the act restoring the power of presentations to patrons, the legally established constitution of this Church was altered in a very important point”, and “it is a hardship to be imposed upon in so tender a point, and that frequently by patrons who have no property nor residence in the parishes”.¹⁴

In 1735 the Assembly sent commissioners to London “to solicit and endeavour the redress of the grievance of patronage, and repeal of the Act”: Alexander Anderson, Moderator of the Assembly, James Gordon, minister, and Colonel John Erskine of Carnock, ruling elder. Their address to the King said that the Act had been procured by “certain disaffected persons” and “was done in resentment against the Church of Scotland”.¹⁵

The Act of 1732 on planting vacant churches, which M’Crie calls the occasion of the Secession of 1733, was made for use “until it shall please God, in his Providence, to relieve this Church from the grievances arising from the act restoring patronages”; and the Relief of 1761 began with a minister deposed for refusing to admit a patron’s presentee [the patron’s nominee]. In 1842 the Assembly resolved and declared “That patronage is a grievance, has been attended with much injury to the cause of true religion in this Church and kingdom, is the main cause of the difficulties in which the Church is at present involved, and that it ought to be abolished”.¹⁶