The Relief Presbytery

Inverkeithing

MacPherson writes that Andrew Richardson of Broughton was presented by the patron to the parish of Inverkeithing in 1749, and that the Presbytery of Dunfermline repeatedly refused to admit him. On the Monday of the Assembly of 1752 the Assembly appointed the Presbytery to meet at Inverkeithing on the Thursday to admit him, with five ministers as a quorum, and every minister of the Presbytery to appear at the bar on the Friday.¹

On 22 May 1752 the ministers were called. The Act records that James Thomson of Dunfermline, John Liston of Aberdour and James Bathgate of Dalgety went to Inverkeithing but “found they were not empowered to proceed, there being only three of them, whereas the Act of Assembly required five to make a quorum”. Six others, Robert Stark of Torryburn, David Hunter, Thomas Gillespie, Alexander Daling, Thomas Fernie and John Spence, gave in a representation.²

Their representation said that “ever since the Act restoring patronages, in the end of Queen Anne’s reign, there has been a vehement opposition to all settlements by presentations, where there was but small concurrence”. It cited the Assembly’s own Act of 1736 “that it is, and has been, since the Reformation, the principle of this Church, that no minister shall be intruded into any parish contrary to the will of the congregation”, and said that by carrying out the settlement “we should be the unhappy instruments … of scattering the flock of Christ”. It ended: “we trust they will at least allow that we acted as honest men, willing to forego every secular advantage for conscience-sake.”³

Gillespie deposed

The Act records that it was then proposed “that the General Assembly should now resolve that one of the six disobedient brethren shall be deposed”, and “it carried by a considerable majority, Depose.” M’Crie gives the vote as “93 to 65” and MacPherson as “ninety-three votes to five”.⁴

Next day, 23 May, each of the six was asked if he had anything to add. The Act records that “Mr Thomas Gillespie read at the bar a Representation, expressing his adherence to the Representation given in yesterday”. The vote was then put “which of the six brethren above mentioned shall be deposed … and the roll being called and votes marked, it was carried, Mr Thomas Gillespie.” Struthers counts “56 in all voted, and 52 of these voted against Mr. Gillespie, 102 declined giving any vote”; MacPherson gives the same fifty-two and one hundred and two.⁵

The Assembly, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole King and Head of the Church”, deposed “Mr Thomas Gillespie, minister at Carnock, from the office of the holy ministry, prohibiting and discharging him to exercise the same, or any part thereof, within this Church in all time coming”, and declared Carnock vacant. The Assembly did not depose the other five, but ordered the Presbytery to admit Richardson on or before 18 June, suspending from the church courts any who stayed away without an accepted excuse.⁶

Struthers and MacPherson give his reply in the same words: “Moderator,—I desire to receive this sentence of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, pronounced against me, with real concern, and awful impressions of the Divine conduct in it: but I rejoice, that to me it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.”⁷

Cunningham writes that Gillespie went on “living and labouring at Dunfermline”, and that “Time after time his friends moved the Assembly to restore him; but still the Assembly refused to do it.” MacPherson writes that the Assembly of 1753 refused “by the small majority of three”.⁸

Jedburgh and Colinsburgh

MacPherson writes that at Jedburgh in 1755 the people chose Thomas Boston of Oxnam, son of the minister of Ettrick, but the Assembly ordered the settlement of the patron’s presentee [the patron’s nominee]; the congregation built a chapel, and Boston “demitted [resigned] his charge, and accepted the call of the people of Jedburgh.” At Kilconquhar in Fife, Cunningham writes, the people opposed the translation of the patron’s presentee, and “In the populous village of Colinsburgh they built a church, and invited a Mr Colier from England to come and be their minister.”⁹

Struthers prints the minute of the day from the Colinsburgh minute book, calling it “the only authentic record of its constitution as a presbytery”. It begins: “Colingsburgh [Colinsburgh], 1761. October, 22d day, being formerly fixed for Mr. Colier’s admission to be minister of this congregation”. Thomas Boston preached the admission sermon “from 1 Cor. ii. 2. ‘For I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified’”.¹⁰

The minute gives the reasons: Gillespie had been deposed “merely because he would not settle Mr. Andrew Richardson … as minister of the gospel at Inverkeithing, contrary to the will of the congregation”; Boston had resigned Oxnam and taken charge of Jedburgh; and Colier, “late minister of the gospel at Ravenstondale, in England”, had accepted the call of “the oppressed congregation of Kilconquhar”. The three “think themselves indispensably bound by the authority of the Lord Redeemer, King and Head of his church … to constitute a presbytery as scripture directs … and to act for (the) relief of oppressed Christian congregations”.¹¹

The minute continues: “at four of the clock in the afternoon, Messrs. Boston, Gillespie, and Colier, with an elder from their respective congregations; viz. [namely] from the congregation of Jedburgh, George Rutherford; from the congregation of Dunfermline, Provost David Turnbull; from the congregation of Colingsburgh, Alexander Scott; convened in the meeting-house of Colingsburgh, and by solemn prayer by Mr. Thomas Gillespie, formed themselves into a presbytery for the relief of Christians oppressed in their Christian privileges.”¹²

The minute goes on: “The presbytery, thus constituted, chose Mr. Thomas Boston for their moderator, and the above Alexander Scott for their clerk pro tempore [for the time].” Its first act was to appoint “the seventeenth day of December next” as “a day of solemn thanksgiving unto God for his goodness in the late harvest”.¹³

The Relief Church

Struthers reads the minute to say that the presbytery was not formed only against patronage: “They ‘formed themselves into a presbytery for the relief of Christians oppressed in their Christian privileges.’ The language is general.” MacPherson writes that the Relief “was from the first distinguished from the other seceders by their readiness to admit as occasional communicants members of other religious denominations”.¹⁴

On 13 May 1847, MacPherson writes, “the United Secession and Relief Synods met as one in Tanfield Hall, Canonmills, where the first Free Church Assembly had met”, as the United Presbyterian Church. Cunningham gives the same year.¹⁵