Thomas Helwys
Thomas Helwys, an Englishman, was one of the joint founders, with John Smyth, of the General Baptist denomination. In the early seventeenth century, Helwys was principal formulator of that distinctively Baptist request: that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have a freedom of religious conscience. Thomas Helwys was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous, he died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant dissenters under King James I. Thomas Helwys was born in Gainsborough, from Edmund and Margaret Helwys who were descendants of an old Norman family. Edmund had sold his land in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and had taken a lease on Broxtowe Hall in Bilborough parish. In 1590 when his father died, Thomas Helwys assumed control of the estate, but in 1593, left the care of the estate in the hands of his father's friends and began studies in law at Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London.
Helwys' family was on the rise in London. Geoffrey Helwys, his uncle, was an alderman and the sheriff of London, his cousin, was knighted by King James before becoming lieutenant of the Tower of London. After completing his studies at Gray's Inn in 1593, Thomas himself spent some time in the capital. Thomas married Joan Ashmore at St, Martin's Church, Bilborough, in 1595, they lived at Broxtowe Hall. During this time, the Helwys' home became a haven for early Puritans, one of the many groups of English dissenters within the Church of England and it is that Thomas contributed financially to their mission. At some point, Thomas Helwys developed a close bond with dissenter John Smyth and he and his wife became committed members of Smyth's separatist congregation in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire; the sixty or seventy Separatists in Gainsborough were allowed to meet in secret in Gainsborough Old Hall by the Hall's sympathetic owner Sir William Hickman. The Church authorities were unable to tolerate any significant degree of puritan independence.
In 1607, the High Court of Ecclesiastical Commission resolved to clamp down on the Gainsborough and Scrooby dissenters. Sometime in the winter of 1607/08, John Smyth, around 40 others from the Gainsborough and Scrooby congregations fled to the safety of Amsterdam in the more tolerant Dutch Republic, he is one of the leaders of the foundation of the first Baptist Church in 1609. On 11 April 1611 Anabaptist Edward Wightman became the last religious martyr to be burnt. Assuming their safety, Helwys allowed his family to remain in England, his wife was soon arrested and, after refusing to take the oath in court, she was imprisoned. It is that she was banished after three months in prison, it was in the Dutch Republic that a distinctive Baptist faith first emerged amongst the English émigrés. Open debate amongst the émigrés, close contact and interaction with earlier English exiles and continental Protestants, led the congregation to question the meaning and practice of baptism, among other things.
John Smyth became convinced that baptism should be for Christian believers not for infants. The other English émigrés agreed. However, at the same time as Smyth started to embrace Mennonite doctrines. Helwys and other believers separate from Smyth because of some different ones on christology. Helwys and a dozen or so others began to formulate the earliest Baptist confessions of faith; this "confession" became the twenty-seven articles in A Declaration of Faith of English People Remaining at Amsterdam in Holland. In the next twelve months or so, Helwys wrote three more important works: an argument for Arminianism, a polemic explaining his differences with the Mennonites, most A Short Declaration on the Mystery of Iniquity, a critique and apocalyptic interpretation of the Papacy as well as criticisms of Brownism and Puritanism, the first English book defending the principle of religious liberty. For Helwys, religious liberty was a right for everyone for those he disagreed with. Despite the obvious risks involved and twelve Baptist émigrés returned to England to speak out against religious persecution.
They founded the first Baptist congregation on English soil in east end of London. Early in 1612, Helwys was able to publish A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity, he wrote an appeal to King James I arguing for liberty of conscience and sent him a copy of his book. "The King," Helwys said, "is a mortal man, not God, therefore he hath no power over the mortal soul of his subjects to make laws and ordinances for them and to set spiritual Lords over them." The king had Helwys thrown into Newgate Prison. Helwys' presentation copy of A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity is still preserved in the Bodleian Library. Thomas Helwys is honoured with the Helwys Hall at Oxford. Thomas Helwys Baptist Church, in Lenton, Nottingham is named after him. Broxtowe Hall, the Helwys' family home, is now only a remnant but in nearby Bilborough Baptist Church there is a simple plaque to his memory. "If the Kings people be obedient and true subjects, obeying all humane lawes made by the King, our Lord the King can require no more: for men's religion to God is betwixt God and themselves.
— A Short Declara
James Robinson Graves
James Robinson Graves was an American Baptist preacher, evangelist, debater and editor. He is most noted as the original founder of. Graves was born in Chester, the son of Z. C. Graves, died in Memphis, Tennessee, his remains are interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. In 1855, Graves established Southwestern Publishing House in Tennessee; the company's name was chosen because, at that time, Nashville was in the southwestern part of the United States. Southwestern published The Tennessee Baptist, a Southern Baptist newspaper, religious booklets which were sold by mail for 20¢ and 30¢ each. Prior to the Civil War, most Bibles were printed in the North, rather than the Confederacy. Graves acquired stereotype plates from the North and began printing Bibles for sale in August 1861, he produced and sold educational books. After the 1864 Battle of Nashville resulted in a Union victory, Graves relocated to Memphis, as he felt vulnerable because of articles he had published against the North; the company resumed publishing in 1867.
In 1868, Graves discontinued the company’s mail order business, began training young men as independent dealers to sell Bibles and educational books door-to-door as a way to earn money for college. Graves retired in 1871. Though raised in a Congregationalist family, Graves joined a Baptist church at age 15. Contemporary fellow ministers in the Southern Baptist Convention praised his preaching abilities. Thomas Treadwell Eaton wrote, "We have seen him hold a congregation packed uncomfortably, for three hours and a half without any sign of weariness on their part; this was not done once or twice, but scores of times." Denominational leader James Bruton Gambrell described one of Graves' sermons at a small church in Mississippi as "The Greatest Sermon I Ever Heard." Scholars have recognized Graves as an chief promulgator of the Landmark movement. The subject's Nashville publishing house, Marks, & Co, which became South-Western Publishing, published all of fellow'Landmarker' Amos Cooper Dayton's books.
Both were expelled as'schismatics' between 1858 and 1859 from the Nashville First Baptist Church due to their theological perspectives on their apostolic connection. The Desire of All Nations The Watchman's Reply The Trilemma The First Baptist Church in America The Great Iron Wheel The Little Iron Wheel The Bible Doctrine of the Middle Life Exposition of Modern Spiritism The Little Seraph Old Landmarkism, What Is It? The Work of Christ in Seven Dispensations Intercommunion Inconsistent and Productive of Evil What Is It To Eat and Drink Unworthily? John's Baptism: Was It From Moses or Christ? Burnett, J. J. Sketches of Tennessee's Pioneer Baptist Preachers George, Baptist theologians Hailey, O. L. J. R. Graves, life and teachings Patterson, James A. 2012. James Robinson Graves: Staking the Boundaries of Baptist Identity. B & H Academic. Works by or about James Robinson Graves at Internet Archive
Parliament of Scotland
The Parliament of Scotland was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The parliament, like other such institutions, evolved during the Middle Ages from the king's council of bishops and earls, it is first identifiable as a parliament in 1235, during the reign of Alexander II, when it was described as a "colloquium" and possessed a political and judicial role. By the early fourteenth century, the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, from 1326 commissioners from the burghs attended. Consisting of the "three estates" of clergy and the burghs sitting in a single chamber, the parliament gave consent for the raising of taxation and played an important role in the administration of justice, foreign policy and all manner of other legislation. Parliamentary business was carried out by "sister" institutions, such as General Councils or Convention of Estates; these could carry out much business dealt with by parliament – taxation and policy-making – but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament.
The Parliament of Scotland met for more than four centuries, until it was prorogued sine die at the time of the Acts of Union in 1707. Thereafter the Parliament of Great Britain operated for both England and Scotland, thus creating the Kingdom of Great Britain; when the Parliament of Ireland was abolished in 1801, its former members were merged into what was now called the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From January 1801 until 1927, the British state was called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the pre-Union parliament was long portrayed as a constitutionally defective body that acted as a rubber stamp for royal decisions, but research during the early 21st century has found that it played an active role in Scottish affairs, was sometimes a thorn in the side of the Scottish Crown. The members were collectively referred to as the Three Estates, or "community of the realm", composed of until 1690: the first estate of prelates the second estate of the nobility the third estate of Burgh Commissioners The bishops and abbots of the First Estate were the thirteen medieval bishops of Aberdeen, Brechin, Dunblane, Galloway, Isles, Orkney, Ross and St Andrews and the mitred abbots of Arbroath, Coupar Angus, Holyrood, Kelso, Kinloss, Paisley, Scone, St Andrews Priory and Sweetheart.
The bishops themselves were removed from the Church of Scotland during the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William of Orange. The Second Estate was split into two to retain the division into three. From the 16th century, the second estate was reorganised by the selection of Shire Commissioners: this has been argued to have created a fourth estate. During the 17th century, after the Union of the Crowns, a fifth estate of royal office holders has been identified; these latter identifications remain controversial among parliamentary historians. Regardless, the term used for the assembled members continued to be "the Three Estates". A Shire Commissioner was the closest equivalent of the English office of Member of Parliament, namely a commoner or member of the lower nobility; because the parliament of Scotland was unicameral, all members sat in the same chamber, as opposed to the separate English House of Lords and House of Commons. The Scottish parliament evolved during the Middle Ages from the King's Council.
It is first identifiable as a parliament in 1235, described as a "colloquium" and with a political and judicial role. In 1296 we have the first mention of burgh representatives taking part in decision making. By the early 14th century, the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, Robert the Bruce began calling burgh commissioners to his Parliament. Consisting of The Three Estates – of clerics, lay tenants-in-chief and burgh commissioners – sitting in a single chamber, the Scottish parliament acquired significant powers over particular issues. Most it was needed for consent for taxation, but it had a strong influence over justice, foreign policy and all manner of other legislation, whether political, social or economic. Parliamentary business was carried out by "sister" institutions, before c. 1500 by General Council and thereafter by the Convention of Estates. These could carry out much business dealt with by Parliament – taxation and policy-making – but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament.
The Scottish parliament met in a number of different locations throughout its history. In addition to Edinburgh, meetings were held in Perth, Stirling, St Andrews, Linlithgow, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Berwick-upon-Tweed. From the early 1450s until 1690, a great deal of the legislative business of the Scottish Parliament was carried out by a parliamentary committee known as the "Lords of the Articles"; this was a committee chosen by the three estates to draft legislation, presented to the full assembly to be confirmed. In the past, historians have been critical of this body, claiming that it came to be dominated by royal nominees, thus undermining the power of the full assembly. Recent research suggests. Indeed, in March 1482, the
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire. King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and in 1957 became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. With the SCLC, he led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany and helped organize the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama, he helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped organize the Selma to Montgomery marches; the following year, he and the SCLC took the movement north to Chicago to work on segregated housing.
In his final years, he expanded his focus to include opposition towards the Vietnam War. He alienated many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". J. Edgar Hoover considered him a radical and made him an object of the FBI's COINTELPRO from 1963 on. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, on one occasion mailed King a threatening anonymous letter, which he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D. C. to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U. S. cities. Allegations that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting. Sentenced to 99 years in prison for King's murder a life sentence as Ray was 41 at the time of conviction, Ray served 29 years of his sentence and died from hepatitis in 1998 while in prison.
King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971. Hundreds of streets in the U. S. have been renamed in his honor, a county in Washington State was rededicated for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D. C. was dedicated in 2011. King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. King's given name at birth was Michael King, his father was born Michael King, after a period of gradual transition on the elder King's part, he changed both his and his son's names in 1934; the senior King was inspired during a trip to Germany for that year's meeting of the Baptist World Alliance. While visiting sites associated with reformation leader, Martin Luther, attendees witnessed the rise of Nazism; the BWA conference issued a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, the senior King gained deepened appreciation for the power of Luther's protest.
The elder King would state that "Michael" was a mistake by the attending physician to his son's birth, the younger King's birth certificate was altered to read "Martin Luther King Jr." in 1957. King's parents were both African-American, he had Irish ancestry through his paternal great-grandfather. King was a middle child, between older sister Christine King Farris and younger brother A. D. King. King sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind, he enjoyed singing and music, his mother was an accomplished organist and choir leader who took him to various churches to sing, he received attention for singing "I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus". King became a member of the junior choir in his church. King said that his father whipped him until he was 15. King saw his father's proud and fearless protests against segregation, such as King Sr. refusing to listen to a traffic policeman after being referred to as "boy," or stalking out of a store with his son when being told by a shoe clerk that they would have to "move to the rear" of the store to be served.
When King was a child, he befriended a white boy whose father owned a business near his family's home. When the boys were six, they started school: King had to attend a school for African Americans, the other boy went to one for whites. King lost his friend. King suffered from depression through much of his life. In his adolescent years, he felt resentment against whites due to the "racial humiliation" that he, his family, his neighbors had to endure in the segregated South. At the age of 12, shortly after his maternal grandmother died, King blamed himself and jumped out of a second-story window, but survived. King was skeptical of many of Christianity's claims. At the age of 13, he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus during Sunday school. From this point, he stated, "doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly." However, he concluded that the Bible has "many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter the seminary. Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School.
He became k
Archibald McLean (Baptist)
Archibald McLean was a Scotch Baptist minister. Born 1 May 1733, at East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, McLean was the son of a Highlander; as a child he spent time on Mull. Sent to school at Cathcart, at Cucaddins, he was apprenticed to a printer in Glasgow in 1746. Marriage allowed McLean to set up as a printer in Glasgow. After a short time in London he acted from 1767 to 1786 as overseer of the printing establishment of Messrs. Donaldson & Co. in Edinburgh. Brought up a Presbyterian, McLean in 1762 joined the Glasites. In 1765 he left them for the Baptists, in June 1768 he was chosen for pastoral office as Robert. Carmichael's colleague at Edinburgh, he toured Scotland and England, set up Scotch Baptist associations, helped run them. A standard annual journey into England took him to London, Beverley, Chester and Liverpool. McLean died at Edinburgh on 21 December 1812. McLean's works included: Letters to Mr. Glas in answer to his Dissertation on Infant Baptism, 1767. A Defence of Believers' Baptism, 1777.
The Nature and Import of Baptism, with its Indispensable Obligation.... To, added a Short Sketch of the Church Order and Religious Practices of the Baptists in Scotland, Edinburgh, 1786; the Commission given by Jesus Christ to His Apostles Illustrated, 1786. Essay on the Calls and Invitations of the Gospel published in the Missionary Magazine. A Letter on the Sonship of Christ.... To, added a Review of Dr. Walker's Defence of the Doctrine of the Trinity and Eternal Sonship of Christ, 1788; the Belief of the Gospel-saving Faith, 1791. A Dissertation on the Influences of the Holy Spirit, with a Defence of the Doctrine of Original Sin, a Paraphrase, with Notes, on Romans v. 12 to the end of the Chapter, 1799. A Reply to Mr. Fuller's Appendix to his book on "The Gospel worthy of all Acceptation," to his Doctrine of Antecedent Holiness, the Nature and Object of Justifying Faith, 1802; the Christian Doctrine of Disconformity to the World illustrated and enforced, Liverpool, 1802. Review of Mr. Wardlaw's Lectures on "The Abrahamic Covenant and its Supposed Connection with Infant Baptism", 1807.
Strictures on the Sentiments of Dr. James Watt and others respecting a Christian Church, the Pastoral Office, the Right of Private Brethren to Dispense the Lord's Supper, Edinburgh, 1810. A Paraphrase and Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1811–17. London, 1820. A collected edition of McLean's works, with a biographical memoir by William Jones, appeared in six volumes, London, 1823; the tenth edition of his Miscellaneous Works was published in seven volumes, Elgin, 1847-8. In 1759 McLean married Isabella, youngest daughter of William More, a merchant, with whom he obtained a small property. Brackney, William H. A Genetic History of Baptist Thought: With Special Reference to Baptists in Britain and North America. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2004. Pp. 127, 130-131, 149, 533. Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed.. "McLean, Archibald". Dictionary of National Biography. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co
Billy Graham
William Franklin Graham Jr. was an American evangelist, a prominent evangelical Christian figure, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well-known internationally in the late 1940s. One of his biographers has placed him "among the most influential Christian leaders" of the 20th century; as a preacher, he held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons broadcast on radio and television. In his six decades of television, Graham hosted annual "Crusades", evangelistic campaigns, which ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005, he hosted the radio show Hour of Decision from 1950 to 1954. He repudiated racial segregation and insisted on racial integration for his revivals and crusades, starting in 1953. In addition to his religious aims, he helped shape the worldview of a huge number of people who came from different backgrounds, leading them to find a relationship between the Bible and contemporary secular viewpoints. According to his website, Graham preached to live audiences of 210 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission.
Graham was a spiritual adviser to U. S. presidents and provided spiritual counsel for every president from the 33rd, Harry S. Truman, to the 44th, Barack Obama, he was close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, he was lifelong friends with another televangelist, the founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, Robert Schuller, whom Graham talked into starting his own television ministry. Graham operated a variety of media and publishing outlets. According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to "accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior". Graham's evangelism was appreciated by mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic denominations as he encouraged new converts to become members of these Churches; as of 2008, Graham's estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion. One special televised broadcast in 1996 alone may have reached a television audience of as many as 2.5 billion people worldwide.
Because of his crusades, Graham preached the gospel to more people in person than anyone in the history of Christianity. Graham was on Gallup's list of most admired men and women 61 times, more than any man or woman in history. Grant Wacker writes that by the mid-1960s, he had become the "Great Legitimator": "By his presence conferred status on presidents, acceptability on wars, shame on racial prejudice, desirability on decency, dishonor on indecency, prestige on civic events". William Franklin Graham Jr. was born on November 7, 1918, in the downstairs bedroom of a farmhouse near Charlotte, North Carolina. He was of Scots-Irish descent and was the eldest of four children born to Morrow and William Franklin Graham Sr. a dairy farmer. Graham was raised on a family dairy farm with his two younger sisters, Catherine Morrow and Jean and a younger brother, Melvin Thomas; when he was eight years old in 1927, the family moved about 75 yards from their white frame house to a newly built red brick home.
He was raised by his parents in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Graham attended the Sharon Grammar School, he started to read books from an early age and loved to read novels for boys Tarzan. Like Tarzan, he would hang on the trees and gave the popular Tarzan yell, scaring both horses and drivers. According to his father, that yelling had led him to become a minister; when he was fourteen in 1933, Prohibition ended in December, Graham's father forced him and his sister, Katherine, to drink beer until they got sick. This created such an aversion that Graham and his sister avoided alcohol and drugs for the rest of their lives. Graham had been turned down for membership in a local youth group for being "too worldly" when Albert McMakin, who worked on the Graham farm, persuaded him to go and see the evangelist Mordecai Ham. According to his autobiography, Graham was converted in 1934, at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte led by Ham. After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College located in Cleveland, Tennessee.
After one semester, he found it too legalistic in rules. At this time he was inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church, he was expelled, but Bob Jones Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks... You have a voice. God can use that voice of yours, he can use it mightily."In 1937 Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute in Temple Terrace, near Tampa. He preached his first sermon that year at Bostwick Baptist Church near Palatka, while still a student. In his autobiography, Graham wrote of receiving his "calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club", adjacent to the Institute campus. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park was established on the Hillsborough River, directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would practice preaching to the birds and cypress stumps. In 1939, Graham was ordained by a group of Southern Baptist clergymen at Peniel Baptist Church in Palatka, Florida.
In 1943, Graham graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, with a degree in anthropology. During his time at Wheaton, Graham decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God
Cupar
Cupar is a town, former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland. It lies between Glenrothes. According to a 2011 population estimate, Cupar had a population around 9,000, making it the ninth largest settlement in Fife, the civil parish a population of 11,183, it is the historic county town of Fife. The town is believed to have grown around the site of Cupar Castle, the seat of the sheriff and was owned by the earls of Fife; the area became a centre for judiciary as the county of Fife and as a market town catering for both cattle and sheep. Towards the latter stages of the 13th century, the burgh became the site of an assembly of the three estates - clergy and burgesses - organised by Alexander III in 1276 as a predecessor of the Parliament of Scotland. Although written information of a charter for the modern town was lost, evidence suggested that this existed as one of the many properties owned by the Earls of Fife by 1294. During the middle of the 14th century, the burgh started to pay customs on taxable incomes, which meant that royal burgh status was granted sometime between 1294 and 1328.
The oldest document, referring to the royal burgh, was a grant by Robert II in 1381 to give a port at Guardbridge on the River Eden to help boost trade with Flanders. This grant was recognised by James II in 1428. Cupar is represented by several tiers of elected government. Cupar Community Council is the lowest, its statutory role is to communicate local opinion to central government. Fife Council, the unitary local authority for Cupar based in Glenrothes, is the executive and legislative body responsible for local governance; the Scottish Parliament is responsible for devolved matters such as education and justice while reserved matters are dealt with by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Cupar area supports three multi-member wards with eleven councillors sitting on the committee of Fife Council. County Buildings on Catherine Street are the main headquarters for the east region of Fife Council, which deals with administrative and agricultural issues. Cupar forms part of the North East Fife, electing one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system.
The constituency is represented by MP of the Scottish National Party. For the purposes of the Scottish Parliament, Cupar forms part of the North East Fife constituency; the North East Fife Scottish Parliament constituency created in 1999 is one of nine within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region. Each constituency elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament and the region elects seven additional members to produce a form of proportional representation; the constituency is represented by Rod Campbell for the SNP. At EU level, Cupar is part of the pan-Scotland European Parliament constituency which elects seven Members of the European Parliament s using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation. Scotland returns two SNP MEPs, two Labour MEPs, only one Conservative and Unionist MEP, no Liberal Democrat MEPs, to the European Parliament; the 2001 census reported a population of 8,506, which increased to around 8,980 in 2008. The demographic make-up resembles the rest of Scotland.
The 30–44 age group formed the largest portion of the population. The median age of males and females was 39 and 43 years compared to 37 and 39 years for the whole of Scotland. Reported places of birth were: 95.81% in the United Kingdom 0.51% in Ireland 1.60% in other European Union countries 2.09% in the rest of the worldThe economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 42.20% in full-time employment, 12.32% in part-time employment, 5.89% self-employed, 3.10% unemployed, 2.96% students with jobs, 3.94% students without jobs, 17.68% retired, 4.83% looking after home or family, 4.35% permanently sick or disabled, 2.72% economically inactive for other reasons. Compared with Scotland's average demography, Cupar has a lower proportion of immigrants, but a higher proportion of over-75s. Old Gaol was designed by James Gillespie Graham and built 1813-14. After closing as a prison in 1844, it was used by the militia, it was purchased by William Watt in 1895 and occupied by that firm until 1988. It operates as Watts of Cupar, a bar and restaurant.
The historic town centre is the junction of the Crossgate. This is where the town's mercat cross, is located with the original shaft being supported by a unicorn, it dates from 1683. To the east is St Catherine Street, home to the burgh chambers and county buildings, both designed by Robert Hutchison; the Category B listed burgh chambers built around 1815 and 1818 contain a three story bow street corner and a domic entrance. The adjacent county buildings built between 1812 and 1817 are unique in Fife as the only example replicating the style of buildings in the New Town of Edinburgh; the Category B-listed corn exchange tower can be seen across the town skyline. At the east end of St Catherine Street is the Category B-listed Cupar War Memorial in a classical Greek style overlooking the Cart Haugh, one of several designed by John Kinross with assistance from leading contemporary sculptors, for the exception of the Victory statue, done by Henry Snell Gamley; the memorial was first unveiled by Field Marshal Earl Haig in 1922 and again for the addition of the World War II memorial in 1950 by the Earl of Elgin.
Nearby on Coal Road is a Category B-listed classical style former prison building built between 1813 and 1814. On the Bonnygate, the Category A-listed Preston Lodge built by the Laird of Airdrie
