Patrick Fairbairn
Rev Patrick Fairbairn DD was a Scottish Free Church minister and theologian. He was Moderator of the General Assembly 1864/65, he was born in Greenlaw and began studying at the University of Edinburgh at the age of 13. He commenced work as a tutor in Orkney, he was ordained by the Church of Scotland at North Ronaldshay in Orkney in 1830 and remained there for six years. After that time, he ministered at the Extension Church at Bridgeton, berfore being translated in 1840 to Salton, East Lothian. After the Disruption of 1843, Fairbairn joined the Free Church of Scotland. In 1852 he became assistant to Prof Maclagan at the Free Church Theological College in Aberdeen and in 1853, the General Assembly appointed him as successor to Maclagan as Professor of Theology, he lived at 25 Bon Accord Terrace in Aberdeen. When the Free Church College was founded in Glasgow in 1856, Fairbairn became Professor of Church History and Exegesis—positions and was made Principal the following year, he held these positions until his death in 1874.
He was elected Moderator of the General Assembly in 1864, succeeding Rev Roderick McLeod, was succeeded in turn in 1865 by Rev James Begg. In 1845, Fairbairn wrote The Typology of Scripture. MacLehose noted that this was "one of the most important theological works of its day," and suggested that it "appeared at a time when Scotland was singularly barren in theological scholarship, gained for its author a great reputation, not only in his own country but in England and America."Fairbairn's work on typology was followed by Prophecy viewed in its Distinctive Nature, its Special Functions, Proper Interpretation and Hermeneutical Manual. He wrote commentaries on Ezekiel and the Pastoral epistles, edited the Imperial Bible Dictionary. Fairbairn was "large and imposing in appearance," but "modest and retiring in his habits and feelings." He was married three times, but little is known of his private life because Fairbairn "asked his friends not to allow his biography to be written, destroyed letters and other documents which might have led them to a disregard of his wish."Walker suggested that Fairbairn's "zeal for ascertaining and propagating the truth of God... continued steadfastly with all the vigour of his powerful intellect until the closing days of his life."He died at home, 13 Elmbank Crescent, in west Glasgow.
He is buried against the north wall of the Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh with his wives Mary Playfair and Frances Eliza Turnbull. His Glasgow home was demolished in the late 20th century to build a multi-storey car park, he married three times: Margaret Pitcairn in 1833.
Moderator of the General Assembly
The moderator of the General Assembly is the chairperson of a General Assembly, the highest court of a presbyterian or reformed church. Kirk sessions and presbyteries may style the chairperson as moderator. Presbyterian churches are ordered by a presbyterian polity, including a hierarchy of councils or courts of elders, from the local church Session through presbyteries to a General Assembly; the moderator presides over the meeting of the court, much as a convener presides over the meeting of a church committee. The moderator is thus the chairperson, is understood to be a member of the court acting primus inter pares; the moderator calls and constitutes meetings, presides at them, closes them in prayer. The moderator has a casting, but not a deliberative vote. During a meeting, the title moderator is used by all other members of the court as a form of address, but this may not be continued outside the meetings, thus this convention expresses deference to the authority of the court rather than an honour for the moderator as an individual.
Many moderators act as ambassadors for their general assembly when it is not sitting, visit many of the local churches in their denomination. Lists of moderators of the General Assembly: Church of Scotland Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Presbyterian Church in the United States United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Presbyterian Church Other articles: Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Moderators and clerks in the Church of Scotland Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Equivalent elected chairs in united churches with Presbyterian roots: Moderator of the United Church of Canada The presiding bishop of the Church of North India The presiding bishop of the Church of South India The President of Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia McHugh, J. A.. "Presbyterianism". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Westminster Assembly, 1645 "The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government" online at reformed.org
James T. Begg
James Thomas Begg was a U. S. Representative from Ohio. Born on a farm near Lima, Begg attended the public and high schools of Columbus Grove, Lima College, he was graduated from the Wooster University in 1903. He taught school. Superintendent of public schools at Columbus Grove, Ohio 1905-1910, at Ironton, Ohio from 1910 to 1913, at Sandusky, Ohio from 1913 to 1917, he was employed as a campaign director and lectured throughout the United States for the American City Bureau of New York in chamber-of-commerce work 1917-1919. Begg was elected as a Republican to the four succeeding Congresses, he was not a candidate for renomination in 1928 to the Seventy-first Congress. He engaged in the banking business, he was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress. Business consultant and dairy farmer, he moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1959, where he resided until his death on March 26, 1963. He was interred in Garfield-Lakeview Cemetery, Ohio. United States Congress. "James T. Begg".
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov
Newington, Edinburgh
Newington is an area of Edinburgh, about 15 to 20 minutes walk south of the city centre, the Royal Mile and Princes Street. It is bounded to the east by Dalkeith Road, to the west by Causewayside, to the north by East and West Preston Street, to the south by East and West Mayfield, it contains the smaller enclave of Blacket within its centre. It lies on the area covered by the Burgh Muir, gifted to the City by David I in the 12th century; the muir continued eastwards into. The Grange lies to the west. After the 1586 consolidation of land rights over the Burgh Muir, the area remained rural; the Newington Estate was purchased sometime before 1672 by John Lauder, a Baillie and Treasurer of Edinburgh, who thereafter took the landed designation "of Newington", until he became Sir John Lauder, 1st Baronet of Fountainhall. This family also became possessed, by marriage, of the estate of The Grange, Edinburgh. With overcrowding of the city centre being alleviated by expansion to the north, creating the New Town, via the North Bridge, many people felt that the New Town, elegant as it was, did not offer privacy and intimacy, so, when the South Bridge was built in 1788, parts of Newington became available for development.
From the 1820s a programme of building began, with Newington House as its centrepiece. The wider area was feued many with large gardens; these were aimed at professionals. The northern district was built more densely including tenements. In the 1860s Newington House was home to Duncan McLaren; as with much of Edinburgh, the bulk of the 19th century development still exists and most is designated as official conservation area: Blacket Conservation Area, Waverley Park Conservation Area and Craigmillar Park Conservation Area. The northern part of Newington, around South Clerk Street, lies in the South Side Conservation Area; this latter road is commercial, containing various retail businesses and pubs, as well as an NHS dentist on Mayfield Road. These commercial premises are the ground floor of otherwise residential tenement buildings; the main north-south corridor, Minto Street and Craigmillar Park, is dominated by small guest houses, contained within some of the larger villas. Pollock Halls of Residence lies just outwith Newington.
But the northern section of Newington provides numerous flats for students due to the area's proximity to both of the University of Edinburgh's main campuses: George Square and King's Buildings. Newington lies close to The Meadows, Holyrood Park. Local buildings of interest include: Longmore Hospital on Salisbury Place by John More Dick Peddie - now the headquarters for Historic Environment Scotland Former Royal Blind School, off Craigmillar Park, by Charles Leadbetter - proposed for residential conversion Suffolk Halls - now converted to flats Newington Cemetery Edinburgh Synagogue, Salisbury Road St Columba's Catholic Church Edinburgh 7 Upper Gray Street. Renaissance style by architect Rhoderic Cameron Bartholomew's Chronological map of Edinburgh Map sources for Newington, Edinburgh
Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900)
The Free Church of Scotland was a Scottish denomination, formed in 1843 by a large withdrawal from the established Church of Scotland in a schism or division known as the Disruption of 1843. In 1900 the vast majority of the Free Church of Scotland joined with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to form the United Free Church of Scotland; the House of Lords judged that the minority continuing after the 1900 union were entitled to all the assets. While the denomination had a starting date, in their own eyes their leaders had a legitimate claim to an unbroken succession of leaders going all the way back to the Apostles; the minority of the Free Church of Scotland who continued outside the union of 1900, retained the title the Free Church of Scotland. The Free Church was formed by Evangelicals who broke from the Church of Scotland in 1843 in protest against what they regarded as the state's encroachment on the spiritual independence of the Church. Leading up to the Disruption many of the issues were discussed in Hugh Miller's circulating newspaper The Witness.
Robert Candlish was influential second only to Thomas Chalmers in bringing about the Disruption. The Disruption of 1843 was a bitter, nationwide division which split the established Church of Scotland, it was larger than the previous historical secessions of 1733 or 1761. The evangelical element had been demanding the purification of the Church, it attacked the patronage system, which allowed rich landowners to select the local ministers, it became a political battle between evangelicals on one side and the "Moderates" and gentry on the other. The evangelicals secured passage by the church's General Assembly in 1834, of the "Veto Act", asserting that, as a fundamental law of the Church, no pastor should be forced by the gentry upon a congregation contrary to the popular will, that any nominee could be rejected by majority of the heads of families; this direct blow at the right of private patrons was challenged in the civil courts, was decided against the evangelicals. In 1843, 450 evangelical ministers broke away, formed the Free Church of Scotland.
Led by Dr. Thomas Chalmers, a third of the membership walked out, including nearly all the Gaelic-speakers and the missionaries, most of the Highlanders; the established Church kept all the properties and endowments. The seceders created a voluntary fund of over £400,000 to build 700 new churches. After the passing of the Education Act of 1872, most of these schools were voluntarily transferred to the newly established public school-boards. Chalmers' ideas shaped the breakaway group, he stressed a social vision that revived and preserved Scotland's communal traditions at a time of strain on the social fabric of the country. Chalmers's idealised small equalitarian, kirk-based, self-contained communities that recognised the individuality of their members and the need for co-operation; that vision affected the mainstream Presbyterian churches, by the 1870s it had been assimilated by the established Church of Scotland. Chalmers's ideals demonstrated that the church was concerned with the problems of urban society, they represented a real attempt to overcome the social fragmentation that took place in industrial towns and cities.
The first task of the new church was to provide income for her initial 500 ministers and places of worship for her people. As she aspired to be the national church of the Scottish people, she set herself the ambitious task of establishing a presence in every parish in Scotland Sometimes land owners were less than helpful such as at Strontian, where the church took to a boat; the building programme produced 470 new churches within a year and over 700 by 1847. Manses and over 700 schools soon followed; this programme was made possible by extraordinary financial generosity, which came from the Evangelical awakening and the wealth of the emerging middle class. The church created a Sustentation Fund, the brainchild of Thomas Chalmers, to which congregations contributed according to their means, from which all ministers received an'equal dividend'; this fund provided a modest income for 583 ministers in 1843/4, by 1900 was able to provide an income for nearly 1200. This centralising and sharing of resources was unknown within the Protestant churches in Scotland, but became the norm.
In their original fundraising activities the Free Church sent "missionaries" to the United States, where they found some slave-owners supportive. However, the church having accepted £3,000 in donations from this source, they were denounced as unchristian by abolitionists; when Frederick Douglass arrived in Scotland he became a vocal proponent of the "Send back the money" campaign which urged the Free Church to return the £3,000 donation. Great importance was attached to maintaining an educated ministry within the Free Church; because the established Church of Scotland controlled the divinity faculties of the universities, the Free Church set up its own colleges. New College was opened in 1850 with five chairs: Systematic Theology and Practical Theology, Church History and Old Testament, New Testament Exegesis; the Free Church set up Christ's College in Aberdeen in 1856 and Trinity College in Glagow followed later. The first generation of teachers were enthusiastic proponents of Westminster Calvinism.
For example, David Welsh was an early professor. James
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire called the County of Lanark is a historic county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire was the most populous county in Scotland and, in earlier times, had greater boundaries, including neighbouring Renfrewshire until 1402. In modern times, it is bounded to the north by Stirlingshire and a detached portion of Dunbartonshire, to the northeast by Stirlingshire, West Lothian, to the east by Peeblesshire, to the southeast and south by Dumfriesshire, to the southwest by Dumfriesshire and Ayrshire and to the west by Ayrshire and Dunbartonshire. Lanarkshire was divided between two administrative areas. In the mid-18th century it was divided again into three wards: the upper and lower wards with their administrative centres at Lanark and Glasgow and remained this way until the Local Government Act of 1889. Other significant settlements include Coatbridge, East Kilbride, Airdrie, Cambuslang, Rutherglen and Carluke. In 1975, the county council was abolished and the area absorbed into the larger Strathclyde region, which itself was divided into new Council Areas in 1996.
The old area of Lanarkshire is now occupied by the council areas of: East Dunbartonshire Glasgow City Council North Lanarkshire South Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire have a joint board for valuation and electoral registration. There is a joint health board, which does not cover Rutherglen and the surrounding area in South Lanarkshire. Without the northern portion of North Lanarkshire, this is a Lieutenancy area. Lanarkshire was granted a coat of arms by the Lord Lyon on 24 December 1886; the arms is: Party per chevron gules and argent, two cinquefoils pierced in chief ermine, in base a man's heart counter-changed. The cinquefoils come from the arms of the Clan Hamilton, the heart from the arms of the Clan Douglas, the two main local families; the crest is a demi-eagle displayed with sable beaked gules. The motto is VIGILANTIA. From the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth century Lanarkshire profited from its rich seams of coal in places such as Glenboig; as the coal industry developed around Glasgow in the 1700s the price of coal to the city rose under the control of a cartel of coal owners.
The solution was to carve out a canal to take advantage of the good coal deposits of the Monklands area. By 1793, the Monklands canal was completed and the Lanarkshire coal industry thrived; the resulting boom lasted for over 100 years but reached its peak by the second decade of the twentieth century and two world wars failed to halt the contraction. Output in the county continued to fall and the National Coal Board concentrated investment in Ayrshire and the Lothians. By 1970 there were only four collieries left in Lanarkshire and the closure of Cardowan in 1983 brought the long decline to an end. Lanarkshire hosted the International Children's Games in August 2011. A total of 1,300 competitors and coaches, along with administrators and delegates, representing 77 cities from 33 countries worldwide attended. North Medwin River South Medwin River River Clyde River Avon South Calder Water Digitised historic and modern maps of Lanarkshire are available from National Library of Scotland including: Glasgow and the county of Lanark manuscript map drawn by Scottish cartographer Timothy Pont sometime between 1583 and 1596 The nether ward of Clyds-dail and Glasco from the Blaeu Atlas of Scotland by Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu published in 1654 A mape of the west of Scotland containing Clydsdail, Ranfrew, Shyre of Ayre, & Galloway manuscript map drawn by the Scottish surveyor and map maker John Adair in about 1685 Map of the town of Glasgow & country seven miles around by Scottish cartographer Thomas Richardson published in 1795 Ainslie's Map of the Southern Part of Scotland by Scottish cartographer John Ainslie published in 1821 North and south of Lanarkshire from John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland published in 1882
Hugh Miller
Hugh Miller was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian. Born in Cromarty, Miller was bereaved at a young age when his father was lost at sea leaving his mother and uncles to bring him up, he was educated in a parish school where he showed a love of reading. At 17 he was apprenticed to a stonemason, his work in quarries, together with walks along the local shoreline, led him to the study of geology. In 1829 he published a volume of poems, soon afterwards became involved in political and religious controversies, first connected to the Reform Bill, with the division in the Church of Scotland which led to the Disruption of 1843. In 1834 he became accountant in one of the local banks, in the next year brought out his Scenes and Legends in the North of Scotland. In 1837 he married Lydia Mackenzie Falconer Fraser. In 1840 the popular party in the Church, with which he had been associated, started a newspaper, the Witness, Miller was called to be editor in Edinburgh, a position which he retained till the end of his life.
He was an influential speaker in the early Free Church. From 1846 he was joined at "The Witness" by Rev James Aitken Wylie. Among his geological works are The Old Red Sandstone, Footprints of the Creator, The Testimony of the Rocks, Sketch-book of Popular Geology. Of these books The Old Red Sandstone was the best-known; the Old Red Sandstone is still a term used to collectively describe sedimentary rocks deposited as a result of the Caledonian orogeny in the late Silurian and earliest part of the Carboniferous period. Miller held that the Earth was of great age, that it had been inhabited by many species which had come into being and gone extinct, that these species were homologous, he denied the Epicurean theory that new species budded from the soil, the Lamarckian theory of development of species, as lacking evidence. He argued that all this showed the direct action of a benevolent Creator, as attested in the Bible – the similarities of species are manifestations of types in the Divine Mind.
Geology, to Miller, offered a better version of the argument from design than William Paley could provide, answered the objections of sceptics, by showing that living species did not arise by chance or by impersonal law. In a biographical review about him, he was recognized as an exceptional person by Sir David Brewster, who said of him: "Mr. Miller is one of the few individuals in the history of Scottish science who have raised themselves above the labors of an humble profession, by the force of their genius and the excellence of their character, to a comparatively high place in the social scale." For most of 1856, Miller suffered severe headaches and mental distress, the most probable diagnosis is of psychotic depression. Victorian medicine did not help, he feared. Miller committed suicide, shooting himself in the chest with a revolver in his house on Tower Street, Portobello, on the night of 23/24 December 1856; that night he had finished checking printers' proofs for his book on Scottish fossil plants and vertebrates, The Testimony of the Rocks.
Before his death, he wrote a poem called True. He died on Christmas Eve, his funeral procession, attended by thousands, was amongst the largest in the memory of Edinburgh residents. He is buried in the Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh, his is a simple red granite monument on the north boundary wall, close to the NW corner. His son Hugh Miller FRSE, only six years old when his father killed himself, lies on his left-hand side. Miller's death was tragic, his life brief, but he left a heritage of new discoveries of several Silurian sea scorpions, many Devonian fishes, including several placoderms, described in his popular books. Though he had no academic credentials, he is today considered one of Scotland's premier palaeontologists. Miller's wife Lydia played a major role in editing and securing posthumous publication of compilations as books of many of his Witness articles and public addresses, thus gaining for him a continued wider readership for another 50 years after his death, his second daughter, Harriet Miller Davidson was a published poet who married a clergyman after her father's suicide.
She moved to Adelaide where her husband was a minister and she published poems and stories in both countries about temperance and of daughters left by inspirational fathers. There is a bust of Hugh Miller in the Hall of Heroes at the Wallace Monument in Stirling, his home in Cromarty is open as a geological museum, with specimens collected in the immediate area. The Hugh Miller Trail starts at a small car park on a minor road just past Eathie Mains, about 3 miles south of Cromarty, leads about 1 mile down a steep slope through woodland to the foreshore at Eathie Haven on the Moray Firth, where Miller began collecting fossils, it was here. The haven was a salmon fishing station, a former fishermen's bothy, open to the public, has a display board about the geology of the area and Miller'
Blaikie, William Garden (1885). "Begg, James". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
Blaikie, William Garden (1885). 
