“The Lord helps those who help themselves”: Glasgow the U.P. laity in RICHARD M. SMITH, M.A., M.Phil. Abstract For formerly such significant institutions throughout nineteenth-century lowland Scotland, neither the United Presbyterian Church (1847-1900) nor its constituent denominations have received much attention since. This article explores, primarily from a social perspective, U.P. origins and growth in a city described as “the great stronghold of that body - the garrison from which they send out skirmish parties to all the world”.1 Development is examined from eighteenth-century backstreets to a position of suburban pre-eminence attained across the late-Victorian “Second City ofEmpire”. Assisting such transformation were interrelated - social, economic and cultural - developments in society. Nevertheless, an essential ingredient in U.P. success was its lay system of congregational management-ownership plus a close-knit membership whose commonality extended beyond church. Over time, an altering U.P. profile is best appreciated in both internal conflict and in shifting relations with the Free and Established Churches - issues again reflecting wider change. Critically assessed is the received U.P. stereotype, seemingly epitomised in surviving opulent suburb churches: new-money preachers ofself-help, enthused by faraway mission, yet indifferent to the misery of Glasgow’s slums. In reality the U.P.C. was strongly represented in poorer districts, places where it simultaneously attracted and repelled, and congregations served as microcosms of socio-political crises and upheaval. As U.P. rationale faded, internecine strife escalated as identities across the membership spectrum reconfigured to new loyalties and mores - events leading to merger with the Free Church in 1900. J.S. Jeans, Western Worthies: A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches ofWest ofScotlandCelebrities (Glasgow, 1872), 165. RecordsoftheScottish ChurchHistorySociety39 (2009) 35-68 ISSN 0264-5572 . 36 Richard M. Smith Introduction In recent decades awareness of the role of religion in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scottish society has increased through significant studies, reinvigorating the subject if with a strong emphasis on social 2 analysis. Yet the multi-dimensional topic of the Secessions from the eighteenth-century Kirk, and their “Voluntary” offspring, continues to attract little interest. Some analysis of evolving Seceder profile appears in the studies referred to. Meanwhile Hutchison and Maver have described a third-generation elite’s entry into Glasgow politics.3 Yet for wider evaluation, options remain limited to narratives by retired U.P. divines - and still earlier ones from Secessionist worthies. Small’s statistical volumes apart,4 these works understandably reveal theological and constitutional preoccupation, even nostalgia, with all virtually ignoring the movements’ lay lifeblood. In acknowledging this apparent consignment to the cupboard of history, Drummond and Bulloch in the 1970s attributed scholarly neglect of the U.P.C. to an unattractive and Notably the following: C.G. Brown, The SocialHistory ofReligion in Scotland since 1730 (London, 1987); P.M. Hillis, The Barony ofGlasgow: A Window onto Church and People in Nineteenth-century Scotland (Edinburgh, 2007); L. Orr, A Unique and Glorious Mission: Women and Presbyterianism in Scotland 1830-1930 (Edinburgh, 2000). D.C. Smith, Passive Obedience and Prophetic Protest: Social Criticism in the Scottish Church, 1830-1945 (New York, 1987); Robert 1. Mochrie & J.W. Sawkins, “A bibliography of sources ofquantitative data for studies in the economic history of the Scottish churches in the mid-nineteenth century”, in Records ofthe Scottish Church History Society 38 (2008), 45—81 I.G.C. Hutchison, A Political History of Scotland 1832-1924 (Edinburgh, , 2003); 1. Maver, “Politics and Power in the Scottish City: Glasgow Town Council in the Nineteenth Century”, in T.M. Devine (ed.), Scottish Elites (Edinburgh, 1994), 98-130; and “Glasgow’s civic government”, in Glasgow: Volume 11 (Manchester, 1996), 441-85. 4 R. Small, History of the Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church from 1733 to 1900, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1904); voi. II contains Glasgow. “The Lord helps those who help themselves” 37 “stalwart” persona.'' A lack of epoch-making events and vivid characters, and unappealing urban surrounds, go far to explaining this. The survival ofother Churches as distinct entities no doubt has assisted in stimulating “insider” research today.6 Indeed, the contrast with its 7 eventual partner, the Free Church, could hardly be greater. Inconspicuous origins Records from Glasgow’s first Secessionist congregation, Shuttle Street, survive largely intact. Begun in December 1738 at outlying Crosshill, it centred on several village “praying societies” who as part of a national grassroots movement sided with the Erskine brothers and fellow ministers suspended for defying a Church of Scotland they considered “Erastian”. Subsequently expelled from the Kirk, their “Associate Presbytery” had reached Synod size by 1745. Although in theory upholding the Establishment principle of an endowed, national Church, necessity dictated Secession congregations self-financed, as happened later with the Free Church. However gradual imbuing of reformist principles and corresponding resentment of a Tory-associated Kirk influenced the majority “New Light” Seceders to reinterpret scripture as precluding Church-State connection. “No one outside their membership has been particularly interested in the United Presbyterians, and the reason is obvious. They represent that side of Victorian life which is least attractive ...”, A.L. Drummond & J. Bulloch, The Church in Victorian Scotland 1843-1874 (Edinburgh, 1975), 50. Bebbington’s studies on the Baptist movement are widely appreciated. Lesser known are McNaughton’s on Scottish Congregationalist history. Concerning the Brethren, see N. Dickson, Brethren in Scotland 1838-2000: A Social Study ofan Evangelical Movement (Paternoster, Milton Keynes, 2003). Recently one might add P.F. Burton, A Social History of Quakers in Scotland, 1800-2000 (New York, 2007). The 150th Free Church anniversary saw Brown and Fry (eds.) Scotland in the Age ofthe Disruption (Edinburgh University Press, 1993), and papers elsewhere. See also J.L. MacLeod, The Second Disruption: The Free Church in Scotland and the origins ofthe Free Presbyterian Church (East Linton, 2000). 1 38 Richard M. Smith Early Secessionists were typically tradesmen and artisans. Trademark concern with security appeared immediately at Crosshill, a finance committee formed before the spiritual business of selecting elders. Equally pragmatic seemed the 1740 relocation “in or nigher Glasgow”,s whose population of around 30,000 was growing daily.9 A committee “lesser number”, soon termed “managers”, negotiating site purchase contained the congregation’s few merchants, a diverse but socially distinguished city presence. By the 1760s almost forty-percent of male communicants were weavers, representing a burgeoning regional employment sector.10 Already the 1747 “Breach” into rival “Burgher” and “Anti Burgher” Synods had damaged Secessionist image and growth prospects. Burgher congregations were recalled as more prosperous." But in Glasgow the loss of records from the “Mother Anti Burgher”, the Breach defection from Shuttle Street, prevents comparison. Their number included “certain burgesses”, men however possibly unaffected by refusing a burgess oath becoming “stagnant” as a mercantile control.13 Hometown loyalties likely influenced Breach allegiances, with Small’s statistics indicating provincial congregations - typically swayed by ministers - mostly taking the reactionary Anti Burgher side. The Relief; general growth; increased significance of managers The Relief Church began in 1751 in similar circumstances to the Secession. Less Calvinistic in tone, and quicker to adopt the Voluntary principle, the “Second Secession” operated a more flexible polity Glasgow City Archives (hereafter GCA), CH3/469/17, Greyfriars Associate Presbytery Congregation, Managers Minutes (hereafter MM), 3. T.M. Devine, Exploring the Scottish Past: themes in the History ofScottish Society (Edinburgh, 1995), 107. 10 J.H. Treble, “The Standard of Living of the Working Class”, in People and Society in Scotland: Volume I, 1760-1830 (Edinburgh, 1988) 197. 1 J. McKerrow, History oftheSecession Church (Edinburgh, 1842), 578. 12 Small, History, 20. 1 ’ Devine, Exploring the Scottish Past, 88. “The Lord helps those who help themselves” 39 attracting diverse groups, including scattered Independents. Its first Glasgow congregation. Canon Street of 1766, illustrates the theme well. It originated in a walkout from St George’s parish church over claimed Town Council patronage abuse,14 but infighting saw most return. While David Dale regrouped others as Old Scots Independents, the Relief rump relocated to the weaving centre ofCalton. Here the ubiquity ofan idealist and cohesive occupational group was likely deemed good soil for spreading egalitarian Relief principles.15 Unfortunately no records have survived to ascertain their congregational percentage. Continued population intake required additional churches: cheek- by-jowl East Campbell Street Burgher (1789) and Relief (1791). Though both churches detectably differed in character, surviving constitutional documents at each emphasise the growing import of managers. The Burgher church was carefully pruned from Shuttle Street, whose own managers had no sittings left.16 Its location bucking residential trends would explain managers’ comparatively lower employment status, plus a substantial defection to Auld Licht in 1799.17 A merchant nonetheless occupied the leadingpreses position. At the Relief cause, documents illustrate shaping upwardly-mobile and Voluntary congregational character. A petition of over 100 male “subscribers” requesting Presbytery sanction included merchants, a legal writer, and others indicative of rising prosperity, such as grocers and a printer. Significantly very few were weavers, suggesting their intensified solidarity elsewhere with declining fortunes. Managers obtained a meticulous construction estimate of£1 148.19 Here thepreses was a manufacturer, representing another diverse but growing group.20 Small, History, 32. 15 Ibid., 36-38. 16 Ibid., 39. GCA, CH3/847/13, East Campbell Street Congregation MM, 21. GCA, CH3/1499/5, East Campbell Street ReliefChurch MM 19 I Ibid., 11. Nenadic, “The Rise of the Urban Middle Classes”, in People and Society in Scotland, 115. 40 Richard M. Smith Usually Relief congregations forbade the combining of elder and manager roles, which in theory concerned separate - spiritual and temporal - spheres. With raised Seceder profile, arguably a manager position held more kudos than even an Established Church elder,21 perhaps also compensating Secessionist merchants who were effectively excluded from Glasgow’s Kirk-associated mercantile elite.22 Two further Relief congregations of 1798-99, Hutchesontown and John Street, continued the theme, but warned of the pitfalls in rash A action. three-way dispute within Dovehill saw two factions ready churches in better locales while eyeing ministers elsewhere. Effectively church life on free-market lines, the process would fuel U.P. suburb growth and rarely lack controversy. However, each encountered “severe disappointment” in being spurned by the clerics concerned." Building costs proved burdensome for years, especially at John Street where shares, based on seat rents, had been sold to speculative outsiders 25 and only eventually repurchased at “an extortionate price”. Boosts, constraints, diversification and division In a daunting metropolis potentially disruptive to incomers’ convention, existing social networks within beacon churches reinforced Seceder strength. But over time appeal widened beyond country cousins. Urban migration saw the Kirk cease as the hub of communal life as still remained so in most rural districts. To many aspiring incomers, the Established Church in Glasgow probably seemed synonymous with a Tory Town Council, notably in their joint-running of parish churches. Moreover entry to a desirable Kirk eldership proved elusive for the vast majority.26 True, ministers of the Kirk Popular Party, soon termed 21 Ibid., 113-14. 22 Maver, “Politics and Power”, 103. 23 Small, Histoiy, 46-52. 24 Ibid., 46. 25 Ibid. 48 26 P.M. See Hillis, “The Sociology ofthe Disruption”, in Scotland in the Age of the Disruption, 54-55. “The Lord helps those who help themselves99 41 “Evangelical”, challenged the inertia of counterpart Moderate “timeservers”, attracting many disillusioned and undoubtedly limited Seceder inroads. Yet their Tory paternalism repulsed people identifying with the “protest”, radical and (or) reform, element in Seceder character, as witnessed in the Old Town during the early 1800s.-27 As events in revolutionary Paris strained class relations in Britain, middle-class suburb flight and an increased role as employers widened the gulf. In Glasgow, radical feeling seemingly benefited the Relief, who overtook combined Burgher-Anti Burgher figures.'30 And while skilled tradesmen prospered after the Napoleonic Wars, illuminating instances of Secessionist “New Light” church rebuild and removal, conversely the worsening plight of weavers and the unskilled would explain downwardly-mobile defections. For despite “embittered” T9 weavers’ association with abandoning church, Christodoulou’s study and comments from Small suggest they simply moved to a new fringe in Dissent, something of a church underworld. Certainly for the disaffected, a plethora of alternatives sprung up around the Old Town, including a number of maverick Independents, and in time Chartist churches. Evangelicals found 45% of locals claiming Secessionist membership/ adherence. See also: C.G. Brown, “The costs of pew-renting: church management, church-going, and social class in nineteenth century Glasgow”, Journal of EcclesiasticalHistoiy (JEH), 28 (1987), especially 354-55. 28 Nenadic, “The Rise ofthe Urban Middle Classes”, 120-21. 29 J. See Christodoulou, “The Glasgow Universalist Church and Scottish Radicalism from the French Revolution to Chartism: A Theology of Liberation”, JEH, 43 (1992), 608-616. J. Cleland, Annals of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1816), 153-54. Relief attendances remained ahead two decades later: “Church Commissioners Report: Ecclesiastical Statistics ol the Churches in Glasgow, 1836”, Church ofScotland Magazine Sept. , 838, Appendix. 1 31 Treble, “The Standard ofLiving ofthe Working Class”, 203-06. 32 Drummond & Bulloch, The Scottish Church 1843-74 144. , 42 Richard M. Smith Occurring in a district already the scene ofproletarian riot,33 one en masse defection from Calton Relief appears replete with class-tension considerations. Elders - almost certainly with managers’ connivance - had procured Presbytery suspension of the local favourite, the Rev. James Turnbull, following his alleged tavern fraternisation with local girls; the allusion by his detractors was that the “girls” were women of 34 questionable repute. The issue smacked of condemnatory moralising by self-perceived betters, yet a supporting petition with 750 names left Presbytery unmoved. The delegation sent to pronounce Turnbull’s suspension from his pulpit, however, turned back. Awaiting them, in and around a “doubly crammed” church was the Calton mob - an event reported in the press. Thus another option was added to the array of local choices, as “the great body” of Calton members reformed under Turnbull at the nearby “Noddy Kirk”.36 Representing the reverse socio-economic process were exits from decaying locales. But contrasting with Kirk Evangelicals’ church extension, the laissez faire Voluntary equivalent easily sparked internal dispute. Recurring over generations, for managers concerned the issue was primarily falling income. When Gordon Street United Secession opened in 1822, Shuttle Street (renamed Greyfriars) and Duke Street objected. Having lavishly rebuilt to compete with local Evangelical bulwarks, each now faced haemorrhaging wealthier members to the new suburb congregation. Records from semi-residential Cambridge Street United Secession indicate a looming growth restriction: members were drawn almost exclusively from the Lowland belt. With large-scale Highland migration imminent, Voluntary antipathy towards Gaels continued from Secessionist days. Strikingly different, the prolific Free Church Gaelic 33 W.H. Fraser, “Patterns ofProtest”, in People andSociety in Scotland, 285-87. ’4 Small, Histoiy, 58-59. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid. 37 The majority “New Licht" Burgher and Anti Burgher Synods joined as the United Secession in 820. 1 . “The Lord helps those who help themselves” 43 mission - begun in Evangelical clothes - reaped dividends. Meanwhile, the seeming Voluntary ideal of quality, not quantity, was epitomized in the Allans, a family arriving from Saltcoats on the Ayrshire coast. Joining Cheapside Street Anti Burgher, in United Secession days they led in its removal to upmarket Wellington Street. By then a business initially comprising one wooden ship was moving towards becoming a fleet of transatlantic steamers, as three of Thomas Allan’s sons became 38 elders and managers in neighbouring U.P. churches. Lay elites and political empowerment Ifhometown, kith-and-kin, ties plus common grievance fostered general unity within a growingly diverse membership, so did rising tensions between middle-class interest groups in society, as Voluntaries emerged as a distinct and weighty segment. The 1832-33 Reform Acts, creating in Glasgow around 7000 voters from 33 town councillors previously, theoretically empowered Voluntary elites. However reactionary opposition came from Whig traditionalists and Tories, in Church terms representing Kirk Moderates and Evangelicals respectively. This provided further incentive for United Secession-Relief union. Also significant was the 1839 collapse of a progressive Liberal-radical alliance in which “Voluntary Presbyterians” figured prominently, thereafter becoming a “single- 34 interest group”. But if conditions seemed yet unfavourable for breakthrough, this situation changed abruptly with the Disruption ofthe Church ofScotland in November 1843. The Disruption was far more definitive for a U.P.C. in-waiting than its own low-key, long expected, formation. As a shaky Established Church front crumbled, departing Free Churchmen turned on a Conservative party tied to upholding the “degraded Establishment”. In 38 & Slaven Checkland (eds.), Dictionary ofScottish Business Biography Vol. /, (Aberdeen, 1986), 224-25. See also Thomas Allan’s obituary in “Our Church Record”, UPM, May 1892, 232-33. Hutchison, A Political History 37-38, 39-4 , 1 44 Richard M. Smith Glasgow, Tory councillors dropped from fourteen to four,40 facilitating political - municipal then parliamentary - Voluntary advance. Yet identification as a sectional interest group, including a moral agenda now rankling proletarian radicals, was potentially another growth impediment. Nevertheless, with Kirk membership split, the 1851 Religious Census recognised the U.P.C. as the city’s largest denomination. Sabbath attendances were returned as 33,342 (22.67%) U.P., 32,273 (21.94%) Free Church, and 29,588 (20.11%) Established 41 Church. Trailing well behind nationally: 128,571 to 198,570 and 271,902 respectively, the comparative figures reflected an increasingly urban U.P. demeanour, palpable in nearby Paisley and Greenock.42 Spearheading the Voluntary political campaign was one unusually holding credentials in Glasgow’s mercantile elite, important for wider appeal. Alexander Hastie, grandson of sugar merchant Robert Hastie, entered the Town Council in 1838, by 1846 becoming Lord Provost. With councillors sagely eschewing sect-labelling, any attempt at a U.P. municipal count is nigh impossible. Even systematic cross-referencing of municipal with church records is thwarted by the latter’s patchy survival - and tendency to omit mentioning members’ secular roles. However, employing a measure of this has expanded identification of prominent U.P. laymen. Hastie lost his municipal seat to a campaign of radical and Whig opposition in 1848. Yet signalling Voluntary momentum, the Provost’s torch passed to co-denominationalist Greyfriars’ manager James Anderson.43 Another Council entrant was Andrew Gemmill, advocate, and last Provost ofthe Gorbals, who famously had defended Glasgow’s cotton spinners (1838) then masons (1840), a sign of then-prevailing Voluntary-radical links and his personal background as son of an 40 See GCA, “Lists ofthe Magistrates and Town Council ofGlasgow”, pre- and post-Disruption lists. 41 “Census of Great Britain 1851: Religious Worship and Education, Scotland”, Parliamentary Papers, 1854, lix (London, 1854), 27. 42 See Small’s entries (Vol. 11) for each town. 43 GCA, CH3/468/17, Greyfriars MM; e.g. Anderson's nameon pages 386, 436-7.