Aberdeen's Churches in the late Eighteenth Century

Abstract

From reports given in the Old Statistical Account, the Rev. H.G. Graham, the historian of social life in eighteenth century Scotland, concluded that the churches in the first half of the century, and in many cases at the end of the century, were 'a disgrace to art' and 'a scandal to religion', being dark, damp, frequently ruinous and generally comfortless. As the century advanced, upgrading and rebuilding began. In Aberdeen, the end of the eighteenth century was a time of accelerating change. 2 The population was increasing and the town was expanding beyond the limits of the compact medieval burgh which had stood with little alteration since the twelfth century. Its old boundaries were determined by the Denburn on the west, the Shiprow and the harbour on the south, the Castlehill (along the line of East and West North Street) to the east and the Gallowgate and the Vennel (St Paul Street) to the north (see map). 3 Interestingly, the expansion of the town's economy and infrastructure coincided with the proliferation of its churches. However this was not primarily a consequence of population growth. Neither was it a reflection of a revival of religion. Rather it was a consequence of divergence and division within the church. The toleration of dissent, a movement which had been gathering momentum from the beginning of the eighteenth century and which culminated in the repeal of the penal laws in 1793, was paralleled by the fragmentation of the church. Novel sects appeared on the scene and within the presbyterian church itself there was a marked and growing tendency to faction and fission, a drift to party and schism. Frequently, disputed settlements gave rise to dichotomous congregations and every new group asserted its independent status by erecting its own meeting-house. Consequently the closing decade of the century was remarkable for its church building activity. In 1800, nineteen separate centres of worship, several of them of recent origin, catered for the religious proclivities of the town's inhabitants. To list them is to compile a directory of the segmented parts of the Christian church in Scotland as it splintered its way into the nineteenth century. Aberdeen was the last of the major towns in Scotland to have had its collegiate church disjoined and until that occurred in 1828, there had been but one parish, the Parish of St Nicholas. Adjoining it to the north and west was the Parish of Old Machar, the parish church there being St Machar's, Old Aberdeen. Within the civil parishes of St Nicholas and Old Machar, there were several separate charges, all, with one exception, being in the Parish of St Nicholas. The exception was Gilcomston, which being to the west of the Denburn, was in the territory of Old Machar. In Aberdeen itself, the oldest churches were West St Nicholas, the 'mither kirk', (rebuilt 1755); East St Nicholas (later rebuilt in 1835 and again in 1874); Greyfriars Church, a pre-Reformation building with unique historical associations which, from 1532 to 1903, stood on Longacre near the present entrance to Marischal College; 4 and St