Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion discusses the union negotiations between the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church between 1863 and 1873. While these talks ultimately failed due to establishmentarian resistance within a section of the Free Church, the increased co-operation between the two churches in the areas discussed in this book proved that in the twenty years after the Disruption the two major non-established Presbyterian churches, while by no means in total ideological agreement, were able to stand side by side on the common platform of dissent. The ‘national’ and ‘dissenting’ characteristics fostered by the Free and United Presbyterian churches after 1843 paved the way not only for the disestablishment campaign of the 1870s but also for the eventual reunion of the vast majority of Scottish Presbyterians within a reformulated Church of Scotland in 1929.