John Smyth (minister)

The Very Rev Dr John Smyth DD (1796–1860) was a 19th-century Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly for the Free Church of Scotland 1853/54.

Life

He was born in Ayr in 1796. He studied divinity at the University of Edinburgh and was ordained by the Church of Scotland in 1823 as minister of St George's in Glasgow, living in a manse on Stirlings Road.[1]

In the Disruption of 1843 he left the established Church of Scotland to join the Free Church of Scotland. St Georges (on Bath Street) was one where the entire congregation moved to the Free Church, thereby not requiring a new building.[2]

In 1853 he succeeded the Very Rev Angus Makellar as Moderator. He was succeeded in turn by the Rev James Grierson in 1854. He was then living at 17 Elmbank Place.[3]

Smyth died in 1860. St George's was sold in 1864 and renamed St David's, with a new St George's then being built.

Publications
The Moderator and Ex Moderators of the Free Church of Scotland, Assembly; 1860
  • The Forgiveness of Sins
  • The Popish Anti-Christ

Family

He was twice married: to Margaret Davidson in 1825; and to Violet Isabella Lockhart in 1834.

Artistic recognition

He was photographed by Hill & Adamson in 1843.[4] He was photographed in 1860 (illustrated right) at the foot of the steps to New College with several other ex-Moderators of the Free Church.[5]

References
  1. Glasgow Post Office Directory 1825
  2. Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church; St George's, Glasgow
  3. Glasgow Post Office Directory 1850
  4. "Rev. Dr John Smyth, 1796 - 1860. Of St George's, Glasgow; Moderator of the Free Church Assembly". National Galleries of Scotland.
  5. "The Moderator and Ex Moderators of the Free Church of Scotland, Assembly 1860". National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
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