THOMAS
CHALMERS
17th March 1780
- 20th May 1847
The staute of Thomas Chalmers stands at the junction
of George Street and Castle
Street. Born in Anstruther, Fife, Chalmers was the founder
of the the Free Church of Scotland. He was educated
at St. Andrews University where he was ordained as a minister
in 1799 at just nineteen years old.
He furthered his studies at the University of Edinburgh for two
years before returning to St. Andrews to lecture as an assistant
to the mathematics tutor whilst also preaching at Kilmany. He
then went on to preach at the Tron Church in Glasgow where he
argued for new churches in the city. Then later to St. John's
once it was established by the town council in 1819.
Returning to St. Andrews in 1823 he became a popular
professor of Moral Philosophy. He was also a prolific writer on
issues of social welfare. In 1828 he became professor of divinity
at the University of Edinburgh and in 1832 moderator of the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland. His stance against patronage
caused distruption in the church and in 1843 he bacame the first
moderator of the Free Church of Scotland on the mound.
When he died in 1847 thousands of people lined the
streets of Edinburgh to watch his funeral procession from Charlotte
Square past his house in Churchill and onto Grange Cementery where
he is buried. |