M’CRIE, THOMAS, D.D.,
a distinguished divine and historian, was born at Dunse, in November
1772. He received his elementary instruction at the parish school,
and before he was 15 years of age, he taught successively two
country schools in the neighbourhood of his native town. In 1788 he
was sent to the university of Edinburgh, and in May 1791 he became
the teacher of a school at Brechin, in connection with the
Antiburgher congregation of that town. He studied divinity under Mr.
Archibald Bruce, minister at Whitburn, and theological professor of
the General Associate or Antiburgher Synod. In September 1795 he was
licensed as a preacher by the Associate presbytery of Kelso, and in
May 1796 he was ordained minister of the second Associate
congregation in the Potterrow, Edinburgh. His first publication was
a Sermon; and to a new religious periodical started in Edinburgh in
1797, called ‘The Christian Magazine,’ of which he was afterwards
for a time editor, he communicated various able papers on different
subjects. He also distinguished himself in polemical theology,
having, in conjunction with Mr. Whytock of Dalkeith, published two
pamphlets of Faith, in answer to some statements contained in a work
by a Baptist minister of Edinburgh.
In 1806, Mr. M’Crie felt himself conscientiously impelled to
separate from the General Associate synod, on account of the
doctrines involved in ‘The Narrative and Testimony; adopted by that
body in 1804, relative to the powers and duties of the civil
magistrate in ecclesiastical matters. He and Mr. Bruce, and two
other ministers, entered repeated protests against the prevailing
party in the Synod, “for having departed from some important
doctrines of the Protestant churches, of the Westminster Confession
of Faith, and of that particular testimony which they had
subscribed” at their license and ordination; and on August 28, 1806,
the four protesters, Messrs, M’Crie, Bruce, Hog, and Aitken, formed
themselves into a presbytery, afterwards styled “The Constitutional
Associate Presbytery.” Having thus dissolved their connection with
the Synod, the latter body almost immediately thereafter formally
deposed Messrs, Aitken and M’Crie from the ministry. a tedious
lawsuit took place relative to the possession of his meeting-house,
which was decided against him, when a new chapel was erected for
him, in West Richmond Street, by those of his people who had
espoused his sentiments. The Constitutional Presbytery existed till
1827, when, being joined by a body of protesters from the Associate
Synod, they took the name of Original Seceders.
In the examination of the question in dispute, Mr. M’Crie had
been led to enter deeply into the study of Ecclesiastical history,
particularly in Scotland, when he obtained a most intimate
acquaintance with the fundamental principles of the Protestant
churches, as well as a thorough knowledge of the character and
objects of those eminent and faithful men by whose labours they were
founded. His ‘Life of John Knox’ was published in November 1811, and
a second edition, with considerable alterations and additions,
appeared in 1813. This work gave a juster view of the conduct and
principles of the illustrious Reformer than had ever before been
exhibited, and at once placed its author in the first rank of
ecclesiastical historians. It has gone through several editions, and
has been translated into the French, Dutch, and German languages.
shortly after its appearance, the university of Edinburgh conferred
upon the author the degree of D.D., being the first time it had been
bestowed on a dissenting minister in Scotland. To the pages of the
‘Christian Instructor,’ then edited by Dr. Andrew Thomson, Dr.
M’Crie became an occasional contributor; and one of the ablest of
the articles furnished to that periodical was his celebrated
critique of the ‘Tales of my Landlord,’ inserted in the numbers for
January, February, and March, 1817, containing a powerful and
complete vindication of the Covenanters against the attacks of Sir
Walter Scott.
During 1817 and 1818, after the death of Mr. Bruce, Dr. M’Crie
performed the duties of professor of theology to the small body with
which he was connected. In the end of 1819 appeared his ‘Life of
Andrew Melville,’ intended as a continuation of the ecclesiastical
history which he had commenced in the Life of Knox. This also has
become a standard work. The 2d edition was published in December
1823, with numerous additions and improvements.
In 1821 Dr. M’Crie published ‘Two Discourses on the Unity of
the Church, her Divisions, and their Removal,’ designed to show the
fallacious principles on which the then recent union of the burghers
and Anti-burghers had been founded. He subsequently published the
following works: In 1825, ‘Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch, and George
Bryson;’ in 1827, ‘History of the Progress and Suppression of the
Reformation in Italy, in the 16th Century;’ and in 1829,
a similar History of the Reformation in Spain. His last publication
was an anonymous pamphlet, in May 1833, on the subject of Patronage,
in which he recommends its entire abolition. He had been, for
several years, engaged on a Life of Calvin, for which he had
collected the most valuable materials, but which was left
incomplete. Dr. M’Crie died at Edinburgh, August 5, 1835.
He was twice married, first, in 1796, to Janet, daughter of
Mr. William Dickson, farmer, parish of Swinton, by whom he had Rev.
Thomas M’Crie, D.D., LL.D., his successor, appointed in 1857
professor of systematic theology in the London Theological college
of the Presbyterian church in England; William, merchant in
Edinburgh; Jessie, wife of Archibald Meikle, Esq., Flemington; John,
who died in Oct. 1837, and Rev. George, minister, Clola,
Aberdeenshire; and, 2dly, in 1827, to Mary, 4th daughter
of Rev. Robert Chalmers of Haddington, who survived him; and to
whom, on her husband’s death, a handsome annuity was granted by
Government. A life of this estimable divine was published by his
son, the Rev. Thomas M’Crie, in 1840.
