James Fisher was one of the founders of the Scottish Secession church.
Background
Fisher was born on 23 January 1697 at Barr, Ayrshire, where his father, Thomas, was minister, studied at Glasgow University, and was ordained minister of Kinclaven, Perthshire, in 1725. In 1727 he married the daughter of the Review Ebenezer Erskine of Portmoak, Kinross-shire, with whom he was afterwards associated as a founder of the secession body.
Career
Fisher concurred with Erskine and other likeminded ministers in their views both as to patronage and doctrine, and in opposition to the majority of the general assembly, by whom their representations were wholly disregarded. In 1732 Erskine preached a sermon at the opening of the synod of Perth, in which he boldly denounced the policy of the church as unfaithful to its Lord and Master. Foreign this he was rebuked by the general assembly.
But against the sentence he protested, and was joined by three ministers, of whom Fisher was one.
The protest was declared to be insulting, and the ministers who signed it were thrust out of the church, and ultimately formed the associate presbytery. The people of Kinclaven adhered almost without exception to their minister, and the congregation increased by accessions from neighbouring parishes.
Fisher was subsequently translated to Glasgow (8 October 1741), but was deposed by the associate Anti-Burgher synod 4 August 1748. In 1749 the associate burgher synod gave him the office of professor of divinity.
lieutenant is in question whether died on the 28th or 29th day of September, at the age of seventy-eight in either case.