Thomas Gillespie

Background

Gillespie was born in 1708 in Clearburn, Edinburgh. His father, Thomas Gillespie (1688-1712), died when he was young, and his mother, Mary Haliburton (1689-1758), ran the family farm and brewery.

Education

Gillespie was educated at the university of Edinburgh, and studied divinity first at a small theological seminary at Perth, and afterwards for a brief period under Philip Doddridge at Northampton, where he received ordination in January 1741.

Career

In September 1741 Gillespie was admitted minister of the parish of Carnock, Fife, the presbytery of Dunfermline agreeing not only to sustain as valid the ordination he had received in England, but also to allow a qualification of his subscription to the church's doctrinal symbol, so far as it had reference to the sphere of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. Having on conscientious grounds persistently absented himself from the meetings of presbytery held for the purpose of ordaining one Andrew Richardson, an unacceptable presentee, as minister of Inverkeithing, he was, after an unobtrusive but useful ministry of ten years, deposed by the Assembly of 1752 for maintaining that the refusal of the local presbytery to act in this case was justified. He continued, however, to preach, first at Carnock, and afterwards in Dunfermline, where a large congregation gathered round him. His conduct under the sentence of deposition produced a reaction in his favour, and an effort was made to have him reinstated; this he declined unless the policy of the church were reversed. In 1761, in conjunction with Thomas Boston of Jedburgh and Collier of Colinsburgh, he formed a distinct communion under the name of "The Presbytery of Relief". The Relief Church eventually became one of the communions combining to form the United Presbyterian Church. He died on the 19th of January 1774, His only literary efforts were an Essay on the Continuation of Immediate Revelations in the Church, and a Practical Treatise on Temptation. Both works appeared posthumously (1774). In the former he argues that immediate revelations are no longer vouchsafed to the church, in the latter he traces temptation to the work of a personal devil.

Achievements

• Gillespie was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who assisted in founding the Relief Church, a Presbyterian group advocating the right of a congregation to approve its minister.

Works

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• book

  • An essay on the continuance of immediate revelations of facts and future events in the Christian Church. By the Reverend Mr Thomas Gillespie, ... With ... by the late reverend Mr. James Cuthbert, ...

    ( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)