bapt. 3rd Nov. 1680; James, bapt. 30th Dec. 1681; Alexander, bapt. 15th April 1683; Anna, bapt. 9th Sept. 1684; John, bapt. 20th April 1686.-[Edin. Course, Test., and Reg. (Bapt., Marr., and Bur.); Rule's Sec. Vindication.]

1691 JAMES KIRKTON, born 1628; M.A. (Edinburgh, 22nd July 1647); bursar of the Presb. of Jedburgh; min. of Second Charge, Lanark, 1655; trans. to Mertoun 1657; deprived 1662; resided for a time in England and Holland; called (after the Toleration, 22nd July 1687) to a meeting-house on the Castlehill, Edinburgh, and adm. to this charge 25th Jan. 1691; died 17th Sept. 1699. He marr. 31st Dec. 1657, Elizabeth (buried in Greyfriars, 7th April 1697), daugh. of George Baillie of Jerviswood and Mellerstain, and had issue-George, surgeon, Edinburgh; Dr Andrew, died Sept. 1694; James, captain in the Navy; William, drowned in the Water of Leith, 1676; Elizabeth, died June 1673; Rachel, died Aug. 1700. Publications-Life of Hr John Welch (Edinburgh, 1703; Sel. Biog., i.); a Sermon, being the last he preached (Edinburgh, 1726); The Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland, from the Restoration to 1678, edited (with a biographical notice) by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe (Edinburgh, 1817).-[Edin. Counc. Guild, Lanark Presb., and Reg. (Bur.); Wodrow's Hist.; Edin. Chr. Inst., xxv; Brodie's and Fountainhall's Diaries; M'Crie's Life of Knox, ii.; S. Presb. Eloq., Levers and Melv. Pap.; Acts Parl., ix.; Dict. Nat. Biog.]

1706 JOHN MATHISON, M.A.; called l9th Sept., and ord. 12th Dec. 1706; trans. to the High Kirk Parish 5th Nov. 1710.

1711 JOHN M'LAREN, born 1667, educated at Glasgow Univ.; master of the Grammar School, Glasgow; licen. 25th March 1691; ord. to Kippen 1692; trans. to Carstairs 1699; called 20th March, trans. and adm. 29th July 1711. He refused to take the Oath of Abjuration in 1712, and was one of six who protested against the loosing from their parochial charges of Ebenezer

Erskine and his friends, 16th Nov. 1733. He died 11th July 1734. He marr. (1) 25th July 1695, Eupham Park, and had issue-Helen (marr. 10th Nov. 1728, William Tod, merchant, Edinburgh) (2) Agnes, daugh. of William Mein, min. of Dalkeith. Publications-The New Scheme of Doctrine contained in the Answers of Mr John Simson, Professor of Divinity in the College of Glasgow (Edinburgh, 1717); The Spiritual Burgess, a sermon (Edinburgh, 1735). He is said to have drawn up a reply to Limborch's System of Divinity.[Brown's Gosp. Truth; Wodrow's Anal., iii.]

1735 JOHN TAYLOR, M.A. (Edinburgh, 12th May 1703); licen. by Presb. of Edinburgh 18th Nov. 1713; ord. to Tillicoultry 1714; trans. to Alloa 1728; trans. and adm. 27th March 1735; died 12th Aug. 1736, aged about 54. He marr. and had issue-William; Cecilia (marr. Henry Sinclair, writer, Edinburgh); Marion (marr. Simon Bennet, brewer, Edinburgh). -[Wodrow's Anal., iii.; Erskine's Supp. to Gillies's Hist. Collect.; Kay's Portr., i.]

1737 ALEXANDER WEBSTER, born 1707, son of James W., min. of the Second Charge; educated at High School and Univ. of Edinburgh; licen. by Presb. of Haddington 13th March 1733; ord. to Culross 6th Sept. 1733; called 6th Jan., trans. and adm. 2nd June 1737. To him the Church is indebted for the promotion and prosperity of its fund for ministers' widows and children. He received the thanks of the General Assembly, 15th May 1744, "for the extraordinary pains and trouble taken by him in the rise and progress of the scheme," the first institution of its kind in Scotland. He was appointed chaplain to Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1748, and was Moderator of Assembly, 24th May 1753. In 1755 he drew up an account of the people, and made what was practically the first census of the population of Scotland for the information of Government; D.D. (Edinburgh, 24th Nov. 1760); one of an Assembly deputation who presented an address to George III. on his accession, 20th Dec. 1760; general collector of the Ministers' Widows' Fund, 26th June 1771. He was one of His Majesty's