McCRIE, THOMAS: The name of two prominent Scotch Presbyterians.
1. The biographer of John Knox; b. at Dun (36 m. e.a.e. of Edinburgh), Berwickshire, Nov., 1772; d. at Edinburgh Aug. 5, 1835. After teaching for a time in the neighboring elementary schools he studied at the University of Edinburgh (1788-1791), but did not graduate. In 1791 he opened an "anti-burgher" school at Brechin, where he resided for three years, except during the few weeks which were annually required for attendance at the theological seminary of the General Associate Synod (anti-burgher) at Whitburn. He was licensed in 1795 by the associate presbytery of Kelso, and in 1796 he was ordained pastor of the Potterrow Church, Edinburgh. In 1806, owing to differences about the province of civil magistrates in religious affairs, a schism occurred in the anti-burgher denomination, and McCrie and three other ministers withdrew from the General Associate Synod and on Aug. 28, 1806, organized the Constitutional Associate Presbytery, which in 1827 was merged in the Synod of Original Secedera. At the end of a lawsuit McCrie was ejected from the Potterrow Church in 1809. His congregation then built him the bleat Richmond Street Church, where he continued his ministrations till his death. During the years 1816-18 he filled the chair of divinity in the theological seminary of his denomination. MoCries works grew chiefly out of investigations which the controversies of the time led him to make into the early history of the Church of Scotland. His mgt important work is his Life of John Knox (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1812; 2d ed., enlarged, 1813), which not only placed McCrie in the front rank of the authors of his day, but also produced a great change of popular sentiment in regard to Knox. It was distinguished by original, painstaking research, independence of judgment, judicial fairness of mind, and singular clearness of style; and its effect on the general estimate of Knox among men was not unlike that produced, in the succeeding generation, in reference to Cromwell, by the publication of Carlyle's monograph. There is reason to
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Bibliography: A Memoir, by his eon, was prefixed to the Works, ut sup., and s Life of Thomas McCrie, D.D., by the same, appeared Edinburgh, 1840; DNB, azv. 1314. There is also s Memoir of Dr. McCrie by A. Crichton in the letter's ed. of MeCrie'e Life o1 John Knox, Edinburgh, 1840.
2. Son and biographer of the preceding; b. at Edinburgh Nov. 7, 1797; d. there May 9, 1875. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, entered the ministry of the Original Secession Church in 1820, and, after holding pastorates at Crieff and Clola, succeeded his father in 1836 as minister of the West Richmond Street Church, Edinburgh. The same year he was given the chair of divinity at the Original Secession Hall. In 1852 he joined the Free Church of Scotland, at the union with it of the larger part of the Original Secession Church. He took a prominent part in the deliberations necessary for effecting this union and in 1856 was moderator of the Free Church assembly. In 1866 he became professor of church history sad systematic theology in the Presbyterian College, London. His principal works are, Life of Thomas McCrie (Edinburgh, 1840); Sketches of Scottish Church History (1841); Lectures on Christian Baptism (1850); Memoirs of Sir Andrew Agnew (1850); and Annals of English Prealrytxry, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (London, 1872).
Bibliography: DNB, xcav. 14.
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