Burgher Church / United Presbyterian Church

Burgher Church / United Presbyterian Church

A Burgher Church was built on the west side of Clinton Street in the 1780s. The Burghers were a break-away movement from the Church of Scotland and enjoyed considerable support in Newburgh. In the 1790s the local Church of Scotland minister commented that the ‘Burgher Seceders may exceed one third of the whole inhabitants of the parish’. In the 1820s most of the Burgher churches in Scotland joined with the Anti-Burghers (a related movement which adopted a more severe line on engagement in civic life) to create the new United Secession Church. Not long after this, in the 1830s, the church on the west side of Clinton Street was expanded. In 1847 there was further reorganisation and the congregation became part of the United Presbyterians. Sadly for much of the late nineteenth century the congregation was split by bitter feuding, and in the 1890s the minister John Brown apparently gave ‘serious offence to a large section of his people’ by a controversial sermon on the evils of alcohol. At the start of the twentieth century the congregation became known as Newburgh West United Free Church (following the union of the United Presbyterians and the Free Church). However, numbers attending the church had already declined significantly. By 1912 the site seems to have stopped being used for worship and was functioning as a drill hall. The former church was used by Polish units during the Second World War. It later became a weaving centre and now serves as holiday accommodation.

sacredlandscapesoffife

1780

Bess Rhodes

Site

245

24/11/2022

09/26/2023 12:58:49 pm

Robert Small, History of the Congregations of the United Presbyterian Church From 1733 to 1900 (1904), vol. 1, pp. 195-198. Thomas Stuart, ‘Parish of Newburgh’, in the Old Statistical Account (1793), vol. 8, pp. 170-191. Places of Worship in Scotland, ‘Newburgh United Free Church’: http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/8136/name/Newburgh+United+Free+Church+Newburgh+Fife [Accessed 11 November 2021]. Historic Environment Scotland, Canmore entry for ‘Newburgh, 2,3 Clinton Street, Drill Hall’: https://canmore.org.uk/site/331502/newburgh-2-3-clinton-street-drill-hall [Accessed 11 November 2021].

cm x cm x cm

current,56.34901755719009,-3.246837296167702;

Burgher Church / United Presbyterian Church

TEXT

Building

517

1910

Burgher Church,Free Church,United Presbyterian

Newburgh