Ebenezer Erskine

Who was Ebenezer Erskine?

Ebenezer Erskine was a Scottish minister whose actions led to the establishment of the Secession Church.

Ebenezer's father, Henry Erskine, served as minister at Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, but was ejected in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity. and imprisoned for several years. Ebenezer and his brother Ralph were both born during this difficult period in his father's life. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 Henry was appointed to the parish of Chirnside, Berwickshire.

In 1703, after studying at the University of Edinburgh, Ebenezer was ordained as minister of Portmoak, Kinross-shire. A year later, he married Alison Turpie. They remained in Portmoak for 28 years, until, in the autumn of 1731, he moved to the West Church, Stirling.

Some time before this, at the General Assembly of 1722, a group of men including Ebenezer had been rebuked and admonished for defending the doctrines contained in the book The Marrow of Modern Divinity. In 1733, a sermon he preached on lay patronage at the Synod of Perth led to new accusations being levelled against him. He was compelled to defend himself from rebuke by appealing to the General Assembly, but the Assembly supported his accusers. After fruitless attempts to obtain a hearing, he, along with William Wilson of Perth, Alexander Moncrieff of Abernethy and James Fisher of Kinclaven, was suspended from the ministry by the Commission of Assembly in November of that year.