A singular solace: an ecclesiastical history of Haddington, 1560-2000

Abstract

After a Preamble covering the evolution of the church in Haddington during the medieval period, this dissertation will provide a case-study of how the church in a small, semi-rural burgh evolved from 1560 to 2000 in the context of developments within the Scottish church, Scottish society and the local community. It will show that the wealth of the burgh facilitated the building of an impressive gothic church; the evolution of St Mary’s into a collegiate church; and how the building was severely damaged in 1548/9; how it was converted into a parish church after the Reformation. The study will also show that the first Protestant minister was appointed in 1562; that St Mary’s was Presbyterian during the religious controversies of the seventeenth century; that during the eighteenth century and early nineteenth Episcopal, Burgher, Antiburgher, Relief, Haldaneite, Independent, Original Secession, and Methodist meeting-houses were planted in the burgh; that because of the dominance of the established church the Disruption had a limited impact in the town; that in 1862 a Roman Catholic Church was opened; and that, after a burst of energy in the post-war period, the churches in the burgh went into numerical decline. This dissertation will also demonstrate that the evolution of the church in Haddington was influenced by a number of factors, that it had several distinctive features; and that the three main characteristics of the church in Haddington were continuity, diversity and being ‘a singular solace’ for the community.