Glasgow Nonconformist Church Records

Scotland Lanarkshire  Glasgow

A nonconformist church is one that did not belong to the Established Church of Scotland. Seceders are those Presbyterian groups who broke from the Established Church and Dissenters are those groups who were of another denomination.

Only churches founded before 1855, with surviving pre–1855 records, are listed below.

Greyfriars, formerly Shuttle Street
History— The Act of Assembly of 1737, concerning the election of ministers, gave great offence to a portion of the inhabitants of Glasgow. Several praying societies had formed in various towns in and around Glasgow, and they eventually joined together to form a “Correspondence” meeting group. In December 1738 they petitioned the Associate Presbytery to be taken under their inspection, which was granted. They were organized as a congregation in April 1739 and built a church on Shuttle Street in 1742. In 1821 they built a nicer church on North Albion Street, which they named Greyfriars after a monastery that used to stand at that location. Their first minister was James Fisher, one of the Four Brethren honored as founders of the Secession Church. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #. More details may be given in the source including a list of ministers.

Records—                                                                 FHL Film Number  Baptisms 1729–1783, 1834–1870                                    item 1 Proclamations and Marriages 1743–1779                        ditto Session Minutes 1739–1755, 1801–1823, 1827–1836      1485255 - in vault Other: Communion Rolls 1841–1951 Congregational Register 1830–1844 Sabbath School Roll of Members 1839–1951 Various Minutes 1769–1962 Various Accounts 1801–1852, 1856–1909 Seat Letting Books 1839–1951 Note: Available at the Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow record CH3/469.

Cambridge Street United Presbyterian
History— This congregation originated in 1834 with members of different Secession congregations in Glasgow, desirous of extending the interests of their denomination in the city. They selected a site for a Secession place of worship at the boundaries of barony and St George’s parishes and built a church. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #. More details may be given in the source including a list of ministers.

Records—                  Years               FHL Film Number  Baptisms,                    1835–1876         item 9 Minutes,                      1835–1863         items 4–5 Manger’s Minutes,        1833–1861         Communion Roll,          1834–1876         Other: More Communion Rolls 1834–1898 Note: Available at the Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow record CH3/535.

Duke Street, General Associate Congregation
History— This congregation originated in the Breach in 1747. The majority of Shuttle Street, now Greyfriar’s congregation, adhered to the Associate Burgher Synod and retained the property, while the minority adhered to the General Associate Anti–burgher Synod and formed the congregation of Duke Street. They first met in a hall in Queen Street until 1754 when they moved to a newly built building on the corner of Duke and Havannah Streets. Newer churches were built at the same location in 1801 and 1871. A split in the congregation occurred in 1837 when the minister was deposed and another place of worship was built in Parliamentary Road in 1839. Another separation occurred in 1840 which led to the formation of the Montrose Street congregation. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #. More details may be given in the source including a list of ministers.

Records— No pre–1855 records are on deposit at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.

London Road
History— This congregation originated with members of different religious denominations in the eastern suburbs of Glasgow who were desirous of supplying that locality with church accommodation. After the place of worship was erected, the persons taking interest in the movement met and deliberated in reference to the religious denomination under whose inspection it should be placed, when the United Secession Church was preferred. The church opened in 1837. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #477618. More details may be given in the source including a list of ministers.

Records—                             Years                 FHL Film Number  Baptismal Register                  1838–1887           items 1–3 Session Minutes                     1853–1868           items 1–3 Communion Roll                      1837–1866           items 1–3 Other: Session Minutes 1838–1853, 1868–1950 Note: Available at the Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow record CH3/160.

Parliamentary Road
History— A split in the Duke Street congregation occurred in 1837 when the minister was deposed and another place of worship was built in Parliamentary Road in 1839. Duke Street was a General Associate, Anti–Burgher congregation and presumably this was also. This congregation remained somewhat independent until it and its minister joined the United Presbyterian Church in 1863. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #. More details may be given in the source including a list of ministers.

Records— Various Minutes 1837–1931 Cartulary 1838–1866 Note: Available at the Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow record CH3/973.

Original Secession Church
History— Unavailable

Records—                                                                FHL Film Number  Session Minutes               1808–1812, 1823–1829,                                        1837, 1841                         items 1–6 in vault Accounts                          1807–1817, 1828–1829       same Minutes                            1829–1841                         same Baptisms                          1847–1963                         same Communion Rolls              1826–1957                         same

Regent Place
History— This congregation, of 192 members and 69 adherents, were disjoined from the Duke Street congregation in 1819. A church was built in the same year. In 1849, the minister and a large portion of the congregation removed themselves and formed the Renfield Street church. A portion of the congregation remained at Regent Place and called a new minister. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #. More details may be given in the source including a list of ministers.

Records—                                                 FHL Film Number  Baptisms                       1825–1960               item 11 Session Minutes             1819–1863              items 9–10 in vault Congregational Minutes   1819–1865              items 1–8 in vault Other: Various other Minutes 1833–1871 Note: Available at the Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow record CH3/354.

Sydney Place
History— Conditions at the Shuttle Street, later Greyfriars, church were so crowed that in 1789, 148 members disjoined themselves from that congregation and formed another in East Campbell Street with the sanction of the Relief Presbytery. That building was later sold and a new church built in Sydney Place, Duke Street, in 1857. This was a Burgher church. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film # More details may be given in the source including a list of ministers.

Records—  Minutes 1788–1949 Note: Available at the Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow record CH3/847.

Associate Secession churches with no known pre–1855 records:
Wellington Street General Associate (originated in 1792 with members of the Duke Street congregation who lived in the western suburbs of Glasgow).

Anderston Relief Church
History— This congregation was formed in 1769 by elders from the Albion Street and Duke Street congregations. The church was built the following year. A new church was opened in1840. The congregation celebrated its centenary in 1870. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #. More details in the source including a list of ministers.

Records—                                FHL Film Number  Minutes,1847–1866                      item 3 Other: Baptismal Register 1827–1856 Register of Interments 1840–1892 Note: Available at the Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow record CH3/591.

Hutchesontown Relief Presbyterian Church
History— This congregation began with friends of a minister who was called to the Dovehill congregation but declined. They separated from Dovehill and built a church in Hutchesontown in 1799. Source: Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church, by Rev. William MacKelvie, D.D., pub. 1873. Family History Library Film #. More details in the source including a list of ministers.

Records—                                                  FHL Film Number  Baptismal Register               1820–1854          items 4–5 Baptismal Register               1820–1872          items 1–3 in vault

Relief Churches with No Known Surviving Pre-1855 Records
Cathedral Street, formerly Dovehill (founded 1764), East Campbell Street (branched off of Dovehill in 1791), and John Street (founded in 1798 with members from both Dovehill and East Campbell Street congregations).

Glasgow Free Presbyterian Church Congregations
For a list of Glasgow area Free Presbyterian Churches, with histories and records, click 'here'.

Great Hamilton Street
History— The congregation in Glasgow and neighborhood dates back traditionally to the time of the institution of the Praying Societies in 1681. After the division of the various societies into two congregations in 1763, it was constituted a part of the Northern congregation. In 1787 the Glasgow members were included in the west congregation that met first in Sandhills then acquired a building in Calton. The congregation grew and a new church was provided on Great Hamilton Street and opened in 1819. A mission was conducted from this church beginning in 1840 and eventually obtained its own premises. A day school was also begun the same year, which was handed over to public authorities in 1870. At that time it was the second largest school in Glasgow. During the nineteenth century Great Hamilton Street was the most influential church in the denomination. It has rightly been called Aa mother of churches, for most of the Reformed Presbyterian congregations in the west of Scotland drew their origin from it. Those in the Glasgow area include: West Campbell Street (later Dover Street) formed in 1835 it became St. Vincent’s Church of Scotland in 1876 while most of the Reformed congregations joined with the Free church in that year. Southern Cumberland Street formed in 1853 it later became Renwick Free Church. St. George’s Road was formed in 1859 and it later became Grant Street Free Church. Landressy Street formed in 1863 it later became Barrowfield Free Church. Source: The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland, by W.J. Couper, pub. 1925. Family History Library Book. This book includes a list of ministers.

Records—                      FHL Film Number  Baptisms     1794–1861      item 6

Dissenters
For a list of Glasgow area dissenting churches, with their histories and information on their records, click here.