|
Admin
history |
In the centuries following the Reformation, the Parish Kirk of Perth, St John's was divided into three, with three separate congregations, who took their names from their relative situations - East, Middle and West. On 18th May 1843, there took place a Disruption, when the ministers and their followers left the Established Church to form the Free Church of Scotland. They included five of the seven ministers in Perth, among them the Rev Andrew Gray of the West Kirk and Dr William Aird Thomson of the Middle Kirk. The congregations retained their names as the Free West and the Free Middle.
The Free West worshipped for a short time as the Independent Chapel, but in October 1843 moved into a new church, built on the site in the Glover's Yard where Rev William Wilson and his flock had worshipped over one hundred years previously. On 23rd November 1871, a new church in Tay Street, was opened for worship. At the time of the union in 1965, this building was chosen as the new home for St Matthew's.
[Above details taken from 'St Matthew's Church Perth, A Brief History', CH3/1284/93]
|