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In 1770 a group of residents of Tranent appealed to the Burgher Synod against a deed of Edinburgh Presbytery which refused to grant them sermon on the grounds that an additional congregation may prove detrimental to neighbouring churches. The Synod agreed to overturn this ruling and in 1776 the congregation of Tranent Burgher Church records a membership of 71. Robert Sheriff, the first minister of the congregation, was ordained in 1779 and although the exact date of the erection of the first church is not recorded it is thought to have been at a time prior to the settlement of a fixed ministry. A new church was later built in 1826 with 637 sittings and at a cost of almost £1500. In 1847 Tranent Burgher Church became part of the United Presbyterian Church. Following the union of the United Presbyterian church and the Church of Scotland in 1900, Tranent United Presbyterian was renamed Tranent Wishart United Free Church and upon the 1929 union between the United Free Church of Scotland and the Church of Scotland, Tranent Wishart United Free became Tranent Wishart Church of Scotland. In 1937 Tranent Wishart was joined with the congregation of Tranent St Andrew's, to form the session of Tranent Wishart-St Andrews Church of Scotland. After this local union the former Wishart Church remained in use as the place of worship and in 1941 the St Andrew's Church was requisitioned by the Ministry of Food. The former St Andrew's church was later demolished in 1970. In 1980 the charge of Tranent Church of Scotland was formed by the union of Tranent Old and Tranent Wishart St Andrew's, and the united congregation sits under the jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Lothian. |