Patrick MacFarlan


Very Rev Dr Patrick MacFarlan DD was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1834 and as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1845.

Life

He was born in Canongate manse on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh on 4 April 1781, the second son of Helen Macdowall and her husband, Rev John MacFarlan . His father was minister of Canongate Kirk. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh, then studied divinity at the University of Edinburgh.
He was ordained as a minister in the Church of Scotland in 1803. His first appointment was to Kippen in Stirlingshire. In 1810 he was translated to Polmont Parish Church near Falkirk and in 1824 to St Johns Church in Glasgow. At this time he was living at Garnet Hill in Glasgow. In 1830 the University of Edinburgh awarded him with an honorary doctorate.
At the time of his being elected moderator in 1834 he was minister of the West Kirk in Greenock. In 1835 he was succeeded in this role by Rev William Aird Thomson.
In the Disruption of 1843 he left the established church to join the Free Church of Scotland, and served as their Moderator of the General Assembly in 1845/46 being succeeded by Rev Robert James Brown.
He died in Greenock on 13 November 1849.

Family

In 1808 he married Katharen or Catherine Clason, daughter of Rev Robert Clason of Logie Kirk, south of Dunblane. They had three daughters. Katharen died following the birth of their son, John. John MacFarlan was also a Free Church minister serving in Monkton and Greenock.
Katharen's brother was Very Rev Patrick Clason, Moderator in 1848/9.

Publications