William Maxwell Hetherington


Rev Prof William Maxwell Hetherington DD LLD was a Scottish minister, poet and church historian.

Life

He was born in the parish of Troqueer, near Dumfries. After a parish school education, he was intended for a career as gardener, but entered the University of Edinburgh in 1822, Hetherington became minister of Torphichen, Linlithgow, in 1836; in the same year he married Jennie, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Meek of Hamilton.
In the Disruption of 1843 he left the established church and joined the Free Church of Scotland, and in 1844 was appointed to a charge in St Andrews. He became minister of Free St. Paul's Church, Edinburgh, in 1848. In Edinburgh he lived at 27 Minto Street.
In 1857 he was appointed professor of apologetics and systematic theology in the Free Church College, Glasgow.
He then lived at 13 Oakfield Terrace in Glasgow.
He had a stroke 1n 1862 which forced him to give up ministering but he continued to write until death.
He died at home in Glasgow but is buried with his wife Jessie Meek, who had died in Edinburgh in 1851. The grave lies on the north edge of the north-west section of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh, under a huge granite Celtic cross by the sculptor John Rhind.

Works

Before completing his studies for the church he published, in 1829, Twelve Dramatic Sketches' founded on the Pastoral Poetry of Scotland, with delineations of scenery and manners.
Besides his poems Hetherington published:
In 1844 Hetherington established the Free Church Magazine, which he edited for four years. He also contributed to religious periodicals, especially the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, and published sermons, poems, and some shorter religious works.