GEMMS IDGEMMS-PERSON-002063
NameJames Kirkton
Title
Gendermale
DenominationPresbyterian
Livedb. - d. 1699-09-17 (old)
Linked Manuscripts
Linked SermonsSermon 1 on Job 19:25 -- preacher? (autograph: no)Sermon 2 on Job 19:25 -- preacher? (autograph: no)Sermon 3 on Job 19:25 -- preacher? (autograph: no)Sermon 4 on Job 19:25 -- preacher? (autograph: no)Sermon 5 on Job 19:25 -- preacher? (autograph: no)Sermon on 1 John 2:20 -- preacher (autograph: no)
Linked Reports
Associated PlacesEdinburgh -- HomeLanark -- ParishMertoun -- ParishTolbooth Kirk -- ParishEdinburgh University -- Place of Study
Source of DataCatherine Evans
Biographical Sources ConsultedODNB (Article: 15679)
Other NoteKirkton was likely born in south-east Scotland to unknown parents. He graduated MA from Edinburgh in 1647, and in 1655 became the minister of Lanark and in 1657 minister of Mertoun, Berwickshire. He married Elizabeth Baillie (c. 1640-1697) on 31 December 1657 and they had five children who survived to adulthood. After excommunicating a local landowner for being a Quaker, Kirkton began to have trouble collecting his stipend. In 1662 he was expelled for refusing to conform to episcopacy, and moved to Edinburgh where he preached illegally. He led the opposition to the second indulgence of 1672 and debated Gideon Scott on the tenets of Quakers. He was declared a rebel in 1674 and arrested two years later and intercommuned. He lived in England and the Netherlands following this. Under the 1687 Toleration Act he returned to Scotland and was minster of Tolbooth from 1691. In his later years he was a famous and wealthy preacher. He wrote a biography of John Welsh (1703) and "The Secret and True History of the Church in Scotland" (1693).
GEMMS record createdSeptember 28, 2018
GEMMS record last editedJuly 13, 2019