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Evangelists and Their Hearers: Popular Interpretation of Revivalist Preaching in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Ned Landsman
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Extract

The most persistent difficulty confronting historical interpreters of popular religion in the early modern world is that of establishing the relationship between ideas enunciated by religious leaders and those held by their hearers. The causes of that uncertainty are obvious; where historical materials for the former are plentiful, sources that address the latter are far more difficult to obtain. The great majority of evidence that we have concerning lay religiosity derives from clerical rather than lay sources, and most of it tells us more about religious behavior than belief. Even those rare accounts we have that purport to narrate the spiritual experiences of ordinary people tend to be both unrepresentative and stylized, to the point where the ultimate implications of such materials for understanding popular belief often are far from certain.

Problems of documentation lead to equally significant but less often noted distortions in perspective. Where they have lacked adequate source materials for recovering the mental world of the laity, historians almost by necessity have had to approach their task as one of ascertaining the portion and proportion of the expressions of the ministry that lay men and women adopted. Thus deviations from clerical orthodoxy can only be understood as indicative either of a lack of intellectual sophistication on the part of the laity, or, at best, of a latent “folk” worldview that remains almost inaccessible to historical description. Yet there is ample documentation in the historical record that the laity possessed a rather remarkable capacity to integrate seemingly disparate beliefs and actively forge their own understandings of the delivered message and create their own religious symbols.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 1989 , pp. 120 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1989

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References

1 For some useful general discussions of the problems of interpreting popular religiosity, see Davis, Natalie Zemon, “Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of Popular Religion,” in The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion, ed. Trinkaus, Charles and Oberman, Heiko A. (Leiden, 1974), pp. 307–36Google Scholar; Burke, Peter, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (New York, 1978)Google Scholar; Clark, Stuart, “French Historians and Early Modern Popular Culture,” Past and Present, no. 100 (1978), pp. 62–99Google Scholar; Butler, Jon, “Magic, Astrology, and the Early American Religious Heritage, 1600–1760,” American Historical Review 84 (1979): 317–46CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Hall, David, “The World of Print and Collective Mentality in Seventeenth Century New England,” in New Directions in American Intellectual History, ed. Higham, John and Conkin, Paul M. (Baltimore, 1979), pp. 66–81Google Scholar; and Van Engen, John, “The Christian Middle Ages as a Historiographic Problem,” American Historical Review 91 (1986): 519–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 A striking example is Ginzburg, Carlo, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller (London, 1976)Google Scholar. Also see Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York, 1971)Google Scholar; Strauss, Gerald, “Success and Failure in the German Reformation,” Past and Present, no. 67 (1975), pp. 30–63Google Scholar; Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (New York, 1978)Google Scholar; Muchembled, Robert, Popular Culture and Elite Culture in France, 1400–1750 (Baton Rouge, La., 1985)Google Scholar. In contrast, see Clark.

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4 McCulloch, William, “Examination of Persons under Spiritual Concern at Cambuslang during the Revival in 1741–42 by the Revd. William Macculloch,” 2 vols., New College Library, EdinburghGoogle Scholar. Excerpts from the manuscript were published in McFarlan, D. (The Revivals of the Eighteenth Century, Particularly at Cambuslang [Edinburgh, 1846])Google Scholar, and it has been cited extensively, although for rather different purposes, by Fawcett, Arthur (The Cambuslang Revival: The Evangelical Revival Movement of the Eighteenth Century [London, 1971])Google Scholar and by Smout, T. C. (“Born Again at Cambuslang: New Evidence on Popular Religion and Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Scotland,” Past and Present, no. 97 [1982], pp. 114–27)Google Scholar.

5 Houston, R. A., in “The Literacy Myth? Illiteracy in Scotland, 1630–1760” (Past and Present, no. 96 [1982], pp. 81–102)Google Scholar, and more advisedly in Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity: Illiteracy and Society in Scotland and Northern England, 1600–1800 (Cambridge, 1985)Google Scholar, has challenged the ubiquity of literacy in Scotland, although his data still tend to confirm that reading literacy in lowland Scotland was as high as or higher than virtually anywhere else in Britain. Also see Smout.

6 See SirSinclair, John, comp., The Statistical Account of Scotland, 21 vols. (Edinburgh, 1791–1799), 5:241–74Google Scholar; Brown, J. T. T., Cambuslang: A Sketch of the Place and the People Earlier than the Nineteenth Century (Glasgow, 1884)Google Scholar; M'Ewan, Robert, Old Glasgow Weavers: Being Records of the Incorporation of Weavers (Glasgow, 1916)Google Scholar; “Minute Book, 1738–1832,” Records of the Society of Weavers in Anderston, Strathclyde Regional Archives; and see Durie, Alastair J., The Scottish Linen Industry in the Eighteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1979)Google Scholar.

7 Fleming, Robert, The fulfilling of the Scripture, or An essay shewing the exact accomplishment of the word of God in his works of providence (n.p., 1669)Google Scholar. The religious situation in Scotland during the Civil War and after has been discussed many times, most recently by Cowan, Ian, The Scottish Covenanters, 1660–1688 (London, 1976)Google Scholar; also see Fawcett for background about Cambuslang.

8 A good modern history of the Secession remains to be written. McKerrow's, JohnHistory of the Secession Church (Edinburgh, 1854)Google Scholar, though highly partisan, remains valuable for the many original documents it reprints. See also Brown, Callum G., The Social History of Religion in Scotland since 1730 (London, 1987)Google Scholar. Moderatism has been more suitably treated by Sher, Richard (Church and University in the Scottish Enlightenment: The Moderate Literati of Edinburgh [Princeton, N.J., 1985])Google Scholar. Sher makes a good case for restricting the designation “Moderate” to the party that formed after 1750; I have used “moderate” to refer to those predecessors who began to deemphasize the enforcement of strict doctrinal standards.

9 The following discussion of the events at Cambuslang, unless otherwise noted, draws on Robe, James, Narratives of the Revival of Religion at Kilsyth, Cambuslang, and other Places in 1742, 2d ed. (Glasgow, 1840)Google Scholar; the narratives printed in Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel, ed. Gillies, John, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1754)Google Scholar; McFarlan; Fawcett; and McCulloch.

10 Whitefield's descriptions are quoted in McFarlan, pp. 62–64.

11 The two revival papers were McCulloch, 's Glasgow Weekly History Relating to the Late Progress of the Gospel at Home and Abroad, which ran from 1741 to 1742Google Scholar; and Robe's, JamesChristian Monthly History or an Account of the Revival and Progress of Religion at Home and Abroad, published erratically between 1742 and 1746Google Scholar.

12 One of the best discussions of the role of doctrinal orthodoxy in Scotland can be found in the introduction to James Gordon's Diary, 1692–1710, ed. Henderson, G. D. and Porter, H. H. (Aberdeen, 1949), pp. 38 ff.Google Scholar; see also Landsman, Ned C., Scotland and Its First American Colony, 1683–1765 (Princeton, N.J., 1985), pp. 59–61Google Scholar.

13 McCulloch (n. 4 above), 2:557–71 (Janet Struthers), and vols. 1–2, passim.

14 Wodrow, Robert, Analectica; or Materials for a History of Remarkable Providences; Mostly Relating to Scotch Ministers and Christians, 4 vols. (Edinburgh, 1842), 4:279–80Google Scholar; McCulloch, 1:86 (Janet Reid), 1:96–97 (Mary Mitchell), and passim; and esp. A Short Account of the Remarkable Conversions at Cambuslang. In a Letter From a Gentleman in the West-Country to his Friend at Edinburgh (Glasgow, 1742), pp. 5–8Google Scholar.

15 Short Account; McCulloch, 1:17–38 (Janet Jackson), 1:94–101 (Mary Mitchell), 1:102–10 (Elizabeth Jackson), and passim.

16 McCulloch, 1:17–38 (Janet Jackson), 1:102–10 (Elizabeth Jackson), 2:265–296 (Catherine Jackson), and passim; Short Account, pp. 8–9.

17 McCulloch, 1:27–28 (Janet Jackson), 1:72–73 (Anne Wylie), and passim.

18 Ibid., esp. 1:368–75 (Janet Merrilie), 1:465 (John Aiken), and passim.

19 Dune (n. 6 above); Norman Murray, The Scottish Hand Loom Weavers, 1790–1850 (Edinburgh, 1978)Google Scholar; Sinclair (n. 6 above), 5:241–74.

20 M'Ewan (n. 6 above); also “Minute Book of the Weavers of Caltoun and Blackfaulds; “Minute Book, 1738–1832, Society of Weavers of Anderston,” both in Strathclyde Regional Archives.

21 Minute Book of the Weavers of Caltoun and Blackfaulds”; “Minute Book, 1738–1832”; ”Records of the Kirk Session of Cambuslang,” vol. 2 (1722–1748)Google Scholar, Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh; and “Records of the Kirk Session of Barony Parish,” vol. 4 (1737–1756)Google Scholar, Strathclyde Regional Archives. Weaver participation in the publication of religious tracts is discussed in Laslett, Peter, “Scottish Weavers, Cobblers and Miners Who Bought Books in t he 1750's,” Local Population Studies 3 (1969): 7–15Google Scholar. Weavers from the Glasgow region subscribed to many other books in addition to those Laslett cited; see, e.g., two editions of Watson, Thomas, A Body of Practical Divinity, Consisting of above One Hundred seventy six serons on the Lesser Catechism (Glasgow, 1734 and 1759)Google Scholar; Nevay, John, The Nature, Properties, Blessings and Saving Graces of the Covenant of Grace (Glasgow, 1748)Google Scholar; and Collins, John [Collinges], The Weavers' pocket-book; or Weaving spiritualized (Glasgow, 1766)Google Scholar. An extensive collection of such books can be found among the early Glasgow imprints in the rare book room of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow; see esp. those published by John Bryce.

22 The index to vol. 2 of McCullouch's notebooks—found at the end of vol. 1—describes the social origins of almost all of the narrators in the second vol. The index to vol. 1—located at the end of vol. 2—provides some additional information, and the occupations of a few other narrators can be discerned from the narratives. Of the sixty-two we can identify, there were seventeen men and forty-five women, a ratio somewhat lower than that found in the notebooks as a whole (thirty-four men vs. seventy-three women). More than two-thirds (forty-two of sixty-two) came from the artisanal community, twenty-one weavers and spinners or their families, and another nine from the families of shoemakers. See also the accounts in McCulloch, 1:17–37 (Janet Jackson), 1:39–75 (Anne Wylie), 1:78–84 (John McDonald), 1:94–100 (Mary Mitchell), and 2:265–96 (Catherine Jackson).

23 McCulloch, 1:9–15.

24 Ibid., 2:183–96.

25 Ibid., 2:356 (Ann Montgomery), 1:238 (Katherine Stuart), 1:513 (James Jack).

26 Ibid., 1:78–84 (John McDonald), and see 1:540–41 (Janet Reston), 2:146–47 (Margaret Skene), 2:356 (Ann Montgomery), 2:361–63 (Bethea Davie), 2:564–65 (Janet Struthers), and passim.

27 Ibid., 2:148–49 (Margaret Skene), 1:237 (Katherine Stuart), and see 2:50 (Thomas Foster), 2:472–81 (Jean Wark), 2:541 (Margaret Borland), and passim.

28 Ibid., 1:170–72 (Robert Shearer), 1:463 (John Aiken), and 1:130 (Alexander Bilsland).

29 Wodrow (n. 14 above), 4:279–80. See also Six Saints of the Covenant: Peden: Semple: Welwood: Cameron: Cargill: Smith: By Patrick Walker, ed. Fleming, D. Hay, 2 vols. (London, 1901)Google Scholar, a compilation of works first published during the 1720s and republished many times.

30 Short Account (n. 14 above), pp. 15 ff.

31 See esp. Erskine, Ralph, The True Christ no new Christ (Edinburgh, 1742)Google Scholar; and Fisher, James, A Review of the Preface to a Narrative of the Extraordinary Work at Kilsyth and other Congregations in the Neighbourhood, written by the Rev. Mr. James Robe, Minister of Kilsyth (Glasgow, 1742)Google Scholar.

32 McCulloch, 1:39–75.

33 Ibid., 1:55–72.

34 Ibid., 1:254–81.

35 Ibid., 1:96 (Mary Mitchell), and see 1:10 (Margaret Lap), 1:76 (John McDonald), 1:180 (Jean Robe), 1:282–83 (Rebecca Dykes), and many other references passim.

36 Ibid., 1:284 (Rebecca Dykes), 1:294 (Robert Shearer), and see 1:233 (Katherine Stuart), 2:9–12 (Janet Tennant), 2:589 (Agnes Hamilton), and passim.

37 Ibid., 2:49–52 ff.

38 Ibid., 1:289 (Robert Shearer), 1:368 (Janet Merrilie), and 2:52 ff. (Thomas Foster); see also 1:96–97 (Mary Mitchell), 1:172 (A. Rogers), 1:380 ff. (Agnes Glassford), and passim. John Parker added an unusual, though revealing, twist: he conceded that he feared the devil, but not Hell or the terror to come. See 2:666.

39 Ibid., 1:40 ff. (Anne Wylie), 1:26–27 (Janet Jackson).

40 Ibid., 2:265–96 (Catherine Jackson).

41 Ibid., 1:64 ff. (Anne Wylie), 1:188 (Jean Robe).

42 Ibid., 1:189 (Janet Reid), 1:385 (Agnes Glassford), and passim.

43 Ibid., 2:557 ff. (Janet Struthers), 2:447 ff. (Margaret Clerk), 1:9 (Margaret Lap), 1:52 (Anne Wylie), see 1:264 (Jean Hay), and passim.

44 Smout, , “Born Again” (n. 4 above), pp. 125–27Google Scholar; 2:557 ff. (Janet Struthers), 2:447 ff. (Margaret Clerk), 1:418 (William Miller), 1:377–78 (John Hepburn), and see 1:147 (George Tassie), 1:461 (John Aiken), and 2:433 ff. (Margaret Ritchie).

45 McCulloch, 1:107–8 (Elizabeth Jackson), 1:252 ff. (William Causlam), and see 1:12–14 (Margaret Lap).

46 Ibid., 1:479 ff. (Michael Thomson), 1:177 (A. Rogers), and 1:266–67 (Jean Hay).

47 Ibid., 1:107–8 (Elizabeth Jackson), 1:326 (Mrs. C. Cameron), see 1:12–14 (Margaret Lap), 1:30 (Janet Jackson), and 1:100 (Mary Mitchell).

48 Ibid., 1:17–37 (Janet Jackson).

49 Ibid., 1:39–75. For a more striking example of emotional possession, see 1:316–44 (Mrs. C. Cameron).

50 Ibid., 1:125 (Alexander Bilsland), 1:237 (Katherine Stuart), 1:185–86 (Jean Robe), 1:338 (Mrs. C. Cameron), see 1:142 (Alexander Bilsland), 1:254–81 (Jean Hay), 1:316–44 (Mrs. C. Cameron), 1:475–78 (Michael Thomson), and passim.

51 Ibid., 1:42 ff. (Anne Wylie), 1:183–84 (Jean Robe), 1:596 ff. (Agnes Young), and passim.

52 Ibid., 2:9–15 (Janet Barry), 2:447 (Margaret Clerk), 2:351 ff. (Mary Colquhon), 2:480–81 (Jean Wark), 1:183–84 (Jean Robe); and see 1:76 (John McDonald), 1:596–97 (Agnes Young), 2:158–63 (Daniel McLartis), 2:541 (Margaret Borland), and passim.

53 Patrick, Millar, Four Centuries of Scottish Psalmody (London, 1949)Google Scholar, chaps. 8–10; Johnson, David, Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1972)Google Scholar, chaps. 9–10.

54 McCulloch, 1:419 (William Miller), 1:192 (Jean Robe), 2:333 (Margaret Ritchie), and 2:668–69 (John Parker).

55 M'Ewan, Old Glasgow Weavers (n. 6 above); Minute Book, 1738–1832 (n. 6 above); “Minute Book, of the Weavers of Caltoun and Blackfaulds” (n. 20 above); Durie, Scottish Linen Industry (n. 6 above); and Murray, Scottish Hand-Loom Weavers (n. 19 above).

56 Buchan, Folklorist David, in The Ballad and the Folk (London, 1972)Google Scholar, has hypothesized that during the second quarter of the eighteenth century a marked separation developed between Scotland's oral and written cultures. Although the bulk of his evidence is drawn from northeastern Scotland, his analysis is compatible with the situation in the west of Scotland as well. See also McCulloch, 2:661–80 (John Parker), and passim.

57 See Laslett, “Scottish Weavers” (n. 21 above), along with the book subscription lists in the collection of early Glasgow imprints in the Mitchell Library. There is considerable discussion of American affairs in McCulloch as well as in the pamphlets and religious periodicals of 1742–45; see also O'Brien, Susan, “A Transatlantic Community of Saints: The Great Awakening and the First Evangelical Network, 1735–1755,” American Historical Review 91 (1986): 811–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 The use of personal providences in the covenanting era is evident in nearly all of the original accounts of the period; see especially Fleming, Fulfilling of the Scripture (n. 7 above); Wodrow, Robert, History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, 4 vols. (Edinburgh, n.d.)Google Scholar, Analectica (n. 14 above); and Walker, Six Saints of the Covenant (n. 29 above). The Seceder perspective, linking Scotland's troubles to the Union, is evident in such works as Erskine, Ebenezer, “The Standard of Heaven lifted up against the Powers of Hell and their Auxiliaries,” in Sermons upon the Most Important and Interesting Subjects, 4 vols. (Philadelphia, 1792), 1:447–511Google Scholar; see also Fraser, Donald, The Life and Diary of the Reverend Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling (Edinburgh, 1831), pp. 253–57Google Scholar. The Seceders' continuing use of personal providences is evident from the controversy over the publication of Memoirs of Elizabeth Cairns (Glasgow, n.d.). For evidence of some long-standing families who supported the Secession, see “Minutes of the Associate Presbytery of Glasgow, 1739–1755,” Scottish Record Office, United Societies MS.

59 McCulloch, 1:149 ff. (George Tassie), 1:352 ff. (Robert Barclay), 1:377–78 (John Hepburn), 1:418 (William Miller), 1:420 (James Tenant), and passim. The abandonment of former friends seems to have occurred especially among young men within the artisan community.

60 McCulloch, 1:27, 1:33 (Janet Jackson), 1:183–84 (Jean Robe); 2:265 ff. (Catherine Jackson), 1:106 (Elizabeth Jackson), and 2:539 (Margaret Borland).