Andrew Symington was born at Paisley on 26 June 1785, the eldest son of a merchant at the Cross, who gave three members of his family to the ministry.

[2] He received his early training at Paisley Grammar School, and then proceeded to the University of Glasgow, where he had taken honours in several departments.

The method he adopted differed from that of his predecessor, for he abandoned expounding the Confession of Faith, and gave lectures on Systematic Theology.

[4] By his wife, Jane Stevenson, of Crookedholm, Riccarton, Ayrshire, whom he married in 1811, he had fourteen children, of whom three sons and three daughters survived him.

[5] He married, 18 December 1811, Jane (died 1836) daughter of Robert Stevenson, Esq of Shudderflat, and had issue Besides numerous tracts and sermons, Symington wrote: He also contributed ‘The Unity of the Heavenly Church’ (1845) to ‘Essays on Christian Union,’ wrote memoirs of Archibald Mason and Thomas Halliday, which are prefixed to the collected editions of their discourses, and supplied an article on the Reformed Presbyterian church to the ‘Cyclopædia of Religious Denominations,’ 1853, 8vo.