Archibald Scott (moderator)

Archibald Scott (1837–1909) was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1896.

[1] He was born on 18 September 1837 at Bogton Farm near Cadder, north of Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, the sixth son of Margaret (née Brown) and James Scott, a farmer.

His studied mathematics under William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, Greek was under Edmund Lushington, and Latin from Professor Ramsay.

He began as assistant to Rev Dr Archibald Watson of St Matthew's Church in Glasgow.

In January 1860 he was ordained as first minister of the East Church in Perth (St John's, close to the River Tay) replacing Rev Elder Cumming.

But again his stay was short-lived, he was chosen to replace the late Rev Dr William Glover (1801-1871) of Greenside Church in Edinburgh in September 1871.

Amongst his congregation and Kirk Session was the aged Andrew Young (who ran the Sunday School and Charles John Pearson.

[9] In 1880 he replaced Rev Robert Horne Stevenson (who resigned in June 1879) as minister of St George's Church on Charlotte Square in Edinburgh's New Town.

[10] St George's had an even more impressive and affluent congregation than Greenside: incorporating the residents of Charlotte Square, the Moray Estate, Edinburgh's West End and the First New Town.

Moreover, due to undue optimism, almost all churches were created of a size capable of holding the entire congregation of the parish.

[12] He was replaced at St Georges by Rev Gavin Lang Pagan (later killed serving as a Chaplain in WW1 at the Battle of Arras (1917)).

A bronze bust by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray RSA was previously in the entrance lobby of St George's Church.