He has been called "the father of Scottish palaeontology"; his book The History of Rutherglen and East-Kilbride contains the first technical illustrations of fossils in Scotland.
[4] In 1783 he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Glasgow, and became assistant to David Connell, minister of East Kilbride in Lanarkshire.
[1] On the death of Connell in 1790, Ure had some expectation of being appointed his successor, but, finding the parish not unanimous, he set off for Newcastle-upon-Tyne on foot, and acted for some time as assistant in the presbyterian church there.
[4] In appreciation of his work in December 1795 he was presented by David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan to the parish of Uphall in Linlithgow.
On 28 March 1798 he died of dropsy at Uphall; he was buried in the Erskine family vault, at St Nicholas Kirk in the village.