Donald Macfarlane (1834–1926) was the founding father of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
It began as a separate denomination when he tabled a Protest against the Declaratory Act at 25 May 1893 meeting of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900).
The Act, originally passed in 1892, had allowed a watering-down of the Calvinism of the church and conservative Free Churchmen like Macfarlane believed it would prevent church discipline of those who opposed the Westminster Confession of Faith as a result of it.
[2] Macfarlane was minister of the Free Church in Strathconon, Ross-shire (1873–1879), followed by Moy, Inverness-shire (1879–1889) and Kilmallie (1889–1893).
As a Free Presbyterian minister he served in Raasay until 1903 when he was translated to the Dingwall congregation which he pastored until his death in 1926.