James Campbell (minister)

In 1820, he was ordained to Traquair parish, serving there for forty-one years until his death, after which his son-in-law, Rev Jardine Wallace, took over as his successor.

[citation needed] Rev Campbell's invaluable contribution to Scottish history is the unique series of letters he wrote to his father and family.

His first business was to dissolve both Chambers of Parliament; Louis is fled into Picardy with a small guard only and to the eternal disgrace of the French character attended only by two Marshals McDonald and Suchet I think there is little doubt that we shall have a civil war but when one observes narrowly the depravity of French morals thy can scarcely make themselves believe that they have either courage or virtue to engage in it.

Shall I examine the turbaned and petticoated Turk, the bearded and knavish Jew, the monkey-mannered Frenchman, the dull and plodding Dutchman, or the money and king, business faced Britons?

One thing is that a slave is often happier in his slavery than in his freedom, for the former he has constant employment and regular pay, in the latter he is often threatened with the death of poverty.[...

James' daughter Agnes Mary married the latter's successor, Rev Jardine Wallace (1834-1910), editor of Poetical Works of Thomas Aird.

[10]>[11] At his induction, Sir John and Lady Matilda Maxwell, George Campbell's patrons, treated him to a "sumptuous banquet" at the Star Hotel, Glasgow, in the presence of numerous clergymen, the service having been conducted by the Rev Andrew Watson of the Abbey, Paisley.

[12] Months after his induction, Campbell advertised for a parish schoolmaster for the growing district, "competent to teach all the branches of an English Education, together with Latin and Greek, and at least one Modern Language."

[17] This demanding duty involved mediating in controversial cases, such as when a zealous minister complained bitterly that a Roman Catholic school was using books of "decidedly Popish character, containing passages of a kind grossly idolatrous, with superstitions historically false, most revolting to the feelings and principles of Protestants, and strongly calculated to prejudice and mislead the infant mind...".

[21] Shortly before Rev Campbell's death, in 1903, a festive dinner was given at Windsor Hall, Glasgow, to celebrate the long-standing minister's jubilee, presided by Dr Robert Stirling Maxwell, MP, and attended, inter alia, by the eminent principal of Glasgow university, Robert Herbert Story, whose father Robert had been parish minister of Rosneath in the period when Campbell had been an assistant prior to his ordination,[22] and the Right Rev John Gillespie (moderator), who said it was "gratifying to find a better spirit prevailing among the different churches compared with the time when their guest was ordained."

[24] Rev George Campbell is known for his contribution to the parish history of the corner of Glasgow where he spent fifty-one years of his life.

Using sources such as Kirk Session records, Campbell does not hesitate to mention negative aspects of Christianity such as stories of witches and the ensuing trials and hangings.