[3] James Gibson was a Free church polemic, was born at Crieff, Perthshire, on 31 January 1799.

Towards the close of his preparatory course he became tutor in a Lanarkshire family, and in 1820 was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Hamilton.

After two years of work he made another continental tour with a pupil, receiving a testimonial from the Greenock congregation on his departure.

Gibson was afterwards appointed assistant to Dr. Lockhart in the college parish, at Blackfriars, Glasgow, and received ordination as a minister in 1835.

He was distinguished for accurate scholarship, a well cultivated mind, and sincere piety, but was not an attractive or effective preacher.

He argued that the errors supposed to be due to the action of the Emperor Constantine (who established Christianity in Roman society) had existed at an earlier date.

from Dr. Clark of Wester Moffat, with whom Gibson was on friendly terms, the general assembly of the Free church resolved to erect a theological college in Glasgow, and next year (1856) Gibson was elected professor of systematic theology and church history.

JAMES GIBSON, A.M. , Glasgow Free Church Monthly, January 1872 He married on 25 June 1839, Elizabeth, daughter of John Campbell, minister of Tolbooth Parish, Edinburgh, and had issue — Works by or about James Gibson at the Internet Archive