Joseph McCormick (minister)

Joseph McCormick FRSE FSA (1733–1799) was a Scottish clergyman who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1782 and was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783.

He was born in St Andrews on 22 January 1733, one of six children to Rev John McCormick, a local minister, and his wife, Anna Drew.

[1] He studied divinity at St Andrews University and graduated MA in 1750.

He was licensed to preach as a Church of Scotland minister by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1757, but was not ordained until April 1760 when he became minister of Kilmany, but only stayed a few months before translating to Temple, Midlothian.

[1] As a widow Mary retired to the manse in Kilconquhar in Fife to live with her daughter Elizabeth and her husband Rev Dr William Ferris the local minister and died there in 1822.