Robert Aitken (1800–1873) was a Scottish popular preacher who formed 'The Christian Society', with his following primarily drawn from Methodist and Anglican believers, promoting a mix of evangelism and tractarianism.

[1] While still very young, Aitken became a school-master in Sunderland, and, whilst living in the village of Whitburn near that town, was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 1823 by Bishop William Van Mildert.

In 1829 they bought substantial land at Crosby, Isle of Man called Ballyemin, later renamed Eyreton in honour of Anna Elizabeth Aitken.

Following sixteen days of fasting and prayer Aitken underwent a "spectacular conversion" and circa 1833–4 left the Church of England.

[3] In 1833 Aitken designed and built 'Eyreton Castle' where he opened a school, run on exclusively religious grounds; in 1834 the first prospectus had the motto "Holiness unto the Lord".

[5] He remained in sympathy with them until the Warren controversy arose in 1835;[6] the conservative Jabez Bunting seems to have always viewed Aitken as a divisive figure who was inimical to his own ambitions.

[7][8] Having been rebuffed by Conference, Aitken formed 'The Christian Society' in Liverpool in December 1835; "separating himself from all sects and religious bodies" he became an evangelical revivalist taking some of the Methodist Association leaders and members with him.

The Society was based on a merger of Anglican and Methodist polities, and mixed evangelism with tractarianism, preaching "the glorious gospel of Holiness and the New Birth".

At White's Row, Aitken (a strict teetotaller) had an enormous impact upon two Methodist local preachers, William Bridges and James Banyard, the men who founded the Peculiar People.

He asked the Lord to "smite" their leaders but his combative stance seems to have worked against him; the Christian Society membership proved to be a great source of Latter Day Saints converts.

Shortly after his marriage Aitken applied to the Bishop of Chester for re-instatement in active ministry, he was given a three-year probationary period "to prove his worthiness and serious intent".

In this remote district, on the Atlantic coast, he designed and built and under his own personal supervision, a cruciform church on the model of Iona Abbey, the labour being supplied by miners and people of the neighbourhood, chiefly in their leisure hours.