Robert Burns (theologian)

Robert Burns
Personal details
Born	1789 Scotland
Died	1869 Canada
Denomination	(1) Church of Scotland (2) Free Church (3) Presbyterian Church in Canada

Robert Burns (1789–1869) was a Scottish theological writer and church leader.

Burns was born at Bo'ness in 1789. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, licensed as a probationer of the Church of Scotland in 1810, and ordained minister of the Low church, Paisley, in 1811. He was a man of great energy and activity, a popular preacher, a laborious worker in his parish and town, a strenuous supporter of the evangelical party in the church, and one of the foremost opponents of lay patronage. In 1815, impressed with the spiritual wants of his countrymen in the colonies, he helped to form a colonial society for supplying them with ministers, and of this society he continued the mainspring for fifteen years. Joining the Free Church of Scotland in 1843, he was sent by the general assembly in 1844 to the United States, to cultivate fraternal relations with the churches there, and in 1845 he accepted an invitation to be minister of Knox Presbyterian Church (Toronto), in which charge he remained till 1856, when he was appointed professor of church history and apologetics in Knox College (Toronto), a theological institution of the presbyterian church. Burns took a most lively interest in his church, moving about with great activity over the whole colony, and becoming acquainted with almost every congregation. He died in 1869.^[1]

He was the author of several works. These include A Historical Dissertation on the Law and Practice of Great Britain with regard to the Poor (1819), On Pluralities (1824), The Gareloch Heresy tried (1830), Life of Stevenson Macgill, D.D. (1842). Besides writing these works, he edited in 1828 a new edition of Wodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, from the Restoration to the Revolution, in 4 volumes, contributing a life of the author; and for three years (1838–1840) he edited and contributed many papers to the Edinburgh Christian Instructor, which had been a powerful organ of the evangelical party in the church when edited by Andrew Mitchell Thomson.

• An Essay on the Office and Duties of the Eldership in the Church of Scotland (Paisley, 1818)
• Historical Dissertations on the Lata and Practice of Great Britain, and particularly of Scotland, with regard to the Poor (Edinburgh, 1819)
• Plurality of Offices in the Church of Scotland Examined (Glasgow, 1824)
• Three Letters to a Friend on the Moral Bearings of the Bible Society Controversy (Edinburgh, 1827)
• The Gareloch Heresy tried (1830)
• Memoir of the Rev. Stevenson M'Gill, D. D. (Edinburgh, 1842) [vide Plagiarisms of Rev. Dr R. Burns, one of the Ministers of Paisley, detected and exposed (Edinburgh, 1842)].
• He edited a new edition of Robert Wodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, 4 vols. (Glasgow, 1828–1831), contributing a Memoir of the author; and for three years (1838–1840) he edited, and wrote many papers in, the Edinburgh Christian Instructor.^[2]

He married

• (1) 8 July 1814, Janet (died 14 November 1841), daughter of John Orr, manufacturer, Paisley, and had issue —
  • Agnes, born 22 April 1816, died 1 January 1820
  • John, born 30 July 1819, died 29 January 1820
  • John Orr, born 4 January 1821, died 13 July 1831
  • Robert, born 4 August 1822, died 2 January 1823
  • James Orr, born 2 November 1823, student at University of Glasgow in 1840
  • Robert Ferrier, D. D., minister of Chalmers Presbyterian Church, Kingston, Canada, 1847–1855, Knox Church, St Catherine's, Canada, 1855–1867, Scots Church, Chicago, 1867–1870, Cote Street Church, Montreal, 1870–1875, Fort Massey Presbyterian Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1875, born 23 December 1826, died at Broughty Ferry, 5 April 1896
  • William, born 16 August 1831
• (2) 12 December 1844, Elizabeth Bell (died without issue 22 August 1882), daughter of Thomson Bonar of Grove.^[2]

• Blaikie, William Garden (1886). "Burns, Robert (1789–1869)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Burns, Robert (1842). Memoir of the Rev. Stevenson Macgill : professor of theology in the University of Glasgow. Edinburgh: John Johnstone.
• Burns, Robert Ferrier (1872). The life and times of the Rev. Robert Burns ... including an unfinished autobiography. Toronto: J. Campbell & Son.
• Burns, Islay (1870). Memoir of the Rev. Wm. C. Burns, M. A., missionary to China from the English Presbyterian Church. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers. pp. 256–288.
• Gregg, William (1885). History of the Presbyterian church in the Dominion of Canada, from the earliest times to 1834; with a chronological table of events to the present time, and map. Toronto: Presbyterian printing and publishing company. pp. 280, 265, et passim.
• Guthrie, Charles John Guthrie, Lord (1902). Genealogy of the descendants of Rev. Thomas Guthrie, D. D., and Mrs. Anne Burns or Guthrie : connected chiefly with the families of Chalmers and Trail, to which Mrs. Guthrie belonged, through her mother, Mrs. Christiana Chalmers or Burns, and her great-grandmother, Mrs. Susannah Trail or Chalmers : also incidental references to the families of Guthrie and Burns: comp. from family records, letters, diaries / by Charles John Guthrie. Edinburgh: A. Elliott. pp. 75, 24.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Halyburton, Thomas; Burns, Robert (1835). The works of the Rev. Thomas Halyburton : containing, The great concern of salvation, Treatise on natural and revealed religion, Communion sermons, and memoirs ; with an essay on his life and writings by the Rev. Robert Burns D. D. Paisley. London: Thomas Tegg.
• King, John M. (John Mark), 1829–1899, The Good Fight : A sermon preached in the Presbyterian Church, Gould St., Toronto, on August 22nd, 1869 on occasion of the death of the Rev. Robert Burns. Toronto: Adam, Stevenson & Co., 1869.
• Scott, Hew (1920). Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. pp. 176–177. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Willis, Michael, 1798–1879, Death Made Tributary to the Glory of God : A sermon preached in Gould Street Presbyterian Church, Toronto, on Sabbath, 22nd August, 1869, on occasion of the death of the Rev. Dr. Burns, professor of church history in Knox College. Adam, Stevenson & Co., 1869.
• Wylie, James Aitken, ed. (1881). Disruption worthies : a memorial of 1843, with an historical sketch of the free church of Scotland from 1843 down to the present time. Edinburgh: T. C. Jack. pp. 111–116. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• In Memoriam: Mrs. Elizabeth B. Burns, died 22nd August 1882, age 71. Toronto: Printed for the Murray-Mitchell Auxiliary of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, 1882. (Elizabeth B. Burns, 1811–1882, was the wife of Dr. Robert Burns.)
• Reply to the Reverend Dr. Cahill on the Eucharist by Robert Burns, D. D. Toronto, 1863.
• Robert Burns in Ewing, Annals of the Free Church of Scotland, with Supplementary Information

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Burns, Robert (1789-1869)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.