Coordinates: 55°50′28″N 4°25′30″W / 55.841°N 4.425°W / 55.841; -4.425

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The Laigh Kirk, Paisley is a congregation of the Church of Scotland and the original Burgh church of Paisley; however by 1781 two further churches, the High Church and the Middle Church, had been built and the burgh was split into three parishes.

Contents 1 History 2 Ministers 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

Early in the 18th Century, Paisley started to expand from a small village into a town. The Laigh Kirk was founded in 1736,^[1] or 1738, as a parish church, in response to the burgeoning population and as a consequence of the dilapidated state of Paisley Abbey which, at that time, was outside of the Burgh limits on the opposite bank of the River Cart. The Abbey, as a consequence of the Reformation, had been disbanded with the Nave given to Paisley to hold the parish services.^[2] The rest of the Abbey buildings were given to the nephew of the last Abbott, and some building stones had been "robbed" from the buildings and sold off.^[2]

The original Laigh Kirk building was located in New Street. In 1756 and again in 1781, another parish church was built in the Burgh of Paisley, the High Church and the Middle Church, respectively.^[1] These lead to the burgh being split into three parishes.^[1] In 1820, due to the ever growing size of its congregation, the Laigh Kirk moved to a new building on George Street.

The Laigh Kirk continued to grow and expand, as did Paisley; and to meet these demands a new congregation was seeded by the Laigh Kirk on Neilston Road, the South Church. Beginning its life as a Chapel of Ease under the Kirk Session of the Laigh Kirk, the events of the Disruption of 1843 saw this sister congregation leave the Church of Scotland and join the new Free Church of Scotland. It would be over 140 years before these two halves became whole again, with the reunion of the two congregations (by this time known as St George's Low and St Andrew's) in 1985. The name Laigh Kirk was re-established in Paisley and continues to serve the Parish faithfully from its Causeyside Street base.

The original New Street building was converted to an Arts centre in the 1980s and is still in use as the Paisley Arts Centre. The site of the George Street building was cleared and the site is now occupied by St George's Court flats.

[edit] Ministers

• A notable minister was the Rev John Witherspoon, (15 February 1723 – 15 November 1794). He later emigrated to the America and was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey.
• The current incumbent is the Rev David Thom.

[edit] References

Notes

Sources

• Clark, Sylvia (1988). Paisley: A History. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-85158-109-X.
• Moisley, H. A. and Thain, A.G. (1962). The Third Statistical Account of Scotland: The Counties of Renfrew and Bute. Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co., Chapter 23: "The Parish and Burgh of Paisley".

[edit] External links

• The Laigh Kirk Website
• Paisley Art Centre

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