Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macfarlan, Patrick

by William Arthur Jobson Archbold

MACFARLAN, PATRICK (1780–1849), Scottish divine, younger brother of John Macfarlan [q. v.], was educated at the Edinburgh High School, was licensed by the presbytery of Edinburgh on 28 Dec. 1803, and was presented to the charge of Kippen in 1806 by David Erskine of Cardross. In 1810 he was transferred, on the presentation of George III, to Polmont, Stirlingshire; in 1824 he became minister of St. Johns, Glasgow, in succession to Chalmers; in 1825 minister of St. Enoch's, Glasgow; and in 1832 he was transferred, on the presentation of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, to the west parish of Greenock, the richest living in the church of Scotland. He was examined on 20 and 25 March 1834 before the committee of the House of Commons on church patronage, and was moderator of the general assembly the same year. At the disruption he adhered to the protest, joined the secession, and was declared no longer a minister of the kirk on 24 May 1843. He was moderator of the free general assembly in 1845. He died on 13 Nov. 1849. Macfarlan married, on 8 Jan. 1808, Catherine, daughter of Robert Clason, minister of Logie; she died in 1815, and left a son John, a free church minister at Greenock, and two daughters.

His chief works were:

1. 'Thoughts on Popular Election, Patronage, and Calls,' Edinburgh, 1833, 8vo.
2. 'Letter to the Friends of the Established Church,' Edinburgh, 1842, 8vo.
3. 'The Past and Present State of Evangelical Religion in Switzerland,' Edinburgh, 1845, 8vo; the first of a series of lectures on foreign churches.
4. 'A Vindication of the Church of Scotland,' London, 1850, 8vo; an answer to the Duke of Argyll's 'Essay on the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland.'

In 1826-7 he engaged in a controversy with Greville Ewing [q. v.], occasioned by a speech of the latter at a meeting of the Glasgow Auxiliary Bible Society. He edited Warden's 'Essay on the Lord's Supper,' Leith, 1808, and Thomas Brown's 'Sermons,' Glasgow, 1849.

[Hew Scott's Fasti, passim; Disruption Worthies; Free Church Mag. 1850.]

W. A. J. A.