James Meek

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This article refers to the minister James Meek; for the living British author, see James Meek (author).

James Meek (1739 - 1810) was Minister of Cambuslang from 1774 until his death. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1795, but is most remembered as the model Enlightenment cleric who wrote the entry for Cambuslang in the First Statistical Account of Scotland. This report is very elegantly written - though no doubt this was in part due to John Sinclair’s excellent editing.

[edit] Statistical Account of Scotland 1791

The extensive entry for Cambuslang in the First Statistical Account of Scotland 1791 shows Dr Meek to have been a man of wide interests and a meticulous scholar, given to “reasonable” as opposed to “enthusiastic” opinions in religion. His scholarship is evident. He obviously consulted many Parish documents and talked to many parishioners before submitting his report to John Sinclair on the state of Cambuslang in the 1790’s. He gives a very extensive and detailed comparison between life in the Parish in 1750 (that is, about 20 years before he came to the Parish) and the, in his opinion, much improved circumstances of 1791. He gives precise prices of commodities and clear descriptions of the farming and industrial methods used. He did his own academic research. He is obviously familiar with ecclesiastical history and had read some recently published works on local early history - he footnotes some of his comments with reference to these, and comments on (what we now know as) an Iron Age fort. His account of the great revival meetings in Cambuslang in the 1720’s draws upon local and documentary (pamphlets, etc) evidence which he seems to have been collected specifically. He is not convinced that the enthusiastic conversions reported were genuine manifestations of something supernatural, though he carefully balances the arguments on both sides. He is familiar with the geological formation of the area and gives an account of it in the scientific parlance of the day. Where appropriate he gives precise measurements - for areas, land values, prices, breadth and depth of the river, etc - and obviously enjoyed scientific measurement himself. He gives meteorological measurements taken (presumably by him, or under his instruction) twice a day at the manse for seven years - and reports them with averages, maxima and minima. (His careful measurements were continually quoted throughout the 19th Century - for example in the six-volume "The Gallery of Nature", London 1821,[1] and in the 26-volume "The London Encyclopaedia" London, 1839 [2]. These reference books were widely used, so Dr Meek's data were used in many other publications. The data were also used for 20th Century histories of weather, one of which - "Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe", H. H. Lamb & Knud Frydendahl, CUP 1991 - refers to "what the Rev James Meek... copied from his correspondents". [3]) He is not above complaining about the state of repair of the church and manse, but is proud of the parish school and the treatment of the poor. He is much moved by what he thinks is the unparalleled view of the Clyde valley, Bothwell Castle and several, extensive well-tended counties to be had from a nearby hill, though he is most moved by the view of the bustling and prosperous city of Glasgow, including its venerable cathedral, College and other church spires. He comes over as well-informed, up-to-date, proud of “modern” improvements and optimistic for the future.

[edit] Early life and education

He was born, possibly in Shotts, in 1739 and completed his education for the ministry of the Church of Scotland at Glasgow University. His intellectual abilities were recognised early, as he served as preacher in the College Chapel from 1763 until 1765. On 25th September 1766, he was ordained Minister of Second Charge (that is, assistant minister) in Lesmahagow, where his preaching also attracted notice.

[edit] Disputed calling to Cambuslang

In 1772, Commissioners of Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton presented him to the living of the ancient parish of Cambuslang. This was an act of Patronage, dating from an Act of Parliament from Queen Anne’s(1712). It is said that only about a dozen parishioners agreed to sign the formal call to the parish and lodged objections on theological grounds. These were set out in a pamphlet and later laid before the Presbytery of Hamilton. The objectors were local farmers, coal miners and weavers and show the lingering influence of the "The Cambuslang Wark". In particular, they objected that Mr Meek seemed not to accept that faith alone made one worthy in the face of God or that Man was utterly depraved. Worse, he gave too much weight to reason and suggested that men cooperated with God in their own salvation. Some alleged quotes from Mr Meek's sermons were put forward as proof of his heresy. Needless to say, Mr Meek denied all of this, so began a long process through the Courts of the Church.

The charges were

• That Mr Meek, when lecturing in his own church on the parable of the labourers, said—"We may see from what has been said that our sincerity is the ground of our acceptance with God."
• When preaching at Cambuslang in May, 1772, from John iii. 16, …Mr Meek " not only neglected to represent that the guilt of Adam's first sin was imputed to his posterity . . . but on the contrary taught that we have corrupt natures only by imitation and example.".
• That Mr Meek, when about to dispense the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in his own church at Lesmahagow, in the year 1773, invited the people in Christ's name to come to the Lord's table, "however enormous their crimes had been, if they resolved to do better."
• ...on another sacramental occasion at Hamilton, in 1772, he said that " our faith and sincerity or sincere endeavours cooperate with the righteousness of Christ."
• Again, on the last mentioned occasion, viz., at Hamilton, he is said to have declared " that when faith goes above and beyond reason it becomes credulity."

In 1774, the General Assembly. ordered the Presbytery of Hamilton to proceed with Mr Meek's induction. Accordingly, Mr Park, of Old Monkland, served the edict upon the congregation, and summoned them to state what objections they might have to the life and doctrine of the presentee, at a meeting of the Presbytery to be held in the Manse of Cambuslang on the 1st of September, 1774.

The objectors asked the Presbytery "to find that Mr Meek was unworthy of the character of a minister, therefore to depose or lay him aside from preaching; at least, to find that he cannot be settled in Cambuslang, etc., etc." Many of the ministers in the Presbytery knew Mr Meek and his work, so it dimissed these objections, and even threatened the objectors. They declared some of the objections frivolous and unworthy of notice, others absurd and unintelligible; and all of them irrelevant, and that not a single habile (that is, competent) witness was offered for the proof of them.

An appeal was lodged with the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr. This, on the 12th of October, ordered the Presbytery to investigate the objections thoroughly, which it did by means of a committee. It restated its earlier findings (that the objections were groundless) and issued a lesser form of excommunication on some of the objectors. The objectors appealed again to the Synod, which, in October 1774, overturned the judgement of the Presbytery. It was then referred to the following year's General Assembly. Mr Meek had been invited to preach to the Lord High Commissioner, the King's emissary to the Assembly - an indication of the high esteem in which Mr Meek continued to be held. He preached from Luke xxiv. 26, and in his sermon repeated some of the doctrines which the objectors had raised. The Assemblly considered the case on the 31st of May, 1775. During the debate, Mr Meek had some heavyweight support, including that of a previous Moderator of the General Assembly, namely the famous historian Principal Robertson , whose nephew was to become Mr Meek's assistant and successor. Its judgement was "The General Assembly having reasoned on this affair, did, and hereby do dismiss the process . . . and sustain Mr James Meek, minister of Cambuslang." This ended the formal objections to Mr Meek becoming minister at Cambuslang.

[edit] Later life

Mr Meek served as Dean of the Faculties at Glasgow University in 1780 -82; 1784-86 (when Edmund Burke was Rector); 1788-90;1792-94 and 1798-1800. In 1781, the University bestowed on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He himslelf became Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on 21 May 1795, where he tended to favour the Moderates over the Evangelicals.

Dr Meek's (unfortunately vandalised) gravestone, on wall of the Old Parish Kirk graveyard. His son and daughter died before him

He married Grizel Weir and had two sons (John, who died at 19, and Thomas, a lawyer in Glasgow, who died at 41) and two daughters (Elizabeth, who married a lawyer, James Davidson, and who died aged 25, and Frances, later Stuart, who died at 88 in 1867. The Reverend Doctor James Meek died at Cambuslang manse on 21 June 1810 and was succeeded by his assistant, the Rev John Robertson. Dr Meek's widow, Grizel Meek, died five years later, aged 69.

[edit] Publiciation by Dr Meek

• Journal and register of the weather, kept at Cambuslang, Jan. 1785-30 April 1809

[edit] Publications owned by Dr Meek, now in the National Library of Scotland

• Act and recommendation of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, appointing a general collection for compleating the bridge over the river North-Esk near Montrose. : At Edinburgh, May 25. 1773. (With Meek's armorial bookplate; Previously owned by George Wishart)
• Bill for enlarging the term and powers granted by an Act of the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, intitled, An act for repairing the roads from Livingston by the Kirk of Shotts to the city of Glasgow, and by the town of Hamilton to the town of Strathaven, and for making the said act more effectual; also for repairing several other roads in the county of Lanark, not mentioned in the said former Act..(With Meek's armorial bookplate)
• James Boswell and Robert Hope Case of Robert Hope, tenant to the Right Honourable James Montgomery, Esq; of Stanhope, at Minzons, Appellant, from a sentence of the Synod of Lothian and Tweedale, affirming a previous sentence against him by the Presbytery of Peebles..(With Meek's armorial bookplate)

[edit] References/Sources

• Boswell,James, Parish of Cambuslang : the commissioners of His Grace the Duke of Hamilton ... who has presented the Reverend Mr. James Meek ... to that ... parish; and certain heritors, and a few heads of families ... appellents; all the elders", one hundred heads of families, and certain heritors ... respondents Church of Scotland 1773
• Frame, James A narrative of the case of the parish of Cambuslang; containing a true state of the process concerning the settlement of Mr. Meek in that parish; with an account of the foundation and grounds of the opposition to his admission ... together with some ... reflections on the whole. Glasgow 1775 (In Glasgow University Library Special Collections reference Sp Coll Mu2-c.10)
• Porter, Wm Henry Cambuslang and its Ministers (in Mitchell Library - Glasgow Collection, reference GC941.433 CAM 188520 Box 952)
• Wilson, James Alexander OBE, MD A History of Cambuslang: a Clydesdale parish. Jackson Wylie & Co Glasgow (1929)

[edit] External links

• [4] Dr Meek’s report on Cambuslang, 1791