of £70 and a house and a garden as soon as they were able’. Land across

from the church, part of a Strathkinness Commonty, was feued to the

Secession Church and a subscription for a manse was opened. By the time Mr.

Robb and his congregation rejoined the Established Church in 1839 there was

a manse on Main Street.

During the short period between 1827 when the first entry in the

Secession Minute Book is made until the last one in 1931 there are a few

which show what discipline in the church in Strathkinness was like at that

time. In 1828 Alex Paton was called before the Session ‘regarding his

character’. He was suspended from ‘church privileges’ (communion), and the

following year it was stated that the reports of his character were unfounded.

There was also a case of a man called James Drummond who had gone through

the countryside collecting for poor widows and appropriating the funds to his

own use. He was summoned three times to appear before the Session, but as

he did not appear, the case was dealt with in his absence. He was declared ‘a

fugitive from discipline and his name was dropped from the roll’.

In 1843 came the greatest upheaval since the Reformation — the Disruption

— when over four hundred ministers, under the leadership of Thomas

Chalmers (born in Anstruther and whose first church had been Kilmany) left

the church and set up the Free Church.

THE VILLAGE HALL

(Old Free Church)

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