Patrick Clason

Patrick Clason
Patrick Clason from Disruption Worthies
Church	Buccleuch's Free Church
Successor	Robert Gordon
Previous post	Buccleuch Parish Church (1824-1843)
Orders
Ordination	11 May 1815
Personal details
Born	(1789-10-13)13 October 1789 Dalziel
Died	30 July 1867(1867-07-30) (aged 77) Edinburgh
Denomination	Free Church of Scotland
Education	University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh

Patrick Clason (13 October 1789 – 30 July 1867) was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly to the Free Church of Scotland in 1848/49.

Life

He was born on 13 October 1789 in the manse at Dalziel near the River Clyde, the youngest son of Robert Clason. The family moved to Logie Kirk near Stirling in his youth. He studied divinity at the University of Glasgow then completed his studies at the University of Edinburgh and was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland in 1811.

In 1815 Lady Stuart of Castlemilk presented him (as his patron) to the parish of Carmunnock.

In 1824 moved to Edinburgh as minister of St Cuthbert's Chapel of Ease, which was elevated to a quoad sacra parish church in 1834 and thereafter known as Buccleuch Parish Church.

In 1827 his house was burgled by William Law, blacksmith in Edinburgh. Two table cloths were stolen. Law was sentenced to be transported to Australia for 14 years.

In 1830 he stood unsuccessfully for the chair in Divinity at the University of St Andrews.^{[citation needed]}

At the Disruption of 1843 Clason joined the Free Church of Scotland. He served as its Clerk (alongside Thomas Pitciairn) for 23 years. He succeeded James Sievewright as Moderator in 1848 and was succeeded in turn in 1849 by Mackintosh MacKay.

His ministry in Free Buccleuch was joined by Robert Gordon in 1854, after which Clason became the senior minister. The Free Church built a new church at Buccleuch, south of the old parish church, on the corner of Buccleuch Place. This temporary structure was later replaced in 1856 by a new Gothic-style church on West Crosscauseway at the junction with Chapel Street. Erected around 1862, it was designed by J.J.M. Hay & W.H. Hay of Liverpool and features one of the largest hammerbeam roofs in the country. It remains home to Buccleuch and Greyfriars Free Church following its union with Free Greyfriars in 1897

He died at home, 22 George Square on 30 July 1867. He is buried in the Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh.^{[citation needed]}

Artistic recognition

He was photographed in 1860 (illustrated below) at the foot of the steps to New College with several other ex-Moderators of the Free Church.

Family

He was brother-in-law toPatrick MacFarlan Moderator of the Free Church in 1845/6.

His brother James Clason (1783-1852) was also a Free Church minister.

Publications

• Considerations on the propriety of erecting the chapels of ease in the parish of St. Cuthbert into parish churches, and on the necessity of increasing the church accommodation (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1833)
• To the reverend the Presbytery of Edinburgh, the respectful memorial of the ministers of the chapels of ease within the parish of St. Cuthbert, (1833?)
• Exposure of the false principles contained in the statement published by the Scottish Central Board of Dissenters (Edinburgh: Fraser and Co., 1835)
• Strictures on the Statement of the Central Board of Scottish Dissenters, in two letters (Edinburgh: Fraser and Co., 1835)
• Speech in the presbytery of Edinburgh, 28th January 1835 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1835)
• The harmony between Christ’s mediatorial offices (Edinburgh: SPCK, 1839)
• 'Our Lord’s Voluntary Surrender of his Life to God the Father,' in The Scottish Christian Herald, Vol.3, p. 281.

Gallery

• 
  Laurie's house at 22 George Square, Edinburgh
• 
  The grave of Clason, Grange Cemetery
• 
  The Moderator and Ex Moderators of the Free Church of Scotland, Assembly; 1860. Pictured, from left to right, are (standing) John Smyth, Clason, James Henderson, James Grierson, Nathaniel Paterson and Alexander Beith (behind); (seated) William Cunningham, Robert Buchanan and James Julius Wood.
• 
  Modern Athenians Two Edinburgh ministers Patrick Clason and Robert Gordon
• 
  Clason and Edinburgh Presbytery by Hill & Adamson
• 
  Memorial plaque of Clason in Buccleuch Free Church, Edinburgh

References

Citations

Sources

• Crombie, Benjamin W. (1882). Douglas, William Scott (ed.). Modern Athenians [electronic resource]; a series of original portraits of memorable citizens of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black. pp. 17-21.
• Scott, Hew (1920). Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. p. 22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Wylie, James Aitken (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. 161-164.