John Laird (minister)


The Very Rev Dr John Laird DD was a 19th-century Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly to the Free Church 1889/90.

Life

He was born in the manse at Portmoak on the banks of Loch Leven, the son of Rev Hugh Laird DD. His father was minister of the parish from 1802 to 1849.
He studied divinity at the University of Edinburgh and was ordained by the Church of Scotland at Arbroath in 1835. He was translated to Inverkeillor in 1836. He left the established church in the Disruption of 1843 and joined the Free Church of Scotland. In 1847 he became minister of the Free St George's Church in Montrose. In 1853 he translated to the Free Church in Cupar, replacing Rev Dr Cairns.
In 1870 he organised the rebuilding of the Free Church in Cupar. This was designed by Campbell Douglas and occupied from 1875 but the huge spire was not completed until 1879.
In 1889 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly. He was succeeded in 1890 by Thomas Brown.
He died in 1896.

Family

In 1840 he married Agnes Maule Anderson. Their son Rev David Laird was minister of the Free Church of Durris.
Two of his brothers, A O Laird of Dundee, and Henry Laird of Leslie, Fife were Free Church ministers. Two of his sisters married Free Church ministers: Rev Spiers of Kinglassie and Rev James Swinton of Portmoak.