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REPORTS of CASES upon Appeals and Writs of Error in the House of Lords. By P. Dow, Barrister-at-Law. Vol. I.


FROM SCOTLAND.

Craigdallie, and Others,—Appellants; Aikman, and Others,—Respondents [June 14, 1813].

[3 Scots R. R. 1. See final judgment in 2 Bligh, 529 {1820); 3 Scots R. R. 607. See also A.-G. v. Pearson, 1817, 3 Mer. 353–420; Shore v. Wilson, 1842, 9 Cl. & F. 355; A.-G. v. Gould, 1860, 28 Beav. 485; A.-G. v. Bunce, 1867, L. R. 6 Eq. 563; A.-G. v. St. John's Hospital, Bath, 1876, 2 Ch. D. 554; The Nonconformists' Chapels Act (7 & 8 Vict. c. 45).]
[Whether the use of a chapel purchased, at the time of the secession from the Church of Scotland in 1737, by and for a body of men adopting the secession principles, and for that reason, adhering or submitting to the secession judicatory, was, merely on account of that act of adherence or submission, without any special contract on the subject, for ever after to be regulated and directed by the judicatory in question, notwithstanding a departure by that judicatory from the principles which led to the original adherence, and in opposition to the wishes of a great proportion of the purchasers, who still held their original principles.]

This was an appeal from the Court of Session under the following circumstances.

Mr. Wilson minister of Perth, was one of the four clergymen who seceded from the Church of Scotland, and were consequently deposed from their [2] livings in 1740. A considerable number of Mr. Wilson's congregation still adhered to him, and purchased a piece of ground on which they built a chapel, where he might continue to exercise his ministry. This was accomplished by voluntary contributions recommended at a general meeting of the whole congregation. Most of these were in very email sums, the highest not exceeding £21, and many contributed by their personal labour, by the use of their carts and horses for so many days, weeks, and months; and the minister's stipend was paid, repairs made, and debts paid off, by contributions at the church doors.

The secession having arisen merely from a difference of opinion upon a particular point, the seceding clergymen still retained the plan of church government, by which the national church was regulated, and formed themselves into a church judicatory accordingly. The congregations which separated from the established church on the same principles submitted to this judicatory, and among these was the congregation at Perth.

Four of the money contributors, Messrs. Millar, Davidson, Brown, and Craigdallie, were chosen by the congregation as managers, and to them the ground on which the chapel was built, was disponed in the following words,

I, Thomas Gall, do hereby sell, alienate, and dispone, to, and in favour of, the said Colin Brown, James Davidson, John Millar, and James Craigdallie, for themselves, and as trustees for and in the name of the whole subscribers and contributors to the building of a meeting-house for Mr. William Wilson, minister of the gospel in [3] Perth, and the congregation

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