Author: Paxton, George
Biography:
PAXTON, George (1762-1827: ODNB)
A Secessionist minister and writer, he was born at Dalgourie, Haddingtonshire, to William Paxton, a joiner, and his wife, Jean Milne. The family moved to Makerstoun, near Kelso, where he attended the parish school. The local laird, Sir Hay Macdougal, took an interest in his education, and he learned Greek and Latin at school in Kelso and attended the University of Edinburgh. He left the university before taking a degree and moved to Alloa to study divinity with William Moncrieff. Acclaimed for his eloquence, he was in demand as a minister when he was licensed in 1788. He became minister at the churches in Kilmaurs and Stewarton; in 1789, when the two churches separated, he was appointed to Kilmaurs. In 1790 he married Elizabeth Armstrong in Kelso; they had several children but two died in infancy and Elizabeth died in 1799. Owing to illness, he resigned his pastoral duties for a number of years and, in 1807, moved to Edinburgh where he was appointed Professor of Divinity to the General Associate Synod. In 1811 he married Margaret Johnstone. He withdrew from the synod in 1820 and, with a group of secessionists, formed a congregation and, eventually, a church, in Infirmary Street near the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. The congregation united with Thomas McCrie’s Constitutional Presbytery of Seceders to be called the Associate Synod of Original Seceders. His other publications are on religious topics and include The Sin and Danger of Circulating the Apocrypha in Connexion with the Holy Scriptures (1828). He was made honorary DD by St Andrews shortly before his death. He is buried in Saint Cuthbert’s churchyard, Edinburgh. (ODNB 30 June 2020; ancestry.co.uk 30 June 2020)