William King Tweedie

Former Tolbooth Church, Castlehill, Edinburgh

The grave of Rev William King Tweedie, Grange Cemetery

He was born in Ayr on 8 May 1803, the eldest son of John Tweedie and Janet King.[4] His parents moved to Buenos Aires in South America while William was young and he was left in the care of an aunt in Maybole. He never saw his parents again, and was effectively abandoned.[5]

He studied Divinity at Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews University. He was licensed to preach as a minister of the Church of Scotland by the Presbytery of Arbroath in 1828.[6]

He was ordained as minister of the Scots Church at London Wall in 1832. In 1836 he was translated to Aberdeen South Parish and in March 1842 to the Tolbooth Church on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh in place of Rev Thomas Randall Davidson, but as first minister of the recently completed masterpiece by James Gillespie Graham and Pugin. He left the established church in the Disruption of 1843 and was thereafter a minister of the Free Church of Scotland.[7]

Leaving with a large portion of the Tolbooth parish congregation they purchased the pre-existing Secession Church on Infirmary Street.[8] He lived at 50 George Square, Edinburgh.[9]

From 1848 to 1862 he was Convenor of the Foreign Mission Committee of the Free Church. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity by St Andrews University in 1852.[10]

He moved to 3 Fingal Place in the Grange around 1845[11] but returned to George Square in later life.[12]

The church sold the Infirmary Street church in 1851 and used temporary accommodation until a new church was built circa 1855: a very modest hall on the rear garden of an unfinished Georgian house on the north side of St Andrew Square.[13]

He died at 15 George Square, Edinburgh on 24 March 1863. He is buried in the Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh. The grave lies on the outer north wall.

In May 1835 he married Margaret Bell (1803-1885) in London. She was daughter of Hugh Bell, of Old Garphar, Straiton, Ayrshire, and had five children.[4]

Their children included:

• Major General William Tweedie of Lettrick (1836-1914) who was involved in the Sepoy mutiny in India.
• John Tweedie (1838-1897) of the Bengal Civil Service
• Maria Meredith Tweedie (b.1841)
• Margaret Bell Tweedie (b.1843)
• Jessie Ann Tweedie (b.1845)

• Life of Rev John MacDonald, India
• Calvin and Servetus
• Lights and Shadows of the Life of Faith
• Jerusalem and its Environs
• Ruined Cities of the East
• Fifteen Years of Foreign Missions
• The Life and Work of Earnest Men
• The Sacrament of Baptism
• Seed Time and Harvest: or Sow Well and Reap Well. A Book for the Young. Preface by H. L. Hastings
• Home: A Book for the Family
• Pathways of Many Pilgrims; or, Lights and Shadows in the Christian Life
• Glad Tidings; or the Gospel of Peace. A series of meditations for Christian Disciples. Preface by H. L. Hastings
• A Lamp to the Path: or the Word of God in the Heart, the Home, the Workshop and the Market-place. Introduction by H. L. Hastings
• Of the Free Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh<ref>

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Collections in The National Archives
• Photograph in the Scottish National Gallery
• Works by William King Tweedie at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)