REV. JAMES KIDD

James Kidd was born on 6th November 1761 near Loughbrickland in County Down, Ireland. His father died soon after and his mother took him and his two brothers back to her own home, Broughshane in County Antrim. She was poor but, like many another young widow, was determined to do her best for her lads. He learned his letters first from the Shorter Catechism and then from the Gospels. As he grew, various friends assisted his education. Soon he began to teach, though this was a temporary expedient until he could get into the training for the ministry. During this period he married and taking his wife with him he went out to America in 1784.

His emigration was no small matter in those days. Shipping was erratic for all sorts of reasons, and America had only just shaken off British rule. The struggle for independence had only concluded the year before, and the Federal Constitution did not then exist being adopted in 1787, some three years after Kidd arrived in Philadelphia. After some years as a tutor to various families he enrolled as a student in the University of Pennsylvania in 1787 and 1789. During these years he began to study Hebrew and it was his interest in this and other oriental languages that brought him back to Scotland. It seems also to have been the single mindedness of his interest in Hebrew that caused his friend Dr. Benjamin Rush to give him good advice which he never forgot. "I think I see you coming back from Palestine and lecturing to empty benches: study men and things."

Kidd was lured back to Scotland by a wish to study under John Brown of Haddington, then Professor of Divinity of the Associate Synod, at that time one of the best known scholars of the day. But by the time Kidd arrived, Brown had died. Kidd then followed up the second reason for his return, the preparation for the ministry, and enrolled first in the University of Edinburgh, and later in the Divinity Hall. At that time, however, he still intended to return to America once he had qualified as a minister. He had left his wife and children in Philadelphia, and all extant letters show his intention of returning there.

In Edinburgh he studied extensively under Robertson the famous Hebraist, and his old interest in languages was consummated with knowledge. It was therefore a great opportunity for him when the Professorship of Oriental Languages in Marischal College became vacant. He was urged to apply, did so, and was presented to the chair by the patron, Sir Alexander Ramsay of Balmain, in 1795. Mrs. Kidd was sent for and came on that tragic voyage. for her youngest child was swept overboard during the journey.

Kidd was taken on trials by the Presbytery of Aberdeen in 1795 and was licensed to preach on 3rd February 1796. In the same year he became the evening lecturer in Trinity Chapel, like Gilcomston, a chapel of ease. In effect this meant that he was responsible for the evening services there, and it was during the following five years that he developed his preaching style, and became known to the people of Aberdeen. When Gilcomston became vacant on the translation of James Gregory in 1801, the congregation, using their then unusual privilege of calling their own minister, called Mr. Kidd by a large majority to be their minister. There he found the place made for him, and for which he was made, where he laboured all the remaining years of his life. Nonetheless he retained his chair at Marischal College throughout his ministry. In 1818 his American friends made him a D.D. of the College of New Jersey; thus he became 'The Doctor.' Kennedy, who is not over-charitable about some of the Marischal Professors, has this to say (Book II, Ch. V; Vol. II p.99)

"James Kidd A.M., Professor of Hebrew"

In other words Dr. Kidd fulfilled the duties of his office very well.

In Gilcomston he similarly took over from a man who has left no mark on history, and carried the whole congregation, members and adherents, to a level they might well have not attained, and that both in spiritual and in material matters. Gilcomston Chapel then seated about 2,000 and he soon filled it. "Rabbi" Duncan has said that one half of his congregation came for comicality, and the other half for the rich truth of the Gospel, but even so, that means there were over a thousand in Aberdeen of those days interested in that rich truth. These were taught the things of God by the simple exposition of scripture, simple teaching, yet profoundly connected with the daily events of his time. The outlines of sermons, some of which were published after his death (Sermons and Skeletons of Sermons by Dr. Kidd, 1835), show the great effort and labour which that simplicity cost him. They are not the simple and somewhat unreal expository exercises one meets occasionally today, but are illuminated by everyday examples, comments on political affairs and so on. They show every mark of a faithful intellect which still has a good grasp of reality. Curiously, in view of the style of the present minister, Recollections (See Bibliography) published by a member of the congregation after Dr. Kidd's death note that in all his preachments Dr. Kidd "invariably followed" the plan of "the exposition of scripture in its consecutive arrangement of books and chapters" (at p. 8). In the Short Sketch (see Bibliography), Kidd is spoken of as having "argumentative energy", "vehement volubility", his manner being "warm, fervent and commanding", and his language "bold, piercing and energetic." David Masson writes that Dr. Kidd had come to know the poor and the ways of his adopted city. Such knowledge informed his sermons. "[He] had come to know the poor intellectually, and it was no vague grasp that he took from the pulpit, but the grasp of one who had all the chords at his touch. His style ... was wonderfully perspicuous. I do not believe that he ever preached a sermon without being thoroughly understood by his poorest hearers." (David Masson, "Dead Men" at p. 134). These sermons were, of course, delivered on Sundays. Three times every Sunday Dr. Kidd walked from his house in Chapel Street (named for the Church) along what is now Minister Lane (named for him) or the street now called Kidd Street to the church. As there was no vestry he went straight to the pulpit, where he observed the slow fill of the church. Then punctually at five minutes to the hour the service began. Dr. Kidd would announce the opening psalm, and explain its content simply before it was sung. In prayer he was free, with fluency and discernment leading his people in that integral part of worship. In addition it seems his prayers were businesslike, not essays in theology. Alexander Bain states:

Unfortunately it seems while Bain learned the techniques of religious expression from Kidd, he never came to know Christ. As Emeritus Professor of Logic and English in the University of Aberdeen, Bain wrote more of Dr. Kidd in his Autobiography which was completed and published by his executor in 1904 (see Bibliography), but this bears no trace of what Kidd would call the great transaction. At his own request Bain was buried without religious ceremonial. Sad, for Bain himself was an outstanding man. Dr. Kidd also began the first Sunday school in Aberdeen, and was well known for his care of his flock. He cared. Beyond his congregation the children of Aberdeen knew him well, and he them. In his Glimpses of Golden Days in Aberdeen (Aberdeen: Aberdeen Free Press, 1870), William Buchanan speaks of Kidd buying rolls for ragged boys, but first tearing them in two lest they try to re-sell them (p.129). He also chronicles bairns of a Sunday lining the streets from the church to Kidd's home, and pressing close to the Doctor that he might pat them on the head - and crying if they were passed over, an accident which was soon remedied (pp. 129-30). At the beginning of his lengthy article on Kidd, David Masson also speaks of the popularity of the Doctor among the children, and his customary blessing: "Be all good."

In his later days, Kidd was regarded with affection throughout most of the city. He was good-humoured, bringing laughter with him both to his University duties and to his ordinary life. In a short time within the congregation there was harmony, and a regular congregation which filled the church, intent on what was to be said. "In his earlier days in Aberdeen he must have had vehement personal critics and enemies. But he had tossed and gored them, or they had died off or gone into corners; and one heard of them chiefly in connection with the Gilcomston legend that no one that had ever resisted the Doctor had prospered." (David Masson, "Dead Men" p. 155).

According to Masson, Kidd's dominant quality was courage. This led him both to confront sin within his congregation and in the city at large. It also made him a controversialist in matters where he considered false doctrine was being preached. He had a series of battles with "Priest Gordon" another famous Aberdeen character. Again, in 1830 Kidd published Correspondence between the Rev. Dr. James Kidd and the Rev. Charles Fraser on Points of Doctrine, which had begun with another attack on Roman Catholic doctrine. Fraser, a Catholic priest, replied in Latin, which Kidd corrected and translated for the publication. (Kidd himself employed an "amanuensis well acquainted with his handwriting to transcribe the manuscripts of his letters to Mr. Fraser - his own penmanship being somewhat difficult to be deciphered by those who are strangers to it.") There was quite a furore, with pamphlets by Grammaticus and Veritas on Fraser's side, and Philologus (who was George Melvin, Rector of the Grammar School) and another wholly anonymous person (the Popery Exposer) on Kidd's side. This last was met by another pamphlet, "The Popery Exposer Exposed; the Trial of the Rev. James Kidd and the Rev. Charles Fraser at the Bar of Candour by a Layman of the Catholic Church of Christ" (Aberdeen: King, 1831).

Kidd published four books, a Treatise on Infant Baptism; An Essay on the Doctrine of the Trinity; a course of sermons on The Covenant of Grace; and The Eternal Sonship of Christ. In his Introduction to a new edition of this last in 1872, Dr. R.S. Candlish notes that Kidd seemed to have tried to avoid showing any undue familiarity with God, and as a result his style had become rather abstract and transcendental. "Dr. Kidd, in common with others pursuing the same line of thought, has, perhaps, been led by the fear of becoming or appearing too humanitarian in his theology, to obscure his reasoning with a kind of almost algebraic or mathematical method." The comment is just. The difference between Kidd's theological writing and his sermons is marked, not in my opinion to the favour of the theology!

His last publication was an intervention in the growing debate on patronage, when he edited The Rights and Liberties of the Church Vindicated against ... Patronage (Aberdeen: Collie, 1834), which had first been published in 1689. Whatever might have been had Kidd survived to the main years of the Disruption controversy we may not know, but all the congregations which owe their being to his work 'came out' in 1843 (see below, James Bryce). Irrespective, his own labours were crowned some eight months before his death, when, on 31st May 1834, Gilcomston was constituted a quoad sacra parish.

The Doctor died suddenly, of a stroke, on Tuesday 23rd December 1834, having gone as usual to meet his Hebrew class in Marischal College despite having been unwell. He was buried in a box-style tomb in St. Nicholas churchyard just off the east side of the main path from Union Street to the Church, about thirty yards from the Church. Unfortunately the sandstone topstone is damaged and well weathered but the sides still contain data on the Oswald's, Kidd's son-in-law.

David Masson, another life Kidd touched, speaks movingly of the funeral, and the impact of Kidd's death on a city where he had long been a leading and influential character. Masson, recalling events of thirty years before, goes far beyond the usual Victorian pieties in speaking of Kidd's impact on the whole life of the city, and drawing attention in addition to his knowledge of the poor and his caring for them, so different from organised charity. Kidd was a character, not above such comments in his sermons as: "I ... for once request attention, without the disturbance of coughing or throat-clearing, which so frequently obstructs both speaking and hearing." Or: "You, sir, No. 3 in the second seat from the front in the top-left, what are you asleep for? Rouse him up, rouse him up. Won't he wake? Put your thumb into him, his next neighbour." (David Masson, "Dead Men" pp. 154-55).

In sum, Kidd was "a man of mark and influence" (David Masson,"Dead Men" p. 159), giving his Gilcomston a root which has from time to time broken out anew with fresh growth to the glory of God.

Before leaving Dr. Kidd it must also be noted that he was one of the formative influences on "Rabbi" Duncan, later Professor of Hebrew in New College. Professor John Duncan was one of the founders of the first Scottish Mission to the Jews, in Budapest, in 1841-3, from which he was called to New College indirectly on its foundation after the Disruption. He is not now widely remembered but his influence is not yet dead. He published little, but his life, chronicled in Principal David Brown's Memoirs of John Duncan (Edinburgh, 1874) shows what God can do with a willing man. [In 1984 the Publications Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church reprinted Rich Gleanings from "Rabbi" Duncan edited by J.S. Sinclair, which was first published in 1925. The Committee also reprinted Duncan's Pulpit and Communion Table in the 1970's.]

Bibliography

Life:

Alexander Bain, "Recollections of Dr. Kidd", printed in Appendix to James Stark's, Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen (below), pp. 296-305).
Alexander Bain, (W.L. Duncan, ed.), Autobiography, (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1904).
Robert S. Candlish, Biographical and Theological Introduction to James Kidd, The Eternal Sonship of Christ, new ed. (Aberdeen: D. Chalmers Chalmers, 1872).
David Masson, "Dead Men I have known; or, Recollections of Three Cities: The Rev. Dr. James Kidd," (1863-4) 9 Macmillan's Magazine, pp. 143-59. [A portion of this essay is reprinted in Candlish's Introduction cited above. It also appears largely unchanged in Masson's biography, cited below.]
David Masson, Memories of Two Citis Edinburgh and Aberdeen (Edinburgh and London: Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, 1911)
James Stark, Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen: A Picture of Religious Life of By-gone Days, (Aberdeen: D. Wyllie, 1892, 1893, 1898).
James Stark, The Lights of the North, (Aberdeen : D. Wyllie, 1896) pp. 276-86.
James Stark, Priest Gordon of Aberdeen, (Aberdeen: D Wyllie, 1909).
A Memoir of the Rev. James Kidd, D.D., pp. i-lvi of Sermons & Skeletons of Sermons selected from the Mss. of James Kidd, D.D., Minister of Gilcomston Parish (Aberdeen: A. Brown, 1835).
Recollections of the Ministerial Labours of the Late Rev. James Kidd, D.D., Professor of Oriental Languages in Marischal College and University, and Minister of Gilcomston Parish, Aberdeen, by a Member of his Congregation, To which is subjoined a Copy of the farewell Address by the Venerable Doctor and which was found in his Repositories after his Death (Aberdeen: John Mathison, 1835) (3 eds.).
A Short Sketch of the Life of the Author, pp. 1-17 of James Kidd, The Covenant of Grace, (Aberdeen : R. & J. Edwards, 2nd ed. 1827) (1st ed. 1808, not seen). The Short Sketch also appears in the Imperial Magazine, January 1826, and figures as the first twenty two pages of the Memoir, above.

Writings:

James Kidd, Sermons and Skeletons of Sermons Selected from the Mss. of James Kidd, D.D., Minister of Gilcomston Parish (Aberdeen: A. Brown, 1835).
James Kidd, An Essay on the Doctrine of the Trinity, 576pp., (London: Hatchard; Aberdeen: Brown, 1815)
James Kidd, The Eternal Sonship of Christ, 357 pp. (Aberdeen: D. Chalmers, 1822). New ed., with Biographical and Theological Introduction by R. S. Candlish ed., (London: Hamilton Adams; Aberdeen: Milne, 1872).
James Kidd, The Covenant of Grace: A Course of [8] Sermons (Aberdeen: R. & J. Edwards, 1808 (not seen), 2nd ed. 1827).

Addendum

Subsequent to the printing of the above, an intriguing connection between the ministry of Dr. Kidd and that of Mr. Still has come to light. Mr. Still recollected that a cousin of his, Hilda Steven, had made a family genealogy, which had traced the Stills to an Alexander Still, born in the Holburn Street area in 1805. From this start, Aileen Stewart and Hazel Beattie have established that a William Still who was married to Elspeth Watson of Belhelvie on 18 May 1793, lived at New Bridge, somewhere near the town end of the Hardgate, perhaps where the Hardgate dips between Willowbank Road and where it ends at Justice Mill Lane. Alexander Still, Mr. Still's great-grandfather, was born to them on 27th January 1805, and was baptised by Dr. James Kidd on 27th September, presumably in the then Gilcomston Church, for Dr. Kidd did not baptise privately except in extreme circumstances. Alexander was the youngest of three sons, William, born in 1802, and the eldest, James Kidd Still, born in 1801, showing by his name his father and mother's interest in Dr. Kidd's ministry. Last, to record a well known Kidd tale, omitted above, but enjoyed by many. Once Dr. Kidd saw a member of the congregation asleep during the sermon. He threw his Bible at the man, with the words: "If you'll no' hear the Word of God, you'll feel it."