ABSTRACT
Although by 1851 there was a remarkable similarity in the social composition of the six city parish sessions and their Free Church counterparts it remained true nevertheless that the Free sessions, overall, were derived from social groups of significantly lower status than one would expect to find in the Establishment. Compared to the Establishment, and indeed the United Presbyterian Church, the Free Church was constitutionally more democratic. In the Establishment elders were openly co-opted by the existing kirk session. However democratic the constitution of the Free Church might appear in relation to the Establishment, and indeed the U.P. Church, severe social and economic limitations were attached to its democratic function. The financial obligations attached to office-holding and the economic requirements of the church were, therefore, serious obstacles to working-class participation in church government and as a result such participation was neither expected nor desired.
