ABSTRACT
The Free Church had abandoned the parish as an administrative unit in 1843, but the churches continued to accept a measure of educational responsibility for the neighbourhood in which they were situated. Education was provided for ‘all the gradations of society’. The parish or session school offered education to the children of shopkeepers, artisans, and other respectable members of the congregation. In Aberdeen in 1851 there were 62 Sabbath schools and about 800 teachers; 45 of these schools were run by Presbyterian churches. The Free West Kirk found that this was necessary with regard to congregational Sabbath school and recommended ‘that a class should be opened, chiefly for female servants in connection with the congregation’. The Presbyterian churches looked on schooling as a means of promoting ‘the interests of religion and education’. The Presbyterian churches looked on schooling as a means of promoting ‘the interests of religion and education’.
