ABSTRACT

Burns had come to an understanding of religion through his association with the Church of Scotland in its local manifestation of the church of the parish in which he lived, and so over the years he was attached to the parish churches at Ayr, Tarbolton, Mauchline, Dunscore and Dumfries. The ministers of the first two parishes in which Burns lived were all of the New Light persuasion. Dr William Dalrymple and Dr William McGill of the Auld Kirk of Ayr both came under fire from some of their more orthodox brethren and both were regarded as potential heretics. However it was not theology but morality that brought Burns into contact in his early years with the Church as an institution. His first dealings with the Church were at the receiving end of its censure. In June 1788 Burns approached Mr Auld, claiming that he and Jean had some time earlier entered upon an irregular marriage.