Reverend Mr. Peddie
'A few years after his ordination, in 1787, he entered into the1 marriage relation with Miss Margaret Coventry, daughter of the Rev. George Coventry of Stitchel,—a union which, though happy, was but of short duration, Mrs. Peddie having died in 1792. After three years of widowhood, he married Miss Barbara Smith (who survived him), daughter of Mr. Donald Smith, banker, and grand-daughter of Mr. William Smith formerly referred to (pp. 32 and 38). Of this marriage there were nine children, of whom two died in childhood, while the other seven survived their father' [and indeed still survive in 1879, there having been no death among them for a period of seventy-five years].
' His talents fitting him for taking an active part in the management of public business, and his public spirit prompting him to devote these talents to the service of the Church, he soon rose to distinction among his brethren. He was a remarkably useful member of the ecclesiastical courts, on which his attendance was conscientiously regular, and in this way a great benefactor to the body. The fund for pious and charitable purposes, instituted by the Associate Synod in 1791, which did so much good in supporting aged and infirm ministers, and assisting weak congregations, originated with him; and the whole multifarious business connected with its administration was gratuitously managed by him for many years. At a somewhat later period, he, in conjunction with the Rev. George More and some others, established that useful institution the Friendly Society of Dissenting Ministers, and for a course of years he had the management of it as treasurer, discovering the same disinterestedness in its affairs.
' At a period of great interest in the history of the Secession Church, he conferred on the whole body the deepest obligations. When the question was introduced into the Associate Synod, as to the propriety of making such alterations in the mode of office-bearers expressing their approbation of the Westminster Standards as would remove all appearance of requiring an approval of principles inconsistent with religious freedom, he was among the staunchest advocates for forbearance and liberty; and on attempts being made, not without a probability of being successful, to deprive the ministers of his denomination of their reputation for honesty and loyalty, and the congregations of their property, to no one individual were they so much indebted for the vindication of the one and the protection of the other.
' In the negotiations between the two long-divided great branches of the Secession, he was a most useful member of the joint committee appointed by the two Synods; and no one more cordially rejoiced than he did in the auspicious union in which these negotiations terminated.
' When the great missionary movement commenced, towards the close of last century, he was one of its first, and continued till his death one of its steadiest supporters. He was one of the founders of the Edinburgh (afterwards the Scottish) Missionary Society in 1796; and from that time there was scarcely a religious and philanthropic institution formed in Edinburgh to which he was not a subscriber,—few in which his name did not appear as a director. Of some of the most important, among the rest the Gaelic Schools Society, he was a joint originator.
' He hailed the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society as a blessing to the Church and to the world, and was for many years one of the secretaries to its Edinburgh auxiliary. On becoming aware of its deviation from one of the fundamental principles of its constitution, in the circulation of editions of the Scriptures with the Apocryphal writings intermixed or appended, for the purpose of securing their reception where the inspired writings alone would have been refused, he heartily concurred in the employment of the means which led to the discontinuance of the objectionable practice; but, on this end being gained, he cordially restored the confidence which had been temporarily shaken and withheld.
' On the commencement of those discussions on the true principle of the support of religious institutions, and the connection between Church and State, ordinarily termed the Voluntary Controversy, his views, which had extended rather than changed during the period which had elapsed from the agitation of a kindred question in what was styled the Old Light Controversy, led him to give, not merely the influence of his honoured name to what he considered as the cause of truth, and right, and freedom, but, as far as his advanced age permitted, his active support. He was in the chair when the Voluntary Church Association was formed, and presided at its public meetings till prevented by increasing infirmity.
' The struggles made in the Established Church, which terminated in the disruption of that body, were regarded by him with intense and friendly interest; and he cordially rejoiced when the brethren of the Free Church of Scotland, by so noble a sacrifice, obtained possession of that liberty with which Christ makes all His Churches free. He witnessed the remarkable procession from St. Andrew's Church to Canonmills Hall with tears of satisfaction, saying, with a voice faltering with emotion, "I never hoped to live to see this day."
'When, in the year 1818, the Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, at a time when the conferring academical dignities on Dissenters was comparatively a rare thing, did themselves honour in spontaneously bestowing on him the degree of D.D., every one felt that it was fit that he who had secured for himself so high a reputation as a Christian teacher should receive the title that expresses the respect which he already possessed.
Cyclopædia of Biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical literature, Volume 7 By John McClintock, James Strong.............Peddie, James, D.D., on able and judicious English divine, was born at Perth in 1769. He entered the University of Edi...nburgh in 1775; was. admitted a student in the divinity ball of the Secession Church, under the Kev.John Brown, of Haddington, in 1777; was ordained minister of Bristo Street congregation, Edinburgh, in 1783, and continued in that charge until his death in 1815. His sermons are eminently clear, well arranged, scriptural, and instructive. In expository lectures he greatly excelled. He published, The Revolution the Work o/Goil, and a Cause of Joy; two sermons on Psa. exxxvi, 3 [Nov. 5] (Edinb. 1789,8vo) -.—The Perpetuity, Advantage', and Universality of the Christian Religion; a sermon preached before the Edinburgh Missionary Society on Psa. lxxii. 17 (ibid. 1796, 8vo) -.—Jehovah's Care to perpetuate the Redeemer's Same; a sermon preached liefore the Missionary Society on Psa. xlv, 17 (Lond. 1809, 8vo):—A practical Exposition of the Book of Jonah, in Ten Lectures (Edinb. 1842, 12mo). After his death appeared Discourses, with a Memoir of his Life, by his son, the Kev. William Peddie, D.D. (ibid. 1846. 8vo).
