Burgher (Church history)

In the Scottish church of the 18th and 19th centuries, a burgher was a member of that party amongst the seceders which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath.

The burgess oath was that oath a town burgess was required to swear on taking office. The secession church in Scotland split in 1747 into the Burghers and the Anti-Burghers over the lawfulness of the forms of the oath then current in Scotland, the contentious clause being that in which the burgess professed the true religion professed within the realm. According to Dale Jorgenson, "...The Patronage Act, enacted under the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14), gave lay patrons the right to present ministers to parishes. This act of patronage was an affront to classic Presbyterianism, and resulted in a division between Burghers who accepted the Burghers' Oath and its consequent patronage, and the Anti-Burghers who would not accept the oath."