A church was set up by Glas in
Dundee following his suspension by the
Church of Scotland, with its congregation becoming known as
Glasites. The first meeting house in
Perth followed in 1733. Glasite churches were also founded in
Paisley,
Glasgow,
Edinburgh,
Leith,
Arbroath,
Montrose,
Aberdeen,
Dunkeld,
Cupar, and
Galashiels. Buildings built as Glasite chapels survive in
Dundee,
Edinburgh and
Perth (two),
Galashiels and possibly elsewhere.
Sandemanian Churches in England Glas's views were again advanced beyond Scotland with Sandeman's publication of
Letters on Theron and Aspasio in 1757. The resulting correspondence between the leading church elders, Glas and Sandeman, and English pastors,
Samuel Pike, John Barnard, and William Cudworth among others, led to the adoption of this primitive form of Christianity for their London congregations beginning in the early 1760s. John Barnard's petition to Robert Sandeman brought the latter south to
London from
Scotland in April 1761 with his brother
William and John Handasyde, an Elder from the Northumberland meeting house. This visit led to the establishment of the first legitimately constituted Sandemanian congregation on 23 March 1762 at ''Glover's Hall''. To accommodate larger gatherings, this congregation moved initially to Bull and Mouth-Street,
St. Martin's Le Grand, and then to Paul's Alley in the Barbican in the autumn of 1778. This third London meeting house was that of
Michael Faraday's youth. The Sandemanians relocated to
Barnsbury Grove, in
north London, in 1862 where they met until nearly the turn of the century. Michael Faraday was a Deacon at Paul's Alley in the Barbican during the 1830s, an Elder there from 1840 to 1844 and again from 1860 to 1864, the final two years of which were at the Barnsbury Grove meeting house. A plaque was installed in the building indicating his seat of prayer. The building was converted into a telephone exchange, and that end of Barnsbury Grove renamed Faraday Close. . 2008 photo of a 19th-century Sandemanian meeting house
Beyond London As the congregation on Bull and Mouth-Street, St. Martins-le-Grand, London solidified through the inclusion of noted pastors like
Samuel Pike in 1765, other English parishes followed their Sandemanian lead. The first response outside London occurred in
Yorkshire with followers of
Benjamin Ingham. Ingham discreetly sent two of his preachers, James Allen and William Batty, to Scotland to observe Glasite practices in 1761. Of these three Methodist preachers, only Allen fully converted and began to establish Sandemanian meeting houses in Northern England, to include his hometown of
Gayle,
Kirkby Stephen, Newby, and
Kirkby Lonsdale. By 1768 Allen, together with John Barnard and William Cudworth from London, helped establish congregations in
York, Norfolk,
Colne, Wethersfield,
Liverpool,
Whitehaven,
Trowbridge and
Nottingham. Sandeman personally established fewer than a dozen churches in England including Liverpool before he went to America in 1764. The Trowbridge meeting house, in Wiltshire, was the location to which Samuel Pike moved and at which he preached for the final two years until his death in 1773.
Sandemanian churches in America Robert Sandeman sailed into
Boston from
Glasgow aboard the
George and James, captained by Montgomery, on 18 October 1764. At the invitation of
Ezra Stiles, Sandeman preached his first sermon in Newport on 28 November. He spent Christmas and most of January 1765 in
Danbury, Connecticut, discussing theology and church governance with Ebenezer White and his followers. Over the next four months, Sandeman and his party traveled to
New York,
Philadelphia,
New London, Connecticut,
Providence, Rhode Island, and finally
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sandeman established his first church in Portsmouth on 4 May 1765, accompanied by James Cargill, Andrew Oliphant, and his nephews. Within the month, Sandeman returned to
Boston and established his second meetinghouse at the home of Edward Foster. From Boston, he returned to Danbury and created his third church among White's followers, with Joseph Moss White and himself serving as elders. Sandeman referred to his church as formal to distinguish it from Ebenezer White's church, which retained traditional church authority. Colonial resistance to Sandemanianism initially stemmed from the absence of ministerial authority within their congregations. This lack of a central authority challenged the existing social fabric throughout New England, which relied upon the state to enforce church orthodoxy. As many colonials rose in protest of punitive Crown policies in the decade following Robert Sandeman's arrival, his followers remained passively loyal in
Paul's footsteps, setting the stage for bitter estrangement between the factions. It was not until Sandeman's passing in 1771 that the remnants of the Danbury church moved to
New Haven and formed the fourth church in America. Sandemanians as a whole were labeled "Loyalists" for their pacifist stance, to conform with Paul's teachings, since they did not oppose the crown like so many of their colonial brethren. Besides passivism, many Boston congregations evacuated with the British. It went into exile in
Halifax,
Nova Scotia, further escalating the fears of their colonial brethren. This relocation to Halifax led to the formation of the fifth church. A Boston printer,
John Howe, followed the British lead to Canada with his family, only to return alone with the British army to document the unfolding war story upon its return to New York. The 'History of Danbury, Connecticut, 1684-1896', by James Montgomery Bailey, mentions three additional Sandemanian congregations located in Taunton, Massachusetts, Newtown, Connecticut, and the Plumtrees district of Bethel, Connecticut. It is not clear what role, if any, Robert Sandeman played in the establishment of these congregations. However, the Boston records indicate he performed several marriages in that city during the winter and spring of 1767 to 1768. Many Loyalist Sandemanians were uprooted during the revolution and lost most of their property. Howe's story exemplifies this situation. In his case, he sailed to Nova Scotia and became an elder in the congregation that formed.
Decline The last of the Sandemanian churches in
America ceased to exist in 1890. The London meeting house finally closed in 1984. The last Elder of the Church died in Edinburgh in 1999. Many Glasites joined the general body of Scottish
Congregationalists, and the denomination has long been considered extinct. == Critics of Sandemanianism ==