18th century Founded in 1709, the Society had similar aims to the English
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which was made up of Anglicans and did not concern itself with Scotland. Its main activity was in evangelising the
Scottish Highlands, sending ministers to
Scottish emigrant communities overseas, and sending missionaries to convert native peoples to Christianity. The Society began to establish schools in the Highlands with the aim of reducing
Jacobitism and resisting the rise of
Roman Catholicism. The first school was opened on
St Kilda in 1711. By the end of that year, the SSPCK had five schools, twenty-five by 1715, 176 by 1758, and 189 by 1808, by which time 13,000 children were attending the schools. At first, the SSPCK strongly avoided using the
Gaelic language in its schools, which has led to the claim that pupils learnt by rote, without understanding what they were being taught. A Society rule of 1720 required the teaching of reading and numbers, "but not any
Latin or Irish", a common term for Gaelic in both Ireland and Scotland. In 1741, the SSPCK introduced the
Galick and English Vocabulary compiled by the poet
Alasdair MacDonald, The desired effect was to strengthen the Church of Scotland and the English language. It was not until after the final defeat of Jacobitism at
Culloden in 1746 that the Society began to consider publishing a Bible in Scottish Gaelic, and it initiated a
translation project in 1755. The New Testament translation was led by
James Stuart (1701–1789), minister of
Killin in
Perthshire, and the poet
Dugald Buchanan. Stuart worked from the Greek, while Buchanan improved the Gaelic. The work on the Old Testament translation was largely by Stuart's son
John Stuart of Luss (1743–1821). In 1766, the Society allowed its Highland schools to use Gaelic alongside English as a language of instruction. This was followed by the
Old Testament in Gaelic, published in four parts between 1783 and 1801. Despite the SSPCK's Gaelic language work, in 1790 one of its preachers still insisted that English
monolingualism was one of its goals, and ten years later some SSPCK schools were still using
corporal punishment on children speaking Gaelic. In 1880, the Society formed a commission to revise the Gaelic Bible, including members of the
Free Churches as well as the established Church of Scotland, chaired by
Norman Macleod. By the time the New Testament was completed the affairs of the Society had come under the investigation of a Royal Commission for alleged financial mismanagement, and in 1883 the work of revision was suspended, to be resumed some thirteen years later in 1896. In 1902 the new revision of the Bible was adopted by the National Bible Society of Scotland, later renamed the
Scottish Bible Society. The National Bible Society continues to exist as the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. ==Notes==