Financing Religion: Edinburgh’s Burgh Churches

This paper describes and analyses the financing arrangements of Edinburgh’s Burgh churches from the time of the Reformation to the enactment of the Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act 1925. Deploying financial and demographic data it offers a preliminary economic commentary on two key episodes in Edinburgh’s nineteenth century ecclesiastical history – the Voluntary revolt against the Annuity Tax of the 1830s, and the 1843 Disruption – thereby enriching existing narratives of the period through a calibration of the financial impact of both events on the Burgh’s revenues.