Introduction

From the early 1800s Scots had begun to settle in Argentina, principally in the city and province of Buenos Aires. Initially the settlers were merchants, attracted by the opportunities for highly profitable import and export trade, made possible by the decline of Spanish colonial rule, the achievement of independence, a liberal constitution and policies supportive of British interests and immigration. Soon, these circumstances encouraged Scots from many backgrounds, trades and professions to emigrate to Argentina, either to work in the cities or on the fertile lands of the pampas where sheep and cattle-raising were highly profitable. The 1820s saw many ships carrying Scots arriving in Buenos Aires, the best known being the Symmetry, with some two hundred and fifty men and their families who founded the short-lived agricultural colony of Monte Grande, south of the city. They were to be followed by thousands more throughout the 19^thcentury

The early Scottish settlers, like their English counterparts, were a small Protestant minority in a Roman Catholic country. They brought with them their distinctive identity as Scottish Presbyterians, but they had no church premises nor a Scots minister to serve their needs. Consequently, services were held in private houses, with ministers from other Churches officiating at baptisms, marriages and burials. Also, when a Chaplaincy was established by the British Government it was intended to serve both Anglicans and Presbyterian, despite the differences between the two Faiths. Faced with this unsatisfactory situation, several meetings of prominent members of the Scots Presbyterian community were held between December 1828 and March 1829, which resulted in decisions to secure the services of a minister, to establish a Scotch Presbyterian Chapel and to make a wide appeal for funds. The Chapel was opened on the 15^th March 1829 and the Rev. William Brown, formerly minister to the now defunct colony at Monte Grande, officiated. Now thoughts turned to a properly organized and equipped Church and to the erection of a suitable building. The plans were realized, with the authority of the Buenos Aires Government, and on the 25^th February 1833 the foundation stone was laid of “ the First Scotch National Church in South America and to be called St. Andrew’s”. The Church, at 55 Calle Piedras, was opened for public worship on the 25^th April 1835, with the Rev. William Brown conducting the service.

St. Andrew’s Scotch Presbyterian Church

The original Church served the Presbyterian congregation until 1893 when the property was expropriated by the municipality of Buenos Aires. The new Church, on the Calle Belgrano, was dedicated on the 10^th April 1896, and serves the wider Presbyterian community to the present day.

The growth and dispersion of the Scots population in Argentina, particularly in the vast province of Buenos Aires, but beyond into Entre Rios in the north and Patagonia in the extreme south, created the need for other centres of worship or for visitations by ministers. The first of the new congregations was established in the district of Quilmes, at Florencio Varela, initially with a “Rancho Kirk” (wattle and daub) and then in 1855 with the permanent Church of St. John’s. St. John’s building is supported by the Sociedad de Amigos de la Capilla de Los Escoceses. It was soon followed by another “Rancho Kirk” near Chascomus, some seventy miles south of Buenos Aires, where there was a flourishing Scots community. The permanent Church of St Andrew’s Chascomus was opened in 1872. However, Churches could not be justified for more distant and smaller communities. The Scottish settlers who founded Nueva Escocia, south of Concordia in Entre Rios, gradually dispersed and they, together with Scots on scattered estancias in the Banda Oriental, now Uruguay, were served for many years by the Rev. Lachlan McNeill, a Gaelic speaker, who moved from one preaching station to another. Patagonia perhaps presented greater problems and was visited at infrequent intervals over several years. Travelling or “camp” chaplains had, in fact, to meet other needs in many distant communities, ranging west beyond Rosario to Mendoza and north as far as the province of Jujuy. Meanwhile, the workshops of the Great Southern Railway , initially at Barracas and then Talleres in the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires, employed many English-speaking staff. A Presbyterian Church was opened at Barracas in 1888, followed by another at Remedios de Escalada, by the new site of the workshops. Later again, in 1908, the residents of the suburb of Belgrano in the north of the city had a Church opened. Further developments took place in the first quarter of the 20^th century, with Churches at Bahia Blanca, Temperley, Quilmes and much later, in 1966, Olivos.

Presbiterio San Andres - The Presbyterian Church of Argentina

By the early 20^th century the Church could look back on major achievements, with ministers and congregations in various parts of the city and province of Buenos Aires, the extensive use of “camp” chaplains and occasional visits of ministers to serve the spiritual needs of small communities of Scots in many parts of Argentina and an impressive record in meeting the educational and social needs of Scots and others. However, much was to change. Increasingly there were Scots who had married into Criollo families and others into families of foreign immigrants, losing their Presbyterian origins and often speaking little or no English. Furthermore, there were many non-Scots in the huge population who had little or no attachment to the Roman Catholic Church or, indeed, any denomination. Clearly there was a need for a Spanish-speaking and evangelical policy which could reach out to these two major groups. In 1912 Pastor Jose Felices, educated in Spain and Aberdeen, was appointed for the purpose of developing the Spanish work of the Church, holding Services in Spanish and starting Spanish Sunday Schools. His mission brought numerous adults and children from many nationalities into the Church. On his retirement in 1941 no successor was appointed, perhaps because the English-speaking Scots Presbyterians feared that they would be taken over by the Spanish-speaking congregation. The difficulties of reconciling the different interests were ultimately to weaken the historic connection with the Church of Scotland. In 1983 the Rev. Gordon Morris, the last minister who belonged to the “Scottish Church”, retired. The title “Scots” was dropped in 1981 and in 1987 the Presbyterian Church in Argentina went its own way. Today, The Presbyterian Church of Argentina - Presbiterio San Andres - is an independent Church, working almost entirely in Spanish, its ministers trained at the Instituto Biblico Buenos Aires or the Instituto Superior Evangelico de Estudios Teologicos.

The following sections deal with the Churches themselves, ministers and their assistants and others who are recorded in way one or another in publications on the history of the Scots Presbyterian Church in Argentina.

Churches

The following list contains the location of Churches founded by the Scots Presbyterian Church, their year of opening, and whether the existing buildings are still in use.

1829 Buenos Aires. Open. The present building was opened in 1896.

1855 Florencio Varela (originally Quilmes). Closed 1953. The oldest remaining building.

1857 Chascomus. Ranch Kirk replaced in 1872. Closed.

1868 Jeppener. Closed.

1888 Barracas. Closed 1941.

1908 Belgrano.Open.

1911 Bahia Blanca. Closed 1964.

1913 Temperley. Open.

1913 Remedios de Escalada. Closed 1952.

1924 Quilmes. Open.

1966 Olivos.Open

Ministers and Assistant Ministers, 1829-1925.

Biographical information on the following can be found in the Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, the record of ministers of the Church of Scotland from the Reformation to the present day.

Ministers:

Rev. William Brown, D.D. First minister of St. Andrew’s, 1829-1850.

Rev. James Smith, D.D.. Second minister of St. Andrew’s, 1850-1885.

Rev. Francis Gebbie, St. Andrew’s and St. John’s, Quilmes (later Florencia Varela).

Rev.Martin P. Ferguson, First minister at Chascomus.

Rev. Lachlan McNeill, Entre Rios/Banda Oriental and St. John’s.

Rev. J. W. Fleming, D.D., O.B.E., Third minister of St. Andrew’s, 1885-1925.

Rev. E. Williamson, Chascomus.

Rev. Alfred S. Barritt, Chascomus.

Rev. M. Gillespie, Chascomus.

Rev. Douglas W. Bruce, Fourth minister of St. Andrew’s.

Rev. Jose Felices, minister for outreach work in Spanish, 1912-1938.

Assistant Ministers.

These ministers usually served in Argentina for two or three years, serving either in the city and its suburbs or as camp chaplains. Places where they later went are given.

1850-51 James Smith, St. Andrew’s, Buenos Aires.

1879-83 James W. Fleming, St. Andrew’s, Buenos Aires.

1884-85 Charles Robertson, Assynt, Sutherland.

1889 Alexander Macdonald, Otautau, New Zealand.

1890-92 D.J. Moir Porteus, Port Glasgow.

1892-94 W. Lyall Wilson, St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh.

1894-95 T. Edward Taylor, Dooars, India.

1895-97 A. R. Howell, Paisley Abbey.

1897-1900 J. H. Horton MacNeill, Gargunnock.

1900-02 C. Gordon Mackenzie, West Parish, Crieff.

1902-04 H. Shaw Masterton, Rosemarkie.

1902-07 A. Taylor Hill, Old Luce, near Stranraer.

1904-06, W. N. Monteith, Elie.

1906-08 W. A. Forbes, Murroes, Dundee.

1908-10 D. Bruce Nicol, St. Mark’s, Dundee.

1910 Dugald MacCallum, Rosskeen, Invergordon.

1910-12 Douglas W. Bruce, St. Andrew’s, Buenos Aires.

1910-11 J. Aulay Steele, St. Vincent’s, Glasgow.

1911-12 Percival Mackenzie, Dulwich, London.

1912-14 P. Hill Nicol. Scotland.

1914-16 W. M. Laing, Union Church, Valparaiso.

1915-16 J. Stuart Cameron, Springburn, Glasgow.

1916-20 Donald Macdonald, Benbecula.

1917 W. T. Duncan, U.S.A..

1919 R. J. V. Martin, Alvah, Banffshire.

1919-20 Peter MacPherson, Vryheid, Natal.

1921-23 J. Y. Clark, Insch, near Stranraer.

1922-24 Victor Wands, Garvald, Haddington.

1921-26 Archibald Bell, Kelvinhaugh, Glasgow.

1922-26 Peter MacPherson, Vryheid, Natal.

1923-25 Neil MacColl, Scotland.

1923 C. Gordon Mackenzie, West Parish, Creiff.

1925 Hector K. Macdonald, Argentina.

1926 James S. Taylor, Northern Suburbs, Buenos Aires.

1927 A.R.E. MacInnes, Mauchline.

1927 D. A. Macrury, St. Andrew’s, Buenos Aires.

Names on Memorials in St. Andrew’s Church, Buenos Aires.

The following list is restricted to names on memorials. However, the memorials often carry additional information which may be useful to family historians.

Rev. James Smith, M.A.,D.D.; James and Elizabeth Black; Ann Margaret Maclean;

George Bell; William McClymont; Thomas Drysdale; Juan Drysdale; John Alston, M.D.

Carlota Luna; Henry and Margaret Thompson; John and Ann Riddle; Roderick Hugh Campbell; David Methven; John Davidson; Rev. T.E.Taylor; Hugo John Grant Fleming;

Roy Stuart Fleming; Arthur and Mary Towers; Robert Inglis Runciman; Mary Spring Inglis Runciman; Janet S. Ritchie de Wilson; Maud Elizabeth Birrell; John and Mary Rosary Robson Campbell; John Shaw and Mary Maclean; Alexander Grant; William Brown, D.D.; Robert Reid, M.D.; Rev. Francis Gebbie; Rev. Lachlan McNeill; Robert Cook; William Norman Caldwell Cook; James Watson Bell; George, Charles, Frederick and Ernest Bell; Alfred Thomas Drysdale; John Drysdale; Rev. James William Fleming, D.D.,O.B.E..

Memorial to Dead Heroes of the Scots Church community (First World War).

David Lyall Anderson; Magnus M. Angus; John Lyle Barr; Andrew Baxter; Thomas beattie; Thomas H. Bell; Allan Brodie; Arthur S. Buchanan; William Bell Burns; John Argentine Campell; Herbert David Coldwell; Norman Cobbold; Ian Staveley Drysdale; Henry Howard Drysdale; Donald Roy Drysdale; James J.W.Fairbairn; Gibson Finlayson;

William James Nisbet Glasgow; George Hugh Graham; William H. Grassick; Cecil B. Grundy; John Mackie Hay; William Muir Hayman; Frank Henderson; James Moore Hopson; Robert Colvill Jones; Thomas Colvill Jones; William G. Lacey; William Weir Laird; John Archibald McColl; David McCorquodale; John Stewart McHardy; John McRostie; Frederick McWilliam; Hugh Meikle Miller; Harold Methven Musson; Rev. W.N.Monteith; Alfred Mountjoy; William Gilmour Moore Orr; Raymond Stanley Pearse; Victor Ernest Irvine Reid; William Halliday Reynolds; Joseph Robinson; Ben Matthews Roberts; Edmund Inglis Runciman; Alexander Shrewsbury; Charles Faulkner Smith; Kenneth Struthers; Peter Sutherland; Charles Peter Waddle; Geoffrey Philip Walsh; Alfred Ernest Walter; George H. White; Robert Scott Whigham.

Sources.

The principal sources are:

Dodds, James, The Records of Scottish Settlers on the River Plate and Their Churches, Buenos Aires, 1897.

Drysdale, J. Monteith, A Hundred years in Buenos Aires 1829-1929, Buenos Aires, 1929.

The books by Dodds and Drysdale are both difficult to obtain. Fortunately, Alastair McIntyre has done an online transcription of the book by Dodds, which can be accessed at www.electricscotland.com

Also, I have a copy of Drysdale’s book for anyone interested in obtaining further information. It contains much detail of possible interest to family historians.

The Rev. Charles S. Morrice’s article is particularly helpful in explaining the changes in the Scots Church in the later part of the 20^th.century.

Information on the Presbiterio San Andres can also be found at www.sanandres.org.ar and www.ipsanandres.org.ar

Lastly, I would wish again to thank Luis Stuart-Pennington, in Quilmes, Argentina, for his continuing help; on this occasion for information on the present status of church properties.