The Free Scots Church, in Free Church Street, was the centre of the only religious riot in our history - the 'McIntyre riot' of March 1860.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Church, a replacement for the original 'Old Scots Kirk' in St Andrews Street (the first church built in Maitland) was partly a result of a split in the Scottish congregation.
Its origins are tangled in the continuation of the Reformation in Scotland with splits and reunions over centuries.
In the late 1840s Rev. William McIntyre was the leader of the Scottish congregation in Maitland but in 1849 he broke with the continuing Presbyterians to establish the Free Scots Church.
RELATED CONTENT
- Newcastle to Maitland railway comes of age
- Maitland produced two of the greatest Australians
- Plan to relocate the town to beat flooding once and for all
- When Maitland was a rowing town and it attracted huge numbers
- Dimmocks: From small start to a family dynasty
- How our heritage-listed Jewish cemetery came about
They were the most radical, Calvinist Presbyterians who eschewed all forms of state support (essentially a part wage for all clergy and money to build churches), were anti-drink, anti-swearing, anti-gambling, claimed the high moral ground and were fundamental in their opposition to Catholicism.
McIntyre was detested by Catholics because he constantly wrote attacking the Australian Catholic hierarchy and people.
What upset many was the apparent hypocrisy of his attacks when his own behaviour appeared less than Godly.
His marriage to his much older first cousin and consequent inheritance of her dead brother's vast land holdings in the Colony caused much scandal.
Not more than 100 metres from the Free Scots Church was 'Irishtown', a riverside slum of Irish Catholics of very low economic status - the complete antithesis of the upright Free Scots. As well, Horseshoe Bend, next door, had one of the highest proportions of Irish Catholics in the population anywhere in NSW.
In May 1860 the Rev. McIntyre proposed to give a lecture entitled 'The Heathenism of Popery proved and illustrated', which tapped into the prevailing Protestant-Roman Catholic sectarianism.
This sectarianism was more manifest in verbal clerical clashes than in the day-to-day life of the religiously mixed Maitlandites. But this was a step too far for many of the clannish Irish. To take on one of them, especially the Pope, was to take on the lot.
They gave plenty of warning that they would react if McIntyre proceeded with the lecture. He refused to resile - truth must out!
Despite warnings not to interfere from the Catholic Parish Priest Dean Lynch, who actually lived opposite the Free Scots Church where St Peter's School Administration block now stands, the temptation was too much.
Reputedly up to a thousand (many drunk) arrived on the night in question, although this figure is hotly disputed.
Regardless, nobody could get to the Church and the constables were overwhelmed when a brawl erupted. Windows and fences were broken and some people (including two McIntyre cousins) were seriously injured. The police called off the lecture.
Oral tradition has it that the burly Dean, who frequently controlled members of his riotous congregation with a whip from the back of his famed white horse, finally intervened and scattered the crowd with a few well aimed uppercuts.
The press were beside themselves with anti-Catholic vitriol, and the Rev McIntyre vowed to proceed with his lecture.
It was eventually given a month later in a paddock, protected by a large number of special mounted constables. The Lecture was published. The recriminations continued for decades.
Ironically his manse, next to the church, is now in Catholic hands. Mr McIntyre is probably spinning in his grave.
