WAY Paisley minister’s tragic death
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Among clusters of grizzled gravestones in a historic churchyard is an aged stone slab commemorating a gifted Paisley minister who died tragically by his own hand.
The Reverend Andrew Harley, whose father David was a weaver in Maxwellton or the West End, hanged himself from a kirk bell rope on July 30, 1807. He was aged 42.
A grey sepulchral slab marking his three-year ministry studs the burial ground at Johnstone High Parish Church, where the respected pastor preached from 1804 until his sad demise.
Born in 1764, young Andrew grew up when Paisley’s weavers – immaculate in three-cornered hats, knee breeches, blue coats, frilled shirts, yellow waistcoats, silk stockings and silver buckled shoes – were society’s kingpins.
The town, with its lofty church spires and thatched-roofed cottages, was a hive of industry, with horse-drawn stagecoaches and wagons laden with wealthy merchants and textiles clattering along cobbled streets.
Weaving offered a comfortable living,
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but young Andrew – who played as a boy in Ferguslie woods and guddled for trout in the River White Cart – decided to enter the Church of Scotland ministry.
After graduating from Glasgow University with a Master of Arts degree, he was ordained at Catrine, Ayrshire, in 1800.
Four years later, he was inducted at Johnstone High Church as its minister in April, 1804.
His powerful preaching, home visits and compassion for his flock inspired a massive increase in communicants at the ‘Big Kirk’ as Johnstone’s population burgeoned with the rise of the town’s cotton thread mills.
No one knows if Mr Harley – who was unmarried and of a highly sensitive disposition – took his life because of unrequited love, theological doubt or witnessing so much human suffering, including infant mortality, disease and urban poverty, during his ministry.
Whatever the reason, the high esteem in which the worthy divine was held survived his death.
A collection of his sermons was published after his burial and the gravestone was erected over his tomb.
A silhouette drawing of the popular pastor was placed on the kirk’s vestibule wall.
Like the churchyard tombstone, the dark drawing reminds us that suicide still claims hundreds of lives today – and that we should all support organisations such as the Samaritans and ChildLine, which campaign to prevent further tragedies like that of the Reverend Andrew Harley.