Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/213

 MEARNS, DUNCAN, D.D. (1779–1852), professor of theology, was born on 23 Aug. 1779 at the manse of Cluny, Aberdeenshire, of which parish his father, Alexander Mearns, was minister. His mother was Anne, daughter of James Morison of Disblair and Elsick, provost of Aberdeen in 1745. At the age of twelve he entered King's College, Aberdeen, gaining the first bursary. After graduating M.A., March 1795, he entered the Divinity Hall, where he studied under Dr. [q. v.] and Principal [q. v.] At the age of twenty he was licensed by the presbytery of Kincardine O'Neil, and the same year (13 Nov. 1799), on the presentation of George, earl of Aberdeen, was ordained assistant and successor to the parish of Tarves, succeeding shortly after to the benefice. He became professor of divinity in King's College, Aberdeen, in succession to Dr. Gilbert Gerard on 12 Oct. 1816. There he carried on the traditions of the chair, and his learning and character quickly made him a leader of the 'moderate' party in the Scottish church during the long and growing controversy with the evangelicals or 'high-flyers.' In 1821 he was chosen moderator of the general assembly, and in 1823 was appointed one of George IV's chaplains for Scotland. During the ten years' conflict that ended in the secession of 1843, his faculty of direct and incisive speech was unsparingly employed in support of the establishment. He died, after a long and painful illness, 2 March 1852, aged 72. Mearns married Eliza Forsyth, by whom he had two sons and six daughters. His younger son, William Mearns, D.D., was minister of Kinneff, and died in 1891. Of his daughters, the eldest, Anne, married Dr. Robert Macpherson (1806-1867), who succeeded him in his chair of theology, and the second, Jane, married Dr. Hercules Scott, professor of moral philosophy, in the university of Aberdeen.

Next to Principal George Campbell Mearns was considered the most learned Scottish divine of his time. He published outlines of the Murray lecture on 'The Knowledge Requisite for the Attainment of Eternal Life' in 1825; and his 'Principles of Christian Evidence Illustrated' (1818), in which he sought to show that the views of Dr. Chalmers were subversive of natural theology, is an interesting exposition of the internal evidence of Christianity. After his death his son edited 'Scripture Characters,' 1853, 2 vols., discourses delivered at King's College, as Murtle lecturer on Practical Religion.



MEARS or MAIRS, JOHN (1695?–1767), Irish presbyterian divine, was born at Loughbrickland, co. Down, about 1695, or perhaps earlier. His father was John Mairs, presbyterian minister successively at Loughbrickland, 1687, Longford, 1697, and Newtownards, co. Down, 1707, where he died on 25 Dec. 1718. The spelling Mears is Irish, the pronunciation being Mairs. Mears entered Glasgow University in 1710, graduated M.A. in 1713, and studied divinity under [q. v.], whose teaching shook his orthodoxy. Early in 1718 he was licensed by Down presbytery, and ordained by the same body on 20 Feb. 1720 at Newtownards, in succession to his father. On the outbreak of the non-subscription controversy in 1720, Mears, who was clerk of Down presbytery, sided strongly with the non-subscribers. In 1722 he made overtures to [q. v.], bishop of Down and Connor, offering to conform to the established church. The matter came before Down presbytery on 22 Nov. 1722, when Mears ascribed his action to a 'temptation of Satan,' and said it would have 'a good effect upon him in making him a more able advocate of the presbyterian cause.' Part of his flock was dissatisfied, and in May 1723 the presbytery erected the minority into a separate congregation. In July 1724 [q. v.], presbyterian minister of Downpatrick, brought an action for defamation against Echlin, a layman of the established church at Bangor, co. Down, who had called him an Arian. Mears was present at the Downpatrick assizes when the case came on. The judge asked several episcopal clergymen to explain to the bench what Arianism was; on their declining, Mears volunteered an explanation, on which the judge complimented him. In the previous month Mears had himself been accused of Arianism in a pamphlet ('Defence,' &c., 1724), published by [q. v.] From this charge he vindicated himself in an anonymous contribution to the 'Letter to Kennedy,' 1725, by [q. v.] In June 1725 Mears with his congregation were transferred to the Antrim presbytery, excluded from jurisdiction, as non-subscribing, in 1726.

In 1735 he resigned Newtownards to take charge of the small presbyterian congregation at Clonmel, co. Tipperary, where he was installed on 9 April. Here in 1738 he had between seventy and eighty communicants. On 9 Jan. 1740 he was installed minister of a small congregation in Stafford Street, Dublin, which had separated from Capel Street congregation, on 10 Oct. 1738. In December 1740 he preached at Wood Street (and 