1. Robert Rainy, was a Scottish Presbyterian divine.
12 Facts About Robert Rainy
1. 2.
Robert Rainy was born on New Year's Day 1826 at 28 Montrose Street in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Dr Harry Rainy LLD a surgeon who later served as Professor of Forensic Medicine in the University of Glasgow, and his wife Barbara Gordon.
3.
One of his uncles was George Robert Rainy, the noted slave plantation owner and personality involved in the Highland Clearances.
4.
Robert Rainy initially studied Medicine at Glasgow University to follow his father's career.
5.
Robert Rainy was caught by the evangelical fervour of the Disruption of 1843, and moved to Edinburgh to train as Free Church minister at New College.
6.
Robert Rainy was ordained by the Free Church at Huntly in Aberdeenshire in 1851 and then in 1854 moved to the Free High Church in Edinburgh.
7.
Robert Rainy had come to the front as a champion of the Liberal Party in the Union controversy within the Free Church, and in combating Dean Stanley's Broad Church views in the interests of Scotch evangelicism.
8.
Robert Rainy guided it through the controversies as to Robertson Smith's heresies, as to the use of hymns and instrumental music, and to the Declaratory Act.
9.
Robert Rainy was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1887 in succession to Rev Alexander Neill Somerville and was succeeded in turn by Rev John Laird in 1888.
10.
Robert Rainy's body was returned to Scotland and he is buried against the southern wall of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.
11.
Robert Rainy's monument is nearly identical to that of the brewer John McEwan, slightly to the east of Rainy.
12.
Robert Rainy Hall is available to hire through The University of Edinburgh.