Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Calder, Robert (1650?-1723)
CALDER, ROBERT (1650?–1723), clergyman of the Scottish episcopalian church, was a native of Elgin, and was born about 1650. He was educated at the university and King's College, Aberdeen. He was presented to the parish of Nenthorn in the presbytery of Kelso in 1689, but on 13 Sept. of the same year was deprived for refusing to read the proclamation of the estates declaring William and Mary king and queen of England, and for having prayed for King James. In 1693, according to his own account, he was for some time imprisoned in the common gaol of Edinburgh for exercising his ministerial functions. On receiving his liberty he went to Aberdeen, where he officiated in his own house, using the Book of Common Prayer. On the order shortly after the union to shut up all episcopal chapels in Scotland he was compelled to leave Aberdeen, and went to Elgin, where he officiated for some time. To obstruct his celebration of the Lord's Supper on Easter day 1707, he was summoned before the privy council at Edinburgh on Good Friday. Not complying he was sentenced to be banished from Elgin under a severe penalty should he return within twelve miles of the city. He now settled at Edinburgh, where he officiated to a congregation in Toddrick's Wynd. During his incumbency in Edinburgh he engaged in a keen controversy with the Rev. John Anderson, minister of Dumbarton, regarding whom he advertised the intention of preaching a sermon, with the view to proving that he was ‘one of the grossest liars that ever put pen to paper.’ He died on 28 May 1723, aged 73. He was the reputed author of ‘Scottish Presbyterian Eloquence displayed,’ 1693, a collection of citations intended to expose the irreverent liberties indulged in by the presbyterians in their prayers and sermons. In 1713 he published ‘Miscellany Numbers relating to the Controversie about the Book of Common Prayer, Episcopal Government,’ &c., forty numbers appearing successively. He was also the author of ‘Three Single Sermons,’ 1701; ‘Reasons for Toleration to the Episcopal Clergie’ (anon.), 1703: ‘The Divine Right of Episcopacy’ (anon.), 1705; ‘Letter to a Nonconformist Minister of the Kirk,’ 1705; ‘The Lawfulness and Expediency of Set Forms of Prayer,’ 1706; ‘The Lawfulness and Necessitie of observing the Anniversary Fasts and Festivals of the Church maintained,’ by R. C., 1710; ‘A Letter to Mr. James Hog of Carnwarth,’ 1710; ‘The Countryman's Idea of a Gospel Minister,’ 1711; ‘The Spirit of Slander exemplified in a scandalous Pamphlet called the Jacobite Cause,’ 1714; ‘The Priesthood of the Old and New Testament by Succession,’ in seven letters, 1716; ‘The Second Part … or a Challenge to all that want Episcopal Ordination to prove the validity of their ministerial acts,’ 1717; ‘The Anti Counter-querist counter-queried,’ n.d.; ‘Queries to the Presbyterians,’ n. d.
[Lawson's History of the Scottish Episcopalian Church since 1688; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. i. 468; Catalogue of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh; Works of Calder.]Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.48
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 241 | ii | 5 f.e. | Calder, Robert: for Neuthorn read Nenthorn |