Robert Haldane 

Robert Haldane (1764-1842), along with his brother James (1768-1851), was a leading figure in the evangelical revival of Scotland in the late 1790s and early 1800s. Originally a seaman, he retired early from his commission and used his wealth and estate to preach, train ministers, and establish evangelical churches throughout Scotland. Encouraged by their contacts with a number of English evangelical ministers, both Anglican and Nonconformist, in 1797 the two brothers founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Home, evangelizing primarily in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1798 James became pastor of a independent Congregational church (in many respects, a “nondenominational” church, as Brian Talbot describes it) in The Circus in Edinburgh, which shortly thereafter moved into a new building (seating 3200) called the Tabernacle Church. Robert purchased another Circus in Glasgow and converted it into a church as well. Fuller and Sutcliff preached to 4000 in Edinburgh and 5000 in Glasgow on a BMS tour of Scotland in October 1799. In 1808 he led his congregation into adopting Baptist polity, initiating a significant revival of Baptist work in Scotland through his preaching, philanthropy and publications. Robert Haldane served many years as minister of the Baptist church at Airdrie. See George Yuille, History of the Baptists in Scotland from Pre-Reformation Times (Glasgow: Baptist Union Publications Committee, 1926) 55-60; William W. Lawson, “Robert and James Haldane,” Baptist Quarterly 7 (1934-1935): 276-285; George McGuiness, “Robert (1764-1842) and James Haldane (1768-1851),” ed. Haykin, in The British Particular Baptists, 2:219-235; David W. Bebbington, ed., The Baptists in Scotland: A History (Glasgow: Baptist Union of Scotland, 1988), 9-47; Brian Talbot, The Search for a Common Identity: The Origins of the Baptist Union of Scotland 1800–1870. Studies in Baptist History and Thought, vol. 9 (Carlisle UK: Paternoster Press, 2003), 73-114; for Fuller’s discussion of the Haldanes, see Fuller to William Ward, 23 May 1801, MSS. BMS, vol. 1, Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford.