Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, tension continued between Church and state, (Burghers and Anti-Burghers; New Licht and Auld Licht; all Seceders and between the Enlightenment ministers (moderates) and the traditional ?evangelists?). Tension increased with the new confidence in the middle class, getting the political vote with the Reform Act of 1832. This increased their confidence that they should be able to choose their own minister. However, the government in London refused categorically to abolish Patronage and landowners like Lord Torphichen continued to nominate ministers of their choice to vacant charges.

It was around this time, possibly during the ministry of the Rev. Kirk, that William Armstrong the Coppersmith was paid two pounds six shillings for the Gilded Weather Cock, which, until recent times, perched above the Bell Cote. This Weather Cock was gifted by Lord Beaverbrooke. (Where is it now?)

The Rev. Andrew Kirk translated to St. Stephens, Glasgow on 19th. February, 1836. The Rev. Kirk was replaced by the Rev. William Maxwell Hetherington who was inducted on the 28th. April, 1836.

We do not know much of the Rev. Hetherington?s ministry in Torphichen other than that he was one of the evangelicals under Thomas Chalmers, who was becoming more and more frustrated regarding by the lack of progress in ending Patronage and other unpopular rules of the established Church.

On the 18th May 1843, the General Assembly met, but instead of there being a formal opening, a petition was laid on the table containing signatures from the Evangelical party. Over 200 members of that party left the chamber followed this. Eventually 474 ministers out of 1203 set up churches supported by like-minded members. This was the beginning of The Free Church of Scotland. The Rev. William Maxwell Hetherington formed a Free Kirk in Torphichen and within the year the first ever stone built Free Kirk was built, this being the present St. Johns Hall. In the same year, the Rev. William Branks was inducted as the Church of Scotland minister in Torphichen, he died in 1879. The Rev. Hetherington became the first Free Kirk Minister in St. Andrews on the 21st. February, 1844.

The Rev.Hetherington was succeeded by the Rev. John Duns in 1844. The Rev. Duns, on the sixth anniversary of the opening of the Free Kirk, invited Andrew Bonar, minister of Collarce, to preach in his Kirk. This was on the 2nd. August, 1849 and within 5 days of the one hundred and second anniversary of the death of his great, great grandfather John Bonar in the old Manse in the Kirkgate. The Rev. John Duns was the main force behind the plans to build the well which stands in the square and which was constructed in 1851.

Reunity