Andrew Hunter

Andrew Hunter of Barjarg FRSE (1743–1809) was a Minister in Edinburgh. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1792, was Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh and a Founding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Life Andrew Hunter of Barjarg in Dumfriesshire, was born in 1743, the eldest son of Andrew Hunter, W.S, in Edinburgh, and Grizell Maxwell of Cardoness. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh and then studied Divinity at the University of Edinburgh under Rev Prof Robert Walker, but did not graduate. He then spent a year at the University of Utrecht furthering his studies in Calvinist theology. He was then made a licensed probationer by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1767, though it seemed he refused to take up any formal position while his father, whom he adored, lived. He was ordained as assistant minister ("Second Charge") in the "New Church" of the Parish of Dumfries, on 20 September 1770. He inherited Abbotshill on the death of his father, but sold the estate and instead purchased the estate of Barjarg near Dumfries from James Erskine in 1772 and remained for nine years.