Burgher (Church history)
In the Scottish church of the 18th and 19th centuries, a burgher was a member of that party amongst the seceders which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath.[1]
The burgess oath was that oath a town burgess was required to swear on taking office. The secession church in Scotland split in 1747 into the Burghers and the Anti-Burghers over the lawfulness of the forms of the oath then current in Scotland, the contentious clause being that in which the burgess professed the true religion professed within the realm.
References
- ^ Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. 1913.
A member of that party, among the Scotch seceders, which asserted the lawfulness of the burgess oath (in which burgesses profess the true religion professed within the realm"), the opposite party being called antiburghers.