George Smeaton

George Smeaton (1814-89) was one of Scotland's leading theologians of the nineteenth century. When he died the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland adopted the following statement about Smeaton: "A man of massive intellect and unwearied diligence, of profound erudition and exact scholarship, he consecrated his talents, his time, and the wealth of his learning to the service of God, and the interpretation of his holy word." Smeaton held the chair of Exegetical Theology at New College Edinburgh. He taught there with William Cunningham (1805-61) and John "Rabbi" Duncan (1796-1870). Smeaton was a Calvinist, and orthodox as light defines the day.

New College since those days, of course, has drifted from how Smeaton (and others there) understood the faith. Anectodely, Smeaton's portrait was given to New College by his wife after his death (1892). It hung in the Common Hall of the college for many decades. His portrait looked "down on generations of students who, sadly, would take a very different line from Smeaton himself in the understanding of the faith" (biography by J. W. Keddie). In the 1990's the college sold his portrait to an American bookseller from Pennsylvania for less than $1000.