Matthew Leishman

Very Rev Matthew Leishman DD (1794-1874) was a Scottish minister. He served as minister of Govan Old Parish Church for 53 years during which he served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1858.

He was born in Paisley on 27 April 1794. He was the second son of Thomas Leishman (b.1762), corn merchant, and his wife, Janet Robertson Foxbar. His mother was said to be a great beauty. He was educated at Paisley Grammar School. He then studied Arts at Glasgow College. He did well and won the “Black Stone Prize”. In 1812 he then went to Edinburgh University to study Divinity.

As a student he lodged at 5 St James Street in the eastern New Town. During his time as a divinity student he was introduced by his friend John Paul to his uncle Rev Henry Moncrieff, a man of very great standing in the Church of Scotland. He also became a common attendee at the Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile, then under the ministry of Rev Alexander Brunton.

Leishman graduated in 1816 and returned home to Paisley, where in 1814 his father had acquired a new house: Oakshaw House in Paisley. He then waited for a church to minister. In 1817 he was offered a church in Demerara in the West Indies but declined, hoping for a Scottish church. During this period of leisure, in 1818 he took a Leith smack to London to visit a cousin Captain Allan at Northampton Square. During the visit he was introduced to the cameoist, William Tassie. During the visit he heard Henry Brougham speaking at the House of Commons, heard the Bishop of Llandaff preach at the Magdalene Chapel, saw Quuen Charlotte pass to a roaring crowd, and saw Edmund Kean play Norval in the Scottish play “Douglas” at the Drury Lane Theatre.

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