Robert Aitken (preacher)

Robert Aitken
The Church of St John Pendeen
Born	Robert Aitken 1800 Jedburgh, Scotland
Died	9 October 1873(1873-10-09) (aged 72–73) Paddington
Resting place	Family Vault St John's Pendeen
Residence	Pendeen Vicarage
Nationality	British
Known for	The Christian Society
Spouse(s)	Anna Elizabeth Eyers (m. 1824; her death 1836) Wilhelmina Day Macdowall Grant (m. 1845; his death 1873)
Children	(8) - 6 with A.E. Eyres - 2 with W. D. M. Grant

Robert Aitken (1800 – 1873) was a Scottish popular preacher.

Born in Scotland to Calvinist parents, he attended the University of Edinburgh but according to his son the Rev. William Hay Aitken (1836 - 1911), he left without graduating. While still very young, Aitken became a school-master in Sunderland, and, whilst living in the village of Whitburn near that town, was ordained as deacon in 1823 by Bishop William Van Mildert. He was for some time resident in the Isle of Man, living near Douglas at 'Kirby Cottage' in Braddan. He married his first wife Anna Elizabeth Eyres (1804 - 1836), around this time and they had six children together. She was the daughter of Lt. Colonel William Eyres (1782 - 1847), a wealthy manufacturer of soap, and Elizabeth Simpson (1781 -1863). Anna was tubercular and Aitken's mother-in-law came to the Island to join them and their growing family. In 1829 they bought substantial land at Crosby, Isle of Man called Ballyemin, later renamed Eyreton in honour Anna Elizabeth Aitken. Aitken's style of preaching caused him to clash with the Bishop of Chester and he lost his curacy. Following sixteen days of fasting and prayer Aitken underwent a "spectacular conversion" and circa 1833-4 left the Church of England.

He associated himself with the Wesleyan Methodists as a "freebooting revivalist" and "guided by the hand of God", now began the first of several building projects. He designed Crosby Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (the land for which was given by his mother-in-law for 5 shillings). Aitken and his mother-in-law may have paid for, or helped pay for the building work. Opened in 1833 the Chapel is still standing in 2017. In 1833 Aitken designed and built 'Eyreton Castle' where he opened a school, run on exclusively religious grounds; in 1834 the first prospectus had the motto "Holiness unto the Lord". It later became a boarding school and then a farm. The castle ruin can still be seen today. Aitken was never received into the Wesleyan Connexion and ministry; in 1834-5 his requests for formal recognition by Conference were denied but he was permitted to occupy Methodist pulpits, by the Wesleyan Methodist Association, a splinter group . He remained in sympathy with them until the Warren controversy arose in 1835; the conservative Jabez Bunting seems to have always viewed Aitken as a divisive figure who was inimical to his own ambitions. Aitken was clearly a preacher of tremendous eloquence and power.