When James II and VII fled the country in 1688 and William and Mary came to the throne, many Episcopalian Scottish bishops felt unable to take the oath of allegiance to the couple because James had not actually abdicated as king. These Episcopalian bishops, known as ‘non jurors’ because they would not swear allegiance to a Hanoverian monarch, became highly suspect to the authorities. In Glasgow, they went underground, holding clandestine services in premises at Bell Street and an old grammar school in George Street.
By contrast, Episcopal clergymen who had taken the oath and were known as ‘jurors’, ministered freely to English congregations in Scotland, the congregations consisting mainly of English troops billeted in Glasgow. After 1845, their churches were the only legal places of Episcopalian worship in Scotland.
St Andrew’s by-the-Green was built in 1750 by public subscription for the English community in Glasgow. In 1805, the two branches of the Episcopalean church – the jurors and the non jurors – came together under the Bishop of Glasgow, William Abernethy Drummond. A second church, with an adjoining churchyard, the Christ Church Episcopal, was opened in 1837 at the corner of Brook Street and Crownpoint Road, Bridgeton.
The churchyard was demolished around 1940 and the church closed in 1977, although the building is apparently still standing and being used for other purposes. The burial register for 1837-90 is available on microfilm at the Mitchell Library and there is no known list of monumental inscriptions.
[The 1897 map shows the church and unmarked burial ground and is courtesy NLS]