Cameronians, the religious body in Scotland popularly named after Richard Cameron (q.v.), but officially called Reformed Presbyterians. No doubt the principles of the body are those for which Cameron contended and died. In 1681 societies were organised bearing the names of the districts to which they belonged, such as Teviotdale, Nithsdale, Clydesdale, for the purpose of defence against the oppression of the government, and for the maintenance of worship. They published in 1687, as their first testimony, 'The Informatory Vindication,' declaring their adherence to the principles and position of the Church of Scotland during the period between 1638 and 1649. In this document they expressly state, 'we positively disown, as horrid murder, the killing of any because of a different persuasion or opinion from us, albeit some have cast this odious calumny against us.' Not till after 1688 did the small body of Presbyterians, who insisted upon this restoration of the civil and ecclesiastical polity of 1638 to 1649 in opposition to the Revolution settlement, become a separate church. According to the Solemn League and Covenant, ratified by the parliaments of England and Scotland, and also by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster in 1643, Presbyterianism was to be maintained in the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and popery, prelacy (expressly defined as 'church government by a variety of orders'), superstition, heresy, schism, &c., were to be extirpated, and the royal authority upheld 'in the preservation and defence of the true religion, and the liberties of the kingdom.' In the judgment of these Presbyterians the Covenant was a protest against absolutism, with this peculiarity that it was emitted in a form adapting it to ecclesiastical as well as civil purposes. As a measure of pacification Presbyterianism was established in Scotland by act of parliament (1690); but it was of a modified kind, the state reserving for itself a control over the church incompatible, in the opinion of the Cameronians, with its spiritual independence; while prelacy was confined in England and Ireland, and there was a general toleration of heresy. Therefore, in sentiment, if not in form, the extreme party repudiated the government of William III. and his successors, and maintained the perpetually binding obligation of the Covenants. Unquestionably these Cameronians acted under strong convictions, and only desired to carry out to a legitimate issue theoretical principles of the Church of Scotland which, for prudential considerations, have been practically in abeyance; and it is in the standards of this body that we find a true embodiment of the tenets held by the great body of English and Scotch Presbyterians of 1643.
Although thus an elder sister of the existing Church of Scotland and all its secessions, it was with some difficulty that, after the Revolution, it organised a communion with ordained ministers. The steadfastness of members was put to a severe trial by the defection of their ministers; but in 1706, after their faith and patience had been tried for sixteen years, they were joined by the Rev. John M'Millan from the Established Church, and shortly afterwards by the Rev. John M'Neil, a licentiate of the same church. To confirm the faith of members, and give a public testimony of their principles, the covenants were solemnly renewed on Auchensauch Hill, near Douglas, in Lanarkshire, in 1712. The subsequent accession of the Rev. Mr Nairn enabled the Cameronians to constitute a presbytery at Braehead, in the parish of Carnwath, on the 1st August 1743, under the appellation of the Reformed Presbytery. Other preachers afterwards attached themselves to the sect, which continued to flourish obscurely in the west of Scotland and north of Ireland, and in 1774 a presbytery was constituted in North America. The political position of the Cameronians was very peculiar, since, declining to recognise any laws or institutions which they conceived to be inimical to those of the kingdom of Christ, they refused to take the oath of allegiance. For this cause many of them formerly, though peaceable subjects otherwise and zealous for the interests of their native land, refused several of the responsibilities and privileges of citizens. In 1860 there was an attempt on the part of some of the kirk-secessions to prevent the members exercising the franchise, or becoming volunteers, on account of the oath of allegiance which required to be taken. On the question coming before the synod, inquiry was made as to the meaning of the oath, and in the judgment of the majority it was ascertained that the oath was taken, and the franchise exercised, by Christian men of all other denominations in a sense which did not commit them to an approval of evils in the constitution to which they objected. It was decided accordingly, in 1863, to abstain from the exercise of discipline to the extent of suspension and expulsion on such questions. In consequence of this decision, to which forty-two congregations adhered, ten or twelve congregations seceded. In 1876 the larger body of the Reformed Presbyterians formally united with the Free Church, believing it to be in the full enjoyment of the spiritual independence which the Revolution settlement had failed to secure for the Church of Scotland, and recognising no difference between them in their civil relations. The principles of the Cameronians are now, therefore, distinctively represented by the few congregations which seceded in 1863. See the Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (1842).