Records of Trinity College, college of theology, Glasgow, Scotland

• Senate meeting minutes,1857-1954;
• Scroll senate meeting minutes, 1857-1954;
• Central selection board (Glasgow Panel) meeting minutes, 1956-1967;
• Practical training board meeting minutes, 1945-1968;
• Financial Board meeting minutes and papers, 1932-1977;
• Financial records, 1868-1976;
• Correspondence and related papers, 1858-1981;
• Lists of former students, 1900-1968;
• Trinity College Union records, 1911-1989;
• Exit/Farewell dinner records, 1924-1953;
• Glasgow United Free Church College Theological Society records, 1901-1905;
• University of Glasgow, Faculty of Divinity & Trinity College Handbooks, 1934-1977;
• Trinity College Mission Society records, 1952-1962;
• Society of Friends of Trinity College meeting minutes, 1957-1973;
• Photographs and lantern slides, c1860-1974;
• History and miscellaneous records concerning the history of the College, 1864-2006;
• Lecture notes taken by George L B McAlister, 1927-1930;
• Trinity College Bulletins, 1953-1999;
• Divinity Hall Library catalogue, 20th century.

Trinity College, in Lynedoch Street, Woodlands Hill, Glasgow, Scotland, was opened as the Glasgow Free Church College in 1857. A memorial to open a theology college had been presented in 1855 to the General Assembly of the Free Church by a group of Glasgow laymen, lead by Dr William Clark of Wester Moffat who had offered £20,000 if a like amount was subscribed by others. Teaching began on 4 November 1856 in a building in Thistle Street, Glasgow prior to the opening of the college building. Following the union of The Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church in 1900, it became the Glasgow College of the United Free Church of Scotland.

The college and an adjoining church were built to the designs of Charles Wilson, a Glasgow architect who planned the layout and design of the terraces in the area. The church was destroyed by fire in 1903 and, when the congregation was eventually united with another, the shell of the church was acquired for an extension to the college, opening in 1911. The college thereafter consisted of both twin towers of the church and the campanile of the college. The extension made possible a Library Hall at the level of the former gallery of the church and an Assembly Hall and two classrooms at ground level.

Following the union of the United Free Church and the Church of Scotland in 1929 the college adopted the name Trinity College and further rationalisation took place in the training and teaching of ministers. In Glasgow the outcome, in operation from 1935, was to combine the teaching strength of the University of Glasgow's Faculty of Divinity and that of the college to make an enlarged Faculty of Divinity. It was decided that each day the earlier classes be held in the University and the later ones in the college. During most of the 1939-1945 World War the college was occupied by the Royal Pay Corps and all classes were held in the University, classes resuming at the college in the autumn of 1946 .

By 1970 it had been decided that the college could not be adapted economically for the needs of the Faculty. By Easter 1973 all classes formerly held in the college had been transferred to the University campus, and later that year the Church of Scotland resolved that Trinity College should be disposed of and the library offered to the University of Glasgow. The college building was sold and subsequently transformed into residential accommodation.

This material is arranged into subfonds and series, which consist of numbers of items related by format and/or function.

Open

• Deposit : Mr Kerr Jamieson : 8 October 2001 : ACCN 2107;
• Deposit : George K Barr : 22 August 2002 : ACCN 2262;
• Deposit : Murdo MacDonald : 19 January 2007 : ACCN 3015;
• Deposit : Theology Department : 12 March 2009 : ACCN 3311;
• Deposit : Adrian Diack : 8 May 2014 : ACCN 3845;
• Deposit : Mary Gordon : 18 July 2018 : ACCN 4206.

Digital file level list available in searchroom

Manual file level list available at the National Registers of Archives in Edinburgh (NRA(S) 2868, 3390) and London (NRA 30678)

No known copies

None which affect the use of this material

Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the Duty Archivist, email: library-asc@glasgow.ac.uk

Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 248 procedures

Held by Trinity College and subsequently the University of Glasgow.

None expected

GB 248 GUA Records of the University of Glasgow

GB 248 GUA DIV, Records of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Glasgow

GB 248 DC 151 Papers of Stewart Mechie

GB 248 DC 139 Papers of William Frend

GB 248 ACCN 3772 Paper of George Newlands.

ACCN 2998 Memoirs of Trinity College by A Rennie, 2006

This material is original

W M MacGregor, A Souvenir of the Union in 1929, with an Historical Sketch of the United Free Church College, Glasgow, 1930 Stewart Mechie & John Mackintosh, Trinity College Glasgow 1858-1956, Glasgow 1956 Stewart Mechie, The Twin Towers of Trinity, in The College Courant, Vol 25, No 51, pp11-16.

Description compiled in line with the following international standards: International Council on Archives, ISAD(G) Second Edition, September 1999and National Council on Archives, Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names

Scotland is the location of all place names in the administrative/biographical history element, unless otherwise stated.

Fonds level description compiled by Emily Woolmore, GASHE Archivist, 22 March 2000. Lower levels converted to EAD by Melissa Dowling Jan 2010. Additional cataloguing by Alma Topen, Senior Assistant Archivist (Cataloguing), Mar 2015, Kimberley Beasley, Oct 2015 and Sam Maddra Aug 2019.