Besides the mediaeval scholar John Duns Scotus and the rally driver Jim Clark, the small town of Duns also gave us Thomas Boston. He was born here in 1676. Boston House is an 1893 rebuild on the site of the house where he was born, but incorporates this plaque. Son of a Covenanter who was imprisoned for his beliefs, Thomas Boston entered the ministry, and later became in 1707 Minister at Ettrick where he died in 1732. Many of his theological works were published after his death and he still has many followers today.
The Free Church which was founded in Duns was named the Boston Free Church in his honour and was one of the more progressive churches and opened the Boston Free Church School at 43 Newtown Street, a few doors along from his birthplace, in 1843, a generation prior to the introduction of a national education scheme in Scotland.
A closer view of some of the ornate stonework on the Boston Free Church School.
Today the old school is now divided into houses.
This view was taken during my lunch break from court today.
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