18 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
1871. He was born in 1812, and died lltli October 1875, at G-enoa, 
at which place, when he died, he was sojourning for the benefit of 
his health. 
His father was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the United 
College of St Andrews. 
His son Thomas received the earlier part of his education at the 
Edinburgh High School. To St Andrews he went back for his 
more advanced studies. Intending to be a clergyman of the Scotch 
Church, he took his degree in 1831, and in 1834 was licensed as a 
preacher of the gospel by the Presbytery of St Andrews. Whilst 
at college he attracted the special notice of the professors by the 
superiority of his talents, his assiduity to learn, and the excellence 
of the essays which he produced. The patronage of the parish of 
Cults being in the gift of the Principal and Masters of the United 
College, he was presented to that parish. 
When the Royal Commission on Church Patronage in Scotland 
sat, it inquired into the way in which the University of St Andrews 
exercised its ecclesiastical rights. 
On that occasion the Rev. Dr George Cook, one of the Professors 
of St Andrews, explained to the Commissioners the circumstances 
attending Mr Crawford’s presentation ; adding, that though his 
own son was then desirous of obtaining it, and though there was 
a party in Cults parish wishing his appointment, he did not hesitate 
to prefer young Crawford to his own son. 
Whilst minister of Cults, he wrote a Statistical Account of the 
parish, which, besides other information, contains several interest- 
ing anecdotes regarding the youthful career of Sir David Wilkie, 
the painter, whose father had been minister at Cults. 
From Cults, Mr Crawford was translated to Glamis, and six years 
later he was promoted to Edinburgh, to be minister of St Andrew’s 
Church, jointly with the late Rev. Dr Thomas Clark. 
About this time he received from his alma mater University, the 
degree of D.D. He also, shortly thereafter, was made Convener of 
the General Assembly’s Committee on Psalmody, an appointment 
for which he was well fitted, on account of his knowledge of and 
fondness for music. 
Having preached a sermon in 1847 on Jewish Missions, which 
was afterwards published, that circumstance led to his being selected 
