Following Gib's death in 1788, the congregation went seven years without a permanent minister. In 1791, a controversy over whether the session or the congregation could manage seat rents led the Anti-Burgher Synod to rule that, in all cases, sessions had authority in their congregation's management. The following year, the synod also allowed for the creation of a new congregation in Edinburgh. Yet, when that congregation was barred from calling Frederick McFarlane as its minister, McFarlane briefly set up as an independent preacher in the Bristo. These factors had much diminished the congregation by the time it appointed a full-time minister, John Banks, in 1794.Wishart 1953, pp. 13–14.Small 1904, i pp. 427–428.
