Social entrepreneurship in nineteenth century Britain: The Free Church of Scotland

This paper examines the establishment and early evolution of the Free Church of Scotland; the only British religious denomination to be founded on a national scale through voluntary financial support from its inception. Through an analysis of the church's origins and early institutional development the paper offers fresh insights into nineteenth-century Scotland's foremost voluntary institution. Central to this is the socially entrepreneurial leadership of Rev Dr Thomas Chalmers, as well as the structural deficiencies in institutional governance that impaired the church's capacity to address enduring financial challenges, notably cross-subsidy and debt. In doing so, the study contributes to the field of business history by analysing a previously overlooked organizational form that emerged from a long running conflict between ecclesiastical and state authorities over the limits of sovereign power.