George Gillespie

George Gillespie (1613–1648) was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and theologian, born in Kirkcaldy. In 1637, at twenty-four, he published A Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies, an attack on the liturgical practices Charles I was imposing on the Church of Scotland, which was banned by the Privy Council and helped prepare the National Covenant of the following year. Ordained in Fife and translated to Edinburgh, he was one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly in 1643, where his quickness in debate against the Independents and Erastians made him famous. He was elected Moderator of the General Assembly in 1648 and died of tuberculosis the same year, aged thirty-five.