John CummingFRSE (10 November 1807[1] – 5 July 1881) was a Scottish clergyman and religious author.
Life
He was born in Fintray in Aberdeenshire the eldest son of John Cumming (d.1835) and his wife, Anne Mutch of Foveran.[2] His mother died in 1827 giving birth to his youngest brother, Hercules Cumming. She is buried in St Nicholas Churchyard in Aberdeen.[3]
In 1832, Cumming was appointed to the Crown Court Church (the Scottish National Church) in Covent Garden, London, a Church of Scotland congregation that catered for Scots living in London.[5] At the time, the congregation had approximately 80 members, but Cumming was able to grow his congregation to around 900, and he regularly preached to congregations of 500–600 on Sundays.
Cumming was a controversial figure in his day, George Eliot being the most prominent figure to criticize him for his anti-Catholicism, obsession with the End Times, and perceived intellectual dishonesty.[6]
In 1833 he married Elizabeth Nicholson (d.1879), daughter of James Nicholson of London, in a ceremony by Rev Dr Gordon at a house at 5 Annandale Street in Edinburgh. They had several children: Lettice Anne (b.1834); John (b.1835); Fanny (b.1837); Louisa Finch (b.1838); Nicholson (b.1840)' Elizabeth (b.1842); Martin Luther Cumming (1843–1911); James (b.1844); Hugh McNeil (b.1845); Francis (1842–1908); Edward Bishop Elliott Cumming (b.1848 died aged 6 months).[3]
Elizabeth died in 1879.
Views
"The End of the World", as depicted by Adriano Cecioni in Vanity Fair, 13 April 1872
Cumming was one of the most virulently anti-Catholic preachers of his day. Several of his books attacked Catholicism, including The Romish Church a Dumb Church (Arthur Hall, 1853) and Ritualism, the Highway to Rome (James Nisbet & Co., 1867). He gave public lectures denouncing CardinalsNicholas Wiseman and John Henry Newman. The Times also frequently printed letters from Cumming in which he pointed to perceived misdeeds on the part of the Roman Catholic Church.
