Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1709, 1797-1897, 1955
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INTRUSION, n. The presentation and introduction (often forcible) of a minister to a parochial charge in the Church of Scotland against the wishes or without the consent of the members of the congregation. In common use in the early 18th c. and in the years before the Disruption of 1843. Those disagreeing supported the policy of non-intrusion. Hence (non-)intrusionism (-ist). Also used attrib. and fig. Now hist.Sc. 1709 Gideon Guthrie (Wright 1900) 57:
I could not be charged with intrusion since I preached not in the church.Sc. 1797 D. Hume Punishment of Crimes II. 551:
From 1709 to 1719, the records of Justiciary are full of trials for intrusion.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xliii.:
If he got a right entry into the church without intrusion, and by orderly appointment.Sc. 1840 Witness (15 Jan.):
Meetings throughout the country in the all-engrossing subject of the Non-Intrusion. . . . These measures roused the country to an energy for which the Intrusionists were totally unprepared.Sc. 1840 R. Buchanan Ten Years' Conflict (1849) II. 273, 313:
To defend the people against the intrusion of unacceptable ministers. . . . Even the callous-hearted people that sat in the pew, the only pew representing intrusionism and forced settlements, were moved.Lth. 1853 W. Watson Poems 69:
Some fash their heads wi' state affairs, An' some wi' non-intrusion.m.Sc. 1854 Laird of Logan 482:
Really, Sir, ye hae been lang “cooking” at these non-intrusionists, but ye hae fairly dished them at last.Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xxii.:
There must now be a separation of the wheat from the chaff; that is to say, of the non-intrusion, or rather the evangelical from the moderate element.Kcb. 1897 Crockett Lads' Love xv.:
The Right of Veto, Kirks and Creeds, Intrusion and Non-Intrusion — the topics of the time.Sc. 1955 Northern Scot (5 Nov.):
We have no free choice at all. They are limiting our choice and that is intrusion.
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"Intrusion n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 10 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/intrusion>
