Impartial Reporter page 1:
Wm. Irvine, the founder and supreme authority of what is known as Cooneyism, is a Scotchman.
His native place is Kilsyth, a small town near Glasgow. Before he became a Tramp he had attached
himself to the sect know an the Faith Mission or Pilgrims, and was the manager of a coal mine
under Baird & Co., Glasgow, and enjoyed a salary of £300 a year.

William Irvine left this employment and joined the Faith Mission, under the control then of
J. G. Govan, of Rothsay, who still holds conventions after the manner followed at
Crocknacrieve, but on a much smaller scale.
(Blue Highlight)

Wm. Irvine gave up his connection with that sect (Faith Mission) for two reasons, according
to my information --- 1st, because the leader was alleged to have been a ‘hypocrite,’ in that while
teaching Pilgrims to live by faith he himself had over hundreds of pounds. 2nd, because Mr. Irving’s
converts always lapsed and were lost among the clergy by going back to their own congregation or
what is known as the churches. Consequently a small number of preachers and some from the
Faith Mission, along with one named John Long, (who was rejected three years ago, because he
would not maintain that John Wesley had gone to hell) and about a dozen stood by Wm. Irvine, and
they had difficulty in knowing what to preach as the only true gospel, which same difficulty still
exists to-day and has been the debate of many Conventions, and I suppose is now and will yet be.


However, the chief motive power was latent until Edward Cooney heard Wm. Irvine, and offered
him money and even a salary yearly, which was refused by Irvine. At all events 1,300 pounds from
Mr. Cooney alone was applied to the cause, and has been preached as having been ‘given to the
poor,’ on the authority of, ‘Sell all that ye have, …”. Yet as a matter of fact, this sum was mostly paid
to transport preachers to places abroad, and not to the poor, as in sometimes understood, the fruit
of which even yet in some measure returns annually to Crocknacrieve Convention.

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