The Other James McCosh

James McCosh (1811–94) is well known as the former president of what would become Princeton University.1 He authored over 150 books and articles dealing with a diverse array of topics, including education, theology, and natural history, but is perhaps best known for his championing of modern psychology and publications in support of a Christian interpretation of evolution.2 One obscure work attributed to James McCosh, The Wheat and the Chaff Gathered into Bundles (1843), provides some interesting historical insights into the participants of the Disruption of 1843, a watershed moment in the formation of the Free Church of Scotland. It seeks to name those who participated in the Disruption (‘the wheat’) and those who did not (‘the chaff’), with the future Princeton president listed under the former as ‘L. – Presbytery of Brechin. 1. Free Church…James M’Cosh, First Charge, Brechin, 1835’.3 The author of The Wheat and the Chaff is indeed one James McCosh, but is altogether a different James McCosh than the future Princetonian from Brechin.