It is worth reading the background (political as usual
) into how the split came about, there are more authorative texts but most are a bit cumbersome and tedious.
However basically from the act of Union 1707 the Hanoverian (anti catholic) union was imposed on Scotland, but there were evangelical preachers in many areas of Scotland, often in the open air, certainly from circa 1712 onwards, because many people objected to the state impinging on their religion.
So although the official Free Church of Scotland wasn't established or formalised until 1834 during the disruption, there was a strong anti state movement in existence for well over 100 years the disruption was not the start of it. It was very much an anti-establishment/government movement. So while many observed the ban on Catholicism they did not like the state dictating who their preachers and ministers were to be and the control the state had over the official church.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruption_of_1843I'm afraid John Knox (1514? - 1572) (and The Reformation) has a lot to answer for in Scotland's history, not just for the churches and sectarianism, but in male attitudes towards women which existed in some places through to very recently. Hence many parishes do not record female births, or the names of mothers, our only hope is that a marriage record states not just a surname for the wife but also a first name. In Knox's eyes women were little better than possessions, like a man's cattle or other beasts, a means for a man to produce sons and heirs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox
