In the late nineteenth century the established church began to recover, embarking on a programme of church building to rival the Free Church, increasing its number of parishes from 924 in 1843 to 1,437 by 1909. There were also moves towards reunion, beginning with the unification of some secessionist churches into the United Secession Church in 1820, which united with the Relief Church in 1847 to form the United Presbyterian Church, which in turn joined with the Free Church in 1900. The removal of legislation on lay patronage allowed the majority of the Free Church to rejoin Church of Scotland in 1929. The schisms left small denominations including the Free Presbyterians and a remnant as the Free Church from 1900.