Early expansions of the Presbytery were after secessions at Blairlogie (where William Cruden was rejected by the General Synod in 1760, and Auchtermuchty where Thomas Scott of Hexham came as minister in 1763. As the 1760s proceeded, congregations joined at Duns, Scottish Borders and Bellshill, where Gillespie preached in 1762. James Baine took an Edinburgh church, Lady Yester's, for the Presbytery at the end of 1766, inducted by Gillespie, over the claims of William Cruden; who went to a Glasgow church in 1767 after Boston had died.