He was born in the manse at Portmoak on the banks of Loch Leven, the son of Hugh Laird (d.1849). His father was minister of the parish from 1802 to 1843 and the Free Church minister until his death in 1849.[1][2][3]
He studied divinity at the University of Edinburgh and was ordained by the Church of Scotland at Arbroath in 1835. He was translated to Inverkeilor in 1836. He left the established church in the Disruption of 1843 and joined the Free Church of Scotland. In 1847 he became minister of the Free St George's Church in Montrose. In 1853 he translated to the Free Church in Cupar, replacing Adam Cairns.[4]
In 1870 he organised the rebuilding of the Free Church in Cupar. This was designed by Campbell Douglas and occupied from 1875 but the huge spire was not completed until 1879.[5] In May 1881, J. T. Ferguson of Glasgow was appointed his colleague and successor.[6]
He married 5 November 1840, Agnes Maule (born 11 May 1822, died 11 December 1887), daughter of Thomas Anderson, farmer, Westhaven, Carnoustie, and Jean Sim, and had issue —
Hugh Alexander, merchant, Rangoon, Burma, born 1 December 1841, died 21 August 1911
Jane Catherine, born 10 February 1843, died 31 May 1873
John George, mercantile clerk, born 21 November 1848, died 12 August 1867
Henry James, merchant, London, born 27 June 1853
David Michael William, born 1 April 1856, minister of the Free Church, Durris, Kincardineshire, 1884-1904, died in Edinburgh, March 1924
Alexander Anderson, banker, London, born 8 October 1859, died 22 July 1922.[8]
John's grandson, by his son D. M. W. Laird was the philosopher John Laird.
Two of his brothers, Alexander Oswald Laird of Dundee, and Henry Laird of Leslie, Fife were Free Church ministers. Two of his sisters married Free Church ministers: Rev Spiers of Kinglassie and Rev James Swinton of Portmoak (his father's successor).[3]
