Finlayson, second son of Thomas Finlayson, a farmer, was born at Coldoch, Blair Drummond, Perthshire, 22 December 1809. He received his elementary education at the parish school of Kincardine in Menteith, and before entering college studied the classics at a school in the village of Doune in Kilmadock parish. At the University of Glasgow and at the theological hall of the United Secession Church he went through the usual course of training, and was licensed as a preacher of the gospel in April 1835 by the presbytery of Stirling and Falkirk. Part of his period of study was spent in teaching a school at Dumbarton, where he formed a friendship with the Rev. Dr. Andrew Somerville, who later became secretary of the foreign mission of the United Presbyterian Church. In November 1835 Finlayson was ordained minister of the Union Street congregation, Greenock, where he founded a missionary society, and in two years persuaded his people to pay off thedebt existing on the church. After twelve years in Greenock he was called to be colleague and successor to the Rev. John M'Gilchrist of Rose Street Church, Edinburgh, and was inducted to the ministry there in September 1847. He was elected moderator of the supreme court of his church in 1867, and shortly afterwards received the degree of D.D. from the university of Edinburgh. As one of the most ardent promoters of the manse fund, he was the chief agent in raising £45,000, which led to the spending of £120,000 in building and improving manses in two hundred localities. Finlayson was stricken by the death in 1868 of his eldest son Thomas, an advocate at the Scottish bar. On 7 October 1872 his congregation celebrated the semi-jubilee of his ministry in Edinburgh. Having gone to Campbeltown to take part in an induction service there, he was suddenly attacked with heart failure, and was found dead in his bed on 17 October 1872. He was buried in the Grange cemetery, Edinburgh, on 22 Oct. The grave lies to the north-west facing the main west path.
Family
In 1836 he married Janet Carrick Chrystal, by whom he had six children.
