English: Memorial brooch to the foundation of the Free Church of Scotland 1843 - These brooches, now rare, were not specially issued to the wives of ministers of the first Assembly of the Free Church, but appear to have been made as a private venture and sold to any one who desired to buy them. That such a special memorial should have been made, purchased, and treasured, affords a striking testimony to the extent and intensity of feeling engendered by the great ecclesiastical controversy which ended in the formation of the Free Church of Scotland. The brooch was designed and made by Rettie, of Aberdeen, jeweller and silversmith.
The inscription is, besides some year dates significant for the occasion, the motto of the Church of Scotland: NEC TAMEN CONSVMEBATUR - "And yet it was not consumed", a quotation from the Old Testament story of the burning thornbush.