Shortly after Mr Hyslop left, Shotts congregation issued a call signed by 415 members, but it probably suffered afterwards by being vacant seven years. On 10th December 1817 Mr George Hill, son of the Rev. George Hill, Cumbernauld, was ordained at Shottsburn. In 1839 minister and people went with the minority of the Original Burghers, who kept aloof from union with the Establishment, and in 1842 they helped to form the Synod of United Original Seceders. In 1852, when that Synod by 32 votes to 31 declared for Union with the Free Church, Mr Hill was absent, but he afterwards intimated his adherence to the majority. Knowing his congregation to be otherwise minded, and finding himself too infirm for further service, he bade them farewell. Mr Hill died, 31st January 1856, in the sixty-third year of his age and thirty-ninth of his ministry. He had been succeeded at Shottsburn the year before by Mr John Ritchie, a son of the Rev. Ebenezer Ritchie, first of Kirkwall and then of Colmonell.