Glassites, a Christian sect founded in Scotland about 1730 by John Glas (1695-1773), a minister of the Church of Scotland, who in 1730 was deposed for denouncing all national establishments of religion as "inconsistent with the true nature of the Church of Christ," and maintaining that a Church and its office-bearers owed allegiance to none other than Christ; the sect, which developed peculiarities of doctrine and worship in conformity with those of the primitive Church, spread to England and America, where they became known as Sandemanians, after Robert Sandeman (1718-1771), son-in-law to Glas, and his zealous supporter.