Covenanters in Canada: Reformed Presbyterianism from 1820 to 2012 9780773587823

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The Covenanters in Canada

M c Gill-Queen’s Studies in the History of Religion

Volumes in this series have been supported by the Jackman Foundation of Toronto.

Series One: G.A. Rawlyk, Editor

1 Small Differences Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants, 1815–1922 An International Perspective Donald Harman Akenson

2 Two Worlds The Protestant Culture of Nineteenth-Century Ontario William Westfall

3 An Evangelical Mind Nathanael Burwash and the Methodist Tradition in Canada, 1839–1918 Marguerite Van Die

9 A Sensitive Independence Canadian Methodist Women Missionaries in Canada and the Orient, 1881–1925 Rosemary R. Gagan

10 God’s Peoples Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster Donald Harman Akenson

11 Creed and Culture The Place of English-Speaking Catholics in Canadian Society, 1750–1930 Edited by Terrence Murphy and Gerald Stortz

4 The Dévotes Women and Church in Seventeenth-Century France Elizabeth Rapley

12 Piety and Nationalism Lay Voluntary Associations and the Creation of an Irish-Catholic Community in Toronto, 1850–1895 Brian P. Clarke

6 The German Peasants’ War and Anabaptist Community of Goods James M. Stayer

14 Children of Peace W. John McIntyre

5 The Evangelical Century College and Creed in English Canada from the Great Revival to the Great Depression Michael Gauvreau

7 A World Mission Canadian Protestantism and the Quest for a New International Order, 1918–1939 Robert Wright

8 Serving the Present Age Revivalism, Progressivism, and the Methodist Tradition in Canada Phyllis D. Airhart

13 Amazing Grace Studies in Evangelicalism in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States Edited by George Rawlyk and Mark A. Noll

15 A Solitary Pillar Montreal’s Anglican Church and the Quiet Revolution Joan Marshall 16 Padres in No Man’s Land Canadian Chaplains and the Great War Duff Crerar

17 Christian Ethics and Political Economy in North America A Critical Analysis P. Travis Kroeker

18 Pilgrims in Lotus Land Conservative Protestantism in British Columbia, 1917–1981 Robert K. Burkinshaw

19 Through Sunshine and Shadow The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Evangelicalism, and Reform in Ontario, 1874–1930 Sharon Cook

20 Church, College, and Clergy A History of Theological Education at Knox College, Toronto, 1844–1994 Brian J. Fraser 21 The Lord’s Dominion The History of Canadian Methodism Neil Semple 22 A Full-Orbed Christianity The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900–1940 Nancy Christie and Michael Gauvreau 23 Evangelism and Apostasy The Evolution and Impact of Evangelicals in Modern Mexico Kurt Bowen

24 The Chignecto Covenanters A Regional History of Reformed Presbyterianism in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 1827– 1905 Eldon Hay 25 Methodists and Women’s Education in Ontario, 1836–1925 Johanna Selles

26 Puritanism and Historical Controversy William Lamont



Series Two: In memory of George Rawlyk Donald Harman Akenson, Editor

1 Marguerite Bourgeoys and Montreal, 1640–1665 Patricia Simpson 2 Aspects of the Canadian Evangelical Experience Edited by G.A. Rawlyk

3 Infinity, Faith, and Time Christian Humanism and Renaissance Literature John Spencer Hill

4 The Contribution of Presbyterianism to the Maritime Provinces of Canada Edited by Charles H.H. Scobie and G.A. Rawlyk 5 Labour, Love, and Prayer Female Piety in Ulster Religious Literature, 1850–1914 Andrea Ebel Brozyna

6 The Waning of the Green Catholics, the Irish, and Identity in Toronto, 1887–1922 Mark G. McGowan

7 Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine The Greek Catholic Church and the Ruthenian National Movement in Galicia, 1867–1900 John-Paul Himka 8 Good Citizens British Missionaries and Imperial States, 1870–1918 James G. Greenlee and Charles M. Johnston

9 The Theology of the Oral Torah Revealing the Justice of God Jacob Neusner

10 Gentle Eminence A Life of Cardinal Flahiff P. Wallace Platt

11 Culture, Religion, and Demographic Behaviour Catholics and Lutherans in Alsace, 1750–1870 Kevin McQuillan

12 Between Damnation and Starvation Priests and Merchants in Newfoundland Politics, 1745–1855 John P. Greene 13 Martin Luther, German Saviour German Evangelical Theological Factions and the Interpretation of Luther, 1917–1933 James M. Stayer

14 Modernity and the Dilemma of North American Anglican Identities, 1880–1950 William H. Katerberg 15 The Methodist Church on the Prairies, 1896–1914 George Emery

16 Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel Paul Charles Merkley

17 A Social History of the Cloister Daily Life in the Teaching Monasteries of the Old Regime Elizabeth Rapley

18 Households of Faith Family, Gender, and Community in Canada, 1760–1969 Edited by Nancy Christie

19 Blood Ground Colonialism, Missions, and the Contest for Christianity in the Cape Colony and Britain, 1799–1853 Elizabeth Elbourne

20 A History of Canadian Catholics Gallicanism, Romanism, and Canadianism Terence J. Fay

21 The View from Rome Archbishop Stagni’s 1915 Reports on the Ontario Bilingual Schools Question Edited and translated by John Zucchi 22 The Founding Moment Church, Society, and the Construction of Trinity College William Westfall

23 The Holocaust, Israel, and Canadian Protestant Churches Haim Genizi

24 Governing Charities Church and State in Toronto’s Catholic Archdiocese, 1850–1950 Paula Maurutto 25 Anglicans and the Atlantic World High Churchmen, Evangelicals, and the Quebec Connection Richard W. Vaudry

26 Evangelicals and the Continental Divide The Conservative Protestant Subculture in Canada and the United States Sam Reimer 27 Christians in a Secular World The Canadian Experience Kurt Bowen

28 Anatomy of a Seance A History of Spirit Communication in Central Canada Stan McMullin 29 With Skilful Hand The Story of King David David T. Barnard

30 Faithful Intellect Samuel S. Nelles and Victoria University Neil Semple

31 W. Stanford Reid An Evangelical Calvinist in the Academy Donald MacLeod

32 A Long Eclipse The Liberal Protestant Establishment and the Canadian University, 1920–1970 Catherine Gidney 33 Forkhill Protestants and Forkhill Catholics, 1787–1858 Kyla Madden

34 For Canada’s Sake Public Religion, Centennial Celebrations, and the Re-making of Canada in the 1960s Gary R. Miedema

35 Revival in the City The Impact of American Evangelists in Canada, 1884–1914 Eric R. Crouse

36 The Lord for the Body Religion, Medicine, and Protestant Faith Healing in Canada, 1880–1930 James Opp 37 Six Hundred Years of Reform Bishops and the French Church, 1190–1789 J. Michael Hayden and Malcolm R. Greenshields 38 The Missionary Oblate Sisters Vision and Mission Rosa Bruno-Jofré

39 Religion, Family, and Community in Victorian Canada The Colbys of Carrollcroft Marguerite Van Die 40 Michael Power The Struggle to Build the Catholic Church on the Canadian Frontier Mark G. McGowan 41 The Catholic Origins of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, 1931–1970 Michael Gauvreau 42 Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Congregation of Notre Dame, 1665–1700 Patricia Simpson 43 To Heal a Fractured World The Ethics of Responsibility Jonathan Sacks

44 Revivalists Marketing the Gospel in English Canada, 1884–1957 Kevin Kee

45 The Churches and Social Order in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Canada Edited by Michael Gauvreau and Ollivier Hubert 46 Political Ecumenism Catholics, Jews, and Protestants in De Gaulle’s Free France, 1940–1945 Geoffrey Adams

47 From Quaker to Upper Canadian Faith and Community among Yonge Street Friends, 1801–1850 Robynne Rogers Healey 48 The Congrégation de Notre-Dame, Superiors, and the Paradox of Power, 1693–1796 Colleen Gray

49 Canadian Pentecostalism Transition and Transformation Edited by Michael Wilkinson

50 A War with a Silver Lining Canadian Protestant Churches and the South African War, 1899–1902 Gordon L. Heath 51 In the Aftermath of Catastrophe Founding Judaism, 70 to 640 Jacob Neusner

52 Imagining Holiness Classic Hasidic Tales in Modern Times Justin Jaron Lewis 53 Shouting, Embracing, and Dancing with Ecstasy The Growth of Methodism in Newfoundland, 1774–1874 Calvin Hollett

54 Into Deep Waters Evangelical Spirituality and Maritime Calvinist Baptist Ministers, 1790–1855 Daniel C. Goodwin

55 Vanguard of the New Age The Toronto Theosophical Society, 1891–1945 Gillian McCann 56 A Commerce of Taste Church Architecture in Canada, 1867–1914 Barry Magrill

57 The Big Picture The Antigonish Movement of Eastern Nova Scotia Santo Dodaro and Leonard Pluta

58 My Heart’s Best Wishes for You A Biography of Archbishop John Walsh John P. Comiskey 59 The Covenanters in Canada Reformed Presbyterianism from 1820 to 2012 Eldon Hay

The Covenanters in Canada Reformed Presbyterianism from 1820 to 2012 Eldon Hay

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston · London · Ithaca

© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2012 ISBN 978-0-7735-4100-9 Legal deposit fourth quarter 2012 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Hay, Eldon The Covenanters in Canada : reformed Presbyterianism from 1820 to 2012 / Eldon Hay. (McGill-Queen’s studies in the history of religion. Series two ; 59) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7735-4100-9 1. Covenanters – Canada – History.  2. Presbyterian Church in Canada – History.  3. Canada – Church history.  I. Title.  II. Series: McGill-Queen’s studies in the history of religion. Series two ; 59

Bx9001.h39 2012   285’.271   c 2012-904301-x

Set in 11/14 Adobe Caslon Book design & typesetting by Garet Markvoort, zijn digital

Dedicated to competent colleagues felicitous friends Robin Hamilton Marilyn Färdig Whiteley

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Contents

Illustrations, Maps, and Tables  xiii Abbreviations  xvii Acknowledgments  xix Preface  xxi Introduction  3 1 Scots, Irish, and American Roots in Canadian Covenanter Communities  11 2 Clarke and Sommerville: Can the Centre Hold?  31 3 Sommerville at Horton and Cornwallis  47 4 Alexander McLeod Stavely and Saint John  58 5 James Reid Lawson and Barnesville  77 6 Robert Miller Stewart and Wilmot  91 7 Robert Sommerville: Fitful Follower of a Powerful Father  99 8 Thomas McFall and Robert Park  109 9 Lower Canada Covenanters and the Scots Synod  127 10 Upper Canada Covenanters and the Scots Synod  143 11 Transfer, Transition, and Challenge in Upper Canada  168

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12 Picking up the Pieces: Covenanters in Nineteenth-Century Ontario  180 13 Covenanters in Alberta  193 14 Covenanters in Saskatchewan  207 15 Covenanters in Manitoba  222 16 Covenanters in Twentieth-Century Ontario  239 17 Canadian Covenanters into the Twenty-First Century  257 Notes  295 Bibliography  375 Index  393

Illustrations, Maps, and Tables

Illustrations Rev. James Milligan, dd; reproduced from W.M. Glasgow, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America (Baltimore: Hill & Harvey, 1888). Peripatetic American preacher and missionary, pastor in Ryegate, vt, 1817–1839  4 Rev. William Sommerville, Somerset, ns; reproduced from A.M. Stavely, The Blessed Dead (Saint John: Barnes and Co., ca 1878). Horton and Cornwallis pastor, 1833–1878. Courtesy Special Collections, Vaughan Memorial Library, Acadia University, Wolfville, ns  33 Rev. Professor Andrew Symington, dd, Paisley; reproduced from David D. Ormond, A Kirk and a College in the Craigs of Stirling (Stirling: Journal and Advertiser Office, 1897). Professor and principal, Paisley College, Scotland, 1819–1853  34 Rev. Thomas Houston, dd, Belfast; reproduced from F.S. Leahy, A School of the Prophets (Belfast: Cameron Press, 2004). Preacher, missionary society executive; professor, Reformed Theological Hall, Belfast, 1854–1882. Courtesy Cameron Press, Belfast  35 Cornwallis Reformed Presbyterian Church, Grafton, ns, 2006. The church was built in 1843. Courtesy of Brian Atkinson, Nanaimo, bc  51

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Rev. Alexander McLeod Stavely, Saint John, nb. Saint John pastor, 1841–1879. Courtesy of Rev. J.S.S. Armour, Montreal, qc  60 Saint John Reformed Presbyterian Church, Saint John, nb. The church, built in 1850, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1877. Courtesy of Rev. J.S.S. Armour, Montreal, qc  67 Rev. James McLachlan tombstone, Campbell Cemetery, Lis-bon,

ny. Missionary and minister in Upper Canada (Ontario), 1832–1855; pastor, Lisbon, ny, 1855–1864. Courtesy of Rev. Steve Rockhill, Lisbon, ny  172 Almonte Reformed Presbyterian Church, ca 1910. The church was built in 1892. Courtesy Almonte Reformed Presbyterian Church, Almonte, on  184 Rev. James McCune, 1897. Ministered in Barnesville, nb, 1910–1911; Almonte, on, 1914–1920; Regina, sk , 1923–1924. Courtesy Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, pa  217 Rev. Frederick F. Reade, dd, 1959. Pastor, Winnipeg, 1926–1932, and Almonte, 1953–1962. Courtesy of Galen Reade Wilson, Dayton, oh  226 Rev. R. Hayes McKelvy and Mrs Anna (Patton) McKelvy, their children Alice and Ralph, 1942. Hayes, pastor, and Anna, an active leader in church and temperance causes, Lochiel, 1928–1968. Courtesy of Mrs Alice Stewart, Lower Burrell, pa  240 Joy and Aubrey Ayer, 2009. Charter members, Ottawa Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1981; Aubrey founding board member, Ottawa Theological Hall, 1982. Courtesy of Al Goyette, Ottawa, on  262 Rev. Dr Richard Ganz, 2009. First pastor, Ottawa Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1981; founding professor, Ottawa Theological Hall, 1982. Courtesy of Al Goyette, Ottawa, on  264



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Ottawa Reformed Presbyterian Church and Ottawa Theological Hall, 2009. The church and hall were opened in 1995. Courtesy of Al Goyette, Ottawa, on  267

Maps Map 1  Reformed Presbyterians in New Brunswick. Map by C.H.H. Scobie  37 Map 2  Reformed Presbyterians in Nova Scotia. Map by C.H.H. Scobie  48 Map 3  Reformed Presbyterians in eastern Lower Canada (Quebec). Courtesy of Gwen Rawlings Barry  128 Map 4  Reformed Presbyterians in eastern Upper Canada (Ontario) and western Lower Canada (Quebec). Map by C.H.H. Scobie  144 Map 5  Reformed Presbyterians in western Upper Canada (Ontario). Map by C.H.H. Scobie  156 Map 6  Reformed Presbyterians in Western Canada. Map by C.H.H. Scobie  194

Tables Table 1  McLachlan’s missionary journeys in Lower Canada (Quebec)  129 Table 2  McLachlan’s missionary journeys in Upper Canada (Ontario)  155 Table 3  Reformed Presbyterian membership 1977–2007  284

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Abbreviations

cihm

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, Ottawa, Ontario cn Christian Nation cqhj Canadian Quaker History Journal cw Covenanter Witness maa Mount Allison University Archives, Sackville, New Brunswick mca Maritime Conference Archives, United Church of Canada, Sackville, New Brunswick nsarm Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax oth Ottawa Theological Hall, Ottawa, Ontario pca Presbyterian Church in America rp Reformed Presbyterian rpcna Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America rpts Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary Archives, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania sp Scottish Presbyterian uca United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto

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Acknowledgments

This book has a predecessor, Aurora Borealis, written by Robert Marshall More, Jr in 1967. That work and other More books and articles I gratefully acknowledge at various points. My history looks at approximately the same time frame as Aurora Borealis, though More’s work ends several decades earlier. Of greater significance is the fact that pertinent primary materials not available to Robert More are now accessible. The new materials add depth to the historiography, and they provide a deeper understanding of the Covenanter movement. It is impossible to acknowledge all the libraries, archives, and persons who have contributed to this work; many are named in the notes and bibliography. It is, however, possible and pleasurable to mention briefly the chief ones. Mount Allison University personnel have been generous with assistance at various points: archivist Rhianna Edwards, reference librarian Elizabeth Millar, interlibrary loans assistant Margie Flemming, and serials technicians Nancy Adams and Debby Black. Darren Spidell, User Services Manager, Computing Services, brought his considerable competence to bear in reproducing photographs. My esteemed colleague and friend Dr C.H.H. Scobie worked assiduously on the maps in this book: they are almost exclusively the product of his efforts. One of them – dealing with Lower Canada (Quebec) – was borrowed from Gwen Rawlings Barry, who graciously gave permission. Librarian Tom Reid and the staff of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh have been consistently ready to supply data, scan and/or photocopy pertinent documents, and respond to questions or concerns about many facets of the study. A volunteer at the library, John Mitchell, has frequently gone the second and third mile. It is a pleasure to acknowledge his willingness and ability to respond to my numerous requests.

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Aubrey Ayer of Ottawa has been a key contributor, particularly concerning the role of the Ottawa Covenanter congregation and Ottawa Theological Hall in the re-emergence of the denomination in contemporary Canada. Aubrey has been gracious with counsel and advice on many occasions. A significant number of Reformed Presbyterians have responded to requests for information: a few have been particularly patient. It is a privilege to acknowledge Rev. Kenneth G. Smith in Pennsylvania, the late Dr Christian Adjemian in Massachusetts, and Rev. Matthew Dyck and Mr Clarence Bowes in Ontario. In addition, Rev. Brian Coombs, clerk of St Lawrence presbytery, Syracuse, New York, sent sections of pertinent presbytery minutes. Rev. J.S.S. Armour of Montreal, a descendant of the Stavely family, gladly added from his library materials dealing with Rev. Alexander McLeod Stavely. Noel Simpson of Belfast was a constant conduit of precious materials from Ireland. Fellow scholar Valerie Wallace, studying at Glasgow University, assisted greatly in calling attention to excellent sources there. Long-time associate and friend Barry Cahill, of Halifax, gave generously of his time and skill in designing and completing the index. These are but a few of many who have generously assisted me. I paraphrase a Mark Twain statement: for those who are not included, it is not for lack of gratitude but rather because of an increasingly faulty memory. Now that I am past seventy, I lament with Mark Twain that when I was younger I could remember anything … whether it happened or not. I am thankful for many other helpers along the way: to Robin Hamilton for technical assistance beyond compare, and to a host of academic colleagues and friends among whom it is a privilege to name Marilyn Färdig Whiteley who read, edited, and shortened an earlier version of the manuscript. Finally, I am sustained by the support of Anne Pirie, my life partner.

Preface

My original and immediate encounter with the Covenanters was in the small “old Presbyterian graveyard” near Jolicure, New Brunswick, in the early 1980s.1 The cemetery had once been the site of a Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter church building, and I was curious. The Covenanters had humble beginnings. They were a somewhat contrarian corpus of characters who would not go along with the Settlement in Scotland in 1690 whereby William of Orange became king and episcopacy was established in England and the Church of Scotland in Scotland. Most Scots accepted the compromise – relieved to be free of religious and civil unrest, yearning for peace. The nonaccepting, contentious minority was left on its own, a handful of laity without clerical leadership at the outset. “They sullenly … went their own way,” persevering in their opposition.2 They dissented from the civil polity, most notably by refusing to vote, serve on juries, or take an oath. They objected to the king as head of state and the king as head of the church. Both rights, they claimed, belonged to King Jesus alone. Their peculiar views earned them the contempt, sometimes benevolent, sometimes not so benevolent, of many of their neighbours. Nonetheless they persisted, and they grew, marginally. They were never a large group. When the movement increased, minimally, in Scotland and in Ireland, the Covenanters sent out a few missionaries – to New Zealand, to Australia, and to Canada. My interest is the history of the Covenanters in Canada. Those few Covenanter missionaries and their small group of followers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in Quebec and Ontario, and in Western Canada faced a different situation from that in the old world. But they held at least one thing in common with those across the sea: Covenanters in Canada were a minority, culturally and religiously. Their fellow Scots and Scots-Irish Presbyterians did not look favourably on them. In the new world, too, the Covenanters were a

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small group, and somewhat peculiar. Covenanters knew they were different Whether they were termed Covenanters, or Cameronians (after one of their martyred heroes), or less frequently Reformed Presbyterians, as they usually called themselves, a slight smell of disdain lingered about them. Rev. James Reid Lawson, long-time pastor of the Barnesville, New Brunswick, congregation, noted the derision with which his congregants were greeted. “I am happy in bearing testimony to the zeal and consistency of the few humble members of our Church in this locality, notwithstanding the unmeasured reproach with which the name of a Covenanter is assailed.”3 The disdain has not died out. Canadian novelist Alice Munro writes of Covenanters in her 1990 short story, “Friend of My Youth.”4 The narrative unfolds in the late-nineteenth-century and early-twentiethcentury Ottawa valley. Munro describes family traits of Flora, the chief heroine: “[Her parents] worked hard, and they were far from ignorant, but they were very backward ... They were Cameronians – they were the only people in the school district who were of that religion … On Sundays you could light a fire for heat but not for cooking, and you were not supposed to write a letter or swat a fly … [They read from] an old book written by some preacher of their faith … stuff that was in their monstrous old religion … [books with] ominous black spines.” Flora herself “is stuck in the olden times.” Yet “there was not a trace of nastiness or smug vigilance in Flora’s observance of her religion.”5 There is a break in the text after the story concludes. Munro, freed from the contours of characterization and the propensities of a plot, writes for herself: The Cameronians, I have discovered, are or were an uncompromising remnant of the Covenanters – those Scots who in the seventeenth century bound themselves, with God, to resist prayer books, bishops, any taint of popery or interference by the King. Their name comes from Richard Cameron, an outlawed or “field,” preacher, soon cut down. The Cameronians – for a long time they have preferred to be called the Reformed Presbyterians – went into battle singing the seventy-fourth and the



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seventy-eighth Psalms. They hacked the mighty Bishop of St Andrew’s to death on the highway and rode their horses over his body. One of their ministers, in a mood of firm rejoicing at his own hanging, excommunicated all the other preachers in the world.6 Munro’s interpretation picks up and sustains a centuries-old prejudice. A much earlier assessment by Scottish historian J.H.S. Burleigh would have granted the validity of many of Munro’s observations, yet casts the movement in a much more favourable light. The Cameronians were extremists whose excesses were condemned by nearly all of their Presbyterian brethren at the time … [Yet] in ordinary covenanting folk, even in the fiercest of their field preachers, there glowed a warmth of devotion to Christ Jesus as the Redeemer, and a fervent loyalty to His Crown and Kingdom, to the Kirk of which He was the only King and Head … Their testimony was inevitably dogmatic and theological, but on no other basis could resistance have been offered to absolute monarchy … Political liberty was not their ideal … It was the seed, moreover, from which has grown the spiritual freedom enjoyed by the Church of Scotland today.7 Again, “what the world owes today to the struggles and sufferings of the Covenanters is beyond human compute. Had they not stood firm unto death … the religious liberty that Scotland’s sons have carried with them wherever they have gone … would have been unknown.”8 Covenanters have been painted in extreme tones of dark and light. What is the fuller picture? We live in a world where violence – personal and communal, national and international – is well known, variously practised, and widely reported. We inhabit a cosmos and a nation alongside those who see themselves as different from us, voicing different dreams, seeking what they term a better future. I write about the Covenanters in Canada for several reasons. First, that the history and the stories not be lost; second, to portray them as real persons – worthy of our attention and respect, even if we do not

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agree with them; third, as a case study of a small, not largely significant movement. In a cosmopolitan and increasingly secular Canada, there must be a place for a church, a religion at odds with the surrounding milieu. It has a claim upon us; it has a vision at variance with the prevailing culture. Claiming that it can redeem the culture, we may deny the claim, yet be enriched by empathy and understanding.

The Covenanters in Canada

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Introduction

By the early nineteenth century, Covenanters were scattered across three areas of Canada – New Brunswick/Nova Scotia, Ontario/Que- bec, and the West. In almost all cases, visiting American clergy brought some initial cohesion and the possibility of growth. In the Maritimes, the Covenanter story begins in Saint John, New Brunswick where, in the early 1800s, a group of Covenanters applied for help to the Northern Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod in the United States. The presbytery sent two brothers, the Revs James R. and Samuel M. Willson, on a mission to the Saint John area in 1821. The Willsons organized a fellowship meeting among the Covenanter families and wrote to the Scottish and Irish synods, asking them to give attention to the area.1 New Brunswick Covenanters also wrote to the Irish synod with the result that “the Committee of the Missionary Society considered themselves bound to try, by some means, to send relief to their friends and brethren in the northern parts of the Transatlantic Continent.”2 The Irish synod established the Missionary Society of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland in 1823, but its chief concern remained missions in the old world – for example, providing financial support to the Covenanter cause in Liverpool. Finally, in 1825 the synod enjoined each presbytery to seek out missionary volunteers to answer the call from New Brunswick,3 and in 1827 Rev. Alexander Clarke was sent to Saint John; he moved to Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1828. In 1831 Clarke addressed the United States synod, the first Nova Scotia– based clergyman to attend an American synod.4 On his way back, he met “the Rev. Mr. Sommerville [who, coming from Ulster was] sent to the same field of labour”; two years later Sommerville went to Horton, Nova Scotia.5 Clarke and Sommerville were the first two of five missionaries sent to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

4

the covenanters in canada

Rev. James Milligan, dd

In Quebec and Ontario (then called Lower Canada and Upper Canada), the first recorded Reformed Presbyterian missionary clergy came from south of the border. The most frequent visitor was Rev. James Milligan, a Covenanter pastor from Ryegate, Vermont,6 who came to Lower Canada in the late 1820s or early 1830s. He formed societies in both Henryville and Lachute7 though they did not prosper. In Upper Canada, Rev. Robert McKee visited Lanark County early in 1830, and Rev. James Milligan came to Ramsay in Lanark County later the same year. At Ramsay, Milligan “organized the members into a congregation; admitted several others into the communion of the church; and preached on the first and second Sabbaths of July, on the latter of which he dispensed the Lord’s Supper to 28 Communicants, with the usual week-day sermons.”8 And at “the end of the year 1829 or beginning of 1830, sometime during the winter,” Milligan visited Lochiel in Glengarry County.9 In October 1831, a



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third missionary visitor, Mr Symmes, came to Lanark County and preached in Ramsay.10 The Lanark County Reformed Presbyterians seriously considered obtaining permanent clergy from the American Reformed Presbyterians, but two matters stood in the way. First, financial resources were scarce in Upper Canada. The second factor proved more daunting. The American Reformed Presbyterian church and its clergy were convulsed in the early 1830s by a controversy that would lead to a schism in 1833 between Old School and New School Covenanters,11 with the New School opting for a more liberal compromise with the state and the Old School holding to previous standards. During this period, no more preachers came north to Upper Canada,12 so Canadians appealed to the Scots Reformed Presbyterian Synod. In 1831, that synod “virtually declared itself a Missionary Society, and became pledged to new and more vigorous efforts, for extending the kingdom of the Messiah.”13 By this time, the society had received representations from Upper Canada, undoubtedly specifically Lanark County14 and, two years later, petitions came from Lower Canada, from Megantic and Pontiac counties.15 The Committee on Missions wanted to send a missionary but lacked a suitable candidate until James McLachlan volunteered.16 McLachlan’s designation as missionary took place in Edinburgh on 10 July 1833. Just before he was to depart, the Missions Committee received the communication from Megantic County in Lower Canada, so the committee instructed McLachlan to visit Inverness, Halifax, and New Ireland townships in that county before he went on to Upper Canada.17 The Covenanter history in western Canada was quite different from that in either the Maritimes or Ontario and Quebec. First, Covenanters began work there much later, in the early 1900s. American Covenanters felt “the lure of the frontier”18 and moved into the continental west, but it was some time before the Reformed Presbyterian Synod took a direct role in these ventures. It normally subsidized home mission work undertaken by presbyteries, with a minimum of supervision or guidance, but this laissez-faire attitude was to change. When John Slater Thompson scanned the northwestern horizon, he saw Reformed Presbyterians scattered throughout the region. Surely if they were made known to each other, the Covenanter cause could

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be advanced! His vision embraced not only the western states but also “Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba.”19 Rev. T.M. Slater arrived in Content, Alberta, in 1906, making it the first western community to be visited.20 Rev. B.M. Sharp conducted Covenanter services in Regina, Saskatchewan, beginning in 1909.21 In 1910, Rev. W.C. Allen visited Winnipeg; he was somewhat startled to find “not one Covenanter from any of the States,” but he did find “about twenty who had been members of our Church in Belfast, Ireland.”22 In 1911, the Domestic Missions Conference of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of the United States recommended that “synod appoint a Home Mission Secretary to look for openings in new fields, and report to the Central Board the possibilities of establishing permanent congregations in these fields … The Conference recommends that the Central Board be authorized to enter new and peculiarly promising fields, and to expend so much money, as in their judgement, may seem wise.” The synod appointed Rev. John Slater Thompson as Home Mission Secretary.23 Over such a vast territory Thompson’s efforts were spread thin: in points north and west he and other colleagues forged and nurtured missions, including those in Content/Delburne,24 Regina, Winnipeg, and Vancouver.25 Thompson visited Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1912. He remarked on the beauty of the city, and its strategic position on the west coast. He met with some Covenanter families, and outlined prospects for the movement.26 Despite Thompson’s glowing report, the Covenanter faith did not take root in Vancouver, or any other place in British Columbia.

Mission Board Strategies: Comparisons and Contrasts In the 1830s, the old world synods divided the mission: “the Irish will cultivate Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,” the Scots will cultivate “the Canadas [Ontario/Quebec].”27 Both synods directed their endeavours to specific regions. The American synod, in contrast, had a more vague geographic area – points north and west, part of the vast hinterland that included Canada. Although the Irish and Scots synods agreed on a strong geographic focus, they had sharply diver-



Introduction

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gent practices: the Irish synod gave support for an extended period; the Scots synod was willing to underwrite for a short time only. The Irish synod retained strong ties with its missionaries and financially supported them consistently, though not generously: the mission was sustained over the long haul. This long-term support was not without conditions. The Irish synod anticipated that the Colonial Mission would eventually become financially self-sufficient, and it applauded any efforts toward that goal. It also hoped that the mission would develop indigenous clergy. From the new world came consistent cries for more clergy help from Ulster while from the Missionary Board came repeated pleas to Ulster presbyteries to send forth men, but few were forthcoming. Perhaps Canadian-born and bred clergy would be raised up, obviating the need for Ulster replacements. On the other hand, the Scottish synod told its missionaries to swim quickly for there would be no continuing life-line from Scotland. Just after its first missionary, Rev. James McLachlan, had reached Upper Canada, Stewart Bates, Secretary of the Scots Missions Board, wrote a letter offering pointed advice to those greeting and hosting Scots missionaries: God helps them, it is said, who help themselves … While your supreme dependence … should be on God, and the exalted Mediator; your next should be on your own exertions. For some time to come, it will probably be a matter of unavoidable necessity, that ministers should be sent to you by churches existing in other lands. But in regard to the support of those who labour among you, we have the firmest persuasion, that wherever it is practicable, it should be chiefly or entirely furnished by yourselves … If we are not greatly mistaken in our judgment of the signs of the times, every other source of supply will prove INADEQUATE , TEMPORARY, and PRECARIOUS.28 The Covenanters in the Maritimes formed the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery in 1832. It functioned well for a few years, from 1832 until 1838. Then there was a hiatus, and when minutes resumed in 1845, Clarke was not in attendance. In 1848, congregations in that part of the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia led

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by Clarke – the Covenanter congregations in the Chignecto region (Westmorland County in New Brunswick and Cumberland County in Nova Scotia) – split from the presbytery. This breakaway mirrored the earlier 1833 schism in the American Reformed Presbyterian Synod. The mother synod of this breakaway group was the General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America. The schismatic group in Canada formed its own Eastern Presbytery in 1859 and followed a trajectory different from the Old School Canadian Covenanters.29 Its story is not central in this book, though parts of the narrative are useful as an alternative context. The Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (minus the breakaway section) continued its relationship with the Irish synod until 1879. The presbytery endured for twenty-seven years, and during this time five capable missionaries had been sent out. In 1879, the Irish synod handed over the presbytery, somewhat reluctantly, to the synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. The Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia continued under this synod until the presbytery was disbanded in 1923. At that time, the remaining mission stations and congregations became part of the New York presbytery.30 By contrast, in Upper Canada, both Canadian congregations and the Scots Committee of Missions were wearying of their relationship by the late 1840s. A presbytery had been mooted but did not come into existence. The new world Reformed Presbyterians kept petitioning for more clergy, while the Scots committee was reluctant; few men volunteerd.31 The Upper Canadian Reformed Presbyterians suggested a way out: joining with the American Reformed Presbyterians. The Scots applauded the transfer, and the move from the Scottish synod to the American was a fait accompli by 1853.32 The Scots synod had sent out several missionaries, but James McLachlan proved to be the sole sturdy survivor. In the West, where Covenanters emerged much later, they were from the outset under the aegis of the synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. The three Western Covenanter congregations – Content/Delburne, Alberta; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Winnipeg, Manitoba – together with Lake Reno, Minnesota, formed the Central Canada presbytery in 1917.33 The presbytery was



Introduction

9

meant to help overcome the vast geographic distances between the congregations, but those distances were one of the chief reasons why the presbytery requested dissolution in the early 1930s, a request in which the synod concurred.34 The history of the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia Covenanters unfolded gradually, with a few able clergy in several communities – Amherst (until 1848), Cornwallis, Saint John, Barnesville, Wilmot. Each community, pastored by long-term missionaries, spawned adjacent smaller groupings and societies. The presbytery provided the communities with a meaningful network. The coming of the Free Church, so challenging in Upper Canada, was not such a threat in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The presbytery move from the Irish to the American synod came in 1879, but only after a decades-long history and tradition. In the longer run, however, the transfer did not prove effective for Covenanter fortunes. The Covenanter trajectory in Upper Canada was different. Glengarry was for a long time orphaned, though it survived by dint of selfsustenance, with sporadic visitors from the United States. In Lanark County, sole missionary McLachlan was very able, and he engaged in a vigorous, somewhat lonely effort to spread Covenanter fortunes in both eastern and western Upper Canada. His efforts to establish Reformed Presbyterianism were threatened by several factors. The Scots synod’s support was short lived, and the Covenanters in Upper Canada, unhappy with old world refusal to send more missionaries, sought support from American colleagues. The fragility of the Covenanter cause meant that it was vulnerable to an outside challenge – the coming of the Free Church, new, vigorous, evangelical – in the 1840s. The Free Church onslaught almost obliterated Reformed Presbyterianism in Upper Canada. Almonte in Lanark County and Lochiel in Glengarry were the sole surviving congregations when Canada became a nation in 1867. The schema of this book mirrors regional differences. The first chapter outlines the common Scots, Irish, and American roots in the Canadian Reformed Presbyterian church. Occasionally, there are contrasts and parallels drawn between Covenanter and Society of Friends (Quaker) history and practice. The several New Brunswick and Nova

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Scotia communities received missionaries and have their own stories, though they are intertwined. Chapters 2 through 8 are devoted to the Covenanters in the two eastern Canadian provinces, with an assessment of the Maritime Covenanter effort coming at the end of chapter 8. The Covenanter effort in Lower Canada (Quebec) lasted for a brief time, and chapter 9 recounts that history. Upper Canada’s Covenanter history has its own trajectory. Chapter 10 deals with the early stage under the Scots synod; chapter 11 outlines the Free Church challenge and the break with the Scots synod. The result – “picking up the pieces” – is narrated in chapter 12. The following three chapters move west and deal with the rise and fall of Reformed Presbyterianism in Alberta (chapter 13), Saskatchewan (14), and Manitoba (15). In the western provinces, brief contrasts are drawn between Covenanter and Quaker communities. Chapter 15 concludes with an assessment of the Covenanters in western Canada. The final two chapters speak to the consistency of the small Canadian congregations and the great growth emanating from Almonte and Ottawa in the late-twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. At the conclusion of chapter 17 there is an analysis of the Ontario Covenanter experience within a broader national context. Finally, there is an assessment of the possibility of a Covenanter future in this country, and what insights might be gleaned from the history of the Canadian Covenanters. The book concludes with brief reflections on the place of the community in contemporary Canada. A regrettable, but necessary, exigency of the length of this book is that appendices are found online, at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf where they can be viewed and downloaded.

{1} Scots, Irish, and American Roots in Canadian Covenanter Communities The origins of Reformed Presbyterianism lie in Scotland. Deeply influenced by Calvin, John Knox returned to Scotland in 1560 where his stirring preaching evoked a series of Covenants. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1638 in Edinburgh; hundreds of nobles, ministers, and others signed the National Covenant of Scotland, which was an expansion of its predecessors. The General Assembly abolished the episcopate and approved the First Book of Discipline. In 1643 the Westminster Assembly drew up the Solemn League and Covenant, embracing the civil and ecclesiastic polity of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It established the Reformed Church in the three kingdoms. A Directory of Worship, a Confession of Faith, and a Larger and Shorter Catechism were promulgated. From the Covenanter point of view, this was the golden age of faith. This golden age did not last. At the Restoration of 1660, King Charles II resumed the thrones of England and Scotland, severely threatening the gains previously made. The threat became a reality when, within four years, four hundred ministers quit their manses and charges in protest against the increasingly episcopal nature of the church in Scotland. They did not, however, cease preaching and administering the sacraments. The reformed clergy and people gathered together in houses and met as “the church in the fields.” Great were the penalties – even death – for conducting such services. The Covenanters raised their own armies and an early battle gave rise to the “blue banner” of the movement.1 Richard Cameron, a well known leader from whom the name “Cameronian” is derived, later took up arms; Cameron was slain in 1680. His successor, Donald Cargill, was captured and executed in 1681, to be succeeded in turn by James Renwick, executed in 1688, the last of the prominent martyrs. “In general the sufferers were humble people, peasants, or mechanics of

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independent minds who could not or would not clear themselves of suspicion of having some degree of sympathy with the Cameronian doctrines.”2 “The Killing Times,” a period filled with hardship and suffering, holy wars, and bloodshed, lasted from 1680 to 1688. Weary realms looked for a way out of the impasse, and the Settlement of 1690 seemed to offer it. Most Scottish people welcomed the settlement as a compromise that promised an end to the bitter religious struggle. But at least two parts of the compromise were unacceptable to the Covenanters or Reformed Presbyterians. Under William of Orange (King William III), episcopacy – the system of church government by bishops – was formally established in England, a move contrary to the Solemn League and Covenant, which envisioned a reformed or presbyterian ecclesiastical polity in both realms. The Covenanters did not concur. The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) was established in Scotland, but the king, the civil ruler, was accepted as its head. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland could not convene without the king’s commissioner. Covenanters did not concur. In these circumstances, Reformed Presbyterians witnessed to their conviction by refusing to take an oath in the name of the earthly sovereign, refusing to participate fully in civic life by abjuring the franchise, and refusing to hold public office. In short, they refused to accept the monarch as head of church and state: that title belonged to Jesus Christ, King Messiah, alone. Though most of their fellow subjects welcomed the 1690 Revolution Settlement, for the few tenacious nonjurors, the compromise undermined the revelation and achievement of the golden age. The situation in Ireland differed from that in Scotland.3 The English crown had begun confiscating lands during the reign of Henry VIII and granting estates to a few categories of persons, chief among whom were English and Scottish landlords, who were to plant their properties with English and Scottish tenants.4 The final official plantations took place under the English Protectorate. Thus the Scots came to Ulster. The Ulster Irish attempted to overthrow English rule in a bitter rebellion in 1641. The rebellion was quelled by ten thousand troops from



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Scotland. The arrival of this army led to the setting up of a presbytery, whereby the church now known as the Presbyterian Church in Ireland was organized in conformity to the parent body in Scotland. Because the Church of Scotland was then experiencing its golden age, this new Presbyterian church became largely covenanted. In 1644, when the Solemn League and Covenant was brought from Scotland, it was warmly received and subscribed in many places in Ireland even though it did not receive the sanction of the Irish Parliament. In Ireland as in Scotland, however, the Restoration of 1660 threatened to efface previous gains. Covenanters assembled under threat of punishment. These small groups of Ulster Presbyterians were dedicated to maintaining the Scottish Covenants and therefore held separate meetings for fellowship, thus setting down the roots from which the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland developed. Covenanters in Scotland and Ireland were prepared to suffer and die for Reformed Presbyterian orthodoxy. Tertullian’s terse dictum is instructive in understanding the movement: in the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. However, Covenanters did not seek enclaves of holiness apart from an evil world. In this, they differed sharply from the Society of Friends (Quakers) and Mennonites. Reformed Presbyterians sought rather a church-state relationship in which both church and state were under the headship of Christ. Church and state are equal in authority though each has its own sphere. The church is to preach the Gospel and to make disciples for Christ. The state is to administer civil government on Christian principles. When both acknowledge Christ as Lord and acknowledge the rights of the other, they can co-operate to the advantage of both and the glory of God: “a state church in a covenanted nation.”5 More precisely, their “ideal was an exacting one – a covenanted nation and a constitutional government under a covenanted king.”6 The legacy of difference, of standing for eternal verities, is a hallmark of the Covenanter missionaries who came to North America. Their testimony was inevitably dogmatic and theological. The gospel they preached meant difference, distinctiveness, frequently disdain. Covenanter converts were not only or merely centred in Christ, in the Church; they were also inculcated into a new way of understand-

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ing the state, the body politic. The Covenanters combined a present realistic Christ against Culture stance with a future idealistic Christ the Transformer of Culture goal.7 Rev. Robert Shields, a Covenanter pastor in Lanark County, summarized Covenanter distinctiveness and provided a more formal definition: Reformed Presbyterians claim the name Presbyterian, because they believe Presbyterianism to be the only divinely instituted form of Government in the Christian Church; and they accept the Westminster Form of Church Government as justly setting forth in substance and outline the system of order appointed by Christ for His own house. They use the term, Reformed, to express their adherence to the principles and practices of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in the purest times of the Second Reformation between the years 1638 and 1649. Covenanters maintained that “Covenanting is an ordinance of God to be observed by Churches and Nations under the New Testament dispensation,”8 and that Christians everywhere, not just in England, Scotland, and Ireland, were bound by these moral obligations. The ancestors of Canadian Covenanters did not perceive themselves as offshoots of the Church of Scotland, certainly not that church established by the post-Revolution Settlement of 1690.9 Rather, as New Brunswick Covenanter layman Robert Ewing put it, the Reformed Presbyterian Church “is the oldest of them all, the parent Presbyterian church, from which all other presbyterian bodies deviated – especially the established Church of Scotland, the Kirk.”10 Covenanters could see themselves as descendants of the Church of Scotland only if, by “Church of Scotland,” was meant the body that existed in word and deed between 1638 and 1649.11 Scotland and Ireland were the seed beds of Reformed Presbyterianism in Canada, but the initial watering came from visiting American clergy. Irrigation was least pronounced in the Maritimes, more pronounced in Ontario/Quebec, and most pronounced in the West. Covenanters in all three areas were more influenced by American



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co-religionists than by fellow Reformed Presbyterians in other Canadian regions. Thus it is important to understand the movement in the United States. One American contribution to Reformed Presbyterian distinctives in the new world – opposition to slavery – had an impact on but one Canadian Covenanter figure, Rev. William Sommerville, as we shall see.12 But there are three other features of American Reformed Presbyterianism that are significant. The first concerns the “descending obligation of the covenants.” As understood by Scots and Scots-Irish Covenanters, the covenants were morally binding on future congregations. The covenants had been conceived and delivered despite the opposition of a government that, in 1660, at the Restoration of King Charles II, had broken the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. After the American Revolution, however, the new confederated states had no residual connection to the former mother country. The democratization of Reformed Presbyterianism meant, therefore, that the “descending obligation of the covenants” did not cross the ocean to the United States. “There was no reason to testify in the United States about a covenant-breaking government.”13 However, the moral and historical implications inherent in the “descending obligation of the covenants” were transferred to the communion service. Even in Scotland and Ireland “it was usual for Covenanter congregations to renew their commitment to these [statements] prior to communion.”14 Although the relationship of the Covenanter church to the state in Canada differed from that in the United States, in Canada as well, the communion service de facto carried the weight of the descending obligation of the covenants. The communion service often marked the real initiation of a new Canadian Covenanter community. Thereafter, at least annually, all those who remembered, recalled, and wished to revivify this Scots-Irish heritage were called together in a sacred communal meal, the communion service. The second area was closely related to the first. The Solemn League and Covenant had a clear concept of what government should do and be; the Restoration, however, had overturned that view. In the United States, Reformed Presbyterianism maintained “its position of dis-

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sent from the government, but shifted the basis of that dissent from the monarch as head of church and state to the secular nature of the new American constitution.”15 Scottish Covenanters objected to the king, not as monarch, but as head of state who was not subordinate to “King Jesus.” American Covenanters objected to the republic, not qua civil polity, but as a government not subordinate to the reign of Christ.16 What American Covenanters, forced by circumstances, thought through brilliantly, Canadian Covenanters, particularly in the Maritimes, were less clear about,17 although Covenanters on both sides of the ocean and both sides of the Canada-United States border held that the civil authority ought to be subordinated to Jesus Christ and that the church should be independent of civil authority and directly responsible to Christ. The third area relates to a painful split that took place in the Covenanter movement in the United States in 1833. Early in the nineteenth century, Covenanter fortunes in the United States ran high, but by the late 1820s the expected speedy triumph of Reformed principles had not materialized and the divergence of Covenanters from the majority became much more conspicuous. “In such a situation, the tendency was for the church to move toward society. The need for dissent from the government and separation from other churches began to be challenged.”18 One basic question summarizes the resulting controversy: could Reformed Presbyterians vote and hold public office and yet remain faithful to Covenanter convictions? Until 1830, even to recognize such a possibility was to taint oneself with heresy. The controversy first arose at the synod meeting of 1831 and came to a head two years later. Those who held that dissent, expressed by refusing to vote or hold public office, was vital to the church’s witness became known as the Old School, or the Old Lights. Those who were prepared to alter the strict Covenanter doctrine, allowing voting and the holding of public office, became known as the New School, or the New Lights. The New School argued that, since the republican government had a stronger claim to legitimacy as the ordinance of God than any other, it could not be sinful to vote. On the other hand, Old School protagonists contended that the American constitution did not realize the



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revealed will of God since it did not acknowledge subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ.19 This book follows the trajectory of the Canadian Old School, with some attention given to the path followed in the Chignecto region, the transborder area straddling the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where Covenanters followed New School principles.20 The witness of the Reformed Presbyterians of Canada has been marked by several distinctive practices and convictions. “The Society” was one of the earliest terms applied to those who became Covenanters. They met for worship in groups – societies – without a minister. Emigrants carried this practice from the old world to the new. William Sommerville explicitly drew connections between old and new world societies: in Scotland, after the Revolution Settlement the Covenanters “were without a minister for sixteen years, and they had no visible prospect of having one; but their principles were too valuable to be given up, and they waited and prayed, prayed and waited, and God heard them and raised them up a helper where it was least expected.” And so, “your Society meetings will be a blessed means of keeping alive the fire in smoking flax … that old and young will not cease to pray and encourage one another, till God be pleased to visit you.”21 The society was frequently referred to as a praying fellowship. It was private social worship: private in that normally only Covenanters attended, social in that non-family members gathered together – as distinct from individual or family worship. Societies were already formed in some communities, or formed very soon after the arrival of Rev. Alexander Clarke and Rev. William Sommerville, the first Covenanter ministers, to the Maritimes. With laymen they formed the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery in 1832. One of the initial tasks of the new court was to draw up society guidelines: “rules for the Regulations of meetings for prayer and Christian conference.”22 Constituent elements included prayer, psalm singing, and the reading of a sermon.23 When children attended, as they often did, there was a place for them, largely in memorizing and reciting the catechism. And so in Horton, when Rev. Sommerville was away, elder Elihu Woodworth led the Society, as his diary notes:

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“Lord’s Day. Attended Society Meeting. Read a sermon and returned immediately home.”24 In Canada, the Society was open to the families of Covenanter men and women. This stands in marked contrast to the societies in the United States, where “every male member was expected to participate, and women might be invited to do so.”25 Alexander Clarke, ministering in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, “was ably assisted and strengthened in his work by a few godly women in the different congregations … Their cheering words and their efforts and zeal in the cause being even more untiring than that of the men.”26 At the significant communion season held in the new church in Grafton, Nova Scotia, erected by Sommerville and his congregants, on the second Sabbath of November 1844, “fifty-two sat down at the Table of the Lord … from the societies … twenty-two men and thirty women.”27 In Dumfries, Upper Canada, James McLachlan met with the members of the society according to appointment. An unnamed woman came forward: “I administered to her the ordinance of baptism according to the usual mode of our church … She promises fair to be steadfast in her profession.”28 Both men and women were welcomed as society and congregational members. The Society was used widely in the early days in Canada; and in some venues, because of the scarcity of ministers, it continued for decades. When a minister was available, the Society meeting was replaced by regular Sabbath worship. Society meetings sustained congregations between ministers, and the meetings were held in some communities during the waning days of Reformed Presbyterianism. A congregation was formed when there was a minister – a teaching elder – and a session of two or more ruling elders, elected to their positions by the congregation. Both teaching and ruling elders were ordained. For Covenanters (as for other Presbyterians), the session is the lowest court of the church, followed by the presbytery, and finally the synod. According to Covenanters, this three-layered system is divinely sanctioned. Reformed Presbyterians recognize role distinctions between men and women; again, these distinctions are held to be biblically based and scripturally sanctioned. Although full participants in every other way in the life and ministry of the society and the



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congregation, women are not eligible to be either teaching or ruling elders. In some Covenanter societies and congregations, a secondary officer, a deacon or board of deacons, was elected to carry out administrative tasks. In Rev. Sommerville’s Horton congregation, ruling elder Elihu Woodworth was also a deacon.29 Women could be elected as deacons. In congregations without deacons, their functions of mercy and stewardship were included in the responsibilities of the session. When a minister was available, Covenanters met on the Sabbath not for the Society but for public ordinances or corporate worship. In early times, particularly in the Maritimes, two services of public worship were held. “Church service … continued through a large part of the day, including morning and afternoon exercises, separated by an intermission of ten or fifteen minutes, during which the members of the congregation ate their lunch, strolled through the cemetery, or chatted about the latest happenings.”30 Samuel Crothers Murray provided an outline of a Covenanter service in Little Shemogue, New Brunswick, a service followed in the 1830s and for decades beyond. It included invocation; exposition of a psalm portion; singing of the portion; reading of scripture; long prayer, singing of a psalm; sermon – a theological treatise; short prayer; collection; a psalm portion; and benediction.31 The list illustrates elements central to Covenanter corporate worship: singing of the psalms, reading of scripture, prayer, and lecture/sermon. The sermon or lecture was central, for “the most apparent reason for public worship was the inculcation of truth.”32 Covenanters stood for prayer and sat through the singing. Covenanters were following decades-old worship patterns established in Scotland and Ireland. Later, Covenanters followed directories for public worship, designed to be recommended guidelines rather than required orders of worship.33 The practice of two services on the Sabbath, separated by a brief interval, gave way as circumstances allowed to morning and evening worship. As in society meetings, children also attended worship where they became acquainted with and memorized the catechism and recited Bible verses. Somewhat later, many Covenanter communities formed Sabbath schools.

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Covenanters engaged in fervent daily prayer and devotion. Little Shemogue’s Murray provides a lively portrait. “There were morning chores – animals to feed, cows to milk, etc. Then breakfast and worship. Everyone gathered round the family table – father, mother, six children, and usually a hired man. Father sat immediately in front of the bookshelf.” When the morning meal was eaten, “the father would swing around and take from the shelf the well-thumbed family Bible. ‘He waled a portion wi’ judicious care’ and read in a clear and reverent voice, after which all members of the family pushed back their chairs and reverently knelt while the father prayed. There was never any hurry or confusion. No one left the circle. The morning worship was never ‘skimped.’”34 The Bible was held to be the supreme law in state and church; what is not commanded in the Scripture about the worship of God is forbidden. The Bible is the only source of human knowledge of God and is the basis of faith; it teaches us how to live, how to worship, how to be holy, and how to govern the church. It also teaches that glorifying God is humanity’s chief purpose.35 All confessions – even the revered Westminster Confession of Faith – are dependent upon Scripture. The confessions were a sixteenth-century statement of scriptural truths for that time. For later times, Reformed Presbyterians refer to a third rung or level – a testimony. The original Testimony of 1806 was published in a work called Reformed Principles Exhibited; there have been subsequent testimonies.36 Reformed Presbyterians see the authority of the Bible extending to all church matters: doctrine, ethics, worship, and government. Deuteronomy emphasizes that there are to be no additions or deletions: “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deut. 12:32). Reformed Presbyterians frequently refer to the Regulative Principle of Worship: “The only way to worship God is in the manner that he has commanded in the Holy Scripture; all additions to, or subtractions from, this manner, are forbidden.”37 Even posture in public worship and in family or private prayer is not incidental or fortuitous. Reformed Presbyterians hold that all secret and fraternal organizations are inimical to fellowship, deflecting followers from true wor-



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ship. Writing about the Masons, Nova Scotia minister Sommerville doubted not that organization’s baneful effects: a fraternal organization “whose members are sworn to keep secrets which have not beforehand been communicated … who hold Masonic obligations antecedent to civil … who transact the business of the lodge within doors, closed and guarded … Such [an organization] … may overturn any government, shake the foundations of society … subvert the discipline of all Churches.”38 Membership in such organizations could lead to removal from the Covenanter community. The Society of Friends (Quakers) held a similar negative view. Among Quakers, “there was a certain distrust of the alleged political activities of some of these secret societies. A number of cases of disownment are recorded in which Friends had joined either the Orange Order, the Odd-fellows or Masons.”39 Covenanters did, however, co-operate with a few trans-local organizations whose membership included folk from other denominations. The Protestant Alliance was one such organization and, most notably, the British and Foreign Bible Society another. In their Sabbath worship, Reformed Presbyterians sing only the psalms without instrumental accompaniment. Exclusive psalmody was the common practice of Scots Presbyterians in the seventeenth century, and in both Canada and the United States, many Presbyterians sang only the psalms. However, this practice gradually diminished, and organs were introduced even in Presbyterian places of worship. As a result, Reformed Presbyterians take much of their iden- tity from exclusive psalmody without instrumental accompaniment.40 Covenanters were convinced that the psalms were given by God for the use of the church in any country, to the end of time, while hymns and spiritual songs are human compositions. In the matter of non-use of instruments and a capella singing, Covenanters applied the regulative principle whatever is not commanded for worship is forbidden. Instruments were indeed used in the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, but Reformed Presbyterians hold that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant temple worship. Instruments were used only as part of the sacrifice: Christ has fulfilled the sacrifice. Thus, Christian worship no longer needs

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animal sacrifice, priests, and musical instruments. The emphasis is now on purity and simplicity. All Christians are priests, and the human voice is the instrument of thankful praise. Purity of worship is a dominant Covenanter motif. The exclusive singing of psalms is one significant strand. Another is the ban on “occasional hearing.” Covenanters were not only discouraged from attending non-Covenanter public worship services: they could be disciplined for doing so. At Beckwith, one of the early stations in eastern Upper Canada, all congregants were steadfast “with the exception of one, whose case has been laid before the session, for hearing occasionally erroneous preachers, contrary to that injunction, ‘Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err’ [Prov. 19:27].”41 As part of their understanding of purity of worship, Covenanters also rejected the practices of “inter-communion” and “open communion.” That is, they refused to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with those of other denominations and they restricted communion to those who were Covenanter members. This practice was normatively referred to as “close communion.”42 As noted above, Reformed Presbyterianism held that musical instruments are not to be used in worship and that the psalms only are to be sung. Yet outside of worship, singing and the use of musical instruments were widespread in family circles and in non-worship gatherings. Covenanters made a clear distinction between civil and spiritual gatherings. Congregations gathered readily to say hello to a new minister and his family, to say goodbye to one who was leaving, or to celebrate a significant passage. They gathered for recitations, singing, instrumental performance, and plays. When his congregants wanted to celebrate thirty-five years of Thomas McFall’s Cornwallis ministry, they gathered to make a presentation, to which McFall responded. “Then followed an evening of pleasant social intercourse enlivened by musical exercises which included music on piano by Misses Reta Hayes and Evelyn Morton, a motion song by two tiny tots, Eva and Jennie May Hayes, and songs by Mr. A.E. Marsters. Refreshments were served and the company separated after joining in singing the twenty‑third Psalm, and in prayer led by Mr. McFall.”43 The belief that “Covenanters endeavoured to live … untouched by music”44 is manifestly untrue.



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Purity and simplicity of worship are also apparent in church architecture. The design of the churches was plain and simple. In the early days in the new world, churches were a luxury. Groups met in homes, a barn,45 churches that had been built by others,46 or school houses. As soon as possible, however, congregations built churches of their own. “Theology and finance dictated that these should be simple. To Covenanters, there was nothing sacred about the building – nor did the service require an elaborate building.”47 In rural areas, the style remained simple. In urban areas, the environment exerted pressure for larger and more elaborate buildings. The “handsome and elegant” new church in Saint John, New Brunswick, built in 1850, seated 550 to 600,48 and two years later Toronto Covenanters “erected a neat and tasteful edifice capable of seating 400 persons, irrespective of a gallery not yet built.”49 Covenanters could not vote and exercising the elective franchise could result in discipline. This was the fate of John Burgess Calkin. He voted in a provincial election in Nova Scotia in 1865. “Mr. J.B. Calkin has confessed his violation of his profession in voting at the last general election, and in a communication to this Session justified the act and in general vindicates his dissent from the distinctive position of Reformed Presbyterian Church. Therefore resolved that he be no longer recognized as one of its members.”50 Members of the Society of Friends could exercise the electoral franchise, and frequently did so. On the other hand, a Quaker could be cast out for marrying a non-Quaker. Such a wedding necessitated the services of a clergyman, itself “a serious violation of the Quaker testimony.”51 “Marrying out” of the Society of Friends (either by marrying a non-Quaker or by marrying a Quaker in a non-Quaker service) frequently led to disownment. Conversely, a decade before he voted, J.B. Calkin married Martha Sommerville, William Sommerville’s daughter; a Church of England clergyman officiated.52 William Sommerville was offended and angry,53 but there is no suggestion that by this act John Burgess Calkin contravened Covenanter convictions, even if Martha had been a non-Covenanter. Reformed Presbyterians did not swear oaths, serve on juries, or hold office; for Covenanters, these were continuous with the practice of refusing to vote. These refusals were a public witness that the state

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did not recognize itself to be under Christ’s rule. Engaging in any of the forbidden acts would bring discipline, perhaps removal. Physician John Brady of Barnesville “was offered the office of county-coroner, but refused the appointment on the ground that his acceptance would have required him to swear the oath of allegiance.”54 Canadian Quakers held similar views but from different motives: “taking of a judicial oath was not only unnecessary but wrong … the words of Christ ‘Swear not at all’ constituted a categorical imperative … Several instances occur of Friends being disowned because they accepted the office of a Justice of the Peace, and consequently not only had taken an oath themselves, but had administered oaths to others.”55 Covenanters saw evidence of corruption in the culture around them. The Sabbath was not honoured as it should be. Covenanters were strict Sabbatarians (heavily supported by most Christian denominations, though not by Quakers). Covenanter farmer David Bates of Jemseg was notably vigorous in honouring the Sabbath. When Bates had a hired man, that man normally went home on Saturday night. If he didn’t, Bates would not allow him to make the journey on the Sabbath. It was also related that Bates would go out on the road on the Sabbath in front of his farm. If persons were travelling, and had gone over a mile, he would do his best to have them come in and stay until Monday morning.56 For Quakers in Canada, “total abstinence … was an idea of later growth which only came after years of education.”57 For Canadian Covenanters, the liquor traffic was almost universally considered a great evil from the outset. Robert Shields wrote passionately about the evils of liquor.58 He reminisced about a situation in Ramsay, Ontario. During the summer of 1834, when a church was being constructed, the neighbours gathered as usual to assist. “Often at these gatherings spirituous liquors were provided for those who desired such a beverage.” However, this situation differed: Covenanters were building the church. On this occasion those in charge being temperance men, excluded intoxicating drinks … A number of those who came and who were not members of the R.P. Church, were displeased at this, as that was wanting which was for them the



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chief attraction. Seating themselves upon a log, they refused to work until they would get their ‘grog.’ They were promptly told that if they did not choose to work without whiskey, they might refrain from work, and that if the building failed to be erected that day, through their refusal, enough of temperance men would be found to put it up on the morrow. However, there seemed to be a change of heart. “As soon … as the ‘bung’ men saw that the friends of temperance were not to be intimidated, they went to work.”59 As we shall see, American-born Covenanters were more stringent about the use of alcoholic beverages than some of the Irish-born Covenanters; that difference played out divisively in the Winnipeg Covenanter congregation.60 Covenanters also attacked the use of tobacco, though not as vigorously. Covenanters were consistently critical of Roman Catholicism. The early Covenanters in Scotland and Ireland saw the Roman Catholic Church as alien and hostile. Missionary James McLachlan normally restricted his letters to matters directly related to his labours in Upper Canada; yet one was largely devoted to an attack on Roman Catholicism. “Popery in [western Upper] Canada is beginning to assume a very formidable appearance. New congregations are forming and rapidly increasing, through immigration, in several places of the country. In Kingston, if I mistake not, the government … gave a grant of ground to erect a popish college, which will soon be finished.”61 Many Covenanter pastors preached sermons against the Roman Catholic Church. In short, Covenanters did not accept the Roman Catholic Church as a true church.62 Covenanters were much less critical of the Anglican or Episcopal Church although that denomination, too, was governed by bishops.63 In some Maritime Covenanter churches, the congregation stood at prayer, “turning their backs to the minister … to show that the occupant of the pulpit was not the object of worship.”64 The implication is that these Covenanters supposed that in some churches – especially the Roman Catholic – the priest was the object of worship. Despite their severe criticisms of the cultural milieu, Covenanters were loyal citizens. Barnesville’s Rev. James Lawson declaimed, “He is not a Christian who is not a patriot. Public interests ought to lie

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[near] his heart … He ought to pray for his country’s welfare.” So the Covenanter “ought to be willing to bear his due part of the financial burdens of his country.” Covenanters pay taxes and obey magistrates and police, although this is done in an imperfect society. “The only weapons we use in our warfare (?) against national evils are Scripture, enlightened reason and prayer. Our only aim is the establishment of that righteousness which ‘exalteth a nation.’”65 Being a loyal citizen also meant that the Reformed Presbyterian must be prepared to fully participate in the country’s defence by becoming a soldier. Covenanters are not pacifists. Lawson declared, “let our country be invaded by a foreign foe, or be in danger from internal sedition, if Covenanters would not be amongst the first to shed their blood in its defence, they would belie their past history. There was a time when the Covenanters of Scotland raised among themselves a whole regiment for their country’s service.”66 Some Canadian Covenanters were in the armed services in the First World War and, in the Second, “our soldiers fought against the tyranny of Germany and Japan.”67 In Canada, serving as soldiers did not bring Covenanters into conflict over the swearing of oaths.68 Quakers and Covenanters diverge sharply on the issue of pacifism. For the Society of Friends, becoming a soldier is not an option. In 1806, the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting declared that “we cannot for conscience sake join with many of our fellow mortals … in taking up the sword to shed human blood.”69 Quakers strive for an alternate civilization, this one being false and inadequate; Covenanters are convinced that, under Christ, civilization and culture are redeemable and effective. Covenanters maintained discipline in an often hostile environment. The Reformed Presbyterian movement had humble beginnings. Its originators walked lonely paths, and temptations to forsake the cause abounded. Discipline was a part of Covenanter practice from the outset. It arose in Scotland, where Presbyterians of all schools understood church discipline. Robert Ewing, a Saint John ruling elder, wrote, “[The Reformed Presbyterian Church] maintains a wholesome discipline over her members. She has terms of ministerial and Christian communion which every one entering her membership is bound



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to accept and submit to … Members engage to observe the worship of God in their families, if heads of families. She does not tolerate swearers, Sabbath breakers, drunkards, liquor sellers or any who are living in the practice of any known sin. The Church does not profess to know the hearts of her members, but does take cognizance of their conduct.”70 As already mentioned, the communion service held great significance in Covenanter life and practice in Canada. Although the Sabbath service was the apex, it was but one part of a series: Covenanters participated in a communion season. It was a time for an intense personal relationship with God and for recalling the historic covenants. The days were filled with “prayer, psalms and sermons all expressly designed to foster a purity and piety of thought and action. Selfexamination, repentance and renewed obedience prevailed throughout the season.”71 The earliest Canadian record of a communion season comes from the reminiscences of William Duncan of Little Shemogue and of his sister, Mary Duncan Lane.72 William Duncan sketched the outline of a communion season typical of the 1830s and forward. It lasted four days, with services on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The Duncan eyewitness sketch gives the bare bones, which can be fleshed out from other sources. Duncan wrote that “Thursday [was a] day for self‑examination and evening service.”73 At Cornwallis, in the 1860s, Thursday was appointed as “a day of fasting and humiliation,” the “causes of fasting” being “1st the apparent lukewarmness that obtains in the congregation; 2nd the diminution of gospel ordinances from amongst us; 3rd a falling away of many from testimony they had avowed.”74 Since communion was open to members only, the first day of communion preparation was characterized by much personal gravitas, lest the intending communicant should enter frivolously into the presence of God. The next service was held on “Saturday afternoon when new members were received.” Then “at the close of this Saturday service, tokens were distributed. [And] a long table was set up the length of the church, the middle row of pews were removed.”75 The Duncan memoirs do not add that the tokens would be given by the minister to

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those who intended to take communion on the Sabbath, nor do they mention that the long table would be covered with clean linen, in preparation for service the next day. Both matters were assumed. The chief service was held on the Sabbath Day. At a service conducted by Rev. Alexander Clarke, he preached the “action sermon,” which had Christ’s death as subject. The Lord’s Supper was probably prefaced by his stern admonitions in “fencing of the tables,” thus indicating that even the members were to consider solemnly whether they were fit to observe the ordinance.76 “[Then] communicants received the ‘Elements’ seated around this [long] table. Several tables were served; persons came and went from the table singing psalms – no paraphrases were allowed.”77 There might be several “table settings,” depending on the number of persons present. “The last table served was for the elders, served by the minister who was served last by one of the elders.”78 “[The] Monday morning (service) following Sacrament Sabbath [was] observed [by] the Baptizims [sic] of children.”79 Even if there were no infants to be baptized, a service was held on Monday; the session would also have met, in order to conclude the communion season properly and formally. Baptism was the second Covenanter sacrament. Both adults and children were baptized, though the great majority were infants. Frequently baptisms occurred during the communion season, as happened at Little Shemogue. The communion season was a hallowed time, its very infrequency adding to its significance. In many Canadian Covenanter communities, as in Little Shemogue, for many years “communion services were held [but once] annually.”80 Covenanters “hailed with delight the communion season.”81 It served Covenanters as the equivalent of the revival meeting so characteristic of Protestant dissenting churches other than the Presbyterian.82 The Communion Season was not uniform across Covenanter history in Canada. Ordinarily the Fast Day was on Thursday, but in Kingston, Upper Canada, in 1839, it was Wednesday,83 and in Lochiel, Ontario, in 1948 or 1949, it was Friday.84 Covenanters in Lochiel were exceptional in that they “still had a … fast day” at that period.85 Though the elements of self-examination and preparation have remained, fasting



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itself is no longer observed, and none of the later Covenanter communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba observed fasting. Also, while the communion season was commonly an annual event, in Horton, where William Sommerville was minister, there were two communion seasons in each of 1835 and 1836.86 Though they were subject to change, the various aspects of worship, particularly public worship, provided a framework within which Covenanters practised their religion. In pioneer conditions, a situation of perpetual flux, Covenanters could impose a regular pattern of religious ritual – early morning and/or evening family prayer, grace before and after meals, society meetings, a Sabbath chiefly devoted to public worship, and an annual or biannual communion season. In short, Reformed Presbyterianism imparted to its members and adherents a sense of direction during uncertain times.87 Changes come, but Covenanters tended to hold to the time-tested, Confession-consistent, and Bible-based. One illustration comes from Rev. Alexander McLeod Stavely, long-time Saint John pastor, writing to his sister in March 1869. We have had … until the last few days an exceeding pleasant winter. Since Sabbath morning however there has been a decided change. That day will long be remembered for its drifting snow storm. That was our Communion Sabbath. The majority of our people in some way or other got to the house of worship, but some twelve or fifteen who had tokens the day before could not possibly get forward. This we regret exceedingly, as these are the aged of the flock. One of them, old Mrs. Hutchinson, nearly 90 years of age … is said literally to have shed tears because she was debarred in this way from the privilege of commemorating her Saviour’s love. Our Elders have suggested the propriety of dispensing the elements to such as were prevented from attending after Sermon next Sabbath. Although there could be nothing wrong in this, I cannot find any precedent, except such as might be drawn from the passover provided afterwards for those who were on a journey. It is not likely that we will depart from the footsteps of the flocks in New

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Test[ament] times, knowing that God can bestow his grace in the use of means, or without means, according to his pleasure.88 Changes came, but slowly. The hold of tradition was strong. To oversimplify, the Covenanter conviction was two-fold. It was based on an ardent allegiance to Christ and the gospel; it was founded on a fierce church commitment commanding a specific stance vis-àvis the state. The two were normally inextricably interwoven in the Covenanter soul. Burleigh identified the elements: “In Covenanting folk there glowed a warmth of devotion to Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, and a fervent loyalty to His Crown and Kingdom, to the Kirk of which He was only King and Head.”89 The Covenanter embodied a particular presbyterian piety. There was both an inviting warmth and a fierce resistance. What follows is an examination of how these two strands emerged in and through the regular pattern of religious ritual in the Covenanter community, on the one hand, and in the broader context of social and political life, on the other.

{2} Clarke and Sommerville: Can the Centre Hold? The first two missionaries of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were Alexander Clarke and William Sommerville. For a time they collaborated amicably; for a time they did not. Later, their relationship almost completely ruptured, though it was never entirely broken. Alexander Clarke, the son of William and Elizabeth Clarke (née Craig), was born near Kilrea, county Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on 16 July 1794.1 Alexander belonged to a very large family for his father had married twice. Alexander was one of the younger sons in the second family.2 He was a devout child: “This boy very early expressed his desire to study for the ministry. After he became matured this desire was fulfilled, and, in the providence of God, he was brought across the great Atlantic to work as a missionary in Nova Scotia.”3 Clarke is also said to have defended Reformed Presbyterian principles successfully in several youthful dialogues.4 Little is known of Alexander Clarke’s early years in Ireland. He studied in the collegiate division of the Belfast Academical Institution in the years 1819, 1822, and 1823.5 He married Catherine McMillan in Belfast in 1822. The first two of their three Ulster-born children died in infancy; one daughter survived.6 Alexander received financial support from the Reformed Presbyterian Missionary Society in 1825 and 1826 in order “to defray expenses at College.”7 It is uncertain, however, which college he attended.8 He was licensed by the Eastern Presbytery on 24 May 1827, together with Thomas Houston. Clarke alone was ordained on the same day, presumably because he was soon to leave for America.9 Years later, in an autobiographical sketch, Clarke gave his own colourful account of his summons as a missionary: In the fall of ’26 … I went to hear specimens of elocution … in the theater. This, I suppose accounts for my peculiar eloquence.

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Never before or since have I seen the inside of that thing called a theater. A Presbytery sat that night, and sent and brought me out of that den to ask me if I would accept the offer to go out as a missionary to the City of St. John, N.B., after my session of study would close, in which case they would make a preacher of me. A strange place to go to find stuff to make a preacher of, surely. But they did it and small wonder I am a hard-shell minister, both long-winded and long-tongued. Every man must have some distinguishing feature, and why should not I? However, nine months after the time here referred to, found me a hard working missionary in the wild wilderness of British America.10 The Clarkes, with their daughter, set sail for Saint John in June 1827; a fourth child, their third daughter, was born on 21 June, “whilst the ship Wm. Booth was tossed upon the Irish channel.”11 They arrived in Saint John on 23 August, prepared to work in that city, but there were formidable obstacles. The society that had been formed by the Willson brothers had largely broken up before the Clarkes landed, and some of its most efficient members had moved to the United States; also efforts by Clarke to preach in the Kirk were sharply rebuffed.12 Clarke held services in Saint John for some weeks,13 but increasingly, he ventured outside Saint John to areas where his message was more heartily accepted. Eventually he settled in Amherst, Nova Scotia. From that beachhead, he made successful forays into Westmorland County in New Brunswick and Cumberland County in Nova Scotia, resulting in mission stations, congregations, and the building of churches.14 Clarke needed assistance, and he repeatedly asked the Reformed Presbyterian Home and Foreign Missionary Society to send missionary helpers. Almost as regularly, his pleas were refused, so Clarke looked for another option: “Could there be sent to him a few persons, members of the church, acquainted with her principles, who would be qualified to act as English teachers, he proposes to find situations for them in different parts of the provinces … [T]hey might be appointed to the Eldership, or be found otherwise serviceable in advancing the cause, the interests of genuine religion amongst a destitute people.”15



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Rev. William Sommerville

The Society concurred, but for four years, both proposals – an additional ordained missionary and an able layman – were in abeyance. Yet the Missionary Society was working on both possibilities. In 1831, Clark visited the American synod in Philadelphia, sitting “as an honorary member.” There he reported on his work: “His labor had been very severe and the prospects for a considerable time far from flattering. His circuit of riding was upwards of twenty five hundred square miles, exclusive of foreign visits. That, nevertheless, much had been done, and the prospects begin to brighten.”16 The brighter prospects were due in part to the fact that the Irish synod was finally sending assistance, and on his return to Canada, Clarke anticipated meeting both missionary William Sommerville and catechist layman Andrew Stevenson. William Sommerville was born in a farmhouse in Ballyroney, County Down, on 1 July 1800, the oldest child and only son of Wil-

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Rev. Professor Andrew Symington, dd

liam and Jane Kirk Sommerville.17 His father “cheerfully dedicated to the work of the ministry his only son.”18 William studied under two clergy who endowed him with a sound acquaintance of English literature and an extensive grounding in the classics.19 In addition, Sommerville spent one session at the Belfast Academical Institution.20 He entered the University of Glasgow in 1816, graduating in 1819 with a Master of Arts degree.21 Next he pursued theological studies at the Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall in Paisley, Scotland, under the venerable Dr Andrew Symington, graduating in 1824.22 Licensed in 1826 by the Southern Presbytery,23 Sommerville served as an itinerant preacher for several years. Due to the urging of Alexander Clarke, the Home and Foreign Missionary Society had consistently implored presbyteries for an additional missionary and, in 1831, Sommerville asked to be ordained for that purpose. The ordination service was conducted “in the open air”



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Rev. Thomas Houston, dd

in Ballylane on the last day of May 1831. Clergy and laity came from near and far. Afterwards, “Rev Thomas Houston delivered an affectionate and impressive Charge to the Missionary in relation to his office as a Minister of the New Testament and a Missionary of the Church.”24 Sommerville and lay catechist Andrew Stevenson set sail in July and arrived in Saint John on 20 August 1831.25 Presumably Clarke and Sommerville met in Saint John, although no account of their meeting survives. Stevenson seems to have played a negligible part in this encounter.26 Clarke and Sommerville may not have met before, though they would know of each other through mutual friends and connections.27 Clarke was six years older than Sommerville and had been in the region for four years; clearly he was the senior minister. The Missionary Society had intended that Clarke settle in Saint John, but not long after his arrival, he moved to Amherst, Nova Sco-

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tia. Apparently it was then the design of the Missionary Society “to have Mr. Sommerville settle in St. John, and also minister to the adjacent societies in New Brunswick.”28 Sommerville conducted services in Saint John in the weeks immediately after arriving,29 but he settled in Hopewell, New Brunswick. Sommerville’s baptismal records show that his ministry included “South Stream (Barnesville), Salt Springs, Jerusalem, Hopewell, Chepody [sic: Shepody], Neripis and Londonderry,”30 as well as Millican Settlement and New Ireland.31 Sommerville founded and encouraged society meetings in each of the communities. Nevertheless, only South Stream/Barnesville32 developed into a Covenanter congregation, and that was some years after Sommerville’s presence.33 None of the baptisms recorded by Sommerville took place in any of Clarke’s congregations.34 It seems that the two clergy had decided to work together, but in different venues. In one matter they strongly concurred: more help was needed. “The demands for preaching are numerous and Messrs. Clarke & Sommerville earnestly desire that another minister should be sent out to their assistance.”35 About his early days in New Brunswick, Sommerville “forwarded the only report of any length, of my situation, proceedings and prospects.”36 The journal reached Ulster in 1832,37 but unfortunately it was never published. At that juncture, narratives about Clarke’s labours apparently contained more exciting information: “ninety-four persons … received into Church fellowship … three ruling elders … ordained … one house of worship erected on the circuit; another in progress in St. John’s.”38 Clarke was the “indefatigable missionary.”39 Though Sommerville’s work did not receive such publicity, the journal did bring one positive result: “Mr. Sommerville has been engaged for a second year as the [Missionary] Society’s missionary.”40 Although Sommerville and Clarke ministered in different locales, there is evidence of co-operation and an intermingling of spheres of influence. Possibly at the instigation of Clarke, the two ministers formed a presbytery: it would provide mutual support as well as the opportunity for joint oversight. They therefore constituted themselves “The Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick & Nova Scotia” in Point de Bute, New Brunswick, on 25 April 1832, supported by ruling elders Robert Cooke of Amherst and William Peacock of Little



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Map 1  Reformed Presbyterians in New Brunswick

Shemogue.41 Neither Clarke nor Sommerville, however, notified the Irish synod of their intention to form a presbytery. They constituted the new body, appointed Clarke moderator and Sommerville clerk, and then wrote to the synod for approval of what was a fait accompli. The synod was not pleased with “the precipitancy and want of courtesy with which their missionaries have proceeded in constituting a Presbytery without consulting this Court.” Synod, however, did not demand restoration of the status quo ante: “Synod does recognize the Constitution, and directs them [the new Presbytery] to continue subject to this Synod, until reasons may occur and be assigned for placing them under the direction of another Synod.”42 This shaky start did not prevent the new presbytery from taking action. Since the two missionaries could not be present in all the places where worship was to be sustained, the presbytery drew up rules

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for society meetings – i.e., guidelines for fellowship meetings of lay people.43 The society rules, drawn from Scottish and Irish forerunners and the immediate experience of both Clarke and Sommerville, were intended to meet a real need. In addition, the early meetings of the presbytery considered matters pertaining to specific congregations, largely Clarke-led. In the winter of 1831, Sommerville visited Clarke and some of his stations in the Cumberland area – stations including the Goose River/Linden44 congregation.45 There he met Sarah Barry Dickey, daughter of Robert McGowan Dickey, a staunch Covenanter and an outstanding citizen. On 20 June 1832, William and Sarah were married in Amherst, Alexander Clarke officiating.46 The Sommervilles moved to Horton, Nova Scotia, in May 1833. The affairs of the presbytery became more balanced, no longer weighted heavily with concerns of Clarke’s congregations. But Somerville’s removal to Horton meant that he was no longer available to the societies started earlier in New Brunswick; consequently, with the possible exception of South Stream/Barnesville, they died out. Clarke baptized Sommerville’s two oldest children, both daughters, in 1833 and 1835.47 Somerville baptized Clarke’s eighth child, also a daughter, born in June 1835.48 Moreover, each went to the other’s region and assisted, particularly in communion seasons.49 Superficially, the two ministers seemed to be co-operating effectively. At a more profound level, all was not well in the relationship. From Horton in August 1833, Sommerville wrote to the Rev. Dr James Renwick Willson, of Coldenham, New York, an eminent American Reformed Presbyterian pastor: “Mr. C[larke]’s connection and mine is for the time ceased. You have heard that he did not appear at the time appointed for a meeting of presbytery in April [1833]. I wrote him … His reply seemed to indicate an eagerness for a meeting proportionate to my disposition to postpone it … I intimated my intention of visiting Saint John … He intimated [that he would] refuse me liberty to go and see that people. I replied by protesting against his political course declining any further ecclesiastical connection with him till …”50 The letter breaks off. Three elements seem clear: first, Sommerville’s trust in Clarke seems shattered; second, there is a dispute about the Saint John congregation; and third, Sommerville disagrees with Clarke’s political involvement.



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The presbytery did not meet between the autumn of 1832 and the fall of 1834 – a hiatus of two years. Sommerville’s break with Clarke is mirrored in a distancing of the Irish synod and Missionary Society from Clarke. Clarke was not communicating as enthusiastically or as frequently as he had in his early years. No longer was he described as “senior” minister. Rather, in 1833, Clarke is the first missionary, Sommerville the second.51 A year later, the Missionary Society referred simply to “two ministers” in British North America.52 By 1835, the Missionary Society failed to mention Clarke’s name, though Sommerville had written that both missionaries enjoyed good health. Sommerville was not slow to report his own success in Horton: “faithful testimony in behalf of the Inspired Psalms” resulted in “the abandoning by the [Reformed] Presbyterians of uninspired compositions in the psalmody of the Church.”53 Though absent from the Missionary Society reports, Clarke was active in the region. By October 1835, the Saint John Covenanter community had erected a church building, and Alexander Clarke was the officiating preacher at its opening.54 He had reorganized a society there before moving to Amherst,55 was recognized as the Saint John Covenanter minister,56 and therefore saw himself as the appropriate minister to open the new church. Writing to the Rev. Dr James R. Willson a few days later, Clarke said, “It is now three years since I could make it … convenient to visit this city. The occasion … was to open our long expected sanctuary.” Clarke notes that “measures have been adopted to bring out a talented minister from the old country to keep the house … open.” Significantly, there is a brief mention of his colleague: “Mr. Sommerville was also invited but did not come.”57 Clarke’s political involvement came to a head in the December 1836 election, “an election the likes of which Nova Scotia had never seen before.”58 The 1830 election had raised expectations that the government would inaugurate political reform, but this did not happen. A depression had gripped the province in 1834, and in Cumberland there were crop failures. The county was in political turmoil. In the face of such pressing public issues, staunch Covenanter Clarke could not remain silent; he took to the hustings. He did not act in secret, for he “spoke before giving his vote.”59 Moreover, Clarke’s political convictions allied him with a Church of England rector named Townshend. The public was not unaware of this anomaly: “Who abjure prelacy in

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one of the articles of their faith? answer, the Covenanters. Who on the Hustings declared himself friendly to an Established Religion? Answer the Rev. Mr. Clarke. Who is the Rev. Mr Clarke? answer, a Covenanter.”60 When he cast his vote in the December 1836 election, Clarke broke radically from established Covenanter practice.61 Voting in an election was cause for discipline, indeed expulsion. Strangely, in Clarke’s case that did not happen, at least not immediately. Sommerville surely knew and must have been embarrassed. Perhaps living in Horton, Nova Scotia, removed him somewhat from the heat of the battle in Cumberland. Perhaps the fact that his fatherin-law, Robert McGowan Dickey, ran in the same election and was elected a Tory member for Amherst Township gave him pause. Perhaps, even though he strongly disagreed with Clarke’s voting, he had a grudging admiration for his older colleague. At any rate, Sommerville remained silent, at least for the time being, and matters between the synod and the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Reformed presbytery proceeded evenly. Sommerville attended the American Reformed Presbyterian Synod in 1838, in New York, where he gave a lengthy report “respecting the condition of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, his own circumstances, and those of his co-labourer, in the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.”62 Two months later, Sommerville wrote again to his American colleague, Rev. Dr James Renwick Willson. Sommerville related that on his way back from New York, he held services in Saint John on successive Sabbaths. The Saint John Covenanters believed that because two Kirk ministers in Saint John were at odds with one another, it would be a good time for a new Covenanter clergyman to come. But Sommerville sounded an alarm: Alas, whatever advantage may occur from such [a development] is likely soon to be counterbalanced I fear by a separation of Mr C. and me as fellow labourers … I had once thought that the jealousy Mr C. appeared to entertain of me was personal now I am convinced it arises not so much from a desire to enjoy a greater share of reputation which God knows I was willing to surrender to him as that he could not when I was present at once enjoy the support of the Synod and act in contempt of our



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principles and usages. I look to you for advice how I am to act and expect to hear from you soon.63 Sommerville ended his letter by predicting that the next meeting of presbytery in April 1839 would bring matters to a crisis. In fact the crisis had already occurred at the November 1838 meeting of the presbytery. The province of New Brunswick had held its own general election in the autumn of 1837,64 and the Saint John Society had undoubtedly heard of Clarke’s serious aberration in voting in Cumberland a year earlier. In 1838, the Saint John Reformed Presbyterian community made it clear in a letter to Clarke that they wanted nothing more to do with him. Clarke brought the letter to the presbytery, of which he was the moderator and Sommerville the clerk. “The Rev. A. Clarke laid upon the table a letter from the Society of Saint John, declining the acceptance of his services as a Minr. of the Refd Presbyterian Church.”65 Clarke and his Amherst ruling elder Robert Cooke wanted the Clerk of Presbytery, Sommerville, to write to Saint John, asking the Saint John Society some leading questions. Whether that letter was written is not known: there is no record of a reply. From this time on, Clarke never again attended a meeting of the presbytery. It was the Saint John Society that acted quickly and decisively in face of Clarke’s voting; they discarded him as a Covenanter. The Willson brothers had first brought order to the Saint John community. James Renwick Willson, the more eminent brother, was in correspondence with both Clarke and Sommerville in the 1830s; although there is no record of it, he may also have been in touch with Saint John Covenanters. In the 1833 split in the American church, Willson was a leader in the conservative Old School side.66 Clearly, he was a staunch, uncompromising defender of traditional principles. There can be little doubt that James Renwick Willson would have fully approved of the Saint John Society’s repudiation of Clarke. In the future, Covenanter services received in Saint John would come from Sommerville.67 Strangely, in spite of the clear stand by Saint John, relations between the Irish synod and Clarke remained officially unbroken. The 1839 Missionary Report noted that “in the month of October last, at the beginning of November, Rev. William Sommerville visited St. Johns on his return from the United States, and preached two Sabbaths in

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the city … he reports favourably concerning the steadfastness, piety and zeal of the Covenanters” in that city.68 Sommerville again urged the Saint John Society to engage a missionary: the Society indicated it had tried, but without success. Clarke was not mentioned by name. From Ulster, some counsel was directed to “the missionaries in the colonies: the chief danger … arises from political partizanship; and their condition, exposed to numerous and powerful temptations, demands the sympathy, prayers and faithful counsel of the Church in these lands.”69 Sommerville attended the Irish synod in 1840. Cordially treated, he gave the synod “a lengthened and interesting account of the civil and ecclesiastical positions of the provinces, and of the progress of the Covenanted Testimony there.”70 In its 1840 report, the Missionary Society considered the pleas for help from Saint John, then Mr Sommerville’s situation, followed finally by Clarke’s.71 Unofficially, cracks were showing. Thomas Houston, a chief figure in the Missionary Society, wrote to Rev. James Renwick Willson in June of 1840. He was warm and enthusiastic about Sommerville, but critical of Clarke for two reasons: he had been conversing with New School leaders in the United States, and he had been involved in political matters. As Sommerville had previously noted, his “fellow labourer Clarke has been unhappily involved with Dr. Wylie’s politics, and has been intermeddling with electioneering affairs.”72 Houston went on to say that Sommerville and Clarke had not been acting together for some time.73 The Missionary Society and the synod received no further direct communications from Clarke. Sommerville was now seen as the chief missionary, together with his somewhat disgruntled fellow labourer. The New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery ceased to function. This situation altered significantly, however, with the arrival in Saint John of Rev. Alexander McLeod Stavely in August 1841. The Missionary Society seized the nettle and made the following recommendation to the synod: In relation to the state of our Mission in the Colonies, and with special [attention] to the difference, which has, for some time existed, between Rev. Messrs. Clarke and Sommerville, the



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Clerk of Synod is instructed to address to the Brethren there the following letters – viz. one to Rev. A. Clarke stating that he should declare to Rev. Messrs. Sommerville and Stavely, that he regards his conduct in the case, which had caused alienation of affection, as improper and that [it] is his determination not to give offence in the same way in future. A letter to Mr. Sommerville saying that this declaration ought to satisfy him; and one to Mr. Stavely, requesting him to use any influence he may have in effecting a reconciliation; that the Presbytery be resuscitated, and that in union and co‑ operation, they go forward in discharging the duties they owe to one another, to the Church in the Colonies, and to Jesus the Head of the Church. Should Mr. Clarke not comply, it is enjoined, that by the other two Brethren, the Presbytery [is] to be re‑organized.74 In May 1845, the presbytery was reorganized with Sommerville as moderator, Stavely as clerk.75 Stavely had written to Clarke but had received no reply. Then a letter arrived from Thomas Houston, Secretary of the Missionary Board, “directing presbytery to refer his case at once to Synod without taking anything more to do in this matter.”76 In Ulster, matters were moving toward Clarke’s suspension. Without using names, Houston made a distinction among clergy in the colonies. Some, he wrote, were “steadfast to the cause of our testimony” – Sommerville and Stavely were intended. But another “has evinced the disposition to follow the course of some who left us in this country [the schismatic Eastern Reformed Presbytery], and has not of late years been recognized as a missionary in connexion with the Synod” – Clarke is clearly the culprit.77 Glasgow put the final decision this way: Mr. Clarke had voted at some election in Nova Scotia,78 which he claimed was not contrary to the position of the church on civil relations, but failed to satisfy the requirements of the presbytery, absented himself from the meetings, and, in 1845, declined the authority of the court in the premises. His case was then referred to the supreme judicatory – the Synod of Ireland … Mr. Clarke having violated his church principles

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and ministerial vows, and having declined the authority of the presbytery and Synod, was formally suspended, and his name stricken from the roll October 14, 1847.79 Clarke and his Chignecto congregations joined the New School General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America.80 The break between Clarke and Sommerville was formalized, yet the door seems never finally to have been shut. In 1863, the distance was increased by a New School/Old School division that occurred in Scotland. Led by Sommerville and his colleagues, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery went on record as supporting and upholding the Old School in Scotland.81 At the same time, the presbytery further distanced itself from the New School in the United States and in Canada: “we cannot recognize as ministers of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, any minister of the New Light body in America, nor those who hold fellowship with them [in these Provinces].”82 In 1866, Sommerville published, in two parts, his most important work: A Dissertation on the Nature and Administration of the Ordination of Baptism.83 It was met with understandably strong opposition from Baptists and criticism from fellow Presbyterians. On the other hand, Alexander Clarke was unstinting in his praise: “Mr. Sommerville’s Dissertation on Baptism, is a masterly production of its kind. Of the numerous books which we have perused … we unhesitatingly pronounce it to be the book … A deeply interesting volume it is, to be the work of a Reformed Presbyterian. Some good may come out of Nazareth.”84 Sommerville exhibited marked esteem for Clarke in 1868 in his treatise The Social Position of Reformed Presbyterians or Cameronians.85 The body of the work is a sturdy statement of Covenanter distinctives, but Sommerville started with the situation in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He complained that other Presbyterians seemed to think that they had taken up what is good in the Covenanter position: the Covenanting Church, per se, was no longer necessary.86 Sommerville countered, using as an example the work and witness of Alexander Clarke. Cumberland County had been “twice entered and twice abandoned by the Presbyterians of that Province. Mr., now Dr., Clarke … enters, gathers, in toil and tribulation the



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scattered Presbyterians” of that county and the adjoining Westmorland County. Then, after Clarke had done the difficult work, “Presbyterians of the Lower Provinces are practically saying … ‘Our brother, Dr. Clarke, has served this generation well, and as to his continuing the Covenanting ministry any longer, in our presence, it is not necessary.’ We bear the same testimony for truth before the world as our Covenanting brethren.”87 Sommerville went on to expand his chief theme that Reformed Presbyterian principles were still valid, yes, de rigeur. Clarke’s ouster from the synod was inevitable. Nonetheless, how is his marked departure from Covenanter convictions to be explained? First, Clarke was quite isolated for the first few years, labouring intensely in a frontier situation, and his cries for assistance were unmet. Second, he found himself faced with a political situation in Cumberland in the 1830s that he could not ignore, even as it called into question his doctrinal allegiance. Third, Clarke was aware of the political upheaval within the American Covenanter church. As early as 1831, Sommerville complained that his older colleague was politically involved. This meant that Clarke was publically active in Cumberland political affairs. It also indicated that Clarke was knowledgable about and in correspondence with American New School Covenanters. This awareness opened to Clarke the possibility of remaining Reformed Presbyterian and exercising the electoral franchise. After Clarke voted in 1836, he was marginalized. Leadership devolved more and more on Sommerville, bolstered by the staunch orthodoxy of the Saint John community. Clarke, formally ousted by the Irish synod in October 1847, petitioned and was accepted in the American New School synod early in 1848.88 It was but the final, inevitable step of Clarke’s fateful exercise of the elective franchise in 1836. On the ground in Chignecto, many Covenanter practices continued, largely unaffected by the transfer. Chignecto sources insisted that the new American Synod “was exactly the same [as the Irish Synod] with the one exception that they allowed their members to vote.”89 However, that one exception opened the door to an accommodation with Nova Scotia practices. Would the opening lead Clarke’s Chignecto New School Covenanters to a more Canadianized Reformed Presbyterianism? On the other side, Rev. William Sommerville and the

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Saint John community held fast to their peculiar principles. Might their Old School pursuit result in a modus vivendi with the new world culture? To these questions we shall return.90 Clarke in Chignecto and Sommerville in the Annapolis Valley were powerful missionaries, able to build solid congregations that remained vital as long as their leaders maintained health and strength, leaving a lasting legacy in their respective regions. Both were aided by new missionaries and assistants. Sommerville’s younger colleagues were Alexander McLeod Stavely, James Reid Lawson, and Robert Miller Stewart. Their stories are told next. Sommerville also had an adjutant for a time – his own son, Robert McGowan Sommerville. And William had a successor, Thomas McFall. Their stories follow those of William Sommerville’s colleagues.

{3} Sommerville at Horton and Cornwallis When William Sommerville moved to Nova Scotia in 1833, his ministry received a fresh start. Fortunately the records of his Nova Scotian labours have been preserved.1 In the early 1830s, the Presbyterian congregations of both Cornwallis and Horton townships, Nova Scotia, were facing the same difficulty. Their beloved elderly minister, the Rev. William Forsyth, was “giving evidence of the decay of both bodily and mental vigour necessary to the efficient discharge of ministerial functions.”2 They needed another minister who would at least assist the ailing Forsyth. A small group from the Horton and Cornwallis congregations met to discuss the matter, and Elihu Woodworth of Horton became their spokesperson. They probably knew of Sommerville because he had visited the area in the summer of 1832.3 On 30 October 1832, Woodworth wrote to Sommerville that the committee had heard that he “might be prevailed upon to labour” in the Horton-Cornwallis area of “the vineyard of the Lord.”4 The committee had to be clear about two delicate matters. First, it was important to secure Forsyth’s consent. Forsyth assured the members that he was quite willing to work “in harmony with the Revd. Mr. Sommerville or any other pious Presbyterian Minister who held to the central doctrines of faith and practice of the Church of Scotland.” Second, “both the Horton and Cornwallis congregations make use of Watts version of David[’s] Psalms and the Paraphrases connected thereto and [we want] to know [if] you would have any objections to the same?”5 The matter of Watts’s Psalms was a bone of contention in both congregations, but particularly in Cornwallis.6 When Sommerville was asked, “Are you in essential harmony with the doctrine, faith and practice of the Church of Scotland?” he could answer in all good conscience, “To the doctrines and practice of the Church of Scotland, as they are exhibited in her Standards, I was

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Map 2  Reformed Presbyterians in Nova Scotia

attached by education, conviction and ordination.”7 Sommerville’s response to the second question, however, was slightly more ambiguous. Recalling the Covenanter conviction that Psalms only shall be sung in public worship, Sommerville replied, “With their present practice I would not rudely interfere; that I could not compromise a religious obligation for the sake of any situation; that in the event of a removal to Horton, I should bring the matter immediately before them; and that I was disposed to believe them willing with promptitude to choose the better part, having it brought under their notice.”8 The Horton congregation responded enthusiastically and commissioned Woodworth to “direct a call” to Sommerville. Although the Cornwallis congregation “seemed highly pleased to think there was a prospect of your coming to labour in this part of the vineyard of the Lord,” it stated that it “would not be wanting another pastor.”9 Horton would have to proceed on its own. It negotiated cautiously with Sommerville, calling him for one half of his time and for one year



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only.10 For this, Sommerville was promised “40 pounds currency, with a free house and garden.”11 On 21 January 1833, Sommerville accepted the terms.12 Sommerville held his first worship service in Horton Township on 12 May 1833, in the meeting house on Kirk Hill, Grand Pré, known today as the Covenanter Church. True to his word, Sommerville spoke against the use of “uninspired hymns.” He explained that they “might be regarded as a version of [Hymns or] Scripture Songs, and as such I used them [only] till the subject was brought under their particular consideration.”13 In the remainder of his sermon, Sommerville made his case: in public worship only the Psalms were appropriate. But he did not stop there: “Proceeding from house to house, and conversing with the people on the subject, all manifested a willingness to have the Psalms of David introduced, provided it might be done unanimously, and without alienating the affections of one from another.”14 After obtaining their individual consent, he produced the decision in a written statement, and then a second time he “proceeded from house to house,” requesting signatures. “None refused to sign.”15 Sommerville’s mission had been accomplished. That Sommerville was successful is demonstrated by the fact that on 18 March 1834, some fourteen months after he had initially agreed to preach for them for a year, Elihu Woodworth and others at Horton wrote to Sommerville: we “earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pastoral office in said congregation, for the one half part of your Ministerial labours … continuing [as] the regular pastor.”16 This relationship was severed only by Sommerville’s death. And the Cornwallis congregation, which had withdrawn from the original negotiations, issued an invitation to Sommerville in a letter dated 20 January 1834. We “do sincerely request that you would condescend to pay us a visit … and supply us with Sermon a few times in the present season.”17 By May of 1835, the somewhat casual relationship solidified: “[We] heartily call and entreat you to undertake the office of a Pastor among us … [We look forward to] enjoying your ministerial labours the fourth of your time … and continuing [as] our regular pastor.”18 That relationship, too, endured until Sommerville’s death. Although Horton was the first to call Sommerville, by the early 1840s, Cornwallis replaced Horton and Grand Pré as the central focus of Sommerville’s activity.

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A new church was built in West Cornwallis in 1842–43, and a new congregation was constituted, a matter to which we shall later return. One early incident casts a shadow on Sommerville’s success. “Mr. Forsyth was dispensing the sacrament in the Old Church of Cornwallis. Mr. Sommerville was present.” Samuel Beckwith continues: “He was sitting in the same pew with me. When I handed the bread to Mr. Sommerville he passed it on without partaking of it … After the communion service, Mr. Sommerville preached … There was some excitement among the members of the Church on account of Mr. Sommerville not having communed.”19 “Some members, unable to accept Sommerville’s dictatorial attitude and strict adherence to the Scriptures, left the church and met in peoples homes.”20 Of course, Sommmerville was aware of this: “The [continuing] Presbyterian congregation in Horton … still continues to use Watts Psalms.”21 Sommerville had journeyed to Horton on his own, leaving his wife behind in Cumberland with her parents, and on the 28th of June, their first child, daughter Martha Dickey Sommerville, was born.22 Sarah and the baby joined William at Horton in August 1833.23 Sommerville and Sarah Barry Dickey had a family of ten children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. Sarah died on 11 February 1853, leaving several small children. Sommerville subsequently married a widow, Jane Caldwell Woodworth. They had four children; two of them reached adulthood.24 In 1845, the family moved to Woodville in West Cornwallis; Horton was in East Cornwallis. In 1856, they moved again, this time to Somerset, their final dwelling place. The family burial ground is located in the churchyard of the West Cornwallis Reformed Presbyterian Church at Grafton.25 Sommerville used homes and schools for his many missionary journeys outside the meeting house in Horton, but by 1841 many felt that “the erection of a House for the Worship of God in the Western district of Cornwallis … is much needed,” and contributions were subscribed.26 The building proceeded as funds and materials became available, and the process was slow, for unlike Clarke and Stavely, Sommerville never embarked on preaching tours in the United States to raise funds. In November 1844, Sommerville “first conducted the Lord’s Supper in the church”27 although, according to tradition, “the Cornwallis church was built during 1842 and 1843.”28



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Cornwallis Reformed Presbyterian Church, Grafton, ns

The congregation wanted a valid recognition of its existence and a legal title to the possession of its property, and at a meeting in mid1842, matters were advanced. Even though this gathering dealt with land possession and associated legalities, several Covenanter terms or principles were enunciated and approved by those present.29 A half year later, a fully coherent Covenanter statement was drawn up.30 Sommerville and twenty-eight other men signed and subscribed to the agreement and declaration on 9 January 1843. The Cornwallis congregation renewed their agreement on 6 November 1849 and 19 November 1850.31 This declaration with its two renewals in Cornwallis seems to be the closest Canadian parallel, in the Maritime provinces, to a formal renewing of the Covenants. Sommerville was an incessant evangelist and a peripatetic missionary: “At the time Sommerville entered Nova Scotia, he was encompassed with difficulties of no ordinary kind, which nothing but heroic resolution and sustained energy of mind and body could enable him to meet and overcome.” Nonetheless, “his abilities as a powerful evangelical preacher, and a resolute defender of Scripture doctrine, his manly genial spirit and warmhearted benevolence won for him, in

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a short time, general esteem, and attracted considerable numbers in various parts of the Province to embrace the cause which he advocated.”32 The society or fellowship meeting early organized in Horton afforded Sommerville the opportunity to officiate in other venues, and he “reached out in every direction, travelling over rough roads, through sparsely settled districts, and into destitute localities on the mountains, in search of souls and preaching everywhere the gospel of the Kingdom.”33 Despite interminable travel, preaching, and catechizing, Sommerville could not sustain himself and his family by ministerial work alone. He was scrupulous about accepting money: “I do not like to see a man coming with the Bible in one hand, and the other stretched out to receive something; do not care to imitate the example, and receive as a pauper what should come from the love of God.” So Sommerville discouraged pew rentals, donation visits, and the like. Nor did he embark on fundraising tours. He preferred receiving support “from church members, and the gratuitous liberality of a very few individuals.”34 His principled approach to finances meant that he could not maintain his family on the stipend from the Irish Missionary Society and the givings of his congregants. Sommerville became a school teacher. “During his residence in Horton, Woodville and Somerset, until the adoption of the school law in 1864, during the winter months, Sommerville taught.”35 Further, “pupils came from all parts of Kings County, as well as from Colchester and other counties. For most of the time this school was the main support of his family.”36 One commentator noted that Sommerville “possesses the happy faculty of enforcing strict discipline without severity, and of exciting in his pupils an ardent love of study while he secures their love and respect by his uniform consistency, impartiality and kindness.”37 Sommerville was also a controversialist, a pamphleteer. He published ten or twelve books and pamphlets. Most of these focussed on central Covenanter convictions: the Psalms, baptism, and the churchstate relationship. He kept up a voluminous correspondence with colleagues in Canada, the United States, Ireland, and Scotland. An avid reader of the Presbyterian Witness, he wrote many articles and letters for that paper. He was a formidable opponent. “Not infrequently, when other denominations felt the need of some one to defend the



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truth against false teachers who had crept in among them, Mr. Sommerville would be invited to act as the champion.”38 One of Sommerville’s writings was unique among Canadian Covenanters – his Southern Slavery not founded on Scripture Warrant, delivered as a lecture in Horton and later published.39 It was occasioned by “the civil war now unhappily raging in the United States.”40 Slavery had been common among the New England Planter founders of Cornwallis and Horton townships, and although it had been abolished by the British Parliament in 1834, Sommerville felt that “a growing indifference to the evil of slavery appears in many parts of these Provinces.” He argued that modern slavery was far worse than the benign system of the ancient Hebrews. However, the pamphlet had little impact on the discussion of slavery in either the Lower Provinces or Upper Canada.41 In the mid-1850s, Sommerville launched another ambitious project – to add land to the property of the West Cornwallis church. The venture was based on a will drawn up by Elkanah Morton in 1819. Morton died in 1824. He had been a devout Church of Scotland member and elder, and a Justice of the Peace. When he died, there was no Presbyterian church in West Cornwallis: Presbyterian church members residing there communed with the church in East Cornwallis. William Forsyth, a Church of Scotland minister in East Cornwallis, had occasionally officiated in West Cornwallis, and Elkanah Morton was one of Forsyth’s congregants. In his will, Morton devised certain lands in trust “for the benefit of a Protestant Orthodox Minister, duly authorised, as also for the building thereon a house for the public worship of Almighty God, a parsonage house, a school house, and burying ground for the use of the inhabitants of the Western part of the township of Cornwallis, whenever there may be a sufficient number united in the promotion of the public worship of God in that quarter.”42 In the 1850s, the trustees of the Elkanah Morton estate were three of his grandsons: Holmes Morton, Samuel Beckwith, and Elkanah Morton. It was to these three trustees that William Sommerville addressed a letter, 11 December 1856, putting himself forward as the rightful inheritor. Sommerville stated that he was a Protestant Orthodox minister “adhering to the doctrines set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith,” ordained and settled in the western part of Cornwallis,

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installed over a duly incorporated congregation, the only congregation in that specific area. He considered himself “entitled to the benefit of the said lands … according to the true construction and meaning of said will.”43 The defendants did not immediately accede to Sommerville’s request, and between the time Sommerville wrote his December 1856 letter and the case was heard and judgment rendered in 1861, there were three significant occurrences. First, the Reformed Presbyterian Church was no longer the sole Presbyterian congregation in West Cornwallis. There was also a Free Church congregation,44 place of worship, and clergy.45 Second, “The [Morton] Trustees made a declaration of trust in favour of the Free Church … They thought it would be more in accordance with the intentions of the testator [Morton] than to declare the trust in favour of Mr. Sommerville.”46 Finally, “the Free Church [who] have now a resident Minister [and congregation] in West Cornwallis claim the land as rightfully belonging to them.”47 Sommerville, the plaintiff, insisted that “he was first settled, that he [was] as much a Presbyterian as a Minister of the Free Church … and the recent declaration of the trustees in favour of the Free Church, was an injury to himself and his congregation.” The Court was called to redress this situation.48 Late in 1859 and early 1860, depositions were taken from those who spoke for the defendants – Holmes Morton, Samuel Morton, and Elkanah Morton – and those who spoke for the plaintiff. Sommerville was not deposed – his original letter put forward his case – but several persons were deposed on his behalf, though none were Covenanter session members. Nor is there any record of the matter being discussed in the Cornwallis session or in presbytery. Might there have been an alternative to going to court to settle the matter? Stephen Burgess, deposing for Sommerville, attested: “Mr. Holmes, one of the Trustees told me that Mr. Sommerville’s people wanted to leave the matter in dispute to arbitration but he said there was nothing to leave to arbitration, for they had no claim.”49 The project was Sommerville’s and his alone. The judgment came down in 1861. The court readily granted that Sommerville’s church was the first Presbyterian church in West Corn- wallis. It was further readily granted that the Covenanters were loyal



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citizens.50 Nevertheless, on at least two other grounds the Covenanter position differed from the original testator, Elkanah Morton, on the one hand, and the contemporary opposing claimant, the Free Church, on the other. First, a Covenanter could not consistently hold a civil office under the government, nor be a magistrate, nor vote at elections. Yet the testator, Elkanah Morton had been a Justice of the Peace, and Free Church members were free to hold such positions. Second, Covenanters could not swear an oath of allegiance. The testator was a major in the militia, and therefore had sworn allegiance to the crown. Again, Free Church members could make such oaths.51 And there was another, even greater factor. Elkanah Morton had been an elder in Forsyth’s church when Forsyth was the minister of both East and West Cornwallis Presbyterians; Morton had communed when Forsyth officiated. “The plaintiff himself admits that on the occasion of the first communion held … after his arrival in Cornwallis, he declined communicating, and still avows he would not communicate with the Established Church of Scotland.”52 The case for the plaintiff was lost.53 Sommerville’s project was decidedly unsuccessful. The Free Church had the land, and each party was to pay its own costs. In the only public statement about the situation, the Reformed Presbytery, with Sommerville as moderator, put the best possible face on the situation in its report to the Irish synod: “A suit at law with the Free Church in reference to Glebe land, has led to a more general acquaintance with our peculiar principles.”54 On 16 October 1861, Sommerville was much gratified by the ordination of his son Robert as “assistant and successor to his father the Rev. W. Sommerville, in the united Congregation of Horton and West Cornwallis.”55 The gratification was not to be permanent; the account of Robert’s education in Nova Scotia and Ulster, his ordination and subsequent career in Cornwallis and beyond, is narrated in chapter 7. How is William Sommerville to be assessed? At the outset of his ministry in the new world, he was subordinate to Alexander Clarke. Beginning in 1836 and particularly after the expulsion of Clarke in 1847, Sommerville was the dominant figure in the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He may well be the most significant figure in the Covenanter movement in the Maritimes.

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Part of his legacy was carried on through his son-in-law, John Burgess Calkin, who incarnated the Covenanter concern for education and transmitted that legacy into the Nova Scotia educational system.56 Sommerville was highly intelligent, able, devout, and stubborn. Increasingly the chief missionary in the region, he was utterly convinced of the truth of the mission. He was certain that the Ulster mission was to be implanted, on its own terms, in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In his History of Kings County, Arthur Eaton observed, “Mr. Sommerville’s was one of the strongest personalities the county has ever known. He was kind and genial in private intercourse, but in matters of doctrine he was as inflexible as iron.”57 A non-Covenanter Presbyterian assessment just after his death stated, Mr. Sommerville belonged to … the Covenanters, and never concealed for a moment what he was. A more conscientious man never breathed. The man who differed from him, and who was manly enough to defend his position, was a man whom Mr. Sommerville respected, but he despised the man who differed, and who, for the sake of peace, would not stand up for his difference. He was a fearless controversialist; it seemed to be meat and drink to him to meet a man with whom he could measure swords. His pen was seldom at rest, sometimes in the newspapers, sometimes in a pamphlet, sometimes in the bound volume … At the same time he was an eminent preacher of the truth as it is in Jesus. He was a sound scholar and was apt in illustration. His removal leaves a large gap, for he was a leader of men; and one of the pioneers of the Province … Of the departed father it may be said, as emphatically as Morton said of Knox, that “he never feared the face of man.”58 Sommerville’s character had a darker side. His close colleague and friend Alexander McLeod Stavely noted that “public discussions in which he had occasion to engage were conducted on rather a severe and forcible style, not always … agreeable to his opponents.”59 Watson Kirkconnell described Sommerville as “militant … stubborn … a merciless sectarian.”60 Being headstrong, Sommerville acted resolutely, but often alone. He took no other counsel than his own.



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Sommerville’s soul was centred in Christ and the Church. His heart and mind were focused on Christ’s Crown and Kingdom. In his early days at Horton and West Cornwallis, Sommerville carved out a strong community in a pre-eminently Baptist region. That community sustained itself, even though the impact of the Free Church in the 1840s and 1850s greatly slowed its advance. John Caldwell, who deposed for Sommerville, testified, “I sometimes attended Mr. Sommerville’s preaching, before Mr. McKay’s [Free Church] ministry [came].”61 Sommerville’s headstrong and unsuccessful lawsuit, pursued without session input or support, did not advance the Covenanter cause. Sommerville was unwilling and unable to listen to voices other than his own. The ardour of Sommerville is unquestioned, though not his judgment. Sommerville’s later determined and resolute stand on baptism policy had multiple results, as we shall see. That stand affected his congregants and colleagues, his status in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, his relationship with his own son, Robert, and his successor, Thomas McFall. His stubbornness and absolute certainty blocked out other, more conciliatory voices, sometimes to the detriment of the cause he sought to serve. Sommerville remained in Nova Scotia. Throughout his career, invitations came from elsewhere, notably the United States. His American colleague James Renwick Willson wrote him many times urging him to leave.62 Family tradition holds that he was offered an honorary degree, which he refused.63 Son Robert Sommerville wrote that efforts were made to persuade him to become a candidate for the presidency of Dalhousie College, Halifax, NS. William Sommerville rebuffed these efforts.64 He ended his days quietly in Somerset, Nova Scotia. His influence on the Covenanter movement in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia was pronounced when he was alive. That influence will be evident in the discussion of his three missionary colleagues – Alexander McLeod Stavely, James Reid Lawson, and Robert Miller Stewart. His decisions and actions come more fully to the fore when the career of his son Robert Sommerville is outlined, and their consequences are seen in the story of Sommerville’s Cornwallis successor, Thomas McFall.

{4} Alexander Mc Leod Stavely and Saint John Saint John loomed large in the thinking of the Irish Reformed Presbyterian Synod and its Missionary Society. It was from Saint John that the earliest Covenanter cries for assistance had emanated, and the brothers Willson had written from that city after their visit in 1821. The Missionary Society had hoped Alexander Clarke might locate there. When this did not happen, they sent Sommerville, but he did not settle in the city either. Covenanters had lived in Saint John for some time. St Andrew’s was the earliest Presbyterian congregation in the port city; their church had been built in 1815. Covenanter layman Robert Ewing related that in the St Andrew’s congregation, “there were a number of families from the province of Ulster, in Ireland, which made up probably onethird of the whole congregation. Among the latter members were a few families of Covenanters, who, although worshipping in Saint Andrew’s, had never entered her communion.”1 Undoubtedly these were the people about whom the brothers Willson wrote to the Irish and Scottish synods after organizing them into a society. This group welcomed Alexander Clarke when he arrived in 1827: Clarke preached to them for short time before leaving. In spite of his departure, steps were taken to reorganize the society. “This was done, and for a few years pending the erection of a Covenanter church, services were conducted at the house of one, Mr. Ritchie … Here meetings were conducted regularly each week, with preaching services at intervals whenever missionaries of this church visited the city.”2 Sommerville arrived in 1831 but he, too, soon left the city. After that, both Clarke and Sommerville visited the society in Saint John only occasionally. By 1832, the membership of the Saint John community had increased to forty-five, and the society took steps toward erecting a church building. They secured a lot on the west side of Wentworth Street, between Queen and St James streets. By 1835, a church was



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built, and Clarke officiated at its opening. As already noted, some mistakenly saw Clarke as the resident Covenanter minister, but Clarke himself wrote that “measures have been adopted to bring out a talented minister from the old country to keep the house … open.”3 It took time for the measures to be adopted; not until 1841 did Alexander McLeod Stavely arrive to fill the position. Before Stavely’s arrival, the little church “enjoyed a large measure of spiritual life and energy, and all felt the blessing and good will of Him who dwelt in the bush.”4 Ewing wrote, There was only one family in the church engaged in the sale of spirituous liquors. Although they were spoken to by the elders and other members respecting the immorality of the traffic, they persisted in it. Their plea was that in the other Presbyterian churches the members were allowed to sell liquors, and why should not they? The contention continued for some time. At length the more zealous members were determined to carry their point, if possible. A strong, outspoken document was drawn up, in which was contained a resolution that no one, man or woman, master or servant, should be recognized as a member of the church who followed the practice of selling intoxicating liquors to be used as a common beverage. A meeting of the whole church was held for the purpose of formally deciding the question. After having been fully discussed and put to the vote, the measure was carried by a large majority. The parties engaged in the traffic departed in great displeasure, declaring that they would leave and have no more to do with such a people. They repented, however, came back and continued, as before, worthy members of the church. “So,” Ewing concluded, “the Reformed Presbyterian has the honour of being the first Presbyterian church in St. John to cast out and still to keep out all tavern keepers to this day.”5 Though small, the church was feisty and determined to be truly Covenanter. The colours of the community were in full bloom when, in 1836, it became known that clergyman Clarke had voted in a Nova Scotia election. Immediately alarmed, the society made clear that it would

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Rev. Alexander McLeod Stavely

have no more dealings with him. The Saint John community was resolute, rebuffing all attempts at explanation or interpretation. Rev. Clarke had opened the new Saint John church; the doors of that church were now closed to him. Saint John renewed its search for its own minister. Petitions to obtain a minister were sent to the Missionary Society in Ulster in 1836 and in subsequent years, and each time the synod appealed for a missionary – all to no avail. At last, late in 1840 or early in 1841, “Mr. Alexander McLeod Stavely, to whom application had previously been made, in common with other licentiates, in the most generous and devoted spirit, tendered his services to the Board for the mission” in Saint John.6 After communicating further with the congregation, the missionary society felt that “they had the clear call of Divine Providence to go forward.”7 Alexander Stavely was born in Corkey, county Antrim, 19 June 1816, the fourth child (of nine) of Rev. Dr William John Stavely and



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Jane Adams. The boy’s grandfather was “the Apostle of the Covenanters,” William Stavely, a churchman who was influential in the development of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland and who had spent time in prison because of his stance and courage in the 1798 Rebellion.8 Alexander McLeod Stavely was thus “the son and grandson of two of the most distinguished divines in the mother country.”9 Stavely was educated first by his father, then at an academy in Belfast.10 Thence Stavely attended Edinburgh University,11 enjoying the instruction of Thomas Chalmers in theology.12 Attending the Divinity Hall at Paisley, Stavely received instruction from the greatly beloved Dr Andrew Symington.13 Licensed in 1837,14 Stavely itinerated in different congregations in Ulster and in Manchester, England. Then he offered himself to the Missionary Society. Irish young men and women frequently emigrated to the new world: William, an older Stavely brother, and Jane, a sister, had already gone to America.15 When Alexander Stavely proffered, the missionary society was initially cautious. But Stavely was resolute, and the Missionary Board, once assured of a good ministry for Stavely, “requested the Northern Reformed Presbytery to ordain Mr. Stavely.”16 At the service, the formula for ordination was proposed by the ordinand’s father, Rev. Dr William John Stavely who, “in a very affecting manner, ordained the candidate to the office of the ministry, and the pastoral charge of the Missionary Station” in Saint John. The public services were concluded by Thomas Houston “preaching a discourse on the nature, obligations, and encouragements of the missionary undertaking.” Afterwards, Stavely subscribed the formula in the presence of the presbytery.17 Late in June Stavely sailed from Greenock by the merchant ship Eagle. He reached Saint John on 3 August.18 Compared to Clarke and Sommerville, Stavely’s ministry was carried on against an urban backdrop. Saint John’s Loyalist past was being confronted and challenged by thousands of Irish and Scots immigrants. Saint John became the province’s leading industrial centre during the nineteenth century, fostering a “wood, wind and sail” economy of shipbuilding. On arriving, Stavely received a cordial welcome19 and went to work immediately, holding services on the morning and afternoon of 8 August.20 Stavely was a diligent pastor, a fine preacher, and an assiduous worker. The Covenanter cause flourished. Although the house of wor-

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ship was situated in a remote part of the city, attendance was encouraging. Many Presbyterians from the North of Ireland, attracted by the young preacher’s fresh presentation of the truth, worshipped there at least part of each Sabbath and contributed liberally for the support of ordinances. This was a community that had prayed for Stavely’s arrival, and doors were open to him. “By the ministers and people of other sections of the Church in New Brunswick, he has been welcomed as a fellow-labourer.”21 Small wonder that the Saint John society was formally organized as a congregation in the same year that Stavely arrived, 1841.22 Within the Covenanter community, “the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper has been dispensed in the congregation … Mr. Sommerville assisting in the administration. Eighteen new members were added to the fellowship of the Church and forty-one or forty-two communicated.”23 To the Missionary Society Stavely wrote “that the demands upon his services, at various stations throughout the Province, are so numerous that he is unable to meet them as he could wish,” and he urged that the society send another missionary.24 Due to Stavely’s determined efforts, the cause in Saint John grew stronger. He wrote that “a number of promising young persons attend the Sabbath School, fellowship meetings, and public worship. Of these and others, eighteen persons were lately added to the membership of the Church. The number of children attending the Sabbath School exceeds sixty.” In addition, Stavely related that he “gives instruction to two classes of coloured scholars, children and adults. There is a monthly meeting of the teachers for prayer and Christian conversation, on the best method of communicating religious instruction.”25 A year later, “at the administration of the Lord’s Supper, the number of communicants amounted to seventy-nine, which was three times the number that were in actual fellowship at the time of Mr. Stavely’s landing in the province” despite the fact “that the congregation has suffered somewhat from emigration.”26 Stavely exercised his ministry both within and beyond his own congregation. As early as 1841, he was a mainstay in the New Brunswick Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.27 Together with Covenanter layman John Boyd, he was instrumental in forming the Saint John Reformed Presbyterian Missionary Society in 1846.



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This was intended to be an auxiliary to the Irish Missionary Society.28 Stavely early indicated an openness to other Presbyterians, and he co-operated with Presbyterian colleagues.29 Stavely even welcomed Alexander Clarke, the New School clergyman in Amherst, who had been rebuffed in the mid-1830s. Whereas Sommerville kept a careful professional distance between himself and his one-time colleague, Stavely’s pulpit was open to him several times over the years.30 Stavely frequently requested assistance, but for several years the Irish Missionary Society saw no way to fulfil his petitions. Eventually two new labourers arrived. James Reid Lawson came in 1845; after some itinerating, he was called to South Stream, New Brunswick.31 And in 1849, Robert Stewart arrived, eventually settling in Wilmot, Nova Scotia.32 Both came through Saint John where Stavely welcomed them, used them in services of his own congregation33 and helped in their final settlement. Stavely’s witness seemed eminently successful in Saint John, but early in his career he began travelling away from the city, frequently on fundraising journeys south of the border. For instance, in 1845, when the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia was reconstituted (after a seven-year hiatus), it was resolved that “it is judged necessary that Mr. Stavely should proceed to the United States to seek the assistance of the brethren, in liquidating a debt pressing heavily on the St. John congregation.”34 Again in October 1847, and with the agreement and support of presbytery,35 Stavely left Saint John, travelling overseas to Ulster, remaining there until March 1848. Stavely saw family and friends, addressed the Irish Missionary Society, preached in various congregations, and received a number of collections.36 By the late 1840s, the Saint John Covenanters had outgrown their house of worship. Stavely’s fundraising efforts had completely cleared away the debt on the meeting house. A self-confident and proud congregation wanted a new church. At Saint John, a pro re nata meeting of the presbytery was held in late November 1849. “The congregation of St. John having stated the inconveniences to which they were subjected by the present position of their place of worship” presented plans and arrangements “which they had made for the erection of a church in a more suitable locality with the view of thereby furthering

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the cause of Christ in this rising city.” The presbytery duly sanctioned the plan and authorized Stavely “to proceed to the United States to solicit assistance in the prosecution of this object.”37 Toward the end of his journey, in April 1850, Stavely wrote to a sister in Ulster, giving some details of the excursion that included travel to Baltimore, Washington, Wilmington, Charleston, Augusta, and Atlanta.38 He confided to her, “I have been employed every Sabbath, and generally speaking, once or twice every week in preaching … The country is very fine & its inhabitants are an accomplished people possessing in an eminent degree the comforts and conveniences of life.” As to his present task, “I feel that I have done all in my power to raise funds & hope to make the people nearly £400 the less in debt by my absence.”39 “On Sabbath, the 10th of Nov. [1850] the new church recently built by the Reformed Presbyterians of St. John, N.B. was opened for public worship.” It was “a handsome and elegant church, capable of accommodating some 550 to 600 people, with a capacious school room in the basement, and a manse in the rear … The whole reflects the highest credit on the taste and talent of the architect.”40 The church was uncharacteristically large and stylish. As historian David M. Carson indicates, “both theology and finance dictated that [Covenanter] church buildings should be simple … In cities, the influence of the environment exerted pressure for larger and handsomer church buildings.” Carson illustrates this by the “handsome and elegant” new church in Saint John.41 But the beautiful structure was to burden Stavely and the congregation. The church was by no means debt free. The congregation received a “special COLLECTION … after each service,”42 and the directors of the Irish Missionary Society requested contributions from congregations in that country. This latter scheme, however, fell short, and “the whole sum remitted amounted only to about £11.”43 Nonetheless, in Saint John, “the congregation, having erected a new place of worship, in a more eligible locality … the advantages of the change have become apparent by the increased number of regular worshippers.”44 For a time, all seemed well. With the new church built, Stavely’s story turns to personal matters. On 21 April 1852, he married Margaret Cameron, daughter of



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Ewen Cameron of Saint John, a descendant of the Camerons of Inverness. The Camerons were of United Empire Loyalist stock. J.R. Lawson performed the marriage ceremony.45 To the Stavelys were born three daughters, only one of whom was to outlive her parents.46 Margaret Cameron Stavely was a worthy helpmate. “During her life … she often had to face peril, and whether amid the horrors of cholera … or in the midst of a burning city, she always showed the utmost heroism and composure, so strong was her trust … Kindly and generous, she loved the poor. Her vitality and vigour were indeed amazing and blessed with a buoyant disposition, she never was known to be downcast.”47 The middle years of Stavely’s career were marked by unceasing efforts in Saint John and beyond. He was assisted at communion seasons by visits from one of his three co-presbyters – Sommerville, Lawson, and Stewart – and he assisted them in return. Stavely co-operated with the three in widespread missionary endeavours in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and his visits included Littleton in Maine.48 Of particular concern to Stavely was the small mission station of Millstream/Queensville.49 “In March, 1845, Mr. Stavely visited the head of Mill Stream, (Queensville) N.B., some sixty miles northeast of St. John, and preached and baptized six children. In October, 1847, he returned and organized a society by ordaining Robert Elder a ruling elder.”50 In February 1855, Covenanters from Millstream journeyed to Saint John. Stavely was overjoyed: “We have enjoyed a peculiarly comfortable [communion] season … On last Sunday morning, some of our friends arrived from Millstream, a settlement some sixty miles distant … They left on Friday, and journeyed all night without tarrying, that they might be present with us in good time … To undertake such a journey in the depth of a New Brunswick winter was trying to flesh and blood; but they did not think it too much for the privilege of uniting with their brethren in communicating at a sacramental table.” After Sabbath and Monday services, “on Tuesday morning they left for their home in the wilderness, when the thermometer indicated 26 degrees below zero.” Stavely noted further that “at Millstream, where they have a very large society, and a good Sabbath-school, conducted by its members, there is an effort being made to erect a house of wor-

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ship. A considerable sum has been already subscribed, and the building will shortly be proceeded with. The winter season is peculiarly adapted for ‘hauling’ logs and timber, as is the spring for proceeding with the work.”51 Four years after their trek to Saint John, in 1859, the Covenanters of Millstream/Queensville had their own new church. “A new and commodious House of Worship, in connexion with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, lately erected at MILLSTREAM, was opened for religious services … The Rev. A.M. Stavely preached in the morning at eleven, and in the evening at six o’clock.” In spite of unfavourable weather, “the attendance at the opening services was numerous and respectable. Some persons were present from a distance of twenty miles. The administration of the ordinance of baptism to ‘the infants of such as are of the visible Church,’ gave an additional interest to the pleasant, and, profitable exercises of the day.”52 The backless benches in the simple, rustic church were “planed planks two inches thick and varied in length from 6 ft. to 8 ft. to 10 ft. These seats were 16 inches wide.”53 Stavely was a solid and studious preacher. He was not given to confrontation or controversy, nor was he a marked author or pamphleteer, although some of his addresses to the New Brunswick Auxiliary of the Bible Society were subsequently published,54 as were some of his sermons.55 He was pre-eminently a pastor. The Stavely home was marked by generous and welcoming hospitality. Its seaport location meant that it was visited by many, from both the old world and the new. The urbane Stavely was a gracious host who never lacked companionship. On one occasion Stavely’s wife was to be absent: “Our town will feel lonely during Margaret’s long absence, although it is not likely that we will be much of the time without some visitors.”56 Stavely’s hopes for an expanding Covenanter movement in New Brunswick never materialized. For one thing, there were frequent demands to meet the needs of small societies and congregations in the province. Pleas for more missionaries were not met, with the result that there were insufficient clergy to make solid Covenanter inroads in remoter areas. The proud Saint John community had built a great church, casting the not altogether unwilling Stavely into the role of peripatetic fundraiser.



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Saint John Reformed Presbyterian Church, Saint John, nb

More ominous for the Covenanter cause, the Great Disruption in Scotland in 1843 led to the formation of the Free Church, which engaged in vigorous missionary efforts in the new world.57 In New Brunswick, it took some time for the Free Church to show marked progress; yet its steady intrusion severely curtailed any Covenanter expansion. Some Covenanters were lost to the Free Church. Layman John Boyd was active in congregation and presbytery in the 1840s. Because of expanding responsibilities in public life, and finding himself in conflict because of Covenanter state-church convictions, Boyd left the Covenanters and became a member of St David’s Free Church.58 Union of some Presbyterian bodies in 1860 further crowded the Covenanters. Some Covenanters – for example, Saint John poet Letitia Simson – remained loyal in spite of union blandishments.59

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Nevertheless, the Covenanter cause was no longer growing, though for the greater part of Stavely’s ministry in Saint John, membership was maintained. The debt on the fashionable and elegant 1850 church building was a constant burden. Eighteen years after its opening, indebtedness remained; efforts were still being made to remove it, and the lingering debt prohibited the congregation from making contributions to the Irish Covenanter missionary schemes.60 Again Stavely embarked on a fundraising tour; his travels included New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allegheny, and Boston. At last the church building was free from debt.61 Stavely had a caveat however; though the debt was paid off, “some extensive repairs are contemplated this summer, and a fresh demand on the well-tried benevolence of our friends will be necessary to pay for these.”62 Indeed, “in 1870, at a cost of $2,000, the basement of the church was excavated, and a fine new hall for general purposes was made.” The even tenor of Stavely’s ministry was very rudely interrupted and irrevocably changed by the Great Fire of Saint John, 20–21 June 1877. A few days after the disaster, Stavely, writing to Ulster Covenanters, struggled to describe the situation. Words [which] I can at present write will give you only a very faint idea of what it is to see a large and prosperous city laid in ruins, and chimneys innumerable, like scathed trees of the forest, standing where lately stood edifices of the greatest architectural beauty and grandeur … Only think of several hundred acres, on which a few days ago stood the fairest and most beautiful portion of the commercial metropolis of this province – with its churches, colleges, academies of art, warehouses, factories, halls, hotels, banks, palatial residences, indeed all its principal and most admired public and private buildings – now a smouldering heap of ruins.63 Stavely recalled the conflagration at its height. “With fire to the right of us, fire to the left of us, fire indeed everywhere around, and men as well as horses frenzied with uproar and excitement, and the flames of the conflagration bursting forth like a flood of vengeance in every



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direction, we could save very little indeed, and at the same time save what we most valued, and what very many in the indefatigable but vain efforts to rescue property from destruction, did not save, our lives.” Twelve churches were consumed by flames. Among them “the beautiful house, in which for twenty-seven years we worshipped the God of our fathers, has been completely destroyed. Yes, ‘the Reformed Presbyterian Church,’ so called in the City of St. John, is no more!” As to the congregants, Stavely wrote that “many of them passed through the fire and lost their all. From comfortable if not affluent circumstances, they have been, in a few hours, reduced to a state of dependence and want.”64 “By the fire Mr. Stavely loses heavily, and his library, the accumulation of many years, was destroyed.”65 At the time he wrote, Stavely was not certain that the Covenanter community could survive. They hoped, of course, for a new church, “but unless our long-tried friends in the United States and the fatherland, come nobly and generously to our help, we can do comparatively little, indeed, almost nothing.”66 The Presbyterian Witness announced that “The Reformed Presbyterian Church of St. John is not to be rebuilt.”67 The immediate basic physical needs of persons had to be met, and Stavely wrote to the lieutenant governor, asking for funds from the public purse for a number of families left absolutely bereft by the fire.68 Buoyed by support from members and friends, the congregation decided to rebuild, making its formal decision early in September. The congregation “granted leave of absence to their pastor, Rev. A.M. Stavely, with a view of bringing their claims to sympathy and material assistance, before the brethren in the U.S. and Britain.”69 Stavely’s tenacity is apparent in the way he handled the crisis: he gathered the remnants of his congregation together, set the machinery of congregational life in order, and collected funds, making one trip to Scotland and Ireland,70 and another to the United States. Stavely’s visits were moderately successful, and the congregation rebuilt on a new, more central site. Moreover, “the congregation is able to enter upon the enjoyment of the building, as far as it has been carried forward, without any considerable debt.”71 Stavely turned to two other tasks. First, he travelled to Cornwallis to preach at the 6 October 1878 funeral of his friend and long-time associate William Som-

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merville.72 Second, Stavely facilitated the transfer of the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from the Irish to the American synod. This process had been long in gestation. The Irish synod had favoured the transfer. Stavely concurred, believing that stability and growth of the Covenanter cause in the region required closer supervision than that offered by the transoceanic Irish synod. Sommerville had consistently and vigorously opposed it,73 but after his death, and under Stavely’s leadership, the transfer was quickly and amicably agreed to by the presbytery74 and by the American synod. It was finally effected on 2 June 1879.75 Stavely resolved to return to Ireland. The Great Fire undoubtedly speeded up the decision, if it was not its immediate cause. Stavely’s close colleague Lawson remarked that “by the great fire of 1877 which swept over St. John, our brother … being much discouraged, demitted his pastoral charge into the hands of the presbytery and returned to Ireland, followed by the best wishes of his people and the whole community.”76 The Stavelys left Saint John and New Brunswick.77 Stavely was an admirable Covenanter, an able leader, the most affable of the Ulster missionaries. He had early successes in the cause. He was singularly open to working with other Presbyterians. But the exigencies of the missionary situation, the paucity of pastors, the building of an expensive church and the concomitant demands for fundraising forays gave little opportunity for Stavely to effect a genuine Canadian Covenanter church. Stavely was surrounded, perhaps hampered, by an orthodox session, led by elder Robert Ewing who “was impatient of anything in the discipline of the church that favoured laxity in belief or practice.”78 Except by way of quiet demurring, Stavely did not challenge Sommerville’s dominant leadership in presbytery. Undoubtedly he attracted youth, yet no young men came forward from Saint John for ministry. Stavely fully concurred with Ulster as giver of the mission, the new world as recipient. The new Free Church gradually but effectively took over the Saint John stage. Some years before the Great Fire, in March 1869, Stavely wrote to a sister, “[Y]ou know that the Presbyterians can grow and flourish, where the Ref[orme]d Presbyterians can only live. Had I been connected with the former rather than the latter denomination during



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my long residence in this city, I think I can say without boasting my worldly position would have been much more easy than what it is.”79 “Still,” Stavely concluded, “I do not nor should I murmur, God has given me many kind friends on this side the Atlantic. I love my Church and her principles, and if sometimes I feel a little straitened as regards worldly con[cern]s I am willing to submit in this matter to the Good providence of Him who does all things well.” The Stavelys left New Brunswick in 1879. It would be difficult to replace Rev. Stavely. However, when Armour James McFarland was called in 1882, he accepted.80 Born in Ohio, McFarland became minister at Stanton, Pennsylvania in 1862. Twenty years later he came to Saint John and was formally installed as pastor of the Saint John congregation on 4 August 1882.81 The congregation had begun improving its church property, and when McFarland arrived, he found “on the corner of Peel and Carleton Streets … a brick building 40 x 60 feet, two stories high.”82 Only the school rooms on the lower level, where services were held, were finished.83 McFarland’s coming changed matters, however. More people began to attend, and immediately the congregation went to work on the main hall, which had a gallery and a seating capacity of about 460.84 On 12 November 1882, services were held there for the first time, with David McFall, Boston Covenanter pastor, preaching at the morning service and McFarland at the afternoon and evening services.85 Somewhat later, a three-storey manse was built on another part of the lot. McFarland’s ministry in Saint John was carried on in traditional fashion. He paid no particular attention to the new status of the congregation, formerly under the Irish synod, now a part of the American and, since 1867, in the Dominion of Canada. Three matters stand out: his involvement in temperance activity; his itinerating, most notably in Moncton, New Brunswick; and his activities as a fundraiser. McFarland believed that “the tobacco trade differs from the liquor traffic not in kind but only in degree,”86 and he felt strongly about both. In Saint John, he was undoubtedly active in the temperance societies, and he was also involved deeply in the “Anti-Tobacco Society” of that city.87 In both projects, McFarland had a keen ally in Saint John ruling elder Robert A.H. Morrow, who was both an

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author and publisher. McFarland wrote the introduction to Prize Essays on Tobacco, a work in which Morrow was one of the authors as well as the publisher.88 At the 1887 synod, McFarland was the chief spokesperson for extensive resolutions put forward by the Committee on Temperance and Tobacco;89 the texts were published in a Saint John newspaper.90 By the early 1880s, a number of people in Moncton were asking to be taken under the care of the Reformed Presbyterians. Some were former “members of the congregations of St. John and Barnesville [who] were living in this city,” while others “were brought up under Dr. Clarke of Amherst” but felt dissatisfied.91 McFarland came to Moncton in March 1884 with a double purpose. First, he spoke at a public temperance meeting, delivering “an earnest and practical Temperance address.”92 Second, on the Sabbath, McFarland “preached in Ruddick’s Hall at 10.30 and 2.30.”93 A month later, McFarland returned to Moncton, again holding morning and afternoon services. Not long thereafter, “at the request of some of our people at Moncton, N.B., this place was taken under the care of presbytery as a mission station.”94 Moncton Covenanters met for worship in Ruddick’s Hall and then in the Free Meeting House. Still later, they held services in the old Presbyterian church on Mountain road, the mainline Presbyterians having built and opened a new church in June 1884.95 For a time, the Reformed Presbyterians referred to it simply as the old Presbyterian church. Later, when they leased it, they began calling it the Reformed Presbyterian Church.96 In November 1884, McFarland returned, holding a morning and an evening service. At the close of the evening service, he organized a mission station “of the rp church. Mr. A.J. Millican was chosen Elder and Mr. Charles Elliot, Deacon. The congregation … leased the old Presbyterian church for a year, and expect to have services at least every alternate Sabbath.”97 A high point in Moncton Covenanter life was the holding of a communion season, conducted by McFarland in September 1885. McFarland preached on Friday evening and again on Saturday evening, dispensed communion at the Sabbath morning service, and preached on the Sabbath evening.98 He wrote, “We feel encouraged in our efforts



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in Moncton; we had three accessions by certificate. We are anxiously waiting word from … [licentiates] appointed to labour in our presbytery. Our people in our mission stations are being revived by the labour of our young men. If we could secure more regular supplies, the good results would be greatly increased.”99 As McFarland indicated, Moncton Covenanters were dependent on visiting preachers, mostly licentiates. One who visited was William M. Glasgow, later to be the famed historian of Reformed Presbyterianism.100 John Toland, though not a licentiate but a devout Covenanter layman and New Brunswick agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, led services.101 Licentiates came regularly, though infrequently, in 1885 and the first part of 1886. Hopes were high although officially there were only ten communicants.102 However, in 1886, only six services with clergy were held, compared with the dozen plus in each of the two previous years. In May 1887, the presbytery declared the congregation disorganized, “inasmuch as the elder at Moncton has removed from the bounds of that congregation.”103 So far as is known, the last services occurred on the Sabbath of 10 October 1886, and the preacher was A.J. McFarland.104 Reformed Presbyterianism had but a short life in Moncton. McFarland’s skills as a fundraiser were called upon early. The refurbishing of the second storey of the church and the erection of the manse produced a substantial debt – $11,000. Contributions from “the brethren” in the United States reduced the debt “to something over $8,000.”105 But then came the greatest crisis in McFarland’s Saint John ministry: “On March 8th, owing to the failure of large lumbering companies, the Maritime Bank was forced to close its doors … Our congregation is especially and seriously affected … One of the largest stockholders in the Maritime Bank was a brother, who has for years contributed fully one third of the sum required to meet our current expenses, besides aiding most liberally in reducing our debt.”106 Although unnamed in this account, the man was Thomas Maclellan,107 who not only lost all his stock but was “held liable to double the amount of his stock.” The congregation met, and “to the suggestion, that all members increased their weekly subscription at least one half, there was a general and prompt response.” Still, external assistance was necessary.

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McFarland promptly went to the United States for a six-month effort to raise funds for the Saint John congregation. He wrote about it when the excursion was complete. “Briefly stated the subscriptions obtained will aggregate about $5,000, of which nearly $1,000 are yet unpaid.”108 Nonetheless, “it became evident that if the requisite help would be obtained for our unfortunate congregation, there must be a response from our whole church as far as possible. To secure this a circular letter and subscription cards, have been sent to all congregations we had not time to visit. The response to these has been so far very encouraging.”109 As a result of McFarland’s canvass, “the debt was reduced to $2,700.”110 At that juncture, a member of the congregation undertook to look up her brother, who lived in New Zealand and with whom she was out of touch. With the help of R.A.H. Morrow, she succeeded in making contact. She told her brother about the remaining debt, and John Mitchell sent money to cover this amount.111 McFarland was named moderator of the synod in 1893, the first moderator from a Canadian Covenanter congregation.112 A year later, he was honoured with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by his alma mater, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.113 He remained in Saint John until late in 1894, demitting the congregation officially on 20 December of that year.114 During his steady twelve-year ministry, the effects of the Great Fire had been largely overcome – no small feat. Moreover, membership had increased.115 Even with the increase in membership, however, the Covenanter community in Saint John was barely holding on. Undoubtedly, Saint John Covenanters were worthy. “Though comparatively few in number,” McFarland noted, “the members and adherents of the little Covenanter Church in St. John exerted an influence for good in the city that was not exceeded by any equal number of any other church.”116 A solid pastor, McFarland revived the Saint John Covenanter work and witness, restored confidence, and overcame a serious financial crisis. McFarland pastored without attempting to lead the congregation into a new self-understanding of its place in Canada. Covenanter fortunes were stabilized, but its situation had not radically reversed. When McFarland left in 1894, the congregation was financially self- sustaining. The situation was to change, and quickly. In 1895, membership dropped from sixty-two to forty-three.117 In 1896, Saint John became



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an aid receiving congregation.118 It was without a regular pastor, though licentiates came from time to time. One such licentiate was Pennsylvania-born William Thomas Knox Thompson, who arrived in the region in 1897. The Saint John congregation made a call on Thompson to become their pastor, asking two-thirds of his time and offering him $600 a year. The call from Barnesville was also in favour of Thompson, asking for one-third of his time and offering him $200 a year with manse.119 Thompson was ordained and installed as pastor of Saint John on 26 May 1898,120 and the next day he was installed as pastor of Barnesville.121 After some adjusting, society meetings were kept up in Saint John while Thompson was in Barnesville.122 However, the Saint John–Barnesville dual pastoral relationship was not repeated after Thompson demitted both congregations in 1905.123 Another licentiate, James Thompson Mitchell, a native of Ohio, was called, ordained, and installed pastor of Saint John in October 1905.124 In an otherwise unremarkable ministry, there was one very significant occurrence – the congregation instituted an act of incorporation. In 1850, the church had been incorporated when the congregation was relatively young, expansive, and expanding, and several prominent ruling elders were involved.125 Much later, ruling elder R.A.H. Morrow discovered that “the congregation had no legal title to the property which is of considerable value and, securing the assistance of a lawyer, got all in readiness, and had an act passed through the Legislature securing the property to the congregation.”126 Some two-and-a-half years after he came, in May 1908,127 James T. Mitchell left Saint John.128 The congregation was now “a ‘little flock’ indeed,”129 and in the same year, 1908, it made a request “for financial assistance” from the Board of Home Missions,130 a request that was to be repeated annually. In the autumn of 1909, Iowa-born licentiate David Bruce Elsey was called, ordained, and installed as Saint John Covenanter pastor.131 Aid from the Central Board of Missions was requested in 1912 “in order to give the pastor the minimum salary.”132 In the same year, 23 March 1912, Covenanter author, publisher, and ruling elder Robert A.H. Morrow died.133 Though not acted upon by presbytery, the congregation became technically disorganized, having then but one elder, Alexander Vallance.134 In April 1914, “the resignation of D. Bruce Elsey from the pastorate” of the Saint John congregation “was

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presented, acted upon and accepted.”135 Elsey subsequently went to Winnipeg, Manitoba.136 The Saint John congregation brought about its own disorganization and cessation; that entailed the sale of the church. The arrangements were made by Alex Vallance, the sole ruling elder, and William Mullin, chair and secretary of the trustees. The process was in accord with the 1907 incorporation legislation. The church property was “put up for sale at public auction at Chubb’s Corner in the City of Saint John on Saturday morning the eighteenth day of December A.D. 1920 and sold to Clarence H. Ferguson Barrister-at-Law for the sum of ten thousand dollars (10,000).”137 The 1907 incorporation had clear guidelines about dispensing the funds from the sale of the church; one half was to go to the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Ireland, the other to the synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. There is no record that either synod received any money. In view of its long history of insolvency, the proceeds undoubtedly went to the payment of debts and liabilities of the trustees, their costs and expenses. The presbytery reported in 1921 that “the congregation of St. John is officially disorganized; the synod concurred.”138 The story of the Saint John Covenanter community beginning in the early 1800s, came to a close a century later. Stavely came in 1841, energizing the Covenanter community that flourished for a time. Could there have been a different outcome? Stavely was requested “to use any influence he may have in effecting a reconciliation” between Clarke and Sommerville. Was reconciliation possible? Might Stavely have used his arrival on the scene to bring the two together? Failing that, could Stavely have suggested a modus vivendi with other neighbouring Saint John Presbyterians? Were there grounds for cooperating with the newly emerging Free Church? If Stavely contemplated any of these measures, we know nothing of it. His success as pastor and preacher led to a magnificent new church, and Stavely and the community were burdened; the Free Church advance added to that burden. Stavely, a good and godly missionary, was unable to provide a base on which the Covenanter community could survive in the long run.

{5} James Reid Lawson and Barnesville James Reid Lawson was the son of James and Elizabeth (Reid) Lawson, born in Rathfriland, county Down, Ireland, on 23 May 1820. He was thus born in the same Covenanter congregation as William Sommerville,1 though twenty years later, and he was raised in a devout Covenanter home: “In his quiet and impressive presentation of the Gospel was heard the voice of Elizabeth Reid.”2 After graduating from the Belfast Academical Institution in 1841,3 he studied theology at the seminary in Paisley, Scotland,4 where Dr Andrew Symington was a prominent influence.5 Licensed to preach in 1845,6 he was assigned to itinerate throughout the Southern Presbytery. Lawson quickly “proposed himself to the Missionary Board as a missionary to the North American British colonies, and [was] accepted as such” by September 1845.7 Fellow students attested that “the work of Christian missions had ever been near and dear” to Lawson.8 Southern Presbytery members, with the addition of Thomas Houston from the Missionary Board, conducted the ordination services in Lawson’s home church at Rathfriland on 11 September.9 “Mr. Houston delivered a sermon and affectionate charge to the youthful missionary.” Sailing early in October, Lawson arrived in Saint John “on the 5th of November 1845, after a pleasant journey of one month.”10 On the next Sabbath, four days after he arrived, he preached twice in Stavely’s church.11 For a time, he travelled to several of the scattered societies in “different parts of the provinces.”12 Within four or five months, however, he was invited by a community of Presbyterians to be their minister at South Stream (later known as Barnesville).13 The call requested his services for three years and promised sixty pounds annually; presbytery approved the call.14 Years earlier, Alexander Clarke had preached at South Stream in 1827–28,15 and Sommerville had visited three or four years later, “preaching in barns and private

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houses, and seeking always to advance the cause of truth.”16 Sommerville recorded three baptisms in South Stream early in February 1833.17 In April/May of 1838, the folk of South Stream and surrounding communities – Saltsprings and Londonderry – had called a Church of Scotland missionary, Christopher Atkinson,18 and it is highly likely that a small church was built in or near South Stream during his ministry.19 Atkinson was in the South Stream region for about a year and a half.20 Then there was a difficulty: “For some reason that has … not found its way into history, Atkinson … accepted the situation and left the place.”21 Atkinson was not succeeded by other Church of Scotland ministers or missionaries even though most of the South Stream residents were Church of Scotland. When Lawson arrived in 1846, “there were only two persons in the membership of the [Reformed Presbyterian] Church. The population, was, however, in general, friendly, and accessible to instruction, in the principles of the Covenanting Testimony.”22 The members of the old Church of Scotland congregation “were received into [Covenanter] fellowship only on accepting the testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.”23 The fact that the former Church of Scotland folk willingly became Covenanters is witness to Lawson’s ability. It is quite likely that the Atkinson Church of Scotland building was initially used by Lawson and the Covenanter congregation. Atkinson’s congregation had also purchased a church site that they had not used.24 Now the trustees gave “a quit claim deed of the property to the ‘Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland, represented by the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.’”25 It was on this site that a Covenanter church was built in 1853. Lawson’s tact and diplomacy were called upon shortly after he came to South Stream. On 24 November 1846 he wrote, “Two of our members were excluded from participating in our [recent] high and holy communion. Amidst the agitation and excitement necessarily connected with the [1846] election of members for the Provincial Legislature, they forgot their solemn vows and engagements; and, yielding to the temptations by which they, in common with the other members of the Church, were assailed, abandoned the principles they had engaged to maintain, by exercising the elective franchise.” However, Lawson was able to report that “I am glad to say … they have



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privately expressed their regret at their procedure, and I trust it will be in my power, in a subsequent letter, to report their re-admission to the membership and privilege of the Church.”26 Lawson was an honest and diligent worker. He recorded that Stavely had assisted him at a communion season at the end of October 1846.27 Two prayer meetings had been established, taking in all the members of the congregation with the exception of some living at a distance. “I have just completed my half-yearly visitation of the families in the settlement. I find that all the members of the Church attend to the duties of secret prayers and family worship, and their regular attendance at social meetings, and public worship, I myself attest.” Further, “in addition to the catechetical instruction which I endeavour to communicate in social meetings, I have a Bible Class which meets once every fortnight.” From the earliest days, Lawson was a passionate promoter of the British and Foreign Bible Society.28 South Stream, under Lawson’s tutelage, became a beacon and leader in this association. Lawson became president of the Upham Branch, a position he held for over thirty years. A remembered anecdote points to Lawson’s courage. There were some rough characters in the neighbourhood of Barnesville, one of whose favourite amusements “was the refined sport of cock-fighting, and stories were told of the summary manner in which Lawson broke up gatherings for this purpose when he accidentally heard of them.”29 A few months after Lawson had conducted the wedding of Stavely in April 1851, Stavely officiated at the marriage of Lawson “to Margaret, only daughter of Mr. John Hastings” of Saint John. The wedding took place on 1 July 1851.30 According to family information, “Mrs. Lawson was the daughter of a wealthy sea merchant in St. John’s. Yet, she married this poor Covenanter missionary.”31 The couple were to be the parents of two sons and seven daughters. But before the birth of their first child, calamity struck the Lawsons: “In January [1852] last, [the Lawsons’] dwelling-house accidentally took fire, and was speedily and totally consumed. In the depth of winter, to be thus suddenly rendered houseless, was felt to be a heavy affliction. But Mr. Lawson states that he and his family experienced much sympathy and attention from persons of all classes. His house was partially insured.”32

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Lawson encouraged his congregation to build a new church, and a year after the burning of his home, “the new and neat Reformed Presbyterian house of worship, which has been erected in this locality through the exertions of the Rev. James R. Lawson and his people, was opened for Divine service on the 13th March 1853.” Stavely of Saint John preached in the forenoon, Lawson in the afternoon.33 The fine but simple house of worship had “boxed pews.”34 The seating arrangement in the church “included twelve family or group pews, six on each side in the form of the letter U, so that all did not face the pulpit. There was no choir loft, or musical instrument.”35 The congregation took a good deal of pride in their church, which was built largely by the local Covenanter community. A Covenanter student who served in Barnesville for a few weeks in 1883 wrote, “Our people have by far the largest congregation and the best churchbuilding, a neat frame building, painted white, with spire and gothic windows with green Venetian blinds, which add much to the attractive appearance of the church and to the comfort of the worshippers.” There were also Church of England and Methodist churches in the village, but “none of the churches except ours had services every Sabbath, and both Church of England people and Methodists attended our church regularly when they had not preaching and even on days of preaching after their services were over.”36 Late in his ministry, Lawson was able to say, “we have a commodious and beautiful house of worship, a perfect contrast to the barn-like structures which appear so frequently in country places … and, which is a peculiarly gratifying circumstance, there is not a cent of debt upon it.”37 In the mid-1850s, “a call from the [new] R.P. congregation of Boston … addressed to J.R. Lawson” was “laid on the table of presbytery.” The South Stream congregation hoped that Lawson might not be removed from his present position,38 but when the presbytery considered “particularly the peculiarly favourable opening which appears to be presented in Boston for the dissemination of Covenanting principles” and also the state of Lawson’s less than robust health, it consented to his acceptance of the call.39 Lawson left for Boston in the fall and was installed there on 20 November 1856.40 But a few months later, he wanted to move; he received calls from New York City and from South Stream.41 He returned to South Stream in the summer of



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1857. No church report attempts to explain this rather rapid removal back to New Brunswick, but a strong reason has come down through the family: “Margaret Hastings [Lawson] did not like Boston, so they returned to Barnesville.”42 So far as is known, Lawson never went back to the United States.43 Lawson was a close collaborator with veteran missionaries Sommerville and Stavely, and with Robert Stewart who emigrated to the new world in 1849, a few years later than Lawson. From the first days of Lawson’s ministry, he made missionary journeys outside Barnesville. He had already “endeavoured to place the standard of our Covenanted testimony at Tynemouth Creek, on the margin of the Bay of Fundy.”44 He went to Black River, where friends “engage[d] to pay £25 per annum for his ministerial services. Say one Sabbath a month.”45 Another venue visited, though infrequently mentioned, was Jemseg, the site of Covenanter activity since 1831. Catechist Andrew Stevenson taught school in the community for two years and started a society before departing to the United States.46 Another catechist, David Bates, “undoubtedly took over Stevenson’s mantle as school master and Covenanter catechist in the community.”47 Lawson probably visited Jemseg in 1847,48 and both Stavely and Lawson went there in the autumn of 1858.49 Three years later, in 1861, Lawson wrote, “I have recently entered into an arrangement … to preach every sixth Sabbath at Jemseg, a distance of some 40 miles from my residence.”50 In 1873, Lawson was preaching alternate Sabbaths at Barnesville, and also at Black River, Tynemouth, Jemseg, and occasionally elsewhere.51 Not surprisingly, Lawson readily added his voice to others in demanding more missionaries from Ireland.52 In New Brunswick two individuals offered themselves for ministry in the presbytery: Alexander Stuart, an Irishman, came forward early in Lawson’s ministry, in the 1840s; John Toland, also an Irishman, offered later, in the 1870s. Alexander Charles Stuart53 presented himself at the September 1847 meeting of the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He had been born near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on 17 July 1823. After graduating from Belfast College in 1843, he studied theology at a Secession theological college in Edinburgh. In 1844, he married Eleanor Middleton. The couple emigrated to Saint

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John without assistance from any church body in the spring of 1847.54 Stuart became a member of the Reformed Presbyterian congregation in that city.55 When the twenty-four-year-old Stuart applied for licensing, the presbytery was in a quandary. First, although there was a crying need for assistance, there was no indication of any financial support from the Irish synod. Second, Stuart had not come from, nor been sent by, the mother Reformed Presbyterian church. In fact, in Ulster he had connected himself to a New School Reformed Presbyterian movement called the Eastern Reformed Synod. Yet, in New Brunswick, Stuart made application to an Old School presbytery, “on the ground of principle, convinced that the principles of your church are most agreeable to the Word of God.”56 The presbytery subjected Stuart to an elaborate process of preparation and examination after which he received its approval. Perhaps the presbytery was taking a chance with Stuart, but considering “his excellent certificates as to moral character, and his satisfactory credentials as to his having passed through a regular collegiate curriculum” – and moreover taking into account “the pressing exigencies of the church” – the granting of licensure seemed warranted.57 Licentiate Alexander Stuart was “then appointed to preach at Richmond58 next Sabbath, at South Stream the third Sabbath of October, and in St. John & elsewhere as circumstances may seem to direct.” Lawson was to give Stuart “such directions with respect to the sphere of his labours as may appear practicable.”59 Stuart went about this work diligently. He wrote, “my circuit extends forty miles in length by thirty in breadth; here I have two stated places of preaching [Millstream and Campbell] and four outposts. I organized five of them.” Stuart outlined his schedule: sometimes “I am obliged to go and visit [the societies] during the week.”60 Stuart discussed his congregants ability to support him. “Here is a good missionary field, with a beloved people, who are, for the most part, both anxious and willing to administer to my temporal wants, were it not for their extreme poverty, and many of the people being unaccustomed to support ‘Christ’s’ cause. However, there are others who would support the cause of ‘God’ if they had only the means.” The Irish synod liked what they learned from Stuart’s reports.61 But the good accounts



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soon ceased, and nothing further was heard. What occurred may be construed from a later decision of the presbytery. It appears that not every one of his congregants was happy with Stuart’s ministry. And when one of Stuart’s congregations failed to pay him adequately, Stuart “at once sought to recover his due, by an appeal to a civil court.” He had already left for the United States. “This presbytery does not feel itself at liberty to recommend him,” and a letter to this effect was sent to the clerk of the American Reformed Presbyterian synod.62 The experiment had failed, and the failure cast a long shadow. John Toland first appears in Covenanter records when he became a member of the Saint John Covenanter session in 1853.63 Toland was born in Ireland around 1823; his wife, Martha, was also born in Ireland.64 It is not known precisely when they were married or when they came to the new world. At some point, Toland became a teacher,65 “a scholar and speaker of ability.”66 Toland moved from Saint John to Passekeag in 1860; no longer an elder in Saint John, he became an elder of the Barnesville congregation. In 1873, the presbytery became aware that Toland had been “engaged in preaching for the last few months without any reference to Presbytery,”67 and Lawson, the clerk, was assigned to look into the situation. Learning at its next meeting that Toland had “been occupied in expounding the scriptures in the locality of his residence,”68 presbytery decided to support and encourage Toland – with two provisos. Toland should be “under the superintendence of Rev’d J.R. Lawson to whom he would report from time to time,” and Toland would “be required to attend the next meeting of presbytery.” Toland reported at the next meeting, and “he was authorized to continue his work under the direction of J.R. Lawson, until next meeting.”69 Toland carried on, working by day as a school teacher (it is assumed) and, in his spare time, acting as a lay preacher or catechist under Lawson’s supervision.70 In 1875, presbytery took the initiative, proposing that Toland be licensed, and it set standards for that important step.71 Toland “acquitted himself to the satisfaction” of the presbytery. Yet presbytery, perhaps recalling the unhappy licensure of Stuart, refused to act on its own and directed the clerk “to refer the question of his [Toland’s] licensure to the commission of synod.”72 Before the Irish synod could

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deal with the request, Toland was appointed to a position with the British and Foreign Bible Society73 and his licensing was shelved. Toland was an effective agent for the Bible Society in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.74 Toland did not give up his dream of becoming a Covenanter licentiate, if not a minister. In 1879, he petitioned again.75 The request came while the presbytery was transferring from the Irish to the American synod. Therefore it was deemed “inexpedient” to act on Toland’s petition at that time.76 In 1881, a further petition came before presbytery, but presbytery still refused to proceed. Instead it appointed Lawson and Saint John ruling elder R.A.H. Morrow “to ascertain from Mr. Toland his definite object in wishing licensure now, and, if they see fit, to prepare a history of the case for information of Synod.”77 Nothing came of this, and Toland soldiered on in his work for the Bible Society.78 In his travels, Toland occasionally filled Covenanter pulpits as he had opportunity, for instance, in Moncton.79 Four years later, in 1885, Toland’s name came up yet again.80 This time, presbytery was very aware of its shortage of workers. Thus it submitted the case to synod, asking Saint John pastor Rev. A.J. McFarland “to represent the case more fully.” McFarland attended, and the synod readily complied with the request.81 At long last presbytery was free to license Toland. But John Toland was not at all well.82 His worsening physical condition meant that his long-time goal of being licensed was never realized. Toland died on 24 May 1886, at Passekeag, at sixty-three years of age.83 Lawson, who had been present at many steps of the long process, though now formally retired, was too frail to officiate at Toland’s funeral, which was conducted by Saint John minister, A.J. McFarland, assisted by Covenanter pastor Thomas McFall of Horton. Toland was buried in Barnesville. “Many are the expressions of sympathy for the widow and six fatherless boys, in their sad bereavement.”84 As we have seen, Lawson ministered to other Reformed Presbyterian clusters away from his home base. In the areas in which Lawson laboured, the chief competitors were neither Baptists, as in Sommerville’s situation, nor the Free Church, with which Stavely wrestled in Saint John. In Lawson’s Barnesville, there was a Church of England and a Methodist church. These two congregations competed with the



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Covenanter. Early in his career, Lawson wrote a series of articles for Ulster Covenanters about aspects of his New Brunswick ministry; he discussed both Church of England and Methodist men and matters. In describing the Church of England, Lawson leaves aside normal Covenanter critique of episcopacy. The Church of England is the most populous in the province, within its pale “almost all of the provincial aristocracy.” Since 1845, the New Brunswick bishop has been the Right Rev. Lord John Medley, a high churchman. Many clergy and lay people were not enamoured of Puseyite views, nor was Lawson. On the other hand, “the Bishop is unwearied in his efforts to bring the ordinances of the Church within the reach of the poorest portions of the population … He has recommended himself to the favourable notice of many destitute people in the province.” Many Church of England clergy had graduated from old country universities and are well-educated; a goodly number are hard-working missionaries, “unwearied in their efforts for the spiritual good of those under their care.”85 “The Methodist Society in this province is a large and respectable body. Its affairs are watched over and managed by a Conference which meets once in a year.” Lawson is critical of the Methodist system of itineracy: in very many cases it retards the progress of the Gospel. Yet the ministers of the Methodist society are generally men of intelligence and wisdom. Many of them have been sent out by the English Conference. On the other hand, Lawson is very critical of Methodist local preachers. They are very far short of possessing the intelligence and scriptural knowledge of an ordinary member of the church in Ulster. They may have zeal, but have insufficient knowledge, and an inappropriate and unrealistic estimate of their own effectiveness.86 Lawson puts forward another reason for Church of England and Methodist advance; they are educating young men in the colonies for ministry. “The training of a native ministry seems to be the great idea with all denominations in these lower provinces.” The difficulty in enticing clergy to leave the homeland “has rendered it absolutely necessary for the various sections of the Church to put forth vigorous efforts in this matter.” In fact, the churches in the colonies have begun to stir themselves. The Church of England “has now it’s King’s College in Fredericton; the Baptists have their Acadia college in Hor-

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ton, Nova Scotia; the Methodists [have] their Sackville Academy, and recently the Free Church of Scotland has established a college in Halifax.” These institutions are now training men for ministry in the colonies. As for the Covenanters, “your missionaries are not without the hope that at no distant day, they will enjoy the co-operation of some devoted young men who are now pursuing their studies under the direction of Presbytery, with a view to ministerial labour in this colonial field.”87 The hoped for native Covenanter ministry was largely unrealized. Almost thirty years later, the aging Lawson, now speaking to the church in the United States, inadvertently put forward two other reasons for the church’s lack of growth in Canada. First, he cites the persistent shortage of ministers. “We want ministerial labourers, labourers to take the place of those who have gone from the field, and those who must soon, through bodily infirmity, give up the active duties of the Ministry. We need young men to take the place of the worn out fathers.”88 Second, he points to the shortage of funds, a shortage that still persists. “We need money. The times in these lower Provinces are woefully depressed. Our people have not the means to pay for the support of ordinances.”89 James Reid Lawson was very near the end of his active ministry when, from 1880 to 1882, he edited the journal Monthly Advocate; Covenanter R.A.H. Morrow of Saint John was the publisher.90 Although not officially under presbytery or synod, it can rightly be termed the earliest Canadian Covenanter journal. Lawson’s remarks in the initial number stated the aim and spirit of the magazine. “The present is an age when the press is employed to a melancholy extent in the interests of skepticism, superstition, and practical licentiousness.” In such a situation, “the advancement of the cause of truth and righteousness will ever be [the magazine’s] exclusive aim.”91 The journal was destined to have a brief two-year duration because of Lawson’s ailing condition. Lawson’s health had been failing for some time; partial paralysis gradually incapacitated him. In August 1882, Lawson asked to be relieved of his twenty-five-year term as clerk of presbytery;92 he requested release of the Barnesville pastorate on 22 November 1882. Only Lawson’s Bible Society commitment held him to the last; al-



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though he tried to resign, “he yielded to the importunate solicitations of the office-bearers and members of the large and influential Association, and remained its President until his death.”93 Lawson was a modest preacher, scholar, and pastor who loved his people and was loved by them. Close friend and ruling elder R.A.H. Morrow stated that “those who differed from him in opinion, in matters of religion and otherwise respected him for his candour and firmness to the principles he advocated and exemplified in his life.”94 He died on 4 July 1891, and his wife on 3 December 1912. They are buried in the Barnesville Covenanter Cemetery.95 Lawson was able to take over a small Church of Scotland group and by dint of hard and patient labour craft it into a Covenanter congregation. Under his leadership, an appropriately lovely church was built in Barnesville; patient stewardship meant that the structure left no burden of debt on congregants. A diligent pastor, Lawson was loved by his people. Yet this mild-mannered and hard-working missionary was no more able than most of his contemporaries to broaden the Scots-Irish base with which he began. The hoped-for increase of congregants by the transfer from Irish to American synods never materialized. Lawson was convinced that his gospel was the true one; and his congregants nodded agreement. Yet the membership did not grow and, soon after Lawson grew ill, its size decreased appreciably. Lawson was Ulster born and bred, and appreciative as his New Brunswick congregants were, they did not bring neighbours in from the byways and highways to hear Lawson, much less join the community. There was little in the Covenanter tradition to match Methodist hymnody. There was nothing in Reformed Presbyterianism comparable to Methodist local preachers. Session members may have raised voices in protest or suggestion, but we hear nothing of it. Much as Lawson would have welcomed it, no youth in Barnesville or his other stations came forward to offer himself for ministry. Lawson’s Belfast theology simply did not take an enduring hold on Barnesville life and culture. For five years after Lawson’s departure, the vacant Barnesville pulpit was supplied with more or less regularity by licentiates from the United States. The Barnesville congregation succeeded in calling Illinois native Thomas Patton. On 26 May 1887, Patton was ordained and installed in the small but “hearty and united” congregation.96

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Late in 1889, Patton reported that “he had preached once a month during the past summer at Millstream to good audiences.”97 Patton, however, demitted the charge in 1891. When he had come “there were fifty-three in the communion of the church and, when the pastoral relationship was dissolved, there were sixty-five, a large net increase when the number of deaths during this brief pastorate is taken into account.”98 Later he ministered in Coldenham, New York.99 Despite the increase of numbers, financial matters worsened. In 1892, Barnesville lost its status as an independent congregation and was taken over by synod. “Mr. E.H. Buck, student of the third year, was appointed to labor there during the Seminary vacation, and has already entered upon his work.”100 Buck found that J.R. Lawson’s legacy was somewhat ambiguous: “Mr. Lawson is said to have been a preacher of singular clearness and force … This makes it hard for a young man to please the people of Barnesville. They instinctively compare everyone with Mr. Lawson, and set you down as inferior, because you do not come up to him.”101 Buck also observed that “opportunities for remunerative employment being scarce, their young people naturally gravitate toward the United States, thus keeping their growth down.” More ominously, mainline “Presbyterians have within a few years organized in Barnesville. Some of their members were once Covenanters and from Covenanter families.” A hiatus in regular ministry followed, and the membership was reduced. On 27 May 1898, William Thomas Knox Thompson was installed as pastor, having been ordained and installed as pastor of the Saint John congregation the previous day. As we have seen, certain adjustments had to be made between the two congregations.102 They seemed successful: “though but a short time amongst us, Mr. Thompson has won the hearts of young and old in this community by his genial manner.”103 Thompson demitted both Saint John and Barnesville congregations on 26 May 1905.104 Again without a pastor, recourse was made to visiting licentiates. James McCune was the last full-time Covenanter pastor at Barnesville. Born 12 November 1871 in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, he was installed as pastor of the Barnesville congregation on 7 July 1910, with Nova Scotia pastor Thomas McFall and Saint John minister D. Bruce Elsey conducting the services. “The members of this little



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congregation are evidently determined to keep the Old Blue Banner afloat.”105 When he was in Barnesville, “the community seemed to be his charge. He called on all, whether Catholic or Protestant.”106 McCune’s ministry did not last long; the pastoral relationship was dissolved on 28 November 1911.107 McCune left, destined to serve other Canadian Covenanter congregations.108 The Barnesville congregation had been aid-receiving since 1892. Unlike Saint John, the congregation did not meet and vote itself out of existence. Life went on in small ways and then in smaller ways. Arrangements were made, for instance, “to ordain Thomas Barnes of Barnesville [as] elder in the Barnesville congregation.”109 The Sabbath School picnic remained a yearly feature.110 In 1917, however, the presbytery reported that “our efforts failed last year to provide any preaching for either of these vacant congregations [Saint John, Barnesville]. The distance from the source of supplies is one great trouble.”111 Melville Carson came in the summer of 1918 and was the last recorded student to hold services at Barnesville.112 Four or five years later, in 1922/23, “by the death of an elder at Barnesville, that congregation has been disorganized.”113 With but one remaining elder, it became a mission station, maintaining that status until 1927.114 “The Barnesville church continued to be used for special occasions such as Bible Society meetings; and a Sunday School was conducted under the leadership of Miss Aggie Curry until perhaps the 1930s.”115 A 1989 reminiscence concurs: “William Curry and his daughter were the mainstay of the church. He carried on with the church, when there was no minister. Held prayer meetings and Bible classes until his passing. His daughter Agnes was the Sunday School teacher. After William’s passing, the church closed.”116 William J. Curry died in 1929.117 In 1967, Sussex author Grace Aiton wrote that “The church at Barnesville still stands, locked and silent, its windows boarded over.”118 The situation was to alter in 1968. Due to the initiative of Robert More, Jr, a Covenanter minister from Ontario, “on September 21, 1968, Synod’s Trustees authorized a local merchant ‘to have the Barnesville church building torn down.’”119 A group of interested Barnesville people “met and formed a committee to improve and keep up the old cemetery,”120 and the committee was subsequently incor-

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porated. The church and cemetery site were later sold by the Reformed Presbyterian Synod trustees to the “Covenantors [sic] Cemetery Limited,” of Barnesville.121 In the early 1940s, the last Saint John Covenanter church (the one standing on the corner of Peel and Carleton) was sold. A poem, “The Old Covenanters’ Church,” was written to commemorate that event, but with an eye to other Covenanter communities like Barnesville: So you are dead – your light is spent Unbroken yet – your covenant A hundred years or more ago Your light it shed a steady glow To light the pilgrim on his way In darkest hour of night or day. In Barnesville and at Millstream Head Our fathers followed where you led To purer, better life begotten Your catechism unforgotten In ancient covenant dearly bought We worshipped as our fathers taught. When oppositions how e’er sent But stronger, held, your covenant To bridge the immeasurable span A link connecting God and man. Now you are dead – your light is spent Released at last – your covenant. A rich reward may ever reap For ancient Sabbaths pledged to keep May modern church create a light To point the way from wrong to right Your ancient order to revise That light may shine for others eyes.122

{6} Robert Miller Stewart and Wilmot Robert Miller Stewart “was born in Ballynaloob, county Antrim, Ireland, April 5, 1819”1 to William and Elizabeth Beggs Stewart. He studied on the island of Rathlin, at the Royal Academical Institution of Belfast, and at the Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall at Paisley, where he sat under the distinguished Dr Andrew Symington.2 Licensed 2 February 1847,3 and using his competency in Gaelic, Stewart “offered his services to the Irish Mission.”4 In so doing, he became part of a pioneering effort, for the church had not “undertaken the work of disseminating the Scriptures among Roman Catholics in Ireland until the year 1846.”5 Stewart’s initial efforts were marked by success.6 His work, however, was soon overcome by adversity. In Stewart’s own words, “The tide of opposition has lately set in with renewed vigour, and is threatening to sweep away everything that resists its progress.”7 This reversal may have been a factor in Stewart’s leaving the Irish Mission where he had laboured for nearly a year.8 “On the evening of Thursday [12 July 1849, in Belfast], Mr. Robert Stewart, Licentiate, was ordained as a Missionary to the British North American Colonies.”9 Among the clergy participating was the father of Saint John’s Stavely, Rev. Dr William John Stavely. A special collection for the passage, outfit, and first year’s salary for Stewart was gathered from many Ulster Covenanter congregations.10 Sailing out the first week of September, Stewart set forth for New Brunswick. Stewart carried a double mandate. First, because the Missionary Society was considering extending its work beyond New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, he was to be an active agent in making “inquiries respecting destitute localities, and scattered Covenanters in the Canadas.”11 Second, Stewart “was designated to the exercise of his ministerial functions under the superintendence of the Presbytery there.”12 The new world presbytery, engaged in its own varied ministries, was

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unenthusiastic about the first mandate but strongly committed to the second, although it had not decided where Stewart’s ministry was to be exercised. In this regard, procrastination was the presbytery’s prevailing posture. Stewart came initially to New Brunswick. The Unicorn, on which Stewart had sailed for twenty-three days, landed in Saint John on the Sabbath, 30 September 1849.13 Being a good Covenanter, Stewart disembarked the day following.14 The next Sabbath, “Rev. Robert Stewart, lately ordained by the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Ireland, as Missionary to these Provinces … will preach in Mr. Stavely’s Church … at 3 and 6 P.M.”15 Besides preaching for Stavely, Stewart later conducted services at “Tynemouth Creek, St. Martin’s [and] South Stream,” in Lawson’s congregations. Although Stewart was “very cordially received,” Stavely candidly confessed that presbytery had not yet been able to make clear plans for him. Stavely knew that Sommerville was eager to have Stewart visit Nova Scotia, and so “more in deference to our esteemed brother’s wishes, than from any lack of openings in this province for missionary labour,” Stewart went to Nova Scotia late in October 1849.16 Stewart remained in Nova Scotia until the end of March 1850. The presbytery had still not decided about the locale of Stewart s future labours. Perhaps as a result of this lack of clarity, Stewart mooted the possibility of pursuing the other mandate – visiting the Canadas – and he wrote to the Missionary Society requesting support.17 “In the month of June he left the bounds of the presbytery.”18 Stewart’s seven-week journey took him mainly to present-day Ontario. “The chief object, in visiting this place,” Stewart wrote, “was for the purpose of ascertaining the state of religion, and especially the position that our Church occupies among other denominations of professing Christians.” Stewart discovered that there were indeed Covenanters, though widely scattered. Other Christian denominations were present, but, he concluded, Covenanters had a future – if they received sufficient financial and ministerial support from the Irish or Scots Home Missionary Societies.19 After the trip, when money was still owed to Stewart, Lawson, clerk of presbytery, made clear who was to pay: “Inasmuch as we did not send him to Canada, but as he went by the direction of the Missionary Board, we have nothing farther to say in the matter.”20



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Presbytery finally determined that Stewart would go to Nova Scotia “to labour in Kings, and Annapolis Counties, between Cornwallis and Bridgetown, as may be arranged between him and the Revd. Mr. Sommerville,” and Stewart’s name was added to the roll of presbytery.21 The decision meant that “two ministers were thus assigned to each of the Lower Provinces.”22 Sommerville decided that Stewart’s immediate area of residence and ministry would be Wilmot, in Annapolis County, the venue of earlier Covenanter activity. Sommerville himself had been the first Covenanter missionary to go there, in 1834, after John Allen had travelled to Cornwallis requesting that Sommerville come and preach.23 In 1835, “a petition was presented [to the presbytery] from Wilmot praying the administration of the Lord’s supper.”24 Sommerville continued to report activity: in 1847, he stated that “in … Wilmot matters progress in both a spiritual and temporal point of view, and there are evidences that the Lord is amongst his people.”25 Thus the arrangement whereby Stewart was settled in Wilmot in late 1850 was “very gratifying” to Sommerville.26 Stewart’s ministry in Wilmot began on an encouraging note: “The field is extensive and interesting and there is no Presbyterian Minister in a well peopled country of thirty or forty miles in extent.”27 Stewart preached “for the first two years in a schoolhouse”28 while work began on the building of a church. In 1852, the congregation “was regularly organized with David Cruikshank and Daniel Morrison, ruling elders.”29 Completion of the church structure30 did not come quickly, but progressed “as the means of the people” admitted.31 “The church building is a neat and comfortable frame structure near Melvern Square.”32 In the fall of 1853, Stewart visited Ireland, and at a meeting of the Directors of the Missionary Society, he reported on the work.33 In 1855, Wilmot’s house of worship in Melvern Square was “finished, and the entire cost virtually defrayed – there being as many subscriptions forthcoming as will cover all the expenditures.”34 In style the little building was definitely Covenanter. “The church interior is white and stark … The straight pews lack the ornamentation found in other local churches built during the same period.”35 The original pulpit was also genuinely Covenanter, for it “was circular in shape, [but soon it] was replaced by a larger one.”36 In 1855 it was noted that “the ad-

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ministration of the Lord’s Supper is contemplated in the course of the summer.”37 A year later, the presbytery reported that the Wilmot congregation consisted “of about 40 communicants … [though] it is also to be born in mind that there are a number of adherents not included … in the list of communicants.”38 Stewart conducted “public worship in his own meeting-house every alternate Sabbath” and “a Bible class which meets on the Sabbath evening attended by young people, not only in connection with his own church, but also from various other denominations.” On the days when the Wilmot house of worship in Melvern Square was vacant, he conducted “meetings at Port George and Lawrencetown; the former of which is on the bay [of Fundy] shore, a distance of about ten miles from the church, and the latter is about eight miles from the same place.”39 Over the next decades the pattern varied somewhat; while Wilmot remained central, services and Bible classes were fitted in at Margaretsville, Forest Glen, and Lawrencetown.40 Robert Stewart married Margaret Morrison, the fourth daughter of Wilmot ruling elder Daniel Morrison, on 7 November 1855.41 After his marriage, Stewart realized that he could not support a wife and family on his missionary stipend and Wilmot congregational givings,42 so he purchased a 112 acre farm.43 It was “four miles” from the Melvern Square church,44 but it provided “a beautiful home on the bank of the Annapolis River.”45 Even with the farm, money was always scarce, particularly for a family of nine children.46 Stewart may have had another minor avenue of income: in ministering to people, he watched over “their bodily as well as their spiritual health, for Mr. Stewart is more than half a Doctor of Medicine.”47 Like his colleagues, Stewart ministered to persons in distant places, going at times to Digby and Annapolis48 and to Horton.49 He also made missionary journeys into New Brunswick. When Lawson demitted Barnesville in 1856, Stewart travelled to Lawson’s congregations. “I design to preach the last two Sabbaths of April and the first of May at South Stream, and to visit Millstream, and Quaco,” preaching “at these [latter] places, on week-days.”50 Yet the Melvern Square church remained the core of Stewart’s ministry. The Missionary Society, which provided an allowance to its new world missionaries by collecting funds in Ulster, recognized in 1865



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“that the measure of support hitherto granted to the missionaries has been inadequate.” Stewart had been receiving £30 per annum for several years. “It is proposed and agreed to, that £10 be added to the salary.”51 The Missionary Society acknowledged that Stewart and the other missionaries “served the Church … long and well.”52 Stewart was a diligent pastor and a good presbyter who served, at different junctures, as both moderator and clerk. His ministry was, however, fraught with discouragements. One unique difficulty was “the four-mile distance of the pastor’s home from his field and the necessity of cultivating an unproductive farm to support his family … [This] prevented the performance of such pastoral labor as is necessary to success.”53 Another grievous challenge for Stewart was outmigration by members of his congregation. The coming of Confederation in 1867 “dissatisfied many of the people in Nova Scotia … [And] because of the greater prosperity and near neighbourhood of the United States,” the Nova Scotia congregations were “subject at times to a drainage of the population by Emigration … The Wilmot Congregation has suffered severely from this cause.”54 As Stewart wrote, “The universality of the change (by emigration) forbids us, when it does occur, to conclude that some strange thing has befallen us … [Yet] we cannot bid such [persons] farewell without a sigh.”55 Another significant setback came with “the prevalence of sentiment in favor of organic union among Presbyterians, and of open communion,” which placed Stewart and his colleagues “in circumstances of greater difficulty in maintaining their distinctive position.”56 Other impediments seemed endemic to the Covenanter movement. In 1859, Stewart noted “that the [Covenanter] cluster is small.” There was no growth in membership. True, “our principles are much better known now than they were a few years ago … [so] our labours have not been … all … in vain.”57 Thirteen years later, in 1872, Stewart’s sentiments were similar. The British and Foreign Bible Society had made available copies of Scripture on a broad basis, and “the inhabitants of the British provinces have, during the last twenty years, made very considerable progress in various departments of knowledge.” But, Stewart asked, “are the people generally increasing in a saving knowledge of spiritual and Divine things?” To these and other like questions, “a negative answer must be given.”58

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Stewart was discouraged. In April 1877, he asked for and “received leave of absence from his congregation for 3 or 4 months, in order that he might visit his native land.”59 At the synod meeting in Ulster, Stewart “described the state of religion in the colonies of North America, the obstacles the missionaries had to encounter, and the services rendered by Reformed Presbyterians there to the cause of purity in doctrines and worship.”60 A year later, in 1878, Stewart “tendered to presbytery his resignation of the pastoral charge of Wilmot.”61 “Mr. Stewart seems to have been discouraged by the small amount of success resulting from his labours in Wilmot, and considered himself justified in the step taken.”62 Upon his resignation, Stewart was almost immediately “appointed to supply the vacant congregations of Cornwallis and Horton … and also to administer the Lord’s Supper to the people of Horton.”63 Sommerville had died on 28 September 1878. From 1878 until 1881, Stewart supplied the pulpits at Cornwallis and Horton and occasionally at Wilmot. In 1881, with the coming of Thomas McFall, his services were no longer required in Cornwallis and Horton. During the time Stewart was an interim, he occasionally went south “supplying vacancies throughout the [United] States.”64 Stewart was attempting to secure a call from an American congregation, but none was forthcoming. After 1881, Stewart took services from time to time at Wilmot and at other venues in the presbytery. For five years, from 1884 to 1888, “the full time of the Rev. Robert Stewart” was “at the disposal of the Synod.”65 At sixty-nine years of age, Stewart demitted the Covenanter denomination. He “was granted a certificate of standing at his [own] request” in October 1888 by the presbytery.66 Subsequently, “he accepted an appointment, May 1889, as Stated Supply” in the Presbyterian Church in Canada.67 For the next three years, Stewart itinerated among various congregations in that denomination, but he received no call. Stewart retained the family home at Wilmot.68 In June 1892, Stewart “requested that his name be restored to the roll of presbytery.”69 The presbytery referred the petition to the synod, which suggested that “Mr. Stewart more fully present the reason for his request and his views of the course he has taken.”70 Stewart “acknowledged that in some things he had acted contrary to the law



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and order of the church” specifically when he had “dispensed the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and administered the ordinance of baptism.” Stewart “expressed his regret for the course pursued.”71 The court granted his request, taking seriously “his willingness to act in future in keeping with his ordination vows.” Stewart was restored to the roll, and in the year 1894–95, he supplied Barnesville, New Brunswick and Houlton, Maine for several months.72 In 1895, the seventy-six-year-old Stewart made “application through the presbytery to the Aged Ministers’ Fund of the Reformed Presbyterian Church for the amount of two hundred and fifty dollars.”73 The presbytery concurred, and Stewart continued to receive this aid during the remaining years of his life. He spent those years at his home and died on 29 September 1899. “After a simple funeral service at the home, by Rev. Thomas McFall, pastor of the Cornwallis congregation, his remains were laid away in the cemetery adjoining the church at Melvern Square where he preached so many years.”74 Stewart was probably the least able of the original Ulster missionaries. He was placed in a geographic area to augment Sommerville’s missionary ventures, rather than in a locale more advantageous to Covenanter consolidation and advance. Nonetheless, Stewart ministered to the small corps of members in Wilmot, built a church, and for a time nurtured that congregation and the societies in neighbouring communities. When Stewart commenced his ministry in Wilmot in the early 1850s, there were no other Presbyterian churches in the area. The coming of the Free Church changed the landscape. Without sufficient finances to raise his family, Stewart purchased a farm, “better adapted to grazing than farming.”75 Except for the first few years, Stewart’s ministry at Wilmot was decidedly hardscrabble. Stewart’s Ulster Covenanter gospel failed to seize the imaginations of many Nova Scotia listeners. Increasingly, other denominations, particularly the Free Church, pressed the Covenanters. Moreover, Covenanter congregants looking for opportunities to better themselves left the area. Stewart’s earnest investment of energy and faithfulness all too easily evaporated. Unable to maintain the congregation he had built up, he watched it wither away. The Covenanter congregation at Wilmot had been without a regular pastor since Stewart’s demission in 1878 although he had served

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for a year as locum tenens and preached on other occasions. The congregation was failing, and Wilmot does not appear in synod statistics after 1887. Glasgow gives 17 October 1889 as the date of Wilmot’s disorganization: ruling elder Hugh Kerr demitted to the Presbyterian Church in Canada earlier in the year, and the last ruling elder, John Roy, removed to Boston.76 The Presbyterian Church in Canada, formed nationally in 1875, pursued an aggressively mission-oriented course. “During the summer of 1890 [licentiate] Mr. Lewis W. Parker personally interviewed every member of the Reformed church still resident in the locality and obtained their consent to hold in the church at Melvern Square a communion service after the order of the [Presbyterian] Church now manning the field.” In September the congregation gave its formal approval, and the service was held on 12 October 1890.77 Therefore, not only did most former Covenanters become members of the Presbyterian Church, but the Melvern Square church became de facto a Presbyterian Church in Canada place of worship.78 Stewart’s Covenanter church at Melvern Square slipped imperceptibly into Presbyterian hands. The Melvern Square Cemetery Company was incorporated in 1919 to maintain the cemetery.79 Its board also took over ownership and responsibility for the former church, subsequently called the chapel.80 In 1976, the company changed the name of the corporation to “the Church Grove Cemetery Company”; responsibility for the chapel was included.81 By-laws of the company, drawn up in 1996, spelled out the care more clearly; they included maintaining the chapel in good repair.82 This committee engages a pastor to conduct an annual summer Christian service of worship and readies the building for occasional weddings.

{7} Robert Sommerville: Fitful Follower of a Powerful Father The goal of training native sons for ministry in the Lower Provinces was hardly the first priority of the Irish Missionary Society. Rather, the Society sought out Ulster licentiates and ministers to become missionaries and urged Ulster congregants to support them. The mission came from the old world; it was to be implanted in the new. Once in the provinces, Ulster missionaries were to open up the work, extend the bounds: in 1845, the Society “agreed to allocate the sum of ten pounds annually to each of the Missionaries, on the condition of their itinerating out of the bounds of their respective charges, at least six weeks in the course of the season.” Then, almost secondarily, the missionaries were “to direct their efforts to raise up a native Ministry.”1 New world congregants could certainly assist financially. The Saint John congregation was early applauded for “raising missionary funds which are expended in diffusing Reformation principles throughout the provinces.”2 Other denominations were training native clergy in the new world. By the early 1850s, Lawson and his colleagues were aware of plans and places – Acadia for Baptists, King’s for Anglicans, the Wesleyan Academy for Methodists.3 Covenanter missionaries, for their part, hoped that the time would come “when the mission will be selfsustaining, not only in money, but also in men. May the Lord hasten it in his time!”4 In the early 1850s young men, probably from William Sommerville’s congregation, came forward. John W. Loan appeared before presbytery “with a view to be taken under its care as a student looking forward to the work of the ministry.”5 The moderator and clerk were to examine Mr Loan and report at the next meeting. Loan promptly dropped out of sight. J.R. Millar came to presbytery as a student preparing for the ministry. He was examined at some length, and trials prescribed.6 Millar returned twice more, was examined and sustained, and new exercises were laid out.7 However, Millar was never heard

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from following his third appearance. In the same time frame, Lawson wrote that at “an interesting meeting of presbytery, we received under our care two promising youths who are looking forward to the work of the ministry. One of them is the son of an Elder in the Free Church, Cornwallis … The other youth whom we received under our care is a son of Mr. Sommerville. He is quite young yet, but has made considerable progress in his studies.”8 The first man was John Burgess Calkin, the second Robert McGowan Sommerville. John Burgess Calkin was born in 1829 in Cornwallis, the son of Elias Calkin and Mercy Burgess. Elias Calkin, Free Churchman, was a prosperous farmer with a large family and had a high estimation of Sommerville’s school. In his will, after seeing to other family members, Calkin wrote, “I bequeath to my beloved son John two years schooling under the instruction of the Revd. William Sumerville [sic].”9 John Burgess Calkin “enjoyed the advantages of several years’ study under the direction of Rev. Wm. Sommerville, widely known throughout the lower provinces as an exceedingly full and accurate scholar. Undoubtedly the impulse received from this ripe and enthusiastic educator to a large extent determined his future career.”10 Moreover, John “was brought to recognize our distinctive [Covenanter] principles through the teaching of Mr. Sommerville.”11 Some other members of the Calkin family also became Reformed Presbyterians.12 Calkin not only became a Covenanter but also seriously considered becoming a minister. He began studying theology under Sommerville in 1850.13 In October 1851, before presbytery, “J.B. Calkin appears for examination prior to his entering College with a view to the Ministry … The examination is sustained and [Calkin] is recommended to the Professors of any College in which he may consider it convenient to prosecute his studies.” Lawson wrote, “We recommended him to the Professors of Halifax Free Church College, to be taken under their care and tuition, during the approaching winter.”14 Subsequently, Calkin “attended the Free Church College, Halifax, for a short time” during the winter of 1851–52.15 In June 1852, Calkin again appeared before presbytery. “He was examined at some length, in Logic and Greek. The examination is sustained and [further] exercises are prescribed, to be in readiness for the next meeting of presbytery.”16 But Calkin did not appear at the next meeting. His two-year



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period as a potential Covenanter minister was over. Calkin married Martha Sommerville, William’s daughter, in 1854.17 Vocationally, Calkin turned from pursuing theology to becoming an educator. That trajectory was already in motion, a path that culminated in Calkin becoming principal of the Normal School in Truro, a position he held for thirty-one years. Calkin also became a highly respected author of Canadian school books.18 Calkin’s ability might have been exercised in ministry; that genius was instead expended in education. Robert Sommerville was born at Horton, Nova Scotia, 14 October 1837, and baptized by his father, Rev. William Sommerville, on the first Sabbath in 1838. Robert was the oldest son and the fourth of ten children born to William Sommerville and Sarah Barry Dickey.19 He “received his early education under the direction of his father,”20 who started the “Lower Horton Combined Grammar School”21 about the time that Robert began his education. When he had just passed his fourteenth birthday, Robert was presented to presbytery. There he was considered “with a view [in the future] to his being taken under the Presbytery’s care as a student.”22 A little over a year later, in 1853, his mother, Sarah Barry Dickey, died.23 A year after his mother’s death, Robert went to Ireland. The convenor of the Irish Synod’s Education Fund reported that “One excellent young person, Master Robert M’Gowan Sommerville, had been recommended by the Presbytery in the British North American colonies, and accepted as a beneficiary of the fund, and had been placed at the Cookstown Academy, under the care of Mr. John A. Smyth.”24 Shortly thereafter, Robert entered Belfast Royal Academy.25 From there, Robert went to Queen’s College.26 While he was at Queen’s College, Belfast, Sommerville studied theology at the Reformed Theological Hall in the same city, one of his professors being Rev. Dr Thomas Houston.27 In the summer/autumn of 1859, Sommerville, intent on returning home to complete his studies in Nova Scotia, asked for a certificate from the Eastern Presbytery in Ulster. The certificate was given “on the understanding that he would return and finish the curriculum of studies in this country [Ulster].”28 Coming to Nova Scotia, Sommerville laid “his certificate from the Eastern Presbytery on the table.”29 The new world presbytery reported that “during the winter months, he [was] diligently engaged

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in prosecuting his studies,” and commended Sommerville “to the care and superintendence of [the Irish] Synod, and would most heartily rejoice if … he, when licensed to preach … should be directed … to these provinces, where the harvest is great and the labourers few.”30 Returning to Ulster, “Robert Sommerville graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s College in 1860”31 and was “recommended to Synod.”32 Having completed all that was required of him,33 Sommerville was licensed on 3 January 1861. He was subsequently appointed to preach in Ulster congregations and in the mission congregation in Manchester, England.34 Sommerville received “a call from the very respectable congregation of Coleraine” in Ulster but turned down this offer because “the congregation of Horton & Cornwallis unanimously addressed Sommerville to become assistant and successor to his father.”35 In mid-August 1861, before Robert returned to Nova Scotia, his fellow students of the Theological Hall honoured him at a public breakfast where they presented him with gifts as well as statements of their admiration and respect.36 Arriving home in Nova Scotia, Sommerville fulfilled appointments in New Brunswick, among them, Saint John and Barnesville.37 Robert Sommerville’s ordination took place in the West Cornwallis church on 16 October 1861: he was ordained as “assistant and successor to his father,” the Rev. Wm. Sommerville, in “the united congregation of Horton and West Cornwallis.”38 William had been “a short time previously, prostrated with severe illness, but his discourse was characterized with all his wonted point and power, and more than usual impressiveness.” There was something “deeply affecting in witnessing the venerable, grey-haired, toil-worn father taking part in the ordination of his youthful son and consecrating him publicly to the service in which so many of his own years had been spent.”39 It was an auspicious beginning, and for two years the pastoral relationship between the father and son seemed to prosper. Beginning in 1863, however, the relationship became troubled by at least three intertwined and overlapping difficulties. The first of these was finances. William Sommerville had been sent as a missionary to British North America in 1831; the Irish synod paid him a very modest annual stipend throughout his career. This was augmented by givings in his congregations and by fees from his school. Robert



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Sommerville had been called as assistant to his father; the Irish synod made no provision for his payment. That was to be borne by Nova Scotia congregants alone, but the united congregation of Cornwallis and Horton was not large or wealthy. The matter came to a head later in 1863: Robert “asked [for] the dissolution of the pastoral relationship, subsisting between him and the United Congregation … on the grounds of a failure on the part of Cornwallis section of the congregation to fulfil their pecuniary engagements.” The presbytery agreed, at the same time appointing Robert as “stated supply at Horton.”40 The arrangement worked well,41 so well that “a call to Revd R.M. Sommerville from the Horton branch … as assistant to his father … was read and sustained as a regular Gospel call.” Robert accepted it.42 This change affected William Sommerville’s financial situation, and the Mission Board in Ulster learned “from various sources, that … Mr. Sommerville now retains only a fraction of his former congregation – the last division of it having been in favour of his son and successor, and the base of his [William’s] supplies has therefore been diminishing.”43 In Horton, Robert acquitted himself well, as the Colonial Mission Board acknowledged: “In his new charge [Horton], he has laboured with much energy, and with favourable fruits. He diligently attends to several distant stations and, throughout the Province, he is highly esteemed as an able and eloquent preacher.”44 A presbytery visitation took place at Horton in 1868, four years after the beginning of Robert’s full-time ministry there. After the usual questions had been answered, presbytery gave Robert a clear expression of approval.45 The congregation also received a positive vote of confidence, though there was one caveat: “Presbytery would recommend those in charge of financial matters to take steps to secure payment of stipend regularly by all the members and adherents of the congregation, and further would remind session that members of the church who do nothing to support its ministry are proper subjects of ecclesiastical discipline.” The caveat was significant for, a few months later, “Revd. R. Sommerville intimated that owing to various causes, the salary received from his Congregation is insufficient for his support, and that, therefore, he would wish to be relieved from the pastoral charge of Horton Congregation.” Presbytery denied his request “but would, in view of

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the peculiar necessity of the case, consent that he should turn his attention to some other calling, not inconsistent with his ministerial status, that might supplement his salary.”46 Robert responded to this challenge and, in December of 1868, he was appointed Inspector of Schools for Kings County.47 It was an exacting full-time position, but Robert was diligent. He maintained his position as pastor at Horton until 1871, when he intimated his intention to tender his resignation.48 William explained that “as the office of Inspector of Schools was inconsistent with the full discharge of pastoral duties … he did not think he ought to hold the office.” However, he was “appointed by Presbytery as constant supply, and preaches as usual.”49 But in September 1872, Robert ceased even that attenuated responsibility.50 A second source of tension was Robert’s marriage to Elizabeth Chipman, particularly as it related to William Sommerville’s fully developed views on baptism. On 13 September 1865, William Sommerville officiated at the wedding of his son Robert and Elizabeth Chipman, eldest daughter of William Henry Chipman and Sophia Araminta Cogswell. The wedding took place at the bride’s home, Cornwallis.51 Elizabeth Chipman’s parents had been baptized in the First United Baptist Church in Upper Canard, on Sunday, 8 September 1833. Although there is no record of the daughter’s baptism, there are “references to anonymous persons ‘sharing their experience with Christ’ and then being duly baptized into the church. Elizabeth Chipman could well have been among these.”52 Thus by the time she married Robert, Elizabeth had been very likely baptized – as a Baptist. In 1845, Robert’s father, William Sommerville, had published a document about baptism53 in which he was highly critical of Baptist views, though he did not question their validity.54 Sommerville’s 1845 pamphlet did not result in any change of attitude toward individual Baptists, nor in the practice vis-à-vis adult Baptists wishing to enter a Reformed Presbyterian congregation. Sommerville promised a “second branch of the investigation” that would draw out the full implications of his views. Sommerville’s promised second branch came a year after his son’s wedding. In 1866, Sommerville published A Dissertation on the Nature



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and Administration of the Ordinance of Baptism, in two parts.55 Near the end of the second part Sommerville drew out implications of his earlier writing. Now he assailed the validity of the Baptist practice: “Baptism and immersion are opposite to one another. The idea of salvation is bound up in the one: the idea of destruction is bound up in the other. The Israelites at the Red Sea were baptized and saved. The Egyptians were immersed, and died.”56 William Sommerville immediately put his conviction into practice in the Cornwallis section of the congregation in which he was minister and in the Horton section, where he was senior to his son who was also minister. He did this even though the new policy received no support in the presbytery or in any other part of the Covenanter community.57 In Cornwallis and Horton, Baptist persons who had been immersed needed to be sprinkled – truly baptized – in order to be members of the Covenanter congregation. Among those persons was Elizabeth Chipman Sommerville: “Elizabeth Sommerville Adult b. March 16th, 1837; [was] baptized [i.e., properly sprinkled], May 4th 1867” at the Meeting House, Kirk Hill, Horton.58 There is no record of how Elizabeth Sommerville felt about this. Robert and Elizabeth were childless, and Elizabeth fulfilled a stereotypical role: “In the work of his [Robert’s] ministry, she had a full share; in it all she had a part and the two were … actuated by common aims and purposes.”59 In his baptism practice, William Sommerville was alone, or almost so. He had a somewhat reluctant companion in his assistant and son. Robert went along with his father’s idiosyncratic practice as long as he was associated with his father in Horton, and probably as long as he stayed in Nova Scotia. Later, when he ministered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in New York City, his views and practice were in complete accord with normal Covenanter custom. The one remaining source of contention was Robert’s desire to build his own church, where he would be solely in charge. A few months before Elizabeth’s baptism, in 1867, at a cost of $250, Robert Sommerville purchased a large lot in Wolfville,60 on what is now called Prospect Street.61 Its purpose soon became clear: “We are informed that preparations are being made to erect in Wolfville … a place of worship for the use of the Reformed Presbyterians. Rev. Robert Sommerville … on a recent visit to Halifax received from several friends,

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in aid of the undertaking, the sum of 412 dollars. Also in Truro, the further sum of 25.50.”62 The building was to be exclusively Robert’s: the Wolfville Reformed Presbyterian church was never mentioned in Cornwallis session records, nor in minutes or reports of the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Robert went on canvassing funds, “and about 1869 built a church on Prospect Street.”63 The precise date is difficult to determine, for no word survives of its dedication or opening. Moreover, it was probably in use before being fully finished. A secondary source notes that while the church “was being built … a violent gale, just previous to the noted Saxby gale [early in October 1869], blew up and tore the roof off, [though] this was soon remedied.”64 With its roof repaired, the church was probably finished and furnished by early 1870. The style of the new church – a “small but showy Gothic house”65 with “high sharp-pitched roof ”66 – was in marked contrast to the starkly plain church built by William Sommerville at Grafton in the mid-1840s. A manse was built on the same Wolfville lot, the new home of Robert Sommerville and his wife;67 like the church, it had Gothic windows.68 Early in 1870, three years after he had purchased the property, Robert Sommerville mortgaged it, with its church and manse, for $500 – twice what he had paid for the original lot.69 William put the matter succinctly: Robert “is now oppressed with a debt upon the house of worship which he erected in Wolfville.”70 William had been silent about the building and the opening of the new Wolfville Covenanter church, yet he spoke not infrequently when the entire venture was going under. Oppressed with debt, Robert was also burdened with work, for he was school inspector in Kings County, for a time supply at Horton (associated with his father), and sole minister of the debt-ridden church in Wolfville. Overwhelmed, Robert put his hand to the plough, but “notwithstanding the persevering efforts of the minister, in the way of begging throughout the church, [and] the efforts made by the Wolfville congregation themselves, a heavy debt still rest[ed] upon the building.”71 As a final desperate measure, the church “was offered to the [Covenanting] church [in Ulster, then] to the Covenanting Church in the States, subject to the debt still lying upon it, [but] neither [wanted to] incur the responsibility.”72 Robert and



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Elizabeth walked away. In mid-September 1873, the sorrowing father wrote, “next week, Robert leaves for Cincinnati.”73 Moving across the border had been an option for Robert for some time; the exigencies of the Wolfville situation forced him to exercise it.74 There were some immediate results of his departure. First, the Wolfville church building, abandoned by the Covenanters, was quick- ly “used as a house of worship by the [mainline] Presbyterians,”75 though it took some time before they actually purchased the church and manse76 in April 1875.77 Second, “the [Covenanter] members at Wolfville were certified to Horton congregation.”78 Third, Horton, weakened by the rise and fall of the Covenanter cause in Wolfville, was taken over reluctantly but resolutely by William Sommerville. This meant that “to give to Horton part of his services, Mr. Sommerville was obliged to abandon two promising stations in the neighbourhood of Cornwallis.”79 Once again, William appealed to the Ulster synod for assistance: “It would break my heart to abandon Horton. The members are few, but there are two or three places full of promise … connected with it. Could you not send someone to take possession [of Horton] under my nominal pastorate?”80 The plea went unanswered; William Sommerville soldiered on alone. Finally, Robert Sommerville’s departure dashed the hope of raising up a native ministry, a self-sustaining mission, in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The reasons for that failure are discussed in the next chapter. On leaving Nova Scotia in 1873, Robert went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served as stated supply for several months;81 in 1875, he moved to New York to become an associate to Rev. Andrew Stevenson.82 In December 1875, when Stevenson retired because of ill health, Robert was installed as pastor of the Second Reformed Presbyterian congregation, New York, “the largest in the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America.”83 Three facets of Robert Sommerville’s witness are particularly noteworthy. As a preacher, “his messages were prepared with care and were delivered with power.”84 As a pastor, “his heart and hand were ever open to sorrow and need.”85 As a churchman, “for twenty-eight years he was a member of the Board of Superintendents of the Theological Seminary, and for seven years its Chairman.”86 In addition, Sommerville was committed to foreign missions work. Elected to

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the Board of Foreign Missions in 1878,87 one year later he became its corresponding secretary.88 In 1887, Sommerville founded at his own expense a monthly journal, The Herald of Mission News; in 1898, its name was changed to Olive Trees.89 Sommerville was its first and most eminent editor. In 1899, Robert arranged a series of articles, “Missionaries of the Reformed Presbyterian Church to the Lower Provinces of Canada.” The account about Alexander Clarke was written by Clarke’s daughter.90 Robert himself penned the historical biographies of the other heroes – William Sommerville, Stavely, Lawson, and Stewart.91 Robert placed these five on the first rung of missionary greats to whom belonged “the honor of planting the principles of the Second Reformation in that part of America.”92 On the second rung were lesser leaders, who were at different times associated with the original heroes. They were Alexander Charles Stuart, Thomas McFall, Armour James McFarland, Thomas Patton, William Thomas Knox Thompson, and Robert Sommerville himself.93 Of his own ministry he wrote, “He did little more than preach on the Sabbath, the government inspection of public schools in Kings Co., N.S., engaging his whole attention for at least seven years, from 1866 to November 1873, when he resigned and removed to the United States. He cannot be regarded as having been at that time a factor of any importance in the work of the ministry. [He is] named simply that the story may be complete. [His] assistance was merely nominal.”94 Sommerville’s active life ended in 1912, following an accident.95 In failing health, Robert Sommerville died in New York City on 3 February 1920. After his death, his widow returned to Nova Scotia, where she died on 19 March 1924.96 The couple are buried in the Bronxville Cemetery, Bronxville, New York.97 Robert Sommerville was born in Nova Scotia, studied theology in Ulster, and ministered in Nova Scotia. As assistant and successor to William Sommerville, he was largely cocooned. He struggled with and against a formidable father, finding gratification as inspector of schools. Only when he left Nova Scotia and went to Cincinnati did he fully emerge as a man and minister. In New York, Robert Sommerville had a distinguished career as pastor, preacher, and missionary educator.

{8} Thomas Mc Fall and Robert Park

Irish-born Reformed Presbyterian licentiate Thomas McFall faced significant challenges when he came to Nova Scotia in the early 1880s. Although his congregation was gratified that McFall was Irish, and not American, they soon became dissatisfied with him because some of his practices were different from those of his illustrious predecessor, Rev. William Sommerville. The thirty-something McFall had his hands full. Thomas McFall was born in 1848 near Coleraine, county Antrim, Ireland, of sturdy Covenanting stock. His father, James, was a ruling elder in the Reformed Presbyterian congregation.1 Thomas was the third of five sons. His mother, Ann Dunlop, died in 1855.2 The family narrative notes that ten years later, in 1865, “James and his five sons … and two of the mother’s sisters,” came to the United States.3 “The move from Ireland to the United States was prompted by … the desire ‘to start a new life in the New World.’ They already had relatives in the States.”4 Thomas was then about seventeen years old.5 When they came out, the McFall family settled finally in Pittsburgh. “Having five sons it was James McFall’s desire to devote and educate one for the ministry.”6 The family worked to achieve this goal, and older son David became a Covenanter minister. “Having fulfilled their obligation in educating one minister, the family let younger brother Thomas educate himself!”7 Thomas had begun his education in Ireland. In the new world he attended Westminster and Geneva Colleges, then Allegheny Seminary. After graduating, Thomas “worked at the church publishing house in Philadelphia. There he met Anna Martha Lyons, and the two married 15 September 1879.”8 They lived briefly in Philadelphia before coming to Nova Scotia. William Sommerville had been Covenanter minister in Horton and Cornwallis until his death in 1878. When the question of whether the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia should

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remain with the Irish synod or transfer to the American was discussed, Sommerville consistently opposed the switch. But the transfer was carried out immediately after his death in 1878.9 Sommerville’s congregation remained very much opposed to the transfer, for the people “were almost all of pre-Loyalist stock … [who] didn’t like the U.S. – period. They finally agreed to go along with it if they could have an old-country minister.”10 That was Thomas McFall, for he “was the only one among the new ministers who filled the bill and he was sent.”11 Thomas and Anna McFall came to Somerset, Nova Scotia, in 1880. Called by the congregation, licentiate Thomas McFall was ordained in the Cornwallis Covenanter Church at Grafton in August 1881. Besides presbytery clergy Robert Stewart of Wilmot, Nova Scotia, and J.A.F. Bovard of Houlton, Maine, there were two visiting clergy, one of whom was Thomas’s brother, Rev. David McFall, the prominent pastor of the Boston congregation.12 The united congregation of Cornwallis and Horton, though gratified that McFall was an Irishman, not an American, still had their reservations. Thomas was “a young man, without practical experience in pastoral work; he was called to succeed a man of varied experiences during a pastorate of forty-seven years, greatly beloved, and very decided in his views on certain points … Mr. McFall soon found that his new position demanded tact and prudence.”13 A difficulty emerged over baptism, probably when a Baptist wished to become a Covenanter member. McFall proposed following the normal practice: admitting such a person by recognizing the individual’s previous initiation by immersion as valid. To this proposal, the ruling elders were adamantly opposed, schooled as they had been under Sommerville.14 They petitioned the presbytery against McFall.15 Later, McFall petitioned the presbytery against the session for, in approaching potential new ruling elders, existing members of session quizzed candidates to see if they upheld Sommerville’s views on the subject.16 Faced with opposing petitions, the perplexed presbytery forwarded both to the synod.17 Coincident with the dispute, a synod commission was visiting all Covenanter congregations in the Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.18 Though appointed for an entirely dif-



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ferent reason, the commission could not avoid the controversy.19 It found that Sommerville’s name “was still a talisman of power,” and people felt strongly that “those who had been immersed should be rebaptized.” The commissioners “endeavoured from the standards and the practice of the ministers in the United States to convince them that this was not the position occupied by the Reformed Presbyterian Church on that question.”20 The Cornwallis Covenanters were not convinced. Temporarily stayed, the commissioners proposed a final option: a “promise to bring the matter to the attention of synod, and obtain a deliverance on the subject.”21 The synod deliberated, reiterated the normal Covenanter practice, and issued solidly for the views upheld by McFall, against those of Sommerville. Moreover, a carefully crafted communication was sent to the congregation explaining the rationale of the decision, noting the unanimous vote of the synod, and concluding that “we are confident that you will see eye to eye with us” on the matter.22 Cornwallis and Horton congregants received the long letter, and the controversy cooled.23 The ministry of Sommerville cast a long shadow over that of McFall, particularly in the latter’s early years. The men were different in many ways. Sommerville was a great public controversialist, loving disputation, ready and eager to rush into print by book, tract, pamphlet, or newspaper. McFall was much quieter, much less a public figure, writing very little. His pastorate “was not of a sort to make news, but of the sort rather to fill Heaven’s records.”24 Rev. Robert Park compared and contrasted Sommerville and McFall: “These two men [were] of fine minds and great hearts [and] had a mighty influence for good … Sommerville, aggressive and evangelical, Dr. McFall, steadfast and kind.”25 Thomas and Anna McFall first lived in the Somerset manse that had been built for Sommerville. In 1887 it burned, and McFall, doubtless with help from his people, rebuilt it. The manse was later deeded to McFall for arrears in salary.26 The McFalls had two children. A daughter, Mary, was born in 1882, and their son, Robert, in 1887.27 Thomas McFall was an indefatigable minister of the united congregation of Cornwallis and Horton; he also had responsibility for several smaller preaching points. On Sunday morning he would hold

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services for the Cornwallis congregation at Grafton, in the afternoon at Church Street Corner, about thirteen miles away.28 Evening would find him eight miles further from home, in Grand Pré. Once a month, he would drive in another direction, twenty-eight miles in all, to preach in Forest Glen, and sometimes he would also preach in Somerset on his return.29 At the time of Thomas’s ordination in 1881, a commentator noted that “the Cornwallis branch is abundantly able to sustain the Gospel without assistance … Horton, the other branch, is weaker.”30 The united congregation of Cornwallis and Horton had experienced an interruption in the 1860s, and for a time, Horton was virtually a separate congregation under Robert Sommerville.31 By 1873, when it again became part of the united congregation under William Sommerville, it had suffered irretrievable losses. Yet “Mr. McFall continued to hold services for the remnant” at Horton until about 1894.32 Subsequently, Horton was “given up.”33 The church fell into disuse. In 1896, Thomas McFall participated in the First International Convention of Reformed Presbyterian Churches, held in Scotland over a ten-day period in June and July. It was attended by several hundred Reformed Presbyterians from Covenanter homelands of Scotland, Ireland, England, the United States, Australia, and a few from mission fields – Cyprus and Syria. Thomas McFall was apparently the only Canadian.34 The convention consisted of plenary sessions and visits to Covenanter historic sites. McFall gave a talk at a plenary in Glasgow35 and delivered an address at Dalserf.36 During that same trip, McFall went to Ulster and “visited the scenes of his youth, scenes he had left as a boy of 17.”37 It was his sole journey back to his birthplace. The visit to Scotland in 1896 renewed McFall’s appreciation of his Covenanter past and deepened his Scots-Irish roots. Yet ironically, this reappropriation of old world heritage did not strengthen McFall’s hold on his Nova Scotia congregation. Although the congregation was somewhat anti-American, that did not mean that congregants were strongly Scots-Irish. McFall’s is not a success story in conventional terms. Already in 1875 – six years before McFall’s ordination – the Presbyterian Church in Canada had been forged from various strands of Presbyterianism, and it became aggressively mission-oriented.



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Covenanters stood aloof from this movement. McFall stemmed the tide of this new movement relatively well until the turn of the century. From then on, “the Covenanter congregation seems to have been steadily diminishing, whereas … Presbyterianism increased.”38 The Cornwallis church, which had always relied to some extent on money from the synod, increasingly found itself pressed to meet McFall’s modest stipend.39 McFall was named moderator of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod in 1907. By 1912, the Horton/Grand Pré church, which had not been used by the Covenanters for nearly fifteen years, was sold to the mainline Presbyterian church for $300. McFall received the money because that amount was owed to him.40 Henceforth mainline Presbyterians used it as a place of worship.41 McFall was very conscious of Covenanter decline. He “mourned the shrinking of the congregation.”42 His wife Anna died in 1922.43 In the following year, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery ceased to exist, and the Cornwallis congregation became part of the New York Presbytery.44 McFall was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by his alma mater, Geneva College, in 1928.45 At the time of McFall’s death in 1929, he was “the only remaining pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church” in the Maritime provinces.46 Thomas McFall’s funeral was held from his home, and on 17 January 1929 he was buried in Berwick Cemetery, already the resting place of his wife, Anna.47 Thomas McFall inherited a congregation intensely loyal to his predecessor, who had embarked on an aberrant baptism policy. The situation was remedied, and normal baptism practices were restored. But the process sapped energy from pastor and session; it did not enhance the new pastor’s ministry. McFall did not seize the opening to cultivate a new self-understanding on the part of his congregants. Events overtook his ministry. The impulse for union among Presbyterians had been a staple for decades. In 1875, it issued in the new Presbyterian Church in Canada – strong, confident, evangelical, and expansive. McFall was isolated as a Covenanter pastor. McFall was respected; but the number of his congregants steadily decreased. Horton was given up in 1894 and, when McFall died in 1929, Cornwallis came close to suffering the same fate.

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In the month of May 1829, the postmistress at Grafton, undoubtedly at the instigation of her Covenanter neighbours, sent a communication to the church paper. “This is a good field of labor for any minister of our church who is interested in upholding our principles and ministering to the only Covenanter congregation in the beautiful Evangeline country.”48 The plea was not unanswered. Beginning early in August, Rev. Thomas Slater of New Jersey was appointed to preach there on five Sundays.49 He was followed by Rev. Walter S. McClurkin of Pittsburgh, who came for the next three months.50 During the next summer, in 1930, another leader served, at least for a few weeks.51 Robert Park, a fifty-one-year-old Geneva College professor living in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, came to the Cornwallis congregation at the request of New York presbytery. With him on the drive were his wife, Emma, and Wade Marsters, a boy of about six, who was headed for a holiday with his grandparents. In a 2001 memoir, Marsters wrote, “happily headed for Grandmother [Morton’s], I sat in the back of a huge Pierce Arrow which Robert drove – fast. The details of the trip escape me but the care Robert gave his wife, Emma, is still fresh in my mind. She was older than he and they had three grown sons … Emma was probably evidencing the signs of early dementia.”52 Robert Park fell in love with Nova Scotia and the Cornwallis congregation,53 and he returned each summer until his death in 1961. Robert Park was born in Rome, New York, on 12 May 1880, in a solid Covenanter home to parents who had emigrated from Ireland. He attended Syracuse University and the Theological Seminary in Allegheny. Ordained in 1909, for over a decade he was Covenanter pastor at Parnassus, Philadelphia. In 1922, Park took up work as instructor in history and coach at Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.54 Later he became professor of New Testament and church history. Park’s academic activities were not restricted to Geneva College. At the 1929 meeting of synod, he was elected professor of church history in the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh.55 He held both positions, retiring from the seminary in 195256 and from Geneva College in 1955.57 In 1934 Park was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Syracuse University, an honour reported by the local Cornwallis paper.58 Park’s annual visit had



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been regularized in 1930 and, in effect, Park became acting pastor of the Cornwallis Covenanter church each summer.59 Park’s conscientious visits to Covenanter homes endeared him to his congregants. One such household was the Captain Robert Otis Hayes family of Pleasant Valley Road, Somerset, Nova Scotia. The youngest daughter, Jennie May Hayes, “had attended Mount Allison University very briefly somewhere around 1930,60 but left because she became homesick.”61 Park “convinced Jennie to return with them to Beaver Falls in the fall of 1931 so that she could attend Geneva College. She lived on the 3rd floor of his house, 1 block from campus, together with my father’s niece.”62 Park was a church historian, and when he came to Grafton in the summer of 1933, he announced that he “purposes holding a service in the Old Covenanter Church, at Grand Pré on Sabbath July 30th, in celebration of the 100th anniversary” of the coming to that church of “the late Rev. William Sommerville”63 – this despite the fact that McFall had last held services there in 1894 and that the church now belonged to the United Church of Canada. At this “Centennial Service at Grand Pré,” Park read “a brief summary of Mr. Sommerville’s life and work.”64 Two years later, in 1935, Park conducted another centennial service. “The little Covenanter Church at Grafton was well filled Sabbath afternoon, August 18, 1935, with survivors of old Covenanter families and friends when a service was held to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary” of Sommerville’s coming to that congregation. At this service, “Dr. Park gave a short historical sketch,” noting that Cornwallis had the unique distinction of having had only two ministers in the past century, whose pastorates extended over a period of ninety-three years. Park paid tribute to both.65 Although Park could not have known Sommerville personally, “he was an intimate friend of the late Dr. McFall.”66 Park also held centennial services in 1952 in the former Wilmot church at Melvern Square though no Covenanter service had been held in it since the 1870s.67 Robert Park built his summer cottage with his own hands on the East Bluff at Harbourville, on a shore side lot bequeathed by a congregant, Margaret Cogswell.68 In August 1935, the Parks “formally opened their new summer home and … entertained the members of

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the Covenanter Church at Grafton to a picnic.”69 The cottage was the summer home of Robert and Emma Park for a few short years. Not well for some years, Emma Park died of Alzheimer disease on 4 July 1939, in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.70 Robert Park returned to his cottage in 1939 and in 1940, ministering not only in the Grafton church but in the resort community of Harbourville as well.71 On the last day of 1940, Robert Park remarried.72 His bride was Jennie May Hayes, the young woman who had left Nova Scotia in 1931 in order to attend Geneva College. After graduating in 1935, she became a teacher in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.73 When the couple returned to Nova Scotia the summer after the wedding, the Grafton Covenanter congregants and friends “gathered to extend congratulations and best wishes,” and to bestow gifts.74 In the 1940s, Robert and Jennie Park became the proud parents of two sons, John Hayes, born in December 1945, and Eric Allan in March 1947. John wrote later, “I was baptized at Cornwallis Church on 25 August 1946.”75 The boys were readily accepted into the Covenanter congregation and they grew to love the locality. “We had at least two and a half months there every summer … We couldn’t wait to get down home [to Nova Scotia], and we did not want to leave any sooner than we had to.”76 Park never spent more than three months a year in Nova Scotia, even after retiring as a professor in 1955. Thus the congregation, never large, grew smaller. Society meetings were no longer effective, and Cornwallis Covenanters, without Covenanter church worship in the winter, went to the Berwick United Church. In the summer of 1961, a couple of weeks before the family was to leave Nova Scotia, Robert Park fell, striking his head as he walked along a path at the cottage. Realizing he was not well, the family “really pushed it on the trip back.”77 Park died in November, in Beaver Falls.78 The Register recorded his death with a photo and a relatively short column.79 Two days after Park’s death, one of the two remaining Cornwallis elders, Andrew S. Morton, died in Nova Scotia.80 Since there was but one remaining elder, New York presbytery reported at the 1962 synod meeting that “Cornwallis was disorganized … and the names of the members of the congregation were placed on the roll of presbytery.”81



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For the next few summers, no services were held in the Cornwallis Covenanter church; it appeared that the church building might fall into permanent disuse. Then Hugh Nesbitt, son-in-law of the late Rev. Thomas McFall, entered the scene. Sometime in the mid-1960s, Nesbitt, who had been a deacon in the Cornwallis congregation, proceeded to “clean out” the church and sell the building. Apparently, he had received permission from the Reformed Presbyterian Church headquarters in Pittsburgh to proceed. Nesbitt sold whatever church contents he could. Tentatively, he sold the building itself for a few hundred dollars to someone who planned to either move it or use it for storage. Before the sale was finalized, however, Robert Park’s widow, Jennie, heard the rumour and determined to intervene.82 “She called Pittsburgh and had the permission to sell revoked.” Her son John wrote that, energized by the negative activity of Hugh Nesbitt, “the church was kept open by my mother’s devotion.”83 In 1968, she penned a brief history of the Cornwallis Church at Grafton.84 More significantly, “she formed the Cornwallis Reformed Presbyterian Association and by sheer force of will kept it going. She received some large donations to help repair the building.”85 The association, again with Jennie Park as driving force, organized a service in 1971.86 Three Covenanter clergy – close friends of Robert Park – conducted the service.87 The association was later incorporated88 and, following 1971, held a service each summer. “Many of the people who gather for the service in August have grown up in the Covenanter tradition. Although not Covenanters themselves, they have had ancestors who worshipped and belonged … Folks come from far and near and as the old customs are once more observed, it is indeed a moving experience to those who participate.”89 Following the service on 11 August 1991, the building was designated a Nova Scotia Heritage property, with Jennie Park among those present at the plaque’s unveiling.90 For many years, the annual service was conducted by United Church clergy.91 Currently, sons of Robert Park, Reverends John and Eric Park sometimes officiate;92 normally, visiting Covenanter ministers come from the United States. When she was in good health, Jennie Park returned to the Harbourville cottage, still owned by the

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Park family. She died in Pittsburgh on 3 April 2003, after a lengthy illness.93 The annual Covenanter service held at Grafton each summer forms part of the present-day legacy of the Covenanters in Nova Scotia. The ministries of Robert and Jennie Park, most specifically in relation to the Cornwallis Church at Grafton, helped to preserve this legacy even though full Covenanter ministry in Nova Scotia effectively died with Thomas McFall. The zeal of the original missionaries – Clarke, Sommerville, Stavely, Lawson, and Stewart – was severely attenuated one hundred years later. Why this century-long rise and fall? Robert Sommerville’s appraisal is a starting point. Five ministers were sent. These men planted the principles of the Second Reformation in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They laboured with great fidelity, without the materials and assistance necessary for successful missionary operations. They accomplished far-reaching and permanent results.94 The mission did not have the requisite assistance. In sending out the five, the Irish synod was not operating out of a deep tradition of mission in British North America. Between the two mission fields – the new world and Ulster – “it will be the aim of the Society to provide more amply for those … in comparatively a destitute condition at home, by assisting weaker congregations.”95 The Missionary Society was established in 1823; in 1825 presbyteries were asked to seek out men to go to New Brunswick. Clarke offered first, followed by Sommerville, and later the other three; no others were forthcoming.96 The Missionary Society maintained strong links with the missionaries and supported them financially. While the support was consistent, it was not adequate. Clarke farmed to support his family; Sommerville set up a school; Stavely was a fundraiser; Stewart’s home was paid for by others. Lawson alone lived on the yearly combined stipends of the Missionary Society and his congregation. The Irish synod did not have deep pockets: there were few wealthy members and not many prosperous congregations. Persistently, the Missionary Society impressed upon Ulster Covenanters the significance of the new world mission, and urged more generous financial support. We “cannot pass … without expressing heartfelt concern that the Church has yet done so little towards the extension and effi-



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ciency of the Colonial Mission.”97 The society asked Ulster Covenanters for both greater financial assistance and volunteers for mission. Yet, except for one increase in stipend, missionaries were not better paid. And Robert Stewart was the last missionary sent. The Covenanter effort failed in the Maritimes not only because of a tepid Irish mission impulse or an inept Missionary Society. The effort collapsed because a theology forged in Scotland and Ireland was imposed on the new world without consideration of the human and geographic contours of a different continent. The five planters – Stewart perhaps excepted – were deeply committed.98 They had zealously imparted Reformed Presbyterian theology and praxis. Even Clarke, who fell off the wagon early, consistently saw himself as a genuine Covenanter. Said of Sommerville, the statement could apply to his colleagues: “his zeal for Covenanter advancement was with him an absorbing and consuming passion.”99 Stavely was undoubtedly the most flexible; as we have seen, he contemplated change but, on consideration, resisted it.100 The missionaries knew the truths to be imparted. However, the goal of a self-sustaining mission was never realized: the dependency of those in the new world worked against it. At times, the Missionary Society inadvertently admitted as much. Robert Stewart “received very little, if any, remuneration for his services from the people. Their depressed circumstances, and the habit of receiving visits from itinerant preachers of various sects, without considering themselves called upon to contribute for the support of the Gospel, may account for [this] state of matters.”101 The Covenanter mission in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia failed because Ulster was seen as the font and source of wisdom and of personnel. From Ulster came the mission to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The agents and deliverers were the missionaries. When shortages resulted, it was back to the source for help. The cries of remote Reformed Presbyterians pressed upon the missionaries who in turn kept pleading for more assistants from Ulster. In 1874, the presbytery clerk wrote, “We are really distressed from want of help. Promising stations are slipping out of our hands because we cannot attend to them. Other denominations are likely to enter into our labours. Is it possible for you to do anything for us? We again renew our formal and most earnest appeal for help.”102

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The Covenanter mission failed because of the strategy of reaching out to members in remote areas which left the mission consistently thin on the ground. Missionaries were heavily engaged in various outposts, meeting scattered Covenanters infrequently. Insufficient time and energy were spent on consolidating deeply rooted and dependable sessions and congregations. Sommerville attracted several youth to the ministry in the early days, though only one persisted. As bearers of the enterprise, the missionaries did not attract young men to the ministry. Of course, elders were elected and ordained, sessions came into being. Of elders’ thoughts, however, little is known, though testimonies to their faithfulness and piety abound. One of the earliest was Elihu Woodworth, born in Horton in 1771 of Planter stock. Woodworth was the chief figure in bringing Sommerville to Horton. Later, when Sommerville was holding services in other areas, Woodworth led society meetings. Sommerville and Woodworth met frequently, visited members of the church, and dined at each other’s homes. Woodworth’s behaviour illustrates that he did not always share Sommerville’s views, as Watson Kirkconnell indicates. In 1835, when Sommerville was away, Woodworth attended a meeting of Horton Methodists; in the same year he went alone to a Church of Scotland conference in Saint John. In 1836, “he copied out some of the forbidden hymns for Miss Harriet Avery, evidently a bootleg operation.”103 Woodworth’s own views are unknown, but his independent behaviour did not impinge on Covenanter practice. Woodworth died in 1853. Covenanter sessions were largely compliant with the views of their moderators. When a session did object, as in Sommerville’s suit against the Free Church, their views were ignored. Much more is known of Saint John elder Robert Ewing. Born in Northern Ireland in 1807, “his early training was under the rigid discipline that [then] obtained in the godly homes” of Ulster. He came as a young man to Saint John and was immediately involved in the Covenanter society, becoming an elder in 1841, the year in which the Saint John congregation was formed. In an already staunch community, Ewing’s views reinforced Saint John orthopraxis. A man of piety and principle, a life-long member of session, Ewing’s “convictions were clear, definite and settled, and he had the ability to express his



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ideas in a style remarkably free and full and forcible.”104 Near the end of his life, he penned an article, “Reformed Presbyterian Church,” though it was not published until later. Ewing died in 1883. Ewing’s signature essay might well have been entitled “How is it that the Reformed Presbyterian Church is so small?”105 He recited Covenanter convictions. Covenanters take no part in politics, exercise strict discipline, sing psalms alone in worship, and do not permit membership in secret societies. Their sacramental table is spread only for those who adhere to the pure gospel. Their main mission: to bear testimony to the truth, and in that mission they are successful. The Covenanter way is the only way; there is no opening for novel thinking from New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. Ewing grants that the church has few attractions. It has no hymns, choirs, organs. Because of the want of such attractions, many youth are drawn off, enticed by other denominations. Covenanters have no power or political influence; thus, some leave seduced by that allure. Yet Covenanters stand firm, bearing a fruitful testimony and witness to the truth. Ewing, probably the most prominent Covenanter elder, active in congregation and presbytery, was akin to his colleagues in other Covenanter sessions. Elders normally and readily shared the views and counter views of the Ulster missionaries.106 Covenanter congregations, like the sessions, conformed too readily to the missionary mould. The gifts of women were underused. Saint John’s Letitia Simson became a prominent published poet, but in her life and writings she operated largely within accepted cultural boundaries.107 For Covenanters, women were not equal to men. For the Society of Friends, they were: “The spiritual equality of men and women … reached a level of formality [among Friends] not seen in other sects.”108 Undoubtedly, in society meetings and daily lives, Covenanter men and women witnessed effectively. The divide between missionary and laity, however, was too great for Covenanters to cross effectively. There was nothing akin to the Quaker recognition of spiritual graces: “If a man or woman possessed a marked gift of stirring up the spiritual life of others, a high degree of prophetic insight, and unusual powers of speech, this gift … would be acknowledged” and put to use.109 There was but slight parallel to the Methodist model of local or lay preachers.110 When Covenanter layman

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John Toland began to preach, the presbytery quickly supervised and co-opted him. Theology, tradition, and the missionary attitude prevented such models from influencing Covenanter practice. The New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery had a new world name but retained an old world soul. The Ulster mission was not genuinely grafted into the life and culture of the Lower Provinces. Without a solid grounding north of the border, the congregations did not find firm footing when they were taken over by the American synod. The fields pastored by four original and long-serving missionaries were now – with the exception of Cornwallis – occupied with shorter term ministers, lesser leaders. Robert Sommerville writes that “a brief reference to other laborers who were at different times associated with them … complete[s] the story.”111 The “other labourers” were without vision about or commitment to an indigenous Canadian Covenanter church. These “other labourers” were also inadequately paid.112 At the request of the American Central Board of Missions, Rev. George Kennedy came to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 1885 to investigate. Noting the fact that Covenanters in the provinces did little to support the schemes of the church, Kennedy asserts, “The church bears the marks of its existence as a mission.” In the past “[t]he mother church in Ireland did not insist on contributions from its mission for general church work. The first settlers were not able to do much, but their children and grandchildren have become prosperous and could not entitle themselves to the reward of those who come to the help of the Lord in active support of his work. Many of them, however, are at a disadvantage for the defect through weakness of their fathers has become, in cases, the habit of their children.”113 Was the situation better for the New School Covenanters under Alexander Clarke in the Chignecto region? In one important way, the Chignecto situation was different: congregants were able to sit on juries and exercise the elective franchise. Yet in Chignecto, too, the cry for union among Presbyterians proved very challenging. In 1859, Rev. William Darragh led a large portion of the Covenanter congregation in Goose River/Linden into the Free Church.114 In 1875, a year after Alexander Clarke died, the Presbyterian Church in Canada came into being, and shortly thereafter, a majority of the Little Shemogue Covenanter community followed their pastor, Samuel Boyd, into the new Presbyterian Church.115



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As we have seen, few young men were attracted to the Old School Covenanter ministry. Four approached, three soon abandoned the pursuit. In Chignecto, nine men embarked on theological studies, seven became Covenanter ministers.116 One of the ablest was Rev. Joseph Howe Brownell, born in Northport. After theological studies, Brownell returned to be Covenanter minister in Little Shemogue and Linden in 1893. However, in 1905, he was the chief figure in leading the remaining Chignecto Covenanters into the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The New School was no more successful than the Old: in spite of more Chignecto youth entering the ministry, the Covenanter cause did not become rooted under Clarke. Ousted in Chignecto in 1905, in Cornwallis in 1929 – with a respite until 1961 – Reformed Presbyterianism was not permanent. In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the Covenanter movement was not indigenized. Again, why not? Are there reasons from the perspective of Reformed Presbyterians and genuine Covenanter congregants themselves that the movement found no enduring home in the Lower Provinces? First, Covenanters were geographically and psychically removed from Reformed Presbyterian Scots and Irish sites of courage and martrydom. In the Maritimes, no Covenanters became martyrs. True, many of them suffered disdain, disapproval, dislike. They knew the sting of being different, the stigma of not belonging. But persecution never became part of their lived experience. Blood is the seed of the church; there was a resulting harvest for Covenanters in Scotland and Ireland, but not in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. In this too, natives differed from the Irish missionaries. Rev. John Sprott, raised in Scotland as a Covenanter, wrote from Musquodoboit in 1865, “My old countrymen, the Rev. Drs. Clark and Sommerville, are ministers of talent and acquirement, but it is difficult to engraft their peculiar views upon a floating population like Nova Scotia. At home the hands of Reformed Presbyterians are strengthened by the traditions of the country and the tombs of the martyrs, but here, in Nova Scotia, our history is little further than the battle of Bunker’s Hill. We know little of Drumclog or Bothwell Bridge, or the persecution of Twentyeight years.”117 Second, Covenanters in the new world were pressed by societal and political issues that they could not ignore, from which some could

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not abstain. Frequently it was the forbidden elective franchise that proved irresistible. Alexander Clarke is the best known of those who yielded. Circumstances in Cumberland could not escape his notice, his keen insight; he was constrained to speak, and finally to vote. For John Boyd, an earnest and upwardly mobile Saint John man around town, the passage out of the Covenanter fold in the early 1850s may not have been painful. Perhaps the motive was more egocentric than altruistic, we know not. John Burgess Calkin left his Free Church background as a young man, fully embraced the Covenanter faith, and commenced theological studies. When he embarked instead on a path in education, he and his wife remained Covenanter. A decade later, for reasons that are not clear, Calkin voted in a Nova Scotia election in the 1860s. He must have known the outcome. The session, on which his brother was an elder, cast him out of the Cornwallis congregation and the Covenanter church. Calkin subsequently joined the Free Church, though his wife remained Covenanter.118 The difficult impasse in which Clarke found himself was undoubtedly repeated, perhaps less imperiously, nonetheless stressfully, in many other individual lives. Third, the evangelical warmth and fellowship that men, women, and children experienced in Covenanter society and congregations were also available, increasingly so, in other Christian denominations – Baptist, Church of England, Methodist. In Barnesville, Lawson, utterly convinced of the truth of the Covenanter gospel, granted that there was strength and support for non-Covenanters in Methodist and Church of England congregations. And some denominations promoted singing songs other than the Psalms. Particularly challenging in the Maritimes was the coming of the Free Church119 because it took up as its own certain Covenanter convictions, and it already had the approved form of church organization with session, presbytery, and synod. Reformed Presbyterianism was not the only religious denomination to put down roots insufficiently strong to mature, develop, and last. The Society of Friends had settlements in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the mid-1700s. A Quaker settlement flourished for a time in Pennfield, New Brunswick. Yet it weakened. When Quaker Joshua Evans visited in 1795, he observed that “Many people here … had



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an education amongst Friends and are friendly but appear as sheep without a shepherd.”120 So “in spite of assistance from Pennsylvania, and by English and Irish friends, the colony was unable to maintain itself.”121 Similarly, in Nova Scotia, at Barrington, “the characteristics of a distinctive Quaker group were gradually lost”;122 while at Dartmouth, where the narrative of the Society of Friends was one of constant bitter struggle, the little meeting gradually dwindled away.123 The Reformed Presbyterian Church did not incarnate a new world form sufficient to hold across generations. Sloughing off Clarke, who opted for a New School Reformed Presbyterianism, the Old School was insufficiently supple or genuine to find a permanent niche – not when confronted with other churches. In the early days, many flocked to hear Covenanter sermons. Frequently people were attracted to the warm piety and evangelical preaching; it provided sustenance and comfort in difficult times. Many came, for a time. Some indeed stayed. But the children and the children’s children frequently found homes in other religious traditions. In spite of differences, the situation was not dissimilar with Clarke-led New School Reformed Presbyterians. Frank Archibald, an early historian of the New School Covenanters, wrote thirty years after their demise; his reflections largely apply as well to the Old School. “The great reason [for decline] was that, more than any other Church, the eyes of the Covenanter Church were ever on the past – ever on the lands beyond; and all the while the Presbyterian Church in Canada, a Church adaptable to Canadian conditions, ‘indigenous to the soil,’ was growing and spreading throughout the Provinces of the Dominion.” Virtually all the Covenanter forms have been swept away in the Maritimes. What may remain today is “the spirit of the Covenanters of old – the unyielding loyalty to principle, the stern devotion to truth as it was given them to see the truth, the steadfast courage in the face of life’s greatest battles.”124 Though Reformed Presbyterianism, as a denomination, was not permanent in the Maritimes, the Covenanters left a far-reaching heritage. In the Chignecto New School region, where few architectural vestiges remain, the small Darragh-built Renwick United Church at Linden, Nova Scotia, is a gem.125 Most Chignecto Covenanters became Presbyterian and United Church members. Two New School Covenanter brothers, William Young Chapman and John

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Carritte Chapman, ministered as Presbyterian pastors in the United States; William Chapman became president of Bloomfield Theological Seminary.126 Rev. Samuel Crothers Murray, born at Little Shemogue, attended Mount Allison and Princeton universities. His chief ministry was as Presbyterian Superintendent of Home Missions in western Canada from 1911 to 1920.127 He then served in Presbyterian and United churches in Manitoba.128 The Old School Covenanters left stronger traces, a more far-reaching legacy: of course, their witness was kept alive until 1961 through the ministry of Robert Park. The West Cornwallis Church stands at Grafton, a provincial heritage property and the site of an annual Covenanter worship service. Much more publicly significant is the Covenanter Church at Grand Pré. There is irony in its name and celebration as a Covenanter legacy; yet it was the focus of William Sommerville’s initial successes. Used unevenly, in the sixties and early seventies it moved from being “less a relic and more a functioning church.”129 In the eighties, the church became both a provincial heritage property and a national historic site.130 The church is a regular place of worship every summer, part of the Wolfville Pastoral Charge of the United Church. While the term Covenanter was not originally applied to the church, over time it has become widely accepted. Today the name is used, supported, and celebrated.131 It is in the field of education, for both men and women, that the Covenanters left their most far-reaching legacy. John B. Calkin, principal of the Truro Normal School, was a leading Nova Scotia educator and author. He encouraged two Normal School students – his daughter Amelia, and Margaret Newcomb – to enroll at Dalhousie University, the first women to do so. Margaret Newcomb was the first graduate. Newcomb later taught at the Halifax Ladies College.132 Jean Sommerville, William’s granddaughter, a teacher, became a missionary in China and then Trinidad, working for the Presbyterian and United churches.133 In the Lower Provinces the Irish mission Covenanter denomination ceased to exist. If there were to be a Reformed Presbyterian church in Canada, it would have to arise in other areas. Would the situation be different with the Scots mission in Lower and Upper Canada? To that we now turn.

{9} Lower Canada Covenanters and the Scots Synod In the late 1820s or early 1830s, American pastor Rev. James Milligan visited Lower Canada (Quebec). He established societies in Henryville and Lachute,1 but they quickly disappeared. Soon, however, Covenanters made inroads in two areas in Lower Canada: first, in Megantic County (in the townships of Inverness, Halifax, New Ireland, and Leeds), 80 kilometres southeast of Quebec City;2 and second, in Pontiac County (in the townships of Bristol, Clarendon, and Litchfield), across the Ottawa River from Lanark County.3 This chapter deals primarily with the two Covenanter missionaries who worked in these two distinct counties.

James McLachlan 4 and Megantic County On 13 January 1833, thirty-three residents of Megantic County, Lower Canada, petitioned the Committee on Missions of the Scots Reformed Presbyterian Synod for a missionary “to preach among them the everlasting gospel.”5 The petitioners, principally settlers from Scotland, stated that they were “completely shut out from access to gospel ordinances, being placed at the distance of between fifty and sixty miles from any regular Presbyterian congregation.” Although they felt “unable, from their present circumstances, to propose any fixed stipend, being all new settlers,” they expected, “in a year or two, to make a suitable provision for a regular gospel ministry among them.” When the Scots Committee on Missions received their petition, Rev. James McLachlan had just been designated a missionary to Upper Canada (Ontario); he was on the verge of departing. While the committee was highly gratified with the Lower Canada resolutions, they “deeply regretted that they could not, in present circumstances, comply with the earnest prayer of the petitioners.”6 They pursued the

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Map 3  Reformed Presbyterians in eastern Lower Canada (Quebec)

next best option: they “ordered Mr. McLachlan to visit the townships [of Inverness, Halifax, and New Ireland in County Megantic], on his landing in Quebec, and preach for a short time to the people before he proceeded to … Upper Canada.” McLachlan was furnished with



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Table 1 McLachlan’s missionary journeys in Lower Canada (Quebec) August 1833 March 1834 March and June 1835 October 1835 January, March, and July 1836 January 1840 August 1844

Leeds and Inverness1 Bristol2 Bristol, Clarendon, Litchfield3 Bristol, Clarendon, Litchfield4 Bristol, Clarendon, Litchfield5 Leeds6 Sorel7

1 Rev. James McLachlan, “Letter,” 29 August 1833: Scottish Advocate 1 (1832–1834), 417–18. 2 McLachlan, “Letter,” 13 May 1834: sp, January 1835, 13–16. 3 “Letter,” 3 January 1837: sp, July 1837, 294–5. 4 “Letter,” ibid., 295. 5 Ibid. 6 “Letter,” 20 February 1840: sp, January 1841, 19–20. 7 “Letter,” 16 September 1844: sp, March 1835, 88–9.

books to give to his Megantic listeners, books “illustrative of the principles of the covenanted reformation.” As he departed from Scotland, McLachlan also received a letter of instruction from Rev. Dr Andrew Symington, convenor of the Committee on Missions.7 The missionary for Upper Canada (Ontario) was also to labour occasionally in Lower Canada (Quebec); McLachlan’s visits to the latter region are outlined in Table 1. James McLachlan was born in Glasgow on 14 June 1798. “His parents were pious members of the Secession Church, with which body he also connected in early life.”8 He studied at Glasgow University and pursued theology in the Perth Seminary “under the direction of the eminent Dr. Taylor, of the old Burgher section of the Secession Church.” In 1825 he married Jane Campbell of Glasgow, and he was licensed by Glasgow Presbytery on 19 April 1826. Later that year, on 16 November, he was ordained by the same court. Under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, the couple went to the Cape of Good Hope to work in the Caffraria region. When Jane McLachlan became seriously ill the next year, they returned to Scotland; she died

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a short time later.9 McLachlan spent the next four years as chaplain to the Seamen’s Chapel in Glasgow. During this time, however, he became dissatisfied with his ecclesiastical connection; convinced of the truth of the distinctive principles of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, he joined that church.10 McLachlan married Christiana Hamilton in 1833; the couple were childless.11 Sailing from Greenock, James and Christiana McLachlan arrived at Quebec on 18 August 1833.12 McLachlan immediately called on “Robert Geggie, teacher, of Quebec, who kindly received him, and gave him directions respecting his proposed visit to the townships in which the petitioners resided.” Geggie was attentive and helpful.13 He talked about Inverness, Halifax, and New Ireland, and he urged the importance of McLachlan’s visit. The next day McLachlan proceeded on a two-day journey to the upper end of Leeds Township, where he lodged with one of the petitioners, Mr Russell.14 From Leeds, McLachlan went with Russell to Inverness Township, preaching there to far more than expected, especially since only three hours’ notice had been given and it was a busy time of year.15 Returning to Leeds the next day, he preached on the Sabbath forenoon to a crowded audience, “some of whom I observed not only having their attention rivetted, but their minds apparently much affected under the preaching of the word; the tears I observed rushing down their cheeks very copiously.” McLachlan went to another place in Inverness Township, seven miles distant. Here, too, the audience was numerous and attentive. In a letter McLachlan reflected on his experiences: “From what I know of the people” these townships would provide “an interesting field of labour for a zealous and pious missionary to cultivate.” McLachlan left books with some of his listeners and assured them that “the Committee of Missions … had received their petition and resolutions … As soon as one offered himself to the Missionary Committee [in Scotland] to embark on this work … they would not delay in sending him to labour among them.” Then McLachlan departed: “I leave Quebec for Montreal tonight at 12 o’clock. I proceed from Montreal to Ramsay on the 4th of September.”16 McLachlan went on to Ramsay, in Lanark County, Upper Canada, but the impressions left by his ten-day sojourn in Lower Canada



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were reported. Robert Geggie, who was with McLachlan for some of the time, wrote afterwards, “I have learned since, that his preaching pleased those who heard him. Indeed, had he not been appointed to Ramsay, they would have been most happy to have kept him altogether.” Another petitioner appealed to old world Covenanters: “The case is urgent. Many are perishing for lack of knowledge … O that God would put it into the heart of some zealous, pious, and devoted servant of his, to come to this benighted country! Will none of our preachers or students obey the call?”17

James McLachlan and Pontiac County In Ramsey, McLachlan learned from Rev. James Milligan about a Covenanter family residing in Pontiac County, Lower Canada.18 Milligan had not visited there, but he urged McLachlan to go. Early in March 1834, the two left Ramsay and travelled together for a time. They parted along the way, and McLachlan went on to Pontiac where he found the family about whom Milligan had been informed. He discovered that they were not connected with the Covenanters in Scotland, but that the father had lived with a Reformed Presbyterian family for a few years and was acquainted with Reformed Presbyterian principles. Moreover, he was intelligent and expressed a strong desire that a Covenanter missionary might be sent among his neighbours. McLachlan advised him to consult with them to see whether they were interested and would give financial support: if so, they should make a petition. McLachlan was asked to preach. On a day’s notice, a group met in a schoolhouse: “the attendance was good. At the close of the exercise, I took the liberty of giving them a short view of our principles, with which they seemed pleased.”19 His listeners were chiefly Presbyterians, though not Covenanters. A month later, thirty residents of Pontiac County signed a petition addressed to the Reformed Presbyterian session of the Ramsay congregation: “We would feel highly delighted in having Mr. McLachlan to come as often as possible to preach in our neighbourhood, and assist us in the duties of religion. Earnestly wishing you may consider our situation … 11th March 1834.”20 McLachlan was impressed by the fervour of the Bristol petitioners, and he and his Ramsay ses-

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sion “agreed to give them sermon occasionally.”21 There is no report of Covenanter affairs in Pontiac County during the next several months, though it is possible that McLachlan visited very infrequently. In March of 1835, McLachlan spent two weeks in Pontiac County, in the townships of Bristol, Clarendon, and Litchfield. He “conversed with a few of the settlers in this quarter about divine things … They seemed very desirous that I would renew my visit as soon as possible.”22 Three months later, again in Pontiac County, McLachlan “examined three persons whose knowledge of the doctrines of free grace and the principles of the reformation were satisfactory. Being satisfied with their moral and religious character, I put the terms of communion to them, to which they signified their assent, and after prayer, I gave them the right hand of fellowship, with a few advices how to conduct themselves as witnesses for Christ.”23 In the summer of 1835, sixtyfive petitioners from Bristol and Clarendon townships requested that the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Scotland send them a pastor.24 Before dispatching their petition, they had subscribed £26.12 for the year 1835; and they expressed the conviction that in a short time they would be able to increase the sum considerably. McLachlan returned to Pontiac yet again, in October 1835. “The number of members in this quarter is three. They meet together on Sabbath, in a social capacity, for religious exercises, but still they lament the want of public ordinances.”25 A month later, McLachlan wrote of the situation in Pontiac: “The settlers in Bristol, Clarendon, and Litchfield, have been, for more than two months, waiting with anxiety for an answer to their petition, which I presume the Convener of your Committee would receive last summer.”26 McLachlan was hopeful about the prospects of a Covenanter future in Pontiac County.27 When McLachlan went back to Pontiac a few times in the first half of 1836, his previous positive attitude altered radically. He was now critical. “The people in general throughout these townships, are without the very form of a religious profession. It would require the labour of a Boanerges, accompanied with divine power, to rouse them from their lethargy. To support the gospel they have shown little desire. From my own experience, I am disposed to think there will be a deficiency in the sum specified in their petition, for a minister from



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Scotland: not, however, from their want of ability, but from their want of will.”28 McLachlan’s advice to the Committee on Missions was clear: if you send a man, let the terms be conditional “as there is plenty of scope for his labours in other quarters, where he may be more useful.”29 McLachlan apparently never returned to Pontiac. When the Scots Committee on Missions took up the Pontiac County situation again in 1838, it was faced with two requests for missionaries, one from the stations in Lower Canada and another from those in western Upper Canada. The committee considered it “desirable that we should have it in our power to send a missionary to each of these districts.”30 A few years later, in 1842, only one missionary was available, and Rev. Thomas McKeachie was sent to western Upper Canada.31 Reformed Presbyterianism disappeared in Pontiac County.

James Geggie and Megantic County After McLachlan’s brief visit, Megantic Covenanters pinned their hopes on receiving a long-term missionary from Scotland. It did not happen quickly. After “more than two years” they were “still looking with the deepest anxiety for a minister from the Reformed Presbyterian Church.”32 An Inverness Township Covenanter wrote to Robert Geggie in Quebec: “I am surprised that no account has come from you of late, respecting a clergyman from the Reformed Presbyterian Church … We expected that we should have had one ere this time.”33 At last, in 1837 the synod’s committee was able to respond to these pleas; early in that year it was announced that James Geggie “had consented to go to Canada … as a Missionary.”34 James Geggie was born in 1793 in Chirnside, Berwickshire, Scotland.35 His parents were members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church and his father was for many years an elder. After receiving the rudiments of education at home and at the parish school, James attended a private and select school, taught by the Rev. J. Phillips, minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He spent four years at the University of Edinburgh, and he studied theology for four years under Rev. Dr Andrew Symington of Paisley. Licensed in 1823, from that time until he was ordained in 1837, he was employed in supply-

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ing vacant congregations in Scotland.36 James Geggie married Ann in 1836, and they became parents the following year.37 The possibility of going to Canada had been before Geggie for some time. On receiving the Megantic petition in 1833, Rev. Dr Andrew Symington of the Missions Committee wrote to Geggie: “I understand … that you might probably be induced to go to Canada. There have been several allusions to you in two private letters rec’d from your brother [Robert Geggie, of Quebec].”38 Apparently James Geggie answered negatively, for another committee member, Rev. John Carslaw, wrote to Quebec teacher Robert Geggie in June 1834: “Dr. Symington wrote your brother on the subject, but he refuses to go. I am somewhat surprised at this. We will give him as much stipend as any of us have and I should think his labours would be far more necessary in Canada than here.”39 Early in 1837, committee clerk Rev. John Carslaw again wrote to Geggie: “I now write to inform you that the Synod at its last meeting unanimously agreed to request you to go to Canada as a missionary … The calls from Canada are very urgent. I hope you now see your way very clear to comply with the request of Synod … Providence is calling upon you to go preach the gospel in Lower Canada.”40 His rhetoric grew more florid: “Obey then the voice of providence, cross the seas – unfurl the banner and the cross, and settle among a people who are crying so urgently for the enjoyment of your labours.” James Geggie’s less-than-determined no of 1834 became a reluctant yes in 1837, for Carslaw responded, “The Committee on Missions … unanimously agreed to accept your compliance with the request of Synod.”41 Writing to his brother, Robert, in Quebec, at about the same time, James acknowledged “as there is no probability of a settlement for me in Scotland, I consented to cross the seas.” Though the reluctant licentiate voiced something less than a clarion call to Canada, he added, “I hope, by the blessing of the Lord Jesus … to be more useful in the wilderness than in this country.”42 The Committee on Missions “proceeded, with all possible despatch, to complete the arrangements for his departure.”43 “At Edinburgh, on the 27th of June [1837], Mr. James Geggie was ordained … and set apart as a Missionary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to Lower Canada.”44 It was noted that Geggie was



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the second missionary appointed by the Scottish Synod, McLachlan being the first. Financial arrangements were made for Geggie’s outfit and passage – including £40 for his initial year’s stipend.45 He was also appropriately briefed: Geggie was required to communicate at least quarterly with the synod through the Committee on Missions. On 12 August 1837, Rev. James Geggie, wife Ann, and their child set sail, arriving in the port of Quebec on 14 September. A month later, in his first letter, Geggie narrated his experiences.46 “The voyage was, on the whole, tolerably comfortable  … I was frequently very squeamish, though never very sick. Mrs. G. was twice so sick as not to be able to attend properly to our child, who, notwithstanding, thrived very well at sea.” Geggie was cordially received at Quebec by his brother Robert, and “on the sabbath after I landed, I preached to upwards of two score of persons in his house.” The following week, Geggie visited the townships of Leeds and Inverness “to ascertain the state of matters in the place of my destination.” He explained that the townships were destitute of inhabitants until little more than fifteen years ago.47 The whole had been one dense forest of large tall trees; now there were a considerable number of settlers, and large portions of land were cleared. Yet, “excepting a very few acres, the stumps still remain in the ground, and present no very inviting appearance to one bred in the highly cultivated county of Berwick.”48 Nevertheless, “the land is good; and in a few years, I doubt not, it will be a very fine country. Money is very scarce among the settlers. They generally have food to support them – though last year many suffered severely from the early frosts, that destroyed both their grain and potatoes. This year there is an abundant crop.”49 Geggie arrived in Leeds on the Thursday evening a week after his landing. “On the Friday morning, intimation of my arrival and of my intention to preach, was given. The sabbath came, and upwards of 100 persons assembled to wait on the preaching of the divine word. A number of persons welcomed me most cordially, among whom was Mr. Russell. I hope, that by the blessing of God, I shall be the instrument of doing good to the people.” On the following Tuesday, “I went into Inverness, and preached in a very neat chapel, built of wood, by Mr. Walter Hargrave, son-in-law to Mr. Russell. About 40 persons attended. The labours of the harvest prevented a number from being

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present. I have got a house from Mr. Russell to dwell in, and as much fire-wood as I require, for nothing. This is indeed very kind.” Geggie noted that “the state of religion in this country is very low. The Methodists are zealous and persevering – the Presbyterians are asleep – only two Episcopalians seem to be concerned about the welfare of souls – and the Romish priesthood are leading multitudes of deluded creatures in the way of error. You could scarcely distinguish a Sabbath from an ordinary day. How little is there of the fear of God in this place!”50 John Carslaw replied to Geggie early in 1838; he acknowledged Geggie’s initial letter and some newspapers accompanying it, conveyed good wishes for Geggie and his family, gave assorted admonishings, and promised to send some literature that Geggie had requested. There were two other major points. First, “I am sorry to learn from the papers that the province is in a very agitated state. Of course you will require to speak and act with great caution. Were you to say all you believe regarding the British government you might bring yourself into very great trouble. I hope you will be directed what and when to speak on that subject.” Second, “I hope you will not be in difficulty for want of money. The people will give you a little, and we will not begrudge to send you what may be deemed necessary.”51 In February, Carslaw arranged for an additional £40 to be sent to Geggie. An amount of £40 had already been paid, so Carslaw wrote that “you thus have £80 for the first year of your Mission … Of course you will take from the people as much as they shall agree to give you and this can be subtracted from the next year’s salary.”52 Geggie’s first letter was fairly adequate, though he had complained about finances. Geggie was to prove a very poor correspondent.53 This beggared his relationship with Carslaw and the Committee on Missions, which mandated and expected quarterly letters. Feelings festered on both sides.54 A full year after he had arrived in Canada, “no communication has been received from the Rev. James Geggie” beyond his initial report.55 Carslaw was instructed to write to Geggie. Through Carslaw, the committee expressed the “extreme regret and disappointment they feel in having received only one letter from him during the last 12 months; that their disappointment is the greater



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when they remember that very particular charges were given to him on that subject before his departure to Canada.”56 At the very time when the Missionary Committee was fulminating, Geggie was writing his second letter from Leeds Township, 11 October 1838, a year after he had penned his first.57 Geggie talked about the various denominations in the region and outlined his chief places of ministry. “I occupy four Sabbath-day stations, – one in Inverness, two in Leeds, and one in St-Sylvestre. These I overtake every three weeks in rotation; and as I have not yet any conveniency for keeping a horse, it requires considerable exertion to reach them on Sabbath mornings. I have two week-day stations.”58 On another key issue, Geggie was certain to disappoint his Scots supervisors: congregants in his preaching places were not providing any financial support.59 “Nothing has, as yet, been done by the people to contribute to the support of the Gospel among them, excepting the putting up of two places for public worship. The houses are in progress, and will afford us shelter during winter, though they will not be entirely finished. This effort on their part is not small, when it is considered that they have little money among their hands.” Geggie explained that the people were only now recovering from a crop failure two years earlier. “Many feel and confess it to be their duty to part with their worldly substance, to maintain the preaching of the Gospel, and when they are able, will perform this acknowledged duty liberally and cheerfully. We must hence be a burden for some time longer on your Society.” The committee was glad to hear of churches built and services scheduled but annoyed at the tardiness and sparsity of Geggie’s responses.60 Carslaw asked a number of questions: as to the two houses of worship, “what kind of houses are they? Are they built of wood or stone? Are they thatched or slated?” Again, Carslaw pressed: can those who built the churches “not also have done a little for supporting the Gospel?” Surely, “they would do something.”61 Bates, another committee member, remonstrated that the committee was starving for details, and were fed nothing: “If you made strenuous exertions to establish fellowship societies among the people & induce their attendance; … if you ever made any serious attempt to organize into a

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cong[regatio]n or soc[iet]y – even those members of the Ref[orme]d Presb[yteria]n church whom you found there on the basis of covenanting principles … you have kept us in deepest ignorance of all these things.”62 In Megantic County, feeling isolated, underpaid, and misunderstood, Geggie replied with caustic anger in a third letter in early September 1839.63 He readily granted receiving Carslaw’s December letter several months earlier and gave no reason for failing to respond earlier. He responded to some queries, not without sarcasm: “I shall endeavour to answer the questions of your catechism.” As to one of those questions, “You say, ‘Surely there is raised by them a collection every Sab[bath]. It cannot be great, but it will surely amount to something.’ It amounts to NOTHING.” Geggie explained that “it is not possible to raise funds in this place by Sab[bath] collections. The people have neither copper nor silver money to cast into the treasury. This is not a land of money. The people have their lands & their cattle, but their surplus produce has enabled but a few of them to pay off debts contracted in past years by the failure of their crops. Business is carried on chiefly by way of barter & money is seldom seen.” Carslaw had written earlier to layman Russell, thanking him for his support of the Covenanter cause. Geggie set the record straight: “Mr. Russell told me that the reason why they had applied to our Church for a missionary was, not that they approved of our peculiar principles but that they would get a second64 Gospel preacher for less money than ‘from any other Religious Denomination.’ Mr. Russell is a Baptist,65 professes to be a minister – Keeps a church in his own house & dispenses the Lord’s supper every Sab[bath]. What then can he be expected to do in support of our cause? Besides he is as fickle as a weather cock.”66 Geggie finally acknowledged receipt of all past payments. Moreover, “I now have the satisfaction of informing you that the people here have voluntarily set about raising subscriptions for the support of the Gospel among them. The sum already subscribed amounts to about £60 currency; but it is not payable til the month of January 1840. You will receive a communication from the people & they will tell you their own story.”67 It is not known whether the communication was sent or received.



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In this long-delayed letter, Geggie gave large place to the effects of the Lower Canada Rebellion,68 which broke out shortly after Geggie arrived. The damage from the Rebellion changed Geggie’s strategy as a missionary – a strategy he now attempted to explain. “When the Rebellion broke out a few months after I arrived in the country, the Oath of Allegiance to the Queen & her successors was tendered to all the settlers: & besides every man capable of bearing arms, with the exception of clergymen, &c, is a Militia Man. I was not asked to take the Oath, but the authorities might according to law, have insisted on me to do so, or compel me to leave the country.”69 Geggie was claiming that, in Lower Canada, persons were not really free to choose Covenanter principles: “The voluntary principle, in all its purity, must obtain here. And were they to espouse our views they would be regarded as Rebels, & their lands would be confiscated. Such a sacrifice very few would be disposed to make. For neither Church nor state coercion can be brought into operation to make the people support a Ref[ormed]d Presbyt[erian] minister.” As a result of his analysis, Geggie was virtually abandoning Reformed Presbyterian principles. “On general Presbyterian Principles a church might be organized here: but as far as I am able to judge our principles cannot be adopted.”70 Geggie put forward an alternate missionary strategy: “I look upon myself as a Pioneer clearing the way for the comfortable settlement of two or three clergymen of the Church of Scotland who would find ample scope in the District supplied by my labours. But were … the people in a more comfortable circumstance, I have no doubt the church of Scotland will try to make more than one lodgement in my present field of labour.” Geggie had already heard rumours of that happening. “There was a missionary of the Church of Scotland spying out the land in Leeds, Inverness, & New Ireland last winter.”71 While Geggie did not name the spy, it may have been a Quebec City–based Church of Scotland minister, Rev. John Clugston.72 In Scotland, in face of the many difficulties with Geggie, the Committee on Missions instructed the senior missionary, James McLachlan, to go to Megantic and assess matters, perhaps with some dim hope that he might be able to salvage the situation.73 Late in 1839 or early in 1840 McLachlan made a perilous journey and “having exe-

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cuted the task assigned me in compliance with your [the Committee on Mission’s] request,” wrote a letter on 20 February 1840. The letter outlined the many dangers McLachlan underwent on his journey between Lanark and Leeds townships, but there is nary a word published of his judgment of the Megantic County situation. McLachlan, however, undoubtedly sent an assessment to Scotland; the consequences soon became clear. At its meeting in May 1840, the Scots synod deliberated about the expediency of the mission in Lower Canada.74 The synod decided “to discontinue for the present their Missionary efforts at Leeds, and the neighbouring townships, for this, among other reasons, the Missionary has reported that there is no prospect of his being able to organize a congregation there.” At the end of Geggie’s third year on the mission, “his relation to the Synod as a Missionary should terminate. [Since] Mr. Geggie’s engagement with the Synod expires in September [1840] … the Committee were instructed to inform him that no new arrangement would be entered into with him. He is, therefore, at liberty to return to Scotland, or to remain in Canada, as it may suit his conveniency.” Carslaw conveyed the synod’s sentiments to Geggie;75 this was followed by a more formal letter from Dr Bates.76 Carslaw acknowledged Geggie’s “third annual instead of quarterly letter”77 and informed Geggie of the synod’s decision. He could not refrain from scolding: “In your letter you tell us that you have not attempted to organize a congregation and that you have not prospect of being able to do so, that you regard yourself as a pioneer, that you bitterly regret ever having gone to Canada as a Missionary. Since that is the case, we have deemed it proper to give up the Mission, and free you from any further labours with us.”78 Bates added details, but his assessment was similar: James Geggie had consistently been “acting under the guidance of an unsanctified & inflexible temper.” The Committee on Missions was finished with him.79 The letters were sent to Geggie and, not surprisingly in this instance, went unanswered, though a reply was requested. Having received no answer, the 1841 Scots synod “instructed the Presbytery of Edinburgh to communicate with Mr. Geggie, and to inform him, if he does not furnish them without delay, with a satisfactory account of



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his conduct, it will be necessary for them to take steps for exercising the discipline of the Church towards him.”80 No account was forthcoming, and “the Synod of 1842 declared him no longer a member of the Church.”81 The Covenanter mission and ministry of James Geggie was a failure. The Committee on Missions judged that Geggie was the architect; but the committee had not sufficiently plumbed Geggie’s character before he was sent. In Lower Canada he was completely isolated, except for letters from the committee. He was not adequately paid; in a scattered field, Geggie did not even have a horse.82 Briefed to write quarterly reports, Geggie broke the commitment; he was a deplorable correspondent. He did not have the maturity or courage to confront a challenging new-world situation. His attempt to effect a modus vivendi between the Covenanter faith and the Lower Canada situation, not altogether irrational, was not well communicated; at any rate, it could not be heard by a staunchly orthodox Scots Committee on Missions. As a Covenanter mission, the plan was doomed. On his removal from synod, we hear very little from Geggie, though he was clearly “disheartened, and at outs with the Reformed Presbyterian Church.”83 “Having been led by circumstances to leave Megantic, Geggie was intending to return to Scotland. But on conferring with friends in Quebec, he was led to connect himself … with the Church of Scotland” and was received by the Quebec Presbytery.84 When he heard of Geggie’s decision, James McLachlan was unsympathetic. “The course which he pursued grieves me not a little … By his connection with that [Church of Scotland] Synod, not only has he dropped his former attainments in reformation, but has involved himself in a cause of defection and apostasy.”85 Later, in 1844, James Geggie joined the Free Church. From the perspective of the Committee on Missions in 1840, Geggie had proved a great disappointment. A non-Covenanter perspective from 1866 gives a different portrait. “Geggie opened four preaching stations, viz., one in St. Sylvester, two in Leeds, and one in Inverness.” Where Geggie first laboured “there are now three flourishing congregations under ministers connected with the Canada Presbyterian Church, and another connected with the Established Church of Scotland.”86 After leaving the Reformed

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Presbyterian Church, Geggie “was engaged as a missionary minister at Valcartier [in Lower Canada] … After the disruption, he held several charges within the Free Church, including Edwardsburgh, Dalhousie, and Spencerville [in Upper Canada].”87 Geggie was ministering at Spencerville when he died in 1863. Brockville presbytery recorded “their high appreciation of the character and talent of Mr. James Geggie as a minister of Christ … & of his long, laborious & useful ministry in the congregation of Spencerville.”88 The Covenanter movement initiated in Megantic and Pontiac counties failed in both. Reformed Presbyterianism would come again to Quebec, but not until 1992, with the arrival in Montreal of the tentmaking Covenanter team of Philip and Hélène Choinière-Shields.89 When they began their work, there was not “an rp church anywhere … in all of Quebec.”90

{ 10 } Upper Canada Covenanters and the Scots Synod There are three historic Covenanter districts in Upper Canada: Lanark County, western Upper Canada, and Glengarry County.1 In the early 1830s, the Scots synod decided “to commence a mission to Upper Canada” when a missionary became available.2 A large number of settlers there were emigrants from Scotland or Ireland who had been “trained up in presbyterian churches,” and many of these “had been brought up in the communion of the Reformed Presbyterian church” or “had espoused her testimony.”3 James McLachlan offered to go, and he became intimately associated with Covenanter fortunes in both Lanark County and western Upper Canada. While McLachlan’s background has already been sketched,4 some matters are particularly worth noting. First, he had worked for a short period as a missionary in South Africa. Second, he was neither Covenanter born nor Covenanter bred: he came to the Reformed Presbyterian Church out of deep conviction. That conviction led him to offer himself as a Covenanter missionary in Canada. Because he volunteered and came from outside the denomination, “it was unanimously agreed to apply to the different presbyteries for advice on the matter.”5 The presbyteries supported the proposal; the committee asked McLachlan to submit a written application. McLachlan did so on 2 July 1833: “Convinced that I am called in Providence to a situation which presents superior advantages for extending the kingdom of the Redeemer, it is therefore incumbent on me to obey that call … Actuated by this principle, I now make an offer of myself as a Missionary of the cross, to be employed, under the auspices of your Synod, in a Mission to the Canadas.”6 McLachlan was designated a missionary to Upper Canada at Edinburgh on 10 July 1833. The Committee on Missions agreed to pay him “£80 for the first year, together with his travelling expenses in the discharge of his ministerial duties” though it hoped that the people

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Map 4  Reformed Presbyterians in eastern Upper Canada (Ontario) and western Lower Canada (Quebec)

among whom he worked would soon be paying part of that.7 McLachlan would also receive “a suit of clothes, and some useful books … together with free passage for himself and Mrs. McLachlan.” Dr Andrew Symington prepared a letter of instructions for him, delivered to the new missionary at Greenock before his departure.8 The first part of this chapter outlines the history of the Covenanter movement in Lanark County. American missionaries visited initially; in the 1830s it became a Scots mission under the Rev. James McLachlan; later, in the mid-1850s McLachlan and the Lanark County congregations were accepted into the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. The second part deals with the ministry of McLachlan in western Upper Canada and his intinerancy among various communities, together with that of two other shorter-term missionaries, Revs Thomas McKeachie and John McLachlan. The societies eman-



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ating from their efforts were also accepted into the American synod in the 1850s. The third part considers the history of the Reformed Presbyterian movement in Glengarry County. The Covenanter community there had a relatively long history unconnected to either Scottish or American synod, with the attachment to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America coming in the 1850s.

McLachlan and Lanark County In 1815, large numbers of Scots settled in the County of Lanark. Many of them were consistent members of the different branches of the Presbyterian family, and a few were trained in the faith of the Covenanter Church.9 Non-Covenanter missionaries also came to the region. The best known was Rev. William Bell, “a minister of the Associate (Burgher) Synod of Scotland [who] arrived at Perth in 1817.”10 Among the few Covenanters living in the township of Ramsay were James Rae and William Moir. In June 1823, Moir wrote to his father-in-law in Glasgow: “We have been erecting a schoolhouse beside us. Government is giving 50 dollars year for encouragement. And we expect a church soon. It was reported that Mr. James Rae was commenced a pritcher [sic: preacher], but it is not known … he is coming well on at farming.”11 As we have seen, Reformed Presbyterian pastors from the United States made their way to Lanark County:12 Reverends Robert McKee and James Milligan came in 1830 and licentiate Symmes in 1831. “Mr. Milligan organized a congregation, and dispensed the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and also baptized several children.” Moreover, “three persons who had been ruling elders in Scotland were chosen to bear rule: James Rae, Sen., Wm. Moir and Wm. McQueen.”13 After the communion season conducted by Milligan, one of the members noted “thus did God provide a sacramental table for us in this wilderness. This, for aught I know, was the first that ever was dispensed in Canada by any of our Ministers.”14 Yet some of those first congregants showed only temporary “attachment to the distinctive principles of the R.P. Church.”15 When James Waddell came from Scotland in 1831, he “expected to find Covenanters in Canada, in the enjoyment of regular supplies of preaching, but when he came, [he] was greatly

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disappointed.”16 Instead he discovered “Messrs. Gardner, Lindsay, McQueen, Moir, Rae, and others with their families, holding prayermeetings on the Sabbath.” McLachlan arrived in Ramsay in September 1833. He learned that the church organized about three years earlier by the Rev. James Milligan was dissolved. Several factors had led to the dissolution of the thirty-member congregation. Some members were ignorant of why the Reformed Presbyterian Church had formed: “Their [earlier] joining in communion with the Reformed Presbyterian church, did not proceed from any attachment to the covenanted constitution, but from mere convenience for the time.”17 And there were other grounds for disaffection. For some time previous to McLachlan’s coming, nearly all the heads of families in the township had subscribed for five years to support a missionary sent from a post-Revolution Settlement church. Thus McLachlan was seen as an intruder, particularly by those who wanted a post-Revolution minister. Some not only withdrew from the covenanted cause but reproached it as not fit for this country, claiming that Covenanter principles were hostile to the British constitution, would disturb the peace of civil society, and divide the township. Again, because Covenanters did not approve taking the oath of allegiance, opponents claimed that “any adhering to the Covenanted cause will not get the title deeds of their land.”18 And so “we are stigmatized with the name of bigot, because we will not depart from the terms of our communion.”19 Yet the deeply motivated McLachlan was not discouraged: “The opposition, I did, in some measure, anticipate, in prosecuting my mission, not only from those who had deserted the covenanted cause but also from those who had joined the post-Revolution church.”20 In spite of the widespread disaffection, there were some genuine Covenanters who joined together as a praying society. The faithful looked to McLachlan for counsel and leadership. He cultivated, encouraged, and questioned these few, spending time with each individually, as well as preaching. “Being satisfied with their knowledge, as well as with their piety, my way appeared clear to organize them into a church.”21 This infant congregation consisted of nine members. Former elders James Rae and William Moir, “men of piety and well acquainted with reformation principles,” were inducted into the ses-



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sion by prayer.22 When they were installed, McLachlan met with them, constituting a session. “At this meeting, we appointed our next meeting to examine Mr. James Waddell, with respect to his qualifications for the office of ruling elder. He having been examined by the session and approved of as a person worthy and fit to be advanced to the office,” was subsequently ordained. Although McLachlan now had a small congregation and a reliable session, he acknowledged that “the prospect was by no means flattering, as the people were generally prejudiced against covenanted principles.”23 Gradually prejudices abated, and “hence, one here, and another there, are now inquiring into the nature of the covenanted principles of the church of Scotland, as based on the word of God.” A Scots Covenanter in Carleton Place, Beckwith Township, ten miles from McLachlan’s dwelling, asked McLachlan to preach there. After consulting with his session, McLachlan agreed and, by the first of January 1834, “seven of these persons have become members of the church.” Meeting under McLachlan, they were asked to choose an elder. “David Moffatt was nominated. I again asked if they had any other to nominate – no other was nominated. He being duly elected, the session proceeded with him according to the laws of our church.”24 A somewhat similar process occurred also in Lanark hamlet,25 though apparently no elder was elected there. In each of the stations, lists were drawn up, subscriptions promised, and firm financial commitments made. Thus in his April 1834 letter, McLachlan was able to proclaim that “our little church consists of twenty-five members, in Ramsay thirteen, in Beckwith [Carleton Place] seven, and in Lanark five … This number of members is formed into four praying societies; two in Ramsay, one in Beckwith, and one in Lanark. For the religious instruction of young people, I have formed a catechetical class in Ramsay and Beckwith.”26 McLachlan reached out to an even wider area; he noted that Ramsay, Beckwith, and Lanark were supplied with ministers from the post-Revolution church, while the people in Packingham [sic: Pakenham] and Fitzroy townships seldom had any. Thus he “agreed to give them sermon once in the four weeks … It is my design (D.V.) during the summer months, to preach on secular days in the more destitute townships, to the extent of forty or fifty miles.” Beyond that,

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“I cannot go much farther, and fulfill my regular appointments on Sabbath.”27 Despite these efforts, neither Fitzroy nor Pakenham produced Covenanter societies or congregations. In his second letter, in May 1834, McLachlan wrote, “As I have so much travelling to and from my several stations, I am under the necessity of keeping a horse, without which, it would be quite impracticable for me to get on, as the distance is ten miles between the two stations, where I have to preach on the same day, and the roads are so very bad, that it is sometimes very difficult to get through the mud holes, and even dangerous both to the horse and rider.”28 Keeping a horse was no minor matter, but the congregants assisted not only with a horse but with housing. In order to accommodate Mr and Mrs McLachlan, elder William Moir “put a log room to the back of his house, where we still reside.” For, “the people, though willing … are not able to give me a comfortable house, as they are struggling to get up a place of worship both in Ramsay and Carleton Place, which they will not be able to complete, unless our brethren in Scotland extend their helping hand to us across the mighty deep.” Providing adequate venues for worship in Lanark County was proving difficult. In Ramsay there was “only a small school-house to shelter us from the inclemency of the winter’s cold, and from the intense heat of a summer’s sun. Paltry as the accommodation is, sometimes it is even difficult to procure it, unless our intimation is first announced.” The situation was unsatisfactory, and “although it is very painful to our feelings to make this application to you, yet I hope our brethren will see it their duty to plead our cause with their people.”29 Members of the church wished to receive the Lord’s Supper, and “it was agreed to by the session that it be dispensed on the last Sabbath of February [1834]. It was also the desire of the session, that the Rev. Mr. [James] Milligan should assist.” So McLachlan wrote to ask him, and Milligan readily complied, though it meant travelling three hundred miles. “He arrived here on the Saturday previous to the preparation Sabbath, and took part in the preparatory exercises of the day.”30 Milligan was present for a full communion season during the next week: a day of fasting and thanksgiving on Thursday, a sermon on Saturday and on Monday, and communion on the Sabbath. Twentyfour received communion. An unknown congregant wrote back to



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Scotland, “The place where the Sacrament was held was more than 12 miles from me, still I attended all the days … We are going in a few days to cut trees for the purpose of building a Meeting House.”31 Particularly at Ramsay, but also at other Covenanter communities, “the number of church buildings increased.”32 A letter from the Ramsay region written 7 July 1835 comments, “Last year we built a meeting-house, about three miles from our house. There is another, about nine miles from us … and there is a third, which they are just about to commence building.”33 Not all church buildings proceeded speedily. “The members that meet at the second line [Ramsay] station purchased an acre, on which they have raised the walls of a good log house; but as their number is small, they cannot get on so quickly.”34 They had been denied assistance from others in that region “for no other reason, than that they would not agree to give the house to Arminian Methodists, and Episcopalian preachers, when required by them for public worship. This we could not do consistently with testimony-bearing.” Covenanter communities in Ramsay and Lanark (in Lanark Township) and Carleton (in Beckwith) formed the single congregation that was McLachlan’s base; each station might have one or more societies. In each station he preached “once every two weeks, except when on a mission to other places.” McLachlan noted that “travelling in this country is very severe on the constitution; the cold in winter is so intense, that it is difficult to get along without being sometimes frostbitten. The roads in spring and fall, are almost impassable, by reason of which I have been thrown off my horse several times last spring, when riding between stations on the Sabbath.”35 McLachlan visited Perth, in Drummond Township, in August 1835.36 A few persons requested that McLachlan preach, and he agreed. They asked him to preach again: “To this I was at first unwilling to consent, as my other stations were not so frequently supplied as desired; and especially as the distance from my residence is thirty-four miles, and not a good road.” The petitioners persisted, adding that although there was a post-Revolution Presbyterian church in Perth, the admission of members and the discipline and constitution of that church “were not in accordance with the word of God.” McLachlan thought and prayed about it, and “a majority of the session agreed to

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give them sermon occasionally.”37 In a short time, Perth “was received into connexion with the other stations or societies.”38 The minister of the post-Revolution Presbyterian church in Perth was Rev. William Bell, who had come to that community in 1817. In 1835, Bell wrote, “Mr. McLaughlin, the Cameronian minister from Carlton Place favoured us with a call, and spent a great part of the day with us. I was happy to see him, but was somewhat disappointed to find that he was not so liberal as I expected. I proposed that he should assist me at the sacrament, and I would do the same for him: but this he declined because, he said, it would interfere with the Reformation work to which they had attained.”39 Bell was less positive later. When McLachlan established a station in Perth, Bell complained, “He should have gone to a sparsely populated place, not Perth, where religion is well conducted and with plenty of ministers.”40 In her book on William Bell, Isabel Skelton outlines a dispute that began on 23 December 1827 between John Holliday, an elder in Bell’s congregation, and the minister. Bell is the narrator. “When worship was over I gave notice that I was about to open a Bible class and that Sunday school hymn books would be given to those who attended, to be used in the class. At this, one of the elders, Mr. Holliday, started up and said, ‘I see no warrant, Sir, in scripture for using these hymns.’ Though this interruption surprised me I took no notice of it and dismissed the congregation.”41 The dispute festered, Holliday and his allies complained to presbytery, the complaints were dismissed. Subsequently, Holliday and his associates “absented themselves from the session, but not altogether from the church till sometime after.”42 In the mid-1830s, John Holliday was to be associated with the Covenanter cause in Perth. McLachlan organized the station in Perth in May 1836.43 Nine persons had applied for membership, and two elders went with McLachlan to examine them; all were accepted. “It was agreed by the session that I should preach … for the purpose of selecting two elders.” Then “the members of this little society … elected Messrs. John Holliday and John Brown to be ruling elders.” After being elected, they were examined by the session. The service marking the occasion took place “on the second Monday of July … public worship commenced at 11 o’clock in the forenoon”; Holliday was duly inducted, Brown ordained.



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“This little society … receives sermon on the fourth Sabbath of every month; and on the other Sabbaths they meet regularly together for private social worship.”44 McLachlan made changes in the Lanark communities, reducing the preaching stations from five – Ramsay (two), Beckwith, Lanark, and Perth – to three, namely Ramsay, Beckwith, and Perth.45 The second Ramsay site (on the eighth line) was dropped “as there had been almost no accessions, and little prospect of any.” As each station became a congregation with its own session, difficulties arose: the sessions began to compete.46 The unified congregation had been exceedingly prosperous, but the separate congregations now began to meet with reverses; “the decrease by discipline, ere long became greater than the accessions.”47 McLachlan was frequently absent because of his missionary labours, and the people complained to the Scots Committee on Missions. McLachlan responded that some of the complaints were false and slanderous. On 7 February 1839, the three sessions met together in a general session: “the session of Ramsay was directed to depose Wm. Moir and James Rae from the office of ruling elder, and to suspend them and others from the privileges of the church.”48 Robert Shields noted that “at this distance of time we cannot enter into the merits of this controversy. But it is an unfortunate thing for themselves and for the interests of religion when professing Christians, taking different views of matters, cannot act in harmony by mutual and friendly yielding.”49 McLachlan overlooked these difficulties in his letters to the Committee on Missions in 1839, simply saying “with regard to our congregational affairs, I have but little to state.”50 His vigorous missionary labours earned the warm support of the Missionary Committee, and the synod raised the matter of the formation of a pastoral relation between McLachlan and a congregation in eastern Upper Canada that had called him. “It was the judgement of Synod that this step should be delayed especially as the Synod is not prepared to send out another missionary to that quarter.”51 The relatively even tenor in Lanark County was challenged in 1842 when the Scots committee suggested new arrangements for services in the three congregations which were intended to take into account the lessening numbers at Ramsay and the increase at both Carleton

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and Perth.52 The new setup, however, imposed extra travel for McLachlan, whose home was still at Ramsay. “Should it seem good to you that I continue to labour among this people, I will be necessitated to change my place of residence, as the members are not numerous, and not very able to raise me a house. This I will have to do at my own expense.” The normally dutiful McLachlan complained: “To continue this extensive routine of riding on horseback every week … is beginning to wear me down. At the same time, the societies in western Upper Canada are also murmuring because they have so little supply.” Not surprisingly, McLachlan appealed for an additional missionary.53 Some months after McLachlan wrote, “Mr. Thomas McKeachie, preacher of the gospel was ordained as a missionary for Canada on the 2d of May [1843], and he and Mrs. McKeachie embarked at Glasgow for their destination.”54 McKeachie was to labour in western Upper Canada. As a consequence, “Mr. McLachlan will be relieved from labour which rendered it necessary for him to be absent from his own congregations for several months each year.”55 Before McKeachie arrived, a pastoral relation was formed “between the Rev. James McLachlan, and the united congregations of Perth, Carleton and Ramsay. The call of the people, together with a letter from Mr. McLachlan, were transmitted to the Edinburgh Presbytery.”56 The pastoral relation left room for limited missionary endeavours in western Upper Canada; McLachlan “engaged to spend about six weeks annually in strict missionary labour.”57 Not all was well with the Lanark congregations. The Committee on Missions “received a petition from a number of the members of the congregation at Perth … in which the desire was expressed either that an additional labourer should be sent to that quarter, or that the petitioners should be permitted to seek aid from the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States.”58 The committee did not answer since neither the minister nor the other congregations were in agreement. The matter of leaving the Scottish synod and acceding to the synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States came before McLachlan’s Carleton session in the autumn of 1850.59 The session concluded that it “would tend more to promote the general interests of religion to be under the inspection of a presbytery to



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which we could immediately refer in difficult cases and adjust them in an amicable way.”60 The session wrote to the Scots committee seeking advice, and on 25 June 1851, it received permission to join the American synod. The session decided “to make application to the Presbytery of Rochester, at its first meeting.”61 The application was made at the Rochester presbytery on 7 October 1851. That presbytery subsequently reported that “Rev. James McLachlan, formerly a missionary from the Scottish Synod, with the people of his pastoral charge, has put himself under the care of this Presbytery.”62 McLachlan was a solid Covenanter missionary. His steadfastness in the face of opposition differs markedly from the wavering James Geggie in Lower Canada. McLachlan did not buckle under opposition. He was more adequately supported financially than Geggie; he saw the need for horse power, and obtained it. McLachlan was true to his orthodox Scots Covenanter background in rebuffing the offer of co-operation by William Bell. That refusal shut the door to any significant alliance with a Scots presbyterian denomination. McLachlan formed congregations and ordained elders in several Lanark locales. William Moir had an early interest in the Covenanter cause, but some mistake or misadventure resulted in his being cast out. John Holliday found his true home in the Covenanter church after the Covenanters developed a mission in Perth. Besides these two, little is known of the convictions of Lanark County elders. There were disputes and quarrels between sessions. In some ways, their authority and McLachlan’s plans were undermined by decisions by the far-off Scots Committee on Missions which were sometimes counter-productive. McLachlan’s sessions and congregants were frequently jealous of his missionary endeavours to Pontiac County and western Upper Canada. Neither minister McLachlan nor his sessions attracted any young men to Covenanter ministry. On the other hand, McLachlan was open to the congregants’ desire for ordinances, and if helpful assistance could come from the Americans, McLachlan welcomed it. Unlike some of his Maritime colleagues, McLachlan was not zealous in maintaining old world ties. In this stance, McLachlan had the full support of the Scots committee. McLachlan was a patient, devoted, and hard-working, if somewhat solitary, missionary and minister in Lanark County.

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McLachlan and Western Upper Canada From 1835 until 1847, McLachlan made at least eleven missionary journeys beyond Ramsay, largely to western Upper Canada;63 those journeys are outlined in Table 2. In one of the earliest of these excursions, McLachlan embarked on a trajectory that he was to repeat, albeit with variations, several times. In August 1836, he left Perth on his way to Kingston. Detained en route in Smiths Falls for a few days by the steamboat schedule, he conversed with a few people and preached twice on the Sabbath to respectable attendances. Then he took the boat seventy miles to Kingston, where there were four members and a few adherents who had been associated with the Covenanters in Ireland. McLachlan preached twice on the Sabbath and had further conversations; he set a meeting for the following Tuesday evening. As a result, “having conversed with them very freely, and also with one adherent, I saw my way clear to organize a praying society, by putting the terms of communion to them, to which they signified their assent.”64 Kingston was the launching place for a visit with fellow American Covenanter, Rochester’s Rev. Charles B. McKee,65 who had written to McLachlan. McLachlan was keen to talk with him about the church in the United States, even though a storm made the Lake Ontario crossing difficult. McLachlan was warmly received, and on the next Sabbath he officiated for McKee. McLachlan was strengthened by his time with McKee, “a staunch Covenanter who deeply laments the apostasy of his [New School] brethren from Reformation principles.”66 From Rochester, McLachlan travelled by steam-boat to Hamilton and then by stagecoach for 150 miles to the township of Dumfries. There Mr Graham, who had earlier written, greeted the missionary. McLachlan preached “on secular days, besides two Sabbaths, in different parts of the township. The meetings were well attended. I baptized eight children, and organized two praying societies.” There was a solid core of Covenanters, “although some of them were pressed to accept church privileges from the Seceders.” In Dumfries Township, “a good foundation might be laid for raising a congregation, were there one to occupy the field, with some assistance from home.”67



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Table 2 McLachlan’s missionary journeys in Upper Canada (Ontario) August 1835 August to October 1836 May to July 1837 February 1838 August to October 1838 July to September 1839 September 1841 July, August 1842 June to September 1844 September 1845 [Summer 1846] September, October 1847 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Matilda Township, Ogdensburg, Prescott1 Smiths Falls, Kingston, Rochester, Hamilton, Dumfries Esquesing, Chingacousy, Toronto2 Oliver’s Ferry, Kingston, Toronto, Esquesing, Chingacousy, Dumfries3 Kingston4 Smiths Falls, Kingston, Chingacousy, Esquesing, Dumfries, St. Catharines, Kingston5 Kingston, St. Catharines, Dumfries, Waterloo, Guelph, Esquesing, Chingacousy, Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston, Glenburnie6 Chingacousy, Guelph, Dumfries Esquesing7 Kingston and Sheffield8 Kingston, Galt, Glenburnie9 Galt, Guelph, Dumfries10 [Oneida, and others]11 Kingston, Toronto, Chingacousy, Toronto, Oneida, Hamilton12

Rev. James McLachlan, “Letter,” 3 January 1837: sp, July 1837, 295. “Letter,” 15 February 1837: sp, September 1837, 309–10. “Letter,” 2 November 1837: sp, March 1838, 38–9. “Letter,” 15 March 1838: sp, January 1839, 139–40. “Letter,” 20 February 1839: sp, September 1839, 218–20. “Letter,” 25 December 1839: sp, September 1840, 358–60. “Letter,” 29 March 1842: sp, January 1843, 46–7. “Letter,” 2 May 1843: sp, September 1843, 238–40. “Letter,” 16 September 1844: sp, March 1845, 88–9. “Letter,” 7 November 1845: sp, January 1846, 328. [“Letter,” Autumn 1846: not published]. “Letter,” 17 January 1848: sp, June 1848, 571–2.

Leaving Dumfries, McLachlan went to Toronto, calling on Mr McHaffa, who accompanied the missionary thirty miles to the township of Esquesing, where he was again expected. He conversed with

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Map 5  Reformed Presbyterians in western Upper Canada (Ontario)

those who had been members of the church, and he lodged with Mr Humphy, a pious and principled Covenanter. “Rather than yield to take the oath of allegiance to the present British constitution, he made a sacrifice of two hundred acres of land.” McLachlan organized the Esquesing Covenanters into a praying society. On the Sabbath he preached in two different places and baptized six children. The next day, he proceeded to Chingacousy Township, ten miles away, preaching in the evening. Then he returned to Toronto where, at an evening service, he baptized five children of Mr McHaffa. Then McLachlan was on his way home, preaching twice on a Sabbath in Kingston en route to Ramsay.68 This missionary jaunt, taking place from August to October 1836, established key points on the Covenanter compass: Kingston, Toronto, and Hamilton, and Dumfries, Esquesing, and Chingacousy townships. McLachlan had travelled nine hundred miles. Several generous people had hosted him, else the expense to the Missions Committee would have been much greater. Although details of succeeding trips differed somewhat, the 1836 missionary journey displayed elements common to most. When time permitted, McLachlan would some-



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times converse and preach in locations where he was neither expected nor invited. Frequently, he had a contact person: in Kingston, a Mr Flanagan; in Toronto, Mr McHaffa. Sometimes, he had received correspondence directing him to a specific locale. Where a few were gathered together and were earnest and sincere Covenanters, McLachlan organized them into a praying society, never without “a few advices.” In subsequent trips, McLachlan of course visited these societies. When he returned to Kingston in 1837, the society had grown and “continues to prosper … they … meet every sabbath for private social worship.” At Dumfries, society members, besides meeting every Sabbath, “manifest a life and conversation becoming the gospel, and maintain a steadfast adherence to the judicial testimony.”69 The individuals and families whom McLachlan contacted and who made up the praying societies were normally Irish or Scottish. Yet there were exceptions. At Kingston, following the sermon, “I administered to her the ordinance of baptism … Concerning this young person, I may remark, that her parents emigrated from Holland, and have resided a number of years in this province, without being in connexion with any church.”70 McLachlan organized societies in several communities in western Upper Canada. Kingston was the earliest; Dumfries Township had two societies, Esquesing and Chingacousy townships one each.71 Later, praying societies were formed at St Catharines,72 Waterloo, and Guelph.73 Toronto had a society, though McLachlan does not say when it was formed.74 On later journeys, he established societies at Galt75 and Hamilton,76 among other places. As he met with Covenanters, ex-Covenanters, or those wishing to become members of the church, McLachlan taught and catechized; when people were ready to become members, they were engrafted into a local praying society or a new group was formed. As part of his catechizing, McLachlan also sold copies of the Testimony.77 Mention has already been made of McLachlan’s 1836 meeting with Rev. Charles B. McKee in Rochester.78 He also met with other clergy. During an early excursion to eastern Upper Canada, in Matilda Township, McLachlan was informed that, if a minister could be found soon, there was a prospect of forming a society in the region. He was requested to call on Rev. Robert Orr at Ogdensburg, on the

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southern side of the St Lawrence River.79 Orr had joined the New Light Covenanters in the United States and claimed that the New School made no essential changes to the Covenanter belief.80 McLachlan demurred, privately. “In taking my leave of him he gave me some of their writings on the controversy, to peruse at my leisure.” McLachlan then came to his own conclusions. He was aware that the Scottish synod had maintained fraternal relations with both Old School and New School American Covenanters, but McLachlan was convinced that New School “sentiments on the civil constitution of the United States [were] inconsistent with their testimony, and the Word of God.”81 Partially as a result, McLachlan decided not to pursue the opportunity in Matilda Township. McLachlan crossed paths with a third Covenanter minister from the United States, Scottish-born Rev. Thomas Hanna.82 Hanna, a minister in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, received leave from his presbytery to go to Upper Canada in the summer of 1842. He visited societies in and about Dumfries, Guelph, and Toronto.83 Although McLachlan may not have met Hanna, he undoubtedly corresponded with him. Some of the societies petitioned Hanna’s presbytery to extend his work in western Upper Canada. McLachlan counselled them against the project on the grounds that the synod in Scotland would have to acquiesce, and the effort was dropped. Nevertheless, McLachlan appreciated Hanna’s ministry and correctly saw it as evidence that the societies in western Upper Canada were exceedingly desirous of having a minister “to labour among them, and to break to them the bread of life.”84 Kingston received more visits from McLachlan than any other place. He often visited twice – on his journey to stations west, and again on his way home. And they wanted more. McLachlan reported that, returning home through Kingston in June 1837, “the members of the praying society urged me very much to give them a day’s sermon, either in the fall, or in the winter.”85 To comply with the Kingston appeal, McLachlan visited late in February 1838. The Upper Canada Rebellion made it dangerous to do so, but McLachlan “felt it my duty to proceed, committing myself to the protection of the Most High.” The first part of the journey brought no difficulty, but within six miles of Kingston, “I was interrupted by a soldier on guard, who called on me to halt, and demanded my pass. I told him I had none, as



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I was not aware … that anything of the kind would be required.” The guard responded that “I must be detained, and immediately called the sergeant of the guard, who interrogated me where I was from, what was my occupation, and where I was bound to.” The sergeant then looked him “sternly in the countenance” and let him go on. At Kingston, McLachlan “preached all day on Sabbath in one place; they seemed to hear me with eagerness – baptized one child – two new adherents.” The number of members in Kingston was now eleven, with six adherents. “This society seems to promise well.”86 On a later visit in 1839, a congregation was organized, a communion season was celebrated, and elders elected.87 McLachlan frequently asked for additional missionaries: “The members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church being scattered over the province, like two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough, must, in great measure become isolated, unless a frequent intercourse be kept up with them by visitation, and by the dispensation of divine ordinances.” And so, “is there no one among our students of divinity, or preachers, actuated by a desire to unfurl, in Canada, the banner of the cross, and to plead for the crown rights and royal prerogatives of Christ?”88 McLachlan’s pleas were finally answered. Two Scots missionaries emerged, the first, Rev. Thomas McKeachie, arriving in August 1843, and the second, Rev. John McLachlan, arriving in early 1847. Thomas McKeachie was born at Darkelspine, Old Luce, on 13 November 1810, son of “Thomas M., farmer.”89 He was educated at Glasgow University and the Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall, Paisley, and was licensed on 3 October 1838.90 In 1842, the Missionary Committee asked McKeachie to serve as missionary,91 and McKeachie accepted. The committee appointed him to go to western Upper Canada.92 The usual presbytery trials were conducted, and McKeachie was ordained in Kilmarnock on 2 May 1843. Aware of McLachlan’s long isolation, synod “agreed unanimously that the Rev. Messrs. James McLachlan and Thomas McKeachie should be authorised to form themselves along with ruling elders into a Presbytery.”93 Thomas McKeachie and his wife “embarked at Glasgow for their destination … on the 26th of June [1843].”94 Although McKeachie sent back reports, none of his letters were published, the Scottish Presbyterian giving greater space to the mission of Rev. John Inglis

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in New Zealand. Extracts of letters indicated that in November, McKeachie laboured two or three Sabbaths with the Toronto society. He then made his way to Galt, where he was stationed.95 In March 1844, McKeachie was ministering in Galt, Guelph, and Toronto. He was already calling for another labourer; this was hardly surprising since Toronto was seventy miles from McKeachie’s other stations.96 McKeachie and James McLachlan wanted to meet, and so McKeachie invited McLachlan to assist him at a communion season in Galt in July 1844.97 McLachlan consequently travelled to meet the new missionary: “In his company I enjoyed much pleasure in conversing with him on several topics, and especially on those connected with the communion and the cause of missions.”98 They jointly presided over the communion season in Galt, including the Lord’s Supper on the Sabbath, 7 July 1844. After the communion, McLachlan travelled to Hamilton and to Kingston holding services in both venues. Then he journeyed “to Sorel, forty five miles below Montreal” to visit his aged parent; he did not return to Ramsay until September.99 Meanwhile, McKeachie was carrying on the mission in western Upper Canada. In the middle of July, McKeachie, accompanied by his wife and an infant daughter, came to Toronto, planning to preach there for a few weeks. “In the midst of zealous labours, he was seized with a bilious fever of a very malignant character; all that medical skill and affectionate care could do for him proved unavailing.”100 After prosecuting his labours for little more than a year, Thomas McKeachie died on 14 August 1844 at the age of thirty-four.101 On arriving home in Ramsay, McLachlan heard the sad news of McKeachie’s sudden death.102 A year after McKeachie’s death, McLachlan spoke to those in Galt and Guelph to whom McKeachie had ministered. The people “desired me to procure for them, as soon as possible, a pastor to break the bread of life among them.”103 After a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, Rev. John McLachlan came from Scotland in early 1847. John McLachlan – not related to James McLachlan – was born in Kilbrandon, Argyllshire, about 1805. He was the fifth son of Archibald M. and Catherine McDonald,104 both remarkable for their intelligence and piety. He attended Aberdeen and Glasgow universities, entering the Divinity Hall at Paisley in 1830. Licensed in 1834, “he was employed for a number of years in preaching to the various con-



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gregations of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, chiefly to vacant congregations.”105 In the autumn of 1845 licentiate McLachlan “intimated to the Committee his willingness to be employed in missionary labour in Canada, particularly … to take up the stations which had been left destitute by the removal of Mr. McKeachie.”106 The committee accepted McLachlan’s offer; he was to serve as “a missionary to the districts of Galt, Guelph, &c, Canada West, from which the most earnest applications had been received.”107 Stipends were to be advanced in successive payments during a period of three years, in the way of supplementing the stipend he might receive from the people. Beyond the three-year period, the Committee declined to give any guarantee for assistance. Undoubtedly with McKeachie’s case in mind, it was agreed to effect an insurance on John McLachlan’s life, for the benefit of his family, to the amount of £200 sterling, the Committee bearing all the expense connected with the insurance for a period of three years. With the financial arrangements completed, “the members of Committee were unanimously of opinion that Mr. McLachlan should be sent out with as little delay as possible … The Presbytery of Glasgow were requested to take steps towards his ordination, to which they very promptly acceded.”108 John McLachlan was ordained in Glasgow on 26 October 1846.109 A month later, he and his wife sailed from the Clyde for New York, and “on the 9th of January following they reached their destination at Galt.”110 The vacant stations in western Upper Canada had been appealing for help, yet with the exception of visits from James McLachlan in the autumns of 1845 and 1846, they had received no supplies since McKeachie’s death.111 Received warmly at Galt, the McLachlans took up residence with a hospitable Mr John Milroy. John McLachlan wrote to the committee about the stations at Galt, Guelph, and Toronto, “at all of which the societies have suffered most seriously by the long destitution which succeeded the decease of Mr McKeachie.”112 A second letter in May 1847 fleshed out his missionary labours. “I have been enabled to fulfil my appointments … labouring for the most part alternately among the societies at Galt and Guelph.”113 He visited other places and organized a new society at Ayr. The society at Galt “is a very small one and I have my fears respecting the steadfastness of some of these.”

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Moreover, “the prospects at Guelph are by no means so encouraging as they once were. Last year there was a new Secession congregation formed, who now have a rather popular minister, and most of the people … have since connected themselves with this Secession congregation.” Toronto has “earnestly requested me to return as soon as possible, and to give them as large a supply of sermon as I can.”114 The various societies were clamouring for more of his time. In the autumn of 1847, James McLachlan journeyed to western Upper Canada to meet his newest colleague.115 They met in Toronto. James McLachlan went off to Chingacousy Township and found that the society there was anxious to hear Rev. John McLachlan, whom they had not yet met. Soon, John was able to oblige, going to Chingacousy Township while James took his place in the Toronto society. James McLachlan liked his new colleague: “He appears to be very acceptable to the people as a preacher of the gospel. There is an unction in his sermons which a pious people will relish. His manner is grave and impressive.” Working together at Hamilton, the two “formed a society, consisting of five members, who meet every Sabbath for private social worship.” Hamilton’s location was central to others – Galt, Guelph, and Oneida. Nonetheless, the senior missionary James opined that the stations “can receive but a very small portion of Mr. [John] McLachlan’s labours, as he must chiefly direct his attention to Toronto.”116 A year later, in 1848, the Scots Committee decided. “The people in Toronto and its vicinity are anxious to secure a constant supply of ordinances”: John McLachlan would work there. Even if another missionary could be found to occupy the stations westward, they would still be inadequately supplied.117 John McLachlan pressed the Scots Committee for an additional missionary.118 The committee acknowledged the request, but no Scots volunteer came forward, so the committee was unable to comply. Moreover, it “doubted the expediency of multiplying small preaching stations, unless where there was a reasonable prospect of raising ultimately self-sustaining congregations.”119 In western Upper Canada, societies were tiring of looking to Scotland, without results. “A meeting of delegates, representing the different societies in … west[ern Upper Canada], was held at Hamilton” in the summer of 1849. The delegates favoured asking permission of the



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Scots church to seek aid from the American Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Scots Committee welcomed the suggestion.120 John McLachlan was also wearying of his labours, though this was not intimated to the Scots Committee. When he began to work in western Upper Canada early in 1847, there seemed fair prospects of success. But when he visited the stations in Guelph, Oneida, Hamilton, and Toronto he found that “there were but a few members in these places, and little likelihood of their being able to sustain a minister.”121 None of the societies were as prosperous as anticipated; they had declined since the death of McKeachie. There was another significant fact: “I find the Free Church movement has drawn away a good many of our people who were formerly connected with our church in the old country.”122 McLachlan worked energetically, yet the societies grew but little. Moreover, there was no prospect of an additional missionary. There seemed to be no other option but to look to American Covenanters.123 In the circumstances, John McLachlan “contemplated removing to the United States, but finding no conscientious objections,” he joined the Free Church.124 Although the precise date is not clear, McLachlan was soon labouring under Free Church auspices, being formally received at the Free Church Synod.125 His labours were lost to the Scots Committee and the Covenanter societies in western Upper Canada by the summer of 1850. In Scotland, the Committee on Missions was nigh closure on missionary efforts in western Upper Canada; they did not plan to appoint a successor to John McLachlan.126 Meanwhile, in western Upper Canada, during the winter of 1850–51, “four societies … applied to be taken under the care of [Rochester] Presbytery and supplied with gospel ordinances … Presbytery knowing that such application was in accordance with the views of the Board of Missions of the Scottish Synod, (though not formally sanctioned by them) received said societies under our care as petitioned for.” The four societies were Galt, Oneida, Hamilton, and Toronto.127 The Covenanter cause in western Upper Canada was served in minor ways by Thomas McKeachie and John McLachlan; but James McLachlan was the chief agent. Travelling to meet individuals and small groups of Covenanters, McLachlan preached, taught, admin-

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istered, and handed out discipline. He formed societies wherever appropriate. He used all means of transport – steamboat, stagecoach, horseback, horse and wagon, horse and cutter, and walking. In the few occasions offered, he allied with American pastors and cooperated with the two younger Ulster missionaries. He was partially an accountant, making certain that societies understood their financial responsibilities in meeting the expense of the mission. A colporteur, he carried and frequently sold testimonies. Often he laboured by himself: “A letter from any member of your Committee … would be very gratifying to one standing here alone.”128 A conscientious letter writer, he could never fully meet the insatiable appetite of the Scots Committee. McLachlan laboured over a wide area and, following the Scots Committee mandate, visited small clusters yearly, forming societies wherever possible. Not surprisingly, some organized societies, isolated from others, withered away. There was no Covenanter migration parallel to the Society of Friends’ growth in the Yonge Street colony, where “family and friends from Vermont and Pennsylvania began a series of chain migrations that continued for thirty years … Additional friends arrived … beneficial for the [Quaker] community.”129 For Covenanters, the infrequency of clergy visits and the instability of a moving population meant that, even when elders were elected and ordained, there was little opportunity to develop and deepen sessions. Individual elders filter in, then fade away. The Covenanters were not open to emulating the Quaker recognition and use of gifted individuals, or the Methodist model of lay preaching. Though in a less stringent way than the Maritime missionaries, McLachlan, too, was locked in a hierarchical missionary mode. In spite of McLachlan’s earnest toil, the hold of the Covenanters was not firmly established even in the four societies ready to be embraced by the American synod.

Glengarry County The Covenanter community in Glengarry developed as an orphan, neither parented by the synod in Scotland nor connected with the missionary labours of James McLachlan. Licentiate Robert Shields



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served in Glengarry in 1862.130 Later, he wrote a brief history of Glengarry Covenanter origins.131 Documented Covenanter history “dates from 1815 when Mr. John Brodie and his wife Isabella Stevenson Brodie brought their family from Ayrshire in Scotland along with other friends and neighbours. These families – Brodie, Hay, Jamieson, Smith, McMeekins and others – settled in Lochiel Township, in north Glengarry County132 which still bears the name Brodie.”133 Both John and Isabella were earnest and devoted Christians, and the Lochiel Covenanter community undoubtedly had its beginnings in the Brodie home and expanded among some neighbours there. Shields documented scattered visits by Covenanter clergy to Lochiel across the decades. In the winter of 1829/30, Rev. James Milligan of Ryegate, Vermont, visited Lochiel Township “among many other places in a missionary tour through parts of Canada.”134 After Milligan, Rev. Robert McKee135 “came and preached to them … Rev. Mr. Milligan again preached here in 1834.” John Holmes,136 a licentiate, visited in 1835. The Rev. Samuel M. Willson137 of Craftsbury, Vermont, came in 1837. “After this they were nine years without any further possibility of preaching.” Shields was not certain about the reason for the hiatus. “One lady a member of the congregation told me that she thought it was likely that Mr. Willson gave an unfavourable report of them. The year was 1837 and was a time of great financial depression.” The Lochiel Covenanters “had very little money, some of them none; and it did not occur to them that a minister coming from a distance might be as needy as themselves. And thus partly through poverty, and partly through inadvertence, Willson was suffered to depart without adequate remuneration.”138 The Rev. James M. Beattie of Ryegate, Vermont,139 came to Lochiel Township in 1846 and, in company with an elder from Craftsbury, “organized a congregation by the ordination of John Brodie Sr., John Brodie Jr., and Andrew Brodie, ruling elders.” It was known as the congregation of Glengarry, under the care of New York presbytery. Apparently, Beattie visited the congregation again, though the frequency is not known.140 In both 1858 and 1859, licentiate Andrew Montgomery came to Lochiel and had a marked influence on the community. In the summer of 1860, James Brodie and William Jamie-

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son Jr were elected and ordained elders during another visit from Rev. James Beattie.141 In the mid- to late 1850s prospects for growth in the Glengarry community appeared promising. People were favourable to Covenanter principles and mode of worship. Licentiate Montgomery had earlier laboured “with acceptance, in New York presbytery bounds.”142 But in the Glengarry congregation, Montgomery’s influence proved disastrous. He possessed great powers of preaching, but while he professed to uphold Covenanter principles, he was secretly undermining them, making arrangements to connect with another ecclesiastical body. He was finally defeated, but the effect was injurious and disheartening.143 Other clergy who visited in the early 1860s counteracted the mischief that had been done to some degree.144 Robert Shields came as a licentiate in 1862; he later defined Reformed Presbyterianism.145 The Glengarry congregation was a fledgling, waiting some time for permanent parenting in the American synod. The 1856 report of the New York presbytery recommended that “Glengarry be put under Rochester presbytery.”146 That happened. But in 1859, Glengarry was again in New York presbytery. New York presbytery statistics for 1862 reported that Glengarry had three elders, eight families, and twentytwo members.147 It was “in 1865 [that] the congregation was put under the care of the Rochester Presbytery,”148 an action that was affirmed by the synod a year later.149 Now that Glengarry was a member of the Rochester presbytery, the community was renamed: in 1867, the “name of Glengarry congregation is changed to Lochiel”150 taking the name of the township. From that juncture, the congregation enjoyed a steadier supply of licentiates: “since 1865 the presbytery has sent to them preaching every summer. It is easier for the people to meet and for supplies to reach them in summer than in the storms of a Canadian winter.”151 In brief, Glengarry/Lochiel passed through several stages – a Covenanter family (1815), an informal praying society, and a formal congregation (in 1846).152 Shields was impressed by the tenacity of the Lochiel Covenanters: “For three generations they have maintained their position in the midst of discouragements, and untoward circumstances: they manifest a spirit of indomitable steadfastness.”153



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Covenanter communities in all three areas of Ontario became constituent members of the American synod in the 1850s. The Glengarry situation was unique, but the other two areas shared characteristics. At the outset, the Scots had demanded that the church in the new world should increasingly finance itself. With few exceptions, and despite the faithfulness of James McLachlan, that did not happen. The Covenanters were scattered, and even when they joined together in a society, fissiparous tendencies were at work – the call of the frontier and claims upon the people’s adherence by other Christian traditions. A powerful new presbyterian denomination, the Free Church, made great strides in Upper Canada in the late 1840s and early 1850s.154 In Scotland, the Missions Committee, faced with the demands from Canadian societies clamouring for more missionaries, found that it could not deliver: there were very few candidates, sometimes none. In Canada, frustrated fellowships yearned for Scots missionaries; failing that, they looked to the possibility of closer assistance from south of the border. Both in Upper Canada and in the Scots synod, the shift from the Scots to the American synod seemed the best way out of a difficult situation. But the transfer proved challenging for Covenanter fortunes. From being a somewhat burdensome project of the entire synod in Scotland, Covenanter communities in Upper Canada became attached to one presbytery, a relatively small part of the American synod. Under Scots tutelage, the Scottish Presbyterian paid continued if uneven attention, publishing James and John McLachlans’ reports and abstracting McKeachie’s letters. The American journals – The Reformed Presbyterian and The Covenanter – clearly did not follow the scattered societies in Canada with consistent regard and attention. How did the Covenanter communities in Canada fare in the period immediately after the transfer from the Scots synod to the American presbytery? To that question, we turn next.

{ 11 } Transfer, Transition, and Challenge in Upper Canada Two of the three Upper Canada Covenanter communities – Lanark County and western Upper Canada – were missions of the Scots synod, and their engrafting into the American synod was not without problems. The transitional difficulties were undoubtedly exacerbated by a new challenge – the Free Church. The third Upper Canada Covenanter community – Glengarry – largely escaped the challenges faced by the other two.

The Free Church – Scots Origins and Canadian Challenge In his twentieth-century appraisal of the church in Victorian Canada, Richard Vaudry has written, “On 18 May 1843 an event occurred in Scotland which shook the Protestant world … Thomas Chalmers, the aging patriarch of Scottish Presbyterians, led four hundred and fifty ministers, and almost forty per cent of the communicant membership, out of the Established Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.”1 Much earlier, Peter Brown, later editor of the Toronto Banner, described it as “one of the most sublime scenes of Christian denial and devotion to the cause of truth that the world has ever seen.”2 The basic issue was the relation of church and state. “The specific controversy concerned the old grievance, the right of lay persons to nominate ministers to parishes. Church and state, it was held, were both of divine origin, but the jealously guarded spiritual independence of the church required that the civil courts should never interfere in spiritual matters … yet the Church had come to accept the practice.”3 The Disruption shattered that practice. Undoubtedly, “the balance of forces within Presbyterianism shifted abruptly with the disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 and its



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almost immediate replication in each colony.”4 As already indicated, the split was replicated in Nova Scotia5 and New Brunswick.6 Yet, “while the arguments for and against the Disruption were the same in all the colonies, they were more fervently and vocally debated in the Canadas than elsewhere.”7 The official name of the breakaway group was the Presbyterian Church of Canada, but in common and public parlance, it was familiarly known as the Free Church. The evangelically oriented Free Church was aggressive, and its new Knox College in Toronto “provided a rapid and expanding supply of ministers from local boys rather than immigrants … The Free Church advanced by leaps and bounds.”8 This explosion of Free Church energy meant that there were far more Free Church than Church of Scotland clergy on the ground, and many more Free Church than Covenanter. More important than the sheer force of numbers was the fact that the Free Church, drawing heavily on the Covenanter tradition, absorbed Covenanter tenets, or at least those parts of that tradition that suited its purposes, and made them its own. “Most obvious was that sense of divine selection, of moral superiority, and of doctrinal rigour, particularly adherence to the ideal of Christ as head over the nations.” The Free Church was not opposed to church establishment, but demanded “that a godly prince should never interfere with God’s church, and that he must always heed the voice of the church as the conscience of the state to ensure godly rule over a godly nation … Like the Covenanters before them, the Free Churchmen insisted that the state had its well defined if circumscribed position, and that it must be kept in that place.”9 Moreover, in the 1840s and decades beyond, the Free Church practised exclusive psalmody. The Free Church “was the loudest in a chorus of evangelical Protestants decrying popery, intemperance, and Sabbath-breaking,”10 all warnings sounded by the much smaller Covenanter voice. On the other hand, persons in the Free Church voted, took oaths, sat on juries: their commitment was not as radical or far-reaching as that of the Reformed Presbyterians. The Free Church dealt a critical blow to Covenanter fortunes in western Upper Canada and in Lanark County. The Free Church’s “zeal, vision and missions strategy … seems to account for [its] remarkable growth in the years 1844–61.”11 That growth occurred at a

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time when the fragile Covenanter movement, excised from its Scots trunk, was being grafted into the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.

Lanark County In the transfer of the Lanark congregations to the American synod, some conflicts, already festering, continued to agitate, and new ones appeared. At the very meeting at which McLachlan and his Lanark congregations were admitted, the Rochester presbytery appointed a commission to visit Perth to inquire “into the difficulties existing between the pastor, Rev. James McLachlan, and a part of the society at Perth.”12 The commission, meeting in November 1851, heard from both parties, discussed the situation, and made several resolutions. Though the Free Church was not mentioned, the commission condemned holding ecclesiastical fellowship with other churches by receiving public ordinances from them. There was an outright condemnation of voting at elections, sitting on juries, and taking the oath of allegiance. More specifically, the commission disapproved of the unpresbyterial manner in which a part of the Perth society sought a break from McLachlan. Ultimately, despairing of a full reconciliation, the commission recommended a separation of McLachlan from the Perth (first) congregation.13 Rochester presbytery consequently appointed Rev. John Middleton of Lisbon to preach two Sabbaths at Perth and organize a (second) congregation there, provided that Mr McLachlan’s financial claims were absolved. The attempt to reorganize proceeded: “This organization was effected, June 12, 1852, by the election of John and Francis Holliday, ruling elders.” Part of the former congregation concurred with this and became members of Perth Second, but “the other members of Perth [first] still continued to adhere to Mr. McLachlan.”14 In the summer of 1854, Perth Second called Rev. John Middleton to be their pastor: he was installed in October.15 John Middleton was born on 31 January 1811 in Fulton County, New York. He was ordained by Rochester presbytery in 1842 and installed pastor of Lisbon; he came from there to Perth Second.16 Shortly after



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Middleton became pastor, “a large and convenient house of worship was erected in the town of Perth, a central position.” However, as Shields scoldingly noted, “a debt was left upon it, which compelled the sale of it in a few years.”17 Perth was not the only unsettled Lanark congregation. In 1854, certain members of McLachlan’s Carleton Place congregation asked session about sitting on juries and taking oaths as witnesses: the session replied firmly that such practices were against Reformed Presbyterian principles. The members then petitioned Rochester presbytery asking if this law might not be made a matter of forbearance. Rochester presbytery responded: “An oath may be taken by a witness before the civil magistrates, provided such an oath is not regarded as a recognition of his authority. Sitting on juries is positively prohibited by the law of the Church.” Further, “Rev. D. Scott was appointed to write to Carleton Session, informing them that this law is applicable in Canada, equally as in the States.”18 Shields opined that “some at least of these petitioners desired to obtain an excuse for receding from the unpopular position of dissent from an immoral government,” for “at the next meeting of session two members are reported to have voted in electing a member of Parliament, and session proceeded to deal with them.”19 These acts marked the beginning of a serious defection in Carleton Place. A more significant event occurred in 1855: Rev. James McLachlan “resigned the charge of his congregation in Carleton Place and has had a call made upon him by the congregation of Lisbon, which he has accepted.”20 McLachlan was installed in Lisbon, New York, in July 1856.21 By dint of hard labour, McLachlan had established the Covenanter church in Lanark County, a somewhat fragile structure, close to being undone by the Free Church advance. McLachlan must have welcomed the change from the maelstrom of troublesome congregations in Lanark County and scattered societies in western Upper Canada to a single congregation in New York state. His pastorate in Lisbon was much less stressful, though of relatively short duration. McLachlan died in 1864. He and his wife Christiana are buried in the Campbell Cemetery a mile down Campbell Road from the Lisbon Reformed Presbyterian church.22

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Rev. James McLachlan tombstone, Campbell Cemetery, Lisbon, ny

When McLachlan left Lanark County, “the condition of the congregation in all its parts was unsatisfactory.”23 Rev. John Middleton, installed in Perth Second in 1854, resigned the charge on 18 October 1856,24 leaving his congregation with a debt on its large church. After Middleton’s departure, Perth Second never had a settled pastor. Ramsay was vacant for ten years,25 and the number of Covenanter members in Lanark County declined steadily. Some members moved away, some died, and still others joined the Free Church.26 Rochester presbytery sent ministers and licentiates irregularly, though the congregations were sometimes unwilling or unable to pay for them.27 The Carleton Place congregation – agitated in the mid-1850s by questions of oaths and juries – became disorganized by 1861: some former members and all three elders joined the Free Church.28 At Perth Second, one elder moved and the other demitted, so the congregation become disorganized in 1858.29 The Ramsay congregation suffered almost the same fate, two of its elders joining the Free Church



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in 1859,30 technically disorganizing that congregation. Rochester presbytery declared Ramsay a “missionary station [that] we hope soon to organize into a congregation.”31 In May 1861, Rochester presbytery appointed “the Rev. David Scott32 to reorganize the congregation of Ramsay.”33 Two months later, 14 July 1861 “was a notable day in the life of the Blue Banner in Lanark County. Rev. David Scott … conforming to the decision of Rochester Presbytery, officially drew together the scattered remnants of the churches into one body.”34 James Waddell and John Lindsay were elected as ruling elders, the latter being ordained.35 During the next few years, the presbytery sent supplies to Ramsay more frequently. In 1863, for instance, “the Rev. David Scott was appointed to supply in the congregation of Ramsay, several Sabbaths, and administer the Lord’s Supper, with such help as he could obtain.”36 The reorganization of the Ramsay congregation in 1861 marks the end of the Free Church advance and a new beginning for the Covenanter cause. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Almonte rp Church continues to regard 1861 as a significant anniversary.37 The new beginning was confirmed and solidified when the Ramsay congregation made a unanimous call on Robert Shields on 12 January 1865, which was accepted.38 Shields was subsequently “ordained and installed July 13, 1865.”39 To Shields’s ministry we shall turn in the next chapter.

Western Upper Canada Four western Upper Canada Covenanter societies – Galt, Oneida, Hamilton, and Toronto – became constituent members of Rochester presbytery.

Galt

James McLachlan, Thomas McKeachie, and perhaps Thomas Hanna visited this community; the last full report came from Rev. John McLachlan. His 1847 account was sombre: “Our society at Galt is a very small one, consisting at present of six members – two men and four women – and I have my fears respecting the steadfastness of some of these. There are, besides, two or three young persons who

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may join this society at no distant period, but upon the whole the prospects of increase here are by no means encouraging.”40 The Galt society, weak already, fared poorly in the new presbytery. It was not mentioned in Rochester presbytery reports until 1858. At that juncture, Covenanter licentiate Andrew Montgomery was authorized to visit “Hamilton, Oneida, Galt, on the 4th Sabbath in June, and 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Sabbaths in July.”41 Two years later, in 1860, Rev. Samuel Bowden42 was directed to visit “Galt, one or two Sabbaths, time discretionary.”43 With that, the Galt society disappeared from Covenanter sources.

Oneida

Whereas Galt and Dumfries Township were early venues in the McLachlan missionary journeys, Oneida Township was late. A society was formed there and invigorated by James McLachlan in the sum- mer of 1846.44 John McLachlan expressed enthusiasm about Oneida’s future when he was there in 1847: “The members of the society seem to be warm and lively in the cause, and earnestly desirous to be favoured with the preaching of the gospel … I parted with the brethren with a promise of visiting them again as soon as possible … I have good hopes that this station will continue to prosper.”45 However, James McLachlan, the senior minister, was convinced that Oneida, along with Galt and Hamilton, could receive “but a very small portion of Mr. John McLachlan’s labours as he must chiefly direct his attention to Toronto.”46 At Rochester presbytery’s meeting in early October 1853, Oneida was one of the places petitioning “for constant supplies of preaching.” James McLachlan, then still in Lanark, was “appointed to preach in Oneida, 3d and 4th Sabbaths of October.”47 In 1854, Rev. Robert Johnson48 was to visit Oneida for one Sabbath, and licentiate Boyd McCullough49 was to be there for the full month of May.50 In a meeting late in the same year, presbytery appointed Rev. Joseph Henderson51 “to supply in Oneida, until the next meeting of presbytery, and to dispense the Lord’s Supper there on the 5th Sabbath of October, assisted by Rev. James McLachlan. Mr. McLachlan was appointed to preach in Oneida, 3d and 4th Sabbaths of October.”52 In its 1855 report



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to synod, the presbytery declared that Oneida was one of the congregations “without pastor.”53 A year later, in 1856, the flurry of activity in Oneida had completely abated. “Presbytery cannot avoid stating with regret, that, in consequence of a number of families removing to the West … the hands of the brethren at Oneida are much weakened … though as yet they retain their organization.”54 Though the society was feeble, licentiate Montgomery was directed to go to Oneida and Galt in 1858 for the 4th Sabbath in June, and 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Sabbaths in July.55 In October 1860, licentiate James T. Pollock56 was directed to Oneida for the month.57 That was the last recorded service in the Oneida Covenanter society; the mission probably became disorganized in the autumn of 1860.58

Hamilton

In the autumn of 1853, Hamilton was among the Covenanter venues petitioning presbytery “for constant supplies of preaching.”59 Present at the same meeting was “Rev. Joseph Henderson, dismissed to this [Rochester] Presbytery by Synod.” Responding to the Hamilton petition, the presbytery appointed Henderson “to supply in Hamilton, until the [spring] meeting of Presbytery, and to dispense the Lord’s Supper there on the 5th Sabbath of October, assisted by Mr. [James] McLachlan.”60 Henderson was to spend the majority of his brief time as a Covenanter pastor in Canada in the Hamilton Reformed Presbyterian congregation. Joseph Henderson was born in Penpont, Dumfriesshire, on 16 November 1802. Educated at Glasgow University and the Hall at Paisley, he was elected minister of Ayr and was ordained there on 4 May 1830.61 His wife, Ann Goold, was the daughter of a prominent Edinburgh Covenanter pastor. “At the Scottish synod of 1844 it was reported that he had voluntarily resigned his charge, ‘from a combination of circumstances,’”62 among them, “on account of his intemperate habits.”63 Emigrating to the United States, Henderson taught for a time in Walden, New York,64 his flawed Scottish background still trailing him. “After a full statement of his case, confession of his wrong, and promise of restoration,” his American colleagues restored

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him.65 Subsequently, “the Rev. Joseph Henderson was assigned to the Rochester Presbytery.”66 Of Henderson’s ministry in Hamilton little is known. The society met in the Temperance Hall.67 When he was assigned by Rochester presbytery, in 1853, to take services there for some time, Henderson may already have been in the city. Glasgow places Henderson as stated supply at Hamilton beginning on 8 June 1852: on the same day, George Frazer was ordained an elder and the Covenanter society was organized into a congregation. Previously, Robert Menzies had been sole elder in the Hamilton Covenanter society.68 Henderson was not to remain long in the Covenanter camp. Although he “was instrumental in gathering many scattered members,” he “forsook the cause he had espoused, and connected with the Free Church of Canada, April 11, 1854.”69 Rochester Presbytery appointed different clergy to take infrequent services in Hamilton.70 In 1856, “in consequence of a number of families removing to the West, the congregation of Hamilton, is broken up.”71 The Hamilton community was briefly mentioned in 1858: licentiate Andrew Montgomery “was appointed to go for some summer Sabbath services.”72 Then Hamilton disappeared from view as a Covenanter venue.73 Within a decade of their joining the American synod, three of the western Upper Canada societies – Galt, Oneida, and Hamilton – were probably taken up by the Free Church; at any rate, they were no longer Covenanter venues.

Toronto

Very soon after the Toronto society ceased being a Scots mission, it was “organized [as a congregation] by Rochester presbytery, 27 May 1851.”74 Probably at the same time, two elders were elected and ordained: Robert Dargwell and Robert Dickson.75 And by the next year, Toronto had a settled pastor, Rev. Robert Johnson, a forty-twoyear-old unmarried native of Ireland. Robert Johnson, son of Robert and Margaret Johnson, was born in Kilmore, county Antrim, on 17 November 1810.76 He entered the Royal Academy of Belfast and studied theology in the seminary in Paisley under Andrew Symington. Ordained by a commission of the Irish synod, he was installed pastor of the mission congregation



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of Manchester, England, on 4 August 1842.77 In Manchester, he laboured under great discouragements for about eight years. Coming to America in 1849, he visited the eastern part of the church. He soon received calls from Topsham, White Lake, and Buffalo, in the United States, and Toronto, in Upper Canada.78 From among these, he chose Toronto, where he was “installed as their pastor Nov. 4 [1852] … The prospect is encouraging.”79 Johnson was “a man of excellent attainments in literature and theology; he was able and eloquent as a preacher of the word.”80 Under his leadership, a consistent site of Covenanter worship was opened a few months after his installation – a church at the corner of James and Louisa Streets.81 It was “a neat and tasteful edifice capable of seating 400 persons, irrespective of a gallery not yet built. The church was opened for public worship on the first Sabbath of Feb[ruary],” 6 February 1853.82 “The church was crowded during the time of all three services, and the audience were highly attentive. The collections amounted to [a] sum, which … is said to be nearly equal to the debt on the building, to the liquidation of which it is appropriated.” Finally, “our brother Johnson’s labors have, by the Divine blessing, been very successful thus far in that part of Christ’s heritage.”83 Johnson’s ministry in Toronto was chiefly notable for a significant lecture he delivered to a crowded house against the Roman Catholic Church. This lecture may have been a response to a pastoral by Bishop Charbonnel in the mid-1850s.84 Johnson wrote that he “complied with the invitation of the committee of the Protestant Alliance to deliver a lecture on the ‘Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.’”85 Charbonnel “denounced Johnson in the Cathedral as a black heretic, worse than Satan, and warned his people against going to hear the Vilifier of the Holy Mother Church … Enraged priests sent him threatening letters.”86 The lecture was later published as The Absurdities of the Popish Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.87 In the mid-1850s an unknown observer wrote that Robert Johnson “is pastor of an active and interesting congregation, and labours with acceptance and encouraging prospects.”88 Johnson left the city after a ministry of seven years, demitting the Toronto congregation on 10 April 1859.89 With Johnson gone, the Toronto congregation, which

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probably numbered at least “a hundred persons,” declined.90 It became disorganized on 13 October 1860.91 It would later be reorganized; that reorganization is outlined in the next chapter. The Free Church onslaught greatly reduced Covenanter fortunes in Lanark and the western Upper Canada societies. Membership declined and Covenanter missionary John McLachlan and minister Joseph Henderson were swallowed up by the Free Church. In joining the American synod, the Covenanter cause was no longer under the watchful, if far off, eye of the Scots committee. Three of the four western Upper Canada societies vanished. As already indicated, none of the societies received new members through migration, unlike the Yonge Street Society of Friends, where “family and friends from Vermont and Pennsylvania began a series of chain migrations that continued for thirty years … The close-knit nature of the community had a direct impact on [Quaker] vitality and stability.”92 Toronto Covenanters flourished for a time under Johnson, but when he left, this promising congregation was allowed to disorganize. The Covenanter cause languished in Lanark and western Upper Canada under the American synod’s Rochester presbytery. The transfer to the American synod, combined with the Free Church challenge, came close to eliminating the Covenanters in Lanark County and in western Upper Canada.

Glengarry

Glengarry County Covenanters were spared the devastation of the Free Church challenge. Perhaps their long existence without supervision or support stood them in good stead. This small and familycentred community, which had originated with the Brodie family and their immediate neighbours and was centred in Lochiel Township, seems to have been sheltered from the larger Glengarry storm between the more established Kirk and the upstart Free Church. Famous Canadian author Ralph Connor (actually the Rev. Charles William Gordon) popularized old-time Glengarry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century through books such as Glengarry School Days and The Man from Glengarry. Gordon was well acquainted with the Kirk-Free Church divide but knew nothing whatsoever of the Lochiel



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Township Reformed Presbyterian community. The engrafting of the Glengarry/Lochiel Covenanter community into Rochester presbytery in 1865 did not inaugurate a downward spiral as it did in the other Upper Canada congregations and mission stations. Reformed Presbyterianism survived in Upper Canada. The surviving Covenanters knew who they were and to whom they belonged. There were “few congregations of Covenanters, each with a handful of members.”93 Few indeed, there were three – Ramsay, Toronto (in a disorganized state), and Lochiel. The Free Church advance was halted; sturdy Covenanter self-understanding, already present in Lochiel, re-emerged in Ramsay. Toronto was no longer to be utterly bereft of assistance; the Central Board of Missions was to come to its aid. The next chapter picks up the threads of the three congregations in the nineteenth century and follows them into the early twentieth.

{ 12 } Picking up the Pieces: Covenanters in Nineteenth-Century Ontario By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were three congregations in Upper Canada – Ramsay, Toronto, and Lochiel – one in each of the historic districts of Lanark County, western Upper Canada, and Glengarry County. This chapter outlines their development into the early twentieth century.

Lanark County Robert Shields was installed in Ramsay congregation, 13 July 1865. Within a year, he married a parishioner, Elizabeth Waddell; the couple were to be childless.1 His long ministry was to leave a lasting imprint. Robert Shields was born of Scots Covenanter parents, Alexander and Agnes Shields, in Glover, Vermont, on 30 October 1827. He studied at Geneva College and Northwood Seminary at the same time, graduating from Geneva College in 1855. Shields was licensed by the Lakes presbytery on 17 May of the same year and, for about three years served as an itinerant. In 1858, he became a teacher at Geneva College. He was sent to Florida in 1862.2 There he ministered to the spiritual needs of the oppressed contrabands.3 Shields wrote, “The people here are divided into three classes – soldiers, coloured people, and ‘white folks,’”4 and he worked with all three. “Shields was employed in the Freedman’s Mission in Washington”5 by 1864, the year before he came to Ramsay. The situation pastor Shields faced in Ramsay was quite different from the one encountered by missionary James McLachlan. McLachlan travelled from place to place, met Covenanters, nurtured them, formed societies, and built congregations. After the Free Church onslaught, remaining Covenanters were sturdy, settled Reformed Presbyterians. Shields assessed the situation: “Ramsay is a small congre-



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gation … Maintaining an unpopular testimony in the midst of other Presbyterian churches, we can look for no accessions from without, and with no immigration, our only hope of growth is from the children of the church.”6 When Shields arrived in 1865, Ramsay was a tiny congregation of only nineteen communicant members.7 His devoted and careful pastorate solidified the reorganization of 1861 and undoubtedly brought some formerly wavering Covenanters back into the fold. The membership grew. But unlike McLachlan, Shields did not reach out to neighbouring communities. Shields was a devoted churchman. He was not an orator, “but his sermons were carefully prepared, were models of concise, clear and earnest presentation of gospel truths.” Furthermore, “in his work as a teacher in Geneva College, as a home missionary, as a pastor, and as a presbyter in higher and lower courts, he ever manifested the same zeal and fidelity and won the confidence of those for whom he laboured.”8 Shields emphasized Covenanter convictions. Not surprisingly, “on July 1, 1871, the congregation, with entire unanimity, entered into the covenant, which had been sworn and subscribed by the synod at Pittsburgh, on May 21, 1871. They thus testified their adherence to and love for the time-honoured covenants of their forefathers.”9 In emphasizing Covenanter convictions, Robert Shields was a model of Reformed Presbyterian orthodoxy. As a young man, “there were two books, the volumes of Nature and the Bible, of which he was specially fond; because they revealed to him the being he most loved and humbly adored. He was at home among the flowers and the rocks.”10 His intellectual interests inclined him toward the natural sciences, especially botany. “Shields also turned his attention somewhat to Geology; and it is with a feeling of amusement that one now recalls the slight difficulty which he had with his Presbytery for ‘advanced views’ on that subject.”11 The nature of Shields’s advanced views can only be surmised. What is clear is that the mature Shields was a staunch upholder of orthodox Covenanter convictions, in his preaching and writing clearly articulating central teachings of the Reformed Presbyterian faith. Shields modelled committed stewardship. “He believed and practised the tithe system, and though living on a salary that was less than $400 a year and much of the time far less, his liberality was shown in

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every scheme of the church … and with the help of a prudent wife he lived comfortably on a small farm, without interfering with his ministerial or pastoral work.”12 His people responded to Shields’s leadership. The congregants were no longer pioneers: “Our people are mostly farmers. There are two large manufacturing villages in the vicinity, and farm produce brings remunerative prices. In proportion to numbers and wealth, the people of Ramsay are very liberal in their contributions for the support of the gospel, and the various schemes of the church.”13 Ramsay Reformed Presbyterians supported the Covenanter mission by contributing to the “schemes of the church,” but there was little or no sense of Covenanter mission to neighbours in Lanark County. Shields’s scholarship enabled him to see his ministry both in continuity with and in contrast to missionary James McLachlan. He wrote doctrinal articles for the magazines of the church,14 and two of his addresses were published.15 He assiduously recorded the history of the Ramsay congregation,16 as well as writing a narrative of the Lochiel Covenanter community.17 His deep historical purview was, however, limited to Upper Canada. “We have three congregations in Ontario – Toronto, Ramsay and Lochiel. I can tell you very little about the maritime provinces. I never was there, and have no acquaintance with either ministers or people in that region. I can tell you nothing of Manitoba or the Pacific coast.”18 A highly respected citizen, Shields was “heartily welcomed both as a neighbour and minister by Christian families around, especially in their afflictions.”19 He maintained a steady public presence, as noted by the local newspaper. “He was always ready with both voice and pen to aid all benevolent enterprises that had his approval … As an opponent he was well able to hold his own, and very many of our readers will remember the trenchant and scholarly letters that appeared20 … While he struck hard, he never struck spitefully.”21 The congregation at Ramsay did not have one central or agreed upon venue of worship when Shields arrived. Shields maintained the one congregation and held services in various places.22 This pattern continued until the mid-1870s, when a church building became available: “In 1876 through the kindness of a Presbyterian congregation, a



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church building near the pastor’s residence, and about 1½ miles from Almonte, was sold [to us] very cheaply.”23 Then the scattered Lanark County Covenanter congregants met in one location: “the event took place on January 7, 1876 when all assembled in the former Free Kirk building on Ramsay’s eighth line.”24 The congregation, now with one chief sanctuary, began another innovation: “It was a Sabbath School in which the Psalms, the Shorter Catechism with or without proofs and the Mother’s Catechism should be taught; and the International Series of Bible Lessons.” Further, “the Superintendent [Pastor Shields] is to have the power of appointment of teachers, provided that none but members of the congregation in full communion can be appointed.”25 The result was a Sabbath school of forty-two scholars and six teachers in its first year.26 Robert Shields died in 1883.27 Shields’s ministry not only solidified the 1861 reorganization; it permanently established the Covenanter community in Lanark County.28 His life and witness, writings and leadership, modelled Covenanter orthodox theology and practice. Shields articulated a plan for growth dependent on children raised in the Covenanter community. Mission was envisaged largely as support of the schemes of the church; it was not seen primarily as being exercised among neighbours in Ramsay. His ministry marks a change in strategy – from peripatetic McLachlan Scots mission to settled congregation. It was to be the prevailing pattern in Lanark and Glengarry for decades. In these ways, Shields’s legacy was profound and long-lasting. After Shields’s death, the Ramsay congregation was without a minister for five years. Then licentiate E.M. Coleman became the minister. Eusebius McLean Coleman was born near Elder’s Ridge, Pennsylvania on 5 July 1859.29 He was ordained in the Ramsay eighth line church on 9 May 1888.30 With Coleman’s arrival the question of a church sanctuary in a more permanent location became urgent. Since McLachlan’s time, the region had had different centres; Pakenham laid an early claim as did Bennie’s Corners. “Gradually, Almonte won out, the locating of [other] churches in it having played a role.” The Covenanter congregation was one of the oldest Presbyterian communities in Lanark County, yet “was the last to relocate in it.”31

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Almonte Reformed Presbyterian Church, Almonte, on

Lt-Col J.D. Gemmill admired “the sincerity of conviction of this little band,”32 and negotiations with Col Gemmill led to his giving the land.33 There were decisions to be made. “After hearing report of the building committee [it was decided} that the new church and manse be built separate.”34 Money was needed, and “the trustees were empowered to sell the Carleton [Place] property and devote the proceeds to building the new church and manse.”35 The pastor was granted “three months to canvass for funds for [the] church and manse.”36 Further, correspondence was authorized “to procuring $600. from the [synod’s] Church Erection Fund.”37 J.M. Waddell, J.W. Rose, and D. Holliday were appointed the building committee for the new church and manse.38 Nonetheless, the congregation maintained a hands-on stance. Congregants did not look to Scottish or American Covenanter counterparts, deciding that their structure would be “a stone church like the [nearby] Appleton



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Methodist church with Beckwith Stone trimmings … with what alterations the committee see fit.”39 “James Wilson [was] both architect and contractor … The cost was $3,500.”40 Members of the congregation subscribed liberally,41 and Coleman succeeded in collecting funds.42 A friend of the congregation in Saint John, New Brunswick, donated a thousand dollars toward the building of the manse.43 Although a non-Covenanter Canadian church was the model for the new structure, “pews came from the newly disbanded St. Johnsbury, Vermont [Reformed Presbyterian] church.”44 The new church was dedicated on 12 November 1891. For the last time, the morning service was held in the old eighth line church; the new Bay Hill Almonte church was dedicated at the 2 p.m. service. Pastor Coleman “was assisted by Rev. Wm. McFarland of Lisbon, New York, and the Rev. R.C. Allen of Lochiel, Ontario.”45 At the service, it was announced that the “church building [is] free from debt.”46 In spite of that claim, a year later, the congregation was “for the first time, on application, admitted into the number of aid receiving congregations”; the congregation remained aid receiving during Coleman’s pastorate.47 The congregation also changed its name from Ramsay to Almonte. The decision was initiated at a meeting in May 1892, by request of the congregation.48 It took some time for the new name to be fully accepted; not until 1897 was it acknowledged in synod minutes.49 A Women’s Missionary Society formed in 1889 and a Covenanter Young People’s Union was organized a year later.50 Under Coleman’s ministry, a permanent Covenanter church building in Almonte further assured the future of the denomination in Lanark County. Coleman’s ministry at Almonte terminated 1 June 1900.51 Coleman was succeeded as Almonte pastor by a man whose fiveyear pastorate was devoid of outstanding occurrences – Rev. Patterson Proudfit Boyd.52 There was another hiatus, though services continued through society meetings, complemented by the coming of supply clergy. This pattern was oft repeated at Almonte – minister, hiatus, minister. Pastors, born and educated south of the border, came to Almonte and ministered in traditional patterns, maintaining the lines sketched out by Robert Shields. A visiting minister who conducted a communion season in 1906 described the congregation: “They are

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all earnest, faithful people, dwelling together in unity … There are many children in the congregation. They evidently believe in raising Covenanters, rather than depending entirely on other nurseries for their supply – a most commendable ambition.”53 That visitor was to be the next significant pastor, Pennsylvania-born George M. Robb, who was installed on 13 May 1908.54 Early in his ministry, Robb invited Rev. W.J. McKnight, of Pittsburgh, to Almonte in August 1909. McKnight gave a series of lectures on Covenanter distinctive principles. Although his visit occurred during the busiest season of the year, on several evenings there were as many in the audience from outside as from within the congregation. The attendance of outsiders was particularly large when he discussed secret societies, and his lecture influenced some young men in the audience.55 Robb valued McKnight’s lectures: “They strengthen our own faith and they lift Covenanter principles into prominence.”56 Reformed Presbyterians also related to their Almonte co-citizens through the annual Week of Prayer. Since the other churches were all hymn-singers, Covenanters were normally unable to unite with them in observing the Week of Prayer. Nevertheless, “these churches understand our position. They are very kindly disposed toward us, and some of them expressed a desire to come and meet with us one evening of the week, and we gladly welcomed them. The church was well filled and we had a most enthusiastic meeting.”57 Covenanters were not allowed to vote in parliamentary elections. Moderator Robb and ruling elder T.T. Bowes were appointed a committee to meet with a member in reference to his voting in the recent federal election.58 At the next meeting, reporting on the interview: “He states that he understood he was voting on the question of Reciprocity alone, and for that reason voted. He also said that as long as he was a member of the Covenanter church he would not again vote at any Parliamentary election.” As a result, “session does not consider any further action necessary.”59 Rev. James McCune “was installed pastor of Almonte, December 10, 1914.”60 He had been pastor in Barnesville, New Brunswick.61 A few months after arriving in Almonte, McCune went back to New Brunswick and, on “28 April 1915, Rev. James McCune of Almonte



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married in St. John Grace Darling Morrow”; the officiating minister was Cornwallis Covenanter pastor, Thomas McFall.62 While living in Almonte, the McCunes adopted a son, Donald.63 McCune was pastor in Almonte during the First World War. Several young men from the Almonte church served in Canada’s armed forces.64 Despite the war, elders from Almonte attended meetings of the Rochester presbytery, meetings frequently held in the United States, and their participation at least partially overcame the isolation that Almonte Covenanters undoubtedly experienced. Session records indicate that new members to the Almonte Covenanter congregation came largely from the families of existing members and adherents.65 There were exceptions. Soldier Charles MacGregor was wounded overseas in 1918 and invalided in the Canadian General Hospital in England before returning to Almonte.66 In 1920, he and Ann Dow Frame, who had been a nurse in the hospital, were wed by McCune in the Almonte church.67 A Church of England woman came forward and, “upon examination as to the differences between the Church of England and ours, and our distinctive principles … her name was added to the roll as a member of the congregation.”68 A similar process was carried out when a woman member of the Baptist Church proffered herself.69 When a member of the Presbyterian church came forward, the process was altered somewhat: in this situation, there was no “examination as to the differences,” though there was an explanation of “our distinctive principles.”70 Times were changing. “Mr. McCune was the first Almonte Covenanter pastor to pasture Dobbin for good and gallop henceforth on gas horsepower. He regularly took the young to summer youth conferences. A consequence was the revival of the C.Y.P.U. and its continuation.”71 Covenanters were prohibited from belonging to secret societies. When a member contemplated joining a labour union, the Almonte session deliberated on the question of whether union membership involved membership in a secret society. Although the church was “in full sympathy with all lawful endeavours” that unions made for the betterment of workers, “the fact that labour unions are virtually secret orders and, therefore, wrong, makes it necessary not only to withhold any endorsement of such organizations but rather to place

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them in the same category as other secret societies from which our members are to keep themselves free.”72 The moderator and clerk were to prepare a letter to send to the member. McCune left the Almonte pastorate on 14 September 1920. After “his release from Almonte … he preached in various places, remaining as stated supply for a time in Regina, Canada.”73 McCune’s successor at Almonte was Rev. J.M. Rutherford, inducted into the Almonte Covenanter church, 23 June 1922. His ministry is examined in chapter 16.

Western Upper Canada The Toronto congregation was reorganized 4 August 1861,74 though without a resident pastor. In 1862, Rochester presbytery directed that “David Scott supply at Toronto [at] such time as may be convenient to the people there”75: Glasgow identifies Scott as stated supply at Toronto from April 1863 until October 1866.76 At a meeting of the congregation in the autumn of 1864, John Humphreys, John Kidd, and Daniel Kidd “were elected to hold the property of the congregation in trust for its behalf.”77 The three trustees acted, two years later, to place the property in the congregation itself.78 Never robust in the 1860s, the congregation languished and was again disorganized by the death of elder John Humphreys on 18 April 1869.79 In the autumn of 1871, “a petition was presented from Toronto, asking [Rochester] presbytery to reorganize the congregation, grant the moderation of a call, and use their influence with the Domestic Mission Board to obtain aid in the support of a pastor.”80 The congregation was reorganized on 23 January 187281 though no call for a minister was forthcoming. In the same year, two men who had been elders previously, Robert Dickson and Joseph Gibson, were re-elected, joined by a third, Samuel Vance.82 The Domestic Board continued to support Toronto.83 The congregation limped along while sporadic attempts were being made to keep alive and fully restore the Covenanter cause. The Domestic Board of Missions reported in 1876: “At different times synod has directed us to make appropriation to Toronto congregation. That we might obtain definite information, the Board ap-



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pointed Rev. James Wallace84 to visit Canada and report respecting the advisability of our attempting to establish there.”85 Coming to Toronto in the autumn of 1875, Wallace remained in the city for several months. The Covenanter movement was small and dispirited when Wallace wrote in December 1875 that “there are now twelve members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in this city.”86 In 1859, there had been a hundred members. In 1874, supposing that they would get no more preaching, “the congregation rented their church for two years, the money for rent being used to repair the church and keep it in order.”87 On the first Sabbath after Wallace arrived, he preached in a private room, attempting to rouse and encourage. At a subsequent meeting, the Covenanters “unanimously and earnestly resolved to maintain the ordinances, and appointed a committee to obtain a hall for preaching. The Temperance Hall was secured at four dollars a Sabbath. We have been preaching in it since that time.” Toronto Covenanters anticipated that they would have the rent of their church until the end of the year, then the church itself. Freed from paying for the Temperance Hall, they would have two hundred dollars for the support of a missionary. Society meetings were revived, and Wallace visited the families urging upon them the personal, family, and social duties of the Covenanter faith. Modest subscriptions were forthcoming, which was hopeful, for the congregants were not wealthy: “They are all, except one man, and he is not rich, among the poorer class of people.” Wallace concluded, “we are hoping to hear from the Board soon.”88 In spite of Wallace’s hopeful tone, the board did not think Toronto sufficiently promising to justify making further efforts.89 A fragile congregation was supported, but weakly. The congregation was disorganized once again on 10 April 1875.90 As More noted, “The work [in Toronto] started, died, revived, withered, expanded and deceased, so many times.”91 Toronto was not to have another Covenanter congregation until the early 1930s.

Glengarry Glengarry was renamed Lochiel in 1866.92 Because it emanated from the Brodies and their immediate neighbours, Lochiel was first a family

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and then an ethnic community. Not surprisingly, the Lochiel congregation practised the strategy later articulated by Robert Shields.93 Growth of the congregation could not come from immigration, nor did it come by conversion of Glengarry neighbours: growth in numbers came from the families of the resident Covenanter community. For some decades, the Lochiel community “worshipped where they could, in the homes, the open air and in the old Brodie school house.”94 In 1871, the Lochiel Covenanters “began to build a house of worship 30 feet by 40.” The construction of the worship place took some time. “They had the building finished all but the seating in the fall of 1876 at a cost of about 600 dollars, nearly all of which they contributed themselves. They expect to have the seats put in before the spring of 1877.”95 A year after construction began, in November 1872, “the congregation with entire unanimity engaged in swearing the Covenant prepared and sworn by Synod in 1871.”96 Calls to ministers had been issued from Lochiel over the years, but none were successful. In 1872, Shields wrote that “the growth of the congregation is much hindered by emigration. Young men go away to other portions of the church, and thus the average number of members remains about twenty. The present number of members is twenty two. They have three ruling elders and one deacon.” Moreover, “they have never enjoyed the ministrations of a settled pastor. They are supplied with preaching about two or three months each year.”97 Lochiel was consistently supported by the Central Board of Missions. Pennsylvania-born Robert Cameron Allen was “installed as the first resident minister of Lochiel on 18 October 1887.”98 The next year, “the building of a manse was begun on a quarter of an acre lot on Brodie Road … the lot was donated by Thomas J. Brodie and his wife.” During his eight-year ministry, Allen “was responsible for a Sabbath School in nearby Glen Robertson.”99 While Allen was at Lochiel, a Ladies Missionary Society, consisting of all the women of the congregation, was formed. The group “contributed to the four missions of the Church equally viz: Southern, Domestic, Foreign, and Indian.”100 A presbyterial visitation occurred; examiners questioned pastor, elders and deacons. “Presbytery heartily sustained the examinations, highly commended the pastor and congregation for their earnest efforts,



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and gave them the assurance of its hearty cooperation in the work of the Lord.”101 Rev. R.C. Allen was released from Lochiel on 14 May 1895.102 After a brief ministry, Rev. G.P. Raitt103 was succeeded by Rev. Charles Clyde. Charles Clyde was born in Northern Ireland on 9 May 1846. At nine years of age, he came with his parents to North America, settling in Philadelphia. Clyde completed his college and theological studies under Rev. David Steele.104 Steele had withdrawn from the communion of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America in 1841 and, with a few others, constituted what was known as the Reformed Presbytery.105 Licensed and ordained in 1887, Clyde was called to a Steelite congregation in Northwood, Ohio, remaining there until he acceded to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, being received by Lakes presbytery on 11 April 1894. Rev. Charles Clyde was installed pastor of the Lochiel congregation on 8 July 1897.106 In Lochiel, Clyde’s “field of labour was on the frontier of the Covenanter Church. His congregation, though small, was of sterling quality, and their leader was ever ready to lead them either in aggressive Christian work or in defence of the truth.”107 In describing a communion service late in 1899, Clyde emphasized his adherence to the traditional practices. “We have just recently passed through an inspiring communion season in Lochiel. The oldest disciples say that they never before enjoyed its equal … All the services of this communion were of the distinctively Covenanter type.” Truly, “this was the good old way.”108 Clyde’s work in Lochiel was cut short: he died suddenly on 7 December 1901.109 After a hiatus of more than three years, a Rochester presbytery commission ordained Ohio native Wilmer George Robb, the first ordination held at Lochiel, on 8 April 1904. At the same service, Lochiel’s Brodie Jamieson was ordained and installed as an elder.110 Robb’s short pastorate was noted for its encouragement of the temperance cause in the community.111 Robb left the pastoral care of Lochiel on 5 September 1905.112 Indiana native Rev, James Ross Latimer was “installed at a service on 31 July 1907.”113 When he came to Lochiel, Latimer was fifty-six years old. He was a faithful pastor and preacher. A son, John Latimer, was a soldier

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in the First World War, the only Lochiel man to serve.114 “After labouring on the frontier for eighteen years in Lochiel congregation, Latimer was released at his own request by presbytery on October 11, 1927.”115 Latimer’s successor was Rev. Ralph Hayes McKelvy, who came to Lochiel in 1928. His significant ministry will be discussed in chapter 16. Toronto was disorganized. The two remaining Ontario congregations – Ramsay (Almonte) and Lochiel – were well launched into the twentieth century. Both were utterly dependent on American-trained clergy. Lochiel was a small congregation, in continual need of financial assistance and viewed by the church as being on the frontier. Almonte was larger, firmly established, mostly self-sustaining, and closer to the centre. Shields’s settled congregation model, whereby growth comes from within, was the accepted paradigm of ministry. Pastors consistently came from south of the border: no Almonte or Lochiel youth offered for Covenanter ministry. Except in the limited way expressed by Shields, there was little sense of a specifically Upper Canada Covenanter church. We will return to Ontario Covenanter fortunes in the twentieth century, after first considering the Covenanter movement in three western provinces – Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

{ 13 } Covenanters in Alberta

The missionary movement of Covenanters into western Canada was significantly different from that in the Maritimes or in Quebec and Ontario. Covenanter beginnings in the west came much later, in the early 1900s. At that time, American Covenanters “continued to feel the lure of the frontier”1 toward the continental North American west. It took some time for the Reformed Presbyterian Synod to take a direct role; normally it subsidized home mission work undertaken by presbyteries. Nonetheless, the Central Board of Missions was active from the earliest days. In 1911, Rev. John Slater Thompson was appointed the church’s Home Missions Secretary.2 Thompson scanned the northwestern horizon for Reformed Presbyterian persons, places, and potential congregations. Already there were members scattered throughout the region: surely if they were made known to each other, the Covenanter cause could be advanced. Writing about “Our Home Mission Work,” Thompson’s vision embraced “our Western States, including Texas, California, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington”; it also included “Sask., Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba.”3 In western Canada, the Covenanter cause took root first in Alberta, in Content and Delburne. The Content and Delburne communities were located in central Alberta, about midway between Calgary and Edmonton and east of Red Deer. A visiting Covenanter missionary gave a narrower geographical description in 1910: “the Content Reformed Presbyterian Mission, taking its name from the nearest post office, is situated eight miles south of Content village.”4 The mission was centred in the Wood Lake School District, established on 25 June 1906. The school board borrowed eight hundred dollars with which to secure a suitable site and to construct and equip a schoolhouse. The building was also used as a church.5 A short time later, when a line of the Grand Trunk Railway was constructed nearby, a new town

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Map 6  Reformed Presbyterians in Western Canada

developed about six miles west of the Wood Lake schoolhouse. Its name was Delburne,6 and by 1913, the post office in Content closed.7 Nevertheless, the Covenanters clung to the name Content until 1922 when “the name of the Content congregation was, at the request of the congregation, changed to Delburne” by the Central Canada presbytery,8 and ratified by the synod.9 The Content/Delburne Covenanters began as a mission station in 1906, became a congregation in 1910, and were in existence until the early 1940s. In 1904, Clark Campbell and his family moved to Penhold, Alberta, from Kansas, and after a short time they relocated to Wood Lake.10 Before long, he was joined by his older brothers James and David Campbell and their wives.11 All three Campbell brothers were Ulster-born, and “all three were pioneering – they moved a lot – the Covenanter congregations with whom they had been involved were Lake Reno, Minnesota; Hetherton, Michigan; Blanchard, Iowa, and Denison, Kansas.”12 However, their coming to Content/Delburne was not simply one move among others. Clark Campbell had “had his share of pioneering.”13 The Campbells wanted to establish their homes and their faith permanently in the Content/Delburne area.



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In March 1905, Clark wrote a letter bidding other Covenanters to come: “Any Covenanters who think of looking for a home in Canada ought to give this country a visit. It is a good stock country and oats, barley, and rye do well … [T]his is a very healthy country, and a man would need at least five or six hundred dollars to start with, so he could buy some cows and a team, and have enough to build a small house and keep him until he would get returns from his cows.” Further, “there are four homesteads taken now by Covenanters and we would like to see more, so we could support a minister.” He explained that “there is some government land yet [though] it will not lie vacant long … Government land can not be bought; it has to be homesteaded.”14 It is quite likely that Clark Campbell was also in touch with synod’s Central Board of Missions. The board appointed Rev. Thomas Melville Slater, a Colorado presbytery minister, to visit Alberta in 1906.15 After viewing various places, Slater wrote that Content “is the only place I have so far found that contains more than one family.”16 In fact, “here [at Content] we have quite a good settlement of our people, with hopes of more coming soon.” Slater noted approvingly that the few Covenanters “since coming here have been holding social worship each Sabbath,” already practising a distinctive Covenanter tradition; moreover, Content Covenanters were “doing missionary work among the other settlers. The attendance at preaching services has been encouraging, and the community seems favourable toward the establishing of regular worship.”17 After Slater’s visit, the Central Board of Missions reported that a Sabbath school had been organized in Content and that there was a membership of seventeen. The report also indicated that “a number from other parts of the Church have signified their intention of locating here at an early day. There is no church building nearer Content than twenty miles, and no other Sabbath service is held nearer than eight miles. The prospect of organizing a self-supporting congregation is reasonably good.”18 The Central Board appointed a senior clergyman, Rev. William McFarland, to continue the mission. He arrived in Content in December 1906 and remained until the end of July 1907. McFarland wrote briefly: “Although our meeting place is a home, it is large and comfortable, and all have been made welcome. Sixty persons in all

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attended the different meetings of Feb. 10. How we wish we could tell our brethren of our kind neighbors who have attended ordinances on the coldest days, walking or riding on horseback several miles … Many signs point to a convenient and comfortable school house, near at hand, for a meeting place. It will be in a beautiful poplar woods and near to a lovely lake, two miles long.”19 McFarland had a hand in constructing the school.20 Undoubtedly the Content Covenanters would have appreciated their own “church building, and comfortable church pews,”21 but that was destined never to happen. The Wood Lake School persisted as the Covenanter worship venue. The Reformed Presbyterians in Content were isolated geographically, 600 miles from the nearest church of their brethren.22 Efforts were made to enlarge membership on two fronts. First, nonCovenanter neighbours who settled in the region were encouraged to attend Covenanter services and then, perhaps, to become members. Second, contact was made with Covenanters from other regions who, interested in moving, might be persuaded to come to Content. Covenanters made known to their neighbours the times and places of worship. Rev. Wilbur John McBurney, who came to Content at the behest of the Central Board from September 1907 until February 1908, commented that there was nothing “but Covenanter preaching in the neighborhood, [and] meetings are well attended.”23 Non-Covenanters took advantage of Reformed Presbyterian services: “Quite a number of families, not yet in membership, attend the services and Sabbath School, and receive the minister into their homes, as their own and only pastor.”24 In addition to Sabbath services, “every two weeks, on Thursday, at 3 p.m., we have fellowship meetings, going from house to house.”25 Services, too, were held in venues other than the Wood Lake School, such as the Rosedale School and the hall in Delburne.26 A few years later, at a session meeting, it was decided to hold preaching services in Delburne.27 In 1920, “fifty letters, each containing distinctive principle literature and a personal note with a self-addressed envelope, were sent to some of the leaders of religious thought, mostly ministers of Calgary.” This witness-bearing project brought two responses. Rev. C.E. Bland, a Methodist and Superintendent of Missions, deemed the principles



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non-essential and had no time to waste on such subjects. Nazarene minister Rev. W.B. Tait thought the Covenanter position on lodges was correct, but the position on the exclusive use of Psalms incorrect. Nonetheless, Tait “read the tracts and found them interesting.”28 At a communion season in 1924, the officiating clergyman, Rev. D.H. Elliott, preached on Saturday morning and Sunday morning and delivered the Table address at Wood Lake schoolhouse. He preached at Delburne on Sabbath afternoon and at William Taylor’s home on Monday morning.29 However, none of these efforts resulted in greatly augmenting Covenanter membership. Some nonCovenanter individuals came into the church through marriage, some remained adherents.30 New communicants came into the church very largely from children of core families.31 The effort to recruit Covenanters from other regions was pursued vigorously for the first decade and beyond, and with more success. Clark Campbell was joined by others in extolling the virtues of the region, giving specific counsel, and urging families to come. These appeals appeared in the Christian Nation, read by both Canadian and American Reformed Presbyterians. In 1908, stalwarts of the Covenanter community praised the productivity of the land: “The soil is of the very best, deep, dark, loam. There has been no failure of crops since we came here.” They promised that anyone thinking of making a change and desiring further information may write any of the signers of this letter and a prompt reply will be given.32 A year later, James Campbell pressed for a Covenanter minister to come: “[I]f any minister would desire to win souls in this new part of the Lord’s vineyard he will find a hearty welcome from the few who are here. The few who are here would be willing to help to the best of their ability to make a home for him.”33 Some Covenanters responded. The western move of Andrew Brodie from the Covenanter congregation in Lochiel, Glengarry County, Ontario,34 may have been due to such invitations. Both Andrew and his wife became communicant members.35 The Covenanter family of Walter and Ina Taylor came from Iowa in 1906 and they became members.36 Robert and Mary Waddell from the Almonte, Lanark County, congregation settled in the area, as did Mary Waddell’s nephew, Mack Bowes.37 Others who

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came slightly later were the Ewing brothers, James and David, from Glenwood, Minnesota,38 and the bachelor brothers Joe and Robert Mann, from Kansas.39 Once all the land open for homesteading in the vicinity had been taken up, there were still “quarter-sections  …  that can be bought.”40 The small trickle of trekking Covenanters continued: “Mr. Charles MacGregor, from Almonte Congregation, is another who has lately come among us.” Moreover, “we are receiving letters of inquiry from Covenanters in several states. Some of these are coming to see the country soon, with a view to locating.”41 In the mid-war years, a Covenanter wrote, “Conditions in the congregation are very encouraging. The present need is an increase of members. Conscription in Canada is not at all likely, and even if there is, no American has to go unless he is a naturalized citizen of Canada. Any inquiries will be welcomed.”42 The William Martin family came from Ontario in 1916; Mary Agnes Kirk Martin had been born in Almonte.43 The Martin family became active participants in Covenanter congregational life. A signal event in the evolution of the community occurred in 1910. Rev. Byron Melancthon Sharp, who had laboured for some time in the Canadian Northwest,44 came to live in Content in November 1909, at the direction of the Central Board. During his ministry, the former Content Mission was organized into a congregation.45 A commission of the Colorado presbytery, consisting of elders James and David Campbell and Rev. B.M. Sharp, met at the home of Clark Campbell on 22 March 1910 and proceeded to the receiving of certificates of members from other congregations. Twenty were placed on the roll. “By a unanimous vote, taken standing, all those who had taken part in the Provincial elections expressed their regret and promised that hereafter they will adhere to the established law of the Ref. Pres. Church.”46 Having completed that vital process, the commission proceeded to elect James Campbell, William Armour, and David Campbell to the office of elder, and Robert Campbell, William Taylor, and Mrs Susan Armour to the office of deacon. Later in the same week, the Covenanter community met at the Wood Lake schoolhouse. The commission addressed the officers-elect and, after examining them, installed them in their offices. The officers signed the terms of communion, and



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Moderator Sharp addressed the officers and the assembled congregation. “The Moderator of Commission then formally announced the completed organization of the Content congregation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Alberta Province, Canada.”47 This paved the way for celebration of Holy Communion: “On the last Sabbath of March, a beautiful day, long to be remembered, there was observed the first communion ever held by a Covenanter congregation in this great, new province. After being deprived for so many years of this precious privilege, when twenty-one Covenanters then sat around the Lord’s Table, there was indeed gladness and thankfulness and rejoicing. All felt as though the Lord had indeed prepared for His people a feast in the wilderness.”48 Sharp remained as missionary until May 1910. Soon the Grand Trunk Railroad line was built and the town of Delburne established. The new town had a “Methodist parsonage,”49 so Covenanters were no longer the sole Christian group trying to gain a foothold in the area. The railroad also facilitated the coming of persons of differing religious traditions to the Content/Delburne region. Even in the small village of Content, with its population of sixty, there was both a Methodist and a Presbyterian church.50 Nor were Content Covenanters the sole Reformed Presbyterian community in the western provinces. Word began circulating about the possibility of a Covenanter cause in Regina, Saskatchewan,51 and on 20 May 1911, a new congregation, under Colorado presbytery, was constituted in that place.52 Three years later, in 1914, a congregation was formed at Winnipeg, Manitoba.53 The emergence of new and relatively stronger Covenanter congregations in Regina and Winnipeg led to a demand for a new presbytery, which came largely from the Regina and Winnipeg congregations. Synod granted the request. The Presbytery of Central Canada included the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, and also the state of Minnesota. The Lake Reno congregation of Minnesota was transferred from the Iowa presbytery to the new Central Canada presbytery.54 While pressure for the presbytery had come from Regina and Winnipeg congregations, it did not materially affect the Content congregation. The major problems of Content/Delburne remained paucity of membership and isolation.

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Covenanter piety in Content/Delburne was expressed in typical ways. Particularly in the early years, gatherings for social worship, normally called prayer meetings, were held.55 The session approved of a Fast Day being kept the first Thursday in October in 1917.56 The Communion Season was marked in the traditional manner: “the usual days of preparation [were] observed.”57 As described above, Rev. D.H. Elliott preached and officiated at the Wood Lake schoolhouse and in Delburne in 1924. When the congregation had been formed, there was an open admission that some had exercised the elective franchise, but they promised not to do so in the future. However, in at least one instance, session discipline was imposed: the session asked Rev. Mr McConaughy to speak to that member of the congregation who had attempted to vote at the last Dominion election, remind him of his promise, and warn him not to do it again. Further, “we request the members of our congregation to not act in any Office connected with Dominion or Provincial elections.”58 The congregation, at its origin in 1910, recommended that the women of the congregation organize a Ladies’ Missionary Society;59 activities of that society were infrequently reported.60 However, from the earliest to the final days, women clearly fulfilled the traditional role of preparing and serving food at gatherings.61 The Sabbath school held a significant place: “This is the only church that I have visited where all remain for the Sabbath School. In this respect, little Delburne sets an enviable pace for other churches.”62 The session duly appointed elders to attend presbytery and synod meetings, although, because of distance, the appointees were not always present. A shortterm clergy visitor commented in 1915 that “a tithe campaign has been conducted during the last few weeks … every member of the Content congregation subscribed.”63 Rev. J.C. French, visiting three years later, noted that the members of this little congregation were all tithers.64 Although Content Covenanters did not vote, congregants participated in the 1914–1918 war effort. Three members of the Content congregation joined the armed forces – Andrew Brodie and Lester and Lloyd Taylor.65 Covenanters in the United States provided three ambulances for the American forces: Content Covenanters David Ewing and Robert Mann contributed to that project.66 Margaret



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(Clark) Campbell sent six knit wool squares for the eighteen afghans that accompanied the ambulances.67 Although Content Covenanters financed themselves in the very earliest days, they began to receive monetary assistance from the synod in 1912. In that year, Content received $200, placed in the hands of the Pacific Coast presbytery, for the development of the field.68 Content, later Delburne, continued to seek assistance: after 1917, applications went through the Central Canada presbytery. Because of its financial situation, Content was never able to call a minister; it was subject to a series of supply ministers and to frequent periods when there were few of these. The sole clergyman who stayed was Rev. H.G. McConaughy who had his first stint as stated supply from 1916 to 1919, and his second from 1927 to 1936. Howard George McConaughy was born in Washington, Iowa on 5 October 1882, into a Covenanter home. He was ordained and became pastor of the congregation of Clarinda, Ohio on 20 May 1910. He married in 1911; a few years later, his wife died, leaving McConaughy with a young son and daughter. He was released from Clarinda on 13 October 1915.69 Widower McConaughy left his two children behind and came to preach at Wood Lake school for the Reformed Presbyterian families in 1916.70 At the initial meeting of the Central Canada presbytery in Regina in 1917, McConaughy was the sole Covenanter from Content, and he was elected clerk of the new presbytery.71 McConaughey’s arrival in Content, the formation of the new presbytery, and the enthusiasm of its chair, Regina’s Rev. J.C. French, offered the possibility of new Covenanter venues in Alberta. McConaughy recognized Edmonton as a prime possibility: “We have some Covenanters in Edmonton, who are live, energetic people. If there is to be any city congregation west of Regina, this is the logical place for it. There should be a concerted effort of our members who are moving west to settle together. Edmonton has an advantage in having a nucleus around which a congregation might be built.”72 New presbytery moderator French came to Content and assisted McConaughy in a communion season. From there, they went to Edmonton, visiting a number of families who had been Covenanters, endeavouring to interest them in the Covenanter cause.73 Reporting on their trip to Edmonton, the delegate to the Mission Conference was instructed to

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apply for “$100 for the work at Edmonton.”74 Nevertheless, nothing came of the effort. A more auspicious situation seemed to offer itself in Provost, Alberta, a village of around four hundred people; the region around it was being rapidly settled. Six or seven Covenanter members were discovered, and through the kindness of the McElhinney brothers, arrangements were made for Rev. French to preach in the Presbyterian church of Provost at morning and evening services. There were good-sized audiences at both. “Provost would be a splendid locality for a Covenanter congregation.”75 Again, the presbytery recommended funds for continuance of the work; nonetheless, no mission station was to emerge in Provost. In spite of the new presbytery and the presence of McConaughy in Content for some of that time, the war and postwar years were not auspicious for the Covenanter congregation. The First World War brought financial restraints in the old world and the new. In western Canada, three large railways, the Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk, and Grand Trunk Pacific were close to bankruptcy.76 In Content/Delburne, while Covenanter services remained open to non-Covenanters, few became members. On the other front, appeals to Covenanters to come from other regions sharply declined. The return of some soldiers helped, yet the years 1916 to 1919 did not bring growth of Covenanter members. When he arrived in Content, McConaughy had been a widower. There he met Nancy Campbell, a school teacher, eldest daughter of Clark and Margaret Campbell. They were wed in Regina in 1919 by the pastor, Rev. J.C. French.77 Shortly after their wedding, the McConaughys left Canada for the United States.78 Even before the departure of McConaughy, the Content congregation suffered losses. Some Covenanters who had come from south of the border either moved on or returned to the United States. The stalwart William Armour family moved to Morrin, Alberta, in 1913.79 Joe Mann stayed in Delburne, but brother Robert Mann returned to the States.80 Similarly, David Ewing sold his quarter to his brother James and returned to the usa .81 The three foundational Campbell brothers, so crucial to the early developments, all died.82 Clark Campbell’s family continued in the community. His son Robert was a deacon in



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the original congregation;83 elected later as an elder, he declined the office.84 The isolation of the Covenanter community became more pronounced. It was hard to contract clergy who were willing to stay. In the early 1920s, Content applied to presbytery for $650. The Central Canada presbytery approved the amount, recommending that in view of the difficulty of securing preaching at Content, the synod make provision to pay the railway fare one way, provided the stated supply remain in the field for at least six months.85 Yet this measure helped not. In the mid-1920s, Delburne Covenanters had a three-month visit from senior minister Rev. J.C. McFeeters. He wrote passionately about the situation. In some ways, he said, Content was a strong congregation with two elders, five families, sixteen members, two places of preaching each Sabbath, a mid-week prayer meeting, a fine Sabbath school. Nonetheless, the Delburne congregation was discouraged. They did not have regular preaching. According to their means they seemed willing to do their part for maintaining a minister who would remain with them at least six months. But the minister was not to be had. In spite of the fact that nearly as many families outside as inside showed their attachment by their attendance, they found little inducement to unite with the church because the days of preaching were so few. “Feasting a month and starving a month is not good for growth.”86 A few months later, McFeeters wrote again. The congregation was solidly united; their harmony was ideal; their Christian fellowship was most cordial. They had the good will and respect of the large community where they dwelt. Nonetheless, the Covenanters were losing heart. Most discouraging was the intimation from the synod that they sell out and locate elsewhere. But “they are deeply rooted in the soil; sturdy oaks of 25 years growth are hard to transplant.”87 The Delburne discouragement was known to the Central Canada presbytery. Rev. H.G. McConaughy, now serving as pastor at Lake Reno, Minnesota, in the same presbytery, was released from this charge on 13 October 1927.88 McConaughy, his wife Nancy, and their family, returned to Delburne. McConaughy served as stated supply for a second time, beginning on 1 November 1927.89 During his second

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stint in Alberta, McConaughy was chair of the Central Canada Presbytery. He spearheaded attempts to create Reformed Presbyterian inroads in Calgary and in Edmonton, but found that former Covenanters in both cities had become members of other churches.90 Covenanter activity in Alberta was still restricted to Content/Delburne. In spite of McConaughy’s return and the congregation’s efforts, the Delburne congregation continued to weaken. The Central Canada presbytery was itself in difficulty. Finally, in 1934, the Central Canada presbytery petitioned for its own dissolution, giving as reasons small numbers, great distances, and aid-receiving charges. It would be better to have this small presbytery dissolved, and have its congregations added to other presbyteries.91 The petition to dissolve was granted: the congregations of Lake Reno, Winnipeg, and Regina were placed under the care of Iowa presbytery, and Delburne under the care of the Pacific Coast presbytery.92 On the eve of the dissolution of the Central Canada presbytery, differences emerged between the Home Missions Board and the Delburne congregation. Earlier that year, Delburne had applied for assistance of $750, which was approved by the presbytery.93 But at the synod, the Home Missions Board recommended that “under present conditions,” no further supplement be given to Delburne.94 No explanation for “the present conditions” was minuted. Delburne protested. Rev. H.G. McConaughy was present at synod, and Central Canada presbytery supported the protest.95 The protest was at least partially effective for, in 1935, Delburne received $400 from the Home Missions Board.96 Because of the initial disappointing decision, the Delburne session directed the clerk to write to the Home Missions Board asking for a copy of statements and name of writer, since statements being used by the board reflected against the Delburne congregation. Further, “we also protest against the Board for taking action against the Delburne Cong[regation] without giving them a hearing.”97 There is no evidence that the hurt was ever addressed. The McConaughy family left Delburne early in 1936.98 Rev. Earnest McLeod Elsey served for three months at Delburne in the summers of 1936 and 1937. Elsey wrote a brief history of the congregation.99 He noted that the older generation who had first carried the burden of the work had nearly all passed on. Their succes-



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sors were endeavouring to take their place, but matters were not easy. They had struggled hard and suffered many reverses.100 During each of the summers he was there, Elsey moderated the session. At the 1936 meeting, at their own request, certificates were granted to several, including Mr and Mrs James Ewing.101 The last session meeting for which minutes exist took place a year later. Local historian Ken Waddell, son of ruling elder Robert Waddell, noted that the congregation continued until close to 1940 when it was dissolved for lack of members.102 Officially, Pacific Coast presbytery reported at the 1942 synod that “the Delburne congregation was disorganized during the past year and certificates of members have been sent to other congregations for members from Delburne who requested them.”103 The short life of this early Reformed Presbyterian congregation in Alberta came to an end. In the earliest days, local inhabitants attended Covenanter services, and their children the Sabbath school. Yet, very few of their neighhours became members of the Covenanter church. For a time, the community grew because of Covenanter families coming from other places – never many, and not enough. When leaner times came, some of the Covenanters left the Wood Lake district. Too isolated to attract and keep a minister, the Covenanter church wilted and died. The birth, rise, and relatively quick demise of the Covenanters in Alberta are not unique. The Society of Friends had their first meeting for worship in Calgary in the home of William and Frances Kennedy in August 1908.104 In 1913, Helen Sara arrived from England and, with the help of Walter Kennedy, searched Calgary and district for other Friends. As a result, the gatherings swelled so that a small garage was converted into a meeting house. By 1915, the meeting applied to become a Monthly Meeting under the care of the British Columbia Quarterly Meeting, a status conferred later that year. It was a period of rapid settlement in Alberta, when Friends from the United States and Britain sought to make homes for themselves. Many were homesteaders; the young meeting was active. Visitors came from the Quarterly Meeting and from the Canada Yearly Meeting in Ontario. The First World War and conscription proved to be challenging for the Society of Friends. One family’s son was killed in France. Walter Kennedy, who had been associated with the meeting since 1908, died

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in October 1918. The meeting was in abeyance in September 1919 because of an influenza epidemic. By 1920 concerns were being raised about inactive members; some grown children were no longer interested. Some Friends moved back to England, some to Vancouver. The meeting carried on until 1925, when the last minutes were recorded. The early Quaker effort folded. For both Covenanters and Quakers, long-term continuous life and witness in Alberta proved impossible. In spite of contacts from beyond the local community, numbers were insufficient over the long haul. Some of the children of Quaker and Covenanter families were not interested in their parents’ faith. Newcomers came for a time, then the influx ceased. Death removed some of the founders. Both Covenanter and Quaker early communities were isolated; they died. Later, a new Society of Friends initiative commenced when some Quakers moved to Calgary in the 1940s. The city’s Society of Friends became a Preparative Meeting under Vancouver Monthly Meeting in 1954.105 An Edmonton congregation previously affiliated with the Associated Presbyterian Churches was received as a new Reformed Presbyterian congregation by St Lawrence presbytery in April 2010.106

{ 14 } Covenanters in Saskatchewan

John Slater Thompson’s 1912 vision embraced western Canadian provinces, including Saskatchewan.1 Already in 1909, “Regina, Canada, is a promising field calling for help.”2 Certainly there were Covenanters in Regina. Original Regina ruling elder and prosperous farmer James Smith Bell, “living just outside the city limits on the north-west came to Regina in March 1904.”3 John Muirhead, the other original elder, “deeply interested in the Covenanted cause in Regina came to Canada in 1907.”4 Nonetheless, there is no record of any gatherings among Covenanters in Regina before 1909. The first Covenanter clergy to come to Regina was Rev. B.M. Sharp. He “laboured for some time in the Canadian Northwest … and in Regina.”5 Regina “Church Services” newspaper columns indicate that Sharp was in the city from mid-August until 1 November 1909. He conducted services in Osgoode Hall, Cornwall Street, preaching at 11 a.m., followed by a Bible school at 12:45 p.m.6 After Sharp’s departure the records again fall silent. Rev. William John McKnight came to Regina early in May 1910.7 When McKnight visited, there were “seven families, that is thirty-five persons.” There were some adherents, so “a church home ought to be provided without delay. They need help for the present and coming year, though from the outlook they bid fair to be able to take care of themselves by the close of the third year.”8 McKnight conducted services in the Evangelical Church, 9th Avenue: services were publicized in the local press.9 For some months in 1910/11, Rev. William Cochran Allen ministered to the Regina Covenanters.10 In the autumn of 1910, he led the Covenanter community during a communion season: “It was the first Covenanter conventicle observed in the province of Saskatchewan. We hope it is the first fruit of an abundant harvest to follow. Some members have not for several years celebrated and to them and to all of us a season of great joy.”11 Allen was an American, as were

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many of the congregants. He noted that the Dominion Thanksgiving came in October, but since most of the members were from the States, it seemed best to have a congregational dinner on the American Thanksgiving Day, November 21. “Forty-six sat down to a bounteous banquet, and a most enjoyable social time.” A short business meeting followed. John Chambers, who had been appointed to solicit funds for the church, reported that over $700 had been subscribed. A committee was appointed to select a lot, with a view to building a church in the future. “As the city is growing with wonderful rapidity, and values are rapidly increasing, it is thought best to secure a favourable location soon.”12 When Allen was in Regina, Covenanters used a church at the corner of Ninth and Robinson street.13 The official organization of the Regina congregation occurred in May 1911. The Colorado presbytery commission consisted of Reverends W.C. Allen and Thomas Melville Slater and ruling elder J.S. Bell. The organization was effected May 20, when more than thirty Covenanters met with the commission, signifying their wishes. The Covenanters were not a homogeneous group: “some had certificates from various congregations in the States, some were from congregations of the Scotch and Irish Synod, and some had recently been received under the pastoral care of Brother Allen.”14 A session was chosen consisting of J.S. Bell and John Muirhead, and a board of deacons with Morton S. Bell and George Chambers. J.S. Bell had been a ruling elder in some western American states,15 while John Muirhead had been an elder for twenty years in the Paisley Covenanter church, Scotland.16 The new congregation celebrated the Lord’s Supper on the following Sabbath. After the Monday service, a session meeting appointed J.S. Bell as a synod delegate.17 Steps were taken whereby the congregation purchased the property in which the services were held; there was no need to build anew.18 Leaving Regina, Slater was pleased with Covenanter prospects. “The work of our church has begun here with a very promising outlook. The congregation is composed of young people who can be relied upon to follow wise leadership. There is a good prospect for growth, and ample opportunities for home mission service are found in the neighbourhood.”19



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Licentiate Paul Coleman ministered in Regina for the last months in 1911 and the first few in 1912. For Coleman, Regina was a new place – wide streets, few houses, not very tall buildings. “There are many vacant lots on the north side of the railroad, where our church is.”20 In this active centre men got rich dealing in real estate. Moreover, except for the discussion of Canadian politics, one might almost imagine oneself in Iowa. Audiences at the church averaged about forty. There were frequent visitors and inquiries from Covenanters in the States. The church building itself was being upgraded: “electric lights were installed in July.”21 The congregation called Coleman, whom they valued, to be their pastor.22 Coleman, however, refused the call. Before leaving early in 1912, he indicated further signs of congregational growth. A new psalter was adopted; the young people organized a Covenanter Union planning for social, literary, and devotional meetings; a singing school was being continued, affording excellent congregational singing.23 Rev. Andrew James McFarland preached for the congregation in March 1912. During that month, James M. Crawford and Andrew Alexander and their families arrived from Morning Sun, Iowa; they were welcomed warmly.24 McFarland alluded to a perceptible boom in Regina real estate; congregants James Bell and Andrew Alexander were engaged in the enterprise. As a result, they and others were in good financial shape. Among the dedicated Regina congregants, McFarland mentioned J.S. Bell in particular. “He is a consistent advocate of the tithe and has been distributing tithe literature among the members as a preparation for a congregational meeting on the subject.”25 James Smith Bell was born in New York City in 1848. When he was nine, the family moved to the west, to Iowa, then to Kansas. Much later Bell moved with his family to Regina. Active as a Covenanter in Iowa and Kansas, Bell’s zeal abated not when coming to Saskatchewan. “It was his earnest desire to see the Banner of the Covenant planted at Regina, and for this he never ceased to labor and to pray until he saw his desire fulfilled in the organization of the Regina congregation, when he was made a member of the session.”26 Tragically, elder Bell died on 29 April 1912. A headline conveyed the news: “Bull

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charges aged farmer, injuries fatal … He was still conscious when found a few minutes after the accident, but soon became unconscious and passed away before medical help arrived.”27 He was buried in Regina. Bell’s death necessitated a replacement on the session. At the synod in 1912, the Rev. J.G. Reed was asked to preach in Regina for six weeks.28 At an election following, Andrew Alexander and Morton S. Bell were chosen as elders, and A. Woods Edgar, John Crawford, and Metheny Alexander were elected deacons.29 Morton S. Bell was a son of J.S. Bell, and Metheny Alexander a son of Andrew Alexander. Peripatetic Home Missions secretary J.S. Thompson came again to Regina later in the summer of 1912, when he moderated the call of Rev. J.G. Reed to become the pastor.30 This call was accepted, though Reed did not formally become pastor in Regina until 1913. In the autumn of 1912, American pastor Rev. Frank Emmett Allen conducted communion in the Regina church.31 There were forty communicants; five were added to the roll, three by certificate and two by profession. Allen noted that the church was located in a growing part of the city, an abundance from which to draw for the Sabbath school. The Covenanters had the additional advantage that there was no United Presbyterian congregation. True, there were barriers to persons interested in becoming Reformed Presbyterian. Covenanters have high standards, which some consider a barrier. “Covenanters have obstacles with which to contend here, as they do in the States. There is the same tendency to materialism, Sabbath desecration, affiliation with secret orders and incorporation with the government that there is elsewhere.”32 J.G. Reed was installed pastor of the Regina congregation on 9 May 1913.33 John Gray Reed was born into a Covenanter home in New Richmond, Ohio, on 6 January 1869. He had been pastor in Indiana, Alabama, and Utica, Ohio, before coming with his family to Saskatchewan; and his ministry in Regina had begun before the formal installation. His sermon on the “Exclusive Use of the Psalms in Worship” was published in some local papers.34 When Reed gave a sermon entitled “Musical Instruments Forbidden in Worship,” a synopsis was published in a Regina paper the next day.35 At the inception of Reed’s ministry, synod expressed hearty appreciation of Regina



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becoming self-sufficient.36 Reed, in his mid-forties, continued the witness he had already accomplished before his installation. A Reed sermon entitled “Tobacco – Its Bewitching and Enslaving Power” was published.37 During Reid’s ministry, an active Covenanter Young Peoples Union was instituted, with services every Sabbath evening.38 Rev. J.G. Reed was released from the pastorate of Regina congregation on 3 June 1915.39 During the time of Reed’s two-year pastorate, the congregation increased from forty-nine communicant members to sixty-three.40 Reed did not immediately move out of province or to another pastorate, but for over three years was engaged in secular employment in Condie, Saskatchewan.41 In the First World War, seven Regina Covenanters enlisted.42 Alexander Muirhead, Paisley-born, and a son of ruling elder John Muirhead, a communicant member of the Regina congregation, was killed in action in France.43 On the home front, Regina layman A. Woods Edgar gave a total of forty-five dollars toward three Covenanter ambulances,44 and the Ladies Missionary and Aid Society sent five dollars to the Covenanter Ambulance Fund.45 The Regina society knit and donated afghans that accompanied the ambulances.46 The society gave considerable attention to providing an Honor Roll “for [the] boys of the church who have gone to war.” Ultimately, “an Honor Roll including names of all the boys in the army made by Helen Chambers was framed and placed in the church by the Society.”47 After Rev. J.G. Reed left the congregation in 1915, Regina was without a pastor, though Rev. H.G. McConaughy, at that time stated supply in Content, Alberta, visited for a short time in early 1916. From March to May 1916, Rev. John Calvin Boyd French served in Regina.48 French was the retiring moderator of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod that met in Chicago.49 While French was in Regina, the congregation issued a unanimous call to him, though he was still officially minister in Denver, Colorado.50 French accepted the call. John Calvin Boyd French was born near Ray, Indiana on 29 May 1858. While attending seminary, he taught for two years in the Academy in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. There he met and married Mary Agnes Steele on 13 August 1885. His first pastorate was at Sterling, New York, where he was ordained and installed on 8 January 1888. He later held pastorates in Oakdale, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado.51

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French, then in his mid-fifties, was installed in Regina by a commission of the Pacific Coast presbytery on 4 August 1916.52 After having been without a regular pastor for a time, “the Regina Reformed Presbyterians will have services of a well-known pastor of the denomination … He is regarded as one of the leading lights in that denomination.”53 J.C. French involved Regina Covenanters in activities with other congregations. “New Year’s day, 1917, was a busy day for our people. Our pastor had secured a place for our Sabbath school in the Ninth Annual Rally, held under the auspices of the Regina City Sabbath School Association.”54 This event enabled Covenanter distinctives to receive a wider audience. “Mr. French scored a point in the arrangements by letting the committee know that we were a Psalm singing church, so the Reformed Presbyterian Sabbath School had to answer the roll call by repeating the 125th Psalm in metre … The rally was a great success, filling one of the biggest churches in the city.”55 The Sabbath school rally was repeated the next year.56 Similarly, Regina Covenanters became involved in the annual observance of the Week of Prayer. French described this as “a comparatively new thing in western Canada … The Ministerial Association of Regina arranged for the keeping of the week by the various congregations.” Further, “in order to insure a good attendance, it was thought best to group the congregations together.” In Regina, “the churches of the north side were put in our group. This included our own congregation along with the Presbyterian and Methodist congregations. These congregations very kindly agreed to use the Psalms in these meetings, unaccompanied, making it an easy matter for us to unite with them and giving us an opportunity to set before them some of the requirements which God makes of nations.”57 Although women had been engaged in various aspects of the life of the Regina mission since its inception, it was not until 22 February 1917 that the Ladies Missionary and Aid Society (lms) was formally organized. A study of the Covenanter home and foreign mission fields resulted; the society remembered the Chinese and Syrian missions and the Aged People’s Home in Allegheny.58 Moreover, “donations were sent for relief of sufferers in the dried out area [of the province] and a needy family of Regina was given aid.”59 The society also ad-



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dressed needs of the local congregation, donating funds for painting the church and for the provision of pulpit chairs.60 It also prepared dinners and frequently arranged entertainment at social gatherings.61 One of French’s foremost achievements was his leadership in the formation of a new regional church court. A memorial from the Regina and Winnipeg sessions called for the organization of a presbytery. Synod granted the request and dictated that ministers and one elder from the session of each congregation should meet in the Reformed Presbyterian church, Regina, in October 1917. Rev. J.C. French was appointed moderator.62 Congregations in the new presbytery were Content, Alberta; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Lake Reno, Minnesota.63 The new presbytery confirmed J.C. French as moderator; Rev. H.G. McConaughy, of Content, was elected clerk; Regina ruling elder Andrew Alexander was appointed treasurer.64 “An inspirational conference was held in the evening. Visiting delegates were royally entertained by the pastor and people of Regina.”65 The early days of the new presbytery appeared promising. In its ini- tial report to synod, the presbytery reported that “although our congregations are far separated from one another, they are vitally interested in each other’s growth and welfare. Their very isolation and remoteness from the rest of the church makes them more concerned about the upholding of Covenanter principles in their respective fields and more anxious for the fellowship and co-operation to which our Master is calling us.”66 French was clearly committed to the new presbytery, visiting the other three constituent congregations.67 As already noted, he also engaged with Content’s H.G. McConaughy in unsuccessful efforts to begin new work in Edmonton and Provost.68 French was frequently absent from his Regina pulpit; on many occasions, Rev. J.G. Reed was welcomed as replacement.69 Since session and congregational minutes have not survived, it is difficult to identify the chief challenges facing Regina Covenanters. Canadian Covenanters did not normally vote in dominion or provincial elections, but could they vote in municipal elections? Immediately preceding the First World War, this question engaged Regina Covenanters. The 1914 synod, attended by Regina minister J.G. Reed and ruling elder Morton S. Bell, responded to a Regina memorial transferred by the Pacific Coast presbytery that was to prove persis-

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tently difficult.70 The memorial asked for a deliverance on the question of voting in Canada, especially in municipal elections where conditions of voting differed materially from dominion elections. The synod answered: in all cases in which voting requires an oath of allegiance to the British crown on the part of the voter or officer, as in Dominion and Provincial elections, voting is contrary to the principles of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. But “in cases where no such oath is required, as in municipal elections in part of the Dominion at least, where we are informed no oath of allegiance is required of the officer, and even an alien can participate, we see nothing inconsistent with the principles of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in voting.”71 However, the synod’s response did not put the matter to rest; municipal elections did not follow a consistent pattern across different Canadian provinces. At the 1915 synod, where Regina elder Andrew Alexander was a delegate, the matter was again before synod: “in the matter regarding voting in municipal elections in Canada the conditions are in some respect peculiar.”72 For, “in Canadian cities every ratepayer or taxpayer is permitted to vote in municipal elections. In some cases it would seem that it is not required that the voter be a British subject or that he subscribe to any civil constitution.” Moving to a side bar, the synod drew a distinction. There are moral questions such as Sabbath observance that are from time to time submitted to the people. On moral questions, the law of the church permits Covenanters to vote. But on the main concern, there was confusion and conflict surrounded voting in municipal elections. “A Covenanter cannot consistently vote for an official who will be required to take an oath which the voter himself could not take, or to subscribe to a constitution that is out of harmony with the law of God.”73 No consensus being possible, the synod again referred the matter to a special “Committee on Voting in Canada.” The chair, Indiana pastor Rev. J.M. Coleman, was joined by Nova Scotia’s Rev. Thomas McFall, Almonte’s Rev. James McCune, and ruling elders Andrew Alexander of Regina and S.R. McKelvey of Winnipeg.74 The committee’s report came before the 1916 synod.75 Covenanter convictions were restated: there is no nation in the world today and no government that can properly be called Christian. However, “in Sas-



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katchewan, the candidate for certain municipal offices is not required to take an oath of allegiance.”76 Even in those situations, where no oath was required, the unchristian system is implicitly present.77 A clear decision satisfactory to a majority of synod proved difficult; the matter was to be discussed again at both 1917 and 1918 synods. Regina’s Rev. J.C. French and ruling elder Andrew Alexander attended the 1917 synod.78 Alexander declared, “It is now four years since this question came before this Synod from Regina. Synod has had ample time to investigate and give a definite answer. It can and should be answered by either yes or no. There is no middle ground. It is either a duty to take an active part in civil affairs or it is a sin.”79 Alexander’s plea for a decision along rigorist lines did not move the majority of the synod to his, or any other option. At the 1918 synod, Alexander reiterated his strong stand about municipal elections: “Voting is impossible under existing conditions, without sin.”80 His position drew support from fellow Almonte ruling elder James W. Rose.81 Cornwallis pastor Rev. Thomas McFall also concurred. McFall was not sure if all councillors in Canada took an oath, but felt that the oath was always implied. In Nova Scotia, councillors are required to take an oath to the reigning sovereign. For a Covenanter, to vote in Nova Scotia dishonours our Lord and Christianity.82 Among those differing from Alexander was his pastor, Rev. J.C. French: “If the report [proposed by Alexander] is adopted he could no longer teach it, and would have to give up his charge.”83 Hours of debate over four synods had been expended on the issue: the matter could not be resolved to the satisfaction of the differing parties. “Rev. J.C. French moved indefinite postponement of the whole matter.” A headline put the matter briefly: “Action on the Question of Voting in Canada Indefinitely Postponed.”84 Formally left unsettled, in Regina and in Canada, the matter was bound to resurface; it did, in Ontario in the 1940s.85 Rev. J.C. French, at his own request, was released from the pastorate of the Regina congregation on 27 May 1919.86 His departure dealt a serious blow to the Covenanter fortunes. In addition, three prominent families moved from the Regina region late in 1918 and early 1919. Ruling elder Andrew Alexander and his family left for Boise, Idaho;87 ruling elder Morton S. Bell and his family moved to Bryon, Wash-

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ington;88 Rev. J.G. Reed and family left Saskatchewan, returning to the United States.89 As a result of the loss of Alexander and Bell, two new elders were elected, James M. Crawford90 and A. William Edgar.91 In the postwar period, Regina’s membership dropped sharply, by eleven in 1920,92 by a further seventeen in 1921.93 From a recorded statistical high of sixty-eight communicants in 1918,94 the membership declined to less than a third of that number – twenty-two – by 1923.95 There were several reasons for this sharp decline. In contrast to the fiscal boom and expansion in the years before and during the First World War, economic conditions became unsettled after the war. Again, for some time there was no regular pastor in Regina after the May 1919 departure of J.C. French. Finally, some Reformed Presbyterians joined other denominations. Regina’s plight did not improve: in 1922 it was reported that “Regina has been able to secure supplies only part of the time.”96 The identical message was repeated a year later.97 When he visited Regina in August of 1923 to conduct preparatory services and administer the Lord’s Supper, Winnipeg pastor Rev. F.E. Allen noted that since Regina had not been able to secure preaching for the past year, “there was something of discouragement.” Yet there were some grounds for hope: “Rev. James McCune has been asked to serve as stated supply for a year,” and the congregation was looking forward to his leadership.98 James McCune had held pastorates in Barnesville, New Brunswick,99 and Almonte, Ontario.100 He came from Ray, Indiana, in September 1923.101 In a letter, McCune related that there were twenty members, though the audiences generally numbered twice this, and “we have some adherents who are as faithful in coming as the members.” Under McCune, the Sabbath school was reorganized and made a good start in the face of competing denominations: the neighbourhood was well churched – five or six within blocks of the Covenanter church. Moreover, these offered attractions and inducements Covenanters could not match.102 Committed to Regina for a year, McCune became seriously ill in the early months of 1924: “internal cancer so weakened him that he was compelled to return to his home in Wilkinsburgh, Pennsylvania,” where he died on 16 July 1924.103 James Crawford, one of two Regina



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Rev. James McCune

ruling elders, died in late 1923 or early 1924.104 The lone remaining Regina elder, A. William Edgar, continued to work wisely among the people; “he bears his burdens well.”105 J. Metheny Alexander was elected a second elder. Brief stays by different Covenanter clergy marked the last years of Regina’s congregation. Rev. John R. Hemphill came early in 1925 and provided the congregation with excellent sermons.106 A few months later, on 20 May 1925, Hemphill was granted a letter of standing to the Presbyterian Church of Canada.107 Rev. Robert James Dodds, whose health was problematic, came to Regina in the autumn of 1925. “Mr. Dodds held communion on Sabbath day. He led us in a thorough and inspiring service.” But he was to die a few days later, on 17 November 1925.108 Rev. James C. McFeeters paid three short visits to Regina in

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the 1920s. Most notable was a substantial sojourn in mid-June 1928. He brought with him layman Robert A.M. Steele, a man gifted with a beautiful singing voice who served as precentor of synod for many years.109 Together, McFeeters and Steele led “Evangelistic Services [in the] Reformed Presbyterian Church, Corner Robinson and Ninth, June 24 to July 1, inclusive.”110 The services were well attended but did not result in any new Covenanter members. A further decline in Regina Covenanter fortunes took place in May 1928 when the church property passed out of the hands of local trustees to the parent synod.111 Nonetheless, the church building continued to be used for Covenanter services. By the time of synod in 1929, Regina became disorganized through the removal of one of its elders who joined another denomination.112 Mr and Mrs A. William Edgar joined the First Presbyterian Church, Regina,113 leaving J. Metheny Alexander as the sole remaining elder. Regina was now a mission station.114 Licentiate Hugh Wright, who was successfully serving the Winnipeg congregation, visited Regina in January, then in the autumn of 1934, and finally in April 1935. The cause was hopeless; only two Covenanter families could help at all. An offer was made for the church property and, on Mr Wright’s counsel, the synod’s Board of Trustees made the sale.115 Although Regina remained technically on synod records until 1940,116 the mission station had been moribund for some time. At the outset, the Regina community was well situated to expand; there were few competing churches in the early days. Expansion came, but not through other Regina citizens being converted to the faith; rather Covenanter immigrants came from other places, attracted to Regina’s rising economic prosperity. Covenanters were not able to recruit from beyond their own ethnic and denominational base. Restrictions about voting and other matters may have been a deterrent. The influx of Covenanters before the First World War was reversed by the sharp economic slump following the war. Original elders Bell and Muirhead attracted only their own sons to the eldership. Rev. French co-operated admirably with other churches during the expansive era, but neither he, nor any of his Covenanter colleagues, gave leadership when church union was considered. Here too, Covenanters



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stood aside, uninvolved. As church union approached, a minister and, somewhat later, a long-standing elder joined the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The termination of the community was protracted, but death came to the Saskatchewan Covenanter congregation. An examination of the Quaker community in Saskatchewan reveals significant similarities and differences. Quakers were living in Saskatchewan before the turn of the century – Hicksite Friends in the eastern part of the province by 1895, and Conservative Friends near Borden by 1903. William Ira Moore was to establish a more substantial community near Battleford.117 Moore was born in 1862 in Grey County, Ontario, of Quaker parents, and attended Pickering College. Like many of his contemporaries, Moore was deeply affected by the Revival Movement in the Society of Friends after 1881. The movement affected the Quaker mode of worship – going from quiet congregational meetings in silence to a more programmatic type of service in which one person assumed responsibility. Previously absent, there were now Quaker pastors and ministers. The Revival Movement also evoked a new interest in foreign and home missions, specifically home missions in western Canada. Two Ontario Quakers, William Ira Moore and Alma Gould Dale, gave leadership to the western Canada mission.118 A convinced Quaker after his eighteenth birthday, Moore became pastor of the Pickering, Ontario, meeting. Inspired by the Revival Movement, he paid his first visit to the west in 1888, deeply impressed with the possibilities there. He made a second trip in 1897, holding meetings with scattered members of Friends. On his return, he generated further enthusiasm among Quakers for the western mission in the Canadian Yearly Meeting of 1898. In 1903, with two other Friends, Moore selected a location for a colony of Friends, near Battleford, Saskatchewan. Moore’s Revival Movement impulses were strongly evangelistic: “The West needs the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ … It is our duty to supply the needs” of the west. “If we believe we have a message for this age, we should seek to proclaim it in this new land.”119 Other Quakers in Pickering, Ontario, where Moore was still pastor, were persuaded of the merits of the new colony. Some followed him west, though the Saskatchewan colony never exceeded thirty families.

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Some Quakers moved to the area and began homesteading in 1904; Society of Friends services began that year. By 1905, a meeting of members of the Society of Friends was held at the home of Walter J. Armitage. From there a petition was sent to the Hartney Monthly Meeting in Manitoba, requesting that the Battleford group, appropriately called Swarthmore, be recognized as a Monthly Meeting. Plans were also laid for the financing and building of a meeting house. The first Monthly Meeting for business was held on 16 October 1905 in their own Quaker meeting house in Swarthmore. Committees were appointed for the coming year, and plans made to organize a Sunday school. The actual arrival of most of the families of the Friends was the major change in 1906. Moore himself moved to Swarthmore, took up a homestead, built a house, and devoted himself to farming and caring for the meetings forming in the district. In the four townships of the settlement, five school sections were organized and school houses built, some of which were used for meeting purposes. In 1907, Moore wrote, “As we look back over the two years since the opening of the meeting house and see the changes that have taken place and how God has led us, we are very thankful to Him for all His goodness to us.”120 Methodist services also began in the area in 1904, and Presbyterian services a year later. From the outset, relationships with the other denominations were cordial and co-operative, particularly in Sunday school endeavours. Moore carried on as able minister of the meeting house in Swarthmore and visited Friends further west. He organized the first conference for Friends in western Canada, held at Swarthmore in July 1909.121 Moore’s strenuous labours caused his health to break down; he returned to Ontario and died in 1912. Moore’s “premature death was an irretrievable loss … to the success of the work in the West which he had been so largely instrumental in founding.”122 With Moore’s death, the mission’s evangelistic thrust died as well. A controversy between the few old-time Friends and newcomers from the United States in 1919 left its mark on the Meeting. Some Friends moved away, back to the east or farther west. Because of the cooperation with Presbyterians and Methodists, Quakers were able to make an agreement with the Presbyterians, and later with the United



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Church, to share the charge. In 1925, Swarthmore joined with other congregations to form the United Church. Some matters were not completely cleared up when the agreements were made – for instance, the transfer or disposal of the property. Later, in 1931, Swarthmore Quaker Amaziah Beeson wrote, “I have done as I was instructed and sent thee the money and books and records … There is no Friend in 20 miles of Wilkie but my self.”123 There are similarities and differences between the Quakers in Swarthmore and the Covenanters in Regina. Both communities were too small in numbers to effect a long-lasting existence. The Swarthmore community was the dream of one man, who encouraged other Quakers to join; Covenanter origins were more diffuse. Moore’s evangelistic goals were not shared by other Swarthmore Quakers. Neither Quakers nor Covenanters were able to convert outside their own denominational boundaries. One of the sharpest contrasts between the two faiths has to do with final endings. In its failing days, the Quaker community, faced with loss of members, made an arrangement with the Presbyterian Church so that at least part of its witness would be carried on. The Covenanter congregation was steadily decreasing in numbers, yet the weakening community did not have any prevision of or plans for its final demise.

{ 15 } Covenanters in Manitoba

Along with other western provinces, Manitoba was a potential site for Covenanter activity in the early part of the century.1 When Rev. W.C. Allen went to Winnipeg in 1910, he was happy to find about twenty persons who had been Covenanters in Belfast. “It is very strange that I did not find one Covenanter from the States nor from Scotland.” Allen was greatly encouraged and assisted by some of them, especially Mr S.R. McKelvey.2 Samuel Richard McKelvey was an early and avid Covenanter. Born about 1876, he had emigrated from Ireland to Winnipeg in 1907. He became an employee, and later superintendent, of the Northern Shirt Factory.3 McKelvey arranged meetings, brought Covenanters together, and encouraged them to remain faithful.4 Irish Covenanters were coming to Winnipeg and to Manitoba. The success of Home Rule in Ireland led a considerable number of Covenanters to seek a refuge on Canadian soil.5 But not all remained loyal: many gradually became absorbed by other denominations. McKelvey and his few Covenanter friends intended to organize a society, hire a hall, and build up a mission Sabbath school. These steps in turn would provide a Covenanter church home, open a field for Christian work on Covenanter lines, and provide a centre around which newcomers could gather.6 Although several efforts were made, it was not until June 1912 that Covenanters agreed to meet every Sabbath as a prayer meeting. At the first meeting four persons were present, representing three families. A year later “we have an attendance of fifteen, representing eight families.”7 The Pacific Coast presbytery took Winnipeg under its care as a mission station in May 1913.8 A month later, a hall had been engaged at a moderate rent, since the former place of meeting had become too small. The beautiful hall was in the centre of the city.9 In the autumn of 1913, Rev. F.E. Allen came to Winnipeg for three months. Allen provides a snapshot of Winnipeg services. “The form of ser-



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vice on Sabbath, morning and evening, has not been what would properly be understood as a prayer meeting. It has been more like a regular preaching service except that in place of hearing a sermon preached the audience listened to a sermon read. They have read many of Spurgeon’s sermons, some of Alexander’s and Dr. Dick’s and Dr. George’s.”10 Moreover, “it has been their object every two weeks to read a discourse on some distinctive principle, hence some who have been wavering in the faith have been fortified. The mid-week prayer meeting has not always taken the form of a regular prayer meeting, but has sometimes, when there were but few there, consisted of the practice of singing the Psalms.”11 Rev. Thomas Patton12 reported on the official organization of Winnipeg as a full-fledged congregation. A Pacific Coast presbytery commission, consisting of J.G. Reed, pastor, and Andrew Alexander, elder, of Regina, together with Thomas Patton, formally organized the congregation on 23 October 1914. Four elders were elected – S.R. McKelvey, Thomas Dickey, Robert McWilliams, and Stewart Clydesdale; four deacons were chosen, among them A.A. Boone and W.J. Hemphill. The congregation was organized with twenty-one members; most were received by certificate. Patton delivered the ordination sermon and addressed the officers; elder Andrew Alexander addressed the congregation. The organization was followed by communion on the Sabbath. Patton noted that “one thing specially ought to be said for this congregation. It has not one tobacco user in its membership.”13 The new congregation called a pastor, David Bruce Elsey, who had served in Saint John.14 Elsey was installed pastor of the Winnipeg congregation on 7 July 1915.15 Because of the war, immigration was at a standstill, yet Elsey was not discouraged, believing that the Covenanters had a promising future. The congregation was greatly in need of its own church building, and funds were gradually accumulating.16 The Sabbath school continued to grow, and a Ladies Missionary and Aid Society was formed in the month of October 1915.17 At the annual meeting of the congregation in July 1916, it was agreed to purchase a building lot for the sum of fourteen hundred dollars, and to ask the Board of Church Extension for help to erect a building.18 Some Covenanter congregations in the Old Country also contributed.19

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The new church was opened on 18 February 1917.20 It was situated on the south side of Winnipeg Avenue, between Arlington and McPhillips. Regina’s Rev. J.C. French preached at the morning and evening services. The church was a brick structure, the windows of a Gothic design. The auditorium seated 175 and there was a pastor’s study at the rear. “The enterprise cost the congregation $6,000, over $4,000 of which has been subscribed.”21 S.R. McKelvey appealed “to brethren throughout the Church to contribute, so that the banner for Christ’s Crown and Covenant may be firmly planted in this great and growing city of the West.”22 Rev. James McCune, then pastor in Almonte, Ontario, responded: “Two weeks ago I mentioned from the pulpit a new church building being erected in Winnipeg … if any felt they would like to help a little with the building, I would forward whatever was given. It now amounts to sixty-five dollars.”23 Later in the same year, 1917, Central Canada presbytery was formed as a result of a memorial to synod from Regina and Winnipeg sessions.24 Winnipeg’s Rev. D.B. Elsey and elder Stewart Clydesdale were present at the initial meeting in Regina in October 1917.25 Two Winnipeg Covenanters became soldiers in the First World War, A.A. Boone26 and W.J. Hemphill.27 Boone was conscripted to serve in the army in 1917. He refused to take the oath of allegiance, claiming exemption as a conscientious objector. His claim was rejected by the local tribunal and the case was appealed. Later, it was determined that no oath was necessary.28 Hemphill was born in Ireland and joined the Reformed Presbyterian church there. Moving to Canada in 1907, he soon became associated with those who planted the Covenanting cause in Winnipeg. After the outbreak of the war he volunteered for active service. He was killed in action at Vimy Ridge on the first day of March, 1917, and was buried in Villers au Bois military cemetery, France.29 Rev. D.B. Elsey resigned as Winnipeg pastor on 30 May 1918.30 After a hiatus of over a year, Rev. F.E. Allen was installed as pastor on 30 September 1919.31 Frank Emmet Allen was born on a farm near Morning Sun, Iowa, on 7 August 1884. Ordained in 1911, he was pastor first of Lake Reno, Minnesota, later ministering in Superior, Nebraska. He came to Winnipeg in June 1919.



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F.E. Allen, who had been one of the clergy visiting Winnipeg in its earliest days, proved to be a fine pastor, preacher, teacher, and counsellor. His reputation for conscientious leadership had preceded him, and Winnipeg was not disappointed. Preaching on the Sabbath at 11 and 7, he taught in the Sabbath school in the afternoon. He was a devoted visitor of church and non-church homes; he served on the board of directors of the Home for Destitute Children.32 Allen was ably assisted by his wife, Mary Ellen Dodds, herself the daughter of an esteemed Covenanter family. Her influence was felt “at the services of the sanctuary, the Sabbath School, the prayer meeting, the missionary society, and the homes of the people.”33 In Winnipeg, the Allens were frequently visited by Mary Ellen’s sister, Matilda Dodds. Matilda (Tillie) Dodds subsequently became the bride of ruling elder S.R. McKelvey, Rev. F.E. Allen officiating at their wedding in Winnipeg.34 S.R. McKelvey’s considerable abilities were augmented by this strong Christian woman; the McKelveys had no children. F.E. Allen wrote frequently in the church newspaper.35 Moreover, while in Winnipeg, he authored two books, both of which illustrated Covenanter views on scripture. Practical Lectures on the Book of Job was published in 1923.36 Allen made no attempt at critical analysis. For him, Job was a real character; he had no inclination to look upon the book as allegory.37 Allen endeavoured “to deal with the problem of the book [and] present a sufficient exposition of difficult passages to clarify their meaning, and apply its lessons in a practical way.”38 Allen’s other book, published in 1926, Evolution in the Balances,39 dealt with a more controversial subject. Here Allen stated his views on the theory of evolution. The book was based on a series of his articles that appeared in the Christian Nation and other publications.40 Allen received a shower of letters from a wide variety of readers requesting the publication of the series in a permanent form. So he revised and enlarged the original articles.41 Allen drew on a number of scholars, including J. William Dawson, distinguished McGill University geologist, who wrote when Darwin’s theory was popular. Allen agreed with Dawson, who held firmly to the authority and truthfulness of the Bible and never accepted evo-

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Rev. Frederick F. Reade, dd

lution in any sense that could not harmonize with the Scriptures.42 Well written and very readable, Allen’s book cogently presented the perspective held by the vast majority of Covenanters of his time. Covenanter scholars saw it as a well-reasoned, well-informed scientific presentation of the evidence against natural selection and all other theories opposed to humanity’s special creation by God. Because his ministry in Winnipeg flourished, the congregation was deeply saddened when, in June 1926, Allen left Winnipeg.43 In his final writing from the city, Allen paid special tribute to his brotherin-law, S.R. McKelvey, who “has given unstintingly of his means, time and labor for the work of the promoting of the congregation. It is doubtful if his energy, punctuality and constant enthusiasm is exceeded by any elder in the church.”44 After Allen’s departure, there was a short hiatus. Rev. F.F. Reade, coming from Pittsburgh presbytery, was installed pastor at Winnipeg on 4 November 1926.45 Frederick Francis Reade was born in Southburgh, Norfolk, England, on 4 December 1882. He was baptized in the Cranworth Primitive Methodist Church in 1883.46 The family emigrated to Montreal,



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Canada, in 1888 and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1891. For some time, Reade was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. But after attending the Cambridge Reformed Presbyterian church with friends, he united with the Covenanter church in 1903 at twenty-one years of age.47 He then attended Geneva College and the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Pittsburgh, completing studies in 1912. That same year he married Nova Scotia–born Mabel Pearl Shay; the Reades were the parents of three daughters. Ordained by the Colorado presbytery on 3 September 1912, he was installed pastor of the Greeley, Ohio, congregation. He subsequently served in Second New York, in Cincinnati, and in Youngstown, Ohio. He came to Winnipeg in 1926. Reade’s ministry began with promise: “He won his way into the hearts of the people.”48 The Sabbath school was large and encouraging, having in its classes many children from families outside the church.49 Despite an auspicious beginning, Reade’s ministry tailed off quickly. Session minutes for the period do not survive, but Winnipeg news items in the church newspaper soon disappear. There was a full complement of such items in 1927, the first year of Reade’s ministry.50 In the following three-year period, 1828 to 1830, there were no items. Another indication of decrease is illustrated from Reade’s pocket record books. In 1926, in the first period of this ministry, there are 189 persons listed; in 1929, in the second period, there are 71. Something significant was brewing in the largely Irish-born congregation during the pastorate of English-born F.F. Reade. The focus turned out to be divergent views of temperance. Reade’s background propelled him to an absolutist stand on alcohol. The Primitive Methodist Church into which Reade had been baptized in England had among its principles “a strong advocacy of temperance.”51 The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, to which Reade belonged for a time, was a major contributor to the prohibition movement in America. Reade’s view on temperance “total abstinence for members of the church, particularly for elders” was in complete harmony with the position of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. However, Scots and Scots-Irish Covenanters had a stance somewhat at variance with American convictions. In Ulster, an alcoholic

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would be disciplined and a tavern-keeper would not be admitted into membership. But drinking in moderation was not frowned upon or seen as a barrier either to church membership or the eldership.52 In North America, as part of their ordination, elders vowed to abstain from alcoholic beverages.53 The difference between Irish and American sensibilities was to issue in a dispute in Winnipeg. It emerged in late 1930 or early 1931. Rev. Bassam Madany, later to serve in Winnipeg, commented, “Reade must have carried ‘in his baggage’ an attitude of total abstinence that was not the stand of the Irish or Scottish branches of the Covenanter Church, [though] it had become a rule of conduct amongst the usa Covenanters.”54 F.F. Reade could not and did not countenance drinking, especially in an elder. And S.R. McKelvey, an elder, drank. What is essentially a Reade-McKelvey dispute was the result. From Reade’s point of view, elder S.R. McKelvey, though a clean-living individual, abused alcohol. There was a further difficulty: it was never possible to actually catch him drunk.55 Nevertheless, Reade undoubtedly considered the matter a disregard for and contempt of ordination vows.56 As primus inter pares of an enlarged contingent of elders, moderator Reade took steps to remove this man from the session.57 McKelvey obviously viewed the matter differently. Although session minutes for the period are not extant, it is clear that the session and the congregation were divided. McKelvey was supported by Thomas Dickey (one of the original four elders), and by William Scott, also long standing.58 (Clydesdale had dropped out of the picture.) Reade was supported by Robert McWilliams, another of the originals.59 Other elders supporting Reade were elected, ordained, and installed after his ministry began in Winnipeg: D.K. Calderwood,60 Joseph Adams,61 and John Irwin.62 Initially, Reade went to the session to try to oust McKelvey from his position, but failed.63 Next, Reade took his case to the Central Canada presbytery which, not wanting to rock the boat, sent it on to synod.64 Because of great geographical distances, the Central Canada presbytery often operated on the basis of ad interim commissions – a small executive, as it were, of the presbytery. Such a meeting of an ad interim commission of presbytery was held at McKelvey’s home in Winnipeg on 24 December 1931.65 Present were



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Reade as moderator, Winnipeg elders William Scott and S.R. McKelvey, layman L.H. Turner of Lake Reno, and Rev. George MacKay Robb, also of Lake Reno, who was clerk of that meeting. There the controversy, already in full bloom, became a matter of record. While Reade cautiously disclaimed “any guilt whatever in the matters covered by his part of the agreement, nevertheless for the peace and harmony of the congregation,” he agreed to four points. The third was that “in-so-far as in his power, he will work in peace and harmony with the session in-so-far as he can conscientiously do [so].” On the other hand, a case of discipline was brought against S.R. McKelvey, who concurred completely: “S.R. McKelvey agrees on his part: 1. To confess that he has sinned. 2. To confess that he is truly sorry. 3. To promise that in the future, with God’s help, he will abstain from the use of liquor and tobacco.” It seems likely that, early in 1932, the group supportive of S.R. McKelvey began to meet separately, perhaps in the McKelvey home.66 Reade and his session67 subsequently granted letters of standing to McKelvey and others in his party.68 McKelvey’s reputation as a preacher-during-vacancies either had its initiation at that juncture or, more likely, received a strong impetus – seeing that the non-Reade remnant continued to worship for some time at his home under his leadership.69 The full Central Canada presbytery met in June 1932, in conjunction with a synod meeting, in Winona Lake, Indiana.70 Reade was present with Winnipeg elder D.K. Calderwood. The presbytery constituted itself a committee of discipline. Before it were two matters. The first was a statement by John Irwin of the Winnipeg congregation concerning the use of liquor by elder S.R. McKelvey. The second was a petition from twelve former members and thirteen former adherents of the Winnipeg congregation, asking that they be organized into a mission station. Faced with the divisive situation, the presbytery referred the matter to synod and asked for a commission to review the case.71 The synod appointed a judicial commission.72 On the first matter, a statement from a Winnipeg elder was read, and F.F. Reade and elder D.K. Calderwood from Winnipeg, being present, were heard. On the second matter a long letter was read from one of the twelve mem-

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bers who had received letters of standing, entering into great detail in regard to conditions at Winnipeg. Also speaking to the second matter was Rev. F.E. Allen, former Winnipeg minister. The commission concluded that the interests of a congregation come before any individual or group. When guilt is undeniable, it should be punished, but when it is seriously questioned, it is better that the accused go free than that the innocent suffer and a congregation be disrupted. If a congregation is seriously divided, the pastor should withdraw and seek another field of service. The commission decided that F.F. Reade should resign the pastorate at once and the Central Canada presbytery was directed to dissolve the pastoral relation.73 Further, a minister was to be appointed as stated supply at Winnipeg for a year. Preceding the 1933 synod meeting, a new election of officers would be held, with all the present elders directed to resign immediately before the election.74 Reade was to receive interim financial help. Rev. J.R. Willson Stevenson, a former synod moderator, was named stated supply at Winnipeg. The Central Canada presbytery met a day or so later. There F.F. Reade tendered his resignation as pastor of the Winnipeg congregation.75 It appeared that the matter was largely settled. The matter was not settled. Back home in Winnipeg, Reade repented of his resignation. He embarked on actions directly opposite the synod’s decision and counter to his own public resignation. He marshalled support from friendly elders and congregants, and initially from the Central Canada presbytery. His actions, in complete defiance of the synod, did not go unchallenged. In the autumn of 1932, the trustees of the synod launched a law suit in Winnipeg against Reade and his party.76 Not surprisingly, the trustees’ case was strongly allied with the McKelvey party. During the summer of 1932, Reade carried on as minister of the congregation. He never denied his resignation as pastor, but claimed that “he did so in mistake of fact, and of Church law; that his resignation was made under compulsion, and in accordance with the instructions of the Synod [whose] powers he now alleges were ultra vires.”77 Reade and his party continued to occupy the church, and Reade to conduct services. The synod-appointed stated supply, Stevenson, received letters and telegrams from Winnipeg “informing him that he



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might not be needed there.” When he nonetheless arrived in Winnipeg, the door of the church was locked against him.78 The Trustees-McKelvey party was finally able to take over the sanctuary on Sunday, 21 August 1932. According to Ruth Reade, “public protest within the church building was made one Sabbath when the ‘protesters [the Reade party]’ retired down to the Sabbath School level and continued the worship service apart from those in the sanctuary.”79 Meanwhile “the regular service was being conducted in the main forum by the representative of Synod.”80 Down, but certainly not out, the Reade party continued to use the church basement on Sabbaths following, for both morning and evening services.81 Moreover, at an early September meeting, an interim commission of the Central Canada presbytery named F.F. Reade as supply at Winnipeg, the presbytery therefore declaring itself solidly on Reade’s side.82 Obviously, the congregation was sharply and deeply divided. Twelve members and thirteen adherents, the McKelvey side, had been the petitioners seeking separate mission station status.83 This was a solid and influential group, including its best known and longest standing members and elders, but it was not necessarily the majority. After 21 August 1932, this group worshipped in the main sanctuary of the church. Even though the numbers in the congregation had shrunk since Reade’s early ministry, it seems clear that the Reade party84 had a significant number of both members and adherents.85 This group worshipped in the basement of the Winnipeg church, after 21 August 1932, for at least some months. The only writing from Reade on the matter, co-authored with his wife, Mabel, describes “A Surprise Party at Winnipeg,” held in his honour on 17 September 1932. The Reades concluded: “It was a memorable occasion, coming as it did in the midst of a time of trial and financial stringency, but it bore concrete testimony to the sympathy, love, and loyalty of the Covenanter hearts.”86 The Reade party may have been worshipping in the basement of the church, but the family statement breathes defiant confidence. At a meeting of the now synod-recognized regular congregation in early October 1932 – the former McKelvey group – an election was held. S.R. McKelvey, William Scott, and Thomas Dickey were elected

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ruling elders. Dickey refused, but the two others were installed.87 A letter was written to F.F. Reade asking him for the communion service, the table cloth, the Sabbath school records, the financial records, and the communion tokens.88 The McKelvey party was in the ascendancy, though it did not control the entire church building. That was to change. The change came on 17 March 1933, when Honourable Mr Justice Montague of the King’s Bench brought down an injunction order: “The Defendants, F.F. Reade, John Irwin, Robert McWilliams and Daniel K. Calderwood … are hereby perpetually restrained from entering upon the Church premises commonly known as The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Winnipeg.”89 To the loss sustained by the Reade party in the secular courts was added the judgment by the church synod in June 1933.90 The Reade side had claimed that “the moral issue was completely ignored.” The synod’s committee responded: “We have made careful investigation as to the nature of the evidence that could be offered to substantiate the charges, and we believe it to be insufficient to warrant the charge that Synod ignored the moral issue.” The charge that “the constitutional rights of the congregation were disregarded” was likewise denied.91 Reade remained adamant, refusing to sign a statement of confession. So, “inasmuch as Mr. Reade refuses to make acknowledgement as … required, he is hereby placed under suspension from the ministry of the gospel until such acknowledgement shall be made.”92 Reade’s elders and the other Covenanters involved in the insubordination were likewise suspended. The synod appointed a licentiate, Hugh Wright, as stated supply in Winnipeg. Wright, born in Bally Bay County, Monaghan, Ireland, on 20 October 1908, received his early education in his native land and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1930. He commenced his training for the ministry at the Reformed Hall, Belfast, and completed it at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh. He was licensed to preach the Gospel by Pittsburgh presbytery in May 1932.93 The appointment of an Ulster-born clergyman in Winnipeg seemed to ensure that native Irish sensibilities in regard to alcohol would be regnant. Wright went directly to Winnipeg after the June 1933 meeting of the synod; he served well. “He has been



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supplying our pulpit since last synod, his genial smile and Irish wit made him popular with both old and young from his very first arrival among us … It is his pulpit work that draws folks; those who come to our services want to come again.”94 Operating within the constitutionally backed congregation, Hugh Wright was obviously accepted and loved.95 Yet the Reade party was not demolished. The 1934 synod restored Reade, who finally signed the prerequisite confession.96 The suspended members of the Reade party, on signing a similar statement of confession, were also restored.97 The synod admitted its own irregularities in the situation and recognized the futility of asking the two parties to act in concert. The restored Reade group members were recognized as a mission station, with Reade as their pastor. This Winnipeg mission station began to worship in a building on Notre Dame Avenue that belonged to the Canadian Holiness Mission.98 The 1934 synod also disbanded the Central Canada presbytery; thenceforth both Winnipeg congregation and Winnipeg mission station were situated in Iowa presbytery.99 The synod was well pleased with Wright’s ministry in the Winnipeg congregation. Nonetheless, “the nearness of the Winnipeg Mission Station is unfortunate, for people think there is something wrong when two Covenanters are so near, and both too weak to support a pastor.”100 Wright, appointed stated supply for Winnipeg in 1933, was ordained to the gospel ministry, sine titulo, 10 August 1934, at Winona Lake, Indiana.101 Appointed stated supply for an additional year, he was called by the Winnipeg congregation and installed pastor on 30 April 1936.102 Wright worked diligently, writing articles,103 developing Sabbath school lessons,104 and using methods designed to awaken and evangelize his own congregation.105 The flow of information to the church newspaper was largely restored. Wright preached his farewell sermon on 2 October 1939, after accepting the call to become pastor of Derry congregation in Ulster.106 In remarkably difficult circumstances, Wright worked well.107 Information about the mission station is much more meagre. Presumably, in 1934, the session was reconstituted, with Daniel K. Calderwood and Robert McWilliams as elders. Ruling elder John Irwin and his wife returned to Scotland.108 Ruling elder Joseph Adams was

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removed from the roll on 30 January 1933.109 Robert McWilliams’s death in 1936 was marked by an obituary in the church newspaper.110 The mission maintained a Sabbath school; its field day was reported in 1938, “in charge of our genial acting superintendent, Samuel Turton.”111 Reade family tradition recalls very penurious times. Daughter Ruth wrote, “there was a time in the 1930s when Dad had to apply for government assistance to make ends meet.”112 Reade put the stark word “relief ” in his “Pocket Financial Record” for the first time in June 1935,113 and the word is liberally sprinkled throughout his impeccably kept documents as long as the family was in Winnipeg. Reade’s stay in Manitoba came to an end when he moved to Boston in 1938.114 “F.F. Reade, who was received from the Iowa Presbytery … is the Stated Supply of the Boston congregation.”115 News about the Winnipeg mission station, meagre up until mid-1938 when the Reades left, becomes practically non-existent. Its formal demise was announced in 1944: the Winnipeg mission station was dissolved.116 Hugh Wright left the congregation late in 1939. Rev. E.C. Mitchell came to Winnipeg in the following spring.117 When Ohio-born Ernest Chalmers Mitchell and his wife returned to the United States on furlough from missionary work in China in 1939, they were advised by the missions board to seek temporary settlement in the home field.118 Elected moderator of synod in June 1940,119 Mitchell was named stated supply in Winnipeg.120 He continued as stated supply at Winnipeg, somewhat intermittently, until his death in December 1945.121 During his tenure, however, the congregation sharply declined. Rev. James Harvey Bishop, then a minister of the Church of Scotland on Prince Edward Island (MacDonaldite Section), conducted services in the Winnipeg Covenanter church from the fall of 1947 to April of 1949. Although he did not have any official denominational standing, Winnipeg congregants noted that “Rev. J.H. Bishop is supplying our pulpit and is giving us fine sermons.”122 Bishop himself wrote that “when I conducted services Mr. McKelvey was the leading elder. The Reformed Presbyterians in Winnipeg were a most attentive people, and cooperative.”123 Elder S.R. McKelvey died early in 1950.124 A year earlier, the congregation elected two elders, Thomas Dickey and James Anderson. Dickey declined, but on 25 September, Mr Anderson was ordained



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and installed.125 James Anderson was a Scot who had joined the Covenanters from the Free Church of Scotland.126 He partially took up the McKelvey mantle, being appointed Clerk of Session a few weeks after McKelvey’s death.127 The report of the Iowa presbytery to synod in 1951 noted that “the congregation at Winnipeg has no pastor and for the larger part of the year has not had supplies. They have, however, held regular meetings under the leadership of elder James Anderson.”128 Rev. B.M. Madany was stated supply, beginning 1 November 1955; he had served as a student in Winnipeg in the summer months of 1951 and 1952. Bassam Michael Madany was born in Syria on 3 February 1928 and received his early education there. Becoming a Covenanter communicant and called to the ministry, Madany emigrated and studied at the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Pittsburgh from 1950 to 1953. He was ordained in 1953 and married Shirley Winnifred Dann of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba the same year. “It was not easy for me to perform my duties since that was the first time in my life that I had to use English in a very formal way in worship services,” Madany wrote. “The people were very gracious and … I look back at my years with the Reformed Presbyterian Church with thanksgiving.”129 Madany departed Winnipeg in 1956; later he left the denomination, joining the Christian Reformed Church.130 James Anderson, as Clerk of Session, signed the last minutes of which we have record in May 1957.131 Elder William Scott died in June 1957;132 Winnipeg then became a mission station. The Winnipeg mission station was listed for the last time in the statistics of the Iowa presbytery in 1967;133 the sale of the Winnipeg church property was reported in 1968.134 The Winnipeg Covenanter community had a strong Irish base, and some good ministers and elders. Yet Winnipeg was no more able than any other western community to attract and keep non-Covenanters, or enlist young men in its ministry. Its struggle over the temperance issue was self-destructive; energies were expended and dissipated in a cause that left neither side with strength sufficient to succeed, let alone to sustain. The Quaker community in Manitoba provides interesting comparisons and contrasts.

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The Society of Friends colony at Hartney, Manitoba, came about because of the interest in the west emerging in Ontario after the Revival Movement of 1881. As we have seen, one of the leaders was William Ira Moore.135 After his first trip west in 1888, Moore made another significant trip west in 1897, holding meetings and meeting Friends. One of the meetings was near Hartney. When Moore returned from that journey to Ontario, members of the Home Mission Committee were guided to send out Alma Gould Dale to follow up the western work.136 Alma Gould was born in 1854 of well-to-do Quaker parents. Educated locally, she attended the first Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends in Canada in 1867. Strong in her faith, she grew to be a versatile woman – a good public speaker, a fine singer, an able carpenter, and an excellent horsewoman. She married Thomas Dale in her early twenties; the couple were childless. Already pastoring in the Uxbridge meeting house in 1880, she requested and was accepted as a minister among Friends in 1887. For the next ten years in Uxbridge, her ministry included many of the same duties as those of most ministers.137 In 1898 the Canada Yearly Meeting authorized Mrs Dale to set up monthly meetings in the Canadian northwest. After visiting a number of venues, Alma Dale made a home in Hartney, Manitoba. There were already Quakers in that area. The 1880s and 1890s saw the arrival of families of English, Irish, and American stock, though most came by way of communities in Ontario, some from Uxbridge Township. These Friends were struggling to create a Quaker community. Hartney was near the Souris River and the Chain Lakes in the southwest corner of Manitoba; neighbouring communities were Lauder and Dand. The catalyst that brought the new Quaker community together was the arrival of Mrs Alma Dale. Before she arrived, Quaker families had been meeting in members’ homes or the Chain Lakes School. But on 3 January 1899, a significant development took place at a meeting at Mrs Dale’s new Hartney home. A service was held. “After a time of silent worship several led in vocal prayer,” friend Henry James read scripture and spoke. “The discourse was a powerful one and the Spirit sealed it on many hearts.”138 In the business meeting that followed, the Hartney Monthly Meeting was formally inaugurated, and Mrs Dale wrote requesting the group’s



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attachment to the Yonge Street Quarterly Meeting. Moreover, a Quaker Sunday school was also started. With other Friends, Mrs Dale worked assiduously. Progress was made, a committee formed, Friend John Hodgson donated the land, and on a stormy 15 October 1899, the Hartney meeting house was opened. In the few years that followed, Mrs Dale, in spite of precarious health, worked tirelessly on behalf of the Hartney Quaker congregation: “[In] half of the year in this Meeting I have been able to make 109 family visits, hold 60 meetings which have been attended by about 2050 persons, and have driven 1800 miles doing the work.”139 She encouraged the use of music, set up a library with books from Uxbridge, and travelled widely to raise money from Quakers in Ontario for the construction of the meeting house. In 1904, Mrs Dale asked to be released, spending the next three years in England, returning for a further year in Hartney in 1907, and then leaving in 1908.140 At Hartney, she was succeeded by other Quaker ministers from Ontario. The last was Rev. Harry Sutton, who served from 1911 to 1923, the eve of the congregation’s entry into the United Church of Canada. Mrs Dale’s style of ministry as well as those who succeeded her was not markedly different from other Methodist and Presbyterian clergy. Schools were often the venues of worship in the area, adults and children going to the closest school on Sunday. Although started by the Quakers, the school’s teachers came from more than one denomination. The Society of Friends was caught up in the western march toward church union. Although the Society formally disappeared in 1925, Quakers made a significant contribution to the United Church in the region: the Hartney meeting house was moved to Dand, and used by the United Church of Canada.141 Alma Gould was a founder and a pioneer in Manitoba, even though “where she sowed other denominations have largely reaped.”142 Keeping largely to themselves, Covenanters in Winnipeg did not collaborate with other denominations. They were a virtual Irish ethnic enclave: this marked isolation led to their denominational extinction; their legacy is difficult to trace. On the other hand, the post-Revival Movement in the Society of Friends meant that Quakers found themselves not significantly distinguished from Methodists and Presbyterians, particularly in rural Manitoba. Quakers set in motion attitudes

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and activities that propelled them into the church union. They too lost their denomination, though Quaker convictions undoubtedly fed significantly into the United Church congregations which they entered and helped to shape; the legacy is clearly traceable. Reformed Presbyterianism contributed to western Canada’s religious and cultural landscape in and through the Covenanter communities in Content/Delburne, Regina, and Winnipeg. That contribution came in the support to individuals and families, in mutual self-help and co-operation, in strengthening moral and religious values and attitudes. With the possible exception of Winnipeg, Covenanter churches were too short-lived to make a marked and remembered impact on ongoing educational, cultural, or religious proclivities. Unable to cooperate or collaborate with other denominations, almost impotent at converting non-Covenanters to their faith, they died out. Winnipeg had a more cohesive and long-lasting tradition and some able ministers and elders. But an internal dispute used up energy and enervated the evangelical impulse – that community, too, expired. In contrast to the long history and influence of Covenanters in the Maritimes, western Reformed Presbyterians flourished for a short time, faltered, failed, and fell. If Reformed Presbyterianism was to survive in Canada, that survival would come in the central part of the nation. To that, we finally turn.

{ 16 } Covenanters in Twentieth-Century Ontario At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were two remaining Ontario congregations – Almonte (formerly Ramsay) in Lanark County, and Lochiel in Glengarry County. In the 1930s, another attempt was made to found a Covenanter community in Toronto. In this chapter, we trace Covenanter fortunes first in Glengarry, then in Toronto, and finally in Lanark, the ongoing beacon of the cause in Ontario.

Glengarry – Lochiel Rev. R.H. McKelvy was ordained and installed in Lochiel on 31 May 1928.1 Ralph Hayes McKelvy was born on 7 May 1894 in Coulterville, Illinois. At the age of eight he moved with his family to Hetherton, Michigan where he became a member of the Covenanter church in his teens. After graduating from high school in 1917, Hayes joined the army and served in the First World War, soldiering many months in France. On his return, he entered Geneva College, graduating in 1923. He taught for a year, then entered the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, completing the course in that institution in 1927. Hayes McKelvy was licensed by Ohio presbytery on 3 May 1926.2 Two years later, he came to Lochiel, where he was ordained and installed on 31 May 1928. Hayes McKelvy married Anna Margaret Patton on 24 June 1933.3 She was to play a prominent role in Lochiel. Anna Margaret Patton was the daughter of Rev. Thomas Patton and his wife. She was born on 8 September 1901 in Coldenham, New York, where her father was then minister.4 After graduating from Geneva College, she taught at Knox Academy, Selma, Alabama.5 Anna then moved to Pittsburgh where, “for four years, under the auspices of the Central Covenanter Church, she was a city missionary.”6 Undoubtedly her work before

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Rev. R. Hayes McKelvy and Mrs Anna (Patton) McKelvy, their children Alice and Ralph

her marriage influenced her witness as wife, mother, and community activist in Lochiel. The McKelvys had three children, two of whom grew to adulthood. In many ways, Hayes and Anna McKelvy had a joint ministry, though there were differences. Hayes McKelvy tended his small flock with care. He adhered to the strategy of Almonte pastor Robert Shields. Covenanter hopes for growth came from within, through the children of Covenanter parents; and “neighbours who will not join will be more or less influenced for good by the Covenanters in their midst.”7 When McKelvy arrived, the congregation was small and the pastoral charge was supported by the Board of Home Missions; that did not change under his ministry. During his pastorate, there were few novelties, though in 1930, the Covenanter Young Peoples Union was organized.8 It flourished, sometimes combining with other youth groups, both Covenanter and non-Covenanter. Lochiel young people frequently attended the White Lake Conference Centre, in New York state, a centre run by three presbyteries: New York, Philadelphia, and Rochester (in 1938, renamed St Lawrence).



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Hayes McKelvy’s ministry was steady, consistent, and unspectacular. He served as long-time clerk in Rochester presbytery and its successor, St Lawrence; for a time, he was moderator. A colleague commented that McKelvey was not afraid to show his colours; his letters were published in the Montreal Witness and Canadian Homestead. In Lochiel, twice every Sabbath his voice was heard with increasing power and “his daily contacts with the people are productive of more good.”9 McKelvy took a leading role in synod debates about the elective franchise, particularly as that applied to the situation in Canada. The Maple Leaf Forever, McKelvy’s own discussion of the matter, appeared in the mid-1940s.10 In that short work, two patriots debate. One patriot proclaims: “‘The Maple Leaf forever’ is a beautiful sentiment to dream and sing about … But I would like the assurance that Canada WILL last forever.”11 The second patriot asks, “Does Canada take seriously the teaching of Jesus?” This patriot indicates the ways in which the country falls short, and how the shortcomings can be corrected. If Canada is to endure, it is necessary to give Christ pre-eminence in all things. This cannot be done without honouring him by a definite recognition of His sovereign authority in the law of the land and by sincere obedience to His laws in everyday life. It is evident that there is nothing in Canada’s constitution by which the country acknowledges the authority of Christ. “The British North America Act would be the place for such an acknowledgment, but it fails to do so.”12 Other elements of the interplay between Covenanter belief and Canadian practice emerge. Many unpleasant things are yet mandatory for a Reformed Presbyterian, such as serving in the armed services. McKelvy had done so in the First World War, Lochiel’s John Walter Smith was a soldier in the Second.13 On the other hand, some practices are wrong: Sabbath-breaking is rampant; the use of alcoholic beverages is inimical to the proper functioning and longevity of a nation. The classic Covenanter position is reiterated: “The Church and the State are both divine institutions; both are under the divine law; and both prosper according as they keep that law. The church was sent to preach the gospel and make disciples for Christ. The State is to administer civil government on Christian principles.”14

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Anna Patton McKelvy’s witness was, in part, as wife and helpmate to her husband. Not surprisingly, she was president of the Lochiel wms.15 Lochiel had the largest Daily Vacation Bible school in the presbytery, and Anna McKelvy played a leading role.16 Some summer visitors from Ottawa scheduled their vacations to coincide with the Bible school dates.17 To assist others in teaching children, she wrote a guide, Taught of the Lord.18 She also educated adults with her dramatic presentation of “The Song of Solomon” which she performed for many church groups and book clubs.19 Anna McKelvy ministered beyond the Lochiel congregation. She was a leader in local Red Cross work,20 taught Bible school at the Women’s Christian Temperance Union girls’ and boys’ camps in Round Lake, Ontario,21 and she served as field secretary of the wctu. In this capacity, she was increasingly asked to speak in elementary and high schools, including separate schools.22 Anna met with Ojibway Indians, was invited to Iroquois Indian schools, appeared on tv and spoke on radio, in Jewish schools, and in a penitentiary in Ottawa.23 Near the mid-point of the McKelvys’ ministry the Lochiel congregation celebrated its hundredth year. The local press published “A History of the ‘Brodie Church.’”24 A series of services and events also marked the anniversary: at one evening meeting, carloads of friends arrived from Almonte, Syracuse, and Lisbon. There were gifts, including the large Blue Banner on loan from the Toronto congregation.25 Visiting speakers outlined the Covenanter past in Scotland and in Lochiel.26 The even tenor of the McKelvys’ ministry continued although, in late 1967, it was noted that Lochiel is served by a pastor in semi-retirement.27 Anna continued her extensive teaching of temperance lessons in the schools of eastern Ontario.28 Moreover, when Expo ’67 was held in Montreal, she became a counsellor at the “Sermons for Science” pavilion for several weeks.29 The McKelvys exercised significant ministry at Lochiel, and when they left in 1968, the entire community gave them a surprise farewell, presenting them with a considerable sum of money.30 Ruby Hay, a former Lochiel resident, spoke: “From the McKelvys we learned not only many great spiritual truths but also many character-building



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guidelines … Truly this family from the south of the border made a large contribution to our area and the lives of many people.”31 McKelvy was the last full-time Lochiel minister, though Almonte and other St Lawrence presbytery pastors came from time to time. Raymond Morton, born in 1942 and raised in the Almonte congregation, served as student supply at Lochiel in the summers of 1970 and 1974. He was later ordained.32 Synod maintained its financial support of the congregation. In the mid-1980s, through the combined efforts of Almonte’s session and minister, Rev. Kenneth McBurney, St Lawrence Presbytery, and the Lochiel congregation, successful efforts were made to bring a pastor to Lochiel – Mark Charlton. St Lawrence presbytery met on 16 November 1984 in the Lochiel church; there Mark Charlton was ordained and installed as the associate pastor of Almonte for ministry to the Lochiel congregation.33 Mark King Charlton was born in Ticonderoga, New York, on 13 June 1957. Graduating from Nyack College in 1980, he studied at the seminary in Pittsburgh, was licensed in 1983, and completed the seminary course in 1984.34 Charlton’s ministry in Lochiel started well. He reported to the Almonte session, held services at a nursing home, made calls, and was becoming acquainted with Lochiel folk.35 However, the pastoral relationship did not prove effective, and the presbytery accepted Charlton’s resignation as associate pastor at Almonte for work in Lochiel on 1 June 1985.36 Charlton left Canada and, a year later, the Reformed Presbyterian ministry.37 In the early 1990s, the ministry of Lochiel was revisited and revised. The Lochiel congregation formally ceased to exist, the members joining a new Covenanter venture in Quebec province, Hudson/ St-Lazare.38 That new venture is outlined in the last chapter.

Toronto In the early 1930s, a Covenanter presence in Toronto was again considered. There had been Covenanter work and witness in Toronto in the 1870s, yet the congregation became disorganized and the property was sold.39 In the meantime, there existed for a time an organization that assumed the title Reformed Presbyterian which was loosely

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affiliated with what was known as the Woodside Church of Pittsburgh.40 A few years later a group broke away from that congregation and wanted to organize a genuine Covenanter church, but that project too came to naught.41 Impetus for a renewed effort in Toronto may have come from several sources. During his visit to Ireland in 1930, several ministers and members spoke to F.E. Allen of their earnest desire that the church should undertake work in Toronto.42 Back in America, the idea was mooted to the synod, but nothing came of it until it caught the attention of Rev. Josiah D. Edgar, synod’s Secretary of Home Resources and Young People’s Work. Edgar reported in 1932 that the church was losing Covenanter persons immigrating to Canada, many of whom were coming to Toronto. Edgar set up a process to enable the synod’s clergy to identify Covenanters who lived in Toronto. Then he asked F.E. Allen, minister in Hopkington, Illinois, to spend two or three weeks in Toronto in May 1932, investigating the field with a view to establishing a mission.43 When he went later in 1932, Allen knew no Covenanters. At the first public service, attended by about twenty-five, worshippers were glad to be introduced to other Covenanters.44 Allen’s visit was followed, in the autumn, by the three-month stay of Rev. and Mrs J.C. Matthews. Matthews was then long-term pastor of the Southfield, Michigan, congregation. In Toronto, he held services regularly, laboured arduously in locating prospective members, and prepared the way for the organization of a mission.45 A special commission of Rochester presbytery went to Toronto in November, receiving applicants for membership. A mission station was formally organized on 18 November 1932.46 Officers elected were H.N. MacKay, chairman; Samuel McCracken, secretary; Alexander Parke, treasurer; and Thomas Davison, correspondent.47 The work in the Toronto mission continued to be supervised by the Home Missions Board, and services were conducted during much of 1933.48 The first half of 1933 was a trying time. The leadership changed frequently and the economy was depressed.49 An appointee of the Board of Home Missions, Rev. R.W. Piper, of Pittsburgh, came to Toronto in August 1933 and remained for several weeks. Piper reported that, during the time they were without preaching, the people



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had kept up mid-week prayer meetings in their homes, and Sabbath evening cypu meetings and prayer meetings at the hall50 at 247 College Street.51 This gathering place was not auspicious, since it was in the heart of the Jewish and Chinese districts. However, Josiah Edgar again came with assistance; a small, well-located building was purchased at 754 Sammon Avenue.52 At the rear, two rooms were made into a comfortable apartment for the pastor. A suitable meeting place was one of the needs; the others were a leader adapted to the situation, and more members.53 In the autumn of 1933, Robert McConachie and his wife came to be leaders of the community.54 Robert McConachie was born in county Antrim on 7 January 1899, receiving his early schooling in Ireland. He joined the Reformed Presbyterian church in Philadelphia in 1923. After studying at Nyack Missionary College, he continued seminary studies at Pittsburgh. McConachie married Anne J. Kennedy in 1931;55 he was licensed on 11 July 1933.56 Coming to Toronto, licentiate McConachie laboured diligently to build up the church and increase its membership. He was ordained on 10 August 1934, at the Young People’s Conference in session at Winona Lake, Indiana.57 Toronto’s congregational meeting in January 1935 “was a time of rejoicing and thankfulness.” The community had a place of worship, a pastor, six additions to the membership, a Woman’s Missionary Society, a functioning Young People’s Society, and a Sabbath school of thirty-five.58 By mid-year, the McConachies had left the church apartment and settled in their new home. The removal afforded more room for the Sabbath school. The auditorium was renovated and enlarged for a greater seating capacity. The renovations were done by volunteers; members included electricians, painters, and carpenters.59 The Toronto community was ready for the next step. A Rochester presbytery commission met in the Toronto church on 15 September 1936 for the purpose of installing elders and changing the status from mission station to congregation. Installed as elders were H.N. McKay, Alexander Parke, and John Simpson. Simpson was also ordained on this occasion, the others having been elders previously.60 Toronto was now a congregation although McConachie had not been installed. The church was filled to capacity for the induction of Rev. Robert McConachie as pastor on 6 April 1937.61

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Early in 1939, the session planned a series of evangelistic meetings to be held in connection with a communion season. Rev. Dr E.L. McKnight, pastor of Allegheny and a leading member of the Home Missions Board, gave leadership.62 Congregant James Marks wrote an optimistic account of Toronto’s future for the church paper.63 The Board of Home Missions reported in 1939 that Toronto, under the efficient leadership of its present pastor, had become self-supporting during the past year and would go forward on its own strength. The Board hoped for this young congregation increased vigour and the strength of maturity.64 Disappointingly, on the eve of the Second World War, Robert McConachie was released from the pastorate of Toronto, 10 September 1939.65 The congregation’s short spurt of financial self-sufficiency ceased.66 From then on, the congregation was aid receiving. After McConachie’s departure, it had brief visits from a number of clergy, including Allegheny’s Dr McKnight and Lisbon’s Rev. J.O. Edgar, but the work suffered. The burden was placed on the shoulders of elder Alexander Parke who, in the absence of a regular pastor, conducted services.67 In August 1940, Rev. Lester Kilpatrick came to the city, destined to be stated supply until early in 1943.68 Lester Everett Kilpatrick was born at Morning Sun, Iowa, on 15 August 1909. He was ordained by Iowa presbytery in June 1938; he married Gertrude E. Martin, MD, on 6 September 1938. The couple were sent as missionaries to China, studying in the language school at Hong Kong from 1938 to 1940. In 1940, Mrs Kilpatrick’s health broke, necessitating their return to the United States where she recovered.69 During Kilpatrick’s stated supply ministry in Toronto, services were held and the various groups continued to function. But evidence, apart from session minutes, is sparse. The congregation had twentyfive to thirty members. While matters proceeded relatively normally, one irritant proved troublesome – occasional hearing. At a session meeting in October 1941, elder William Pirie informed the session that moderator Kilpatrick had written to Mr and Mrs John Irwin, advising them not to come to the upcoming communion because they had attended another church and participated in the singing of hymns. Yet after some discussion, session was not agreed that the Irwins should be kept from communion for this offence.70



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The communion service was held, and the matter of the Irwins’ occasional hearing was held in abeyance. A year later, there was a fresh instance of occasional hearing. The moderator brought the information: Mr Irwin had attended the United Church and participated in the singing of hymns. Kilpatrick had written a draft letter addressed to Mr Irwin, indicating that he would bring a charge against him before presbytery. The elders were asked to sign the draft.71 Again, the session could not agree that the letter be sent. There were further meetings and consultations: it became clear that the elders were on one side, the minister on the other.72 The unresolved matter dragged on. Finally, the Irwins asked for and received their certificates of membership at a session meeting in January 1943.73 It was the last Toronto session attended by moderator Lester Kilpatrick; he left the city shortly thereafter.74 The Toronto congregation was withering away. Robert McConachie returned to Toronto in the mid-1940s as acting pastor; he was formally installed minister on 26 January 1945.75 The last recorded meeting of the Covenanter session took place in April of that year.76 Almost a year later, 1 April 1946, Robert McConachie was released from the pastorate of the Toronto congregation.77 The Toronto congregation was automatically disorganized by the death of elder H.N. McKay,78 becoming a mission station.79 Alexander Parke, the remaining elder, was listed as a correspondent in Toronto until 1949.80 Robert More’s dictum had once again proven true: the work in Toronto was wont to start, expand, and then decease.81 Nor was the waxing/waning motif at an end. Toronto again was the site of Covenanter activity in the 1990s, described in the final chapter.

Lanark County When Rev. James McCune left Almonte in September 1920, Rev. S.R. Wallace served as pastor for a short time.82 Then Rev. J.M. Rutherford was inducted into the Almonte Covenanter church on 23 June 1922. Rutherford ministered consistently within the Shields pattern. James Milton Rutherford, born in Walton, New York, on 15 October 1879, pastored first in Billings, Oklahoma. The forty-three year old came with his wife to Almonte in 1922.83 The membership at Almonte

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stood at sixty-six when he came; fifteen years later, it was sixty-nine.84 The congregation was aid receiving during Rutherford’s tenure; sometimes more aid was requested, sometimes less.85 A few Almonte Covenanters left the church,86 and non-Almonte Covenanters were occasionally accepted as members.87 The great majority of new members, however, were youth from core Covenanter families.88 Conferences, usually taking place when the presbytery met in Almonte, emphasized key Covenanter convictions, exploring such themes as Sabbath-keeping,89 revival of religion,90 and God’s providential care.91 A report came to the session in 1930 that certain members had voted at the last parliamentary election. Elders J.W. Rose and R.S. Burns were appointed a committee to visit those members and report back.92 One couple agreed not to come to the next communion, promising not to vote again.93 A second couple met with the full session. After a free and open discussion, session was unable to convince the duo that they had committed any sin in voting. The couple agreed to seek further light and, if convinced of sin, would not repeat the offence. The session subsequently adopted a resolution to be read from the pulpit the Saturday previous to communion: “Some of our members have voted for men running for members of Parliament who if elected must take the Oath of Allegiance to a Sovereign holding the title ‘Head of the Church’ which title, we believe, is treason to Jesus Christ the great Head of the Church.” Therefore, “while session has not made a formal charge against any of the members, session would request all members who are living in unrepentance … not to come to the Holy Table of the Lord, lest they eat and drink judgement to themselves.”94 Five years later, the elective franchise again came before the session. Since some members had voted in the last parliamentary election, session appointed a committee to investigate any report that may come to their attention about any members voting at the upcoming election, 14 October 1935. Further, this resolution was to be read from the pulpit as a warning.95 But when voted on, the motion was lost. This was the last time the elective franchise was a minuted matter in the Almonte session. These two Almonte session decisions about voting are notable. In the 1930 situation, a member is not disciplined even though there is a clear admission. The voice of the member, not admitting any misdemeanour, trumps Covenanter discipline. Instead



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of discipline, a general warning is issued to the congregation. Five years later, session disapproves even the issuing of a warning. After a pastorate of over fifteen years, Rev. Rutherford passed away unexpectedly on 6 October 1937.96 During the interim period, the congregation decided at a special meeting not to ask synod for any financial assistance.97 Earlier in 1937, Rochester presbytery was renamed St Lawrence presbytery.98 Pennsylvania native Rev. W.J. McBurney was installed pastor at Almonte on 2 May 1939.99 At its annual meeting in June 1939, a month after McBurney was installed, synod adopted the Explanatory Declaration.100 This statement outlined the Covenanter conscientious objection to making an oath, and yet pledged loyalty to legitimate government. It was intended to articulate the Covenanter position, on the one hand, and to explain to the prospective oathtaker what the oath meant, on the other. The measure was adopted in light of the American political situation, though it undoubtedly affected Almonte and other Canadian Covenanters; McBurney’s successor, Rev. F.F. Reade, was later to raise concerns about the matter. Wilbur John McBurney came to Almonte, in early 1939, at sixtyfive years of age.101 He was a man of many parts, “preacher, lecturer, musician, story-teller.”102 Early in his Almonte ministry, he initiated a young people’s group meeting at the manse to study church music.103 McBurney had earlier developed an illustrated lecture, “Christ is King,” that he presented frequently in many parts of the United States and Ontario between 1926 and 1947.104 McBurney served at Almonte during the war years; four congregants were in the Canadian armed services.105 The war brought changes in some cross-border Covenanter events. The Oak Point Conference was given up in 1940 because of the inconvenience caused by the requirement of passports for Canadian delegates. Instead, a three-day conference was arranged at Almonte.106 Under McBurney, the financial independence of the congregation, established just prior to his arrival, was maintained. Membership remained essentially the same, as did the high proportion of tithers.107 Minnie Mae McBurney, wife of W.J. McBurney, died in Almonte on 7 January 1944; she was buried in Almonte’s Auld Kirk Cemetery.108 Rev. McBurney left Almonte on 3 May 1946.109 Two shorter term ministries followed.110 Rev. F.F. Reade began serving the Almonte church early in 1953.111

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Frederick Francis Reade had been minister at Winnipeg during some very contentious years.112 Pastor at Boston until 1952,113 Reade was formally inducted into the Almonte congregation on 19 October 1954.114 On installation night, Pastor Reade’s first act was to lead the congregation in covenant renewal: as the congregation with uplifted hands swore to its bond, Reade read the Brief Covenant of 1954.115 Following an address, the congregation signed the document.116 During Reade’s ministry, membership remained stable. Young persons of the congregation came forward for membership singly or in groups. In 1954, Raymond Morton applied for full membership and was received.117 Morton was later to study at a Reformed Presbyterian seminary; he become a Covenanter minister, the sole individual from Almonte congregation to do so.118 During Reade’s ministry, discipline was quite rigorously practised: in 1956, two names were stricken from the roll for the cause of nonattendance and non-support.119 A committee of session was appointed to visit a member to show the seriousness of her action and to persuade her to come before the session, signify repentance, and make confession. The person acknowledged the sin and wished to remain a member: her request was granted.120 Occasionally, session was called to respond to synod action – the revision of chapters 29 and 30 of the Testimony, for example.121 Almonte Covenanters had long-established opposition to alcohol consumption, a position emphasized by Reade in his Winnipeg ministry. Reade drew up a protest against the opening of another outlet for sale of intoxicating liquor in Almonte.122 The congregation marked a significant milestone in 1961: the Centennial Anniversary of the Almonte congregation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.123 The local press covered the events, noting that the church in Almonte was familiarly known as the Cameronian church.124 Rev. Dr D.R. Wilcox, who had been stated supply in the late 1940s, was the guest preacher at both morning and evening anniversary services. A banquet was held on Monday evening. At the commemoration service following the banquet, a brief history of the congregation was narrated, from its beginnings in the early 1830s, through its rise and fall, leading to a significant reorganization in 1861. Cordial greetings and good wishes were presented by Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, and United Church representatives.125 Coven-



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anters also joined with others on occasion: in March 1962, the World Day of Prayer service was held in the Covenanter church. About one hundred and twenty-five ladies of the community were in attendance, and all five Protestant churches were well represented.126 Late in his Almonte ministry, Reade wrote to synod about two matters, both related to the taking of oaths. First, in Canada, a recently adopted bill of rights127 appended to the British North America Act recognized that the Canadian government acknowledges the supremacy of God.128 The Oath Committee of synod responded that “the [Human Rights Charter] statement is not a recognition of Christ’s Scriptural authority.” Second, the 1939 Explanatory Declaration was revised by the synod in 1960.129 Reade sought advice and counsel for Canadian Covenanters. The Committee directed “that Canadian Christians use the early [1939] form of the Explanatory Declaration when a political oath is involved.”130 Certain milestones in his ministerial career were marked while F.F. Reade was in Almonte. In June 1959, Geneva College honoured him with a Doctor of Divinity degree.131 The following year, Reade was elected moderator of synod.132 Dr and Mrs F.F. Reade celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary on 13 June 1962.133 They were feted by the congregation in a number of ways, for which the Reades expressed thanks.134 In the autumn, Reade officially retired, released from Almonte as pastor on 31 October 1962.135 The Reades remained in Almonte for several years following retirement.136 Robert More, Jr, came as Almonte pastor in May 1963. Robert Marshall More was born in Kansas City, Missouri on 27 June 1935. He pursued postgraduate studies at Covenant Theological and Concordia seminaries in St Louis, Missouri.137 He was ordained by St Lawrence presbytery in the Almonte Covenanter church on 30 September 1963.138 For the first several years, he also taught at Almonte Elementary and Carleton Place High Schools. More married an Almonte Covenanter, Dorothy Ruth Burns, on 7 October 1967. The couple had two children.139 With a growing emphasis on education, particularly for youth, the Almonte church needed more space. After considering options, the congregation built a separate hall on the church site. The Almonte Reformed Presbyterians dedicated the new Christian education building on 13 May 1974.140

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Session made a significant break from past practice in December 1965: “Due to the modernism in some of the churches, we refrain from cooperating with the Almonte Ministerial Association in their Week of Prayer … We [will] set up our own week of prayer.”141 For the first time the term modernism appears in Almonte session minutes. Modernism may be defined as the tendency to harmonize religious belief with contemporary ideas and is associated with the scientific study of scripture, normally called historical criticism or higher criticism.142 The Reformed Presbyterian church set its face against modernism, a stance that was certainly maintained in Lanark from Shields onward. A similar stand was also firmly embraced in the Chignecto New School Covenanter churches, where the use of the term modernism appeared seventy-five years earlier, in the late 1890s. When Stephen Peacock Brownell was ordained and installed as pastor of the West Barnet (Vermont) church in 1896, he passed a presbytery examination, stating, “I believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures.” The New School commentator noted that it was refreshing to hear the young candidate for ministry speak in this fashion: the presbytery wanted no truck or trade with modernism.143 Forward to Almonte in the late 1960s – the session invited Rev. William Baird of the Almonte Presbyterian Church to preach during Rev. More’s vacation. The invitation came only after Robert More had examined William Baird “as to his soundness of Biblical doctrine.”144 The year 1967 was Canada’s centenary. In 1966, synod named a committee to mark the occasion.145 “Canadian Centennial Celebration” was the document the committee presented at the 1967 synod.146 Robert More was listed as secretary, and the report shows his editorial hand. A brief overview of Canada’s history and geography is given; some rhetorical questions are asked;147 and a key Canadian Covenanter event identified.148 More salient for synod, as the document indicated, were the times when Ontario societies and congregations came into the American synod in 1851, and when the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery transferred in 1879. The statement about the Canadian Covenanter church is directed at American Reformed Presbyterians with a view to strengthening the relationship. The report recommends that American churches cultivate a “holy brotherhood” with Canadian congregations by writing both as indi-



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viduals and as congregations; that ministers and lay people involve themselves with Canadian Covenanters, especially in mission work; that more help be expended in applying the church’s faith in the Dominion; that the entire Church labour for the progress of the whole Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.149 The implication is that the synod had almost forgotten the north in the name of the denomination and that, since entering the American synod, Canadian Covenanters had been treated as poor cousins. A secondary recommendation was that an anticipated history of the Canadian Covenanter Church be published. This was shortly realized, with the publication of Robert More’s Aurora Borealis.150 Aurora Borealis was the first book to outline the history of the Covenanter Church in Canada. In some ways, the subtitle, “A History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Canada (1820–1967),” is an indictment of the present situation.151 It provides the background data to the recommendations made to the 1967 synod. Once there were Covenanters from Nova Scotia to British Columbia – over 100 “congregations, mission stations, or Covenanter settlements”; now there are but two. Covenanter congregants were never numerous, but now the numbers are even less. Few pastors serving Canadian congregations have been synod moderators.152 Only one Canadian Covenanter is a missionary; in 1967, Almonte’s Raymond Morton was serving in Ethiopia.153 Only two Canadian Covenanters were ordained – that is, Canadian nationals, Canadian at ordination, serving Canadian congregations: More names Nova Scotia’s Robert Sommerville and New Brunswick’s (New School) Joseph Howe Brownell.154 More is not without hope, “[b]ut unless the unhealthy trend of the past century is decisively reversed right soon” the Covenanter Church in Canada will indeed be “like the grass of the field which flourishes today; withers tomorrow; and o’er which the wind moans in grave lament thereafter.” Although More’s reflections and criticisms are directed at the American church, his analyses sound the death-knell in Ontario of the settled Shields congregation model. For decades the strategy of looking only to Covenanter families for growth had been sufficient: for a time, in a rural area with large families, the movement sustained itself. In Almonte and Lochiel, Covenanters were different, their worship distinct, they didn’t vote. The differences were noted and notice-

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able, but less and less did they bring disdain and disfavour. In rural Ontario, the Reformed Presbyterian community carved out a place – a niche not uncomfortable – for both Covenanter and non-Covenanter. Moreover, Covenanters were becoming less confident about their own observances, the theology behind them less clearly understood. In Toronto, Covenanter elders were hesitant to discipline a member who sang hymns in another church. At Almonte, after 1936, the matter of voting was never discussed in the session. Non-Covenanters had services with the Covenanters and for these infrequent occasions, the psalms only were used. The issue of modernism was undoubtedly present in Almonte long before it came up in the 1960s. NonCovenanters came into the congregation through marriage; some Covenanters left the community because of marriage. Covenanter salt no longer had its distinctive savour. Canadian community togetherness sandpapered down the edges of Covenanter distinctives. We return to this matter in the final chapter. The year 1967 was significant in the Reformed Presbyterian denomination, for the synod was asked to make a major decision on political dissent, to decide whether to maintain the present position of the church or to no longer require political dissent as a condition of church membership.155 Robert More was deeply involved. In the debate, many of those who objected to changing the church’s position issued a long minority report. More also disagreed, though he made his own individual dissent.156 Nonetheless, the majority report of the Committee on Political Dissent was adopted.157 This important 1967 decision will be taken up again in the final chapter. Robert More’s ministry in Almonte took place at a significant time both in Canadian history and in the Covenanter denomination. In addition to Aurora Borealis, More wrote a column in the local paper, authored a series in Blue Banner Faith and Life,158 and compiled a history of the congregation, “Almonte Reformed Presbyterian Church.” The document was formally presented on the occasion of the opening of the new Christian Education building in May 1974.159 Robert More and his family left Almonte in 1975.160 Rev. Ken McBurney was installed as Almonte pastor on 12 October 1976.161 Kansas-born, Kenneth Arden McBurney had served in the United States army in Japan prior to attending seminary. He held



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pastorates in Oregon and Kansas, coming to Almonte in 1976, in his mid-forties. At Almonte, McBurney continued in traditional patterns, outlined in this chapter; he also ventured out in new directions, discussed in the next chapter. The session considered the request to perform a marriage for a couple living common-law. “We agree to the marriage, provided that the couple show signs of repentance and willingness to meet with the pastor for counselling.”162 The normal communicants class was not appropriate for a mature couple, so session decided that the pastor would have private communicant classes for them.163 There were other evidences of change, both within the Almonte congregation and in the wider Covenanter denomination. The traditional celebration of the Lord’s Supper was one longstanding policy and practice that was being challenged. Reformed Presbyterian communion, normatively referred to as “close communion,” had been restricted to those who were members.164 But in the 1960s and 1970s, problems arose. Persons came forward who, while clearly Christian, were not members of the Covenanter church: could they be automatically excluded? Moreover, “not all Covenanters believed every point of their denomination’s doctrine,” and some Reformed Presbyterians “did not understand parts of their denomination’s doctrine well enough to know if they believed it or not.”165 Finally, by a synod decision in 1977, close communion was replaced by “session controlled.”166 Those questioning, or not already members, were examined by a local session; if the examination was satisfactory, such persons were admitted. Subsequently, at Almonte, “it was agreed to put a notice in the bulletin re non-members being examined by the session with a view to taking communion.”167 Frequently in McBurney’s ministry, a number of non-members were so examined. We shall return to the matter of close communion in the final chapter. Session made its convictions known in local and national political affairs. The moderator drafted a letter to the Select Committee on Retail Store Hours stating objections to Sunday opening.168 Again, the session used a letter drawn up by the Ottawa congregation to protest the acquittal of Dr Henry Morgentaler on the charge of procuring an abortion.169 The Almonte congregation was deeply involved with the new fledgling Ottawa congregation.170

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Greater congregational participation in decisions became the norm. Approval was given that a Committee of Education be formed, and ideas requested from the congregants on setting it up.171 After trying a different schema for a time, session asked the congregation if they liked the new format of morning and evening services.172 Session opted for more frequent children’s messages.173 In the early 1980s, session discussed plans for a change in communion services and how the plans might be presented to the congregation for decision and implementation.174 When a request was received to have square dancing in the Christian education building, session consulted with the congregation. A process of sharing the experience of other congregations and broad consultation with individual members followed. After a good deal of toing and froing, the session made a decision: “Session has not been able to establish that square dancing as such is sinful. However there are some in the congregation who feel very strongly against it and we would be offending the conscience of these brethren, if we sponsor square dancing” in the Christian education building.175 The church building was newly renovated and dedicated on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Almonte congregation, celebrated on 28 November 1980.176 McBurney arranged a pulpit exchange between himself and Rev. Blair McFarland of the Loughbrickland and Claire congregations of Ulster in 1984.177 The exchange was more easily facilitated because, beginning in the early 1980s, the Almonte congregation began the practice of hiring a summer intern. The first was American-born Robert Schmidtberger, a seminary student, who worked in Almonte and the fledgling Ottawa Covenanter fellowship. Others followed. Even after Ottawa was organized in May 1981, the Almonte congregation often had its own summer interns. McBurney’s ministry was also exercised in outreach beyond Almonte that changed the face and future of Reformed Presbyterianism in Canada. The final chapter outlines changes in the Covenanter Church that influenced McBurney, his session, and the congregation to move beyond established Covenanter communities to form new societies and congregations.

{ 17 } Canadian Covenanters into the Twenty-First Century Significant changes came to Reformed Presbyterian faith and practice in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, particularly in the United States.1 Especially important was the decision of the 1967 synod whereby the church no longer requires political dissent as a condition of church membership.2 That change was but one of several. In the early 1900s, the Reformed Presbyterian church suffered a rapid decline in membership; it was, indeed, in danger of dying out. In 1916, the membership was reported to be 8,281. Just seven years later, the number had dropped by 1,130, a decrease consistent with those in previous decades.3 Not only was the church decreasing in membership but it was also facing a shortage of pastors. In 1919, Rev. D.H. Elliott emphasized the dire need for workers. There were twenty-two congregations seeking pastors. Moreover, the situation threatened to deteriorate since many of the present ministers were elderly. The Covenanter church and its ministry – largely Scots, Irish, and Scots-Irish – formed, in a sense, an ethnic enclave.4 The church’s awareness of its perilous decline in membership helped bring about a stronger emphasis on evangelism. Covenanters became involved in wider American evangelical movements. One was the Forward Movement based on the life and witness of Charles Finney.5 The Covenanter Church appointed its own Forward Movement Secretary in 1919. The movement emphasized development of individual spiritual life, a consecration to Christ in one’s own calling, and a dedication to stewardship. There were several results: a unified synodical budget, presbytery summer conferences, and national conferences, beginning in 1926. Billy Graham Crusades, commencing in the 1940s, were also influential, particularly through the Navigators, the movement associated with the Crusades that was responsible for counsellor training and follow-up. The InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an

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interdenominational campus outreach ministry that flourished from the 1940s, also exerted a strong influence. These non-denominational, largely American religious movements gave the church an emphasis on outreach and evangelism that, if not entirely new, introduced elements scarcely present before. Significantly, the Reformed Presbyterian Church became a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.6 The church was also carrying on a vigorous internal discussion. Voting had been a matter of contention and confusion emanating from the Regina Covenanter community during the Second World War.7 The refusal to vote and to make an oath had been a formal protest and a matter of conscience for Covenanters for over a century. It was a stern test of membership; the church experienced two divisions over it. The first occurred in the early 1830s and resulted in a split between the Old School, those who were utterly faithful to their original doctrines, and the New School, whose members became a separate denomination.8 There was a similar though much smaller division in 1890, in what was termed the East End Platform.9 Canadian Covenanters, like their American counterparts, did not normally vote. While the commitment to refuse the elective franchise was a term of membership, few seemed to have been disciplined when they did vote: “Faithful members did not break stride with this dissent as a general rule.”10 In Almonte session records, the disapproval of voting last appeared in 1935; the issue was never again the subject of session discussion or decision.11 Nonetheless, it remained a matter of concern in some Canadian Covenanter circles into the late 1940s.12 The church and the synod made several attempts to deal with a second contentious issue – the oath of allegiance – and the conflicts it caused.13 First, there was the 1939 Explanatory Declaration; this declaration was intended to clarify the significance of the oath for both Covenanter oath-giver and civil oath-taker. Conflicts still arose, even after the Declaration was amended and updated in 1960. A second strategy was the 1940s Christian Amendment Movement – an attempt to change the American constitution to include significant references to God and Christ.14 The lobbying for that measure continued for some time, but the issue was never debated on the floor of Congress.15 The attempt faded and died. A third approach, appearing on the



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eve of the decisive synod decision, was to bring before an American court a “test case” where the intent of the oath could be made clear. Were Covenanters to succeed in getting an appropriate conflictual situation to court, it might result in a decision declaring the Constitutional Oath to be absolute. Then the Covenanter case would be made: Covenanters could not in good conscience take such an oath. A San Diego resident, Marshall Smith, encountered a problem at work that led to a court case in which ultimate loyalty would be tested.16 The case seemed promising, but again the issue never got to court, so there was no opportunity to appeal. Fourth and finally, the assumption of the absolute nature of the Constitutional Oath was undermined by the late 1940s Nuremberg Trials. When the German military were tried, they contended that they were under orders from superiors. But the court insisted that “there is a higher law.” The assumption that the Constitutional Oath was absolute was thereby culturally and spiritually undermined. Covenanters came to see that, in taking a last ditch stand, the ditch had been removed. The new stance, enunciated by the 1967 synod, did not mean abandoning or even questioning the principle of Christ’s kingship over the nation as well as the church. That was still at the heart of the Covenanter Testimony. But Covenanters were now free to take the oath, since it was not absolute; Covenanters were now free to vote, since no regime had absolute authority. In fact, Covenanters had a responsibility to vote, to give their voice to the person or program that approximated most closely God’s will, granting that no person or program could or would completely bring in God’s reign. The completion would come only with Christ’s Second Coming. The Covenant of Church Membership, intimately associated with the change from closed to session-controlled communion, was also revised.17 Previously, converts and potential new members were asked to accept the Westminister Confession, the Testimony, the catechism, and the standards of worship, government, and discipline. “This was a very big hurdle in evangelism and receiving new persons into membership and to the sacraments. It meant that a new person was required to be knowledgeable about all these things and accept them.”18 The revisions meant that the church no longer required a new believer to know and adhere to all the standards, but “rather to be

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willing to be taught from that perspective and to be in submission to the elders.”19 The congregation itself was seen as the nurturing place where new believers could mature in their faith and grow in understanding. In short, the rules became less restrictive.20 Discussed and debated through many synods, the momentous changes about communion and church membership were effected in 1977.21 While being deeply influenced by non-Covenanter movements, Reformed Presbyterianism also required a renewed self-understanding – of traditional Reformed Presbyterian principles, practices, and beliefs. The individual who provided the chief theological defence, rationale, and base for the Covenanters was J.G. Vos. Johannes Geerhardus Vos was born on 4 February 1903 in Princeton, New Jersey. His father, Geerhardus Vos, a native of the Netherlands, was a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. J.G. was baptized and became a communicant member of the Presbyterian Church usa , in Princeton. In 1926, however, he was received into the Reformed Presbyterian Church.22 Significantly, Vos came from a non-Scots, non-Irish background. He wished to serve in a church that “(1) adheres to scriptural worship, particularly in the matter of psalmody; (2) excluded members of oath-bound societies from its communion; (3) held the Calvinistic theology and the Reformed view of life in which one might preach this faith without hindrance.”23 Vos recognized the solid foundations in the Covenanter church. He came to see, however, that much of its doctrine, though not rejected, had not been fully explored and articulated. Vos was ordained in 1929 and, over the next decades, served as pastor, missionary in China, and professor at Geneva College, retiring in 1978.24 He was a prolific writer and scholar; he influenced many, particularly future seminary students, as Bible professor at Geneva College. His chief impact on Covenanter faith and practice came through the quarterly journal Blue Banner Faith and Life, which ran from 1945 until 1974. Vos was editor and chief contributor, and the journal was read widely in the church and beyond. His leadership led Reformed Presbyterians to a new respect for and commitment to the reformed faith: Covenanters had a deeper grasp of reformed theology, blended with experiential knowledge of personal union with Christ. The fusion of the two stabilized the church’s membership and made possible



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a viable future. On the basis of its renewed self-understanding, the Covenanter church became a charter member of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council in 1974.25 One of the non-Covenanter movements affecting the Covenanter church called for greater inclusion of women. Faith Martin, a devout Covenanter, penned Call Me Blessed: The Emerging Christian Woman.26 Citing examples from Covenanter mission fields, other denominations, and contemporary secular sources, Martin’s book seemed to posit “that there is no special role that men have in regard to authority (and that women do not have), either in the church” or in society.27 The book caused considerable consternation; its themes were taken up by the synod. A document, Report of the Committee to Study the Role and Service of Women,28 was approved by the 1991 synod.29 The report reiterated the Covenanter conviction that there are role distinctions between men and women; these distinctions are biblically based.30 Women are not regarded as second-class citizens in home or church; nonetheless, in the church “women are not eligible to be [either teaching or ruling] elders.”31 At the same time, there are no clear grounds “for extending the role distinctions in society in general.”32 This means that while a Reformed Presbyterian woman is not eligible to be an ordained elder or minister in the denomination, there is no reason why a Covenanter woman may not be prime minister of Canada. The sharp decline in numbers in the American Covenanter church was also mirrored in Canadian congregations. More’s 1967 Aurora Borealis and the “Canadian Centennial Celebration” report to synod indicated that Covenanters had very little to celebrate: the cause in Canada was in a perilous state. Lochiel and Almonte were isolated. They were very small; they were also bastions of Scots and ScotsIrish ethnicity. McBurney was the sole pastor, with two congregations. Almonte listed fifty-eight members, Lochiel fifteen, a total of seventy-three Canadian members.33 More’s book painted a grim picture for the future; he also strongly implied that the American synod’s Covenanter strategy for Canada was bankrupt. Ken McBurney, who came to Almonte in 1977, was determined to expand beyond his Almonte congregation. Under his leadership, the Almonte session and congregation embraced an outreach vision. St Lawrence presbytery and the synod also came on board. The 1967

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Joy and Aubrey Ayer

synod “Canadian Centennial Celebration” document had asked, “Dare we suggest that presbyteries encompassing northern U.S. congregations … labour to establish Canadian mission stations?”34 In 1977, St Lawrence presbytery recommended that a fund be established for exploratory work in Ottawa.35 A few months later, presbytery asked Ken McBurney to gather data concerning Ottawa that would aid in considering a new work in Canada’s capital.36 McBurney collected information and talked to every one “he could discover who might have an interest in a church in Ottawa.”37 He visited the Ayer family near the city. Aubrey and Joy Ayer and their family had been to the St Lawrence Family Camp and had travelled on occasion to Syracuse, where Rev. Ed Robson was pastor.38 If McBurney was one pillar of the Ottawa story, the duo of Aubrey and Joy Ayer can be termed the second. Aubrey Ayer was born in Elgin, New Brunswick on 31 August 1937; the Ayers were Planter stock. Aubrey was baptized in 1947 in the Elgin United Baptist Church. He became a teacher and principal of the rural high school in Tabusintac, later in Newcastle (now part



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of Miramichi), New Brunswick. While attending the Presbyterian Church in Canada, he met Joy Beattie, already a member; the two were married in 1959. Three children were born to the Ayers in New Brunswick. In February 1971, the Ayers and a small group of people from the Presbyterian Church in Canada felt called to leave that denomination and begin a new work in Newcastle. This led to the formation of Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, which was then part of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (which later became part of the Presbyterian Church in America).39 Aubrey Ayer was a founding elder. The Ayers left New Brunswick in 1973, moving to the Ottawa area.40 In their new home, they vigorously pursued reformed interests. St Lawrence presbytery met in Almonte on 3 October 1978. McBurney made a presentation about prospects in the city of Ottawa; more than that, he drove presbytery representatives around the capital. The presbytery gave the green light to start the mission work and asked Almonte session to take the lead with help from Lochiel and Lisbon congregations. Presbytery also requested $2,400 from the Home Missions Board Church Extension Fund for work in Ottawa.41 McBurney called a planning meeting, inviting representatives of Almonte, Lochiel, and Lisbon to participate. The meeting projected an initial Bible study in the home of Aubrey and Joy Ayer in Ottawa for 1 December 1978.42 From that beginning, the fledgling Ottawa group met every two weeks, on Friday evenings, in the Ayer home. Congregants came from Almonte and Lisbon; between fourteen and thirty-four people participated. Each meeting involved Bible study, praise, prayer, and planning/progress reports.43 In the spring of 1979, plans were made to hold public meetings in a location close to Ottawa. A schoolroom at nearby Bells Corners was rented. “It was decided to have a psalm sing at the first meeting, and also to advertize the meetings in the Ottawa papers.” Other meetings followed. Response from the public was not great, “but our own people were convinced that we really had something worthwhile for the people of Ottawa.”44 Robert Schmidtberger, a student at the theological seminary in Pittsburgh, came to Ottawa at the end of May 1979, and worked under McBurney for the summer. The Covenanters decided to focus their efforts for a time in Kanata,

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Rev. Dr Richard Ganz

west of Ottawa; there an advertising blitz looked forward to Bible study and regular Sabbath worship services in the autumn of 1979. The Bible study program began in Kanata in September, the Sabbath services in October. Almonte session consulted with Lisbon pastor Paul Faris and recently retired Rev. J.O. Edgar. A venue was found in the Kanata Community Centre, and Sunday services began on 21 October 1979, led by Ken McBurney, Paul Faris, and John Edgar.45 Many came to Kanata from Almonte and Lisbon to support the work and help in the psalm singing.46 The services continued in Kanata over the winter and into 1980. In June 1980, licentiate Carter Rowe, a Boston native, came to Ottawa and assisted in the Kanata services. He was to continue Covenanter ministry in Kanata and Ottawa for two years. Early in 1980, the possibility of a full-time ordained minister for Ottawa was mooted. St Lawrence presbyter Rev. Edward Robson of Syracuse informed McBurney that Rev. Richard Ganz, who had been teaching theology in Europe, was returning to the United States. McBurney invited Ganz to come to Ottawa in May 1980. Ganz



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preached at some services, and it seemed a promising match. The Almonte session and St Lawrence Presbytery entered into negotiations with Ganz. The congregation decided “to call an associate pastor … Dr. Ganz was asked to begin work in Ottawa on September first.”47 During the summer, Ganz preached again at Almonte and Ottawa, looked for a house and, most significantly, read and was deeply affected by Robert More’s Aurora Borealis. The call was forwarded to Ganz through New York presbytery of which he was a member. The Ganz family came to the city in September. Almonte session continued to be the official church conduit through which the Ottawa work was facilitated. Licentiate Carter Rowe continued the work in Kanata. When Rowe’s work in Kanata was subsequently extended to June 1982, Almonte session applied to the Home Missions Board “for aid to keep two pastors [Ganz and Rowe] in Ottawa for 1982.”48 Ganz and Rowe, sometimes singly, sometimes together, attended Almonte session meetings. Almonte session received, examined, and approved members for Ottawa, kept on a separate roll until Ottawa was established as a congregation.49 Rev. Richard Lewis Ganz was formally installed as associate minister at Almonte for work in Ottawa at a meeting of St Lawrence presbytery, 8 October 1980.50 Plans proceeded to the organization of Ottawa as a congregation, and the Almonte session nominated and examined Aubrey Ayer as an elder for Ottawa. On 27 May 1981, at a service in Almonte, the former Ottawa fellowship was officially organized as a congregation with nineteen communicants and four baptized members.51 Moreover, “Richard Ganz and Aubrey Ayer were installed as teaching and ruling elders respectively” of the Ottawa congregation.52 Though Almonte and Ottawa continued in close collaboration, pastors McBurney and Ganz now had separate congregations. Ganz was to have a profound influence on Covenanter witness in Ottawa and beyond. Richard Lewis Ganz was born on 21 November 1946 in New York. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family and found his parental faith fulfilling. He attended Hunter College and Wayne State University, earning ma and PhD degrees in Clinical Psychology and interning in several centres. The sudden death of Ganz’s father resulted in the son rebelling against his faith and seeking answers in psycho-

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analysis. After a time, that pursuit paled53 and he became an atheist. During a trip to Europe in 1972, Ganz was converted to Christianity in the Netherlands while at a L’Abri community.54 The conversion galvanized his considerable gifts and set him on a new path.55 Ganz married Canadian-born Nancy Elizabeth Turnbull of Orillia, Ontario; they were to parent four children. In December 1972 Richard Ganz was baptized in the Syracuse congregation, whose pastor Ed Robson became a close friend and colleague. Ganz studied at the Westminster Theological Seminary from 1974 to 1978, earning an MDiv degree. Ordained in November 1978, he served as an associate pastor in Broomall, Pennsylvania, from 1978 to 1980; the pastor was Rev. Harold Harrington, another close friend and colleague. During this period, Ganz published his first book, Thou Shalt Not Kill: The Christian Case Against Abortion.56 He then taught theology for short periods in several European countries. From Europe, Richard Ganz and his family came to Ottawa.57 Almonte’s Ken McBurney correctly commented that Ganz “comes to us from a rather unusual background.”58 The prevailing ethnic Scots and Scots-Irish mould was decisively challenged. “Richard Ganz quickly developed a vision for the Reformed Presbyterian Church” in the capital and the country.59 Ganz began his work in the fledgling congregation in Kanata. He mobilized and motivated the congregants to reach out, to evangelize their friends, neighbours, and co-workers. Attention was focused on personal prayer, Bible study, family worship, and fellowship gatherings. Ganz also organized small fellowship groups outside and beyond Ottawa: some were successful, some were not.60 The missionary emphasis of the congregation persisted and grew: evangelism was now carried on in one’s local neighbourhood as well as in the world beyond. The missionary focus remained, though the Ottawa venues of congregational worship changed. For some years, places for worship were rented. Before Ganz’s arrival, in the fall of 1981, congregants worshipped in nearby Kanata with licentiate Carter Rowe. By March 1982, services in Kanata ceased and all regular Covenanter worship occurred in Ottawa, in the Glebe region of the city. (Rowe left Canada in September 1982.)61 In the autumn of 1983, the congregation rented space from L’Église St



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Ottawa Reformed Presbyterian Church and Ottawa Theological Hall

Marc, a venue in downtown Ottawa, where they remained until 1990. During this period the church became completely self-supporting.62 The final rented space was a Seventh Day Adventist church building, the congregation relocating there in April 1990. Finally, after buying the property, the congregation built its own church, at 466 Woodland Avenue; the official opening service was held on 23 April 1995.63 In a short time, Richard Ganz developed a vision for the Covenanter Church in Canada. Influenced by More’s Aurora Borealis, Ganz recognized that the shortage of Canadians for the ministry had contributed to the denomination’s decline.64 The renewal of the church and the training of Canadian clergy were two sides of the same coin. Thus Ganz “envisioned a training centre for future pastors … His vision was to both encourage church planting and develop men of God to preach.”65 In the spring of 1982, St Lawrence presbytery established the Ottawa Theological Hall under its oversight for the training of pastors. The action was approved by the synod in the summer,66 and the Hall opened in the autumn of 1982, offering a four-

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year diploma course.67 The Hall had its own board, constitution, and by-laws, under St Lawrence presbytery. The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh assisted the new school’s efforts to establish itself and build up a library.68 The Ottawa congregation regularly carried a major portion of the cost of operating the Hall.69 For several years, Richard Ganz was acting president; he was elected president of the Hall on 1 March 1990.70 Ottawa Theological Hall was possible because of the dedication and work of many: Ken McBurney and members of the Almonte congregation;71 Aubrey and Joy Ayer and dedicated lay persons who gave early and steadfast witness; fellow presbytery clergy of whom Revs. Ed Robson and Harold Harrington were chief figures; St Lawrence presbytery, which gave oversight and management; and the synod, which provided critiques and valued input. But central was Richard Ganz: he had the vision, organizational skills, and determination to make the dream a reality. Ganz’s witness and ministry extended beyond the Covenanter denomination, as a speaker and writer in Canada, the United States, and Europe.72 In spite of his extra-Ottawa witness, Ganz has been the first and only full-time pastor of the Ottawa church, as well as the founder and continuing leader of the Ottawa Theological Hall.73 Ottawa Theological Hall prepared students “for the office of teaching elder in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. These men must be taken under the care of the Presbytery and fulfill all the requirements for the pastoral ministry as required by the Church.”74 In Ottawa, it was expected that students would have jobs while they studied. It was desirable, even necessary, particularly for married students with families, that individuals continue to work in positions where they were already established. This meant that classes were conducted in the evenings and on Saturdays. Ideally, all professors would live and teach in Canada, but this goal was difficult to realize. Richard Ganz has been a consistent professor and city resident; from 1982 to 1984, he was joined by then Ottawa dweller Dr James A. Hughes.75 Normally, visiting teachers and mentors from the St Lawrence presbytery made up the bulk of the faculty.76 An early, long-time, and influential professor was Rev. Ed Robson, pastor at Syracuse, New York.77 Visiting professors were not



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paid; their home congregations bore the cost.78 Fifteen years after its beginning, a report on the seminary stated, “Rich Ganz and Christian Adjemian schedule their classes on a weekly basis throughout the year. Others, such as Harold Harrington, Clark Copeland, Kenneth Smith, Jack White, Andrew Schep, David Weir, and Bill Edgar, each of which were in the teaching schedule this year, come for a concentrated series for a week or two.”79 From the outset, there were close links between the Ottawa congregation and the Ottawa Theological Hall; premises were normally shared. The presence of the Hall led to a better trained laity, since classes were open to auditors tuition free. The emergence of new missions in the Ottawa area assisted in the education of those studying for ministry by using students as interns. The Hall emphasized a combination of the academic and the practical. “As the opportunities in developing churches expanded [near Ottawa], some courses were changed from classroom to teaching on site.”80 An expansion of Covenanter fortunes in the Ottawa region came about because the Hall and churches worked together; Richard Ganz was a key person in both. Covenanter activities spanned out from the centre in Ottawa into several locations. Five Ontario venues were new: Perth/Smiths Falls, Kingston, Bancroft, Toronto, and Russell.81 A new non-Canadian mission was started in Sudan, Africa. In addition to the new missions, the Ottawa congregation and the Hall were involved in the strengthening of Almonte. Moreover, Ottawa was a leading member of St Lawrence presbytery. The presbytery was responsible for the beginning of a new Covenanter mission in Kitchener, Ontario. The presbytery also had a leading role in the transfer of the historic Lochiel congregation from Glengarry County, Ontario, to a new congregation, Hudson/St-Lazare, in Vaudreuil-Soulanges County, Quebec. The alterations brought about and epitomized by Richard Ganz’s arrival in Ottawa transformed the contours of the Covenanter movement in Canada. The earlier McLachlan Scots mission and Shields settled congregation models were passé; a Ganz Canadian revival took centre stage. While still retaining strong ties with the American church, the movement was now purposefully and distinctly Canadian. For the first time, potential ministers were Canadians, edu-

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cated on Canadian soil, interning in Canadian congregations.82 The ethnic face of the Shields era was radically transformed. Covenanter congregants were not restricted to persons in a Scots or Scots-Irish enclave. Reformed Presbyterianism in both Canada and the United States had been strengthened by vital influences from the evangelical movement. Mission was engaged in wherever there were Covenanters – in the communities in which they lived: mission was also exercised in non-Canadian, non-Christian places, for instance, in the Sudan. Concomitantly, changes in Reformed Presbyterian selfunderstanding had other results. The prohibition against voting was dropped and Covenanters were now free to exercise the elective franchise. Further, core Covenanter reformed theology was reinvigorated.

Ottawa Church Missions – New and Old Perth

Perth, a one-hour drive from Ottawa, was the scene of Covenanter activity when, in 1984, Ganz began a small Bible study.83 The group flourished and services commenced the following year. Christian Adjemian, a student at Ottawa Theological Hall, preached at Perth once a month during his last year; he was called to be Perth pastor when it became a congregation in 1988. Adjemian, converted through the Ottawa ministry,84 was an exceptional addition to the Covenanter cause. Christian Jean Adjemian was born on 6 December 1947 in Gardanne, France. Although a French native, he was educated mainly in the United States, later becoming a Canadian.85 Married and later divorced, he studied at Colorado State University. He earned a PhD in romance linguistics from the University of Washington in 1977. On the faculty of the University of Ottawa, from 1977 to 1983, Adjemian was an active researcher, lecturing extensively in Europe and North America.86 In 1974, he married Laura Marie Baskerville, of Seattle. The couple were to have five children. A chance encounter with a member of the Ottawa Covenanter community led to his conversion.87 Although he had been baptized as an infant in the Roman Catholic Church, he was baptized as believer and communicant in December 1983.88 Adjemian pursued studies at Ottawa Theological



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Hall. Five years later he resigned from his professorship. He accepted a call and was ordained on the day the Perth congregation was organized, 24 January 1988.89 The Perth congregation had a number of worship venues. The final and most significant was in Smiths Falls: the congregation moved from nearby Perth to take advantage of the sale of a church. Unfortunately, the ministry in Smiths Falls did not develop as hoped.90 There were a variety of problems,91 and these difficulties were exacerbated by the severe illness of Adjemian’s wife and then later by the departure of Adjemian from Smiths Falls for Cambridge, Massachusetts, late in 1999. The problems in the congregation proved intractable, and the congregation was disorganized in 2001.92 Nonetheless, Adjemian was a notable accession to Covenanter ranks; later, he returned and pursued his career as a Reformed clergyman in Canada.93

Kingston

Kingston was the site of Covenanter mission emanating from Perth/ Smiths Falls while Adjemian was pastor. Strategies like those that had been effective in Ottawa and Perth were used in Kingston. In 1990, Bible studies were held with the hope of eventually establishing a congregation.94 St Lawrence presbytery organized a mission church in Kingston on 12 March 1991. At that same service, Matthew Hadwen, an early graduate of Ottawa Theological Hall, was licensed by St Lawrence presbytery and began serving as Kingston pastor. Matthew Nelson Hadwen was born in 1959 in Ottawa, and baptized an Anglican. He obtained a ba from the University of Toronto and an ma from Carleton. From 1988 to 1991 he studied at Ottawa Theological Hall, graduating with a Diploma in Divinity. He was ordained on 8 October 1991, continuing to serve the Kingston mission church.95 There Robert Fishar was elected and ordained a ruling elder.96 Hadwen’s ordination seemed the fulfillment of a deeply held vision: he was “the first Canadian born, Canadian trained pastor in the Reformed Presbyterian Church – ever.”97 However, the vision was short lived; within a few months of his ordination, Hadwen “had a spiritual crisis and could not preach anymore.”98 So, services at the Kingston mission church were suspended

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and the pastoral relationship with Hadwen was terminated on 20 June 1992. Hadwen’s ordination was suspended at his request. The Kingston mission station was disorganized on 9 March 1993.99

Bancroft

The Bancroft Mission was organized in the spring of 1997. Its inception went back at least two years: in September 1995, North Hastings Christian Church (Bancroft) came into existence as a result of several families coming together.100 Pastored part-time, the group continued under that ministry until there was a mutually agreed upon separation. The fledgling congregation seemed doomed. But in the spring of 1996, the Ottawa session became aware of the situation through the van Noppen family who were interested in a new church work.101 Bob and Barbara van Noppen, together with some others, approached the Ottawa session for assistance. Covenanter worship services were begun in Bancroft in the late spring of 1996, Ottawa students Andrew Stringer and Matt Dyck giving leadership. In the fall of 1996 Stringer, his wife, and family moved to Bancroft to begin full-time work. Later in the fall, the North Hastings church petitioned presbytery to be brought under its care and supervision, and the petition was granted.102 Andrew Stringer was born in Toronto in 1967 and nurtured in a Baptist Convention home. He attended the Ontario Bible College, where he was later joined by three other future Covenanter pastors – brother Kiernan Stringer, Matthew Dyck, and Matthew Kingswood. Andrew Stringer graduated with a BTh in 1991. He married Elizabeth Hunter; they were to parent six children. Stringer began studies at Ottawa Theological Hall in 1992, finishing the diploma course in 1996. Certified to receive a pastoral call by St Lawrence presbytery on 9 October 1996, Andrew moved to Bancroft with his family to begin full-time work that autumn.103 On 4 April 1997, Andrew Stringer was ordained and installed associate pastor in the Ottawa church with a view to continuing the work in Bancroft.104 On the same date, the Bancroft mission station was formally organized. The mission began worshipping in a new location late in 1997. The new congregation experienced difficulties, as the pastor testified: “Over the past year … the church [has undergone] some



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‘fiery’ ordeals. We are a tender shoot.”105 But some months later, “three core families are … united in the work. They are now located in the heart of Bancroft and have taken the name Cornerstone Reformed Presbyterian Mission Church … Bible studies continue to be a blessing and a great way of introducing people to Reformed theology.”106 The work and witness of the Bancroft Cornerstone Reformed Presbyterian community continued, though by 2003 it was reported that the past twelve months “had been a year of plodding ahead by God’s grace.”107 St Lawrence presbytery closed the work in that community on 5 February 2004,108 concluding Stringer’s ministry there. Despite an auspicious beginning and a six-year pastoral ministry, Covenanter work in Bancroft ceased. After leaving Bancroft, Andrew Stringer worked as full-time associate minister in the Ottawa congregation until 2006.

Toronto

The Ottawa congregation expressed an interest in missionary work in Toronto in 1996.109 Synod’s Home Missions Board approved Toronto as an Ottawa church plant110 under the leadership of Kiernan Stringer111 who moved there with his wife, Wendy. “Kiernan is holding worship services in their home and is doing outreach in the area while supporting his family with various day jobs.” The Ottawa church also made a financial commitment for this work with the hope that a mission station might be established soon.112 Kiernan Jamieson Stringer was born in Toronto on 15 January 1969, a younger brother of Andrew. He attended Ontario Bible College and graduated with a Bachelor of Religious Studies in 1992. He married Elizabeth Anne Hunter in 1991; the couple are parenting six children. Attracted by the preaching of Richard Ganz, Stringer attended Ottawa Theological Hall from 1993 until 1996, and during his last year he was licensed by St Lawrence presbytery. Kiernan Stringer was ordained on 25 September 1998, in Toronto, and installed as pastor of the Toronto mission. At the same time, the mission was formally organized.113 Evening services had been held since early 1998; after Stringer’s arrival, the Lord’s Supper was observed for the first time. Morning services began on 8 November at Tyndale Bible College.114 A year later, attendance had grown and the

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mission was seeking to move to a nearby chapel that would facilitate and enhance the ministry.115 In 2001, the mission was reported as still growing and expanding, though a new worship facility was still being sought.116 In 2002, the mission became more clearly identified as the Living Hope (Toronto) Reformed Presbyterian congregation.117 The small congregation was, however, adversely affected when some members left Living Hope because of job or housing opportunities.118 For these and other reasons, the Covenanter cause in Toronto was not to endure. Toronto was also the venue of a mission of the fraternal Presbyterian Church in America. St Lawrence presbytery decided that, in view of limited resources, it would be more appropriate for the Covenanter cause to support the fraternal effort; thus the Toronto Living Hope Covenanter mission was disorganized on 14 January 2007, and Stringer was released from the pastoral charge.119 Stringer remained in the city, interning with Grace, a Presbyterian Church in America congregation in Toronto,120 while maintaining his status as a Covenanter pastor. This arrangement, too, came to an end: Stringer requested the transfer of his Covenanter credentials to the Presbyterian Church in America, which was granted on 8 April 2008.121

Russell

Russell became a venue of Covenanter activity as a direct result of Ottawa witness. During the mid-1980s a number of families in a Russell Christian Reformed church122 became concerned about the liberal trend in their denomination, and tensions arose. About six families started worshipping in the Ottawa Reformed Presbyterian church.123 In the fall of 1994, a group of families from the Ottawa congregation and the Christian Reformed church started a Bible study in Russell led by Matt Kingswood, then a student at Ottawa Theological Hall.124 “In June 1997, four families … committed to work in planting the church in Russell.”125 At the end of the year, 5 December 1997, Matthew Kingswood was ordained and installed as an associate pastor with the Ottawa congregation, charged with the immediate oversight of the Russell work. Russell was organized as a mission station.126 Self-identifying as a daughter church of the Ottawa Reformed Presbyterian church,127 the new mission was augmented by



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former Ottawa congregants: “as of June 1998, thirty-nine members and adherents now worship in Russell.”128 Matthew Kingswood was born in Galt, Ontario, on 10 October 1964. Kingswood’s parents immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands after the Second World War; Kingswood was raised in the Reformed Church in America.129 He graduated with a ba from Carleton University in 1993. In 1991, Kingswood had married fellow Carleton student Tara Douglas. The couple were living in Ottawa and, through auditing some evening classes at Ottawa Theological Hall, became members of the Ottawa church. They found that community “solidly conservative and also spiritually alive and vibrant.”130 Kingswood attended Ottawa Theological Hall and, while there, began the Bible study group in nearby Russell. He completed his theological studies at Ottawa in 1996. Following a summer internship in Belfast, Ireland, he attended Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, graduating with an MDiv in 1997.131 Finally, as indicated, he was ordained and installed Ottawa associate pastor for work with the Russell mission station on 5 December 1997. The Russell mission grew and expanded. Evening worship services commenced on 19 October 1997; by the following June, morning and evening worship became the norm. Helped by the influx of former Ottawa congregants, the mission flourished; persons without previous church background came from the community.132 From the outset, services were held in the Mother Teresa Catholic School Annex in Russell.133 In addition to his work as pastor in Russell, Kingswood taught classes in Systematic Theology at Ottawa Theological Hall beginning in 1998. He is the first Canadian-born professor at Ottawa Theological Hall; he teaches on an ad hoc basis, depending on students’ curriculum requirements and visiting professor schedules. The Russell mission became a congregation on 13 October 2006.134 Ernst van der Meer, who had been ordained and installed as a ruling elder earlier in Ottawa, transferred and became clerk of session in the new congregation. The venue for worship was changed in February 2009 to St-Joseph French Catholic School in Russell.135 The work and witness in Russell is flourishing. Looking back on Ontario missions or plantings in Ottawa, Perth/ Smiths Falls, Kingston, Bancroft, Toronto, and Russell, Ottawa rul-

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ing elder Aubrey Ayer wrote some reflections and insights.136 He noted the difficulty in assessing precisely which factors led to success, which did not. Although there were no guaranteed formulas, some lessons were noted. It was generally advantageous to lay a solid foundation through Bible studies in a community, before worship services begin; to have a committed core group in the new venue, preferably people who have worshipped in the sponsoring church; to have at least one ruling elder when the new mission begins and, even better, if that elder has been on the sponsoring church session for a time; to move short distances from the sponsoring church since new missions have less chance of success when they are geographically distant. In all cases, the new Canadian missions attracted other than Covenanter congregants: once a group was organized, very few of the persons attending had previously been members of another Reformed Presbyterian church.137

Cush4Christ138

Ottawa Covenanters practised a world-wide mission perspective and Ottawa session was the court initially responsible for starting a nonCanadian Covenanter mission in Sudan, Africa, called Cush4Christ. The vision for this project came from Vince Ward. Born in Ottawa on 18 December 1973, Ward was raised in a Presbyterian Church in Canada family and became a trained physiotherapist. While attending the Ottawa Covenanter church, he met a family from Sudan and became acquainted with other members of the Sudanese community. Fascinated, Ward went to Sudan; his enthusiasm for the people and country grew. He joined the Ottawa church in 1997 and began taking courses at Ottawa Theological Hall in 1998, as a casual student. Ward consulted with the Ottawa session in March of 2002, stating his desire to go to Sudan as a physiotherapist and witness for Christ. This led to conversations with Rev. Ganz and others; as a result Ward decided to study for the ministry. Ward became the first Ottawa Theological Hall student training specifically to serve in the mission field as a church planter:139 Ward’s dream embraced the possibility of a Covenanter mission to Sudan. Ward had earlier met and married a fellow physiotherapist, Julie Bourbonnais; the couple were married in Ottawa in 2002. They were



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later to parent three children. The Ottawa session fully supported the missionary project in Sudan, identified by the name Ward had chosen, Cush4Christ. Significant consultations were held with St Lawrence presbytery; the church’s Foreign Missions Board gave funds to assist with the early stages. In 2002, Ottawa session petitioned the Foreign Missions Board to officially adopt the project. Lengthy negotiations followed. Ward continued his studies at Ottawa Theological Hall, serving in the context of the Ottawa congregation.140 Later, Ward had an internship in the Toronto mission. Then the Wards and others had a three-month stay in Uganda, where they worked alongside a missionary team from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.141 By 2005, the Foreign Missions Board agreed in principle to make Cush4Christ a church mission; Ward was to be the key missionary in a team effort. He was ordained and commissioned as missionary to Sudan in January 2006.142 The Ward family then settled in the mission in southern Sudan.143 The project, long a Vince Ward vision, had become a Covenanter mission reality. Subsequently, Andrew Stringer was called and installed as a missionary to Cush4Christ in January 2007;144 he and his wife were sent to Sudan the following month.

Almonte

Almonte had been the sponsoring congregation for the Ottawa mission which had led in turn to the formation of the Ottawa congregation and Ottawa Theological Hall. The process was reversed when the historic Almonte congregation itself was in need of refurbishing in the mid-1990s. Rev. Kenneth McBurney retired on 30 September 1995. In 1996, presbytery reported that the congregation was in a period of transition not just because of the retirement of its long-time minister but also because of the resignation of its elders in the summer of 1995. Students from Ottawa Theological Hall were providing much of the preaching.145 One of the students was Matthew Dyck. While Dyck was serving, the Almonte congregation extended a call to him, and he accepted.146 Matthew Henry Dyck was born on 29 April 1970 in St Catharines, Ontario. The family was raised in a German Baptist setting – one of the Dyck brothers became a Baptist pastor. Matthew Dyck’s early schooling was in St Catharines, though the family soon moved to

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Ottawa. Matthew graduated from the Ontario Bible College with a Bachelor of Religious Studies in 1994. He married high school sweetheart Jennifer Peters of Ottawa on 25 June 1994. He also commenced studies at Ottawa Theological Hall. During his studies there, he assisted in Bancroft and Russell missions and, latterly, in the Almonte congregation. Matthew Dyck was ordained and installed as Almonte pastor on 3 March 1998.147 Almonte was a long-established congregation, but it was still undergoing transition when Dyck became pastor. In the early years of the new century, Almonte continued to grow slowly; it had ups and downs, advances and setbacks.148 In the fall of 2005, Almonte prepared to mark its 175th Anniversary.149 For the Sunday services, Dyck was joined by other Canadian pastors – Ottawa’s Richard Ganz and Andrew Stringer and Russell’s Matthew Kingswood.

St Lawrence Presbytery Missions – New and Old Kitchener

Kitchener began as a St Lawrence presbytery church plant. A presbytery commission composed of all the Canadian Reformed Presbyterian pastors reported in 2000 that exploratory work had begun in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. The exploration resulted in a gospel call to Scott Wilkinson in 2001.150 Jeffry Scott Wilkinson, a Canadian citizen, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 8 September 1965. Ordained on 14 July 1995 in Walton, New York, he was pastor of the church there from 1995 to 2001. He married Elineke Farenhorst on 10 August 1996; the couple have six children. Wilkinson accepted the call by St Lawrence presbytery to church plant in Kitchener, Ontario, in 2001.151 New Creation was the name chosen for the prospective congregation in Kitchener. At the beginning, the focus was making contacts, building relationships, and evangelism.152 A Bible study was held each Tuesday; beginning in January 2002, regular Sabbath afternoon services were begun. Outreach consisted mainly of a lecture series conducted at a Chapters bookstore every fourth Thursday of the month.153 A two-night lecture series on the Old Testament took place at a local community college, and a new Kitchener/Waterloo radio station afforded Wilkinson an opportunity to begin a one-hour talk



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show on Saturday afternoons.154 In January 2004 weekly communion was commenced.155 Some time later, the New Creation mission group moved to a new building for worship in order to hold both morning and evening services.156 In March of 2007, the congregation elected and ordained a ruling elder and a deacon.157 By 2008, the congregation had about thirty members and one ruling elder.158 New Creation was organized as a congregation by St Lawrence presbytery on 15 October 2010; at the same time Scott Wilkinson was installed as pastor.159

Montreal

Under St Lawrence presbytery initiative, a new work was to begin in Quebec, though the province had been visited much earlier, “mainly after 1820–1830. Despite those brave efforts, no organized Reformed Presbyterian congregation survived in Quebec.”160 One of the factors leading to the new work in Quebec was the move of Philip Choinière-Shields and his wife Hélène to Montreal in August 1992. Philip, born in 1957, was a native of Dublin, Ireland; Hélène was born in France. The couple had several children. Philip worked full-time in computer technology but was “a Christian since his student days in Ireland.” Philip wanted to establish “a thriving Reformed Presbyterian church presence in Quebec.”161 Immediately on coming to Montreal in 1992, the couple and their family met on the Lord’s Day with Jurgen and Tamara Dodenhoff, and, for a brief time, they were visited once a month by pastor Christian Adjemian.162 St Lawrence presbytery organized a Montreal mission station on 13 October 1992.163 The serious illness of Adjemian’s wife meant that he could no longer come to Montreal, so in 1994 the Dodenhoff and Choinière-Shields families began attending Lochiel church, the historic Glengarry County congregation situated close to the Ontario-Quebec border.164 Work in Montreal mission lessened and energy was largely transferred to Lochiel.

Lochiel

The congregation’s last full-time and long-term pastor had been Rev. R.H. McKelvy. Following McKelvey, there were visiting pastors and the short ministry of Rev. Mark Charlton, an associate minister of

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Almonte who worked in Lochiel in 1984–85. In the words of Hazel Jamieson, a senior member, “We kept up the services for some years, reading sermons and listening to sermons on tapes. But it wasn’t until Brian Brodie started services in the church proper that it became revitalized.”165 Brian Brodie was a descendant of the Brodie family that had founded the church. He was born in 1952 and married Gwen Steane in 1976; they had three children. Brodie, a dairy farmer, was elected, ordained, and installed a ruling elder in 1985. He began holding regular services in the Lochiel church and “was instrumental in keeping the ministry going in Lochiel, even filling the pulpit for more than 16 years in the ’80s and ’90s.”166 In Lochiel, “the winds of change began blowing in 1994 with the inclusion of the Choinière-Shields and Dodenhoff families.”167 Bible studies and other outreach efforts proceeded in Montreal, while elder Brian Brodie continued to minister to the Lochiel congregation.168 In 1995, prayer meetings were held at the Dodenhof home in St-Lazare, Quebec.169 The 1997 presbytery report noted that the Lochiel congregation hoped to continue morning services in the Lochiel church and also to begin evening services in St-Lazare, Quebec.170 With the encouragement of presbytery, retired couple Rev. John and Marion McMillan171 came to live in St-Lazare, Quebec, and to minister to the congregation for a period of three months beginning 1 September 1997. During that time, a leaflet introducing the Reformed Presbyterian church was distributed to every home in St-Lazare, a fast-growing town of about 13,000 west off the island of Montreal.172 During the McMillan ministry, the Lochiel session and congregation decided to meet in St-Lazare for morning services commencing 7 December 1997.173 With the dramatic move and a subsequent change of name, Hudson/St-Lazare became “a church ‘transplant.’”174 While Reformed Presbyterian witness was maintained in Lochiel, with elder Brian Brodie preaching several times a year in a retirement centre near his home, the major witness proceeded in St-Lazare, Quebec.175

Hudson/St-Lazare

Outgrowing the daycare building in St-Lazare, the Quebec congregation moved on 1 October 1998 to the Anglican Parish Hall in Hudson, a nearby town of nearly 9,000. Hudson/St-Lazare became the first



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present-day Reformed Presbyterian congregation to be established in Quebec.176 Although the Brian Brodie family and a few others came from Lochiel, the new congregation was largely composed of those without previous Covenanter experience. “We have seen what was more or less a family church grow into a church that has members from other ethnic origins.”177 During the summer of 2000, the congregation invited Courtney Jay Miller, a mature theological student studying in Philadelphia, to come with his wife and five children for a three-month internship in Quebec. He accepted the invitation.178 Progress was made during Miller’s summer stint; warm relationships were formed with members of the congregation and contacts made with others outside it.179 Miller and his family returned to Philadelphia, soon to return as the first pastor of the Hudson/St-Lazare congregation. Courtney Jay Miller was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on 22 January 1958; he also lived in New York and New Jersey, but grew up largely in his birth state where his father was a professor at Geneva College. He graduated from Geneva College with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1980. Married in 1983 to a co-student from Geneva, Barbara Dixon, the couple have five children. For fifteen years, Miller worked for publishers, holding various positions. In the mid-90s, the family moved to Philadelphia where Miller studied theology at Westminster Theological College; he was licensed by Atlantic Presbytery in April 2000. Called by the Hudson/St-Lazare congregation, Miller and his family moved to Quebec in May 2001. The ordination and installation of Courtney Miller as minister of the Hudson/St-Lazare church took place on 17 August 2001 in the Anglican Parish Hall, Hudson, in a service conducted by St Lawrence presbytery.180 Part of the vision of the congregation in Quebec was “a strong and established English work to be the future support of Reformed Presbyterian French-speaking ministry.”181 Congregants of Hudson/St-Lazare come from a variety of backgrounds: most adults are immigrants or children of immigrants, and at least ten ethnic groups are represented. The families tend to be large, and many children, if not most, are home schooled. Because of the religious background of the majority of the families – not coming from reformed denominations – information classes are held regu-

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larly. Congregants come from areas close to Montreal, joined by a few from Ontario to the west. Most families are situated in St-Lazare, Rigaud, and other communities in Vaudreuil-Soulanges County.182 In the spring of 2005, the congregation faced a difficulty: the normal place of worship in Hudson was no longer available. A Frenchspeaking Baptist church in Vaudreuil-Dorion offered to rent their facility in the afternoon.183 The move to a new rental affected the congregation’s financial situation.184 In its new rental, the congregation has met each Sunday since 1 September 2005, with the service at two o’clock and classes for all ages following worship. A plan drawn up by the session and deacons for the purchase of a lot and building of a church was not sustained by presbytery.185 The congregation has continued to grow slowly, not without some difficulties as “an English congregation in an officially French-speaking province. Our young people have this additional challenge if they are to work in this area and be part of this congregation.”186 The Ganz Canadian revival can be somewhat arbitrarily dated as beginning in 1977, when Ken McBurney came to Almonte. There were significant precursors. The year 1967 marked a great watershed and introduced a new element into the denomination. Political dissent was gone, and Covenanters could now vote and serve on juries; a few ran for elected office.187 The other distinctive – exclusive psalmsinging – has been preserved. The Ganz Canadian revival is a qualified success. While still retaining strong ties with the American church, the movement is distinctly Canadian. The formation of the Ottawa congregation and the Ottawa Theological Hall are key factors. Today, Canadian Covenanter students are being educated and trained in Canada. Seven students have been ordained to the ministry from among many studying at Ottawa Theological Hall. All seven came from non-Reformed Presbyterian backgrounds, and all except Christian Adjemian were born in Canada. Six have served in Canadian missions or congregations: Christian Adjemian, Matthew Hadwen, Andrew Stringer, Kiernan Stringer, Matthew Kingswood, and Matthew Dyck. One left the ministry (Hadwen); one departed from Canada to serve a congregation in the United States (Adjemian); one became a minister of



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the Presbyterian Church in America (Kiernan Stringer); one began and continues his ministry as a missionary in Sudan (Ward); one left a Canadian pastorate and now serves as a missionary in Sudan (Andrew Stringer). Two are currently serving as pastors in Canadian Covenanter congregations – Matthew Kingswood in Russell, Matthew Dyck in Almonte. At the dawn of the Ganz Canadian revival, in 1977, there were two congregations. In the intervening decades, fledgling Bible study groups – the contemporary form of earlier societies – started in eight communities and, later, Covenanter missions were organized – Ottawa, Perth/Smiths Falls, Kingston, Bancroft, Toronto, Russell, Hudson/St-Lazare, and Kitchener. All had the benefit of resident Covenanter clergy. Yet four faltered and fell – Perth/Smiths Falls, Kingston, Bancroft, and Toronto. Valuable lessons were learned from the failures. In 2007, there are four congregations (Almonte, Hudson/ St-Lazare, Ottawa, and Russell) and a mission station, New Creation, at Kitchener.188 Membership has increased over six-fold – 67 vaulted to 451. Table 3 outlines the growth in numbers of Canadian Covenanters from 1977 to 2007 in relation to the total membership of the denomination. As significant as the growth in numbers is the new contour of Covenanters in Canada; the ethnic face of the Shields era has been radically altered. The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Canada has extended beyond and apart from its traditional roots to be a spiritual home to others – some from reformed backgrounds, some from other denominations, many unchurched. This phenomenon is most vividly exemplified in the transplant, Hudson/St-Lazare, but is not absent in the oldest, Almonte. Canadian Covenanter communities no longer consist of one thread; they are multi-hued, persons and parsons coming from differing backgrounds, lending new strands to an increasingly diverse tapestry. A long-standing prayer and initial plans for developing a distinctive Canadian presbytery have not yet been realized.189 A signal step in that direction was taken in 2000 when St Lawrence presbytery set up two treasurers, one American, the other Canadian.190 Canadian Covenanter congregations are part of the St Lawrence presbytery, which straddles the border between Canada and the United States.

Table 3 Reformed Presbyterian membership, 1977–2007 Canadian Canadian congregations total

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America

1977, 31 December1 Two congregations Almonte Lochiel

54 13

67

5,0262

1987, 31 December3 Three congregations Almonte Lochiel Ottawa

64 19 91

174

5,1144

1997, 31 December5 Four congregations Almonte Lochiel Ottawa Smiths Falls

64 19 193 83

359

6,1056

2007, 31 December7 Four congregations, one mission station Almonte 87 Hudson/St-Lazare 47 Ottawa 154 Russell 138 Kitchener 25 451

6,5728

1 “Membership,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1978, 204. 2 “Stated Clerk’s Report,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1978, 9. 3 “Membership Statistics,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1988, 153. 4 “Stated Clerk’s Report,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1988, 9. 5 “Membership,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 218. 6 “Stated Clark’s Report,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 38. 7 “Membership Statistics,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 228. 8 “Stated Clerk’s Report,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 62.



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There is no specifically Canadian journal, though news of Canadian issues, persons, and congregations are included in the denomination’s Reformed Presbyterian Witness, published in Pittsburgh.191 St Lawrence is one of seven presbyteries, another is based in Japan. So the Canadian contingent is a relatively small part of a bigger church, though the total number in the denomination – some 6,500 persons – is small.192 Of course, central Reformed Presbyterian tenets are held on both sides of the border. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America has remained faithful to the Westminster Confession. The Reformed Presbyterian Seminary in Pittsburgh celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2010. This makes it the oldest continuing Reformed and evangelical seminary in the United States. Each year a conference is organized on the Westminster Confession applied to the contemporary age. Ottawa Theological Hall is very much younger, but its adherence to the Westminister Confession is no less steadfast. Reformed and presbyterian church government continues to be a standard. The ascending courts – session, presbytery, synod – are maintained, and their status is a matter of theological conviction. Teaching and ruling elders are men. Covenanters do not believe in female ordination to the eldership; according to Covenanter convictions it is neither biblically based nor scripturally sanctioned. In Covenanter congregations in Canada and the United States, the understanding and interpretation of scripture remains reformed and presbyterian. Contemporary Covenanters, like their predecessors, are committed to the infallibility and inerrancy of scripture – Sola Scriptura: the Bible as God’s word is sufficient direction for life and for godliness. So the first question asked of new members is “Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God, the only infallible rule for faith and life?”193 The scriptures do not simply “contain” the word of God; the Bible is the Word of God. The words are themselves from God and reveal the living word, Jesus Christ. Covenanters acknowledge that the Bible contains different literatures – prophecies, laws, narrative, parables. They hold to the Westminster Confession principle that scripture interprets scripture: one must understand the text in its original setting and culture and then apply the principles to the present generation. The Coven-

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anter Church has resisted all forms of modernism. Although the older strict condemnation against occasional hearing has dropped into disuse, nonetheless boundaries regarding scriptural infallibility are maintained: “The account of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 is history, not mythology.” Covenanters deny that “man evolved from any lower form of life.”194 The Reformed Presbyterian Church is evangelical and reformed. Many Canadian Covenanters come from non-Covenanter backgrounds, and the influence of the evangelical impulse is marked. The Covenanter Church is reformed – reformed in its understanding that being Christian affects one’s entire life. An updating of the terms of membership, a parallel project to the overturning of political dissent, allows evangelicals to be welcomed as evangelicals by Reformed Presbyterian churches. This welcome permits the essential step of disciplining in the Reformed tradition to follow in order to become full communicant members. Some Canadian Reformed Presbyterian congregants were initially converted to Christianity by non-Covenanters, their full inclusion into the Covenanter community coming later. In Canada, as in the United States, some earlier Covenanter traditions have been dropped – fasting, for instance. Other practices have been maintained and updated. Covenanter churches continue to teach and practice family worship, a Reformation practice that recognizes that the home is a “small church.” In their membership vows, parents promise to provide their children with a Christian education. Some believe they can honour this vow and still send their children to public school but, at least in Canada, most members either home school their children or send them to Christian schools. Their biblical view of the family means that Reformed Presbyterians are unalterably opposed to homosexual behaviour; same-gender marriage is deplored as decidedly unscriptural.195 On both sides of the border, the Regulative Principle of Worship holds, whereby Sunday worship services include only those components authorized in the Bible. The worship service conducted by Sommerville in Cornwallis, McLachlan in Upper Canada, or Allen in Winnipeg would not be radically different from the practice in contemporary Canadian services in Almonte, Ottawa, or Hudson/StLazare. In all, the Scriptures are read, sermons are preached, prayers



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are prayed, offerings for others taken up, and the psalms sung. This is consistent with the original conviction that psalms alone come from God, while hymns are human constructs. Contemporary Canadian pastors practise serial exposition of scripture, which means preaching week after week through entire books of the Bible. This honours the biblical command to preach the whole counsel of God; it combats the tendency to preach easier passages, to treat topical subjects. The intent is exegesis, extracting what God has taught in the Bible, rather than reading into it human interpretations. The Lord’s Day is a Sabbath; many congregants honour it that way. There is no work; there is worship, fellowship, and rest. The sacraments – baptism and communion – remain basically unaltered; adequate understanding as prerequisite for proper admission remains the norm. Christ alone is King, the ruler of the nations. This central conviction is understood and applied, but differently, depending upon whether one is Canadian or American. In Canada, there have been changes in nuance and emphasis among Covenanters. In 1988, still early in the Ganz revival, Canadian pastor Adjemian wrote, “The nation of Canada has as its motto, ‘From sea to sea,’ taken from Psalm 72:8, ‘His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.’ Until twenty years ago, our land was even called the Dominion of Canada. Now it’s just called Canada. Our nation has forgotten the first part of the verse from which it gets its motto: it is Christ’s dominion, His rule, that shall be ‘from sea to sea.’”196 In the young days of the Ganz revival there was an expansive mood: “God is strengthening the witness of the Reformed Presbyterian church in Canada.”197 The largest congregation was Ottawa, and among its ministries were “leadership in Canadian pro-life movement,” and “involvement in Christian Heritage political party.”198 New missions were being started, others contemplated. In the mid-1990s, an American scholar wrote about “New Life North of the Border.”199 In the early years, one issue dominated Canadian Covenanter public activities for several months. In January 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that existing federal restrictions on the “right” to abortions violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The congregations of Ottawa and Almonte organized against this new ruling at rallies large and small. Richard Ganz became active

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in this cause, preaching at the National Rally for Life held on Parliament Hill on 17 September 1988. Following the message, “the Young People’s Group of Perth and Almonte, accompanied by a few others and led by Pastor Ken McBurney, led this same crowd in the singing of Psalm 94 … [We were able] to proclaim the Gospel and sing the Psalms of the King on the steps of Parliament. Hallelujah!”200 When abortion policy was left in the hands of local hospital boards, Almonte General decided to become the first small-town hospital to perform abortions. Ken McBurney was proposed as a pro-life candidate for the board, the otherwise peaceful community of 3,000 became deeply divided over the issue. Not many Canadians had heard of Almonte before, but the battle gained the little town daily coverage in the national media for a time.201 In spite of Covenanter enthusiasm, Pastor McBurney failed to win a seat on the board. Later in the Ganz era, Canadian Covenanters came to a fuller realization of the fact that Reformed Presbyterian ethical and moral standards were against the stream of Canadian culture. Contemporary Covenanters are a minority movement, putting forward visions for the country not popular with many of their co-citizens. There is a frank recognition that “Canadian ministry has its challenges … Our temptation is to remain indifferent and insulated from the world around us … But the Lord is stirring up gospel-boldness in us through outreach programs and dynamic relationships.”202 The stance against abortion remains strong, but the opposition takes a form different from that in the 1980s. Now, Covenanter churches co-operate with other Christians in March for Life and Life Chain events. All Reformed Presbyterian congregations unanimously participate in the Canadian pro-life movement, but any clear political party affiliation has been dropped. In the early Ganz revival, anti-abortion convictions were significant flashpoint issues in the Almonte-Ottawa churches and missions. Thirty years later, a conviction remains that Canada is decidedly unchristian, and becoming more so. But the flash-point for Covenanters in Canada today centres not in the Ontario congregations, but rather in the Hudson/St-Lazare community in Quebec. In that province, since the early years of the present century, the department of education has been pursuing a policy that evolution must be taught in all Quebec educational venues – public, private, and home schools.203



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The Reformed Presbyterian Prayer Calendar carried this entry: “On behalf of the Hudson/St-Lazare rpc , ask the Lord to protect His home schooling families in Quebec from the ungodly curriculum about to be forced on them.”204 Covenanter parents in that community co-operate with other religious bodies in Quebec in opposing the matter,205 though the outcome is still uncertain.206 The optimistic mood of the early Ganz revival has been replaced by a more sombre outlook. New missions were formed, some became stable, other failed. “The St. Lawrence Presbytery and the Ottawa Session have learned some valuable lessons the hard way.”207 Those most solid were in proximity to Ottawa and its theological hall; those somewhat distanced seemed more fragile. And the very newest congregation, Shelter in Edmonton, accepted into the denomination in 2010, is far removed from the Ontario-Quebec centre. Significantly, the Edmonton congregation, formerly affiliated with the Associated Presbyterian Churches, “applied to St. Lawrence Presbytery, and not one nearer, for the purposes of Canadian identification.”208 Undoubtedly, a Canadian Covenanter presbytery could assist and challenge ministers, sessions, and congregants and create a stronger Reformed Presbyterian presence and voice. In the early days of the Ganz revival, Ottawa’s commitment to political change was not mirrored in Lochiel. Today, Hudson/St-Lazare has a vision of the English work as the support of a French-speaking ministry. That vision is fodder for a Canadian presbytery discussion and decision. The Covenanter movement failed in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, though leaving a goodly heritage. The earlier Quebec Reformed Presbyterianism went out like a squib. In Alberta and Saskatchewan, there were brief flourishes, then death. Manitoba’s Winnipeg had greater strength, numbers, and longevity, but it too succumbed. It is only in Ontario that the movement has been sustained from 1831 to the present day, albeit with some difficult passages. The McLachlan Scots mission (1830–1855) characterizes the first era. It was projected into two areas, Lanark County and western Upper Canada. The mission gathered Covenanters together in societies, then congregations. In the 1850s, Covenanters in both regions – with the backing of the Scots synod, and the agreement of the American

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synod – were admitted to the American synod through Rochester (later, St Lawrence) presbytery. The effect of the transfer and the onslaught of the Free Church annihilated the Covenanters in western Upper Canada. Faithful Covenanters in Lanark and Glengarry counties regrouped in Ramsay/Almonte and Lochiel communities. The succeeding Shields settled congregation model (1865–1965) dictated that growth came almost exclusively from Covenanter families. Stable for a century, in the mid-1960s this schema became less and less viable. Concomitant changes came in the American church in the 60s and 70s. Political dissent, as a Covenanter prohibition, was dropped; evangelical impulses affected the church; Reformed theology was reinvigorated. In 1967, a synod document critical of Canada’s Covenanter structure, and More’s Aurora Borealis showed the weakness of Reformed Presbyterianism in Canada, castigated the American church for its lackadaisical support, and recommended renewed efforts to establish the faith on a firm footing in Canada. In 1977, a decade after the synod’s statement, the Ganz Canadian revival began. Rev. Ken McBurney, fully endorsed by the Almonte session, with adequate backing from St Lawrence presbytery, and supported by the synod, ushered in a new beginning. Key components were the forming of the Ottawa congregation and the opening of Ottawa Theological Hall. New missions were started in several communities, the ethnic base of the previous era was transformed, and the church grew in numbers and influence. Expansive and optimistic in outlook in the earlier phase, the Ganz revival model now espouses a more sombre realistic perspective. Will the Ganz revival model, heir of the earlier Ontario epochs, succeed? Will the Ganz paradigm grow and expand, or like other Reformed Presbyterian efforts, flourish for a time, then wither, fade, and die? Time will tell. The movement is small, with a few congregations in Ontario and Quebec and the very recent addition of an Alberta community. The Covenanter message is countercultural, unpopular, looked upon as regressive in an increasingly secular Canadian culture and society. Yet, there are other factors suggesting that the Ganz revival may be successful; that it will persist. First, for the first time in its 175-year history, Reformed Presbyterianism is solidly Canadian based: Canadian pastors, educated in



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a Canadian theological institution, serving Canadian congregations. Covenanters of earlier epochs in Ontario, in the Maritimes, or in Western Canada had no such comparable indigenous framework. Moreover, the Ganz paradigm has shed the hierarchical homelandto-colony mentality that marked the New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and early Ontario efforts. No religious mission is likely to be wholly successful when there is difference in status between the mission givers and the recipients, and when the new mission does not become largely indigenized. Second, the Canadian church is close to a strong neighbouring church in the United States. There will be an advantage to forming a separate presbytery, making the Canadian voice more vital and vibrant. But that will not eliminate the positive strength coming from a sturdy neighbour church to the south. Resources in terms of persons and strategies may continue to come from the United States. Again, the contrast in this regard at present is striking when compared to earlier Covenanter eras. The success of a religious mission is enhanced when there are strong links to a neighbouring community. Third, the Covenanter voice is small, but it is not alone. In many of its concerns, it can be heard in chorus with non-Covenanters. Its stand on abortion invites many allies; its implacable face against same-sex marriage has other denominations looking in the same direction; in home schooling, allies of faith and no faith join. Moreover, openness to non-Covenanters may bring emphases not (yet) present – concern over pollution and climate change, for example. Covenanters in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and in early Upper Canada were largely without allies. The Covenanter stands on voting, serving on juries, refusal to take oaths were sometimes supported: the Society of Friends was on the same page about oath taking, though Quakers voted. Covenanter refusal to vote drew hostility from the state; and their implacable differences with all other Presbyterians drew ecclesiastical disapproval. The Reformed Presbyterians’ closest church neighbours were other presbyterian denominations; it was just those denominations from which they recoiled most sharply. So Sommerville refused the bread at communion in Cornwallis, and McLachlan sharply rebuffed William Bell in Perth. In the union of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Presbyterians in 1860, Reformed Presbyterians

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were outside; the pattern was repeated in 1875. Covenanters could not join or unite with other presbyterian bodies; they never lost an opportunity to refuse. The Ganz era has different dimensions, more pregnant possibilities. A religious mission will be more powerful if, in some of its concerns, it can ally with others. Fourth, the Ganz revival is strongly evangelical; it has a mission to expand. This is effected in the immediate neighbourhoods, in Carleton County, Canada – and across the world, in Cush4Christ, Africa. Moreover, the reaching out to others is no longer restricted to a narrow population; in fact, the ethnic label that frequently accrued to earlier Covenanters has been discarded and replaced. To be effective, a religious mission will have a message vibrant in members of the community, a gospel witnessed to by congregants and open to persons across the rainbow spectrum of humanity. Again, Covenanters of the current era move in a clearly articulated Reformed theological framework. Unquestionably, Ottawa Theological Hall, with its openness to lay students, its interns and graduate pastors in Canadian congregations, is of great significance. Moreover, the Reformed Presbyterian Church belongs to one family of Reformed churches. A religious mission is likely to be more effective if its members understand, clearly articulate, and personally promote their faith. Finally, the Ganz revival model lives and moves in a hostile culture. In this, it shares a stance with earlier Covenanters elsewhere: it provides the Covenanters a place to stand. In a growing secular society, it fulfills a need for those who seek some steady seas in today’s tumults. To be effective, a mission will have members prepared to stand for their convictions, and to withstand ignorance, hostility, and persecution. Current congregant Tim Bloedow puts it this way: “some people may be asking why Russell needs another church when we have several congregations in town. There seems to be room for a congregation that is biblically conservative, reformed in theology and presbyterian in church government.”209 In an increasingly diverse Canadian landscape, there is a place for the Covenanters. At its best, Canada welcomes diversity of peoples, races, and religions. While this openness results in a more fractious and divisive society, it also creates a more exciting and fecund cultural milieu. Gone is the antipathy of Munro’s “Friend of My Youth.” Now



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there is the perpetual struggle of the minority to convert, refashion, and improve, with the ultimate goal of persuading others of its distinctive principles. There is the ongoing struggle of the majority to maintain the good yet remain open to those who have different visions. What unites most of us is a desire for a better land, a more just world, though the contours of desire are diverse. The Covenanters join many in holding the vision, even if the content of their dream is at variance with the dreams of others. Canada is served well, if not always peacefully, by this juxtaposition of perspectives.

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Notes

Preface



1 From 1978 until 1989 I was weekend locum tenens for the Point de ButeJolicure pastoral charge in the Chignecto presbytery of the United Church of Canada. The graveyard is now called the Jolicure Old Presbyterian Cemetery. 2 Burnet, The Holy Communion in the Reformed Church of Scotland, 204. 3 Lawson, “British North American Colonies,” Monitor, July 1849, 470–1 (italics added). 4 In Munro, Friend of My Youth, 3–25: the book has the title of the first story. 5 Munro, Friend of My Youth, 3–8, 10. 6 Ibid., 26. 7 Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland, 251, 256. 8 Scott, “Church Union” and the Presbyterian Church in Canada, 34.

introduction

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10

Reformation Principles Exhibited, 167–8; Glasgow, History, 165–6. Statement of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society, 11. Ibid. rp Synod of America Minutes, 1831, in Covenanter (March 1832), 141–2. Reformation Principles Exhibited, 168; Glasgow, History, 171. James Milligan was born in Scotland and raised in a Church of Scotland home. Coming to America, he joined the Covenanter Church. He was educated theologically, licensed, and ordained by the rp Church. Installed pastor of the congregation of Ryegate, Vermont, 26 September 1817, he resigned the charge 17 May 1839. He suffered many hardships in dispensing the gospel throughout the New England states and the Canadas. Honoured with the dd degree in 1850, he died 2 January 1862 (Glasgow, History, 630–2). Reformation Principles Exhibited, 168. “Reformed Presbyterians in Canada,” sp, March 1835, 25. Shields, “A Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” Ibid., 25–6.

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11 The rp Synod of America fractured: the Old School Covenanters became known as the rp Church of North America; the New School Covenanters became known as the General Synod of the rp Church in North America. 12 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 38. 13 First Report of the Missionary Society in connection with the rp Church of Scotland, adopted February 28, 1833, 1–7. 14 Ibid., 2; Shields, “R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 38. 15 sp, January 1836, 114; “Foreign,” sp, September 1835, 77. 16 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions in connection with the rp Church of Scotland, May 1834,” Scottish Advocate 1 (1832–1834), 410; Glasgow, History, 606–7. 17 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions,” 411–12. 18 D. Carson, Transplanted, 65. 19 cn, 17 January 1912, 12. 20 “Content, Alberta,” cn, 12 September 1906, 13. 21 Regina Leader Post, 21 August 1909, and following weekly inserts until 30 October 1909. 22 “Winnipeg, Man.,” cn, 9 November 1910, 11. 23 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1911. 24 Content was the original geographic place and name of the Covenanter congregation. With the coming of the railroad, a new town of Delburne was established nearby in 1911. The congregational name was changed from Content to Delburne in 1922. 25 Thompson, “Attention Covenanters,” cn , 7 February 1912, 15. 26 Thompson, “Vancouver, B.C.,” cn, 17 April 1912, 13. 27 Rev. Alexander McLeod, leading American rp minister visiting Scotland, writing from Aberdeen, letter, to Rev. James Renwick Willson, 4 May 1830: “The Scottish Synod have formed a Missionary Association for England & the Canadas. The Irish will cultivate Nova Scotia & New Brunswick, both in union with our American exertions. We will, thus, have our three churches in the neighbourhood of each other.” Willson Papers. 28 Bates, Address to the Reformed Presbyterians and Other Christians in British America, 9–11. 29 Hay, Chignecto Covenanters, chapters 4–6. 30 “Roster of Presbyteries,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1924, 149. 31 “Report of the Committee on Foreign Missions,” sp Magazine, June 1849, 204. 32 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1853. 33 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1917. “Central Canada” was a somewhat unfortunate phrase since the presbytery included congregations from western Canada. 34 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 40.



notes to pages 11–17

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chapter one





1 In a conflict in 1639, the forces of Charles I were amassed against Scots insurgents at Dunse Law, where the Covenanters were under General Alexander Leslie. The claim is “that it was on this occasion that the blue banner of the Covenanters was first flown; the banner displayed the words ‘FOR CHRIST ’S CROWN AND COVENANT ’” (Vos, The Scottish Covenanters, 39–40). 2 Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland, 251. 3 Loughridge, The Covenanters in Ireland. 4 Camblin, The Town in Ulster, 19. 5 Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland, chart on back page. 6 Ormond, A Kirk and a College in the Craigs of Stirling, 10. 7 Niebuhr, Christ and Culture. 8 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 34–5. 9 Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland, back page, accurately charts the situation. 10 “rp Church,” Olive Trees, September 1899, 287–90. 11 Archibald, “rp Church in nb and ns,” 1. 12 See below, chapter 3. 13 D. Carson, Transplanted, 16. 14 Holmes, The Shaping of Ulster Presbyterian Belief and Practice, 167. See Hutchison, The rp Church in Scotland, 212–13; Loughridge, The Covenanters in Ireland, 34–5. 15 D. Carson, Transplanted, 18. 16 The classic American statement is found in Samuel B. Wylie’s Two Sons of Oil, or, The Faithful Witness for Magistracy and Ministry upon a Scriptural Basis. 17 See below, chapter 8. 18 D. Carson, Transplanted, 26. 19 For a full discussion of the split, see Hutchinson, History behind the rp Church, chapters 2 and 3. The 1833 split was reflected by a similar difference of opinion in Ireland in 1840, when a schismatic Eastern Reformed synod was set up, in effect an Irish “New School” body. In Scotland, the schism within the Covenanters happened in 1863, resulting in the formation of a Majority synod (New School) and Minority synod (Old School) (Loughridge, Covenanters in Ireland, 65, 67; Keddie, The rp Church of Scotland and the Disruption of 1863, 6). 20 Hay, The Chignecto Covenanters. In Ontario, another New School faction, known as the Pittsburgh and Ontario Presbytery, surfaced. Its origins and impetus lay almost exclusively in the United States, for it was founded by an

298

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25 26 27 28

29 30 31



32 33 34 35 36 37

38 39 40

41 42

notes to pages 17–22

American New School minister. See Hay, The Reverend Nevin Woodside and the Pittsburgh and Ontario rp Presbytery, 1883–1910. Sommerville, “Letter addressed to a member of the Society in Littleton, Me., U.S.” Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 2 July and 25 September 1832. The rules were published in “Early Covenanter Society Worship,” Westmorland Historical Society Newsletter 23 (September 1987): 5–6. There were old world precedents for the society: for instance, A Short Directory for Religious Societies, Belfast, 1815. Woodworth, Diary, entry for 31 May 1835. “Society” was the normal term of reference though others were used – religious societies, social meetings, or fellowship meetings. D. Carson, Transplanted, 33 (italics added). Baird, “Alexander Clarke,” 22. R. Sommerville, “William Sommerville,” 90. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 20 February 1839: sp, September 1839, 219. When Watson Kirkconnell edited elder Woodworth’s journal, it was published as The Diary of Deacon Elihu Woodworth (1972). Calkin, Old Time Customs, Memories and Traditions, 51. Murray, “Biography,” 31–3. Also published as The Botsford: The Life and Times of the Reverend Samuel Crothers Murray, D.D. The order is similar to a summary of American Covenanter worship made by David Carson (Transplanted, 30), which is based on the official statement “Directory for the Worship of God,” American Christian Expositor 1 (December 1831): 308–18. Murray, “Biography,” 30. Delivuk, The Doctrine and History of Worship, 124. Murray, “Biography,” 20. Delivuk, Doctrine and History of Worship, 32. The current Testimony is found in The Constitution of the rpcna . John Delivuk, “The Defence of the Regulative Principle of Worship,” Semper Reformanda, Spring 1993, 36. Advocate, October 1878, 455. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 26. Since 1967, psalm singing has become the chief identity feature. At that time the denomination decided that “the church no longer requires political dissent as a condition of church membership” (rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 72). See below, chapter 16. “Missionary Intelligence,” sp, January 1841, 20. “Close communion” was changed to “session-controlled” communion in 1977. See below, chapter 16.





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55 56 57 58 59

60 61 62

notes to pages 22–5

299

McFall, “Thirty-five Years a Pastor,” Register, 14 April 1915. Marty Davis, “Chignecto Covenanters,” Citizen, 23 November 1996. See Murray, “An Old Time Missionary,” 5–7. William Sommerville did so in Horton, preaching in a church built by George Gilmore at Grand Pré; the church today is somewhat ironically called the Covenanter Church. It was not originally Covenanter. D. Carson, Transplanted, 34. Reformed Presbyterian 14 (January 1851): 351–2. Reformed Presbyterian 17 (March 1853): 32. Cornwallis rp Session minutes, 3 October 1865. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 15. Presbyterian Witness, 11 November 1854. Mrs Ruth Lumsden, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, letter to author, 1 March 1988. “My grandfather John Burgess Calkin … eloped with Martha Anne, very much to the displeasure of Martha’s parents. I remember my mother burning the letters Wm. Sommerville wrote to my grandfather after the elopement. (My mother would not let any of us read the letters) but I understand he berated my grandfather as a ‘no good’, worse than a horse thief, etc., and then signed his letters ‘Believe me, your humble servant, Wm. Sommerville.’ In later years Wm. Sommerville became very fond of my grandfather and said he was one of the ablest students he had.” J.R. Lawson, “Obituary of Dr. John Brady,” rp and Covenanter 25 (November 1887): 394. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 23–4. Bates Papers. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 304–5. “Wine,” rp and Covenanter 14 (January 1876): 13–17. Shields, “R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 39. There was another change of heart: “As there continued to be considerable grumbling, the Rev. Mr. [James] McLachlan, probably without consulting the temperance men, in the afternoon, concluded to make a compromise, and going to a store nearby, ordered a quantity of wine for their stomachs’ sake.” See below, chapter 15. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 27 March 1843: sp, September 1843, 238. Since it is not a true church, Roman Catholic baptism was not accepted as valid. Stated as an “old common law of the church” in a nineteenth-century American document, the prohibitive statement about Roman Catholic baptism almost certainly refers to the common practice of the Reformed Presbyterian synods of North America, Scotland, and Ireland: Minutes of Re-

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69 70 71 72



73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82

83 84 85 86 87 88 89

notes to pages 25–30

formed Presbytery, from 1798 to 1809, and Digest of the Acts of the Synod of the Church, 130. “Covenanters accept Episcopalian and Orthodox baptism”: John Delivuk, Beaver Falls, pa , email to author, 2 April 2012. Calkin, Old Time Customs, 51. This variant practice was not followed in most other Canadian communities. Lawson, The British Elective Franchise, 6–7. Ibid., 10. McKelvy, The Maple Leaf Forever, 4. See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. A seeming exception surfaced briefly in 1918 when Winnipeg Covenanter A.A. Boone was conscripted. An oath of allegiance was required; Boone refused. Later, it was determined that no oath was necessary (“An Appeal by the Winnipeg Session to have the Oath of Allegiance Changed,” cn, 29 May 1918, 10). Quoted in Healey, From Quaker to Upper Canadian, 41. “rp Church,” 288. These sentences paraphrased from Stanley-Blackwell, Tokens of Grace, 29. William Duncan was the bachelor brother of Mary Duncan Lane. William wrote the “Book of Remembrance,” William and Mary Lane co-authored “Our Presbyterian Heritage.” Duncan, “Remembrance,” 2. Cornwallis rp Session minutes, 8 December 1863. Duncan, “Remembrance,” 2. Delivuk, Doctrine and History of Worship, 159–60. Duncan, “Remembrance,” 2. Duncan and Lane, “Our Presbyterian Heritage,” 2:12. Duncan, “Remembrance,” 2. Ibid. rp Advocate 17 (December 1883): 376. See “The Evangelical Rituals: Camp Meetings, Believer’s Baptism, and the Long Communion,” part three of Rawlyk’s The Canada Fire. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 25 December 1839: sp, September 1840, 359. Delivuk, Doctrine and History of Worship, 170. Ibid. (italics added). Woodworth, Diary, February–March, and September 1835; February and June–July 1836. The paragraph is partly derived from Stanley, The Well-Watered Garden, 149. 10 March 1869: Stavely Letters. Burleigh, A Church History of Scotland, 251. rp



notes to pages 31–4

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chapter two









1 Glasgow, History, 459. Many pieces of information concerning Clarke were supplied by Rev. Nevin Woodside, “Death of Rev. Alexander Clarke, D.D.,” rp Advocate 8 (July/August 1874): 280–7. Woodside, a close personal friend, wrote that Clarke was born in “1793 or 4.” I judge the latter to be more accurate. 2 A. Copeland, “The Clarke Family,” 2. 3 “A Reception,” rp Advocate 12 (May 1878): 135. 4 Woodside, “Death of Rev. Alexander Clarke,” 281. 5 School Albums of Royal Belfast. 6 Clarke Family Bible. 7 Statement of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society, 22. The statement reviews revenue and expenditure of the Society from the year 1823 onward. 8 For this period, the minutes for the Eastern Presbytery (of the Irish Reformed Presbyterian Synod), where Clarke was a ministerial candidate, have been lost. Clarke, moreover, is not listed as a student at either the Belfast Academy or the Reformed Presbyterian Theological College at Paisley. 9 rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1827. 10 Clarke, “Autobiographical Sketch,” 2. It may be that Clarke offered himself as a missionary as early as 1825 but was called in 1826 to be a missionary overseas, i.e., in British North America; that was the first year in which the synod asked presbyteries to seek candidates to go to NB and NS. 11 Clarke Family Bible. 12 Clarke, “Autobiographical Sketch,” 2, 3. 13 He held services in the Asylum on 16 September, the Baptist MeetingHouse on 14 October 1831, and at “a building formerly occupied by the Rev. Charles Finch, known by the name of the Priory” on October 28. nb Courier, 15 September, 13 October, and 27 October 1831. 14 Hay, Chignecto Covenanters, chapter 4, “Alexander Clarke’s Labours and the Watershed of 1847.” 15 The Missions of the rp Church in Ireland. 16 Minutes of Reformed Presbytery, from 1798 to 1809, and Digest of the Acts of the Synod of the rp Church, 61, 67–8. A report is also found in Covenanter, March 1832, 141–2. 17 Stavely, “Death of the Rev. W. Sommerville,” 21, 22. 18 “[Obituary of] William Sommerville,” Covenanter, March 1843, 91. 19 Stavely, “Death of the Rev. W. Sommerville,” 23. 20 Southern Presbytery minutes (of the rp Synod of Ireland), 13 July 1824 and 12 July 1825. 21 The original graduation certificate is in the possession of a Sommerville descendant, William Sommerville, Nepean, Ontario.

302

notes to pages 34–8

22 “Matriculation Album of rp Divinity Hall of Scotland,” in Robb, ed., “Reformed Heritage,” entry for the year 1824. 23 Southern Presbytery minutes, 6 June 1826. 24 Covenanter, June 1831, 222–4. A short version of the ordination was published in nb Courier, 27 August 1831. 25 nb Courier, 20 August 1831: “Passenger in the Ann from Londonderry – The Rev. Wm. Somerville.” 26 He became a teacher in Jemseg, Queens County, New Brunswick, for two years, then went to the United States. Eldon Hay, “An Early Queens County Teacher,” Queens County Heritage 12 (October 1992): 2–4. 27 Thomas Houston, for instance, licensed at the same time as Clarke, gave an address at Sommerville’s ordination. Houston’s “missionary zeal” was early recognized; he was appointed one of the secretaries of the Missionary Society. The Covenanters in Ireland, 380. 28 Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 105. 29 The nb Courier of 27 August 1831 and of 3 September 1831 published notices of Saint John services that Sommerville would hold. 30 Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 105. 31 “Registry of Baptisms by Reformed Presby[ter]r[ian] Missionaries in N. Brunswick and N. Scotia,” back pages of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes. 32 Originally called South Stream, in 1854 the community became known as Barnesville. William B. Hamilton, “Barnesville,” New Brunswick Reader (Saint John, nb), 2 October 2005. 33 Sommerville was extolled as the founder. “Letter from the Rev. James R. Lawson,” Monitor, October 1847, 132. 34 Sommerville’s earliest recorded baptism was Henry Warwick, of Shemogue, New Brunswick, one of Clarke’s congregations, but the baptism took place in Saint John, New Brunswick, before 4 November 1831. 35 rp Synod of Ireland minutes, Belfast, 1832. 36 W. Sommerville, “Report of Ministerial and Missionary Labours in Horton, Nova Scotia, and Parts Adjacent,” Covenanter, March 1841, 81. 37 Covenanter, May 1833, 192–3. 38 Covenanter, January 1833, 70–2. 39 Covenanter, September 1831, 328. 40 Covenanter, May 1833, 193. 41 “Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia [minutes] from its first Constitution on the 25th day of April 1832.” 42 rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1832, item 22. 43 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 2 July 1832, and 25 September 1832. The “rules for the regulation of meetings for prayer and Christian con-



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57 58 59 60 61

62 63

64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

notes to pages 38–42

303

ference open to the public” were published in Westmorland Historical Society Newsletter, 23 (September 1987): 5–6. The name Goose River was changed to Linden by Provincial Statute in 1882. Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 105. Sommerville Family Bible: “Married by Rev. A. Clarke, to Sarah Barry Dickie, who was born at Amherst, Co. of Cumberland, & Province of N. Scotia on the 13th day of Nov. 1810 … Jun 20 1832.” Sommerville Family Bible. Clarke Family Bible. See, for example, Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 5 May 1835. W. Sommerville, Letter to Dr J.R. Willson, 8 August 1833. Willson Papers. Covenanter, January 1833, 70. Covenanter, September 1834, 233. Covenanter, September 1835, 223–4. nb Courier, 12 October 1835. R. Sommerville, “Alexander McLeod Stavely,” 251. Rev. Alexander MacLean, a Church of Scotland minister (of St Andrew’s, Saint John), wrote a month after its opening that “a Reformed Presbyterian church has been built in St. John, and Mr. Alexr. Clark obtained as its Minister.” McDougall and Moir, eds, Selected Correspondence of the Glasgow Colonial Society, 151. The letter was written 10 November 1935. The letter was dated 14 October 1835. Willson Papers. Beck, Politics of Nova Scotia, 1:110. “Cumberland Election,” Novascotian, 11 January 1837. “Cumberland Election,” Novascotian, 23 March 1837. Cumberland County Poll Book, 1836 election; see Cuthbertson, Johnny Bluenose at the Polls, 226, 228. rpcna Synod Minutes, New York, 1838, in Reformed Presbyterian 2 (December 1838): 290, 293. W. Sommerville, Letter to Rev. Dr James Renwick Willson, 12 December 1838. Willson papers. MacNutt, New Brunswick: A History, 257. The meeting was held in Amherst, 5 November 1838. E. Carson, “‘An inordinate sense of history,’” ix. nb Courier, 22 June 1839 and 2 May 1840. Covenanter, September 1839, 229. Ibid. rp Synod of Ireland minutes 1840, in Covenanter, July 1840, 189–90. Ibid. Samuel B. Wylie was a leading proponent of the New School Reformed Presbyterians in the United States.

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73 74 75 76 77

78

79 80

81 82 83 84

85 86 87 88 89 90

notes to pages 42–7

Letter, 11 June 1840. Willson Papers.

rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 12 July 1842. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 11 May 1845. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 12 April 1846.

“Letter,” Reformed Presbyterian 10 (December 1846): 308–10. The letter was dated 14 September 1846. The 1836 election is the key. There was another Nova Scotia vote in 1847 – Clarke may have voted (Cumberland poll books for that election are not extant). But the synod’s decision was clearly based on Clarke’s voting in the 1836 election and his “having declined the authority of the presbytery and Synod.” Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 125, 127. See Hay, Chignecto Covenanters, chapters 4 and 6. The New School Covenanters in the United States later entered into union with others. The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America (General Synod) united with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1965 to form the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. In 1982 that synod joined with the earlier-constituted (1973) Presbyterian Church in America. The Presbyterian Church in America has several Canadian congregations, though none of them emanate from Canadian New School roots. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 6 May 1863. The discussion and full resolution was also carried in Presbyterian Witness, 6 June 1863, 90. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 6 September 1864. Paisley and Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. “Sommerville on Baptism,” Presbyterian Witness, 2 February 1867, 34. Although Clarke praised the book, he did not introduce Sommerville’s baptism policy in Chignecto. Londonderry, Ireland: James MacPherson, 1869. The Social Position of Reformed Presbyterians, 2, 4. Ibid., 2–3. Banner of the Covenant, July 1848, 225. Moore, “History of the Church at Goose River,” 2. See below, chapter 8.

chapter three

1 2 3 4 5

Sommerville, “Report of Ministerial Labours.” Ibid., March 1841, 81. Ibid. Item A a: Sommerville Letters and Papers. Ibid.







notes to pages 47–52

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6 Rev. Mr Graham, a Seceder clergyman in Cornwallis, 1795–1800, had referred to Watts’s version as “Watts’ brats or bastards.” The Cornwallis congregation was “deeply agitated” and “angrily rejected” the minister’s opinion (“Report of Ministerial Labours,” July 1842, 161). 7 Sommerville, “Report of Ministerial Labours,” July 1842, 163. 8 Ibid. 9 Woodworth, letter to Sommerville, 15 December 1832. Item Bb: Sommerville Letters and Papers. 10 Item C c: Sommerville Letters and Papers. 11 Sommerville, “Report of Ministerial Labours,” July 1842, 164. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid., 165–6. 15 Ibid., 166. 16 Woodworth, “To the Rev. William Sommerville.” 17 Sommerville, “Report of Ministerial Labours,” July 1842, 166. 18 Ibid. 19 Samuel Beckwith deposition, Sommerville Letters and Papers. 20 Davidson, Winds of Change, 49. 21 Sommerville, “Report of Ministerial Labours,” July 1842, 166. 22 She was baptized in Amherst 18 July by Alexander Clarke. Sommerville Family Bible. 23 Sommerville, “Report of Ministerial Labours,” March 1841, 81. 24 Sommerville Family Bible. 25 William Sommerville and his wives Sarah and Jane are buried there, as well as some Sommerville offspring. 26 The meeting was held on 25 June 1841. Item Nn: Sommerville Letters and Papers. 27 Eaton, History of Kings County, 301. 28 Mrs Robert Park, “A Brief History of the Cornwallis Covenanters’ Church in Grafton.” Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia, 250, s.v. “Grafton,” incorrectly gives the years of construction as 1833–34. 29 The meeting was held 29 August 1842 in West Cornwallis. Item Hh: Sommerville Letters and Papers. 30 Item Ii: Sommerville Letters and Papers. 31 Ibid. 32 Thomas Houston, “Death of the Rev. W. Sommerville, A.M., Cornwallis, Nova Scotia,” Our Banner 5 (December 1878): 413. 33 R. Sommerville, “William Sommerville,” 88. 34 Quoted in “Colonial Mission of the rp Church in Ireland – North American Colonies,” Covenanter, April 1861, 109.

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42 43 44 45



46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

55 56 57 58

59 60 61 62 63

64

notes to pages 52–7

Eaton, History of Kings County, 529. R. Sommerville, “William Sommerville,” 91. “Education in Horton,” Guardian, 21 July 1843, 19. R. Sommerville, “William Sommerville,” 92. Saint John, nb: Barnes and Company, 1864. Southern Slavery, 3. Barry Cahill, writing on Maritime Presbyterian anti-slavery activity and well acquainted with Sommerville, makes no mention of his Southern Slavery (“Colchester Men: The Pro-Slavery Presbyterian Witness of the Reverends David Cock of Truro and David Smith of Londonderry,” 133–44). Sommerville versus Morton et al. Item K k: Sommerville Letters and Papers. For the Free Church challenge, see below, chapter 11. “Thirty-First Annual Report of the Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, July 1859, 177. Samuel Beckwith deposition: Sommerville Letters and Papers. Sommerville versus Morton, 52. Ibid. Stephen Burgess deposition: Sommerville Letters and Papers. Sommerville versus Morton, 56. Ibid., 60. Ibid., 69. Ibid., 78. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1861. “Ordination in Western Cornwallis,” Presbyterian Witness, 26 October 1861, 170; and Covenanter, November 1861, 315–16. Hay, “John Burgess Calkin.” Eaton, History of Kings County, 529. Presbyterian Year Book for the Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland (1879), 88–9. “Death of the Rev. W. Sommerville,” 33. Stavely, Diary, ii, 39. John Caldwell deposition: Sommerville Papers and Letters. Cited by R. Sommerville, “William Sommerville,” 91. Ruth Lumsden, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, letter to author, 1 March 1988. Lumsden was a great-granddaughter of William Sommmerville. R. Sommerville, “William Sommerville,” 91. Charles A. Armour (Dalhousie University Archivist), letter to author, 15 November 1990: “Pertinent indices and correspondence make no mention of Mr. Sommerville, but the



notes to pages 58–61

307

correspondence is incomplete and any member of the board could have written to Sommerville asking him to apply.”

chapter four



1 Cited by John Willet, “St. John Presbyterianism: A Historical Paper,” Daily Sun, 19 December 1903. See Jack, History of Saint Andrew’s Church: Saint John, N.B., 99. 2 Willet, “St. John Presbyterianism.” 3 Letter to Rev. Dr James Renwick Willson, 14 October 1835. Willson Letters. 4 Cited by R. Sommerville, “Alexander McLeod Stavely,” 251. 5 Ibid. 6 “Thirteenth Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society,” Covenanter, September 1841, 224. 7 Ibid. 8 Adam Loughridge, “William Stavely: The Apostle of the Covenanters,” Reformed Theological Journal, November 1989, 44–50. 9 “Opening of the rp Church of St. John, N.B.,” Monitor, January 1851, 763–4, and “rp Church in St. John, N.B.,” Reformed Presbyterian 14 (February 1851): 351–2. 10 R. Sommerville, “Alexander McLeod Stavely,” 249. 11 “Stavely … matriculated in two successive university sessions, 1833–34 and 1834–35” (Mrs Jo Currie, Library Assistant, Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library, letter to author, 15 May 1991). 12 R. Sommerville, “Alexander McLeod Stavely,” 249. 13 “Matriculation Album of rp Divinity Hall of Scotland,” in Robb, ed., “Reformed Heritage,” entry for the year 1834. 14 6 September 1837. Many sources wrongly place the licensing in 1839, for instance Glasgow, History, 687. Some sources have it right. J.C.K. Milligan, “Covenanter Ministers of Half a Century,” Our Banner 11 (February 1884): 72, writes, “A.M. Stavely. Ireland; licensed, 1837.” 15 Rev. J.S.S. Armour, Montreal, email to author, 12 October 2007. Armour is a Stavely descendant. 16 “Ordination of a Missionary for the British North American Colonies,” Covenanter, May 1841, 142. 17 Ibid., 142–3. 18 “Marine News – Arrived – Tuesday, Ship Eagle,” Morning News, 4 August 1841. 19 R. Sommerville, “Alexander McLeod Stavely,” 250. 20 nb Courier, 7 August 1841.

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notes to pages 62–5

21 “Fourteenth Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society,” Covenanter, September 1842, 221–2. 22 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 128. 23 “Fourteenth Annual Report,” 222. 24 Cited in “Fourteenth Annual Report,” 222. 25 Cited in “Fifteenth Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society,” Covenanter, September 1843, 220. 26 Sixteenth Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society, 1844. 27 “Annual Meeting of the nb Auxiliary Bible Society,” nb Courier, 1 January 1842. 28 John Boyd, “First Annual Report of the St. John rp Missionary Society,” Monitor, April 1847, 46. 29 Cited in Saint Andrew’s Kirk Saint John N.B. 1784–1959, 36–7. 30 nb Courier, 5 October 1850, 10 May 1851, 19 June 1858, and 30 July 1859. 31 See below, chapter 5. 32 See below, chapter 6. 33 nb Courier, 8 November 1845, and nb Courier, 6 October 1849. 34 Saint John, 11 May 1845. 35 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 May 1847. 36 “Twentieth Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society,” Monitor, September 1848, 311. 37 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 21 November 1849. James Reid Lawson was “appointed to supply the congregation” during Stavely’s absence. 38 Letter from Atlanta, Georgia, to his sister, 9 April 1850. Stavely Letters. In Washington, he was introduced to President Zachary Taylor. 39 Letter from Atlanta, Georgia, to his sister, 9 April 1850. 40 “Opening of the rp Church of St. John,” 764, and “rp Church in St. John,” 351–2. 41 D. Carson, Transplanted, 34. 42 nb Courier, 9 November 1850. 43 “Twenty-Third Annual Report of the rp Home and Missionary Society,” Monitor, October 1851, 885. 44 “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1851. 45 nb Courier, 26 April 1851. 46 Jane Adams (Jennie) Stavely was born in 1854 and died in 1930 (“Death of Mrs. Armour,” Irish News and Belfast Morning News, 2 December 1930). 47 “Former St. John Woman Dies in Ireland,” Daily Telegraph, 26 September 1905.



notes to pages 65–9

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48 See Appendix A: Littleton Covenanters at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/ CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. 49 “I preached at Queensville, otherwise Millstream”: Stavely, letter, 28 January 1865: Stavely Letters. Rayburn, Geographical Names of nb , 53 and 226 – Millstream: post office 1845–1969; Queensville: post office 1885–1907. 50 Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 127. 51 “Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, April 1855, 278–9. 52 “rp Colonial Mission, N.B.,” Covenanter, November 1859, 315. 53 Aiton, The Story of Sussex and Vicinity, 97; W. Harvey Dalling, “The History of the Covenanter Church in Kings County,” Newsletter of the Kings County History and Archival Society, April 1984, 2. 54 The Benefits of Bible Circulation, 1847; United Efforts Necessary to the Evangelization of the World, 1854; The Supremacy of the Bible, 1858; The Results of Bible Circulation, 1862; Universal Diffusion of the Gospel, 1864; Past and Present in Bible Circulation, 1877. 55 Redeeming the Time (preached shortly after the death of his seven-year-old daughter) 1864; The Perpetuity of the Gospel (preached shortly after the death of his father, and with a sketch of Rev. Dr William John Stavely), 1865; The Historical Position of the rp Church, 187?; The Blessed Dead (on the occasion of the death of Rev. William Sommerville), 1878; The Sum of Gospel Preaching, 1881. 56 8 July 1873. Stavely Letters. 57 For a further discussion of the Free Church challenge, see below, chapter 11. 58 “Former St. John Minister Dead,” Daily Telegraph, 31 July 1903. 59 Flowers of the Year and Other Poems. See Hay, “Letitia Simson.” 60 “Colonial Mission Report for the year ending June 30th, 1868,” Covenanter, August 1868, 218. 61 Quoted in “Colonial Mission Report for 1870,” Covenanter, September 1870, 265. 62 Ibid. 63 “The Great Fire in St. John,” Covenanter, August 1877, 287–8. The letter was written 6 July 1877. 64 “The Great Fire in St. John,” 288. 65 Stewart, The Story of the Great Fire in St. John, N.B., 97. 66 “The Great Fire in St. John,” 288. 67 8 September 1877, 285. 68 24 August 1877, 10 September 1877. Stavely Letters. 69 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 4 September 1877. 70 Rev. Gawin Douglas, “Alexander M’Leod Stavely,” Olive Trees, November 1903, 345.

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92 93 94 95

96 97

notes to pages 69–72

“Colonial Mission Report, June, 1879,” Covenanter, August 1879, 253. Stavely, “Death of the Rev. W. Sommerville, A.M.” See below, chapter 8. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 1 October 1878. “Report of the Committee on Union with Presbytery of nb and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1879. “Our Church in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” Our Banner 7 (April 1880): 124. In Ireland, in 1881, Stavely became moderator of the Irish rp Synod. From 1884 to 1899 he was minister of the combined congregations of Ballyclare and Larne. In retirement, the Stavelys lived with their daughter and son-inlaw, J.B. Armour. A.M. Stavely died on 9 July 1903 and Mrs Stavely on 13 September 1905. A.J. McFarland, “The Late Robert Ewing,” Daily Sun, 26 March 1883. 11 March 1869. Stavely Letters. 15 March and 6 April 1880. Stavely Letters. “Installation in St. John, N.B.,” Covenanter, September 1882, 297–8, and Daily Telegraph, 4 August 1882. Quoted by R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 278. Among those leaders was Rev. A.J. McFarland. “New Church at St. John,” Our Banner 9 (November 1882): 376. “The New rp Church: Description of the Building now Almost Completed,” Daily Telegraph, 5 October 1882; David McFall, “Opening of the New Church in St. John,” rp and Covenanter 21 (January 1883): 23–4. “rp – The Completion of the New Church – Opening Services,” Daily Sun, 13 November 1882. “Introduction,” Morrow, Wilson, and Bigney, Prize Essays on Tobacco, iv. Ibid. Saint John, 1889. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1887. Daily Sun, 11 June 1887. William Glasgow, “The Provincial Churches,” rp and Covenanter 23 (January 1885): 25. Daily Times, 22 March 1884. Daily Times, 24 March 1884. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 30 April 1884. Daily Times, 30 June 1884, reports the opening of the new mainline Presbyterian church that took place on 29 June 1884. Daily Times, 10 October 1885: the first time the name “Reformed Presbyterian Church” seems to have been used in the press. Daily Transcript, 10 November 1884.



98 99 100 101

102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114

115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123

notes to pages 72–5

311

Daily Transcript, 4 September and 7 September 1885. “Moncton, N.B.,” rp and Covenanter 23 (November 1885): 398. Daily Times, 17 May, 24 June, and 8 August 1884. Daily Times, 29 November 1884 and 25 July 1885. Occasionally, worship was conducted by Rev. James Lawson of Barnesville, New Brunswick (ibid., 15 November 1884, 10 January 1885, 14 February 1885); once worship was led by Rev. Thomas McFall of Grafton, ns (ibid., 22 November 1884). “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1885. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 27 May 1887. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 9 October 1886. Quoted by R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 278. R.A.H. Morrow and other trustees, “The St. John R.P. Congregation,” Our Banner 14 (June 1887): 184. “The Maritime Bank Muddle: President Maclellan back from Montreal,” Daily Telegraph, 14 March 1887. He had been a ruling elder from 1871 and was prominent in congregational matters. A.J. McFarland, “St. John Congregation,” Our Banner (15 January 1888): 30. Ibid. Quoted by R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 278. R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 279. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1893. Two others were elected later: Rev. Thomas McFall, of Cornwallis, ns, in 1907, and Rev. F.F. Reade, of Almonte, on, in 1960. Thompson, Sketches, 212. Leaving New Brunswick, McFarland travelled widely as a lecturer in the interests of Testimony Bearing, for thirteen years. Then, making his home in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, he preached as his health allowed. He died on 26 October 1918 (Thompson, Sketches, 212). R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 278. Quoted by R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 279. “Statistics,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1895. “Mission Conference,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1896. “Report of the nb and ns Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1898. “Induction Service,” Daily Telegraph, 27 May 1898. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 26, 27 May 1898. R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 280. One of the lesser leaders was W.T.K. Thompson. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 26 May 1905. Thompson served in Superior, Nebraska, and Mercer, Pennsylvania. He died on 28 August 1948 (Thompson, Sketches, 339).

312

notes to pages 75–7

124 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 26 October 1905. 125 Statutes New Brunswick, [1850], chapter 7. 126 “Death of R.A.H. Morrow,” cn, 8 May 1912, 10; Statutes New Brunswick, [1907], chapter 7. 127 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 May 1905. 128 Mitchell served in Nebraska for ten years. Then moving to Pennsylvania in 1919, he was pastor for several congregations, dying on 26 February 1943 (Thompson, Sketches, 246 and Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 162). 129 “St. Johns, N.B.,” cn, 29 April 1908, 12. 130 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 May 1908. 131 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 30 September 1909. 132 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 13 May 1912. 133 “Death of R.A.H. Morrow,” 10. 134 Alexander Vallance first appears as an elder in the 26 October 1905 minutes of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns. He was undoubtedly elected by the congregation before that date. 135 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 22 April 1914. 136 See below, chapter 15. 137 Saint John County Registry Office: Book 166, 30–2. Deed No. 101306 – rp Church per Trustees to Clarence H. Ferguson. 138 “Report of the nb and ns Presbytery,” and “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1921, 37, 128. Alexander Vallance died “February 4, 1935, at the age of ninety-two years. He was the last surviving elder of the St. John (New Brunswick) congregation” (cw, 6 March 1935, 160).

chapter five

1 2 3 4



5 6 7



8 9

10 11

Magee, ed., A Story Worth Telling, 9, 10; “Obituary,” Monitor, May 1852, 22. R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 306. Glasgow, History, 563. “Matriculation Album of rp Divinity Hall of Scotland,” in Robb, ed., “Reformed Heritage,” entry for the year 1840. R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 306. Southern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland) minutes, 4 March 1845. Southern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland) minutes, 10 September 1845. Farewell Address to Rev. J.R. Lawson, 1845. Lawson Papers. “Rathfriland: Ordination of A Missionary,” Banner of Ulster, 24 October 1845. R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 307. nb Courier, 8 November 1845.



notes to pages 77–80

313

12 “Death of Rev. J.R. Lawson,” Daily Telegraph, 7 July 1891. 13 As indicated in chapter 2 above, the venue was originally called South Stream; in 1854 the community became known as Barnesville. 14 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 12 April 1846. 15 Clarke, “Autobiographical Sketch.” 16 R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 308. 17 “Registry of Baptisms by Reformed Presby[te]r[ian] Missionaries in N. Brunswick and N. Scotia,” back pages of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and NS minutes. 18 nb Courier, 16 June 1838. 19 In spite of the fact that Atkinson does not speak (in The Emigrant’s Guide to New Brunswick, British North America, 1842 ed.,) about the building of a chapel in or near South Stream, in both the 1843 and 1844 editions, there is a mention of “Atkinson’s Chapel,” 1843 ed., 206; 1844 ed., 256. There is some ambiguity about this Atkinson’s Chapel, but it seems clear that there was a church building in South Stream when Lawson arrived in 1846: See R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 308. 20 Atkinson, Emigrant’s Guide, 1842 ed., 20. 21 R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 307–8. 22 Lawson, “Our Church in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” Our Banner 7 (April 1880): 125. 23 R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 308. 24 Kings County Registry Office, Hampton, nb: Book B-2, p. 78. The date of the deed is 17 May 1838. 25 R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 308. 26 “Letter,” Monitor, February 1847, 4. 27 Ibid. 28 “Meeting of the Saint John Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society,” nb Courier, 10 January 1846. 29 E.H. Buck, “A Trip to New Brunswick,” rp and Covenanter 31 (February 1893): 48. 30 nb Courier, 5 July 1851. 31 Betty Weimer, Letter, 12 February 1988, to Robert More. Weimer was a descendent of the Lawsons. A copy of the letter was given to the author by Robert More. 32 “rp Church – Colonial Mission,” Monitor, May 1852, 19. 33 “South Stream, New Brunswick,” Monitor, June 1853, 44. 34 Aiton, The Story of Sussex and Vicinity, 97. 35 W. Harvey Dalling, “The History of the Covenanter Church in Kings County,” Newsletter of the Kings County History and Archival Society, April 1984, 5.

314

notes to pages 80–3

36 S.G. Shaw, “The Provinces,” rp and Covenanter 21 (November 1883): 395. 37 Speech – my ministry of 35 years, 1882. Lawson Papers. The occasion is outlined in “rp Church,” Daily Telegraph, 13 May 1882. 38 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 17 June 1856. 39 “Report of Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1856. 40 Boston First rp session minutes, 1856–57. 41 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 25 August 1857. 42 Greg Stewart, Pittsburgh, Lawson descendant, letters to author, August and October 1989. 43 Apparently he went back to Ulster only once, shortly after his return from Boston (Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 13 September 1859). 44 Lawson, “Letter,” Monitor, February 1847, 4. 45 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 25 August 1857. 46 Hay, “The Rev. Andrew Stevenson – Covenanter of Three Countries,” 33–5. Later, Stevenson became minister of Second rp church, New York. 47 Hay, “David Bates and the Covenanters of Jemseg,” 86. 48 “Letter,” Monitor, October 1847, 133. 49 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 October 1858. 50 Quoted in “Thirty-Third Annual Report of the Missionary Society,” Covenanter, July 1861, 181. 51 “Colonial Mission Report for 1872,” Covenanter, August 1873, 240. 52 Quoted in “Colonial Mission Report for 1874,” Covenanter, August 1874, 234. 53 Glasgow, History, 698. There his surname is rendered “Stuart”: I follow Glasgow in that usage, rather than the sometimes used “Stewart.” 54 Glasgow, History, 698–9. 55 “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1848. 56 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 30 September 1847. 57 Ibid. 58 There were undoubtedly Covenanters in Richmond, New Brunswick, in 1847. Rev. John Hunter, a Church of Scotland minister, recorded in a session book that a Mr Stuart “from the North of Ireland … came to Richmond … in 1847. He was at heart a Cameronian” (Cited in Fred Garnett, “Canterbury-Richmond Pastoral Charge,” 4). See Appendix A: Littleton Covenanters at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. 59 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 30 September 1847. 60 “Extract of a Letter,” Monitor, October 1849, 518. 61 “Twenty-First Annual Report of the rp Home and Missionary Society,” Monitor, August 1849, 489. 62 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 27 August 1850. See Hay, “Alexander Charles Stuart,” 24–7. Stuart ministered briefly in the United



63 64 65

66 67 68 69 70



71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81

82 83

84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91

notes to pages 83–6

315

States and then was ordained by the United Presbyterian Church in Montreal in 1852; after ministering some years in Lower and Upper Canada, he went back to the United States, dying in Kentucky, 29 August 1897. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 175. New Brunswick Census, 1881, Kings County, Parish of Horton. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1874. Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 129. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 1 July 1873. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 9 September 1873. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 3 March 1874 (italics added). Glasgow, Historical Catalogue … With A List Of Those Studying Privately Or Elsewhere, 25, 27. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 29 June 1875. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 8 September 1875. rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1876. Hay, “John Toland, Passekeag Citizen.” Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 April 1879. Ibid. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 6 April 1881 (italics added). Doull, A History of the Bible Society in Nova Scotia, 33. Daily Times, 29 November 1884. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 7 May 1885. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1885. “British and Foreign Bible Society,” Daily Telegraph, 7 January 1887; Eighty Second Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 318. Dalling, “History,” April 1984, 6: “Toland was a lay preacher for the Methodist church.” More, Aurora Borealis, 56: “John Toland … was licensed by the church, and likely later was ordained, but seemingly not by the Covenanter Church.” Both Dalling and More are mistaken. “Funeral of Late John Toland,” Daily Sun, 31 May 1886. Lawson, “Letters on the British North American Colonies,” Monitor, December 1851, 932. Lawson, “Colonial Sketches – Methodism in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” Monitor, June 1852, 35–6. Ibid., 37. Lawson, “Our Church in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” rp and Covenanter 18 (June 1880): 166. Ibid., 169–70. cihm 04623. Monthly Advocate 1 (May 1880): 1, 2.

316

notes to pages 86–9

92 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 4 August 1882. 93 A.M. Stavely, “In Memoriam – Rev. J.R. Lawson,” Covenanter, June 1891, 176. 94 Quoted in R. Sommerville, “James Reid Lawson,” 311. 95 Barnesville Covenanter Cemetery Records. 96 “Ordination of T. Patton at Barnesville,” Our Banner 14 (September 1887): 317–18. 97 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 4 November 1889. 98 R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 279–80. Patton was one of the lesser leaders. 99 Installed in Coldenham, New York, in October 1893, he laboured there for nineteen years. His health failing him, he resigned and thenceforth preached among the missions and vacancies of the church; one of these was Winnipeg, Manitoba: see below, chapter 16. 100 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1892. 101 “A Trip to New Brunswick,” 48–9. 102 See above, chapter 4. 103 “Ordination at Barnesville, N.B.,” cn, 8 November 1899, 13. 104 See above, chapter 4. 105 R.A.H. Morrow, “Installation of the New Pastor at Barnesville, N.B.,” cn, 27 July 1910, 11–12. 106 Thos. McFall, “A Tribute to Rev. James McCune,” cn, 27 August 1924, 4. 107 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 28 November 1911. 108 He was installed pastor of the Almonte, Ontario congregation. See below, chapter 12. Later, he served as presbytery supply in Regina. See below, chapter 14. 109 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 13 May 1913. 110 “Barnesville, N.B.,” cn, 17 September 1913, 11. 111 “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1918. 112 “New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Congregations,” cn, 9 October 1918, 8. 113 “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1923, 122. At the same synod, congregations formerly belonging to that presbytery were subsequently aligned with New York presbytery. 114 “New York Presbytery Statistical Report,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1927, 192. Finally, in its 1954 report to synod, the New York presbytery stated that “the Barnesville mission station was disorganized on October 13, 1953” (“Report of the New York Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1954, 122). 115 Proctor, “The Covenanter Cemetery.” 116 Robert Rogers, Rexdale, Ontario, letter to author, 4 December 1989. 117 Barnesville Covenanter Cemetery Records.



notes to pages 89–92

317

118 119 120 121

The Story of Sussex, 97. Robert M. More, “The Barnesville rp Church,” cw, 19 March 1968, 7. Proctor, “The Covenanter Cemetery.” Kings County Registry Office, Hampton, nb: Book 198, pp. 647–9. The Barnesville Communion service is in the National Presbyterian Museum in Toronto: “This Communion Service Belonged To Southstream Barnesville Covenanter Congregation, nb, 1845–1923. Following Its Dissolution, It Remained In A Brothel In Toronto Until Presented To The Museum In 2004: Donated by Valerie Scott, Spokesperson, Sex Professionals Of Canada.” See Hay, “The Barnesville Covenanters and their Communion Service.” 122 Dalling, “History,” 2–3. In Dalling, the writer is self-identified as “Once a Covenanter.” The poet was undoubtedly George Elder (whose uncle Robert Elder had been a ruling elder at Millstream). Indeed, George Elder had been a Covenanter – see above, chapter 1. Later, George Elder became disaffected – hence, “Once a Covenanter.”

chapter six



1 R. Sommerville, “Robert Miller Stewart,” 373. Sources agree on the day and month of Stewart’s birth, 5 April, but not on the year. He died on 29 September 1899, in “the 81st year of his age” (Thompson, Sketches, 326). That would fix his birth-year in 1819. 2 Glasgow, History, 697; “Matriculation Album of rp Divinity Hall of Scotland,” in Robb, ed., “Reformed Heritage,” entry for the year 1844. 3 Northern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland) minutes, 3 February 1847. 4 “Irish Mission,” Monitor, November 1848, 349. 5 Archer, A Brief History of the Irish Mission of the rp Church of Ireland, 2. 6 Monitor, November 1848, 349; January 1849, 377–9; May 1849, 435–6. 7 Quoted by Samuel Simms, “Irish Mission,” Monitor, May 1849, 435. 8 R. Sommerville, “Robert Miller Stewart,” 375. 9 “Ordination of a Missionary,” Monitor, August 1849, 493. 10 Monitor, September 1849, 512; and October 1849, 528. 11 “Twenty-First Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society,” Monitor, August 1849, 488–9. 12 Quoted in Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 20 October 1851. 13 nb Courier, 6 October 1849. 14 Stavely, “Letter,” Monitor, December 1849, 549. His letter was written 31 October 1849. 15 “Announcement,” nb Courier, 6 October 1849. 16 Stavely, “Letter,” 549. 17 “Letter,” Monitor, April 1850, 611.

318



18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26

27 28 29 30

31 32 33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40 41 42

notes to pages 92–4

Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 27 August 1850. “Letter: Colonial Mission,” Monitor, September 1850, 696. “Letter from Rev. J.R. Lawson,” Monitor, December 1851, 930. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 27 August 1850. R. Sommerville, “Robert Miller Stewart,” 375. William Glasgow, “The Provincial Churches,” rp and Covenanter 23 (January 1885): 21. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 14 July 1835. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 May 1947. “Report of Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1851. Ibid. R. Sommerville, “Robert Miller Stewart,” 376. Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 25–7. The congregation was consistently called Wilmot, though the church was built in Melvern Square. Today, Wilmot and Melvern Square are both geographic places, about 6 kilometres apart. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1853. Glasgow, History, 175. Twenty-Sixth Annual Report of the rp Church Home and Foreign Missionary Society, 1854. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1855. Lori Errington, “Church has rich history,” Mirror-Examiner, 3 November 1999. M. Allen Gibson, “The Presbyterian Church at Melvern Square,” ChronicleHerald, 19 July 1958, 4. “During a call at Boston, captain John Ray learned of a church that was being dismantled in the Massachusetts city. He was permitted to salvage the pulpit. He brought it to Margaretsville aboard his sailing vessel; it was then conveyed to Melvern Square by ox-cart.” See also Gibson, “Covenanter Church, Melvern Square,” Chronicle-Herald, 20 February 1982, 34. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland Minutes, 1855. Twenty-Eighth Annual Report of the rp Colonial Mission, 1856. “Thirtieth Annual Report of the rp Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, July 1858, 178–9. “Colonial Mission Report,” Covenanter, August 1873, 243–4. “Obituary: Mrs. Margaret Morrison Stewart,” Outlook, 23 December 1937. “The minister’s stipend, like the priest’s portion under the Mosaic dispensation, was paid in farm produce, a quarter of lamb or veal, a roast of beef, a



43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56

57 58

59 60 61 62 63 64 65

notes to pages 94–6

319

cheese, or whatever happened to be most plentiful and in season among the … products” of members and adherents of the congregation (John Burgess Calkin, cited by Eaton, The History of Kings County, 302). Annapolis County Registry of Deeds, Lawrencetown, ns: Book 48, p. 45. Stewart bought the farm paying the sum of £140. Glasgow, “The Provincial Churches,” 27. R. Sommerville, “Robert Miller Stewart,” 376. “Death of Rev. Robert M. Stewart,” Presbyterian Witness, 7 October 1899, 313; Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 8 December 1899. Presbyterian Witness, 28 August 1875, 273. However, there is no evidence that Stewart “at one time studied medicine”: Archibald, “The rp Church in nb and ns,” 46. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 20 October 1851. “Twenty-Ninth Annual Report of the rp Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, August 1857, 209. Ibid. “Thirty-Seventh Annual Report: Colonial Mission Report,” Covenanter, July 1865, 207–8. “Colonial Mission Report,” rp Synod of Ireland, in Covenanter, August 1876, 238. “Report of the Commission to visit New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Presbytery,” rp and Covenanter 21 (July–August 1883): 198. “Colonial Mission for the Year Ending June 30th, 1869,” Covenanter, August 1869, 260. Quoted in “Colonial Mission for the Year Ending June 30th, 1869.” “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1861. In 1860, in nb and ns Secessionist and Free churches united in the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces; in 1875, the much broader union took place with the formation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada: Moir, Enduring Witness, 129, 137. Quoted in “Thirty-First Annual Report of the rp Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, July 1859, 176. “Colonial Mission: Letters from the Missionaries,” Covenanter, October 1872, 335–8. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 11 April 1877. “RP Synod of Ireland,” rp Witness 7 (July 1877): 198. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 4 September 1878. “Colonial Mission Report,” Covenanter, August 1879, 254. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 1 October 1878. “Report of Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, August 1881, 241. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of NB and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1884, in rp and Covenanter 22 (July–August 1884): 252; also 23 (July–August

320

66 67 68

69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78

79 80 81 82

notes to pages 96–9

1885): 261; 24 (July–August 1886): 248; 25 (July–August 1887): 257; 26 (July– August 1888): 220. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 October 1888. “Church Register of 1889,” Our Banner 16 (December 1889): 429. The farm had been mortgaged several times, the mortgages held by members of the Bayard family. In the 1880s, George Stewart, Robert’s son, took over the mortgage, and Robert Stewart received a quit claim deed on the farm in the year 1886: Registry of Deeds, Annapolis County, Lawrencetown, ns: Book 86, p. 482. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 2 June 1892. “Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1892, in rp and Covenanter 30 (July–August 1892): 237. Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 18 October 1892. “Report of the Central Board of Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1895. “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1895, in rp and Covenanter 33 (July–August 1895): 246. R. Sommerville, “Robert Miller Stewart,” 377–8. His wife moved to live with a daughter in the United States, dying in Louisiana in 1937 (“Obituary: Mrs. Margaret Morrison Stewart”). Glasgow, “The Provincial Churches,” 27. “Covenanter Record,” no. 156. “Tenth Anniversary: The Presbyterian Church was opened for Public Worship,” Outlook, 28 September 1907. No deed of transfer has been located. Moreover, Melvern Square was listed as a Presbyterian Church in Canada preaching point from 1889 to 1904: Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. During the fifteen-year period, the congregation was led by licentiates and/ or students. Statutes Nova Scotia, [1919], Chapter 148. The original cemetery site became too small, for members of “all denominations found here a last resting place.” Accordingly, additions have been made to the cemetery (Gibson, “The Presbyterian Church at Melvern Square,” 4). Statutes Nova Scotia, [1976], chapter 67. Mrs Iva P. Smith, Wilmot, ns, letter to author, 18 October 1999.

chapter seven

1 Seventeenth Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society. 2 “Twenty-First Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society,” Monitor, August 1849, 488. 3 Lawson, “Colonial Sketches – Methodism in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” Monitor, June 1852, 36.







notes to pages 99–101

321

4 Lawson, “Letter,” Monitor, December 1851, 931. 5 Reformed Presbytery of nb and NS minutes, 7 June 1853. Listed as studying under Sommerville in 1853–54: Glasgow, Historical Catalogue, 20. 6 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 8 June 1852. Listed as studying under Sommerville in 1851–52 and 1852–53: Glasgow, Historical Catalogue, 18, 20. 7 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 November 1852, 7 June 1853. 8 Lawson, “Letter,” 931. 9 Probate File #C-37, Kings County Registry of Deeds, Kentville, ns. 10 “John Burgess Calkin, M.A., Principal of the Provincial Normal School, Truro, Nova Scotia,” Canada School Journal 4 (April 1879): 73. 11 Lawson, “Letter,” 931. 12 John’s mother, Mrs Elias Calkin, and siblings Gurdon Ahira and Abigail are listed as members of the Covenanter Church. His father, Elias Calkin, died in 1851. 13 “John Calkin is studying in the first year, 1850–51, under Rev. William Sommerville,” and “John Calkin is studying in the second year, 1851–52, under Rev. William Sommerville”: Glasgow, Historical Catalogue, 18. 14 Lawson, “Letter,” 930. 15 “Normal School Closing: A Successful Term’s Work,” Truro Daily News, 28 June 1900. 16 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 8 June 1852. 17 Presbyterian Witness, 11 November 1854. 18 Hay, “John Burgess Calkin,” 115–19. 19 Sommerville Family Bible. 20 Glasgow, History, 678. 21 Guardian, 26 January 1844. 22 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 20 October 1851. 23 Novascotian, 21 February 1853; Monitor, April 1853, 289–90; and Presbyterian Witness, 21 May 1853, 164. 24 rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1854, in Monitor, August 1854, 93. “Cookstown Academy may have been a small, short-lived private establishment” (Edward McCamley, Head of History, Belfast Royal Academy, email to author, 21 May 2001). 25 “Belfast Royal Academy was the school Robert Sommerville went to before he started studying at Queen’s College” (Siobhan Gunn [Communications Office, Queen’s University, Belfast], email to author, 9 May 2001). 26 Photocopy of Queen’s College Belfast calendar, xciv, xcv; sent to author by Siobhan Gunn, June 2001. 27 “[Obituary of] Rev. Robert McGowan Sommerville, D.D.,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1920, 151.

322

notes to pages 101–5

28 Eastern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland) minutes, 30 August 1859 and 29 November 1859. 29 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 23 May 1860. 30 “Report of the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns,” rp Synod of Ireland minutes, 1860. 31 Gunn, email to author, 9 May 2001. 32 Eastern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland) minutes, 26 June 1860. 33 Eastern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland) minutes, 28 August and 27 November 1860. 34 Eastern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland), 3 January, 8 May, and 28 May 1861. 35 Eastern Presbytery (of the rp Synod of Ireland), 26 June 1861. 36 “Theological Hall Presentation,” Covenanter, September 1861, 259–61. 37 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 28 August and 16 October 1861. 38 “The Reformed Presbytery of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Ireland minutes, 1862. 39 “Ordination in Western Cornwallis,” Presbyterian Witness, 26 October 1861, 170; and Covenanter, November 1861, 315–16. 40 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 29 September 1863. 41 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 11 May 1864. 42 Ibid. The induction was to take place in Horton in October 1864, although there is no report of it in presbytery minutes. 43 “Colonial Mission Report,” Covenanter, July 1865, 206. 44 “Our Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, May 1866, 123–4. 45 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 6 May 1868. 46 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 21 September 1868. 47 Sommerville’s appointment took place on 17 December 1868: Minute of the Council of Public Instruction 17 December 1868, 1: 133. 48 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 26 September 1871. After some delay, the resignation was effected (Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 14 May 1872). 49 “Letter from Rev. W. Sommerville,” Covenanter, May 1872, 154–5. 50 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 4 September 1872. 51 Presbyterian Witness, 16 September 1865, 296. 52 Baptist Archives Collection Y670 C35 C2. 53 A Dissertation on the Nature and Administration of the Ordinance of Baptism, Halifax. 54 See above, chapter 3. 55 Part I, 2nd ed. and Part II, enlarged edition, Paisley and Edinburgh. 56 “Letter,” Presbyterian Witness, 3 March 1866, 65.



notes to pages 105–7

323

57 Stavely disagreed privately, but hedged. Lawson clearly opposed Sommerville’s views, but his opposition came to light only after Sommerville’s death: “Report of the Commission to visit New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Presbytery,” rp and Covenanter 21 (July/August 1883): 200. 58 Register of Baptisms in Lower Horton: Cornwallis rp Church, Minutes and Records. 59 “Rev. Robert M. Sommerville, D.D. – New York City.” 60 Kings County Registrar of Deeds, Kentville, NS: Book 28, pp. 107–8. The date of the deed is 28 January 1867, recorded 26 February 1867. 61 An earlier name for Prospect had been Keen Street (Kirkconnell, The Streets of Wolfville, 8–9). 62 “Announcement,” Presbyterian Witness, 9 February 1867, 41. 63 G.W. Miller, “Wolfville and Grand Pre,” Presbyterian Witness, 12 April 1913, 1. 64 McKean, St. Andrew’s Church, Wolfville, 30. 65 Ibid. 66 Fred I. Woodworth, “The Author of the Diary,” in The Diary of Deacon Elihu Woodworth 1835–1836, 44. 67 On Prospect Street “stood [the Reformed] Presbyterian church and the Manse”: Kirkconnell, The Streets of Wolfville, 9. 68 Windows in the manse were “curtain-hanging challenged” – conversation with Professor Elsa Noble, 1988; she and her husband had lived in the house in the 1950s. 69 Kings County Registrar of Deeds, Kentville, NS: Book 30, pp. 143–4. Dated 18 January 1870; received and recorded 21 January 1870. In the document, Sommerville is characterized as a “preacher of the gospel,” and the land is described as “the lot on which stands the meeting house of the rp Church.” 70 “Letter from Rev. W. Sommerville,” Covenanter, May 1872, 155 (italics added). 71 James Brown, “Our Colonial Mission,” Covenanter, April 1873, 112. 72 “Report of the Colonial Mission for 1873,” Covenanter, August 1874, 231. 73 Cited (from a letter of 19 September 1873) in “Report of the Colonial Mission for 1873,” 231. 74 Early in 1873, a call to Sommerville came from the rp church in Cincinnati; he declined it (Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 April 1873). By mid-summer Sommerville “applied for a certificate of transference to the Reformed Presbyterian Synod in the United States,” which he received (Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 1 July 1873). 75 “Report of the Colonial Mission for 1873,” 231. 76 “[Letter] to the Editor of the Western Chronicle,” Presbyterian Witness, 3 October 1874, 313.

324

notes to pages 107–9

77 Kings County Registrar of Deeds, Kentville, ns: Book 36, pp. 211–13. The church was moved from Prospect to Main Street in 1885 and reopened for worship in January 1886 (Presbyterian Witness, 16 January 1886, 18). It “was completely destroyed by fire” in August 1913 (Presbyterian Witness, 26 August 1913, 1). 78 Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 130. 79 “Report of the Colonial Mission for 1873,” 230–1. 80 Cited in “Colonial Mission Report [for 1872],” Covenanter, August 1873, 244. 81 “Report of Lakes Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1874, in rp and Covenanter 12 (July 1874): 237. 82 “Report of New York Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1876, in rp and Covenanter 14 (July 1876): 233. 83 “Installation of the Rev. R. Sommerville in Second Congregation New York,” Our Banner 3 (15 February 1876): 66–7. 84 R.J. Bole, “In Memory of Dr. Sommerville,” cn, 14 April 1920, 6. 85 A.A. Samson, “A Great Life Done,” Olive Trees, March 1920, 50. 86 “Minute on the Death of R.M. Sommerville,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1920, 112. 87 F.M. Foster, “A Great Life Done,” Olive Trees, March 1920, 52. 88 “Resignation of Dr. R.M. Sommerville,” cn, 2 June 1915, 14. 89 The first issue of Herald of Mission News was January 1887; the last issue of Olive Trees was September 1928. 90 Olive Trees, January 1899, 19–23. 91 Olive Trees, May, August, October, December 1899. 92 “[Lesser Leaders],” 276. 93 Ibid., 276–80. 94 Ibid., 276. 95 “[Obituary of] Rev. Robert McGowan Sommerville, D.D.,” 151. 96 “Obituary – Mrs. Sommerville,” Register, 26 March 1924. 97 The tombstone records Elizabeth Sommerville’s death as 12 March 1923. In fact she died 19 March 1924.

chapter eight

1 W.P. Johnston, “Memorial Sermon,” Our Banner 17 (September 1890): 346. 2 McFall, “History of the McFalls,” 1. Alice “Marjorie” McFall is the wife of Robert James McFall, son of Rev. and Mrs Thomas McFall. 3 Ibid. 4 Alice McFall Zwanzig, granddaughter of Thomas and Anna McFall, letter to author, 4 May 1995.









notes to pages 109–11

325

5 John H. Pritchard, “Rev. Thomas McFall, D.D.,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1929, 145. 6 “Biography [of Rev. David McFall],” Our Banner 17 (September 1890): 346. 7 McFall, “History of the McFalls,” 1. 8 Ibid., 2–3. 9 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 1 October 1878. 10 McFall, “History of the McFalls,” 2–3. The matter may not have been as simple as McFall tradition avers. After Sommerville’s death, licentiate William J. Sproull served as stated supply at Cornwallis from 1 May to 1 September 1879 (Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 177). The congregation called Sproull to be their minister, but he declined (Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 15 April and 9 July 1879). Sproull was not Irish; he had been born near Brownsdale, Butler County, pa (Glasgow, History, 686). 11 McFall, “History of the McFalls,” 3. 12 “Ordination of Thomas McFall,” Our Banner 8 (October 1881): 331–2; and “Ordination of Mr. Thomas McFall,” rp and Covenanter 20 (February 1882): 57. 13 R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 277. McFall was considered one of the lesser leaders. 14 See above, chapter 3. 15 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 5 September 1882. 16 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 5 April 1883. 17 Ibid. 18 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1882, in rp and Covenanter 20 (July/August 1882): 274. 19 The commission was appointed, largely in response to a suggestion by Boston Covenanter pastor David McFall. When he came north for his brother Thomas’s ordination, David McFall wrote that “we were forcibly impressed with the earnestness of their [Canadian Covenanters’] desire to know what is expected of them in the relation in which they now stand as an integral part of the Church of the United States,” and he suggested the visiting commission (“The Church in the Provinces,” Our Banner [January 1882]: 26). 20 “Report of the Commission,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1883, in rp and Covenanter 21 (July/August 1883): 199–200. 21 Ibid. 22 “Pastoral Letter to the members and adherents of the congregation of Cornwallis, N.S.,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1883, in rp and Covenanter 21 (July/ August 1883): 236–7. 23 “After the adjustment of certain difficulties about baptism, the congregation has been in a harmonious and flourishing condition” (Glasgow, History, 174).

326



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28



29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36



37 38 39 40 41



42 43 44 45 46 47

48 49 50

notes to pages 111–14

Thompson, Sketches, 208. Cited in “Centennial in Old Cornwallis Church,” cw, 16 October 1935, 253. McFall, “History of the McFalls,” 5. Both children were educated locally but attended the Covenanter site of higher education, Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, pa . Robert became a civil servant, briefly in Canada and then in the United States; he died in 1963 (Alice McFall Zwanzig, letter to author, 30 May 1995). Mary studied medicine and practised for a short time in Somerset, ns, and later in Tompkins, sk . After retiring, she and husband Hugh Nesbitt lived in Berwick, ns. She died there in 1958 (Register, 24 April 1958); Hugh Nesbitt died in 1968 (Register, 15 August 1968). “The Union Hall, at Church Street Corner, was built before 1840 … The Rev. William Sommerville preached there in the 1840s. After that, the Rev. Thomas McFall conducted services periodically in the Hall for about forty years” (“The Port” Remembers – The History of Port Williams, 175). “Thomas McFall, D.D.,” cw, 27 February 1929, 106. “Ordination of Thomas McFall,” 332. See above, chapter 7. “Thomas McFall, D.D.,” 105. R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” 277. First International Convention of rp Churches, 452. Ibid., 127–9. Ibid., 64–71. At Dalserf, Rev. John MacMillan, one of the first Covenanter ministers, was buried in 1753. “Obituary: Rev. Thos. McFall, D.D.,” Covenanter 29 April 1929, 95. “The Old Covenanter’s Church, Grand Pré,” 231. McFall, “History of the McFalls,” 5. Ibid. It became part of the United Church of Canada in 1925 and is currently part of the Wolfville Pastoral Charge. McFall, “History of the McFalls,” 6. Register, 29 November 1922 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1923, 122. Thompson, Sketches, 208–9. “Dr. McFall Called by Death,” Register, 16 January 1929. Ibid. Their daughter, Mary, and her husband, Hugh Nesbitt, were also buried there. cw, 15 May 1929, 255. Register, 10 July 1929. Register, 11 September 1929.



notes to pages 114–16

327

51 Register, 2 July 1930. 52 Marsters, “Memoir of Robert Park.” Travelling with the Parks when a child, Marsters later became both a relative and a member of Park’s Cornwallis congregation. 53 “Cornwallis,” cw, 5 November 1930, 313. 54 Park had been “taking summer work in the Graduate School of the University of Pittsburgh for some years … preparatory for his work” in Geneva (Thompson, Sketches, 254). In 1924, he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts (McBurney, rp Ministers, 146). Some sources credit Park with a PhD, also from the University of Pittsburgh, but this is incorrect (email, Debora A. Rogeux, [Reference Archivist, U. of Pittsburgh] to author, 28 May 2002). 55 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1929, 50. 56 R. Copeland, Spare No Exertions, 126. 57 McBurney, rp Ministers, 1955. 58 Register, 27 June 1934. 59 McBurney, rp Ministers, 146. 60 Jenny May Hayes was listed as having been a summer student in 1931 (Rhianna Edwards [Archivist, Mount Allison University], email to author, 11 December 2007). 61 John Park, email to author, 30 December 2001. Rev. John Park, an Episcopal priest, is a son of Robert Park. 62 J. Park, email to author, 7 January 2002. 63 Register, 5 July 1933. 64 Register, 2 August 1933; and cw, 6 September 1933, 159. 65 Register, 21 August 1935; and cw, 16 October 1935, 253. 66 Register, 15 June 1944. 67 Register, 14 August 1952. 68 Kings County Registry of Deeds, Kentville, ns: Will Book 2, p. 73. Margaret Cogswell, Last Will and Testament. 69 Register, 7 August 1935 and 14 August 1935. 70 “Obituary,” cw, 19 July 1939, 44. Emma Park was interred in the family plot in Syracuse. 71 Register, 31 July 1940. 72 Register, 1 January 1941. 73 Because Pennsylvania state law required that all teachers in the public school in the state be American, Jennie May became an American citizen (J. Park, email to author, 11 January 2002). 74 Register, 16 July 1941. 75 J. Park, email to author, 6 April 2002. 76 J. Park, email to author, 5 February 2002.

328

notes to pages 116–21

77 J. Park, email to author, 4 February 2002. 78 cw, 14 February 1962, 14. Robert Park was interred in the family plot in Syracuse. 79 30 November 1961. 80 Register, 3 January 1962. The last elder, Max Brydon, died on 12 February 1971: Register, 4 March 1971. 81 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1962, 148. 82 Dr George Hale, Waterville, ns, letters to author, 13 February and 1 May 1991. 83 J. Park, email to author, 30 August 2002. 84 “A brief history of the Cornwallis Covenanters’ Church in Grafton, Nova Scotia.” 85 J. Park, email to author, 30 August 2002. 86 Register, 5 August 1971. 87 cw, September 1971, 10. Presiding were Willard G. McMillan, Norman M. Carson, and J. Renwick Wright. 88 J. Park, email to author, 30 August 2002. 89 Mrs Grace Morton, “New era for historic church,” Register, 21 August 1991. 90 Register, 21 August 1991. 91 Rev. Dr J. Douglas Archibald and Rev. Ivan Norton. 92 As indicated, John Park is an Episcopal priest; Eric Park is a pastor in the Assemblies of God. 93 J. Park, email to author, 20 April 2003. Jennie Park was buried in the New School rp cemetery in New Galilee, pa , a few miles from Beaver Falls (J. Park, email to author, 3 May 2003). 94 Paraphrase of R. Sommerville, “[Lesser Leaders],” Olive Trees, September 1900, 276. 95 Statement of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society, 15. 96 Licentiates Andrew Stevenson and Andrew Bates were also sent out; they played minor roles in Jemseg, nb. 97 Seventeenth Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society. 98 Irish-born Thomas McFall might easily be added: “A man … set in his ways, and he walked a very straight and narrow path” (Mrs Winnie Kinsman, Somerset, ns, interview, 20 November 1988). 99 Thomas Houston, “Memorial Sketch of Rev. William Sommerville, A.M.,” Covenanter, December 1878, 394. 100 See above, chapter 1. 101 “Twenty-Second Annual Report of the rp Home and Foreign Missionary Society” Monitor, August 1850, 679–80 (italics added). 102 “Report of the Colonial Mission for 1873,” Covenanter, August 1874, 234. 103 “Explanatory Notes,” The Diary of Deacon Elihu Woodworth, 39. 104 A.J. McFarland, “The Late Robert Ewing,” Daily Sun, 26 March 1883.



notes to pages 121–6

329

105 Olive Trees, September 1899, 287–90. 106 The 1863 nb and ns presbytery statement supporting the Old School Scots Covenanter synod was signed by Revs. Sommerville (William and Robert), Stavely, Lawson, and Stewart, together with elders from Cornwallis, Saint John, Barnesville, and Wilmot: Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 6 May and 3 July 1863. 107 Simson, Flowers of the Year and Other Poems. 108 Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 18. 109 Ibid. 110 In the early days, Clarke had suggested sending out “members of the church … qualified to act as teachers … serviceable in advancing the cause.” Two laymen came, Andrew Stevenson and David Bates. The project was soon dropped. See above, chapter 2. 111 “Note,” Olive Trees, December 1899, 388. 112 “A reason that the Old School and New School Covenanters failed is that Canadian money was never available enough to compensate for efforts. Pastors needed money, and the U.S.A. seemed to offer that opportunity” (R.M. More, letter to author, 10 December 1987). 113 “The Church in the Maritime Provinces,” rp and Covenanter 24 (June 1886): 178. 114 Hay, Chignecto Covenanters, 70. 115 Ibid., 79. 116 Hay, “Chignecto Covenanter Clergy,” 151–206. Of the seven clergy, only Rev. George W. Brownell spent his entire career in Covenanter ministry. Most of the others became Presbyterian clergymen in Canada or the United States. 117 “The Fathers of a Past Generation,” rp Magazine, September 1865, 329. 118 There is no record in the Cornwallis session rolls that Martha Calkin was ever removed: Cornwallis rp Church, Minutes and Records. 119 See below, chapter 11. 120 Quoted in Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 49. 121 Holmes, Loyalists to Canada, 27. 122 Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 32–3. 123 Trident, The History of the Dartmouth Quakers; see Maida Barton Follini, “A Quaker Odyssey – the Migration of Quaker Whalers from Nantucket to Dartmouth,” cqhj , no. 71, 2006, 1–21. 124 “rp Church in nb and ns,” 68. 125 On a slightly raised hill, the church is plainly visible from any approach. The interior is particularly Covenanter: a simple central pulpit on a shallow platform. Since 1990, Linden United Church has been a Nova Scotia Heritage property. 126 Taylor, Bloomfield College: The First Century, 151.

330

notes to pages 126–31

127 Alexander Clarke was Murray’s model. See Murray’s “An Old Time Missionary by A Modern Old Timer.” 128 McKellar, Presbyterian Pioneer Missionaries, 79–82. 129 Alex Colville, “Foreword,” in Perkin, In Season, 7. Colville’s 1954 painting of the interior of the church, Visitors are Invited to Register, is now in the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. 130 Chronicle-Herald, 11 July 1988 and 8 July 1989. 131 Davidson, Winds of Change, chapter 6: “The Balancing Act: A Place of Worship and a Heritage Site.” 132 Hay, “John Burgess Calkin,” 120. 133 Brandow, The History of Our Church Women of Trinidad, 9.

chapter nine

1 Reformation Principles Exhibited, 167. 2 See Map 3, Reformed Presbyterians in Eastern Lower Canada (Quebec). 3 See Map 4, Reformed Presbyterians in Eastern Upper Canada (Ontario) and Western Lower Canada (Quebec). 4 McLachlan is the name used in this book, though it is variously rendered – MacLachlan, McLachlane, M’Lachlan. 5 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions in connection with the rp Church of Scotland, May 1834,” Scottish Advocate 1 (1832–1834): 410–12. 6 Ibid., 412. 7 “Letter to the Rev. James McLachlan,” 15 July 1833: Scottish Advocate 1 (1832– 1834), 416. 8 Glasgow, History, 606–7. 9 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 38. 10 “Report on the Death of Rev. J. McLachlan,” rp and Covenanter 3 (July/ August 1865): 223. 11 McLachlan, James, “Cameronian Fasti,” in Robb, ed., “Reformed Heritage,” 19. 12 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions,” 412. 13 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 29 August 1833: Scottish Advocate 1 (1832–1834): 417–18. 14 “Mr. Russell … was Alexander Russell, a Scot, settled on the Craig Road, 9th Range of Leeds, Lot 4” (Barry, A History of Megantic County, 148). 15 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 29 August 1933, 418. 16 Ibid. 17 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions,” 414. 18 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 13 May 1834: sp, January 1835, 14. 19 Ibid.





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331

Quoted in “Letter from James McLachlan,” 13 May 1834, 15. “Letter from James McLachlan,” 13 May 1834, 15. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 3 January 1837: sp, July 1837, 294–5. Ibid., 295. “Foreign,” sp, September 1835, 77. No date was affixed to the petition given but it was “since the beginning of Synod in April [1835] last.” “Letter from James McLachlan,” 3 January 1837, 295. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 25 November 1835: sp, May 1836, 153–4. Ibid., 154. “Letter from James McLachlan,” 3 January 1837, 295–6. Ibid., 296. Sixth Report of the Committee on Missions in connection with the rp Synod in Scotland, 6. “Missionary to Upper Canada,” sp, March 1843, 88. “Foreign. Canada,” sp, January 1836, 114. Quoted in “Foreign. Canada,” 114. The letter was dated 31 July 1835. rp Synod of Scotland minutes, 1837, in sp, July 1837, 287. Geggie, James, “Cameronian Fasti,” in Robb, ed., “Reformed Heritage,” 10. “Geggie, James,” in Wilson, The Presbyterian Historical Almanac for the year 1866, 370–1. J. Geggie, Scotland, to R. Geggie, Quebec, 25 March 1837. Geggie Papers: “I have got a wife … In a few weeks I expect to be a father, so that some time will be required for my dear Ann to recover strength for the voyage.” Letter to J. Geggie, 19 July 1833. Geggie Papers. Carslaw, Airdrie, to R. Geggie, Quebec, 25 June 1834. Geggie Papers. Carslaw to J. Geggie, 20 January 1837. Geggie Papers. Carslaw to J. Geggie, 23 March 1837. Geggie Papers. J. Geggie to R. Geggie, Quebec, 25 March 1837. Sixth Report of the Committee on Missions, 5. “Ordination of Mr. Geggie, as a Missionary to Canada,” sp, July 1837, 290. “Abstract of the Synod and Missionary Fund,” sp, May 1838, 56. “Letter from the Rev. James Geggie,” 13 October 1837: sp, January 1838, 18–19. MacDougall, “The Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Quebec,” 36; Little, Ethno-Cultural Transition and Regional Identity in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, 8–9. “Letter from James Geggie,” 13 October 1837, 18–19. Ibid., 19. Ibid. Carslaw to J. Geggie, 1 January 1838. Geggie Papers.

332

notes to pages 136–8

52 Carslaw to J. Geggie, 3 February 1838. Geggie Papers. 53 Before going to Canada, James Geggie noted, “I have ever been unaccountably averse to letter writing” (Letter to R. Geggie, Quebec, 25 March 1837). 54 Geggie wrote very few reports to the Committee, and some he did write were not mailed! It is ironic that this abysmal correspondent has nonetheless left a number of letters – I gladly acknowledge Prof. J.I. Little, Simon Fraser University, who drew my attention to them – the Geggie Papers. 55 rp Synod of Scotland minutes, October 1838, in sp, November 1838, 118. 56 Carslaw to J. Geggie, 22 September 1838. Geggie Papers. 57 “Letter from the Rev. James Geggie,” 11 October 1838: sp, January 1839, 140. 58 In her History of Megantic County, Barry located Geggie’s four preaching stations, as well as the two weekly stations. One preaching station was in Inverness Township, “likely on the 10th Range near Lot 4 at what became known as Glen Lloyd. This was the residence of Walter Hargrave, who was reported by Geggie to have built a neat church of wood, where Geggie preached. There was also a school on neighbouring Lot 5 as early as 1831.” Two other preaching stations were in Leeds Township. One was “Geggie’s resident preaching station … likely near his home in Leeds Township, a site secured for him by Alexander Russell. The exact location is not known, however it was likely on the Craig Road, on a vacant Lot 12, 8th Range which is the site of an 1830s Presbyterian cemetery. This was the nucleus of the future village of Leeds.” Geggie’s other preaching station “in Leeds Township was at Kinnear’s Mills.” The fourth preaching station was St-Sylvestre: “This Sunday station was on the Craig Road,” just north and east of the Leeds Township border, in the parish of St-Sylvestre, County of Lotbinière. As for the two weekly stations, one “was on the 6th Range of Inverness, near the future village of Inverness. The other was in Lemesurier, where a group of Scots had recently settled.” 59 “Letter from James Geggie,” 11 October 1838, 140. 60 Carslaw to J. Geggie, 31 December 1838. Geggie Papers. 61 Ibid. 62 Bates to J. Geggie, 19 August 1840. Geggie Papers. 63 Letter from the Rev. James Geggie to Carslaw, 2 September 1839: Geggie Papers. I judge that this Geggie letter was mailed and received in Scotland though it was not published. 64 This is a reference to Rev. Duncan Macaulay, Church of Scotland, who was “appointed missionary by the [Glasgow Colonial] Society in 1833 and ordained the same year to Leeds Township … For about one year he ministered in the Megantic region but was deposed in 1834 for alleged misdemeanours,” then left Lower Canada (McDougall and Moir, eds, Selected Correspondence, 61).



notes to pages 138–42

333

65 “According to the 1831 census, Russell’s household consisted of one Church of Scotland communicant and 5 Baptists. The Russell family were heavily involved in affairs of state” (Barry, A History of Megantic, 148). 66 Letter from James Geggie to Carslaw, 2 September 1839. 67 Ibid. 68 “In Lower Canada the rebellion was in large part an expression of French Canadian nationalism. The 1830s was a period of widespread economic distress, fueled by an agricultural crisis … and of increasing tension between the French Canadian majority, and the British minority, which was rapidly growing through immigration” (Buckner, “Rebellions of 1837,” 1550). 69 Letter from Rev. James Geggie to Carslaw, 2 September 1839. 70 Ibid. 71 Ibid. 72 “John Clugston was ordained by the [Church of Scotland] Presbytery of Glasgow and sent to Quebec city in 1830 by the [Glasgow Colonial] Society … He returned to Scotland in 1848 and joined the Free Church” (McDougall and Moir, Selected Correspondence, xxxiv). 73 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 20 February 1840: sp, January 1841, 19. The letter was published a year after it was written. 74 rp Synod of Scotland minutes, 1840, in sp, June 1840, 336. 75 Carslaw to J. Geggie, 1 July 1840. Geggie Papers. 76 Bates to J. Geggie, 19 August 1840. 77 Carslaw to J. Geggie, 1 July 1840. Geggie Papers. Geggie’s first letter was written 13 October 1837, the second 11 October 1838, the third 2 September 1839. 78 Carslaw to J. Geggie, 1 July 1840. Geggie Papers. 79 Bates to J. Geggie, 19 August 1840. 80 rp Synod of Scotland minutes, 1841, in Reformed Presbyterian 3 (November 1841): 274. 81 Couper, The rp Church in Scotland, 115. 82 “Rev. James Geggie ministered … traveling on foot and carrying his coat on his arm in the hot days of summer” (Crombie, “Early History of Presbyterianism,” 108). 83 “Geggie, James. 1793–1863.” 84 “Geggie, James,” in Wilson, Presbyterian Historical Almanac, 371. 85 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 27 March 1843: sp, September 1843, 238. 86 “Geggie, James,” in Wilson, Presbyterian Historical Almanac, 371. 87 “Geggie, James. 1793–1863.” 88 Brockville Presbytery minutes, 4 February 1863. Geggie Papers. 89 See below, chapter 17.

334

notes to pages 142–8

90 Philip Choinière-Shields, “Covenanters Target Montreal,” 1992, 16.

cw,

December

chapter ten

1 More, Aurora Borealis, 13. 2 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions in connection with the rp Church of Scotland, May 1834,” Scottish Advocate 1 (1832–1834): 411. 3 First Report of the Missionary Society in connection with the rp Church of Scotland, adopted February 28, 1833, 2. 4 See above, chapter 9. 5 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions,” 411. 6 Quoted in “Second Report of the Committee on Missions,” 411. 7 “Second Report of the Committee on Missions,” 412. 8 “Letter to James McLachlan,” Scottish Advocate 1 (1832–1834), 415. The McLachlans sailed on 17 July 1833. 9 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 35–7. 10 McDougall and Moir, eds., Selected Correspondence, 10. 11 Letter to Mr John King, Glasgow, 21 June 1823. 12 See above, Introduction. 13 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 36. 14 “Reformed Presbyterians in Canada,” sp, March 1835, 26. 15 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 37. 16 Ibid., 38. 17 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 17 April 1834: Scottish Advocate 1 (1832–1834), 471–2. 18 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 2 January 1835: sp, May 1835, 45–6. 19 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 17 April 1834, 476. 20 Ibid., 472. 21 Ibid. Shields says simply, “McLachlan organized anew” (“The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 38). Another witness has McLachlan “re-organizing them into a congregation” (“Reformed Presbyterians in Canada,” 26). 22 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 17 April 1834, 472. 23 Ibid., 473. 24 Ibid. 25 Lanark hamlet was within Lanark Township; the township was part of Lanark County. 26 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 17 April 1834, 475. 27 Ibid. 28 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 13 May 1834: sp, January 1835, 15. 29 Ibid., 16.





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notes to pages 148–53

335

Ibid. “Reformed Presbyterians in Canada,” 27. More, “Almonte rp Church,” 6. “Extract from a Letter,” sp, March 1836, 135–6. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 25 November 1835: sp, May 1836, 152. Ibid., 153. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 3 January 1837: sp, July 1837, 295. McLachlan was reporting retrospectively. “Letter from James McLachlan,” 3 January 1837, 295. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 15 February 1837: sp, September 1837, 308. “Diary,” 5 January 1835. Ibid., May 1837. Skelton, A Man Austere, 167. Ibid., 170. “Letter from James McLachlan,” 15 February 1837, 309. Ibid. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 2 November 1837: sp, March 1838, 37. Ramsay session minutes, 29 August 1937, quoted in Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 69. Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 69. Ibid. More (“Almonte rp Church,” 13) concluded that James Rae became a justice of the peace in Ramsay in 1839, and that William Moir filed a lawsuit: thus both men, by swearing an oath in civil matters, were correctly subjected to Covenanter discipline. “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 69. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 20 February 1839: sp, September 1839, 219. rp Synod of Scotland minutes, May 1840, sp, June 1840, 336. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 29 March 1842: sp, January 1843, 47. Ibid. rp Synod of Scotland minutes, sp, September 1843, 230. “Missionary to Upper Canada,” sp, March 1843, 88–9. Report of the Synod’s Committee on Foreign Missions, July 9th, 1845, 2. Ibid., 2–3. “Mission to Canada,” sp Magazine, June 1849, 204. Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 70. Quoted by More, “Almonte rp Church,” 15.

336

notes to pages 153–9

61 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 70. 62 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1853, in Reformed Presbyterian 17 (July/August 1853): 147. 63 Particulars of the journeys are in the letters or extracts. Details may well have been excluded when published. Again, not every letter may have been published: a report about a trip to western Upper Canada in the fall of 1846 was not. 64 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 15 February 1837, 309. 65 Glasgow, History, 596–8. 66 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 15 February 1837, 310. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 69 Ibid., 309. 70 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 20 February 1839, 219. 71 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 15 February 1837, 309. 72 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 20 February 1839, 219. 73 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 25 December 1839, 359. The Guelph society was formed on 28 August 1839. 74 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 149, dates the year of formation of the Toronto society as 1838. 75 Probably in 1841. 76 The Hamilton society was formed on 27 October 1847: “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 17 January 1848: sp, June 1848, 571. 77 In the Scots rp Church, the Testimony refers to the rp Testimony of 1761, which contested the claim of the Seceders to be the true representatives of a covenanted Second Reformation; the New Testimony of 1839 expounded the same principles with a more moderate tone (Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology, 817). McLachlan’s would likely be the 1761 Testimony. 78 McLachlan went to Rochester again in 1841: “Letter from James McLachlan,” 29 March 1842, 46. 79 Glasgow, History, 645. 80 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 3 January 1837, 295. 81 Ibid. 82 Glasgow, History, 534–5. 83 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 27 March 1843: sp, September 1843, 239, 240. 84 Ibid., 240. 85 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 15 March 1838, 139. 86 Ibid., 140. 87 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 25 December 1839, 360. The congregation was organized on 22 September 1839.



notes to pages 159–62

337

88 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 20 February 1839, 219. 89 McKeachie, Thomas, “Cameronian Fasti,” in Robb, ed., Reformed Heritage, 18. 90 Ibid. 91 rp Synod of Scotland minutes, November 1842, in sp, January 1843, 40. 92 “Missionary to Upper Canada,” sp, March 1843, 88. 93 rp Synod of Scotland minutes, 1 July 1844. 94 “Report of the Missionary Committee,” rp Synod of Scotland minutes, sp, September 1843, 230. 95 sp, January 1844, 343. 96 “rp Missions,” sp, May 1844, 439. 97 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 16 September 1844: sp, March 1845, 88. 98 Ibid. 99 Ibid., 89. 100 Report of the Synod’s Committee on Foreign Missions, July 9th, 1845, 1. 101 “rp Synod of Scotland,” sp, September 1845, 226. 102 “Letter from James McLachlan,” 16 September 1844, 88. 103 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 7 November 1845: sp, January 1846, 328. 104 McLachlan, John, “Cameronian Fasti,” in Robb, ed., Reformed Heritage, 19. 105 “The Rev. John McLachlan,” rp Magazine, December 1870, 462. 106 Foreign Missions of the rp Church in Scotland, 1846–7, 5. 107 Ibid. 108 “Missionary for Canada,” sp, November 1846, 563. 109 Ibid. 110 Foreign Missions of the rp Church in Scotland, 1846–7, 6. 111 After McKeachie’s death, Rev. James McLachlan “made an annual visit to the societies lying to the westward as he was wont to do” (Foreign Missions of the rp Church in Scotland, 1846–7, 5). 112 Quoted in Foreign Missions of the rp Church in Scotland, 1846–7, 7. 113 “Letter from the Rev. John McLachlan,” 20 May 1847: sp, October 1847, 315–16. 114 Ibid. 115 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 17 January 1848: sp, June 1848, 571–2. 116 Ibid. 117 “Report of the Committee on Foreign Missions,” rp Synod of Scotland minutes, 1848: sp, June 1848, 569. 118 “Letter from the Rev. John McLachlan,” 20 February 1849: sp Magazine, May 1849, 158.

338

notes to pages 162–5

119 “Report of the Committee on Foreign Missions,” rp Synod of Scotland minutes, 1850: sp Magazine, June 1850, 613. 120 Ibid. 121 Gregg, History of the Presbyterian Church, 558–9. Gregg acknowledged that “for most of our particulars respecting Mr. McLachlan, we are indebted to his son, Mr. Archibald McLachlan, merchant, Toronto.” 122 Quoted by Gregg, History of the Presbyterian Church, 559. 123 Another option was put forward by Rev. James Neill. Neill, an Irish-born American minister, under the aegis of the Lakes Presbytery, crossed the St Clair river and established a Covenanter community at Morpeth and Elgin Settlement, near Chatham, Ontario, in the early 1850s (Glasgow, History, 193; James Neill, “Canada Mission,” The Covenanter 8 [May 1853]: 307). Aware of the Scots mission in western Upper Canada, a mission that lacked sufficient resources to maintain itself, Neill suggested that the American and Scots synods jointly foster a western Upper Canada mission. His suggestion was but partially transmitted to the American synod (“Report of the Presbytery of the Lakes,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1853, in The Covenanter 8 [June/July 1853]: 329). The suggestion came to naught. 124 Quoted by Gregg, History of the Presbyterian Church, 559. 125 Ecclesiastical and Missionary Record for the Presbyterian Church of Canada, September 1851, 169. 126 “Appeal in Behalf of the Funds of the rp Church,” sp Magazine, April 1851, 113. 127 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1851, in rp and Covenanter 15 (July–August 1851): 135. 128 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 25 November 1835: sp, May 1836, 154. 129 Healey, From Quaker to Upper Canadian, 39. 130 “Report of New York Presbytery Scale of Supplies,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1862. 131 “A Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” Shields’s account has been largely followed by More, Aurora Borealis, and Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light. 132 Shields, “A Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 133 The present Lochiel rp church, built in 1871, is on Brodie Road, off Route 23 between Dalkeith to the north and Glen Robertson to the south. Where the Brodie Road meets the corner is often referred to as “Brodie” or “Brodie’s Corner.” Neither “Brodie” nor “Brodie’s Corner” are now official names: see Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 2; and MacMillan, Butternuts and Maple Sugar, 67.



notes to pages 165–9

339

134 Shields, “Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” Milligan “made missionary visits to scattered families of emigrants in Upper and Lower Canada” (Reformation Principles Exhibited, 167). 135 Glasgow, History, 599–600. 136 Ibid., 239–40. 137 Ibid., 729–30. 138 Shields, “Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 139 Glasgow, History, 417–18. 140 Shields, “Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 141 Ibid. 142 “Report of New York Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1855. 143 Shields, “Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” Actually Montgomery “connected with the Presbyterian Church, June 10, 1862”: Glasgow, History, 638. 144 “Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 145 See above, chapter 1. 146 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1856. This was the first time the congregation was mentioned in synod minutes. 147 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1862. 148 Shields, “Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 149 “Report of Rochester Presbytery Statistics,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1866. 150 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1867. 151 Shields, “Sketch of the rp Church in Eastern Ontario.” 152 More, Aurora Borealis, 33. 153 “The Church in Canada,” rp and Covenanter 10 (November 1872): 342. 154 See below, chapter 12.

chapter eleven 1 Vaudry, The Free Church in Victorian Canada, xiii. 2 Quoted in Careless, Brown of the Globe, 1, 21. 3 Moir, Enduring Witness, 101. 4 Grant, Divided Heritage, 52. 5 See above, chapter 3. 6 See above, chapter 4. 7 Moir, Enduring Witness, 104–5. 8 Moir, Johnston, and McLelland, No Small Jewel, 39. 9 Moir, Early Presbyterianism in Canada, 180–1. 10 Vaudry, The Free Church in Victorian Canada, xv. 11 Ibid.

340

notes to pages 170–3

12 “Commission of Rochester Presbytery,” Reformed Presbyterian 15 (December 1851): 318. 13 Ibid. 14 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 71. 15 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1855, in The Covenanter 10 (June–July 1855): 333. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 152, dates the installation 19 October 1854. 16 Glasgow, History, 626. 17 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 107. 18 “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 9 (July 1854): 371. 19 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 71. 20 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1856, in The Covenanter 11 (June–July 1856): 332. “The last record in the minutes of Session of Carleton Place, in the handwriting of Rev. James McLachlan, bears date Oct. 19, 1854. At the meeting of the Presbytery, October 1855, McLachlan received and accepted a call from the congregation of Lisbon, N.Y.” (Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 107). 21 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 107. 22 A tombstone marks the grave: “Rev. James McLachlan, / Died / Nov. 19, 1864; / Aged 67 y’rs.” And “Christiana, / wife of / Rev. James McLachlan. / Died / Oct. 19, 1865; / Aged 70 y’rs. / Formerly From Scotland / Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. / They do rest from their labours and their / works do follow them.” 23 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 107. 24 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 152. Glasgow’s History, 626, dates the resignation 11 April 1856. 25 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 107. 26 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 107–8. 27 Then in Lisbon, McLachlan was scheduled to supply “two Sabbaths, at his own convenience” at Ramsay in 1858: “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 13 (July 1858): 345. 28 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 109. 29 Ibid., no. 152. 30 Ibid., no 92. 31 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1861, in Reformed Presbyterian 25 (July–August 1861): 217. 32 Glasgow, History, 662–3. “From July 1862 until his death in 1871, Scott laboured within the bounds of Rochester Presbytery.” 33 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 108. 34 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 22; More, Aurora Borealis, 31. 35 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 108.



notes to pages 173–5

341

36 “Rochester Presbytery,” rp and Covenanter 1 (July–August 1863): 231. 37 Centennial Anniversary of the Almonte Congregation of the rp Church, 1961. 38 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1865, in rp and Covenanter 3 (July–August 1865): 208. 39 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 22. 40 “Letter from the Rev. John McLachlan,” 20 May 1847: sp, October 1847, 316. 41 “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 13 (July 1858): 346. 42 Glasgow, History, 446–7: Samuel Bowden was installed pastor of York, Livingston County, ny, 31 December 1846, and resigned this charge 21 November 1876. 43 “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 15 (June 1860): 310. Therefore Galt becomes disorganized ca 15 November 1860. 44 This 1846 unrecorded trip is the only way to make sense of John McLachlan’s 1847 writing: “The society at Oneida was organized last summer by Rev. James McLachlan” (“Letter from John McLachlan,” 20 May 1847, 315). Moreover, “since the lamented decease of Mr. McKeachie, [Rev. James McLachlan] has made an annual visit to the societies lying to the westward … as he was wont to do” (Foreign Missions of the rp Church in Scotland, 1846–7, 5). 45 “Letter from John McLachlan,” 20 May 1847, 316. 46 “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 17 January 1848: sp, June 1848, 571. 47 “Rochester Presbytery,” Reformed Presbyterian 17 (November 1853): 282. 48 Glasgow, History, 554–5. Johnson was pastor of the Toronto congregation, installed there on 4 November 1852. 49 Glasgow, History, 586. McCullough was licensed in 1852, though not ordained until September 1855. 50 “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 9 (July 1854): 371. 51 Glasgow, History, 537–8. At this time Henderson, under Rochester presbytery, was preaching in various societies, especially in Upper Canada. 52 “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 10 (December 1854): 145. 53 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1855, in The Covenanter 10 (June–July, 1855): 333. 54 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1856, in The Covenanter 11 (June–July 1856): 332. 55 “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 13 (July 1858): 346. 56 Glasgow, History, 648. Pollock had been licensed on 18 April 1860; he was ordained one year later. 57 “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 15 (June 1860): 309. 58 17 October 1860: Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” 121. 59 “Rochester Presbytery,” rp and Covenanter 17 (November 1853): 282. 60 Ibid.

342



61 62 63 64

65 66 67 68 69 70 71

72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85



86 87 88 89

90 91 92 93

notes to pages 175–9

Glasgow, History, 537. Couper, The rp Church in Scotland, 109. Glasgow, History, 537. Joseph Henderson, “Cameronian Fasti,” in Robb, ed., “Reformed Heritage,” 13. Glasgow, History, 537. “Report of the Committee on Presbyterial Reports,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1853. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 151. Ibid. Glasgow, History, 538: “Henderson preached in Hamilton and other parts of the Dominion, and died in that city August 10, 1872.” “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 9 (July 1854): 371. “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1856, in The Covenanter 11 (June–July 1856): 332. “Rochester Presbytery,” The Covenanter 13 (July 1858): 346. The Hamilton mission was disorganized ca September 1858. Glasgow, History, 426. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 149. Glasgow, History, 554. Ibid. “Obituary [of Robert Johnson],” Our Banner 7 (March 1880): 94. “Rochester Presbytery, Toronto,” The Covenanter 8 (December 1852): 147. “Iowa Presbytery,” Our Banner 6 (October 1879): 327. “Rochester Presbytery, Toronto,” The Covenanter 8 (December 1852): 147. “The Congregation in Toronto,” Reformed Presbyterian 17 (March 1853): 32. Ibid. Careless, The Union of the Canadas, 1841–1857, 198. Johnson, Introduction, The Absurdities of the Popish Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. “Obituary [of Robert Johnson],” 95. Toronto, March 1855. “The British Colonies,” Monitor, April 1854, 270. Glasgow, History, 554. Johnson subsequently became minister in Vernon, wi; then, in 1868 minister of Kossuth, ia , where he died 27 July 1879. James Wallace, “Letter [from Toronto],” rp and Covenanter 14 (March 1876): 92. The letter was dated 15 December 1875. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 149. Healey, From Quaker to Upper Canadian, 39. Grant, Divided Heritage, 54.



notes to pages 180–2

343

chapter twelve





1 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 22. 2 Glasgow, History, 670. 3 Contraband was a term commonly used during the American Civil War to describe a new status for certain escaped slaves or those who affiliated with Union forces. When escaped slaves went to Union lines they were classified as contraband. Union officers refused to return them to their Confederate masters. The former slaves set up camps near Union forces where they received support with daily living and the education of both adults and children. 4 “Letter from Robert Shields,” rp and Covenanter 1 (January 1863): 20–2. 5 Glasgow, History, 670. 6 “The Church in Canada,” rp and Covenanter 10 (November 1872): 372. 7 “Rochester Presbytery Statistics,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1865, in rp and Covenanter 3 (July/August 1865): 246. 8 “Report of the Committee on the Death of the Rev. R. Shields,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1884, in rp and Covenanter 4 (July/August 1884): 221. 9 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 109. 10 A.M. Milligan, quoted in “The Late Rev. Robert Shields,” Our Banner 10 (October 1883): 338. 11 J.R.W. Sloane, quoted in “The Late Rev. Robert Shields,” 339. 12 “The Late Rev. Robert Shields,” 336. 13 Shields, “The Church in Canada,” 372. 14 Shields, “Biblical Doctrine of the Way of Salvation,” Our Banner 6 (October 1879): 306–15; “Criticism on I Tim. 3:16,” rp and Covenanter 9 (November 1882): 374–5. 15 Shields, Tribute to Caesar (1872) and The Watchman’s Word (1874). 16 Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay, Canada.” Unfortunately, the session and congregational minutes upon which his history of Ramsay was based have largely disappeared. 17 Shields, “A Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 18 Shields, “The Church in Canada,” 372. 19 A.M. Milligan, quoted in “The Late Robert Shields,” 335–6. 20 Shields spoke and wrote about temperance frequently. In 1864 the passage of the Dunkin Act in the United Province of Canada allowed any municipality to prohibit the retail sale of liquor by majority vote; in 1878 this “local option” was extended to the whole Dominion under the Canada Temperance Act, or Scott Act. 21 “Death of the Rev. R. Shields,” Almonte Gazette, 31 August 1883.

344

notes to pages 182–5

22 Carleton Place Herald, 6 June 1866: “Preaching may be expected at Bennie’s Corners on Sabbath, the 10th June … The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper will be dispense on Sabbath, the 17th of June, at the Stone Church on the 8th Line. Fast day on Thursday the 14th” (Quoted in More, “Almonte rp Church,” 22). 23 Shields, “Sketch of the rp Church in Eastern Ontario.” 24 More, Aurora Borealis, 31. 25 Ramsay rp Church Session minutes, 7 January 1876, x; More, Aurora Borealis, 31. 26 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 24. 27 Shields is buried in the Auld Kirk Cemetery, Almonte. Mrs Elizabeth Shields, who died 5 December 1921, is also buried there: Auld Kirk Cemetery Records. 28 The tiny congregation of 19 in 1865 had become 41 at the time of Shields’s death: “Rochester Presbytery Statistics,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1883, in rp and Covenanter 21 (July/August 1883): 274. 29 Thompson, Sketches, 63. 30 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1888, in rp and Covenanter 36 (July–August 1888): 224. 31 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 25. 32 “The Austere Cameronians of Almonte,” Ottawa Journal, 8 December 1951. 33 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 6 January 1890. 34 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 15 March 1890. 35 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 6 January 1890. 36 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 15 March 1890. 37 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 23 August 1890. 38 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 6 January 1890. 39 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 23 August 1890. 40 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 26. 41 “Almonte’s Seventh Church,” Almonte Gazette, 20 November 1891. 42 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation minutes, 23 August 1890. 43 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 26. 44 Ibid. 45 Holliday, “History of the R.P. Congregation, Almonte, Ont.,” cn, 2 March 1892, 11. 46 Ibid. 47 “Report of the Board of Sustentation,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1892, in rp and Covenanter 30 (July–August 1892): 247. 48 Ramsay rp Church, Congregation Minutes, 30 May 1892. 49 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1897. 50 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 26.



notes to pages 185–8

345

51 Coleman supplied at Mansfield, oh, and at Topeka, ks. In 1905, he left the rp Church. He died in California, 18 April 1945: Thompson, Sketches, 62. 52 See Appendix C: Covenanter Mission Stations and Congregations in Canada at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. 53 Rev. G.M. Robb, “Communion at Almonte,” cn, 11 July 1906, 10–11. 54 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1908. 55 Robb, “Testimony Bearing in Almonte, Canada,” cn, 22 September 1909, 16. 56 Ibid. 57 Robb, “Star Note,” cn, 8 February 1911, 10. 58 Almonte rp Session minutes, 1 October 1911. 59 Almonte rp Session minutes, 30 October 1911. 60 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1915. 61 See above, chapter 5. 62 Cornwallis rp Church, Minutes and Records. 63 Donald McCune, phone conversation with author, 8 August 2008. Donald McCune, born in 1916, lives in Somerset, pa . 64 See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. 65 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 11 January 1919: “William Edward Rose, Sarah Dorothy Rose, Margaret Evelyn Rose, and Elsie Effie Rose, presented themselves for admission.” 66 Pritchard, Soldiers of the Church, 83. 67 “Almonte, Ont.,” cn, 11 February 1920, 10. 68 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 6 January 1917. 69 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 16 June 1917. 70 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 26 June 1920. 71 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 27. 72 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 7 February 1920. 73 Thompson, Sketches, 201; see below, chapter 14. 74 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1862, in The Covenanter 17 (July–August 1862): 350; Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 179. 75 “Rochester Presbytery,” rp and Covenanter 1 (July–August 1863): 231. 76 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 179. David Scott, born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1794, and educated in theology there, came to America in 1829. He was installed pastor at Rochester in 1844, serving until July 1862 (Glasgow, History, 662–3). 77 Toronto congregation minutes, 12 September 1864. Toronto rp Church papers.

346

notes to pages 188–90

78 Indenture, dated 27 August 1866. Toronto rp Church papers. The procedure was later subject to a court challenge; the challenge was lost (Humphreys et al. v. Hunter in Van Koughnet, Reports of Cases decided in the Court of Common Pleas, 456–67). 79 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 179. 80 “Rochester Presbytery,” rp and Covenanter 9 (December 1871): 371–2. 81 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1872, in rp and Covenanter 10 (July–August 1872): 224; Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 223. 82 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 223. 83 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1873, in rp and Covenanter 11 (July 1873): 224. 84 James Wallace, born in Ireland in 1810, came to America as an infant with his parents. He served as minister in Illinois for 27 years. In 1867, he accepted an appointment as Secretary of the National Reform Association, and he spent the next ten years travelling throughout the country proclaiming the principles of Bible civil government (Glasgow, History, 710). It was during his labours with the National Reform Association that Wallace came to Toronto. 85 “Report of Central Board of Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1876, in rp and Covenanter 14 (July 1876): 246. 86 “Letter,” rp and Covenanter 14 (March 1876): 92. 87 Ibid. 88 Ibid., 92–3. 89 “Report of Central Board of Missions,” 246. 90 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1875, in rp and Covenanter 13 (July 1875): 228–9; Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 223. 91 More, Aurora Borealis, 15. 92 That year, the congregation is listed as having 3 elders, 7 families, and 22 communicants: “Rochester Presbytery Statistics,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1867, in rp and Covenanter 5 (July/August 1867): 234 93 As noted, Shields authored “A Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 94 Macmillan, The Kirk in Glengarry, 269. 95 Shields, “A Historical Sketch of the rp Congregation of Lochiel.” 96 Ibid. 97 “Sketch of the rp Church in Eastern Ontario.” 98 Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 13. 99 Ibid. 100 “Lochiel L.M.S.,” Our Banner 16 (May 1889): 159. Mrs Katie Jamieson, secretary, sent in the report.



notes to pages 191–4

347

101 “Rochester Presbytery,” Our Banner 16 (November 1889): 392. 102 Allen returned to Grove City, pa . He never accepted another congregation. Engaged as a scholar and occasional preacher, he died in Grove City, 13 March 1921: “The Late Dr. R.C. Allen,” cn, 20 April 1921, 2. 103 See Appendix C: Covenanter Mission Stations and Congregations in Canada at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. 104 Thompson, Sketches, 61–2. 105 David Steele “spent … his life in an isolated Church connection”: Glasgow, History, 689. 106 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1898. 107 “Death of Rev. Chas. Clyde,” cn, 25 December 1901, 4. 108 Clyde, “Lochiel, Canada,” cn, 21 February 1900, 14. 109 “Rev. Charles Clyde,” cn, 11 December 1901, 14. 110 P.P. Boyd, “Rochester Presbytery,” cn, 20 April 1904, 19. 111 Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 14. 112 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1906. Robb held pastorates in New York, Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois; he died in Illinois 14 May 1848: Thompson, Sketches, 282–3. 113 Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 14. 114 See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. 115 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1928, 39. Latimer moved to Olathe, ks. He died there, 14 July 1939: Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 108.

chapter thirteen

1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11

D. Carson, Transplanted, 65. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1911. cn , 17 January 1912, 8. Rev. B.M. Sharp, “Church Letters: Content Mission,” cn, 18 May 1910, 9. Dick Randall, “History of Wood Lake District,” in Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 1069–70. Red Deer Advocate, 2 June 1911, 4. W.C. Allen, “Content, Alberta, Canada,” cn, 5 November 1913, 10. Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 19 May 1922. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1922, 34. Alice (Kitchen) Campbell, “Campbell, Clark and Margaret,” in Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 1073; “Late Clark Campbell,” Delburne Progress, 7 September 1917. Campbell, “Campbell, Clark and Margaret,” 1073.

348

notes to pages 194–8

12 Jean Campbell Sibbald, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, letter to author, 5 May 1994: Sibbald Papers. 13 “Late Clark Campbell.” 14 “Penhold, Alberta,” cn, 22 May 1908, 2. 15 “Central Board of Missions Report,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1907. 16 “Content, Alberta,” cn, 12 September 1906, 13. 17 Ibid. 18 “Central Board of Missions Report.” 19 “From the Far Northwest,” cn, 27 February 1907, 12. 20 E.M. Elsey, “The Covenanters of the Red Deer Country,” cw, 16 March 1938, 174. 21 Ibid. 22 J.C. McFeeters, “The Covenanter Church at Delburne,” cn, 5 November 1924, 10. 23 “Content, Alberta, Canada,” cn, 6 November 1907, 11. 24 J.C. McFeeters, “Delburne Church,” cn, 19 November 1924, 9. 25 “Central Alberta, Canada,” 10. 26 Delburne Progress, 2 August 1912. 27 Content rp Church, Session minutes, 12 May 1917. 28 “Content, Alberta,” cn, 21 April 1920. 29 Delburne rp Church, Session minutes, 26 April 1924. 30 Ella Lowry, wife of Cameron Campbell (son of pioneer Clark Campbell) went to the Covenanter church, but “my mother [n]ever joined the Covenanter Church” (Sibbald, letter to author, 24 May 1994, Sibbald Papers). 31 Delburne rp Church, Session minutes, 16 September 1927: “The following were received into the communion of the church, Evelyn Martin, Gordon Martin, and John Martin, Myrtle May Waddell, and Mary Isabel Brodie.” 32 W.E. Taylor, W.J. Armour, Clark Campbell, David Campbell, James Campbell, Paul Armour, “Content Mission Station, Alberta, Canada,” cn, 21 October 1908, 13. 33 “Content, Alberta,” cn, 17 March 1909, 13. 34 Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 903 35 “Roll of the R.P. Congregation, May 14, 1916,” Content rp Church, Session minutes. 36 “Roll of the R.P. Congregation, May 14, 1916,” Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 1097. 37 The Waddells’ certificate of membership is found in the Content rp Church, Session minutes, 5 May 1907. 38 “Content Congregation,” cn, 31 May 1911, 8. 39 Red Deer Advocate, 3 May 1912. 40 “Central Alberta, Canada,” cn, 18 August 1909, 10.





41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51



52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61



62 63 64 65



66 67 68 69 70

71 72

73 74 75 76

notes to pages 198–202

349

Wm E. Taylor, “Content, Alberta,” cn, 4 June 1913, 11. “Content Congregation,” cn, 19 April 1916, 12. Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 1086. Thompson, Sketches, 295. “New Covenanter Congregation,” cn, 13 April 1910, 11. Content rp Church, Session minutes, 22 March 1910. Sharp, “Church Letters: Content Mission,” cn, 18 May 1910, 9. Ibid. “Content, Canada,” cn, 25 October 1911, 11. “Content 1911,” Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 110. “Regina, Canada is a promising field calling for help”: “Report of the Colorado Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1909. T.M. Slater, “Regina, Canada,” cn, 5 July 1911, 10. See below, chapter 14. See below, chapter 15. “Committee on Discipline Report,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1917. S.M. Morrow, “Delburne, Alberta, Canada,” cn, 22 September 1915, 12. Content rp Church, Session minutes, 1 November 1917. Delburne rp Church, Session minutes, 16 April 1924. Content rp Church, Session minutes, 27 December 1917. Sharp, “Church Letters: Content Mission,” 9. “Delburne,” cw, 26 December 1934, 415. “Farewell To Dr. McFeeters At Delburne,” cn, 21 December 1927, 9: “Refreshments were served by the ladies of the congregation.” McFeeters, “Delburne Church,” 9. Morrow, “Delburne, Alberta, Canada,” 12. “In the Presbytery of Central Canada,” cn, 8 May 1918, 10. See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. Pritchard, Soldiers of the Church, 97, 99. Ibid., 107–8. “Report of Domestic Mission Conference,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1912. Thompson, Sketches, 196–7. Mary McCrory, “McConaughy, Reverend H.G. and Nancy,” in Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 471. Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 10 October 1917. H.G. McConaughy, “Facts about Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,” cn, 10 January 1917, 10. French, “In the Presbytery of Central Canada,” cn, 8 May 1918, 8. Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 30 May 1918. French, “In the Presbytery of Central Canada,” 8. Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 99.

350

notes to pages 202–7

77 “McConaughy-Campbell,” cn, 4 June 1919, 16. 78 McConaughy became minister in Hetherton, mi, in 1919 and moved to Lake Reno, mi congregation in 1925 (Thompson, Sketches, 197). 79 Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 1071. 80 G.R. McBurney, “Note,” cn, 2 February 1921, 8. 81 Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 1080. 82 David died in 1913, Clark in 1917, James in 1919: Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 208. 83 Content rp Church, Session minutes, 22 March 1910. 84 Content rp Church, Session minutes, 15 October 1919. 85 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 9 February 1922. 86 “Delburne Church,” cn, 27 August 1924, 9. 87 “Delburne Church,” cn, 5 November 1924, 10. 88 Thompson, Sketches, 197. 89 “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1928, 30. 90 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 20 May 1931. 91 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 2 August 1934. 92 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 40. 93 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 2 August 1934. 94 “Report of the Board of Home Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 3–10 August 1934, 90. 95 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 6 August 1934. 96 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1935, 35. 97 Delburne rp Church, Session minutes, 12 December 1934. 98 McConaughey went to Des Moines, ia , where he died, 8 January 1951 (cw, 31 January 1951, 778). 99 “The Covenanters of the Red Deer Country,” cw, 16 March 1938, 174–5. 100 Ibid., 174. 101 Delburne rp Church, Session minutes, 14 October 1936. 102 “The rp Church,” in Lewis and Pengelly, eds, Through the Years, 203. 103 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1942, 67. 104 For what follows I am indebted to Margaret McGruther, “A History of Calgary Meeting,” cqhj, no. 60 (1996): 11–13. 105 McGruther, “A History of Calgary Meeting,” 12. 106 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2010, 75.

chapter fourteen

1 “Our Home Mission Work,” cn, 17 January 1912, 12. 2 “Report of the Colorado Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1909. 3 Morning Leader, 30 April 1912.



4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18



19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26



27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

notes to pages 207–11

351

“[Obituary of] John Muirhead,” cn, 19 September 1917, 11. Thompson, Sketches, 295. Morning Leader, 21 August 1909 to 30 October 1909. Thompson, Sketches, 227. “Work in Regina,” cn, 18 May 1910, 16. Morning Leader, 14 May 1910; 21 May 1910; 4 June 1910. Thompson, Sketches, 30–1. At this time in his career, Allen’s ministry was under the direction of the synod’s Board of Home Missions. W.C. Allen, “Letter from Regina, Canada,” cn, 21 December 1910, 11. Ibid. Morning Leader, 3 September 1910. T.M. Slater, “Regina, Canada,” cn, 5 July 1911, 10. Morning Sun, oh, Long Branch and College Springs, ks: Glasgow, “Elders with their Official Records” in “Covenanter Record.” “[Obituary of] John Muirhead,” 11. The 1911 synod created the Pacific Coast presbytery. Regina, formerly in Colorado, was placed in the new presbytery (rpcna Synod Minutes, 1911). Actually dated later, 13 January 1914, the title states that the property, valued at $3,000, belongs to “The Trustees of the rp Church of Regina – James M. Crawford, George Chambers, Metheny Alexander and A. Woods Edgar”: Assiniboia Land Registration District, no. 209 aal . Slater, “Regina, Canada,” 10. “Impressions of Regina,” cn, 13 September 1911, 11. Paul Coleman, “Regina, Saskatchewan,” cn, 29 November 1911, 2. Thompson, “Our Home Mission Work,” 8. “Regina, Saskatchewan,” cn, 24 January 1912, 12, 13. “Regina, Saskatchewan,” cn, 17 April 1912, 11. “Regina,” cn, 17 April 1912, 11. “In Memoriam. Minute on the death of James Smith Bell, adopted by Regina Session May 13, 1912,” cn, 29 May 1912. Morning Leader, 30 April 1912. “Regina,” cn, 26 June 1912, 11. “Regina, Sask., Canada,” cn, 7 August 1912, 11. “Regina,” cn, 26 June 1912, 11. “Communion at Regina,” cn, 11 December 1912, 12. Ibid. “Report of Pacific Coast Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1913. “Regina, Canada,” cn, 19 March 1913, 10. Morning Leader, 3 March 1913. “Report of Domestic Mission Conference,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1913. cn , 21 January 1914, 5–6.

352



38 39 40 41 42

43 44 45 46 47 48 49

50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57



58 59 60 61 62 63



64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

notes to pages 211–14

A printed brochure of the activity: Alexander Papers. “Report of Pacific Coast Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1915. “Statistics for the Presbyteries,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1913 and 1915. Thompson, Sketches, 271. See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanters in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. Pritchard, Soldiers of the Church, 68. Ibid., 95, 98. Regina rp Church, Ladies Missionary and Aid Society [lms] minutes, 4 April 1918. Pritchard, Soldiers of the Church, 109. Regina rp Church, lms minutes, 4 July 1918, 3 April 1919. Unfortunately, the roll has been lost. “Regina, Canada,” cn, 26 April 1916, 10. Morning Leader, 22 July 1916: Rev. J.C. French, “The Moderator’s Sermon,” cn , 28 June 1916, 6–7. “Regina, Canada,” cn, 26 April 1916, 10. Thompson, Sketches, 118–19. “Installation of Rev. J.C. French,” cn, 23 August 1916, 11. Cited in “New Pastor in Regina,” cn, 9 August 1916, 8. “Regina, Canada,” cn, 14 February 1917, 10. Ibid. Morning Leader, 1 January 1918. Rev. J.C. French, “The Week of Prayer at Regina, Canada,” cn, 30 January 1918, 2. cn , 15 May 1918, 10. Regina rp Church, lms minutes, 6 May 1920. Regina rp Church, lms minutes, 3 October 1918 and 3 April 1919. Regina rp Church, lms minutes, 4 October 1917 and 3 January 1918. “Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1917. Covenanters from Indiana and Illinois settled at Lake Reno, and a congregation was organized in October 1869 (Glasgow, History, 349–50). Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 9 October 1917. “Presbytery of Central Canada,” cn, 31 October 1917, 10. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1918. “Regina, Sask.,” cn, 1 May 1918, 7, and “Regina, Sask.,” CN , 7 August 1918, 11. See above, chapter 13. cn , 1 May 1918, 7. “Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1914. Ibid. “Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1915.





73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87

88 89

90 91

92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103

notes to pages 214–16

353

Ibid. “Committee on Nominations,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1915. “Report of Committee on Voting in Canada,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1916. Ibid. Ibid. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1917, in cn, 4 July 1917, 5. Quoted in “Our Position on Voting in Canada,” cn, 4 July 1917, 5. Quoted in “Interesting Debate on the Canadian Question,” cn, June 1918, 5. “Interesting Debate on the Canadian Question,” 5. Ibid. Ibid. cn , 10 July 1918, 4. See below, chapter 16. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1919. They were eventually to settle in Greeley, co: cn, 1 January 1919, 9; Alexander Papers. cn , 20 August 1919, 10. Reed was installed minister of Stafford, ks, congregation on 1 April 1919, later pastoring a congregation in New Galilee, pa . He retired in 1940 and the family moved to Belle Center, oh, where Reed died on 6 May 1959 (Thompson, Sketches, 271). Crawford attended synod at Belle Centre, oh, in 1919: “Roll of Synod,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1919. A. William Edgar was appointed as one of a three-member interim commission by the Central Canada presbytery in 1919: Minutes, 6 May 1919. Regina sources note two men with the same initials and last name – A.W. Edgar. One of these was A. William Edgar, the other A. Woods Edgar. It is highly likely that the elder chosen was A. William Edgar. “Statistics of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1920, 160. “Statistics of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1921, 144. “Statistics of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1918. “Statistics of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1923, 193. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1922, 34. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1923, 24. “A Visit to Regina,” cn, 29 August 1923, 9. See above, chapter 5. See above, chapter 12. cn , 26 September 1923, 8. “Regina, Canada,” cn, 28 November 1923, 11. “The Last Solemn Journey,” cn , 27 August 1924, 5. McCune died in Wilkinsburg, pa , 16 July 1924; he was interred in the Fernhill cemetery plot of his

354

104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111

112 113 114 115

116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123

notes to pages 217–22

father-in-law, Robert A.H. Morrow, in Saint John, nb (Fernhill Cemetery Records). “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1924, 24. cn , 26 November 1924, 9. cn , 4 March 1925, 9. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1925, 33. Cited by F.E. Allen, “The Death of Rev. R.J. Dodds,” cn, 16 December 1925, 2. “Robert A.M. Steele,” cw, 12 March 1947, 176. Morning Leader, 23 June 1928, 24. Regina Land Registration District, Regina Land Titles Office, Certificate of Title, No. 195 apg. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1929, 25. Alexander Papers. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1929, 156. “Report of the Board of Home Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1935, 107. According to the report, Lutherans wished to purchase the property; there is no extant title indicating that the property was bought by them. “The church building still stands today, next to our football stadium, Taylor Field. It is now a business establishment” (Tim Novak, Archivist, Saskatchewan Archives Board, Saskatoon, email to author, 12 September 2008). rpcna Synod Minutes, 1940, 153. For what follows, I largely follow Wm J. Van Veen, “The First and Last Days of Canada’s Swarthmore,” Canadian Quaker History Newsletter, no. 27, 1980, 18–27. Sandra McCann Fuller, “Alma Gould Dale (1854–1930) Quaker Minister and Social Evangelist,” CQHJ , no. 69–70 (2004/2005): 77. Quoted by Van Veen, “The First and Last Days,” 19, 20. Quoted in “A Brief Sketch of William Ira Moore (1862–1912),” Canadian Quaker History Newsletter, no. 53, 1993, 16. Ibid. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 271. Quoted by Van Veen, “The First and Last Days,” 22.

chapter fifteen

1 Envisioned by J.S. Thompson, “Our Home Mission Work,” cn, 17 January 1912, 12. 2 “Winnipeg, Man.,” cn, 9 November 1910, 11–12. 3 “[Obituary of] S.R. McKelvey,” Winnipeg Free Press, 28 January 1950. 4 F.E. Allen, “First Impressions of Winnipeg,” cn, 8 October 1913, 11.



5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12

13 14 15 16 17



18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28

29 30 31 32 33 34 35

notes to pages 222–5

355

J.S. Thompson, “Attention Covenanters,” cn, 7 February 1912, 15. Paul Coleman, “Winnipeg, Three Cheers,” cn, 24 January 1912. “Winnipeg, Man.,” cn, 16 April 1913, 12. “Report of Pacific Coast Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1914. “Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada,” cn, 4 June 1913, 11. Charles Spurgeon was a well-known English clergyman. Reverends Josias Alexander and Dr James Dick were Irish Covenanter preachers (Loughridge, Fasti of the rp Church of Ireland, 3 and 6), while Dr Henry George was an American Covenanter clergyman (Glasgow, History, 513–14). Allen, “First Impressions of Winnipeg,” 11. Thomas Patton had served in Barnesville, New Brunswick; see above, chapter 5. “Winnipeg,” cn, 11 November 1914, 6. See above, chapter 5. “Report of Pacific Coast Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1916. D.B. Elsey, “Winnipeg, Manitoba,” cn, 8 December 1915, 13. Elsey, “Winnipeg, Manitoba,” 14. The minutes of the Women’s Missionary Society from 1915 to 1932 are not extant. S.R. McKelvey, “Winnipeg, Canada,” cn, 23 August 1916, 11. Elsey, “Winnipeg, Manitoba,” 13. “Opens Church,” Winnipeg Tribune, 17 February 1917. Ibid. “Winnipeg, Canada,” cn, 7 February 1917, 10. Cited in “Winnipeg, Canada.” “Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1917. Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 9, 10 October 1917. Boone is not mentioned in Pritchard’s Soldiers of the Church. See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. “An Appeal by the Winnipeg Session to have the Oath of Allegiance Changed,” cn, 29 May 1918, 10. Pritchard, Soldiers of the Church, 67. Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 30 May 1918. Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 30 September 1919. S.R. McKelvey, “Winnipeg, Canada,” cn, 25 February 1920, 9. “Winnipeg,” cn, 24 March 1926, 10. “Wedding at Winnipeg,” cn, 24 March 1920, 11. “Christian Education,” cn, 25 October 1922, 4–5; 1 November 1922, 4-5; 8 November 1922, 4–5. Again, “Synod’s Rules with Reference to the Granting of Certificates,” cn, 7 May 1924, 5. As well, “Giving up Masonry,” cn, 16 December 1925, 6.

356



36 37 38 39 40

41 42 43

44 45 46

47 48 49 50

51 52 53

54 55 56 57

notes to pages 225–8

The sub-title is “An Expository and Homiletical Study.” Allen, “Introduction,” 9. “Author’s Foreword,” 5. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. The articles were published simultaneously in The Presbyterian and Herald and Presbyter, of Philadelphia, pa , and later reprinted in The Biblical Recorder of New Zealand. Allen, “Author’s Foreword,” 7. “Introduction,” 15. “Winnipeg,” cn, 24 March 1926, 9, 10. Allen went to Hopkinton, ia , as pastor. He was active in the Toronto rp community in the 1930s; see below, chapter 16. Preacher, author, and churchman, he was moderator of synod in 1954. He died in Pittsburgh on 10 November 1977 (McBurney, rp Ministers, 2). “Farewell in Winnipeg,” cn, 9 June 1926, 7. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1927, 21. “In Memoriam: Frederick Francis Reade, D.D.,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1982, 129. Ibid. “Winnipeg, Canada,” cn, 13 October 1926, 11. J.C. McFeeters, D.D., “Winnipeg,” cn, 30 November 1927, 12. S.R. McKelvey had been a frequent contributor: between 1916 and 1924 he sent no less that twelve letter-communications. Semple, The Lord’s Dominion: The History of Canadian Methodism, 113. Semple cites Petty, The History of the Primitive Methodist Connexion to 1859, 40. “In Ulster, discipline was exercised in cases of excessive drinking” (Rev. Dr James Renwick Wright, Beaver Falls, pa , email to author, 5 September 1998). “The North American Synod prepared a vow [concerning abstention from alcoholic beverages], based on Scripture and on the Westminster catechisms of ages past; whereas [Ulster] had no such vow” (Rev. Dr Robert M. More, letter to author, 19 October 1998). Email to author, 13 July 1998. Galen Wilson, email to author, 18 October 1998. Galen Wilson, Dayton, oh, is a grandson of F.F. Reade. Reade, “Resumé of the Winnipeg Years.” Ruth Reade, daughter of F.F. Reade, is giving voice to her own convictions; they were undoubtedly expressed first by her father. Wilson, email, 19 August 1998: “I pass on what my father told me about [the situation]. Keep in mind that this is third hand.” Nevertheless, Wilson’s account strikes the author as essentially correct.



notes to pages 228–31

357

58 Scott’s name is listed as an elder in Reade, “Pastor’s Record Book,” July 1926 to 31 December 1928, 5: Reade Records. 59 McWilliams, one of the original elders, had moved to Regina for a time, so his eldership in Winnipeg was broken. He is recorded to have been received (back) from Regina on 27 April 1931: Reade, “Pastor’s Record Book,” 1 January 1929 to 31 December 1931, 141: Reade Records. 60 Calderwood had been received as a member (by certificate from Ballymony, Ulster) on 1 August 1928. There was “an election of elders” on 5 November 1928, and “installation of Elder” on 30 November 1928. The elder installed was probably Calderwood: Reade, “Pastor’s Pocket Record,” July 1926 to 31 December 1928, 141 and 150: Reade Records. 61 Reade, “Pastor’s Record Book,” 1 January 1929 to 31 December 1931, 190–1: Reade Records. 62 Irwin is named, along with Adams and Calderwood, in Reade, “Pocket Record Book,” 1932–1940, 13: Reade Records. 63 Madany, email to author, 13 July 1998. 64 Wilson, email to author, 19 August 1998. 65 Central Canada Presbytery minutes. 66 Later defined as twelve former members and thirteen former adherents. 67 Reade’s session consisted of Robert McWilliams, Daniel K. Calderwood, clerk John Irwin, and Joseph Adams; the non-Reade party was made up of S.R. McKelvey, Thomas Dickey, and William Scott. 68 Included among those given letters of standing were Thomas Dickey, 29 February; S.R. McKelvey, 14 March; William Scott, 14 March; Mrs Matilda McKelvey, 21 March. Reade Records. 69 “During the vacancies, some of which lasted as long as six months, Mr. McKelvey conducted both the Sabbath services without remuneration” (Rev. James Campbell, “Impressions of the Work at Winnipeg,” cw, 25 March 1936, 208). 70 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 7 June 1932. 71 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 9 June 1932. 72 “Judicial Commission,” 9 June 1932, rpcna Synod Minutes, 1932, 119–21. 73 Ibid. 74 Ibid. 75 Central Canada Presbytery minutes, 14 June 1932. 76 Trustees of the Synod of the RP Church of North America, v. Rev. F.F. Reade et al. [Trustees v. Reade] 77 “Statement of Defence of F.F. Reade,” Trustees v. Reade. 78 “Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1933, 134. 79 Reade, “Resumé of the Winnipeg Years.” 80 “Statement of Claim by the Trustees,” Trustees v. Reade.

358

notes to pages 231–3

81 Ibid. 82 The minutes of this commission have not been preserved, since the synod later declared its decisions ultra vires, and its minutes were struck from the record: “The majority of members of the commission were from the Winnipeg congregation, so were passing judgement on their own case” (“Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1933, 136). 83 The list of this twenty-five-person McKelvey group was published: “The Judicial Commission,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1932, 117. 84 There was no official listing of this party, but Ruth Reade recalls “the [Robert] McWilliams family – 5 adults; the John Irwin family – 2 adults, 3 small children; the Reade family – 3 adults, 3 daughters in early teens; Mrs. George Boal and son Tom; Dan Calderwood – an adult from the Irish R.P. Church; Sam Turton – an adult who belonged to the only R.P. congregation in England; some S.S. scholars and members of Dad’s Boy’s Club” (“Resumé of the Winnipeg Years”). 85 The total (Reade) membership, on 15 May 1932, a communion Sabbath, was given as twenty-nine: Reade, “Pastor’s Record Book,” 1932–1940, 84–5: Reade Records. 86 cw, 26 October 1932, 270. 87 Winnipeg rp Church, Session minutes, 7 October 1932. 88 Ibid. 89 Trustees v. Reade. 90 “Report of the Committee on Discipline,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1933, 132–9. 91 Ibid., 136. 92 Ibid., 138. 93 Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 235. 94 “Winnipeg,” cw, 15 November 1933, 319. 95 It was the author’s privilege to meet Rev. Hugh Wright in Ulster, some years before Wright’s death; we did not converse about the Winnipeg situation. However, I vividly recall my impression of Hugh Wright – a quiet, articulate, dignified Christian scholar and gentleman. 96 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 40. 97 Ibid., 42. 98 Reade, “Resumé of the Winnipeg Years.” It is quite possible that the Reade party had met in the same place even before being granted mission station status. Reade, “Pastor’s Rocket Record,” 1932–1940, 116–76, lists texts, sermon titles, and dates, in Winnipeg without any marked breaks in his schedule: Reade Records. 99 “Report of the Commission on Winnipeg,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 40. 100 “Report of the Board of Home Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1935, 107. 101 “Report of Pittsburgh Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1935, 30.



notes to pages 233–4

359

102 G. MacKay Robb, “Installation at Winnipeg,” cw, 20 May 1936, 335. 103 Rev. Hugh Wright, “Shinto (Or Kami-No Muchi) and Christianity,” cw, 12 December 1934, 375; 19 December 1934, 388–9. 104 cw, 24 June 1936, 411. 105 Rev. Hugh Wright, “Raising the Budget – One Way to do it – Use Centa-Meal Boxes,” cw, 5 September 1934, 146, 157. Wright also adjudicated the Covenanter witness in Regina, Saskatchewan. See above, chapter 14. 106 “Winnipeg, Canada,” cw, 8 February 1939, 93. 107 Wright went on to a distinguished ministry in the Ulster rp Church. He authored A Brief History of Colonial Mission Work; he died in 1991. 108 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 40: “Mr. and Mrs. John Irwin have removed to Scotland and will no longer be connected with the Winnipeg [Mission Station] group.” 109 Reade, “Pastor’s Pocket Record,” 1932–1940, 16–17: Reade Records. 110 cw, 9 December 1936, 383. 111 “Winnipeg Mission,” cw, 27 July 1938, 63. 112 Reade, “Resumé of the Winnipeg Years.” 113 July 1934 to September 1938: Reade Records. 114 Reade, “Pastor’s Pocket Record,” 1932–1940, 158 and 164: Reade Records. These entries show Reade preaching quite consistently in Boston beginning 5 June 1938. 115 “Report of New York Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1940, 72. From that point on, Reade’s finances and ministry took a dramatic upturn. While Reade’s ministry in Boston was quite acceptable, the climax of his career undoubtedly came in Almonte. See below, chapter 16. 116 “Report of the Iowa Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1944, 77. 117 He moderated the Session in Winnipeg for the first time, 1 March 1940: Winnipeg rp Church, Session Minutes. 118 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1940, 30. 119 Ibid., 8. 120 In the Roster of Presbyteries in 1940 and 1941, Mitchell is listed in the South China Presbytery, with an American address. Mitchell’s name appears first as stated supply at Winnipeg, with a Winnipeg address, in the 1942 Roster (rpcna Synod Minutes, 1942, 147). 121 Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 299. 122 “Winnipeg, Canada,” cw, 5 November 1947, 303. 123 Bishop, letter to author, 24 May 1994. Later, in Prince Edward Island, Bishop became a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada; he died there in December 2008. 124 Winnipeg Tribune, 28 January 1950. Among the pallbearers were Thomas Dickey, James Anderson, and Daniel K. Calderwood.

360

125 126 127 128 129 130 131

132 133 134 135 136

137 138 139 140 141 142

notes to pages 235–42

“Winnipeg,” cw, 16 November 1949, 318. Winnipeg rp Church, Session minutes, 14 May 1948. Winnipeg rp Church, Session minutes, 14 February 1950. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1951, 82. Email to author, 13 July 1998. Ibid. Winnipeg rp Church, Session minutes, 6 May 1957. Anderson died in 1979: Winnipeg Free Press, 19 November 1979. Winnipeg Free Press, 4 June 1957. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 163. “Report of the Finance Committee,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1968, 86. See above, chapter 14. Sandra McCann Fuller, “Alma Gould Dale (1854–1930) Quaker Minister and Social Evangelist,” CQHJ, no. 69–70 (2004/2005): 80. Ibid. Minutes of the Hartney Monthly Meeting of Friends, quoted in Golden Memories: A History of the Dand Community, 3. Quoted in Sandra Fuller, “Alma Dale,” CQHJ, no. 47 (1990): 17. Alma Gould Dale died in England on 29 August 1930: Fuller, “Alma Dale,” 18. Fuller, “Alma Dale,” 17. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada, 272.

chapter sixteen

1 2 3 4



5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15

Thompson, Sketches, 221. R.W. Nickerson, “Ralph Hayes McKelvy,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1975, 131. “McKelvy-Patton,” cw, 12 July 1933, 27–8. Rev. Thomas Patton had been Covenanter pastor in Barnesville, nb, 1887– 91: see above, chapter 5. Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 15. “McKelvy-Patton,” 28. W.C. McClurkin, “Witnessing in Ontario,” cw, 23 December 1931, 410. “Enter Lochiel,” cw, 3 December 1930, 385. McClurkin, “Witnessing in Ontario,” 410. [Glen Sanfield, Ontario, ca 1946]. McKelvy, The Maple Leaf Forever, 1. Ibid. See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. The Maple Leaf Forever, 6. “Glengarry Gleanings,” cw, 29 September 1937, 208.





16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24



25 26 27 28 29 30

31

32 33 34 35 36 37

38 39 40

41

notes to pages 242–4

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“Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1953, 93. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, “Lights in the Darkness,” cw, June 1987, 14. Pittsburgh, pa , 1954. Coleman, “Lights in the Darkness,” 14. “Glengarry Gleanings,” cw, 20 December 1939, 460. “Lochiel News,” cw, 25 December 1963, 45. Coleman, “Lights in the Darkness,” 13; “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1953, 93. Coleman, “Lights in the Darkness,” 13. Glengarry News, 6 December 1946; “The Lochiel Covenanter Church,” cw, 18 December 1946, 397–9. The history was made possible by a fortuitous discovery: around 1945 there was found among the records of the Almonte Covenanters a hand-made booklet, written by the late Rev. Robert Shields in 1876 and entitled “A Historical Sketch of the Lochiel Congregation in the County of Glengarry Ontario Canada under the care of the Rochester Presbytery of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.” “Lochiel, Ontario,” cw, 11 December 1946, 382. Ibid. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1968, 112. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1965, 83. “In Memoriam – Anna McKelvy,” cw, March 1987, 20. Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 16. They moved to New Mexico for health reasons. Hayes McKelvy died on 5 March 1975. In 1979, Anna moved to Pittsburgh, where she died on 7 January 1987. Both are buried in Johannesburg, Michigan. “Life on the Brodie Road as I recall it,” in MacMillan, Butternuts and Maple Sugar, 314. Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 16. St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 16 November 1984. McBurney, rp Ministers, 26–7. Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 11 December 1984. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1985, 33. Charlton was received into the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church: McBurney, rp Ministers, 27. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 28, 215. F.E. Allen, “Outlook at Toronto,” cw, 8 March 1933, 89. It was known as the Toronto rp Church, organized in 1886, largely due to the work of the Rev. Nevin Woodside of Pittsburgh, who also led the congregation into a presbytery: see Hay, The Reverend Nevin Woodside and the Pittsburgh and Ontario rp Presbytery, 15. Allen, “Outlook at Toronto,” 89.

362

notes to pages 244–7

42 Ibid. 43 Josiah D. Edgar, “Report of the Secretary of Home Resources and Young People’s Work,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1932, 144. 44 Allen, “Outlook at Toronto,” 89. 45 E.G. Russell, “Meet Toronto,” cw, 14 December 1932, 382. 46 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1933, 41. 47 Ibid. 48 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 20. 49 J.C. Matthews, “Toronto on the Way,” cw, 18 November 1936, 335. 50 “Report of the Board of Home Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 90. 51 “Toronto, Canada,” cw, 4 October 1933, 223. 52 “Toronto,” cw, 20 June 1934, 399. 53 Josiah D. Edgar, “Report of the Secretary of Young People’s Work and Home Resources,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 26. 54 Matthews, “Toronto on the Way,” 335. 55 Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 249–50. 56 “Report of Philadelphia Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1934, 19. 57 “Report of Philadelphia Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1935, 29. 58 “Toronto,” cw, 6 March 1935, 159. 59 “Toronto Mission Station,” cw, 29 June 1936, 79. 60 John O. Edgar, “A New Congregation,” cw, 14 October 1936, 255. 61 “Toronto,” cw, 26 May 1937, 334. 62 “Toronto, cw, 15 February 1939, 109. 63 James Marks, “Toronto,” cw, 12 April 1939, 237. 64 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1939, 48–9. 65 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1940, 76. McConachie became pastor of the congregation at Stafford, ks, in September 1939. 66 “Report of the Board of Home Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1940, 48. 67 “Toronto,” cw, 28 February 1940, 171. 68 McBurney, rp Ministers, 98. 69 Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 104–5. 70 Toronto rp Church, Session minutes, 15 October 1941. 71 Toronto rp Church, Session minutes, 12 January 1942. 72 Toronto rp Church, Session minutes, 31 August 1942. 73 Toronto rp Church, Session minutes, 18 January 1943. 74 Kilpatrick terminated his services as stated supply at Toronto on 1 February 1943: “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1943, 76. Kilpatrick served as chaplain, pastor, and author, compiling the Memorial Record of the Service of American Covenanters in World War II . He died in Pittsburgh, 2 April 1990 (McBurney, rp Ministers, 90).



notes to pages 247–9

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75 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1945, 81, 107. 76 Toronto rp Church, Session minutes, 29 April 1945. 77 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1946, 126. McConachie ministered in Santa Ana, ca ; in 1954 he was released to join the United Presbyterian Church in North America (Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 250). He died in Santa Clara, ca , 16 February 1965 (Santa Clara Journal, 24 February 1965). 78 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1947, 127. 79 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1948, 71. 80 “Roster of Presbyteries,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1949, 167. 81 More, Aurora Borealis, 15. 82 Samuel Rutherford Wallace, retired Syracuse minister, served in Almonte as stated supply from August 1921 until his death on 22 January 1922: Thompson, Sketches, 346. 83 Thompson, Sketches, 288–9. 84 “Statistics of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1922, 1937. 85 Almonte rp Church, Congregation minutes, 9 June 1936. 86 Almonte rp Church, Congregation minutes, 21 June 1924. 87 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 16 November 1929. 88 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 22 November 1930: “Kenneth McCune Thom, Elizabeth Grace Burns, Kenneth Allen MacGregor and Harold MacGregor … were admitted to the full privileges of the church.” 89 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 15 August 1934. 90 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 30 September 1926. 91 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 14 May 1930. 92 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 31 March 1930. 93 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 19 June 1930. 94 Ibid. 95 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 18 September 1935. 96 “Almonte,” cw, 1 December 1937, 349. 97 Almonte rp Church, Congregation minutes, 9 November 1937. 98 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1937, 106–7. 99 “St. Lawrence Presbytery,” cw, 24 May 1939, 332. 100 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1939, 105: “In taking this oath I make no mental reservation. I am a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and I declare that I owe a supreme allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in making that declaration I take the same God as my witness, invoking his assistance to help me to render due obedience to my country in all temporal matters. And I do further declare that I do not know of any matter in which I intend actual disobedience to any command of my country now known to me.”

364

101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110

111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118

119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130

notes to pages 249–51

McBurney, rp Ministers, 106–7. F.F. Reade, “Memorial,” in Smith, Covenanter Ministers, 121. Wilbur J. and Minnie M. McBurney, “Almonte,” cw, 3 May 1939, 285. McBurney, rp Ministers, 107. See Appendix B: Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1941, 91. “Statistics of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1939 and 1946. In 1939 there were fifty tithers, in 1946, forty-eight. Almonte Gazette, 13 January 1944. McBurney was stated supply in Eskridge, ks, in 1947. He retired in 1948, dying in Pasadena, ca , 31 July 1958; he was buried beside his wife in the Almonte Auld Kirk Cemetery (McBurney, rp Ministers, 107). See Appendix C at http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanada Appendices.pdf. More, “Almonte rp Church,” 29. See above, chapter 15. “Report of New York Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1953, 88. More, “Almonte rp Church,” 29. “A Brief Covenant Declaration of Faith,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1953, 79–80. More, “Almonte rp Church,” 29. Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 27 November 1954. Morton studied at the Reformed Theological Hall in Belfast; he was a missionary in Ethiopia. Ordained in Scotland, 25 May 1975, he is currently Covenanter pastor in Sparta, il (rpcna Synod Minutes, 2011, 283). Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 28 September 1956. Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 8 February and 18 May 1963. Reade was moderator of session at the time, though formally resigned from the congregation. Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 20 February 1962. Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 22 October 1960. Almonte, Ontario: rp Church 1961. Almonte Gazette, 17 August 1961. Ibid. “Almonte,” cw, 4 April 1962, 222–3. Properly called the Human Rights charter, 1960, promulgated when the Hon. John Diefenbaker was Canada’s prime minister. “Report of the Oath Committee,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1962, 94. “Report of Committee on Political Dissent,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1960, 24. “Report of the Oath Committee,” 95.



notes to pages 251–2

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131 Almonte Gazette, 11 June 1959. The first pastor serving in a Canadian congregation so honoured was Saint John’s Rev. A.J. McFarland, honoured by Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1894; the second was Cornwallis’s Rev. Thomas McFall, honoured by Geneva College, in 1928. 132 “The highest office of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America,” Almonte Gazette, 23 June 1960. Reade was the third Canadian Covenanter pastor to be elected moderator; the first was Saint John’s Rev. A.J. McFarland in 1894 and the second Rev. Thomas McFall, of Cornwallis, in 1907. 133 Almonte Gazette, 21 June 1962. 134 Frederick F. and Mabel S. Reade, “A Grateful Acknowledgement,” cw, 12 December 1962, 383. 135 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1963, 99. 136 In the spring of 1969, the Reades attempted to move from Almonte to the rp Home in Pittsburgh. Their visas not arriving, the Reades went to Edmonton to live with their daughter and son-in-law. Mrs Reade died in the city in January 1970; she is buried in Beechmount Cemetery, Edmonton. Rev. Reade also died in Edmonton later, in 1981; he is also buried in Beechmount Cemetery (Galen Wilson, email to author, 18 August 2008). 137 Later, More earned a PhD in Adult and Occupational Education from Kansas State University (McBurney, rp Ministers, 140–1). 138 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1964, 63. Due to citizenship and ownership of personal goods, he ministered for a time as stated supply; finally, on 15 April 1964, More was installed as Almonte pastor. 139 McBurney, rp Ministers, 141. 140 Almonte Gazette, 23 May 1974. 141 7 December 1965. 142 Moir, A History of Biblical Studies in Canada, 94. 143 “Spring Meeting of Northern Presbytery,” rp Advocate 30 (June 1896): 218. 144 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 4 October 1969. 145 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1966, 91. Those appointed were F.F. Reade, retired Almonte minister; Robert M. More, Almonte pastor; Mrs W.R. White, Almonte laywoman; and R.H. McKelvy, Lochiel minister. 146 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 107–9. 147 “Have we forgotten our historic Grand Pre, and Cornwallis congregations in Nova Scotia? What about Barnesville, New Brunswick – which, like Grand Pre, transferred to join us?” Mention is made of Winnipeg, just recently disorganized; Regina, with a building yet standing. Is Toronto merely a corpse, or does a feeble spirit yet pulsate there?

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notes to pages 252–6

148 The coming of Rev. James Milligan of Ryegate, vt, to Ramsay in 1830 is the founding date mentioned. 149 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 109. 150 Pittsburgh, 1967. 151 See especially chapter 11. 152 More identifies Thomas McFall (1928) and F.F. Reade (1960); to these should be added A.J. McFarland (1894). 153 Miss Ruth Reade, missionary in Cyprus, is also named by More: Reade was not, however, a missionary from the Canadian congregation at Winnipeg. 154 Other clergy are named by More, but only two meet his Canadian bar – Canadian natives ministering in Canada – Robert Sommerville and Joseph Howe Brownell. 155 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 72. 156 More’s disapproval had a Canadian background: he recalled 1848, when Clarke’s Chignecto congregations joined the (New School) General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America (see above, chapter 2; see also Hay, Chignecto Covenanters, chapter 4). More argued that the majority decision of the 1967 synod would likewise “result in a degeneracy in both faith and practice” (rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 71). 157 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 70. 158 McBurney, rp Ministers, 141. 159 Almonte Gazette, 23 May 1974. 160 McBurney, rp Ministers, 141. More moved to Denison, ks. He followed a varied career, though not as a pastor, working in Denison and Topeka, ks. He moved to New York state in 1993, where he now lives. 161 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1977, 77. 162 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 11 March 1977. 163 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 9 November 1979. 164 See above, chapter 1. 165 Delivuk, The Doctrine and History of Worship, 116. 166 “The Lord’s Supper is to be administered only to those communicant members … in some true branch of the visible church … Those who seek to commune, but are not under the care of the session, must be examined ” (rpcna Synod Minutes, 1977, 75–6). 167 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 7 September 1977. 168 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 5 March 1987. 169 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 5 December 1985. 170 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 11 December 1980. 171 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 11 January 1978. 172 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 10 January 1984. 173 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 6 April 1982. 174 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 5 January 1982.



notes to pages 256–9

367

175 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 6 December 1982. 176 Almonte Gazette, 3 December 1980. 177 Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 6 November 1984; “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1985, 33.

chapter seventeen









1 The history of the rp Church in the United States in this period has yet to be written. For what follows I am deeply grateful to two persons: Rev. Kenneth G. Smith, Beaver Falls, pa , and Dr Wayne Spear, Gibsonia, pa . Smith is a widely known retired pastor; Spear, also retired, taught systematic theology at rpts for decades. 2 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 72. 3 Ramsey, “The Forward Movement and an evaluation of its evangelistic efforts,” 1. 4 Ibid., 2. 5 Ibid., 6. Cited with approval is Finney’s tract, A Spiritual Awakening, Selections from the Life and Lectures of Charles Finney, 1900. 6 Formed in 1942, its mission “is to extend the kingdom of God through a fellowship of member denominations, churches, organizations, and individuals, demonstrating the unity of the body of Christ by standing for biblical truth, speaking with a representative voice, and serving the evangelical community through united action, cooperative ministry, and strategic planning.” See http://www.nae.net/ (26 March 2009). 7 See above, chapter 14. 8 See above, introduction. 9 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1890. 10 Ken Smith, email to author, 27 October 2008. 11 See above, chapter 16. 12 “The implication of the Oath of Allegiance in Canada,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1947, 131–3. 13 Winnipeg session dealt with the matter of the oath, in the soldier Boone situation, 1917. See above, chapter 15. 14 There was a minor Canadian counterpart. Almonte’s clerk of session, W.J. Burns, “was instructed to get in touch with Dr. Blair M.P. for Lanark County with regard to revising of the Constitution of Canada and by whom this would be done” (Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 2 March 1951). 15 “I joined a few other Covenanters on a visit to Washington to observe how such lobbying was done and how it was received. It was very enlightening. No one we talked with was even slightly interested in such an amendment” (Smith, email to author, 27 October 2008). 16 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 52, 76.

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17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25

26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

39 40 41 42

43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

notes to pages 259–65

See above, chapter 16. Smith, email to author, 21 March 2009. Ibid. Delivuk, The Doctrine and History of Worship, 116. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1977, 14. Thompson, Sketches, 343–4; McBurney, rp Ministers, 203. Cited in Thompson, Sketches, 344–5. McBurney, rp Ministers, 203–4. He received a dd from Geneva College in 1952. He died 8 June 1983. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1975, 115. For the beliefs of the Council, see http://www.naparc.org (26 March 2008). Wm B. Eerdmans, 1988. Duncan and Carol Lowe, “Review,” cw, October 1988, 17. Pittsburgh, 1991. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1991, 123, 130. See above, chapter 1. Report of the Committee to Study the Role, 102. Ibid., vi. “Statistics of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1976, 179. rpcna Synod Minutes, 1967, 109. St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 12 October 1977. St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 28 March 1978. K. McBurney, “Beginning History of Ottawa Congregation.” Rev. Ed Robson, email to author, 28 October 2008: “The Ayers’ interest in the rp church generated my interest in Canada.” See above, chapter 2. Ayer became the administrator of Brookdale Farm, a children’s home and farm, at Wakefield, Quebec. He retired in 1993: Aubrey Ayer, emails to author, 4 and 5 December 2008. St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 3 October 1978. St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 6 December 1978: “Rev. McBurney reported on the bible study meeting at the Ayers on Dec the first.” K. McBurney, “Beginning History of Ottawa Congregation.” Ibid. Don Millar and David Ayer, “History of the rp Church of Ottawa.” K. McBurney, “Beginning History of Ottawa Congregation.” Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 7 July 1980. Almonte rp Church, Session minutes, 13 January 1981. Ibid. St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 8 October 1980. K. McBurney, “Beginning History of Ottawa Congregation.” St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 27 May 1981.



notes to pages 266–8

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53 Ganz’s radical disagreement with psychoanalysis was later encapsulated in a 1993 book, Psychobabble: The Failure of Modern Psychology and the Biblical Alternative. 54 The L’Abri communities – Reformed and evangelical Christian – are study centres in Europe, Asia, and America where individuals have the opportunity to seek answers to questions about God and the significance of human life. 55 “The Revival of a Rebel Jew: The Testimony of Richard Ganz,” http://www.rpcottawa.org/testimony.php (4 August 2001). 56 New Rochelle, ny: Arlington House, 1978. 57 McBurney, rp Ministers, 63–4. 58 “Pastor to be officially installed,” Almonte Gazette, 1 October 1980. 59 Christian Adjemian, “O Canada! Reclaiming Christ’s dominion from sea to sea,” cw, November 1988, 4. 60 “The Perth work began … Outreach began in Alexandria but failed” (Millar and Ayer, “History of the rp Church of Ottawa”). 61 Rowe went to Syracuse where he was ordained and installed associate pastor of the rp congregation: McBurney, RP Ministers, 172. 62 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1988, 25. 63 At the service, Ganz announced his new status as a Canadian citizen, to the spontaneous applause of the congregation. 64 Adjemian, “O Canada! Reclaiming Christ’s dominion,” 4. 65 “The Origin and Features of OTH,” http://www.rpcottawa.org/oth/ history.php (3 January 2009). 66 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1982, 57. 67 Harold Harrington, “Ottawa Theological Hall,” cw, November 1988, 9. 68 Ibid. See Ayer, “Ottawa Theological Hall Library.” 69 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1989, 23. 70 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1990, 24. 71 “Ottawa Theological Hall, as well as the Ottawa rp Church, as well as the Almonte rp Church exist, by the grace of God, as answers to the prayers of many godly people in Almonte” (Rev. Ed Robson, email to author, 13 January 2009). 72 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1995, 17; McBurney, rp Ministers, 64. 73 “Steering Self-Help Seekers in a New Direction,” rp Witness, September 2008, 8. 74 “The Mission of the oth within the rpcna ,” http://www.rpcottawa.org/ oth/mission.php (3 January 2009). 75 James Aiken Hughes was born 12 July 1924, in Lima, oh. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1949. Studying at Faith Seminary in Elkins, pa , Hughes obtained bd and mst degrees. In 1955, he was ordained

370



76 77 78 79

80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88

89 90 91

notes to pages 268–71

a minister of the Bible Presbyterian Church. He earned a doctorate from the University of Glasgow in 1962, with a specialty in Semitic languages and Old Testament studies. Coming to Canada late in 1962, he taught at Toronto Bible College. In 1981, the family moved to Ottawa (email, Mrs Joyce Hughes to author, 15 December 2008). In Ottawa, Hughes joined the rp congregation (Almonte rp Session minutes, 27 May 1981). The Hughes returned to Toronto in 1985. Dr Hughes died in 2007 and Mrs Hughes in 2009. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 230. Smith, email to author, 1 December 2008. Ibid. “Report of Ottawa Theological Hall to St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1997, 196. Smith, “oth Prospectus, February 1999,” 2. Perth/Smiths Falls, Kingston, and Toronto had been sites of earlier missions, but there was little awareness in Ontario of these previous rp efforts. Robert Sommerville had received his theological training in Belfast, Joseph Howe Brownell in Philadelphia. A room was rented in a Perth United Church; on making the arrangements, Ganz, a minister of the rp Church, was told, “You used to own this building” (Christian Adjemian, telephone conversation with author, 2004). “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1990, 24. Adjemian became a Canadian citizen in 1999: Adjemian, email to author, 25 February 2009. McBurney, rp Ministers, 1. Richard Ganz, “Total Commitment,” cw, August 1988, 12, narrates the steps leading to Adjemian’s conversion. For an earlier nineteenth-century Covenanter declaration and decision about Roman Catholic baptism, see chapter 1 above. A twentieth-century Covenanter study of Roman Catholic baptism was conducted in the 1980s and reported to Synod in 1985. “We uphold the present practice of requiring baptism of Roman Catholic converts seeking entrance into the rpcna .” However, a special resolution was subsequently adopted which said, among other things, that “While raising very serious questions about the validity of Roman Catholic baptism, the report does not definitely declare that it is invalid … Synod declares that its decision is for the general guidance of our sessions, and is not to be regarded as the inviolable rule of the church” (rpcna Synod Minutes, 1985, 42, 52). McBurney, rp Ministers, 1. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 31. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 234.



notes to pages 271–4

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92 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 38. 93 Adjemian became pastor of the rp church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2000. In July 2009, he returned to Canada as Dean and Professor of Biblical Studies at Farel faculté de théologie réformée, Montreal, Quebec. Later, suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, he died on 26 August 2011: “In Memoriam,” rp Witness, March/April 2012, 28. 94 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1990, 24. 95 McBurney, rp Ministers, 69–70. 96 “Roster of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1992, 197. 97 Millar and Ayer, “History of the rp Church of Ottawa.” 98 Adjemian, email to author, 9 December 2008. 99 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1993, 28. “Matthew Hadwen is fine, and is now a member of the Russell congregation”: Adjemian, email to author, 9 December 2009. 100 John McGrath, “Daughters of the St. Lawrence,” cw, June 1998, 12–13. 101 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1997, 29. 102 McGrath, “Daughters of the St. Lawrence,” 13. 103 Ibid. 104 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1997, 29. 105 Stringer, “Bancroft rp Church,” cw, February 1998, 16. 106 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 36. 107 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2003, 32. 108 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2004, 36. 109 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1997, 195. 110 “‘Church Plant’ is a more or less informal name given to a Covenanter group which is trying to commence a mission. It normally begins with a nucleus of interested persons in an area. The presbytery or congregation calls a minister to oversee the work which everyone hopes (and prays) will become a fully organized congregation in the future”: John Mitchell, Pittsburgh, email to author, 28 January 2009. 111 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 132. 112 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 36. 113 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 35. 114 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 32. The venue was also called Ontario Bible College: in 2003 the official name became Tyndale University College and Seminary. 115 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 235. 116 Ibid. 117 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2002, 29. 118 Joey Bagulia, “A Child’s View of Planting a Church,” cw, November 2005, 8.

372

119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129

130 131 132 133 134 135

136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149

150 151 152 153 154 155

notes to pages 274–9

“Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2007, 13. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2007, 37. St Lawrence Presbytery minutes, 8 April 2008. A reformed denomination emanating from the Netherlands. Ernst van der Meer, “God’s faithfulness continues through all generations,” cw, April 2006, 11. McGrath, ”Daughters of the St. Lawrence,” 13. Ibid. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 39–40. “Russell, Ont.,” cw, February 1998, 16. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 29. This denomination, brought originally to the United States and Canada by immigrants from the Netherlands, is not a member of naparc. Matt Kingswood, email to author, 11 December 2008. Kingswood, emails to author, December 2008. cw, April 1999, 21. van der Meer, “God’s faithfulness,” 11. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2007, 10. Tim Bloedow, “Russell Church moving … from Mother Teresa Annex to École St-Joseph,” Villager, 28 January 2009. “Reflections on Church Planting.” Ibid. Psalm 38.31b “Cush will stretch out her hands to God.” “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2002, 26. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2004, 26. “Report of the Foreign Missions Board,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2005, 80. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2006, 23. Ayer, email to author, 31 March 2009. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 64. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1997, 195. “Almonte, Ont., rpc ,” cw, November 1997, 19. Ibid. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 30. Kevin and Carol Shaw, “Almonte rpc prepares to mark its 175th Anniversary,” rp Witness, June 2005, 17. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 30. Courtney Wilkinson, email to author, 26 January 2009. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2002, 29. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2003, 34. Ibid. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2004, 29–30.



156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188

notes to pages 279–83

373

“Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2005, 25. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 34. Wilkinson, email to author, 26 January 2009. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2011, 61. Choinière-Shields, “Hudson/St-Lazare rpc writes history in Quebec,” cw, July/August 2001, 8. In Quebec, there was an awareness of original rp efforts. Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 3. Choinière-Shields, “Hudson/St-Lazare rpc writes history,” 8. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1993, 46. The Montreal mission was never officially disorganized – that witness was gradually absorbed into the Lochiel rp, thence to the Hudson/St-Lazare congregation. Quoted in Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 52. “Hudson/St-Lazare rp Church,” rp Witness, September 2005, 5. Ibid. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1995, 17. Choinière-Shields, “Hudson/St-Lazare rpc writes history,” 8. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1997, 28. John McMillan, born in Iowa in 1922, had a long career as pastor, retiring in 1992: McBurney, rp Ministers, 130–1. Choinière-Shields, “Hudson/St-Lazare rpc writes history,” 8. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 35. “Hudson/St-Lazare rp Church,” 5. Ibid. Choinière-Shields, “Hudson/St-Lazare rpc writes history,” 8. Cited by Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 52. Choinière-Shields, “Hudson/St-Lazare rpc writes history,” 8. Ibid., 8–9. “rp Pastor ordained and installed in Quebec,” cw, November 2001, 19. “Hudson/St-Lazare rp Church,” 5. Courtney Miller, email to author, 15 December 2008. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2006, 59–60. “Hudson/St-Lazare rp Church,” 5. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2007, 38. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 32–3. Tim Bloedow, Russell rp member, ran unsuccessfully for the Christian Heritage Party in the Glengarry/Prescott/Russell riding in the 2004 federal election: Globe and Mail, 28 June 2004. A new congregation, Shelter, in Edmonton, Alberta, was received into St Lawrence presbytery and by synod in 2010: rpcna Synod Minutes, 2010, 75.

374

notes to pages 283–92

189 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 230. 190 “Roster of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 379. 191 As an example: “Thousands of Canadian Pro-Life Advocates Attend March for Life,” rp Witness, June 2008, 4. 192 The total membership is 6,572: “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 62. See Table 3. 193 “Covenant of Church Membership,” The Constitution of the rpcna . 194 “Testimony,” The Constitution of the rpcna . 195 “Contemporary Perspectives on Sexual Orientation: A Theological and Pastoral Analysis,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2011, 86–131. 196 Adjemian, “O Canada! Reclaiming Christ’s dominion,” 4–5. 197 Ibid., 4. 198 “Our Churches in Canada,” cw, November 1988, 7. 199 Andrew Schep, “New Life North of the Border,” Semper Reformanda, Fall 1995, 144–56. 200 Adjemian, “O Canada! Reclaiming Christ’s dominion,” 6. 201 Schep, “New Life North of the Border,” 151–2. 202 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2008, 30. 203 Globe and Mail, 25 October 2006. 204 rp Witness, December 2007, 25. 205 http://www.acpeq.org/en/cle_pourquoi_en.html (15 April 2009). 206 “Quebec Jesuit school wins fight to teach ethics from religious perspective,” Globe and Mail, 21 June 2010. 207 Ayer, “Training of Pastors and Church Planting.” 208 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2010, 76 (italics added). 209 Bloedow, “Russell Church moving.”

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Index

abortion, Covenanter opposition to, 255, 266, 287–8, 291 Adjemian, Rev. Christian Jean, 287; pastorate in Perth, 270–1, 279, 282 Alberta, Covenanters in, 193–206 passim alcohol, Covenanter attitudes toward, 24–5, 241, 250; issue in Winnipeg schism, 227–8 Allen, Rev. Frank Emmet, 244: pastorate in Winnipeg, 222, 224–6 Allen, Rev. Robert Cameron; pastorate in Lochiel, 190–1 Almonte, on, Covenanters in, 4, 9, 146, 172–3, 180–8, 184, 239, 247–56, 277–8, 283 Aurora Borealis (More), 253, 261, 265, 267, 290 Ayer, Aubrey, 262, 262–3, 265, 268, 276 Bancroft, on, Covenanters in, 272–3 baptism, 270; Covenanter view of, 28, 44, 104–5, 110–11, 113 Barnesville, nb, Covenanters in, 75, 77–90 Bell, Elder James Smith, 207–10 Bell, Rev. William, 145, 150, 218 Bible, Covenanter attitudes toward, 20–1, 252, 254, 285–6 Boyd, John, 62, 67, 124

“Brodie Church.” See Lochiel Brownell, Rev. Joseph Howe, 123, 253 Calkin, John Burgess, 23, 56, 100–1, 124, 126 Cameron, Rev. Robert Allen: pastorate in Lochiel, 190–1 Campbell, Clark, 194–5, 197, 202 Carleton Place, on, Covenanters in, 171–2 Carslaw, Rev. John, 134, 136–8, 140 Central Canada presbytery, 199, 204, 213, 224, 233 Charlton, Rev. Mark King: pastorate in Lochiel, 243, 279–81 Choinière-Shields, Philip, 142, 279–80 church government, 17–19, 285 Clarke, Rev. Alexander, 3, 31–46, 58–60, 63, 77; votes in 1836 Nova Scotia provincial election, 39–40, 43, 45 Clyde, Rev. Charles: pastorate in Lochiel, 191 Coleman, Rev. Eusebius McLean: pastorate in Almonte, 183–5 communion season, 18, 27–9, 65, 145, 148, 160, 207–8, 246 Confederation, centenary of (1967): Covenanter perspectives, 252–4, 261–2, 282 Content/Delburne, ab, Covenanters in, 193–201, 203–5

394

index

Cornwallis Reformed Presbyterian Church (Grafton, ns), 51, 47–57, 110–18 “Covenanter Church” (Grand Pré, ns), 49, 113, 115, 126 Covenanter foreign mission strategy, 6–9 Covenanters: in Canada, 3–10; Canadian membership, 1977– 2007, 284 (table); in Scotland and Ireland, 11–14. See also under Canadian geographic names Cush4Christ. See Sudan, Canadian Covenanter mission to Dale, Alma (née Gould), 219, 236–7 Delburne, ab. See Content/ Delburne, ab Dickey, Robert McGowan, 38, 40 Duncan, William: memoirs, 27–8 Dyck, Rev. Matthew Henry: pastorate in Almonte, 277–8, 283 eastern Lower Canada, Covenanters in, 128 (map) eastern Upper Canada, Covenanters in, 144 (map) Edmonton, ab, Covenanters in, 201–2, 289 Elsey, Rev. David Bruce: pastorates, in Saint John, 75–6; in Winnipeg, 223–4 episcopacy, Covenanter attitude toward Anglican, 11–12, 25, 85 evangelical movement (American), influence of on Covenanters, 257–8, 270, 286 evolution, teaching of opposed, 285–6, 288–9 Ewing, Elder Robert, 14, 26–7, 58–9, 70, 120–1 Explanatory Declaration. See oath-taking

Forsyth, Rev. William, 46–7, 50, 53, 55 fraternal organizations, Covenanter attitude toward, 20–1, 187–8 Free Church, 9, 67; impact on Covenanters, 168–70, 290 French, Rev. John Calvin Boyd: pastorate in Regina, 201, 211–15 Galt, on, Covenanters in, 161, 173–4 Ganz, Rev. Richard Lewis, 264, 264, 287; pastorate in Ottawa, 265–9 Ganz revival, 269, 282–3, 287–92; Ganz revival model, 269–70, 290–2 Geggie, Rev. James, 133–42; joins the Kirk, then the Free Church, 141 Glengarry, on. See Lochiel Glengarry County, on, Covenanters in, 164–7, 178–9 Gould, Alma. See Dale, Alma Grafton, ns, Covenanters in. See Cornwallis Reformed Presbyterian Church Hadwen, Rev. Matthew Nelson, 282; pastorate in Kingston, 271–2 Hamilton, on, Covenanters in, 175–6 Henderson, Rev. Joseph: pastorate in Hamilton, 175–6, 178 homosexuality, Covenanter opposition to, 286, 291 Horton, ns. See Wolfville Houston, Rev. Thomas, 35, 35, 42–3, 77 Hudson/St-Lazare, qc , Covenanters in, 243, 269, 280–3, 288–9. See also Lochiel



index

hymn-singing, Covenanter confined to Psalms in worship, 21–2, 47–9, 210, 212, 287 Johnson, Rev. Robert: pastorate in Toronto, 176–8 jury service, Covenanter attitude toward, 23–4 Kanata, on, Covenanters in, 263–4, 266. See also Ottawa, Covenanters in Kingston, on, Covenanters in, 154, 158–9, 271–2 Kingswood, Rev. Matthew: pastorate in Russell, 274–5, 283 Kitchener, on, Covenanters in, 269, 278–9, 283 Lanark County, on, Covenanters in, 145–53, 170–3, 180–8, 247–56 Lawson, Rev. James Reid, 25–6, 63; pastorate in Barnesville, 77–88 Lochiel, on, Covenanters in, 9, 164–7, 189–92, 239–43, 279–80. See also Hudson/St-Lazare Madany, Rev. Bassam Michael, 228, 235 Manitoba, Covenanters in, 222–38 passim Maritimes, Covenanter failure in the, 118–26 McBurney, Rev. Kenneth Arden: pastorate in Almonte, 254–6, 261–3, 277, 288, 290 McBurney, Rev. Wilbur John, 196; pastorate in Almonte, 249 McConachie, Rev. Robert: pastorate in Toronto, 245–7 McConaughy, Rev. Howard George: pastorate in Content/ Delburne, 201–4, 213

395

McCune, Rev. James, 217; pastorates: in Almonte, 186–8; in Barnesville, 88–9; in Regina, 216 McFall, Rev. Thomas, 22–3, 57, 109; pastorate in Grafton, 110–13 McFarland, Rev. Armour James: pastorate in Saint John, 70–4 McKeachie, Rev. Thomas, 133, 144, 152, 159–61 McKelvey, Elder Samuel Richard, 222–6, 228–32, 234–5 McKelvy, Rev. Ralph Hayes, 240; pastorate in Lochiel, 192, 239–43, 279 McLachlan, Rev. James, 5, 7–9, 18, 127–32, 139–41, 143–67 passim, 170–1, 180–2; missionary journeys in Lower Canada, 129 (table); in Upper Canada, 155 (table); 172 (gravestone); Scots mission model, 183, 269, 289–90 McLachlan, Rev. John, 144, 159–63; joins Free Church, 163 Meeting House, Kirk Hill (Grand Pré). See “Covenanter Church” Megantic County, qc , Covenanters in, 127–31; 133–43 Melvern Square, ns, Covenanters in, 93–8 Middleton, Rev. John: pastorate in Perth Second, 170–2 Miller, Rev. Courtney Jay: pastorate in Hudson/St Lazare, 278–9, 281 Milligan, Rev. James, 4, 4, 127, 145–6 Millstream, nb, Covenanters at, 65–6 modernism. See Bible Moncton, nb, Covenanters in, 72–3 Moore, William Ira, 219–21 More, Rev. Robert Marshall, Jr, 89; pastorate in Almonte, 251–4. See also Aurora Borealis

396

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Morton, Elder Elkanah, 53–5; trust estate lawsuit, 53–5, 57 Murray, Rev. Samuel Crothers, 19–20, 126 New Brunswick, Covenanters in, 37 (map) New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Reformed Presbytery of, 7–9, 36–9, 41–4, 109–10, 113, 122 New Creation mission station. See Kitchener New School Covenanters, 5, 16, 44–5, 123; New School/Old School distinction, 16–17 Nova Scotia, Covenanters in, 48 (map) oath-taking, Covenanter attitude toward, 58–9, 251, 258–9; Explanatory Declaration, 249, 251, 258 Old School Covenanters, 5, 16–17, 44, 123, 126; New School/Old School distinction, 16–17 Oneida, on, Covenanters in, 174–5 Ottawa, on, Covenanters in, 263–9, 287; Ottawa church missions, 270–8 Ottawa Theological Hall, 267, 267–9, 285, 292 Park, Jennie (née Hayes), 115–18 Park, Rev. Robert: pastorate in Grafton, 114–18, 126 Patton, Rev. Thomas, 223: pastorate in Barnesville, 87–9 Perth, on, Covenanters in, 150–1, 170–1, 270–1 political dissent, report of Committee on (1967), 254; Synod decision abandoning as church membership requirement (1967), 254, 282, 286, 290

Pontiac County, qc , Covenanters in, 131–3 Presbyterian Church in America, 263, 274, 285 Presbyterian Church in Canada, The: absorbs Covenanter congregations, 122–3 presbytery. See church government Quakers, 10, 21, 23–4, 26, 291; in Alberta, 205–6; in Manitoba, 235–8; in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 124–5; in Ontario, 164, 178; in Saskatchewan, 219–21 Queensville, nb. See Millstream Ramsay, on. See Almonte Reade, Rev. Frederick Francis, 226; pastorates, in Almonte, 249–51; in Winnipeg, 226–34 Reed, Rev. John Gray: pastorate in Regina, 210–11 Reformed Presbyterians. See Covenanters Regina, sk , Covenanters in, 6, 199, 207–18, 221 Regulative Principle of Worship, 20, 286 Roman Catholicism, Covenanter attitude toward, 25, 177, 270 Russell, on, Covenanters in, 274–6, 292 Rutherford, Rev. James Milton: pastorate in Almonte, 188, 247–9 Sabbath, Covenanter attitudes toward the, 24, 241, 287 Saint John, nb, Covenanters in, 3, 58–76, 67, 90 (poem) St Lawrence presbytery, 283; missions, 278–82 Saskatchewan, Covenanters in, 207–21 passim



index

secret societies. See fraternal organizations session. See church government Sharp, Rev. Byron Melancthon, 6, 198–9, 207 Shields, Rev. Robert, 14, 24, 164–6; pastorate in Ramsay, 173, 180–3, 185, 192; settled congregation model, 181–3, 185, 192, 269, 290 Simson, Letitia, 67, 121 Smiths Falls, on. See Perth society (Covenanter), 18–19 Society of Friends. See Quakers Solemn League and Covenant (Scotland), 11–13, 15 Sommerville, Rev. Robert McGowan, 55, 100–1; pastorates, in Horton and Cornwallis, 102–4; in Wolfville, 105–7 Sommerville, Rev. William, 3, 17, 31, 33, 33–46, 70, 77–8, 102, 104–5, 107, 109–11; opposition to slavery, 15, 53; pastorates in Horton and Cornwallis, 47–57; as writer, 44, 52–3 Sommerville v. Morton, 53–5, 57 South Stream, nb. See Barnesville Stavely, Rev. Alexander McLeod, 60; pastorate in Saint John, 29, 42, 59–71, 76, 79 Stewart, Rev. Robert Miller, 63, 81, 91–2, 119; pastorate in Wilmot, 93–7 Stringer, Rev. Andrew, 283; pastorate in Bancroft, 272–3 Stringer, Rev. Kiernan Jamieson, 283; pastorate in Toronto, 273–4 Stuart, Rev. Alexander Charles, 81–3 Sudan, Canadian Covenanter mission to, 276–7, 292 Symington, Rev. Andrew, 34

397

Thompson, Rev. John Slater, 5–6, 193, 207 Thompson, Rev. William Thomas Knox: pastorates in Barnesville and Saint John, 75, 88 Toland, Elder John, 73, 81, 83–4, 121–2 Toronto, on, Covenanters in, 176–8, 188–9, 239, 243–7, 254, 273–4 Vos, Rev. Johannes Geerhardus, 260–1 voting, Covenanter opposition to, 23, 26–7, 40, 186, 200, 213–15, 248–9, 258 Ward, Rev. Vince, 276–7, 283 western Canada, Covenanters in, 194 (map) western Lower Canada, Covenanters in, 144 (map) western Upper Canada, Covenanters in, 154–64, 156 (map), 173–9, 188–9 Wilkinson, Rev. Jeffrey Scott: pastorate in Kitchener, 278–9 Willson, Rev. James Renwick, 3, 38, 41, 57 Wilmot, ns. See Melvern Square Winnipeg, mn, Covenanters in, 199, 222–35, 237–8; schism in congregation, 228–32 Wolfville, ns, Covenanters in, 47–57, 104–7 women, status of, among Covenanters, 18–19, 121, 261, 285 Woodworth, Elder Elihu, 17–19, 46–9, 120 worship, 19–23, 286 Wright, Rev. Hugh: pastorate in Winnipeg, 218, 232–4

Appendices for

The Covenanters in Canada Reformed Presbyterianism from 1820 to 2012 Eldon Hay

Available at: http://mqup.mcgill.ca/CovenantersinCanadaAppendices.pdf

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston · London · Ithaca

© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2012

Appendix A Littleton Covenanters

Littleton, Maine, just across the border from New Brunswick, was also the site of Covenanter activity. “Thrifty people reside on both sides of the line between Maine and New Brunswick … tenaciously attached to Reformation principles.”1 Glasgow identifies two Maine communities, Houlton and Littleton; he does not mention Richmond, New Brunswick, also a Covenanter site. All three communities – Littleton, Houlton, and Richmond – are implied in an 1865 letter by William Sommerville.

Covenanters had been active in Littleton, Maine, from 1840, when Joseph Henderson and his wife emigrated.4 Initially and throughout Littleton’s Covenanter history, “the several members of the Henderson family and their connections, form[ed] the great majority of the membership.”5 The Hendersons came from Donegal, where they had already been Reformed Presbyterians.6 In 1847, Stavely visited the Littleton Covenanters “and preached in the neighborhood as the first minister in that whole region. The location was isolated. There being no railroads in those days, it took two days to come up the St. John river by boat to Woodstock, N.B.,” and then drive some twenty-five kilometres to the Littleton settlement.7 When more Hendersons joined Joseph, “they held fellowship meetings in each other’s houses every Sabbath”8 featuring the reading of “a sermon by Dr. [Thomas] Houston as a substitute for a discourse delivered with the human voice.”9 When death visited the community, Covenanters were buried on a part of Joseph Henderson’s farm. Soon known as the Henderson cemetery, the site “commands an extensive view of the valley and distant mountain, Mars Hill.”10 Richmond, New Brunswick, was also a venue of Covenanter activity: newly licensed Alexander Stuart was assigned to take services in that community in 1847.11 Between 1864 and 1867, pres-

By appointment of presbytery2 … I went, at the beginning of this month [June 1865], to visit a small missionary station on the borders of New Brunswick and Maine, and spent the first and second Sabbaths in the settlement [of Richmond] … We had a very hearty reception from one of the families that compose the [Richmond] Society; and after partaking of their hospitality, we crossed the lines, indicated by metal posts at short intervals, into Littleton, in the state of Maine. [There], the few Reformed Presbyterians in the district have erected a small meeting-house, yet unfinished, in which I preached … On Thursday, I preached in the residence of Mr. C– who … is now a resident near a place called Houlton.3

1 Glasgow, History, 175. 2 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 6 September 1864. 3 Sommerville, “Covenanters in the State of Maine,” Covenanter, August 1865, 254–5. 4 Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 126. 5 Glasgow, History, 176.

6 7 8 9 10

Ibid., 175. Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 124–5. Ibid., 126. Glasgow, History, 175–6. A.M. Milligan, “The Houlton Mission,” Our Banner 9 (October 1882): 346. 11 See chapter 5.



appendix a

bytery directed both Stavely and Lawson to visit Richmond, and Sommerville was there in 1865. Sommerville saw Richmond and Littleton as contiguous Covenanter communities.12 But as a venue of Covenanter witness, Richmond is last mentioned in September 1867, when Mr Stavely reported that he had fulfilled his appointment at Richmond.13 It may well be that Covenanters in Richmond found haven in the Littleton Covenanter community. Nathaniel Henderson was the last of Joseph’s brothers to immigrate to Littleton in 1861, thus completing the family circle. He bought land adjacent to Joseph’s. Soon after, the Covenanters began to build their first church – a mere “twenty-five feet square” – next to the cemetery.14 Society meetings now took place in the church: “during the winter months a prayer-meeting was held every Sabbath day in the church.”15 Society meetings were the glue that kept Littleton Covenanters together. Nathaniel Henderson became the first elder in 1869.16 Very occasionally, Littleton had visiting ministers. The Littleton mission felt the lack of clergy, in 1869 requesting presbytery “to receive larger supplies than formerly … and promising to pay travelling expenses.”17 Presbytery responded by directing Robert Stewart to visit Littleton for two Sabbaths, at his earliest convenience.18 Stewart complied “and gave such a favourable account” that presbytery made provisions for eight Sabbaths preaching in Littleton for 1870, including visits by Stavely and Lawson.19 Sommerville came again in 1872.20 Also in 1872, 12 Sommerville, “Covenanters in the State of Maine,” 255. 13 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 3 September 1867. 14 Sommerville, “Covenanters in the State of Maine,” 255. 15 “Report of the Colonial Mission for 1873,” Covenanter, August 1874, 230. 16 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 225. 17 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 11 May 1869.

3

Thomas Henderson was elected an elder, making Littleton, now with two elders, a regularly organized congregation under the care of presbytery.21 In the same year that the Covenanter congregation was organized, mainline Presbyterians near Littleton began to hold occasional services in the Foxcroft, Littleton, School. The Foxcroft venture embraced Scotch, English, and Irish Presbyterians.22 These presbyterian persons had not found a home in the Covenanter congregation. Littleton Covenanters continued to depend on the descendants of the original Ulster families. There were also some Covenanters in Houlton, Maine. In 1871, “[a] petition from a few members of the church residing in Houlton, Maine was presented, asking to be organised into a distinct Society.” Presbytery deferred a decision, notified the Littleton congregation, and asked the Houlton Covenanters if they wished to be organized separately from Littleton.23 Nothing further was heard from Houlton Covenanters; presumably they adhered to the Littleton Covenanter congregation. Until 1879, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia presbytery operated under the Irish synod; then the presbytery was aligned with the American synod. The presbytery transfer was synonymous with other changes affecting the Littleton congregation. Sommerville died in 1878; Stavely, a frequent visitor, returned to Ireland in 1879; Lawson, increasingly infirm, could not visit. In this situation, the American synod, at the urging of the presbytery, placed a student, J.A.F. Bovard, in the congregation in the summer 18 Ibid. 19 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 7 September 1869. 20 “Letters from the Missionaries: William Sommerville,” Covenanter, October 1872, 339–40. 21 Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 130. 22 Putnam, The Story of Houlton, 139. 23 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 3 May 1871.



appendix a

4

of 1879.24 The transfer of the presbytery from Irish to American synods had another effect: the congregation, known as Littleton under the Irish synod, came to be identified as Houlton, under the American.25 John Alexander Finley Bovard was born in Philadelphia in 1851 and grew up in Indiana. While a theology student at Allegheny Seminary, he went to the Houlton congregation in the summer of 1879, as indicated. Returning to seminary that autumn, he was licensed by Pittsburgh presbytery in April 1880. He then came back to the congregation as a licentiate.26 The presbytery, anxious to forward the effort, considered it advisable to ordain Mr Bovard as soon as possible.27 Bovard was ordained by the presbytery as a missionary to Houlton in July 1881.28 Bovard undoubtedly brought fresh energy to the Covenanter cause. For a few short years, the Houlton Covenanters were to enjoy a resident pastor; Bovard’s “services were acceptable to the people.”29 When a commission of synod, headed by Rev. A.M Milligan, visited the Houlton congregation in 1882, the Covenanter cause was given further impetus.30 The small church was packed for the

occasion. Questioned by one of the commissioners, the minister and elders Nathaniel and Thomas Henderson gave satisfactory answers. Two other commissioners addressed a very attentive audience. Chief commissioner Milligan was pleased with the event and saw a promising future. “There are connected with this station a large number of very interesting youth, the children of the church, who have grown up without the pastoral care, and for lack of ordinances came very near being lost to the Church; but who by a blessing of pastoral care may yet become an important element of a strong congregation.”31 In fact, as Milligan noted, a foundation for a new church – a larger structure – was already laid on Joseph Henderson’s land, adjacent to the old church and the cemetery.32 But just as the Covenanters were finishing their larger building, the Baptists were erecting a church in Littleton, in 1883.33 Moreover, Bovard left the Covenanter congregation in March 1884.34 “When Mr. Bovard left the field … Houlton had only occasional supplies.”35 Houlton lost its two original ruling elders within a year of each other, Thomas Henderson dying in 1887, and Nathaniel in 1888. The pres-

24 Lawson, “Our Church in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,” Our Banner 7 (April 1880): 124. 25 Houlton became the accepted name for the congregation. The church was indeed in Littleton, “in Littleton township, Aroostook county, Maine, five miles north of Houlton”; but the congregation was known as Houlton: Glasgow, “The Provincial Churches,” rp and Covenanter 33 (January 1885): 24. 26 Glasgow, History, 445. 27 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 28 June 1881. 28 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 28 July 1881. 29 “Report of the nb and ns Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1881. 30 See above, chapter 8. The four persons originally appointed to the commission were Revs. A.M. Milligan and D. Gregg and ruling elders W. Neely and J.A. McKee. Later, “Rev. D. Gregg and W. Neely

not being present, and Rev. A.J. McFarland having recently removed to the presbytery bounds, we pressed him into the service to act with us [Rev. Milligan and Elder J.A. McKee] in visiting the congregations as a member of the Commission”: “Report of the Commission to visit New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1883, in rp and Covenanter 21 (July/August 1883): 198. Milligan, “The Houlton Mission,” 347. Ibid. Sweet, General History of Littleton, n.p. Glasgow, History, 410. Bovard “was installed pastor of the united congregations of Oil Creek and Oil City, pa , June 12, 1884” (Glasgow, History, 446). In 1892, he withdrew from the rp church (Thompson, Sketches, 44). Bovard died in Oil City, 2 October 1934 (Oil City Blizzard, 4 October 1934). Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 131.

31 32 33 34

35



appendix a

bytery appointed a commission “to hold communion at Houlton and attend to any business that may arise.”36 In 1888, Thomas I. Henderson, son of Thomas, and Joseph Henderson, son of Nathaniel, were chosen to succeed their fathers.37 For four successive summers – 1889 through 1892 – Rev. John McLaughlin Armour, a native of Illinois, led services at Houlton.38 Armour was a mature minister39 who worked diligently, but his earnest efforts could not turn around the community. In earlier years, society meetings had sustained the congregation, but by Armour’s time, “prayer meetings had not been attempted for many years past, owing to the fact that the members of the congregation were so far separated; and also that so few of them could be induced to take any part in the services.”40 Elder Thomas I. Henderson died on 19 July 1894 at the age of fifty.41 In late 1894 and early

36 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 16 October 1888. 37 Glasgow, “Annals of the nb and ns Presbytery,” 131. 38 “Report of the Domestic Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893. 39 Thompson, Sketches, 31–2. 40 Armour, “Houlton,” rp and Covenanter 30 (January 1892): 12. 41 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 303. With only one elder remaining, the congregation became technically disorganized.

1895, Rev. Robert Stewart supplied Houlton for several months.42 Stewart’s is the last ministry of which a record survives. At the end of the year “a tornado smashed the church on December 31, 1895.”43 It is highly unlikely that any Covenanter services were held after the church’s destruction, though it was not until 1898 that the presbytery declared that Houlton was disorganized.44 “High on a hill in Littleton, Maine, overlooking the Meduxnekeag River, is the Henderson Cemetery. Buried there are the remains of that valiant group who, although successfully establishing their name in this area, failed in their attempt to bring their faith, the Reformed Presbyterian, or Covenanter, to Northern Maine.”45

42 “Report of the Central Board of Missions,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1895. 43 More, Aurora Borealis, 44. 44 “Report of the Presbytery of nb and ns,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1898. 45 McQuarrie, “The Henderson Family and the rp Church,” 2.

5

Appendix b Canadian Covenanter Soldiers in War

The First World War1 Cornwallis, Nova Scotia

Hayes, David Otis Roy, Herman W. (killed in action)

Almonte, Ontario

Bowes, Edward Allan MacGregor, Charles W. Mitchell, William Morton, Thomas L. Rose, J. Frank

Lochiel, Ontario Latimer, Ross

Content/Delburne, Alberta Brodie, Andrew Taylor, Alvah L. Taylor, Lester T.

Regina, Saskatchewan

Bell, Charles2 Chambers, Charles French, John Lowry Muirhead, Alexander (killed in action) Muirhead, James3 Reed, Howard McA. Robinson, James 1 Pritchard, Soldiers of the Church. 2 Charles Bell’s name is not listed in Pritchard. But see “Regina, Sask., Canada,” CN, 4 June 1919, 16: “Our soldier boys are returning from overseas. Those who have come recently are … Charles Bell and James Muirhead … We are glad to welcome these boys home.” 3 James Muirhead is not listed in Pritchard. See “Regina, Sask., Canada,” CN, 4 June 1919, 16: “Mr.

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Boone, A.4 Hemphill, W.J. (killed in action)

The Second World War5 Almonte, Ontario

Burns, Donald Burns, William Alan MacGregor, Kenneth A. MacGregor, Melville

Lochiel, Ontario Smith, John Walter

Toronto, Ontario

Caldwell, Alex P. (killed in action) Caldwell, Robert Irwin, J. Ross Irwin, William Gordon Phythian, Kenneth Pirie, Kenneth

Winnipeg, Manitoba Dacombe, A.E. Dickey, J. Murray, R.A.

[James] Muirhead went at the beginning of the war. He was wounded twice.” 4 Boone’s name is not listed in Pritchard. But he was a soldier. See “An Appeal by the Winnipeg Session to have the Oath of Allegiance Changed,” CN, 29 May 1918, 10. 5 Kilpatrick, Memorial Record of the Service of American Covenanters in World War II .

Appendix c Covenanter Mission Stations1 and Congregations in Canada Nova Scotia Amherst

Amherst, Cumberland County, ns 2 organized, 9 November 1829 seceded, 21 April 18483 Place of Worship 1838–1848 church: corner, Church and Albion streets, Amherst Pastor Alexander Clarke, 9 November 1829–21 April 1848 Session 1829 James Armstrong 1829 Robert Cooke 1829 John Cooper 1836 James Buchanan 1836 Dickie Logan 1836 William Taylor

1845 1848 1834 1841 1848 1848

died, 26 April 1845 to General Synod rp Church removed to Goose River, ns died, 10 October 1841 to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church

Cornwallis

Somerset, Kings County, ns4 mission station organized, 1835 congregation organized, 9 January 1843 congregation disorganized, 1961 Place of Worship 1842/43  Grafton 1961–  the church – a Nova Scotia heritage property – annual service



1 2 3 4

The listing of mission stations is not exhaustive. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 87. Organized by Clarke, one of the congregations joining the General Synod, rp Church in North America in 1848. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 135. From 1902 forward, various sources are used, including Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes.

appendix c



Pastors William Sommerville, S.S.,5 June 1835–January 1843 William Sommerville, 9 January 1843–28 September 1878 Robert McGowan Sommerville, Assistant, 16 October 1861–29 September 1863 William Sproull, S.S., 1 May 1879–1 September 1879 Thomas McFall, 25 August 1881–14 January 1929 Robert Park, summer supply, 1931–1961 Session 1845 George Parker 1845 Solomon Woodworth 1850 John W. Canady 1850 Hugh Newcomb 1850 John White 1861 Gurdon A. Calkin 1869 Holmes E. Morton 1869 Samuel White ca 1902 William Parker ca 1902 James Hird ca 1902 Thomas Lawson ca 1902 John A. Newcomb ca 1902 Elihu Morton ca 1915 Nelson Morton ca 1930 Andrew Morton ca 1935 Max Eric Brydon

1870 died, 11 July 1870 1883 died, 5 December 1883 1855 died, 19 November 1855 1866 died, 30 April 1866 1860 died, 1 October 1860 1869 died, 24 February 1869 1900 died, 3 March 1900 1905 ca 1924 1919 died 1923 died 1930 died ca 1930 moved to the United States 1950 died 1961 died 1961 disorganization

Goose River

Goose River, Cumberland County, ns6 organized, 21 October 1834 seceded, 21 April 18487 Place of Worship 1834–1848  Linden Corner, Cumberland County, ns Pastor Alexander Clarke, 21 October 1834–21 April 1848 Session 1834 Samuel Angus 1834 John Cooper 1842 James Burns 1842 Alexander Ferguson

1848 1848 1848 1848

to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church

5 S.S. signifies Stated Supply. 6 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 112. 7 Organized by Clarke, one of the congregations joining the General Synod, rp Church in North America in 1848. The name Goose River was changed to Linden by Provincial Statute in 1882.

8

appendix c



Horton

Grand Pré, Hants County, ns8 organized, 5 May 1833 disorganized, 5 April 1885 Place of Worship 1833–1894  meeting house on Kirk Hill, Grand Pré (known today as the Covenanter Church) Pastors William Sommerville, S.S., 5 May 1833–March 1834 William Sommerville, March 1834–30 September 1878 Robert McGowan Sommerville, Assistant, 16 October 1861–29 September 1863 Robert McGowan Sommerville, October 1864–September 1868 Robert McGowan Sommerville, S.S., September 1868–May 1872 Thomas McFall, 25 August 1881–5 April 1885 Session 1833 Joseph C. Caldwell 1833 Capt. Elihu Woodworth 1861 Silas K. Davidson 1861 William A. McDonald 1867 William Trenholme

1864 1852 1880 1885 1879

died, 3 February 1864 died, 7 July 1852 to Presbyterian Church died, 5 April 1885 died, 10 December 1879

Wilmot

Wilmot, Annapolis County, ns9 mission station, organized by William Sommerville, 1835 congregation organized, 15 November 1852 congregation disorganized, 17 October 1889 Place of Worship 1852–1889  Melvern Square, ns Pastors Robert Miller Stewart, S.S., 4 November 1849–15 November 1852 Robert Miller Stewart, 15 November 1852–1 October 1878 Robert Miller Stewart, S.S., 10 April 1882–10 October 1883 Session 1835 David Cruikshank 1852 Daniel Morrison 1858 Hugh Kerr 1878 James Fullerton 1878 John Roy 8 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 104. 9 Ibid., no. 156.

1865 1875 1889 1883 1889

died, 15 June 1865 died, 6 May 1875 to Presbyterian Church removed to Round Hill, ns disorganization

9

appendix c



Wolfville Wolfville, ns Place of worship 1869–1873  Keen (later Prospect) Street, Wolfville, ns10 Pastor Robert McGowan Sommerville, 1869–November 1873

New Brunswick Barnesville, earlier called South Stream Upper Loch Lomond, Kings County, nb11

community and congregation called South Stream until 1869 community and congregation then called Barnesville congregation as South Stream organized, 12 April 1846 congregation as Barnesville continued in 1869 congregation as Barnesville disorganized, 1922/23 mission station, 1922/23 to 1927 mission station disorganized, 12 October 195312 Places of Worship 1846–1928  South Stream, then Barnesville, nb Pastors James Reid Lawson, 12 April 1846–17 October 1856 James Reid Lawson, 15 October 1858–4 August 1882 Thomas Patton, 26 May 1887–28 September 1891 William Thomas Knox Thompson, 27 May 1898–26 May 1905 James McCune, 7 July 1910–28 November 1911 Session 1846 Samuel Henderson 1846 Henry Sands 1850 John Curry 1860 John Parks 1860 John Toland 1879 Alexander E. Kelso 1886 William Conners 1886 William J. Curry

1855 1852 1886 1886 1886 1897 ca 1909 ca 1919

died, 28 September 1855 to Presbyterian Church died, 18 December 1886 died, 28 December 1886 died, 24 May 1886 died, 7 July 1897

10 Glasgow, History, 679. 11 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 137 and no. 305. From 1902 forward, various sources are used, including the Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes. 12 “Report of New York Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1954, 122.

10

appendix c



1899 1913

William J. Parks Thomas Barnes13

ca 1919 ca 1927

Houlton14

Littleton, Aroostock County, me15 society formed by 1840 congregation organized, 11 June 1872 disorganized, 29 July 1894 Place of Worship 1872–1894  Littleton, me Pastor John Alexander Finley Bovard, S.S., 12 April 1880–10 March 1884 Session 1869 Nathaniel Henderson 1872 Thomas Henderson 1888 Joseph Henderson 1888 Thomas I. Henderson

1888 1887 1894 1894

died, 11 February 1888 died, 11 August 1887 died, 16 May 1900 died, 29 July 1894

Jolicure

Jolicure, Westmorland County, nb mission organized, 1833 mission seceded, 21 April 184816 Place of Worship 1833–1848  Jolicure, nb Pastor Alexander Clarke, October 1833–21 April 1848

Millstream

Queensville, Kings County, nb17 mission organized, 17 October, 1847 mission disorganized, 20 October 1897

13 Reformed Presbytery of nb and ns minutes, 13 May 1913. 14 The church was situated in Littleton, me , a hamlet five miles north of Houlton. Under the Irish synod, Littleton was the name of the congregation. Under the American synod, beginning in 1879, the congregation was known as Houlton. See above, Appendix A, Littleton Covenanters. 15 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 225. 16 Organized by Clarke, the mission joined the General Synod, rp Church in North America in 1848. 17 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 141.

11

appendix c



Place of Worship 1858–1897  Queensville, nb Session 1847 Robert Elder

1897

died, 20 October 1897

Moncton Moncton, nb18

mission organized, 15 September 1885 mission disorganized, 13 April 1887 Places of Worship 1884–1887  Ruddick’s Hall, Union Meeting House, Moncton Old Presbyterian Church, Mountain Road, Moncton Session 1885 Andrew J. Millican

1887

removed to Cambridge, ma

Saint John Saint John, nb19

mission organized, 1828 congregation organized, 15 November 1841 congregation disorganized, 20 November 1920 Places of Worship 1833–1850  Wentworth Street, Lower Cove 1850–1877  Sydney and Princess streets 1879–1920  Peel and Carleton streets Pastors Alexander McLeod Stavely, 15 November 1841–26 July 1879 Thomas Alexander Henderson Wylie, S.S., 1 August 1879–1 October 1879 Thaddeus Zwingli McClurkin, S.S., 1 October 1880–1 May 1881 John Taez, S.S., 1 May 1881–1 October 1881 Armour James McFarland, 4 August 1882–20 December 1894 Charles Clyde, S.S., 1 July 1895–1 December 1895 Byron Melancthon Sharp, S.S., 1 December 1895–1 April 1896 George Robb, S.S., 1 June 1896–1 September 1896 George Patterson Raitt, S.S., 1 September 1896–1 January 1897 John Calvin Knox Faris, S.S., 1 January 1897–1 May 1897 William Thomas Knox Thompson, S.S., 1 May 1897–1 September 1897 William Thomas Knox Thompson, 26 May 1898–26 May 1905

18 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 163. 19 Ibid., no. 128.

12

appendix c



James T. Mitchell, 26 October 1905–15 May 1908 D. Bruce Elsey, 30 September 1909–22 April 1914 Melville K. Carson, student, summer 1918 Session 1828 John Armstrong 1841 Robert Ewing 1845 James Agnew 1845 David Bates 1853 George Suffern 1853 John Toland 1853 Robert Wark 1871 Thomas Maclellan 1875 Johnston Henderson 1875 Robert A.H. Morrow 1884 George Bell 1884 William G. Brown 1889 James O. Miller ca 1904 Alexander Vallance

1866 1883 1850 1847 1879 1860 1858 1887 1884 1912 1898 1900 1894 1920

died, 9 September 1866 died, 13 March 1883 died, 27 November 1850 removed to Jemseg, nb removed to Sussex, nb removed to Passekeag, nb died, 13 June 1858 removed to Topeka, ks removed to Norton, nb died, 23 March 1912 died, 12 September 1898 died removed to Chattanooga, tn disorganization

Shemogue

Shemogue, Westmorland County, nb 20 organized, 18 October 1828 seceded, 21 April 184821 Places of Worship 1828–ca 1835  church on Henry Lanchester farm 1835–1848  church on David Murray farm (now site of Pioneer Cemetery), Murray Corner Pastor Alexander Clarke, 18 October 1828–21 April 1848 Session 1828 William Anderson 1828 John Cadman 1828 William Peacock 1842 William Duncan 1842 Adam Scott

1848 1848 1848 1848 1848

to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church to General Synod rp Church

20 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 83. 21 Organized by Clarke, one of congregations joining the General Synod, rp Church in North America in 1848.

13

appendix c



Quebec (Lower Canada) Hudson/St-Lazare

St-Lazare, then Hudson, qc Bible studies begin in St-Lazare, 1993 first service in St-Lazare, 7 December 199722 Hudson/St-Lazare congregation – a successor to Lochiel, 1998/99 Places of Worship December 1997–October 1998  day care centre, St-Lazare, qc October 1998–August 2005  St Mary’s (Anglican) Parish Hall, 261 Main Street, Hudson, qc 1 September 2005–  Église Baptiste Évangélique de Vaudreuil, 90 Cité des Jeunes Boulevard, VaudreuilDorion, qc Pastor Courtney Jay Miller, 17 August 200123– Session 2001 Brian Brodie

Montreal Montreal, qc

Montreal mission station organized, 13 October 199224 mission station families worship with Lochiel congregation25 mission station on roster of St Lawrence presbytery, 200126

Ontario (Upper Canada) Almonte, earlier named Ramsay, 1861, renamed Almonte, 1892 Almonte, on 27 congregation named Ramsay organized, 14 July 186128 [1833] congregation renamed Almonte, 30 May 1892

Places of Worship 1861–1892  various, in Ramsay Township 1892–  Almonte Reformed Presbyterian Church, Almonte, on 22 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 35. 23 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2002, 63. 24 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1993, 46, and “Roster of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1993, 222: “Contact Person, Philip Choinière-Shields.” 25 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1995, 17. 26 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001. After this, the Montreal mission station is not mentioned. 27 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 180 and no. 283. 28 More, “Almonte rp Church,” 22; More, Aurora Borealis, 31.

14



appendix c

Pastors Robert Shields, 13 July 1865–death, 27 August 1883 Eusebius McLean Coleman, 9 May 1888–1 June 1900 Patterson Proudfit Boyd, 20 June 1901–25 May 1905 George M. Robb, 13 May 1908–4 June 1914 James McCune, 10 December 1914–14 September 1920 Samuel Rutherford Wallace, S.S., August 1921–22 January 1922 John Milton Rutherford, 22 June 1922–6 October 1937 Wilbur John McBurney, 2 May 1939–3 May 1946 David Ray Wilcox, S.S., 1 September 1946–September 1947 T. Richard Hutcheson, S.S., November 1947–19 October 1948 T. Richard Hutcheson, 19 October 1948–25 May [August] 1952 Frederick Francis Reade, 19 October 1954–1 October 1962 Robert More, S.S., 30 September 1963–14 April 1964 Robert More, 15 April 1964–30 June 1975 Kenneth Arden McBurney, 12 October 1976–30 September 1995 Richard Lewis Ganz, Associate Pastor, Almonte, for work in Ottawa, 8 October 1980–27 May 1981 Mark King Charlton, Associate Pastor, Almonte, for work in Lochiel, 16 November 1984–1 June 1985 Matthew Henry Dyck, 3 March 1998– Session29 1861 John Lindsay 1861 James Waddell 1867 John Orison 1871 John Waddell 1875 David Holliday 1875 David Thom 1889 James Waddell 1890 Thomas J. Bowes 1890 James M. Waddell 1899 John T. Waddell 1899 James W. Rose 1906 Thomas T. Bowes 1906 Robert S. Bowes 1925 William J. Burns 1944 James Morton 1944 Milton Bowes 1944 T. Alexander Burns 1955 William R. White 1964 W. Alan Burns 1964 Isaac McKee 1972 Thomas A. Burns 1981 James L. Morton

1867 relinquished office 1875 relinquished office 1872 died, 21 July 1872 unknown 1899 removed to Allegheny, pa 1896 relinquished office 1893 died, 28 November 1893 1939 died, 2 December 1939 1899 died, 7 April 1899 unknown 1937 died, 18 January 1937 unknown unknown unknown unknown 1983 died, 23 March 1983 1967 died, 9 October 1967 1965 died, 11 December 1965 1981 died, 1 March 1981 1974 moved to Ireland 1995 resigned 1995 resigned

29 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record”; More, “Almonte rp Church” and Rev. Matthew Dyck.

15

appendix c



1981 1996 1996 2004 2009 2009 2009

William J. Burns Thomas Burns John R. Morton Kevin Shaw Gerry de Haag Bill Lowry Bob van Noppen

16

1994/95 1998 1998 2007 moved to Ottawa

Bancroft Bancroft, on

mission church organized, 4 April 199730 mission church disorganized, 5 February 200431 Pastor Andrew Stringer, Associate Pastor, Ottawa, for Bancroft mission, 4 April 1997–2003

Carleton Place Carleton Place, on 32

organized, 10 June 1834 seceded, 25 May 1861 Missionary/Pastor James McLachlan, 10 June 1834–10 October 1855 Session 1834 David Moffatt 1843 Alexander Bain 1843 Alexander Cameron

1861 1861 1861

to Free (Presbyterian) Church to Free (Presbyterian) Church to Free (Presbyterian) Church

Galt Galt, on

society organized, ca 1841 congregation organized, 5 July 184433 congregation under care of Rochester presbytery, 1850–185134 mission disorganized, ca 15 November 1860 Missionaries James McLachlan (1841–1844)

30 31 32 33

“Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 39. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2004, 36. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 109. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 16 September 1844: sp, March 1845, 88. McKeachie was the pastor; James McLachlan assisted. 34 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1851 in Reformed Presbyterian 15 (July–August 1851): 135.

appendix c



Thomas McKeachie (1844) John McLachlan, 9 January 1847–15 September 1850

Guelph Guelph, on

society formed, 28 August 183935 congregation organized, 24 September 184136 mission disorganized, ca February 1848 Missionaries James McLachlan (1839–1844) Thomas McKeachie (1844) John McLachlan, 9 January 1847–1848

Hamilton Hamilton, on

society formed, 27 October 184737 society under care of Rochester presbytery, 1850–185138 congregation organized, 8 June 185239 mission disorganized, September 1858 Place of Worship 1851–1858  Temperance Hall40 Missionaries James McLachlan (1848–1850), John McLachlan (1848–1850) Joseph Henderson, S.S., 8 June 1852–11 April 185441 Session42 1847 Robert Menzies 1852 George Fraser

1858 1858

disorganization disorganization

Kingston Kingston, on

society formed, 21 August 183643

35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

“Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 25 December 1839: sp, September 1840, 359. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 29 March 1842: sp, January 1843, 46. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 17 January 1848: sp, June 1848, 571. “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1851 in Reformed Presbyterian 15 (July–August 1851): 135. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 151. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 15 February 1837: sp, September 1837, 309.

17

appendix c



18

congregation formed, 22 September 183944 mission disorganized, ca 15 January 1848 Missionary James McLachlan, 21 August 1836–ca 15 January 1848 Session 1839 James Glasswork45 1839 Robert Gibson46

1848 1848

disorganization disorganization

Kingston Kingston, on

mission church organized, 12 March 199147 mission church disorganized, 9 March 199348 Pastor Matthew Nelson Hadwen, 8 October 1991–20 June 1992 Session 1991 Robert Fishar

1993

disorganization

Kitchener

(New Creation), Kitchener, on 49 church plant, 2001 afternoon services begin, January 200250 morning and afternoon services begin, May 200551 congregation organized, 15 October 201052 Places of Worship 2002–2005  Forest Heights Community Centre, 1700 Queen’s Road, Kitchener 2005–  Scholar’s Hall, 888 Trillium Street, Kitchener Pastor Rev. J. Scott Wilkinson, 2001–

44 45 46 47 48 49

“Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 25 December 1839: sp, September 1840, 360. Ibid. Ibid. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1991, 16. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1993, 48. “Roster of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2002, 266; “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 29. 50 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2003, 34. 51 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2005, 25. 52 “Report of St Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2011, 61.

appendix c



Session 2008 Rob Somers

Lochiel

Glengarry County, on 53 Glengarry society formed, 1815 Glengarry congregation organized, 1846 Glengarry was name of the congregation until 1866 Congregation renamed Lochiel, 3 October 1866 congregation closed in 1998/99; moved, becoming Hudson/St-Lazare congregation, 1999 (see above) Places of Worship 1846–1966  Dalkeith, on 1866–1998  Brodie and Glen Sanford, on Pastors Robert Cameron Allen, 18 October 1887–14 May 1895 George Patterson Raitt, December 1895–ca June 1896 Charles Clyde, 8 July 1897–7 December 1901 Wilmer George Robb, 8 April 1904–5 September 1905 James Ross Latimer, 31 July 1907–11 October 1927 Ralph Hayes McKelvy, 31 May 1928–31 October 1968 Mark King Charlton, Associate Pastor, Almonte, for work in Lochiel, 16 November 1984–1 June 1985 Session 1846 John Brodie, Sr 1846 John Brodie, Jr 1846 Andrew Brodie 1860 James Brodie 1860 William Jamieson 1878 William Miller 1885 Thomas J. Brodie 1893 William F. Brodie 1904 John W. Brodie 1904 Brodie Jamieson 1914 James W. Jamieson 1914 William S. Jamieson 1929 John A. Jamieson 1942 William C. Jamieson 1945 William A. Brodie 1985 Brian Brodie

1856 1854 1900 1883 1908 1894 1893 1951 1927 1911 1944 1937 1944 1985 1985 1998

died, 3 November 1856 removed to Port Sanilac, mi died, 17 August 1883 died, 9 February 1908 to Presbyterian Church died

died died, 1 May 1944 resigned resigned elder in Hudson/St-Lazare

53 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 120 and no. 196; and Choinière-Shields, From Darkness to Light, 57.

19

appendix c



20

Morpeth Morpeth, on 54

society organized, 1852 society disorganized, 1853 Pastor James Neill, S.S., 1852–1853 Session 1852 William McClure

1853

disorganization

Oneida Oneida, on 55

society organized, summer 184656 society under care of Rochester presbytery, 1850–185157 society disorganized, 17 October 186058 Missionaries James McLachlan (1847–1850), John McLachlan (1847–1850) Session59 1846 William Cranston 1851 James Dodds

1855 1860

died disorganization

Ottawa Ottawa, on

services begin, October 1979 congregation organized, 27 May 198160 Places of Worship October 1979–Spring 1982  Kanata Community Centre, 64 Chimo Drive, Kanata, on Fall 1981–September 1983  Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Avenue, Ottawa, on September 1983–March 1990  Église St Marc, 325 Elgin Street, Ottawa, on April 1990–March 1995  Seventh Day Adventist Church, 2200 Benjamin Avenue, Ottawa, on April 1995–  Reformed Presbyterian Church, 466 Woodland Avenue, Ottawa, on

54 Glasgow, History, 193; James Neill, “Canada Mission,” The Covenanter 8 (May 1853): 307. 55 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 121. 56 “The society at Oneida was organized last summer by the Rev. James McLachlan”: “Letter from the Rev. John McLachlan,” 20 May 1847: sp, October 1847, 315. 57 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1851 in Reformed Presbyterian 15 (July–August 1851): 135. 58 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 121. 59 Ibid. 60 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1981, 40.

appendix c



21

Pastors Richard Lewis Ganz, Associate Pastor, Almonte, for work in Ottawa, 8 October 1980–27 May 1981 Richard Lewis Ganz, 27 May 1981– Andrew Stringer, Associate Pastor, Ottawa, for work in Bancroft, 4 April 1997–2003 Andrew Stringer, Associate Pastor, Ottawa, 2003–2006 Evert Matthew Kingswood, Associate Pastor, Ottawa, for work in Russell, 5 December 1997–13 October 2006 Session 1981 Aubrey Ayer 1982 James A. Hughes 1986 John F. Coombs, md 1989 Alaisdar Graham 1995 Iain Campbell 1998 Ernst van der Meer 2008 Paul Ledwell

2009 1985 1988 2006

Elder Emeritus moved to Toronto moved to Smiths Falls moved to Halifax

2006

transfer to Russell

Perth (Perth, First) Perth, on 61

services begin, 1830 organized, 29 April 1836 disorganized, 12 June 1852

Missionary/Pastor James McLachlan, 29 August 1837–12 June 1852 Session 1836 John Brown 1836 John Holliday

1852 1852

disorganization certified to Second Perth

Perth (Perth Second) Perth, on 62

services begin, 1830 organized, 12 June 1852 disorganized, 7 October 1858 Pastor John Middleton, 19 October 1954–10 October 1856 Session 1852 Francis Holliday 1852 John Holliday 61 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 115. 62 Ibid.

1858 1858

removed to Rushsylvania, oh disorganization

appendix c



Ramsay

Ramsay Township, Lanark County, Upper Canada congregation organized, 9 September 183063 congregation disorganized, 183264 Session 1830 William McQueen 1830 William Moir 1830 James Rae

1832 1832 1832

relation dissolved relation dissolved relation dissolved

Ramsay

Ramsay Township, Lanark County, Upper Canada congregation organized, 9 October 183365 [1830] congregation disorganized, 10 October 185966 Missionary James McLachlan, 9 October 1833–1845 Pastor James McLachlan, 1845–19 October 1855 Session 1833 William Moir 1833 James Rae 1833 James Waddell 1836 Andrew Given 1838 John McWhinnie 1847 Andrew McKenzie

1839 1839 1859 1859 1840 1859

relation dissolved relation dissolved disorganization to Free (Presbyterian) Church relation dissolved to Free (Presbyterian) Church

Russell Russell, on

evening services begin, 1997 morning and evening services begin, June 1998 mission church organized, 5 December 199767 congregation organized, 13 October 200668 Places of Worship 1997–January 2009 Mother Teresa Catholic School Annex, 1053 Concession Street, Russell February 2009– St Joseph French Catholic School, 1008 Russell Road, Russell 63 64 65 66 67 68

Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 92. “Letter from the Rev. James McLachlan,” 29 August 1833: Scottish Advocate 1 (1842–1834), 418. Shields, “The R.P. Congregation of Ramsay,” 36; see also Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 92. Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 92. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 39. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2007, 10.

22

appendix c



23

Pastor Evert Matthew Kingswood, Associate Pastor, Ottawa, 5 December 1997, for work in Russell69 Evert Matthew Kingswood, 5 December 1997– Session 2006 Ernst van der Meer 2009 Hank Vedder

Smiths Falls Smiths Falls, on (earlier situated in Perth)

Perth mission commenced, 27 January 1985 Perth congregation organized, 24 June 1988,70 congregation moved to Smiths Falls, 199171 Smiths Falls congregation disorganized, 200172 Places of Worship 1987–1991  McMartin House, 125 Grove Street, Perth 1991–2001  Smith Falls Reformed Presbyterian Church, 79 McGill Street North, Smiths Falls Pastor Christian Jean Adjemian 24 June 1988–19 December 1999 Session 1988 John F. Coombs, md 1999 Art Hackett

2001 2001

disorganization disorganization

Toronto Toronto, on

mission organized, 183873 mission under care of Rochester presbytery, 1850–5174 congregation organized, 27 May 185175 congregation disorganized, 13 October 1860 Place of Worship 1853–1860  church, James and Louisa streets, Toronto

69 70 71 72

“Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 40. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1988, 25. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1991, 137. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 38. “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2001, 33: “The [Smith Falls] Session petitioned presbytery for the closure of the Smiths Falls congregation. This petition was received and adopted by the presbytery … on April 17, 2001.” 73 Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 149. 74 “Report of Rochester Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1851 in Reformed Presbyterian 15 (July–August 1851): 135. 75 Glasgow, History, 426.

appendix c



Pastor Robert Johnson, 3 November 1852–17 July 1859 Session76 1851 Robert Dargwell 1851 Robert Dickson

1860 1860

removed to Port Dalhousie, on disorganization

Toronto Toronto, on77

organized, 4 August 1861 [1851] disorganized, 18 April 1869 Place of Worship 1861–1869  church, James and Louisa streets, Toronto Pastor David Scott, S.S., 1 April 1863–1 October 1866 Session 1861 Robert Dickson 1861 Joseph Gibson 1861 John Humphrey 1861 James Kerr

1868 1869 1869 1866

resigned disorganization died, 18 April 1869 relation dissolved

Toronto Toronto, on78

organized, 23 January 1872 [1861] disorganized, 10 April 1875 Place of Worship 1872–1875  church, James and Louisa streets, Toronto Session 1872 Robert Dickson 1872 Joseph Gibson 1872 Samuel Vance

1875 1875 1874

died, 10 April 1875 disorganization to Presbyterian Church

Toronto Toronto, on

mission station organized, 18 November 193279 76 77 78 79

Glasgow, “Covenanter Record,” no. 149. Ibid., no. 179. Ibid., no. 223. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1933, 88.

24

appendix c



25

congregation organized, 15 September 193680 congregation disorganized, 1946/4781 mission station dissolved, ca 194982 Place of Worship 1934  Reformed Presbyterian Church, 754 Sammon Avenue, Toronto Pastors Lic. Robert McConachie, S.S., Fall 1933–August 1934 Rev. Robert McConachie, S.S., 10 August 1934–5 April 1937 Rev. Robert McConachie, 6 April 1937–August 1939 Rev. Lester Kilpatrick, S.S., August 1940–1 February 1943 Rev. Robert McConachie, 26 January 1945–1 April 1946 Session 1936 H.N. McKay 1936 Alexander Parke 1936 John Simpson 1940 William Pirie

1946/47 died 1949 dissolution 1939 removed from roll 1943/44 died

Toronto (Living Hope) Toronto, on

mission commences, 199783 mission church organized, 25 September 199884 mission church disorganized, 14 January 200785 Place of Worship 1998–2007  Ontario Bible [later Tyndale] College, 25 Ballyconnor Court, Toronto Pastor Kiernan Stringer, 25 September 1998–14 January 2007

Alberta Delburne

Delburne (earlier called Content), Red River County, ab 80 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1937, 36. 81 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1947, 127. 82 “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1950, 109: “Toronto has four names on presbytery’s roll of church members who are not members of any congregation.” 83 “Roster of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 202; and “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1998, 36. 84 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 35; and “Report of St. Lawrence Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1999, 32. 85 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2007, 13.

appendix c



mission begins, 1906 Content congregation organized, 22 March 191086 name changed to Delburne congregation, 1922 Delburne congregation disorganized, 194287 Place of Worship 1910–1942  Wood Lake School Pastor Howard George McConaughy, S.S., 1916–1919 Howard George McConaughy, S.S., 1927–1936 Session 1910 William Armour 1910 James Campbell 1910 David Campbell 1915 Robert Mann 1915 Clarke Campbell 1915 James Ewing 1919 Robert Waddell 1919 Andrew Brodie

1913 1919 1913 1920 1917 1936 1942 1942

removed to Morrin, ab died died granted certificate died granted certificate disorganization disorganization

Edmonton (Shelter) Edmonton, ab

congregation received, 17 April 201088 Pastor Lic. Bob Hackett 2010– Session 2010 Kevin Neumann

Saskatchewan Regina Regina, sk

congregation organized, 20 May 191189 congregation disorganized, 192890 Regina mission station disorganized, ca 1931

86 87 88 89 90

“Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1910, 21. “Report of Pacific Coast Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1942, 67. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 2010, 23. “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1911. “Report of Central Canada Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1929, 25.

26

appendix c



Place of Worship 1911–1931  Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1580 Robinson Street North, Regina Pastors James Grey Reid, 9 May 1913–3 June 1915 John Calvin Boyd French, 9 August 1916–27 May 1919 James McCune, S.S., September 1923–May 1924 John R. Hemphill, S.S., January 1925–May 1925 Robert James Dodds, S.S., September 1925–November 1925 Session 1911 James Smith Bell 1911 John Muirhead 1912 Andrew Alexander 1912 Morton S. Bell 1918/19 James Crawford 1918/19 A. William Edgar 1924 J. Metheny Alexander

1912 died, 29 April 1912 1917 died, 21 August 1917 1918 removed to Greely, co 1919 removed to Byron, wa 1923/24 died 1928 to Presbyterian Church 1931 removed from roll

Manitoba Winnipeg Winnipeg, mb

mission station organized, 22 May 191391 congregation organized, 23 October 191492 congregation dissolved by synod, June 193293 Place of Worship 1914–1932  Reformed Presbyterian Church, 946 Winnipeg Avenue, Winnipeg Pastors David Bruce Elsey, 7 July 1915–30 May 1918 Frank Emmet Allen, 30 September 1919–12 February 1926 Frederick Francis Reade, 4 November 1926–1932 Session 1914 S.R. McKelvey 1914 Thomas Dickey 1914 Robert McWilliams 1914 Stewart Clydesdale ca 1920 William Scott

1932 1932 1932 1917 1932

Certificate of Standing Certificate of Standing dissolution Certificate of Standing

91 “Report of Pacific Coast Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1914. 92 “Report of Stated Clerk,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1915. 93 rpcna Synod Minutes, 1917.

27

appendix c



1928 Daniel K. Calderwood ca 1929 Joseph Adams ca 1929 John Irwin

1932 1932 1932

dissolution dissolution dissolution

Winnipeg, 1932

congregation reconstituted by synod, 6 October 193294 congregation disorganized, 195795 mission station disorganized, 1966 Place of Worship 1932–1967  Reformed Presbyterian Church, 946 Winnipeg Avenue, Winnipeg Pastors Rev. J.R.W. Stevenson, S.S., 1932–1933 Lic. Hugh Wright, S.S., 1933–1934 Rev. Hugh Wright, 1934–1939 Rev. Ernest Chalmers Mitchell, S.S., ca 1941–1945 Rev. Bassam Michael Madany, S.S., 1 November 1955–May 1956 Session 1932 S.R. McKelvey 1932 William Scott 1949 James Anderson

1950 1957 1967

died, 27 January 1950 died, 3 June 1957 disorganization

Winnipeg Mission Station, 1934

mission station constituted by synod, 1934 mission station dissolved, ca 1944 Place of Worship 1934–1944  building on Notre Dame Avenue, Winnipeg Pastor Frederick Francis Reade, S.S., 1934–1938 Session 1934 Robert McWilliams 1934 Daniel K. Calderwood

1936 1944

died disorganization

94 Winnipeg rp Church, Session minutes, 7 October 1932. 95 “Report of Iowa Presbytery,” rpcna Synod Minutes, 1957, 112.

28

Appendix d Ottawa Theological Hall Professors (1982–2009) 1 Original Faculty Dr William Edgar Dr Richard Ganz Rev. Harold Harrington Dr James A. Hughes Dr Edward Robson Dr Kenneth Smith

Later Faculty Dr Christian Adjemian Rev. Matthew Kingswood Rev. Edward Smith Dr Jonathan Watt Dr David Weir

Other Faculty (teaching on an occasional basis) Dr Jay Adams Dr Roy Blackwood Rev. William Campbell Dr Clark Copeland Dr Edward Donnelly Dr Richard Gamble Dr Jonathan Gerstner Rev. Ian Hamilton Dr John MacArthur Dr Albert Martin Rev. Marwan Qanda Rev. Andrew Quigley Rev. Andrew Schep Dr George Scipione Dr Dean Smith Dr Wayne Spear Dr Bruce Stewart Rev. Walter Swartz Rev. Derek Thomas Dr Robert Tweed Dr John White

1 The input of Aubrey Ayer, Ottawa, is gratefully acknowledged.