86 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Canadian, as woU as of tho Eastern British American Weslej'an Methodist 

 Conference.' Ile possessed a degree of scholai-ship which was more 

 exceptional in those days among the ministers of his church than it is at 

 the jyresent time when the necessity of university training is generally 

 recognized. 



V. Presbyterians. — The Presbyterians of Nova Scotia now number 

 u]>wards of one hundred and ten thousand ])ersonsand consequently i-ank 

 second among religious denominations — the Roman Catholics coming tirst. 

 They own over two hundred and sixty churches, and enjoy the services 

 of a hundred and twenty-four ministers. The first Presbyterian ministers 

 in Nova Scotia were the Huguenot missionaries who accompanied De 

 Monts in KJO-i to St. Croix and Port Royal, but this experiment did not 

 succeed and we hear no more of Calvinist ettbrts until Halifax was founded. 

 In a previous paragraph I have referred to the establishment of old St. 

 Matthew's and to the growth of Presbyterianism among the New England 

 people, who gradually withdrew from the Congregational forms peculiar 

 to the old colonies. When St. Matthew's became the property of the 

 Church of Scotland the following clergymen officiated within its walls 

 for half a century : Reverend Messi-s. Russell, Brown, Gray, Knox, Rcnny, 

 and Scott. The first presbytery of the Church of Scotland was formed 

 in 1833 bv an act of the legislature. As early as 17G9 there was built in 

 Lunenburg a German Presbyterian or " Dutch Calvinistic" church. Its 

 minister in 1770 was the Reverend Bruin Romas Comingo, a native of 

 Holland, who was the lirst Presbyterian ordained in Nova Scotia. When 

 a .schism took place during 1733 in the old Presbyterian church of Scot- 

 land, the Secession Church turned its attention to Nova Scotia. The 

 Reverend Mr. Kinloch was the first Presbyterian missionary to Nova 

 Scotia in 17G6, but he returned to Scotland in 1769. In 1785 and 17Sl3 

 we hear of Reverend Messi-s. Daniel Cock, David Smith, James 

 Murdoch, George Gilmore and Hugh Graham, regularly settled at Truro, 

 Londonderry, Horton, Windsor and Cornwallis respectively. The 

 Reverend James Murdoch, who wa.s ordained by the Presbytery of Newton 

 Limavad.y "for the Province of Nova Scotiaor any other part of the conti- 

 nent whore God in his Providence, may call him," was among the notable 

 pioneei-s of the Presbyterian Church during the last thirty-three years 

 of the eighteenth century. For twenty years he ministered to the religious 

 necessities of the people at Horton, Windsor, Cornwallis, Parrsboro, Am- 

 herst and other places. He was not su])ported by an}- missionary society, 

 but depended entirelj' on free-will offerings. One of his descendants was 

 Beamish Murdoch, the historian and annalist, and the well-known lamilies 



' See an excellent though short sketch of Dr. Uichey's life by Fennings Taylor in 

 " Portraits of British American.s " (Montreal, 18(>5), illu.strated by Notnian. The 

 portrait I give is taken from this book. 



