112 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Apparently Canada offered no favourable " opportunity for Mr. 

 Gillmore to prosecute the work of a clergyman, for in November, 1784, 

 he petitioned and received from Gov. Haldimand, "a certificate and 

 recommendation as a minister and Loyalist for the Province of Nova 

 Scotia", where he hoped to obtain a living in the line of his profession. 

 The succeeding Spring, Col. Hope, the Commandant of the garrison 

 at Quebec, secured for him and his family, a passage to Halifax, at the 

 expense of government, and supplied them with plenty of rations for 

 the voyage. At Halifax they spent the summer, having arrived there 

 in July, but in the Fall they removed to Windsor, where Mr. Clillmore 

 assumed charge of the Presbyterian congregation that the Rev. James 

 Murdoch had gathered at both this town and Newport. 



This year, 1785, Mr. Gillmore obtained a grant of a 500 acre farm 

 at Ardoise Hill, in the neighborhood of Windsor, to which he removed. 

 This was his home for the next six years, during which he continued to 

 preach at Windsor and in the Township of Newport. There was then 

 no place of Presbyterian worship in either township, and his preaching 

 was in barns in summer and in private houses in winter. The people 

 to whom he ministered were few in number and not in circumstances 

 to afford him a support, and in consequence, his family were for some 

 time in want of the barest necessaries of life. Having spent all his 

 means in clearing a part of his farm, and his crop having failed, he says 

 that in 1785 he travelled on foot to Halifax, and offered his land with 

 his house and improvements in security for a single barrel of flour and 

 some pork, but was refused. He and his family were then obliged to sub- 

 sist for months almost solely on potatoes and other vegetables. "Three 

 winters," he says at another time, "I have l)ought hay at a great price 

 and cari'ied it on my back four miles through the woods, where there 

 was no path or road, to keep alive two cows, which were the support 

 of my family with the help of potatoes." 



The Presbyterian ministers of Nova Scotia met for the formation 

 of their first Presbytery, called the Presbytery of Truro, on the 2nd of 

 August, 1786, and Mr. Gillmoi-e was among the four ministers present, 

 though it is stated in the minutes that he was only admitted as a cor- 

 responding member. He does not seem to have afterwards attended 

 their meetings, nor considered himself a member, the reason probably 

 being that he represented in Nova Scotia the Established Church of 

 Scotland, while the other clergymen did not. Until his death, however, 

 he took an active part in the upbuilding of the Presbyterian Church 

 in the Province. In 178G, he was also pressing his claim at Halifax, 

 with the Home Government, and on the 14th of July, he took the cer- 

 tificate which he had received from Governoi- Haldimand in 1784, 

 to the Commissioners. In the recital of his movements and his losses 



