6 CHURCH HISTORY

Early Days and Ministers

To begin at the beginning, the settlers who came on the Falmouth were Presbyterians, and on board that ship was a minister of the same denomination, the Rev. William Drummond. He was probably re- cruited by Sir James Montgomery to accompany the settlers; counting the two-month voyage, he was with them for over a year, before leaving Stanhope in May, 1 771 for the American colonies.

The Falmouth landed at Princetown, June 3rd, 1770 where Drummond wrote in his diary, the rest of us went ashore, and being convened in a house we performed divine service in Princetown, where there are a great many Scotch, Irish and French families. Later on, being held up by lack of a fair wind, he baptized several children some of a considerable age. After proceeding to Stanhope, the com- munity had many trials, but on Dec. 21, 1770 he performed the first marriage at Stanhope between Lawrence Brown and Jean J amieson. And presumably he buried two settlers who drowned (John Mc- Laughlin, Alex J amieson) and William MacEwen who died in a lumbering accident.

As well as his clerical duties, Mr. Drummond was very active in all sorts of secular affairs on behalf of the settlers, as set down in the Diary; we wish he had written more. For further details about William Drummond, please see the chapter on the Montgomery Settlers.

After Drummond’s departure, there was no Presbyterian clergy- man to minister to the spiritual needs of the settlers, until the some- what sporadic visits of the Rev. James MacGregor of Pictou, N .8. However, the Stanhope settlers were fortunate in having an Anglican clergyman living among them from about 1780 to 1801. He was the Rev. Theophilus DesBrisay, the first Protestant minister settled on the Island of St. John, and rector of St. Paul’s Church in Charlotte

Town. He was descended from the exiled Huguenots of France, and

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