was originally a Presbyterian... Before there were any other ministers on the Isle he baptized the children of the Presbyterians ??? indeed the children of Protestants and Catholics alike. (History of Presby- terianism on Prince Edward Island , the Rev. John MacLeod , 1904). The Rev. DesBrisay chose to live in Stanhope and travel to his work in Charlotte Town on horseback because he considered the latter place to be too wicked a spot in which to bring up his family. For further details please see his family history in Part II. We know of at least 29 marriages of Stanhope and Head couples performed by him and he baptised innumerable children. To return to the Rev. James MacGregor , D.D ., the first Presby ?? terian minister to visit the Island, he came to Head ( Stanhope ), St. Peter 's and Malpeque ( Princetown ) in 1791, when ... the session appointed me two Sabbaths to St. Peter 's and two to Head. He hired a horse in Charlotte Town and rode to Head by the only road on the Island at that time, and took services and baptised children; and also met with the Rev. Theophilus DesBrisay at his home near Parson's Creek in Stanhope , on his way to visit John Millar at Head. He baptised 60 children at Malpeque on this visit to the Island also. Dr. MacGregor also visited the North Shore settlements of St. John in 1802 and 1806. Born in Scotland in 1769, James MacGregor came to Pictou, N.S. , as its minister and as a missionary in 1786, aged 17. In 1799, after his first visit to the Island he headed a petition, signed at Pictou , to the General Associate Synod in Scotland , asking for a Presbyterian minister for the North Shore Settlements: About seven years ago the people of Princetown and Stanhope and St. Peter 's in Island of St. John, applied to you for two ministers, and they have waited ever since with patience (or rather impatience), frequently enquiring if there was any hope of a speedy answer to their petitions ... We earnestly beseech the Synod ... to send over two ministers ... as soon as possible ... (Memoirs of James MacGregor , D.D . by the Rev. George Patterson , 1859). As a result, the Presbytery of Pictou appointed the Rev. John Urquhart as its first missionary to the Island. He arrived at Prince?? town in 1800, having come from New England , though originally from Scotland . He spent a busy two years ministering to the people of Princetown , and also to those of New London and Bedeque , before leaving for Miramichi, N.B. in 1802; apparently he did not serve in Stanhope . However, in 1806 the Pictou Presbytery officially organised the first Presbyterian charge on the Island, with the induction of the first resident Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Peter Gordon , to serve the widely separated congregations of Head, St. Peter 's and Fortune. 61