John Macgregor spent his childhood and youth on the Island from about 1800 to the 1820’s. He was successively a schoolteacher and a store clerk, and he was also engaged in shipbuilding. From the accuracy of his description it would seem as if he had been a resident of New London, but it is known that the Macgregor family lived at Covehead. After his return to Great Britain he became a well-known author and a member of parliament for Glasgow.

On January 15, 1833, L. C. Jenkins wrote to the S.P.G. from Charlottetown :

I have latterly been favoured with occasional assistance in the discharge of my professional duties by the Rev. Mr. Walpole, an Oxford graduate who arrived here last sum- mer. He has applied to the Governor for the mastership of the projected new Academy.

Walpole, who arrived in Charlottetown on the brig Amity from Bristol, July 3, 1832, failed to get the desired appointment to the future Central Academy, but he was placed in charge of the New London Mission in the summer of 1833, and he was present on the occasion of Bishop Inglis’ visit in the autumn of that year. The Bishop wrote:

Friday, October 4, continued favourable in weather. Imme- diately after breakfast we set out for New London (18 miles). We stopped at Major Billings where we crossed the river, or rather an arm of the sea, by a wide ferry, and then walked more than a mile to the Church, a neat building and very prettily situated. The Rev. Mr. Walpole. Whose family arrived from England the morning we left Charlottetown, met us here. The Church, though not so well finished as I had hoped to find it, was consecrated by his particular desire, and called St. Thomas’s. I endeav- oured to increase the regard of the people for it, and to animate their endeavours to make it instrumental to their happy progress towards the Church triumphant in heaven. I next confirmed sixteen persons, who had been prepared by Mr. Walpole, and seriously exhorted them to adorn the flock to which they had thus voluntarily united them- selves in an exemplary manner and with much apparent devotion. The day had gone before we recrossed the river, and I was induced to remain with Major Billings who had been the chief promoter in the erection of the Church. It was my endeavour to improve the opportunity thus afforded me for abating some unhappy coolness which was very likely to be injurious to the cause of the Church and of religion. I had good reason to be satisfied with the kind manner in which these endeavours were met. The night was very dark and the road so bad, that Mr. Wiggins was overturned in attempting to reach St. Eleanors, and Mr. Townsend was thrown from his gig on the road to Charlotte Town in consequence of running

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