His tours were invariably evangelistic. The Gospel was his daily song. Preaching was the delight of his heart. These excursions and tours was zealously carried on for thirty-three years, so that few, very few, small and remote Highland

settlements failed to be visited by him. All the time he had charge of an extensive congregation and he took his full share in the general work of the Church.

On the 3rd day of March, 1830, in the 7lst year of his age, in the 46th of his ministry, Dr. MacGregor passed away to this rest and reward.”84

8. MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF THE REV. URQUHART AND THE REV. PETER GORDON

“Occasional visits from Doctor MacGregor, who at one time or another visited all the settlements, was the only supply received until 1800, at which time arrived the Reverend Mr. Urquhart, a minister of the Church of Scotland. He was really the first to establish any organization. Making Princetown his headquarters, he was truly a missionary of the Cross, ever going about doing good. In 1802, he removed to Miramichi, where after a short ministry, he prematurely passed away, as a result of an accident. The next minister to make any protracted stay and the first to be ordained and inducted on the Island, was the Rev. Peter Gordon, a preacher from the General Associate Synod, in Scotland, who laboured for two years as the minister of Cove Head, St. Peters and Bay Fortune. Rev. Gordon, while nominally the minister of the aforementioned charge, was in reality a missionary in charge of the Presbyterian population of the province. Coming to the country, as he did, in a tuberculosis condition, it is little wonder that incessant labour and much exposure rapidly developed the disease and that in two years’ time he entered into his rest. Those two young ministers of Christ, with consecrated lives and noble ideals, in con- junction with Doctor MacGregor, prepared the way for the coming of the Reverend John Keir, whose settlement at Princetown proved itself to be the permanent establishment of the Presbyterian Church in the province.”85

9. GROWTH OF PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRINGS ADDITIONAL MINISTERS TO PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

“In 1810, Rev. John Keir was ordained to the pastoral charge of the people who had been under the spiritual supervision of Rev. Urquhart, and in 1811, Rev. Edward Pidgeon was duly inducted into the pastorai- charge of the only other existing congregation, Cove Head, St. Peters and Bay Fortune. Rev. Pidgeon was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Douglas whose induction took place in 1821.

In 1819, owing to the increase of the population, Richmond Bay was disjoined from Princetown and formed into a separate charge, with the Rev. Andrew Nicoll as minister. A man of great energy and intense devotion, he was not long permitted to continue his labors. Only a year elapsed from the time of his settlement until he

84 Murray, op. cit., pp. 19-24. 85 Fullerton, op. cit., p. 307A.

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