HENDERSON, WILLIAM (1805-1868)

HENDERSON, WILLIAM, Presbyterian minister, Newcastle, 1844-68; b. Newhills parish, Aberdeen, Scotland, 18 Aug 1805 (bap. 31 Aug 1805), s/o Alexander Henderson and h/w Ann; m. 1857, Alexandria Purdie, of Lanarkshire, Scotland; d. Newcastle, 6 Jun 1868.

After being granted his MA at King's College, Aberdeen, William Henderson spent eight years as classics master of the Coldstream Academy in Scotland. He then returned to Aberdeen and ministered for eight years under the aegis of the Church of Scotland. In 1841 he was sent to New Brunswick to take charge of a mission based at Salisbury. He arrived in the province in September with his widowed mother and his sister Isabelle Henderson. During the next three years he preached at Salisbury, Moncton, and Shediac, earning an important place in the early history of the Presbyterian church in those communities.

In March 1844 Henderson became the minister of St James Church in Newcastle, as successor to the Rev. James Souter, and he occupied the charge for the next twenty-four years. He also preached on a part-time or visiting basis in outlying settlements, from Red Bank to Tabusintac. Important events in his personal life were his mother's death in 1852, at age eighty-four, and his marriage in 1857, at age fifty-two.

During his twenty-four-year residency Henderson was one of the most active figures in the educational field on the Miramichi. He was a trustee of the Newcastle parish schools in the 1840s. From 1844 until it was closed in 1867 he was a trustee of the Newcastle Grammar School and secretary of the board for many years. During most of the same period he also sat on the governing board of the County Grammar School at Chatham.

Henderson addressed meetings of the Miramichi Mechanics' Institute at Chatham in 1847 and 1848 and was imbued with "an ardent zeal" for the kind of adult education work in which these institutes engaged. In 1849 he, Richard Hutchison, and Edward Williston met as a committee to plan an institute for the 'mechanics', or working men, of Newcastle and Douglastown. When it opened on 17 December 1849, he gave the introductory address, and at the next two meetings he delivered a two-part lecture on "The Arts and Sciences." At later meetings he often acted as chairman, and he invariably delivered the annual opening lecture. He was also president of the institute for several terms.

Some of the topics of Henderson's addresses at the Mechanics' institutes were scientific, such as "The Mechanical Properties of Atmospheric Air" (1848) and "The Advantages of a Knowledge of Chemistry to the Farmer" (1851), the text of which was published in The Gleaner in June of that year. Some were cultural, such as "The History of Poetry" (1864). But 19th-century optimist that he was, his favorite theme was 'progress', as treated in "The Progress of Society" (1847), "Modern Improvements" (1866), and "Improvements in Newcastle and Vicinity for the last Sixteen Years" (1866). He did not address the mechanics on religious or spiritual themes, but he took "Eternity" as the subject of a talk which he delivered to the YMCA in Chatham in 1863.

It was said that Henderson's character was "adorned with all the graces of a Christian gentleman," and that he was kind, gentle, and sympathetic. In 1862 he was honored by Queen's University with a DD degree. After his death in 1868, at age sixty-three, his widow, Alexandria Purdie, who was twenty years his junior, returned to Scotland and was remarried, to John Gibson of Peeblesshire.