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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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MCMASTER, ANGUS (1801-1886)

MCMASTER, ANGUS, Presbyterian minister, Black River and Kouchibouguac, 1842-45; bap Feorling, Kilmory parish, Bute (Island of Arran), Scotland, 13 Sep 1801, s/o Alexander McMaster and Flora McAlaster; unmarried; d. Shedog, Arran, 6 Apr 1886.

As a young man, Angus McMaster worked as a tailor. Later, he studied for the ministry at Glasgow. In June 1842, at forty years of age, he came to the Miramichi as minister of Black River and Kouchibouguac. He was bilingual in English and Gaelic and preached in both languages. A bachelor, he was said to have been timid in the presence of women, but he was an able man, physically and mentally, and carried on his work with vigor. A distinguishing custom of his was that when he went visiting he always wore his plaid, this being "a long strip of twilled woolen cloth of black and white check with fringed ends." In winter he draped it over his buffalo coat.

McMaster was a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, but when the Free Church was formed in 1843 he did not disguise the fact that it would be getting his allegiance. At this time the Established-Free Church debate was going on throughout the Presbyterian world, but feelings over the political and theological issues involved were unusually intense at Black River, which had a large proportion of Scottish-born residents. So incensed were the traditionalists there over McMaster's leanings that they withdrew their financial support, making it necessary for the trustees to borrow money to pay his salary. His resignation in the fall of 1845 did not resolve the dispute, and the Black River congregation remained in a state of paralysis for the better part of a generation.

McMaster returned to Scotland, where his parents were ill, but he was called back to New Brunswick in 1847 as minister of the Presbyterian church at New Mills. He occupied this charge for thirty years, until his retirement in 1877, at age seventy-five. He then returned to his native Island of Arran, where he died in 1886, at age eighty-four.

Sources

[bap] LDS-SCR index [d] Presb. Witness 24 Apr 1886 / Advocate 5 Jul 1882; Betts (FF); FES; Gleaner 13 Dec 1842; Hist. UC New Mills; Macdougall


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