HOME, FREDERICK (1822-1898)

HOME, FREDERICK, Presbyterian missionary, Red Bank and Black River, 1866-67; b. Kinneff and Catterline parish, Kincardineshire, Scotland, 30 May 1822, s/o John Home and Jessie Home; m. Janet James, of Dundee, Scot.; d. Carnoustie, Forfarshire, Scot., 17 Oct 1898.

Having studied arts and divinity at the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Frederick Home, at age forty-three, was appointed by the colonial committee of the Church of Scotland to the newly-created mission of Red Bank and Black River, effective January 1866. Although it is not known that he resided in either settlement, he was the first minister assigned to the Presbyterian church at Red Bank and one of few to occupy the pulpit of St Stephen's Church at Black River for more than a few weeks or months in over twenty years. In reporting on his ordination at St James Church in Newcastle in July 1866, The Gleaner stated that he was ministering to sixty families at Red Bank and eighty at Black River, places which had previously received only occasional services from the Presbyterian ministers at Newcastle and Chatham. According to the newspaper, he had already endeared himself to all classes of people by his "unobtrusive manners, catholic sentiments, and kindly disposition." He retained the appointment for little more than a year, however, and no successor followed until Samuel Russell was named to the mission in 1872.

In 1867, Home was appointed minister of St Luke's Church at Bathurst, and he served there for four years. He then transferred to the Presbytery of Ottawa, having churches at Cumberland, Ont., and Buckingham, Que. in the 1870s. He was later reported to be living without charge in Ottawa and in retirement at Melbourne, Que. His name was last listed by the church in 1884, and by 1891, he had returned to Scotland.