DESBRISAY, ALBERT (1795-1857)

DESBRISAY, ALBERT, Methodist minister, Miramichi circuit, 1833-34; b. Covehead, P.E.I., 24 Jul 1795, s/o the Rev. Theophilus Desbrisay and Margaret Stewart; brother of Theophilus Desbrisay; m. 1827, Margaret B. McLeod (a d/o Alexander McLeod, publisher of the Saint John City Gazette); d. Charlottetown, 24 May 1857.

One of thirteen children of the first Anglican rector of Charlottetown, Albert DesBrisay was converted to Methodism at age twenty. After he had spent many years as a local preacher and probationer, he was ordained in 1826. A fervent evangelist, he struggled against harsh conditions on various Methodist circuits in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia until 1842. In that year he was appointed as the first chaplain of the Wesleyan Academy at Sackville, which would later be Mount Allison. He occupied this position until 1854 and then retired in Charlottetown.

While in charge of the Miramichi circuit in 1833-34, DesBrisay was based at Chatham, but the circuit embraced the entire Miramichi district, as well as the Bathurst and Richibucto areas. He had as an assistant Henry Daniel, a probationer from Penzance, England, who was later to be one of the leading Methodist ministers in the Maritimes.

DesBrisay and his wife, Margaret B. McLeod, had two sons, both of whom were Methodist ministers, and one daughter, who died at age nineteen.