BEATTIE, JOHN (1798-1853)

BEATTIE, JOHN, teacher; b. Dumfriesshire, Scotland, c1798; m. 1827, Helen Loggie, d/o Alexander Loggie and Helen Murray, of Alnwick parish; d. Tabusintac, 10 Jul 1853.

A grammar school graduate, John Beattie attended a session at the University of Edinburgh and taught for a short time in Scotland before coming to New Brunswick around 1817 to pursue a teaching career. In connection with his application for a teacher's license, the Rev. James Thomson described him as a young man of unblemished moral character.

Beattie served first in the parish schools of Chatham, but at the time of his marriage he was teaching at Douglastown. Afterwards, he taught at Tabusintac. In 1834 the Rev. James Souter reported that the teacher of the parochial school had also been conducting a Sabbath school for some time at Tabusintac.

Besides being among the best educated of the parish school teachers of the Miramichi, Beattie was one of the earlier career teachers, having been at work in the classroom for more than thirty years prior to 1850. He was sick, however, in 1851 and died two years later, at age fifty-five. He and his wife, Helen Loggie, raised a large family.