Question of the Week: Do you have an ancestor who was in the clergy?

Question

Do you have an ancestor who was in the clergy?

P.S. Answer here and/or here and on Facebook. If you reshare the image on social media with your answer, it might get your family talking!

Comments

I am a retired United Methodist pastor who was born 167 years to the day after my great (3) grandfather who was an active minister in Lewis County, WV.  He helped create the Methodist Protestant Church in the early 1800's because the Methodist Espicapol Church's bishop's wife owned slaves and would not free them.  The serendiiity is that we have same birth date and entered the clergy late in life.  I entered seminary at 58 years old, he became after his children were raised, and we both retired when we were in our early 70"s.  As a great wikitreer have documentation of all of the above one of which are marriage records of marriages he had officiated when he was in his 70;s.that document.

---

I have an ancestor who became a missionary for the Connecticut Missionary Society in 1805 following his Rev War service, which included fighting at Bunker Hill, the Saratoga Battles, and the Mohawk Valley Campaign. He was posted as a missionary to western New York where he was instrumental in organizing well-more than 50 churches during the pioneer period, 1805 to 1826, when he died in Chautauqua County, NY. All the churches except one, were either Presbyterian or Congregational. Interesting Man.

---

Well mine went west and yours to New England.  Bet there are lot more.  PTL.

---

My gr-grandmother, Virginia EUBANKS_ROTH had a brother (Edwin Dozier EUBANKS b.03/29/1844 - d 01/27/1926 -81 yrs old ) who was a minister in Comstock & Coburg, Custer County, Nebraska.

---

I am a descendent of Fleming Mitchell Miller, Cumberland Presbyterian Minister and Farmer,  Andrew County, Missouri. He is my 3rd great uncle.  2 of his brothers became Cumberland Presbyterian Ministers, including Samuel T. Miller, who was my 2nd great grandfather and an Oregon pioneer and homesteader in 1850.  They followed the Barlow Road into Oregon. Miller-7910 and Miller-60177

---

Isn't it interesting to note in this day and age of the number of clergy who took the oaths away back when religion meant much more to the settlers than it does today? The variety of religious positions in organized churches was rather extensive, too.

Hal Spencer

---

As a Methodist minister you'll appreciate this, my distant uncle was William McKendree, through my 2x Great Grandpa, Zachariah William McKendree!

---

Diane,

Looked your great 2 grandpa and William on wikitree but not bio yet so just typed in Rev William McKendree and walah got him in Wikipedia.  When got to the part about being bishop was hoping as I read he was not the one who said the slaves belonged to his wife and she did not have to sell them.  He was not because he never married.  What a relief.  thanks for the fun.

As an aside my great 1 grandpa was trustee at UMProtestant church that was built in 1893 on land donated by his wife's Berry cousin cleared by my Lowther Great Uncle and grandmother's brother that I live one mile from was my sending church.  Bet they would be surprised.

Sharon

---

I have several ancestors who were in the clergy.  Mayflower passenger Elder William Brewster is my 11th g-grandfather.  

An 8th g-grandfather is Rev. James Keith, the first pastor of Bridgwater, MA.  He received his education in Aberdeen, Scotland, was ordained in February, 1664 probably just about the time he came of age.  Rev. Keith was introduced to the people of Bridgewater by Dr. Increase Mather, to whom he'd brought letters of introduction from home.  

Evidently his first sermon was preached from atop a large rock - now called Pulpit Rock - in Bridgewater, MA.  He served as pastor of Bridgewater for fifty years.

---

Deacon Thomas Parker (1609-1683) came to America in 1635 as almost certainly the first Parker in my direct line to do so. He was a deacon and probably a founder of a church in Reading, MA that is still extant and thriving I think. There are a number of Protestant and Catholic clergy in the family over the years. Four of my Dad's 7 sisters were nuns.

---

My second cousin, Father Cornelius Doherty, was a Roman Catholic priest. He married my husband and I on July 12, 1969 in Torrington, Connecticut, USA. Our fiftieth anniversary is next week!

---

Too many to look them all up. One day when I get time. Just too many

Answer 1

My paternal brick wall, John Augustus Nisbitt McEvoy (1752-1833) (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McEvoy-564) was ordained by Bishop Hurd (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hurd-997), and was for many years the Vicar of Kineton (near Stratford). Fortunately for us (and possibly unfortunately for him), he left letters and diaries that show he was not a pleasant man; three of his four sons fled England (to the Isle of Wight, the Canary Islands, and Java). One of his granddaughters left England when she was 19, and I would guess that getting away from the family was a motivation. Although married twice, he asked to be buried with his best friend rather than either of his wives.

Answer 2

My grandfather, Christopher Hovgard, was a methodist pastor, did considerable work in Kansas.  Immigrated from Denmark in the 1890s and preached in a Danish speaking church in Chicago, where my grandmother, also a Danish immigrant met him.  He built several churches in Kansas, raised 7 children, all college educated, ended his career and life in Topeka, Kansas in the 1940s.

Answer 3

My husband and I share a Jamestown era clergyman in the Rev. Benjamin Doggett.  The separation came early from the two sons, but we joked with our children  that we had found out that we are cousins.  We both have more recent clergyman.  His grandfather, Joseph Moses Pearce, and my great grandfather, Hosea H. George, were both Baptist ministers.

Answer 4

My maternal great-great-great-great-grandfather - Rev WILLIAM SHAW (1798-1872) - Methodist minister in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Attributed with founding Salem village and building a church 1838; he was Chairman of the Grahamstown district and General Superintendant of Methodist Missions in South-Eastern Africa. His daughter Mary Elizabeth Shaw (1821- 1915) married (my great-great-great grandfather) -  Rev WILLIAM IMPEY (1818-1896)- also a Methodist Minister who assisted Rev William Impey in the Grahamstown area of the Eastern Cape.

Their son was Rev Benjamin Shaw Horton Impey (1847-1900)(my great uncle) was also a methodist Minister in the Eastern Cape. Another of their sons was Rev Charles James Close IMPEY (1851- 1891)

William Shaw's son was Rev William Maw Shaw (1818-1889). He ministered in England.

Then there was Rev JOHN STEPHEN MAVER (1953-1927) from the Scottish side of my maternal family - brother of a great-grandfather. He ministered in the Presbytarian Church in Woodstock, in Cape Town South Africa about 1880 to 1900. He then returned to Scotland and was in Banff, and Paisley Where he died. He had a few books published - particularly those for children.

Answer 5

Yes, although I did not realize it until I started researching my family's history, I had many ancestors who were part of the clergy.

Answer 6

My maternal great-great-grandfather, Rev. Daniel May (1822-1888) was a Methodist minister and closely associated with May's Chapel Methodist Church in Maiden, NC. Details on his life are documented in the church's 100th Anniversary booklet in 1968, including that he was born in Anson County, NC and orphaned at the age of 12

May’s Chapel United Methodist Church was founded in 1868, when a group of people living between Maiden and Newton convened in a school building near St. James Church Road. The congregation became a part of the Newton Circuit, which was at the time under the leadership of Rev. Daniel May. (https://mayschapelumc.org/about-us/history/)

Answer 7

Great great grandfather Shug B Hunter was a Cumberland Presbyterian Pastor in Marshall County Alabama like his father Daniel K Hunter from the War of 1812 to WWI. Daniel was from Tennessee. They are both buried in North Alabama next to their wives. There is a photo on the profiles of an older Laura Ligon Hunter and Shug. Regards

Answer 8

My 5th great grandfather is Rev. Francis Clark (d. 1799), who was the first Methodist preacher in Kentucky. (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57819769/francis-clark).

In 1783, Clark & John Durham moved from the Mecklenburg/Lunenburg area of Southern Virginia to the  Quirk's Run Road area between Danville & Perryville, Ky.

Clark was a lay preacher, not ordained.

Visits to Rev. Clark by Bishop Francis Asbury are mentioned in Asbury's published diary on p. 75 (May 17, 1790) and p. 163 (April 10, 1793) ... https://archive.org/stream/00612616.872.emory.edu/00612616_872_djvu.txt

(Rev. Clark's parents and the surname of his first wife, Dorcas, are currently brick walls for me.)

Answer 9

My Great Grandfather  William John Pond  (Pond-1181) commenced ministry in the Unitarian Baptist Church in Long Sutton Lincolnshire (England) in 1890; later he moved as minister to Whitchurch Salop and after that to Stannington in South Yorkshire.

Answer 10

I am the niece and only god-child of the former Reverend Julien Joseph Laflamme.  He was the 1st born son and child of Theophile Joseph Laflamme and Cedulie Olivine (LeClerc) Laflamme of Bennington, Vt. where he was born and grew up.  He attended Sacred Heart Catholic School there and was also the only priest that was also ordained in his home town church of Sacred Heart.  He was ordained in 1958.  I was born in 1956 so I am his only god-child.

Answer 11

I have quite a few ancestors that were clergy, which makes me think it's genetic that my brother felt called to be a deacon in the Catholic church...

Two of the better known of my (many times over) great-grandfathers on my father's side are Rev. Henry Whitfield https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whitfield-881 and Rev. Thomas Dungan https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dungan-12.

A more recent ancestor, this on my mother's side, is Father John Quinlivan, a father in the Sulpician order in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  He founded a Catholic High School there and also headed up the St. Patrick's Orphan Asylum as well as being the head of the St. Patrick's church.  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Quinlivan-11

Answer 12

My 9th Great Grandfather, Rev. Joseph Crandall, Sr., was born in 1661 in Westerly, Rhode Island.   He was a member of the recently founded Seventh Day Baptist Church and became the 3rd Pastor in the church at Newport, RI.  In 1692 the earliest records of the church are started, and he is listed as a member.  He was ordained a Pastor 8 May 1715.  He and his wife Deborah had a large family as well and many of his descendents went on to continue to serve in the SDBC.

Answer 13

I have about 6+ generations of clergy, the most well known being The Rhenish missionay, Ds Paulus Daniel Luckhoff ( Luckhoff-28), our stamvader in South Africa. He and his son Anton Daniel ( Luckhoff-29), started schools and old age centres which still operate. From Ds Anton, down in the generations are 1 or more Dutch Reform or Lutheran Minister, the last Minister that I am aware of passed away circa 2006.

So I have clergy, lots and lots in 1 family tree.

Answer 14

My great-grandfather on my father's side was an Amish-Mennonite minister and bishop; my grandfather was a Mennonite minister, and my father was a Mennonite minister. My great-grandfather on my mother's side was a Mennonite minister. I also have several uncles on both sides who were Mennonite ministers, as well as a cousin who is a minister in the Missionary Church, not to mention a brother and a sister who were Mennonite ministers. Earlier than that are several ministers and bishops including the first Mennonite bishop in America.

Answer 15

We have several nuns in the family, including my great aunt Sister Mary Jeremina. Does that count?

Answer 16

I had a GG Grandfather - first name Israel

His memorial: Click

Answer 17

My father L.B. Thomason (1931-2011) was a Southern Baptist Minister and served as a hospice chaplain after his retirement. There were several ministers in the Thomason line, the others all methodists.

My husband's great grand father was David Hasler Glass Sr. (1824-1894) and was a methodist minister in Michigan.

Answer 18

One of my maternal GG Grandfathers was the Rev. Louis Edward Nollau.  After attending the Barmen Seminary he moved to St. Louis and founded German Evangelical Lutheran churches, Went back to Germany, married, and came back to St. Louis where his wife and son died. He went back to Germany and married my GG Grandmother, they went on a mission to South Africa where my G Grandfather was born in 1849. They went back to St. Louis where he  founded the German Evangelical Children's Home and The Good Samaritan Home for the Aged. He died relatively young by today's standards (59) but is considered one of the founding fathers of today's United Church of Christ.  The other side of my family were beer brewing Alsatian Catholics, how those two sides came together is another story entirely.

Answer 19

I have an Aunt that was boron 1933 and is still living. She belongs to the Sister's of IHM. Her name is Ann Bernedette Coyle. She is my father's sister and was born in Philadelphia, Pa. Her name was Sr.Philip Marie and she taught at St. Monica's Business school. She than taught at Immaculata College.We call her Aunt Nancy.

Answer 20

My middle name is James in honor of my mother’s maternal grandfather Rev. James Miller Rustin https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rustin-19.  He trained to be a Methodist minister at Emory College which at that time was located in Oxford, Georgia.