John Bethune (reverend)

John Bethune (1751 – September 23, 1815) founded the first Presbyterian Church in Montreal and was the patriarch of a notable Canadian family prominently connected with the fur trade, politics, medicine, law and the church. He was the great-great-grandfather of Norman Bethune, the Canadian physician and medical innovator, and the great-great-great-grandfather of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer.

Born into a well-respected family on the Isle of Skye, he was a son of Angus Bethune and Christian, daughter of Donald Campbell (1696-1784) of Scalpay. His maternal grandfather was best remembered for his involvement in the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746, following the Battle of Culloden. The Prince was taken to Scalpay, to the home of Donald and Catherine (MacDonald) Campbell, which was a great risk as Donald Campbell was known to have supported the cause of the House of Hanover. Nevertheless, Bethune's grandfather's innate sense of hospitality to strangers and loyalty to his wife's Jacobite family meant that he welcomed and protected the Prince, despite their religious and political differences.

Bethune needed scholarships to keep him at King's College, Aberdeen. In 1773, he was ordained and under the influence of his relation, Allan MacDonald, Laird of Kingsburgh, Skye, (the husband of the Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald), he and his mother emigrated to North Carolina, where they lived in the same place as the MacDonalds. As a Loyalist in MacDonald's Highland Regiment, Bethune fought at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776, but was captured by the victorious rebels along with a great many of MacDonald's men. He was eventually released and made his way to Montreal, where he was appointed chaplain to the 1st battalion of the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants).

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