Born around 1160, presumably at Bethune he was a younger son of Robert V de Bethune died 1191 hereditary Lord of Bethune and Advocate of the Abbey of of Bethune or Baldwin de Bethune French: Baudouin de Bethune Dutch: Boudewijn van Bethune c. 1158 1212 a French knight from the House of Bethune in Mary Jane McLeod Bethune born Mary Jane McLeod July 10, 1875 May 18, 1955 was an American educator. Angus Bethune is a character who sticks up for himself, is a terrible dancer, and learns an important lesson and I can relate to him throughout this novel. Angus has learned how to stand up for himself over the past few years and he shows this by facing one of the most popular kids in school, Rick Stanford. Angus Bethune (politician): biography 10 September 1908 – 22 August 2004 Sir Walter Angus Bethune (10 September 1908 – 22 August 2004) was an Australian politician and member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. He was Premier of Tasmania from 26 May 1969 to 3 May 1972. Early life Bethune was born in Sheffield.

​REACH, ANGUS BETHUNE (1821–1856), journalist, son of Roderick Reach, solicitor, of Inverness, was born at Inverness on 23 Jan. 1821, and was educated at the Inverness Royal Academy. While a student at Edinburgh University he contributed literary articles to the ‘Inverness Courier,’ of which his father had once been proprietor. In 1842 the family removed to London, where Dr. Charles Mackay [q. v.], sub-editor of the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ obtained for young Reach employment on his paper as reporter at the central criminal court and afterwards in the House of Commons gallery. To its columns in 1848 he contributed most of a series of articles on ‘Labour and the Poor,’ which have been described as ‘an unparalleled exploit in journalism’ (Fox Bourne, English Newspapers, ii. 154). He also wrote many articles for newspapers and magazines, including ‘Bentley's Miscellany,’ ‘Chambers's Journal,’ the ‘Era,’ the ‘Atlas,’ the ‘Britannia,’ ‘Gavarni in London,’ the ‘Puppet Show,’ and the ‘Sunday Times,’ while he supplied to the ‘Illustrated London News’ a weekly summary of witty gossip entitled ‘Town Talk and Table Talk.’ In 1848–9 he published, in monthly parts, a romance called ‘Clement Lorimer, or the Book with the Iron Clasps,’ with twelve etchings by Cruikshank, which give the work a high value among collectors, and in 1850 a two-volume novel, ‘Leonard Lindsay, or the ​Story of a Buccaneer.’ In 1849 he joined the staff of ‘Punch.’ In 1850 he visited France in connection with an inquiry by the ‘Morning Chronicle’ into the state of labour and the poor in England and Europe. As special commissioner he wrote letters to that paper on the vineyards of France, republished in book form as ‘Claret and Olives’ (1852), and also reported on the manufacturing and coal districts of the north of England. For many years he was musical and art critic, as well as principal reviewer, for the ‘Morning Chronicle.’ He was also London correspondent of the ‘Glasgow Citizen,’ and from the date of his father's death in 1853 he acted as London correspondent of the ‘Inverness Courier.’ Reach was author of ‘The Comic Bradshaw, or Bubbles from the Boiler’ (1848), and many amusing miscellanies and dramatic farces, and, with Albert Smith, he conducted ‘The Man in the Moon,’ a serial which had a large sale (5 vols. 1847–9). In 1854 his health failed, and a grant of 100l. was obtained for him from the Royal Bounty Fund. The Fielding Club played a burlesque for his benefit, in which Yates and Albert Smith appeared, stalls selling for 10l. He died on 25 Nov. 1856, and was buried in Norwood cemetery. For a year before his intimate friend, Shirley Brooks, undertook Reach's work for him on the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ Reach drawing his usual salary. Sala wrote of Reach: ‘He was one of the most laborious and prolific writers I have ever met with. It was no uncommon thing for him to work sixteen hours a day.’

Angus may have associated social media accounts, which may include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Dating Networks. Records indicate people named Angus Bethune may have financial data available including: Liens, Bankruptcies, Assets, Judgements, UCC Filings and/or Evictions. As the overweight son of divorced, gay parents, the protagonist Angus Bethune hardly meets his classmates' definition of 'normal.' Yet the theme of Chris Crutcher's short story 'A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune' focuses on the damage the standard of 'normality' can inflict and extols self-acceptance as a liberating force.

Besides the works noticed, Reach wrote:

1. ‘The Natural History of Bores,’ London, 1847, 32mo.
2. ‘The Natural History of Humbugs,’ London, 1847, 12mo.
3. ‘The Natural History of Tuft-Hunters and Toadies,’ London, 1848, 12mo.
4. ‘The Natural History of the “Hawk” Tribe,’ London, 1848, 12mo.
5. ‘A Romance of a Mince Pie, an Incident in the Life of John Chirrup of Forty Winks,’ London, 1848, 32mo.
6. (With Shirley Brooks) ‘A Story with a Vengeance; or, How many Joints go to a Tale?’ London, 1852, 8vo.
7. ‘Men of the Hour,’ London, 1856, 12mo.
8. (With J. Hannay and Albert Smith) ‘Christmas Cheer,’ London, 1856, 12mo.
9. (With Albert Smith and others) ‘Sketches of London Life and Character,’ London, 1858, 12mo.

The name Reach is pronounced Re-ach (dissyllable).

[Allibone's Dictionary; Athenæum, 29 Nov. 1856; Inverness Courier, 4 Dec. 1856; Dr. C. Mackay's Forty Years' Recollections, i. 143–57; Spielmann's History of Punch, 1895; Sala's Life and Adventures.]

BETHUNE, JOHN, Church of Scotland clergyman; b.1751 in Brebost (probably near Orbost), Scotland, son of Angus Bethune and Christian Campbell; m.30 Sept. 1782 Véronique Waddens, daughter of Jean-Étienne Waddens*, in Montreal, Que., and they had nine children; d. 23 Sept. 1815 in Williamstown, Upper Canada.

John Bethune was born into a respected family on the Isle of Skye, his father being descended from one of the lairds of Balfour. Nevertheless, his youth was apparently marked by poverty: he held a college bursary in his third year at King’s College (University of Aberdeen), and in 1770 the Synod of Glenelg, at the request of the Presbytery of Skye, granted his family £5 to help meet the expenses of his education. After graduating from King’s College with a ba in 1769 and an ma in 1772, Bethune returned to the Isle of Skye and was licensed as a Church of Scotland minister. In July 1774 the Presbytery of Skye came under criticism from the synod for having licensed Bethune before he could be presented to its meeting. From the standpoint of the presbytery, however, time had been of the essence. Soon after returning from Aberdeen, Bethune had decided to emigrate with some members of his family to North Carolina, a colony that had become a place of refuge for thousands of Highlanders in the years after the 1745 rebellion. It thus seems highly probable that in hastily licensing Bethune the presbytery had been inspired by a desire to prepare him for the ministry in America.

The Bethunes arrived in North Carolina in 1773, and on 14 June 1775 John was recruited as chaplain to the 1st battalion of the Royal Highland Emigrants (later known as the 84th), a loyalist unit raised by Allan Maclean*. Before assuming this post, he saw action at the battle of Moores Creek Bridge in February 1776, probably while serving as chaplain to the North Carolina royal militia. Along with hundreds of other Highlanders, he was captured at this battle by the victorious rebels and imprisoned. For a time he was held in Philadelphia, Pa, and it was from here on 31 Oct. 1776 that he and a group of fellow prisoners requested permission to rejoin their families. Although the evidence is unclear, he possibly was released at this time and made his way to New York City. Be this as it may, he is not heard of again until his arrival in late 1778 in Halifax, N.S., where the 2nd battalion of the Royal Highland Emigrants was stationed.

After reaching Nova Scotia, Bethune acted as chaplain to the 2nd battalion, assisted recruitment amongst Scottish Highlanders, and ministered to the loyalist settlers. His stay in the colony, however, was brief. By August 1779 he had moved to Montreal to take up his appointment as chaplain to the 1st battalion of his regiment. There he performed his regular duties as chaplain, administering the ordinances of marriage and baptism for military personnel of the 84th and other regiments. Since the Presbyterians of the city lacked a church of their own, Bethune attended the services conducted by the Anglican rector of Montreal, David Chabrand* Delisle. It was Delisle who married Bethune and Véronique Waddens in September 1782.

Angus Bethune Reach

From 1783 until the disbanding of the 84th in the following year, Bethune was stationed at the garrison on Carleton Island (N.Y.). On demobilization, he spent a year at Fort Oswegatchie (Ogdensburg, N.Y.) before returning to Montreal in 1786. In Montreal he lived on his half pay but continued to perform marriages and baptisms for army personnel. Around him other Montrealers rallied – Presbyterian Scots, Dutch and German loyalists, and Anglican friends. Being sufficiently numerous to form a congregation, Bethune’s followers rented a large room on Rue Notre-Dame where, on 12 March 1786, Bethune conducted a Presbyterian service. He continued to minister to his “small but interesting” congregation until May 1787, when on the invitation of a group of Highland settlers he moved to the western area of the province, soon to become Upper Canada. Although his Montreal congregation was short-lived, it is noteworthy as the first Presbyterian congregation west of the town of Quebec and as a precursor of the St Gabriel Street Church, the mother church of Presbyterianism in Canada.

Bethune devoted the remainder of his life to his ministry among the Highland settlers in Glengarry County, Upper Canada, and to his family of six sons and three daughters. His ability to preach in Gaelic placed him in good stead with his new flock, and the welcome he received was repaid with years of dedicated service. In Williamstown, his place of residence, he formed a Presbyterian congregation and soon had the satisfaction of seeing a log church built, to be replaced by a stone structure before his death. In neighbouring Lancaster, Martintown, and Cornwall, he preached, organized congregations, and encouraged the building of frame churches. Besides the financial support he received from his congregation, he was awarded 2,000 acres as a retired chaplain, and his land holdings were increased in 1811 with the grant of a town lot in Cornwall. In 1789 he began drawing an annual salary of £50 from the local government. This salary was discontinued shortly after the formation of the new province of Upper Canada, but it was soon restored when 150 Presbyterians in the counties of Glengarry and Stormont signed a petition protesting that Bethune was “not a recent adventurer, but a gentleman of approved Loyalty” and that his government salary was necessary to keep him “above Want, and Consequently above contempt.”

Bethune’s relations with Lieutenant Governor Simcoe were complicated by the controversy surrounding the Marriage Act of 1793, a measure which confined the solemnization of marriages to clergy of the Church of England and justices of the peace. In March 1796 Presbyterians in Grenville County drew up a petition complaining that the act made them “aliens in their own country.” In his reply to the petitioners, Simcoe stated that their appeal was “the Product of a Wicked Head and a most disloyal Heart.” Later he informed the Home secretary that criticisms of the marriage act would be followed by demands for the partition of those lands set apart for the “National Clergy.” He also noted that Bethune, whom he had admitted had “the character of a most loyal man,” “signed the Petition, and is said to be the Author.”

Bethune was one of only a few Church of Scotland ministers who served in Upper Canada before the War of 1812. Still, he was not totally isolated from other clergymen, both of his own and of other denominations. He and his family frequently returned to Montreal for extended visits when a christening or church business was pending, and on these occasions he came into contact with fellow clergymen, including John Young*, his successor as Presbyterian minister in Montreal. With the Roman Catholic priest in Glengarry County, the Reverend Alexander McDonell*, he lived in peace, but he was careful to warn his flock that, although they should remain friendly with their Catholic neighbours, they should “flee from their principles, as from the face of a serpent.” He was also on intimate terms with John Strachan*, the Anglican clergyman. When Strachan taught school at Cornwall during the years 1803 to 1812, Bethune entrusted him with the care of his sons, and later he even allowed two of them, John* and Alexander Neil*, to take Church of England orders since he could not afford to send them to Scotland for their education.

Angus Bethune Theme

Little else is known about Bethune. He seems to have taught school in Cornwall from 1812 to 1814; he may have been present as a chaplain at the attack, led by George Richard John Macdonell*, on Ogdensburg, N.Y., in February 1813; and in June 1815 he was appointed road commissioner for the Eastern District. A few days before his death in 1815, he delivered an address to his Williamstown congregation in which he drew attention to his “precarious health” and stressed the need for an assistant minister. Noting that “there is as great an apathy respecting this essential measure, as if it were certain that I should outlive the whole Congregation,” he warned his parishioners that if he died before an assistant could be provided, they would soon fall victim to the “snares” of the Roman Catholic Church, an “arrogant communion” whose members believed themselves to be “the exclusive favorites of heaven.” He also stated that there were “private gentlemen” in Lower Canada who would “gladly give you every assistance in their power” in the search for a Highland minister, but that “without timely and vigorous exertion on your own part, the matter will languish away in useless talk; a fault very common in all your public transactions.”

Bethune is the most honoured and respected of Canada’s pioneer Church of Scotland ministers, and his children were a credit to him. John and Alexander Neil rose high in the Church of England’s hierarchy, the former becoming dean of Montreal, the latter bishop of Toronto. Of his other sons, James Gray* became a banker, Angus* was made a chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Donald* founded a prominent shipping firm. A daughter, Cecilia, married John Kirby*, the Kingston merchant and legislative councillor. The best known of his descendants is Norman Bethune*, one of the heroes of the Chinese revolution.

John Bethune’s address, To the members of the Presbyterian congregation at Williamstown, and of the other Presbyterian congregations connected with them in Glengary, was printed in Montreal in 1815. A copy is available at the AO in Church records coll., MU 545, no.34 (Martintown, St Andrew’s Presbyterian).

PAC, RG 1, L1, 26: 132; 27: 74, 273; 28: 300; L3, 28: B2/43; 37: B10/34; 67: B misc., 1788–95/96; RG 5, A1: 2196–97, 8236, 9974–75, 10568–69. PCA, St Gabriel Street Church (Montreal), Reg. of baptisms, marriages, and burials. PRO, WO 17/1496: ff. 112, 115, 118, 121, 123, 125, 127, 130, 132, 136, 140 (mfm. at PAC). SRO, CH2/568 (Synod of Glenelg, Minutes, 1725–1929). Corr. of Lieut. Governor Simcoe (Cruikshank), vols.3–4. [James Croil], A historical and statistical report of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, in connection with the Church of Scotland, for the year 1866 (Montreal, 1867). Douglas, Lord Selkirk’s diary (White). “Grants of crown lands in U.C.,” AO Report, 1928: 36. Kingston before War of 1812 (Preston). “The mission of Cornwall, 1784–1812,” ed. A. H. Young, OH, 25 (1929): 481–97. The state records of North Carolina, ed. W. L. Saunders and Walter Clark (26v., Raleigh, N.C., 1886–1907; repr. New York, 1968), 10–12, 25. “U.C. land book B,” AO Report, 1930: 24. Kingston Gazette, 3 Oct. 1815. Montreal Gazette, 25 Sept. 1815. A dictionary of Scottish emigrants to the U.S.A., comp. Donald Whyte (Baltimore, Md., 1972). Hew Scott et al., Fasti ecclesiœ scoticamœ: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation (new ed., 9v. to date, Edinburgh, 1915– ), 5. [Thomas Whyte], An historical and genealogical account of the Bethunes of the Island of Sky, ed. A. A. Bethune-Baker (London, 1893). R. Campbell, Hist. of Scotch Presbyterian Church. William Gregg, History of the Presbyterian Church in the dominion of Canada . . . (Toronto, 1885). J. G. Harkness, Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry: a history, 1784–1945 (Oshawa, Ont., 1946). J. A. Macdonell, Sketches illustrating the early settlement and history of Glengarry in Canada, relating principally to the revolutionary war of 1775–83, the war of 1812–14 and the rebellion of 1837–8 . . . (Montreal, 1893). [Alexander McDonald], “Letter-book of Captain Alexander McDonald, of the Royal Highland Emigrants, 1775–1779,” N.Y. Hist. Soc., Coll., Pub. Fund Ser. (New York), 15 (1882): 464. E. A. [K.] McDougall, “The American element in the early Presbyterian Church in Montreal (1786–1824)” (ma thesis, McGill Univ., Montreal, 1965). James MacKenzie, “John Bethune: the founder of Presbyterianism in Upper Canada,” Called to witness: profiles of Canadian Presbyterians . . . , ed. W. S. Reid (2v., [Toronto] and Hamilton, Ont., 1975–80), 1: 95–110. J. S. Moir, Enduring witness: a history of the Presbyterian Church in Canada ([Hamilton, 1974?]). S. D. Self, “A history of the Presbyterian Church in the townships of Charlottenburgh and Lancaster, within the county of Glengarry, Upper Canada (Ontario)” (essay, Presbyterian College, Montreal, 1958). P. H. Bryce, “The Quinte loyalists of 1784,” OH, 27 (1931): 5–14. E. A. Cruikshank, “A memoir of Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell, of Glengarry House, the first speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada,” OH, 22 (1925): 20–59. “John Bethune, 1751–1815,” Presbyterian News (Raleigh), 30 (1965), no.12: 8–9. Harry Piers, “The fortieth regiment, raised at Annapolis Royal in 1717; and five regiments subsequently raised in Nova Scotia,” N. S. Hist. Soc., Coll., 21 (1927): 115–83. A H. Young, “The Bethunes,” OH, 27 (1931): 553–74.

Angus Bethune Movie

Document History

• Published 1983

Occupations and Other Identifiers

Region of Birth

Region of Activities

Related Biographies

Related Biographies

McDONELL, ALEXANDER

BETHUNE, JOHN (1791-1872)

BETHUNE, NORMAN

Angus Bethune Short Story Pdf

HINDENLANG, CHARLES

Cite This Article

E. A. McDougall, “BETHUNE, JOHN (1751-1815),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed May 19, 2021, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bethune_john_1751_1815_5E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats: