Henry McIlree Williamson
Henry McIlree Williamson (1824–1898) was an Irish-born minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in 1896.
Life
[edit]
He was born in Lisnadill in County Armagh in what is now Northern Ireland in 1824. He was the son of David Williamson and his wife, Leoncia McIlree.[1]
He studied at Trinity College, Dublin. He then trained as a minister for the newly created Free Church of Scotland, training at New College, Edinburgh, from 1845 to 1849. He was ordained as a minister of the Free church of Scotland in 1850 at Dunblane. In 1855 he translated to Huntly, Aberdeenshire and in 1867 to the Free High Kirk of Aberdeen.[2] In Aberdeen he lived at 44 King Street.[3]
In 1870 he left the Free Church of Scotland and returned to Ireland as minister of Fisherwick Church in Belfast, as a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. This was initially as assistant to Rev Dr James Morgan, but from 1873 he became minister in charge.[4]
In 1896 he succeeded Rev George Raphael Buick as Moderator of the General Assembly.[citation needed]
He died on 29 December 1898.
A stained glass window in Fisherwick Church is dedicated to his memory.[4]
Family
[edit]The name of his first wife is not known but he is listed as a "widower" in the 1851 census.[5]
In 1855 he married the 18-year-old Catherine Charlotte Robertson (1837-1864). They had four sons and one daughter, one son dying in infancy. Their son James Robert David Williamson (1856-1891) also became a Free Church minister. His namesake son, Henry McIlree Williamon (1858-1948) died in Edinburgh.
In 1866 he married the 22-year-old Jessie Maria Gibson (b.1842 in Nova Scotia.
His daughter Barbara Williamson married William Henderson Calvert and were parents to the poet Raymond Calvert.[6]
His son Charles Frederick Williamson (1868-1915) married a nurse, Edith Nugent, and they moved to India. They had seven further children: three sons and for daughters.
References
[edit]- ^ Free Church Monthly; January 1899
- ^ Ewing. William Annals of the Free Church
- ^ Aberdeen Post Office Directory 1869
- ^ a b "History7 of Fishwick" (PDF). www.fisherwick.net. 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ 1851 Census: Dunblane, Scotland
- ^ "Calvert". oscholars.files.wordpress.com. 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2020.