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BY F. G. WATSON
The Colvill family was connected with Dromore over a period of eighty
years, but during that brief span they exerted an influence over the local
Presbyterian congregation which was to affect its future and involve it in
the wider history of the Presbyterian Church in Ulster. The first of the
name at Dromore was;
REV. ALEXANDER COLVILL
Alexander Colvill was minister of the Presbyterian congregation of Dromore
in the County Down (1700-1719). He was born in Scotland and obtained his
M.A. at Edinburgh in 1689. On the occasion of his marriage to Christian
Thompson in Edinburgh on the 4th August 1692 his occupation was given as
that of a schoolmaster. He was ordained at Newtownards on 26th July, 1696
but removed to the congregation in Dromore in 1700.
Colvill was a member of the Belfast Society, a society which was formed
about 1705 and comprised Ministers and students who met to discuss, confer
and debate on matters of religion and operate in concert for the purchase
of books. The members came from various Presbyteries and Belfast being
central to their various residences they met there and became known as the
Belfast Society. Colvill died prior to the major Synodical controversy
which involved that Society.
Mr. Colvill attended regularly the meetings of the General Synod of
Ulster, served on various committees and was chosen Moderator on 23 June
1713 at Antrim. The following year he opened the Synod at Belfast by
preaching on 1 Timothy 4:16, "Take heed to yourself and to your teaching;
hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your
hearers." He died suddenly on 1st December 1719 in his pulpit at Dromore
while conducting the service and was buried the following day.
Alexander Colvill had, as far as is known two children. His daughter
Christian married John Bradner who was recorded as a student of Divinity
in Dromore in 1714; and his son Alexander who succeeded him at Dromore.
DR. ALEXANDER COLVILL (1699-1777)
Dr. Alexander Colvill was the son of the Rev. Alexander Colvill above
mentioned. Colvill graduated M.A. at Edinburgh on 2nd March 1715 and was
studying medicine on the death of his father. The Dromore congregation
urged him to become their minister and he went through a theological
course at Edinburgh under William Dunlop. He acted as tutor to the family
of Major Hay of Parbroath for a while and he signed the Westminster
Confession of Faith and was licenced by the Presbytery of Cupar in Fife on
19th June 1722.
On being called to Dromore he applied in 1724 to the Presbytery of Armagh
to ordain him as minister of Dromore. The Presbytery refused on the
grounds that he had declined to renew his subscription and Colvill
appealed to the Sub-Synod and then to the General Synod. Fearing an
adverse decision at appeal he left for London, with the consent of his
session in December 1724 and was ordained by ten non-subscribing
Presbyterian ministers in the vestry of Dr. Calamy's Church; Joshus
Oldfield, the leader of the London nonsubscribers, presiding.
He returned to his congregation in Dromore and they applied to the
Presbytery of
Armagh to install him as they now claimed that all difficulties in the way
of his ordination had been removed. The Presbytery rejected outright the
application and refused to receive him as a member because Mr. Colvill,
contrary to his promise of subjection to the Presbytery, without their
knowledge, or consent or any certificate from them had withdrawn himself
from under their conduct, obtained ordination and on his return exercised
his ministry in Dromore a vacant congregation under their inspection
without their consent, or appointment and without having produced his
Certificates before any of the Synods.
In June 1725, Colvill's appeal from the sentence of the Synod of Armagh
was prosecuted by Robert Hamilton, John Beard, Adam Keatley, Jam. Ker and
George Woods commissioners who appeared for the majority of the
congregation and the minority were represented by Captain John Magill and
others who earnestly desired that Mr. Colvill would not be settled in
Dromore for it was against their consciences to submit to his ministry.
The Commissioners were asked if they would subject themselves to the
judgement of Synod on this affair and they answered in writing that they
would do all they could for the preservation of the peace order and just
authority of the Church but did not indicate that they would accept the
judgement. The Synod now decided to consider the conduct of Mr. Colvill
and the people of Dromore before it entered into a discussion of the
appeal. This decision was minuted and read to Colvill and his
commissioners who were asked to attend on 22nd June, but on the appointed
day Colvill did not appear and his commissioners requested a dismiss from
the General Synod. This request was refused, and in the absence of his
commissioners Colvill was suspended until the first meeting of the Synod
of Armagh in October, and afterwards until he give satisfaction to the
Presbytery of Armagh for his irregular practices.
The Synod then agreed that Mr. Samuel Henry should go to Dromore and
preach in their Meeting House and intimate the sentence of Mr. Colvill's
suspension to that congregation, and if the major party refused to give
him access to their meeting house,
(which was to prove the case) he was to preach to the minor party. Mr.
Henry was to convey the sentence of suspension to Colvill and a letter was
to be written to the people of Dromore to exhort them to their duty.
Colvill's rebellion was virtually complete; he continued to preach to his
congregation disregarding the sentence of the Synod and applied to the
ministers in Dublin to receive him into their Association and to install
him. A deputation of three ministers, Choppin of Dublin, McGachy of Athy,
and Woods of Summerhill, together with Smyth from the Munster presbytery
journeyed North and installed Dr. Colvill as the minister on 25th October
1725. The congregation became a non-subscribing congregation but continued
to use old Meeting House until a new one was erected near the Pound at the
head of Meeting Street then called Pound Street. Colvill became a member
of the Presbytery of Antrim and represented them in consultations with the
General Synod.
Colvill's first publication was the funeral sermon preached at
Downpatrick, March 24, 1744 for the late Mr. Thomas Nevin a gentleman who
featured to an even greater extent in the Non-subscription controversy.
His other publications were (1) The Persecuting, Disloyal,
and Absurd Tenets of those who affect to call themselves Seceders laid
open and refuted, in a letter addressed to the People under the care of
the Presbytery of Antrim. Belfast, 1749, (2) Some important Queries humbly
and earnestly recommended to the serious consideration of the Protestant
Dissenters in the North of Ireland belonging to the Synodical Association,
Belfast, 1773.
At the outbreak of the rebellion in 1745 Colvill obtained from Lord
Chesterfield a commission for raising a Volunteer Corps of which he was
Captain with other officers Lt. Wm. Hall and Ensign Richard Foule.
An indication of Alexander Colvill's property interests is obtained from
an examination of the Registry of Deeds. A deed of lease dated 10 November
1749 between Colvill and Francis McClelland of Ballynafoy records a
letting of 32 acres 3 roods for a term of 2000 years at a clear yearly
rent of £9.16.10 stirling. A mortgage deed dated 23rd December 1749
records the sale to William Colvill of the City of Dublin Gent of the
upper quarter of the townland of Ballynafoy, containing 132 acres 1 rood
for a term of 500 years at a consideration of £315 stirling.
From Colvill's funeral service preached by the Rev. James Bryson, of
Lisburn we obtain a cameo sketch and estimation of his character.
"It is well known that he early applied himself to the study of
polite and useful learning, and his profiting was quickly known to all.
And, to say nothing of the improvements which he made of a liberal
education, by much reading, and an extensive acquaintance with men of
all ranks and professions; the very greatness of his own spirit, which
seemed to render him almost independent of those helps and that severe
application by which other men arrive at knowledge, would have rendered
him the admiration of the discerning, and the delight of his friends. It
is but strict justice to the memory of so great a man to declare, that
in strength, boldness and energy of thought, in a rich, clear and
comprehensive understanding; and in all the qualities of accuracy in
reasoning, readiness of speech, uninterrupted presence of mind and
masterly command of his talents, to which these gave birth, he has been
but rarely equalled among the sons of men.
His moral temper was strongly marked with the most honourable characters
of generosity, sincerity, plain dealing, and integrity. To these he added
a fortitude fit to brave the greatest dangers, a constancy not to be
subdued by the most unrelenting opposition, and an openness of heart and
freedom of speech, through which his whole soul might be perceived at
once, on every subject that he thought important. The fear of man never
awed him into silence. The hope of being patronized, never betrayed him
into the meanness of adulation. His piety was the result of the justest
and most worthy sentiments of almighty God; and, like them, was equally
removed from the irrational fervors of enthusiasm and the gloomy horrors
of superstition.
He loved mankind, and of course he was fond of the society of men: and few
have ever combined the talents of pleasing and improving, in a higher
degree. He gave life to reasoning, and force to wit. While the strongest
imagination and a memory which knew not what it was to fail or to betray,
enchanted and delighted; so sound an understanding, so correct a judgement
of men and things, could not miss to supply instruction on every subject.
He was a stedfast and unshaken friend of civil and religious liberty. His
conduct during that most illiberal of all rebellions in the year 1745, is
a proof of the former: and as to the latter, it is sufficient to say, that
he was from the beginning a fellow-labourer with the immortal Abernethy,
Halliday, Bruce, Kirkpatrick, etc. in defence of the religious rights of
men and christians. Few men understood this subject better, or were
capable of defending it in a more masterly manner.
As to his public character among you; his extensive knowledge of the great
principles of natural religion, and his intimate acquaintance with the
scriptures, qualified him to discharge his duty in a very useful and
honourable manner. In devotion, he was rational, solemn and affecting. In
preaching, which he always performed without the aid of papers in the
pulpit, he was clear, distinct, and instructive: he delivered himself with
dignity and ease; and displayed an astonishing flow of ready, unaffected
eloquence, remote alike from the swellings of pomp, and the meanness of
familiarity. In expounding the scriptures, he possessed talents which all
must envy, but few indeed, need hope to equal. In sum. Doctor Colvill was
distinguished through his whole life by a generous contempt of the world,
a frank and open heart, a liberal turn of thought, a remarkable command of
temper, an active desire to do good, strong social affections, an
undaunted courage, and perfect prefence of mind."
Alexander Colvill died of apoplexy on 23rd April 1777 in his 78th year and
his will dated 3rd October 1772 refers to a son and five daughters. The
daughters were married to: Mr. Isaac Moreland of Tullindony, Mr. William
Blackwell of Belfast a cabinet maker, Mr. Dickson of Dromore, Rev. Isaac
Patrick, Minister of Magherally, and Mr. Henry Munroe of Tullylish. The
latter was the father of the celebrated beauty Dorothea Munroe referred to
by Oliver Goldsmith in the Haunch of Venison, and whose portraits by
Angelica Kauffman are in the National Gallery, Dublin. A son Alexander
Colvill is recorded as a witness in deeds of lease by his father in 1749
but little else is known about him. Colvill's other son Maturine did not
long survive him.
LIEUTENANT MATURINE COLVILL
Maturine Colvill, a son of the above - Dr. Alexander Colvill, had
emigrated to America, in 1762/3 and disembarked at Charlestown South
Carolina. He later acquired plantations and negro slaves in Bladen County,
North Carolina and was killed in September 1781 during the American War of
Independence. The Tories of Bladen County had been active against the
Whigs and Hector McNeill who commanded the Tories was killed at Lindleys
Mill on Cane Creek. On his death a commission was sent to Maturine Colvill
to take command of the Loyalists in Bladen County, which he accepted. His
command was brief as the Dickson letters record "Some of the leading men
of the Whig Party in that county and Mr. Colvill having formerly been
obnoxious to each other occasioned by some dispute among themselves, and
they dreading his courage and intrepidity and the impetuosity of his
temper, which some of them very well knew would be fatal to some, as soon
as he came to lad his troops, it was so contrived that he was soon taken
off by a party who slew him in his own house the morning of the same day
in which he was to have headed his loyal troops."
Following Maturine Colvill's death, the quest for the Colvill estate took
Patrick Neil, and Joseph Dickson from Dromore to North Carolina.
Possession of one of the plantations and some of the slaves was obtained
by a Mr. Patrick and his plantation, which rented out in 1786 and the
negroes hired for wages produced a combined annual income of one hundred
and thirty pounds.
This account of the Colvill's is restricted to the Dromore branch of that
family, but the author would welcome any information on their connection
with the family of Sir Robert Colvill of Newtownards and William Colvill
of Dublin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Narrative of the proceedings of Seven General Synods of the Northern
Presbyterians in Ireland by Ministers of the Presbytery of Antrim.
Manuscript "Sketches of the History of Presbyterians in Ireland" by
William Campbell D.D. of Clonmel 1803.
Historical & Literary Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland by Thomas
Witherow 2nd series 1880.
A Ramble Through Dromore. John F. Mulligan 1886. Scottish Record Office
Document Ref RD4/115,CC8/8/101 Records of The General Synod of Ulster from
1691 to 1820 Belfast 1890.
A Sermon occasioned on the Death of the late Reverend Mr. Thomas Nevin
preached at Downpatrick the twenty fourth of March 1744 by Alexander
Colvill A.M. & M.D.
Sermons on Several Important Subjects by James Bryson,
A.M.
Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Volume V, Volume VI, Second Series.
Dictionary of National Biography.
Belfast Newsletter index to Birth, Marriage and Death Entries, Linenhall
Library.
A list of officers in the Several Regiments and Independent Troops of
Companies of Militia in Ireland Taken from the books in the secretaries
offices Dublin MDCC.LXI.
The Dickson Letters compiled and edited by James O Carr Esq.
Register of
Deeds 1730-1745 P.R.O.N.I.
Fasti of the Irish Presbyterian Church by Rev. James McConnell
Reid's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (Killen) 1867
A short History of First Dromore Presbyterian Church 1660-1981. |
