the sums of money annexed to our names underneath where we have hereunto set our hands thé date above written.

The Paul Huff was in good worldly circumstances,__and doubtless gave the land as well as his subscription. Peter Frederick was a blacksmith, lived about a mile from the chapel site, wavered in his religion, but returned to the Lord, and died very happy.

Elizabeth Roblin is the widow already mentioned.* She and her husband came intò Canada about the end of the war. They entered by the way of lake Champlain, (as did great numbers of the emigrants), passed up the Richelieu river, and wintered at Sorel,-living on rations allowed by the Government. In the spring, the family passed up the St. Lawrence, in batteaux, or flat bottomed boats, came on to the Bay of Quinte, coasted the numerous bays and inlets, and finally took possession of land on the Hay Bay. It is worthy of remark, that the wintering of the emigrants in Lower Canada, while a great convenience to them, resulted in an evil to Upper Canada which is still increasing, and can never be got rid of. The French farmers grew thistles on their land, as now. The emigrants filled their beds with the straw. The beds were carried to the different farms in Upper Canada in the batteaux. The thistle seeds found their way to the land, and the land has never been free from thistles since. The subscription of the widow was very liberal: indeed, the Roblins

Her son Philip was the father of the present John P. Roblin, of Picton, a man who has served his country in several Parliaments of Upper Canada, and also the Methodist Church in different offices. Her daughter Nancy, born in 1781, and connected with the Methodists from the first until now (1861), is the mother of a large branch of the Ketcheson family in the county of Hastings.

of the Bay of Quinte have always been hospitable and liberal minded people. William Casey lived on the north side of the Hay Bay, on a beautiful point of land, where hospitality and piety have continued to reside, still called Casey's Point. Joseph Ellison was afterwards an exhorter in the church, and Daniel Steele became a local preacher. Henry Hover, Wm. Ruttan, and Conrad Vandusen, were neighbours, pious men, and useful in the church. The early Methodists were not inclined to quiet quaker meetings. If they had emotions in the heart they used to show them by the voice. subscribers was unusually given to ery aloud," and “ for joy," and he went by the name of "Noisy Pete," or Peter Ruttan. Andrew Embury was a nephew of Philip Embury of New-York. Casper Vandusen was a brother to Conrad. After some years he removed to Sophiasburgh, on the ligh Shore, and became a leader to the class at Conger's Mills.*

66

But one of the

shout

Joseph Clapp was the brother-in-law of the widow Roblin, and lived in the fourth town. Daniel Dafoe lived on the Hay Bay, and is the ancestor of a numerous posterity living in the Bay of Quinte townships. Henry Davis was a Dutch soldier, settled on the Hay Bay shore. Stophel Garman settled on a fine lot of land adjoining Casey's Point, where still live some of his descendents. Wm. Ketcheson is the last name on the list. He was an Englishman, came to one of the colonies with his grandfather, when 15 years of age. On the breaking out of the revolution, he enlisted as a soldier, and joined the Royalist dragoons. After the war, he carried his family to Nova Scotia, to settle; but a fire consuming all his property, he came to Canada in 1787. He first settled on the

*The Rev. Dr. Green says, that "when first converted, he was very ignorant of religious matters; and when he first stood up to say grace at table, he commenced, And now I lay me down to sleep,' &c., these being the only reiigious words he could think of, and they were doubtless acceptable to God. But he soon became an apt scholar in the school of Christ. I have often heard him pray and speak in lovefeasts with much propriety and with great power. His widow, now in her one-hundredth year, is still living, (1860), and is probably the only survivor of the first class formed by Mr. Losee." And gives the following account of Conrad Vandusen: "He lived on the bay shore, a little east of the Court-house. Of him many pleasing and amusing anecdotes are told; though a tavern keeper as well as a merchant, be opened his house for the Gospel, and when that Gospel entered his heart, he deliberately took his axe and cut down his sign-posts. When convinced that he ought to have prayers in his family, he got an old book, found a form of prayers, and kneeled down with his family to lead it; but when on his knees he could not read the ârst sentence, but began to weep and sigh, and call upon God for mercy. Happy for hin self and for others he found mercy, joined the first class formed in the province, and lived and died a man of God."

1792.1

HISTORY OF METHODISM

33

Hay Bay, in Fredericksburgh, and his wife was a member of Losee's class. In 1800, he moved up to Sidney, and a large posterity claim him as their ancestor.

Considering that these twenty-two subscribers were new settlers, had little or nothing more than requisite for their wants, and that money was scarce and at a high price; the subscriptions were very liberal,--especially eight or ten of the sums, and would not often be exceeded now. The total subscribed for the first chapel was £108.

In the same month, or thereabout, Losee undertook to build a second church, for the use of the people on the eastern part of his circuit, as the first was for the use of the western part, especially for quarterly meetings. The site was in the second or Ernestown, and on the front, not far east of the village of Bath. The principal persons who aided in building this meeting-house were James Parrot, John Lake, Robert Clarke, Jacob Miller, and others. There is evidence in an account-book of Robt. Clark, who was a carpenter and millwright, of the building of the chapel commencing in May, 1792. He credits himself with then working 12 days; and with working in October following 123 days, reckoning at 5s. 6d. per day,— which shows carpenters' wages at that time. But, like a goodhearted man, seeing the building fund not too full, he reduced his wages to 2s. 9d. per day. His payment to the chapel was £10. He lived two miles east of the meeting-house. It seems that James Parrott was the receiver of the subscriptions. The two buildings were to be of the same size, the same forin, and with galleries. The churches were proceeded with, the frame and closing in finished, and then they were opened for use; but, at first, the people sat upon boards, and for a long time after. The Adolphustown and Ernestown were the first Methodist churches in Canada.

When religion prospers, not only do churches arise, but zealous men are willing to declare the Gospel truth, who before were ignorant thereof, or unwilling to publish it. Local preachers and exhorters have been found in almost every circuit in Canada, able and ready to help the itinerant ministry. The first exhorters or public speakers in the first circuit were Jno. Roblin, Stophel German, Daniel Steel, and Matthew Steel. The last did not know the alphabet when he began, but he afterwards went to school, and soon could read a text and a hymn.

C-1

This year died Paul Heck, and was buried near the front of Augusta, now the burial ground of the Augusta Methodist church. He appears to have been a faithful servant of the Lord, from the time his wife prevailed on Embury to preach until his death. It seems that some time after the Hecks came to Augusta, one or more of the Emburys came, and perhaps other Methodists, and a class was formed by themselves; and Samuel Embury, a son of Philip, was appointed the leader. The Hecks came to Augusta in 1778. Paul therefore had lived there about thirteen years. At what period the class was formed is uncertain; but doubtless it was formed as soon as possible by these pious Methodist people, and may be certainly reckoned the first Methodist class in Canada. The order of precedence then will be: the Augusta class first, the Niagara class second, and the Adolphustown third, but the first regularly formed.

As the meeting of the New-York Conference drew near, Mr. Losce numbered off the members which he had received into the Methodist Episcopal Church since his coming, and found there were 165 in church fellowship. Considering the scanty population in the six townships of the Kingston circuit, the number is large, and proved the inclination of the people to the Methodist usages and doctrines, and the faithfulness of the first itinerant labourer. He then set out on his long and difficult journey to Albany, the place of Conference. He is placed on the list of the deacons, and very likely now received ordination. He gave so favourable an account of the religious opening in Canada, and the necessity of an ordained minister, or elder on his circuit, that Darius Dunham was appointed to it, under the name of Cataraqui circuit, instead of Kingston, as a sluggish stream of the name of Cataraqui runs through the township of Kingston, and empties into the Bay of Quinte, near the village of Kingston. A smaller stream runs into the Bay yet nearer the village, which was called the Little Cataraqui. From the name of the two streams, the village was more commonly called Cataraqui than Kingston; and as the greatest part of the population of Upper Canada was at first in the neighbourhood of these streams, people in the United States would sometimes call the whole upper province Cataraqui.

Opposite the township of Augusta, and where Ogdensburgh

is now situated in the United States, is the emptying of a .stream of water, called the Oswegotchie, so called from an Indian village neir. The Conference applied the name of this creek to the new circuit which Wm. Losee was appointed to form in Canada, embracing the country on the north side of the St. Lawrence from within fifty or sixty miles east of Kingston to Cornwall,-a line of country of about 60 or 70 miles, and along which were the townships of Elizabethtown, Augusta, Edwardsburgh, Matilda, Williamsburgh, Osnabruck, and Cornwall.

The two Canadian circuits were placed in the same district as Albany and Saratoga circuits, of which Freeborn Garrettson was the Presiding Elder. The two preachers for Canada came together into the Province; and the first kindly introduced the second to the notice of the new Methodists and settlers of the northern wilderness. No quarterly meeting had yet been held, no sacraments administered, nor matrimony solemnized. But the Methodists were now to enjoy all the privileges of a regular church. Before the preachers should part, it was agreed to have a quarterly meeting, as the Methodists had in the United States. The notice was soon spread over all the six townships. On Saturday, September 15th might have been seen, in Mr. Parrot's barn, 1st concession of Ernestown, (and exactly a month from the beginning of the Albany Conference) the first Saturday congregation, the first church business meeting, and the first circuit prayer meeting. Darius Dunham, preacher in charge of the circuit, acted in the place of the presiding elder. On the Sunday, we may imagine the new Methodists of the six townships drawing on towards Parrot's barn, from the east, and west, and north, and devoutly going in to the first love-feast in the Province, beholding the two preachers at the table. After the love-feast, the Methodists see the broken bread and the cup, for the first time, in the hands of a Methodist preacher,-who earnestly invites them to draw near and partake of the holy sacrament to their com fort. A new and solemn ordinance to them; and then after the members have retired for a few minutes, behold a crowd of people pressing into the barn, filling it, and a great number around the doors, The new missionary stands before the gazing congregation; he opens his great commission to preach the Gospel unto all people; he cries and spares not their sins