Alexander Neil Bethune (August 28, 1800 – February 3, 1879) was a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

clergyman and bishop.

Early and Family Life

The son of the Reverend John Bethune of Williamstown, Ontario, the founding

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

minister for

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

, Alexander Neil Bethune married Jane Eliza Crooks (1809–1861), the daughter of the Hon.

James Crooks Jamie Crooks (April 15, 1778 – March 2, 1860) was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada and Canada West. He was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1778 and came to Fort Niagara in 1791 where his half-brother, Francis, was operating a ...

(1778–1860) and Jane Cummings (1791–1861). Alexander and Eliza had ten children. They included Robert Henry Bethune, a noted banker with the

Dominion Bank The Dominion Bank was a Canadian bank that was chartered in 1869 and based in Toronto, Ontario. On February 1, 1955, it merged with the Bank of Toronto to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank, which is known as the present-day TD Bank Group. History ...

. He brother John, also a clergyman, was acting principal of

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

from 1835 to 1846. Other notable brothers included businessman

James Gray James, Jim, or Jimmy Gray may refer to: Politicians * James Gray (Australian politician) (1820–1889), member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly * James Gray (British politician) (born 1954), British politician * James Gray (mayor) (1862–1916 ...

, fur trader

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and politician Donald. The family was part of the Family Compact, the political clique which ran Upper Canada for decades.

Career

Alexander Neil Bethune was ordained in 1824 and took charge of the parish at Grimsby, Ontario. In 1867, after a long and successful career, he was consecrated as bishop of the Diocese of Toronto by the Reverend

John Strachan John Strachan (; 12 April 1778 – 1 November 1867) was a notable figure in Upper Canada and the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. He is best known as a political bishop who held many government positions and promoted education from common sch ...

. Rt. Rev. Bethune inherited a diocese quite fragmented from methods and policies attributed to Strachan and/or the Family Compact. These circumstances made his episcopate appear less successful. He was a humble man and some saw this as a weakness causing his message to be lost his generation.

Death and legacy

Bethune died in Toronto in 1879, shortly before the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a resistance by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of S ...

, and was succeeded as bishop by

Arthur Sweatman Arthur Sweatman (1834–1909) was a Canadian Anglican bishop and the third Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Early life Sweatman was born on 19 November 1834 in London, England, to parents John and Anne. His education began in two London ...

. One of his sons, Alexander Bethune, continued the clergy family tradition, serving at Trinity Church.

External links

*
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

Bibliographic directory
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...

''Alexander Neil Bethune''
Anglican bishops of Toronto 1800 births 1879 deaths People from Grimsby, Ontario {{Canada-Anglican-bishop-stub