John Cameron (1724–1799), born near
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, active in Ulster.
Life
Having served an apprenticeship to a bookseller in Edinburgh, he entered the university and took his M.A. degree. He belonged to the ‘reformed presbyterians’, or ‘covenanters’, and was admitted a probationer.
Going as a missionary to the north of Ireland around 1750, he travelled in various districts of Ulster as an outdoor preacher. His labours as a ‘mountain minister’ met with large acceptance. In 1754 there was a split in the Presbyterian congregation of
Billy (otherwise Bushmills),
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
, some staying with their minister, John Logue, and some going off to form the new congregation of
Dunluce. The Dunluce people offered to give a call to Cameron if he would leave the covenanters and join the regular Presbyterian body. He agreed, on 24 April 1755 the call was signed by 137 persons, and on 3 June Cameron was ordained by the presbytery of
Route
Route or routes may refer to:
* Route (gridiron football), a path run by a wide receiver
* route (command), a program used to configure the routing table
* Route, County Antrim, an area in Northern Ireland
* ''The Route'', a 2013 Ugandan film
* Ro ...
. An active pastor, he became noted as a writer of sermons, which were borrowed by his friends, episcopal and Presbyterian. Encountering
John Taylor's ''Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin'', he changed his theology. Going beyond Taylor, he adopted humanitarian views of the person of Christ.
Cameron also turned his attention to science. Being in want of a parish schoolmaster, he took into his house
Robert Hamilton (1749–1830), the son of a neighbouring weaver, trained him, and introduced him to the study of anatomy. Hamilton afterwards became a physician and showed his gratitude to Cameron by dedicating to him ''The Duties of a Regimental Surgeon'', 1794, 2 vols.
In 1768 Cameron was moderator of the
Synod of Ulster. His year of office was marked by the renewed communication between the synod and the Antrim presbytery, excluded for non-subscription in 1726, and by the publication of Cameron's only acknowledged work, a prose epic.
In 1787–9 Cameron got a double portion of ''
regium donum''; his means were always very small. He died on 31 December 1799, and was buried in the parish churchyard of Dunluce, on the road between Portrush and the Giant's Causeway. An elegy on his grave was written by Rev. George Hill, formerly librarian of Queen's College, Belfast. Besides his son William, Cameron left a daughter, married to John Boyd of Dunluce.
Works
He wrote anonymously several works (some in the form of dialogues) attacking from various points of view the principle of subscription to creeds. The authorship was no secret; but the extent of Cameron's doctrinal divergence from the standards of his church was not publicly revealed till nearly thirty years after his death. A paper rejecting the doctrine of the
resurrection of the body was forwarded by Cameron to Archdeacon
Francis Blackburne
Francis Blackburne PC (Ire) KS (11 November 1782 – 17 September 1867) was an Irish judge and eventually became Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Background
Born at Great Footstown in County Meath, he was the son of Richard Blackburne of Great Foot ...
, in expectation of a reply. Blackburne sent the paper to
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
, who published it in his ''
Theological Repository
The ''Theological Repository'' was a periodical founded and edited from 1769 to 1771 by the eighteenth-century British polymath Joseph Priestley. Although ostensibly committed to the open and rational inquiry of theological questions, the journ ...
'', vol. ii. 1771, with the signature of "Philander" ("Philander", in later volumes, is one of the many signatures of
Joseph Bretland). It led to a correspondence between Priestley and Cameron, and to the settlement of Cameron's son William, as a button-maker in Birmingham.
Cameron's writings
* ''The Policy of Satan to destroy the Christian Religion'', Glasgow 1774, anon.
* ''The Messiah; in nine books'', Belfast, 1768; reprinted with memoir, Dublin, 1811.
* ''The Catholic Christian'', Belfast, 1769, anon.
* ''The Catholic Christian defended'', Belfast, 1771, (in reply to
Benjamin McDowel, D.D., who attacked him by name. Cameron published his defence with the pseudonym of "Philalethes").
* ''Theophilus and Philander'', Belfast, 1772, anonymous reply to McDowel's rejoinder.
* ''Forms of Devotion'', Belfast, 1780.
* ''The Doctrines of Orthodoxy'', Belfast, 1782, republished 1817 as ''The Skeleton covered with Flesh''.
* ''The State of our First Parents''.
Posthumous was
* ''The Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures'', 1828 (edited by Arthur Nelson (d. 20 June 1831), presbyterian minister of
Kilmore, County Cavan
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References
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, John
1724 births
1799 deaths
Irish Presbyterian ministers
Scottish Presbyterian ministers ordained outside Scotland