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 Britai ...

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 Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

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 th ...

, Alexander Neil Bethune married Jane Eliza Crooks (1809–1861), the daughter of the Hon. James Crooks (1778–1860) and Jane Cummings (1791–1861). Alexander and Eliza had ten children. They included

Robert Henry Bethune Robert Henry Bethune (May 5, 1836 – March 27, 1895) was a Canadian banker born in Cobourg, Upper Canada. He was a son of Alexander Neil Bethune and Jane Eliza Crooks (1809-1861). Robert was raised in Cobourg, educated in private schools and ...

, 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 John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

, 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 Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

from 1835 to 1846. Other notable brothers included businessman James Gray, fur trader

Angus Angus may refer to: Media * ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film * ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record'' Places Australia * Angus, New South Wales Canada * Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario * East Angus, Quebec Scotland * An ...

and politician

Donald Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

. The family was part of the

Family Compact The Family Compact was a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (today’s Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1840s. It was the Upper Canadian equivalent of the Château Clique in ...

, 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 Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is at the eastern end of the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. It is named after the English fishing town of Grimsby in north-east Lincolnshire. The majority of r ...

. 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 sc ...

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