William Bruce (minister, Born 1757)
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William Bruce (1757–1841) was an Irish
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
minister and educator.


Early life

The second son of Samuel Bruce, Presbyterian minister and grandson of Michael Bruce, of Wood Street, Dublin, and Rose Rainey of
Magherafelt Magherafelt ( ; , ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,071 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. It is the biggest town in the south of the county an ...
,
County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...
, he was born in Dublin on 30 July 1757. He entered
Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...
, in 1771. In 1775, he obtained a scholarship, and graduated A.B., supporting himself by private tuition. In 1776, he went to Glasgow for a session, and, in 1777, to
Warrington Academy Warrington Academy, active as a teaching establishment from 1756 to 1782, was a prominent dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by those who dissented from the established Church of England. It was located in Warrington (then ...
for two years. Bruce's first settlement was at
Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...
, and he was ordained, on 4 November 1779, by the Bangor presbytery. His father's old congregation at Strand Street, Dublin, then called him on 24 March 1782 as colleague to John Moody, D.D., on the death of Thomas Plunket. He took part in the volunteer movement of 1782, serving in the ranks, but declined a command. At the national convention which met in November 1783, in the Rotunda at Dublin, he sat as delegate for
Carrickfergus Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 28,141 at the 2021 census. It is County Antrim's oldest t ...
, and was the last surviving member of this convention. In 1786, he received the degree of D.D. from
Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...
. His Dublin congregation increased when on 25 or 29 March 1787, the Cooke Street congregation, with its ex-minister, William Dunne, D.D., joined it.


In Belfast

In October 1789 Bruce was called to the First Belfast congregation, as colleague to James Crombie. He did not accept this call, but on Crombie's death he was again called (11 March 1790) to First Belfast, and at the same time elected Principal of
Belfast Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (also known as ) is the oldest school in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in north Belfast. The Academy is one of 8 schools in Northern Ireland w ...
. His Dublin congregation released him on 18 March. In the extra-synodical Antrim presbytery, to which his congregation belonged, Bruce became influential. His congregation increased and included leading families of Belfast, increased. He drew up for his congregation a hymn-book in 1801 (enlarged 1818), but while he paid attention to congregational singing he resisted, in 1807, the introduction of an organ. He broke the custom of silent Presbyterian interments by allowing addresses at the grave. The Belfast Academy mainly owed its reputation to Bruce, who came through the "barring out" student rebellion of 12 April 1792. In the troubles of 1797 and 1798 he enrolled himself as a private in the Belfast Merchants' Infantry, sent his family to
Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...
, and continued to preach; many of the more liberal Presbyterians had been in favour of the
Irish Rebellion of 1798 The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ''The Turn out'', ''The Hurries'', 1798 Rebellion) was a popular insurrection against the British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland. The m ...
. His influence with the government in 1800 was on the side of adequate consideration for the Presbyterians in the Anglo-Irish Union. At this period Bruce founded (23 October 1801) the Belfast Literary Society, and his advice was sought by the orthodox leaders of the General Synod of Ulster. In November 1805 there were negotiations for the readmission of his presbytery to the synod without subscription, but in May 1806 the idea was dropped. On the death of Robert Black in 1817, the agency for the ''
regium donum The Regium Donum (Latin: "Royal Bounty") in British history was an annual grant to augment the income of poor Nonconformist clergy. There were separate grants for English Dissenters and for Irish Presbyterian clergy. The money originally came f ...
'' was offered to him, but he put forward the claims of another. He did become involved with the Widows' Fund, founded in 1751 by his great-uncle, William Bruce (1702–1755), and the establishment of a
Lancasterian school The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System, Lancasterian System/Lancasterism or the Bell System of Instruction, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education ...
, with a Protestant but otherwise non-denominational Sunday school. Bruce penned the address presented to George IV at Dublin (1821) in the name of the whole Presbyterian body. In the preface (dated 17 March) to his ''Sermons on the Study of the Bible'' (1824) Bruce claimed that his Unitarian views were "making extensive though silent progress through the general synod of Ulster". This was a challenge to the orthodox, and the general synod at Moneymore, on 2 July, agreed to a public contradiction of the assertion. Bruce joined the seceders of 1829 in the formation of the Unitarian Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge (9 April 1831), though he would have preferred as the colourless name "A Tract Society".


Last years

By 1834 Bruce had retired, and was suffering from a loss of sight, which ended in blindness in November 1836 he moved to Dublin with his daughter Maria, where he died on 27 February 1841. He is buried in St George's Cemetery, on Whitworth Road, Dublin.Rev. William Bruce
Find a Grave.


Works

Bruce published: * ''The Christian Soldier'', 1803, a sermon. * ''Literary Essays on the Influence of Political Revolutions on the Progress of Religion and Learning; and on the Advantages of Classical Education'', Belfast, 1811, 2nd edition 1818 (originally published in the ''Transactions of the Belfast Literary Society'', 1809 and 1811). * ''A Treatise on the Being and Attributes of God; with an Appendix on the Immateriality of the Soul'', Belfast, 1818, (begun in 1808, and finished November 1813). * ''Sermons on the Study of the Bible, and on the Doctrines of Christianity'', Belfast, 1824, 2nd edition 1826. In the second edition he rated his doctrines as "anti-trinitarian"; in later life he was anxious to have it known that he had not altered his views. He considered himself a Unitarian, though not in the sense of
Theophilus Lindsey Theophilus Lindsey (20 June 1723 O.S.3 November 1808) was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel. Lindsey's 1774 revised prayer book based on Samuel C ...
and
Thomas Belsham Thomas Belsham (26 April 175011 November 1829) was an English Unitarian minister. Life Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the di ...
. * ''The State of Society in the Age of Homer'', Belfast, 1827. * ''Brief Notes on the Gospels and Acts'', Belfast, 1835. * ''A Paraphrase, with Brief Notes on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans'', Belfast, 1836. * ''A Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles and Apocalypse'', Liverpool, 1836. * ''A Brief Commentary on the New Testament'', Belfast, 1836. In Presbyterian matters, Bruce preferred the looser administration of the English, and did not favour the presence of lay-elders in church courts. His view of the freedom consistent with Presbyterian discipline was written up in the supplement "by a member of the presbytery of Antrim" to the Newry edition (1816) of Micaiah Towgood's ''Dissenting Gentleman's Letters''. Besides these works, Bruce contributed papers to the ''Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy'', ''Belfast Literary Society'', ''Dublin University Magazine'' and other periodicals. A series of twenty-three historical papers on the "Progress of Nonsubscription to Creeds" went to the ''Christian Moderator'', 1826–8, with extracts from original documents. His "Memoir of James VI", in ''Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy'', 1828, published original letters, and information on his ancestor
Robert Bruce of Kinnaird Robert Bruce (1554 – 27 July 1631) was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which was called on 6 February 1588 to prepare defences against a possible invasion by the Spanish Armada. King James VI was so sensible of the va ...
.


Family

Bruce married, on 25 January 1788, Susanna Hutton (died 22 February 1819, aged 56). They had twelve children, of whom six survived him. His son
William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
was also a minister.


Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, William 1757 births 1841 deaths Irish educators Christian clergy from Dublin (city) Irish non-subscribing Presbyterian ministers Irish Unitarians Burials at St. George's Church Cemetery, Dublin