Donald Stuart (minister)

Stuart Memorial in Dunedin

Donald McNaughton Stuart (1819 – 12 May 1894) [1] was a New Zealand presbyterian minister and educationalist.

Stuart was the son of Alexander Stewart* and Janet (McNaughton) his wife, was born in the hamlet of Styx Kenmore,[2] or Stichs,[1] Perthshire, Scotland. In 1837 he started a school at Leven, Perthshire, and two years later entered at the University of St Andrews.[2] Having supported Dr. Thomas Chalmers for the Lord Rectorship after the disruption, he was expelled, with the majority of the students, for refusing to submit to an admonition from the senators. A Royal Commission shortly afterwards reinstated the extruded students, but Dr. Stuart removed from St. Andrews to New College, Edinburgh, where he was a theological student under Dr. Chalmers.[2]

In 1844 Stuart was appointed classical master, and subsequently principal, of a private secondary school at Upton Park, Eton, and in July 1848 was married at Slough, Windsor, to Miss Jessie Robertson.[2] He commenced studying for the ministry in London and completed his curriculum in Edinburgh, being licensed by the Free Presbytery of Kelso to the Presbyterian church of Falstone, North Northumberland, where he remained for ten years. In January 1860 Dr. Stuart arrived in Dunedin to take up the position of first[1] minister of Knox Church. He was also chairman of the boys and girls' high schools of Otago, and Chancellor of the University of Otago.[2]

Stuart died at Dunedin on 12 May 1894.[1] He is uniquely commemorated by having two public statues in his honour in Dunedin, a seated figure in The Exchange and a bust outside Knox Church.

Both the Rev and his sister, my gt gt grandmother were christianed Stewart after their father Alexander Stewart NOT Stuart. They seemed to have changed their surname to Stuart in Otago although there are references to him in early days in Dunedin as Stewart.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Donald Stuart (minister).
  1. 1 2 3 4 Morgan, Margaret. "Donald McNaughton Stuart - Biography". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Mennell, Philip (1892). "Wikisource link to Stuart, Rev. Donald McNaughton". The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co. Wikisource,
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.