(1793- 5 Feb. 1871), clergyman, teacher. Born in Ross-shire, Scotland. Graduate of King’s College, Aberdeen. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1822, he emigrated to Canada later the same year. From 1822 to 1827 he was a teacher and clergyman in Montreal, then for 44 years, from 1827 till his death he was minister of St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Cornwall. He was not a Glengarrian, but was a well-known and much-respected man, closely associated with the Glengarrians, and in particular with Presbyterianism in Glengarry. The attendance at his funeral “was very large, there being probably not fewer than fifteen hundred persons in the cortege.” (Witness 10 Feb. 1871)

     From 1827 to 1840 Urquhart combined his pastorate with teaching in the District Grammar School (or Cornwall Grammar School), the famous school begun by John Strachan. His students in the school included the future Judge Pringle and John Sandfield Macdonald. For some years in the 1840s and 1850s he taught theology at Queen’s University, combining his teaching there with his pastorate in Cornwall. In 1856 he received the degree of D.D. from King’s College, Aberdeen. Urquhart was a Gaelic speaker. He was sympathetic to the protestors against state dominance of the church in Scotland, but at the Disruption he disappointed some of his friends by refusing to take the Free Church side. In the dedication service for St. Columba church, Kirk Hill, in 1869, he took a major part. He had driven out from Cornwall with James Craig, the MLA to the service, which James Croil also attended. The Rev. Neil MacNish suceeded him at St. John’s, Cornwall.

Biog. detail, amounting to three good short biogs., in Robert Campbell, A History of the Scotch Presbyterian Church St. Gabriel Street, Montreal (1887), MacMillan, Kirk, and Senior (see index of each) * list of some of his students at Cornwall, in Pringle 245-246 * advert. for “Lancaster Seminary,” apply to Rev. Dr Urquhart, Cornwall, Cornwall Freeholder 9 Nov. 1866