====== Fraser, William ====== 
 (1801-1883), clergyman. The Rev. William Fraser, aged about 30, came from Scotland, where he had been pastor of a Baptist congregation in Inverness-shire, to be pastor of the Baptist congregation at Breadalbane in Lochiel Township, GC. He was the first pastor of the Breadalbane congregation. Earlier, religious services had been conducted by laymen of the congregation. William Fraser was pastor of this Lochiel congregation from the summer of 1831 to the summer of 1850, when he moved to Kincardine. “In Breadalbane he preached in both Gaelic and English…” A number of religious revivals took place in the Breadalbane congregation during his ministry. A major figure in the religious history of northern Lochiel, this pioneer minister preached also to Baptist congregations over a wide area, going sometimes to places as far away as Clarence and Osgoode Tps in Ontario and Chatham Township in Quebec. At Breadalbane, to supplement the little income provided by his pioneer flock, he bought a farm, though as it turned out the largely uncleared farm brought in little assistance. For the same reason of support, he taught school for a time. When he left Breadablane, he left behind a flourishing church. The visit of the Rev. F. A. Cox to Breadalbane in 1835 took place during the Rev. William Fraser’s pastorate. Archibald MACNAB, the former MP, has left a fluently written and appreciative though not altogether sympathetic eyewitness account of Fraser.

<tab>On leaving Breadalbane, Fraser apparently intended to go to Illinois. Instead, however, he settled in Bruce County, Ontario, where at Kincardine he lived on a farm and conducted Baptist services in Gaelic and English in his house, and afterwards at Tiverton had a Baptist congregation which rose under his pastorate to a large membership. He resigned in 1875 because of age and failing health. He died in Manitoba, where he had gone to evangelize a group Gaelic-speaking settlers.


----
<fs small>//The Breadalbane Baptist Church// (1916?), portrait, (QF) * Whyte, i, 106 * Thomas 348, 353, 357 (Rev. John King) * MacMillan, //Kirk//: index * Archibald MacNab, “The Settlement of the Township of Lochiel, Glengarry,” //Transactions of the Celtic Society of Montreal// (1892) * MacGillivray & Ross 69-71 (Cox)* biog. sketch by Michael A. G. Haykin, in website “Historia Ecclesiastica”
</fs>
[<6>]