John Bethune (Canadian minister)

Bethune is the common ancestor of a very large and notable Scottish-Canadian extended family connected with the fur trade, politics, medicine, law and the ministry in several church denominations.

He is the great-great-grandfather of Norman Bethune, the Canadian physician and medical innovator, and the great-great-great-grandfather of legendary stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer.

Bethune's maternal grandfather, Donald Campbell (1696-1784) of Scalpay, is best remembered for his involvement in the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746, following the Battle of Culloden.

Nevertheless, Bethune's grandfather's innately Gaelic cultural sense of hospitality to guests and his loyalty to his wife's Jacobite relatives meant that he welcomed and protected the Prince, despite their religious and political differences.

Bethune wrote a letter to the Kintail poet Iain mac Mhurchaidh (John Macrae), a major figure in Scottish Gaelic literature, whom Rev.

[1] In Scottish culture, hunting was a traditional pastime for both nobles and warriors and eating fish or seafood was considered a sign of a low birth or status.

Iain mac Mhurchaidh had already composed a poem complaining that his hunting rights were being restricted and, for this and many other reasons, he decided on taking the minister's advice and emigrating to the Colony of North Carolina.

Bethune fought at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776, but was captured by the victorious Patriots along with a great many of MacDonald's men.

Settling at his home (now a national historic site, later occupied by David Thompson) in Williamstown, here he devoted the remainder of his life to his ministry.

The first Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kingston, Alexander Macdonell, prided himself on his knowledge of Protestant prayers and joked that he could fill in for Rev.