Norman McLeod (minister)

Norman McLeod (17 September 1780 – 14 March 1866), a Presbyterian minister from Scotland, led significant settlements of Highlanders in Nova Scotia and ultimately in Waipu in New Zealand.

Born in Clachtoll to Donald and Margaret McLeod of Stoer, Norman spent his childhood days amongst the hills, lochans and peat bogs of remote Assynt.

He worked fishing and farming and had a spiritual awakening as a result of being inspired by the preaching of "The Men", who were unordained dissenters from the established Church of Scotland.

Teachers with the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge also doubled as lay preachers, and he soon came into conflict with the established minister Dr Ross.

July 1817 Norman went alone to board the barque Frances Ann and set sail for the town of Pictou on the north coast of Nova Scotia.

They built a 17-ton small schooner, the Ark, and with a crew of seven of his supporters—all seamen—went to St. Ann's Bay and claimed land there before returning to Pictou, where Norman faced his libel suit.

Facing as it does northeast, St Ann's Bay suffered the worst of severe winters, and access to the community was frequently blocked by sea ice, stopping all trade in or out.

The timber trade was failing and there was no land left for the next generation and many were leaving for Ontario and the "Boston States" One of Norman's sons sailed back to Scotland, and then on to Australia, where he found work as a journalist.

Gold had been found at Ballarat, near Melbourne, and the accompanying greed and violence made Adelaide a misery for the Normanites.

When three of his six sons died of typhus, Norman believed that the Old Testament prophesy of plague and pestilence as a punishment for the worship of false gods was coming true.

In early 1853, he wrote to the Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Edward Grey, asking for a grant of land for his people.The owners of the Highland Lass arrived and took over the negotiations along with Norman's son, Donald.

Many of the people on the other 4 boats were not Normanites, as they came from other neighbouring communities of Baddeck Middle River and Boularderie, but were Free Church presbyterians which is very close in theology.

His flock continued in their Presbyterian Normanite ways, but as the years passed and they intermarried and moved away, their Gaelic roots dwindled as they became New Zealanders.