New Brunswick Historical Tidbits

Churches 1763-1775

By Mitch Biggar

A Baptist church was founded at Sackville by the Reverend Nathan Mason in 1763 but the members of this church and the Reverend returned to New England in 1771. Yorkshire immigrants who settled in Sackville were mostly Methodists. They had no minister or church but held services in each others homes.

As the first English settlers on the St John Rover were mostly members of the Congregational Church in England they naturally followed that form of worship in their new homes. They had no minister at first but held public worships that were conducted by the deacons or elders. In 1769 the Reverend Thomas Wood a Church of England minister of Halifax made a missonary tour of New Brunswick. Services were conducted at Saint John, Gagetown, Burton, and Maugerville. There is a record of 200 persons present at the service held in Maugerville.

In the year 1774 Maugerville had its first minister, the Reverend Seth Noble. The people then proceeded to build a meeting house which was completed in 1775.

This page was designed by Irene Doyle September 1999