Allan MCINTYRE

MCINTYRE, ALLAN (b. Kilmonivaig Scotland, 15 July 1798, d. Sydney, NSW, 28 May 1870). (Free) Presbyterian minister.

Allan McIntyre was the fourth child of the 12 children of Duncan McIntyre and Catherine (née Kennedy), sheepfarmers near Fort William. His early years are unclear but from about 1832 he conducted a well-regarded school in Glasgow with his younger brother William (q.v.) who went to NSW in 1837 as a Presbyterian minister. Allan studied at the University of Glasgow from 1840, joined the Free Church at the Disruption in 1843 and completed the divinity course at New College 1843-5. He was ordained and inducted in 1846 as the first minister of the Paisley Free Gaelic congregation but demitted in mid 1854 to go to NSW in response to William's appeal for ministers for the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia (PCEA).

McIntyre arrived in Sydney on 6 Nov 1854 with a relative through marriage, the Rev James McCulloch, and was appointed to labour on the Manning River. He began his ministry on 19 Dec 1854, was formally inducted 7 Jan 1858 and developed a strong congregation with three churches (Tinonee, Wingham and Redbank) and a good band of elders. The difficulties of travel meant that preaching was once every three weeks at each place. McIntyre was also instrumental in establishing private schools at The Bight, Tinonee, Purfleet and Redbank.

As a preacher McIntyre has been described by J C Robinson as 'faithful, forceful and searching' and 'a man of terrific earnestness which showed him to be a real son of thunder'. His congregation loved and respected him and at least five of the leading families named one of their children after him. This regard was rooted in a spiritual ministry that was characterised by prayerfulness and faithful personal dealing in his visitation work. At the communion in September 1857 a number were awakened and converted and a quite significant movement of the Spirit continued during the next three years which seems to have some parallels with the 1859 revival in other parts of the world. He was unflinching in his grasp of the doctrines of grace and severe in his views of ministerial communion especially with those who did not uphold the views of the church-state question maintained by the Free Church of Scotland.

Following a call bearing 129 signatures, McIntyre left the Manning at the end of 1862 with his bride, Jemima Pilcher, and served the Clarence based at Grafton until August 1865 when he returned to the Manning. Here he remained until shortly before his death and was succeeded in 1872 by his brother Duncan Kennedy McIntyre (b. 1817).

McIntyre was a strong opponent of the Presbyterian union of 1864/65 because the Basis left as open questions the doctrinal differences which divided the Scottish churches. Allan and William McIntyre and James McCulloch were the key men of the six ministers who continued the PCEA on the original basis when 15 others went into union in 1864. The predominance of Gaels in the continuing church, which was based on the Highland settlements on the Hunter and Northern Rivers, is noteworthy and parallels the general line of division over union in Scotland which was evident during the next 30 years as the majority of the church there also adjusted to a denominational ideal in church-state relations and a less dogmatic creed.

B J Bridges, Presbyterian Ministers, Licentiates and Catechists of the Presbyterian Churches in New South Wales 1823-1865 (Melbourne, 1989); J C Robinson in Our Banner 1934; 1935

ROWLAND S WARD