THE FIRST CHURCHES OF THE ISTHMUS.
THE spiritual interests of the people of old Chignecto have always been well-looked after.One of the first white men to visit the Isthmus with a view to settlement was a priest, and the man who wielded the largest influence in and around Fort Beausejour during the last years of the French occupation was a priest, the vicar-general of Canada.In more than one instance the assistance promised to the colonists in Acadia by the wealthy was provisional upon the conversion of the Indians to Christianity.During the French period three chapels were erected on the Isthmus--one at the Four Corners, Tantramar, one at Fort Beausejour, and one at Beaubassin.These chapels were burned during the taking of Beausejour and the expulsion of the Acadians.The bell on the chapel at the Four Corners was buried by the Acadians at the intersection of two lines drawn from four springs to be seen in that locality yet.Some years after a party of Acadians, on getting the consent of Wm.Fawcett, who in the meantime had come into possession of the land, dug up the bell and carried it to Memramcook.The late Father Lefebre exchanged it for a larger one.It is believed that the bell from the Beausejour chapel is the one now used in St.Mark's church, Mount Whatley.This bell is ornamented with scrolls and fleur-de-lis and has the following inscription:
AD HONOREM DEI
FECIT F.M.GROS, A ROCHEFORT, 1734.
The first Protestant ministers on the Isthmus were Episcopalians.Mr.
Woods, a clergyman of that denomination, was at Fort Lawrence in 1752, 1754 and 1756.In 1759 Rev.Thos.Wilkinson was at Fort Cumberland, and in 1760 it is recorded that Joshua Tiffs baptized Winkworth Allan at the fort.Between that date and the arrival of Rev.John Egleson no record has been found.Mr.Egleson was born a Presbyterian, and was educated for that Church.He was ordained, but afterwards changed his views, and joined the Anglicans.He was reordained by the Bishop of London, and sent, in 1769, to Chignecto, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.