FINLAY--MITCHELL--PATTERSON--DOYLE.
The Finlays came from the north of Ireland about the year 1820.Jane Finlay, who married John Trueman, was born on the banks of Newfoundland, on the voyage out, and only just escaped being called Nancy, after the ship.David and Margaret Mitchell came from the neighborhood of Londonderry, in Ireland to Nova Scotia, in 1829.David Patterson came from Maghera, Culnady County Antrim, Ireland, in June, 1839.These families all settled in Cumberland County, bordering on the Straits of Northumberland.The Doyles emigrated to Nova Scotia, about 1790, and settled at Five Islands, Parrsboro.
It is said David Patterson studied for the church, and perhaps that, in part, accounts for the fact that four of his children are, or have been, teachers.A daughter has just offered and been accepted for the foreign missions.Mrs.Patterson writes: "Daisy has offered herself as a medical missionary and been accepted.She will leave for China next September, via San Francisco.It is something I can hardly talk about, yet I would rather she would go there than marry the richest man in the United States, for it is a grand thing to work for the Lord Jesus.Iremember," she goes on to say, "of being told that grandmother Trueman had faith to believe God would save all her children and grandchildren down to the fourth generation, and don't you think we are reaping the fruit of grandmother's faith and prayers to the present day?"Two sons of Thomas Mitchell are in the Presbyterian ministry.
Of this Scotch-Irish stock Hon.Charles Bell says: "The Scotch-Irish were people of Scottish lineage who dwelt upon Irish soil.They stuck together and kept aloof from the native Celtic race." Macaulay says:
"They sprang from different stocks.They spoke different languages.
They had different national characteristics as strongly opposed as any two national characters in Europe.Between two such populations there could be little sympathy, and centuries of calamities and wrongs had generated a strong antipathy.The Scotch planted upon Irish soil were Scotch still, and the Irish were Irish still." One of their own writers says: "If we be not the very peculiar people, we Scotch-Irish are a most peculiar people, who have ever left our own broad distinct mark wherever we have come, and have it in us still to do the same, even our critics being the judges.These racial marks are birth-marks, and birth-marks are indelible.They are principles.The principles are the same everywhere, and these principles are of four classes: