Samuel Ferguson on Robert Young.
James Dodson
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THE REV. ROBERT YOUNG.
THE parents of Rev. Robert Young belonged to the Associate Presbytery in Scotland, at the time when he was born in the town of Kelso, in Roxburghshire, near the border, in the year 1732. The family owned some property there, and continued to be possessed of it until the beginning of the present century.
We know little regarding the early years of Mr. Young, beyond the fact that he pursued the Academic and Theological course required by the Associate Church from her candidates for the ministry. In due time he was licensed by that Church as a probationer, and received appointments to preach in their bounds. Somehow, he fell under the censure of his Presbytery, it is said, by refusing to fulfil certain appointments that were given him. He then connected himself with the Reformed Presbytery, and was ordained to go out as Missionary to the scattered families of that denomination in North America. In the year 1776, when America was embroiled in strife with the British Government, he sailed from Scotland for the Western Continent. “Man proposes, but God disposes.” The vessel in which he was a passenger was caught in a storm before it had got clear of
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the channel, and was dashed to pieces on the Irish coast. Mr. Young got to land in the neighbourhood of Glenarm, in County Antrim. In that district Rev. David Houston had laboured for some time in the latter part of the previous century,¹ and the results of his work still remained in the Society meetings. After a short time Mr. Young made himself known to some of the Covenanters of the district, by whom he was introduced to the societies, and became a welcome guest in the hospitable homes of these Scottish settlers who clung with such tenacity to the principles and practices of their Covenanted ancestry. After a time a request was sent to the Reformed Presbytery in Scotland that he might be allowed to remain in Ireland, and take up the work of Rev. William Martin who had emigrated to America. This request was acquiesced in by Mr. Young, who in his shipwreck had had enough of the perils of the sea. The Church in Scotland agreed to the request, and he settled permanently in Ireland.
In a short time the field of his labours was extended to Cullybackey, where he found lodgings in the house of a man named Wright; when here he became acquainted with the Dickson family from which he obtained his wife, Mary Dickson. The Dicksons belonged to the Synod of
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¹ See Life of David Houston, the Covenanter, published by Rev. Classon Porter in the pamphlet “Ulster Biographical Sketches.”
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Ulster, but Mary had become a Covenanter from conviction. They were married in 1777, when Mr. Young was 42 years of age, his wife being only 18. The union proved a very happy one. She was a woman of comely presence, strong Christian character, sound judgment, and great resourcefulness, who left the impress of her character upon her family.
About the year 1779, Mr. Young was appointed to labour among the societies scattered about the shores of Lough Swilly. This change in his field of labour necessitated a change of residence, and Ramelton, in Co. Donegal became his home. Here his son Robert and one of his daughters were born. Time brought further changes and witnessed his transference to the neighbourhood of Waterside, Derry, where he settled on a farm in the townland of Ardnabrockey, and here the remainder of his family were born, the youngest of them, Ann Young, being born two months after her father’s death. During the time of his residence at Ardnabrockey he ministered chiefly at Faughan Bridge, where ground was obtained, and a meeting-house built in 1790.
Mr. Young does not appear to have been regularly called and settled in any particular congregation at any time. He went about dispensing ordinances as circumstances required. For each Sabbath Day’s services he received the remuneration—
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very considerable at the time—of three half guineas. In person he was tall and good-looking, and spoke with a very marked Scotch accent.
There can be no doubt that Mr. Young came to the assistance of a Covenanted cause at a time when it had few ministerial supporters in Ireland, and his services must have had an influence in keeping together the members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the various districts where he was located. As a preacher or controversialist he did not exert either a wide or profound influence, certainly not nearly so much as some of his contemporaries, but we cannot, on that account, deny him a place among those who “contended for the faith.”
He died on the 9th November, 1794, at Ardnabrockey, and his remains were interred in the Churchyard at New Glendermott, where on the south side of the church a neat and durable memorial, with suitable inscription, remains to mark the spot. His estimable wife, Mary Dickson, and some of his children, were subsequently buried beside him. His sons, John, Robert, and Joseph, went into business in Derry after their father’s death. They became opulent merchants, honoured citizens and distinguished Christian men. The youngest of them, Joseph Young, who belonged to the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation, Londonderry, by his will bequeathed the munificent sum
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of £20,000 to found a charity for girls, the children of necessitous and deserving parents, residing in the city and liberties of Derry. Messrs. John and Joseph Cooke (both of whom are lately deceased), nephews of Mr. Joseph Young, were appointed executors of the will, and trustees of their uncle’s charity—known as the Young Charity—and so well did they manage the trust, that to-day sixty female children, belonging to all denominations, are receiving their support and education as the result of Mr. Young’s generous and thoughtful provision. A sister of Mr. Joseph Young bequeathed £7 annually to the poor in connection with Clarendon Street Reformed Presbyterian Congregation, while the late Mr. Robert Cooke, of Fountain Hill, Londonderry, a grandson of Rev. Robert Young, bequeathed £700 to the funds of the Covenanting Church in Ireland.
So the shipwrecked Scotch missionary is not without honourable memorials in the land of his adoption.