More than 20 Reformed Presbyterian ministers crossed the Atlantic after serving as RP ministers in Ireland. Some were sent as missionaries to scattered settlements, others came to the United States as fugitives from the British government, several chose to migrate with their families, and one even came with his congregation.

Migration from Ireland has slowed since the late 19th Century, but a few Irish ministers have come to North America in recent decades, including two in the last few years. This month, we look at the service of Irish Reformed Presbyterian ministers in North America.

John Cuthbertson was one of the first Reformed Presbyterian ministers worldwide, ordained in 1747 just a few years after the Reformed Presbytery was formed in Scotland. After serving scattered members in Ireland, he was sent to North America in 1751. Although he lived in southeastern Pennsylvania for the rest of his life, he traveled as far as Virginia, western Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. As the only Reformed Presbyterian minister in America for many years, he baptized almost 2,000 children and traveled nearly 70,000 miles in his service. He helped form the Reformed Presbytery in America in 1774, helped create the merger that formed the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1782, and remained an active Associate Reformed minister until his death in 1791.

William Martin was the first minister ordained by the Reformed Presbytery of Ireland. After 15 years’ service in County Antrim, he brought a large colony of members to South Carolina in 1772. During the Revolution, the British arrested him because of his fierce support for the rebels, and he was tried before Lord Cornwallis and imprisoned for more than 6 months. Sadly, he was an alcoholic, but he continued preaching for the South Carolina congregations until just before his 1806 death.

James McKinney was ordained in 1783 and served societies in much of County Antrim and County Londonderry. Charged with treason for supporting the “United Irishmen” rebellion, he fled to America in 1793. Here he served members from South Carolina to Vermont. After helping to restart the Reformed Presbytery in 1798, he led the congregations of southeastern New York. He died in South Carolina in 1802 while serving the churches there.

William Sommerville spent his entire career as an RPCI minister in North America. He was ordained in 1831 to serve the RPCI’s mission in the British Atlantic colonies, Canada’s Maritime Provinces. As a pioneering RPCI missionary in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, he laid the foundation for the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the Maritimes. Nearly all his service was spent on the Bay of Fundy coast of Nova Scotia, particularly in the settlements of Horton and Cornwallis. One year after his 1878 death, the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Presbytery transferred from the RPCI to the RPCNA.

James Kennedy was ordained as minister of the Drimbolg congregation in County Londonderry in 1843 and resigned in 1870 to migrate to America. At the time, the Fourth New York City congregation was newly organized, and he became their pastor by year’s end. Here he served as pastor until retiring because of old age in 1894. He was greatly attached to Fourth; when elected an RPTS professor in 1887, he declined to serve because he would have needed to leave the congregation.

David Calderwood was ordained in 1916 and served the Londonderry congregation until 1921, when he immigrated to Canada and served the vacant Delburne, Alb., congregation for a short while. Over the next 14 years, he pastored the Denver, Colo., Seattle, Wash., and Los Angeles, Calif., congregations before joining the mainline Presbyterian Church.

James Renwick Wright was born in 1918 and ordained in 1941 to serve the Ballymoney congregation. His brother briefly served as an RPCNA minister in Winnipeg, Man., and attended RPTS. While pastor at the Dromara congregation, Wright spent a year on a pastoral exchange at the Geneva congregation (Beaver Falls, Pa.) in 1966 and 1967. In 1969, he brought his family to the United States. Dr. Wright pastored the Geneva and Winchester, Kan., congregations before Synod elected him an RPTS professor in 1978. He played an important role in helping to formulate our current Testimony in the late 1970s.

Andrew Kerr spent his early career as a surgeon. Ordained in 2002, he has served as minister of the Knockbracken congregation since 2007. He has also taught at the RPCI’s seminary, the Reformed Theological College. Early this year, he accepted a call from the Ridgefield Park, N.J., RPC, and he plans to move to the United States soon.