Rev Hugh Gaston
1748 - 1766
Fourth Minister of Ballywillan Presbyterian Church
Mr Gaston was the son of William Gaston of Ballymena, and he and his brother, Alexander, were educated at Glasgow . Mr Gaston was licensed by the Route Presbytery in 1745 and ordained at Ballywillan on 23rd February 1748.
Nothing is known of his ministry at Ballywillan, but he wrote a book which was greatly valued by the religious public and which was frequently reprinted. The book, published in 1763, contained 500 pages and was entitled ‘A Scripture Account of the Faith and Practice of Christians, consisting of large and numerous collections of pertinent texts of Scripture upon the sundry articles of Revealed Religion’. In this book Mr Gaston had, with systematic and painstaking labour, collected series of texts bearing upon the main points in the faith and practice of Christians. He explains the book’s purpose in the preface where he writes:
‘Everyone who is acquainted with the Sacred Scripture knows, that the complete account which they contain of any one article of religion is never to be met with altogether in one place, without other subjects intermixed with it, but is to be collected from many different places of the Bible, where the sacred writers have touched upon it’.
‘In every one of the many different places of the Bible where any one article of religion is touched upon, it is still placed in some useful light for instruction, so that none of these places are superfluous. All these places taken together do make up the complete Scripture account of the subject – they contain all the light, which the Spirit of Revelation hath afforded upon it in writing, as needful for instruction – whoever would view the Scripture truth, in all that light afforded, must search the Scriptures for the different places in which it is contained, or where the subject is mentioned. In these places it will be found sufficiently explained, enforced by all its proper motives, applied to all its proper uses, and set in every advantageous light needful for being rightly understood and properly applied, even after extraordinary inspiration hath ceased’.
Mr Gaston’s wife was Mary Thompson (daughter of the minister who preceded Mr Gaston at Ballywillan). They had a large family, including sons Hugh and James and daughters Mrs Nelson, Mrs Rogan, Mrs Rose and an unmarried daughter Mary.
When he entered on his ministry, spirituality was perhaps at its very lowest in the Synod of Ulster. The love of many to the truth had grown cold, and the orthodoxy of some was more than expected. Mr Gaston at least was sound in the faith. Cut off by his position from intellectual circles, and deprived of the advantages derived from the study of many books, he devoted his time to the study of the Holy Scriptures. With marvellous industry and labour selected a series of texts and arranged them into systematic form, with the view of illustrating the main points in the faith and practice of Christians. He accompanies the passages with no comment. He allows each series of proofs to speak for itself. When the reader has examined the various passages under each heading, he is allowed to draw his conclusion as to what the inspired writers intended to teach. The aurthor grasped firmly the grand principle that nothing is a part of Christianity except what is taught in the Bible, and his work is the result of his reception of that principle. The original edition appeared at Dublin in 1763, but the various editions which have since issued from the press prove that it has not ceased even yet to be useful. An edition of it was printed at London in 1813, in 1816 it was republished at Glasgow and Edinburgh, and another reprint, corrected, compared and revised, by Joseph Strut, appeared at London in 1824. The last edition I have seen is that of Aberdeen in 1847, and perhaps the career of usefulness of this unpretending work is not yet at an end.
Mr Gaston died on 15th October 1766, but there is some doubt as to where he was buried. According to the Fasti he is buried at Ballywillan, but his death is not recorded on the family tombstone, on which appear the names of his wife’s parents, his wife and two of his children. Professor Witherow mentions a tradition that Mr Gaston had to go to America owing to pecuniary embarrassment due partly to the poverty of the country and partly to the publication of his book. Mrs Mullin feels that this tradition may be based on reasonably firm grounds as Prof Witherow was a friend of Mr Woodburn, who was minister of Ballywillan a hundred years after Mr Gaston’s death.
Mr Gaston was present at General Synod meetings up to June 1765, so if he did go to America it must have been after that date, and he cannot have lived long afterwards. His wife Mary lived to the age of 96 and received a grant from the Widow’s Fund for no less than 57 years. She died on the 27th of February 1823. She lived with her unmarried daughter Mary at Magherabue near Dessertderran and was remembered by descendants as an old lady generally sitting at an ebony spinning wheel.
AS AN UPDATE TO THE INFORMATION WE HAD ABOUT REV HUGH GASTON, IN JUNE 2024 WE RECEIVED THIS LETTER FROM HIS 6th GREAT UNCLE, GEORGE GASTON, AN ELDER IN BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK;
With interest, I was reading the church biographies of Rev. James Thompson (1718-1747) and his son-in-law Rev. Hugh Gaston (1748-1766) and saw there seems to be a discrepancy of where Rev. Gaston died and is buried. Rev. Hugh Gaston was my sixth great-uncle. Below is a letter that my sixth great-grandfather wrote to Mary Thompson Gaston, his sister-in-law, to inform her of Hugh's death and where he was laid to rest.
A copy of this letter was passed down through the years to members of his family, the last to have the letter was Hugh Gaston's 4th great-nephew, Chalmers Gaston Davidson, an historian. He papers are held at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC), Library. A full typescript of the letter was published in Chalmers Gaston's book "Gastons of Chester" in 1954.
Dear Sister, It is with a heavy heart I take my pen in hand to give you the news of your dear husband's and my brother's death.
He landed in Charles Town the twenty and first day of August last [1766]. My brother wrote from there to me for a horse to bring him to my house, and another to carry his clothes. The man who got the letter for me forgot to deliver it and carried it fifty miles past me--which caused my brother to stay in Charles Town till the fifteenth or sixteenth of September. When I got the letter I sent down a horse for my brother, and agreed with Capt. James Patton, one of my neighbors that was going to Charles Town to bring my brother's clothes back in his wagon. I would have gone down to accompany my brother from town, but was obliged to go and survey land for some people whose Warrents were in my hand at the time. Not withstanding I got affairs so ordered that I got time to go about thirty miles to meet him. My brother-in-law, James McClure went with me--we came home by the Revd. William Richardson's, our minister, and stayed there all night, and the Revd. Mr. Richardson gave my brother a list of twenty and two vacant congregations, and told him there was a large field to labor in--and was much rejoiced that he had gotten another fellow-laborer in the part of God's vineyard--and so were many vacant congregations glad to hear of his being come to this country. But all these joys and expectations were soon to be blasted. My brother came home with me from Mr. Richardson's on Wednesday, the 24th of September, and stayed at my house till the Sabbath following, when my brother, my family and me rode to our meeting house together. My brother preached there that day which was his last sermon. He complained a little on Saturday evening that he seemed to have caught a cold when he went out to the top of the hill before my door to see if he could get a view of the country and stayed out till the sun was set. He was troubled a little with cough and complained of a pain in his head. He went after Sermon with brother Jame McClure and sister Mary to their home. He had appointed to preach at a meeting house fourteen miles farther up Fishing Creek the following Friday. The next Sabbath, at Sermon, I heard he was so much indesposed he was unable to keep his appointment. My wife and I went to brother McClure's to see brother Hugh. He did not complain much of anything but a great pain in his head. He said he wondered that his strength was gone with so little sickness. he felt he had a great drout, and when he lay in bed did not eat much. When changing his shirt we saw his back full of red spots, like one that had the measles. He washed and shaved himself and seemed indifferent well, only complained that his strength was so much gone. He took phy (sic) which the doctor sent him. My wife and I went home that day which was Monday. I came again myself to see him on Thursday next--he was then so bad that he did not know me until midnight. The next day we got him to rise up with our help, and I opened a vein in his foot, and gave him a little of the British oil inwardly and he seemed much better, and recovered his senses and his speech, and we were in hopes he was then in the way of recovery. About sunset he told me he had a mind to take some medicine the doctor had sent him. I advised him as he was then weak, and the night coming on, to let it alone until the next morning, which he consented to do. About dark he fell into a sound sleep which he had not done for three or four nights before. We thought that all danger of death was over. I went to bed having been up all the night before. About midnight they came in and wakened me, and told me he had gotten worse--they knew it by his breathing. He never wakened, but went off as if he had been in a sleep. He died about an hour and a half before day on the 20th of October last [1766]. He went off the easiest of anyone I ever saw depart this life. He was buried on the 21st day of October at our meeting house on Fishing Creek. My eldest daughter, Margaret, died a little time after him, and left four children behind her. She was buried by my brother. My brother's death was lamented by all in general, even by those who never saw or knew him, for it was thought that if he had lived to go home to Ireland he would have been the means of bringing more ministers with him to the Province, knowing what great need there is for ministers here, and what large salaries they get.
I received three letters from you, two from your brother James Thomson, and one from Cousin William. I also received a letter from a gentleman in Boston, addressed to my brother, which says he had sold five pounds Stirling worth of my brothers book, and he had the money ready for him whenever he pleased to send for it. The gentleman's name I think was Moody.
Dear Sister, I understand by your writing and your brother James' letter what circumstances you are in--in respect of your family affairs, my brother Hugh never told me how it was with him. If you and your family will come to this Country, brother-in-law James McClure and I would do what we could for you in helping to clear land and help to get you settled. There is about 20 pounds Stirling here for you and if you do not come I will send it to you by the first safe hand. I desire that you and your brother James and any of the family that can write, would please write me frequently, if you do not come to the country, and let me know how all is with you, and my honored Father, and all friends. I conclude with love to you, and all your family and all the rest of our friends with you.
I remain your loving brother until death,
John Gaston
October 1766