CHAPTER XX.
Biographical Sketch of the Rev. Mr Davidson up to the time of his leaving the Home Country for Dunedin.
THE story of the Rev. Mr Davidson's appointment as junior pastor of Knox Church would be incomplete without some account of that gentleman's previous career. It is believed that the following sketch will not be unacceptable to the readers of this history.
Alexander Pringle Davidson was born near Stranraer, in Wigtownshire, Scotland, on February 20, 1854, and received his early education from his father, who, after being a teacher there, removed to Edinburgh in order to devote himself to the education of his family, of whom six sons have been educated at the University of Edinburgh. The subject of this memoir is the eldest, and was a pupil-teacher under his father from his thirteenth year. Having gained the Galloway Bursary, tenable for three years, he entered the Edinburgh University, where he studied for five years—from 1871 to 1876, attending several classes in addition to those required for the degree in arts. He specially distinguished himself in classics, gained a Bruce Scholarship in 1874, and graduated M.A. in 1877. Mr Davidson then entered on the four years' course of study in Divinity at the New College, Edinburgh, and while so engaged he devoted a portion of his time and energies to city home-mission and literary work. For one year (1879) he took charge of a mission district in the Pleasance, in connection with Free St. Paul's Church, Edinburgh.
On completing his course at the New College in 1881, Mr Davidson took up his residence for a time in Berlin, Germany, and further prosecuted his studies at the university there. During the vacancy caused by the transference of the Rev. Dr Gray from Naples to Rome, Mr Davidson was appointed by the Free Church Continental Committee to take charge for four months of the Presbyterian Church and schools at Naples.[1] On returning to
- ↑ It will scarcely be credited that, fully seven years before receiving the call from the Home Commissioners, Mr Davidson had been fixed upon by three former lady residents of Dunedin as a most suitable minister for Knox Church, as Dr Stuart's assistant. Such was truly the case, as is shown in the following narrative:—
