Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Rev. George Patterson, editor, Presbyterian minister, author and antiquarian, was born 30 April 1824 at Pictou, son of Abraham and Mary Elizabeth (MacGregor) Patterson, and grandson of Scottish emigrant Rev. James Drummond MacGregor. Patterson was educated at Pictou Academy and Dalhousie College. He served as first editor of the Eastern Chronicle from 1843 to 1846, when he left Nova Scotia to continue his studies at Edinburgh University, Scotland. He received his license to preach in 1848 and was minister of Salem Presbyterian Church, Greenhill from 1849 to 1876, when he resigned and moved to New Glasgow. Patterson was active within the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia, a member of several organizations including the Nova Scotia Historical Society and Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, and the author of prize-winning essays and books on a wide range of subjects. His biographies on Presbyterian ministers in the Maritimes were published between 1859 and 1889. He also edited a collection of his grandfather's writings under the title A few remains of the Rev. James MacGregor, D.D. (1859). Patterson is best known for his book, History of the county of Pictou (Montreal, 1877), a revision of his earlier essay which had received the Akins Historical Prize in 1874. He was also the recipient of honourary degrees (Princeton 1874, Dalhousie, 1890) and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, 1889. He married Margaret McDonald in Sydney County on 20 March 1851; they had eight children. He died 26 October 1897 at New Glasgow.