Rev. William McWhir, D.D., died in this county, in the ninety-second year of his age. He was born in Ireland in 1759, received his collegiate education at Belfast, and, after pursuing his theological course, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Belfast. In 1783 he came to America, and settled in Alexandria, Va., where for ten years he was at the head of an academy, of which General Washington was a trustee. In 1793, he came to Sunbury, at which place he established an academy. Here he married the widow of Colonel John Baker. Such was the reputation of his school, that puplis came to it from almost every part of the state.

As a Greek and Latin scholar, Dr. McWhir was without a rival. In 1819 he visited Ireland, England and Scotland.

About the years 1823-24, he visited Florida, preached at St. Augustine and Mandarin, and in the vicinity, and was the founder of a church at the latter place, the first Presbyterian Church ever organized in Florida, and it was mainly though his efforts that the church at St. Augustine was founded. Dr. McWhir never had a regular pastoral charge; nevertheless, he continued, to his death, a member of the Presbytery, within the bounds of which he lived and was requently in Synod, and a Commissioner to the General Assembly. The Boards of the Church found in him a willing contributor, and considering his means, which never were large, few men ever gave more to religious and benevolent objects. Until within the last ten or fifteen years, he preached occasionally, chiefly in destitute places, and at his decease was probably the oldest Presbyterian minister in the United States.

At the age of nearly ninety, Dr. McWhir was a voluntary colporteur of the American Tract Society, and gave up the work not until he was too feeble to labour. The name of no man who ever lived in Georgia was more intimately identified with the cause of education, unless the late venerable Moses Waddel be an exception. As a teacher, his chief merits were thoroughness of instruction and the most exact discipline, such as would in these days be esteemed too rigorous. He never enjoyed much reputation as a preacher, owing, no doubt, to the want of ready eloquence, and the almost entire absence of that faculty of the mind called imagination. Nature and education seemed to have fitted him for the school-house. Among his pupils may be ranked some of the most eminent men in the State. His correspondence was very extensive, and embraced within its range several distinguished men, amongst them General Washington, Dr. Chalmers, and Sir John Sinclair.

Source:
White, George, Rev. Historical Collections of Georgia, Pudney & Russell, New York, 1854, page 532

Submitted by Bob Franks