Rev John Edgar D.D, LL.D (1798-1866) was a presbyterian minister, Professor of Theology, and moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland in 1842. He was Honorary Secretary to the presbyterian Home Mission during the Famine in 1847.[1] He was born near Ballynahinch on the 13th of June 1798, the eldest son of a minister the Rev. Samuel Edgar (1766-1826) and Elizabeth McKee (1771-1839).[2] He attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution where he excelled as a student, in was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian church in 1820, he D.D. of Hamilton, USA in 1836, was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland from 1942-1943 and obtained LL.D of New York in 1860. [1]
Dr. John Edgar is known for originator of the Temperance Movement some years before Fr Mathew, who (Edgar)poured his stock of whiskey out of his window in 1829,[3], on the 14th of August 1829 he wrote a letter in the Belfast Telegraph advocating Temperance. He formed the Ulster Temperance Movement with other Presbyterian clergy, initially enduring ridicule from members of his community.[4] In 1834, Edgar addressing a parliamentary committee inquiring into the causes and consequences of drunkenness in the United Kingdom that there were 550 “dram shops” in Belfast and 1,700 shops selling intoxicants in Dublin as well as numerous illicit distillers “even in the most civilised districts of Ulster”.[5] [1]
He was also the founder of the Ulster Female Penitentiary, a residential home for fallen women and was instrumental in getting the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute set up in Belfast.[2]
He was also involved in the relief effort by the presbyterian church in Connaught during the Irish famine. Although the church was accused of Proselytizing[6] during the famine,[7],. but showing the humanitarian nature of his efforts, in the May Street Presbyterian Church he said, I hope soon to have an opportunity of directing public attention to spiritual famine in Connaught, but our effort now is to save the perishing body ... Our brother is starving, and, till we have satisfied his hunger, we have no time to inquire whether he is Protestant or Romanist[7]
Perhaps due to his contact with Irish speaking areas at this time, he was interested in Gaelic language and culture, he was critical of other protestant faiths particularly the Church of Ireland(Anglican) for not preaching in the Irish language.[1]
He died aged 88 on the 26th August 1866, in Rathgar, Dublin, where he had gone to get medical treatment.[2] His was survived by his wife Susanna, he was buried in Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast.