The Rev. William Jenkins was one of the first Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada. Born on September 26, 1779 in Kirriemuir, Scotland, Jenkins studied at the University of Edinburgh with the intention of becoming a minister in the Associate Synod of the Secession Church in Scotland, but left before he graduated.
In 1799, Jenkins immigrated to New York, where he continued his theological studies in connection with the Associate Reformed Presbytery of Saratoga, with noted proficiency in Hebrew and Greek. He was licensed to preach and ordained in 1807, and called as a missionary to the Onyota'a:ka, or Oneida, in Oneida Castle. He would remain here until 1816 when, following the death of Onyota'a:ka Chief John Skenandoa, he was sent to minister to various communities in Upper Canada. He made enough of an impression on the residents of Richmond Hill that they petitioned the Presbytery of Saratoga to have him as their permanent minister. Jenkins moved to Markham Township in 1817 and purchased a 200 acre farm near Cashel.
Upon his arrival, Jenkins was the only Presbyterian minister in Upper Canada. As a result, his itinerant ministry took him as far west as the Grand River and as far east as the Bay of Quinte, although he was primarily based out of Richmond Hill and Scarborough. Because he was one of the few outside of the Anglican Church who was allowed to perform marriages, he regularly married Methodists, Baptists, Mennonites, and Quakers.
More Presbyterian ministers started to arrive after Jenkins. In 1818 the Presbytery of the Canadas was formed, which he joined in 1819 after being released by the Presbytery of Saratoga. In 1825, it was dissolved and replaced with the United Synod of Upper Canada. However, it eventually entered into union with the Church of Scotland and agreed to accept money from the clergy reserves. As a voluntarist, Jenkins believed this linked it too closely to the British state, which he viewed as tyrannical and oppressive, and he left in 1834. He was admitted into the Missionary Presbytery of the Canadas in 1837, which was linked to the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church of Scotland and therefore not formally connected to the state in any way.
Jenkins was politically active against the Family Compact and the government of Upper Canada, frequently speaking out and denouncing them from the pulpit. He was a founding member of the Friends of Religious Liberty, a group formally opposed to the actions of the government. While he never formally joining, he was sympathetic to William Lyon Mackenzie's 1837 rebellion. Jenkins' son, who did join the rebellion, was forced to flee to the United States with Mackenzie upon its failure.
Jenkins was married in Scotland to Jane Forrest, but she died before he emigrated. He met and married Mary Hatfield Stockton while in Oneida Castle. Together they would have eleven children, nine of whom survived into adulthood. After a prolonged illness that gradually restricted his ability to continue his itinerant ministry, Jenkins died on September 25, 1843 at the age of 63.
