Fonds F3473 - George Leslie Mackay fonds

The Rev. George Leslie MacKay was a missionary of The Presbyterian Church in Canada to Taiwan, and Moderator of the 20th General Assembly. He was born to George MacKay and Leslie Sutherland in the Township of Zorra in Oxford County, Ontario on 21 March 1844. He attended Woodstock Public school from 1850 to 1855. He graduated from the Toronto Teacher’s College and taught at Maitland Public school. In 1866, Mackay entered Knox College, Toronto but in 1867 transferred to Princeton College of Theology in Princeton, New Jersey. He graduated from there in 1870, and then studied at the Scottish Edinburgh University Seminary in Scotland, with Dr. Alexander Duff. George Leslie MacKay was ordained by the Presbytery of Toronto within The Presbyterian Church in Canada on 19 September 1871, and a month later sailed to China. From China he made his way to Taiwan, and in 1872, he founded a mission in Tamsui, Taiwan. His ministry involved preaching, training of new ministers, dentistry, and medicine. He also established sixty chapels, several schools, and a hospital. He returned to Canada on furlough on two occasions where he undertook many speaking engagements across the country. In 1880, during his first furlough, an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was bestowed upon him by Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. During his second furlough he was elected the Moderator of the 20th General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1894. George Leslie MacKay married Tui Chhang Mia on 27 May 1878. They had two daughters, Mary, and Bella, and a son, George William. Rev. George Leslie MacKay died in Tamsui on 2 June 1901.