Bushmills is one of the four congregations in the Presbytery of Route which were founded in 1646, making it the joint-oldest in the Presbytery. It is a congregation with a rich and varied story: it has changed its name at least once, changed its location twice and had two of its ministers deposed for conducting improper marriages. As well as having the first native Irishman to be a Presbyterian minister in Ireland, the congregation has the distinction that one of its ministers became Principal of Assembly’s College.

 

 
The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
In the long-established Parish of Billy, approximately two miles south of the present-day town of Bushmills is where the Rev Jeremiah O’Quin was ordained in 1646. A Presbyterian in terms of theology, ministering in a denomination that was Episcopalian, he was born into a family who were Roman Catholic! In fact, Mr O’Quin was the first Irish-born Presbyterian minister, all previous Presbyterian ministers in Ireland having been Scottish. Mr O’Quin’s headstone at Billy graveyard still bears witness to the esteem in which he was held. The tombstone inscription may be translated:
‘The elegy of the Reverend Pastor, Jeremiah O’Quin. O’Quin, a gentle pastor, rests in this urn, but his soul is in heaven beholding the Divine nature. By the use of that Word he had soothed the lambs of Christ. Now he drinks water from the living stream. He died on the last day of January 1657.’
 
Sometime after the death of Mr O’Quin the Presbyterians left Billy Parish and moved west of the River Bush, to the location of the present-day Dunluce Presbyterian Church. There, in a meeting house with thatched roof, a series of ministers served. The political and religious turbulence of the times is reflected in the fates of many of Mr O’Quin’s successors.
 
In 1753 the congregation decided to move east, across the River Bush once more to the location in the town of Bushmills where the church buildings are presently situated. The thatched meeting house was not sufficiently large for communion seasons when a tent was erected in the ground across the road from the church. A minority of the congregation, however, decided to remain at Dunluce and, following a petition to the Synod of Ulster, this grouping was erected into a full congregation. So, the modern-day Dunluce congregation came into being.
 
 
The Nineteenth Century The congregation’s eleventh minister was the Rev Hugh Hamill, M.A. Mr Hamill’s would be the longest tenure of ministry in the congregation’s history. It was unanimously decided to rebuild the church building and on 27th June 1829, at a cost of £560, a new meeting house was officially opened. Three months later the congregation had cleared their debts. It would, with some modification, continue as the congregation’s meeting house until the extensive renovations of 2005. During his long ministry, Mr Hamill served the wider community, as clerk of the Presbytery of Route between 1834 and 1864 and as a trustee of the Bushmills National School. When he died in 1864 an anonymous writer to The Coleraine Chronicle, who signed himself as “An Old Friend” wrote eloquently of Mr Hamill’s attributes. Part of that tribute reads: ‘Viewed as a man and a member of society, he was distinguished for his sterling integrity of principle and exemplary conduct, which secured the respect and esteem of all classes un the community…. In expounding Scripture, explaining doctrines and inculcating duties, in a plain and unadorned style, he had few superiors. His well-known sincerity and habitual consistency gave weight to his instructions.’ Upon his death in 1864, it fell to Mr Hamill’s widow to enact his long-held wish that their home at Eagry, on the Straid Road, should be given to the congregation for successive ministers in perpetuity as a Manse. To this day it remains the only Manse in the congregation’s long history. Mr Hamill’s successor was the Rev’d James Boyle. It was during Mr Boyle’s ministry that the present church hall was constructed. The hall, which is of impressive construction to the extent that it is often mistaken by visitors as being the church, was opened in 1897, at a cost of £1,000. The congregation decided to name the building “The Hamill Hall” in memory of Mr Boyle’s predecessor. The Hamill Hall was an ambitious project in its day and was to become the focus not only for church activities, but as the largest venue in the town, as a community resource for many years to come. Generations of children and adults have benefited from the hall’s facilities which continued to be updated throughout the twentieth century. Left: Mr Hamill. Right: Mr Boyle
 
 
The Twentieth Century
In 1902 Mr Boyle died. He was to be succeeded by men of no less calibre perhaps, but whose tenure would be considerably less.
 
The calibre of the next minister was exceptional. The Rev’d Francis James Paul was educated at Queen’s University, Belfast, New College Edinburgh, Leipzig, Madrid and Geneva and the Presbyterian College, Belfast. Queen’s in Belfast and the University of Glasgow later conferred upon him honorary doctorates of Divinity. Mr Paul was minister of Bushmills from 1902 to 1911 when he received the call to the Chair of Church History at Magee College, Londonderry. In 1922 Professor Paul went to Assembly’s College, Belfast where he became Principal in 1923. Principal Paul died suddenly in 1941 and is buried in the church graveyard at Bushmills Church, the only congregation in which he served as pastor.
 
The Rev’d Joseph Fisher Anderson was ordained and installed in 1912 and served until 1918 as the congregation’s fourteenth minister. Mr Anderson served as a Chaplain with the Y.M.C.A. in the Great War. In 1919 he accepted a call from the Glasgow Presbytery of the United Free Church of Scotland.
 
In 1919 the Presbytery of Route ordained the Rev’d Samuel McCully, B.A. as minister of Bushmills. One of the first decisions made during Mr McCully’s ministry was to erect a suitable memorial to commemorate those who had served and died in The Great War. (The Hamill Hall played host to a special civic reception for the most famous son of Bushmills, Sergeant Quigg, V.C. in 1917). In 1928 Mr McCully received a call to Warrenpoint.
 
The sixteenth minister of Bushmills was the Rev’d David Maybin, B.A., formerly minister of Second Cookstown who was installed in 1928. Many of the features of the present meeting house were added during Mr Maybin’s ministry, including the four beautiful stained glass windows. Mr Maybin retired in 1949 and died in 1952. 
 
In 1950 the congregation unanimously called the Rev’d Samuel Eton, M.A., H.C.F., promising an annual stipend of £300. In addition to chaplaincy duties with the R.A.F. during World War II, Mr Eaton was minister of First Killyleagh Church. In 1959 Mr Eaton was installed as minister of McQuiston Memorial congregation in Belfast. Mr Eton died in 2002.
 
The Rev’d John William Patrick Lowry, B.A., B.D. was the eighteenth minister of Bushmills, being installed in 1959. During Mr Lowry’s tenure the congregation embarked on an ambitious Christian Stewardship programme, where the congregation were exhorted to greater depths of commitment to the church and her King. In 1969 Mr Lowry accepted a call to St. John’s Newtownbreda in Belfast. He died in 1982, aged only 56. He is buried in the church graveyard at Bushmills. Mrs Lowry continues to reside in Bangor.
 
The Rev’d Hugh Barkley Wallace, M.A. was installed at Bushmills in 1970. Numerous enhancements were made to the church property during Mr Wallace’s ministry. In 1977 considerable renovations took place involving the Hamill Hall, including the provision of a platform. In 1979 the Manse was extensively refurbished. In 1988 a new church kitchen was installed, provided by the ladies of the P.W.A. and in 1993 the Minor Hall was constructed, incorporating some of the buildings from the old stables adjoining the church. 
 
From 1986-2007, Mr Wallace served as the Clerk of the Route Presbytery. In 2000, the Rev’d Barkley Wallace retired as minister of Bushmills after thirty years of dedicated service. He and Mrs Wallace reside in Stranocum.

Below left: Principal Paul. Right: Mr Wallace

 
 
 
The Twenty-First Century
The congregation next called Mr Ronald David McDowell, B.Sc., B.D., assistant minister in Harmony Hill congregation, Lisburn who was ordained and installed into Bushmills in May 2001. Ron McDowell was, among many other distinctions, a gifted musician. During his short ministry, music of a more contemporary nature was introduced to public worship and groups were established for young adults and for those seeking to know more about the Christian faith.
 
During the vacancy the congregation undertook an extensive renovation of the Manse. The building was put in good order, completely rewired and equipped with a new central heating system. The outbuildings were renovated, a new kitchen and bathrooms provided and double-glazed windows installed. The total cost of the works amounted to almost £100,000. Not long after Ron McDowell arrived it became clear that considerable work was immediately necessary on the church building itself, which had originally been opened in 1829 and was now in a somewhat precarious condition. It was agreed to retain the façade of the building facing Main Street, to re-order completely the church interior and to extend the rear wall facing east by some 17 feet, allowing a much more open space for the choir and music group. The original windows were retained, as was the pulpit which was also extended. New pews, an impressive ceiling with exposed wooden beams, under floor heating and modern lighting were installed. State-of-the-art audio visual equipment was purchased, including a data projector to enable the use of PowerPoint during services. A closed-circuit-television camera provided those in the new glass-fronted gallery with good visibility. The beautiful building, which cost over £650,000, was officially re-opened and dedicated to the Glory of God by the Very Rev Dr Ken Newell in January 2006.  In July 2005 Mr McDowell announced his decision to resign from Bushmills. His four years in the congregation, which had achieved much in such a short time, had been dogged by ill-health and he felt that a relinquishing of the burdens of the ordained ministry would be beneficial for him.
 
Following a vacancy of some fourteen months, the congregation called Philip Bolton Wilson, B.A., B.D., Th.M., Ph.D. to be their twenty-first minister. Born in Coleraine in 1973, Philip Wilson grew up in Terrace Row congregation. His doctorate in Practical Theology was published in 2005 in both the UK and the USA. After three years as Assistant Minister in Malone congregation in Belfast, Dr Wilson was ordained and installed to the charge of Bushmills on 15 September, 2006. Having married Miss Hannah Simpson only a month before, the Manse at Eagry on Straid Road became Philip and Hannah’s first home together. Their daughter Beth joined them in 2011, the fist baby in the Manse since Mr McCully's family almost nine decades before.
 
The congregation of Bushmills in the first decade of the third millennium has much for which to be thankful. Presently there are 312 families associated with the congregation. Many of these are long-established families, with surnames that have been closely associated with the congregation throughout its long history. Others are newcomers to the area, many of whom have retired to the scenic beauty of the North Coast. Both groups co-exist happily in Bushmills and contribute greatly to the life and witness of the congregation. The opportunities of coming years will be for the congregation to continue to upgrade facilities (including the Hamill Hall), so that they might meet the needs of the community, alongside a call to greater commitment to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. The hope and prayer of the Kirk Session is that Almighty God will bless them in the future as their forebears were so richly blessed in the congregation’s long and distinguished past. MINISTERS OF BUSHMILLS SINCE 1646
The Rev’d Jeremiah O’Quin, M.A.                                                      1646-1657
The Rev’d Gabriel Cornwall                                                               1657-1691
The Rev’d Adam White, M.A.                                                            1692-1708
The Rev’d Robert Leckie                                                                   1711
The Rev’d John Porter                                                                       1713-1738
The Rev’d John Logue                                                                       1746-1756
The Rev’d Samuel Moore                                                                   1760-1776
The Rev’d Hugh Moore                                                                       1779-1780
The Rev’d William Douglass                                                               1783-1794
The Rev’d Daniel McKee                                                                    1796-1820
The Rev’d Hugh Hamill, M.A.                                                              1820-1864
The Rev’d James Boyle                                                                      1864-1902
The Rev’d Francis James Paul, M.A., D.D.                                          1902-1911
The Rev’d Joseph Fisher Anderson, B.A.                                             1912-1918
The Rev’d Samuel McCully, B.A.                                                         1919-1928
The Rev’d David Maybin, B.A.                                                             1928-1949
The Rev’d Samuel Eaton, M.A., H.C.F.                                                1950-1959
The Rev’d John William Patrick Lowry, B.A., B.D.                                 1959-1969
The Rev’d Hugh Barkley Wallace, M.A.                                                1970-2000
The Rev’d Ronald David McDowell, B.Sc., B.D.                                     2001-2005
The Rev’d Philip Bolton Wilson, B.A., B.D., Th.M., Ph.D.                       2006-