Ray Presbyterian Ruling Elders & Commissioners, Raymochy Parish, Co. Donegal 1620-1700

Extracted from In the Days of the Laggan Presbytery – Rev. Alexander G. Lecky (Davidson & McCormack, Belfast, 1908)

Transcribed, Compiled and Submitted by
Len Swindley, Melbourne, Australia
len_swindley[at]hotmail.com

This parish was early settled with Presbyterians and in 1644 the covenant was administered here to great multitudes. The Rev. Hugh Cunningham, who had come over as chaplain to the Earl of Glencairn’s regiment and who had been present at the constitution of the first Irish presbytery at Carrickfergus [Co. Antrim] 10 June 1642, was settled at Ray in 1646. He returned to Scotland for a time, but came back to Ray c. 1657, but was deposed for nonconformity by the Bishop of Raphoe in 1661.

The following are the names of the men who attended the meetings of the Laggan Presbytery between the years 1672 and 1700, as ruling elders or as commissioners, together with the names of the congregations which they represented. They were doubtless the leading men in the districts in which they lived, and their names deserve to be held in remembrance on account of the part which they took in laying the foundations of Presbyterianism in the Laggan, and for the services which they so cheerfully rendered, without fee or reward, amid much persecution and many difficulties, in maintaining a preached gospel in troublous times. In all of these congregations there are still to be found families bearing their honoured names, and in many cases they are, no doubt, the descendants of these good men – a fact they have no reason to be ashamed, but good reason to be proud of.

RAY CONGREGATION