The second branch of the previous fork is Chesley. This story begins in Lanark County, Upper Canada, in the 1820s.
In the years following the War of 1812, many Scottish immigrants came into what is now Ontario and settled slightly west of where Ottawa now is. Ecclesiastically, they looked for help from home. In 1817, the Rev. William Bell went out from the New Light Burger branch of the Secession Churches; the Rev. John Gemmill went out from the London Missionary Society in 1821; and in 1822, the Rev. George Buchanan of the Relief Church began his ministry among them. However, as both the New Light Burgers and the Relief Church allowed hymns in public worship and this became an issue among the people in the later 1820s.
A small group of Reformed Presbyterians also immigrated to the area. In 1828, the Rev. James Milligan visited from the United States and preached to them. While it was Covenanter ministers from the States who organised them into a congregation, it was to Scotland that they looked for a minister. However, about the same time as the Rev. James McLachlane arrived from Scotland in the summer of 1833, the Covenanter Church in America divided almost equally into Old Light and New Light Synods. As a result of the split, the congregation lost most of its members and its connections. So, McLachlane had to reorganise the congregation under the care of the Scottish Synod; and to this congregation came those who had been dissatisfied with the direction that the Seceder groups had been taking in worship practice and denominational affiliation. Among them were the Halliday, Dobie, and Elliot families.
In the early 1850s, members of those families moved from Lanark County to Grey County and opened mills and other stores on the North Fork of Saugeen River. Adam Elliot also took up a land grant further down the river in the adjacent county of Bruce.
The newcomers seem to have found a home in the existing Presbyterian Churches in Grey County until the union of 1861. At that time, they, and another extended family, the Rammages, stayed out and were soon visited by representatives of the Old Light Reformed Presbyterian Church. Nothing was settled until the Rev. Thomas Hannah visited in 1872. He had been in the Old Light Reformed Presbyterian Church but had left at the time of their Covenant Renewal in 1871. He and the people petitioned the United Presbyterian Church of North America to be organised as a congregation of that denomination.
The congregation was erected in 1873 and in 1875 moved its centre to the site in Bruce County which would become the town of Chesley. This was a period of difficulties. For a time, the congregation grew, but it was vacant from 1879 when the pastoral tie of the Rev. William Finlay was dissolved. In 1882, Adam Elliot opposed the moves in the United Presbyterian Church to allow the introduction of musical instruments in public worship. Then in 1884, there was a dispute over family secular matters which divided the Session and which resulted in the congregation being dropped from the roll of the United Presbyterian Church of North America in 1886.
During the vacancy, the Rev. J. C. K. Faris of the Old Light Reformed Presbyterian Church visited for some months in 1885. However, the congregation was unwilling to follow him because of his insistence that it adopt the Reformed Presbyterian position on political dissent.
A year later, the Rev. S. H. McNeil of the Associate Presbyterian Church in North America visited in response to a request made to the Associate Presbyterian Synod, but no action came out of the interaction at that time.
In the same year, 1886, the Rev. G. P. Raitt of the United Presbyterian Church came to Chesley for two years. During his stay, he was able to restore the congregation to fellowship in the Church. However, in 1889, the congregation petitioned the Associate Presbyterian Church in North America to join it, citing declension in worship practice in the United Presbyterian Church as its reason for wishing to change affiliation.
The Rev. S. H. McNeel came to Chesley in 1890. During his ministry, the congregation took part in both Presbytery and Synod. The Associate Presbyterian Synod met at Chesley in 1892 and 1899. Also, in this period, several people joined the congregation from the Presbyterian Church in Canada over changes in worship practice. A new church building was erected in 1904. Alas, this time of prosperity ended with McNeel’s sudden death in 1907.
In the wake of the bereavement, the congregation received regular supply and extended several calls. The calls were declined, and the supply became less frequent until, in the year following the 1911 Synod, the congregation had only six days of pulpit supply.
In 1912, the Associate Presbyterian Church congregation in Chesley petitioned to be received into the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and was accepted. It was united with the old Free Church groups in midwestern Ontario to form the Ontario Congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The first minister was the Rev. Walter Scott who was with them from 1912 until his death four years later.
Details of the ecclesiastical and ecclesiological distinctives owned by the people who would and did make up the Chesley congregation are difficult to discern. They seem to have been happiest among those whose lines can be drawn from the Secession of 1733. The principle on which they would not move was purity of worship: they would not countenance the inclusion of uninspired materials of praise nor the use of musical instruments in public worship.
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