A crusty yet diffident Scot, James Reid began his career as a sectarian evangelical missionary. The diary finds him thirty years later as a moderate, if conservative, Anglican clergyman. Through this remarkable document, village routines and intrigues, as well as Reid's circle of friends and his clerical colleagues, come vividly to life. His private reflections on the tensions and growing pains experienced by the colonial church at a formative stage in its evolution, and his reaction to events on the wider political scene, give us valuable insights into his life and the times. Reid was a man of considerable complexity and his foibles and vanities are apparent in his narrative. The glimpses of his home life shed much light on gender relations and the history of the family. The diary has been edited and annotated by M.E. Reisner, who provides the background to Reid's narrative. Her informative biographical sketches, collected in an appendix, shed further light on representative local figures and the community dynamics of his town. The Diary of a Country Clergyman will be of interest to the general reader and social historian alike.

James Reid's profile page

Reisner's profile page

"This is not only a fascinating diary that permits a wider appreciation of the social and cultural role of the Church of England during a period of rapid social and political change, but Reisner's strong introduction and critical apparatus firmly anchors Rev. James Reid within the religious and social world of the Eastern Townships of Quebec ... This is a fine scholarly edition of these remarkable diaries." Michael Gauvreau, Department of History, McMaster University "It is a privilege to read a work of scholarship as distinguished and meticulous as this ... the scholarship is more than sound; it is exceptional." David Bentley, Department of English, University of Western Ontario "Impressive, as autobiography, as social history, as political and theological history. Reisner's contributions are extraordinary." Thomas E. Tausky, Department of English, University of Western Ontario

"This is not only a fascinating diary that permits a wider appreciation of the social and cultural role of the Church of England during a period of rapid social and political change, but Reisner's strong introduction and critical apparatus firmly anchors Rev. James Reid within the religious and social world of the Eastern Townships of Quebec ... This is a fine scholarly edition of these remarkable diaries." Michael Gauvreau, Department of History, McMaster University
"It is a privilege to read a work of scholarship as distinguished and meticulous as this ... the scholarship is more than sound; it is exceptional." David Bentley, Department of English, University of Western Ontario
"Impressive, as autobiography, as social history, as political and theological history. Reisner's contributions are extraordinary." Thomas E. Tausky, Department of English, University of Western Ontario