John Breynton

Who was John Breynton?

Rev Dr John Breynton was a renowned minister in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

He was baptised 13 April 1719, and spent his first 14 years between his home at Trefeglwys and school in nearby Newtown. From 1733 to 1738, he attended Shrewsbury School, and in 1738, matriculated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, subsequently gaining a BA in 1741. The following year, he was commissioned as a chaplain in the Royal Navy. By 1745, he was a chaplain on a ship of war at the various engagements between the sieges of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. In 1750, he received an MA from Cambridge, and married Elizabeth Wade at St Mary and St Michael Church, Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. He was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts or Venerable Society to assist at St Paul's Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia under the auspices of the Bishop of London, while the rector William Tutty returned to London on private business, during which trip Tutty died in 1754. Breynton immediately took over as missionary and minister, or Rector, at St Paul's in 1754.

Earlier, in 1753, he had founded the first free school in Nova Scotia.