Machray, Robert

Second Bishop of Rupert's Land; First Metropolitan of Rupert's Land; First Primate of All Canada.

Robert Machray was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1831, and obtained an M.A. from University and King's College in Aberdeen in 1851. He attended Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, from 1852 to 1853, and received a B.A. from Cambridge University in 1855. He also became a fellow of Sidney Sussex College, and was ordained deacon that same year. He was curate of the Parish Church of Egham, England from 1855 to 1857, and was ordained priest in 1856. He then became curate of St. George's Church, Douglas, on the Isle of Man from 1857 to 1858. He obtained an M.A. from Cambridge in 1858, and became curate of Newton, England from 1859 until 1862. He was also Dean of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from 1859 to 1865, and was Vicar of Madingley, England from 1862 to 1865. He was consecrated Bishop of Rupert's Land in 1865. During his tenure, he decreed that Church of England services should conform to the Book of Common Prayer and that Presbyterian practices, traditionally tolerated in the colony, should be eliminated from the church; he reopened St. John 's College to train students for priesthood, and was a professor there for the rest of his life; he was a participant in negotiations to establish the provisional government during the Red River Uprising, but continued to advocate for the Government of Canada to quell it; and he reestablished the church's system of Parish Schools. From 1871 to 1890, he was Chairman of the Protestant section of the Board of Education, and in 1875, became the Metropolitan of Rupert's Land. From 1877 to 1904, he was Chancellor of the University of Manitoba. In 1893, he was appointed Prelate of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George and elected Primate of All Canada. He passed away in 1904.

He received various honourary degrees, including a D.D. (1865) from Cambridge; an LL.D. (1865) from Aberdeen; a D.D. (1881) from St. John's College; a D.D. (1888) from Durham; a D.C.L. (1893) from the University from Trinity College, Toronto; and a D.D. (1897) from Oxford University.