Thomas Croskery

The son of a tradesman from County Down, Ireland, he was born in the village of Carrowdore, nearly midway between Donaghadee and Greyabbey, on 26 May 1830. Most of his boyhood was spent in Downpatrick, to which the family moved during his childhood. His parents were poor, but gave him a good school training, and in November 1845 he was entered at the old college in Belfast, with a view to becoming a minister of the unitarian body, with which his father was connected. His religious views soon changed, and he determined to enter the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. His father's poverty forcing him to support himself by his own exertions, he learned shorthand and became a reporter in connection with the Belfast press. He thus got through the six years of his college course, and on 6 May 1851 was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Down. Shortly after he went to America, where he remained for two years preaching. Returning to Belfast, he resumed his connection with the press, becoming first a reporter and subsequently editor of the ‘Banner of Ulster.’ He also officiated on Sundays, but used laughingly to tell that he preached in twenty-six vacant churches before he received a ‘call.’

At length he was invited to undertake the charge of the congregation of Creggan, County Armagh, and on 17 July 1860 was ordained. He was translated to Clonakilty, County Cork, and installed on 24 March 1863. In 1866 he received a call to the newly formed congregation of Waterside in the city of Derry, and was installed there on 20 March in that year. In all three charges he was greatly beloved and respected.

In 1875 he was appointed by the General Assembly to the professorship of logic and belles-lettres in Magee College, Derry, and in 1879, on the death of Professor Richard Smyth, D.D., M.P., he was transferred at his own request to the chair of theology, an office which he held till his death on 3 October. 1886. In 1883 he received the honorary degree of D.D. from the Presbyterian Theological Faculty, Ireland. His grave is in Derry cemetery.