Introduction

Biography

Proctor’s par­ents be­longed to the Unit­ed Pres­by­ter­ian Church. He at­tend­ed a day school in at Dal­keith, then was ap­pren­ticed to a tail­or in Ed­in­burgh.

After three years his health be­gan to fail. He re­turned home and was ap­prent­iced to a car­pen­ter.

As he grew up, he be­came in­ter­est­ed in the tem­per­ance move­ment, and in 1849 re­turned to Ed­in­burgh as an agent of the Brit­ish League of Ju­ve­nile Abs­tain­ers.

He con­nect­ed him­self with the con­gre­ga­tion of James Ro­bert­son, and be­gan to ad­dress Home Mis­sion meet­ings.

In 1851, he be­came Home Mis­sion­ary to the con­gre­ga­tion of Will­iam Reid of Ed­in­burgh, and worked there five years while at­tend­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ed­in­burgh.

Finding the train­ing re­quired for the min­is­try of the Unit­ed Pres­by­ter­ian Church ra­ther lengthy, he ob­tained per­mis­sion to at­tend the theo­lo­gic­al lec­tures of the Scot­tish Con­gre­ga­tion­al Hall af­ter it moved to Ed­in­burgh in 1855.

In June 1857, he be­came a Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ter at Ha­wick, and in Feb­ru­ary 1859 the Con­gre­ga­tion­al min­is­ter at Ham­il­ton. In less than three months his health once again de­ter­ior­at­ed, and he died the next year.