Life

He was born near Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. Having served an apprenticeship to a bookseller there, he entered the university and took his M.A. degree. He belonged to the ‘reformed presbyterians,’ or ‘covenanters,’ and was admitted a probationer.

Going as a missionary to the north of Ireland around 1750, he travelled in various districts of Ulster as an outdoor preacher. His labours as a ‘mountain minister’ met with large acceptance. In 1754 there was a split in the Presbyterian congregation of Billy

Billy

- People :* A given name and a common nickname for William* Jacques de Billy, French mathematician* Jacques de Billy , French patristic scholar, theologian, jurist, linguist, and Benedictine abbot...

 (otherwise Bushmills), County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

, some staying with their minister, John Logue, and some going off to form the new congregation of Dunluce

Dunluce

Dunluce may refer to:A place* Dunluce Castle in Northern Ireland* Dunluce, County Antrim, a parish and a townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland* The neighbourhood of Dunluce in Edmonton, Canada...

. The Dunluce people offered to give a call to Cameron if he would leave the covenanters and join the regular Presbyterian body. He agree, on 24 April 1755 the call was signed by 137 persons, and on 3 June Cameron was ordained by the presbytery of Route

Route

Route may refer to:* Route or thoroughfare for transportation* Route number or road number*Trade route, a commonly used path for the passage of goods*Scenic route, a thoroughfare designated as scenic based on the scenery through which it passes...

.

An active pastor, he became noted as a writer of sermons, which were borrowed by his friends, episcopal and Presbyterian. Encountering John Taylor's Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, he changed his theology. Going beyond Taylor, he adopted humanitarian views of the person of Christ.

Cameron also turned his attention to science. Being in want of a parish schoolmaster, he took into his house Robert Hamilton (1749–1830), the son of a neighbouring weaver, trained him, and introduced him to the study of anatomy. Hamilton afterwards became a physician and showed his gratitude to Cameron by dedicating to him ‘The Duties of a Regimental Surgeon,’ 1794, 2 vols.

In 1768 Cameron was moderator of the General Synod of Ulster. His year of office was marked by the renewed communication between the synod and the Antrim presbytery, excluded for non-subscription in 1726, and by the publication of Cameron's only acknowledged work, a prose epic.

In 1787–9 Cameron got a double portion of regium donum

Regium Donum

The Regium Donum was an annual grant formerly voted by Parliament to augment the stipends of the Presbyterian clergy in Ireland. The Regium Donum originally began in 1673 during the reign of Charles II. The grant was then renewed and increased by King William III in 1690 as a reward for the loyalty...

; his means were always very small. He died on 31 December 1799, and was buried in the parish churchyard of Dunluce, a picturesque spot on the road between Portrush and the Giant's Causeway. An elegy on his grave was written by Rev. George Hill, formerly librarian of Queen's College, Belfast. Besides his son William, Cameron left a daughter, married to John Boyd of Dunluce.

Works

He wrote anonymously several works (some in the form of dialogues) attacking from various points of view the principle of subscription to creeds. The authorship was no secret; but the extent of Cameron's doctrinal divergence from the standards of his church was not publicly revealed till nearly thirty years after his death. A paper rejecting the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was forwarded by Cameron to Archdeacon Francis Blackburne

Francis Blackburne

Francis Blackburne PC KS was an Irish judge and eventually became Lord Chancellor of Ireland.-Background:...

, in expectation of a reply. Blackburne sent the paper to Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...

, who published it in his Theological Repository

Theological Repository

The Theological Repository was a periodical founded and edited from 1769 to 1771 by the eighteenth-century British polymath Joseph Priestley...

, vol. ii. 1771, with the signature of ‘Philander’ (‘Philander,’ in later volumes, is one of the many signatures of Joseph Bretland

Joseph Bretland

Joseph Bretland , was an English dissenting minister.-Life:He was the son of Joseph Bretland, an Exeter tradesman, was born at Exeter 22 May 1742. He was for several years a day scholar at the Exeter grammar school, and was placed in business in 1757, but shortly after left it for the ministry...

). This led to a correspondence between Priestley and Cameron, and to the settlement of Cameron's son William, as a button-maker in Birmingham.

Cameron's writings were:

• ‘The Policy of Satan to destroy the Christian Religion,’ n.d. (1767, anon.)
• ‘The Messiah; in nine books,’ Belfast, 1768; reprinted with memoir, Dublin, 1811.
• ‘The Catholic Christian,’ &c. Belfast, 1769, (anon.)
• ‘The Catholic Christian defended,’ &c. Belfast, 1771, (in reply to Benjamin McDowell, D.D., who attacked him by name. Cameron, however, published his defence with the pseudonym of ‘Philalethes’).
• ‘Theophilus and Philander,’ &c. Belfast, 1772, (an anonymous reply to McDowell's rejoinder).
• ‘Forms of Devotion,’ &c. Belfast, 1780.
• ‘The Doctrines of Orthodoxy,’ &c. Belfast, 1782, (republished 1817, with title, ‘The Skeleton covered with Flesh’).
• ‘The State of our First Parents,’ &c.

Posthumous was

• ‘The Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures,’ &c. 1828 (edited by Arthur Nelson (d. 20 June 1831), presbyterian minister of Kilmore
  Kilmore
  -Places:Australia*Kilmore, VictoriaNorthern Ireland*Kilmore, County Armagh, a village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland*Kilmore, County Down, a village, parish and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland*Kilmore, County Tyrone...
  
  ).