The Rev John Kinnear was one of the most eminent ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Born in 1823 in Clonaneese between Dungannon and Aughnacloy he was the son of the Rev James Kinnear, minister of Lower Clonaneese Presbyterian Church, and Ann McKee, the daughter of James McKee, MD, a physician who practised in Dungannon (she died 26 Oct 1856). The Rev James Kinnear proposed to send his son to the Royal School in Dungannon to prepare for entering college but because they were not members of the Church of Ireland his son was refused entry unless he embraced episcopacy. Instead young John was sent to a country academy at Mullytrodden, near Clonaneese, where he was taught by John James Given, then a student who afterwards became Professor of Hebrew and Biblical Criticism in Magee College, Londonderry. John later went to Belfast Academical College where he obtained his university education at the collegiate department of the College.
Licensed in 1847 by Dungannon Presbytery he was ordained the following year to the pastoral charge of 1st Letterkenny Presbyterian Church on 27th November 1848. There he remained apart from a brief period in the 1880s until he retired in 1889. He is said to have discharged his ministerial duties with zeal and efficiency and as a preacher he was hailed as one of the most distinguished in the Irish Presbyterian Church. Although his sermons were scholarly they were plain enough to be easily understood.
Married to Margaret Fanny Alexander, he had 3 children, 2 daughters and a son. Sadly all his children and his wife died of consumption. His wife died in 1863 just 13 years after his marriage.
However, the Rev John Kinnear was best known for his political activity. From the early days of his ministry he was one of the prime supporters of the Tenant Right movement that sought reform of the land laws in Ireland and that ultimately led to legislation which transformed tenant holders into freehold proprietors. A strong speaker who frequently appeared on public platforms he not only advocated land reform but he also spoke on other issues including Temperance and a united education system. As early as 1851 he spoke on the Tenant Right issue at a Tenant League demonstration in Omagh when he advocated public pressure to be applied to ease the conditions of tenants. On 3 Feb 1870 when one of the largest Tenant Right meetings ever recorded in the north of Ireland was held in Letterkenny, one of the speakers at the debate on the grievances of tenants against their landlords was John Kinnear. In 1874 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Washington and Lee University, one of the foremost seats of learning in the United States of America.
At the General Election of 1880 when great difficulty was experienced in getting a second Liberal-Unionist candidate to contest Co Donegal in conjunction with Mr Lea, Dr Kinnear permitted his name to be forwarded for nomination and was triumphantly returned as MP for Donegal in the United Kingdom House of Commons in 1880. There was great rejoicing in Letterkenny when his election was announced. His congregation honoured him with a beautiful address and the county bore all the expenses of his electoral campaign and residence in London. He held on to his seat until his constituency was divided for the 1885 General Election after which he resumed his ministerial duties. He was the first clergyman to be elected to the House of Commons where he always wore clerical dress.
Though no longer an MP John Kinnear lived long enough to witness the resolution of the land question by a series of Land Acts that culminated in the Wyndham Land Purchase Act of 1903.
He died in 1907 and was buried in the graveyard of Conwal Parish Church, Letterkenny, where an obelisk on the east side of the church commemorates his death. The large turnout at his funeral is testament to the esteem that he was held in the local community. Many farmers of every persuasion attended but unfortunately there were no family members present as they had long pre-deceased him.
As a scholar Dr Kinnear built up an extensive library of books and pamphlets many of which were given to Magee College Derry and to the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland. His collection of the Metrical Versions of the Psalms was one of the most extensive in the country and possibly in the world.
In connection with Dr Kinnear’s Jubilee, a large number of his friends presented him with a beautiful oil painting of himself which he handed over to Magee College. Some of his more intimate friends formed a committee and got a very fine portrait of Dr Kinnear painted which they presented to the Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland.