=Torrance, Rev. Robert=, D.D., Guelph, Ontario, was born at Markethill, county of Armagh, Ireland, on the 23rd of May, 1825, and was the youngest of seven sons. His ancestor on his father’s side—M. Torrance—left Ayrshire, Scotland, during the times of the persecution, and settled in the north of Ireland, and their descendants have lived there, in the same locality, ever since. Robert Torrance, the subject of this sketch, went to school at an early age in his native village, and remained under the same tutor until he was ten years old, when he began the study of the Latin and Greek languages. In 1837, his parents removed to Glenluce, Wigtonshire, Scotland, and here Robert entered the school in this place, and continued the studies he had already begun before leaving Ireland, and began others preparatory to the life-work selected for him by his parents. In 1839, he was enrolled as a student in the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, then or shortly afterwards affiliated with the London University; then he studied Greek and logic, and _belles-lettres_; mental and moral philosophy under Dr. Robert Wilson; mathematics under Prof. Young; natural philosophy, including astronomy and optics, and Hebrew under Professor Harte, assistant to Dr. Hincks, who was then an old man, and confined his attention to the senior class. This Dr. Hincks, was the father of the celebrated Oriental scholar, Dr. Hincks, and of the late Sir Francis Hincks, whose name is well known in Canada. After the completion of his art course and passing the usual examination by the Presbytery in whose bounds he resided, he entered on the study of divinity, in the halls of the United Secession Church in Scotland. His first session was spent in Glasgow, and the subsequent ones in Edinburgh. His course was completed in 1845, with the exception of one session, and, as there was great want at that time for missionaries to go out to Canada, he offered his services, and was accepted, it being agreed, under the circumstances, to exempt him from attending the last or fifth session on his furnishing testimonials as to fitness for the field and work. These having been produced to the satisfaction of the Committee on Foreign Missions, of which Dr. John McKerrow was convener, the Presbytery of Kinross was instructed to take him on trials for license, with a view to his proceeding to Canada. According to appointment, these trials were delivered in the church at Inverkeithing, a village in Fifeshire, about four miles south from Dunfermline. Having passed the Presbytery and been licensed, he preached two Sabbath days in Scotland, one for Rev. Dr. MacKelvie, in Balgedie, in whose family he had been tutor for three seasons; and the other for Rev. Mr. Puller, in Glenluce, where he had spent his boyhood. He then at once left for Liverpool, taking his parents with him, and from that port sailed, in a few days, for New York, which was reached safely after a voyage of four weeks.