McDowell, Benjamin (1739–1824), presbyterian minister, was born 25 December 1739 in or near Elizabethtown, New Jersey, North America. His father was Ephraim McDowell (d. 1762), who had emigrated with his family from Co. Antrim, possibly from Raloo near Larne, or from Connor, to Lamington, New Jersey; they were Reformed Presbyterians. The mother's name was probably Margaret Adams, and they had other older children; there were at least four older sons. Benjamin was intended for the ministry, and learned Latin from a Mr Hanna in a log schoolhouse built by his father. He received his college education in Princeton and in Glasgow University, where he matriculated in 1761. He joined the Church of Scotland, and was licensed by Glasgow presbytery in 1766. On a visit to relations in Antrim, he did some preaching, and was called by Ballykelly congregation in Co. Londonderry; he was ordained 3 September 1766. His twelve years there were very successful; the congregation had been riven and decimated by difficulties with the preceding minister, but McDowell's preaching and pastoral care revitalised it. He also made a name for himself as a champion of the orthodox position in the long-running controversy over subscription to the Westminster confession; he published four pamphlets in answer to the works of John Cameron (qv), whose works he regarded as dangerously alluring. McDowell went so far as to accuse Cameron of Arianism, and to orthodox historians like Thomas Witherow (qv) his attack on the New Light party in the church was decisively successful, discouraging its supporters from seeking further concessions from synod, and heartening the orthodox minority. His 1774 pamphlet, A vindication of the Westminster confession . . ., was seen as particularly able.
In 1778 McDowell was installed as minister in the congregation of Mary's Abbey in Dublin, which had earlier been known as Capel St. The congregation was at a low ebb, with only six families, but under McDowell experienced a great resurgence, and it became, with 2,000 members, one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in Ireland, requiring two ministers. He at first devoted himself to congregational matters, though he published a few sermons, and in 1808 wrote The nature of the presbyterian form of church government. He was the leading evangelical in Dublin presbyterianism, on friendly terms with evangelicals from other sects, and in 1786 was elected moderator of the general synod. In 1788 he was sent by synod to examine the condition of congregations in the west and south of Ireland. In the following year Edinburgh University gave him the degree of DD. With the wealthy and deeply religious Henry Hutton, a ruling elder in Mary's Abbey, he worked to establish a charity school. Weekly prayer meetings were held in Hutton's house and (especially around the troubled times of 1798) were regarded as one of the main elements of the city's evangelical life. McDowell died 13 September 1824.
He married (1784) Frances Carroll; she was from a wealthy family, and may have been a sister of Ephraim Carroll (d. 1824), who was MP in the Irish house of commons for Fethard and for Bannow. There was at least one son, Ephraim McDowel (qv), and probably other children.