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     Although the photograph on the front page of this leaflet 
     
     shows the Kirk in winter garb — bare trees, a silver thaw, and a 
     
     blanket of snow — the welcome we offer you as a visitor to this 
     
     sanctuary is none-the-less heart-warming and sincere. 
     
    
   
   
    
     On this site has stood a place of Presbyterian worship since 
     
     1831. This Congregation is the Mother Church of Presbyterian- 
     
     ism in this part of Prince Edward Island and it has endeavoured 
     
     for more than a century now to maintain the noblest traditions of 
     
     the worship and witness of the Church of Scotland. When the 
     
     British assumed control of the Ile Saint-Jean (as this Province 
     
     was called by the French) after the Treaty of Paris of 1763, 
     
     settlers began to make their way across the Atlantic, and by 1770 
     
     we find record of Presbyterians arriving on the Island from the 
     
     western coastlands of Scotland. It was not until 1791, however, 
     
     that they were able to enjoy even the occasional services of a 
     
     minister of their own Church with the Visits to the Island of the 
     
     Reverend James Mac'Gregor from Pictou. In the thirty years 
     
     that followed his pioneer work other ministers came in sufficient 
     
     numbers to make possible the establishment of a presbytery in 
     
     1821. Four years later, in 1825, we learn of the founding of a 
     
     Presbyterian Congregation in Charlottetown. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In the late 1770’s funds were sent out by the Imperial 
     
     Government in London for the erection of a church in Charlotte- 
     
     town, but these monies had been used to pay the overdue salaries 
     
     of government officials. During the succeeding decades of the 
     
     18th Century services of worship were occasionally conducted by 
     
     visiting ministers in the Cross Keys Inn, in public buildings, and 
     
     in private houses in Charlottetown. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In April, 1800, additional funds arrived from overseas and 
     
     work began at last on the erection of a place of worship for the 
     
     use of the Established Church of England and the Established 
     
     Church of Scotland, alternately. This building stood for thirty- 
     
     six years near the site of the old “red-brick” Post Office in the 
     
     heart of the town. It was used by the Presbyterians for the first 
     
     twenty-five years of that period, and continued to serve the 
     
     Church of England Parish for eleven years longer. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The first record we have of the establishment of a separate 
     
     Presbyterian Church in Charlottetown is that of a public meeting 
     
     held in the old court-house in June, 1825, when it was unanimously 
     
     resolved to open a subscription list for the erection of a Church, 
     
     and to apply to the Established Church of Scotland for the 
     
     appointment of “a learned and pious clergyman” of their own. At 
     
     the commencement of the subscription list the Honourable John 
     
     Stewart, Speaker of the House of Assembly, made an offer of a 
     
    
   
   
    
     _1_.