written on heavy vellum paper with a quill pen is dated September 30th, 1825, and is stored for safekeeping with other valuables of the Congregation.

THOMAS CARLYLE AND THE KIRK OF ST. JAMES

This land on which the two church buildings have stood had an interesting history before it became the property of Alexander Birnie of London. The Island’s first Governor, Walter Patterson, who held office from 1769 to 1784 had a daughter named Margaret who married a young Scotsman, Dr. Alexander Gordon, then stationed in the city as a surgeon with the militia. Overtaken by financial difficulties, Dr. Gordon, practically penniless embarked for Scotland in 1803, ac- companied by his two daughters, one of whom was named Margaret after her mother. On the way across the Atlantic, Doctor Gordon died and was buried at sea. On arrival in Scotland the two girls made their home with an aunt. At the age of nineteen Margaret, gifted and beautiful, was much desired by the village schoolmaster and local scribe, but Margaret’s aunt could see no future nor happiness for her adopted daughter in marrying this poor man and discouraged the romance. Eventually Margaret married a wealthy Scots trader by the name of Alexander Bannerman who soon thereafter entered political life, won a seat in the Commons, and was eventually rewarded with appointment as Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island. So it came about that Margaret Gordon who had left Charlottetown some fifty years earlier because of her father’s financial embarrassment returned now as the first lady of the land. Meanwhile the schoolmaster went on to become one of the giants of English literature —— Thomas Carlyle! As most readers of good literature know, “Bluemine” is the heroine of Carlyle's masterpiece, “Sartor Resartus”. Few know, however, that this character was drawn from life and that the original was a Prince Edward Island girl, Margaret Gordon, of Charlottetown. Margaret's father. Dr. Alexander Gordon, his wife and children lived here in Charlottetown until the opening years of the nineteenth cen- tury. The records show that in 1790 Dr. Gordon was granted three plots of land by his father-in-law, the Governor, and that one of these lots was that on which the Kirk of St. James now stands.

THE FIRST CHURCH ERECTED 1826- 1831

In the year 1826 work was commenced on the erection of the first St. James’ Church at the corner of Pownal and Fitzroy Streets, but it was not until five years later, on Tuesday, August 9th, 1831, that the building was dedicated for worship. On that same day the first pastor, the Reverend James Mackintosh. sent out by the Glasgow Colonial Society of the Church of Scotland, was inducted. The first

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