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issues, guidance of the minister, and spiritual nurturing of the congregation. Perhaps the biggest change was that women were recognized as capable of holding the ofiice of eldership. Lot 16 was one of the earliest congregations to make history when it elected its first woman elder, Lottie McFadden, in 1970.

FOUR ORIGINAL LOT 16 PRESBYTERIAN ELDERS

he first elders to serve the Lot 16 Presbyterian congrega- tion were elected and inducted in 1822. They werejohn Ramsay, Robert Milligan, John MacKinnon, and Archibald Campbell. Richmond Bay Session was comprised of elders from Lot 16 and Lot 14. Elders from Bedeque were included until the church was disjoined from the Richmond Bay

Charge. John MacKinnon (1791-1863)

John MacKinnon served as an elder of the Lot 16 Presbyterian Church for a total of forty-one years. He served as clerk of ses— sion.]ohn MacKinnon, Esq. was a native of Mull, Scotland. Born 1791, he immigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1809. He received enough education in Scotland to qualify him as a school teacher which at the time placed him in a position of respect and honour in any community. The first indication in the Department of Education Archives of Central Lot 16 school visits by inspectors was 1839. There were thirty-two students with John MacKinnon as teacher. He taught many years prior to this report, and he continued to submit reports for Central to the education department through to 1843. When the Central area was divided into two separate schools, MacKinnon stayed with Lot 16 Western (Southwest). He was recorded as the teacher in this school in 1861 when he was seventy years of age.3

The Lot 16 settlement was progressive in the area of edu- cation. The land grants of 1767 required each Lot proprietor to provide 100 acres for a church and thirty acres for a school- master. 4 However, most did not comply with this stipulation

LOT 16 UNITED CHURCH AND ITS PEOPLE