Ernest wants to start another thread regarding financial/sexual/religion! I am the last one to discuss the subjects, but I'll try. The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) on St. Vincent when through various problems over the years. By 1949 there was no Church due to a scandal in the 1930's. The problems in the 1850's were financial and "from the departure of the Minister to Europe on account of ill health" and the retirement of the school's Head Master. A Methodist Minister briefly mentioned the problems in the book "A Voice from the West Indies" by Rev'd John HORSFORD - 1856 - St. Vincent. Page 353 - " ... There are here three presses, - each respectable, liberal, and exhibiting ability; but on reading-rooms, and no libraries, except the small remnants of the Presbyterian Library, which, from the departure of the Minister to Europe on account of ill health, and the scattered state of the church and congregation, has, like the school, fallen into the hands of Mr. Robert Cropper, a true patriot an a Graduate of Marischal College in the University of Aberdeen, who has recently instituted evening classes for the instruction of young men in history, science, and philosophy, and who is contemplating the establishment of a Mechanics' Institute, respecting which fuller information will be shortly given by means of a pamphlet now in the press and soon to be published. ..." Page 354 - " ... The same may be said of the Presbyterian school. Mr. Hart, the former master, gave cordial satisfaction to the parents, and won the affections of the pupils; and, on his retirement to his - native land, Scotland, in 1853, he was succeeded by Mr. R. Cropper, who is in every way competent, and whose interest in the rising generation is deep and disinterested. This school was denominational; and though the Assembly's Catechism was taught in it, it was liberally conducted. ..." The best place for information was a website of the Historical Society of St. Vincent which no longer exists. The former Presbyterian Church is now t he Seventh Day Adventist Church. The old website had :- "This place of worship in central Kingstown for the Seventh Day Adventists was once the Kirk of the Scottish Presbyterians who settled in St. Vincent after the Monmouth Rebellion in England. The Church of Scotland or as it was locally called the Scots' Kirk, is a large stone edifice situated at the corner of Granby and Sharpe Streets. It was first built in 1839 and reconstructed in 1880 by William Smith, a leading landowner who, besides owning estates in St. Vincent, possessed a few lots of land on Granby and Sharpe Streets. The building is historically significant because, unlike St. George's Cathedral, it was not built with state funds. It was supported by tithes given by Scottish settlers who wanted to continue the form of worship practised in the Mother Country. Therefore, Alexander Porter, the owner of the largest number of estates in St. Vincent at the time, thought it was his duty - as an elder - to support, financially, the Kirk. In 1902, the year before he died, he gave the church an endowment of five hundred pounds sterling, on condition that only a Scotsman be minister." "The building was enlarged in 1927. It had on its roof a beautiful wooden ventilator with a weathercock. This ventilator was demolished last year when repairs were done to the roof. A manse was built east of the church, on The Greens not too far from the church, on an elevated area which commanded a good view of Kingstown Harbour. During the 1930's a scandal rocked the Kirk; it's membership fell and finally the church was closed down. In 1952 it was sold to the Seventh Day Adventist who use it for regular worship especially on Saturdays. Because it is the largest the centre of activity and replaces the first Adventist Chapel at Montrose. This was a wooden building which was dedicated on 12th July 1903, two years after the first Adventist missionaries arrived in St. Vincent." Jim C. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ernest M. Wiltshire" <murcot@synapse.net> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 12:22 PM Subject: RE: St. Vincent Presbyterian Church. > Jim this is interesting: why did the Presbyterian Church disappear from > St. Vincent? When my father was posted there in 1949 as a Methodist > minister, the Governor (Administrator strictly speaking) was a > Presbyterian, but came to the Methodist Church as there was no > Presbyterian one, and he tended to go to the Anglican Church only for > official occasions. Was there a financial/sexual scandal 100 years > earlier? > > Ernest M. Wiltshire