Adam Cairns

Adam Cairns (1802–1881) was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. He served in Scotland and Australia.

In 1837 he became minister of Cupar. During the Disruption schism of 1842, he sided with the Free Church, and was employed in parochial work until 1853, when he accepted a commission from the Colonial Committee of the Free Church to proceed to Melbourne, where he arrived in September of that year. There, amidst the excitement of the gold fever, he laid the foundations of Presbyterianism in Victoria, acting as pastor of the Chalmers Church Congregation till 1865, when, his health failing, he became an emeritus minister, retaining his standing in the Church without pastoral charge. He died on his birthday January 30, 1881.

Early life and education Rev. Cairns from National Gallieries Scotland by Hill & Adamson There is some doubt as to who this photograph depicts. Other images of Adam Cairns can be found on the East Melbourne Historical Society website.

Adam Cairns was born at the manse of Longforgan, on 30 January 1802. Of that parish his father, also called Adam Cairns, was minister for many years. Dr. Cairns’s father appears to have belonged to the parish of Temple. His mother’s father was minister of the parish of Kinnaird, in the Carse of Gowrie. He was descended from a long line of ministers.

Having received the rudimentary part of his education in his native parish, he entered the University of St. Andrews before he was fourteen. He was a hard working student. Of himself he has been heard to say, “I have no great natural ability; and any measure of success to which I have attained has been won through hard labour and close application to present duty.”

He was licensed as a preacher by the Presbytery of Cupar on 5 October 1824. Soon after this, he passed through a severe ordeal, which lasted for several years. His health at this stage suffered greatly, and threatened for a time entirely to give way. Cast on his own resources, he was obliged to support himself by private teaching. In various ways his strength was overtaxed; he was in a state of physical exhaustion, nervous and irritable.

Early ministry After serving for a time as assistant to Henry Moncreiff, minister of the parish of St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, Cairns was presented to the parish of Manor, in the county of Peebles, where he was ordained on 21 August 1828. The parish is a quiet pastoral valley and for four years and a-half he went in and out among them.

But now his work in this his first charge was drawing to a close. His health was again seriously affected. His old complaint returned upon him. It was brought on, or at all events accelerated, by the illness of a brother, who had returned from America in quest of health. Having come to reside at the manse at Manor, Mr. Cairns was unremitting in his attention to him. The complaint in his brother’s case got worse. He died. The care and anxiety of waiting at that death-bed left serious effects on Cairns’s own health. And just at the time when a change was desirable, he received a presentation to the parish of Dunbog, in the north-west of Fife. Feeling it to be his duty to accept the offer, he was inducted into that charge, on 7 April 1833. Being strictly a rural parish, the work was easy. It gave the opportunity for recruiting his shattered health. It was here, and on 11 February 1834, that Cairns was married to Miss Jessie Ballingall.

After a successful ministry in his second charge of about equal duration with that of his first, Mr. Cairns was translated to Cupar-Fife.

Ministry in Cupar It was a collegiate charge. He was inducted on 1 September 1837. In the midst of his labour his strength again gave way. For months his life hung quivering in the balance. He was an invalid for years. Again there is another break, and it seemed at the time that his ministry was at end. At the Disruption in 1843 he sided with the Free Church. In November 1847, during the afternoon service, he was struck down in the pulpit. He was carried to the vestry, and there laid down as a dying man. Contrary to expectation, he soon recovered. Having gone to Gibraltar, in the hope that the climate there would renovate his shattered system, and feeling greatly benefited by the change, he hired a hall in the principal street, where he preached morning and evening, the morning attendance being always crowded. The Free Church minister of Cupar was able to contribute, to the current literature of the day. In view of this, and in particular, in recognition of an able and interesting volume produced by him, entitled "The Second Woe", the Senatus of St. Andrews University conferred on him the degree of D.D. on 9 April 1853.

Move to Australia The gold discovery in Australia was attracting universal interest and migrants were landing daily there in thousands. The Free Church determined to strengthen the hands of the ministers already in Australia, by sending immediately other ten or twelve at least. Ten young men gave their consent to go. They were but newly licensed, and though now to be ordained, they had no experience. It was needful, therefore, to secure along with them one or two ministers of standing and experience. Two such men were Mackintosh Mackay, of Dunoon, and the other the Rev. Dr. Cairns, of Cupar.

Cairns and three other preachers and their families sailed on the Hurricane, leaving Glasgow in May 1853 and arriving in Hobson's Bay on 10 September that year. a daughter who died young