Adam Cairns

Adam Cairns (1802–1881) was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. In 1837 he became minister of Cupar. At the disruption in 1843 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 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 years of age—too young, as he himself has often confessed. Yet as a student he did more than hold his own among his class-fellows, many of them by far his senior in years. Throughout his whole course of study, both in the University and in the Theological Hall, he occupied a distinguished place. With more than average natural gifts he combined more than average application. 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.”