Photo looking southwest of the Belmont Baptist Cemetery. This was the original Presbyterian Cemetery in Lot 16. Oral tradition relates that in the early days of

the settlement, bodies were brought moss Malpeque Bay from Princetown for burial at this

cemetery.

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new church building and cemetery. Rose Hill Farm was 273 acres of land “between parallel lines and having a breadth of 47 chains on Richmond Bay.” It was occupied by several

Acadian families with Zavier Gallant being the lessee up until 1810. In 1811, the hold-

ing was purchased by Thomas Archibald, of Scotland, who named it Rose Hill from the many wild roses found on the property. Archibald sold the lease for Rose Hill in 1813 to his nephewjohn Ramsay, whose father’s family had come to the Island aboard the Anna- bella in 1770. The Ramsays’ were involved with the Presbyterian church in Princetown. John’s donation of land amounted to approximately twenty-five acres. There was room for the church building, horse shed, Rose Hill Cemetery, and later a manse. Several acres remain in agriculture.

Although the date the first Presbyterian church was built on the current site is not known, several facts are generally accepted. The church was built by Robert Milligan who emigrated from Scotland in 1819 and was made one of the original elders in 1822. Milligan’s church had a life span of approximately fifty years, thus it must have been constructed in the early 18205.

The church built by Robert Milligan was believed to be designed in accordance with the High Church of Scotland architecture with a high pulpit and a balcony. It was a heavy wooden building both longer and wider than the current church. There was a footing under the church but no founda— tion. At the time Milligan built it, the road ran to the back of the current cemetery. Thus Milligan built the church facing the east, with the front doors and the steeple facing the road extending a welcome to travellers passing by.

Several factors influenced the decision to dismantle the church. A new road was constructed to the back of the church,

LOT 16 UNITED CHURCH AND ITS PEOPLE