James Bailie Keachie

LCM-30 First Church Marriage Records

Nbr. 6
After publication of banns in Dumfries, on 3rd December, 1835

James B. Keachie and Mary McKenzie, both of Beverly
Witnesses Thomas McKenzie and James Scrimgeour (Scrimger)

Rev. James Strang was the minister at First Church from 1833 to 1857. The handwriting in the marriage record book is almost certainly his.

What follows will be of less interest to descendants of James and Mary and rather more for genealogists.

Over the years, the odd statement has been found to the effect that there was a lost Gore District marriage register. The surviving marriage register's earliest recording is dated 1842. That there was indeed an earlier (lost) Gore marriage register is almost certainly the case, for when we view the earliest pages of First Church marriages (the mid 1830s) we find Rev. James Strang making annotations to the effect that he had submitted 'doubles' (duplicates) of foregoing marriages to 'Mr. Berrie's office, Hamilton, and to himself', on a given date.

Robert Berrie was the recording clerk at Hamilton and an important figure in the district's administration. His wife Helen was a granddaughter of Col. Butler of Butler's Rangers. She died in 1841 and is buried in the cemetery of St. John's Anglican Church, Ancaster.

Around the time of his wife's death, Robert Berrie was effectively fired from his job for political reasons by the Lt. Governor and according to one history (A History of the Parish of St. John's Church, Ancaster, Thomas Farmer, 1924), he returned to Scotland with his son. He had daughters as well who went with them.) To Scotland they may have gone, though he is in London, England, by 1851.

What happened to the early marriage register is unknown, but given that the marriage of James and Mary was submitted by Strang to Berrie, it seems reasonable to believe that there was such a volume and that their marriage was recorded therein. Perhaps one day it will be found. Such things are not unheard of. The Wellington District's marriage register was found in a bookstore by a sharp-eyed lady. She purchased it with her own funds and then donated it to the Wellington County Museum at Fergus where it resied safe, sound and microfilmed.