Cairns, William Douglass

Cairns, William Douglass a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born at Stratford, Conn., Aug. 4, 1804. He graduated at Yale in 1823, became a communicant among the Congregationalists, and began the study of theology at Princeton, with a view to the ministry. Here his religious convictions underwent a change, and he united with the Protestant Episcopal Church, being admitted to the order of deacons at Richmond, Va.,. in 1825. He labored in Gloucester County, Va.; Wilmington, N. C.; Hudson, N. Y.; and, as a general missionary, in Edenton, N. C. Subsequently he went to Columbus, Ga., of which parish he was rector at the time of his death, which occurred at Somerville, Ala., May 8, 1850. See Amer. Quar. Church Rev. 1850, p. 325.