A church record documents Thomas Cairns from Campbelton building the A’Chleil church in 1789. It replaced the condemned Killean church that was two miles north. From about 1672 until 1696, John Cunison was a Covenanting minister.
Thomas was the source of the Cairns family in King Township Ontario. We do not know where he was born, nor do we know the name of his wife. He and his wife had four children: Thomas Jr(1775), Margaret (1778), William (1780), and Agnes(1783) all born in Campbelton.
Except for Margaret the three other children, their families, and their mother emigrated to York County Ontario around 1830-31 to work, purchase farmland and start a new life. Thomas jr married Anne McIntyre (who was previously married to Robert Campbell and had a daughter Janet Cambell) and worked as a shepherd on Kintyre. Thomas, Anne, his mother and sister Agnes lived with or near his son William in Vaugn Township, Ontario. We do no have a recorded of where their burial sites are.
