World Tokens

Jamaica, Communion Tokens, Carron Hall, Carron Hall Church, octagonal white metal, 1836, legend, rev. revd. jno. cowan above date, 26 x 21mm, 6.96g/12h (Lyall 178; Burzinski 1315). About very fine, extremely rare £250-350

Provenance: A.T. Macmillan Collection, Simmons Galleries Mailbid Sale, 2 October 2007 (76).

Revd. John Cowan (1806-78), from New Luce, Wigtownshire, Scotland, was ordained in October 1831 and emigrated to Jamaica with his new bride, Margaret Marshall, at the end of that year, when the island was under a state of martial law. He arrived at Petersfield (the old name for Carron Hall) in February 1832, founding a mission and establishing the church in 1834. Cowan and his family returned to Scotland in 1854, retiring to the United Presbyterian Manse at Stow. His only son, Sir John Cowan (1844-1929) was ADC to Kitchener and Roberts in the Boer War