Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cordiner, James
CORDINER, JAMES (1775–1836), author of ‘A Description of Ceylon,’ third son of the Rev. Charles Cordiner [q. v.], episcopal minister of Banff, was born in 1775. He received the first rudiments of education at Banff, and afterwards studied at the University and King's College, Aberdeen, where in an ‘album’ or register of students now in the university library his name appears among those entering the first class in Greek (taught by Professor John Leslie) in the session 1789–1790, and in a roll of ‘Artium Magistri’ of 29 April 1793. In 1797 he was appointed to a charge at the Military Orphan Asylum, Madras, and to do duty as chaplain with the 80th foot, then at Trincomalee, where he remained about twelve months. Thence, at the desire of the governor, Hon. F. North, afterwards earl of Guildford, he proceeded to Colombo to do chaplain's duty with the 51st foot, under orders for that place. He remained in Ceylon as garrison chaplain at Colombo and principal of all the schools in the island, where he was the only church of England clergyman, up to 1804, when he returned home. On his departure he was presented by the civil and military officials at Colombo with a piece of plate of the value of 210 guineas, as a mark of their attachment and esteem.
On 26 May 1807 Cordiner was appointed by the constituent members of the congregation one of the ministers of St. Paul's Episcopal Church (or chapel as it then was called) at Aberdeen, at a stipend of 70l. a year. He appears to have come to them from London on the recommendation of the Rev. Dr. Macleod of St. Anne's, Soho. The important community of episcopalians worshipping at St. Paul's Chapel was at that time, as it continued down to 1870 or later, not part of the Scottish episcopalian church, but one of those episcopalian communities claiming connection with the church of England as distinct from the native nonjuring episcopalian body. After faithfully discharging the duties of the ministry for many years, Cordiner resigned, on account of ill-health, on 13 Nov. 1834, and was granted a retiring annuity of 100l., with the chapel-house as a residence. He died of congestion of the lungs on 13 Jan. 1836, in the sixty-first year of his age and the thirty-seventh of his ministry, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen, where is a tombstone to his memory. He left a widow, who for many years received a small annuity (twelve guineas) from the chapel funds, and a son Charles, a clergyman of the church of Scotland, who down to 1864 or later was presbyterian minister of Kinnenmouth, a chapel-of-ease in Lonmay parish, Aberdeenshire.
After his return from Ceylon Cordiner published ‘A Description of Ceylon, with narratives of a Tour round the Island in 1800, the Expedition to Candy in 1803, and a Visit to Ramasseram in 1804’ (London, 1807). From the preface it appears that the author did not accompany the expedition to Kandy, but was furnished with the particulars from official sources. He is therefore not responsible for statements which, as Sir Emerson Tennent has pointed out (Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 77), when read by the light of Governor North's confidential correspondence, place the authorities in a very regrettable light. The work, which is in two quarto volumes, contains fine plates from original drawings by the author of objects of interest in the island. Cordiner also wrote ‘A Voyage to India,’ which was published in 1820.
[Reference has been made to Cordiner's and Sir Emerson Tennent's writings, but the above details have been chiefly obtained, through the courtesy of the librarian of Aberdeen University, from the collegiate and church records of Aberdeen, and from an obituary notice of Cordiner in the Aberdeen Journal, 20 Jan. 1836: of this paper the University Library contains a complete file from 1747, which is probably unique. The misstatements as to the circumstances as well as the date of Cordiner's death in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vi., are stated to have probably arisen from confusion with the case of a relative of the same name.]