James Montgomery (priest)

The Very Reverend James Francis Montgomery (1818 – 1897) was trained as an Anglican priest and served as the first Dean in St Marys Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. He is usually simply referred to as Dean Montgomery.

Curiously Montgomery was an early photographic pioneer and was one of the youngest members of the Edinburgh Calotype Club, one of the world's first photographic societies.

He was born on 10 July 1818 the son of Robert Montgomery and Elizabeth Mason.

He studied for the bar before being ordained after a period of study at Durham University, and was a Curate at Puddletown before Edinburgh incumbencies. He was appointed Dean of Edinburgh in 1873; and Provost of that St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1879.

He lived close to the cathedral at 17 Atholl Crescent, a very large townhouse in Edinburgh's fashionable west end.

He died at home on 21 September 1897 and is buried in the northern Victorian extension of Dean Cemetery.

A fine recumbent effigy of Montgomery exists on the north side of the choir stalls, sculpted by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray five years after his death (1902).

He married Elizabeth Mary Elphinstone (1834-1902) on 17 January 1860. A brass plaque to her memory lies in the north aisle of St Marys Episcopal Cathedral.

They had no children.

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