Brought to Carlisle from Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1772 at the age of seven,[1] Robert Darlington Guthrie would spend his adult life making silver and clocks for the residents of Cumberland County and train three of his sons to follow his profession.[2]
An “honest laborious man” by his own account; a fighting Irishman judging from the number of times he was indicted for assault and battery,1 Guthrie built many houses in Carlisle during the 25 or more years he worked, including the “English” Church (St.
Mrs. Ross, as her name was written on the “Applyers of Lots” in Carlisle in 1751, may have been the wife of John Ross, keeper of the Blue Rock Ferry in Hempfield Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who according to court records, turned his wife Elizabeth out of his house in 1737. In 1741, he was ordered to pay her 3 shillings and 6 pence per week for her support.
This institution is unique in the fact that it has two physical structures in two different locations with the same name. The East Pomfret Street site, the Shrine Church is the original location for the catholic faith’s presence in Cumberland County.