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Bishop
Jacob Mountain
On
28 June 1793 Letters Patent were issued in London creating the See of
Quebec, embracing both Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec).
On 7 July Jacob Mountain was consecrated as the first Lord Bishop
of Quebec, arriving in his widespread new diocese on 1 November . At
that time there were only nine clergymen of the Church of England in
Canada, and Quebec had no ecclesiastical edifice, no Episcopal residence,
and no rectory. During the
thirty-two years that elapsed before his death he raised the church to a
flourishing condition. The
original nine clergy had become 60 in number, and he had promoted the
formation of missions, and the erection of church edifices – including a
fine stone cathedral in Quebec City – in
all the more populous townships. These
latter he visited regularly, even when age and infirmity rendered so vast
and fatiguing a circuit, under pioneer conditions, a painful undertaking. A splendid preacher, Bishop Mountain was respected by colleagues in the Executive and Legislative councils of Lower Canada. He served on several important occasions as a member, ex officio, of both councils, sat frequently in the court of appeals, and was a faithful and laborious servant of the public and of the crown. Bishop Mountain encouraged a new school system in Lower Canada and obtained a charter for McGill University in Montreal. In addition, his self-sacrificing ministrations to the poor will long be remembered. He is the author of "Poetical Reveries" (London, 1777).
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