Oldest Anglican church in Montreal celebrates 185 years

St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in the borough of Lachine is the oldest of its kind on the island of Montreal. It has been in service for 185 years, dating back to the construction of the Lachine Canal, when it was built for the area’s Anglican Lachine Canal workers and their families.

St. Stephen's Anglican Church_Lachine QCWhen you walk through the churchyard, look for a boundary stone that is from the military post near the Lachine rapids where the Reverend Brooke Bridges Stevens, first rector of St. Stephen’s, led services in 1822, founding St. Stephen’s parish.

Walking among the headstones is like walking through history.

Among those buried in the small cemetery that surrounds the quaint church are victims of the 1842 disaster when the Steamer Shamrock, travelling from Montreal to Kingston, exploded on the Lachine Canal, killing 54 of the 120 passengers.

Next to the entrance of the church stands a marble slab in memory of a family named Peirson, who died on the Steamer Shamrock.

In memory of
Allan Pierson                    48 years
Hannah Pierson                50 years
John Pierson                     28 years
Allan Pierson                     20 years
Robert Pierson                  16 years
Hannah Pierson                  7 years
Sarah Pierson                   15 months
Mary Pierson                     21 years
William Pierson                 13 months

The above persons lost their lives by the explosion of the steamboat “Shamrock”, July 9, 1842, 12 miles from Lachine on the river St. Lawrence.

Gone but not forgotten
Erected by son William

Another headstone marks the burial place of Thomas Cousins and his seven children, of Yorkshire, who also died on the Shamrock.

Since Lachine was a terminal for the fur-trading Hudson’s Bay Company, it should perhaps be no surprise to find an employee among the buried. Probably the most impressive headstone, standing near a wall of the church, is the one for William M. McIntosh, chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and his wife, Isabella. It is the oldest in the cemetery.

Also buried in the cemetery is John Swanston, a clerk of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

At the south-west corner of the graveyard are the unnamed graves of unfortunate ship-fever victims, who died in 1847, for the most part, in the temporary hospital near Stony Point in the upper part of Lachine.

If you have an opportunity to be in Lachine, you should try to visit this church and its cemetery. It is only a minute walk from the The Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site that is located in a beautiful park and only a short walk from good restaurants located along Saint-Joseph Boulevard.

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