1 Albert Carman

A commanding figure in Canadian Methodism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Carman was born an Iroquois and educated at Victoria College, Cobourg. He worked briefly as a teacher and was then appointed principal of the Belleville Seminary, later Albert College, in 1858. A masterful administrator and, after entering the Methodist Episcopal ministry, a militant advocate for Methodist education, Carman spearheaded the successful development of this Methodist school during his 17-year term. Following his election as a bishop in 1874, Carman gained increasing prominence in church affairs, particularly as an ardent supporter of union among the Methodist denominations. When union was achieved in 1884, Carman became a General Superintendent of the Methodist Church, a post he held until his retirement in 1914.

2 Alexander Ferrie Kemp

Alexander Ferrie Kemp (1822-84) was born in Strathclyde, Scotland; he became a Presbyterian clergyman and educator in Canada. Kemp attended the University of Edinburgh and Presbyterian College in London, England and was ordained in 1850 by the Free Church of the Presbytery of Lancashire. Kemp was appointed as chaplain to the 26th Foot Regiment (Cameronians or Scottish Rifles) stationed in Bermuda. In 1855, Kemp accepted a position at the St. Gabriel Street Church in Montreal, and as the clerk of the Presbytery of Montreal. He left Montreal in 1865 to serve at St. Andrew’s Church in Windsor, Canada West (Ontario). He was a noted scholar, an editor of the Canadian Presbyter newsletter, and published several articles on the botany of Bermuda, the United States and Canada. Criticized for his views on the lack of progress in the Canada Presbyterian Church since its formation in 1861, he resigned and began teaching at colleges throughout Canada and the United States. In 1878, he became principal of the Ottawa Ladies’ College and retired in 1883.

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3 Archbishop Denis T. O'Connor

Born in Pickering, Canada West (Ontario), Denis T. O’Connor (1841-1911) was the first Canadian-born Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto. Following completion of his studies at St. Michael’s College in Toronto, O’Connor entered the Congregation of St. Basil in 1859, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1863. O’Connor was appointed as superior of Assumption College in Sandwich (Windsor) in 1869, where he served for 20 years and enlarged the campus, curriculum and tripled the number of students. In 1890, he was consecrated as Bishop of London, where he maintained tight control of diocesan finances, and insisted on a highly-trained clergy. His tenure as Bishop of London was a success and, in 1899, he was elevated to Archbishop of Toronto. O’Connor’s control of parochial funds and strict adherence to church doctrine in an increasingly pluralistic society stabilized the growing archdiocese. His legacy remains that of an educator and prudent financial manager during a period of great adjustment in the Catholic community.

4 Archbishop Fergus McEvay

Born in Lindsay, Canada West (Ontario), Fergus McEvay (1851-1911) was a Roman Catholic priest and archbishop in Toronto. After completing his studies at St. Michael’s College in Toronto, McEvay was ordained to the priesthood in 1882. He served in the dioceses of Peterborough and Hamilton and, in 1899, was consecrated Bishop of London. McEvay advocated for separate Roman Catholic schools and more clergy for the diocese. He also acted as mediator, between 1904 and 1907, between the provincial government and Catholic leaders during debates over separate school teacher certification and funding. Elected Archbishop of Toronto in 1908, McEvay actively recruited clergy and established several parishes for new immigrants of specific nationalities. In 1908, he helped found the Catholic Church Extension Society to found missions for Catholic immigrants across the country. In 1910, McEvay established St. Augustine’s Seminary at the Scarborough Bluffs as a training institution for English-speaking Canadian Catholic clergy.

5 Archbishop James Charles Cardinal McGuigan

Born in Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, James Charles McGuigan (1894-1974) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto and later a cardinal. After completing studies in theology at Université Laval and Grand Séminaire in Quebec City, McGuigan was ordained in 1918. He taught at St. Dunstan’s University in Charlottetown, and earned his doctorate in Canon Law in 1927. McGuigan served as rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta before being consecrated as Archbishop of Regina by Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) in 1930. Archbishop McGuigan was appointed to the See of Toronto in December 1934. While Archbishop of Toronto, McGuigan successfully managed diocesan debt and raised funds for separate Roman Catholic schools. In 1946, McGuigan was created cardinal-priest of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, becoming Canada’s first English-speaking cardinal. McGuigan established several national parishes specifically targeting new immigrants to the city, increasing the population of the Archdiocese of Toronto from 125,000 in 1929 to 750,000 in 1973. After expanding the Archdiocese of Toronto and creating the new diocese of St. Catharines, McGuigan retired from his post in 1971.

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6 Archbishop John Joseph Lynch

Born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, John Joseph Lynch (1816-88) was a Catholic priest and archbishop in Canada West (Ontario). Following completion of his studies in Ireland and France, Lynch became a missionary in 1841 and served in Ireland, Texas and Niagara Falls. Lynch was nominated as successor of Bishop Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel (1802-91) of Toronto, and was consecrated as Bishop of Toronto in 1860. Lynch’s Irish heritage enabled him to connect with the Toronto’s Irish Catholic immigrants who had fled Ireland’s Great Famine (1845-49). Lynch worked to improve conditions in Roman Catholic separate schools and advised the provincial government on educational legislation, but was often drawn into disputes between Catholic and Protestant groups over the schools’ funding. In 1870, while attending Vatican Council I (1869-70) in Rome, Lynch was elevated to Archbishop of Toronto. He also expanded the ranks of clergy in his territory, ordaining 70 priests during his term, and established 40 churches throughout the Diocese of Toronto. Lynch continued to serve as Bishop until his death in 1888.

7 Archbishop John Walsh

Born in Mooncoin, Ireland, John Walsh (1830-98) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Ontario. After studying at the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice in Montreal, he was ordained in Toronto in 1854, and in 1860 became rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral. Walsh proved adept at negotiating disputes between the city’s Catholic and Protestant communities, diffusing a potential clash over the use of Orangemen’s arches during a visit by the Princes of Wales. In 1867, he was consecrated as Bishop of Sandwich (Windsor), the youngest Catholic bishop in Ontario. Addressing his diocese’s existing financial debts, Walsh economized operations and moved his residence from Sandwich to London, a more accessible location. By 1881, the diocese’s debt had been reduced and Walsh began construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral in London. After the death of Archbishop John Joseph Lynch (1816-88), Walsh became Archbishop of Toronto. Prior to his death in 1898, Walsh established the Mount Hope Cemetery, the Sacred Heart Orphan Asylum and the St Vincent de Paul Children’s Aid Society of Toronto.

8 Archbishop Neil McNeil

Born in Hillsborough, Nova Scotia, Neil McNeil (1851-1934) was a Roman Catholic priest, professor and Archbishop in Toronto. Ordained at the Propaganda College in Rome in 1879, McNeil became rector and professor at St. Francis Xavier College in Nova Scotia until 1891. After serving in West Arichat and Descousse in Nova Scotia and St. George’s, Newfoundland, he was consecrated as Bishop of St. George’s in 1904, and became Archbishop of Vancouver in 1910. McNeil continued to administer St. Augustine’s Seminary and the Canadian Catholic Church Extension Society, both founded by his predecessor Archbishop Fergus McEvay (1851-1911). Archbishop McNeil advocated for the fair distribution of taxes to separate schools in Ontario, promoted improved relations between Catholics and Protestants in his diocese and supported the establishment of some 30 new parishes. He also established the China Mission Seminary and Newman Club.

9 Archbishop Philip Pocock

Born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Philip Francis Pocock (1906-1984) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Toronto. After completing theological studies at St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ontario, Pocock was ordained as a priest in 1930 and returned to the Seminary as a professor. Father Pocock was appointed in 1944 as Bishop of Saskatoon and then became Archbishop of Winnipeg in 1952. In 1961, Archbishop Pocock left Winnipeg to serve as Coadjutor Archbishop of Toronto with Archbishop James Charles Cardinal McGuigan (1894-1974). McGuigan retired as Archbishop of Toronto in 1971, leaving Pocock to succeed his post. As Archbishop of Toronto, Pocock established 45 new parishes, and in 1976 established Sharelife, which offers assistance to families in crisis, people with special needs, the elderly, immigrants and refugees, and children and youth. Pocock served in Toronto until 1978 when he resigned and returned to the priesthood at St. Mary’s Parish in Brampton until his death in 1984.

10 Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel

Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel (1802-91) was a Roman Catholic priest from France who became Bishop of Toronto in 1850. Charbonnel studied at the Séminaire de Saint Sulpice in Paris before he was ordained in 1825. He arrived in Montreal in 1839 as a missionary and was consecrated in 1850 as Bishop of Toronto in the Sistine Chapel by Pope Pius IX (1792-1878). As bishop, Charbonnel established St. Michael's College, the House of Providence shelter, instituted the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Toronto Savings Bank. He laid the foundations for a separate Catholic school system with his support of the 1855 Taché Act. Charbonnel, however, felt disliked by his parishioners and clergy and petitioned Rome in 1856 to be relieved from his post. He left for France in 1860 to preach throughout the country, and was made titular Archbishop of Sozopolis (Sozopol, Bulgaria) in 1880 in recognition of his work in Toronto. Charbonnel died at a Capuchin friary in Crest, France in 1891.

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11 Bishop Alexander Macdonell

Alexander Macdonell, born in the Scottish Highlands, was a legislator and Roman Catholic priest and bishop. After being ordained a priest in 1787, Macdonell formed a Catholic Highlanders regiment and served in Guernsey and Ireland. The regiment was disbanded in 1802. Father Macdonell petitioned the home government for land grants for his disbanded regiment. In 1803, the veterans sailed for Upper Canada. Macdonell came to Upper Canada in 1804 as chaplain of this disbanded regiment. During the War of 1812, Father Macdonell was a driving force in reforming his regiment into the Glengarry Fencibles for the defence of their new home. The regiment saw much service during the war – with Father Macdonell as its chaplain – and was highly regarded as a fighting unit. Macdonell became the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kingston, formed in 1826. In 1831, he was appointed to the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. In 1837, he founded Regiopolis College in Kingston.

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12 Bishop Alexander Neil Bethune

Alexander Bethune – son of the renowned Presbyterian clergyman John Bethune – was born in Charlottenburg, Upper Canada in 1800. During his youth, Bethune studied under John Strachan first in Cornwall, then in York, where he assisted Strachan with services at St. James’ Cathedral. Bethune was ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1824 and given charge of St. Andrew’s Parish at The Forty (Grimsby). Three years later, he was relocated to St. Peter’s Church, Cobourg, where he served as rector until 1867. Although a congenial, peace-loving man, Bethune was a central figure in numerous public conflicts, controversies and debates. He and his mentor John Strachan were identified with the Anglo-Catholic movement at a time when many members of the Church of England in present-day Ontario were moving toward low church evangelicalism. As editor of the church newspaper from 1837-41, Bethune became embroiled in several public debates with Methodist newspaperman Egerton Ryerson – primarily regarding clergy reserves and the privileged position of the Church of England in Upper Canadian society. After Strachan’s death, Bethune was elected the second Bishop of Toronto. He spent much of his episcopate attempting to restrain the low church movement and to unify his divided flock. He died in 1879.

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13 Bishop Benjamin Cronyn

Born in Kilkenny, Ireland, Benjamin Cronyn (1802-71) emigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1832 as an Anglican missionary with the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel. Cronyn began preaching in London and the surrounding areas, and oversaw the construction of St. Paul’s Church in 1834. He was able to supplement his income by becoming chaplain at the nearby Royal London Military Institute, preaching to military troops and students. In 1857, Cronyn became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Huron, and was consecrated in London, England by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Cronyn established Huron University College in 1863 with Rev. Isaac Hellmuth (1819-1901), which became the founding college of the University of Western Ontario in London.

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14 Bishop Benjamin Eby

Born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Benjamin Eby (1785-1853) was a Mennonite preacher and leader of the settler community in Ebytown, Upper Canada (Ontario). Increased harassment of pacifist Mennonites in the United States following the American Revolution (1775-83) led Eby and a group of German-speaking Mennonite settlers to emigrate from Pennsylvania to Waterloo Township, Upper Canada in 1807. Ordained in 1809, Eby was a leader in the community and helped to erect a school and meeting house (called Ben Eby’s Church). In 1813, he was elected Bishop of Waterloo County. He oversaw religious conferences, mediated local settler disputes and elected new bishops in neighbouring districts. The settlement was named Ebytown, later renamed Berlin (Kitchener) in honour of the community’s German heritage. Eby actively promoted German-language education and religious services, publishing several primers, hymnals and texts in German.

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15 Bishop Charles James Stewart

Charles James Stewart (1775-1837) was a clergyman of the Church of England and Bishop of Quebec. Ordained in 1798, Stewart travelled to Lower Canada (Quebec) in 1807 to take up his post as rector of Orton Longueville (Orton). He established Trinity Church in Frelighsburg in 1809, the first Anglican church in the Eastern Townships. He travelled to England in 1823 to defend the Anglican Church’s claims to the profits of the Clergy reserves, lands set aside by the colonial government for the benefit of the Church in Canada. In 1826, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Quebec at Lambeth Palace, London. Faced with decreasing funding for missions in Canada, Stewart petitioned the Church of England to continue providing salaries to clergy of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. His continuous appeals for funds to support missionaries throughout Canada led to the establishment of the Upper Canadian Travelling Missionary Fund in 1834, and the Upper Canada Clergy Society in England in 1835. After selecting George Jehoshaphat Mountain (1789-1863) as his successor, Stewart left for retirement in Scotland in 1837, but died in London en route.

16 Bishop Jacob Mountain

Born in Norfolk, England in 1749 and educated at Cambridge, Jacob Mountain was an Anglican cleric appointed first bishop of the Diocese of Quebec in 1793. Prior to the creation of the Quebec Diocese, all of British North America fell under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Nova Scotia. The creation of a new diocese was necessitated by the influx of Loyalists arriving in Upper and Lower Canada. When Mountain arrived in Quebec, he faced the difficult task of consolidating and developing the vast new diocese. His mandate to make the Church of England the official state religion of the Canadas led to conflict with both Lower Canada’s overwhelmingly Catholic francophone population and the ethnically and religiously diverse inhabitants of Upper Canada – who were accustomed to the separation of church and state. Despite these difficulties, Mountain managed to lay the foundations on which the Anglican Church in Canada was built. In 1793, the Quebec see contained only nine Anglican clergymen and about as many churches. At the time of Mountain’s death, the number of clergymen had risen to 60. Undeterred by distance, arduous travel and war, Mountain made numerous trips to Upper Canada, where, in the last decade of his episcopate, he established 19 new missions.

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17 Bishop John Christopher Cody

Born in Ottawa, John Christopher Cody (1899-1963) was a Roman Catholic priest and Bishop of Victoria, British Columbia and London, Ontario. After attending St. Alexander’s College in Ironside, Quebec and the seminary of the University of Ottawa, Cody was ordained in 1923. He served for several years as curate of St. Patrick Church in Ottawa and parish priest in Cantley, Quebec and in Eastview, Ontario. In 1937, he was named Bishop of Victoria. As Bishop, he introduced several religious orders to the diocese, created new parishes, opened a diocesan library and, in 1946, raised over $100,000 for the Centenary Education Fund. That year, Cody was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of London, Ontario to assist the elderly Bishop John Thomas Kidd (1868-1950) in his duties; he succeeded as Bishop of London in 1950. During his time in London, Bishop Cody opened 38 churches, created 11 new parishes and opened King’s College (1954) and Regina Mundi College (1962) in London. Bishop Cody died in 1963 and was buried in St. Peter’s Seminary in London.

18 Bishop John Farrell

Born in Armagh, Ireland, John Farrell (1820-73) emigrated to Upper Canada in 1803 and settled in Kingston with his family. Ordained in 1845, Farrell became pastor at L’Orignal (Champlain Township) in Canada West (Ontario). After several years of preaching, in 1856 he was consecrated the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Hamilton. As Bishop, Farrell encouraged the education of Canadian clergy, supported the German-speaking Roman Catholic community of Hamilton and established several area schools. He also petitioned local politicians to approve effective school legislation for Roman Catholics, opposing the education reforms advocated by his long-time critic George Brown (1818-80), owner of the Toronto Globe newspaper. Farrell supported several religious orders in Hamilton and their establishment of Catholic schools, including the Ladies of Loretto, the Fathers of the Resurrection and the Basilian Fathers.

19 Bishop John Horden

Born in Exeter, England in 1828, John Horden apprenticed as a blacksmith and tutored at a boarding school before being sent to Moose Factory as a Church of England missionary. Moose Factory, near James Bay, was the site of an important Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) trading post and the home of a large Cree community. Desperate for a resident Protestant clergyman, HBC Chief Factor Robert Miles wrote to the company’s governor for support. Horden arrived with his wife in 1851 and was ordained a priest the following year. He promptly established a grammar school and began mastering the Cree language. He oversaw construction of St. Thomas’ Church, which was begun in 1864, and established a number of mission stations in the region. Horden served both the HBC employees and the region’s Protestant Cree for more than three decades, and translated portions of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Cree. In 1872, he was elected the first Bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee. He died in 1893 and is buried in the HBC cemetery.

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20 Bishop John Strachan

Bishop John Strachan was an Anglican clergyman, legislator and teacher, born in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 1799, he came to Kingston in Upper Canada (now Ontario) to be a tutor. In 1803, he was ordained by the Church of England and appointed missionary at Cornwall where he built its first Anglican Church in 1804-05. Shortly after his arrival in Cornwall, he opened a boys' school that became renowned for its high academic standards and prominent graduates. In 1812, he became Rector of York (Toronto) and subsequently a member of the province's executive and legislative councils. In 1839, Strachan was appointed Upper Canada's first Anglican bishop.

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21 Bishop John Thomas Kidd

Born in Athlone, Simcoe County in Ontario, John Thomas Kidd (1868-1950) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of London. After studying at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, Kidd spent several years working at a lumber firm in Toronto, then left to study theology in Rome. Ordained as a priest in 1902 in Toronto, he was assigned to St. Ann’s Church in Penetanguishene. In 1925, Father Kidd was made Bishop of Calgary, overseeing a diocese of 29 priests. In order to cater to francophone parishioners, Bishop Kidd performed French services and established Sainte Famille Church for Calgary’s French-speaking community. In 1931, he was consecrated as Bishop of London. Bishop Kidd supported the establishment of religious orders and groups throughout the diocese – including the Legion of Mary (1944) and Catholic Youth Organization (1946) – until his death in 1950.

22 Bishop Joseph-Bruno Guigues

Joseph-Bruno Guigues was born in France in 1805 and entered the noviciate of Oblates at the age of 17. An enthusiastic scholar, Guigues was soon appointed professor of philosophy at the seminary in Marseilles. In 1844, he was made superior of the Oblates in Canada. He directed missionary activities throughout the United Canadas and took a particular interest in the evangelization of First Nations peoples. In 1847, he was made the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Bytown (Ottawa). Bishop Guigues did much to develop the new diocese. A tireless proponent of Catholic education, he brought in male and female religious orders to establish Catholic schools. These orders also created hospitals and a variety of charitable institutions. Bishop Guigues actively encouraged francophone Catholics from Quebec to settle in the Ottawa Valley, and he did much to aid the development of francophone communities in that region. When Guigues assumed the position of bishop, the Diocese of Bytown had an unfinished cathedral, three stone churches, 15 chapels made of wood, seven secular priests and seven Oblates. At the time of his death, it comprised of 67 churches, 48 chapels, several schools and institutions, 53 secular priests, 37 Oblates and nearly 100,000 Catholic faithful.

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23 Bishop Michael Francis Fallon

Born in Kingston, Ontario, Bishop Michael Francis Fallon (1867-1931) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of London and advocate for education reform in Ontario. Ordained in 1894, Fallon became pastor Holy Angels Church in Buffalo, New York in 1901, and was consecrated as Bishop of the Diocese of London in 1910. He expanded the diocese during his time as bishop, creating new parishes and establishing St. Peter’s Seminary and Brescia College in London, and the Catholic Women's League in 1921. A strong critic of bilingual education, he supported the Ontario Department of Education’s 1912 regulation to make English the primary language of instruction in the province’s schools, angering local francophone groups in the process. Although Fallon argued that learning English would promote progress among Ontario’s Catholic communities, the provincial government determined that the schools provided a valuable resource to a minority population and continued their operation. Fallon continued to serve as Bishop of London and advocate against bilingual schools until his death in 1931.

24 Bishop Michael Power

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Michael Power (1804-47) was a Roman Catholic priest and Bishop in Upper Canada/Canada West (Ontario). Ordained in 1827, he served as a missionary in the Archdiocese of Québec and the Diocese of Montréal. When the Bishop of Kingston, Rémi Gaulin (1787-1857), wanted to divide his vast diocese into manageable areas in 1841, he chose Power to serve as Bishop in the newly created Upper Canada portion. Gaulin felt that Power, due to his own Irish ancestry, would be able to reach the large numbers of Irish immigrants arriving in Upper Canada in the 1840s. As Bishop of Toronto, Power began construction on St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto in 1845. He also actively promoted the expansion of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Canada West, encouraging Jesuit priests to oversee missions in First Nations communities in his diocese. With the onset of the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-49), Power campaigned for relief funds from his congregations, drawing massive crowds to St. Paul’s Church in Toronto. In 1847, Power travelled to Europe to raise funds and recruit new priests for the missions in Canada, and saw first-hand the effects of famine in Dublin. Upon his return to Toronto, Power ministered daily to the large influx of Irish immigrants, despite outbreaks of typhus. Power cemented his reputation as an “Irish bishop,” despite being born in Halifax, when he defended the immigrants from civic officials seeking a scapegoat for the typhus epidemic. His testimony of seeing healthy Irish board ships in Dublin only to arrive sickly after spending weeks cramped onboard, redirected municipal energies toward combating typhus and creating employment for the immigrants. In 1847, Power died of typhus while ministering to the sick in Toronto.

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25 Bishop Pierre Adolphe Pinsoneault

Born in Saint-Philippe-de-Laprairie, Lower Canada (Quebec), Pierre Adolphe Pinsoneault (1815-83) was a Roman Catholic priest and Bishop in Canada West (Ontario). Following completion of his studies in Montreal and Paris, in 1840 he was ordained as a priest in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. Pinsoneault returned to Canada East (Quebec) to preach at St. Patrick’s Church in Montreal. Due to his brief role as secretary for Bishop Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel (1802-91), in 1856 Pinsoneault became bishop of the newly created Diocese of London in Canada West. In 1859, Bishop Pinsoneault relocated his see to Sandwich (Windsor), a larger community with a cathedral and greater number of both clergy and worshippers.

26 Bishop Willis Nazrey

Born in Virginia, Willis Nazrey was a minister, bishop in the American Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and first bishop of the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church. He was admitted into the New York Conference of the AME Church in 1840, then appointed to the Lewistown Circuit in Pennsylvania. In 1852, he was elected Bishop of the AME Church. Soon afterward, he took up residence in Canada. Bishop Willis Nazrey led many AME congregations into a new Canadian-based BME Church. From 1856-75, Nazrey was bishop of the BME Church of Canada. The denomination was established by Underground Railroad refugees so that they could govern their own church from Canada. He continued to travel extensively until the autumn of 1875 when he died in Nova Scotia. His body was returned to Chatham where he was buried.

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27 David Willson

David Willson (1778-1866) was a preacher with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Upper Canada (Ontario) who left to lead a new denomination called the Children of Peace, or Davidites. Willson immigrated to Canada from New York in 1801, settling in East Gwillimbury, and soon joined the Monthly Meeting at Upper Yonge Street (today, Newmarket). In 1812, Willson was expelled from the Friends for his interpretation of the Bible and desire to include music in religious services. He was joined by a number of followers, called Davidites, and established the Children of Peace in nearby Hope (today, Sharon in East Gwillimbury). Services were initially held at Willson’s farm until a meeting house was constructed in 1819. Willson became a staunch supporter of political reform in Upper Canada, challenging the reservation of clergy lands for the Anglican Church. His passion for music had a major impact on the Davidites, who became well-known musicians and established the first civilian band in Upper Canada. After Willson’s death in 1866, the membership and activity of the Children began to diminish, with the last service held at the Sharon Temple in 1899.

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28 Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova

Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-90) emigrated to Canada in 1942 and founded the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) of Canada. In 1935, after completing her PhD in political science and journalism at the Université de Paris’ Collège de Sorbonne, she returned to Prague to work as a journalist. During the Second World War (1939-45), while working in Marseilles, France, she fainted due to malnutrition and was treated by members of the Unitarian Service Committee. In 1942, Hitschmanova emigrated to Canada, where she worked in Ottawa for the Czechoslovakian National Alliance and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Histchmanova was an adult convert to Unitarianism, spurred to action by the devastation caused by the Second World War. In 1945, with the help of the Ottawa Unitarian Congregation, she founded the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada and served as Executive Director. “Dr. Lotta” led fundraising trips in support of European displaced persons and physically disabled children affected by the war. In the 1960s, the USC of Canada expanded its outreach to Asia and the Middle East; Hitschmanova routinely travelled to USC offices in the field to supervise operations.

29 Edith Magee

Edith Magee (1881-1971) is credited with bringing the Bahá’í faith to Canada, following her conversion in Chicago while visiting her uncle Guy Magee in 1898. Guy, a local journalist, had covered the 1893 Parliament of Religions held in Chicago and become fascinated with Bahá’í beliefs. Upon her return to London, Edith spread her newfound faith to her mother, aunt and two sisters. This was likely the first group of Bahá’í believers in Canada, although the requirements for conversion were liberal and allowed the women to continue attending local Methodist services. By 1902, Edith Magee had moved to New York City, and the fledgling Bahá’í community in London dwindled in her absence. Magee continued to participate actively in Bahá’í services and activities, visiting the Green Acres Bahá’í School in Eliot, Maine in 1912 to meet Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), head of the Bahá’í faith.

30 Edmund Scheuer

Born in Moselle, Prussia (Germany), Edmund Scheuer (1847-1943) was a Jewish educator and jeweller in Ontario. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Scheuer emigrated to Canada and lived with his sister Camilla Scheuer-Levy (1845-1916) in Hamilton. He became a business partner with his brother-in-law, Herman Levy, and established the jewelry wholesale firm Levy Brothers & Scheuer, Ltd. Scheuer also joined the Anshe Sholom Congregation and began teaching Hebrew classes in 1872, establishing the first Jewish religious school in Hamilton. From 1873-86, Scheuer served as President of Anshe Sholom, where he successfully introduced Reform Judaism and renamed the synagogue Temple Anshe Sholom. Scheuer relocated to Toronto in 1886, opened his own wholesale jewelry firm and joined the Holy Blossom Temple. Scheuer continued to advocate for Reform Judaism, and attracted a succession of rabbis to Holy Blossom who introduced Reform practices at the synagogue. While in Toronto, he taught at the Holy Blossom Sabbath School and the Zionist Jewish Free School for Girls. Scheuer was elected Honorary President of the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto in 1934.

31 Elder Washington Christian

Ordained in Abyssinia Baptist Church in New York, Washington Christian was a refugee slave from the southern United States. Through the 1820s and 1830s, he formed Black Baptist congregations in Toronto, Hamilton, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. He founded the first Baptist church in Toronto in 1826.

32 Élizabeth Bruyère

Born in L’Assomption, Lower Canada in 1818, Élisabeth Bruyère was the founder of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa. Extremely devout and well educated, she worked as a teacher before joining the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) in 1839. Six years later, Bruyère was asked to establish a community of Sisters of Charity in Bytown (Ottawa). At that time, Bytown was a burgeoning lumber town with sizable Irish and French-Canadian Catholic communities, but with few amenities and no Catholic schools or hospitals. Within three months of her arrival, Bruyère had overseen the creation of a bilingual school for 120 pupils, a small hospital and a relief organization. Often working in collaboration with Oblate priests, Bruyère and the Sisters of Charity established numerous schools throughout the following decades. In 1860, they constructed a new, larger hospital that eventually became the Ottawa General Hospital. Soon, the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa extended their reach beyond the region. By the time of Bruyère’s death in 1876, they operated schools throughout Ontario, Quebec and New York State. Bruyère’s efforts created a strong foundation for the development of Roman Catholic healthcare, educational and social services in Ottawa and throughout eastern Ontario.

33 Ellen Hebden

In 1906, Ellen Hebden (1865-1923) co-founded the Church of God on Queen Street East in Toronto, a Pentecostal mission known locally as the East End or Hebden Mission. The Church of God was the first Pentecostal place of worship in Toronto, and included a Faith Home residence for mission visitors. Pentecostals stress personal interaction with the Holy Spirit as essential to spiritual fulfilment. Contemporary newspaper reports from the Church of God suggested several congregation members experienced powerful visions, often speaking in tongues. Hebden herself reportedly underwent such revelations and maintained that 60 to 70 parishioners at the mission had spoken in tongues from 1906-07. The rumour of these proceedings encouraged greater numbers of attendees and a visit from American Evangelical preacher Albert S. Copley. Hebden also published a newspaper, The Promise, used to spread Pentecostal teachings and organization information. Her work as a church leader helped establish the Pentecostal movement in Canada, and spread throughout southern Ontario.

34 Enoch Wood

Born in Gainsborough, Scotland, Enoch Wood (1802-88) was a Methodist minister and mission superintendent in Upper Canada (Ontario). Although he was baptized as an Anglican, Wood converted to Methodism and was accepted as a Wesleyan missionary to Canada in 1826. Wood served in several parishes throughout New Brunswick before he was appointed Superintendent of Missions of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada in 1847. Wood continued as superintendent until 1874, when the Methodist Church of Canada was formed through the union of the two Wesleyan conferences of British North America and the Methodist New Connexion Church of Canada. Wood was also involved in the establishment of Victoria College in Cobourg, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1860.

35 Father Joseph Le Caron

Born near Paris, France in 1586, Joseph Le Caron (c. 1586-1632) was among the first Roman Catholic missionaries to New France. Le Caron joined the Récollet order in 1611 and, four years later, he and three other Récollet missionaries accompanied Samuel de Champlain on his voyage to New France. Shortly after his arrival in New France, Le Caron set out for the Huron country in what is now Ontario. Travelling by canoe and accompanied by native guides, Le Caron journeyed westward, becoming the first European to reach Georgian Bay. On August 12, 1615 at the Huron village of Carhagouha (near what is now Lafontaine, near Penetanguishene in Simcoe County) he presided over the first mass held in present-day Ontario. Le Caron spent almost a year living among, and evangelizing, the Huron before briefly returning to France in 1616. From 1618 until the English captured Quebec in 1629, Le Caron continued his missions both in Huron country and among the Montagnais in the eastern part of New France. He compiled dictionaries of the Huron, Algonkin and Montagnais languages. These and Le Caron’s other writings chronicling his experiences in New France have largely been lost. Le Caron died of the plague in France in 1632.

36 Father Pierre Potier

Born in Blandain, Belgium, Pierre-Phillippe Potier (1708-81) led a Jesuit mission at La Pointe de Montreal (Windsor) in western New France (Ontario). Potier was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1743, and sent to New France as a missionary. Potier was sent to the Jesuit mission at Bois Blanc (Boblo) Island (Amherstburg, Ontario), established in 1728 to serve approximately 600 Christianized Huron settlers. In 1747, Potier led his followers to a mission site less vulnerable to attack at La Pointe de Montréal, across the river from Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit). In 1767, there were some 60 families living in the area, and the parish of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption was formally established. Today, Potier’s linguistic studies – Radices linguae huronicae (1751) and Façons de parler proverbiales, triviales, figurées, Ec des Canadiens au XVIIIe siécle (1758) – provide the best key to 18th-century Huron and French dialects spoken in New France.

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37 Florence Li Tim-Oi

In 1944, R.O. Hall, Bishop of Hong Kong, ordained Florence Li Tim-Oi an Anglican priest. She was the first woman within the Anglican communion to be ordained. Her ordination proved highly controversial and she was forced to resign her priest’s license (but not her Holy Orders). After living through much hardship, Li Tim-Oi emigrated to Toronto in 1983, where she carried out clerical duties at St. John’s Chinese congregation and St. Matthew’s Parish until her death in 1992. She was awarded a Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College, University of Toronto. Her life has been honoured and celebrated by Anglicans throughout the world.

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38 George Whitefield

Considered to be one of the fathers of evangelicalism, George Whitefield was an itinerant Anglican preacher instrumental in the religious revival of the 1730s and 1740s known as the First Great Awakening. Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England and studied at Oxford where, along with John and Charles Wesley, he was a member of the Holy Club – a religious society wherein the first tenants of Methodism were established. Whitefield then moved to the North American colonies where he gained wide renown as an open-air preacher. It has been estimated he preached more than 18,000 sermons in his lifetime.

39 Hannibal Mulkins

Hannibal Mulkins (1812-77) was a Methodist preacher and Anglican clergyman in Upper Canada (Ontario). He was ordained by the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada in 1838 and served congregations in Toronto Township, Whitby, Cobourg, Belleville and Brockville. In 1840, however, he joined the Church of England (Anglican) and was ordained as a priest in 1842. Mulkins was appointed a travelling missionary in Fitzroy and Pakenham (Mississippi Mills) and extended his territory to include the area west of Bytown (Ottawa) and the townships of Torbolton, McNab (McNab/Braeside) and Horton. In 1851, he was appointed by Lord Elgin (1811-1863) – Governor General of the Province of Canada – to the chaplaincy of the Provincial Penitentiary in Kingston. He produced detailed reports and statistical analyses of prisoners’ lives and the impact of the prison mission, despite contemporary reports that he frequently neglected his duties as chaplain. In 1871, Mulkins married Lavinia Mary Bromehead of Yorkshire, England. Due to his advancing age, Mulkins left the penitentiary in 1875 and emigrated to England where he became the vicar of Stapleford in Salisbury.

40 Henry Esson

Born in Balnacraig, Scotland, Henry Esson (1793-1853) became a Presbyterian minister and educator in Upper Canada (Ontario). Educated at Marischal College in Aberdeen, Esson was sent to Canada in 1817 in response to requests for a minister from the Scottish Presbyterian Church in Montreal. He actively supported educational projects and founded the Montreal Academical Institution in 1822, sat on the committee of the École Normale de Montreal and criticized efforts to make McGill College an exclusively Anglican institution. Esson’s first wife, Maria Sweeney, died in 1824; their two sons died in childhood. In 1844, he accepted an instructor position, teaching history, literature and philosophy at Knox College, recently established by the Free Church in Toronto. Esson continued teaching until his death in 1853. He was buried in Montreal’s Mount Royal Cemetery.

41 Hugh T. Crossley

A Methodist and revivalist, Hugh Thomas Crossley (1850-1934) was born in King Township, Canada West (Ontario). He was converted to Methodism at a camp meeting in 1867 and began working as a teacher and lay preacher in Toronto. Crossley studied theology at Victoria College in Cobourg, Ontario where he began preaching with John Edwin Hunter (1856-1919). Crossley was ordained in 1880 and served congregations in St. Catharines, Hamilton and Brantford. Hunter and Crossley became partners in 1883, and travelled across Canada and the United States as preachers. They were designated as Conference Evangelists by the Methodist Church in 1884, meaning they were free to preach on invitation, rather than settling with a single congregation. Hunter and Crossley were recognized as Canada’s leading evangelists and recorded over 110,000 “decisions for Christ,” or conversions to Methodism. In 1891, the Crossley Hunter Methodist Church was opened in South Dorchester Township (Elgin County), Ontario. Crossley continued to preach until his death in 1934.

42 Jean de Brebéuf

Jean de Brebéuf (1593-1649) was a Jesuit missionary, author and linguist who was martyred during the Iroquois Wars. Canonized in 1930, Brebéuf is considered the primary Catholic patron saint of Canada. He was born in Normandy and entered the noviciate in Rouen at the age of 24. In 1625, Brebéuf came to New France as a missionary. The following year, he travelled to the Huron communities south of Georgian Bay. In order to evangelize the Huron more effectively, Brebéuf learned their language and began compiling a Huron dictionary. Forced to return to France because of the English occupation of Quebec in 1629, Brebéuf was back among the Huron by 1634. A large man, Brebéuf’s imposing size was balanced by his gentle nature and eloquent speech. Throughout the following 15 years, he lived among the Huron, wrote extensively about their culture and his own experiences, and baptized thousands of Aboriginals – not only Huron, but also neighbouring Neutral and Petun as well. Brebéuf’s teachings, however, and his efforts to alter native customs and social structures left Aboriginal communities deeply divided. In 1649, when the Iroquois invaded Huron territory, Brebéuf and his fellow Jesuit missionary Gabriel Lalemant were captured, tortured and killed. Brebéuf’s bones are buried at the Martyrs’ Shrine, near Midland, Ontario.

43 John Edwin Hunter

A Methodist evangelist, John Edwin Hunter (1856-1919) was born near Bowmanville, Upper Canada (Ontario). He converted to Methodism in 1871 and began touring as a lay preacher in Woodslee and Thamesville. Hunter studied at Victoria College in Cobourg, and was ordained in 1882. He volunteered for service in western Canada and was appointed to Dominion City, Manitoba. Hunter became partners with a like-minded evangelist, Hugh Thomas Crossley (1850-1934), and the two travelled across Canada and the United States as preachers. Hunter and Crossley were designated as Conference Evangelists by the Methodist Church, meaning they were free to preach on invitation, rather than settling with a single congregation. They were recognized as Canada’s leading evangelists and recorded over 110,000 “decisions for Christ,” or conversions to Methodism. Among the pair’s converts was Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-91), Prime Minister of Canada.

44 Jonathan Doan

Jonathan Doan (1765-1847), a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), came to Upper Canada (Ontario) from Pennsylvania in 1789. Doan was one of many Quakers who emigrated to Canada to escape increasing taxation and harassment as a result of refusal to bear arms during the American Revolution (1775-83). He settled first in the Niagara peninsula at Sugar Loaf (Port Colborne), and then purchased 200 acres in Yarmouth Township in 1813. A few years later, Doan became a land agent for judge and politician Jacques Bâby (1763-1833). Doan acquired 3,000 acres for settlement and revisited Pennsylvania to recruit fellow Quakers. A community known as the Quaker Settlement or Yarmouth Corners developed around Doan's farm, gristmill and tannery. In 1820, he donated the land for a meeting house and burying ground. The community founded by Doan and the Friends became Sparta, Ontario, in 1832.

45 Joseph Brant

Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, was a prominent Mohawk war chief, scholar and statesman. Brant was born near Akron, Ohio. By the outbreak of the American Revolution, he was living in the Mohawk Valley in what is now New York State. He and many other Iroquois supported the British during the Revolution and, after the war, he led a group of nearly 2,000 Iroquois to a tract of land on the Grand River in Upper Canada. At Brant’s request a chapel was built there in 1785 to serve the community’s Anglican population. Known as the Mohawk Chapel, it is the oldest surviving church in Ontario. Brant himself was a devout Christian. As a young man, he was sent to the Indian Charity School (a forerunner to Dartmouth College) in Connecticut, where he received a religious education. Throughout his life, Brant befriended missionaries, evangelized among First Nations groups and translated hymns, catechism, Anglican liturgy and portions of the Gospels into the Mohawk language. For years, he worked unsuccessfully to procure a regular pastor for the Mohawk Chapel. On his death, Brant was buried in Burlington, Ontario. In 1850, his remains were moved to a tomb at the Mohawk Chapel.

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46 Lady Aberdeen

Born in London, England, Ishbel Maria Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair (1857-1939) was a Presbyterian advocate for women’s rights and welfare, and founded the Victorian Order of Nurses in Canada. In 1877, she married politician John Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen (1847-1934). From 1893-1936, Lady Aberdeen served as President of the International Council of Women, an advocacy group for women’s rights and international peace. While living in Ottawa during her husband’s service as Governor General of Canada (1893-98), Lady Aberdeen’s interest in women’s and family health led her to establish the Victorian Order of Nurses in 1897. Despite criticism from Canada’s medical establishment, the Order was created to provide medical service, education and support to women living in rural areas throughout Canada. In 1931, Lady Aberdeen presented the Church of Scotland with a petition calling for the ordination of women by the church. She was confident in their natural ability to organize, educate and lead, though it was not until 1968 that the first woman was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Lady Aberdeen was invested in the Order of the British Empire in 1931.

47 Laura Haviland

Born in Kitley Township, Upper Canada (Ontario), Laura Smith Haviland was a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) abolitionist who helped transport slaves from the United States to Canada. Her Quaker family emigrated to Cambria, New York in 1815, where she met and married her husband Charles Haviland, Jr. The couple moved to Raisin Township, Michigan, where she founded the first racially integrated school in Michigan – the Raisin Institute. At the same time, the Haviland home became the first Underground Railroad station in Michigan. She made trips to the South to escort escaped slaves to freedom and had a bounty of $3,000 set for her capture by several slave owners. In 1849, she helped establish the Refugee Home Society in Puce, Canada West (Ontario), with a church and school for fugitive slaves. During the American Civil War (1861-65), Haviland toured the country to deliver supplies to troops, work as a teacher and nurse and petition for the release of imprisoned slaves.

48 Lillian Freiman

Born in Mattawa, Ontario, Lillian Freiman (1885-1940) was the founder of the Hadassah-Women’s International Zionist Organisation (WIZO), and with her husband, A.J. Freiman was a Canadian Zionist leader. During the First World War (1914-18), Freiman was active in both Jewish and secular women’s service groups, including: the Ladies’ Hebrew Benevolent Association, the Ladies’ Auxiliary of Adath Jeshurun Congregation, the Ladies’ Auxiliary of B’nai Brith, the Disraeli Chapter of the Daughters of the Empire, the Ottawa Welfare Bureau, Women’s Canadian Club and the Institut Jeanne d’Arc for Catholic girls. In 1917, Freiman began campaigning for the Helping Hand Fund of Hadassah, which provided assistance to homeless and destitute Jews living in Palestine. This later became the Canadian Hadassah-WIZO, a philanthropic collective focused on Jewish welfare and the securing of a Jewish home state. She served as President of Hadassah-WIZO from 1919-40, and was the first Canadian Jew to be awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to immigrants.

49 Macarios Nasr

Born in Zahleh, Lebanon, Macarios Nasr (1831-1908) was the first Melkite priest in Toronto. He helped establish the Syrian Catholic community in the city. In Syria, Nasr entered the Eastern Christian Melkite monastic order of St. Basil of the Holy Saviour and was ordained as a priest in 1861. While serving in Damascus, he was appointed an apostolic missionary to the Melkites in Toronto and western Ontario. The Melkite community in Toronto was established by Syrian and Lebanese immigrants in the late 19th century. Upon his arrival in Toronto in 1897, Nasr preached in St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church until he secured the use of St. Vincent de Paul Hall for Melkite services. The hall became the centre of activity as the Melkite community in Toronto continued to grow. Nasr died in 1908 before the completion of the Toronto Melkite Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which opened in 1913.

50 Moses Bilsky

Born in Kuvno, Lithuania, Moses Bilsky (1829-1923) was a merchant and Jewish community leader, and is believed to be the first Jew to settle in Ottawa. In 1845, Bilsky first emigrated to Montreal, before coming to Ottawa in 1857. He left for the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia (1859), and joined the Union Army in San Francisco during the American Civil War (1861-65). He returned to Ottawa in 1874, where he opened a watch, jewelry and optician’s shop. Bilsky became a leader in Ottawa’s growing Jewish community, welcoming newcomers and offering space for prayer in his home. He was instrumental in establishing Ottawa’s first Jewish congregation, Adath Jeshurun, and travelled to New York City in 1894 to secure Rabbi Jacob Mirsky (1859-1942). Outside the Jewish community, Bilsky was well known as a philanthropist and community leader, and belonged to several fraternal societies. Bilsky retired from business in 1915. His funeral in 1923 demonstrated his impact on all residents of Ottawa, being one of the largest memorials held in the city at that time.

51 Nathanael Burwash

Nathanael Burwash (1839-1918) was a Methodist minister and president of Victoria College, born in St. Andrews, Lower Canada (Saint-André-Est, Quebec). He received a license to preach in Cobourg, and was ordained in East Toronto in 1866. That same year, Burwash began teaching science at Victoria College in Cobourg and, in 1873, became Dean of the Faculty of Theology. In 1884, after Victoria College merged with Albert College of Belleville, Burwash became president of the newly formed Victoria University. Though opposed by many in the Methodist Church, Burwash supported the merger of Victoria (among other colleges) with the University of Toronto as a means of separating theological and scientific studies between denominational colleges and the government-funded university. In 1892, Victoria became a federated school of the University of Toronto and moved to the city, where Burwash remained as president and chancellor. Though he retired in 1913, Burwash continued to teach at Victoria and attend Methodist conferences abroad before his death in 1918.

52 Patrick Boyle

Born in County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland, publisher Patrick Boyle (1832-1901) emigrated with his family to Toronto in 1846. An advocate for Irish Home Rule and removal of the British colonial authority in Ireland, Boyle began publishing the Irish Canadian in 1863. The newspaper became the tool of the Hibernian Benevolent Society of Canada, a working-class Irish Catholic association. Boyle and the Hibernian Society were criticized by moderate Irish Catholics in Canada for their alleged ties to extremist Fenian associations in America. He became president of the Hibernian Society in 1866, and in 1867 began to align Irish nationalist policies with the politics of Canada, using the Irish Canadian as his forum. Boyle criticized government policies that he felt impoverished or disadvantaged Irish Catholics in Canada, and soon gained funding support from Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-91) and the Conservative Party. The Irish Canadian merged with the rival Catholic Weekly Review in 1893. Boyle continued to advocate for Irish Catholic rights in Canada until his death in 1901.

53 Peter Lossing

Born in New York City, Peter Lossing (1761-1833) was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) who established a settlement at Norwich, Upper Canada (Ontario). Lossing moved to Upper Canada with the hopes of founding an agricultural settlement. In June 1810, Lossing and his brother-in-law Peter Delong purchased 15,000 acres in Norwich Township. The Lossings and at least nine other families were settled in the tract by the end of 1811. Many of the newcomers were Quakers from Dutchess County. Prior to the construction of a frame meeting house at Norwich in 1817, Quaker services were held in Lossing’s home. The Quakers built two schools before 1816; the first post office was set up at Lossing’s house in 1830. He was instrumental in the establishment of a mill and ironworks in Norwich. He also assisted leasing smaller lots to poorer settlers. Lossing actively encouraged the growth and expansion of the community until his death in 1833.

54 Rabbi Avraham Aharon Price

Born in Poland, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Price (1900-94) was a scholar and educator in Toronto, and founder of the Yeshiva Torah Chaim (rabbinical school). In 1931, Rabbi Price applied for a US visa while in Paris – he was in New York City only 10 days when he accepted the invitation of the Chevra Shas synagogue to teach in Toronto. Rabbi Price arrived in Canada in 1937 and established his Yeshiva that year as a study centre of Jewish texts. He published several scholarly works in Hebrew on the Torah (1944, 1946 and 1975) and the Talmud, receiving international academic recognition. Rabbi Price was considered a Talmudic authority, later becoming Chief Rabbi in Toronto – the recognized leader of the Jewish community in the city. In 1965, he was given the Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook Award of Merit in recognition of his scholarly works, the first time the prize was awarded outside Israel. Rabbi Price continued to teach, write and provide kasruth (kosher) supervisory services well into old age.

55 Rabbi Ernest Klein

Born in Szatmar, Hungary, Rabbi Ernest Klein (1899-1983) was a linguistic scholar in Toronto. Klein qualified as a rabbi in 1920 and studied Semitic languages and literature at the University of Vienna. From 1934-44, he served as rabbi in Nové Zámky, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), until he was deported to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, Poland and Allach-Dachau in Germany. After the war, in 1945, Rabbi Klein returned to Nové Zámky to discover that his father, wife and child had died at Auschwitz. He emigrated to Canada in 1952 with his sister and brother-in-law, settling in Toronto. Their friends established the Hungarian-language Congregation Beth Yitshak, and chose Klein to serve as rabbi. He soon began work on a Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1967. This text received international recognition, particularly as Klein chose to include the linguistic origins of “borrowed” English words. In 1978, Rabbi Klein was awarded the Order of Canada for his contributions to the study of language. His Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English was published posthumously in 1986, the first etymological dictionary of the Hebrew language in its totality, including both modern and historical terms.

56 Rabbi Jacob Gordon

Rabbi Jacob Gordon (1877-1934) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and educator. Rabbi Gordon was ordained in the Yeshiva of Volozhin in Russia (now Valozhyn, Belarus). Arriving in Toronto in 1904, he was immediately called to serve as rabbi for several congregations founded by newly arrived eastern European Jewish immigrants. Rabbi Gordon's Orthodox training in Russia made him invaluable to the Jewish immigrants trying to preserve religious practices from their homelands. He served as rabbi to the Goel Tzedec, Beth Hamidrash Hagodol, Tzemach Tzedec, Anshei Lida, Yavne Zion and Knesseth Israel congregations. In 1907, Rabbi Gordon helped Goel Tzedec found the Simcoe Street Talmud Torah (today, the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto) – the first Talmud Torah (Hebrew school) in the city – where he became the first rabbi in North America to teach the Talmud in Hebrew. By the First World War (1914-18), he had become the Dean of the Orthodox rabbinate in Toronto. Rabbi Gordon actively enforced Halakha (Jewish law) among Toronto’s Orthodox Jews, regulating the observance of the kashrut (dietary laws) and the Shabbat (day of rest), and establishing a Kehillah (municipal council) with other local rabbis.

57 Rabbi Jacob Mirsky

Born in Mir, Russia, Rabbi Jacob Mirsky (1859-1942) was the first rabbi to settle in Ottawa. Mirsky travelled from Minsk to New York City in 1893 to study at a Jewish seminary. Less than a year later, he was invited to relocate to Canada by a delegation from Ottawa’s Jewish community who were in New York to locate a suitable rabbi for their group of 35 Jewish families. Rabbi Mirsky settled in Ottawa in 1894 as leader of the newly formed Congregation Adath Jeshurun. He also performed kosher slaughtering of animals as a shoichet, and performed ritual circumcisions as a moyel for the local Jewish population. Rabbi Mirsky was a trained musician and, as hazzan, wrote many songs for use by the congregation. Once in Ottawa, Rabbi Mirsky had his wife and four children join him from Russia. Not only a spiritual leader, Mirsky provided support and advice to younger members of the Jewish community in Ottawa, particularly young businessmen and newlyweds. Ottawa’s first Jewish congregation, established by Rabbi Mirsky, eventually became Congregation Beth Shalom in 1956, an amalgamation of three of the oldest Jewish synagogues in the city.

58 Rabbi Meyer Levy

Born in Galicia (today, western Ukraine), Rabbi Meyer H. Levy was a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Toronto during the early 20th century. Rabbi Levy immigrated to Detroit, Michigan in the early 1900s, but was unable to secure a rabbinic post. In 1906, the Shomrai Shabboth in Toronto lost its rabbi and several members due to internal disputes, and so invited Rabbi Levy to serve as leader. At the same time, he served the Romanian Adath Israel congregation and Russian Shaarei Tzedec. The sharing of rabbis was common in Toronto, where numerous small Orthodox congregations were established in the early 1900s as a result of an influx of eastern European Jewish immigrants fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms (riots) in Russia (1903-6). In 1916, Rabbi Levy became the Rav (rabbi) of Congregation Anshei Minsk until he left to lead the Hebrew Men of England Synagogue in 1930. Rabbi Levy was active in the Orthodox Jewish community, serving on the Va’ad HaKashruth (dietary law regulation board) and leading congregations in Toronto for over 50 years.

59 Ramakrishna

60 Rev. Addie Aylestock

Born in Glenallan, Ontario, Addie Aylestock (1909-98) was a minister in the British Methodist Episcopal Church and the first Black woman to be ordained in Canada. Aylestock initially worked in Toronto as a domestic servant and dressmaker, before beginning studies at the Toronto Bible College in order to become a missionary. She joined the British Methodist Episcopal Church and was named a deaconess in 1944. After her graduation in 1945, she was sent to work as assistant to the British Methodist Episcopal minister in the Black community of Africville outside Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1951, the Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church passed a resolution allowing for the ordination of women, in part due to Aylestock’s work in Africville and Ontario. Aylestock was ordained in 1952 and served as pastor in North Buxton, St. Catharines, Fort Erie and Niagara.

61 Rev. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson

Rev. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (1803-82) was an education reformer, author and clergyman born near Vittoria, Upper Canada (Ontario). After Ryerson recovered from a prolonged illness in 1825, he became a Methodist minister. He visited parishes throughout York (Toronto) and became a missionary to the Mississauga First Nations along the Credit River. In 1835, Ryerson was instrumental in obtaining a charter for the Upper Canada Academy at Cobourg, and later became the institution’s first principal when the academy was raised to the status of a university (later renamed Victoria College). In 1844, Ryerson was nominated to take charge of the school system of Upper Canada. As head of the Department of Public Instruction, he established the basis of Ontario’s present system of secular public education, building on the non-denominational school system already established by the Upper Canada Schools Act of 1850. Ryerson instituted a single educational system that embraced curriculum, inspection, Canadian-made textbooks, teacher training and certification of the province’s schools. After his retirement in 1876, Ryerson focused on writing several monographs. He died in Toronto in February 1882.

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62 Rev. Charles Alfred Marie Paradis

Born in Kamouraska County, Quebec, Paradis studied at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière College and taught art in Ottawa. Following his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest in 1881, Paradis was posted to Lake Timiskaming as missionary of the Oblate Congregation. Paradis' travels as a missionary provided the information for his pamphlet, From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay. In it, he strongly recommended the colonization of the region. After leaving the congregation in 1890, he encouraged many French-Canadian farm families from Michigan to settle in the region of Verner and even took up farming himself. He prospected for gold at Nighthawk Lake where he wrote, painted in watercolour and worked on the compilation of an Ojibwa dictionary.

63 Rev. Clarence Leslie Morton

Born near Chatham, Ontario, Clarence Leslie Morton, Sr. (1897-1962) was a Protestant preacher active in the establishment of the Pentecostal Church in Windsor. After his service as a missionary in West Virginia with the Church of God in Christ (an African American Holiness-Pentecostal denomination), Morton moved to Windsor, Ontario and established a Pentecostal congregation. Beginning in 1936, he actively promoted the Pentecostal movement via a weekly radio program on CKLW AM 800 in Windsor that lasted 42 years. Morton founded several churches in Windsor, Chatham, Buxton, Harrow and Amherstburg, including Mount Zion Full Gospel Church in Windsor in 1939.

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64 Rev. Daniel Ward Eastman

Born in Goshen, New York, Rev. Daniel Ward Eastman (1778-1865) was a Presbyterian minister and one of the first preachers in the Niagara peninsula of Upper Canada (Ontario). After studying at the North Salem Academy, Eastman was licensed to preach in 1800, and emigrated to Upper Canada. Eastman arrived in Beaver Dams, near St. Catharines, where he began preaching. In 1800, Eastman was one of only four Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada; he was ordained in Palmyra, New York. Rev. Eastman preached regularly at Stamford, Drummondville (Niagara Falls) and Beaver Dams, travelling extensively to rural communities throughout the Niagara and Gore districts. He worked continuously, establishing seven congregations throughout Niagara, performing nearly 3,000 marriage services during his career, and ministering to the wounded during the War of 1812 (1812-15). Rev. Eastman continued to preach until his retirement in 1851, and is remembered as the “father” of the Presbyterian Church in Niagara.

65 Rev. Dominick Edward Blake

Born at Kiltegan in the Republic of Ireland, Dominick Edward Blake (1806-59) was a Church of England clergyman who emigrated to Canada in 1832. He was quickly appointed to Caradoc Township in Middlesex County, Upper Canada (Ontario). In 1833, Blake and his family relocated to Adelaide (Adelaide-Metcalfe), where he served as clergyman to neighbouring communities and at St. Ann’s Anglican Church. Blake had two sons with his wife Louisa Jones – Dominick Edward and John Netterville. In order to supplement his income after the Church of England discontinued its funding of the colonial missions, Blake kept diaries of his activities to be published in journals of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1844, Blake was appointed superintendent of common schools for Adelaide Township, but soon left to serve at Trinity Church in Thornhill. He was actively involved in the administration of the church and the establishment of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. In 1859, Rev. Blake collapsed and died suddenly after speaking at Trinity College in Toronto.

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66 Rev. Dr. Michael Willis

Born in Greencock, Scotland, Rev. Dr. Michael Willis (1798-1879) was a Presbyterian minister, President of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada and the first principal of Knox College. After completing theological studies in Glasgow, Willis was ordained and began preaching at the Renfield Street Church. He was granted a doctorate by the University of Glasgow in 1839. In 1843, Rev. Dr. Willis sided with those Presbyterian ministers opposed to the system of patronage used to assign ministers to congregations, and joined the newly formed Free Church of Scotland. He was sent to Canada in 1845 to support Canadian ministers who had left the Church of Scotland. That year, Rev. Dr. Willis began teaching at Knox College, established by Free Church theologians in Toronto. An ardent abolitionist, he founded the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada in 1851, in order to provide support for fugitive slaves arriving in Canada from the United States. In 1857, Rev. Dr. Willis was elected the first principal of Knox College, and helped to develop a constitution when the school was incorporated later that year. He retired to London, England in 1870.

67 Rev. Fidelia Gilette

Born in Nelson Flats, New York, Lucia Fidelia Wooley Gillette (1827-1905) was ordained as a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church and arrived in Ontario in 1888. The daughter of a Universalist minister, Gillette was likely the first ordained woman of any denomination in Ontario. Rev. Gillette wrote and contributed to several national and Universalist publications, and compiled a memoir of her father, Rev. Edward Mott Woolley, in 1854. She travelled throughout the Great Lakes region, preaching to various Universalist congregations before serving as minister in Bloomfield, Ontario from 1888-89. By 1900, Rev. Gillette had left Bloomfield and settled in Rochester, Michigan, where she continued to preach in neighbouring communities.

68 Rev. George Buchanan

Born in Scotland, George Buchanan graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University. He later became a Presbyterian minister and was called to Upper Canada (now Ontario). In 1822, he arrived in Beckwith Township – a largely Presbyterian Scottish settlement that was ministered by Rev. William Bell from Perth. Buchanan became Beckwith’s first resident minister, teacher and physician. In 1833, a stone church was completed and the congregation informed Buchanan that he would be allowed to preach in it only if he joined the Church of Scotland. The demand reflected the bitterness existing between the Church of Scotland and the Secession Church, which had split. Buchanan, a secessionist, refused and was consequently barred from preaching. From then until his death, Buchanan held services in his home for those of the congregation who supported his views.

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69 Rev. Henry Pahtahquahong Chase

Born near Belleville, Upper Canada (Ontario), Henry Pahtahquahong Chase (1818-1900) was a Methodist minister, Anglican priest and Ojibwa interpreter. Known in childhood as Pahtahquahong, Chase was raised by William Case (1780-1855), Superintendent of the Methodist missions in First Nations communities throughout Canada. Chase served as an Ojibwa interpreter for several Methodist missionaries in Upper Canada and the United States, and in 1843 became an interpreter for the Indian Department at Port Sarnia (Sarnia). He married Annie G. Armour of Scotland in 1852, with whom he had four children. In 1856, Chase became a Methodist preacher at the Lake St. Clair and Muncey (Strathroy-Caradoc) missions. Chase became an Anglican priest in 1864, and began preaching in Delaware, Oneida and Ojibwa reserves near Muncey. Chase was present at the Council of the Six Nations and different bands in Ontario and Quebec in 1870, and was selected to meet with Governor General Sir John Young (1807-76) to discuss the rights and roles of the First Nations in Canadian government.

70 Rev. Henry Scadding

Born in Devonshire, England, Henry Scadding (1813-1901) was a scholar, author and Anglican minister in Toronto. Scadding emigrated to Canada in 1821 after his father arrived in 1792 to work as a clerk for Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806). Educated at Cambridge University, Scadding was ordained in 1838 as an Anglican priest at Toronto’s St. James Church. In 1847, he was appointed first rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, where he served until 1875. A founder of the Royal Canadian Institute, he served as librarian for the institution from 1862 to 1870, and as president from 1870 to 1876. Scadding was a noted scholar, writing religious, literary and historical works, including Toronto of Old (1873) and Toronto: Past and Present (1884). Scadding became president of the York Pioneer and Historical Society, and encouraged the organization of several local historical societies. Rev. Henry Scadding died in Toronto on May 6, 1901 and was buried in St. James' Cemetery.

1 record(s) found

71 Rev. James Magrath

Rev. James Magrath (1769-1851) was born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Hoping to establish his sons in a prosperous land while serving the Anglican Church, he applied to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for a colonial missionary post. In May 1827, Magrath arrived at Quebec with his family and was promised a mission in Upper Canada (Ontario). He was appointed to the Toronto Mission on the Credit River, where he served at St. Peter's Church. Magrath acquired land in this area and built his home, which he named Erindale. While carrying out his duties, he also encouraged his sons to become successful; James Magrath was a merchant and postmaster, William managed the family farm and Charles studied law. Rev. Magrath served the parish until his death in 1851. After 1890, the surrounding village of Springfield was renamed Erindale in his honour.

1 record(s) found

72 Rev. Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger

The first Lutheran minister to settle in Upper Canada (Ontario), Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger (1734-1803) was born in Burgbernheim, Bavaria and studied theology at the University of Erlangen. He emigrated to America in 1753 and served as pastor of congregations in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. Persecuted for his allegiance to the Crown during the American Revolution (1775-83), Schwerdtfeger moved to Dundas County, Upper Canada in 1791. He settled in Williamsburg Township and became pastor of a congregation of German settlers that had been established in 1784. By the end of the 18th century, Schwerdtfeger had organized Lutheran congregations in several neighbouring townships. He died in 1803 and was buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Church cemetery in Riverside Heights, near Williamsburg.

1 record(s) found

73 Rev. John Bethune

Born on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, Rev. John Bethune (1751-1815) established the first Presbyterian congregations in Montreal and in western Quebec (now Ontario). After studying at King’s College in Aberdeen, Bethune was ordained by the Church of Scotland and emigrated to North Carolina with members of his family in 1773. There, he was recruited as chaplain to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Highland Emigrants in the British Army. Bethune was captured at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83); on his release in 1778, he left for Montreal. In 1786, Bethune established the first Presbyterian Church in Montreal, the precursor to the St. Gabriel Street Church. In 1787, Rev. Bethune moved to Williamstown in Glengarry County (commemorated today at Bethune-Thompson House) to minister to the large population of Scottish Highlands immigrants who had settled in the area. Due to his isolated location, Bethune remained friendly with other local religious leaders, including both Father Alexander MacDonnell (1762-1840), later Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston, and Rev. John Strachan (1778-1867), later the Anglican Bishop of Toronto. Rev. Bethune continued to minister throughout Glengarry, establishing churches in Lancaster, Martintown and Cornwall.

3 record(s) found

74 Rev. John Dunn

Licensed to preach in Glasgow, Scotland, Rev. John Dunn (1763-1803) was one of the earliest Presbyterian ministers operating in Ontario. After completing theological studies at the University of Glasgow in 1788, he served as a minister in Cherry Valley, New York. In 1794 he travelled to Upper Canada (Ontario), where he ministered alternately in Stamford and Newark (Niagara Falls). In 1794, Rev. Dunn successfully petitioned Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) for land in Upper Canada to support his ministry, and was granted 1,200 acres in Ancaster and Pelham Townships. Rev. Dunn remained in Newark for two years, preaching in nearby rural communities. In 1796, he abruptly left the ministry, owing perhaps to the isolation of his post. With no presbyteries nearby he found no income. Dunn had never been officially ordained, and so could not perform marriages and christenings. He became a businessman, living in Niagara until 1803, when he drowned on a merchant ship in Lake Ontario.

75 Rev. John Langhorn

Born in Wales, John Langhorn (1744-1817) was an Anglican minister who served parishes in western Quebec (present-day Ontario). In 1787, he was appointed resident missionary to Loyalist settlements by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Langhorn’s territory comprised Ernestown and Fredericksburg, which had been settled in 1784 by disbanded soldiers of the King's Royal Regiment of New York. The two townships contained a large majority of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Lutherans and Methodists, and Langhorn often faced hostility from other denominations. Langhorn was the first resident Anglican clergyman in the Bay of Quinte region. He travelled throughout the area, calling at various preaching stations he had established. Langhorn was largely responsible for the erection of St. Paul's Church at Sandhurst in 1791, St. Warburg's in Fredericksburg in 1792 and the second St. John's at Bath in 1793-95. The continuous travel Langhorn undertook throughout Upper Canada was a strain on his health, and he returned to England in 1813.

2 record(s) found

76 Rev. John Ludwig Broeffle

Born in Germany, Rev. John Ludwig Broeffle (1765-1815) was one of the first Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada (Ontario). Prior to the arrival of Scottish ministers, Presbyterian communities in Upper Canada turned to the Dutch Reformed Church operating in America for preachers. As a minister from the Dutch Reformed Church preaching in Albany, Rev. Broeffle was brought to Stormont and Dundas counties in 1795. Rev. Broeffle was based in Williamsburgh but established a German-language Presbyterian church in nearby Osnabruck in 1795. By 1800, there were four Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada, only two of whom preached to settlers of the Presbyterian faith from countries other than Scotland. Rev. Broeffle preached extensively throughout Stormont and Dundas, eventually dying in 1815 of overexertion during a 15-mile walk to preach in Osnabruck.

77 Rev. John Macher

John Macher (1796-1863) was born in Forfarshire, Scotland and became a Presbyterian clergyman, scholar and administrator in Upper Canada (Ontario). Ordained as a minister by the Church of Scotland in 1819, Macher assisted at parishes in Brechin and Logie while waiting for an assignment. In 1827, he was selected to join Rev. John Barclay (1795-1826) at the Presbyterian mission in Kingston, Upper Canada. Machar was one of 14 ministers of the Church of Scotland who established the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Upper Canada at Kingston in 1831. A noted scholar, Macher helped found Queen’s College in Kingston and was actively involved in school affairs as a trustee and educator. In 1846, he became principal of Queen’s College at a time when the future of the institution was uncertain, his staff temporary and his salary infrequent. Machar retired in 1852, but continued to teach occasional Hebrew language courses at the college until his death in 1863.

78 Rev. John Stuart

Born in Pennsylvania, John Stuart (1740-1811) was an Anglican missionary at Cataraqui (Kingston). In 1770, Stuart was ordained and sent to Fort Hunter, New York, as missionary to the Mohawk residents of the Fort. After refusing to sign the oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress during the American Revolution (1775-83), Stuart escaped to Canada with his family in 1781. They eventually settled at Cataraqui in 1785, and Stuart became the first resident Anglican clergyman in Upper Canada (Ontario). He ministered to European settlers and First Nations communities in the Cataraqui area, and visited as far west as Niagara and the Grand River. Stuart was responsible for the building of Cataraqui's earliest church, St. George's Anglican Church, where in 1792 the new lieutenant-governor of the province of Upper Canada – John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) – took his oath of office. Stuart died in 1811 after his eldest son George succeeded him as rector of Cataraqui.

1 record(s) found

79 Rev. Mark Young Stark

Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, Rev. Mark Young Stark (1799-1866) was a Presbyterian minister in Upper Canada (Ontario), and helped to found the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Free Church). Under the patronage system of the Presbyterian Church, though Stark was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland in 1824, upon arrival in Upper Canada he had to be nominated to a vacant charge by a wealthy landowner. He was unable to find such a patron and eventually offered his services to the Glasgow Colonial Society in 1833, through which he was called to congregations in Ancaster and Dundas. In 1843, Presbyterians in Scotland protested the patronage system, which forced congregations to accept the patrons’ choice of minister. That year, 450 Presbyterian ministers broke from the Church of Scotland and formed the Free Church of Scotland, later called the Great Disruption. In Canada, Rev. Stark presided over the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connexion with the Church of Scotland as ministers debated whether to remain within the Presbyterian Church. Although he feared division within the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Stark sided with those fighting the patronage system and helped form the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Free Church). He continued his duties as clerk of the Hamilton Presbytery, and was actively involved in the recruitment and placement of new ministers. In 1844, Rev. Stark was asked to sit on the College Committee charged with the development of Knox College in Toronto.

80 Rev. Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby)

Methodist minister Peter Jones (1802-56) – called Kahkewaquonaby in Ojibwa – was the son of surveyor Augustus Jones and Tuhbenahneequay, the daughter of a Mississauga chief. Jones’ early years were spent with his mother’s Mississauga community at Burlington Heights. When he was 14, Jones was sent by his father to an English school in Saltfleet Township (Stoney Creek). Jones converted to Methodism in 1821 and began to preach in the Grand River area. In 1826, he moved to the Mississauga settlement on the Credit River, and was elected chief in 1829. Jones made several journeys to England to raise funds for the Credit River mission, where he was introduced to both King William IV (1765-1837) and Queen Victoria (1819-1901). He petitioned Queen Victoria for titles to the land occupied by the Mississauga along the Credit, but these were later withheld by the Indian Department in Upper Canada. Jones later facilitated the band’s relocation to New Credit (Brantford), where the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation exist to this day. Jones died at his home, Echo Villa, in Brantford in 1856.

1 record(s) found

81 Rev. Philip James

Philip James (1800-51) was a Methodist minister born in Cornwall, England, who served as a missionary throughout Upper Canada (Ontario). In 1820, James was converted to the Methodist Bible Christian Church in Cornwall and served as an itinerant minister until being sent as a missionary to Prince Edward Island in 1834. He spent seven years preaching across the island to isolated communities, until he left in 1841 to serve the growing number of Bible Christian immigrants in Upper Canada. After serving in Cobourg, Darlington and Whitby, he travelled in 1846 to the Canada Company’s Huron Tract on the southeast shore of Lake Huron to minister to Bible Christians in Mitchell (Perth County). In 1850, despite his declining health, James left the Huron Tract mission and began preaching in Pickering, where he died in 1851.

82 Rev. Ralph Cecil Horner

Rev. Ralph Cecil Horner (1853-1921) was born near Shawville, Lower Canada (Quebec). He converted to Methodism in 1876. Horner became a lay preacher with the Methodist Church of Canada in 1882. After studying theology at Victoria College in Cobourg, he was ordained by the Methodist Church in Montreal in 1887. Though his sermons were successful in securing Methodist converts, church authorities disagreed with Horner’s energetic and unorthodox preaching style. Criticizing institutional Methodism, Horner incorporated Wesleyan doctrine into his sermons and formed the Holiness Movement Church in 1897 as a Canadian offshoot of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection in America. The Movement spread across Ontario and Horner opened a publishing house and seminary in his Ottawa home. Because of conflict between Horner and other ministers in the Holiness Movement, he left the Church in 1916 and formed the Standard Church of America. Despite his advancing age, Horner continued to preach. In 1921, he died at a camp meeting he was conducting near Belleville.

83 Rev. Richard Baxter

Born in Carlisle, England, Jesuit priest Richard Baxter (1821-1904) emigrated to Canada in 1830. He studied at the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Montreal and at St. Francis Xavier College in New York City, where he was ordained in 1854. After serving at various missions in the United States and Canada, Baxter was sent to Fort William (Thunder Bay) in 1872 to assist Father Dominique du Ranquet (1813-1900) at the Mission of the Immaculate Conception on the Kaministiquia River. Baxter travelled along the Dawson Road and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), establishing churches at Fort William, White River and Schreiber. He also visited isolated mining communities at Silver Islet, Isle Royale (Michigan), Silver Harbour and Vert Island to give sermons and visit Catholic settlers. In 1877-78, he was a frequent correspondent to the Thunder Bay Sentinel on the progress of CPR construction. Baxter died on May 8, 1904, in Montreal.

84 Rev. Richard Pollard

Born in England in 1753 and trained in law, Richard Pollard emigrated to the province of Quebec in 1775. He made a living doing legal work and trading goods with Aboriginals in Catarqui (Kingston) and Detroit. By 1792, Pollard had relocated to Essex County, where he immersed himself in civic affairs. Although a laymen, Pollard conducted Church of England services in Sandwich (Windsor) because there were no clerics in the region. He was made a deacon in 1802 and appointed chaplain to the garrison at Amherstburg. In 1804, he was ordained a priest and assigned to Sandwich. There, he raised the money to build St. John’s Church in 1807. The log structure was the only Anglican church in Upper Canada west of Niagara. During the War of 1812, Pollard and his parishioners suffered greatly. In 1813, the invading Americans burned St. John’s Church to the ground, destroyed Pollard’s house and took him prisoner. After the war, Pollard received financial help from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospels to rebuild St. John's and to build other churches in Amherstburg (1819), Chatham (1820) and Colchester (1821) – all called Christ Church. Although based at Sandwich, Pollard visited these churches regularly until his death in 1824.

4 record(s) found

85 Rev. Robert Addison

Born in Westmoreland, England (now spelled Westmorland), Robert Addison was a Church of England clergyman who settled in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) in 1792. At that time, Newark was the seat of the government of Upper Canada. Addison became chaplain of the legislature. The third Protestant clergyman to settle in Upper Canada, Addison was the only Anglican minister west of Kingston, and the sole pastor of any denomination in the Niagara Region. For this reason Addison regularly ministered to communities as far away as the Six Nations settlement along the Grand River, where his friend Joseph Brant translated the sermons he preached in the Mohawk Chapel. Addison oversaw the construction of St. Mark’s Church in Newark, which was completed in 1809. St. Mark’s was the first Anglican church in Upper Canada to hold regular services. Addison’s congregation included many luminaries, such as General Isaac Brock and Colonel John Butler. It was Addison who conducted Brock’s funeral service. During the War of 1812, he added military chaplain to his duties. When Newark was captured by American forces in 1813, Addison was held as a prisoner of war and St. Mark’s Church was partially burned. A highly educated man, Addison contributed significantly to the Common Schools Act of 1816.

3 record(s) found

86 Rev. Robert Burns

Born in Scotland, Robert Burns (1789-1869) was a Presbyterian minister and educator in Canada West (Ontario). In 1805, he began theological training at the University of Edinburgh, and was ordained in 1811. Burns was active in several colonial evangelical societies, including the French Canadian Missionary Society and Glasgow Colonial Society. He supported the radical wing of the Presbyterian Church and led his congregation to break from the Kirk during the Disruption of 1843 and form Free St. George’s Church of Paisley. Burns visited Canada in 1843 in order to garner support for Free Church missions in North America. He was appointed professor of divinity at Knox College in Toronto in 1845, and as minister at Knox Presbyterian Church. Burns continued his missionary tours of Canada, raising funds for churches, rural parishes and educational initiatives. He was active in community affairs, advocating for the secularization of the Clergy Reserves, for the abolition movement and for public education. Burns resigned as minister of Knox Church in 1856 and became professor of church history at Knox College, until his retirement in 1864.

1 record(s) found

87 Rev. Robert Easton

Born in Hawick, Scotland, Rev. Robert Easton (1773-1831) was a Presbyterian minister in Montreal and founding member of the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. In 1803, he travelled to Montreal to fill in as minister for a small congregation splintered from St. Gabriel Street Church. In 1807, the Secessionist Presbyterian St. Peter Street Church was constructed. The congregation thrived, supplemented by Scottish and Irish immigrants passing through Montreal on their arrival to Lower Canada (Quebec). Several of his sermons were published and, in 1816, he became a Montreal agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society. Anxious to have a local governing ecclesiological body, Easton – along with Revs. William Smart, William Bell and William Taylor – formed the Presbytery of the Canadas in 1818, transformed into the Synod of the Canadas in 1820, United Presbytery of Upper Canada in 1825, and finally the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in Association with the Church of Scotland in 1831.

88 Rev. Robert James McDowall

Born in New York State, Robert James McDowall (1768-1841) graduated from the Union Theological Seminary, Schenectady and was ordained by the Dutch Reformed Church at Albany in 1797. McDowall was then sent to Lennox and Addington Counties in Upper Canada (Ontario) as a missionary to Presbyterian settlers in the Bay of Quinte area. Although area residents had requested a minister from both the Church of Scotland and the Associated Reformed Church in the United States, only the Dutch Reformed Church had preachers available for missionary work. McDowall organized congregations in Ernesttown and Adolphustown Townships and in Fredericksburg Township, where he settled in 1800. Although McDowall attempted to unite the Bay of Quinte congregations into a Presbytery of the Canadas, he was only somewhat successful and became the first Moderator of the newly-formed Synod of the Canadas in 1820. McDowall died in 1841 and was buried in the cemetery of the first church he established in Upper Canada – at Sandhurst in Fredericksburgh Township.

89 Rev. Silas Huntington

Methodist missionary Silas Huntington (1829-1905) was born in Kemptville, Upper Canada (Ontario). Ordained in 1854, Huntington served various congregations in Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec) until 1882, when he was posted to Mattawa. Using this mission as a base, Huntington travelled extensively, visiting settlements along the Canadian Pacific Railway as far west as Schreiber, near Port Arthur (Thunder Bay). Reportedly the first Protestant missionary to reach many northern communities, Huntington is credited with preaching the first Protestant sermons in Mattawa, North Bay, Sturgeon Falls and Sudbury. He also helped found the Nipissing Masonic Lodge in 1886, establishing Freemasonry in northern Ontario. In 1905, at the age of 76, he took charge of Widdifield Mission near North Bay, but died later that year of typhoid fever. He was immensely popular and respected throughout the North. In 1960, Huntington University – now Huntington College in Laurentian University Sudbury – was named in his honour.

90 Rev. Thomas Brock Fuller

Rev. Thomas Brock Fuller (1810-1884) was born in the garrison at Kingston to a distinguished Church of England family. His father was an army office and his godfather – after whom he was named – was the famous General Sir Isaac Brock. Fuller was ordained a deacon of the Church of England in 1833 and a priest in 1835. He was then sent to Chatham where he ministered to the congregation of what is now Christ Church. In 1840, Fuller was appointed to the rectory of Thorold, where he served for 21 years. Shortly after being relocated to St. George’s Church in Toronto in 1861, he forgave $11,000 of debt owed to him by the congregation at Thorold for the construction of St. John the Evangelist Church. An astute and pragmatic man, Fuller foresaw the disestablishment of the Church and wrote influential tracts urging the Church to become more self-sufficient. Fuller was also respected for his moderation and ability to create consensus between high and low Church factions. Upon being elected the first Bishop of Niagara in 1875, Fuller took up residence in Hamilton and made Christ Church his cathedral. He died in Hamilton at the age of 74.

3 record(s) found

91 Rev. Thomas Greene

Rev. Thomas Greene (1809-78) came to Canada from Ireland in 1836 through the Upper Canadian Travelling Mission Fund. The fund was established by Bishop Charles J. Stewart (1775-1837) of Quebec to ensure Anglican missionary presence in Upper Canada (Ontario). Arriving at Quebec City in 1836, Greene was assigned as a missionary to the London District of Upper Canada. Greene travelled constantly to nearby communities, and his letters and journals provide invaluable information on life among the early settlers in the London area. In 1838, Greene became the first rector of St. Luke's Church in Burlington, perhaps due to the increasing cost of missionary travel after the Mission Fund was discontinued following Bishop Stewart’s death in 1837. During his rectorship at St. Luke's (1838-78), Greene and his family contributed substantially to that parish; Greene is buried in the church cemetery.

1 record(s) found

92 Rev. William Bell

One of the most influential Presbyterian clergymen in Upper Canada, William Bell (1780-1857) was born in Strathclyde, Scotland. In 1808, he entered the Congregational Church’s Hoxton Academy in London to train as a minister, and was ordained by the Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1817. Bell worked as an itinerant preacher until he was offered a salary and land grant to minister to the Scottish military settlement at Perth in Upper Canada (Ontario). Bell and his family arrived in Perth in June 1817, where he turned his energy towards organizing a congregation, founding a school, conducting pastoral visits and establishing a church. One of only nine Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada, Bell encouraged the others to organize a presbytery in Canada, eventually forming the United Synod of Upper Canada in 1831. Bell and his congregation left the United Synod in 1835 over complications from the merger and a government grant dispute. Shortly before his death in 1857, however, Bell was able to reunite the divided groups of Presbyterians in Perth.

93 Rev. William King

Born near Newton-Limavady, Ireland, Rev. William King (1812-95) was a Presbyterian minister, abolitionist and founder of the community of Buxton in Canada West (Ontario). King travelled to America in 1833 and settled in Louisiana as a teacher, but returned to Scotland to study and was ordained as a Presbyterian preacher in 1846. That year, he also accepted the call for ministers in Toronto. In 1848, he returned to Louisiana to settle his late wife’s estate, which included a number of slaves. Forced to admit that he now owned a plantation and slaves, Rev. King convinced members of the Presbytery of Toronto that he could establish a colony of fugitive and freed slaves in Canada. He returned to Louisiana and gathered a number of Black families willing to join his new community in Canada. In 1850, the Elgin Association was incorporated to purchase land near Chatham, which was named Buxton. King oversaw the establishment of a frame church, Sunday school and day school in early 1850. Despite opposition from the local white population, the Buxton settlement thrived, at one point home to nearly 1,200 escaped slaves from America. King stayed on as a minister in the settlement until his death in 1895.

1 record(s) found

94 Rev. William Macaulay

Anglican minister William Macaulay (1794-1874) was instrumental to the organization of Anglican congregations in Prince Edward County and the founding of the community of Picton in Upper Canada (Ontario). Following the American Revolution (1775-83), Macaulay’s family emigrated from America to the Loyalist settlement at Cataraqui (Kingston). Macaulay, the son of a United Empire Loyalist, received a Crown grant of 400 acres near Hallowell. Educated at Oxford (England) and ordained in 1818, Macaulay returned to Upper Canada to serve as minister in Hamilton Township (Cobourg). He then turned his attention to the small settlement growing near his land grant in Prince Edward County. In 1823, he established an Anglican congregation in the area and donated land for the district court house and jail. Through Macaulay’s influence, the settlement was named Picton, after Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815), a distinguished British soldier, and was incorporated with the adjacent community of Hallowell in 1837.

1 record(s) found

95 Rev. William Proudfoot

Presbyterian minister and educator William Proudfoot (1788-1851) was born near Peebles, Scotland. Ordained in 1813, he served as a priest and teacher in Scotland. In 1832, Proudfoot applied for a missionary posting in Canada, and moved to a farm near London, Upper Canada (Ontario). In 1834, he founded the Missionary Presbytery of the Canadas in connection with the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church in Scotland. In 1844, he opened a divinity school in London to train Canadian clergy. Proudfoot also helped create new congregations and founded the Presbyterian Magazine. Despite his fears that the values of the Missionary Presbytery would be compromised by a merger, in 1847 it was joined with the newly formed United Presbyterian Church in Canada. The London seminary was moved to Toronto in 1850, and Proudfoot travelled there regularly to teach while retaining his congregation in London. He died in Toronto in January 1851.

1 record(s) found

96 Rev. William Smart

Born in England, Rev. William Smart (1788-1876) was a Presbyterian minister in Brockville, Upper Canada (Ontario) and one of the leaders of the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. In 1811, he was the first Presbyterian minister to settle in Brockville. He established the first documented Sunday school in Upper Canada that year, with services held in the local courthouse. An adult congregation was established in 1816, and First Presbyterian Church of Brockville was constructed three years later. Smart, along with Revs. William Bell and William Taylor, formed the United Presbytery of Upper Canada in 1825. In 1831, Smart and other ministers of the Church of Scotland met at Kingston to establish the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Upper Canada, called the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland.

97 Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker was an Anglican priest and theologian. He is considered to be one the key developers of Anglican doctrine.

98 Richard Randolph Disney

Born in Maryland, Richard Randolph Disney (1830-91) helped to establish the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church in Canada. Disney attended a seminary in Massachusetts and was licensed to preach in 1857 by the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. That year, he emigrated to Canada West (Ontario) to serve as a minister for African-American settlers who had fled from slavery in the United States. Disney supported the formation of a separate BME Church in 1856 in Canada West. He served as the BME Church General Secretary, and was elected BME Church Bishop of Ontario, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, the West Indies and British Guiana (Guyana) in 1875. By 1880, however, it became evident that the church could not support its missions in the Caribbean. The BME Church re-joined the AME Church in 1881, although several congregations rejected the reunion, re-formed the BME Church and expelled Disney as Bishop. He continued to serve the remaining AME Church congregations in Ontario until he was assigned to congregations in Arkansas and Mississippi in 1888.

99 Roberta Elizabeth Tilton

Born in Maine, Roberta Tilman moved to Ottawa with her husband in 1868 and became an important social reformer and active member of the Anglican Church. Imposing and indefatigable, Tilton devoted her life to the temperance movement and campaigns to curb what she perceived to be the excesses of commercialism and secularization. In addition to being a founding member of the National Council of Women, she served as vice-president of the Ontario Women’s Christian Temperance Union and director of the Protestant Orphans’ Home and Refuge for Aged Women. She is best known for being the founder of the Women’s Auxiliary (WA) – a branch of the Anglican Church’s Missionary Society. In 1908, when Tilton retired as president of the WA after 22 years of service, the organization had grown to include 23 diocesan boards with 1,300 senior branches and a total of 32,057 members. It was the largest women’s organization in the Anglican Church. Now named the Anglican Church Women, it is the Church’s oldest continuous national organization. In recognition of the important role she played in helping to redefine the role of women in the Anglican Church, Roberta Tilman has a day of observance devoted to her in the Canadian Calendar of Holy Persons.

1 record(s) found

100 Samuel de Champlain

Known as the “Father of New France,” Samuel de Champlain (c. 1570-1635) was a French explorer, cartographer, chronicler and administrator. From 1633 to 1635, he served as Governor of New France. Beginning in 1603, Champlain made numerous voyages to New France in order to explore and map the land, foster trade and establish French settlements in the colony. He founded Quebec City in 1608 and was the first European explorer to map the Great Lakes region. Champlain formed an alliance with the Huron, located in present day Ontario, and supported them in their wars against the Iroquois. A devout Catholic, Champlain brought four Récollet priests with him on his 1615 voyage. One of these priests, Father Joseph Le Caron (c. 1586-1632), was the first Catholic missionary to reach what is now Ontario.

101 The Cowley Fathers at Bracebridge

The Society of Saint John the Evangelist, commonly called the Cowley Fathers, is a religious community within the Anglican Church. Founded in 1866 in Cowley, England, the Society began its ministry in Canada in 1927 when Rev. Roland Ford Palmer (1891-1985) and two other Cowley Fathers arrived in Emsdale to take charge of the scattered Anglican missions in the Diocese of Algoma. In 1928, the Society established a chapel and monastery in Bracebridge. The Cowley Fathers held "Sunshine Sales" of food, clothing and household goods, ran programs in agricultural management and weaving, and established credit unions. Their activities peaked in the 1960s. Thereafter, the Cowley Fathers at Bracebridge underwent a steady decline. Improved roads meant that rural parishioners could drive into Bracebridge to attend church, while government hospitals and the introduction of medical insurance reduced the need for the Cowley Fathers' community work. By 1983, the Fathers had left the Diocese of Algoma, and later formed the North American Congregation of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist.

102 Timothy Rogers

Based in Pennsylvania, Timothy Rogers (1756-1827) was a Quaker settler in Upper Canada (Ontario). Following the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), many Quakers immigrated to Canada, having been penalized for their pacifist standpoint during the conflict. Rogers had visited Upper Canada and arrived in York (Toronto) in 1801. He travelled north along the Don River to East Holland River, where he established a farmstead and encouraged other American Quakers to settle. Quaker services were initially held in Rogers’ home in Upper Yonge Street (today, Newmarket), until a log meeting house was built in 1801. In 1804, the Yonge Street Preparative Meeting was granted official status by the Pelham Monthly Meeting and, in 1806, a Yonge Street Monthly Meeting was established. By 1809, Rogers had helped nearly 40 Quaker families from Pennsylvania to settle in York, and had relocated his family and established a gristmill at Duffin’s Creek (today, Pickering Village). In 1812, Rogers donated a parcel of land for a meeting house and burial ground in the village, today located on Mill Street.

103 William Jenkins

Born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, William Jenkins (1779-1843) was a Presbyterian clergyman in Markham Township, Upper Canada (Ontario). Jenkins was educated in Scotland in theology, Greek, Hebrew and learned several First Nations languages while studying in America. He emigrated to Upper Canada in 1817. Jenkins established a congregation at Mount Pleasant (in present-day Richmond Hill), which joined the newly formed Presbytery of the Canadas in 1819. He travelled extensively as a missionary, visiting Peterborough, the Bay of Quinte and the Grand River areas. Along with Robert Baldwin (1804-58) and Egerton Ryerson (1803-82), Jenkins founded the Friends of Religious Liberty committee, which petitioned the British government in 1831 for the removal of clergymen from political office, the secularization of the Clergy Reserves, as well as equal rights for clergy of all denominations.

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104 William McMaster

Born in County Tyrone, Ireland, William McMaster (1811-87) was a wholesaler, banker and senator in Ontario, and established McMaster University. In 1833, McMaster emigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) to work as a clerk in a wholesale firm, which he later took over and successfully managed. McMaster had no children, although he was close with his nephews from Ireland, whom he brought to work at the firm – named William McMaster and Nephews. McMaster was elected as Liberal representative in the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada in 1862, and became a senator of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. McMaster’s banking success also enabled him to contribute to educational institutions in Ontario, both secular and theological. A firm believer in the value of education, McMaster financially supported several instructional institutions, including the Toronto Mechanics’ Institute. He founded the Canadian Literary Institute (Woodstock College) as a training site for Baptist preachers, and the Toronto Baptist College in 1881. Dissatisfied with the proposed federation of local colleges with the University of Toronto, the Toronto Baptist College and Canadian Literary Institute were joined to form McMaster University in 1887.

105 William O'Grady

William O’Grady was a colourful and controversial Roman Catholic priest, journalist and political activist. Born in Ireland, O’Grady was secretary to the Bishop of Cork before relocating to Upper Canada in 1828. There he received a warm welcome from Bishop Macdonell of Kingston, who was in desperate need of experienced and capable clergy. O’Grady was soon appointed priest at St. Paul’s Parish in York (Queen Street East, Toronto), where he immediately set about establishing more stringent church regulations, organizing a catechetical society for poor children and clearing the parish debt. O’Grady quickly became a leading civic figure – equally popular with his own, mainly Irish immigrants, parishioners and York’s elite. The plight of his impoverished flock, however, led O’Grady to befriend Reform politicians, such as William Lyon Mackenzie. At that time a schism was developing between the Church’s elite – who allied themselves with the Tory Family Compact – and the poor, urban, Irish parishioners at St. Paul’s. O’Grady’s increasing support of the latter caused him to fall out of favour with his Church wardens and with the bishop. In 1832, O’Grady and the reform element in his parish took control of the church and locked out the wardens. O’Grady was suspended by Macdonell and excommunicated in 1833. O’Grady then bought the newspaper, The Correspondent, and devoted himself to political journalism. Disillusioned by the violent turn the reform movement took in 1837, O’Grady retired to a farm north of Toronto where he died in 1840.