Jacob Mountain

Jacob Mountain (1749–1825) was an English churchman who became the first Anglican Bishop of Quebec.

Contents

Biography

The third son of Jacob Mountain of Thwaite Hall, Norfolk, by Ann, daughter of Jehoshaphat Postle of Wymondham, he was born at Thwaite Hall on 30 December 1749, and educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1774, M.A. 1777, and D.D. 1793.[1] In 1779 he was elected a Fellow of his college, and, after holding the living of St. Andrew, Norwich, was presented to the vicarages of Holbeach, Lincolnshire, and Buckden, Huntingdonshire, which he held together. On 1 June 1788 he was installed Castor prebendary in Lincoln Cathedral. These preferments he owed to the friendship of William Pitt; who also, on the recommendation of George Pretyman Tomline, gave him the appointment of the first Anglican bishop of Quebec.

He was consecrated at Lambeth Palace on 7 July 1793. At that time there were only nine clergymen of the Church of England in Canada—at his death there were 61. For 30 years Mountain promoted missions and the erection of churches in all populous places. He visited those regularly, into old age. Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral at Quebec, which contains a monument to his memory, was erected under his auspices. He died at Marchmont House, Quebec, 16 June 1825 and was buried under the chancel of the cathedral he had built Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral.

Works

Mountain published Poetical Reveries, 1777, besides sermons and charges.

Family

He married a daughter of John Kentish of Bardfield Hall, Essex, and left, with two daughters, five sons including George Jehoshaphat Mountain and Armine Simcoe Mountain.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Mountain, Jacob in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Anglican bishops of Quebec