The first incumbent of St. Andrew's Church -
commenced in 1809, and opened for worship on the 30th November, 1810 - was
the Reverend Doctor Alexander Sparks, who had landed at Quebec in 1780,
became tutor in the family of Colonel Henry Caldwell at Belmont, St. Foye
road, and who died suddenly in Quebec, on the 7th March, 1819. Dr. Sparks
had succeeded to the Rev. George Henry, a military chaplain at the time of
the conquest; the first Presbyterian minister, we are told, who officiated
in the Province, and who died on the 6th July, 1795, aged 86 years.
One hundred and forty-eight signatures are affixed to this dusty document
of 1802.
A carefully prepared petition - it seems - to the King, asking for a site in
Quebec whereon to build a church - and suggesting that the lot occupied by
the Jesuits' Church, and where until 1878, stood the Upper Town, market
shambles, be granted to the petitioners, they being without a church, and
having to trust to the good will of the government for the use, on
Sundays, of a room in the Jesuits Barracks, as a place of worship. [42]
Signatures to Memorial addressed to George III., asking for land in
Quebec to build a Presbyterian Church: -
Alex. Sparks, Minister, A. Ferguson,
Jas. Thompson, Jr., Robert Eglison,
Fred. Grant, Robt. Cairns,
Jno. Greenshields, William A. Thompson,
Chas.
