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As Québec City’s Protestant community grew, the Anglican clergy founded a small church in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district. This church is located next to a Protestant cemetery where there had been a gravedigger’s house. The building shown in this work circa 1840 was replaced by St. Matthew’s Church in the 1870s.
1840 - 1889

A partly English-speaking city

Today, the vast majority of Québec City’s population speaks French as their first language. It is hard to imagine that a great part of the city was once English! However, it was the case in the mid-19th century. A large wave of immigration from the British Isles came through Québec City, the point of entry to Canada. The Anglophone presence peaked in Québec City around 1870, when nearly half of the residents, mainly from Ireland, were English-speaking. Come and rediscover Québec City’s English-speaking past!

Church and cemetery

Auteur inconnu As Québec City’s Protestant community grew, the Anglican clergy founded a small church in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste district. This church is located next to a Protestant cemetery where there had been a gravedigger’s house. The building shown in this work circa 1840 was replaced by St. Matthew’s Church in the 1870s.
Chronoscope Can you locate this building on the map? (unilingual French for a limited time) Source: Library and Archives Canada Document in the public domain (free of copyright) - Acc. No. R9266-381 - Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana - Date: 1840