Trinity Church
The church of the “Holy Trinity,” St. Stanislas street, Quebec, was erected on a site which, judging from the discovery of a skeleton, when the foundations were laid, had been a cemetery.
The architecture of this church is Doric, and is considered correct both internally and externally. It is a substantial building of good proportions, 90 feet in length by 49 in breadth, is supplied with an organ and bell. It is commodious and capable of seating 700 persons. The sittings are free. It contains a beautiful marble monument, by Manning, of London, which was erected to the memory of the late Hon. Jonathan Sewell, LL.D., the founder of the church, also a few other tablets in memory of different members of the family of Sewell. The present incumbent and proprietor is the Rev. Edmund Willoughby Sewell, M.A., but it is confidently expected that ere long it will pass into the hands of an incorporated body, with whom the future presentment of the officiating clergyman will rest.
On a tin-plate on the corner-stone of the chapel, the following inscription occurs:
“Quebec, 15th September, 1824.
On Thursday was deposited in a private manner, under a stone at the north-east angle of the new Chapel of Ease to the English Cathedral, a tin plate having the following Latin inscription:
Anno Dm. Christi MDCCCXXIV Regnante
Georgio Quarto, Britaniarum Rege Fidet
Defensore Reverendissimo Patre in Deo
Jacob Mountain S. T. P. Episcopo Quebecensi,
Hanc Capellam, ad perpetuum honorem
Sacrosanctae Trinitatis, et in usum Fidelium
Ecclesiae Anglican dedicatam Vir honorabilis
Jonothan Sewell, Provinciae Canadae inferioris
Judex Primarius, et Henrietta ejus uxor
Adificaverunt
Edmundo Willoughby Sewell, clerico, uno de eorum filiis Capellano
primo
G. BLAICKLOCK, Architecto
J. PHILIPS, Conditore
On the other side is the inscription on the monument:
In Memory of Jonathan Sewell, LL.D.
The Pious and Liberal Founder of this Chapel.
Endowed with talents of no common order
He was selected in early life to fill the highest offices
in this Province
He was appointed Solicitor General A.D. 1793,
Attorney and Advocate General and Judge of the Court of Vice
Admiralty, A.D. 1795, Chief Justice of the Province and Chairman
of the Executive Council A.D. 1809.
Speaker of the Legislative Council A.D. 1809.
Distinguished in his public capacity,
He shone equally conspicuous as a statesman and a jurist.
Naturally mild and courteous, he combined the meekness of the
Christian
with the authority of the Judge.
Beloved at home as a kind father, a firm friend and an
affectionate husband.
Respected abroad as an acknowledged example of truth, faithfulness
and integrity;
He has left a name to which not only his descendants in all future
ages, But his country may recur
With just pride, deep reverence, and a grateful recollection.
He was born in Boston, Mass., June 6th, 1766, and died in this
city, in the Fulness of the Faith in Christ, November 13th, 1839
in the 74th year of his age
This tribute to departed worth is erected by his sorrowing widow.”
The southern extreme of St. Stanislas street terminates at the intersection of Ste. Anne street, past the old jail, which dated from 1810. Lugubrious memories crowd round this massive tolbooth—of which the only traces of the past are some vaulted lock-up or cells beneath the rooms of the Literary and Historical Society, one of which, provided with a solid new iron door, is set apart for the reception of the priceless M.S.S. of the society. The oak flooring of the passages to the cells exhibit many initials, telling a tale of more than one guilty life—of remorse—let us hope, of repentance.
The narrow door in the wall and the iron balcony, over the chief entrance leading formerly to the fatal drop which cut short the earthly career of the assassin or burglar [51] was speedily removed when the directors of the Morrin College in 1870 purchased the building from Government to locate permanently the seat of learning due to the munificence of the late Joseph Morrin, M.D.
The once familiar inscription above the prison door, the rendering of which in English was a favourite amusement to many of the juniors of the High School, or Seminary, on their way to class, that also has disappeared:
“Carcer iste bonos a pravis vindicare possit!” May this prison teach the wicked for the edification of the good.”
The damp, vaulted cells in the basement, where the condemned felon in silence awaited his doom, or the airy wards above, where the impecunious debtor or the runaway sailor meditatively or riotously defied their traditional enemies the constable and policeman, now echo the Hebrew, Greek and Latin utterances of the Morrin College professors, and on meeting nights the disquisitions before the Literary and Historical Society, of lecturers on Canadian history, literature or art.
It is the glory and privilege of the latter institution in accordance with the object of its Royal Charter, to offer to citizens of all creeds and nationalities, a neutral ground, sacred to intellectual pursuits. It dates back to 1823, when His Excellency, George Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie, assisted by the late Dr. John Charlton Fisher, LL.D., and ex-editor of the New York Albion, successfully matured a long meditated plan to promote the study of history and of literature. The Literary and Historical Society held its first meeting in the Château St. Louis. It is curious to glance over the list of names in its charter. [52] It contained the leading men on the Bench, in the professions, and in the city. In 1832 the library and museum occupied a large room in the Union building facing the Ring. From thence they were transferred to the upper story of the Parliament Buildings, on Mountain Hill, where a portion of both was destroyed by the conflagration which burnt down the stately cut-stone edifice in 1854, with the stone of which in 1860, the Champlain Market Hall was built. What was saved of the library and museum was transferred to apartments in St Louis street, then owned by the late George Henderson, J.P. [53] The next removal, about 1860, brought the institution to Masonic Hall, corner of Garden and St. Louis streets. Here, also, the fire-fiend assailed the treasures of knowledge and specimens of natural history, of the society, which, with its household gods, flitted down to a suite of rooms above the savings bank apartments in St. John Street, from whence, about 1870, it issued to become an annual tenant in the north wing of the Morrin College, where it has flourished ever since.
In the protracted and chequered existence of this pioneer among Canadian literary associations, one day, above all others is likely from the preparations—pageant and speeches which marked it, to be long remembered among Quebecers as a red letter day in the annals of the society. The celebration in December, 1875 of the centennial of the repulse of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold, who, at dawn on the 31st December, 1775, attempted to take the old fortress by storm. The first, with a number of his followers, met with his death at Près-de-Ville, in Champlain street; the other was carried wounded in the knee, to the General Hospital, St. Roch’s suburbs, whilst 427 of his command were taken prisoners of war and incarcerated until September following in the Quebec Seminary, the Récollet Convent and the Dauphin Prison, since destroyed, but then existing, a little north of St. John’s Gate, inside. The worthy commander of the “B” Battery, Lieut.-Col. T. B. Strange, R.A., then stationed at the Citadel of Quebec, having consented to narrate the incidents which marked the attack of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery at Près-de-Ville (which we reserve for another page,) the description of Col. Benedict Arnold’s assault on the Sault-au-Matelot barriers, was, left to ourselves. We subjoin a portion of the address delivered by us at this memorable centenary. It embodies an important incident of Quebec history: