Historical Sketch of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Upper and Lower Canada

The author outlines the early history of the Methodists religion in Quebec, including several of its early eccentric preachers. The first lay person to preach Methodism in Lower Canada was a Mr. Tuffey, a Commissary of the 44th regiment, which came to Quebec in 1780, who preached to the soldiers and Protestant emigrants of that city and continued to do so until his regiment was disbanded, and he returned home. The first itinerant Methodist Minister in Lower Canada is described by the author as an eccentric character, Lorenzo Dow, called “ Crazy Dow.” He was sent in 1799 via Vermont to form a new circuit in Missisquoi County. He travelled through Durham and Sutton townships, made his way to Montreal, and sailed down the river to Quebec City on the notion that his calling was in Ireland. While waiting for a vessel to cross the sea, began to preach and converted about twenty people. The first Methodist church of any pretensions in Canada opened on St. Sulpice Street in Montreal in 1809, under preacher Samuel Coate. The author describes Coate as “a man of extraordinary personal appearance and great natural eloquence. The grace and power attending his early ministry were remarkable, and he was the honoured instrument in the conversion of hundreds; but his star declined, he lost his zeal and piety, and this interesting man, of the most splendid gifts and the most widespread popularity, abandoned the ministry to enter business, lost all his property, and in the end died in poverty in a land of strangers.”

Centennial of Canadian Methodism

Toronto & Montreal

William Briggs (Toronto) & C.W. Coates (Montreal)

1891

55-93

en