JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
In its 182 years, St. James Anglican Church has welcomed many worshippers in the Hudson area. The old stone building played a key role in the town of Hudson’s early years.
After first being settled in 1811, the Hudson area saw a large influx of English immigrants, bringing their Anglican tradition with them. The site where St. James now sits was first designated in 1819 to be used as a Protestant cemetery.
For more than 20 years, the Anglicans living in Hudson would travel to Coteau du Lac to attend religious services. Worshippers would make a weekly trek across some 20 kilometres on “difficult roads that were virtually impassable in winter,” as the Hudson Historical Society described it in a historical timeline outlining the development of the region.
Given this harsh reality, Hudson’s Anglican community started to plan to build its own place of worship in the early 1840s. By 1842, St. James Anglican Church was completed, and was named after the parish’s first minister, James Pyke.
“With the arrival of English Protestant peoples in the area, it was inevitable that the religious needs of these peoples would make themselves felt,” the Hudson Historical Society wrote.
St. James’ cemetery is the oldest graveyard in Hudson and is the resting place of some notable figures in Quebec and Canadian history.
Among those interred include Thomas Bassett Macaulay. A noted actuary and philanthropist, Macaulay rose from a clerk at the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada to become its president, where he played a fundamental role in the creation of the modern life insurance industry. For his achievements, the government of Canada designated a plaque in his honour in 1997 in downtown Montreal. Macaulay has also been recognized for his contribution in the agricultural sector, stemming from work in Holstein cattle genetics.
Another notable Quebecer who is buried at the St. James cemetery is A.M. Pattison, an artist who specialized in outdoor scenes of Montreal and of its surrounding rural regions in the early 20th century. Pattison’s work has been displayed at such institutions as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The McCord Museum, and the National Gallery of Canada.
The cemetery is also the resting place of dozens of Canadian soldiers from the first and second World Wars, including those who died in battle and veterans who returned home after the war.