“Vue la requête, nous autorisons le curé et les marguilliers de la paroisse de cette ville (Montréal) à faire l’acquisition des terrains ci-dessous désignés pour servir à inhumer les pauvres de la dite paroisse.
“(Signé) La Galissoniere
Bigot.”
By 1751 it was resolved to inclose it with a stone wall and to build a mortuary to house the bodies during the winter. In 1799 the hospital cemeteries and the powder magazine were discontinued. At this period the grand juries, recognizing that these cemeteries so near to the dwellings were unhealthy and a menace to the public health, addressed a report to the Procurator General Sewell asking for their removal. The latter approached the Fabrique and it was resolved to seek for other lands. An old plan of the powder magazine cemetery shows that it ran from St. Peter Street, taking in a portion of St. James Street, and the block of buildings occupied by the Canada Life Building and the Canadian Bank of Commerce and terminating in Fortification Lane at the city wall.[2] This cemetery was that used by Protestants and Catholics alike. Historically it may be called the first cemetery for Protestants.
At this same period there was already a Jewish cemetery in a lot on St. Janvier Street, near the present Dominion Square. The deed of sale was signed by the congregation of “Shearith Israel” in 1775, and the first interment was that of Lazarus David on October 22, 1776.[3] This was the first Jewish cemetery on the American continent.
The more remote site chosen for the next cemetery was that belonging to Pierre Guy in Coteau St. Louis and the St. Antoine suburbs, and covered four arpents. St. Anthony cemetery, as it was called, occupied a part of Dominion Square of today. An increase of ground was subsequently added on the part now occupied by the Archbishop’s Cathedral. This cemetery was used till 1854, when again its nearness to dwellings caused its removal to the slopes of Mount Royal.
For long the Protestant community had been desirous of its own exclusive burial ground. In 1799 a meeting was held in the courthouse on the 21st of June, when for the purpose of purchasing a piece of ground on Dorchester Street for a Protestant burying ground, Messrs. Edward W. Gray, Isaac W. Clarke, Arthur Davidson, John Russell, and William Hunter were chosen trustees. On the 15th of June, 1811, an order was issued for all bodies to be removed from the old cemetery before the 7th of July. In 1824 a considerable addition to the cemetery was made. The site is preserved today as Dufferin Square. It continued to serve its purpose as the “old” Protestant cemetery till about 1847. Many prominent Englishmen were buried here, such as the Hon. James McGill, whose body was afterward transferred to McGill College grounds. In 1871 it was expropriated as a public place.
The transition of the Protestant cemetery from Dorchester Street to Mount Royal may be now briefly told. Somewhere about 1845 or 1846 it was felt that the Dorchester Street burying ground was becoming overcrowded and a body known as the Montreal Cemetery Company incorporated with a charter granted in 1847 obtained some land at the top of Coté des Neiges Hill on property belonging to a Mr. Furness. A few burials only took place here as circumstances rendered it unsuitable. The project was then abandoned, and public meetings were held to obtain a more appropriate site. The Montreal Cemetery Company was succeeded by another incorporated by 16 Victoria, Cap. 56 (1852) under the name of the Mount Royal Cemetery Company. This company of stockholders has developed a beautiful mountain cemetery so that it may be considered one of the parks of Montreal and its garden of sleep.
The first interment in the Mount Royal Cemetery was that of the Reverend Mr. Squires, who died of cholera in 1852. Since 1910 an additional cemetery has been added in connection with the Mount Royal Cemetery Company, situated at Hawthornedale on the road to Bout de l’Ile.
The purchase of Mount Royal cemetery for the various Protestant denominations of Montreal was followed, by that of Notre Dame des Neiges adjoining, by the Catholic community. A committee of five appointed on July 17, 1853, to find a suitable location for a cemetery reported to the Fabrique of Notre Dame Cathedral on July 31st the desirability of acquiring 115 arpents of land on Coté des Neiges Road belonging to Dr. Pierre Beaubien at the price of £3,000. This land was bought, but the project of finally settling it as a cemetery was not executed till the next year, since in the meantime a counter proposition had been gratuitously offered by the Sulpicians at Coté St. Luc. The original recommendation, however, being ratified, work was begun and the cemetery was opened to the public in 1855. The cemetery was enlarged in 1865, 1872, 1907 and 1909, and now covers over four hundred arpents of land.[4] It is being constantly beautified, adding a beautiful garden to the adjoining mountain park. The name of Notre Dame des Neiges was chosen in remembrance of the little chapel built on the Mountain Mission under that title to be a souvenir of the placing of the great cross which Maisonneuve planted in 1643 on the day of the Epiphany, but which the Iroqouis afterward destroyed. There is no doubt that this name for the chapel was chosen by Marguerite Bourgeoys, who had a special veneration for the shrine of that name in France. Three of her Iroquois maidens were called by her Marie des Neiges. The neighbourhood has borne the name of Coté des Neiges for the same sentimental reasons, it being said that several of the first farmers settling there came from the district of the same French shrine.