Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mountain, Jacob
MOUNTAIN, JACOB (1749–1825), protestant bishop of Quebec, third son of Jacob Mountain of Thwaite Hall, Norfolk, by Ann, daughter of Jehoshaphat Postle of Wymondham, was born at Thwaite Hall on 30 Dec. 1749, and educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1774, M.A. 1777, and D.D. 1793. In 1779 he was elected a fellow of his college, and, after holding the living of St. Andrew, Norwich, was presented to the vicarages of Holbeach, Lincolnshire, and Buckden, Huntingdonshire (which he held together), and on 1 June 1788 was installed Castor prebendary in Lincoln Cathedral. These preferments he owed to the friendship of William Pitt, who also, on Dr. Tomline's recommendation, procured for him the appointment of the first Anglican bishop of Quebec. He was consecrated at Lambeth Palace on 7 July 1793. At that time there were only nine clergymen of the church of England in Canada at his death there were sixty-one. During the succeeding thirty years Mountain raised the church to a flourishing condition (cf. Dr. Henry Roe, Story of the First Hundred Years of the Diocese of Quebec). He promoted missions and the erection of churches in all populous places. These he visited regularly, even when suffering from age and infirmities. The cathedral church at Quebec, which contains a monument to his memory, was erected under his auspices. He died at Marchmont House, Quebec, 16 June 1825. He married a daughter of John Kentish of Bardfield Hall, Essex, and left, with two daughters, five sons, of whom George Jehoshaphat Mountain and Armine Simcoe Mountain are separately noticed.
Mountain published 'Poetical Reveries,' 1777, besides separate sermons and charges.
[Appleton's American Biog. 1888, iv. 447; Bibliotheca Canadensis, 1867, p. 287; Gent. Mag. August 1825, p. 177; Quebec Gazette. June 1825; Church Times. 1 Sept. 1893.]