tlers. It was organised without a church building in 1786 by the Rev.
John Bethune, who ministered to its members from March 12th in that year
until he moved to Upper Canada in May, 1787. But it was but a temporary
organisation and had no continuous status. From 1787 to 1790 there is no
record of the holding of a strictly Presbyterian service in the city.
The only Protestant body holding service regularly was known as "the
Protestant Congregation of Montreal," the pastor of which was the Rev.
David Charbrand Delisle, one of the three clergymen who had been
employed by the Church of England to labour among the French-Canadians.
He was Rector of the Parish of Montreal and Chaplain of the Garrison.
This congregation worshipped until 1789 in the Church of the Recollet
Fathers, which with great tolerance and courtesy was for twenty years at
their disposal; in 1789 they were given the Chapel belonging to the
Jesuits' College, then Government property; they opened it for public
worship in December under the name of Christ Church.

Like all the young Protestant Scotchmen living in Montreal at that time,
James McGill became by necessity a member of the Protestant Episcopal
Congregation. The adherents to the two Protestant creeds were tolerant
and harmonious in their relations one with the other and they were
content to worship together. In 1789 when the Bishop of Nova Scotia
visited Montreal an address was presented to him by the Church Wardens,
and by "a committee of the Protestant inhabitants of Montreal,"
irrespective of their former creed. The majority of the latter were
Scotch Presbyterians. The Bishop was met at Pointe aux Trembles by the
reception committee. One of the "Protestant inhabitants" who signed and
presented the address was James McGill. There is no doubt that the
larger number of this "committee of Protestant inhabitants," at that
time identified with the Protestant Episcopal Congregation of Montreal,
returned to the Church of their fathers as soon as a Church was built,
several of them becoming office-bearers. The precise action taken by
James McGill is uncertain. He seems to have divided his allegiance
between the two communions; while not severing his connection entirely
with the Church of England he gave his support to the establishment of a
Church of Scotland and later became identified with it. When the St.
Gabriel Street Church, the first Presbyterian Church in Montreal, was
built in 1792, he subscribed t