Anglican Bishops
of Canada

The Diocese of Montreal was formed out of that of Quebec, in 1850, eleven years after the foundation of Toronto.

Francis Fulford   Bishop: 1850 – 1868
Metropolitan of Canada: 1860 – 1868
Ashton Oxenden   Bishop: 1869 – 1878
Metropolitan of Canada: 1869 – 1878
William Bennett Bond
Bishop: 1879 – 1906
Metropolitan of Canada: 1901 – 1906
Primate 1904 - 1906
James Carmichael
Bishop: 1906 – 1908
John Cragg Farthing   Bishop: 1909 – 1939
Arthur Carlisle   Bishop: 1939 – 1943
John Harkness Dixon   Bishop: 1943 – 1962
Metropolitan of Canada: 1960 – 1962
Robert Kenneth Maguire   Bishop: 1963 – 1975
Reginald Hollis   Bishop: 1975 – 1990
Metropolitan of Canada: 1989 – 1990
Andrew Sandford Hutchison   Bishop: 1990 – 2004
Metropolitan of Canada: 2002 – 2004
Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada: 2004 - 2007
Barry Bryan Clarke   Bishop: 2004 – present

William Bennett Bond was born in Truro, Cornwall, England in 1815. At 17 he emigrated to Newfoundland then in 1839 moved to Lower Canada. The following year he was ordained deacon and on 17 Oct 1841 he was ordained priest. He began as a travelling missionary based in Lachine and in 1848 was appointed assistant minister at to St George’s Church, Montreal.

In 1863 he became rector of St George’s and in the same year he was named rural dean of Hochelaga. During his rectorship, St George’s became one of the most important parishes in the country. Many of the leading members of the English-speaking business and professional communities worshipped there. When the decison to build the present St George’s, opened in 1870, he was able to call on the assistance of men such as Andrew Frederick Gault. Gault was later instrumental in saving Trinity Church, Montreal and in building the Theological College.

In 1866 william Bond was made Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal. Canon Bond became Archdeacon in 1971 and was further promoted to Dean in 1874, next in rank to the Bishop. With Bishop Ashton Oxenden resignation, Dean Bond was elected Bishop of Montreal 16 October 1878 receiving 53 clerical votes and 49 lay. Bishop Machray of Rupert’s Land received 26 and 13 votes. The focus of Bond’s episcopate was the development of the church in the diocese of Montreal, its clergy, congregations, and institutions.

In 1901 he was elected metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Canada. In 1904 Archbishop Bond became the second primate of the Canadian church in succession to Archbishop Robert Machray. Beginning in 1902 his coadjutor, James Carmichael, slowly took over many of the bishop’s duties. William Bennett Bond died in 1906 at age 91.

Ashton Oxenden was born at Broome Park, Kent, England, the son of a country squire. After graduating from University College, Oxford he was made curate of the rural parish of Barham. After six years, ill-health forced him to suspend his clerical duties, returning in 1848, to become briefly curate of Silsoe then rector of Pluckley, another rural parish. Over the next 21 years he published more than 100 pamphlets and 25 books, selling several hundred thousand copies.

His election as Bishop of Montreal and Metropolitan was a compromise largely based on his reputation as a writer. After two sessions and 14 ballots, the Synod of 1868–69 had been unable to agree on a bishop. The penultimate vote had been between Benjamin Croyn, Bishop of Huron, and Rev Dr Meyrick of England, with the majority of lay votes for Cronyn and the majority of clerical votes for Meyrick. In the final vote 2 new names were submitted with Rev Ashton Oxenden winning over Rev Dr Monsell.

The new bishop arrived at Montreal in late summer 1869 to a diocese of 59 parishes, only 8 of which self-supporting. In 1871 he established a "sustentation fund" but this only moderately improved the financial state of the diocese. Bishop Oxenden determined there were not enough clergy so he both encouraged the immigration of English clergymen to Montreal and in September 1873 opened the Montreal Diocesan Theological College to train Canadian clergy.

In 1878 Dr Oxenden went to England to attend the Lamberth Conference and while there he unexpectedly resigned his bishoric. Ashton Oxenden died at Biarritz, France 23 February 1892 at the age of 84.

Francis Fulford was born in Sidmouth, England 30 June 1803. He was consecrated Bishop of Montreal in Wesminster Abbey 25 July 1850 at the age of 47. At the time he was minister of Curzon Chapel, Mayfair, after being rector at Trowbridge, Wiltshire and at Croydon, Cambridgeshire.

The Diocese of Montreal had been subdivided from the Diocese of Quebec. George J Mountain had been given the title of Bishop of Montreal when he became Coadjuctor Bishop of Quebec, but Francis Fulford was the first bishop of the Diocese of Montreal.

In 1856 the old cathedral was destroyed by fire. The expenditure for the new cathedral, opened in 1859, far exceeded the estimated cost. To help pay the debt, the Bishop reduced his own expenditures by moving into a small house that had been built for the parish school-master.

In 1859 Bishop Fulford was appointed the Metropolitan of Canada. Bishop Fulford was presiding at the first Provincial Synod, where a ‘Pan-Anglican’ Synod was suggested. The first Lambeth Conference was held in 1868 with Bishop Fulford attending.

On his return from the conference in England, a Provincial Synod was held in Montreal during which Bishop Fulford died 9 December 1868.