The oldest Protestant church in Canada and the oldest building in the city of Halifax, this church opened for public worship the 2nd of September, 1750, making it also the first church of British origin built in Canada. Charles Inglis, D.D., was consecrated the first Bishop of Nova Scotia. This church was chosen by him as his first Cathedral when he arrived in the diocese on October 15th, 1767, making it the first cathedral of the Church of England outside the United Kingdom. The church is today a National Historic Site as well as a Provincial Historic Resource.
Within the church are many memorials to past ministers, parishioners, war veterans and other notables of Halifax. This memorial was likely at one time a headstone for a pair of seamen, John Samwell & William Stevens, who died in 1813 as a result of wounds received in the
Capture of The Chesapeake by the British ship H.M.S. Shannon.
John Samwell, "a midshipman of much merit", received a musket ball in his left thigh, was expected to recover but eventually succumbed to the wound. William Stevens, described by H.M.S. Shannon's Captain Philip Broke as "my veteran Boatswain", in lashing the two frigates together so that his Shannon shipmates could board the Chesapeake, lost his right arm.
The two were buried in the the Old Burying Ground, today a National, Provincial and Municipal Historic Site, the first in Canada to receive such recognition.
The marker reads thus:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY Of
M: John Samwell Midshipman of H.M.S. Shannon
who died at the Naval hospital on the 13 of
June 1813 Aged 18 years. Also M: William Stevens
boatswain Of the Same Ship who died There on the
19 of June 1813 Aged 56 years. Those brave Officers
Closed their career in Consequence of desperate Wounds
received in the Gallant action between Their own Ship
and the American frigate Chesapeake on the 1 of June
which Ended in the Capture of the Enemy ship in
14 Minutes