The Little Dutch Church
There’s a small little church in downtown Halifax that is often overlooked by tourists. It is the second oldest building in Halifax, after St. Paul’s Church and it is also a National Historic Site of Canada.
First, a little background! Halifax was founded in 1749 and was made the capital of the province over Annapolis. There were very few British settlers outside of Halifax or Annapolis. The province was mostly settled by the Acadians, who, of course, were French and Roman Catholic. The British government desperately wanted to counter this imbalance. British settlers would have been preferred but this was not forth coming for various reasons, not the least of was the continual fighting between Britain and France. The British government decided the best way to increase the population was to bring in protestants who would be less inclined to join with the French. Nationality was not important, your religion was more important. Between 1750 and 1753, 2,300 immigrants from Germany and Switzerland came to Nova Scotia.
Since most of these immigrants were German, they became known as ‘Foreign Protestants’ and while a few of them stayed in Halifax, most of them were sent down the southern shore to found the town of Lunenburg. Those that stayed in Halifax were permitted to build a church where they could practice their beliefs and services in German. The church itself was built on the grounds where the settlers who had died during the crossing were buried. The northern section of town was often referred to as ‘Dutch Town’, derived from a misunderstanding of the word Deutsch, meaning ‘German’. The original name for this building was St. George’s Church, until 1812 when St. George’s Round Church was opened.
Buried here are two important figures in the history of Halifax. Anthony Henry and his godson Anthony Henry Holland are both buried in the little graveyard. Both were among the very earliest printers in Canada, instrumental in putting our printing industry on a solid footing.
Gravestone of Anthony Henry
Gravestone of Anthony Henry Holland
Sources: A Brief History of the Little Dutch Church (St. George’s) 1754, Morton & Co., Publishers, 1899,