Stoneleigh (Ont.)

St. Peter’s Anglican Church (Stoneleigh, Ont.) is part of the Lake of Bays Mission; originally administered to by the incumbent at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church (Bracebridge, Ont.). In 1876 Frederick Fauquier, Lord Bishop of Algoma, purchased an acre of land for the church; a small log church was then built. By 1879 the Sunday School was established with twenty-two children with Mr. William Piper as the Superintendent. When Bishop Sullivan visited in 1884, he encouraged to seek a grant from the Society of Propagation of Christian Knowledge in order to renovate the rough church. These renovations included a new altar, cover, and frontal; the chancel was carpeted and a picket fence erected.

Unfortunately, the last records of the church were made in 1906. The end days of the church are unrecorded.

Sources:

• Sheila Klyn, “St. Ambrose Anglican Church, Baysville, Ontario”, 1998, St. Ambrose’s Anglican Church (Baysville, Ont.) sous fonds, Algoma University Archives, 2009-216_001_001.

The Lake of Bays Anglican Parish is a family of four country churches around the shore of the Lake of Bays in Muskoka. The Lake of Bays Mission officially formed in 1955. 

Two of the parish's four active churches are open year-round St. Ambrose in Baysville and St. Mary Magdalene in Dorset. St. James in Port Cunnington and St. John's in Fox Point are open in the summer (July and August).

Incumbents have included: Rev. Canon A.W. Hazlehurst (1895-1927), Rev. R.C. Warder (1927-1934), Rev. W. Ruthford Tindle (1934-1938), Rev. Canon Banks (1938-1940), S.S.J.E. Cowley Fathers (1940-1955), Rev. Roy H. Nixon (1955-1959), Rev. Tom James (1959-1963), Rev. Francom (1963-1967), Rev. Robert Lumley (1967-1973), Rev. Jonathan Patrick Earle (1973-1975), Rev. Murray Bradford (1975-1983), Rev. Ray Porth (1983-1989), Rev. Michael Cottrell (1989-1993), Rev. Thomas Cunningham (1994-?).

Sources:

• “Priests Who Have Served Lake of Bays Anglican Parish Including Baysville, Dorset, Port Cunnington (Fox Point)”, [1997], Diocesan Centre history files collection, Algoma University Archives, 2014-037_001_001.
• Gary Denniss, "A Brief History of the Churches in Muskoka", 1996, Synod of the Diocese of Algoma fonds, Algoma University Archives, 2009-156_002_009.