The Mission Church, founded by Kiernander for his Portuguese and Indian congregations, came into the hands of Mr. Grant in 1786 - the same year that saw the opening of St. John's. Under Mr. Brown's ministry the congregation was no longer stigmatised as a place for 'stable boys and paupers'. The building was trebled in size and the old congregation melted away before the influx of gentry from the highest and middling classes. The humbler class had nowhere to go on a Sunday except the liquor shops.

John Clark Marshman, 1859.