The third son of Jacob Mountain, of Thwaite Hall, Norfolk, and his third wife, Ann, daughter of Jehoshaphat Postle of Colney Hall, near Wymondham, chairman of the Norfolk Agricultural Association. Mountain was directly related to Michel de Montaigne via his great-grandfather, who also resided at Château de Montaigne, and whose family fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The younger Jacob Mountain was born at Thwaite Hall on 1 December 1749. He was educated at various Norfolk schools, including Scarning, where he was a pupil of the classicist Robert Potter, and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1774 and MA 1777. In 1779 he was elected a fellow of his college, and, after holding the living of St Andrew's Church, Norwich, was presented to the vicarages of Holbeach, Lincolnshire, and Buckden, Huntingdonshire, which he held together. On 1 June 1788, he was installed as Castor prebendary in Lincoln Cathedral. He was consecrated at Lambeth Palace on 7 July 1793, and at the same time was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. These preferments he owed to the friendship of William Pitt the Younger, who also, on the recommendation of George Pretyman Tomline, gave him the appointment of first Anglican Bishop of Quebec in 1793. At that time there were only nine clergymen of the Church of England in The Canadas — at his death there were 61. For 30 years Mountain promoted missions and the erection of churches in all populous places, which he visited regularly, into old age. He also built the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City. Jacob Mountain died at Marchmont House, Lower Canada, 16 June 1825 and was buried under the chancel of Holy Trinity Cathedral, which also contains a monument to his memory.
Works
Jacob Mountain published Poetical Reveries, 1777, besides sermons and charges.
Family
In 1783, Jacob Mountain married Elizabeth Mildred Wale Kentish, daughter and co-heiress of John Kentish of Little Bardfield Hall, near Braintree, Essex. The Mountains lived at Marchmont House, Quebec City, where he died, and they were the parents of six surviving children.
Jacob Henry Brooke Mountain of The Heath, Hertfordshire. His first wife, Frances Mingay Brooke, was the daughter and co-heiress of William Brooke of Swainsthorpe Hall, Norfolk. His second wife, also named Frances, was the widow of Frederick Polhill, of Howbury Park, Bedfordshire.
Charlotte Mary Milnes Mountain, died unmarried at her brother's house in Havant.
Coat of arms
The arms of Jacob Mountain which were granted by the English Kings of Arms on 3 August 1793. He bore "Ermine on a chevron Azure between three lions rampant guardant Sable each supporting between the fore-paws an escallop erect Gules a mitre on each side a cross crosslet fitchy Argent."
