Reverend Robert Addison (1754–1829) was born in Heversham, Westmorland, the 3rd son of John and Ellinor (Parkinson) of Plumbtreebank. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1777, completing his BA in 1781 and was ordained a Deacon of the Church of England in Norwich, Norfolk, on 11 March 1781. He married his first wife Mary Atkinson in 1780 in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. Mary is thought to have been a descendant of Bishop Ridley. Robert applied to the Church of England's Society for the propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for missionary work in 1791 and was accepted for a position in May of that year. He was only the second Protestant clergyman to venture into Upper Canada, the first being Anglican Rev John Stuart, who arrived in Cataraqui (Kingston) in 1786. Robert, his two young daughters Elizabeth and Mary and his sister Mary sailed for Canada in the summer and arrived in Quebec, probably in September, where he wintered before proceeding to Upper Canada. His wife Mary did not accompany him as she was pregnant with a son, Robert, born later in 1791. She remained in England and is believed to have suffered from depression and had died, likely in 1796, but possibly as late as 1809. When Rev Robert arrived in Newark, Ontario, in 1792 the government of Upper Canada was located at Newark, until it was moved to York in 1796. As a young missionary he became chaplain of the legislature. He was the only resident Anglican clergyman, in fact the only clergy man west of Kingston and built the first church in Upper Canada to have regular services, St. Marks, at Niagara-on-the-Lake. This church was completed in 1809. During the War of 1812 it was burned, and restored finally in 1826, much as it is to-day. In 1796 he was the Chaplain of the House of Assembly (the provincial legislature) for which he received $100 a year and by 1798 was being provided 100 pounds per annum for his missionary work. Before 1809, Rev. Robert Addison had preached in the Masonic Hall and other places. He ministered to Indians and whites from Fort Erie to the Grand River, preaching at intervals to the Mohawks in their church near Brantford, built in 1786. His Niagara congregation included Col. and Mrs. John Butler, Hon. William Dickson, General Isaac Brock, Hon. Robert Hamilton Secord, the Jarvis Family and others. During the