# St John's Cathedral Built (1812)

URL: https://allhistories.com/belize/timeline/1812-st-john-s-cathedral-built
Location: Belize City, Belize District
Themes: main-event

The Church of England was the established church of the British settlement, but for many years services in Belize Town were held without a permanent building and with only intermittent chaplains. As the settlement grew more prosperous on the mahogany trade, the settlers resolved to build a proper church near the mouth of the Belize River. Construction began in 1812 and the church was completed in 1820. It was built using enslaved labour and bricks that had come out from Britain as ballast in the ships that returned laden with mahogany and logwood; the interior was fitted with mahogany and sapodilla. It was the first church built in the settlement and is regarded as the oldest Anglican church in Central America. Several kings of the Miskito people of the Mosquito Coast, then a British protectorate, were crowned in the church. St John's became a cathedral in 1891, after the creation of the Anglican Diocese of British Honduras, and it remains the seat of the Bishop of Belize. Beside it lies Yarborough Cemetery, the oldest burial ground in the country. The cathedral is one of the most important colonial monuments in Belize City and a reminder of the forced labour on which the early settlement was built. At this point in the timeline (1812–1820), the King of Great Britain and Ireland (from 1801 of the United Kingdom) was George III (10 September 1798 – 29 January 1820 (reigned from 25 October 1760)); the Superintendent of British Honduras was John Nugent Smyth (September 1809 – July 1814).

## Why it matters
Built with slave labour, St John's is the oldest Anglican church in Central America and a key monument of colonial Belize.

Ruler at the Time: [George III](https://allhistories.com/belize/rulers/george-iii)

Superintendent of British Honduras: John Nugent Smyth

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — St. John's Cathedral (Belize City)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John's_Cathedral_(Belize_City))
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Belize City](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Belize+City)
- [National Institute of Culture and History (NICH), Belize](https://www.nichbelize.org/)
- [Wikipedia — St George'S Caye and The Settlement (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_St._George%27s_Caye)