Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger, the first Lutheran minister to settle in this province, was born in Burgbernheim, Bavaria, and studied theology at the University of Erlangen. After emigrating to America in 1753, he served as pastor of congregations in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. Persecuted for his allegiance to the Crown during the American Revolution, he moved to Canada in 1791. He settled in Williamsburg Township and became pastor of a congregation of German Loyalists that had been established in 1784 and by 1790 had constructed the first Lutheran church in what is now Ontario. The church site now lies beneath Lake St. Lawrence. Within a few years he had organized Lutheran congregations in neighbouring townships. He died in 1803 and was buried in the old church cemetery.