Built between 1817 and 1818, it is said to be the oldest Anglican Church in Southeast Asia. With the help of The East India Company, the church was using convict labor during Colonel J. A. Bannerman's term as British Governor of Penang. The inspiration behind the formation of the church, however, was credited to Rev. Robert Sparke Hutchings, a well-known educationist and Robert Smith, an engineer and landscape artist.
Rev. Hutchings contributions towards the development of Penang from an educational perspective are significant – he founded the Penang Free School and compiled and wrote what were considered the first books on Malay grammar, in addition to several elementary text-books and a dictionary mainly for school use. He founded the Auxiliary Bible Society and translated the New Testament into Malay.
The cost of building the church was 60,000 Spanish Dollars. To give you a rough idea on the significance of that amount, Singapore was sold to the British sometime in 1819 for the same price! On 11 May 1819, the church was consecrated by The Rt. Rev. Thomas Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta.