The cemetery was founded in 1826 by
Parliament of Upper Canada which responded to a public petition by passing
An act to authorize certain persons therein named, and their successors, to hold certain lands for the purpose therein mentioned for residents who were not Anglican or Catholic – and thus effectively banned from burial in the town's established cemeteries as undesirables. During the subsequent twenty years, many of the graves were gradually relocated to
Toronto Necropolis in the
Cabbagetown neighbourhood. In 1855, the property was transferred to the
Trustees of the General Burying Ground for the purpose of relocating the graves to new cemeteries so that the land could be redeveloped as the Yorkville and then Toronto developed. Families who didn't initially arrange to have remains transferred to the Toronto Necropolis were given 25 years to transfer and have them reinterred at Mount Pleasant. It is thought that not all the remains were relocated. As Toronto grew, the lands that were once part of the cemetery were acquired and developed for residential use. The area later transformed into the upscale mixed-use (but now mainly commercial) neighbourhood of
Yorkville. ==Notable interments==