Arrived 25 Dec. 1858, with wife and 4 children.
Left 11 Nov. 1863 with 7 children.

Colonel Moody personally chose BC’s first Capital New Westminster, established the Cariboo Wagon Road, and gave us the incalculable gift of Stanley Park.  Moody also named Burnaby Lake (of Burnaby City) after his private secretary Robert Burnaby, and named Port Coquitlam’s 400-foot ‘Mary Hill’ after his dear wife ‘Mary’.

Thanks to Captain George H. Richards who thoroughly surveyed the BC Coast, Colonel Moody’s name has been immortalized in BC history with the city of Port Moody.  The city was established from the end of a trail cut by the Royal Engineers, now known as North Road to connect New Westminster with Burrard Inlet.  Port Moody was developed to defend New Westminster from potential attack from the USA. The town grew rapidly after 1859, following land grants to Moody’s Royal Engineers who then settled there.  All of the officers returned to England, but most of the sappers and their families chose to remain, accepting 150-acre land grants as compensation.  Port Moody was the Canadian Pacific Railway's original western terminus.

In 1863 Colonel Moody planned to cut a trail from New Westminster to Jericho Beach due west, but Lieutenant Governor Douglas was very much in opposition.  Of this venture, the matter was taken to the Colonial House, London, England, and permission was granted for Colonel Moody to proceed with the trail.  Unfortunately he ran out of money before completion and the trail ended at Burrard Inlet.

Colonel Moody left his mark not only in the physical but also in the spiritual.  At the conclusion of BC’s ‘Ned McGowan War’, as it was Sunday morning, Colonel Moody invited forty miners to join him at the courthouse for worship.  As no clergy was present, Colonel Moody himself led worship from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

"It was the first time in British Columbia that the Liturgy of our Church was read," wrote Moody.  "To me God in his mercy granted this privilege.  The room was crowded with Hill’s Bar men…old grey-bearded men, young eager-eyed men, stern middle-aged men of all nations knelt with me before the throne of Grace…"  My prayer for those reading this article is that like Colonel Moody each of us may leave a lasting impact not only in the physical but also the spiritual.

Port Coquitlam's most prominent physical feature is Mary Hill, about 400 feet high.  It is believed to have been named for Mary Moody, wife of Colonel R. C. Moody, Royal Engineer, possibly by Captain Jack Grant.  The name first appears on the 1859 Admiralty survey charts of Captain Richards, in charge of the royal Navy's survey vessel, the Plumper.

Mary Hill may have been Colonel Moody's first choice for British Columbia's capital, but according to a later report, Captain Grant, of the Royal Engineers, persuaded Moody that New Westminster was the better site.  Instead, as Richard Mayne of the Plumper reported, Colonel Moody proposed Mary Hill as the site for "the citadel which shall defend New Westminster."7  Although Mary Hill was the official name on the survey charts, it was also known as "St. Marys Hill" in the 1860s.8  In the boom years of the 1910s, in fact, Mary Hill was known as St. Mary's Heights.  Today, a Mary Hill residential development is called "Citadel Heights."

Work is progressing on the building and ideas are being presented as to the best use for the building.

1860 - Ned Atkins

The Ned Atkins family arrives in Coquitlam from Ireland, and "took 160 acres east of Mary Hill near the foot of Pitt River Road."

1862 - Lots for Sale

A private firm contracted out by the Royal Engineers constructs Pitt River Road.  Unsurveyed lots of up to 160 acres in this area are free, although land in what will become the Port Coquitlam area, already surveyed, costs 10 shillings an acre.