It was created in 1825 to hold the remains of the British and other Europeans residents, whose Protestant faith differed from the official state religion at the time; Roman Catholicism.

In 1823 British consul George Seymour, with the aid of mayor Robert Simpson, bought some land at one side of the city jail, to build a special cemetery for "dissidents" (i.e. those who did not adhere to the Catholic faith.

1, there is a monument dedicated to the American sailors who died during the 1814 Battle of Valparaiso, when the USS Essex was captured by the English ships Cherub and Phoebe.

[4] There is also a monument dedicated to Reverend David Trumbull, founder of the Presbyterian Church of the city.

Until that year, the Cemetery of Dissidents also housed non-Catholics who had died in other cities such as Santiago and La Serena.