Christian Ethics, McMaster Hall (Baptist College), Toronto, was born on
the 30th September, 1829, in Argyleshire, Scotland. His father, John
MacVicar, was a farmer in Dunglass, near Campbeltown, Kintyre, Scotland,
and was known as a man of great physical and intellectual vigour, and
was well known in his native Scotland and the land of his adoption,
Canada, for his ability, generosity and sterling integrity. His wife,
Janet MacTavish, possessed a similar character, and reached the age of
ninety-two years before she died, having seen her children’s children in
positions of usefulness and influence. Malcolm, the subject of this
sketch, was one of twelve children, and came with his parents to Canada
in 1835, and settled on a farm at Chatham, Ontario. His early years were
spent at first on a farm, then at Cleveland, Ohio, where he learned the
trade of ship carpenter. Being ambitious and anxious to get on, he
decided to secure an education, and along with his brother Donald, now
Principal of the Presbyterian College in Montreal, went to Toronto, in
1850, and entered Knox College to study for the Presbyterian Ministry,
where he remained for two years. In the meantime his views of doctrines
having undergone a change, he became connected with the Baptist
denomination, and turned his attention to teaching and fitting young men
for the Toronto University, preaching occasionally. He was ordained to
the Baptist Ministry in 1856. In 1858 he went to Rochester, New York
State, and entered the senior class at the University of Rochester,
taking his degree of B. A. the following summer. He immediately went to
Brockport, in the same county, where he became a member of the faculty
of the Brockport Collegiate Institute, then under the principalship of
Dr. David Barbank. Here, with the exception of one year spent in the
Central School at Buffalo, he remained until the spring of 1867 (when
that institution was transformed into a Normal School), first as
subordinate, then as associate principal, and from April, 1864, sole
principal of the school. He was a very successful teacher from the
first, being full of energy, and ambitious to devise new and improved
methods of illustrating and impressing the truth. Nor were the
class-room walls the limit of his intellectual horizon, but he was
constantly seeking some better plan of organizing the educational work
immediately in hand, and over the whole state. He was quickly recognized
by the regents of the University as one of the foremost teachers and
principals in the state. In August, 1865, he, by appointment, read a
paper before the convocation of that body on Internal Organization of
Academies, which looked towards and proved the first step towards
putting in practice regent’s examinations in the academies as a basis
for distribution of the income of the literary fund. He was shortly
afterwards appointed by the chancellor, chairman of a committee of
principals of academies to consider the practical workings and results
of the system of regent’s examinations just being instituted. During
these years of his connection with the Collegiate Institute, he took a
lively interest in the subject of the so-called normal training in
academies, and became convinced that the utmost that could be done for
teachers’ classes under the circumstances was too little to meet the
needs of the common schools of the state. He, therefore, with the advice
and cooperation of friends of education in Brockport and Rochester, and
the Hon. Victor M. Rice, then state superintendent, proposed to the
State Legislature, in 1865-66, a bill authorizing the establishment of a
Normal and Training School at Brockport, and offering to transfer the
Institute property to the state for that purpose on very liberal terms.
Subsequently this measure was so modified as to provide for four schools
instead of one, and to leave the location of them to a board consisting
of the governor, state superintendent and state officers and others. In
this form the bill became law. It now became necessary to adopt some
definite plan of organization for the new schools, and Superintendent
Rice at once turned to Professor MacVicar for assistance. The professor
submitted a plan, which, with some slight modifications, was adopted and
became the basis for the organization of all the schools under the law.
In consideration of the services rendered by Professor MacVicar and
other friends of the cause, the first school was located in Brockport,
with Professor MacVicar as its principal, and he immediately set to work
to organize this school, and opened it in the spring of 1867, having
among the members of his faculty, Professor Charles McLean, William J.
Milne and J. H. Hoose, now the Principals of the Normal schools of
Brockport, Genesee and Courtland. The first year of Normal school work,
carried on as it was in connection with planning and supervising the
erection of the new buildings, proved a very trying one to Principal
MacVicar, and his health giving way under the pressure, he resolved to
offer his resignation at the end of the school year of 1867-8. This he
accordingly did, but the state superintendent, preferring not to lose
him from the state, granted him a year’s leave of absence, instead of
accepting his resignation. He then took a trip west, during the summer
of 1868, and was invited to become superintendent of the schools of the
city of Leavenworth; after some consideration, he accepted this
position, and remained there until the following April, in the meantime
reorganizing the schools from bottom to top, a work that had been
neglected hitherto. His western trip having restored him to perfect
health, he returned to New York state, but thought it best not to again
take up his work at Brockport. A Normal School having been located in
Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, and about ready to open, he was invited to
become its principal, and accepted the office. He at once gathered
around him a corps of teachers, and opened his second Normal school,
three weeks after he left Leavenworth. The regents of the University
welcomed him back to the state, and expressed their estimation of his
ability by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in
the summer of 1869, and his _alma mater_ added an LL.D. the following
year. The school at Potsdam was no sooner organized than he gave himself
anew to the study of methods of instruction and the philosophy of
education, for which he possessed a peculiar aptitude. Being encouraged
by the other principals to work out his ideas into permanent shape for
the general good, he became the author of several books on arithmetic;
he also became the author and inventor of various important devices to
illustrate, objectively, principles of arithmetic, geography and
astronomy. Meanwhile there arose a degree of friction between the
academies and Normal schools of the state, which made itself felt in the
legislative session of 1876, in a threat to cut off the appropriations
from the Normal schools, unless the academies were treated more
liberally. At the next meeting of the Normal school principals, the
matter was discussed, and the cause of the difficulty was found to be
the double-headed management of their educational system. It was agreed
that the remedy for the existing difficulties was found in uniting the
management of all the schools of the state under one head. Dr. MacVicar
and Dr. Sheldon, of the Oswego Normal school, were appointed to urge
this view on the State Legislature at its next session. They conferred
with a deputation of academy principals, and won their approval of the
plan prepared. It was then embodied in a bill, and brought before the
legislature in 1877. Although much time was spent in bringing the matter
before the committees of the assembly and the senate, and many of the
prominent men of both houses, who generally approved of the measure, yet
the private interests of aspirants to the office of state
superintendents conflicted with it, and it was thrown out when it came
up for a hearing. In the autumn of 1880, Dr. MacVicar was invited to
take the principalship of the Michigan State Normal school, at
Ypsilanti, and finding it the only school of the kind in that state, and
there being no diversity of interest in the educational management of
the state, it seemed to offer an opportunity for something like ideal
Normal school work, so he accepted the position. He remained there,
however, but one year, when, being thoroughly worn out with hard work,
and being urgently pressed to join the faculty of the Toronto Baptist
College, just then opened, he resigned his position in Michigan and came
to Canada. Dr. MacVicar excels as a mathematician and metaphysician,
having read extensively in both directions, as well as in the natural
sciences. He has also made the relation of science and religion a
special study, and is now investigating the wide field of Christian
Apologetics. As a writer and in the classroom, he is characterized by
the utmost clearness and force, and his career as an educator has been
eminently successful. It has fallen to his lot to perform a vast amount
of hard work in all of which he has shown a spirit of self-sacrifice in
a remarkable degree, through which he has been the means of advancing
many others to positions of high trust and usefulness. His
investigations in the science of education are critical and original,
being based upon extensive observation and a large induction of facts.
Having for twenty-five years taught a wide range of subjects, and being
naturally possessed of strong and well trained logical powers, he is
well qualified to analyze the human mind and all that is concerned in
its proper education and harmonious development. To this work he now
devotes such time as can be spared from strictly professional duties. As
a theologian his views are definite and comprehensive, thoroughly
evangelical and uncompromisingly opposed to the materialistic pantheism,
and philosophical and scientific scepticism of the present day. On the
1st of January, 1865, Dr. MacVicar was married to Isabella McKay, of
Chatham, and has a family consisting of three sons and one daughter.
* * * * *
=Heavysege, Charles=, the gifted author of “Saul,” was born in
Liverpool, England, May 2nd, 1816. On his arrival in Canada in 1853, he
took up his residence in Montreal, where for a time he worked as a
machinist, earning by hard labour a modest subsistence for himself and
his family. Afterwards he became a local reporter on the staff of the
Montreal _Daily Witness_; but, as has been the case with many another
son of genius, his life was one long struggle with poverty. Through all
his earlier years of toil and harassing cares, he devoted himself to
study and poetical composition, but published nothing till he was nearly
forty years of age. A poem in blank verse saw the light in 1854. This
production, crude, no doubt, and immature, met with a chilling
reception, even from his friends. Some time afterwards appeared a
collection of fifty sonnets, many of them vigorous and even lofty in
tone, but almost all of them defective in execution, owing to the
author’s want of early culture. “Saul,” his greatest work, was published
in 1857, and fortunately fell into the hands of Hawthorne, then a
resident of Liverpool, who had it favourably noticed in the _North
British Review_. Longfellow and Emerson, too, spoke highly of its
excellence, the former pronouncing it to be “the best tragedy written
since the days of Shakespeare.” Canadians then discovered that Heavysege
was a genius, and made partial atonement for their neglect; but even to
the end the poet’s struggle with fortune was a bitter one. In 1857, he
published “Saul: A scriptural tragedy.” “Count Flippo or, The Unequal
Marriage:” a drama in five acts (1860). This production is inferior to
“Saul,” not only because it does not possess the epic sublimity of the
sacred drama, but because in it there is too much straining after
effect, the characterization is defective, and the criticism of life
displayed is not of the highest quality. “Jephthah’s Daughter,” (1865):
a drama which follows closely the scriptural narrative, and, so far as
concerns artistic execution, is superior to “Saul.” The lines flow with
greater smoothness; there are fewer commonplace expressions, and the
author has gained a firmer mastery over the rhetorical aids of figures
of speech. His mind, however, shows no increase in strength, and we miss
the rugged grandeur and terrible delineations of his earliest drama.
“The Advocate:” a novel (1865). Besides these works, Heavysege produced
many shorter pieces, one of the finest of which, “The Dark Huntsman,”
was sent to the _Canadian Monthly_ just before his death. To Art
Heavysege, so his critics say, owed little. Even his most elaborate
productions are defaced by unmusical lines, prosaic phrases and
sentences, and faults of taste and judgment. But he owed much to Nature;
for he was endowed with real and fervid, though unequal and irregular,
genius. To the circumstances of his life, as much as to the character of
his mind, may be attributed the pathetic sadness that pervades his
works. Occasionally, it is true, there is a faint gleam of humour; but
it is grim humour, which never glows with geniality or concentrates into
wit. Irony and quaint sarcasm, too, display themselves in some of the
Spirit scenes in “Saul.” But for sublimity of conception and power of
evoking images of horror and dread, Heavysege was unsurpassed except by
the masters of our literature. He possessed also, an intimate knowledge
of the workings of the human heart; his delineations of character were
powerful and distinct; and his pictures of impassioned emotion are
wonderful in their epic grandeur. Every page of his dramas betrays an
ardent study of the Bible, Milton, and Shakespeare, both in the
reproduction of images and thoughts, and in the prevailing accent of his
style. But he had an originality of his own; for many of his sentences
are remarkable for their genuine power, and keen and concentrated
energy. Here and there, too, we meet with exquisite pieces of
description, and some of the lyrics in “Saul” are full of rich fancy and
musical cadence. Without early culture, and amid the toilsome and
uncongenial labours of his daily life, Heavysege has established his
right to a foremost place in the Canadian Temple of Fame: what might he
not have done for himself and his adopted country, had he been favoured
by circumstances as he was by Nature! His death took place at Montreal,
in August, 1876.
* * * * *
=Torrance, Rev. Robert=, D.D., Guelph, Ontario, was born at Markethill,
county of Armagh, Ireland, on the 23rd of May, 1825, and was the
youngest of seven sons. His ancestor on his father’s side—M.
Torrance—left Ayrshire, Scotland, during the times of the persecution,
and settled in the north of Ireland, and their descendants have lived
there, in the same locality, ever since. Robert Torrance, the subject of
this sketch, went to school at an early age in his native village, and
remained under the same tutor until he was ten years old, when he began
the study of the Latin and Greek languages. In 1837, his parents removed
to Glenluce, Wigtonshire, Scotland, and here Robert entered the school
in this place, and continued the studies he had already begun before
leaving Ireland, and began others preparatory to the life-work selected
for him by his parents. In 1839, he was enrolled as a student in the
Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, then or shortly afterwards
affiliated with the London University; then he studied Greek and logic,
and _belles-lettres_; mental and moral philosophy under Dr. Robert
Wilson; mathematics under Prof. Young; natural philosophy, including
astronomy and optics, and Hebrew under Professor Harte, assistant to Dr.
Hincks, who was then an old man, and confined his attention to the
senior class. This Dr. Hincks, was the father of the celebrated Oriental
scholar, Dr. Hincks, and of the late Sir Francis Hincks, whose name is
well known in Canada. After the completion of his art course and passing
the usual examination by the Presbytery in whose bounds he resided, he
entered on the study of divinity, in the halls of the United Secession
Church in Scotland. His first session was spent in Glasgow, and the
subsequent ones in Edinburgh. His course was completed in 1845, with the
exception of one session, and, as there was great want at that time for
missionaries to go out to Canada, he offered his services, and was
accepted, it being agreed, under the circumstances, to exempt him from
attending the last or fifth session on his furnishing testimonials as to
fitness for the field and work. These having been produced to the
satisfaction of the Committee on Foreign Missions, of which Dr. John
McKerrow was convener, the Presbytery of Kinross was instructed to take
him on trials for license, with a view to his proceeding to Canada.
According to appointment, these trials were delivered in the church at
Inverkeithing, a village in Fifeshire, about four miles south from
Dunfermline. Having passed the Presbytery and been licensed, he preached
two Sabbath days in Scotland, one for Rev. Dr. MacKelvie, in Balgedie,
in whose family he had been tutor for three seasons; and the other for
Rev. Mr. Puller, in Glenluce, where he had spent his boyhood. He then at
once left for Liverpool, taking his parents with him, and from that port
sailed, in a few days, for New York, which was reached safely after a
voyage of four weeks. Without delay, he proceeded to Toronto, and there
occupied the pulpit of Rev. Mr. Jennings for a few Sabbaths, Mr.
Jennings being at the time in Scotland recruiting his health. Mr.
Torrance spent one year as a probationer, travelling through the western
section of Canada, from Toronto to Goderich and Detroit, as he had
determined not to settle down in a charge till he had gone over a good
part of the mission field, and given as much supply as in his power.
Travelling in those days was far from possessing the conveniences and
comforts now enjoyed. There were no railways; in several of the
districts there were no stage coaches. The probationer was thus under
the necessity of purchasing a horse, and making his journeys on
horseback. In winter he was exposed at times to intense cold, and in
summer to prostrating heat. He had to clothe himself for such changes of
temperature. Roads were sometimes obstructed with snow, and he had to
wait till parties turned out and made them passable, or opened up a way
through adjoining fields; in spring and fall there was deep mud and
often the horse had difficulty in getting through, and some of the
stations were difficult of access from other causes, such as their
recent formation. Accommodation when he reached his destination, was not
always such as he had been accustomed to in the fatherland. But the
people were uniformly kind and courteous; they gave the best they had
ungrudgingly, often wishing it were better; and extended a cordial
welcome. Many an event then befell him which interested him at the time
and still lingers in his recollection. After receiving and declining
calls from three or four congregations, he accepted a call from a
congregation in Guelph, and was ordained and inducted on the 11th of
November, 1846. He remained in this charge till January, 1882, when his
resignation was placed in the hands of the Presbytery, and its
acceptance pressed. Towards the close of the same month the pastoral
relationship to his congregation was dissolved, the General Assembly
giving permission to retain his name on the Roll of Presbytery. Since
that time he has not had a stated charge, but has been frequently
employed as moderator of sessions of vacant congregations in the bounds,
and doing other work of a ministerial character. Shortly after his
settlement in Guelph, he was appointed a trustee on the High School
Board, and filled that position for a number of years. He succeeded for
a time to the superintendence of the Common (now called Public) schools,
in the south riding of the county, having the oversight of the townships
of Erin, Eramosa, Guelph and Puslinch. Finding the labours too onerous
in connection with his pastoral work, he resigned the position after two
years occupancy to the hands of the County council. Previous to this,
however, in 1855, he had been chosen by the Guelph Board of Trustees
superintendent of the schools in the town, then only three or four in
number. This situation he has since filled without interruption, and has
seen the progress made up to this date, the number of schools having
increased to twenty-six, and a class of buildings provided unsurpassed
by any in Ontario. Shortly after the Rev. Mr. Torrance’s settlement in
Guelph, a new presbytery was formed, called the Presbytery of
Wellington, and of this he was chosen clerk, and this office he filled
till the union of the churches, which took place in 1861, when Mr., now
Rev. Dr. Middlemiss, who had been clerk of the Free Church Presbytery,
was chosen clerk of the united one. In 1870, Mr. Middlemiss resigned,
and was succeeded by Mr. Torrance, who still occupies the office. The
church with which he was connected was known in his early days as the
“United Secession,” a name afterwards changed to “United Presbyterian,”
when the union between the Relief and Secession churches was effected.
For some years he filled the position of convener of their committee on
statistics, and also of their committee on the supply of vacancies and
distribution of probationers. In 1874, his name appears for the first
time as convener of the committee of the united church on statistics,
and he was continued in the office at the farther union, which took
place in 1875, and still occupies it. For some time the supply of
vacancies and allocation of probationers were under the charge of the
Home Mission committee, but they chose a sub-committee for the purpose,
and for a few years the burden of the work fell to him with the other
members. Ultimately a distinct committee was appointed by the General
Assembly, to whom this service was assigned, and he was chosen convener.
In 1880 he was chosen moderator of the Synod of Toronto and Kingston,
which met in St. James’ Square Church, Toronto, and occupied the office
for the usual period of one year. In 1883, he tendered his resignation,
when Rev. Mr. Laidlaw of St. Paul’s Church, Hamilton, was chosen to
succeed him. The scheme fell out of use, and it was considered
unnecessary to continue the committee after 1884, till 1886, when the
want of it having made itself felt, a new committee was appointed under
a revised scheme, of which Rev. Mr. Laidlaw was appointed convener by
the Assembly, and Mr. Torrance clerk by the committee, Mr. Laidlaw
feeling that he could not carry on the work of the committee in
connection with the weight and responsibility of his labours as the
minister of an important city charge. In 1884, Mr. Torrance was chosen a
life member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at
its meeting in Montreal. In 1885, he was installed as a member of the
Canadian Postal College of the natural sciences, and in September of the
same year, he was constituted a life member of the Canadian Short-Hand
Society. For several years he has been a member, by the appointment of
the General Assembly of the Board of Examiners of Knox College, Toronto,
and the senate of that institute conferred upon him, in 1885, the
honorary degree of D.D. In 1851, he revisited Scotland, for the
restoration of his health, which had become impaired through the labours
that had been undergone; and again in 1881 he visited the old country,
accompanied by his wife. On this occasion he travelled over the greater
part of Scotland, visited Ireland and its chief cities, with the lakes
of Killarney, and crossed over to Paris, where a week was spent amid the
scenes of that gay and enchanting city. Rev. Mr. Torrance’s religious
views are Presbyterian; these he says he acquired from his parents and
is satisfied with their scriptural character, and has not changed his
mind since boyhood. Rev. Mr. Torrance may now be considered as having
retired from very active duties. In 1857, he purchased ten acres of fine
land in the neighbourhood of Guelph, and having built thereon for
himself a comfortable house, he resides there and devotes his spare time
to gardening and the cultivation of flowers, having gone to the expense
of importing from Scotland, and even China, some very rare flower seeds.
In August, 1854, he was married to Bessie Dryden, of Eramosa, whose
father and mother had come from the neighbourhood of Jedburgh, in
Scotland, and took up land in that township soon after it was thrown
open to settlers. Four children, two sons and two daughters, were born,
all of them now grown up; two of them married, one of the latter, a
daughter, having gone with her husband to China, under an engagement for
four years at the close of which they have returned.
* * * * *
=Moore, Paul Robinson=, M.D., Sackville, New Brunswick, was born on the
30th of March, 1835, in Hopewell, Westmoreland county, New Brunswick.
(Since the county was divided, Hopewell is in Albert county). His
father, Thomas Benjamin Moore was a lawyer in Albert and Westmoreland
counties, and died in Moncton, Westmoreland county, April, 1875, aged
sixty-eight years. His mother’s maiden name was Apphia Robinson,
daughter of Deacon Paul C. Robinson, of Hopewell. She bore thirteen
children, six sons and seven daughters, of whom three sons and four
daughters still survive, the subject of this sketch being the third
child. His paternal grand-father was John W. Moore, sergeant of the 1st
battalion of Royal Artillery, and died a pensioner in Ballymena,
Ireland, at eighty-five years of age. His paternal ancestors resided in
the north of Ireland, and it is a family tradition that at the siege of
Londonderry there were seven brothers Moore, engaged in the fighting,
five of whom were slain in one attack. The remaining two survived the
perils of the siege, and their descendants are still for the most part
settled in the north of Ireland. His father was five years old when he
came to this country in 1813, when the regiment to which his
grand-father belonged was ordered out to defend Fort Cumberland. Paul
Robinson Moore received a mathematical and classical education at the
Mount Allison Institution, in Sackville, New Brunswick, up to the age of
fifteen, when on account of ill health his studies were abandoned. Three
years later, having regained his health, he commenced the study of
medicine with Dr. Wm. T. Taylor, of Philadelphia, U.S., but had to give
it up at the end of the first year, on account of another serious attack
of illness which threatened to end in phthisis. He then returned to New
Brunswick, and after recruiting his health, took a clerkship at the
Albert mines in Hillsborough, New Brunswick, for eighteen months, and
afterwards he was employed as bookkeeper and pay-master of the Boudreau
stone quarries in Westmoreland county for a year. His health being then
perfectly restored, he went to New York, and resumed his medical studies
at the university of the city of New York, receiving private instruction
at the same time from Dr. Gaillard Thomas. He graduated in March, 1859,
and was appointed house physician and surgeon of Brooklyn City Hospital
the following May, which position he held till May, 1860, when he
returned to Albert county, New Brunswick, and commenced the practice of
his profession. In January, 1875, he removed to Sackville, and entered
into a professional co-partnership with Dr. Alexander Fleming, which
continued till April, 1881, when Dr. Fleming removed to Brandon,
North-West Territory, since which time Dr. Moore has been attending
closely to his professional duties in Sackville. He was appointed
coroner for Albert county in 1866, and magistrate for the same county in
1873. The doctor has taken an interest in various companies, and is at
present a stockholder in the Moncton Cotton Company, the Sackville Music
Hall Company, and the Baptist Publishing Company. He joined the Howard
lodge of Free Masons in 1867, and Sackville division of the Sons of
Temperance in 1875; became honorary member of the Glasgow Southern
Medical Society in 1880, and president of the New Brunswick Medical
Society in 1885. He is also a member of the Medical Council. He has
never taken an active part in politics, but supports a Liberal
government, and is an uncompromising Prohibitionist. He has travelled in
England, Ireland, France, Scotland, and the United States. He has been a
member of the Baptist church since 1865. On the 12th of December, 1866,
he was married to Rebecca, eldest daughter of John Weldon, of
Dorchester, Westmoreland county, by whom he has had nine children, four
boys and five girls, of whom one boy and five girls survive.
* * * * *
=Archambault, Urgel-Eugène=, Principal of the Catholic Commercial
Academy, Montreal, was born at L’Assomption, on the 27th of May, 1834.
His parents were Louis Archambault, farmer, and Marie-Angélique
Prud’homme, belonging to a very old family of the province of Quebec.
The Archambault family came from France and settled on the Isle of
Montreal about the year 1650, thence off-shoots established themselves
in different parts of the province of Quebec, especially at
L’Assomption, from which place three or four members of this family
were, at various times, elected to the Canadian parliament. Urgel-Eugène
having attended school at Saint-Jacques de l’Achigan and at
L’Assomption, became a teacher at the age of seventeen years (1851),
taught during six years at Saint-Ambroise de Kildare, L’Assomption,
Chateauguay, and finally completed his own studies at the
Jacques-Cartier Normal School, from which institution he received an
academic diploma. In 1858, he taught at Saint-Constant, and the
following year he became head-master of the Catholic Commercial Academy
of Montreal, the principal work of his life, and which he still directs.
This school, established in Coté street, was transferred to the Plateau
in 1871; it has become one of the principal educational institutions of
the city, and even of the province of Quebec. In 1873, Mr. Archambault
was named local superintendent of all the schools controlled by the
Catholic Board of School Commissioners. The interior plans of the
Plateau, Belmont and Olier schools are the work of his hands. This same
year, 1873, he laboured successfully to bring about the foundation of an
institution destined to form civil, mining, and industrial engineers.
This was the Polytechnic School of Montreal, founded by the Catholic
school commissioners and the Honorable Gedéon Ouimet, superintendent of
education for the province of Quebec. Intended principally for
Catholics, it was annexed to the Laval University in January, 1887. The
university, which retains Mr. Archambault as principal of the
Polytechnic School, has named him titular professor of the arts faculty.
Much of the success attending the Jacques-Cartier Normal School
conventions has been due to the active interest which he has taken in
them. He is the author of the Teachers’ Pension Fund Bill, which became
law in 1880, and was amended in 1886. In 1870, Mr. Archambault visited
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond
(Virginia), and became acquainted with the best educators in the United
States. Since then he has kept himself informed of their methods of
teaching and management. With the same object in view, he visited the
Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876. In 1878, Mr. Archambault
was sent to the Paris Exhibition, to represent the Educational
department of the province of Quebec; and while in France he was named
member of the International Educational Jury, and was the first Canadian
ever decorated with the _Palmes Académiques_, and honored with the title
of _Officier d’Académie_. On this occasion he was commissioned, by the
Minister of Public Instruction in France, to deliver the _Palmes
Académiques_ to Dr. J. B. Meilleur, and to the Honourable P. J. O.
Chauveau and G. Ouimet, who, each in turn, had directed the Educational
department of the province. To allow him to fulfil his mission at the
Paris Exhibition, he was granted a seven months’ leave of absence,
during which time he gathered an ample store of pedagogic ideas, which
he has since utilized for the benefit of his country. In 1883-4, he made
a second trip to Europe and to Northern Africa, during a six months’
leave of absence granted to him on account of his health. These voyages
brought him into communication with several eminent persons, and with
different societies. Already a member of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste and of
the Historical Society of Montreal, he became a member of the
Geographical Society of Paris; in 1882, he received the title of Knight
of the Sacred and Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and in 1886 he
was named honorary member of the first degree of the Universal Humane
Society of Knight-Saviors. In 1860, Mr. Archambault married
Marie-Phélonise Azilda, daughter of Dr. Robitaille, of Saint-Roch de
l’Achigan. Of the eleven children born to them, six, a son and five
daughters, are still living (1887).
* * * * *
=Stewart, Rev. Wm. James=, Minister of the Baptist Church, Portland
city, St. John county, New Brunswick, was born at Second Falls, St.
George, Charlotte county, New Brunswick, on the 22nd of April, 1850. His
parents, David and Agnes Stewart, were born in Newtownards, county Down,
Ireland. They came to America with their parents, and were married in
St. Andrews, New Brunswick, soon after their arrival. Shortly after this
event they removed to Second Falls, where they lived happily together
and raised a family of eleven children, William being the youngest. In
February, 1857, his mother was removed from her family by death, and
laid to rest by loving hands in the village church-yard. His father
married again, his second wife being a Mrs. Manzer, a widow lady, who
still survives him. He had no issue by this wife. In July, 1876, his
father was called to his reward, and buried beside his first wife. Both
were consistent members of the Baptist church. William James Stewart,
the subject of this sketch, was not a very rugged boy, and was therefore
kept constantly at school from his earliest boyhood. At the age of
sixteen he finished the studies in the primary schools, and as there was
no high school near his home, he was allowed to drop his studies for a
few years. In the meantime he went on a visit to his brother and sister,
both of whom were married and lived in the State of Minnesota, and after
a year and a half he returned home a young man of twenty years, with no
very definite idea of life or what he should do in the future. Not long
after this, however, there came a change into his life which decided the
future for him. The sermons of Rev. Edward Hickson, then pastor of the
Baptist church in his native place, made a very deep impression on his
mind. His father was a deacon of that church, and a very godly man, his
life and influence being in perfect accord with the truth preached from
the pulpit; and so after a good deal of anxiety of mind and earnest
prayer to God, William was led to give his heart to the Saviour, and
experience in his life that “peace which passeth all understanding.” On
the 16th of June, 1872, he was immersed in the name of the Trinity by
the Rev. E. Hickson, and received into the fellowship of the Second
Falls Baptist church. He at once felt a desire in his heart to do
something for Him who had done so much for the world, and his first work
was to organize a Sunday school in connection with the church of which
he was then a member. He also resolved to take up his long neglected
studies and prepare himself for a life of usefulness, in the world. In
October, 1872, he entered the Baptist Collegiate School in Wolfville,
Nova Scotia. He did not at that time have the ministry in view, but not
long afterward it was pressed upon him with such weight that he could
not rest day or night until he yielded to the voice of God in his soul,
and began to shape his course with this in view. On 21st May, 1874, he
received a license from the church of which he was a member, signed by
George Allen, clerk, to preach the gospel according to the faith and
practice of the Baptist church. He spent the vacations of each year of
his student life in preaching the word as opportunity offered. The
vacation of 1876 he spent at Musquash, near St. John, New Brunswick, and
God poured out His Holy Spirit wonderfully upon the people and many
precious souls were saved. There was no minister near to baptize, and he
consented to be ordained, although he was but a student. His ordination
took place on the 23rd day of May, 1876, in the Carleton Baptist church.
In May, 1877, he finished his studies at Acadia College, and received a
unanimous call to the churches at St. George and Second Falls, the
latter of which he was a member. He at once entered upon his work, and
was greatly blessed in his labours among his own people. On 1st July,
1878, he was married to Lillie S. Hanson, daughter of Vernon and Helen
Hanson, in the city of Boston, by the Rev. Dr. Lorimer. After a
pastorate of about four years in his native place, he received and
accepted a call to the Baptist church in Parrsborough, Nova Scotia. He
spent one year with this church, and then received and accepted a call
to the Baptist church in Portland city, St. John county, N.B., and on
1st June, 1882, he entered upon his duties in the church of which he is
at present (1887) the pastor. About two hundred souls have been added to
this church since he took up the work, and God is now very graciously
blessing it. The church edifice has been improved at a cost of about
fifteen hundred dollars, and a fine parsonage purchased since he began
his ministry in it. The outlook for the future is very hopeful. To God
be all the praise. Rev. Mr. Stewart has had two children, a boy and a
girl. The eldest is now a bright boy of seven years. The little girl,
too sweet and pure for earth, was taken at the age of four by Him who
said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
* * * * *
=Bayly, Richard=, B.A., Q.C., Barrister-at-law, London, Ontario, was
born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 25th of May, 1834. He is the son of Rev.
Benjamin Bayly, and Cassandra Henrietta Bayly, who, previous to coming
to Canada, resided in Dublin, Mr. Bayly’s ancestors having resided in or
near that city for over three hundred years. The Rev. Mr. Bayly occupied
the important position of principal of the London Grammar school
(afterwards the London Collegiate Institute) for over thirty-five years,
until the 17th January, 1879, when he died, greatly respected by all who
had the honour of his acquaintance. Richard received his education at
the London Grammar school, in London, and at the University of Toronto,
where he graduated with the degree of B.A. He then studied law in the
office of the Hon. John Wilson (afterwards Justice John Wilson), and
became a barrister and solicitor in 1857, and has successfully practised
his profession in London ever since. He occupied a seat on the London
Board of Education from 1876 to 1885 inclusive, and was chairman of the
board for one year, and chairman of the School Management Committee for
four years. For nine years Mr. Bayly was a warden of St. Paul’s
Episcopal church, and for several years a delegate to the Diocesan and
Provincial synods. In politics, he belongs to the Liberal-Conservative
party, and for many years has taken an active interest in political
issues. He was brought up in the Episcopal fold, and has seen no reason
to change his religious belief. On the 22nd June, 1864, he was married
to Eliza, eldest daughter of the late Dr. Chas. G. Moore, of London, and
the issue of this marriage has been ten children, eight of whom
survive—five boys and three girls.
* * * * *
=Mowatt, Rev. Andrew Joseph=, Pastor of St. Paul’s (Presbyterian)
Church, Fredericton, New Brunswick, is a native-born Canadian, having
first seen the light on the 11th of February, 1838, in the town of
Woodstock, Carleton county, N.B. His father, Thomas Mowatt, and mother,
Elizabeth Scott Moffatt, emigrated from Great Britain to New Brunswick,
and settled in Woodstock in 1837, where they remained for about two
years, and then moved to Harvey, York county, where Andrew, the subject
of our sketch, was brought up, and whose early recollections of the
place is a little log hut in the forest, and a small log school-house
where he received a common school education. After leaving this school,
he went for two winters to the Collegiate school in Fredericton, then in
charge of Dr. George Roberts, and afterwards he spent three terms at the
Presbyterian college at Truro, Nova Scotia, taking the regular arts
course there. He then studied theology under Rev. Dr. King, at Gerrish
Theological Hall, Halifax, N.S., and completed his studies in 1866. On
the 2nd of May of the same year, he received a license to preach the
gospel from the Presbytery of Pictou, was called to the new congregation
of Sharon church, Albion Mines, now Stellarton, and was ordained pastor
on the 5th of June following. The Rev. Mr. Mowatt retained the charge of
this church for seven years, and then left on receiving a call from St.
John’s church, Windsor, N.S., and was inducted its pastor by the
Presbytery of Halifax on the 8th of July, 1873. Here he laboured in the
Lord’s vineyard for six and a half years. He then was called to the
pastorate of St. Paul’s church in Fredericton, and was inducted into
this charge on the 8th of January, 1880, by the Presbytery of St. John;
and here he has laboured ever since. This church has greatly prospered
under Mr. Mowatt’s able ministration, and, on the 10th of January, 1886,
the congregation abandoned their old church edifice and moved into a
fine stone building, which is an ornament to the town. Rev. Mr. Mowatt
was brought up in the faith as taught by the Presbyterian church, and
has so far seen no reason to change his opinion with regard to it. He
has spent his life in his Master’s service, and he has the satisfaction
of knowing that he has done something to advance His kingdom in this
world, and, under God’s grace, fitted many a poor soul to enter the
Father’s home of many mansions. He was married to Louisa Jane Annand, of
Gay’s River, Colchester county, N.S., on the 30th of June, 1868. Her
brother, the Rev. Joseph Annand, is a missionary on the island of
Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides. Rev. Mr. Mowatt has a family of
nine children.
* * * * *
=Mitchell, Hon. James=, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, was born at the
Scottish Settlement, York county, N.B., on the 16th March, 1843. His
father, William Mitchell, was a native of Inverkip, Renfrewshire,
Scotland, and came to America in 1827, settling in York county, N.B. His
mother, Ann Dobie, was a native of Dumfries, in Scotland. James Mitchell
received his education first in the public school, then in the
Collegiate Institute, and latterly in the University of New Brunswick,
at Fredericton, where, in 1867, he graduated with the degrees of B.A.,
and M.A. He afterwards studied law, and was called to the bar in
October, 1870, and has since practised his profession at St. Stephen,
Charlotte county, where he now resides. Mr. Mitchell was inspector of
schools for Charlotte county from 1872 to 1875, and from 1877 to 1879,
and during these years exercised a very material influence on the
educational affairs of his town and county. He occupied the position of
Census commissioner in 1881. He is at present a member of the Senate of
the University of New Brunswick, and a member of the Alumni Society;
also a member of the Lunatic Asylum Commission and of the Board of
Education of the province of New Brunswick. At the general election in
1882 his fellow-citizens of Charlotte county chose him to represent them
in the New Brunswick parliament; and, on the 3rd of March, 1883, he was
appointed a member of the Executive Council, and surveyor-general of the
province. On his presenting himself for re-election, he was returned by
acclamation. He was again elected at the general election in 1886. Hon.
Mr. Mitchell is a Liberal-Conservative in politics, having always
identified himself with the party of progress in the country, and is an
active promoter of railways, manufactures, and other public works. As a
barrister he stands high at the bar of his native province. He is a
past-master of the Free and Accepted Masons, and past-principal Z of the
Royal Arch Chapter. He has followed in the footsteps of his parents, and
is a consistent adherent of the Presbyterian church. On the 17th
December, 1873, he was married to Miss Ryder, of St. Stephen.
* * * * *
=MacFarlane, Foster=, M.D., Fairville, St. John, New Brunswick, was born
in the parish of Studholm, Kings county, N.B., on the 12th December,
1834. His father, Matthew MacFarlane, was born in the parish of Dramore,
county of Tyrone, Ireland, and was a descendant of a family of that
name, who, with others, sought refuge from the persecution then
prevailing in the Highlands of Scotland. The record of the family dates
back to the beginning of the thirteenth century. The family name of
“MacFarlane” took its origin from a grandson of the Earl of Lennox,
named Bartholomew, the Gaelic of which is “Pharlan,” whose son was named
MacFarlane (or son of Bartholomew). The seat of the Earl of Lennox was
Dumbarton castle, which was held by his descendants the MacFarlanes, at
intervals, and for six centuries they held possession of their original
lands, the principal seat of which was Arrochar, at the head of
Lochlong. The MacFarlane clan fought, and distinguished themselves, in
the battle of Langside, May 13th, 1565, their valour mainly contributing
to decide the fortunes of the day, and the defeat of Mary, Queen of
Scots. For their bravery they received from the Regent their crest and
motto which has ever since been inscribed on their family escutcheon,
“This I’ll defend.” Chief among the descendants of this ancient family
may be mentioned Walter MacFarlane, of MacFarlane, who is justly
celebrated as the indefatigable collector of the ancient records of his
country, and whose historical writings, according to Mr. Skeen, “form
the best monuments to his memory; and as long as the existence of the
ancient records of the country, or a knowledge of its ancient history
remains an object of interest to any Scotchman, the name of MacFarlane
will be handed down as one of its benefactors, which monument will be
found more enduring than the barbaric splendour of his warlike
countrymen, which has long since faded away, thus showing that it is not
the destroyer but the benefactor of his fellow-creatures who is secure
of immortality.” In 1815, when but a lad of twelve years of age, Matthew
MacFarlane, accompanied his father, James MacFarlane, and other members
of the family, to America, and on their arrival settled at Rockland, in
Kingston, Kings county, N.B. Some years afterwards, and when the family
had grown up, Mr. MacFarlane, sr., left his eldest son, Charles, on the
homestead, and removed, with Matthew and his other sons and daughters,
to Studholm, in the same county. About the year 1827, being amongst the
pioneer settlers of that part of the country, Matthew MacFarlane married
Sarah Foster, whose father, Ezekiel Foster, came from New England during
the American war. One of his brothers fought at the battle of Lexington,
and died in defending what he considered his rights, having espoused the
cause of the colonists. Foster MacFarlane, the subject of our sketch,
was the fifth child of this marriage, and first saw the light in a log
cabin, the common abode of the pioneer farmers of those days. His
earliest education was received in the parish school, and was limited to
the rudiments of an ordinary English education. At the age of twenty,
having passed the required examination before the local board then
existing, he received a license to teach in the public school. After
teaching for a time, he entered upon a course of study at the Baptist
Seminary, Fredericton, and afterwards took a special course for a time
at the University of New Brunswick. After leaving the university, he
pursued a course in medicine at Harvard University, Cambridge, United
States, and was privileged to sit at the feet of such men as Professor
Agassiz, Jeffries Wyman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and E. Brown-Sequard, of
Paris, graduating in 1868. He first practised medicine in his native
parish for two years and a half. During this time he was appointed by
the government a coroner for Kings county. He then removed to Fairville,
St. John, N.B., where he has ever since practised his profession. He has
been a member of the Senate of the University of New Brunswick since the
spring of 1883, and a director of the Union Baptist Education Society
since its incorporation. He was one of the promoters of the Dominion
Safety Fund Life Association, filling for a number of years the position
of director, and is now its medical superintendent. He united about
thirty years ago with the Sons of Temperance, and has since belonged to
other temperance organizations, being now a member of the Independent
Order of Good Templars. He was brought up in connection with the
Methodists, but in the year 1858 his views underwent a change, and he
united with the Baptists, and is at present a member of the Fairville
Baptist church. On July 20, 1868, he was married to Elizabeth A.
Babbitt, daughter of Samuel Perry and Phœbe Babbitt, of St. John, N.B.
He has five children—one son and four daughters.
* * * * *
=Burns, Rev. Robert Ferrier=, D.D., Pastor of the Fort Massey
Presbyterian church, Halifax, Nova Scotia. This popular minister was
born in Paisley, Scotland, on the 23rd of December, 1826. His father was
Robert Burns, D.D., and his mother, Janet Orr, daughter of the first
provost of Paisley. His mother’s sister, Susan, was mother of Sir
Archibald Orr Ewing, baronet, M.P. for Dumbarton. His father had three
brothers in the ministry of the Church of Scotland,—namely, Rev. James
Burns, who for forty years was minister of the parish of Brechin; Rev.
William H. Burns, D.D., Kilsyth; and Rev. George Burns, D.D., first
Presbyterian minister of St. John, New Brunswick, afterwards of
Tweedsmuir and Corstorphine, Scotland,—and two uncles in the service of
their Sovereign—Major-General Islay Ferrier, the last governor of
Dumbarton castle, and Sir William Hamilton, baronet, who commanded the
marines that pulled the guns up to the Plains of Abraham, in 1759, at
the taking of Quebec. Miss Ferrier, author, and friend of Sir Walter
Scott, was a second cousin. Rev. Dr. Burns, sr., was pastor for
thirty-three years of Dr. Witherspoon’s church (Laigh Kirk and St.
George’s), Paisley, and moved to Toronto in 1845, and became the first
pastor of Knox’s Church in that city, and professor in Knox’s College.
He died at Toronto on the 19th of August, 1869; and his widow on the
22nd of August, 1882. Rev. Dr. Robert Ferrier Burns received his early
education at the High school of Paisley, and then entered the University
of Glasgow, where he remained four years, taking honours in Latin,
Greek, logic, and moral philosophy. He studied theology in the New
College (Free Church), Edinburgh, and Knox’s College, Toronto. In April,
1847, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Toronto, and on the
1st of July following he was ordained pastor of Chalmer’s Presbyterian
church, Kingston, Ontario. He was Presbyterian chaplain in the 71st
Highland Light Infantry for a year. He remained in this charge for eight
years, and, during his ministry there, succeeded in having built for his
congregation a handsome church edifice. In July, 1855, he moved to St.
Catharines, and was settled over Knox Presbyterian church of that place.
A fine building was erected by his people for him. Here he ministered
until March, 1867, when he accepted a call from the Scotch Presbyterian
church in Chicago, United States, to become its first pastor, and,
during his residence there of three years, a church was built. In 1866,
the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Hamilton College, New York.
In April, 1870, he was translated to Côté Street Presbyterian church
(now Crescent street), Montreal, as successor to Principal MacVicar,
where he did good work. On the 18th of March, 1875, he became pastor of
Fort Massey Presbyterian church in Halifax, as successor to the Rev. J.
K. Smith, M.A., now of Galt, who for two years had been first pastor of
this influential congregation. In 1873, Dr. Burns occupied the position
of moderator of the Synod of Montreal, and in 1883 he was moderator of
the Synod of the Maritime provinces. During his residence in Montreal he
was chairman of the Presbyterian College Board; and, for the past twelve
years, has acted as chairman of the Halifax College Board. In 1880 he
was sent as a delegate to the Raikes’ centenary celebration in London,
and during the same year he represented the Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church of Canada in the Presbyterian Council at Philadelphia. In 1884 he
was a delegate from the same church to the council held in Belfast,
Ireland, where he read one of the papers presented to that body, and was
appointed one of its executive committee. This year (1887) the doctor
has been nominated for the moderatorship of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church, which meets in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in June next.
Rev. Dr. Burns takes a great interest in Sunday-school work, and was one
of the first to advocate the establishment of Sunday-school conventions
in Canada, which have done so much of late years to advance this branch
of Christian work. As a platform speaker he stands high, and has often
spoken on subjects, professional and otherwise, before large audiences.
At present he is lecturer on theological themes in the Presbyterian
College at Halifax. As a book-writer, too, he has done his share. His
life of his father, a volume of nearly five hundred pages, published in
Toronto in 1873, soon went through three editions. His other writings,
“Sketch of Abraham Lincoln,” “The Presbyterian Church,” “Modern
Babylon,” “The Maine Law,” “Christian Liberality,” “Confession and
Absolution,” and a variety of sermons and tracts—have all been
favourably received, and commanded a good sale. He has also contributed
largely to the columns of the newspaper press and our periodicals. Dr.
Burns has travelled a good deal, and has visited Great Britain, Ireland,
France, Germany, and various other places in Europe, and is very
familiar with Canada and the United States. He was married on the 1st of
July, 1852, at Belleville, Ontario, to Elizabeth, second daughter of
Rufus Holden, M.D., a much esteemed physician, and elder of the
Presbyterian church, in Belleville. Dr. Burns has eight children—four
sons and four daughters.
* * * * *
=Bullock, Joseph=, Oil Merchant, St. John, New Brunswick, is a native of
Springfield, Ohio, and was born on September 6th, 1833. His father was
William Bullock, a native of Staffordshire, England, who came to the
United States a few years prior to the birth of Joseph. His mother’s
maiden name was Ann Clark Peacock, she being of the Yorkshire family of
that ilk. His mother’s parents came out to Ohio about the same time as
Mr. Bullock, sr. Mr. Peacock went there to accept the position of
engineer for the state of Ohio. Joseph Bullock’s parents removed to
Hamilton, Ontario, in the spring of 1834, he then being only a few
months old. Two years later they removed to what is now known as
Bullock’s Corners, near Dundas, the place taking its name from his
father. It was here Mr. Bullock spent his boyhood, and got what
education could in those days be procured in the public school of the
vicinity. On leaving school he helped his father in his business, which,
by the way, was that of lumberman. During the time he was so engaged, he
married when in his 25th year, Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac Duffield, a
farmer of the township of Glanford, South Wentworth. Two years after his
marriage, the lumber business declining, he commenced business as
general store-keeper at Bullock’s Corners, which he continued for about
three years. After this he settled upon a farm he owned in West
Flamboro’, and worked it for two years. His father having died in the
meantime, he left West Flamboro’ and took up his residence at the old
homestead. Here he remained about three years, travelling occasionally
for his brothers-in-law, Duffield Bros., of London, oil refiners. In the
year 1869, Confederation being an accomplished fact, Mr. Bullock removed
to St. John, New Brunswick, to engage in the oil business, which has now
assumed such large proportions. His original intention was to handle
Canadian oil exclusively, but as the years rolled on, American products
had also to be handled, and he is now the largest dealer in oils in the
maritime provinces. In politics, Mr. Bullock is thoroughly independent,
voting more on the character of the man than from purely party motives.
It is, however, in the religious world that Mr. Bullock is most
conspicuous. As a boy he was identified more particularly with the
Church of England, but at the age of about twenty years he became a
member of the Methodist church, of which he is a consistent and earnest
member. Prior to the great fire of 1877, Mr. Bullock was a trustee of
the old German Street Methodist Church, the oldest church in the city,
and after its destruction by that fire, was chairman of the building
committee of the present Queen Square Methodist Church, and of which he
still continues a trustee. It was largely to his energy and liberality
that the erection of this church was due. He is also a member of the
quarterly board of his church, and is one of the board of directors of
the British and Foreign Bible Society for the city of St. John. He is a
total abstainer, and has been for the most of his life, and is
pronounced in favour of the prohibition of the liquor traffic. When Gen.
Booth visited St. John, he was the guest of Mr. Bullock. Mr. Bullock has
had a family of three children, one of whom is deceased, and the
remaining ones, two sons, are associated with him in business.
* * * * *
=Binney, Irwine Whitty=, Collector of Customs, Port of Moncton, New
Brunswick, was born on the 10th of July, 1841, at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He is a son of the late Stephen Binney, who for many years was a leading
merchant in Halifax, and who, when the city was incorporated, was
elected its first mayor. Mr. Binney, sr., acting as mayor, on the
occasion of the birth of the Prince of Wales, visited England, and
presented an address to Her Majesty the Queen, signed by a large number
of the citizens. This gentleman was grandson of the late Hon. Hibbert N.
Binney, who for a period of nearly forty years, filled the office of
collector of customs and excise at Halifax, and was also a member of the
Legislative Council; and great-grandson of the late Hon. Jonathan
Binney, one of the first residents of Halifax, who was a member of the
first Legislative Assembly (1758) of the province. He and Frederick des
Barras met the Indian chiefs at Arichat, New Brunswick, in 1761, and
concluded a lasting peace, and was appointed to the Legislative Council
in 1768; second judge at St. John’s Island (near Prince Edward Island);
and also collector of customs for the island. I. W. Binney, the subject
of this sketch, is brother to William Pryor Binney, Her Britannic
Majesty’s consul at Syra, Greece, and was educated at various schools,
including the Sackville Academy, New Brunswick, receiving a commercial
education. In his younger days he found employment as a clerk in several
commercial houses; and from 1861 to 1864, he was in the old established
and well known lumber firm of Gilmour, Rankin & Co., Miramichi, New
Brunswick. He also carried on a wholesale business at Chatham, New
Brunswick, for a few years, and afterwards engaged in mining operations
in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, in company with the late Sir A. J. Smith
and others. He was appointed a clerk in Her Majesty’s customs in 1874,
and promoted to the collectorship at the port of Moncton, New Brunswick,
in 1883. He joined the Freemasons in 1862; was made a Royal-Arch-Mason
in 1866, and Knight Templar in 1870. At present he is a past master of
Keith lodge of Moncton, New Brunswick. He is an Episcopalian in his
religious views. Mr. Binney’s father moved to Moncton, New Brunswick,
from Halifax, in 1845, and died there in 1872. Mr. Binney is unmarried,
and his mother and widowed sister reside with him.
* * * * *
=Berthelot, Hon. Joseph Amable=, Judge of the Superior Court of
Montreal. This learned judge was born on the 8th of May, 1815, at St.
Eustache, county of Two Mountains, by the marriage of Joseph Amable
Berthelot, notary, and Dame Marie M. Hervieux. Mr. Berthelot’s father
was from Quebec, where he finished his classical studies in 1796, having
been the classmate of the late Hon. Judge Thomas Taschereau, the father
of his eminence the Cardinal, and also that of the late Hon. Judge
Vanfelson, who died in Montreal. Judge Berthelot began his Latin course
in 1824, and finished it on the 9th of June, 1832, when at the age of
seventeen. The course that year was suddenly terminated, on account of
the cholera, the professors having deemed it prudent to send back the
scholars to their families in the month of June. In the month of October
of the same year he began his legal studies, being indentured with the
late Hon. Sir. L. H. Lafontaine, who had married his cousin in 1830. Sir
George E. Cartier, who was his classmate at college, also commenced
studying law in 1832, in the office of the late Etienne E. Rodier,
advocate, M.P.P. for the county of l’Assomption. After being admitted to
the bar in November, 1836, he became the partner of Mr. Lafontaine, and
continued to practise his profession in such partnership until July,
1853, when Mr. Lafontaine was appointed chief justice of the province of
Lower Canada on the demise of the late Sir James Stuart. A few days
after, Mr. Berthelot entered into partnership with his friend, the late
Sir George E. Cartier, and continued this partnership until he was
appointed assistant judge of the Superior Court, succeeding the late
Hon. C. D. Day, who was appointed codifier in February, 1859. On Justice
Day’s resignation having been accepted by the government, in 1860, Judge
Berthelot was immediately appointed permanent judge of the Superior
Court. On this occasion, in December, 1860, the bar of Montreal held a
meeting in order to express publicly their satisfaction of the
appointment of Judge Berthelot to the bench, and adopted resolutions,
copies of which were transmitted to the judge, and also published in the
newspapers of the day, amongst others in _La Minerve_. These resolutions
read as follow:
At a special meeting of the members of the bar of Lower Canada
section of this district, which was held on Wednesday, the 12th
of December instant, it was unanimously resolved:
1. Moved by Henry Stuart, seconded by Gédéon Ouimet, M.P.P.,
That the bar of Montreal has seen with real pleasure the
promotion of the Honourable J. A. Berthelot, whose talents, high
sense of honour, integrity, conscientious work and services
already rendered as assistant judge, are a sure guarantee of the
faithfulness with which he will fulfil the difficult duties of
the new office which he has just entered as permanent judge of
the Superior Court.
2. Moved by Andrew Robertson, seconded by C. A. Leblanc, That as
citizens, and with due regard to public interest, the barristers
of Montreal cheerfully greet the appointment of Mr. Justice
Berthelot, and as his _confrères_, they are highly honoured as a
body by this new appointment.
3. Moved by the Honourable T. J. J. Loranger, seconded by J. C.
Daly, That copies of the foregoing resolutions be transmitted by
the _bâtonnier_ and secretary to Mr. Justice Berthelot, and that
the secretary be authorized to publish them in the city papers.
(Signed) ROBERT MACKAY, _Bâtonnier_,
(Signed) MEDERIC MARCHAND, _Secretary_.
The French paper, _L’Ordre_, made the following comments on the
foregoing resolutions:
We have already fully expressed our opinion on this subject, and
to-day we are happy to see the bar of Montreal confirming our
appreciation of this appointment.
During the time that Mr. Berthelot practised at the bar, his _confrères_
elected him twice to the dignity of _bâtonnier_, in 1858 and 1859.
Whilst he exercised his duties of judge in Montreal, in the space of
fifteen years, he was called upon to perform the same duties of judge at
Ste. Scholastique, district of Terrebonne. In February, 1872, he was
invited by the members of the bar of that district, numbering seventeen,
to a complimentary public dinner by the following resolutions, which
were then published in the press:
At the meeting of the bar of the district of Terrebonne, held at
Ste. Scholastique on the 7th of February, 1872, it was resolved:
1. Moved by J. H. Filion, seconded by Mr. Boisseau, that Mr.
Burroughs be appointed chairman, and Mr. Rochon be requested to
act as secretary.
2. Moved by Mr. Wilfrid Prévost, seconded by J. A. H. Mackay,
That a public dinner be given to the Hon. J. A. Berthelot, by
the bar of the district of Terrebonne, as an acknowledgment of
our esteem and respect for his honour.
3. Moved by J. A. H. Mackay, seconded by J. H. Filion, That the
chairman and Mr. Wilfrid Prévost be delegated to interview his
honour, and express the desire of the bar to give him a dinner,
and in order that he may fix the date that he will find
convenient.
(Signed) C. S. BURROUGHS, _Chairman_,
(Signed) A. ROCHON, _Secretary_.
Judge Berthelot regretted that he could not accept a demonstration which
would be so creditable for himself from the bar of the district of
Terrebonne, being on the eve of sailing for Europe, during a leave of
absence which had been granted to him by the Government for recuperating
his health, which was slightly impaired by his strict attendance to his
judicial duties. Before his appointment to the bench in 1859, he had
been called upon to fulfil the office of assistant judge in Montreal for
six months, in 1855 and 1856, during which time the judges of the
province had to act as such during the sittings of the Seignorial Court
for Lower Canada. On the 28th of November, 1875, his Lordship Archbishop
Bourget, intimated to Judge Berthelot that he had just received from
Rome a letter from his Excellency Monsignor Roncetti, Ablegate,
informing him that His Holiness Pius IX. had been pleased to appoint him
Commander of the Order of St. Sylvestre, by an apostolical writ, dated
the 24th of September then last, enclosed with the Ablegate’s letter,
adding that His Holiness had been so kind and so generous that through
the agency of His Eminence Cardinal Antonelli, he had consented to give
to Mr. Berthelot himself the decoration of the Commandery of the Order
of St. Sylvestre, which he had confided to the care of Mr. Harel,
procurator of the archbishop. The newspaper _Le Monde_, of Paris,
France, on the 28th of December, 1875, noticed this honour granted to
Judge Berthelot in the following terms:
We do not doubt that the appointment of Judge Berthelot will be
hailed with pleasure by the numerous friends that he has in
France, who have had occasion to appreciate, during his several
visits to our continent, how he was worthy in all respects, of
the high distinction which had been conferred upon him.
His Excellency, Monsignor Roncetti, in a letter bearing date of
February, 1876, wrote as follows to Judge Berthelot:
MY DEAR AND HONOURED COMMANDER,—With your very kind letter of
the 20th of January, for which I am very thankful, I have also
received, through the agency of Mr. Harel, your letter for his
Eminence Cardinal Antonelli, who entrusted me with his answer,
which you will find herewith:—In renewing my sincere
congratulations, I beg to present my homage to the most
excellent lady, Madame Berthelot, to your dear children, and to
accept at the same time the assurance of my most perfect esteem
and profound respect. Expecting with the greatest impatience the
day when I will see you in Rome, I have the honour to be, my
dear and honoured Commander,
Your most humble and devoted servant,
CESAR RONCETTI.
In the same month of February, 1876, Judge Berthelot was in receipt of a
letter from his Eminence, Cardinal Antonelli, in Italian, which read as
follows:
ILLUSTRISSIME SIGNOR,—I have presented, with great pleasure, to
the Holy Father the expressions of gratitude which your
illustrissime lordship has given me in his letter of the 20th of
January last, because our Holy Father had conferred upon you the
Commandership of St. Sylvestre, which you acknowledged to be
entirely due to the apostolic benevolence. His Holiness was
raptured when he saw these expressions of veneration and love
for his venerable person, and could not refrain from answering
to them by words of gratitude, and by giving you, from the
bottom of his heart, his apostolic benediction. Having thus
accomplished the wishes which you expressed to me, I have the
honour to be, your illustrissime lordship,
Yours,
Sec. GIACOMO ANTONELLI.
The following particulars about the knighthood are found in the
supplement of “Bouillet’s Dictionary,” page 42: