Strachan, John, LL.D., D.D., Bishop of Toronto.—The late Bishop Strachan was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 12th of April, 1778, and received his early education at the Grammar School of that city, and finished his term at King’s College in 1796, when he got his Master’s degree. His father was a poor man, straitened in circumstances; yet, with the characteristic ambition of a Scotchman, he had determined that his son should be well equipped for future conflict with the world. He was only nineteen years of age when he was declared the successful candidate for the parochial schoolmastership of Kettle. There were nearly one hundred and fifty pupils in this school, among them Sir David Wilkie, the artist, and Commodore Robert Barclay, doomed to misfortune on Lake Erie, from no fault of his own. He remained at Kettle three years, when an invitation to Canada came to change the current of his life. It was towards the close of the eighteenth century that some liberal friends of education anxiously contemplating the establishment of a high school and university, bethought themselves of applying to Scotland for a teacher to whom they could confide the training of their sons, and, amongst those, the most directly interested was the Hon. Richard Cartwright, grandfather of the present Sir Richard Cartwright, a man of enterprise and far-sighted views. Mr. Strachan having been engaged for the purpose, towards the end of 1799 he sailed from Greenock, by way of New York, and arrived in Kingston on the last day of the year. His first experience of Upper Canada took the form of disappointment. Governor Simcoe, with that statesmanlike prescience that characterised him, had from the first made the establishment of a university his first and chief desideratum. But unfortunately the first governor had been removed before his patriotic scheme was carried into effect, and just when Mr. Strachan arrived at Kingston there seemed to be no prospect that either the university or grammar school system would be attempted for the present. Mr. Cartwright recognised the trying position of the young teacher, and generously set himself to work on his behalf. He had four sons himself, and his friends could add to the number of pupils, and so provide the young Scot with an honorable and fairly remunerative living until the plans of the government were matured. Mr. Strachan was a Presbyterian, but his father was an Episcopal non-juror—a champion of the lost cause of the Stuarts, and his earliest recollections of church services were those he attended with his father at Aberdeen, presided over by Bishop Skinner. Subsequently he habitually accompanied his widowed mother to the Relief Church, of which she was a member. He was only a Presbyterian by accident. When he arrived at Kingston, and was thrown in contact with the Rev. Dr. Stuart, who, although an Anglican, was the son of a Presbyterian, he was naturally attracted to the church of his father, so that when Mr. Cartwright and Dr. Stuart advised him to study divinity, the change was easily made, and the result was that the future bishop received deacon’s orders in 1803. The bishop of Niagara, who was afterwards one of his pupils at Toronto, has given a graphic description of Mr. Strachan’s methods, and of his remarkable success as a teacher. His great care was to interest the boys in their studies, and to draw out their latent capabilities by attractive means. To him education meant what its etymology implies, not cramming, but development. Perhaps no instructor could boast of a larger number of pupils who obtained eminence in after life. Chief Justice Robinson, and his brother, the Hon. W. B. Robinson, Chief Justices Macaulay and McLean, Judge Jonas Jones, Dean Bethune, of Montreal, and his brother, Bishop Strachan’s successor in the See of Toronto, the Hon. H. J. and G. S. Boulton, Col. Vankoughnet, father of the chancellor, Donald Æneas Macdonell, and others, sat at the feet of the ex-dominie of Kettle. Dr. Strachan removed to York, at the insistance of General Brock, and, in 1812, became rector of York. For the first time he now entered the political sphere, by taking the initiative in forming a loyal and patriotic society. The times were out of joint; war was imminent, and with characteristic vigor the new rector came to the fore. There was a strong heart beating beneath the ecclesiastical vestments, and he had an opportunity soon of showing his mettle. When the long expected shock of war came on, there never was a busier or more useful man than Dr. Strachan. It has been remarked that when York was taken, he was “priest, soldier, and diplomatist,” all in one. At the capture of York, he was incessantly active. After the explosion by which General Pike was killed at the old fort, the Americans threatened vengeance upon the defenceless town which had been evacuated by General Sheaffe and his forces. The rector, however, was equal to the occasion; and, as a contemporary writer puts it, “by his great firmness of character, saved the town of York in 1813 from sharing the same fate as the town of Niagara met with some months afterwards.” The sturdy clergyman at once visited General Dearborn, and threatened that if he carried out his threat of sacking the town, Buffalo, Lewiston, Sackett’s Harbor, and Oswego, should be destroyed as soon as troops arrived from England. His earnestness and determination moved the American, and he spared the little Yorkers from any systematic burning and plunder. But all the danger was not over; marauding parties wandered about the town seeking for plunder, and not unfrequently were confronted by the sturdy little rector. On one occasion two American soldiers visited the house of Colonel Givens, who was an officer in the retreating army. The inmates were absolutely helpless, and the marauders made off with the family plate. Dr. Strachan at once went after them, and demanded back the stolen property. Under the circumstances this was a singularly courageous thing to do, and apparently a hopeless one. But the rector was a man of unwavering resolution, and managed at last, without any other weapon than that which nature had placed in his mouth, to secure the return of the goods to their rightful owner. The pluck and bravery displayed by him throughout that trying time showed sufficiently the real “grit” of the man, and the boldness and strength of will shewn then, characterized his life. In resolution and determined perseverance, he was every inch a Scot. In 1818 began Dr. Strachan’s public life in the ordinary sense of the term; for he was then nominated an executive councillor and took his seat in the Legislative Council. He remained a member of the government until 1836, and of the Upper House up to the union of the provinces in 1841. About the time of Dr. Strachan’s appointment as councillor, began the politico-ecclesiastical conflict which was only brought to a close within the memory of the existing generation. By the Imperial Act of 1774, which conceded to the Gallican clergy the right to collect tithes, provision was made for the support of “a Protestant clergy;” and in 1791, one-seventh of the lands was set apart for that purpose in Upper Canada under the name of Clergy Reserves. In 1819, the Presbyterians of Niagara petitioned the lieutenant-governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, for a grant of £100 for the support of a Scottish Church minister, and boldly hinted that the grant should come from the funds arising from the Clergy Reserves. This memorial was forwarded in due course to Earl Bathurst, the colonial secretary, who replied that the reserves were intended for the established churches of England and Scotland, and not for “denominations” referred to by the governor. This despatch at once aroused Dr. Strachan, who in 1823 forwarded a memorial protesting against the attempt to distribute funds intended for the Anglican church. His somewhat narrow creed, political no less than ecclesiastical, to be rightly understood, must be viewed from his own standpoint, and it may be readily condoned when one contemplates his vigor and patriotic impulse. The law officers of the Crown decided that the Clergy Reserves were not intended exclusively for the Anglican church. As there were two established churches, each equipped with “a Protestant clergy,” they were of opinion that the Church of Scotland had an equal right with the sister communion to a share in the land endowment. They went still further and vindicated the claims of other Protestant denominations. No sooner was this conceded by parliament than the entire ground was cut from beneath the feet of those who advocated a monopoly in state support for religion. Before the Union of 1841, no less than sixteen measures which had passed the Legislative Assembly for the secularization of the Reserves were rejected by the Legislative Council. It was only after a bitter struggle, lasting over more than thirty years, it was finally set at rest by the Act of 1854. During the whole period Dr. Strachan was faithful to his principles, and could brook no compromise. In 1836 he resigned his place as executive councillor, and in 1839 became the first bishop of Toronto. The following year he ceased to be a member of the Legislative Council, and abstained thenceforth from taking any part in public affairs, save in that department which may be termed church politics. The other subject of intense interest with him was the Provincial University. Twenty-eight years elapsed before any attempt was made to carry out the project of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe. In 1827 a Royal charter was granted in favor of King’s College. It was to be essentially an Anglican university. In the four faculties, all the professors were to be “members of the Established United Church of England and Ireland,” and were required “to severally sign and subscribe the Thirty-nine articles.” The only liberal provision in it was an exemption from any religious test on the part of students and graduates in faculties other than that of divinity. King’s College was not opened until 1843, and in 1850 all that made it valuable in the bishop’s eyes were eliminated. All that was distinctly Anglican disappeared. The faculty of divinity was abolished and, as far as education was concerned, “all semblance of connection between church and state,” proclaimed afterwards in the preamble to the Clergy Reserve Act, was done away. The venerable bishop was equal to the emergency, and started on a mission to Britain to raise funds, and in little more than six months he returned with the first fruits,—some sixteen thousand pounds sterling. In the spring of 1857 the corner stone of Trinity College was laid, and in the beginning of the following year the building was so far completed as to be fit for occupation. The Royal charter was secured in 1853. Thus, by the inextinguishable ardor and energy of one zealous prelate was the purpose of his life at last secured. In other directions, the memorable prelate certainly effected work of unquestionable value. So soon as the severance between church and state had been formally proclaimed, his administrative and legislative tact was employed in placing the Anglican church upon a sound governmental basis. To him the laity of that communion owe it that they are represented in the synods of the church as substantially as with the Presbyterians. The bishop’s later years were spent in efforts to extend the usefulness of the church to which he was so ardently attached, and during the evening of his long and eventful life he was universally respected by men of all creeds and political parties. He had lived in the province and been a conspicuous actor in its affairs from the days of Governor Simcoe to the opening year of confederation, and died on the 2nd of November, 1867, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, manful, energetic and courageous to the last. The last tribute of respect was paid to Bishop Strachan by the attendance at his funeral of the two universities, with whose early fortunes his name was indissolubly associated. The national societies, the clergy of all churches, Protestant and Catholic, all the civic dignitaries and institutions, were fully represented on the occasion, and it was not without significance that the troops, regular and other, lined the streets, and that the strains of martial music were heard at the burial of one who was first a churchman of the military type, and next a patriotic citizen.
Wallbridge, Hon. Lewis, Chief Justice of Manitoba, born in Belleville, Ontario, 27th November, 1816, and died at Winnipeg, on the 20th October, 1887, was a grandson of Elijah Wallbridge, a United Empire loyalist, who settled in Canada shortly after the American war of independence. His father was a lumber merchant of Belleville. The family emigrated from Dorsetshire, England, on account of having taken part in the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion against King James. Mr. Wallbridge received his education under the late Dr. Benjamin Workman in Montreal, and at Upper Canada College, Toronto. He studied law in Robert Baldwin’s office, Toronto; was called to the bar in 1839, and created a Queen’s counsel in 1856. In 1858 he was elected to the parliament of Canada, subsequently becoming solicitor-general, and a member of the Macdonald-Dorion government. In 1863, whilst holding the office of solicitor-general, he was elected speaker of the House of Commons, which position he occupied for a little more than four years, and presided over the debate on confederation at Quebec. After retiring from political life he practised law in Belleville, and on the death, in 1882, of Hon. E. B. Wood, chief justice of Manitoba, was appointed to succeed him. Hon. Mr. Wallbridge was one of the last survivors of a long line of prominent Canadian politicians whose records as such are, for the most part, now known only in history. It is almost fifty years since he first began the practice of his profession, and almost the lifetime of a generation since he first entered parliament. He was a moderate Reformer in politics. He was of a kindly genial disposition, and had many personal friends. He was buried at Belleville, Ontario.
Brodie, Robert, Merchant, Quebec, was born in Montreal on the 11th May, 1835. His parents, Charles Brodie and Elizabeth Kerr, emigrated from Innerleithen, Peeblesshire, Scotland, in 1831, and settled in Montreal. Robert, the subject of our sketch, received a common school education in his native city, and in 1850, when but a lad of fifteen years of age, entered the dry goods establishment of Henry Morgan & Co., the then leading retail store in Montreal, and continued in this business until 1855, when he removed to Quebec city. Here he entered the employment of his brother, Charles Brodie, who was at that time carrying on an extensive flour and provision business. In 1859 Charles Brodie died, when Robert, with his brother William, succeeded to the business, and continued to carry it on on a more extensive scale, under the firm name of W. & R. Brodie. In 1868, Thomas Brodie, another brother, was admitted a partner, the firm name remaining unchanged. The operations of the firm then further extended, and the three brothers are now doing the largest business in their line in the ancient capital. Besides an extensive local trade, they send to the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia annually large quantities of flour and provisions. Outside of business hours, Mr. Brodie has taken an active part in whatever movement happened to be on foot calculated to improve the social condition of the people among whom he resided. He has been a total abstainer all his life, and was one of the first to join the Rechabites, when this temperance order was first introduced into Canada. When it was superseded by the order of the Sons of Temperance at a later date, he joined the new order, and for many years was one of its most active members. He is one of those who firmly believe in the doctrine that the liquor traffic must be ultimately suppressed by law. Apart from social reform, he has also been connected with most of the local enterprises originated in Quebec city during the past fifteen or twenty years, either as an assistant or promoter. He is a shareholder in the Quebec Steamship Company; the Quebec and Levis Ferry Company; the Quebec Fire Insurance Company; the Quebec Bank, etc. He, with others, originated the Quebec Worsted Company and is one of its directors. Mr. Brodie has been a member of the Protestant Board of School Commissioners for a number of years. This board is composed of six members—three being appointed by the city council and three by the local government, and he is the appointee of the city council. He has not had time to extend his travels beyond Canada, but he has visited nearly every point of interest in the Dominion. In religion, he is a Presbyterian. For a number of years he has been an elder in Chalmer’s Church, and was a commissioner from the presbytery of Quebec to the general assembly held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in June, 1887. He has always been a Liberal in politics, and gives a generous support to the Liberal party. In 1865 he was married to Jane, daughter of David Blair, of Lotbinière, Province of Quebec, who emigrated from Scotland in 1831.
Rourke, James, Manufacturer, St. Martin’s, New Brunswick, was born at Musquash, St. John county, N.B., on the 27th of June, 1838. His father was William Henry Rourke, a descendant of O’Rourke, one of the kings of Ireland. His mother, Phœbe Ann Cronk, born in Digby, Nova Scotia, came of a Lancaster, England, family. Mr. Rourke received his education in the schools of his native parish. He removed from Musquash in 1858, to Hopewell, Albert county, N.B., and in 1863 left Albert county and took up his permanent abode at St. Martin’s, where he now resides. Early in life he devoted himself to business pursuits, and is now extensively engaged in the manufacture and shipping of lumber at St. Martin’s. He is connected with the St. Martin’s Manufacturing Company; the Upham Railway Company; the North-Eastern Railway Company, and the Bell Telephone Company. He takes an interest in military affairs, and is captain of the St. Martin’s Rifles Company of Volunteers. He is a past master of the Masonic brotherhood, and is also a member of the order of Oddfellows. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative, and is vice-president of St. Martin’s Liberal-Conservative Club. At the last general election he was nominated for a seat in the New Brunswick legislature for St. John city and county, but failed to carry his election, although he received a large vote. He was a member of the municipal council of St. John city and county from 1876 to 1886, but on his being appointed a valuator he resigned. However, he was again elected in 1887 to a seat in the council, as representative of his parish. He is an adherent of the Episcopal church. On the 16th March, 1871, he was married to Charlotte Wishart, daughter of Captain B. Wishart, a native of Scotland.
Ure, Rev. Robert, D.D., Minister of the Presbyterian Church, Goderich, Ontario, though a long resident of Canada,—having come to the country in 1842—is a Scotchman by birth. He was born in the parish of Shotts, Lanarkshire, on the 23rd January, 1823. His father, John Ure, was an iron founder in Dumbarton, Scotland, and, like many other enterprising men of his day, helped to develop the iron industries of his native country, and are now held in grateful remembrance by the toiling thousands in the south-west of Scotland. His mother was Barbara Dalziel. The Ure family, from which the subject of our sketch is descended, came originally from France, being Huguenots, and settled in Scotland. Robert received his primary education in his native parish, and when only nineteen years of age emigrated to Canada, and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. Having resolved to devote himself to the ministry, he for a time studied privately with the late Rev. Alexander Gale, M.A., Presbyterian minister, and then, in 1845, entered Knox College, Toronto, and completed his theological course in 1850. The same year he received a call to the Presbyterian Church in Streetsville, where he remained for twelve years. In 1862 he removed to Goderich, and here he has since labored with great acceptance, and is greatly beloved by his flock. Dr. Ure’s scholastic attainments are of a high order, and in recognition of this, Queen’s College, Kingston, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in May, 1876. For two years he lectured in Knox College, Toronto, on apologetics, still attending to his pastoral duties, but in consequence of ill-health he had to give up this lectureship. During the years 1879-80 he gave lectures on homiletics in Queen’s College, Kingston, and when the Knox College Alumni Association was formed, the doctor was chosen its first president. Dr. Ure took a conspicuous part in bringing about the union of the Presbyterian churches in Canada; first with the United Presbyterian Church, and secondly with that connected with the Kirk of Scotland. During the negotiations for the former union he was convenor of one committee, and the late Rev. Dr. William Taylor, of Montreal, of the other. When the scheme had been consummated, Dr. Taylor, being the senior, was honored by being chosen first moderator of the General Assembly of the united churches, and Dr. Ure had a similar honor conferred upon him by being its second moderator after the union. In the subject of education the doctor takes the deepest interest, and for a long period he served as grammar school trustee. He has a large parish, with two country stations attached, and has the advantage of an assistant. He is an eloquent preacher, and his sermons are noted for their earnestness and originality. He has been twice married. He was married to his first wife, Margaret Gale, sister of the late Rev. Alexander Gale, M.A., first Presbyterian minister of Hamilton. This estimable lady died in December, 1869. His present wife is Mary Fraser, widow of the late Sheriff Macdonald, of Goderich.