Adams, Rev. Thomas, M.A., Cambridge, D.C.L., Lennoxville, was born at Paramatta, New South Wales, on September 14, 1847. His father, the Rev. Thomas Adams, was a member of a family in Cornwall, England, of which the eldest brother is J. C. Adams, F.R.S., the celebrated discoverer of the planet Neptune, who, on the retirement of Sir G. B. Airy, declined the position of Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, and is still director of the Cambridge University. Another brother (W. G. Adams, F.R.S.), is a leading authority on electricity and natural philosophy, and occupies the professorial chair in King’s College, London, once held by Wheatstone, and afterwards by Clerk Maxwell. The father of Principal Adams became a missionary in the Friendly Islands (South Pacific), and it was in Australia, on the way to that mission, that Dr. Adams was born. Thomas Adams, sen., is chiefly noted for having been the translator of a great portion of the Bible into Tonguese, and for having been the first who issued a complete edition of the Sacred Book in that language. His mother was Maria French, of Taunton, Somerset. She accompanied his father into the mission field, and gave her life to the work. She died in Vavau in February, 1860. Professor Adams was educated first at Taunton, Somerset, at a large proprietary school, under T. Sibly, B.A.; next at University College, London, under the late Professor de Morgan, in mathematics, and Professor J. R. Seeley, in classics. In November, 1867, he joined the geological survey of England, under Sir A. C. Ramsay, but resigned in April, 1869, owing to a severe sprain. In October, 1869, he entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, and in January, 1873, graduated as 19th wrangler in a first class of thirty-seven. After acting temporarily as professor of mathematics in the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, he was appointed mathematical and science master in the Royal Grammar School, Lancaster, and in August, 1874, he became senior mathematical master in the Royal School of St. Peter’s, York. He was ordained deacon in 1874, and priest in 1876, by the present archbishop of York. In 1881, on the occasion of the jubilee meeting of the British Association in York, in conjunction with Dr. T. Anderson, he became local secretary. In December, 1882, he was elected, out of fifty-seven competitors, as the first head master of the High School for boys, Gateshead-on-Tyne, and left there a school of one hundred and fifty boys to accept the position he now holds of principal of the University of Bishop’s College, and rector of the College School, Lennoxville, province of Quebec. He has held this position since August, 1885, and succeeded Dr. Lobley in both offices. In July, 1878, he was married to Annie Stanley, youngest daughter of the late T. Barnes, of London, England.
Turnbull, Lieut.-Colonel James Ferdinand, Commandant of the Royal School of Cavalry, Quebec city, was born in London, England, on the 19th July, 1835, and baptized at Westerham, in Kent, in the same font that had done duty to the ever immortal General Wolfe. He is the eldest son of the late James Turnbull, by his second marriage with Caroline Oldaker, and came to Canada when only one year old with his parents, who settled in Quebec. In 1841 he was sent to St. Andrew’s Church school, under a worthy good master, William Bain, leaving next year to join the school of that excellent teacher and missionary, the Rev. Mr. Handsell, and from there went to the High School on its formation in 1845, where he received his education until May, 1850, when he left school for good and entered the office as junior clerk of the mercantile firm of P. Langlois & Co., on St. Andrew’s wharf. In 1855, upon the formation of the volunteer militia corps, he joined as a private, together with a number of other young men of Quebec, the troop of cavalry that was enrolled that autumn, and his love for horses and riding had an opportunity to display itself. In 1860, at a general meeting of the citizens of Quebec, called at the Merchants’ Exchange, by his Worship the Mayor, Hector Langevin, to form a committee for the reception of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Mr. Turnbull was unanimously called upon to act as honorary secretary to the said committee, and performed his arduous duties to the entire satisfaction of the whole community, receiving a very complimentary vote of thanks. In 1861 he received a commission as cornet in No. 2 troop Quebec Volunteer Cavalry, and upon the disbanding of this troop in 1862, was promoted to be lieutenant in No. 3 troop, which subsequently replaced No. 2, and the subject of this sketch was gazetted captain on May 20th, 1864, and visited the American cavalry and their remount depôts during their civil war. In 1865 he proceeded to the Cavalry Depot, Canterbury, for a course of instruction, at the suggestion of Colonel MacDougall, adjutant-general, who saw the necessity of establishing a school of cavalry in Canada; and upon the news of a probable Fenian raid, returned by way of New York in March, 1866, acting both there and on the frontier as intelligence officer to the adjutant-general then in Montreal; subsequently coming on to Quebec and assuming charge of the Quebec cavalry. In 1867 Captain Turnbull went to France, at the suggestion of Sir George Cartier, to study the French cavalry drill, and through the British ambassador in Paris, Lord Lyons, received the necessary permission to visit the regiment at St. Germain, “Les Dragons de l’Imperatrice.” In 1869 he received the brevet rank of major. In 1872 he went with official letters from the Governor-General to England for cavalry instruction, and was attached to the 7th Hussars at Aldershot, returning again in time for the annual drill in camp at Levis the next summer. In 1874 he received the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1875 he again proceeded to England for cavalry instruction, and was put on the cavalry staff at Aldershot during the autumn manœuvres, subsequently proceeding to Italy for the winter, and while in Rome had the privilege of a private presentation to His Holiness Pius IX., by Monsignor Stonor. Colonel Turnbull returned to Canada for the drill season of 1876, but shortly afterwards started again for an extended European tour, and while in Paris in the month of April, 1878, received an offer from the War Office, in the probable event of war with Russia, to raise a regiment of cavalry in Canada for service in the East, and spent some weeks in communication with the War office authorities and H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, to whom he was presented by Sir Patrick MacDougall, as the best Canadian officer that he knew of to undertake the task,—rendered, however, unnecessary by the celebrated conference at Berlin, when “peace with honour” was concluded. In 1879 Sir Patrick MacDougall cabled from Halifax that Lieut.-Colonel Turnbull was ready to raise a regiment of cavalry for service in South Africa if permission were granted him by the Canadian authorities, the Whitehall “Review” of the 27th March, 1879, remarking upon the offer as follows:—“The Government has found it necessary to decline the offer made by Lieut.-Col. Turnbull to raise a regiment in Canada for service at the Cape, but it has signified its appreciation of the very laudable spirit in which the offer has been made. Colonel Turnbull was lately residing temporarily in England, and made the acquaintance of many officers of our army. He is spoken of as an officer of considerable military ability, and this is not the first occasion on which he has given convincing proof of his loyalty and anxiety to serve the interests of the British Crown.” In 1883 the dominion government having in view the establishment of a cavalry school of instruction, Colonel Turnbull, together with three other commandants of infantry schools, was sent to Aldershot, where he was attached for three months to the 15th Hussars, and on the 21st December, 1883, his official appointment as commandant of the cavalry school corps appeared in the “Gazette.” On the breaking out of the Riel rebellion he was ordered with his corps to the North-West and stationed by General Middleton in the Touchwood Hills, where so much depended upon the several reserves of Indians in that district being prevented from going on the war-path and joining the rebels at Batoche. The tact and firmness displayed in dealing with these bands, had a satisfactory result; and in common with the rest of the expedition, he received the war medal. Besides his military proclivities he has long been an active promoter of sport and general club life, having been a member of the committee of the Turf Club, Hunt Club, Curling Club, Racket Court, Tandem Club, Yacht Club, Rowing Club, Rifle Association, of which he was president; Stadacona Club, and Garrison Club, Quebec. He is also a member of more than one military club in London, and the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto. Colonel Turnbull was married in June, 1867, to Elizabeth, third daughter of James MacKenzie, of Point Levis. His residence is “Clermont,” St. Louis road, Quebec.
Pacaud, Ernest, Advocate and Journalist, Quebec, was born at Three Rivers, province of Quebec, on the 25th August, 1850. He is a son of the late P. N. Pacaud, in his lifetime notary at Arthabaska. Mr. Pacaud was educated at Nicolet’s College, from September, 1860, to September, 1867, and was admitted to the bar 8th July, 1872. He practised at the Arthabaska bar from 1872 to 14th June, 1878, when he was appointed by the Provincial government, Hon. Mr. Joly at the time being premier, the prothonotary of the Superior Court, clerk of the Crown, and clerk of the Circuit Court at Three Rivers. He was, however, dismissed for political reasons in March, 1880, by the Tory government, headed by the Hon. Mr. Chapleau. He established the Journal d’ Arthabaska in September, 1877, in the interest of the Liberal party, and published it till June, 1878, when he received the appointment of prothonotary at Three Rivers. He took the editorship of La Concorde, published at Three Rivers, April, 1880, but on the 15th December, 1880, left the Concorde, when called by the leaders of the Liberal party to take the editorship of L’Electeur, a daily morning paper published in the city of Quebec, and the chief Liberal organ in the province. He is now the proprietor and chief editor of L’Electeur. He ran as a representative for the local house in Drummond and Arthabaska in January, 1874, after Hon. Mr. Laurier’s resignation in the Legislative Assembly, to run for the House of Commons at Ottawa. He also was a candidate for the House of Commons in Bellechasse, at the general elections of 1882, but was defeated by Colonel Amyot, then the Tory candidate. He is Catholic in religion, and a Liberal in politics. Mr. Pacaud accompanied, in 1881, the Hon. Messrs. Blake, Laurier, and Huntingdon in their political tour in Nova Scotia, as correspondent for the French Liberal press of the province of Quebec. He was married on the 23rd August, 1876, to Marie Louise Camille Turcotte, daughter of the late Hon. J. E. Turcotte, who was a speaker of the House of Commons and member of the government under the union of the two Canadas, and sister of the Hon. A. Turcotte, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Quebec from 1878 to 1881, and now commissioner of crown lands in the Mercier government.
Doucet, Laman R., Bathurst, Sheriff of the County of Gloucester, New Brunswick, was born at Bathurst on the 25th of August, 1847. His parents were Romain D. Doucet and Marie DeGrâce. His father was of Acadian descent; and his grandfather one of the first French settlers after the expulsion of the Acadians from old Acadia in 1755. His mother was of Spanish descent, her grandfather having come from Spain to America about the year 1781, when only about seventeen years of age, with his uncle, Admiral DeGrâce, who was in command of a French fleet, and who figured conspicuously on the side of freedom at the siege of Yorktown, when the last successful effort was made for American independence in 1781. Sheriff Doucet was educated in the schools of his native parish, and succeeded in securing a good French and English education. He is a man of great energy of character, and through his own almost unaided exertions he now stands high among his fellow countrymen. In April, 1881, he was appointed sheriff of his native county, being the second gentleman of French origin who has attained to this position in the province of New Brunswick. Since his appointment he has acted as returning officer in all the local and federal elections in Gloucester county. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church. He was married on the 19th July, 1876, to Margaret Dion, of Bathurst.
Genest, Laurent Ubalde Archibalde, Counsellor-at-Law, Three Rivers, Province of Quebec, was born on the 4th March, 1828, at Gentilly, in the same province. His ancestors came from France, where several villages bearing their name remain to this day as old landmarks of several branches of this ancient family. One of them, Louis Genest, captain of militia, and a thriving agriculturist, settled at St. Jean, Isle d’Orleans, near Quebec, where, on the 19th January, 1777, he married Elizabeth Amireau, alias Mireau, from l’Acadie, in Nova Scotia. From Louis Genest and Elizabeth Amireau, or Mireau, was born on 18th April, 1779, Laurent Genest, father of the subject of this sketch. L. Genest, the elder, received his education at Quebec, where, on the 24th March, 1808, he was, by Royal commission, appointed a notary public for Lower Canada. Shortly afterwards he left Quebec, and settled in the parish of Gentilly, in the county of Nicolet, where he acted as agent for the seigniory of Gentilly, and on behalf of several large landowners in the neighboring townships of Maddington, Blandford, Bulstrode, Stanfold and Somerset. On 29th October, 1810, he married, at Gentilly, Marie Anne Panneton, daughter of Jean-Baptiste Panneton, a captain of militia, and a prosperous agriculturist. On 1st September, 1812, he was appointed adjutant of militia in full pay, and raised a battalion, from the Bécancour division, for the American war with Great Britain. He marched off with that battalion for the seat of war; but the battle of Chateauguay (26th October, 1813) having been won, his battalion was recalled home. On the 17th February, 1815; 8th March, 1816; 13th September, 1830; 11th October, 1834, and 2nd March, 1835, he was appointed, by as many Royal commissions, a returning officer for the election of members for the counties of Buckingham and Nicolet. On 13th February, 1822, under the Earl of Dalhousie, he was appointed again captain and adjutant of militia for the Bécancour division. On 27th January, 1831, under Lord Aylmer, he was appointed again captain for the second battalion in the militia of the county of Nicolet. On 13th April, 1839, he was appointed clerk of the Court of Requests at Gentilly, a county court for the county of Nicolet which sat quarterly, doing considerable business. On 7th June, 1842, he was appointed a justice of the peace for the district of Three Rivers. On 22nd April, 1844, he was appointed clerk of the Circuit Court of Gentilly, a circuit embracing the whole county of Nicolet. On 6th October, 1845, he was appointed a commissioner to administer official oaths in Lower Canada. He was offered on several occasions, by the electors of the county of Nicolet, the nomination as their representative in the House of Assembly, but always declined. He was a man of sterling worth, much loved and respected on account of his irreproachable integrity and his sociable character. His friends were many and most distinguished, especially in the city of Quebec, whence he came. He died much regretted at Gentilly, on the 25th of September, 1846, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. His son, L. U. A. Genest, the subject of this sketch, was born at Gentilly on the 4th March, 1828. He is a brother of the late Charles B. Genest, advocate, and an M.P.P. for Three Rivers in the House of Assembly of Quebec. He was educated at Nicolet College, under the rectorship of the Right Rev. J. B. A. Ferland, the learned and distinguished Canadian historian (1840-1846). At the death of his father, in 1846, he succeeded him as agent for the seigniory of Gentilly, which office he held until June, 1851. This position induced him to make a special study of the seignorial tenure and feudal system, which he admired very much, as having been, as he considered, an excellent mode to settle, with a select and prosperous population, French Lower Canada, though afterwards he was compelled to acknowledge that circumstances were changed, and that many abuses had taken hold of this fine tenure of lands, which later justified its abolition. Indeed, his opinion is that too much gratitude cannot be bestowed on the memories of two very justly regretted Canadian statesmen, the Hon. L. T. Drummond and Sir George Etienne Cartier (with whom he had the advantage of being intimately acquainted) for the abolition and redemption of that tenure, which had lived its full time. He holds that the present lord and tenant system of Ireland, which, when established, like the Canadian seignorial tenure, must have been beneficial to all parties concerned, should also now be abolished by redemption, just after the same mode which was followed for the abolition of the feudal tenure of Lower Canada; and he affirms that the British statesman who would accomplish this at the present time, whatever be his name, would be the greatest benefactor of the British empire in our days, whilst he would render the utmost service to every lord and tenant of Ireland, who would only be the happier for the change, with remarkable gain to all, and an incalculable saving of ill-feeling, trouble and millions of money to the mother country. On 20th May, 1850, Mr. Genest was commissioned an ensign of the 2nd battalion in the militia of Nicolet. In June, 1851 he left Gentilly for Montreal, where he began his regular legal studies, under Joseph Peltier, advocate, one of the Canadian braves of 1837, and his then partner, Joseph Papin, one of the chieftains of the Liberal party of that period. On 3rd May, 1853, he was admitted as an advocate and barrister at the bar of Montreal, where he began to practice with Toussaint Peltier and the Hon. Joseph Bourret. On 18th November, 1853, he was commissioned lieutenant in the 9th battalion of the militia of Montreal. In 1855 he was called to take part in the labors of the Seigniorial Commissioners at Montreal, a task which his previous studies and taste well fitted him to fulfil. He was also appointed to and filled the office of clerk of the Seigniorial Court of Review, which sat at Montreal and Quebec. On 8th March, 1856, he was appointed clerk of the peace for Three Rivers, where he removed from Montreal, whilst continuing for some time after to take part in the labors of the Seigniorial Commission at Montreal and Quebec. On 18th September, 1857, he was appointed a commissioner to administer official oaths in Lower Canada. On 1st August, 1876, he was appointed a member of the commission for the civil erection of parishes and the building of churches in the diocese of Three Rivers, of which commission he is the president. He is a member of the Institut National, and of the Historical Society of Montreal, and of the Literary Society of Three Rivers. He is also a member of the society for the re-wooding of the province of Quebec. As a member of the Historical Society of Montreal, he has contributed largely, with the regretted Sir L. H. LaFontaine, baronet, with whom he was on very friendly terms, to numerous and important researches concerning the ancient families who first settled Canada. He ranks among the first as a criminal lawyer in Lower Canada, and his advice is also highly prized in civil matters. His word is as good as gold, and he is held in very high esteem, and enjoys the confidence of his fellow citizens, on account of his unimpeachable integrity and frankness. Though neutral in politics, he is, by inheritance and education, a strong Conservative; nevertheless a friend of all, without regard to party or creed. He is an enthusiastic admirer of the British constitution, and will cling to the very last to his allegiance. In religion he is a Roman Catholic, holding that religion is indispensable in the governing and ruling of nations to secure their peace, prosperity and happiness, and to insure the stability of kingdoms, empires and republics, thereby justifying the family motto—“Nascor, vivere, vincere et mori, pro Deo, reginâ, patriâ et civibus”; “Je nais, pour vivre, vaincre et mourir, pour mon Dieu, ma reine, mon pays, mes concitoyens.” On 21st January, 1856, he married, at Montreal, Emma MacCallum, daughter of John MacCallum, of that city (formerly a Quebec merchant), by Flavie Raymond, of Laprairie, a grand-daughter of James MacCallum, a Quebec merchant, seignior of the seigniories of St. James and Thwaite, in the district of Montreal, and also at one time a member for the city of Quebec in the House of Assembly of Lower Canada. Mrs. Genest is a first cousin, on her mother’s side, of the late Hon. Edouard Masson, M.L.C., and of his Excellency the Hon. L. F. R. Masson, member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, late lieutenant-governor of the province of Quebec. Mr. Genest resides at 64 Royal street, Three Rivers, P.Q.