For a change of subject we proceed to an original notice of an eminent native of Cleveland, General Hale, a companion of Wolfe at Quebec, from the pen of an affectionate daughter, the eldest representative of the family, which can hardly fail to be interesting to readers: —
“My father, General Hale, was born in 1728. Being intended for the bar, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, but becoming associated with his brother Bernard, then in the Guards, he finally determined to follow the profession of arms. He obtained a commission in the 47th Regiment (then called Lascelles), and in 1752 was ordered to join in the disastrous struggle in America. The war with France in 1755 caused the attack, in 1758, on Louisbourg and Cape Breton, which were taken by the army under Wolfe. In the spring of 1759 Wolf attacked Quebec, whilst Amherst attacked Montreal, and the battle of September 13th, 1759, decided the fall of the province. My father commanded the 47th on that day. I have heard him state that he remonstrated with Wolfe for wearing a new uniform, as he thereby became conspicuous to the Indian marksmen. My father was dispatched home in the Lowestoke frigate, with the news of that glorious battle and the death of that brave commander, in the arms of victory. For that Service he was rewarded with the sum of £500, and an order to raise the 17th Light Dragoons, which regiment he resigned on being appointed governor of Londonderry and Culmore forts. (This regiment he raised at his own expense.) He married, in 1764, on his return from the Havanna (where he went as military secretary to Lord Albemarle, and received prize money to the amount of £10,000), Mary, second daughter of William Chaloner, Esq. Her dower was the estate of Tockett’s Hall, afterwards called ‘Plantation,’ about a mile north-east of Gisborough, where was an ancient house to which the General added largely and made it his residence.”
Mrs. Hale was sister of Anne, Countess of Harewood, and was one of the celebrated beauties of the day, her portrait having been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds as “Euphrosyne.” This life-size painting now forms the centre picture in the gallery of the Earl of Harewood. The portrait of her husband, the general, also painted by Sir Joshua, is now in the possession of his great-grandson, Edward John Hale, of Quebec.
“Mrs. Hale died in 1803, and General Hale in 1806, and both are buried in Gisborough Church, leaving issue ten sons and eleven daughters; but of this large family not one is now to be found in the Vale of Gisborough. ‘Plantation’ was purchased in 1809 by Robert Chaloner, Esq., and again added to the Gisborough estate, and the mansion demolished in 1829. In addition to the above, we append the following particulars in a letter to the late Thomas Small, of Gisborough, by the same writer:—‘I have read the copy of your letter to my nephew, George Grote, M.P. (the historian), and as I am now left the eldest member of the Hale family, being sister of the late Mrs. Lewin, whose daughter Mr. Grote married. I cannot but thank you for the faithful history of the late General John Hale. With regard to my father being aide-de-camp to General Wolfe, I think you are incorrect, for Wolfe’s words were, after receiving his mortal wound, “I am aware it is the aide-de-camp’s privilege to carry the despatches home; but I beg as a favor to request that my old friend, Colonel Hale, may have that honour.” Also, General Hale’s portrait is not inserted in that fine print of Wolfe’s death, and why? Because he would not give the printer the sum of £100, which he demanded as the price of placing on a piece of paper what his own country knew so very well, viz.: that he (General Hale) fought in the hottest of the battle of Quebec, whether the printer thought fit to record it or not. In reply to another part of your letter respecting the quantity of land granted to my father, for his services at Quebec, the whole of it merged, through lapse of time, to the Crown, and was never available to my brothers; but my brothers possessed very extensive property there, and such property is termed in Canada, seigniory, or what we should call here a lordship. My eldest brother, Mr. Hale (the Hon. John), died at Quebec last Christmas (1838), at the age of 73 years, leaving the office of receiver-general to his second son, Jeffrey.’”
The Hon. John Hale came to Canada as A.D.C. and military secretary to his Royal Highness, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, in 1793. Returning to England in 1798, he married, in April of that year, at St. George’s, Hanover Square, London, Elizabeth Frances, the talented and highly accomplished daughter of Gen. Wm. Amherst, and sister of Earl Amherst, who was governor-general of India in 1825. In June, 1799, he returned to Quebec as paymaster-general of the forces, which office he held until it was merged into the duties of the commissariat. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. He purchased from the De Lanaudière family the seigniory of St. Anne de la Pérade, where he lived to a ripe old age, at the manor house, on the best of terms with his tenants, amongst whom he introduced many improvements. He returned with his family every winter to Quebec, where he and Mrs. Hale were prominent leaders in the social life of the ancient capital. In 1824 he was appointed receiver-general of the province, which office he held up to the time of his death, the duties being discharged during the infirmities of his last illness by his son, Jeffrey Hale, who retired from the navy and devoted his life to good works, and established in Quebec the first savings bank, the first Protestant Sunday school, and was the founder of the Jeffrey Hale Protestant Hospital. Mrs. Hale died in June, 1826, and Mr. Hale in December, 1838; both are buried in Mt. Hermon cemetery, Quebec. There were twelve children issue of this marriage, eight sons and four daughters. Three died in their infancy. Of the surviving seven the Hon. Edward, of Sherbrooke, was in public life; Jeffrey, captain in the Royal Navy; Bernard, a barrister-at-law, in London; Richard, captain in the 81st regiment; William Amherst, captain in the 52nd regiment, and George Carleton remained at the seigniory of St. Annes after the death of his father. Frances Isabella died unmarried; Mary married Rev. Henry Hotham; and Elizabeth Harriot married Admiral Orlebar. Mr. Hale was of the old school, with the usual liberality and independence of an English gentleman. He had some strong hereditary feelings about the duties of a public officer, which were better securities than the strictest laws and superintendence in those times when offices were frequently sought and obtained through intrigue and popular favor. He neither gave nor asked for favors, but ever prepared to do all that he was authorized to do. Both in public and private life he carried out to the full the family motto, “Vera sequor.”
Trenaman, Thomas, M.D., City Medical Officer, Halifax, N.S., was born in Halifax, July 16th, 1843. He is a son of Samuel and Mary Ann Trenaman, who settled in Nova Scotia from the West of England, about the year 1835. Dr. Trenaman was educated at King’s College, Windsor, N.S. He pursued his preparatory medical studies in the office of Hon. D. McN. Parker, M.D., Halifax, and graduated in 1869 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. The degree of doctor in medicine ad eundem, was conferred by the University of King’s College, Windsor, N.S., at its Ericœnia in 1887. From the date of the formation of the 66th Volunteer Battalion of Infantry—the Princess Louise Fusiliers—in 1869, to the spring of 1885, he was one of its surgeons. The pressing nature of professional duties, which were continually increasing, necessitated his retirement, at this date, from active service. In the year 1876 Dr. Trenaman was chosen by acclamation to represent his fellow citizens in the city council for ward two, the one in which he resides, and was for three successive terms, of three years each, returned as alderman for that ward. From 1879 to 1882 he was, a member of the Board of School Commissioners of the city of Halifax, the last year of which he was honored by his brother commissioners in being made chairman of the board. Dr. Trenaman was elected county physician in 1881, and in 1883 was chosen by the city council, city medical officer, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the previous incumbent. Our subject is also, at this writing, attending physician to the Victoria General Hospital, visiting physician to the Poor’s Asylum, and also to the city prison, as well as being police surgeon and surgeon to the fire department. Dr. Trenaman was initiated into the mysteries of the Masonic craft in St. Andrew’s lodge, No. 1, R.N.S., F. & A. M., in 1871. In 1877 was elected its worshipful master, and at the present time fills the office of district deputy grand master for district No. 1, R.N.S., and is also representative of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, near the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. Dr. Trenaman is a companion of Royal Union Chapter, No. 1, R.A.M. The doctor is also a member of Mystic lodge, No. 18, I.O.O.F., and a patriarch of Halifax Encampment, No. 12, belonging as well to the Manchester Unity of that order, being a member of Prince of Wales lodge, No. 5291, and its surgeon, and that of Lansdowne lodge, No. 6703. Dr. Trenaman is surgeon to the St. George’s Society of Halifax, and is the medical examiner for some of the leading life insurance companies doing business in Halifax. In June, 1881, our subject was elected president of the associated alumni of King’s College, Windsor, and has been continued in that office uninterruptedly since that time. In 1883 he was selected by the Dominion government statistical officer for the registration of mortuary statistics in the city of Halifax. Dr. Trenaman has travelled extensively through Canada and the United States, but has not as yet visited the old world. In religious belief he is a Methodist. In 1871, he married Harriett Helen Robinson, of Windsor, N.S. The doctor is, in the fullest sense of the term, a busy man, yet he finds time, notwithstanding his large and lucrative practice, to take an active interest in everything that pertains to the welfare of his native city. He is an enthusiastic supporter of its clubs for the development of aquatic and field sports, and generally is a citizen of whom Halifax has a right to be proud.
Machin, Henry Turner, Assistant Provincial Treasurer, and Secretary of the Treasury Board, Quebec, is one of the best known and most esteemed citizens of the ancient capital. He is of English and Scotch extraction. His father, the Rev. Thomas Machin, a clergyman of the Church of England, came of an old Gloucestershire family; and his mother, Emily Mackintosh Chisholm Fraser, a daughter of Simon Fraser, of Alvie, Inverness-shire, who was a cousin of the distinguished statesman and historian, Sir James Mackintosh. Mr. Machin was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, on the 26th November, 1832, and came to Canada with his parents in 1840, the voyage from Liverpool to New York being made in the steamship Great Western, one of the first two passenger steamships that regularly crossed the Atlantic. He was educated at the Brockville Grammar School, and at Upper Canada College, Toronto. He entered business life in 1849, in the office of the British American Land Company, at Sherbrooke, P.Q., the commissioner of the company at that time being Sir A. T. Galt, and remained in the company’s service until 1860, when he retired from it to engage in commercial business in Portland, Maine. Respected by the whole community, he was, on leaving Sherbrooke, presented with a farewell address, to which the following reference was made at the time by the leading local newspaper:
It affords us a sincere pleasure, which will be shared by the numerous friends and admirers of Mr. Machin, who may peruse it, to insert the following address and reply. Mr. Machin, though a young man, has resided sufficiently long in Sherbrooke to develop those qualities which have secured for him the esteem and confidence of his numerous acquaintances and friends. On Monday last Rev. Mr. Reid, accompanied by several of the most respectable inhabitants, representing the signers of the following document, waited on Mr. Machin, to perform the pleasant duty of presenting him with a flattering, though only just, testimony of the public appreciation of his character. There is a feeling of regret at Mr. Machin’s departure from Sherbrooke, but that feeling is joined to hearty wishes for his future welfare and success. It must be a source of honest and legitimate pride to this gentleman to reflect that last week he was presented by his brother Free Masons with a testimonial of their esteem, and that this week a more general expression of the sentiment is spontaneously given by the public here.