Shortt, Rev. William, B.D., Rector of St. Thomas Church, Walkerton, Ontario, was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, in 1824. His father was Jonathan Shortt, attorney, and six-clerk, of No. 11 Blackhall street, Dublin, who married Anna Maria Antisell, daughter of Joseph Antisell, of Arbourhill, in the county of Tipperary, and both descended from a long line of highly respectable and respected ancestors. The subject of our sketch was educated in the city of Dublin, and in 1850 emigrated to the United States; was ordained deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church by the Right Rev. Bishop Horatio Potter, of New York, in 1854, and priest in 1855; was for some time assistant to the rector of St. Thomas Church, N.Y., then assistant minister to St. George’s Church, Flushing, and first rector of Grace Church, Whitestone, L. I., until 1865, when, on account of ill-health, he was obliged to resign his charge. Finding the climate of Canada to agree with him, he was licensed by the Bishop of Ontario, to the mission of Amherst Island, and afterwards to Wolfe Island. In 1872 he was invited to take charge of Christ Church, St. Catharines. In 1875 he was appointed to the rectory of Walkerton, by the Bishop of Huron. Rev. Mr. Shortt’s parents were attached members of the Church of Ireland, and he has ever been loyal to her discipline and worship, has served her altars to the best of his ability, and hopes and expects to die in her communion. He took the purple degree in the order of Good Templars in 1875; and was chaplain of the Saugeen lodge, 197, A. F. and A. Masons. In 1857 he was married to Mary Amanda Haggerty, daughter of Bonnell Moody Haggerty and Martha Phillips, both of New Jersey, U. S. Mrs. Shortt’s grand-parents were loyal to the British government in the revolution, and were compelled to move to Nova Scotia, but returned to their native land when the act of amnesty was passed.
Langevin, Hon. Sir Hector Louis, K.C.M.G., Q.C., Ottawa, Minister of Public Works of the Dominion of Canada, M.P. for Three Rivers, Quebec province, was born in the city of Quebec, on the 25th August, 1828. He is descended from an illustrious line of ancestry, and has proved himself worthy of his descent. His father, the late Jean Langevin, acted as assistant civil secretary under the Earl of Gosford and Lord Sydenham, during the period those noblemen held the office of governor-general of Canada; and his uncle was the Right Rev. Jean Langevin, bishop of St. Germain de Rimouski. His mother, Sophia Scholastique La Force, was a daughter of Major La Force, who faithfully served his country during the war of 1812-14, and whose grandfather was acting commodore of the British fleet on Lake Ontario during the American revolutionary war. Sir Hector Louis Langevin, the subject of our sketch, received his education at the Quebec Seminary, and in 1846 left school to begin the study of law with the late Hon. A. N. Morin, at Montreal. He had an early taste for literature, and while pursuing his studies, wrote a great deal for the press. He became editor of the Mélanges Religieux in 1847, and subsequently editor of the Journal of Agriculture, both papers being published in Montreal. When Mr. Morin retired from practice, Mr. Langevin entered the office of the late Sir George Etienne Cartier. Thus began the connection between those two distinguished men which was destined to last so long, to be so close and so loyal, and of such importance to the French Canadians, as well as to the Dominion of Canada. He was called to the bar of Lower Canada in October, 1850. In 1856 Mr. Langevin was elected representative of Palace ward in the Quebec city council, subsequently became chairman of the water works committee, and during the absence of the mayor, Dr. Morrin in England, acted as chief magistrate of Quebec city. In 1857 he assumed the editorial management of the Courrier du Canada, published in Quebec. The same year he was chosen mayor of Quebec, and also representative for Dorchester county in the Legislative Assembly of Canada. On entering parliament he very naturally supported the administration, one of the leaders of which was the gentleman at whose hands he had received his political as well as his legal training. The Macdonald-Cartier ministry, however, held life by a very precarious tenure, and as the difficulties thickened about it, numbers yielded up their support, and it was forced to resign. Then George Brown was called to office, but had to relinquish it in three days. The old ministry was recalled to power, and a readjustment took place. On the 30th of March, 1864, Mr. Langevin became a Queen’s counsel, and on the same day entered the Taché-Macdonald administration as solicitor-general east. In 1866 he became postmaster-general, which office he retained till the consummation of confederation. In the confederation movement he took a prominent part. He was a delegate to Charlottetown, was a member of the Quebec conference, and went to England to aid the home office in perfecting the confederation scheme. During this entire movement, the tact, suavity and broad statesmanship which he has shown so prominently in later years came into light. Sir George E. Cartier was energetic, forceful, patriotic, but he had not the savoir-faire of the Hon. Mr. Langevin, and he often exasperated where he should have conciliated. In the first Dominion administration Mr. Langevin was secretary of state for the Dominion, and the following year he was created a C.B., civil. In 1869 he assumed the portfolio of public works. In 1870 he was created a Knight Commander of the Roman order of Pope Gregory the Great. During Sir George Cartier’s absence in England, in 1873, Mr. Langevin acted as leader of the French Canadian Conservative party, and upon the death of his chief became the permanent leader. In 1873, on the downfall of Sir John A. Macdonald’s administration, he resigned office. At the general election of 1878, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Rimouski; but William McDougall, the member for Three Rivers, having made way for him, he was chosen for the vacated constituency by acclamation. In the new Conservative administration he became postmaster-general, which office he retained till 1879, when he became again minister of public works, and this office he still holds. Regarding his brilliant parts, and the service he has been to the Dominion and to the French Canadian people, the Queen conferred upon him the knighthood of the order of St. Michael and St. George. Sir Hector Langevin is an astute and wise statesman, and his whole aim is to create a feeling of brotherhood among his own people and their English-speaking compatriots, and to develop a feeling of loyalty throughout the country to the British empire. In politics he is a Liberal-Conservative, and in religion a Roman Catholic. In 1854 he was married to Justine, eldest daughter of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Charles H. Peter, J.P. Mrs. Langevin died on the 30th October, 1882.
Bridges, Henry Seabury, Fredericton, Professor of Classical Literature and History in the University of New Brunswick, was born November 23rd, 1850, at Sheffield, Sunbury county, N.B. His father was Henry Putnam Bridges, who died in December, 1881. His mother, Eliza Ann Burpee, is still living. Both parents have descended from the Puritan colony which came from Rowley, in Massachusetts, in 1763, and settled in Sheffield and Maugerville. Professor Bridges received his early education at the Grammar School, Sheffield, and matriculated at the University of New Brunswick, in September, 1866. He graduated in June, 1869, with honors in classics and French; also took the Alumni Society’s gold medal for the best Latin essay. He proceeded to the degree of M.A., in June, 1871; and since his graduation he has followed the teaching profession. He was appointed assistant master of the Sunbury Grammar School just after having left college, and remained in this position till July, 1872, when he received the appointment of second master of the Collegiate School, Fredericton, and then removed to his new sphere of duty. In June, 1874, he was appointed principal of the High School, and superintendent of the other schools of St. Stephen. In September, 1877, he left St. Stephen for Oxford, England, and then spent a year in the study of classical literature there. Returning to his mother country, he was appointed second master of the Grammar School in the city of St. John, in August, 1878, and principal in May, the following year. He received the appointment of professor of classics in the University of New Brunswick in June 1881; and that position he still holds. He has been president of the Alumni Society since June, 1885, and was one of its representatives on the senate of the university during the academic year, 1882-83. He married, October 7th, 1880, Alice Middlemore Foster, daughter of the late S. R. Foster, of St. John, New Brunswick. The fruit of this union has been two children,—a daughter, Edith Hazlewood, born August 31st, 1881, still living; and a son, Atlee Burpee, a child of great promise, born June 23rd, 1885, but who died of croup in November, 1887.
Starnes, Lieut.-Col. Hon. Henry, Montreal, was born at Kingston, Ontario, on the 13th October, 1816. He is the son of Benjamin Starnes and Elizabeth Melville, his wife. His grandfather, Nathan Starnes, was a United Empire loyalist who left the state of New York and settled in Canada at the close of the revolutionary war, the family being of Scotch descent. Mr. Starnes was educated at the Academy of Rev. Henry Esson, afterwards taking a course at Montreal College. After leaving college he entered the service of James Leslie, merchant, was admitted a partner in the business in 1849, and the firm of Leslie, Starnes & Co., wholesale merchants, continued until 1859 to do a very large and successful business. Mr. Starnes retired from mercantile life to assist in organizing the Montreal branch of the Ontario Bank, upon the organization of which he was appointed manager, and continued in charge for about ten years. He is now president of the Montreal branch of the well-known London and Liverpool and Globe Insurance Company. He has been and still continues to be identified with a great many local enterprises and interests. He was president of the Metropolitan Bank from its establishment until November, 1875; has been a director of Le Banque du Peuple; vice-president of the Montreal Board of Trade, the St. Jean Baptiste Society, and the Montreal Warehousing Company; a director of the Richelieu Steamboat Company, the Canada Engine and Machinery Company, and the International Transportation Company; and was at one time warden of Trinity house. In municipal matters Mr. Starnes has always taken a great interest, being a public spirited man, and taking much pride in the continued growth of the city which he had made his home. His fellow citizens were not unmindful of his efforts in their behalf, and he was elected mayor of Montreal in 1856-57, and again in 1866-67. In politics, Mr. Starnes is a Conservative, and sat for Chateauguay in the Canadian Assembly from the general election of 1857 until 1863, when he retired. He contested Montreal in 1857, but was defeated; declined a seat in the Quebec cabinet in 1867; was appointed to the Legislative Council in the same year, and appointed speaker of that body on the 8th March, 1878. He has for many years taken an active interest in militia matters, and at present holds the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Montreal Centre Reserve. In August, 1841, he was married to Eleanor Stuart, of Quebec, and has had issue seven children, of whom one has died, one daughter is a nun, and the other three daughters and two sons are all married.
Gravel, Rev. Joseph Alphonse, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, was born the 2nd February, 1843, at St. Antoine de Richelieu, his father, Louis Gravel, being a highly respected farmer of that place, and his mother was Emilie Gladu. He received his early education at the St. Hyacinthe College, and entered the Seminary at Montreal for his theological studies December 8th, 1862. After a highly satisfactory completion of these, he was ordained the 26th August, 1866. Was vicar of Compton from August, 1866, to September, 1868, and rector of Compton for two years. He was director of the Classical and Commercial College at Sorel, from September, 1870, to July 1st, 1872, at which time he became assistant secretary to the bishop of St. Hyacinthe; January 17th, 1876, was made secretary to the bishop, procurator of the Episcopal body, and diocesan adviser; and was appointed vicar-general of the diocese in 1877. In April of the same year was made canon, and in 1888 was appointed prevost of the chapter-house,—administrator of the diocese on two occasions, in 1878 and in 1887. As will be seen by our enumeration of the many important offices of trust and responsibility, the subject of our sketch has been a worthy and deserving recipient of the confidence reposed in him. His principal mission has been to restore the revenues of the Episcopal corporation, in which laudable undertaking his indefatigable efforts and industry have been crowned with success. He has built the beautiful cathedral at St. Hyacinthe—a lasting monument of his energy and talents—and under his personal supervision it will shortly be decorated in a suitable manner, in keeping with, and worthy of, its artistic exterior.