Wilkinson, William, of Bushville, Chatham, New Brunswick, the present judge of the County Courts of Northumberland, Gloucester, and Restigouche, son of John and Catherine Wilkinson, both now deceased, was born at Liverpool, England, on the 11th February, 1826. He came out to New Brunswick in 1840, arriving at Chatham on the 11th September, after a long passage of forty-nine days, by the encouragement of, and to be with his half-brother, the late James Johnson, who had arrived in the country about six years before, and who had then lately entered into business as a merchant on his own account. He remained with his brother as apprentice clerk for two years, and then with the sanction and good will of all friends, he entered the law office of the late Hon. John M. Johnson, jun., as a law student, and was entered as such in Michaelmas term, 1842. In the same term of 1847, having satisfactorily passed the necessary examinations as to his fitness, he was duly sworn in and enrolled as an attorney of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and also received his commission to act as notary public. In Michaelmas term, 1849, he was duly called to the bar. For a few years after his admission he practised alone, but on the 20th December, 1852, he entered into partnership with the late Hon. John M. Johnson, jun., which partnership continued up to the time of Mr. Johnson’s death, November, 1868. During its continuance they were engaged in many very important and interesting causes, and always had the reputation of being very careful, successful, practitioners. The first governmental office Mr. Wilkinson received was that of surrogate and judge of Probates for the county of Northumberland, which was on the resignation of the office by the late Hon. Thomas H. Peters, on the 8th July, 1851. This office he resigned in the spring or summer of 1870, with the view of becoming a candidate for the New Brunswick legislature. And it may be mentioned that during all the time Mr. Wilkinson held the office, no appeal was ever made from any decision or judgment made by him in any cause before him. In the spring or summer of 1852, Mr. Wilkinson was appointed (under the first Education Act of New Brunswick authorising inspectors, passed in the previous winter) inspector of schools for his county, Northumberland, which office he held for several years, until, fearing that the increasing professional demands on his time and attention might induce a less careful and thorough performance of his duties as inspector, or interfere with professional duties, he resigned the office into the hands of the government, stating these reasons. But his resignation was much to the regret of the then superintendent, Marshal D’Avary, who was most desirous that he should continue in office and become a district inspector under the new act then, or about to be, passed. On the 8th November, 1870, he was appointed by the commissioners of the Intercolonial Railway for examining and reporting upon the titles of lands taken for railway purposes through the county of Northumberland, and later by the railway authorities to perform a similar duty in regard to many unsettled and disputed cases in the adjoining counties of Gloucester and Restigouche. And at intervals for several years after his first appointment as railway solicitor, he was appointed one of the appraisers with one or other of the paymasters of the Intercolonial Railway, for the time being, to appraise and (after the preparation and execution of the proper transfer of title) pay the land damages for rights of way, water courses, and conduits taken for the railway purposes through all these counties. In the fall of 1872 he was appointed by the Dominion government immigrant agent for Northumberland, on the resignation by John G. G. Layton. This office he held for a few years, when, on a change of government, a new policy in regard to immigration was inaugurated. But on the cessation of the office, courteous and full acknowledgment was made by the then government of the ability and zeal with which the duties had been performed. On the 2nd April, 1873, he was appointed by the Dominion government one of Her Majesty’s Counsel Learned in the Law. On the 6th March, 1877, he was appointed surrogate of the Vice-Admiralty Court of New Brunswick, by the Vice-Admiralty Court, and on the 11th March, 1881, on the resignation of Judge Williston, he received the appointment of judge of the County Courts of Northumberland, Gloucester, and Restigouche, and on the next day was duly sworn in and held his first county court at Bathurst, Gloucester county. On the 12th February, 1884, he was ex-officio appointed first commissioner under the Liquor License Act of 1883, for the several license districts of Northumberland, Gloucester, and Restigouche, and held the same till the decision of the Privy Council declared the act ultra vires. On the 26th October, 1885, he was appointed under separate commissions the revising officer of the electoral districts of the counties of Northumberland and Restigouche respectively, under the Electoral Franchise Act, passed in 1884. Judge Wilkinson is a member of the Church of England, adhering strongly to the views developed by the Oxford movement. For thirty years, and without a break, he was the vestry clerk of the church corporation in Chatham, where he has always lived, and only resigned the office a few years ago, because of his necessary frequent absence from home, to fill judicial appointments. For a like period, with very rare exceptions, he has been a delegate to the Diocesan Church Society, and to the Diocesan Synod at, and ever since its formation, and on several occasions has been elected by the Diocesan to the Provincial Synod. At the formation of the Diocesan, he strongly espoused the right of concurrence of the bishop in all acts of the synod, so in the Provincial he was with those who held and voted that the House of Bishops should have a veto power on all nominations to the episcopate, both of which views, though not without much opposition, ultimately carried. On St. James’ day, 1850, he was married to Eliza Lovibond, only child of the Rev. Samuel Bacon, D.R. (the first rector of Chatham, and who continued such for the long period of forty-seven years, dying at his post on the 16th February, 1869), and granddaughter of the celebrated sculptor, the elder John Bacon, by whom he has had six children, only three of whom are now living: namely, Eliza Bacon, wife of John P. Burchill, M.P.P.; the Rev. William James, rector of Bay du Vin; and Mary Edith, the wife of William R. Butler, B.E., professor of mathematics at, and vice-president of, King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia. It is said that after the marriage of the latter, it was observed by the Bishop of Fredericton, the present Metropolitan of Canada, that he could say in this instance what, perhaps, could not be said by any other in Canada of any one else, that it had been his great happiness to marry the mother as well as her two daughters.
Cargill, Henry, Manufacturer of Lumber, Cargill, Ontario, M.P. for East Bruce, was born in the township of Nassagaweya, Halton county, on the 13th August, 1838. His father, David Cargill, and mother, Anne Cargill, were natives of the county of Antrim, Ireland, and having emigrated to Canada in 1824, settled in the county of Halton, Ontario, over sixty years ago. Henry received his primary education at the schools in his native county, and afterwards took a course at Queen’s College, Kingston. He commenced the lumber business in 1861; and in 1878 removed from Nassagaweya to Guelph, and in April of the following year to Greenock township, east riding of Bruce county, where he still resides. Although the manufacture of lumber has been Mr. Cargill’s chief business, he has engaged, to a limited extent, in mercantile pursuits, and has done some farming. He has also a flour mill and a sash and door factory, and on the whole has succeeded very well in all he has undertaken. He was for some time the postmaster at Cargill; and for the last three years has been the reeve of the township of Greenock. Mr. Cargill has been an active politician for many years; and in 1887, on presenting himself for parliamentary honors, was elected to represent East Bruce in the Dominion parliament. In 1879 he generously gave to the Wellington, Grey & Bruce (now the Grand Trunk) Railway a piece of land on which he built a station, and this was the starting of the village of Cargill, which is named after him. In politics he is a Conservative; and in religion he belongs to the Presbyterian denomination. On the 11th March, 1864, he was married to Margaret Davidson, daughter of William and Anne Davidson, of Halton, and has a family of four children.
Stennett, Rev. Canon Walter, Cobourg, Ontario, was born in Kingston, Ontario, in 1821, of English parents, who had emigrated, in 1811, to the West Indies, and in 1817, at the close of the American war, passed through the United States and settled in Kingston. His father was a typical Englishman, whose politics were never swayed by considerations of advantage to himself; hence, though always a staunch Conservative, he neither sought nor received any government office or emolument, but through a long life continued true to his principles of loyalty and integrity, unrewarded. In 1837, when the “American sympathizers” (as they were then called) aided the rebellion of Mackenzie, he commanded a body of provincial artillery opposite Navy Island, and he will be remembered by many still living as president of the officers’ mess of the militia on the Canadian shore. His son, the subject of this sketch, a boy of sixteen, was just ending a successful career at Upper Canada College, where he won many prizes, both in classics and mathematics. On the opening of King’s College University, young Stennett was one of the first to matriculate, and soon proved that his early promise in Upper Canada College would not disappoint those who expected somewhat from him. Amongst these was the Rev. Dr. McCaul, with whom young Stennett soon became a great favorite, and who especially recognized his talent for Latin and English verse. It was in mathematics, however, that his highest development showed itself, so much so that the then professor of mathematics, on leaving for England, wished young Stennett to enter Cambridge, in which English university he assured him of a high wranglership. While still pursuing his student career in King’s College, the vacancy of third classical master in Upper Canada College occurred, and Mr. Stennett was immediately chosen as one very fit to fill it. Hence he commenced his course as master in the institution in which he had received his earliest classical training. After a few years, and while still completing with éclat his course at King’s College, and reading in divinity under the late Rev. Dr. Beaven and Professor Hirschfelder, he received his degrees of B.A. and M.A.; but was prevented from proceeding to B.D. and D.D. by the abolition of the chair of divinity, and with it the power of King’s College to confer degrees in that faculty. Meanwhile, by the lamented death of the Rev. W. H. Ripley, Mr. Stennett was made second classical master in Upper Canada College, and afterwards, by a series of events which caused the retirement of the then principal—the late F. W. Barron, M.A.—Mr. Stennett was, without the least solicitation on his own part, promoted to the vacant post, as one fitted in every way, by his talents, disposition, and acquirements, adequately to fill the position of principal of the Eton of Canada. A few years before, in 1852, Mr. Stennett had married the daughter of the then Ven. Archdeacon of York, and, on returning from his marriage tour, was, while in London, commissioned to obtain from Downing Street, and to bring out with him, the Royal Charter of Trinity College, Toronto. Though always by his feelings naturally inclined to the Church University, Mr. Stennett has never taken an ad eundem degree in Trinity College, but his name still continues on the roll of what has ever been to him the rightful representative of his own university. Thus has the onward tide of things not increased his academic honors. While principal of Upper Canada College, Mr. Stennett had the honor of personally presenting the address of that institution to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, then on a visit to this country. About the sixth year of Mr. Stennett’s prosperous conduct of Upper Canada College, contentions unhappily arose with the Senate of the University of Toronto, the leading spirits of which desired alterations in the classical scheme of teaching, and changes in the mode of discipline, of which changes Mr. Stennett, from his experience, did not approve. Under the worry produced by conscientiously resisting these changes, and honestly upholding a system under which some of the finest minds in the country had had their training, Mr. Stennett’s health broke down. His honest efforts to resist what he regarded as a mongrel and lowering system brought on a serious brain affection, which demanded his resignation in self-defence, and this resignation was, greatly to the indignation of Sir Edmund Head, the then governor-general (himself a scholar and a gentleman), accepted, though he offered Mr. Stennett a special Royal commission. To recover from this affection of the brain (the effects of which have never entirely left him), Mr. Stennett retired to a small property on Lake Simcoe, where, after an interval of needful rest, he built, and for some time conducted successfully, the private school known as “Beechcroft.” From this Mr. Stennett was, in 1866, at the especial desire of Bishop Strachan, promoted to the important rectory of Cobourg, then about to become vacant by the election of its rector to the dignity of coadjutor bishop of Niagara. For now over twenty years Mr. Stennett has ably and successfully conducted the affairs of the parish of Cobourg; but for some time a return of some of the symptoms which caused his retirement from Upper Canada College, has prevented him from actively discharging parish duties, which he has been obliged largely to delegate to his assistant, the Rev. Dr. Roy. It must not be supposed, however, that Mr. Stennett, while principally engaged in teaching, neglected the higher duties of a Christian clergyman. Called to the diaconate in 1847, and to the priesthood in the year following, he was immediately appointed assistant minister in the church of the Holy Trinity, Toronto, the congregation of which church he worked hard in building up, and for five years he served that congregation without fee or reward. He was afterwards chiefly instrumental in building, and in collecting the congregation for, the church at Carlton, near Toronto. He served for long periods, in the absence of their own clergy, the church at Norway, and the three churches of the Rev. Mr. Darling, in the township of Scarboro’, all this without compensation of any kind. Finally, on his retirement to Lake Simcoe, he built, and served gratuitously for several years, the beautiful little stone church of Christ’s Church, Keswick. In fact, until he was inducted into the rectory of Cobourg, Mr. Stennett had never received a penny in the way of stipend. To the efficient manner in which the affairs of his parish in Cobourg have been managed, the records of the church can testify. Large returns have been regularly made for all the purposes for which the synod required collections. A beautiful chancel has been added to St. Peter’s Church; one of the best organs in the diocese has been placed therein, and many other improvements are in course of being made. Canon Stennett having had the great misfortune to lose his estimable wife by a lingering illness, was, early in 1882, married by the Bishop of Toronto to Julia Veronica, daughter of the late Norman Bethune, of Montreal, and niece of the late Dean Bethune, of Christ’s Church Cathedral in that city. Her tact, energy and ability have been prominently shown in those parts of parochial work which need the skilled guidance of an accomplished lady. This slight sketch would be left imperfect, did we fail to mention that Canon Stennett’s labors were not confined altogether to the routine duties of his own parish, but that under three successive bishops his scholarly and theological attainments were utilized to the benefit of the diocese at large, in his conducting, periodically, the examinations for holy orders, until the brain malady, from which he still suffers, obliged him to resign this portion of his duties into the hands of his bishop.
Bélanger, Rev. François Honoré, Curé of the Parish of St. Roch, Quebec, was born at Montreal on the 26th April, 1850. He is the son of François Bélanger, who was manager of the Queen’s printer’s establishment during many years, and Elmire Chalut, a member of a family having numerous representatives in all parts of the province of Quebec. Mr. Bélanger, sen., died in September, 1857, and Mrs. Bélanger, in September, 1859. Having completed a course of classical and theological studies at the Seminary of Quebec, he determined to enter holy orders. He was ordained priest on the 28th of May, 1876, and was appointed vicar at the Basilica, Quebec city, on 29th of May of the same year, a position he held for nine years and a half. On the 4th of October, 1885, he was given the charge of the important parish of St. Roch, succeeding the Rev. Mr. Gosselin, and the Rev. Mr. Charest, whose memory will forever survive, chiefly in connection with the signal services he rendered his flock on the occasions of the disastrous conflagrations Quebec has so often been visited with, and also of the riots, when his presence and his voice quelled the most turbulent as by magic. Rev. Mr. Bélanger has built the St. Roch’s School, probably the finest building held by the Christian Brothers in the Dominion. This school is the property of the parish of St. Roch.
Joseph, Abraham,—The late Abraham Joseph, Merchant, of Quebec, was born on the 14th of November, 1815, at Berthier, near Montreal. He was the son of Henry Joseph and Rachel Solomon. After the death of his father, who succumbed to the cholera plague of 1832, he removed to Quebec, where he continued to reside up to his death, which occurred on the 20th of March, 1886. The other branches of the family have all settled in Montreal. Mr. Joseph married in 1846 Sophia David, daughter of Samuel David and Sarah Hart, of Montreal, and she died in 1866, leaving a family of eleven children, four sons and seven daughters. Of these all but one have survived their father. Mr. Joseph was a successful man of business throughout his long career; his name was identified with almost every commercial enterprise of his time, and in most instances appeared among their active directors. As president of the Quebec Board of Trade, he appeared for several years at the head of the business community, and in his turn presided over the then flourishing Dominion Board of Trade. He was one of the original directors of the Banque Nationale, where was seen the unusual spectacle of eight men, all middle-aged or more, sitting at the same board for over eleven years without change. The first break in the board (since, however, much changed), was made when Mr. Joseph resigned his position, to take the presidency of the Stadacona Bank, then being established. This institution had a fairly successful career, but after passing through the greater part of a period of commercial depression, was put into liquidation by a vote of the shareholders. The president himself never lost faith in the institution, and his assertions of its complete soundness were amply proved by the fact, that in spite of the losses and expenses incidental to liquidation, the shareholders received back the whole of their capital. Mr. Joseph’s public services, however, were not confined strictly to commercial life. Proud of his English descent, he was a life member of the St. George’s Society, and more than once its president. He sat in the city council, and once stood for the mayoralty, being only defeated by a small and very questionable majority. He took a lively interest, but no prominent part, in politics. He served in the Quebec light infantry, during the rebellion of 1837-8, and in time attained the rank of major in the militia. He held the position of vice-consul for Belgium for over thirty years. A Jew by birth and conviction, he brought up his large family, with the assistance of his revered wife, as long as she lived, in all the teachings of their religion, both ceremonial and moral—a task of no slight difficulty in the absence of anything like an organized community. Though truly religious, however, he was as far removed as possible from any taint of bigotry, and his integrity, kind-heartedness and intelligent sympathy, made him the friend alike of Catholic and Protestant, rich and poor, English and French. It is doubtful, indeed, whether in his long career he made any enemies. It is very characteristic of the man’s liberal views, that of the only two public legacies left by his will, one was for a Christian object, the other for a Jewish. His habits were thoroughly domestic and sociable, and his residence, Kincardine Place, was long known as one of the most hospitable residences in Quebec city. He was never happier than when surrounded by the young friends of the family, or by his grandchildren, eight of whom he lived to see.