“At a late hour the company separated, highly gratified with their entertainment.”
Although therefore Britishers had naturally, since the beginning of the English régime often combined, the St. George’s National Society as such was also born at a time when racial feeling ran high, and preceded the rebellion of 1837, being founded in 1834. Its first quarterly meeting was held on January 10, 1835, with a membership of forty-eight. On the cover of its first printed constitution and by-laws it is stated that the society was organized in the city of Montreal for the purpose of relieving brethren in distress, and in the introduction thereto feelings are expressed which indicate that the founders were indeed animated by the keenest sympathies and sincerest desires to aid unfortunate English people in the city at the time, expressing sentiments of intense patriotism. In an original introduction, dated December 19, 1834, it can be seen that its intention was to uphold in Canada a union of Britons to cherish in the descendants of Englishmen, Scotchmen and Irishmen born in the colony their veneration for everything British and their attachment for British laws and British rule and of holding out the hand of welcome and of brotherly love and charity to those numerous and frequently distressed countrymen whom the pressure of a superabundant population is annually forcing to emigrate to this distant land.
A pamphlet published in 1855 gives a list of the earliest officers at the foundation of St. George’s Society as follows: President, Hon. George Moffatt; first vice president, George Gregory, Esq.; second vice president, John Molson, Jr., Esq.; treasurer, Frederick Griffin; secretary, Samuel Tubby; assistant secretary, Arthur C. Webster; first physician, Thomas Walter Jones, M.D.; stewards, James Holmes, Edward S. Maitland, Charles Penner, Teavill Appleton, Isaac Valentine, William Snaith; charitable committee, Benjamin Hall, George Weatherel, Henry Corse, John Platt, Turton Penn; committee of accounts, Albert Furness, Benjamin Smith, Joseph Shuter, Hon. G. Moffatt, S. Gerrard, George Gregory, A.H. Griffin, Joseph Shuter, John Molson, Jr., George Crew Davies, H.W. Jackson, Benjamin Hale, W. Badgely, J. Henry Lambe, Edward J.S. Maitland, John P. Ashton, William Bradbury, W. Hall, George Weatherit, H.G. Webster, Chilion Ford, William Sharp, Thomas W. Jones, M.D., Isaac Valentine, Albert Furness, John Platt, Samuel Tubby, Charles B. Radenhurst, F. Griffin, James Duncan Gibb, T. Appleton, William Stephens, Thomas Philips, Hon. John Molson, John Jones, Thomas B. Wragg, Charles Penney, John Carter, Turton Penn, M. Radiger, Benjamin Ansell, James Holmes, William Pring, John Millichap, Henry Dyer, R.H. Hamilton, William Snaith, Henry Corse, Benjamin Smith.
The records of the first twenty years were destroyed by fire. By 1856 it had a membership of 147 and in the year of incorporation, 1861, it was increased to 170. During the presidency of Mr. John Leeming, 1867-8-9, the home on St. Antoine Street was built at a cost of $14,000. The Society has steadily kept to its purpose as a national society and has treated the immigration question theoretically and practically during its long career having demonstrated beyond dispute that the society has lived up to its original principles. In 19—the Society purchased a new home on Lagauchetière and Cathedral streets to meet the increasing demands on its charitable usefulness. It has two days in the year especially observed, that of Christmas eve, when a distribution of good things for the poor takes place, and that of April 23d, the feast of St. George, when conviviality reigns at the annual banquet to which the official representative of the other National Societies is invited.
The following gentlemen have served as president for the Society since its formation:
ST. ANDREW’S SOCIETY
Scotchmen have ever been clannish. They early formed their Scotch church on St. Gabriel’s Street and were a distinct national factor in the community, as the lists of names of the North West Company will attest, but their National Association, St. Andrew’s Society, arose thus:
On Monday, December 1, 1834, upwards of one hundred leading Scotchmen met at the Albion Hotel in the rear of the theatre to celebrate St. Andrew’s day, the ecclesiastical feast having been celebrated on the Sabbath previously. During the dinner, in consequence of strong national feeling, it was resolved to form a national society for fraternity and benevolence. The stewards of this meeting met on January 17th and a sub-committee of Messrs. Adam Ferrie, William Ritchie, William Edmonstone, Archibald Hume, Robert Armour, Jr., and William Wilson, Jr., was appointed to draw up a constitution. That of St. Andrew’s Society of New York became the model. A general gathering of the Scotch of the town was then called to attend a meeting in the North West building on St. Gabriel Street on the 6th of February, 1835. The chair was taken by the Hon. Peter McGill and a constitution was adopted. On March 9th a meeting was held in Mr. John Fisher’s premises on St. Paul Street, when the following office bearers were elected to serve till November 30, 1835: President, Hon. Peter McGill; first vice president, Adam Ferrie; second vice president, John Boston; treasurer, Charles Tait; secretary, William Edmonstone; chairman committee of management, J. Redpath.
The members in the first year numbered nearly three hundred. One of the first public acts of the association was to accept the invitation of the German Society to march in procession with them, and St. George’s and St. Patrick’s societies, to the Protestant Episcopal church on August 3d, it being “their anniversary.”