My Dearest Wife: The Private and Public Lives of James David Edgar and Matilda Ridout Edgar

By Maud J. McLean and Robert M. Stamp

The private and public lives of James David Edgar and Matilda Ridout Edgar symbolized the increasingly complex nature of Toronto society as older generations gradually gave way to a new generation of "outsiders" seeking fame and prominence.

James David Edgar (1841-1899), a self-made man, born to proud though impoverished Scottish-immigrant parents in Quebec, became a lawyer, an author, a railway promoter, an M.P. and ultimately speaker of the House of Commons in Ottawa. Matilda Ridout Edgar (1845-1910) was one of Canada’s first widely respected female historians and ultimately president of the National Council of Women of Canada from 1906 until her death.

This dual biography, revealed through the voices of James and Matilda, as expressed through correspondence, provides insights into 19th-century Canadian history, and presents a mutually supportive marital relationship, each encouraging professional fulfillment for the other – a stance surprising in this era of male dominance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Aug 15, 1998
• ISBN: 9781459714977

Maud J. McLean

A resident of Oakville, Ontario, Maud Jocelyn McLean's varied and extensive background includes a number of years in the teaching of music, Canadian history and English literature. Her background also involves public speaking and, for seven years, as Joy McLean, she was heard daily on the CBC National Radio program Kindergarten of the Air.

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Wife

CHAPTER 1

Scottish Heritage and Quebec Boyhood 1841–1857

O! Sons of Scotland! love it well,

Your sires its virtues knew;

Be like your Thistle to the end,

As staunch, as leal and true!

                  — J.D. Edgar¹

Two formative influences shaped the life of James David Edgar—his Scottish ancestry and his Quebec boyhood. He was born in the village of Hatley, Lower Canada (or Canada East), on August 10, 1841, the son of James and Grace Edgar, Scottish immigrants who had lived in the New World less than a year. Baby Jamie was named after his two Scots grandfathers—James Edgar, a Glasgow merchant, and the Revd David Fleming, a Church of Scotland cleric.

The Edgars were an old Scottish family of Keithock in Forfarshire, now known as Angus. Various family members’ support for the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745, however, jeopardized Edgar lands and incomes. James Edgar (Jamie’s great-great-uncle) served as secretary to Prince James Stuart (the Old Pretender).² The prince gave Edgar a much-treasured gold snuff-box that had once belonged to Mary Queen of Scots. Later Edgars treasured this and other important Jacobite relics such as pastels, miniatures, pistols, ribbons and the like.³

The Edgars avoided having their lands confiscated by embracing Protestantism, but their continuing financial and moral support of the Jacobite cause drained the family fortunes. After the death of John Edgar (Jamie’s great-grandfather) in 1788, his heirs had to sell the Keithock estate. Jamie’s grandfather James Edgar moved to Glasgow and worked as an import and export merchant in the West Indian trade. He seemed, however, to lack business skills and failed disastrously by the early 1820s, saved from debtor’s prison only by the grudging intervention (with her own modest inheritance) of his wife, Anne Hamilton.⁴

The Edgar Family Estate Keithock, near Brechin, Scotland.

Increasingly, the family’s financial and religious tensions weighed heavily on their son James, young Jamie’s father. Born in 1819, and trained as an engineer and draughtsman in Zurich, Switzerland, he was unable to find work in his chosen profession in Scotland, and a brief stint as a teacher had proved disappointing. By the 1830s, Anne, elder son John, and daughters Anne, Catherine, and Mary Caroline embraced Catholicism. Young James became further alienated when he became engaged to Grace Fleming of Carriden, Linlithgoshire, a daughter of the Revd David Fleming of the Church of Scotland.

Throughout the 1830s, Scotland was awash in talk of emigration as a solution to Highland clearances and urban poverty.⁵ Twenty-year-old James Edgar set out alone from Glasgow late in 1839 on a six-month reconnaissance of North America, hoping for better conditions and a happier family life for him and his betrothed. In Stanstead County, Lower Canada, he purchased a 100-acre (40-ha) farm with a small house. On his return home, he persuaded his fiancée to emigrate, and they wed on July 9, 1840, at her father’s manse at Carriden.

Marriage certificate of J.D. Edgar’s parents, James Edgar and Grace Fleming, 1840.

The newlyweds sailed from Glasgow to Quebec⁶ and thence journeyed to Stanstead County—typically, a three-day trip by river steamer or stage coach up the St Lawrence to Trois Rivières, by ferry across to Nicolet on the south shore, then by coach south towards the American border. Stanstead County offered gentle rolling countryside, picturesque lakes and rivers, and marvellous vistas of the Green Mountains of Vermont to the south. Pioneered by Americans around the turn of the century, Stanstead now welcomed English and Scots brought out by the British American Land Company. James and Grace proudly named their first home Keithock. It was near Hatley (sometimes called East Hatley or Charleston), a small, English-speaking village east of Lake Massawippi.⁷

Death and birth both soon touched the young couple. James’ father died at sea on June 9, 1841, on his way to visit his plants in the wilderness.⁸ Since elder son John (now Brother Auguste) had renounced all family rights and inheritances on entering a Roman Catholic monastery, James now became head of the family, inheriting the Jacobite treasures that his mother held in trust, and little else. Barely two months later, Grace gave birth to James David Edgar on August 10, 1841.

Unfortunately, little came of the farm—because of the two urban Scots’ inadequate preparation and a collapse in the wheat economy—or of James’s efforts to find work as an engineer, surveyor, or draftsman.⁹

The young family relied on financial help from James’s widowed mother and other Scottish relatives. Meanwhile, a second child was born on June 13, 1844, christened Elizabeth Catherine and called Eliza.

The following year, thoroughly discouraged, James and Grace sold the property and moved north to Lennoxville. Located at the confluence of the St Francis and Massawippi rivers and on coach roads leading to Sherbrooke, Montreal, and the American border, the bustling town housed close to five hundred anglophones¹⁰

Freed from farm demands, James spent much time dreaming up money-making schemes and even involved his mother as noted in this letter of December 12, 1845:

"In all steam engines there is an immense loss of power and I am perfectly convinced that I can make a pound of fuel do at least twice as much work as in the best Steam Engines. If it should be successful the profits could not be told in thousands—only tens of thousands—and should any person upon seeing the plans be inclined to undertake the preliminary expenses of patents etc. I would be happy to give him one third of profits. I will give you a sketch of the plan, and next post will send you more full details and calculations in case you find anyone who would join me... Do not show this to anyone who will work it out for his own purposes..."

Cemetery marker of James Edgar (1819-1850), father of James David Edgar, in Lennoxville, Quebec.

This scheme came to naught, however, as did all of James’s attempts to find work as an engineer. He and Grace survived on the income from the sale of their farm and money from Scotland. A third child, Grace Matilda, arrived on November 18, 1846. James’s letters home reveal a mixture of resigned defeat and naive optimism. I have tried to get employment of some sort on our railway that is to be, he wrote to his mother in May 1848, but there is no chance of employment this summer. Then he described another get-rich scheme—his spur-of-the-moment purchase of a 100-acre (40-ha) property near Lennoxville, with opportunities for field crops, timber sales, and eventual resale at a profit.

Fortunately, the Edgars did not have to rely on this second farm experiment, for they came under the informal patronage of the Revd Lucius Doolittle, rector of St George’s Church and founder of Lennoxville Grammar School, later Bishop’s College School.¹¹ In early 1846, Doolittle appointed James Edgar church warden. Three years later, again under Doolittle’s aegis, Edgar started teaching at the grammar school. On July 10, 1849, he told his mother of a promotion:

Title page from the Edgar family Bible, printed in 1672.

"Now at last after a good deal of delay I am appointed 2nd Master, The Rev. John Butler being First Master. From various circumstances their funds are at present very low and it is possible that owing to the change of Masters the school may fall off for one or two quarters and consequently my salary is at present only £60 Currency but when the funds of the School afford it, it will be increased.

You ask whether [cousin] Mary Watson’s kindness has completely cleared me of debt. It has not perfectly but it has brought it to so small a sum that I can have no difficulty (to all human probability) in clearing off the remainder myself, probably in the course of a year. But I will perhaps be cramped for some little time longer.

There is some chance of my getting a private class for Engineering which will eke out my salary and perhaps eventually lead to a Professorship of Civil Engineering in the College here..."

Lennoxville Grammar school from an 1832 town sketch.

Teaching proved difficult. Headmaster Butler suffered from ill-health and offered little leadership. Funds were scarce, truancy was endemic and applications were declining. Yet the school gave young Jamie Edgar his first formal education. Admitted sometime between June 1845 and September 1849, he boarded at the school-house during part of that period. James described school life for himself and Jamie in a letter of December 26, 1849, to his sister Catherine (Kate), then preparing to take her vows as a nun at St Mary’s Priory in England:

"I am now once more a dominie teaching the young ideas from 9 to 12 & from 1 1/2 to 4 on Mondays Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays. On the Wednesdays and Saturdays I am only from 8 1/2 to 12 1/2...

Poor Jamie is the youngest boy in the school, only 8—in his class there is one boy 1 year older and the others are 11-12 & 13 years old, but in his English and Arithmetic the little man is at the head of his class—he is a very dear little boy...

I see that what I have said of Jamie might lead you to suppose that he was a sort of pattern boy—always well-behaved but he is far from that. He is much too fond of teasing his sisters and is extraordinary careless..."

In finishing the letter, Grace spoke of her recent difficulties, but hinted at an improvement in Lennoxville and mentioned their renting a comfortable two-storey house. We are beginning to have a pretty good society here with the professors and students of Bishop’s College—& good books are getting plenty.

As part of his warden’s duties, James headed a committee to raise funds for a 240-kg (532-lb) bell. The campaign netted £36, the bell was duly installed and it was to be inaugurated on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1850. Sadly, by that date James Edgar lay very ill in his home not far from the church. The Revd Mr Scarth, an assistant at St George’s, tells the story:

When Easter Morn came, Mr. Edgar lay a-dying. As the morning began to dawn, the thought came into my heart, whether the ringing of the bell might too much agitate my dying friend. Just then I was called downstairs by the Sexton to inquire whether he should ring the bell. I bade him wait while I went up and tried to find what were Mr. Edgar’s wishes. As I opened the door, I found his eyes fastened upon me and he at once said, Are they going to ring the bell? I answered, Would you wish it? He answered, O, certainly." So I opened the window looking out on the church, and the bell rang out our Easter Thankfulness, while every heart in Lennoxville was filled with a great sorrow.¹²"

Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, 1846.

Jamie’s father died a few days later at thirty-one, after less than a decade in Canada. Miss Charles or Charlie, the children’s governess and a long-time family employee in Scotland, conveyed the sad news to his mother on April 10:

"Dear James, after an illness often days, died on the 6th of April at qr to 7 a.m.—suffered little pain & died in peace with all Men, and assured of happiness, could you have seen the heavenly smile with which he departed, you would never wish to recall him to this world of sorrow—You remember his peevish manner when sick, in this final one he was like a gently simple, grateful child, no murmurs, but one continued strain of happy content.

He had every attention that Man, or Woman could pay him, and a debt of gratitude we owe to the kind inhabitants of this place, besides all that, he had three Drs and an experienced nurse. Remember dear the Drs were not ignorant Yankees, they were Men of Education, two studied in Edinbr., and one in Glasgow. Nothing could have saved our dear James, his disease had been long growing on him, his liver had been long affected,—the last was inflamation of the Lungs—which was subdued, but exhaustion of the system prevented his rallying—The Drs. wished to examine him, and Grace was pleased they should do so, they found his whole right side affected, and the bowels beginning, and if it had been possible for him to survive, consumption must have been the consequence...

The School Committee—as a mark of their regard for him, have offered to Mrs. Edgar to educate Jamie. James had insured his life for £500, some weeks ago he talked of giving it up, and had been careless in sending the Policy which had been asked for. Kind friends here, interested themselves in getting it carried on—and they almost feel assured when the Committee meets, the insurance will be allowed to proceed. Should it fail, Grace and family, will be in a sad state, she has nothing to go on with - but God is Good, I have no fear all will go well..."

The insurance policy probably paid little, for in October 1852, cousin Mary Watson of Edinburgh wrote to Jonathan Edgar of Summit, NJ, that James’ death left a widow and three children with almost nothing. Grandmother Anne Edgar offered to help, but only if the children went to Catholic schools. Such a proposal was totally unacceptable to Grace, whose children had been baptized in the Church of England. She declined firmly and later severed relations with her mother-in-law.

Grace then took matters into her own hands. She arranged to be formally appointed tutor for the three, though the boy remained in school for the 1850 fall term. At the end of the year, they all left for Hatley, where supportive friends awaited. On June 5, 1851, at St James Church, Hatley, Grace married the Revd John Carry.

Twenty-five-year-old John Carry was a Church of England clergyman. Born in Limerick, Ireland in 1826, at the age of sixteen he emigrated to Canada with his father. He studied arts and theology at Bishop’s College (later Bishop’s University) and in 1850 was ordained a deacon in February and priest on May 5. During his student days, Carry no doubt met both James and Grace Edgar through Lucius Doolittle and St George’s Church, and he continued his friendship with the widow Grace through the winter of 1850—51. At the time of their wedding, Carry was six years younger than his bride and just sixteen years older than Jamie. Carry enjoyed a long and generally respected career in both the dioceses of Quebec and Toronto. He earned a bachelor of divinity degree from Bishop’s in 1855 at one of its first convocations and later received an honorary doctorate from the institution.¹³ Yet in both his public and private life, his dark and violent qualitites made him a difficult human being. He demanded his own way in theological debates and family discussions and was not to be crossed!

At first, domestic life appeared to proceed smoothly. Carry and his newly acquired family moved to Leeds, another small English-speaking community southwest of Quebec City. There Carry ministered in St James parish and as a travelling missionary priest through the more isolated regions of the diocese of Quebec. In the autumn of 1851, the children’s lessons began at home, though soon Eliza attended a local school while Jamie went away to boarding school in Pointe-Lévy (or Levis), across the St Lawrence from Quebec City.

The entire family moved in 1855 to Pointe Levy,¹⁴ where Carry became rector of Holy Trinity Church, and fourteen-year-old Jamie attended the Académie Aubigny in Quebec. Jamie learned French rapidly and excelled in all subjects. Before his sixteenth birthday he was helping to instruct some of the younger pupils. I had to teach French boys their spelling, arithmetic, catechism &c quite as much as English, he wrote to his Grandmother Edgar years later, and I have not altogether forgotten what I learnt then.

While commuting to school by ferry, Jamie met Louis Fréchette. The two boys seemed to have little in common: Louis attended the Petit Séminaire de Québec; one was a francophone native of Pointe-Lévy and the other an anglophone newcomer; Louis was almost two years older than Jamie. Yet the two quickly became close pals and their friendship lasted throughout their lives.¹⁵ Through the Académie Aubigny and Louis Fréchette, Jamie Edgar immersed himself in a rich and exciting cultural world. He gave up the comfort and familiarity of English-language schooling for the challenge of learning in French; he exchanged the village life of the Eastern Townships for a more sophisticated urban way of life; and he could contrast the restrained customs of a Scots-Canadian immigrant family with the more effervescent Fréchettes. Together, his new friend and new school inspired in Jamie a love of French Canada and a lifelong interest in maintaining good English-French relations within the country. It is no wonder that I admire the French literature of Quebec, he told the National Club of Montreal more than thirty years later, when a romantic friendship of my boyhood was formed with Louis Fréchette, which still continues.¹⁶

Through the mid-1850s, Jamie and Louis encouraged each other to write and read poetry. Spring, Jamie’s earliest poem to survive (with 1853 pencilled in later) shows a youngster’s fascination with nature:

The Edgar family home, showing modern additions, in Lennoxville, Quebec.

See yonder gurgling rivulets

All messingers of spring

And various other streamlets

To us good news they bring.

And this now budding poplar

Which tells us all of mirth

and that freezing filthy snow

Is leaving all the earth.

And then we see the little birds

Come chirping to our door

Which is the best and truest sign

That winter is no more

The moon now shows her silv’ry light

The stars peep from their cov’ring,

And night’s dark shadows put to flight

Which through the air were hov’ring.¹⁷

Family papers from this same period also contain a short story entitled Anecdote of a Squirrel:

I now begin to feel old age laying his hoary hand heavily upon me, and often think with sincere regret the many dangers I have fallen into by my too great reliance upon my own abilities; for in my youth I, instead of taking the advice of my more experienced counsellors, thought nobody could possibly be in the right unless they were of the same opinion as myself. For this reason I intend to relate the many misfortunes of my past life, and also viz: hoping that they may in some wise prevent my young readers from falling into so great a vice...

So graphic is Jamie’s portrayal of the squirrel breaking a leg that the account might be autobiographical! Unfortunately, the story remains incomplete, ending abruptly with just as they finished their work, a...!

At age eleven, Jamie began to correspond with his Scottish relations. In large, flowing handwriting, using paper ruled with lines to guide him, he first wrote to his maternal grandfather, the Revd David Fleming, on August 24, 1852:

"I am quite ashamed at not having written to you before for I am now 11 years old, and it is time that I should begin to get acquainted with my friends in Scotland. Mamma often tells me about them, and about Carriden Manse, which I think must be such a pretty place, and have often wished to see it and its inmates; which I hope that I may be able to do someday. I go to school in Quebec, but at present I am at home for the holidays...

I hope that you will answer this as soon as you can, for I would like very much to hear from you. Give my love to Grandmamma and all my Aunts and to Uncle David. I remain, your affectionate Grandson."

During his mid-teens, Jamie tried to heal the family rift, corresponding first with Mary Watson, his father’s cousin. A wealthy Edinburgh spinster in her mid-fifties, Mary was most interested in family history. She had helped Jamie’s father get started in the New World; now she prepared to assist young Jamie with generous loans and outright gifts of money, as well as generous dollops of practical advice, as in this letter of January 11, 1856, from 6 Pitt Street:

"...Having been under disadvantages in the way of education you must be rather behind in some things & will now require double diligence on your own part to make up the deficiency. I judge from your own letter which tho’ not a long one has three words interlined as if you had not been giving your attention to what you were about. Those who write very rapidly sometimes omit words unconsciously but it is evident from the hand that you write slowly, consequently there is the less excuse for errors. I do not say this as scolding you but merely hint as to future improvement.

I shall give what aid I can, seeing your grandmama seems resolved not to do it, save in such a way as no Protestant could accept, but then you must still depend on yourself for no one can help you unless you put forth all the energies of your own mind for your advancement. I never wish any young friend of mine to have a farthing to trust to, just a good education if possible & his own enthusiasm..."

Later that year, as Jamie contemplated a mercantile career like his Grandfather Edgar, he heard again from Cousin Mary, who wrote on October 3: "In regard to what you say about a mercantile profession, I suppose it may do very well if you qualify yourself. I have sent Mr. Carry the means to enable you in the meantime to get the different branches you stand in need of, French, Arithmetic—and I sincerely hope you will give your earnest attention to them & to improve your writing. This last you are aware of is indispensible to get a situation but, as you know your deficiency in this respect I need not dwell on it."

Jamie also re-established links with Grandmother Anne Edgar, who had recently settled in Aix-la-Chapelle (or Aachen) in France, where she lived with her youngest daughter, Mary Caroline (Cary or Carry). Anne remained a staunch Catholic, resentful of her daughter-in-law’s refusal to have the three children brought up in her faith. Jamie wrote to her twice during 1856 and got no reply; after a third letter, she agreed (January 29, 1857) to correspond with her grandson:

"I received a few days ago, your letter of the 18th Dec, and most gladly agree to your desire that we sh’d correspond, especially as this thin letter which I have now received, is written in a manner to make me recognize the son of your dear Father. Your two first letters were unlike ones which I wd have wished from his child—this was my reason for my not having answered a letter you wrote a year ago...

What you tell me of your position is very sad humanly speaking, & had you all come to Scotland after the death of your dear Father, or later, been sent to be educated near me, it wd have been very different—but not understanding this was my earnest desire, I am by no means sure that it wd have been best for you! You may have to bless God for all your life that in its beginning you have had to rough it—With me, your character might have beome effeminate from too much care & indulgence...

I wd like you sh’d write to me more particularly about your position, your plans, your hopes—have you any friends or acquaintances who are to give you an opening in the Mercantile career you have chosen...

...We are going to England & Scotland in the Spring, & if we sh’d chance to meet with any one who has connexions in your quarter, wd you like me to ask for introductions for you?..."

Jamie’s letters to his grandmother were wise beyond his years. On July 14, 1857, for example, he wrote:

"I have been very long in answering your last kind letter, as I was waiting for the introductions which you promised me; but I suppose you have had more trouble than you expected in getting them.

I thank you sincerely for the money you sent for Eliza; she is now attending a lady’s school in the neighbourhood and I think is making rapid progress. You said it grieved you much that your G children should still persist in remaining away from you, notwithstanding their condition in Canada—As far as I am concerned you are indeed mistaken, for nothing could give me more pleasure than to see you and to remain with you for some time, at least—

My reasons for not going to live with you at first were several, I of course did not like leaving Mama and my sisters, so young, and go to a foreign country; I can now see that it has been of some advantage to me to have remained here, as I have learned, nolens volens to rough it, and to take care of myself to some extent, which branch of education I would not likely have