Part 121

=Parker, Rev. William Robert=, M.A., D.D., Toronto, Ontario, was born in West Gwillimbury, county of Simcoe, Ontario, June 20th, 1831. His father, Robert Parker, was a native of Limerick, Ireland, whose paternal ancestors were from England, and whose maternal ancestry were German, his mother being a descendant of the brave band of exiles that found shelter in Ireland during the reign of Queen Anne, from the bitter storm of religious persecution that drove them from their pleasant homes in the Palatinate on the Rhine. It is held to be a proud distinction to be identified with this people, especially because of their ultimate influence on the character and destiny of the United States and Canada, through the agency of Methodism. In his early visits to Ireland, Wesley found this colony of erstwhile devout Germans sharing the religious apathy and demoralization so lamentably prevalent in those times. Wesley and his itinerants preached Christ to those strangers that had been as sheep without a shepherd for fifty years; and he soon rejoiced to see them revived and folded again. Wesley bears this testimony concerning the towns in which they lived: “Such places could hardly be found elsewhere in Ireland or England; there was no profanity, no Sabbath breaking, no ale-house in any of them.” Thus, these children of persecution became the fit progenitors of the American contingent of the most zealous type of Christianity known since Apostolic times; for these German-Irish Emburys and Hecks founded in New York, and in Augusta, Canada, the Methodism destined to be the predominant Protestant belief of the New World, from Newfoundland to the Pacific coast. Mr. Parker’s father was one of the heroic pioneers of Upper Canada. Upon his leaving his native land he came to Baltimore, Md., where he spent some time with an uncle, a merchant, dealing in paints and oils, and for whom he visited the West Indies, acting as supercargo of his merchant ship. He settled in West Gwillimbury about the year 1826, where he cleared one of the finest farms, and established one of the most comfortable homes of that wealthy township. He was industrious, economical, thrifty, and hospitable to a proverb. He was a devout and active member of the Methodist church, and one of its stewards and trustees. He was a Liberal in politics, though not partisan. He took an active part in suppressing the rebellion of 1837, and served as quartermaster-sergeant. After his children left home he sold his farm, and lived retired in Bradford, where he died on the 7th July, 1881, in the 84th year of his age, and was interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. Dr. Parker’s mother, Sarah Sutherland, still surviving, and resident in Bradford, was a most intelligent and hearty sympathizer and co-operator with her husband in all his business plans, his home hospitality and religious duties. Her mother was one of the Talbots, and one of her kinsmen, Hon. Thomas Talbot, was recently governor of Massachusetts. Her father was one of the pioneers of West Gwillimbury. One of the Methodist appointments bears his name, the church having been built on the corner of his farm. The youngest son, Captain T. G. Sutherland, sold the homestead a few years since, when he retired to Alliston, where he and his wife now reside in a comfortable home. Dr. Parker had but one brother, the late Dr. T. S. Parker, M.P., of Guelph. He represented North Wellington in the old Canada parliament for a term just before confederation. After the formation of the Dominion of Canada, he was elected to the House of Commons for Centre Wellington by acclamation, for which he sat till the time of his death, which took place in 1868, through an accident that occurred to him while returning from a visit to a patient. He was a pronounced Liberal, and had won for himself a foremost place in his party, and a prominent position in the county and on the floor of the house, because of his personal qualities, and by his powers as a debater. His early death was a great loss to the Reform party, for he would no doubt have become a member of the government upon their coming into power. His widow is a daughter of the late Archdeacon Brough, of London, and cousin to the Hons. Edward and S. H. Blake. The subject of this sketch was educated in Victoria University, Cobourg, where he graduated, and received the degree of B.A., in 1858. He was the valedictorian of his graduating class. Some five years thereafter he received the degree of M.A., and in 1885, that of D.D. He was received as a probationer for the ministry of the Wesleyan Methodist church in 1856, and received into full connection and ordained in 1860, at the conference in Kingston, held in the Sydenham Street Methodist Church, the Rev. Dr. Stinson being president. Dr. Parker has been stationed successively in the following places: Toronto, Montreal, Odelltown, Stanstead, Brantford, St. Catharines, London, Woodstock, Thorold, Chatham, St. Thomas, and is now (1888) pastor of the Spadina Avenue Methodist Church, Toronto. He was chairman of the following districts: Niagara, London, Brantford, Chatham and St. Thomas. He was twice elected president of the London Conference. His second election was in 1886, to the present London Conference, held in St. Thomas First Methodist Church, where he was then pastor. The first election was in 1883, when he was stationed in Chatham, and when the old London Conference covered nearly all the territory now embraced in the present, London, Niagara and Guelph conferences. He has been a member of all the general conferences of the Methodist church held in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Belleville and Toronto, respectively. He was opposed to the lately consummated union of all the Methodist churches, because of points in the _basis_, and of the haste with which it was pushed. He has pronounced views in favor of university federation. He is a member of the Board of Regents of Victoria University. His political views have been largely in harmony with those of the Liberal party, but he is now convinced of the necessity of consolidating the temperance forces of Canada in a prohibitory party, as both the existing parties so far decline to adopt the entire abolition of the liquor traffic as a plank in their platform. He has travelled in several states of the Union, and visited England, Scotland, Ireland and France. In England he “did” the International Exhibition, visiting in Scotland, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the lakes; and in Ireland, besides several centres and the Lakes of Killarney, his father’s and mother’s native places. As a preacher, Dr. Parker is clear, forceful, eloquent, and eminently practical. He fearlessly attacks the vices of the age, while insisting strongly on the great Methodist doctrines of repentance, conversion, and the necessity of true, practical holiness of heart and life. He is a vigorous opponent of all forms of priestcraft and sacerdotalism. He is no theorizer, nor idealist, but a firm believer and teacher of the great truth, that the religion of the Lord Jesus is designed to meet and bless all the requirements of human life; that in all civil, political and social life, it is not only possible, but imperative, that God should be honored, and that as a nation we are responsible for obedience to all God’s laws. In September, 1863, he was married to Annie Sophia Ruston, of Montreal. She was a native of the ancient capital, Quebec, where her father was a grain and flour merchant. She had an aunt, sister of her father, who was the wife of a Methodist minister, the Rev. R. A. Flanders, and two sisters of her mother, wives of Revs. G. H. Davis and Dr. Cox. She has one sister the wife of a Methodist minister, Rev. Dr. S. J. Hunter, now of the Centenary Church, Hamilton. Her grandfather Ruston, a Yorkshire Methodist local preacher, was induced, while a resident of Odelltown, near Montreal, to assume pastoral work by a people there as “sheep without a shepherd.” He was made eminently useful, and when Dr. and Mrs. Parker were stationed there, their first circuit after marriage, they found several of the most devout and venerable members of the church, who had been brought to Christ through his ministrations. Dr. Parker’s wife early evidenced literary taste and ability, and has contributed several articles and tales to different periodicals. She is now responsible for editing the ladies’ department of the “Missionary Outlook,” published under the direction of the General Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. This ladies’ department is conducted in the interests of Women’s Missionary Society of the Methodist church. Dr. and Mrs. Parker have been blest with three children. One dear son was called to an early immortality, and his body rests in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. A daughter and son are yet left with them, the eldest and youngest. The daughter is a graduate of Alma Ladies’ College, St. Thomas, in the Provincial Arts Department. She took two prizes in paintings, “Studies,” in the Industrial Exhibition, in this city, last autumn. The son is in the fifth form in Upper Canada College, and has proved a diligent and successful student. If spared he will pursue a university course.

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=Rousseau, Joseph Thomas=, Artist, St. Hyacinthe, Province of Quebec, was born on the 9th of August, 1852, at St. Elzéard de la Beauce, P.Q. His father was Louis Rousseau, of the same place, a prominent merchant, who in later years devoted himself exclusively to agricultural pursuits. His mother’s maiden name was Luce Huard. He was educated at St. Elzéard, and also had private tuition. Having at an early age shown a decided talent for painting and drawing, his parents, knowing well the obstacles to be overcome and encountered, endeavored to dissuade him from adopting art as a profession. However, the germs of an artistic career were too strong to be lightly overcome. He went to Montreal, and there studied for three years under M. Ravau, after which he commenced church decoration, to which he devoted himself with great success for the space of five years. His great desire for improvement, and a dim sense of latent undeveloped power, induced him to go to Florence, Italy, to study the old masters and rare works of art to be found there. While thus engaged he took private lessons from the celebrated Professor Ciceri, commandant of the Artists’ Society, Florence, which art school he also attended, and passed successfully the examination imposed upon all those who are desirous of entering. After two years’ close application to his profession, he returned to Canada, and painted those many historical religious subjects which have made him famous throughout this continent. His celebrated oil painting of “Christ being Carried to the Tomb” was sold to St. Louis church, Nashua, N.H., for the handsome sum of $1,000. The paintings and decorations in the chapel of the Convent of the Precious Blood, at St. Hyacinthe, are masterpieces of art, and there is nothing in Canada or the United States to compare with it. The following is a list of some of Rousseau’s most celebrated pictures:—“The Dying Christ,” “Crucifixion,” “Mater Dolorosa,” “The Flight into Egypt,” “Adoration of the Magi,” “The Trinity in Three Figures at the very moment of the Annunciation,” “Christ Falling under the Weight of the Cross,” “Christ Giving the Keys to Peter,” “The Triumph of the Church,” a very large composition, containing more than sixty personages. In religion Mr. Rousseau is an earnest Roman Catholic, and in politics a staunch Conservative. He was married on May 2nd, 1875, to Hermine Gendron, daughter of Jacques Gendron, merchant, of St. Rosalie, by whom he has five children. Comparatively a young man, and judging by what he has already accomplished, it is safe to prophesy a still more brilliant future, and an immortal artistic fame.

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=Hale, Hon. Edward.=—The Hon. Edward Hale, second son of the Hon. John Hale, of Quebec (formerly of “Plantation,” Yorkshire, England), a descendant of the Hales of Codicote and King’s Walden, in Hertfordshire, England, and Elizabeth Frances, daughter of Gen. William Amherst, A.D.C. to the King, lieut.-governor of Portsmouth, governor of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and adjutant-general of his Majesty’s forces, was born in Quebec, on the 6th December, 1801. His father had been A.D.C. and private secretary to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, who stood sponsor to the subject of this sketch. He was educated at Kensington, England. Returning to his father’s home in Quebec, he entered the office of the committee of audit as secretary, which post he held for three years, until, in the winter of 1823, he received the appointment of private secretary to his uncle, Earl Amherst, governor-general of India, and, accompanied by his father, set out at once on sledges for Boston, U.S.A., whence he sailed with Captain Heard, in the good ship _Bengal_, for Calcutta. During his stay in India he acted for a time as military secretary, and accompanied the governor-general in his expeditions through the different provinces of India, visiting, among others, the king of Oude, the Rajah of Benares, the king of Delhi and some of the young princes who afterwards took such a conspicuous part in the Indian mutiny. A few remarks from Mr. Hale’s diary of that date may not be out of place here:

October 16th, 1816.—Having breakfasted, we prepared to hold a native durbar in the house of the Rajah of Benares, which had been placed at the governor’s disposal, and native gentlemen began to collect in the compound. Long before the appointed hour we were turned out of the billiard room, to make place for some princes of the Delhi family, who had arrived much before their time, but could not be allowed to remain outside. At eleven o’clock Lord Amherst took his seat on the throne, surrounded by his suite, while Lady Amherst and the other ladies were spectators in another room. The first was a private audience granted to the princes above mentioned, who were ushered in, and were met by his lordship at the door, who embraced them all, and they then sat down. The princes were a most wild-looking set of fellows, dressed principally in fur, and had all a cast of countenance that seemed to bespeak their readiness for any sort of desperate enterprise. They were, with one or two exceptions, nearly of the same age, being the sons of different Begums, and he who sat first on the right was a much younger man than some of the others, but the son of the eldest Begum. They requested leave to make their salaam to Lady Amherst, and having done so, took their leave. The other members of the same family then followed and took their leave; when notice was sent to the Rajah of Benares, Oodut Narrain, that he might now come. He had been waiting in his tonjon at the gate of the compound for an hour before. His procession accordingly entered, commencing with flag-bearers, then camels, elephants, a native band, empty tonjons and palanquins, tribes of sotaburdars, punkaburdars, assaiburdars, burchyburdars, and all sorts of burdahs, when the tonjon bearing the mighty man himself followed, and was accompanied by numbers of horsemen, who galloped about in all directions, going through an indiscriminate sham fight. The procession passed along the back of the house, round it to the front, and the “mighty” was ushered in, a visitor in his own house. He was so immensely fat that he could with difficulty walk, and he waddled into the room, occupying a space of at least two yards. He salaamed low, very low, much lower than I thought he could, and Lord Amherst, advancing three paces, embraced him, when he sat down in a chair which was purposely meant for him, but the exertion of coming up stairs and salaaming had deprived him of the necessary breath for talking, and he was obliged to remain mute for a short time. He was most splendidly ornamented with jewels, his turband was surmounted by a coronet of diamonds, with large emerald drops; his necklace was composed of immense diamonds, and his arms and various other parts were profusely covered with precious stones. Having offered his nuzzur to Lady Amherst he also retired, and his lordship then went down stairs to hold the public durbar.

In 1828, Lord Amherst’s administration being ended, Mr. Hale returned to England with the governor-general and his family, and after visiting Italy, Switzerland and France, sailed once more for Quebec, where, in 1831, he married Eliza Cecilia, daughter of the Hon. Chief Justice Bowen. Chief Justice Bowen was born in Kinsale, Ireland, in 1780. He was one of three brothers, the eldest of whom, Lieutenant-Colonel Bowen, C.B., Madras army, was killed at Seringapatam; and the youngest, while captain in the Royal Navy, won no little distinction for gallant conduct in H.M.’s frigate _Apollo_. The Bowens are descended from an old Welsh family, the name being originally Ap Owen. Mr. Bowen’s father, M.D. and surgeon in H.M.’s forces, died in the West Indies, whither he had gone with his regiment. His mother was the beautiful Isabella Cassan, daughter of Richard Sheffield Cassan, and grand-daughter of Alexander Hamilton, M.P., of Knock, county Dublin. In 1833, Mr. Hale moved to Sherbrooke, and there built for himself a homestead, now known as “Sleepy Hollow,” to which, to his dying day, he was much attached. He was a member of the Special Council for Lower Canada in 1839, and represented the county of Sherbrooke in the Legislative Assembly from 1841 to 1847; and, besides many other public offices, from 1866 to 1875 he held that of chancellor of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, an institution for which he had a sincere affection, and which owes much of its present prosperity to his energy and good management. In 1867, he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council for the province of Quebec, which position he held for the remainder of his life. At the meeting of the Legislative Council (next following his death) November, 1875, the Hon. Messrs. De Boucherville, Ferrier and Fraser offered many tributes of respect to the memory of their venerable colleague, and Mr. Fraser, addressing the House in French, said:

Mr. Hale was a member of the Special Council of Lower Canada in 1839 and 1840, and, as such, assisted in conferring important benefits on this province, such as the law which granted the seigniory of St. Sulpice to the seminary of that name, at Montreal, the acts or ordinances of registration, turnpike roads, and other measures, which powerfully contributed to the development of the country. His grandfathers were officers of high rank in General Wolfe’s army, and distinguished themselves in the important events of those times. On his father’s side his ancestors were persons of distinction in old England, and his mother was a sister of Earl Amherst, whose ancestors were followers of William the Conqueror, and one of whose descendants, Hamo de Herst, in the reign of Edward III. (1339), held large estates in the county of Kent, which the present Lord Amherst still holds. I feel it a most pleasing duty to recall to your memories his agreeable manners—those of the perfect gentleman—which were natural to him. He was open, frank and honest, never hiding his thoughts or opinions, but always expressing them in language at once courteous and elevated. He was as cheerful as he was amiable, his conversation was most attractive, his powers of narration were great, and his mind was filled with interesting and original anecdotes, at once lively and entertaining, which rendered him a most agreeable and much desired companion.

At a meeting of the Synod in Quebec, of which he had been a delegate for many years, his lordship Bishop Williams, made the following remarks in alluding to his death:

My reverend brethren and brethren of the laity.—Before proceeding to read, in accordance with our custom, the summary statement which I have prepared of the ecclesiastical events of the diocese, I must advert, however briefly, to a matter belonging to the history of the Synod itself. Since last we met, one who from the Synod’s first creation has been an honored member of the same, has been taken from us. The death of the Hon. Edward Hale caused us a loss not easily repaired. During the whole time of my residence in this country he has been my valued friend, but for a record of his fine qualities we need not go to the reminiscence of a friend. He carried it with him wherever he went. His prompt and punctual attention to all public duties, the kindness of his heart, and the courtesy of his demeanor are known to all. His genial presence we shall see no more, his peace-loving spirit will, I trust, remain with us for ever.

Mr. Hale died April 26th, 1875, at Quebec, whither he had gone to attend to his parliamentary duties, and was buried at Sherbrooke. Mrs. Hale died at Boston, United States, in 1850. She was the mother of seven children, of whom six are now living. The eldest son, Edward John, at Quebec, at the old house which has been the home of four generations of Hales. The second son, Edward Chaloner, at “Chaloner,” near Lennoxville; and the youngest, William Amherst, at the old homestead, “Sleepy Hollow,” near Sherbrooke. Two of the daughters live in Sherbrooke, and the third is the wife of Henry Turnour Machin, assistant treasurer of the province of Quebec. During a residence of upwards of forty years in the Eastern Townships, Mr. Hale aided materially, and watched with interest, the growth of Sherbrooke from an obscure hamlet of a few straggling houses to the large and prosperous town it now is. When the rebellion of 1837 and 1838 broke out, he joined the volunteers, refused a commission, and, for the sake of example, served in the ranks. Although a Conservative in politics, Mr. Hale placed individual merit far above party, creed, or class, and by his impartiality and just judgment, living above suspicion or reproach, he won the respect and esteem of all who knew him, and of him might truly be said, as he so often said of others, “the rank is but the guinea’s stamp, the man’s the gowd for a’ that.” But it was to his children and intimate friends that his noble Christian life was best known. Possessed of charity in the widest sense of the word, full of love and compassion for those in trouble or distress, ever ready to help the poor and needy, his active sympathy and generosity made him beloved and revered by all classes. The example of his pure, unselfish life is not forgotten, and he still lives in the hearts of those who loved him.

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