Название: The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)
Автор: Dent John Charles
Издательство: Public Domain
Жанр: Зарубежная классика
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Soon after the proclamation of peace he retired from the naval service, and settled at Presque Isle Harbour, near the present site of the village of Brighton, in the county of Northumberland. He was appointed Collector of Customs of the port, and soon afterwards became a Justice of the Peace. The Loyal and Patriotic Society requested his acceptance of £100, and a yearly pension of a like amount was awarded to him by Government in recognition of his services during the late war. This well-earned pension he continued to receive during the remainder of his life, embracing a period of more than fifty years.
In the year 1813, while the war was still in progress, he had married; the lady of his choice being Miss Rebecca Dennis, daughter of Mr. John Dennis, who was for many years a master-builder in the royal dock-yard at Kingston. This lady shared his joys and sorrows for forty-five years. During the last decade of her life she suffered great bodily affliction, which she endured with Christian resignation and serenity. She died at her home, Clover Hill, Toronto, on the 29th of March, 1858.
During the early months of their residence at Presque Isle Harbour, both Mr. Richardson and his wife became impressed by serious thoughts on the subject of religion. In August, 1818, they united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. That Church was then in its infancy in this country, and was struggling hard to obtain a permanent foothold. With its subsequent history Mr. Richardson was closely identified. He was very much in earnest, and felt it to be his duty to do his utmost for the salvation of souls. His piety was not spasmodic or fitful, but steady and enduring. His education at that time, though it was necessarily imperfect, and far from being up to the standard of the present day, was better than was that of most of his fellow-labourers. He at once became a man of mark in the denomination, and was appointed to the offices of steward and local preacher on the Smith's Creek circuit. His labours were crowned with much success. His pulpit oratory is described as being "full of vitality — adapted to bring souls to Christ, and build up in holiness."8 In 1824 he was called to active work, and placed on the Yonge Street circuit, which included the town of York, and extended through eight of the neighbouring townships. This rendered necessary his removal from Presque Isle, and his resignation of his office as Collector of Customs. His field of labour extended from York northwardly to Lake Simcoe — a distance of forty-five miles — with lateral excursions to right and left for indeterminate distances. The state of the roads was such that wheeled vehicles were frequently unavailable, and the greater part of the travelling had to be done on horseback, the preacher carrying his books, clothing, writing materials, and other accessories in his saddle-bags. His life was necessarily a toilsome one, and his financial remuneration was little more than nominal. During his second year on circuit he had for a colleague the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, with whom he worked in the utmost harmony, and with very gratifying pastoral results. Dr. Richardson has left on record his appreciation of his colleague's services at this time. He says: "A more agreeable and useful colleague I could not have desired. We laboured together with one heart and mind, and God was graciously pleased to crown our united efforts with success — we doubled the members in society, both in town and country, and all was harmony and love. Political questions were not rife — indeed were scarcely known among us. The church was an asylum for any who feared God and wrought righteousness, irrespective of any party whatever. We so planned our work as to be able to devote one week out of four exclusively to pastoral labour in the town, and to preach there twice every Sabbath, besides meeting all the former appointments in the townships east and west bordering on Yonge Street for forty-five or fifty miles northward to Roach's Point, Lake Simcoe. This prosperous and agreeable state of things served to reconcile both my dear wife and myself to the itinerant life, with all the attendant privations and hardships incident to those times."
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1
Navy Hall was the Lieutenant-Governor's residence at Newark. See the sketch of the life of Governor Simcoe, in the first volume of this work.
2
From correspondence and documents laid before the Upper Canadian House of Assembly in 1836, and published in the appendix to the Journal for that year, we learn that the total quantity of land pla
1
Navy Hall was the Lieutenant-Governor's residence at Newark. See the sketch of the life of Governor Simcoe, in the first volume of this work.
2
From correspondence and documents laid before the Upper Canadian House of Assembly in 1836, and published in the appendix to the Journal for that year, we learn that the total quantity of land placed at Colonel Talbot's disposal amounted to exactly 518,000 acres. Five years before that date (in 1831) the population of the Talbot СКАЧАТЬ
7
See "Life of Rev. James Richardson," by Thomas Webster, D.D. Toronto, 1876.
8
See "Case and his Cotemporaries," by John Carroll; Vol III., p. 17.