A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
of the above named Thomas Ussher, is a canon of the Cathedral in Edinburgh. The Ussher family have had the honour of having four distinguished church dignitaries; two Archbishops of Armagh; one Bishop of Kildare (Robert Ussher); and Bishop B. B. Ussher, of Montreal, who has at present five surviving brothers and two sisters as follow:—Major-General John Theophilus Ussher, Beverly Ussher, Henry Ussher, M.B., Rev. P. R. C. Ussher, a prominent minister in Australia; and James Ussher, solicitor; Henrietta Buchanan and Arabella Madelina Buchanan. On his mother’s side Bishop Ussher has an equally distinguished ancestry, the Boileau family being one of the few that can trace their genealogy back without a break for a period of over six hundred years. The present Baron Boileau de Castleneau is the seventeenth in descent from Etienne Boileau, who, born early in the thirteenth century, was appointed by Louis IX., in the year 1255, Grand Provost of Paris, at that period the highest officer of state. In 1371, Jean Boileau was ennobled by Charles V. At the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, A.D. 1685, Jacques Boileau, the 10th baron, was arrested as a Protestant, tortured, and, after an imprisonment of ten and one-half years, died in the prison of St. Jean de Vedas, one mile from Montpellier, a noble martyr for the Protestant faith, having been beheaded by order of the Duke de Nemours. His son, Charles Boileau, then a youth, having taken refuge in England and having entered the British Army, firm to his Protestant faith, formally renounced his rights and titles to the honours and estates of the family which thereby devolved on his younger brother Maurice, who became the eleventh Baron Boileau. From that time the barony fell into the hands of the junior and Roman Catholic branch of the family of which the present Baron Boileau de Castleneau is now the representative. He holds, too, the ancient château de Castleneau, six miles from Nimes, which has been for three and a half centuries in the family to which it gives the present title of the barony. Five of the Barons de Castleneau held in succession the office of Royal Treasurer. Charles Boileau died in 1733, leaving three children who had issue, whose grandchildren and more remote issue are now living to the number of six hundred and fifty. The Right Rev. Bishop Ussher, when a child, was sent from under the jurisdiction of a governess at a very early age. At Delgany College, in the county Wicklow, the Rev. Dr. Daniel Flyns, of Harcourt street, Dublin, and the Rugby of Ireland, the Rev. Dr. Stackpools, of Kingstown, he received his education as a youth. As a lad he was older than his years and sought the company of those much his seniors, showing a decided penchant for those given to study. Thrown chiefly amongst medical students he followed the course of study so closely with one companion, that he was almost as well fitted as he to pass the examinations. At a little over sixteen years he secured the diploma of the Royal Dublin Society, taking sixth place out of seventy-three candidates. Owing to heavy financial losses, through the dishonesty of associates, the father of young Ussher was unable to permit him to continue his studies and the determination was formed to visit the United States. The resolve was put into execution, and, in the city of New York, mercantile life was entered upon; successful, though not in harmony with it, it was abandoned after a year, and a visit undertaken to Washington, where several of the United States’ army hospitals were visited; the old medical love rekindled and much practical knowledge gained in the treatment of surgical diseases and gun-shot wounds. The resolve was then formed to adopt medicine as a profession, and after pursuing his medical studies in the University of Michigan, he finally received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in Illinois, became a member of the State Medical Association, and was ultimately elected a member of the National Eclectic Medical Association. As a practitioner he was most successful, and as a citizen highly esteemed in the city of Aurora, Illinois, where he practised for over ten years. He was vigorously identified with the welfare of the community, and at one time it seemed that he would enter into political life, being offered the nomination by the Democratic party as a candidate for the legislature. Politics, however, were too impure to have any permanent attraction for him, and he devoted himself to his professional duties and the interests of the Anglican Church, of which he was a member. Set thinking by a sermon preached by the well-known evangelist, Mr. Moody, the instructions of pious parents were revived, and earnest Christian work entered upon with marked evidence of the divine favour. Under the license of the Right Rev. Dr. Whitehouse, then bishop of Illinois, he kept alive several mission fields and taught a large Bible-class with great acceptability. It was then pressed upon him that he should enter the ministry of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Illinois. Steadily the conviction of the need of entire consecration to God’s service deepened; it was fought back, but the urging of Bishop Whitehouse was strong, and as there was then little evidence of the sacerdotalism that subsequently manifested itself, the course of study was entered upon under the bishop’s direction. In time it became apparent that the bishop of Illinois held strong High Church views. He was a guest in Dr. Ussher’s house on the evening of the day of the publication of Bishop Tozer’s letter condemning Bishop Cummins of Kentucky, for partaking of and administering the communion of the Lord’s Supper with Dr. John Hall, Drs. Arnot and Dorner, of the Presbyterian church, and reading it with a sense of indignation, he (Dr. Ussher) asked Bishop Whitehouse what he thought of such a letter, to which Bishop Whitehouse replied in cold, severe tones, “I think Bishop Tozer is perfectly right, and Bishop Cummins deserves the severest condemnation.” Those words decided the mind of Dr. Ussher, and realizing that as an Evangelical Protestant Churchman, he would be out of sympathy with Bishop Whitehouse, he determined to abandon the idea of entering the Anglican ministry. He felt, however, that his heart was so bound up in the Episcopal Church, and his love for her liturgy was so great, that he could not be at home in any other branch of Christ’s Church. At this juncture the Right Rev. Bishop Cummins, D.D., took steps to organize the Reformed Episcopal Church, which being made public, proved the open door. Under the guidance of that distinguished Protestant prelate, he pursued his studies and was ordained deacon in the city of Chicago, by the Right Rev. Bishop Cheney, in Christ Church, June 9th, 1874, and presbyter, July 16th, 1876, in Emmanuel Church, Ottawa, Ontario, by Bishops Cheney, Nicholson, Cridge and Fallows. His pastorates in Canada have been, one of three years in Toronto, during which was built the church on the corner of Simcoe and Caer Howell streets, and his present charge in St. Bartholomew’s, Montreal, over which he has been pastor since 1878. For good and sufficient reasons he and his congregation withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the United States and united with the English branch of the Reformed Episcopal Church under the Right Rev. T. H. Gregg, M.D., D.D., otherwise called the Reformed Church of England. By the General Synod in England, in the following year, the Rev. Dr. Ussher was elected to the episcopate, but declined. Two years after he was elected again, the Canadian Synod electing him as their bishop, and in 1882, on the 19th day of June, he was consecrated in Trinity Church, Southend, by the Right Rev. Bishop Gregg, and seven presbyters, as “a bishop in the Church of God.” Returning to Canada he took charge of the Diocese of Canada and Newfoundland. The bishop believing in benevolent societies as handmaids to the church, has been a member of the Order of Oddfellows since 1865, and has held the office of Grand Master of the Province of Quebec; he has also been, and is at present, a member of the Order of Knights of Pythias, in which he holds the rank of Past Grand Chancellor, and has had the honour of being Supreme Representative for the State of Illinois, and the authorship of one of the degrees in use by the order. Bishop Ussher is a graceful and forcible writer and an eloquent speaker, and poet of acknowledged merit. In his religious views he is an old-time Evangelical believer, pronounced in his Protestant views, in fact, a keeper in the old paths, for which reason he is ecclesiastically where he is to-day. On the 16th day of July, 1867, he was married by the Rev. Dr. Kelly, in the city of Chicago, to Elizabeth Leonora Thompson, third daughter of the Rev. Skeffington Thompson, of Broomfield, near Lucan, in the county of Dublin, Ireland, and Elizabeth Margaret D’Arcy. The father of Mrs. Ussher, the Rev. Skeffington Thompson, is the thirteenth child of the late Skeffington Thompson, of Rathnally, county of Meath, by Anna Maria Carter, only child and heiress of Thomas Carter, of Rathnally, county Meath. Skeffington Thompson the elder was an unsuccessful candidate in the last Irish Parliament against the Duke of Wellington for the borough of Trim, both candidates being neighbours in the same county, Dangan Castle, the Wellesley seat, being near Trim. The family of Thompson, according to Burke, descended from the Thompsons of Barton, Cumberland, a branch of which settled about the 16th century in the county of Hertford, England. The Irish branch are descended from those who crossed over to Ulster when that province was first taken in hand by King James, and engaging in the prosperous linen trade made large fortunes. Mrs. Ussher’s family history on the male side is interesting, as leading back to the famous Thomas