A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
founded the City Hospital, which has already done a vast amount of good, and has stimulated others to found another hospital for the sick. His lordship has visited Rome four times since his consecration, and on one occasion extended his journey to the Holy Land. He took part in the Œcumenical Council of 1870, where it was generally conceded that no more imposing figure was seen in the grand procession of churchmen, than that of the venerable and stately Bishop of Charlottetown. In person his lordship is above the medium height, his carriage is stately and his step elastic. His activity is remarkable; few young persons could endure the amount of travelling and fatigue which is constantly undergone by Bishop McIntyre, upon whom it has no ill effect whatever. His voice, which is low and sweet, is so clear that he is easily heard even at a great distance. His prepossessing appearance and courtly manner, no less than his genuine kindness of heart, have made him hosts of friends. He is highly esteemed by Protestants throughout the province, from whom his blameless life and fearless advocacy of what he deems to be right command respect. The bishop takes a great interest in education, and is invariably present, when his duties allow him, at the examinations in his Catholic schools. It is to his lordship’s unflagging energy and zeal that St. Dunstan’s College owes its present hopeful position. Besides providing for their secular instruction, the bishop has always been much interested in the spiritual welfare of the little ones of his flock; it is his delight to preach at the children’s mass on Sundays, when the large congregation of young folk listen to his clear and practical instructions with profit and pleasure. He is a clear, forcible speaker, impressive if not eloquent, with a perfect command of good Anglo-Saxon. Though a zealous prelate, he has never been known to give utterance to any intolerant expression against those differing from him in religious matters. He has been to Charlottetown, and the island generally, a public benefactor. Though drawing close to the seventies, his eye is bright, his lip is firm, and his face fresh. He has a fine constitution, rises between four and five a. m., and has a day’s work done before most Charlottetown folks are out of bed. He has many years of usefulness ahead of him, and hopes not to complete his labours until he shall have built a magnificent cathedral in the metropolis of his province. That such a great worker deserves and receives the gratitude of his own people might be expected, that he should and does command the admiration of all classes is only reasonable; and that he enjoys the esteem of his peers is witnessed by the number of bishops and archbishops who did him honour on the occasion of his silver jubilee, which was celebrated in Charlottetown, on the 12th of August, 1885, amid the congratulations and good wishes of all classes, creeds and nationalities in the community.
Fitzgerald, Rev. David, D.D., Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. This reverend and highly respected divine was born at Tralee, in the county of Kerry, Ireland, on the 3rd of December, 1813. He is the eldest surviving son of William Fitzgerald, barrister-at-law of Adrivale, county of Kerry, who married Anne, sole daughter and heiress of the Rev. Robert Minnitt, of Blackfort, county of Tipperary, and rector of Tulla, county of Clare, whose ancestor, Captain John Minnitt, came to the country in the reign of Charles II. One of Mr. Fitzgerald’s ancestors was a captain in King James’ army. This gentleman lived during the reign of six English monarchs, and died at the advanced age of 116 years. Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald was educated at schools in Clonmel and Limerick, and obtained his A.B. degree and divinity testimonium at Trinity College, Dublin. In February, 1843, he married Cherry Christina, second daughter of Rowan Purdon, M.D., a physician of established reputation and extensive practice in Kerry, his native county. His brother, Richard, was a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and his son, George, was a scholar in the same university. In June, 1845, after a creditable examination by Rev. I. T. Russel, archdeacon of Clogher, he was ordained deacon at Tuam by Lord Plunket, bishop of the diocese, and in 1846 was ordained priest by Lord Riversdale, bishop of Killaloe, on letters dimissory from the bishop of Clogher. He began his ministry as curate to Rev. Geo. Sidney Smith, D.D., ex-fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, at Cooltrain, county of Fermanagh. He then had charge of the district church, at Maguire’s Bridge, in the same county, where as secretary to the Poor Relief Committee of that place, he established a soup kitchen for its famine-stricken inhabitants, and was the means by obtaining subscriptions from absentee landlords and other benevolently disposed persons, with a ton of rice from the Quakers, of providing daily suitable cooked food for four hundred families for several months, and left on his departure over £100 in the hands of the committee to carry on the work. In June, 1847, he came out to Prince Edward Island as assistant minister to Rev. Dr. Jenkins, then rector of St. Paul’s Church. On the retirement of Dr. Jenkins and that of his successor, Rev. C. Lloyd, in 1857, he was appointed rector of the parish, which he served without intermission for thirty-eight years, when in 1885 he retired from active duty. For upwards of twenty years he was a member of the board of education, and a trustee of the Lunatic Asylum, and for some time was chaplain of the Legislative Council. He is the author of several printed sermons and pamphlets, and has delivered lectures on various subjects for several years. In 1881 he took the degrees of A.M., B.D., and D.D., at King’s College, Windsor. On several occasions since his retirement, he has occupied the pulpit in the parish church and in other churches in the province, and hopes while he has the power of utterance to speak a word for the Master and for the edification of his followers. Three of his children have been called from this world, and three remain, viz., Rowan Robert, Q.C., stipendiary magistrate and recorder of Charlottetown; Sidney David, chemist and druggist, now residing at Kansas, U.S.; and Minnitt John, for many years connected with the Union Bank of Charlottetown, now amalgamated with the Nova Scotia bank of Halifax. Mr. Fitgerald’s religious views have undergone no change. He is to-day what he was fifty years ago, an Evangelical churchman. He has been a member of the L. O. A. since 1832, when he became secretary to Calvin lodge, No. 1509, then established in Dublin. In 1848 he joined the order of the Sons of Temperance, and is a member of the National division. He has seen some service and undergone some labour, and trusts that the years already past have not been spent in vain.
Brock, Major-General Sir Isaac, K.B., was the eighth son of John Brock, and was born in the parish of St. Peter’s, Port Guernsey, on the 6th of October, 1769, the same year which gave birth to Napoleon and Wellington. He entered the army as ensign in the 8th Regiment of Infantry by purchase, on the 2nd of March, 1785. In 1790 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and at the close of the same year obtained his captaincy and exchanged into the 49th regiment. In June, 1795, he purchased his majority, and on the 25th of October, 1797, he was gazetted lieutenant-colonel. In a little more than seven years he had risen from the rank of ensign to that of lieutenant-colonel. He served with his regiment in the expedition to Holland under Sir Ralph Abercrombie in 1799. He greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Egmont-of-Zee, where he was wounded. He was second in command of the land forces in the celebrated attack on Copenhagen by Lord Nelson in April, 1801. On its return from Copenhagen the 49th was stationed at Colchester till the spring of 1802, when it was ordered to Canada, where its distinguished commander earned the fame and performed the gallant services which have so endeared his memory to the Canadian people. At Fort George, shortly after his arrival in Canada, Brock quelled an attempted mutiny with great firmness and tact. His regiment soon became one of the most reliable in the service. In 1806 Brock succeeded to the command of the troops in Canada, and took up his residence in Quebec. In 1811 Lieutenant-Governor Gore went to England on leave, and Major-General Brock was appointed administrator of the government—and thus happened to be the civil as well as the military head of the province of Upper Canada on the outbreak of the war with the United States in 1812. He at once threw himself with great vigour, and with the full force of his soldierly instincts, into preparations for the war. Upper Canada then had a population of only some seventy thousand; the United States had a population of about ten millions. In Upper Canada many of the settlers were aliens from the States—half-hearted, if not absolutely disloyal. The timid viewed the outlook with grave misgivings. In fact, the surroundings were enough to discourage the stoutest heart. It was in these circumstances, entering upon what seemed almost a hopeless struggle, that the noble courage, the unfaltering determination, and the perfect faith in his country, of General Brock shone out with such striking brilliancy. Our Canadian poet, Charles Mair, in his drama of “Tecumseh,” has given fine expression to the spirit which animated Brock, when he puts in his mouth these words:—
BROCK.
“ ’Tis true our province faces heavy odds:
Of