OUR HISTORY
8
April 2011
John Leigh, 1822 (part three) John Leigh is well known in Newfoundland, on the positive side, for his vocabulary of the Beothuk aboriginal people and his reconstruction of the parish registers of Twillingate which are found in the same correspondence file as the document in this article comes from. On the negative side, he was presiding with Captain David Buchan in the Surrogate Court when the notorious Butler and Landrigan cases came before the court. By subjecting these people to severe corporal punishment Mr. Leigh and Captain Buchan sank into the emerging Newfoundland political environment and found a question mark placed after their names. Any reader interested in the Beothuk vocabulary can look at the article on John Leigh in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography on the internet by doing a Google search naming the dictionary and then follow the links offered. Mr. Leigh appeared in two previous articles in this series: in April 2008 (the price of provisions in Newfoundland) and February 2008 (life in Twillingate). We will see a theme from this last article repeated later in this article. Readers should have the usual warning that because some words in the text of the article are missing due mainly to damage to the microfilm on which document is available in Newfoundland and Mr. Leigh’s habit of jumping from one topic to another with little connections in his letter, it is not always easy to follow his tread of his thought. However this document is one of the largest from a missionary in Newfoundland discussing issues of importance to the church so the writer will devote three articles to it. Readers might want to save the previous articles to help make sense of the current one(s). The church in Newfoundland had laboured under a severe disability for many years: the lack of any oversight or leadership position to make the church operations more effective. Also, it was exceedingly difficult to find missionaries and to hold them, for any length of time. The first step in this process was appointing a visiting missionary. As is noted in the text, this position would
be a traveling supervisory position such as was used for many years in education in Newfoundland, a combination of an inspector of work and a resource person for improved work. When we begin the first part of this document, we found Mr. Leigh had been appointed Ecclesiastical Commissary for Newfoundland; the somewhat vague “visiting missionary” has been given more substance. He has been made a sort of an assistant bishop reporting to the Bishop of Nova Scotia. But as one would expect the appointment has made him none too popular among his colleagues in the church. Accusations are being hurled at Mr. Leigh, or maybe he thinks they are being cast at him. Now with the prospect of higher positions being created there is space in the church in Newfoundland for clerical advancement. However, his appointment was one small step that led to Aubrey Spencer’s appointment as Bishop of Newfoundland later. At the end of this part of his report Mr. Leigh summarizes the persons who need the support of the society such as Mrs. Lampen who might be indigent without her husband’s salary but usually the society was reluctant to do this. Also noted are the needs of school masters and catechists and their situation with the lack of priests and signs of church and school Continued on page 9 See: John Leigh
ANGLICANLife
David Davis
The Document Due to the missing word(s) the symbol “. . .” has been used to mark the gaps. Harbor Grace Jany 22.1822 (Continued from the last issue) The distress in this island is very great, and will be acutely felt this winter, I heartily pray the spring was come, as it may bring us a fresh supply of provisions - and the minds of the lower orders, will then be engaged in the fishery - They are already issued diminished rations at Saint John’s - I already dread the consequences - the winter so far has been severe in the extreme, more so then any I have hitherto met with- ...this the efforts of the young men at . . . having what the legal consequences and support of the merchants there reasons believe enough has been exhibited to them, & consequently they wanted a leader - a strong . . . why those who have come forward, Mr Danson did here, and Mr. Colbourne did at Twillingate, should not be permitted to loose anything by so doing if it could be avoided It would be well if the Society would take the Attorney General’s opinion on the 57Geo.3 c.51 as the Dissenting Ministers still continue to marry and we do not know what to do? – There is one subject that I did not intend to mention at first, but perhaps a duty I owe to myself compels me to do so, however reluctantly - Which is that I fear Mr. Laughorne is not very . . . connected with the production of - . . . Evangalius - he has I know spared no pains to draw the attention of different persons to the Report about the school Altho. I to him denied it to be a statement of mine in the presence of Messrs. Carrington & . . . but even if he thought I had made a false report, he should have written the Society, need not have . . . me, which may have injured the course we engaged in, - I have a letter from a magistrate in the neighborhood of Twillingate, saying that a deposition had been brought to him to prove that I had sold books and he says “It as the opinion of many here that Mr. Laughorne is at the head of the above mischief, and that he had busy enquiring whether I had sold any of the Society’s bibles - This is in return for my sparing him worse, and offering him furniture out of my own house that he might be comfortable. The first winter - I do not deny that I have sold books, I have sold some pounds worth, I bought out with me Testaments Bibles prayer books, I purchased some from a Captn of a vessel who brought a lot from the Bible Society - and I wish Mr. Laughorne may never commit any greater sin, then to provide books at a cheap rate for his parishioners - The most charitable construction I can put upon his conduct is that he is not always in his senses, I believe I assure you I communicate this with every great . . . Society. I do not wish to injure him, or to stand in the way of his promotion, but a duty I owe to myself, & the chance of his relating to the Society on this head, & the advice of all my friends have induced me to state thus much - I have forwarded his application to come here, & I do not wish that what I have been compelled to state should prevent his having the benefit of any privilege that his seniority may give him - I only want to defend myself- . . . the Bishop . . . directed under cover to his Lordship at Saint Martins Library, I do not know whether or not whether this be correct or not, pray inform me In the anxious hope of hearing from you early in the Spring, and which I may do if you send your letter addressed to me to the care of Messrs. Slade Elson &Co. Poole , or Messrs. Hart, Robinson 28 Walbrooke, London, early in February - by either of these concerns I shall hear two months sooner then by way of Halifax.I remain Yours faithfully John Leigh