POSTSCRIPT Edward Taylor Fletcher

Sidney Ashe Fletcher

Edward Taylor Fletcher was the only son of Captain John Fletcher of the 72nd Regiment of the British Army. He was born at Canterbury, Kent, England, on the 20th May 1817, and came to Quebec, Canada, with his parents, in October 1827. For some time he attended the day school of the Rev. D. Wilkie, on Garden Street in this City, and later was sent as a boarder to the Laval University, where he received a classical education.¹

After leaving the College he was articled to Mr. Hacker, one of the leading architects of Quebec City and assisted in the capacity of clerk and later as partner of Mr. Hacker, in the erection and completion of several of the larger buildings of the city.²

In 1834 he had an attack of the Asiatic cholera which was then raging in Quebec. He was carefully nursed through it by his mother, but she herself was stricken with the disease and died while he was still confined to his room. She was buried on the 1st August 1834, in the St. Matthew’s Church burial ground on John’s Street.

His partnership with Mr. Hacker having expired, he began to study for examination as a land surveyor and was for some time engaged in the field with survey parties, in the new districts being then opened up. When the Papineau Rebellion in 1837 broke out and all ordinary business was suspended, he obtained a commission in the Quebec Engineer Rifles, one of a number of the regiments organized to assist the authorities in keeping order. He drilled and did guard duty during most of the winter of 1837.

When conditions became normal, he completed his training in the field and secured his commission as a surveyor in 1841, from the surveyor-general, Thomas Parke.

In 1846 he married at Montreal, Henrietta Amelia Lindsay, daughter of William Burns Lindsay, Clerk of the Legislature for Lower Canada.³

He was the first secretary of the Board of Examiners for Upper Canada, being appointed to that position in April 1842 [sic], but only held that position for one year when he received the appointment as secretary of the Board of Examiners for Lower Canada and removed to Quebec. He resided at different times in Montreal, Kingston, Ottawa and Toronto, but went to Quebec after Confederation and lived there until 1882 when he was superannuated.

His official duties included, inspector of surveys for the Province of Quebec, [sic] required him to visit nearly every part of that Province during his term of office. He had the entire confidence of his Department in his ability and judgment in matters connected with the profession which is well set out in letters from Messrs. Andrew Russell and Joseph Bouchette, both gentlemen in the high ranks of the profession of that date.

One important duty he had charge of was the retracement and remarking of the inter-provincial boundary between Lake St. Francis and the Ottawa River in 1859 and 1860. He also carried out extensive surveys in the outlying districts around Lake St. John and the Saguenay country and in the eastern townships of Quebec.

Upon his retiring in 1882 his valedictory address to his friends and confreres is interesting and is evidence of the character of the subject of this sketch and the comments of the Press at that time were indeed very complimentary.

His retirement from active official life after long and faithful service of forty years meant a complete change of habit of every-day life, but he had many other activities of mind and brain. From early boyhood he had been fond of studying and devoted some part of each day to his textbooks. He had acquired a knowledge of Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek and Latin and spoke and wrote fluently French, German, Italian and other modern languages.

During his residence in Toronto, he was president of the Toronto Literary Association for several years and on his leaving that city in 1858, he was the recipient of a very complimentary, engrossed address from the officers and members of that association, making him an honorary member. The next year, he was an officer of the Civil Service Library Association in Quebec that formed a reading room above Sinclair’s Bookstore on John Street. He was also, for many years, an active member of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and an officer of the Society by 1841—he continued donating to the Society until 1892, years after his relocation to British Columbia. He frequently addressed the Society on different topics of which he was an ardent student, such as languages, “The Twenty Years Siege of Candia” in 1863, “The Lost Island of Atlantis” in 1868, “Notes of a Journey Through the Saguenay Country” in 1871, “Notes of a Voyage to St. Augustine on the Labrador Coast” in 1877, “Mark System of the Ancient Germans” and “On the Sanskrit Language and Literature.”⁴

He also wrote a poem of some length and elaborated on “The Lost Island of Atlantis” and another one entitled Nestorius, both of which were highly thought of by his friends.

He suffered the loss of his wife in 1868 and was left with seven children, four sons and three daughters.

During his residence in the City of Quebec he saw many changes of personnel in the Survey Department and many important works and improvements carried on in the city and suburbs, including new Parliament Buildings outside St. Louis Gate.

In 1887 he went to British Columbia where his sons, with their families, were comfortably settled, living for some years with his eldest son, Everard, at Victoria, going later to New Westminster. He was still active and alert, and keenly interested in all that went on around him, enjoyed good health and was much pleased with the climate and conditions of British Columbia. At New Westminster he had a severe attack of “la grippe” from the effects of which he never recovered, and he passed away on 1 February 1897, at the age of seventy-nine. He was buried in the Church of England Cemetery at Sapperton.

He was at all times a kind, considerate and patient father. Of a retiring disposition, he lived quietly and simply. He was friendly and courteous to all with whom he came in contact.

He ranked among the first in his chosen profession and was well-known as a scholar, littérateur and poet. He was a true Christian gentleman.

In his person he was of medium stature, about 5 feet, 6 inches, well built, muscular and active. His hair, which had turned white in his youth after a very severe illness, grew closely thick on his head and was of very fine texture, his lips and chin were clean shaven, his side whiskers closely trimmed. His eyes were of a peculiar blue colour, piercing and bright. His eyesight was very good, he used glasses only when he was reading or writing in an artificial light.

He was fond of music, and played fairly well on the violin-cello, usually on Sunday evening when the house was still. I have listened often to him as I laid in bed half asleep.

He was a man of little commercial instinct, always careful in his dealings with his fellow men. He accumulated a large library of books dating back to his early college days, until he retired from active service. He was very methodical in his habits and kept a diary of daily happenings.⁵