THE INDEPENDENT FARMER:
John Irvine Sr. from servant to landowner
John Irvine and his family came from the Orkney Islands, near the north coast of Scotland. When he boarded the steamer to London to join there the Hudson's Bay Company barque Tory [LINK TO IMAGE OF TORY AND PASSENGER LIST], John and his wife Jessie - and maybe even their son Robert, aged 5 or 6 - may have been dreaming of owning their own piece of the new world. It was to be about eleven years before, half a world away, the Irvine family, by then consisting of John and Jessie and their six children (with one more still to come) were settled at what they named Rose Bank Farm.
In November 1850, John inked his first contract with the HBC, signing his labour over to them for a five-year term, to be served out at Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island. The approximately 18,020 kilometre voyage from London to Fort Victoria took the Irvines from November 9, 1850 to May 10, 1851. This time was spent aboard a sailing ship just of just 130 feet in length and 25 in beam and carrying between 120 and 140 passengers.1
Details on the Irvines' early days in Victoria are somewhat uncertain, but it seems that John and his family worked and lived just outside Fort Victoria and at the nearby Church Hill and Gonzales farms. In September of 1851 their second son, William [LINK TO PICTURE OF WILLIAM IRVINE], was born - he was the first child of European parents to be born on Vancouver Island. In 1852, they played a crucial role in the establishment of Craigflower farm, thus obtaining their place on this website. John worked as grain miller at the farm and, in the early days, no doubt helped with general construction and other work. Much of the year 1852 was spent preparing the site of Craigflower for the arrival of its manager (or 'bailiff') Kenneth McKenzie [LINK TO THE MCKENZIE PAGE? JUST AN IDEA - AT YOUR DISCRETION, DAN] in January 1853.2
It seems clear, however, that the Irvines were always looking towards their dream of owning their own farm. John was paid a salary of 20 pounds per year by the Hudson's Bay Company, and he saved as much as he could towards the purchase of land. In 1855, with not enough collected to achieve this goal, John signed on for another five year term of servitude with the HBC and continued to work at Craigflower farm. By 1857, however, the Irvines had saved enough to make the first payment on about 130 acres in the area north of Victoria known as Cedar Plains [LINK TO SAANICH ARCHIVES RECORD OF INITIAL PURCHASE - RETYPED BY SCOTT], along the route of Cedar Hill Road between Mount Douglas (Cedar Hill) and Fort Victoria. There was so much work to be done making the place liveable, it seems, that they may not have been able to move there until five years later in 1862. This may not be so surprising when we consider that John (likely with the help of son Robert, 12 years old in 1857) was still working 6 long days each week at Craigflower.3
Presumably John had continued to work at Craigflower on a non-contract basis since his third five-year term would have lasted until 1865 had it been signed as the first two had. As it actually happened, the family moved to their own farm long before that; it is unclear exactly when they first moved in - perhaps the process was gradual - but it seems to have been sometime between 1860 and spring 1862 [LINK TO SCOTT'S TEXT ON UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THEIR MOVE-IN DATE]. Jessie named it Rose Bank for the many wild roses growing around their home site.4 The place was wooded and rocky and remote, but it must have suited the Irvines - perhaps reminding them of home in the distant Orkney islands - because John and Jessie lived there for the rest of their lives (until 1906 and 1907 respectively). Eventually, they owned over 300 acres.
The Irvines' kitchen was the first home to the Anglican congregation of the area (despite the Irvines being Presbyterians) before it moved into St. Luke's church, whose modern incarnation rests at the corner of Cedar Hill and Cedar Hill Cross roads.
Life at Rose Bank was not easy. John Irvine Jr. (known as 'Long Gun' Jack) [LINK TO SELECTIONS FROM LONG GUN'S BOOK, PICTURES OF LONG GUN, AND IMAGE OF HIS BOOK COVER], born in October of 1861, records that by the time he was nine, he had a full roster of chores on the farm and was expected to "be a man." At that age, he caught his hand in a piece of equipment and had to be taken to the doctor with two of his fingers "like sausage meat." Long Gun also mentions the family having cows and sheep at this time, and we know that 34 of their sheep were killed by wildlife one night in 1868 [LINK TO SCOTT'S TRANSCRIPTION OF COLONIST ARTICLE] - which shows how truly wild the area was at that time. Similarly, Long Gun discusses his great skill at hunting with a flintlock rifle when he was 12 years old; he brought home many varieties of birds and sometimes one of the wild pigs which so aggravated the area's farmers. John Jr. also spent much of his childhood playing with local First Nations children, and writes that he "could talk Chinook like [he] belonged to the tribe."
We do know, however, that basic education for the children in the area was established fairly quickly, at first in the kitchen of the neighbouring King family, and by 1872, in the new official provincial Cedar Hill school. Christina Irvine's workbook provides a glimpse into the world of a child of 1875 [LINK TO TRANSCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES OF NOTEBOOK] - and reveals that in the mind of a child, that world was not so different from our own after all.
The Irvine family [LINK TO PAGE WITH TWO PICTURES OF IRVINES - PORTRAIT WITH THE ANNOYING FREDDY TOD AND THE ONE IN THE FIELD] established itself firmly as one of Victoria's key pioneering clans. A family reunion in the city in 1992 saw about 150 attendees.5 The Irvines, like the others on this website, represent a fundamental aspect of the British empire. Theirs is perhaps the essential dream behind not only empire, with all its promises, its dark sides, and its long echoes down through history, but behind many human lives throughout time: the dream of owning one's own piece of land with which to do what you please and live out your life in peace and prosperity. Through hard work with the HBC, one of the great organs of the British Empire, the Irvine family became a small but important part of the diaspora of European peoples across the globe which have resulted in the creation of what we know as the western world. By striking out on their own, they and many others like them played a key role in expanding the territory available for European settlement.
Notes:
1 William John Irvine et al., Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851 (Victoria: William John Irvine, 1996), 9-10 and British Columbia Archives, Irvine Family Fonds, MSS-322, Early Victoria, Jack 'Long Gun' Irvine, 1.
2 W.J. Irvine, Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851, 20 and 33-34.
3 W.J. Irvine, Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851, 35-37.
4 W.J. Irvine, Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851, 37-38.
5 Patrick Murphy, "Great clan grows in Victoria from Scottish family of three" Victoria Times Colonist, 22 July 1992, C9.
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Here is the list of stuff for the right window - lists images where applicable by filename (I will post these as well) and text where applicable.
When page first opens, picture in right-hand window is: irvine.gif
Link #1:
- image - tory.jpg
- text - Source: William John Irvine et al., Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851 (Victoria: William John Irvine, 1996), 32.
- image - torypaxlist.jpg
- text - The passenger list of the Tory indicates only the male family heads and not the women and children who were also on board. The most recognizable name on the list is John Work (not to be confused with the curiously similar John Wark, also apparently on board - we suspect that this may be the same person), a prominent farmer and legislator. Also aboard was Martha Cheney, whose diary is an excellent source on early Victoria.
Source: W.J. Irvine, Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851, 11 and 22.
#2:
- image - williamirvine.gif
- text - actually don't think we need any since the citation is right on the image...
#3:
- text of initial land purchase in a format something like the following (you can play with it to make it look better as you may think necessary):
Land District: Victoria
Section: 41
Original Owner: John Irving [a common misspelling which appears often in various records - not changed to Irvine in these land records until 1900]
Number of acres: 130.54
Price: 579.46 dollars, or 120*8*4 pounds
Date of Purchase: April 20, 1857
Date of Final Payment: December 2, 1861
Source: Saanich Archives [Dan - I may get in touch with Caroline to see if there's a better citation for this!]
#4:
- text:
There is some confusion over exactly when the Irvines moved to Rose Bank from Craigflower; we are positing that it may have been a gradual process. The issue arises because Bill Irvine, the family's current pseudo-official historian, notes that the move was planned for 1861, but a harsh winter forced a delay until spring 1862. However, many other sources refer to events at Rose Bank taking place before 1862, particularly in reference to the Anglican congregation using the Irvines' buildings for services. Danda Humphreys, in her popular Times Colonist column "On the street where you live" writes that the first Sunday service was held at Rose Bank in 1860, and on subsequent Sundays had to move to the barn from the kitchen due to overcrowding. On the St. Luke's parish website, Geoffrey Castle writes that the first church was constructed in 1862 after a total of 29 services at the Irvine property. One possible explanation is that as John Irvine was preparing his farm (recall he acquired the land in 1857) for his family to move in, he allowed the empty buildings to be used for services by his soon-to-be neighbours, but that he and Jessie decided that their new home was not quite fit to move their young family in yet.
Sources: W.J. Irvine, Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851, 37; Danda Humphreys, "The house where Long Gun Jack lived" Victoria Times Colonist, 26 April 1998, Islander 3; Geoffrey Castle, St. Luke's Built When Saanich Was For Missionaries <http://www.stlukesvictoria.ca/history.html>
#5:
- image - longguncover.jpg
- image - longgunpage.jpg
- text - The cover and first page of Jack "Long Gun" Irvine's charming memoir of his life in pioneer Victoria. Source: British Columbia Archives (hereafter BCA), Irvine Family Fonds, MSS-322, Early Victoria, Jack 'Long Gun' Irvine.
#6:
text:
Victoria Colonist – FORTY YEARS AGO
"The British Colonist, Monday, March 30, 1868
Wholesale Slaughter – On Saturday morning Mr. Irvine, a farmer in Victoria district, found 34 heal of his sheep lying dead in the field. The bodies bore evidence of having been torn by Panthers. A hunt will be organized. Where are the paper hunters?" [ The authors would appreciate any insight on what this last phrase might mean!]
Source: "Forty Years Ago" Victoria Colonist, 29 March 1908.
#7:
- image - cnotebook2.jpg
- image - cnotebook1.jpg
- text - Christina Irvine's notebook. The inside cover reads: "Christina Irvine. Jan 1875. Cedar Hill. This book is my private property and I defy any person to prove otherwise."
Source: BCA, Irvine Family Fonds, MSS-322.
#8:
- image - irvinesgarden.gif
- text - The Irvines in 1892. From left to right: Ethel Irvine, her father Jack Irvine, and his niece Irene Alice; Margaret Isabelle; John Irvine Sr.; Alice Irvine and daughter Mabel; Marie White; Margaret Irvine; Mary Ann Laing (nee Irvine); Jessie Irvine; Freddy Tod (a neighbour). Thanks to W.J. Irvine, Irvines in Victoria BC since 1851, 45 for identification.
- image - 1892irvines.gif
- text - Perhaps from the same day; the Irvines in front of part of Rose Bank
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And finally, the images:
That's all for now, folks. Call me at 216-7489 if you have any troubles...will have Verney stuff (probably not as complete as this) tonight or tomorrow morning. Cheers!
Scott
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