John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie (October 7, 1797 – October 22, 1869) was a Scottish-born army officer, farmer, civil servant and writer in early Canada. The son of Major James Moodie, he was born in Melsetter in the

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

. In 1813, he became a second lieutenant in the 21st Royal North British Fusiliers. He was seriously wounded during an attack on

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil p ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He received a military pension for two years and was placed on

half-pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the Eng ...

in 1816. In 1819, he went to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, where his two older brothers

Benjamin Moodie Captain Benjamin Moodie (1789 - 2 April 1856) was the 10th Laird of Melsetter who led a party of 200 Scottish immigrants to the Cape Colony in 1817, three years before the arrival of the 1820 Settlers. Moodie served in the Ross and Caithness Militi ...

and Donald Moodie had settled two years earlier. In 1829, he returned to England. He published an article in the ''United Service Journal'' in 1831 and then a book ''Ten years in South Africa'' in 1835. In 1831, he married Susanna Strickland; they came to Canada the following year. They purchased a farm near

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

. After encountering difficulties establishing a homestead, they settled in Belleville. Moodie served in the militia during the

Upper Canada Rebellion The Upper Canada Rebellion was an insurrection against the oligarchic government of the British colony of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) in December 1837. While public grievances had existed for years, it was the rebellion in Lower Canada (p ...

. From November 1839 to January 1863, he served as sheriff for

Victoria District Victoria District was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1871 to 1872. History It was created at the time of that province's entry into Confederation in 1871. ...

. From 1847 to 1848, he contributed to and was editor for the ''Victoria Magazine''. He also published ''Scenes and adventures, as a soldier and settler, during half a century'' in 1866 and contributed to his wife's book '' Roughing it in the bush, or life in Canada''. John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie died on October 22, 1869 in Belleville at the age of 72.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moodie, John Wedderbun Dunbar 1797 births 1869 deaths Canadian memoirists 19th-century Canadian civil servants Royal Scots Fusiliers officers British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars 19th-century memoirists