Joseph Westrop Carey ( – 28 April 1910) was an Anglo-Irish Canadian land surveyor and pioneer, who served as mayor of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

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in 1883 and 1884.

Biography

Carey was born into a Protestant family in Aghabullogue, County Cork in 1829 or 1830, the son of British Army officer William Westrop Carey (also spelled Westrope or Westropp) and Honora van Stone Carey (''née'' Collins). His father was an officer in the

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and served in Egypt during the Napoleonic Wars. Joseph Carey arrived at Fort Victoria. Carey was educated in Aghabullogue, learning land surveying. In April 1849, at age 15, he left Ireland without his family, a few months before the onset of the Great Famine. He travelled first to England before arriving in

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in July. He went to the Pacific Coast where for 18 months he worked surveying the California-Arizona border. As a contractor, he conducted field work for Robert C. Matthewson, deputy surveyor for the U.S. federal government, and worked in Mexico and

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. After the onset of the 1849 Gold Rush, he went north to San Francisco to pan for gold in the mountains. He met some success but continued to work as a surveyor up and down the West Coast. He arrived at Fort Victoria on 11 May 1859, just over a decade after leaving Ireland. While employed as a police officer in Victoria, Carey was tried for the attempted rape of an Indigenous woman, but was acquitted by an all-white jury. In 1870, Carey bought land in the Colquitz Valley, where he raised cattle and pigs and planted 600 fruit trees
Carey Road in Victoria
located on the spot of his ranch, bears his name.

Politics

Carey was elected to Victoria's city council in 1865, and re-elected in 1869, 1870 and 1871. Carey was elected mayor of Victoria in 1883. During his mayoralty, sheriff James MacMillan entered city hall in 1884, seizing city property, including petty cash and councillors' office furnishings, after Carey refused to pay an $870 legal bill owed by the city. The seized furnishings and equipment were placed for public

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, which ended when '' Daily Colonist'' editor David Higgins and private citizen Joseph Spratt paid the outstanding bill. He was defeated in the next municipal election. He subsequently returned to his work as a surveyor, and also owned several properties in downtown Victoria, one of which was in operation for several years as a brothel.

Family and children

In 1852 in Boston, he married Englishwoman Caroline Louise Slater, the daughter of Methodist minister Rev. Thomas Slater. Caroline, who had emigrated from

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, stayed in Boston while Carey returned to the Pacific Coast. She eventually joined him in 1859 and became a well-known pioneer woman. They had two sons Joseph William Carey and Colonel Herbert Clement Carey (1865-1948).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carey, Joseph 1820s births 1910 deaths People from Aghabullogue Mayors of Victoria, British Columbia Canadian surveyors Irish surveyors Irish emigrants to pre-Confederation British Columbia Politicians from County Cork