William Kingsford (23 December 1819 – 29 September 1898) was an English-born Canadian historian. Born in London, England, served in the army, and went to Canada, where he was engaged in surveying work. He was a self-taught historian, and one of the first to use the archives being gathered in Ottawa. He is best known for his ''History of Canada'' in 10 volumes (1887–1898), which was widely read by the upper middle class, as well as Anglophone teachers, despite its poor organisation and pedestrian writing style. Kingsford believed that the Conquest of New France guaranteed victory for British constitutional liberty and that it ensured material progress. He assumed the assimilation of French Canadians into a superior British culture was inevitable and desirable, for he envisioned Canada as one nation with one anglophone population.
Early life
Born on 23 December 1819 in the parish of
St. Lawrence Jewry, London, he was the son of William and Elizabeth Kingsford of Lad Lane. Educated at
Nicholas Wanostrocht
Nicholas Wanostrocht (5 October 1804 – 3 September 1876), known as Nicholas Felix, was an English amateur "gentleman" cricketer. He was one of the few players who – at his request – was routinely known by his pseudonym, Felix. When his fa ...
's school in
Camberwell
Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
, he was articled at an early age to an architect. He then enlisted in the
1st Dragoon Guards, aged 16. He went with his regiment to Canada in 1837, became sergeant, and in 1840, through the influence of his friends at home, obtained his discharge, despite an offer by
Sir George Cathcart, colonel of the regiment, to procure a commission for him.
Civil engineer
Entering the office of the city surveyor of Montreal in 1841, Kingford qualified in due course as civil engineer, and obtained the position of deputy city surveyor, a post which he held for three years. He resigned to begin the publication of the ''Montreal Times'', in company with Murdo McIver. Two years later he entered the public works department, and among other undertakings made a new survey of the
Lachine Canal
The Lachine Canal ( in French (language), French) is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running 14.5 kilometres (9 miles) from the Old Port of Montreal to Lake Saint-Louis, through the boroug ...
.
In 1849 Kingsford was engaged in the construction of the
Hudson River Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
in the state of New York, and in 1851 went to
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
as assistant engineer to J. J. Campbell, who was then building the
Panama Canal Railway
The Panama Canal Railway ( es, Ferrocarril de Panamá) is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific, near P ...
. Returning to Canada in 1853, he surveyed for the
Grand Trunk Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...
the tracks from Montreal to
Vaudreuil, from Montreal to
Cornwall, Ontario
Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York (state), New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Unit ...
, from
Brockville
Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It i ...
to Rideau, and, under A. M. Ross, who had the construction of the work in charge, laid down the lines of the
Victoria Bridge.
Kingsford was chief engineer of the city of Toronto for a few months during 1855, but resigned to re-enter the service of the Grand Trunk, in whose employment he remained till 1864. He acted at first as superintendent of the line east from Toronto, and afterwards as contractor to maintain the section that runs from that city westward to Stratford. He came to England in 1865, made one or two general surveys on the continent for English firms, and reported to
Thomas Brassey
Thomas Brassey (7 November 18058 December 1870) was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about o ...
on the railway possibilities of the island of
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
.
In 1867, the building of the
Intercolonial Railway
The Intercolonial Railway of Canada , also referred to as the Intercolonial Railway (ICR), was a historic Canadian railway that operated from 1872 to 1918, when it became part of Canadian National Railways. As the railway was also completely o ...
took Kingsford to Canada once more to Canada, where he remained for the rest of his life. He worked on the enlargement of the
Grenville Canal
Grenville is a village municipality in the Argenteuil Regional County Municipality of the Laurentides region of Quebec, Canada. It is located opposite Hawkesbury, Ontario, on the Ottawa River.
History
Although Grenville was already shown on t ...
and the draining of
Russell, Ontario
The Township of Russell is a municipal township, located south-east of Canada's capital of Ottawa in eastern Ontario, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, on the Castor River.
The township had a population of 16,520 in the 2016 Cana ...
, moving to Ottawa. When the Mackenzie government came into power in 1872 Kingsford was appointed dominion engineer in charge of the harbours of the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
and the
St. Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
. He continued in this post till 31 December 1879, when he was dismissed by
Sir Hector Langevin,
minister of public works
This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure.
See also
* Public works
* Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...
.
Later life
At the age of 60, Kingsford then turned to
Canadian history
The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...
.
Queen's University and
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...
recognised Kingsford's historical works by conferring on him the degree of LL.D.; and
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
gave his name to a recently endowed chair of history. He survived the completion of his ''History'' by a few months only, and died on 28 September 1898.
Works
Kingsford began writing for the press, and published some pamphlets:
* ''The History, Structure, and Statistics of Plank-roads'', 1852
* ''Impressions of the West and South'', 1858
* ''The Canadian Canals: their History and Cost'', 1865
and a monograph on Canadian history entitled ''A Political Coin''.
Kingsford studied of the archives of Canada, collected at Ottawa, from 1880. He published ''Canadian Archæology'' in 1886, soon followed by the ''Early Bibliography of Ontario''. He published the first volume of the ''History of Canada'' in 1887. The tenth and last volume went up to the
union of Upper and Lower Canada (1841), and was printed in 1898, with a preface dated 24 May.
Kingsford was a fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...
, to which he contributed several papers, and a member of the
Canadian Society of Civil Engineers The Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) (French: l'Institut canadien des ingénieurs; ICI) is a federation of fourteen engineering societies based in Canada, covering a broad range of engineering branches, and with a history going back to 1887. F ...
. He published correspondence and proceedings related to his sacking in a pamphlet ''Mr. Kingsford and Sir Hector Langevin'' (1882).
Family
In 1848 Kingsford married Maria Margaret, daughter of William Burns Lindsay, clerk of the legislative assembly of the province of Canada. Queen Victoria gave her his widow's
civil list pension
Pensions in the United Kingdom, whereby United Kingdom tax payers have some of their wages deducted to save for retirement, can be categorised into three major divisions - state, occupational and personal pensions.
The state pension is based on ...
after his death.
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
*
Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingsford, William
19th-century Canadian historians
Canadian civil engineers
1819 births
1898 deaths
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
People from Camberwell
English emigrants to Canada
19th-century Canadian male writers
Canadian male non-fiction writers