William Pope: Canada's Audubon

Pope, William. Pileated Woodpecker. 1843.
Watercolour and Ink. Toronto Public Library, Toronto.

In the dark shadow of the spruces that tower over Vittoria United Cemetery is the simple gravestone of William Pope and his wife Martha. But underneath the usual names and dates is the inscription: "Canada's first artist-naturalist and his wife." As an amateur historian with an interest in fine art, I investigated further and discovered that, like the more famous John James Audubon, William Pope was a 19th century ornithologist, naturalist and painter. Pope, however, spent much of his life here in Canada, living at Port Ryerse on the north shore of Lake Erie.

Many of Pope's watercolours of birds are in the Toronto Public Library's Baldwin Collection and can be viewed online. Of greater interest to the historian, however, are Pope's journals. The journals cover his first and second visits to Canada in the first half of the 19th century. They not only describe birds and other wildlife once common in Southern Ontario, but provide insight to the character of life in 19th century Upper Canada.

Fant House, Maidstone, Kent

William Pope, the second son of Horatio Pope (1780-1849) and Mary Ann Lee (1788-1853) was baptised at Maidstone, Kent on 15 Feb 1811. William was one of ten children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. Horatio Pope was a wealthy landowner, and William's early childhood was spent at Fant House. He attended school both locally and at a boarding school in Sussex. Pope showed artistic talent at an early age and studied at the Academy of Art in London. He also developed a passion for hunting.

In March of 1834, at the age of 23, Pope began a year-long journey to North America, accompanied only by his retriever Pinto. Pope's journal for this period not only provides a detailed description of his travels through Upper Canada and the Northeastern United States, but also describes the birds and other wildlife that were once common in Southern Ontario.

Pope sailed from England on 28 March 1834 aboard the Ontario. The crossing to New York took 31 days due in part to a gale which lasted for 18 days. From New York he sailed up the Hudson River to Albany aboard the steamer Erie and then by train to Schenectady. Pope then travelled by a combination of horse-drawn towboat, steam powered packet-boat, and stage coach along the newly opened Erie Canal to Buffalo. He writes:

For my part, I hardly know which to give the preference, whether to the travelling by canal, or whether by stage coach, they are all bad, infernally bad, damnably bad.

Pope at one point described his cabin aboard a towboat as "a second hole of Calcutta" and complained how "noisesome and pestilential vapours floating about our rattlesnake den of a cabin." 

From Buffalo, William took a steamer across Lake Erie to Kettle Creek, now called Port Stanley. Having finally arrived in Upper Canada, he was not impressed by what he saw:

The best of Kettle Creek was bad. The meat was bad. The drink was bad. The beds were bad. The wharf was bad. The house bad. The roads bad, and in short, the whole place was bad, damned bad altogether. The only exception may be the people, in any case I hope so.

Pope then walked north to St Thomas where he finally had a good meal of beef and ale. After a brief stay in St Thomas, William set out to walk to Brantford, a distance of 100 kilometres. It was on this leg of his travels that he first encountered mosquitoes:

The heat of the sun and the sand was far preferable to the accursed torments of those minute Devils.

From Brantford he travelled by stage coach to Hamilton and then by steamer to York, the capital of Upper Canada. York did not impress him:

The streets and houses are dirty and unimpressive, and prices for provisions, house rents, and shop goods seem exceedingly high.

From York, William crossed Lake Ontario to Youngstown, New York and then walked to Niagara Falls. He described the falls from the American side as "by far the most wonderful and the most sublime work of nature I ever beheld" but conceded that the views was probably more impressive from the Canadian side. William then returned to St Thomas via Buffalo and steamer to Port Stanley.

For the next five weeks William stayed at a farm outside of St Thomas, hunting, painting, and complaining about a diet of salt port, sourdough bread, and rye whiskey. In early July he wrote that he was "beginning to get tired of living in the back-woods" and a week later set out by stage coach to see see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. After visiting several American cities that summer he returned to St Thomas, took lodging at a tavern, and spent the next nine months shooting and painting.

Pope, William. The Passenger Pigeon.
1835. Watercolour and Ink.
Toronto Public Library, Toronto.

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One of his paintings from this period is that of a male passenger pigeon. This bird, now extinct, once numbered in the hundreds of millions if not billions. Huge flocks of migratory passenger pigeons could darken the sky for hours.

Pope returned to England in June of 1835. He took up the life of a gentleman farmer, although it appears that most of his time was spent hunting. At the time of the 1841 Census, William was living in Penshurst, Kent. One of the servants in his household was 21-year-old Martha Mills, daughter of Richard Mills. William married Martha in the fall of 1841. It is likely that William's parents did approve since William had married "below one's station." This may have encouraged William to return to Canada in 1842. William and Martha's son, William, was born shortly after they were married.

William and Martha's firstborn survived the trip to Canada but died sometime before the birth of their fourth child, William Edwin, in 1848.

According to his journal, William's second visit to Canada was not as trying as the first, although the ocean voyage was stormy. After a journey of eight weeks, William arrived back in St Thomas, bringing Martha, his son William, and his retriever Pinto with him. After a few weeks of looking at properties near St Thomas, William walked to the Long Point area and rented two rooms from John Kilmaster. Kilmaster was a merchant who owned a number of properties in the Port Rowan area.

William was frequently employed by Kilmaster in tasks such as apple picking, digging potatoes, cutting and hauling firewood, threshing, and the production of sugar from maple sap. He also describes the numerous "bees" he participated in such as barn raising, logging, and corn husking. In October 1843, William rented a house and nine acres east of Port Rowan from Michael Troyer. 

The following spring William cultivated a large garden, and his journal details the vegetables he planted: Indian corn, peas, French beans, Swede turnips, celery, and watermelon. William did not, however, plant pumpkins. During his first trip to Canada, William often complained how meals were often accompanied by apple or "pumkin sace," and described pumpkin pie as "a poor, mawkish, tasteless, insipid thing."

Pope, William. Baltimore Orioles. 1859.
Watercolour and Ink. Toronto Public Library, Toronto.

William continued to hunt and paint, and his journal is filled with notes about the countless birds he killed, as well as numerous squirrels and a bear. William also records the death of his retriever Pinto on July 29, 1845:

Buried my old Dog Pinto — having previously become very infirm and wasted to a mere shadow with sores and disease — the old fellow was about 12 years of age, 11 of which he had been in my possession — twice crossed the Atlantic — excellent in the field — a capital retriever, tender mouthed — a good water dog & very sagacious.

What is not in his journals are many references to his children. The only direct reference was in the Winter of 1844 when he wrote: "Child taken ill, with fits and stomach disordered — tried Castor Oil, and warm water applied to the feet and legs." This may refer to his son William but could also refer to his daughter Mary Ann, born in 1843. His son Horatio was born in 1845.

At some point Martha's sister Harriet also joined them in Canada. William records her marriage to Steven Price on 26 February 1845. Regrettably, Harriet died the following year on 22 May 1846 at the age of 28.

In 1847, William and family returned to England, possibly due to the ill health of his father who died in 1849. At the time of the 1851 Census, the family, which now included William Edwin, was living in Lee, Kent. Charles Lee was born soon after. The family then returned to Canada where Thomas Price was born in 1852, but were they back in England two years later.

Gravetye Manor
East Grinstead, Sussex

From 1854 to 1859, William, Martha and their five children lived at Gravetye Manor in East Grinstead, Sussex. Gravetye Manor is a two story Elizabethan house built in 1598 by ironmaster Richard Infield for his bride Katharine Compton. From 1884 until 1935 it was the home of William Robinson, author of the The English Flower Garden. The property is now a luxury hotel and is Grade I listed.

In the spring of 1859 William and Martha returned to Canada, this time for good. William purchased a 137 acre farm just west of Port Ryerse. Although he continued hunting, fishing and painting, William described himself as a farmer in the 1861 Census and 1871 Census. The 1861 Agricultural Census shows William cultivating wheat, peas, corn, potatoes, carrots and hay.

William Pope House, Port Ryerse, Woodhouse, Norfolk, Ontario

William and Martha celebrated the marriage of their daughter Mary Ann to George Hewitt, a harness maker, about 1863. George and Mary Ann lived in Vittoria and are buried there. Although they had ten children, their first, Carrie, died at the age of two. Another five died in infancy. 

Thomas Price Pope died in 1868 at the age of 14. His brother, Charles Lee Pope, died in 1877 at the age of 26.

Horatio Pope married Rachel Ann Cook in 1873 and had three children. Horatio died in 1904, a few years after the deaths of his parents, and was also buried at Vittoria.

William Edwin Pope married Emily Amelia Hunter about 1873 and had four children.

According to family tradition, William gave up hunting and painting after the death of his brother, Horatio, who died in 1879 during a visit to Canada. Horatio had made the trip from England to visit William on a number of occasions. At the time of his brother's death William was 68, so age was likely a factor.

William and Martha continued living in the house at Port Ryerse well into their eighties. Before Martha's death in 1901 they moved to Vittoria to live with their daughter and son-in-law. William died in Vittoria on 20 Mar 1902. He was 91 years of age.

William Pope 1811-1902
Canada's First Artist-Naturalist

Sources:

Barrett, Harry B., The 19th Century Journals & Paintings of William Pope, Toronto: M.F. Feheley, 1976

Garland, M.A., Ed., William Pope’s Journal, March 28,1834 - March 11, 1835, London, Ontario: University of Western Ontario, 1952