THE FIRE KINDLERS - CHAPTER 8

THE LAST OF THE PURITANS

George, the second son, and Emily, the third daughter, of Rev. Isaac Purkis, married a brother and sister in Montreal. They were United Empire Loyalists; Emily becoming Mrs. Loucks and Miss Loucks becoming Mrs. George Purkis.

Emily's daughter died in Montreal in 1938. She was over 90.

George Purkis, the second son had a short but brilliant business career in Montreal. The telegraph was then a new invention, and the boys, with the business instinct typical of the family, were quick to visualize the boundless possibilities of the telegraph in kindling the fires and carrying the sparks of commerce across the vast distances and virgin fields of Canada. There does seem to be in the family a certain degree of inventive genius and certainly a great interest in new inventions. The three older boys all took up telegraphy, and George, the oldest, became the head of the Montreal Telegraph Company, but unfortunately he died at an early age.

One of his daughters, Mrs. Ault, died in Toronto in 1937. The other, Mrs. Gill, nearly ninety years of age, is living in Brockville, Ontario.

The fourth son, Arthur Johnson Purkis, was intended for the ministry. He studied at Queens University and was distinguished in Classics. However, he changed his mind and took up telegraphy like his two older brothers. He married Miss Lavinia Elliott, daughter of Rev. Charles Elliott, a Baptist minister. He held positions as a telegrapher in Morrisburg, Quebec and Akron, Ohio . When the Civil War broke out he enlisted with the forces of General Grant. His military career was short, but severe. "I enlisted at Cleveland," he writes in his first (and last) letter from the front, dated 9th June, 1864, from Cold Harbor near Richmond, Va., "from thence proceeded to Camp Chase, Columbus, 0., and was soon hurried on to Washington by the cars. From Washington we marched through Virginia to Catlin Station, passing in our course Bulls Run, Manassas Junction, Warrenton, etc. After resting a few days at Catlin Station we marched forward through 'The Wilderness', fighting our way to 'Spotsylvania Court House' which we took after a severe engagement. From the 4th of May until the present day we have been almost constantly under the fire of the enemy, and the crack of musketry and the roar of cannon salute our ears almost momentarily. Hitherto I have escaped uninjured yet I have already experienced many providential escapes and I feet how uncertain a tenure of life I hold."

He was severely wounded shortly afterward and died as a result of his injuries at David's Island, New York Harbour, exactly one month after writing the above letter, on July 9th, 1864. He left a wife and two girls who returned to Canada. Lucy, his younger daughter, was adopted by her Aunt Lucy, who was at that time the wife of Rev. Matthew Ker.

When Rev. Isaac Purkis was at La Prairie, there were three families from the North of Ireland who had come out and taken up land nearby in order to establish themselves in the new country. They were the Blakes the Kirbys and the Kers. From the Kirbys came one of Canada's best poets, William Kirby, also well known as the author of the "Golden Dog " . The Kers were in direct descent from the seventh Lord of Bellenden who became Duke of Roxburgh.

Lucy, the fourth daughter of Isaac, fell in love with young Matthew Ker, who was also a special favourite of her father's. Matthew Ker came from a race of clergymen. He was the son of a clergyman of the Church of Ireland and his mother was a daughter of the Archdeacon of Cork and a niece of Bishop Brinkley, also of Bishop Mann. He became the uncle of the Most Rev. Dr. McGee, Archbishop of York. He came to Canada at the age of nineteen and the family attended the Presbyterian Church which Rev. Isaac Purkis had founded at La Prairie. He decided to enter the ministry of the Church of England in Canada. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of William and Mary, Virginia' After marryng Lucy Purkis he took charge of a parish in March Township Ontario, and shortly afterward became rector of the parish of Osnabruck where his friend and father-in-law was Presbyterian minister. He was with Rev. Isaac Purkis in his last days and officiated at his funeral. The rest of his career in the church was spent at Gaspé, Quebec. When he retired he went to live at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, where he died in 1894. Lucy's two maiden sisters, Agnes and Selina, spent their last days with her and they are all buried in St. Mark's Churchyard at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

William, the fifth son, married a Miss Pitt, and had one daughter; while James, the youngest, who married Miss Macdonald, a niece of the well-known Bishop Macdonald, left no children. Of all the boys only Isaac, the third son, had boys to carry on the name. As he lived a long and successful life, he is probably the best known member of the Purkis family of his generation in Canada.

Isaac DeSacy Purkis was horn at La Prairie, Quebec, in 1827. His second name is that of the Huguenot translator of the Bible. Like George, his older brother, he began his business career in the telegraphic business in Montreal. He was married in 1854 to Margaret Maric Brady, a great-granddaughter of Colonel Thomas Brady, who was sent out with His Majesty's Royal Artillery to take command of the garrison at William Henry.

He became general manager of the British North American Telegraph Company and while acting in this capacity he supervised the laying of the first submarine cable on the North American continent, which was laid from Quebec to Levis. It is said that he personally donned a diver's suit and went down beneath the water to inspect the cable as it was laid. in 1870 he was offered the position of General Manager of the new Dominion Telegraph Company, and while occupying this position he lived in Toronto.

A few years later he went to live in Prescott, Ontario, where he organized a ferry and shipping business on the St. Lawrence. He also built a coal wharf. He was a director of the Railway Transfer Company and was active in the local government of Prescott, being a town councillor and also a member of the School Board for thirty-five years.
He was a Freemason, a Presbyterian and a Reformer. He died in 1905 at the age of 78. He left a reputation behind him that has lived long in the memories of all who knew him. I have found when passing through the eastern townships of Ontario that my name has evoked respect and interest from many of the older residents, and it has appeared to be but the lustre of his integrity and charming personality.

Mr. Isaac D. Purkis had eleven children, of whom seven are now living. None of his sons have any male heirs to carry on the name, so, as far as his own descendants are concerned, it will die out w ith the present generation. There are many who own his blood, children of his daughters and of his son's daughters.

However, the name still continues in Canada. The City of Toronto, true to its name, is indeed a meeting place for the diverse branches of the Purkis family. In no other city of its size, except Southampton, are there so many of the name in the directories, and nearly all representing different branches, yet all without exception claiming descent from the Charcoal Burner associated with William Rufus. There is Mr. Thornton Purkis who is a grandson of the family of Charles Purkis, who settled in Cambridgeshire in the latter part of the 18th century, although the family came originally from the neighbourhood of Andover in Hampshire. His grandfather served in the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny. His father and also three of his brothers followed the army as a career.

There is Mr. Ernest A. Purkis, and Mr. Charles T. Purkis, who are both descendants of Mr. Thomas William Purkis, who was born in London, England, in 1852. His parents died young and he lived with an aunt until he came to Canada. He died in Toronto in 1896. He may have been a descendant of Sir William Purches, mayor of London in 1494, but not necessarily so for there were many br a nches of the family represented in London by the middle of the nineteenth century. There was a Clerk to the Court of Chancery of our name, and there was a firm of Booksellers and Publishers known as "Purkis & Co." There were Robert and Henry, brothers of John Purkis of Houndsdown, who ran the Southampton stage coaches. Two generations later there were James, William and Alfred, grandsons of their brother William.

Then in Toronto again there is Mr. John Purkis, a native of Yorkshire, connected, I believe, with the branch that settled in Cambridgeshire. And another Mr. John Purkis with his sister, Miss Winnifred Purkis, are descendants of William, a brother of Rev. Isaac Purkis. Mr. Norman Purkis of Weston is another descendant of William. His father, Mr. Charles Purkis, was born in Winchester, England, and is buried at Sudbury, Ont. Meeting with business misfortune he left his wife and two children in England came to try his luck in Canada. He was getting along nicely and sent for his son Norman to come and join him. It is sad to relate that when Norman reached Sudbury he found his father dead and buried. One of his sons, Mr. Ross Purkis, has the distinction of introducing the newest generation of the name in Canada, his daughter, Phyllis, being the sixth generation from John Purkis and Marie Dubois. There is also Mr. Oswald Purkis in Toronto, representing yet another branch, and others.

The name is to be found to-day in most of the provinces of Canada. In British Columbia there is a Miss Purkiss on the staff of the "Clumbian", a daily newspaper published in New Westminster. She has two brothers and three sisters in British Columbia and one brother in Los Angeles.

They are descendants of a John Purkiss (they spell the name with a " ss ". William, brother of Rev. Isaac Purkis, had a son John, born on July 18th, 1826, who would he just the right age, but it is by no means certain that he is their ancestor. There can be little doubt that they are descendants of John Purkis and Marie Dubois however , as they have the story of the French Huguenot grandmother.

This John Purkiss came to America a young married man with two boys. Another boy and a girl were born in America. Their names were John, james, Francis, and Mary. They seem like many others of the name to have been restless and fond of travel, for they moved to various different places in the United States. It is quite remarkable and at times confusing to find, in studying the history of the various branches of our family, how so many different ones in diverse places have lived similar lives. In this family we have another missionary, Rev. Francis Purkiss, going into a far country to kindle the fires of Christian faith. He was born in Calfornia and his imagination led him across the great Pacific Ocean to the heathen Chinese. His life was spent in China. Like his namesake, St. Francis Xavier, he disappeared into the interior of the country, holding high the torch of the Gospel, and no one knows what finally became of him.

His brother James is still living in California, and his sister Mary is living in New York.

The oldest son, John, married in San Francisco, and had two sons who are living in California. After some years he came to live in British Columbia and married a second wife, by whom he had three more sons and five daughters. One of these sons is in Los Angeles, and two of them reside in British Columbia. The daughters are Mrs. J. Hanlon of New York, Mrs. Piedmont, Mrs. Faulkes, and Misses Eileen and Edith Purkiss in British Columbia.

Besides being a meeting place of the diverse branches of our family, the City of Toronto has been the repository of one or two objects of historical interest. Mr. Thornton Purkis possessed a genealogical tree tracing his descents back to the ancient family who settled in the New Forest before the Conqueror, or Julius Caesar had seen the shores of Britain. Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire in 1934. But, strangest of all, in a Toronto residence is to be found the old oaken handle from the door of the cottage where once dwelt the Charcoal Burner associated with William Rufus. In 1898 two daughters of the late Mr. George Purkis of Montreal paid a visit to England and saw the ruins of the ancient Purkis homestead, near the Rufus Stone in the New Forest. They took the handle for a souvenir and it is in Toronto to-day.

Of all those of the Fire Kindlers' blood who ever lived in Toronto' none have been more proud of their connection or more interested in their kindred than the late Mrs. Robt. Freeland. She was formerly Miss Mary Purkis and her father was the Rev. George Purkis of Watervill, Que., and of still another branch of the Purkis family.

According to the register of Eling Parish Church there were seven of the name of John Purkis who succeeded one another as the masters of Houndsdown from the beginning of the 17th to the end of the 18th centuries The fourth of these johns was the one who adopted the two little Huguenot refugees of the Dubois family. The fifth was the husband of Marie Dubois a nd father of Isaac, William and Charles already referred to, as well as of eleven other children. The sixth was also the father of a large family and the youngest, George, born in 1816, was destined to become one of the best beloved ministers of his time. He has been called "The last of the Puritans" and while Puritanism may not have died with him, yet there have since been all too few of his type, the true type of Puritan. He was a man who, whilst measuring his own conduct by the strictest rule, was broad-minded, tolerant, kindly and genial in his attitude to others.

Unlike his Uncle Isaac, he had no idea whatever of a religious career as a boy. He joined the Navy on leaving school and served as ship's carpenter on a man o' war. In 1844 he decided to emigrate to Canada being then twenty-eight years of age. He was married to Leah Lockyer and had one son called John. He settled in Montreal and went into the business of cabinet making. He did very good work, some samples of which are still in the family, and was very successful. However he did not like the ethics of the trade and eventually gave it up and travelled as a colporteur for the British and Foreign Bible Society.

One Sunday in 1867 he was sent by Rev. J. Green of the Bible Society to preach t o a small congregation who met in the schoolhouse in the Village of Waterville, Quebec, and to remain and sell Bibles in that vicinity during the week. He was so well liked that he was asked to preach again on the following Sunday, and after he had returned to Montreal the members of the Church wrote and asked him to become their Pastor. The Church had been organized about five years previously by a Congregational minister from a neighouring village, but he could no longer serve them and they were withou t a minister. There were only six members of the congregation living in the Village of Waterville and only thirteen on the membership roll who lived at various distances up to twenty miles away. It meant a great deal of self sacrifice to give up a comfor t able position and take charge of such a small congregation. They could hardly be expected to contribute sufficient to furnish his living expenses for a year or two at least, but he decided nevertheless to accept their call. He was ordained as a Congregational minister and inducted as Pastor of the Waterville congregation on the first Sunday in June, 1867, and so began a very happy pastorate which was to last for twenty-two years in the course of which he gained the love and respect not only of his own congregation, but of the entire community. In the course of his pastorate in the small village of Waterville, where there were two other churches besides his own he received 133 persons into the church, officiated at 255 baptisms, 110 weddings and 143 buria l s. In 1879 the first church edifice was erected and it was practically free of debt when opened. He resigned from the pastorate in 1889 and spent four and a half quiet and happy years living with his daughter Mary at Bowmanville where he died in 1894 in the seventy-ninth year of his age.

He was a fine looking man with a kindly face, his portrait hangs in the vestry of the Waterville Congregational Church and there is a beautiful stained glass window in his memory in the same church.
He was very bald and wore a wig in his later years. There is a story told, that at one time he was selling Bibles on a wild Indian reservation, and some young Indians chased him so that he had to run for his life to the shelter of a friend's house. Years later one of the Indians who chased him became converted and, reminding him of the incident remarked that he was the only man he had ever chased who was so frightened that his scalp fell off.

His only son, John, married in the United States, but he had only been wedded a few months when Nellie Purkis, his wife, died. He never recovered from the shock and died himself a short time afterward. Besides his daughter Mary, who married Mr. Robert Freeland, he had a daughter Emily who married Rev. Alexander Leslie, who was the Presbyterian minister at Waterville. There are grandchildren of his living in Toronto at the present time.

His wife was of a much stricter and domineering type than he. She was tall and had a high narrow type of head. Rev. George Purkis was attending a meeting of ministers in Montreal one day in the summer time. In the room beneath his wife was waiting with his young cousins, sons of Rev. Isaac Purkis. She was telling them what she thought of the ministers up above and what she would like to tell them, so taking a look at the shape of her long, narrow head and at the vacant hole in the ceiling where the stove pipe went through in the winter, one of the boys asked her if he could assist her to attend the meeting. So the boys picked her up and poked her head up through the stove pipe hole and held her there much to the amazement of the ministers and to her own embarrassment. Rev. George Purkis was in many ways a contrast to his Uncle Isaac who was very well educated and trained for the ministry, and who travelled far and wide and kindled the fires of religion in so many places. He had no university or theological training to fit him for his sacred calling, and all his ministry was confined to one small village yet he kindled the fire of Divine Love in the hearts of many and where that fire still burns and inflames the hearts of others, there the spirit of Puritanism still lives, though in a changed world and under modern conditions of living it may manifest itself in'a different manner to that in which it shone from "The Last of the Puritans".