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Edmund John Senkler (1802 1872) was born in Norfolk, England, educated at Cambridge, and in 1827 ordained as an Anglican minister. Senkler, his wife Eleanor, and their children immigrated to Canada in 1843 to live in Quebec City, Canada East (now the province of Quebec). They then moved to Sorel, also known as William Henry, and finally to Brockville, near Kingston, Canada West (now Ontario). Offered here is a set of four letters from Senkler to his friend G. W. Chad back in Norfolk, describing the activities of Senkler and his family as they settle into life in Canada. The Senklers had first moved to Quebec City, but did not enjoy their time "in that pestiferous cloaca [.] over which the destroying angel seems evermore to hover with his drawn sword in his hand" (May 8, 1846). On planning to leave, the Bishop of Montreal offers Senkler an unpaid position in "Coteau du Lac, a lonely place 40 or 50 miles above Montreal", whose previous missionary had "been enjoying for many years a handsome salary" and was now "on his return to England." Senkler turns down this meager offer and takes his family to Sorel. The move is providential, as "Not fewer than 27 persons with whom we had some acquaintance have died there [Quebec City] since we left" (September 10, 1846). The family s acquaintances apparently died in a theater fire in Quebec City probably the St. Louise Theater which seemed to have turned into a crowd crush: "I knew some of the sufferers: some were very pious people [.] What shocked the feelings of all who witnessed the scene, with some of whom I have conversed, was that the misery was so easily approachable and yet so utterly beyond relief. [.] In the [case] of poor Mr. Scott (mentioned in all the papers particularly the Illustrated London News of July 18 where there is a view of the place) his brother could not only see him but talk with him caress him, petting his face + weeping over him, while the poor suffering man commended his wife + family to his care; and yet no force could drag out his limbs from the entangled mass of human beings. They did pull at him until they pulled the ball of his shoulder out of the socket, and he begged to be allowed to die." By 1847, the family had sold their property in Sorel and moved west to Brockville, in what is now Ontario. The family are noticing the effects of England s Panic of 1847: "The great scarcity of money now felt in England will very shortly be felt here. The produce sent from hence home has not been paid for. Consequently our merchants must pay for the manufactures +c. sent out, by bills of exchange, which must be in so much greater demand + therefore fetch a higher premium." (December 8, 1847) And around the same time, an epidemic of typhus breaks out in Canada from Irish immigrants fleeing the famine: "Probably you have learned from the papers what misery the unfortunate Irish emigrants have brought and are likely yet to bring to this country. They have spread a pestilence through the city of Montreal. Grosse Isle, the [quarantine] station below Quebec, has been crowded with fever patients to an alarming extent. [.] The emigrants as they recover are forwarded by the steam-boats from Grosse Isle to Montreal (without touching at Quebec) where they are received in miserable wooden sheds. Many suffer a relapse; others first shew symptoms of fever when there; and spread the infection though the town by begging. You can imagine what hotbeds of infection those steam-boats must be. Last week 3 passed Sorel (without touching at the port) one had 1000 emigrants on board, the other two about 800 + 500 respectively. [.] These unhappy people are forwarded to their destination in the Western Country. [For many] of them doubtless that destination will be an untimely grave in a strange [p]lace." (No Date). Nonetheless, the Senkler family happily settles in the town of Brockville, with "an orchard + garden with plenty of pasture for a couple of cows and horse[s] with ground for growing.
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