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Canadian History
Bethune, the Rev Charles Jas Stewart, M.A., D.C.L.


the distinguished subject of this sketch, was born at West Flamboro', Ontario, on August 11th, 1838. He was the third son of the Right Rev. Alexander Neil Bethune, second Bishop of Toronto, and Jane Eliza, eldest daughter of the late Hon. James Crooks. The Bethune family trace its lineage very far back in Scottish and French historical records. The first of the name came to Scotland in the reign of Malcolm the Third, a contemporary of William the Conqueror, in the eleventh century. Many men famous in Scotch history belonged to the family, among whom may be mentioned Cardinal Beaton (the name is frequently spelled and pronounced in this way), one of Mary Queen of Scots "Four Marys," the Archbishop Bethune, chaplain to a Highland regiment, who settled with his comrades in the County of Glengarry, Ontario, towards the end of the last century. He was father of the late Bishop of Toronto and Dean Bethune of Montreal, and grandfather of the subject of our sketch. Young Bethune was educated at private schools at Cobourg and Upper Canada College. After leaving the latter instituation he entered Trinity College, Toronto, and graduated B.A. therefrom in 1859 with first class classical honours. He took his M.A. in 1861 and received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from his Alma mater in 1883, in recognition of his zealous and worthy services at Trinity College School. He was ordained deacon in 1861 and priest in 1862, by the late Bishop Strachan of Toronto. He was curate until 1866 with his father, then Rector of Cobourg, with the exception of a short period spent in England in 1863-4, when he was curate at Carlton, Near Selby, in Yorkshire. In 1866 he was appointed to the charge of the Credit Mission, in the County of Peel, Ontario: and since September, 1870, has been Head Master of Trinity College School at Port Hope. From a very small beginning he has raised up this school to be one of the widest known and most successful in the Dominion. He has now a staff of eight assistant masters, about 140 pupils, and large and handsome buildings with extensive play grounds. Our subject has given much of his attention to scientific pursuits, and he is well known in the United States and Great Britain, as likewise in Canada, as an entomologist. He was one of the founders of the Entomological Society of Canada and its secretary-treasurer for seven years. He was president of the same Society from 1870 to 1875, and has continued since to be a member of its Council. He was entomological editor of the Canada Farmer for nine years, and editor of the Canadian Entomologist from its inception in 1868 to 1873. He was written a large number of papers on Practical and Scientific Entomology in these and other publications, and contributed repeatedly to the Annual Report on Insects presented to the Legislature of Ontario. He is a fellow of the American Association for the advancement of science and has attended its meetings at various places in the United States; is a member of several Canadian scientific societies and a corresponding member of scientific societies in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, Davenport, Brooklyn, Halifax, and other places. He is also a member of the Corporation of the University of Trinity College, Toronto, and of the council of the Bishop Strachan School for Young Ladies, in Toronto. He was Honorary Clerical Secretary of the Synod of the Diocese of Tornonto from 1869 to 1871, and has been repeatedly elected a representative of the diocese at the meeting of the Provincial Synod in Montreal. He has frequently  visited England and travelled in the United States; he has also visited Paris, and has seen a good deal of Scotland and Ireland. Our subject has always been a member of the Church of England and associated with the "High Church" school of thought. He married on April 21st, 1863, Alice, second daughter of Lieut=Colonel Forlong, K.H., of Toronto, late of Her Majesty's 43rd Regiment of Light Infantry, and his wife Sophia, daughter of the Hon. Henry John Boulton, of Holland House, Toronto. Colonel Forlong, when a young man, took part in the battle of Waterloo, and was wounded during the engagement. He carried the bullet, which could not be extracted, all the rest of his life. He died at Gore Vale, Toronto, in 1859. Dr Bethune has five children living. An earnest and able worker for his church, a learned and deeply-skilled votary in a wide and important branch of science, and at the same time the able administrator of a denominational school made, by his own exertions, the most important among junior institutions in Canada. It has been given to few men whose names are written in this volume to accomplish so much and to accomplish it so well.


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