JOYNER, HENRY THOMAS (1847-1921)

JOYNER, HENRY THOMAS, Catholic priest and rector of St Michael's parish, 1893-1904; b. London, England, 31 Jan 1847, s/o Joseph Samuel Joyner and Harriet M. Pugh; ordained 1874; d. St Basile, N.B., 6 Apr 1921.

Henry T. Joyner was said to have been raised in the Church of England and educated at Oxford University. He was trained for the priesthood at Valladolid in Spain and was ordained there in 1874. He was based in England until 1883 and then became a member of Bishop James Rogers's staff at Chatham. In 1893 he succeeded Father Thomas J. Bannon as rector of St Michael's parish.

Joyner was a friendly priest who was much loved and respected. It amused people that he wore buttoned puttees and rode a bicycle on his sick calls. He took an interest in the public welfare and was a member of a commission which set up a free public library in Chatham in 1900.

In 1904 Joyner was transferred to Grand Falls, and he was in charge of the Catholic parish there for the duration of his priesthood. After his death, which occurred at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in St Basile in 1921, his parishioners at the Church of the Assumption in Grand Falls had a gray granite monument erected in his memory.