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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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WILKINSON, WILLIAM JAMES (1856-1930)

WILKINSON, WILLIAM JAMES, Anglican rector, Hardwicke, 1881-1910; b. Bushville, 10 Mar 1856, s/o William Wilkinson and Eliza Lovibond Bacon; m. 1881, Eliza Tremaine, of Halifax; d. Fredericton, 19 Nov 1930.

William J. Wilkinson was educated at the County Grammar School under W. Sterling Neales and at the University of New Brunswick (BA 1875, MA 1878) and King's College, Windsor (BA 1876, BD 1897). Ordained a priest in 1880, he was stationed at Petitcodiac until appointed rector of Hardwicke in 1881.

Ernest P. Flewelling was resident curate of Hardwicke from 1879 to 1881, but Wilkinson was the first resident priest of the parish. He was also the first occupant of the rectory at the Church of St John the Evangelist at Bay du Vin, which was completed soon after his arrival. He served in the parish for twenty-nine years, making his by far the lengthiest of the rectorates. An important event during his incumbency was the opening of the mission Church of St James at Hardwicke Village in 1890.

In 1910 Wilkinson was named rector at Springfield, N.B., and in 1915 rector of Kingsclear. He represented the rural deanery of Chatham on the board of governors of King's College, Windsor, from 1899 to 1911 and the rural deanery of Kingston during 1914-15. In 1924 he was made rural dean of Fredericton. He retired in 1926, at age seventy.

Wilkinson and his wife, Eliza Tremaine, who died in 1906, raised a family of eight at Bay du Vin. Their son Lawrence Wilkinson graduated from UNB and was preparing to become a candidate for the Anglican ministry when he was killed in France in World War I. Their daughter Dorothea Wilkinson was one of several members of the family to live to an advanced age. She was a graduate of Edgehill School in Windsor, N.S., studied at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and served on the teaching staff of Abbot Academy, the prestigious girls' school in Andover, Mass. She died in Fredericton in 1986, at age 100.

Sources

[b] church records [m] Times 27 Jul 1881 [d] Advocate 26 Nov 1930 / Advance 6 Feb 1890; Advocate 23 May 1906, 15 Nov 1917, 13 Mar 1929; Anglican archives (NB); Carleton Sentinel 1 Mar 1879; Commercial World 7 Jun 1951; JDS 1925; Leader 8 Apr 1910, 25 Jun 1915, 26 Nov 1986; News 29 Feb 1984


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