Preconfederation Ornithology

A compilation of transcriptions relating to Canadian preconfederation ornithology, 1534-1867

William and Harriet Sheppard

William Sheppard (1784-1867) and Harriet Campbell Sheppard (1786-1858)

Introduction

Much of the biographical detail on the Sheppards has been taken from an article on William Sheppard written by Pierre Savard in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. (DCB)

William Sheppard was born at Fisher's Row, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1784. He was the son of prosperous businessman, William Sheppard Sr and his wife, Sarah Maxfield.

In 1792, at the age of 8, Sheppard emigrated to Quebec with his parents and his sister, Margaret. The family appears to have settled in Montreal. In 1809, at age 25, William Jr was involved in the timber trade. At that time the Canadian timber business was booming, supplying masts for ships of the Royal Navy. After 1806, as a result of the naval blockades during the Napoleonic War, Canada also became a leading supplier of square timber used in British ship building. The wood was typically rafted down the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers to Montreal, loaded on boats, and shipped to England.

In 1809 William Sheppard married Harriet Campbell (1786-1858) and moved his business to Quebec. Harriet was the daughter of United Empire Loyalist parents who emigrated to Nova Scotia after the American Revolution. In 1790 the Campbell family moved to Quebec where her father, Archibald Campbell Sr, like Sheppard, prospered in the timber trade. It seems likely that William and Harriet met through common family business connections.

The Campbell family became a wealthy and prominent Quebec family. Harriet's eldest brother, John became a merchant and seigneur. Her younger brother, Archibald (1790-1862) became a prominent Quebec lawyer. In 1822 Archibald Campbell Jr purchased the seigneury at Bic. Harriet's sister Louisa Sophia married into the seigneury owned by Johnathan Wurtele. Later in the 19th Century, a close relative, Frederick Christian Wurtele (1842-1920) was an important Curator of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.

In 1816 the Sheppards purchased a 100 acre property at Sillery. Originally known as “Samos”, the Sheppards renamed it “Woodfield”. The Sheppards had seven children, four of which survived into adulthood including: Charles Campbell, Charlotte, William and Maxfield. At Woodfield the Sheppards transformed the house and the property, and according to Pierre Savard in his article in the DCB installed:

a library of 3,000 volumes, a picture gallery, a small natural history museum....aviaries and greenhouses; and took up gardening

The Sheppard aviary was described by his neighbour James MacPherson LeMoine (Ornithologie du Canada 1861: 389). In addition to containing a European Linnet and Serin, LeMoine mentions the following North American birds: Horned Lark, Eastern Bluebird, Wood Thrush, Cedar Waxwing, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Bobolink, Baltimore Oriole and Red-winged Blackbird.

While LeMoine's was likely a partial list, one cannot help but note that Sheppard's birds were selected for their beauty or the quality of their song. It seems likely that Sheppard, a prominent citizen and a leading Quebec naturalist at this time, may have had a gentleman's interest in ornithology.

The Sheppards, and Harriet's brother Archibald, were major contributors to the founding of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in 1824. Other important founders were the Governor-General of Canada, Lord Dalhousie and his wife, Christian Ramsay. Ramsay, Harriet Sheppard, Anne Mary Percival and Mary Brenton were the subject of an article “Collecting with 'botanical friends': Four Women in Colonial Quebec and Newfoundland” by Ann Shteir and Jacques Cayouette which appeared in Scientia Canadensis 41 (2019). These women were also Canadian contributors to Joseph Hooker's Flora Boreali Americana, published in 1840. Countess Dalhousie was mentioned by Thomas Brewer in his North American Oology (p 73) for contributing a Boreal Owl.

In addition to William Sheppard's aviary, the family donated numerous bird skins and mounted specimens to the museum of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in the early 1830s. The complete list of all contributions to the museum is set out in: Donations of Birds to the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec Museum 1830-1837.

Despite his ornithological contributions, William Sheppard is largely known for four articles on botany published in the LHSQ Transactions. See the following URL which contains a complete list of Sheppard's papers listed under the surname “S”: http://www.pakobrats.com/morrin/virtualLibrary/authors_e.html

Harriet is known for an article she wrote which was entitled Notes on Some of the Canadian Songbirds, which was read before the LHSQ in February, 1833, and published in the LHSQ Transactions 3 (1837). In this article she discusses the songs of the following Canadian songbirds: Hermit Thrush, Pine Grosbeak, Purple Finch, Red and White-winged Crossbill, Redpoll, Fox and White-throated Sparrow. Some or likely all of these birds were inhabitants of the Sheppard aviary at Woodfield.

According to Mary Creese in her book Ladies in the Laboratory III, Harriet also contributed to an article published in 1829 as “Sketches of Twenty-four North American Songbirds” by James Rennie in the Magazine of Natural History Vol 1: 414-421. Harriet Sheppard's name is not given as a contributor but eight of the 24 birds discussed were known to be either in the Sheppard's aviary or discussed in her LHSQ article.

Perhaps more than her husband, Harriet Sheppard, the first person to publish details on Canadian bird songs, should be recognized as a pioneering Quebec and Canadian ornithologist.

Woodfield was destroyed in a fire in 1842 with great loss of the Sheppard collections. They rebuilt the house but were forced to sell when the timber business collapsed in 1847. At this point the Sheppards moved to a residence near Drummondville. William Sheppard died on a trip to Quebec in 1867.

William Sheppard served as President of LHSQ on four occasions: 1833-1834; 1841; 1843 and 1847. He also served on the Executive Council of Lower Canada between 1837 and 1841.

Bibliography

  • Creese, Mary R. S.. and Thomas S. Creese. 2010. Ladies in the Laboratory III: South African, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian Women of Science: Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. New York: Scaarecrow Press
  • Labreque, Paul et Denyse Legare. 2008. Histoire de raconter: l'arrondissement historique de Sillery, arrondissement de Sainte-Foy-Sillery. Itinéraires histoire et patrimoine. Québec, Division de la culture, du loisir et de la vie communautaire https://cdi.merici.ca/ville_quebec/histoire_raconter_Sillery.pdf
  • LeMoine, J. M., 1861. Ornithologie du Canada, Second Edition. Part One. Quebec: J. T. Brousseau. Part Two. Quebec: E. R. Frechette
  • Lord, Jules. 1989. Cimetière Mount Hermon: notes historiques sur des organismes et biographies de personnages. Sillery, Québec, Société d'histoire de Sillery / Villa Bagatelle
  • Savard, Pierre. William Sheppard. 1976. Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Volume 9. Toronto: Laval University, /University of Toronto
  • Shteir, Ann and Jacques Cayouette. 2019. Collecting with 'botanical friends': Four Women in Colonial Quebec and Newfoundland. Scientia Canadensis 41. Ottawa: Canadian Science and Technology Museum