Fisher, Wilford

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: L. K. Ingersoll, “FISHER, WILFORD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003– . https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/fisher_wilford_9E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Merchant, shipowner, and office-holder; b. 1786 at St Andrews, N.B., son of Turner Fisher and Esther Foster; m. Sarah Elizabeth Ingalls, and they had two children; d. 6 May 1868 at Grand Manan, N.B.
    • As a youth of 18 Wilford Fisher moved with his family to Grand Manan Island where they applied for and received a land grant. Though this was at a time of immigration from New England and competition for land, his father’s record as a Boston-born loyalist who had joined the Royal Navy and become a sailing master presumably aided the claim.
    • Wilford Fisher probably received no more than elementary education, but his intelligence and natural ability, combined with a gift for leadership and planning, soon launched an amazing career. He acquired land at Priest Cove and ownership of High Duck Island, near Woodwards Cove, where he built a plant for salting and processing herring and ground fish. On this cove he also operated as a general merchant, outfitted fishermen, and received exclusive rights to the catches. He thus became “laird of the port” and a leading figure in the larger island community.
    • In the decade following 1820 the Church of England had established St Paul’s Church on a reserved lot at Grand Harbour. Fisher was the largest subscriber toward the cost of the “parsonage house” and a regular contributor to the Church Society of the archdeaconry. As a mission church, St Paul’s had depended upon the ministry of students and short term rectors. In 1832, after spending two summers there as a student rector, the Reverend John Dunn was posted to this island parish. At first he and Fisher appear to have got on well. Soon, however, trouble developed over management of the glebe lots where there was some of the finest virgin timber available, for which the church received a stumpage fee. Fisher was interested in shipbuilding as well as the potential lumber trade; Dunn was under pressure from his parishioners who wanted access to the timber and resented a monopoly by one individual. Dunn accused Fisher of attempting to control elections to the vestry of persons likely to support his proposals. The breach widened, and soon there were two camps, one supporting the rector, the other supporting the magistrate.
    • On the night of 9 Oct. 1839 Dunn and others living nearby were roused from their sleep to see St Paul’s Church in flames. Rushing to the scene, but too late to save it, they found, casting a gruesome shadow, a figure hung in effigy dressed so as to leave no doubt that it represented the rector. The deliberate destruction of the church had repercussions far beyond the confines of the parish, symbolizing as it did open conflict between church and state.
    • In a petition to the assembly on 6 Feb. 1841, Fisher recounted how he had been “unjustly charged with setting fire to the Episcopal Church,” causing him heavy pecuniary expense and other serious loss, and asked for “such relief as may be deemed just and reasonable.” A select committee reported a week later that they could not in principle recommend a grant of money be made, although praising “the high character and respectability of Mr. Fisher.”
  • Son of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=2816
  • Find a GRAVE: Cannot locate.