Jarvis, William Munson

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Elizabeth W. McGahan, “JARVIS, WILLIAM MUNSON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jarvis_william_munson_15E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Barrister, insurance agent, and author; b. 9 Oct. 1838 in Saint John, son of William Jarvis and Mary Caroline Boyd; m. first 14 May 1861 Jane Hope Beer in Sussex, N.B., and they had two sons and a daughter; m. secondly 20 April 1868 Mary Lucretia Scovil in Saint John, and they had two daughters; d. there 17 Sept. 1921.
    • William Munson Jarvis was the grandson of Munson Jarvis, a loyalist merchant and politician in Saint John. His father was also a successful merchant. As befitted his status, William Jarvis undoubtedly provided his son with private tutors before sending him to the elite Saint John Grammar School. Here, from 1848 to 1854, William Munson faced a challenging curriculum consisting of natural philosophy and modern and classical languages; he apparently excelled in Greek, Latin, and mathematics.
    • Jarvis’s professional life mirrored the events of his day. As a young man during the Fenian raid of 1866, he had been a member of the volunteer militia, and he would attain the rank of lieutenant-colonel. By the mid 1870s he had been made the general agent for the Maritime provinces of the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company. It is unclear which occupation – law or insurance – provided him with most of his living but probably his insurance business drew substantially on his legal knowledge. The great fire of June 1877 in Saint John occurred while he was still building his career, and his attention would be focused for more than 20 years on its after-effects. His work involved petitioning various agencies on behalf of clients for the reissuance of bonds to replace those which had been destroyed.
    • Jarvis was a fairly prolific essayist. As a young lawyer, he had written a paper entitled “The title to the soil and early history of the territory of New Brunswick.” Most of his essays centred on the Church of England in New Brunswick and included such topics as clergy appointments, church governance, financial support for church initiatives, Sunday school programs, and, perhaps most significant, the impact of the Oxford Movement, which had attempted to steer a course for the Church of England between Roman Catholicism and evangelicalism. Jarvis, apparently a deeply religious man, directed his attention to the liturgical and doctrinal differences between Anglicans and Catholics. 
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4197
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/274479744/william-munson-jarvis