Maguire, Thomas

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: James H. Lambert, “MAGUIRE, THOMAS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/maguire_thomas_8E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Roman Catholic priest, vicar general, author, and educator; b. 9 May 1776 in Philadelphia, son of John Maguire and Margaret Swite; d. 17 July 1854 at Quebec.
    • Thomas Maguire was the son of an Irish Catholic who had emigrated first to Philadelphia and then in 1776 as a loyalist to Halifax, where he became commissary general.
    • In 1788, possibly already destined for a sacerdotal career in the Maritime missions, Thomas was sent to the Petit Séminaire de Québec. A professor reported in 1791 that he was “very deserving of praise, gifted with a penetrating mind,” zealous, and diligent. In 1794 he was prefect of the Congrégation de la Bienheureuse-Vierge-Marie-Immaculée, the highest student position in that fraternity. He seems to have entered the Grand Séminaire in 1795, and two years later he was appointed secretary of the diocese of Quebec, an important administrative post usually given to an ecclesiastic of potential so as to familiarize him with the diocese and its operation. He was ordained priest on 11 Oct. 1799 and about that time was named senior curate at the cathedral of Notre-Dame, Quebec
    • Thomas Maguire was a study in contradictions, a man capable of extremes of enthusiasm and self-discipline, agitated, passionate, yet tempered with a compassionate heart and a gift for cold analysis. However vehemently he had embraced the cause of the Canadian church and people, Lartigue wished to see him out of Lower Canada and the nationalist Viger considered him a foreigner; the cardinals in Rome, on the other hand, viewed him as a bothersome Canadian. An obituary described him as an active, virtuous, accomplished cleric for whom study served to demonstrate that learning and the ecclesiastical life were not incompatible. Achieving recognition for the social necessity of clerical education had indeed been Maguire’s main object in life. His significance is broader, however, and would include his role in preparing the triumph of episcopal authority over Saint-Sulpice and his expression of social and political views increasingly distinct from those of the liberal Canadian bourgeoisie and the Protestant colonial government.
  • Son of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=11810
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/243228455/thomas-maguire