Musgrave, Jane Lavinia (McNaughton)

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Susan J. Johnston, “MUSGRAVE, JANE LAVINIA (McNaughton),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/musgrave_jane_lavinia_14E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Social reformer; b. 6 July 1830 in North Sydney, N.S.; m. c. 1857 Duncan McNaughton, an immigrant from Glasgow, and they had seven children, three of whom, two daughters and a son, survived her; d. 25 Nov. 1916 in Victoria and was buried in Ross Bay Cemetery.
    • Jane Musgrave was the great-granddaughter of loyalists who settled in Sydney, N.S. She received a strong religious and temperance education from her mother, a Baptist who “had been a life-long total abstainer and advocate of prohibition.” She lived by the ethical code set by her mother throughout her long life. In 1876, at the age of 46, she moved with her family to Victoria, where her husband set up as a carpenter and she re-established the household and finished raising her children. Like her mother before her, she passed on her keen interest in temperance and women’s rights to her daughters.
    • She was, however, best known for her work with the Friendly Help Association and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Founded by the Local Council of Women in February 1895, the Friendly Help Association was originally designed as a home-visiting program and a means of distributing used clothing. By 1910 it had evolved into Victoria’s main relief agency, funded largely by the municipality but run by women affiliated with city churches and local women’s groups. 
    • McNaughton participated in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union at the local and provincial levels. McNaughton served as president of the Victoria Union from 1902 to 1907. In 1900, with her daughter Cecilia, she had run the Willard Union’s mission hall, in which capacity she held gospel services, hosted Sunday concerts, and provided lunches for men, many of whom were “needy cases.” As well, she acted as a hospital visitor.
    • Provincially, McNaughton was an active delegate, serving as superintendent of the hospital work department from at least 1886 to 1902 and superintendent of the temperance grocery department from 1903 to 1908. McNaughton took her duties seriously, adopting as her special project visitation at the naval hospital in Victoria, where she unsuccessfully tried to convert enlisted personnel to temperance. As superintendent of the temperance grocery department, she campaigned to separate the selling of alcohol from the selling of groceries, and urged women not to support grocers who also offered alcohol. In 1904 McNaughton was given a life membership in the provincial union and around this time was made its representative to the Local Council of Women. After her retirement from active service work in 1908 at the age of 78, she became honorary president of the union, a position created especially for her by the executive.
  • Great Granddaughter of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6146
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/121314803/jane-lavinia-mcnaughton