Shibley, Schuyler

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Donald Swainson, “SHIBLEY, SCHUYLER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/shibley_schuyler_11E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Farmer, businessman, and politician; b. 19 March 1820 in Portland Township, Upper Canada, son of Henry Shibley; m. in 1854 Mary Ann Greer, and they had at least three children; d. 18 Dec. 1890 at Kingston, Ont.
    • Schuyler Shibley, of German and uel origin and of the Methodist faith, attended the Waterloo Academy near Kingston, Upper Canada. After completing his education in 1851–52 with a European tour, from which he returned “one of the best informed farmers of the province,” he settled at Murvale, Portland Township, combining farming with business. With David Roblin he “speculated extensively in U.E.L. scrip, became possessed of very large tracts of real estate, good, bad and indifferent, and was at times reputed to be very wealthy.” Some of his holdings were rented to tenant farmers.
    • Shibley, described by one observer as “a rather fast gent,” had a “paramour,” Kate Davis, “a rather good looking person,” who lived in Brooke Township, Lambton County, where he owned 400 acres. The liaison resulted in a child. These details became public knowledge in early September 1866 when they were arrested and charged with murdering this child, Kate Shibley, then three years old. On the grounds that he had been absent when the child died, Shibley was released from prison without having to stand trial. Evidence at the coroner’s inquest, and later at Kate Davis’ trial, however, revealed his involvement in a sordid and vicious affair. According to a newspaper account, the mother testified that he “had been there some ten days before [the child’s death] and had given the child a most unmerciful beating for not saying its prayers
    • He began his political career in earnest in 1868 by winning the wardenship of Frontenac County; he won again in 1869 and 1872. In the general election of 1872 he contested Addington, still as an independent Conservative, against Lapum, the official candidate. This time Shibley won an easy victory, 1,495 to 849. Although he had defeated a ministerial incumbent, he described himself in the Canadian parliamentary companion in 1873 as “A Conservative.” He was re-elected in 1874, but the election was voided because several of his supporters, including his 15-year-old son, had bribed voters. He won the subsequent by-election held in the same year.
    • The career of Shibley reveals something about the 19th-century Canadian public, rural in this case, and the leaders of both political parties; they could, apparently with ease, accommodate a man known to be personally debauched and a candidate possessed of only the loosest political principles.
  • Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7586
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/196787607/schuyler-shibley