Thomas Skinner and his family arrived in Victoria aboard the Norman Morison in the middle of a vicious snowstorm in January 1853.
The Skinners were one of the families sponsored by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company (a subsidiary of the Hudson’s Bay Company) to establish a farming community in the colony. This was the time in Victoria’s history when solidarity of family roots was needed if colonization were to succeed; these families would eventually become the rural gentry. Thomas Skinner and Kenneth McKenzie, who arrived at the same time, were appointed bailiffs in charge of two farms in Esquimalt. They both brought their families with them, as well as twenty-five other families of carpenters, blacksmiths, farmers, labourers, and servants, who were all needed to work the land.
People like the Skinners and the McKenzies were specifically chosen to be the colony’s new blood because of their satisfactory and stable backgrounds. It was felt that they would easily meet the requirements for a respectable establishment on Vancouver Island.
Thomas Skinner’s background was more than adequate. His roots could be traced back to Sir Robert Skinner (or Skenner), a Norman knight who had arrived in England with William the Conqueror. Apparently William highly favoured this Skinner and rewarded him greatly, possibly because of a family connection with William’s mother, Charlotte, the only daughter of King Edmund II of England. Sir Robert Skinner further improved his station in life by marrying a wealthy heiress of the Bolingbroke family of Lincolnshire. In the year 1350, a Skinner descendant also known as Robert married another heiress and moved to Essex, thereby starting the line from which Thomas Skinner was descended.
Thomas Skinner himself came from West Thurrock in Essex, and prior to his appointment by the PSAC had been employed by the East India Company. West Thurrock is in marshy country alongside the River Thames and was at one time a most picturesque village. The Skinners lived there in a comfortable home with elegant grounds.
Skinner’s position with the successful English branch of the East India Company had given him the prestige necessary to be a prospective Vancouver Island colonist. In 1852 he had been approached by officials of the PSAC in London and offered a position as a farm bailiff in Esquimalt. Passage was arranged aboard the Norman Morison, and it was just the kind of adventure Skinner relished. He was assured that comfortable accommodation awaited him and his family in Victoria.
According to the diary of Robert Melrose, a carpenter contracted to work in the colony for five years under Kenneth McKenzie, the voyage of the Norman Morison was anything but ordinary. The McKenzies and their entourage had boarded at Granton, a port on the Firth of Forth. The Skinners joined the vessel in August 1852 at the East India Docks in London. Rounding Cape Horn the passengers were subjected to a hurricane lasting four days, and their approach to Vancouver Island was equally devastating. It was no wonder that following each near-disaster at sea, Melrose had noted in his diary, “Grog for all hands.” For nearly two weeks, the captain tried in vain to negotiate the Norman Morison’s approach to the island. Finally, a change of wind to a light westerly enabled him to sail up the Strait of Juan de Fuca and cast anchor in the shelter of the Royal Roads.
The Skinners and their fellow passengers had suffered greatly through those five, long, gruelling months at sea, and now they all felt a sense of regret at having left their homes behind them. The excited anticipation of a new life had long since disappeared and in its place was numb reality.
In addition, Thomas’s wife, Mary, was in the last month of pregnancy with her sixth child and would have dearly loved the comfort of a warm bed that did not constantly roll back and forth. To enable his wife to rest, Thomas decided not to disembark immediately but to remain aboard overnight. Next morning, he and his family set off for the fort and found to their horror that no preparations had been made for their arrival. It seemed to have escaped the HBC’s attention that over fifty people would suddenly be added to Victoria’s population. The McKenzies, who had left the ship the night before, had been offered overcrowded accommodation with other families in a loft inside the fort, and there was no room for the Skinners the next day.
An empty, one-room shack was found for them on what was then known as Kanaka Row (now Humboldt Street). Some Native people were hurriedly called together to sweep it out using fir boughs for brooms, and Hudson’s Bay blankets were strung across the room to separate the Skinners’ accommodation from that of their servants. It was a dreadful first impression of life in the young colony.
One of the Skinners’ maids had received a marriage proposal aboard the Norman Morison that, at the time, she had turned down. After spending one night in the miserable shack, she decided to accept the proposal and return to England. Even the prospect of facing another five months at sea was obviously better than life as a servant in that cold land.
Mary and Thomas Skinner were also disturbed by their new surroundings, but their determination and strength of character showed in the way they decided to make the best of these initial catastrophes. And, one month later, in that shack, Mary Skinner gave birth to her sixth child, a healthy girl they called Constance Langford Skinner.
By then, the company was making an attempt to put things right for the Skinners by beginning the construction of a house for them on land later known as Constance Cove Farm. The farm was situated partially in the area where HMCS Naden stands today. The land was fertile and bordered by the sea, and with the hills and mountains as a backdrop, the Skinners’ home slowly took shape. It was built on a rolling slope cleared of many oak trees, which gave it its name, Oaklands. With a southern exposure, it stood overlooking a sheltered bay later known as Skinner’s Cove. Today that area houses the Esquimalt Graving Dock.
Oaklands was a one-storey structure, twin-gabled and solidly built. It was large and spacious and easily accommodated the ever-growing Skinner family. Two more children were born there. There were nine Skinner children in all, although one son, Francis, had died two years before they left England. The other sons born in England were Ambrose, Robert, and Ernest. The two eldest Skinner girls, Annie and Mary, were also born in England, and Constance was the third daughter.
Ada and Emily were born later at Oaklands and were both christened on board naval ships: Ada (named Ada Jane Bruce to honour Admiral Bruce) in his flagship, HMS Monarch, with Captain and Mrs. Langford as her godparents, and Emily aboard HMS Satellite, with Captain Prevost as her godfather.
The Skinners and other Puget Sound farming families, like the McKenzies and the already established Langfords, were all closely associated with the naval base in Esquimalt. Their social activities largely centred on the comings and goings of naval vessels. These connections had evolved from the desire of the colonists to hear all the current news of their homeland. By maintaining a social rapport with visiting naval officers, they could also keep in touch with what was happening in the old world. In addition, and perhaps even more importantly, young naval officers presented a very eligible marriage market for the settlers’ daughters.
When the Skinners first moved into Oaklands, they were surrounded by dense forest. Their nearest neighbours, the McKenzies, who were now living at Craigflower Farm, were two miles away along a forest trail. Midway between the two farms lay the ancient Indian village of Chachimutupusas. For the most part the village was deserted in favour of the newer Songhee village in Victoria Harbour, but the occasional Indian still frequented the trail and alarmed the Skinners. Mary Skinner had good reason to be nervous; an earlier experience with some Haidas had remained in her mind.
The Haidas, “possibly because of the greater strength and vigour of the northern Indians,” had been employed by the company to clear the Skinner land in the early days.14 They often came from the Queen Charlotte Islands to trade at Fort Victoria, but as they seemed “fierce and untamed” and not nearly as friendly as the local Songhee people, they were inevitably more feared.15
Mary Skinner’s unfortunate experience with the Haida had occurred on the day when their pay was due. As was the usual custom, they paddled their canoes to the fort and demanded their pay in blankets, the way the HBC always paid its Indian employees. On that day, there were not enough blankets in the supply room, so they were told to return on another day.
The Haida believed they had been the victims of a trick and would not get the pay they deserved, so they canoed back to Skinner’s Cove where they held an angry council-of-war. They considered that Thomas Skinner was responsible for the dilemma, since it was his land that they had cleared, and as revenge, they planned to kidnap his children.
Mary Skinner’s Songhee nursemaid overheard their plans and quickly ran back to the house with the children to report to her mistress. Mary immediately began to strip the blankets from their own beds and gather together some trinkets. She then told the children to stay together in the house and not make a sound. They were to bolt all the doors as soon as she and the nursemaid left. The young Indian girl was to act as interpreter in the meeting Mary anticipated with the angry Native employees.
She met the Haida at the shore and told them she had brought presents of her own blankets and later they would be paid in full by the company. The Haida were impressed with Mary’s pleasant manner and began to gather around her, telling the nursemaid that Mary Skinner was now “their very good friend.” The danger was past.
Over the following months, the entire six-hundred-acre Skinner farm was gradually cleared and the forest replaced by open fields ready for planting. The Skinners shared a boundary with Craigflower Farm, and they became firm friends with the McKenzies. Picnics and occasional visits to the farms by James and Amelia Douglas were highlights, as were boating jaunts up the Gorge waterway.
As the farms continued to prosper, the PSAC decided to build two large warehouses on the north shore of Skinner’s Cove, turning the waterfront of Skinner’s land into a loading and unloading dock for HBC vessels and Russian ships. Wheat, flour, beef, and other farm produce were profitably traded. The warehouses remained there until 1924 when they were demolished to make room for the Dominion Graving Dock.
By its second year of operation, the Skinner farm was producing good crops of wheat, barley, potatoes, and turnips, and had a large herd of cattle. In 1854 theirs was the only farm selling butter; they had erected nine houses and had a population of thirty-four. In addition, Thomas Skinner obtained a contract at the time of the Crimean War to supply beef from Esquimalt for Her Majesty’s Fleet.
The Skinner children grew up in a happy home environment and their unfortunate arrival was soon forgotten. All the children owned their own ponies. They had been taught to ride on a horse that was once apparently owned by the infamous Fraser River outlaw Ned McGowan, and they named their horse in his honour.
Early pioneer life for children was full of simple, unsophisticated pleasures, and the Skinner children’s amusements were typical. A trip up the Gorge in canoes under the supervision of the Reverend Staines was a special delight. Another was watching the many ceremonies performed by the Native people, a fascination for the children of the fort and farming families. And when there was nothing else to do, they could always count on the spectacle of a seaman being whipped for some misdemeanour. On the days when naval vessels arrived in the harbour loaded with toys, oranges, and even firecrackers, the children had a great deal to enjoy.
The children at the fort could even earn money trapping the rats that were abundant in the dormitories. Or, as one youngster put it, it was equally pleasurable “just lying at full length thinking of the beautiful country” in which they lived.16
Thomas and Mary Skinner were hospitable people and enjoyed entertaining at Oaklands. Most of their dinner guests were visiting naval officers or colonists like themselves who were becoming interested in the politics of the colony. Thomas Skinner was appointed justice of the peace in March 1853. Such appointments were usually made as a result of social standing in the colony. Nevertheless, even though Skinner and his colleagues McKenzie and Langford were all well-educated men, James Douglas apparently considered them “ignorant and unreliable.” Thomas Skinner was becoming a man of independent thought, and there was much he disagreed with concerning company policy; this may have been the reason for Douglas’s remark.
When elections were held for the first legislative assembly in August 1856, Skinner, along with Dr. John Helmcken, was elected to represent the district of Esquimalt and Metchosin. About this time, Skinner began to openly criticize the company and all those in authority. He was becoming more interested in the affairs of the Esquimalt area and campaigned strongly in August 1860 for “the important necessity for steps being taken to repair the road and bridges leading to Esquimalt, a road which it is well known is more traveled over and of more importance than any other road in the country.”17
In February 1861, Thomas Skinner became involved in the organization of a Vancouver Island display to be exhibited at an industrial exhibition in London, in company with Governor Douglas, Bishop Hills, Bishop Demers, Judge Begbie, Dr. Helmcken, and others of equal importance in the colony. It is apparent that Skinner was by then moving in high circles. In support of the exhibition, Skinner reported to the assembly that in 1854 he had sent home a sample of wheat and, in reply, had received a letter stating that the specimen of wheat was “the finest ever grown in any country.”
In keeping with his independent nature, by August 1861 he was leading what the Colonist described as an “indignation meeting” at Williams Saloon in Esquimalt, to “take into consideration the way in which the Government had given out the contract for the new road.”18
The time, however, was not right for clashing with the governing company. Although things were changing, it was unwise to completely dissociate oneself from the protection of the company umbrella. When the PSAC’s assets were taken over by the HBC, Skinner finally decided he should move on. He had earlier purchased land in the Cowichan district, and in 1864 he uprooted his family from Esquimalt and moved to Cowichan to begin life again as an independent farmer in the valley.
It was a bold move, for the Skinner family had grown accustomed to their comfortable life at Oaklands. Their social status was established. Their numerous gatherings included balls, riding parties, concerts, and shipboard dances, and a constant stream of social activity took place in their home.
However, in May 1864, the Colonist reported:
The gunboat Grappler carried to Cowichan yesterday, Thomas J. Skinner and family who, after a residence of many years in the vicinity of Esquimalt, have been obliged to give up their old home and begin life anew in a remote settlement.19
“Remote” was an adequate description of Cowichan in those days. There was little to recommend it as a settlement. According to the Skinner children, it was a hard pioneering existence. Their new life in the valley began in tents while they waited for their log cabin to be built. A shortage of sawmills nearby meant long delays in the supply of lumber but, with the determined spirit of Thomas and Mary Skinner, it was not long before the family was once again established as an important part of a community.
Later, they managed to build a finer, more comfortable home, which they called Farleigh. The Skinner children helped with the farming chores of milking the cows and churning the butter. The following September, the first of the Skinner daughters was married. At seventeen, Annie became the bride of a young naval officer, John Bremner, whom she had first met as a child in Esquimalt. The young couple left the valley soon after their marriage and returned to England.
Constance, the daughter born in the shack on the outskirts of Fort Victoria, envied her older sister. She would also have dearly loved to leave the Cowichan Valley. Her heart still held happy memories of life at Oaklands, full of interesting visitors. She had revelled in the lively discussions between her father and visiting politicians and naval officers, and she greatly missed the times when important decisions were made during dinner or in the library over port and cigars. Although she had then been a child, she never forgot the thrill and excitement of those evenings.
Eventually, Constance did leave the valley and for her it was to return to an even more prestigious social life in Victoria. Early in the 1870s, she met and fell in love with a handsome young Victoria lawyer, Alexander Edmond Batson Davie, a man destined for an important place in British Columbia politics. Their marriage in December 1874 united two very important families in the colony’s early establishment.
The Davie family had arrived on Vancouver Island in 1862 when Alexander was a boy of sixteen. His father, John Chapman Davie, was one of Victoria’s first physicians and a member of the early legislature. He later practised medicine in the Cowichan Valley and there he became a well-loved and respected member of the community.
There were four Davie sons, two of whom, Alexander and Theodore, became premiers of the province. Another, named after their father, went into medicine. This son took over his father’s practice in Cowichan, was later appointed provincial public health officer, and became most famous as an early promoter of Lord Lister’s antiseptic surgical methods at both the Royal Jubilee and St. Joseph’s hospitals in Victoria. He also created something of a sensation when he eloped in July 1884 with Sarah Todd, the daughter of Victoria salmon-canning magnate Jacob Hunter Todd. In May 1874, Theodore was at the centre of equally startling news when he married a fourteen-year-old girl named Blanche Eliza Baker.
The marriage between Constance Skinner and Alexander Davie was performed by the Reverend David Holmes at the bride’s home, Farleigh. By the time Alexander was thirty, he had been elected a member of the legislature for the Cariboo and in 1877 he became a cabinet minister.
Constance loved her new life, married to an up-and-coming politician and lawyer in Victoria. The young couple built an elegant home on Michigan Street, and it became the meeting place for all the politicians of the day.
From the many hours Constance had spent as a child listening to political discussions, she had learned a great deal. Now, as the wife of Alexander Davie, she was able to join knowledgeably in the political soirées on Michigan Street. Unlike some women, she refused to stay in the background. Instead, she spoke her mind in a forthright and intelligent manner, supporting her husband’s often controversial views. Possibly she was the driving force behind his success as he climbed the political ladder to become premier of the province on the death of Premier Smithe in 1887. Constance Davie’s role was an unusual one. It was not common for women to be involved in matters of a political nature—women were thought of as mere appendages to their husband’s careers.
Alexander Davie also held the position of Attorney General, but two years later, at the young age of forty-three, he suddenly died. It was a tragic end to a brief but brilliant career. Constance was comforted in her loss by her strong religious beliefs. She and her husband had converted to the Roman Catholic faith seven years earlier, and Constance remained a devout member of that church for the rest of her life.
The Davies had three sons and four daughters, but only one of their sons survived infancy. Following Alexander’s death, Constance continued to live on Michigan Street with her son, Frank, and daughters Emily, Winnifred, Ethel, and Clare. In 1896, Emily married the senior member of the legal firm of McPhillips, Wooton and Barnard.
By involving herself in her children’s lives and furthering her own already established position as a hostess of note, Constance easily retained her reputation as political chatelaine. Her parents always enjoyed their visits to the Michigan house and were proud of their daughter’s success.
The same year that Alexander died, Constance’s father, Thomas, also died, at sixty-seven. Mary Skinner lived on at Farleigh until her own death in 1896. Both Thomas and Mary Skinner are buried in St. Peter’s Church at Quamichan.
Constance and Alexander Davie’s only son, C.F. Davie, became speaker of the house when Tolmie was premier and, like his father, was a member of the legal profession. The Davie daughters all married well into the legal or political scene, thereby retaining a strong family tradition of law and politics down through the generations in BC. Of the other children of Thomas and Mary Skinner, Robert also became successful as a provincial inspector of timber. Descendants of Ada Jane Bruce Skinner still live in Victoria.
The Skinners, however, were the last of that old school. By the beginning of the 1860s, a change was already taking place in Victoria, marking the end of the old lifestyle established under company rule. And, almost as a symbol of that change, the Colonist of December 15, 1860, noted, with a touch of nostalgia, that
The old picket fence that has so long surrounded the fort yard is fast disappearing. Piece after piece it is taken down, sawed up, and piled away for firewood. Yesterday afternoon workmen commenced removing the old bastion at the corner of View and Government streets, and before today’s sun gilds the western horizon, the wood comprising it will no doubt have shared the ignoble fate of the unfortunate pickets. Alas! poor bastion. Thy removal should be enough to break the heart of every Hudson Bay man in the country.20
Just as those old pickets went down to their “ignoble fate,” so too did the early social life of Victoria. Once successfully implemented, surveyor Pemberton’s town plan began to invite settlers, radically changing Victoria’s social scene. The simple life of Fort Victoria, as well as of the surrounding rural communities, was slowly disappearing. Even Douglas’s social values were being challenged, but the establishment of the first farming families, successfully creating a definitely English country atmosphere in the colony, had managed to extend the foundation of colonial life.
Now, something new was in the wind.