CHAPTER SEVEN

Political Ambitions and a Wedding Cake

1843

Fully recovered from his mysterious illness and all fired up by his travels to England, John A. returned to Kingston with a renewed spirit. Attending the British parliamentary debates had planted fertile ideas in his head, and one of the first things he did was to ask his friends for advice on what one would do to prepare for a career in political office. Their recommendation was to join the Protestant fraternal organization known as the Orange Lodge and to consider running to become an alderman.

He did just that, and to cover all the bases, he became a Mason as well. Shortly after, in early 1843, John A. Macdonald announced his intention to run as a candidate for the position of alderman for the City of Kingston. The public attention he had earned while he was a criminal lawyer gave him a head start, but his victory was far from certain. Macdonald’s Irish opponent, Colonel Jackson, fought a feisty and spirited battle. Macdonald campaigned vigorously and went so far as to take the unusual step of purchasing newspaper advertisements, promising that nothing would stand in the way of honouring his commitment to fulfill the duties imposed on him by the position of alderman.

Five days before the election, Macdonald held an elegant soiree at his Brock Street home for the new governor general, Sir Charles Metcalfe, a wealthy peer, born in India, whose career included tours of duty as the governor of Agra, acting governor general of India, governor of the Northwest Territories, and governor of Jamaica. The fact that Macdonald could host and hold his own in such elegant company speaks volumes about both his political aptitude and his bravado.

On March 28, Macdonald won a seat on Kingston’s city council. His supporters carried him from the tavern and into the street atop a chair.Moments later, he was dumped unceremoniously onto the street, into the slush and manure. Picking himself up amongst the throngs of bystanders and drunken revellers, Macdonald brushed himself off, turned to the revellers and said, “Isn’t it strange that I should have downfall so soon?”¹⁴ The crowd roared with laughter.

In early summer, his cousin Isabella arrived in Kingston from England. Before long, Macdonald was courting her. Some descriptions of Isabella show her as a scheming woman set on marriage to her cousin; others portray her as sweet, frail, and child-like. She was, however, refined and morally upright — a gentlewoman — and marriage to her would ensure Macdonald’s credentials as a gentleman. The date was set for September, just a few months after her arrival. Although John A. was known for being drawn to women of questionable moral character and was on record as having told his subordinates, “There’s no wisdom below the belt,”¹⁵ he was smart enough to know that he needed Isabella in his life.

They were united in holy matrimony at St. Andrew’s Church in Kingston on September 1, 1843. The Reverend John Machar presided over the ceremony, and Charles Stuart, John A.’s school friend, acted as best man. The couple and the family were home by lunch time and celebrated with a drink and a slice of wedding cake — considered among the most important rituals of any wedding ceremony in the era.

In his biography of his uncle, James Pennington Macpherson paints a sweet picture of the early domestic harmony enjoyed by John A. and Isabella. He was encouraged to go often to their home.

This house, situated on Brock Street, was large and commodious and contained all the comforts and conveniences then known to Canadian civilization. There was also a fine carriage and a pair of horses, Mohawk and Charlie, Macpherson wrote.

I spent some of the happiest days of my life, being allowed the honour of sitting beside the coachman if the carriage was taken out, or at other times, the almost equally enjoyable privilege of being my uncle’s companion in his library. We seldom talked; he was deep in his books, while I had a corner to myself where were garnered together.…King Arthur and His Knights at the Round Table, The Arabian Nights Entertainment, etc. etc. I have no doubt but that I was troublesome, but I cannot recollect ever receiving from him one unkind word. On the contrary, I was always made happy by a warm greeting, a pleasant smile, an encouraging word, or an affectionate pat on the head. Often I used to meet him on the street, when going to or from school, and then it was his delight to indulge in the pleasant fiction that he was my debtor to an unknown amount, and proceed to liquidate this debt to the extent of the half-pence he might have in his pocket.…I came to regard him as the most generous man I had ever known.¹⁶

The young Macpherson was equally enamoured of Isabella and in his memoir reminisced about her “sweet gentleness of manner and tender sympathetic nature.”

So despite any strategic reasons that John A. and Isabella each had for marrying, it seemed an idyllic relationship, and it was not long before John A. had a chance to use his newfound respectability to advance his career.

 

WEDDING IN THE 1800s

British and North American weddings in the first half of the 1800s were relatively simple, pragmatic affairs. Brides generally had few clothes and were married in their best dress, which could be a silk dress if they had one, almost always coloured or even black. It was Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert on February 10, 1840, in a splendid white satin dress that paved the way to the modern white wedding. The changes, however, were slow in coming to the colonies, as it took time for fashions, fabrics, and patterns to reach the New World. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that white weddings became commonplace in Canada, and even then, as a white dress was difficult to clean and maintain, they were not universally accepted.

Weddings in the nineteenth century, though celebratory, were quite sedate, private affairs in part because suitable public halls were largely non-existent. Funerals were on a larger scale because more people were likely to be affected by a death than by a marriage.

John A. and Isabella married at ten o’clock in the morning and returned to the family home for lunch, a toast to their future, and the wedding cake. Their guests would have included family members, the witnesses, a couple of close friends, and very likely the minister, Dr. Machar. The house would have been scrubbed clean and tidied, and the parlour would have been opened up for the event and decorated with fresh flowers.

Like all newly married couples of the era, John A. and Isabella were expected to remain home after their wedding so that well-wishers could drop in and pay their regards, and sample a piece of wedding cake, the traditional symbol of fertility and abundance.

This wedding cake is from The Canadian Housewife’s Manual of Cookery, 1861.