BARKER, EDWARD JOHN, doctor, publisher, and editor; b. 31 Dec. 1799 at Islington (now part of London), England, son of William Barker and Margaret Greenwood; m. first in 1821 Elizabeth Phillips (d. 1859), and they had 13 children; m. secondly 8 May 1868 Ellen Griffiths; d. 27 April 1884 at Barriefield, near Kingston, Ont.
Dr. Janet Patricia Bews was born on December 18 1938. She was an adjunct professor in the Department of Classics at Queen's University. Dr. Bews received her B.A (Honours) from Queen's, followed by her M.A from King's College University of London, and her PhD from Royal Holloway College University of London. Her teaching specialties were in Latin and Classical Literature. In addition to her teaching career at Queen's, she also was a professor in the Department of Classical Studies at Trent University.
Judith Brown, nee Wellman, was born in Bermuda in 1943. Brown attended Teacher's College in Ottawa in the 1960s after which she returned to Bermuda where she took extension courses from Queen's University. In 1968 she moved to Kingston to fulfill a requirement of having to spend at least one year on campus for the granting of a Bachelor of Arts degree. (BA 1969). Upon graduation Brown stayed in Kingston where she started her professional teaching career. She has served as the Acting Superintendent of education at the Women's Penitentiary, worked at Beechgrove and Ongwanada, and for many years as a primary grades teacher with the Limestone District School Board (LDSB). In her retirement from active teaching, Judith Brown continued to teach in a number of international locations: China, Egypt and Bermuda. She also ran, and was elected as a Trustee on the LDSB.
Judith Brown has always been an active community builder. She was a member, and past president of both the Canadian Federation of University Women and Frontenac PROBUS. She is also a founder of the Afro-Caribe Community Foundation of Kingston. The foundation raises funds for the Robert Sutherland Bursary and Alfie Pierce Admission Award at Queen’s University. She has long served as a mentor to members of black student groups on campus such as Queen’s Black Academic Society and the African and Caribbean Students’ Association and has played an active role in the celebration of Black History Month events on campus and in the community. Judith was the 2019 recipient of the Jim Bennett Award from the Kingston Branch of the Queen’s University Alumni Association for her role in advancing ethnic and racial inclusion and for being a long time champion for change in Kingston and at Queen’s. She is currently a member of University Council.
Born in 1796 in Worcester, Worcestershire, England, Thomas Burrowes served as a Corporal in the Royal Sappers and Miners from 1813 until 1824, the last nine years of his enlistment being in Canada. Following a short stay in England Burrowes returned to Canada with his family in 1826, and secured a position as Overseer of Works on the Rideau Canal construction project. Thomas Burrowes worked with John Burrows, a fellow Overseer of Works, who claimed that he trained Thomas Burrowes in the skills of surveying, preparing Thomas for his registration as a Provincial Surveyor. Later promoted to Clerk of Works of the southern section of the Rideau Canal, Burrowes continued in this service until 1846. Based at Kingston Mills during these years, he chose to retire there at the end of his service, taking up the roles of farmer, postmaster and Justice of the Peace in the local community. During these years, Burrowes lived in his cottage"Maplehurst" overlooking the Rideau waterway and Kingston. Burrowes died in 1866 and was buried in the Cataraqui Cemetery.
Enid (Goudge) Corbett was part of Queen's University Class of Arts 1962. She received her Honours B.A in Mathematics and Economics. Enid attended the math classes of Dr. Coleman and Dr. Halperin, who were well-known professors in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at that time.
William Coverdale (1801-1865), son of Christopher Coverdale, came to Kingston in 1832 or 1833. There is conjecture that the family came to Lower Canada about 1810 from England. The first two children of Catherine and William Coverdale were born at Île aux Noix, Lower Canada, the remainder in Kingston. The earliest mention of Coverdale in Kingston appears in the St George’s Church parish register, recording the birth of a son on 23 Sept. 1833.
Coverdale became the “master builder” at the penitentiary in June 1834 and held the post 14 years. During that time the main building and gatehouse were slowly constructed, mostly with convict labour. In 1848, a bill introduced by Henry Smith, son of Warden Henry Smith of the penitentiary, passed parliament; the bill cut the architect’s salary and increased that of the warden. Coverdale resigned and, because of the constant difficulties he had experienced with the warden, refused reappointment when the salary was restored.
In 1859 Coverdale also became the architect – the term he had used to describe himself after 1842 – for the asylum in Kingston and continued on this project to his death. The building he planned was erected mainly by convict labour and took over eight years to finish; the centre and the east wing were formally opened in March 1865.
The penitentiary and asylum buildings, both still standing, mark the beginning and end of Coverdale’s work in Kingston. Between his activities on these two massive works, he designed and built every manner of structure. The residences he planned ranged from workmen’s cottages to country mansions. Although his account book lists a few commissions in an area extending from Prescott to Port Hope and up to Perth, most of his work was in Kingston.
In 1844 Coverdale took over the superintendence of the building of Kingston’s magnificent town hall from George Browne. When the rear wing burned in 1865, he prepared plans for its rebuilding, but was unable to complete the project, passing away in 1865. The work was carried out after his death by his son, William Miles Coverdale (1828?-1884). W. M. Coverdale had trained under his father, and in addition to rebuilding City Hall he completed a number of building and restoration projects on his own before becoming City Engineer, a post he held until his death on 11 June 1884.
William Hugh Coverdale (1871-1949), son of William Miles Coverdale, was a collector of Canadiana and President of Canada Steamship Lines, 1922-1949. W. H. Coverdale is recognized as one of the first collectors to take an interest in objects reflecting the traditional culture of French Canada.
Dr. Susan Dick was a professor emerita at Queen’s University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Born in Michigan, she earned her doctorate at Northwestern University in Chicago. At Northwestern under the leadership of Richard Ellmann, she edited an annotated variorum edition of George Moore’s autobiographical novel “Confessions of a Young Man”. She joined the English Department at Queen’s University in 1967. Dr. Susan Dick is considered one of the most distinguished Virginia Woolf scholars of the twentieth century. She produced editions of Woolf’s novels, as well as numerous articles and an edition of Woolf’s short stories, such as an edited transcription of the holograph of To the Lighthouse in 1982, The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf in 1985 and 1989, and Between the Acts in 2002.
Jacalyn M. Duffin CM FRSC (born 1950) is a Canadian medical historian and hematologist. Duffin completed her MD from the University of Toronto. Soon after this, she moved to Paris, where she elected to study hematology and René Laennec at the Sorbonne. She completed her PhD in the History of Medicine in 1985, she then returned to Canada. She held the Hannah Chair, History of Medicine at Queen's University from 1988 until 2017. Formerly, she was President of the American Association for the History of Medicine and Canadian Society for the History of Medicine. From 1993–1995 she was Associate Dean Undergraduate Studies and Education at Queen's University. She is well known for her testimony which led to the canonization of Marie-Marguerite d'Youville. She has published twelve books (as author and editor) on the history of medicine and has written numerous articles on various subjects relating to the history of medicine, miracles, and hematology. In 2019, Duffin was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
The Reverend Edmund John Senkler was born at Docking, Norfolk, on March 4th, 1802. After private tuition, he entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1821, and took his B.A. in 1824. He took orders. and was Vicar of Barmer, Norfolk (no church) from 1820 until his death. Senkler married Eleanor Elizabeth Stevens, in 1827,eldest daughter of the Reverend William Stevens, Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge
Reverend Edmund John Senkler and family left England for Canada in April 1843. They resided in Quebec till 1846 when they went to William Henry, now Sorel in 1847. They moved to Brockville and after living in Brockville a short time they moved to Horningtoft, about two miles west of Brockville, where they lived until 1860, then returned to Brockville, first to a rented house until he bought 126 King Street East where he resided until his death in 1872.
Shernold Edwards is an award-winning film and TV writer with roots in genre/sci-fi and family drama. Shernold adapted the novel A Day Late And A Dollar Short by Terry McMillan ( into a TV movie for Lifetime for which she received the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Television Movie or Mini-Series. Shernold wrote for the final three seasons of the television show Haven, was a Producer on the third season of Fox’s Sleepy Hollow and a Producer on season two of Amazon’s Hand of God. She was also a Supervising producer on season two of Netflix’s Anne With An E (based on the novel Anne of Green Gables) and wrote a TV pilot for eOne adapted from the bestselling Fiona Griffiths mystery novel series from Harry Bingham. Shernold was a production/development executive at CTV Network(Canada) where her projects included award-winning TV movies and series like Degrassi: The Next Generation. She attended Queen's University, the Canadian Film Centre’s Professional Screenwriting Program, and has a Screenwriting MFA from Columbia University.