John Wilkie

by Aaron Pite

Member of the Grand Jury that Heard the Trial of Tshuanahusset

Born in Peebles, Scotland in 1832, Mr. John Wilkie came to the colony of Vancouver Island in the spring of 1863.(1) He was quickly integrated into the social elite of Victoria, where he took up residence in a cottage on Park Road near Beacon Hill Park and rented for ten dollars per month.(2) Wilkie remained a bachelor throughout his life, leaving behind no will and no relatives in the colony.(3)

It is difficult to determine why he came to Vancouver Island, but surely his successful economic ventures provided adequate reason to stay. Not long after his arrival, the young Scotsman became a "well known" and "leading merchant of the city."(4 )John Wilkie and Co. was located on Wharf Street, and as a wholesaler, supplied the city's gentlemen with fashions imported from Britain. At the time of his death in 1871 at the age of only 39, Wilkie's estate and business seems to have been worth in excess of $126,500 (5) (though he owed a substantial portion of that amount to his supplier, Wilson and Armstrong of London and Harwick).

Wilkie marketed exotic-sounding product lines such as "Venezuelan," "Mountain Ash," "Alpaca," or "Spirit of the Age" shirts; "Prince Victor" trousers and hats; "Coquette" underclothing; and other sorts of coats, hatpins, thread, caps, blankets, hair nets, hosiery, lambskins, prints, and of course, Scottish tartans.(6) He employed as many as five men at his store. Four of these served as clerks of some sort, earning around $25 per month.(7) The fifth, one William Bell Wilson, was Wilkie's "bookkeeper and managing clerk"(8), and probably his friend, as Wilson took on the responsibility for Wilkie's estate after his death. He also probably ran the business during Wilkie's only extended absence from the colony, a "farewell visit"(9) to Scotland just a short time prior to his death.

Having his bookkeeper in charge of his post-mortem affairs gives one an amazingly detailed account of Wilkie's business dealings, as every request to settle outstanding accounts, and every receipt for payments made in the days and months after his death seem to have been meticulously administered to, and are retained in Wilkie's extensive probate files. Bills and receipts indicate that he used the Wells Fargo & Co.'s Express, the San Francisco Cable Co., the Hudson's Bay Co.'s "Wharf and Warehouse Department," and the Bank of British Columbia for his business. Personally, he bought bread from a Dr. George Thomson of Fort Street, solicited the services of a Dr. James Trimble who billed his estate $300 for "medical advise and attention," and lastly and inescapably, he was charged $85 in funeral costs by Hayward and Jenkinson, Undertakers.(10)

Wilkie was active in politics, but his major contribution to the community of Victoria was through his association with the St. Andrew's Society of which he was president for a time.(11) This organization was the social foundation for the members of the Presbyterian St. Andrew's Church of Scotland.(12) As president, Wilkie helped amalgamate the St. Andrew's Society with the Caledonian Benevolent Association. Of this union he said, "Scotchmen are drawn together more closely in the hands of fraternity."(13)

Wilkie's social prominence is evidenced by his membership with the relatively exclusive Vancouver Club's Victoria establishment.(14) He seems to have visited the Club about once per week (though less often in his last months due to his "continuous illness") (15) where he enjoyed dinner, cigars, a beer, occasionally wine or champagne, or more often, as any self-respecting Scotsman should, a Scotch whisky.(16) After an unheard-of six week absence from the Vancouver Club in March and April of 1871, Wilkie dined, but did not drink, at the Club on the three consecutive nights prior to his death, including the night he died.(17) Wilkie almost surely knew that his days were up, and his archives paint an interesting picture of this gentleman's struggle to make a last public appearance and his desire to go out with dignity.

Notes:
1. British Columbia Archives, (hereafter BCA), from B.J. Porter and the British Columbia Genealogical Society, BC Vital Statistics from Newspapers, 1858-1872. (hereafter Porter, BC Vital Stats) John Wilkie Obituary, The Victoria Daily Standard , 28 April 1871.
2. BCA, British Columbia Supreme Court (Victoria) Probate Files, (hereafter BC Probate Files), GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Bill of rent from A. Munroe to the Wilkie estate, 31 May 1871.
3. BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Letter from W.C. Ward to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, 29 April 1871.
4. BCA, Porter, BC Vital Stats, John Wilkie Obituary, The Cariboo Sentinel, 13 May, 1871; The Victoria Daily Standard , 28 April 1871.
5. BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Letter from W.B. Wilson to G. Wilson and W. Armstrong of London and Harwick, 30 August 1871.
6. BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Bills addressed to John Wilkie and Co., Victoria V.I., for products purchased and services provided by G. Wilson and W. Armstrong of London and Harwick, 30 May 1871; and Landing Warrants for the described merchandise, signed by M. Lawson for duty paid, 28 August 1871.
7. BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Receipts for payment, 30 April 1871.
8. BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Letter to the Supreme Court of British Columbia from P. McQuade, 7 May 1871.
9. BCA, Porter, BC Vital Stats, John Wilkie Obituary, The Victoria Daily Standard , 28 April 1871.
10. All from BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Receipts and bills from each, April — December, 1871.
11. BCA, Porter, BC Vital Stats, John Wilkie Obituary, The Victoria Daily Standard , 28 April 1871.
12. BCA, Library Catalogue, NWP 781.741, s134, St. Andrew's and Caledonian Society, Victoria, BC, "Programme...", 188-?.
13. BCA, Porter, BC Vital Stats, John Wilkie Obituary, The Victoria Daily Standard , 28 April, 1871.
14. BCA, Library Catalogue, NW 971.65, v224, The Vancouver Club, Victoria, BC, By- Laws of the Vancouver Club, Victoria, V.I. , (Victoria, Harries and Co., 1864).
15. BCA, Porter, BC Vital Stats, John Wilkie Obituary, The Victoria Daily
Standard , 28 April 1871.
16. BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Bill from The Vancouver Club, Victoria, BC, 1 May 1871.
17. BCA, BC Probate Files, GR 1304, File 759, Mflm B-8884, Bill from The Vancouver Club, Victoria, BC, 1 May 1871.