Beginnings :: About the Carrs

Story Richard Carr in Canada

Richard Carr (1818 - 1888)

On July 5, 1863 Richard Carr, a well to do British merchant; his wife, Emily (Saunders) Carr and; their two daughters, Edith and Clara arrived in Victoria, Vancouver Island. British Columbia was then a Crown Colony and so thus it was that the Canadian icon, artist and author Emily Carr (1871-1945) came to be born in this outpost of the British Empire.

“And what should they know England
Who only England know?”
The English Flag by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

In her Book of Small, Emily Carr describes these Beginnings:

“ My father did not come straight from England to Victoria when, a lad of nineteen, he started out to see something of the world. He went to many countries, looking, thinking, choosing. At last he heard of the California gold rush and went there. He decided that California was a very fine country, but after the rush was over he went back to England, married an English girl and brought his bride out to California in a sailing ship, all around Cape horn. Intending to settle in California, he went into business but after a while it irked Father to live under any flag other than his own. In a few years, having decided to go back “home” to live, he chartered a vessel and took to England the first shipment of California wheat. But, staunch Englishman though he was, the new Land had said something to him and he chafed at the limitations of the Old which, while he was away from it, had appeared perfect. His spirit grew restless and, selling all his effects, he brought his wife and two small daughters out to the new world.

Round the Horn they came again, and up, up, up the west coast of America till they came to the most English-tasting bit of all Canada- Victoria on the south end of Vancouver Island, which was then a Crown Colony. Father stood still, torn by loyalty to the old Land and his delight in the New. He saw that nearly all the people in Victoria were English and smiled at how they tried to be more English than the English themselves, just to prove to themselves and the world how loyal they were being to the Old Land. Father set his family down in British Columbia. He and Mother had accepted Canada long before I, the youngest but one of their nine children, was born. By that time their homesickness had healed. Instead of being English they had broadened out into being British, just as Fort Camosun had swelled herself from being a little Hudson’s Bay Fort, inside a stockade with bastions at the corners, into being the little town of Victoria, and the capital of British Columbia.”

Richard Carr was born July 16, 1818 in Kent, England. He traveled extensively throughout North America pursuing a variety of occupations. In his diary entry of October 1854, he summed up his situation:

“Having on the whole been very successful since I have been in California- have concluded to enjoy myself fro six months or so traveling, left my business in charge of Mr.J. Shumway and F. Crichton- concider(sic) myself worth at the present time from twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars…Miss E. Saunders accompanys me...”{His marriage to Emily Saunders took place January 18, 1855 at Ensham Church, Oxon, England.}

In 1861, he writes

“..sold everything with the intention of going to England. …[Because] I shan’t be satisfied till I go there and convince myself [of where I truly belong].”

But having only stayed in England a short while on March 18, 1863 he writes

“ I …do not like the (English) climate…but the change is with me, 25 years absence makes things appear different…my children will have a much brighter prospect before them in that or some new settled country….”

Richard Carr chose to resettle his family in a “British Colony” and thus came to Victoria, which he described as

“…beautifully located though only laid out as a town in 1858 when the great [gold]rush took place on the way to the new mines of Frasier River…it contains a good many fine brick and stone buildings-the streets and sidewalks are generally speaking very good, much better than is usually the case in new towns- 7 churches, 3 daily papers…shops well supplied with goods...but prices high.”

And so began life in Victoria for Richard Carr and his family. In March of 1863, he purchased property known as part of Beckley Farm, in what is now called the neighbourhod of James Bay. He had built a well designed Italianate style villa. On April 1, 1864 he notes in his diary

“ Moved into new house at James Bay- we have been waiting long time for the plastering to dry…”

It was here on December 13, 1871 that Emily Carr was born. She describes her birth in her book Growing Pains:

“I was born during a mid-December snow storm; the north wind howled and bit. Contrary from the start…’

Emily Carr (1871- 1945)
The Devil whispered behind the leaves,
It's pretty, but is it Art?
The Cunumdrum of the Workshops- Kipling

Mr and Mrs Carr

Richard Carr and his wife, Emily Saunders Carr (1836-1886)

“ If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me
Whole,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine.”
Mother o’ Mine- Kipling

Emily Carr House 1867

Carr Family c.1888