Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (1803 - 1882)

Born 24 Mar 1803 in Charlotteville Township, Upper Canada

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 19 Feb 1882 at age 78 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Biography

Egerton Ryerson is Notable.

Egerton Ryerson is/was a significant Ontarian .

Methodist minister, author, editor, and educational administrator.^[1]

Rev. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson, D.D. was a Wesleyan Methodist minister, chief superintendent of education for Upper Canada from 1844 to 1876, and founder of the system of public education in Ontario. ^[1][2][3][4]

Rev. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was born on March 24, 1803, in Ontario, Canada, to Joseph Ryerson (loyalist) and Mehetable Sarah Stickney. He married, first, Hannah Aikman and they had one son (John) and one daughter (Lucilla) together. After the death of Hannah, he then married, second, Mary Armstrong and they had one son (Charles) and one daughter (Sophia) together. He died on February 19, 1882, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, having lived a long life of 78 years, and was buried in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[1]

Egerton Ryerson was instrumental in building the current education system in Canada. His most notable achievement was the creation of the Normal School in Toronto which was a college for in-class training of teachers. The normal school was also home to the department of education and a museum which introduced people to art and different scientific activities that normalized publicly funded art galleries, museums and other places in Canada. A discussion of his role in the design of the Canadian Indian residential school system can be found on his Wikipedia page.^[1][2][4]

Birth

• Adolphus Egerton Ryerson was born on March 24, 1803, in Ontario, Canada, to Mehetable Sarah Stickney, age 36, and Col. Joseph Ryerson, age 42.^{[1][2][4][3][5][6]}

Marriages

• Adolphus married, first, 10 Sep 1828, Hannah Aikman, daughter of John Aikman, at Hamilton, Upper Canada, and they had two children.^[1][4][3][5]
• Adolphus married, secondly, 8 Nov 1833, Mary Armstrong, daughter of James Rogers Armstrong, at York (Toronto), Upper Canada and they had two children.^[1][4][3][5]

Degrees Received

• Adolphus received the degree of D.D. in 1842 from Wesleyan University.^[1][3][5]
• Adolphus received the dree of Doctor of Laws in 1861 from Victoria College. Colberg, Canada.^[3][5]

Death

• Rev. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson died on February 19, 1882, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, when he was 78 years old.^{[1][2][4][3][6]}

Burial

• Adolphus is buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Toronto Municipality, Ontario.^[1][4][7]

Occupations

• Adolphus was President of Victoria College, Coberg, Canada from 1841 to 1844.^[1][2][4][6]
• Adolphus was the Superintendant of Education for Upper Canada from 1844 to 1875.^[4][1][5]
• Adolphus was an ordained Methodist Minister from 1825 until his death.^[1][4][3][5]
• Adolphus was chosen President of Victoria College, Coberg, Canada from 1841 to 1844.^[5]

Children

• Adolphus and Hannah had the following issue:^[1]
  1. John
  2. Lucilla
• Adolphus and Mary hadthe following issue:^[1]
  • Sophia Howard Ryerson (1845–1898), m. Edward William Harris.
  • Charles E. Ryerson (1847–1909).

Research Notes

• In 1826 a sermon, delivered the previous summer at the funeral of Bishop Jacob Mountain by John Strachan, appeared in print; in it Strachan, the leading Church of England clergyman in Upper Canada, traced the rise of the Anglican church in the colony, contending that it was the established church and attacking the Methodists as ignorant American enthusiasts, unsound in religion and disloyal in politics. None of the arguments were new, but on this occasion the Methodists in York chose not to remain silent and Ryerson, still a probationary preacher, was one of those invited to frame a reply. In a long letter printed in the Colonial Advocate (York) in May 1826 he challenged all of Strachan’s assertions. No less than Strachan himself, Ryerson sought a society that was both Christian and British. But he denied that an established church was either scriptural or an essential part of the British constitution, and quoted authors ancient and modern to support his case. He rejected the charges of ignorance by citing the intellectual training required of all Methodist preachers and also challenged the contention that most of them were Americans. Ryerson’s letter and the ensuing debate in the provincial press “thrilled the Methodist mind in the country,” in the words of John Saltkill Carroll, and called attention to Ryerson’s remarkable abilities as a spokesman for the Methodist cause. In 1827 Strachan again put forward his claims in a series of letters written in England to garner support for both the Church of England and the colony’s newly chartered university. In the public uproar that followed, Ryerson was only one critic among many, but in eight clearly reasoned and broad-ranging letters, published first in the Upper Canada Herald (Kingston) in June 1828 and later that year as a pamphlet, he again defended the character of Methodism, argued the case for religious equality, and broadened his attack to include the educational policies of what he claimed to be an Anglican-dominated executive.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14} Wikipedia contributors, "Egerton Ryerson," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Egerton_Ryerson&oldid=1047402055 (accessed October 25, 2021).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} The Coburg Museum Foundation Archives, Egerton Ryerson, accessed 25 October 2021. https://www.cobourgmuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Ryerson_Panel.pdf
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7} Ryerson, Albert Winslow. The Ryerson Genealogy – Genealogy of the Knickerbocker Families of Ryerson, Ryerse, Ryerss; also Adriance and Martense Families; all descendants of Martin and Adriaen Reyersz (Reyerszn), of Amsterdam, Holland, page 113-115. Privately printed for Edward L Ryerson; Chicago;1916 https://archive.org/details/ryersongenealogy00ryer
4. ↑ ^{4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10} R. D. Gidney, “RYERSON, EGERTON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 25, 2021, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ryerson_egerton_11E.html.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7} Ryerson, Louis Johannes. he Genealogy of the RYERSON FAMILY in America 1646-1902, page 49. Jenkins & McCowan, New York, 1902. https://archive.org/details/genealogyofryers00ryer
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} Wilson, James Grant and Fiske, John, Editors. Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American History, Volume V, Pickering – Sumter, page 361. D. Appleton and Company; New York; 1900. https://archive.org/details/AppletonsCyclopediaOfAmericanBiographyVol.5/page/n1/mode/1up
7. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10846660/adolphus-egerton-ryerson : accessed 25 October 2021), memorial page for Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (24 Mar 1803–19 Feb 1882), Find a Grave Memorial ID 10846660, citing Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Toronto Municipality, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Find a Grave .

• Source: S00132 Author: Ryerson, Albert Winslow Title: The Ryerson Genealogy Publication: Name: Chicago, 1916; Repository: #R00010 Call Number: GEN 929.2 R961R NOTERyerson, Albert Winslow, The Ryerson Genealogy (Chicago, 1916), GEN 929.2 R961R, Source Medium: Book Genealogy and history of the Knickerbocker Families of Ryerson, Ryrese, Reyerss; also Adriance and Martense families; all descendants of Martin and Adriaen Reyersz (Reyerzen) of Amsterdam, Holland .
• Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York, J. H. Beers & Co., Toronto, 1907, pp. 394-395
• Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Egerton Ryerson." Encyclopedia Britannica, March 20, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Egerton-Ryerson.
• Semple, Neil. "Egerton Ryerson." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published December 17, 2007; Last Edited May 02, 2022.
• Chadwick, Edward Marion Ontarian Families – Genealogies of United Empire Loyalist and other Pioneer Families Of Upper Canada, Volume 2, page 19. Rolph, Smith & Co., Publishers; Toronto; 1894 https://archive.org/details/ontarianfamilie00chadgoog/page/n5/mode/1up

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Ginny Sharp for creating WikiTree profile Ryerson-243 through the import of Sharp Family_2013-07-26.ged on Jul 27, 2013.