THE BOUNDARIES OF CHARITY The Impact of Ethnic Relations on Private Charitable Services for Quebec City’s English-speakers, 1759-1900 Thèse Patrick Donovan Doctorat en histoire Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) Québec, Canada © Patrick Donovan, 2019 THE BOUNDARIES OF CHARITY The Impact of Ethnic Relations on Private Charitable Services for Quebec City’s English-speakers, 1759-1900 Thèse Patrick Donovan Sous la direction de : Donald Fyson, Directeur Johanne Daigle, Co-directrice RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse porte sur les organismes privés de bienfaisance s’adressant aux anglophones de Québec entre 1759 et 1900. L’étude offre un portrait des différents organismes, des besoins auxquels ceux-ci répondent et des lacunes dans le réseau d’assistance. Au cours de la période étudiée, le rôle des organismes privés d’assistance s’accroît, alors que celui de l’État décroît. La compassion envers les pauvres augmente, engendrant de nouvelles organisations charitables pour les populations les plus marginalisées. En dépit de ce fait, la prison sert souvent de refuge pour compenser les failles dans le réseau. Cette thèse montre plus précisément comment les relations interethniques façonnent le réseau d’assistance aux pauvres. Tout au long du demi-siècle suivant la Conquête, dans la ville de Québec, les autorités britanniques en poste soutiennent l’infrastructure charitable catholique établie lors du régime français, fait inusité dans l’Empire britannique. Après 1815, époque marquée par une forte immigration de Grande Bretagne et d’Irlande, de nouvelles associations bénévoles laïques voient le jour. La cooperation entre élites de différents groupes ethnoreligieux existe dans plusieurs associations. Les divisions ethniques s’intensifient toutefois entre 1835 et 1855, un changement engendré par une convergence de facteurs, dont la défaite du républicanisme patriote, un accroissement de la pratique religieuse, la mise en place d’écoles confessionnelles et l’émergence d’un nationalisme irlando-catholique plus robuste à la suite de la grande famine. Dans la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle, le paysage de l’assistance se divise clairement entre trois réseaux parallèles : un pour les catholiques francophones, un pour les irlando-catholiques anglophones et un pour les protestants anglophones. Le Saint Bridget’s Asylum et le Ladies’ Protestant Home, fondés dans les années 1850, constituent des points d’ancrage forts pour ces réseaux. Les rares tentatives de remise en question des frontières ethniques se soldent par des tensions accrues et même de la violence. Malgré ces divisions, il existe un respect mutuel pour ces frontières dans les trois communautés de la ville, ce qui est inhabituel dans la plupart des villes nord-américaines. iii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the private charitable sector for English-speakers in Quebec City from 1759 to 1900. It provides an overview of poor relief associations, the needs they addressed, and the gaps that remained. The role of private charities increased over the period studied, and that of the state decreased. Compassion toward the poor also increased, leading to new types of charitable organizations for the underclass. Despite this, the prison system served as a refuge to fill gaps in the private charitable sector. More specifically, this study demonstrates how changes in ethno-religious relations shaped the charity network. In the first half century after the Conquest of Quebec, British authorities supported the Catholic charitable infrastructure established during the French regime, which was unusual within the British Empire. After 1815, as immigration from Britain and Ireland increased, lay private voluntary associations emerged, including many that involved elite cooperation across religious and linguistic lines. Instances of cooperation decreased from 1835 to 1855 due to rising ethnic boundaries caused by the defeat of Patriote republicanism, an increase in religious practice, the establishment of separate confessional schools, and a new type of Irish-Catholic nationalism following the Great Famine. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the private charitable sector became sharply divided into three parallel networks with hardly any overlap: one for Francophone Catholics, one for English-speaking Irish Catholics, and one for English-speaking Protestants. Two core institutions founded in the 1850s, Saint Bridget’s Asylum and the Ladies’ Protestant Home, cemented the divide. Rare attempts to challenge these boundaries resulted in tension and even violence. Despite these divisions, there was a greater mutual respect of established boundaries among communities than in most North American cities. v TABLE OF CONTENTS RÉSUMÉ ................................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. ix LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / REMERCIEMENTS...................................................... xiii INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 Definition of problem .............................................................................................1 Historiography ......................................................................................................9 Sources and Methodology .................................................................................. 25 Structure and Organization ................................................................................. 30 1. POST-CONQUEST CONTINUITY: CHARITABLE NETWORKS BEFORE 1815 ............................................................................................................... 33 1.1. Family and Church Networks ................................................................... 33 1.2. Religious Institutions: Hôtel-Dieu and Hôpital Général ............................. 35 1.3. The Role of Mutual Aid Societies ............................................................. 42 1.4. Poverty and the Criminal Justice System ................................................. 43 1.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 45 2. WORKING TOGETHER: CHARITABLE NETWORKS FROM 1815-1835 ..... 48 2.1. Factors Increasing Social Service Needs After 1815 ............................... 48 2.2. New Typologies, Separate Spheres, 1815-1835 ...................................... 55 2.3. Aid to New Mothers: The Female Compassionate Society ...................... 64 2.4. Men’s Voluntary Work: Sorting out the Adult Poor ................................... 67 2.5. Early Protestant Homes: Anglicans at the Forefront ................................ 91 2.6. Early Homes for Irish Catholics ................................................................ 99 2.7. Irish Catholic Charitable Initiatives ......................................................... 106 2.8. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 108 3. THE QUIET DEVOLUTION, 1835-1855 ...................................................... 111 3.1. Rising Ethno-Religious Boundaries (or the Quiet Devolution) ................ 111 3.2. Structural Changes and New Additions .................................................. 144 3.3. National Societies: the Saint George’s, Saint Andrew’s and Saint Patrick’s Societies................................................................................................. 150 3.4. Catholic Male Volunteerism and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul ... 169 3.5. Expansion of Women’s Charitable Endeavours ..................................... 182 3.6. Charity and the State ............................................................................. 197 3.7. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 202 4. “GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBOURS”: 1855-1900 ..................... 205 4.1. Anglophone Decline and Consolidation of the Charitable Network ........ 206 4.2. A Cohesive Irish Catholic Charitable Network ........................................ 213 4.3. Evangelicalism and its Impact on the Protestant Charitable Sector ....... 246 4.4. Vagrants and the Underclass: Between the Asylum and the Gaol ......... 268 4.5. Challenging Boundaries, or the Salvation Army Wars of 1886-1887 ...... 283 4.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................. 297 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 303 vii BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 317 viii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1: Proportion of Vagrancy Convictions at the Quebec City Common Gaol, Yearly Averages for 1818-1822 and 1829-1835 .......................................... 90 Fig. 2: Number of Vagrancy Convictions at the Quebec City Common Gaol, 1829-1838 ................................................................................................... 91 Fig. 3: Total Population