Fonds F2002 - William Bleasdell fonds

William Bleasdell, Anglican clergyman, was born in England in 1817, the son of James Bleasdell and Mary Hodson. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1845, MA 1848). He was ordained deacon in 1845 and priest in 1846. He came to Canada in June 1848 and became rector of St George’s Church in Trenton, Upper Canada. In 1862 he became examining chaplain of the Diocese of Ontario and in 1874 senior canon of St George’s Cathedral in Kingston. As well as several religious and historical publications, Bleasdell was deeply interested in various sciences (particularly geology), and in 1862 he wrote the earliest know study of the largest glacial erratic in Ontario (the Bleasdell Boulder near Glen Miller). In 1876 the University of Trinity College, Toronto, awarded him an honorary doctorate of civil law. He and his wife Agnes had eleven children, three of whom died in infancy. He died at Trenton in 1889.