Richard Carr
Emily Carr has become one of Victoria’s most well known artists, and is now renown for her powerful, stirring images of the West Coast. Her fascinating life was well documented, not only by her art, but also by her numerous published books and journals. Her father Richard, an important figure in his daughters life, was less well known than Emily, but led a surprisingly eventful life. His adventures are described in the Islander article “Emily Carr’s Gallery” by Margaret Belford.
Born in Beckley, Oxfordshire England in 1818, Richard came to America in 1837 in his late teens. He began to explore the continent immediately, never staying more than eight weeks in on place.
we learn much of his travels and adventures from his diary, and from it we read that he spent time in Texas, Alabama, and Illinois. he worked as a deck hand on the Columbus sailing from New Orleans to Cuba, and later left the country for New York. While there, according to his diary, he walked from New York to Philadelphia and back in seven days – a distance of 180 miles.
Between 1841 and 1863 when he was arrived in Victoria with his wife and children, Carr had many further adventures.
this peripatetic gentleman…worked as a seaman, traveling the world; returned to England at various times; “paid forty dollars to Mr. Plumb to [teach] me to take daguerreotype portraits” engaged in business taking such portraits; visited Canada; went to Vera Cruz in the middle of a small revolution; was involved in a near fatal canoe accident; and thought most Americans were no gentleman!
Carr visited a Quaker settlement in Albany and later paddled up the Cruse River in a hollowed-out log on his way to Panama. He went to Peru and Ecuador. He met a pretty little English girl in San Francisco. Her name was Emily Saunders and since he had done well in California, he left his business in the hands of “Mr. J.Shunmay and F.Crichton having concluded to enjoy myself for six months.”He and Emily sailed to England and there he married her in Ensham Church, Oxfordshire, on Jan. 18 1855.
After moving back to California for a few years and prospering further in business, Richard decided he would like to raise his two young daughters, Edith and Clara, in the English countryside.
They settled in Devonshire and here two sons were born to them, neither of whom survived. Though Carr does mention the the birth and death of his son William, he omitted from his diary any reference to the birth and death of the second son John, during the following year. Indeed he devoted more time to the death of his beloved dog Spot, than he did to his daughters and his dead sons.
Life in England didn’t take, however, and two years later the family sailed once again for California and in June 1863 they were on their way to Vancouver Island to begin life in what was to prove their final home.
In an attempt to improve his wife Emily’s health, and to save himself from the boredom of retirement, Richard packed his family on a ship and sailed for Canada and Vancouver Island.On the the island, the Carr’s settled down for good. About a year after the family arrived another son was born, Thomas, who also died as an infant. In the following years Elizabeth, Alice, Emily and Richard were also born. Richard Carr. established a whole sale goods business on Wharf street in downtown Victoria, and also bought 10 acres of land in James Bay bordering on what is now Beacon Hill Park, where he built the Carr home.
The Carr House in James Bay
When his wife died in 1886, Richard was irrevocably effected by grief. After selling his business, he spent two years languishing in the sitting room of the Carr houses mourning the loss of his wife. Richard Carr died on November 20th 1888.
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