Rare medal reveals family’s roots in birth of our nation
Medal leads North Van’s Muir clan to trace ancestry to two Fathers of Confederation
When Jack Muir’s mom and dad married in 1930 — he an alumnus of Point Grey Secondary, she a Kitsilano grad — it brought together the bloodlines of two of Canada’s Fathers of Confederation.
“That’s the neat thing,” Jack’s son Kim Muir said. “They both had roots in Nova Scotia. They came all the way from there and it culminated in a small point where my grandfather met my grandmother in Kits.”
Jack’s father, George Muir, traced his ancestry back to John William Ritchie, a Nova Scotia lawyer, provincial solicitor general, Supreme Court judge and a Canadian senator who attended the London Conference of 1866, where the final details were ironed out that led to the creation of Canada six months later.
That’s one Father of Confederation, one who had an illustrious family himself. Ritchie’s younger brother, William, became the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Ritchie’s daughter, Eliza, was a prominent suffragist and taught at Dalhousie University.
Jack’s mother, Margaret Fraser, could trace her lineage to Sir Charles Tupper, premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, federal cabinet minister under Sir John A. Macdonald, High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and, briefly, Canada’s sixth prime minister.
That’s a second Father of Confederation.
As such, the Muirs are in proud possession of one of the two silver 1867 Confederation medals belonging to the extended family. Only 50 were minted. “I took it to school (Queen Mary Elementary) for a history class once,” Jack said. “I gave a little presentation of what I knew at that age, which was very little. The medal was just never a big deal.” And today? “To us, there is no monetary value. To us, it has great historic value.”
In fact, until Kim had the family history researched four years ago, they hadn’t fully grasped the historical impact of what they possessed.
As such, it was only after the family tree was traced that the silver piece’s rarity and value was realized. From then on, it’s been stored in a safe-deposit box.
“I once went to a medal dealer and he said, ‘Do you know what you have there?’ ” Kim said. “We only had a rough idea. It was always lying around the house somewhere. We had no idea how rare and valuable it is.”
The sparkling new government of Canada in 1867 commissioned 551 medals to commemorate Confederation.
One gold medal was struck for the Mother of Confederation, Queen Victoria. There were 500 bronze medals minted, as well as 50 silver medals for the Fathers of Confederation who brought the former British colonies together in one dominion.
Queen Victoria’s head appears in profile on one side. On the reverse, Britannia is seated. She wears a warrior’s helmet and holds a trident and shield in her right hand. The head of a lion, representing empire, rests on her lap.
In her left hand, she offers a Confederation scroll to four maidens representing the four participating provinces. Agriculture, the fur trade, mining and forestry are symbolically portrayed: Ontario holds a sickle and sheaf; Quebec a canoe paddle; Nova Scotia a shovel; and New Brunswick an axe.
The Latin inscription Juventas et Patrius Vigor, Canada Instraurata alludes to the new country’s youth and patriotism.
Although commissioned by Canada, the medals were designed, engraved and struck under the supervision of the queen’s own Royal Mint in London.
They weigh 262 grams (9 1/4 ounces) and measure 76 millimetres (three inches) in diameter. The names of the medals’ designers, brothers Joseph Shepherd and Alfred Benjamin Wyon, are engraved at the bottom. Joseph also designed the original Great Seal of Canada.
The Muirs didn’t just have what family history they knew confirmed by a genealogist, Patricia Doyle, employed by Kim in 2013 — they had fascinating holes filled in.
Using the Muir family bible as well as birth, death and marriage certificates, the genealogist traced the family all the way back to the Mayflower and Richard Warren (circa 1578-1628), one of the signatories of the 1620 Mayflower Compact, which led to the first democratic government in the British American colonies.
“And I’d never heard of him,” Jack said.
Kim stores the results of the family-tree research in a large binder about four inches thick.
“I looked at all the history and mementoes that our family had and that we talked about,” Kim, who was adopted, said of his ancestral search initiative. “I thought, ‘I’d like to give something back to this great family who raised and nurtured me.’ ” gordmcintyre@postmedia.com
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“I once went to a medal dealer and he said, ‘Do you know what you have there?’ We only had a rough idea. It was always lying around the house somewhere.” — KIM MUIR