Ven. Edward Wix (1802–1866) was an English clergyman best known as an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

missionary in Canada.

Early life

Edward Wix was the eldest son of Samuel Wix (1771-1861), a noted controversialist and high churchman, and his wife Frances Walford (1781-1851). Edward Wix was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School in London. He graduated from

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

with a B.A. in 1824, and was ordained as a priest in 1825.

In Nova Scotia

Wix served in the Diocese of Nova Scotia under Bishop John Inglis, initially as the Bishop's chaplain. According to the records of the

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organisation (registered charity no. 234518). It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Pa ...

(S.P.G.), Wix was in Halifax from 1826 to 1830, although he traveled to England in 1828, where he recovered from typhus, married and completed his M.A.. He became

Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...

of Newfoundland in 1830, arriving in St. John's on June 18 of that year.

In Newfoundland

Wix first went to Newfoundland with Bishop John Inglis in 1827 in his role as the Bishop's chaplain. H. W. LeMessurier, in a short history of St. Thomas Church, St. John's, describes him as an "indefatigable Missionary." Bishop Feild, in his 1848 Journal, had also described Wix as "indefatigable". Wix frequently travelled around Newfoundland as part of his duties as a missionary, and reached southern Labrador in 1831. His best known missionary journey is recounted in his book ''Six Months of a Newfoundland Missionary's Journal from February to August, 1835''. Wix was also much occupied with fundraising, road-building, education, and the other social and political issues of his time. He was responsible for the construction of St. Thomas' Anglican Church in St. John's, Newfoundland, and was credited with persuading the Church of England to create the Diocese of Newfoundland and Bermuda, and to appoint the first Bishop, Aubrey George Spencer, in 1839. According to Frederick Jones, "In October 1838 Wix left Newfoundland secretly and hurriedly, in a manner which, according to the Reverend Thomas Finch Hobday Bridge, “both surprised and appalled the members of the Church.” He left in poor health and in debt to the amount of £1,300, and after having been seen in the company of a prostitute." Aside from a few short periods working as a curate in the London area, Wix spent the rest of his life as an invalid. He and his wife lived in different places, moving to their son's parish, the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Swanmore, Ryde on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

shortly before Edward Wix died in 1866.

Family

Wix married Fanny Browne (1809-1884) during his trip to England in 1828. The couple had two children born in Halifax (Fanny Wix (1829-1832) and Richard Hooker Wix (1831-1831)) and two in St. John's (Richard Hooker Edward Wix (1831-1893) and Mary Poynder Wix (1833-1833)). Only Richard Hooker Edward Wix survived to adulthood. He became a priest like his father and grandfather, and was the first rector of St. Michael and All Angels, Swanmore, Ryde.https://rshg.org.uk/ryde-history/ryde-churches/st-michaels-angels-church-swanmore/ He was a noted ritualist and part of the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...

Evaluations

Archdeacon Edward Wix's presence in Newfoundland and Labrador had a lasting effect in unlikely places. In 1848 the Bishop of Newfoundland, sailing on the ''Hawk'', visited the Venison Islands (Labrador) and made the following entry into his journal. Again in 1849 Both entries in Bishop Feild's journal place Archdeacon Wix in Venison Islands, Labrador. Edward Jesse i
Anecdotes of Dogs
1883, recounts a story told about the Archdeacon's Newfoundland dog.

Writings

A Retrospect of the Operations of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in North America

1836
A Sermon: II Kings 2:19-22

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wix, Edward, Archdeacon 1802 births 1866 deaths Archdeacons Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford 19th-century English Anglican priests English Anglican missionaries Anglican missionaries in Canada