Joseph Lofthouse

Who was Joseph Lofthouse?

Joseph Lofthouse, Senior was a Canadian Anglican bishop in the 20th century.

Lofthouse was born on 18 December 1855. He was ordained in 1883 and began his ministry as a missioner at Fort York. He was then Archdeacon of Moosonee before being appointed as the first Bishop of Keewatin in 1902.

The Hudson's Bay Company had neglected the spiritual welfare of its employees and the surrounding natives. In 1882 Rev. Lofthouse was sent out to found a church in Churchill, Manitoba. After a while he wrote back to friends in England describing his adventures. He mentioned that one of the things that made it difficult to establish a proper parish was the fact that he did not have a wife. He then said, in effect, "Do you know a girl who would like to travel 4,000 miles across the ocean, marry a man she has never seen before, live in a place where it gets to be forty degrees below zero and be the only white woman within 200 miles?" They wrote back saying, in effect "Why yes, we know a girl just like that. If she says yes we'll send her out on the next boat."

Reverend Lofthouse wrote out a letter of proposal and put it on the boat for England. Next spring, her affirmative answer arrived on the dog sled from Winnipeg. Since he was not in Churchill, he had to walk for eight days up the coast through roadless country. When the ship arrived, he found that the girl had missed the boat. Since the ship had no proper accommodations for a lady, she had been refused passage. There being no more sailings that year, he had to wait until next year after the ice broke up.