Theodore Davie, British Columbia Premier, Married Child Bride

It’s not a name that readily comes to mind these days but there was a time when Theodore Davie was not only prominent in the Cowichan Valley but throughout British Columbia.

That’s when (July 1892-March 1895) Theodore Davie was our provincial premier and one of a remarkable pioneer family.

This remarkable Davies’ Cowichan connection began with the arrival from Surrey, England of Dr. John Chapman Davie and four sons, Alexander, John Jr., William and Horace. Mrs. Davie, a daughter and youngest son Theodore remained in the Old Country while he established a practice in Victoria at the corner of Government and Bastion streets.

Attracted to the Cowichan Valley, Dr. Davie repeatedly braved wilderness trails on horseback in search for land for William and Horace. He finally settled on 200 acres at Somenos, between Duncan and Westholme..

But farming didn’t appeal to Alex or John. While their father practised medicine and was elected to the Legislative Council, John Jr. graduated from medical school and joined him in his practice. Alexander and Theodore who, with his sister had followed them to Victoria, became successful lawyers.

Alex, in fact, became attorney-general in the government of William Smithe (another Cowichan connection to the Victoria Parliament Buildings), then found himself premier upon Smithe’s untimely passing.

Just two years later Alex, too, was dead and John Robson took his place. Tragedy repeated itself with Robson’s death in office (at least he lasted three years) and the promotion of his attorney-general, Theodore Davie, to the highest office in the province.

(Other than father-and-son premiers W.A.C. and Bill Bennett, the Davies are as close as the province has come to seeing a dynasty in its government.)

In 1997 Jim Hume, senior columnist for the Times-Colonist, wrote a column under the provocative heading, ‘He wed a child bride–and went on to become premier.”

Hume was referring to Theodore Davie’s engagement, when he was still a young and promising lawyer of 22, to 14-year-old Blanche Eliza Baker, daughter of the recently deceased accountant Thomas G. Baker. Those were Victorians times, remember–not the period of pubescent nuptials as immortalized by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

What did people think?

Alas, we really don’t know. Gossip there certainly must have been–one historian discreetly mentioned that it “caused some considerable stir”–but nothing seems to have been said in public print. Perhaps this was in deference not just to decorum but to Davie’s legalistic credentials. (The legal age of consensual sex at that time was, as it is today, 14.)

The child-bride and groom were married by Rev. F.B. Gribell on June 27, 1874.

Quite unlike other weddings of socialites here was no mention in the wedding account of her mother or of other family members or of how or with whom Blanche was living prior to the wedding.

As Hume pointed out, Theodore had no way of knowing then that he would become premier. Ironically, Blanche didn’t live to see it, dying April 17, 1876, after just 22 months of marriage at the age of 16, little more than a year after giving birth to a daughter who had predeceased her at the age of 10 months.

“The funeral of the late Mrs. Theodore Davie took place yesterday,” reported the Colonist,” a large number of friends following the hearse from James Bay to the Reformed Episcopal Church and thence to the cemetery at Ross Bay. The burial service was most impressively read by Bishop Cridge and the coffin, on which were placed wreaths of beautiful flowers, was lowered into the grave in mournful silence, close to the late resting place of the late Mr. Baker, father of the deceased.”

To assuage his grief in new surroundings, Davie moved his practice to Nanaimo where he opened an office in the Commercial Hotel.

Perhaps inspired by his father’s example, he became interested in politics, winning five terms of office in the provincial legislature as Member of Provincial Parliament for Victoria, Cowichan and Cowichan-Alberni.

After converting to Catholicism to be in tune with his second fiancee, he married 20-year-old Mary Alice York in January 1884, was appointed attorney-general in 1889 and, following in the footsteps of his late brother Alexander, became premier in July 1882.

He resigned to become Chief Justice of British Columbia. He’s best remembered, as premier, for commissioning construction of the landmark parliament buildings that replaced the infamous wooden ‘Birdcages’.

Mary Alice Davie, described as “a woman of great kindness and courteous geniality,” also died young, aged just 32, after having given birth to six or seven (there seems to be some uncertainty on this point) children during their 12 years of marriage. Theodore followed her two years later after succumbing to heart disease.

Jim Hume summed up Theodore Davie’s remarkable career this way:

“He was a rare one. Married to a child, widower at 24, attorney-general at 38, premier at 40, father of the parliament buildings, and dead at 46.”

Hume also wondered what today’s society would think of a lawyer-politician from a “good” Victoria family who married a 14-year-old girl who gave birth just seven months later. The veteran journalist concluded that, for all of our relaxed moral standards 140-plus years later, Theodore Davie would still be judged harshly.