Graduate Students

Richmond, R. - M.A

'There is a Moral Wilderness Requiring Cultivation': Religious and Social Regulation in Perth, Upper Canada, 1817-1827 - Dr. Graeme Morton        

         This thesis is an investigation of one man's efforts to monitor, regulate and improve the moral character of a pioneer settlement. The Reverend William Bell, a dissenting Scottish Presbyterian, immigrated to Upper Canada in 1817, settling in the ethnically and socially heterogeneous community of Perth. Upon arrival, Bell observed a population on the verge of a great moral crisis- a result, he believed, of the insufficient social restraints inherent in pioneer living. Determined to prevent Perth from degenerating into complete moral chaos, Bell set about reforming the community through his sermonizing, personal visits and withholding of church services. Despite some initial successes, the arrival of competing figures of religious authority and increasing friction over issues of baptism and church discipline diminished Bell's influence significantly. The continued presence of immoral behaviour after ten years in the region signalled Bell's failure to realize and idyllic Christian community in the New World.