Background
The eldest son of Samuel Wix, he graduated from Trinity College, Oxford.
clergyman Missionary Anglican missionary
The eldest son of Samuel Wix, he graduated from Trinity College, Oxford.
Trinity College.
Venerable (of an Archdeacon) Wix served in the Diocese of Nova Scotia with Bishop John Inglis, as Archdeacon of Newfoundland. According to the records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), Wix was in Halifax from 1826 to 1829 when he went to Bonavista, and to Saint John"s in 1830. Wix first went to Newfoundland with Inglis in 1827, as his chaplain.
H. West. LeMessurier, in a short history of Saint Thomas Church, Saint John"s, describes him as an "indefatigable Missionary." Bishop Feild, in his 1848 Journal, had previously described Wix as "indefatigable".
He was a missionary at Bonavista in 1830 before he went to Saint John"s, as cited in an 1830 report of the South.P.G. In 1839 Wix went home to England and served as vicar of Saint Michael"s, Swanmore. He died November 24, 1866.
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.
Number person here can remember how the Archdeacon came or departed, and I have found no trace or remembrance of him in any other settlement on the coast.
lieutenant would, I think, be a gratification to that indefatigable pioneer of the Church, to know that I read a chapter to the poor man and his family from the Testament presented seventeen years ago. The book is carefully preserved, and is not likely to be worn out by use, as none of the family can read. Again in 1849 I had the pleasure of reading a chapter in a poor fisherman"s hut, from a Testament given so long ago by Mr.
Wix, and bearing his name.
lieutenant was well preserved, but, it is too probable, had never been used, for none of the family could read. They were indeed deplorably ignorant.
I could not discover that Mr. Wix had called at any other place, or any other traces of his visitation.
Then in 1850 Bishop Feild mentions Mr.
Wix on three different dates in his journal (July 26, August 2 & 4). Both entries in Bishop Feild"s journal that place Archdeacon Wix in Labrador are place in Venison Islands. Edward Jesse in Anecdotes of Dogs, 1883, conveys a story told about the Archdeacon"s Newfoundland dog.
