A Brief History of the
Pemberton Family:
Joseph Despard Pemberton
The
Pembertons were one of Victoria's so-called "first families" who have
been prominent members of Victorian society since the earliest days of
the city. The first Pemberton to come to Victoria was Joseph
Despard Pemberton (1821-1893). He was born into a prominent
Irish family (his grandfather had been Lord Mayor of Dublin for a
period). At school, Pemberton studied engineering and
subsequently worked for a number of major railways in Ireland and
England, including the Dublin & Drogheda Railway and the East
Lancashire Railway. Eventually, he took up a post as
Professor of Surveying, Civil Engineering, and Mathematics at the
Roayal Agricultural College in Gloucestershire.
In
February 1851, Pemberton signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company as a
colonial surveyor and engineer for the newly founded colony of
Vancouver Island. His duties included drafting much needed
maps of the island as well as taking charge of land transfers and the
creation of public works. Pemberton sailed from Southhampton
on 17 February 1851, just two days after signing his contract.
Instead of going around the tip of South America, Pemberton
crossed the Panama Isthmus and during the fifty-mile hike, surveyed the
land for the possibility of a railway. This period was
possibly the low-light of his journey. Pemberton contracted
yellow fever and would later refer to the region as "the Golgotha of
the West" (Sampson 114).
Pemberton
reached Fort Victoria in
late June 1851 and soon established himself as a first rate surveyor.
He also supervised the construction of some of the first
roads and bridges in Victoria. In 1858, Pemberton severed his
ties with the Hudson's Bay Company and was appointed Surveyor-General
of Vancouver Island by Governor James Douglas.
In
1855, Pemberton purchased a
portion of land just east of Victoria. This property would
eventually become Gonzales Farm, a sloping chunk of land looking
towards the sea where Pemberton was able to raise livestock and grow a
modest amount of crops. Pemberton initially lived in a
fifty-square foot log cabin, but upgraded his accomodations to a
stately Victorian style house in 1885 located near the intersection of
St. Charles St. and Rockland Ave. A photo of this house can
be seen elsewhere on this site. Pemberton also acquired a
considerble amount of land in what is now southern Oak Bay (Murdoch
13).
Pemberton
died suddenly in 1893 when,
while riding his horse during a paper chase, he suffered a violent
heart attack and was
thrown to the ground. Pemberton's estate, including
Gonzales, were bequeathed to his wife Tessa, whom he'd married in 1864.
She remained at Gonzales until she died in 1916.
