S. Douglass Smith Huyghue

1816-1891

Samuel Douglass Smith Huyghue (poet, author, civil servant, journalist, and artist) was born on 23 April 1816 in Charlottetown, PEI.  By 25 October 1817 his family had relocated to Saint John, New Brunswick. Huyghue was educated at the Saint John Grammar School. By 1840 he was living in Halifax and had written some early poems. Identifying himself as “Eugene,” Huyghue was submitting his work to the Halifax Morning Post & Parliamentary Reporter. Between October 1841 and January 1843, he was living again in Saint John. He started submitting short fiction to the Amaranth, a literary periodical in the city. His first novel was called Argimou: A Legend of the Micmac, which was serialized in the Amaranth between May and September 1842. The novel was popular and was republished as a book in Halifax in 1847, then again in serial form in the Saint John Albion in 1859-1860. Huyghue was appointed in 1843 to the Boundary Commission surveying the line separating New Brunswick, Quebec, and Maine. By 1845 he had completed his term on the Boundary Commission and left for London where he published Nomades of the West; or Ellen Clayton. The work came out in Bentley’s Miscellany around 1850. Huyghue sailed on the Lady Peel in 1852 to Melbourne, Australia where he began working full time for the civil service. In August of 1853 Huyghue was appointed clerk in the Office of Mines in the Ballarat goldfields. There he was a witness to the 1854 Eureka Stockade Rebellion in the Barra deposit, documenting what he saw through painting. Huyghue remained in Australia, moving between Ballarat and Graytown in civil service posts. He went to Melbourne in 1876 to obtain a job in the Department of Mines and retired two years later. Huyghue passed away in Melbourne on 24 July 1891.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Saint John

Archival Material

• Samuel Douglass Smith Huyghue fonds
  ⌄
  Location

  Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

  Retrieval Number

  P839

  Date Range of Material

  1843-1845

  Extent

  Initial donation M2016.53 was of 6 JPEG scans of the actual physical material from M2018.140 which arrived two years later. The latter material consists of six pencil sketches of New Brunswick scenes on paper, at least one of which also features watercolours and possibly ink wash. M2018.142 arrived within two weeks of M2018.140 and it consists of four ink and wash drawings on paper, some featuring pencil.

  Scope and Content Note

  Six pencil sketches, one with watercolours added, and four ink and wash drawings of different areas of New Brunswick and Quebec. Locales depicted include Fredericton, Saint John, Grand Falls, Becaguimec (Hartland), Quebec City, and the mouth of Black River.