ARCHITECTURE:
This modest single-storey Edwardian shingle house has a front-facing gable and recessed corner porch to the right with front-facing steps. The front has two rather small cantilevered box bays each with four small brackets. The brackets are repeated under the stringcourse at the base of the gable which is finished with half-timbering and in the apex, with shingles. The lower windows are wide single-pane under leaded art glass and the upper windows are 1-over-1 in a group of three. On each side at the eaves, there is a large bracket. Each side of the roof has a shed wall dormer. The open porch has a plain square post support and is glazed with multi-pane sashes. Architrave trim is used on the door as well as the main windows. The original panelled door has a single light. The poured concrete foundation is capped by a single course of rusticated-stone-patterned concrete blocks.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
The house was built for William Charles Moresby (1876-1963), who lived here with his widowed mother Mary Anne Moresby (Edwards, 1857-1953). In 1921, William married Annie Fairweather Forbes (Purdon, 1888-1958), who was divorced, and living at 810 Linden Av.
Two of his sisters, Violet Mary and Marguerite Noel also lived here for several years. Violet married Edmund Howard Ross in Vancouver in 1913 and later married a Mr. Rowleigh. Marguerite first married Basil Gawlor Prior, son of Suzette Work and Edward Gawlor Prior (729 Pemberton Rd, 620 St. Charles St, Rockland), in 1908. She later divorced Basil and married civil engineer Henry Rogers Ferriss in Victoria in 1918.
Born in Maidstone, Kent, England, Mary Anne came to BC in 1859 and in 1875 married William Moresby (1847-1896), warden of the New Westminster prison. William died of pneumonia, and two years later Mary Anne came to Victoria with her three children.
William Charles was born and educated in New Westminster. He studied law, articling with Gordon Coubold of New Westminster, and was called to the BC Bar in 1898. That year he came to Victoria and entered the law firm of Drake, Jackson & Helmcken. In 1904 he started his own practice. In 1911 he was made King’s Counsel and Assize Court Prosecutor, which he remained for a number of years. His later practice was with his son, William Donald Moresby, and T.J. Halbert. He retired in 1958.
William was a Victoria city alderman in 1911-13, a school trustee from 1926-37 and in 1933 he ran as a Conservative candidate in the Victoria riding, but lost. William was also an active sportsman who played lacrosse, rugby and who was a rower at the JBAA. He left this house shortly after Annie died in 1958.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:
• This Old House, Victoria’s Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Four: Fairfield, Gonzales & Jubilee
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