The forgotten missionary, Thomas Wood

Abstract

This thesis examines the eighteenth-century Missionary Thomas Wood, the first Anglican clergymen to translate religious texts in the Mi’kmaq language. The central argument of this Theses is that Wood influenced and shaped the material landscape after moving from Halifax to Annapolis in 1764. Along with this, it argues that Wood has widely been forgotten and misrepresented due to shifts in public memory through the centuries, beginning with how members of the Anglican Church interacted after his death with religious buildings he built. This part of the thesis was inspired by John Reid’s article, <i>The Three Lives of Edward Cornwallis</i>, where he demonstrates that over the centuries, each generation of people developed a new perception of the colonial leader. Along with this this thesis examines the value people gained from interacting with the material culture that Wood had a part in creating. Over the years Wood has become an apparition in an ever-changing world, this paper aims to shed light on his integral role in shaping material culture and constructing built heritage in the Annapolis Valley.