John Rorke Sr. (The Rorke Family)
John Rorke Sr., born in Ireland on June 9, 1807, moved to Newfoundland in 1824 to work at the firm Bennett and Ridley located in Harbour Grace, which was owned by his uncle William Bennett and his cousin Thomas Ridley. He married Mary Tocque, daughter of a prominent merchant in Carbonear, and they had ten children: James, John, Mary, Charles, Elizabeth, Jessie, Margaret, Sophia, Edward, and Samuel. By 1830, Rorke was working as a planter-trader at an Adam’s Cove fishery. In 1939, he established his own mercantile firm in Carbonear, called John Rorke and Sons Limited, which his sons John Jr. and James joined in 1880. Rorke was involved in politics: a member of the House of Assembly for Carbonear for 20 years (elected six times); a member of Frederick B. T. Carter’s pro-confederate slate in 1869 and the Whiteway administration in 1878; and a member of the Executive Council from 1879 until his death on September 14, 1896. The family business was maintained by his descendants until the 1970s. Numerous books in the Queen Elizabeth II Library bear handwriting stating that they were donated by the Rorke family.
Donation List:
Cheyne, T. K. The Prophecies of Isaiah: A New Translation with Commentary and Appendices: In Two Volumes, vol. 1. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1882.
Dollinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von, and Alfred Plummer. Prophecies and the Prophetic Spirit in the Christian Era: An Historical Essay. London: Rivingtons, 1873.
Harrison, John and E. B. Pusey. An Answer to Dr. Pusey’s Challenge Respecting the Doctrine of the Real Presence; In Which the Doctrines of the Lord’s Supper, As Held by Him, Roman and Greek Catholics, Ritualists, and High Anglo-Catholics, Are Examined and Shown to Be Contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and to the Teaching of the Fathers of the First Eight Centuries, with the Testimony of an Ample Catena Patrum of the Same Period. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1871.
Keble, John. Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve. Oxford [England]: J. Parker, 1875.
Keble, John. Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday. Oxford: James Parker, 1876.
Keble, John. Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany. Oxford [England]: J. Parker, 1875.
Keble, John. Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day. London: J. Parker, 1876.
Keble, John. Sermons for Lent to Passiontide. Oxford: James Parker, 1875.
Keble, John. Sermons for Septuagesima to Ash-Wednesday. Oxford [England]: J. Parker, 1879.
Keble, John. Sermons for the Holy Week. Oxford: James Parker, 1876.
Mozley, Anne. Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman during his Life in the English Church. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1898.
Newman, John Henry. Discussions and Arguments on Various Subjects. London: Pickering, 1873.
Newman, John Henry. Two Essays on Biblical and on Ecclesiastical Miracles. London: Basil M. Pickering, 1873.
Pusey, E. B. The Minor Prophets with a Commentary: Explanatory and Practical, and Introductions to the Several Books: Vol. VIII Zechariah. London: James Nisbet & Co., Limited, 1907.
