Charles Hill-Tout

Charles Hill-Tout (1858–1944) was an ethnologist and folklorist, active in British Columbia.

Charles Hill-Tout was born in Buckland, Devon, England on 28 September, 1858.

At first, Hill-Tout was a divinity student at a seminary in Lincoln; he preached in Cardiff. He married Edith Mary Stothert. He became fascinated with Darwinism, and participated in the Oxford Movement, before his departure from England and landing in Toronto, Canada.

Daniel Wilson was guiding Toronto University College, and he was able to direct Hill-Tout to a position teaching at Dr. Tassie’s school. He spoke to the Canadian Institute of Toronto on April 2, 1887, on "The Study of Language". He purchased a 100-acre farm near Port Credit on Lake Ontario, selling it to a resort for a tidy profit. Wilson told Hill-Tout about the Haida people and their totems, and this provoked another trip.

While Edith Mary and their children returned to England for a stay, Hill-Tout set out for Vancouver, British Columbia. He met with Rev. Finnis Clinton and was about to take another teaching position when word arrived from England that a child had died. He rejoined his family.

In 1891 the Hill-Tout family arrived in Vancouver and Charles became housemaster at Whetham College. For two years he was principal of Trinity College, and then opened Buckland College at Burrard and Robson streets. He bought a quarter section of wooded land near Abbotsford and built a log cabin for a summer residence. In 1899 he bought a neighbor’s farm with house and made it the family home.

In 1892, he commenced extensive excavations of the Great Marpole Midden in Vancouver for the Art, Historical, and Scientific Association of Vancouver, stimulating study of other middens in the region. The Great Midden, which dates from 2400-1600 years BP and was a living village until the first of the great smallpox epidemics in the late 17th Century, is today a National Heritage Site of Canada.

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