Edmund Peck
| Edmund James Peck | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
15 April 1850 Rusholme, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 10 September 1924 (aged 74) |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Missionary to the Inuit |
| Spouse(s) | Clara Coleman |
Edmund James Peck (April 15, 1850 – September 10, 1924), known in Inuktitut as Uqammaq (one who talks well), was an Anglican missionary in the Canadian North on the Quebec coast of Hudson Bay and on Baffin Island. He founded the first permanent mission on Baffin Island, Nunavut. He developed Inuktitut syllabics, derived from the Cree syllabary and the first substantial English-Inuktitut dictionary.
His diaries provide an account of the daily life and work of the early missionaries in Baffin Island. Peck conducted extensive research on Inuit oral traditions and presents several detailed verbatim accounts of shamanic traditions and practices. His work contributes to the understanding of Inuit culture and history. His ethnographic data was collected at the request of famed anthropologist Franz Boas in 1897.
Edmund James Peck was born April 15, 1850 in Rusholme, England. His mother and father died before his teen years. At fifteen, he joined the Royal Navy. By the age of 25 he had served on the Ajax, Impregnable, Caledonia, Excellent and the Hector. On the Hector, he organized prayer groups for the crew.
In 1875, he studied Greek and theology at the Reading Institute of the Church Missionary Society in Islington, England. In the Spring of the next year, John Horden, the Bishop of Moose Factory, recruited him for mission work in Hudson Bay.
Edmund Peck left England for Canada in June 1876. During the three-month trip he studied the Inuit language of Inuktitut. He used a Moravian Inuktitut New Testament and compared it to the English Bible. In this way he learned the meaning of Inuktitut words. He arrived at Moose Factory, James Bay, September 1, 1876. From there he traveled to the Hudson Bay Company post at the mouth of the Little Whale River in what is now Northern Quebec. He arrived there on October 24, 1876.
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