James Beaven

Born in 1801, he was educated at Oxford and was ordained in the Church of England before moving to Upper Canada in the 1840s. He became closely associated with King’s College in Toronto, where he taught divinity and classics during a formative period for the institution.

He was also a prolific religious writer. His books include catechetical and theological works meant to explain Anglican teaching clearly and accessibly, reflecting his long career as a teacher as well as a clergyman.

Later in life, he served in Niagara, Ontario, where he died in 1875. Remembered as a scholar-priest in the Anglican tradition, he was part of the generation that linked Oxford education, colonial church life, and the development of early Canadian academic culture.