• Matthew Cuthbert •

Birth Name: Matthew Cuthbert

Date of Birth: 1816

Date of Death: 1881

Birth Location: Most likely Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Parents: Unknown

Spouse: /

Children: Adopted Anne Shirley in 1876

Siblings: Marilla Cuthbert

Location: Avonlea (Green Gables)

Hair colour: Brown (Grey when Anne Shirley arrives)

Eye colour: Brown

In Books: Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Quote: "Matthew Cuthbert had never been known to volunteer information about anything in his whole life." (Chapter 1, Anne of Green Gables (1908))

"But Matthew so rarely went from home that it must be something pressing and unusual which was taking him; he was the shyest man alive
and hated to have to go among strangers or to any place where he might have to talk." (Chapter 1, Anne of Green Gables (1908))

Background: "Matthew Cuthbert's father, as shy and silent as his son after him, had got as far away as he possibly could from his fellow en without actually retreating into the woods when he founded his homestead. Green Gables was built at the furthest edge of his cleared land and there it was to this day, barely visible from the main road along which all the other Avonlea houses were so sociably situated. Mrs. Rachel Lynde did not call living in such a place LIVING at all." Matthew lives with his sister, Marilla Cuthbert, in Green Gables. He is a shy fellow like his father, with an "ungainly figure and long iron-gray hair that touched his stooping shoulders, and a full, soft brown beard which he had worn ever since he was twenty". When he and Marilla decide to adopt a young boy to help on the farm, he is extremely surprised to see a little girl with fiery red pigtails at the train station. After bringing her home, this little girl, named Anne Shirley, is immediately rejected by his obstinate sister. He defends her however, and Anne is eventually allowed to stay at Green Gables. Through the first book in the series, he is extremely proud of her scholastic achievements, and is more than happy to award her with gifts (to the dismay of Marilla). The Abbey Bank was a bank where Marilla and Matthew had saved all their life savings. Towards the end of the first book, the Abbey Bank collapses. Matthew, shocked from the news and the loss, dies suddenly.

Last updated: January 8, 2007
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