John Beverley Robinson
| Sir John Beverley Robinson, Baronet | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1791-07-26 Berthier, Lower Canada |
| Died | 1863-01-31 Toronto, Canada West |
| Occupation | Lawyer; Attorney General of Upper Canada; Chief Justice of Upper Canada |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
| Partner | |
Sir John Beverley Robinson, Baronet (26 July 1791 – 31 January 1863 (aged 71)) was a lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as Attorney General of Upper Canada and subsequently as Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench (later Queen's Bench) of Upper Canada from 1829 to 1862, making him the longest-serving chief justice in that province's history.[1]
Early life
Robinson was born on 26 July 1791 at Berthier, Lower Canada, the son of Christopher Robinson, a Virginia-born Loyalist, and Esther Sayre, daughter of a Loyalist clergyman. His father died in November 1798, and from the age of seven Robinson was raised in the household of the Reverend John Stuart at Kingston. He attended John Strachan's school at Cornwall from 1799 to 1807, a formative experience that gave rise to a lifelong friendship with Strachan.[1]
At age sixteen Robinson began articling with D'Arcy Boulton Sr., the solicitor general, absorbing Upper Canadian legal and political culture through assembly debates and through his association with Chief Justice William Dummer Powell's circle. After Boulton was captured by a French privateer in 1811, Robinson completed his articles under John Macdonell, the newly appointed attorney general.[1]
War of 1812 and early legal career
Robinson volunteered in a flank company at the outbreak of the War of 1812, receiving an officer's commission. He took part in the capture of Detroit in August 1812 and was present at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October, arriving shortly after the death of Isaac Brock. On his return to York with prisoners he learned of his appointment as acting attorney general — at twenty-one years of age, before he had even been called to the bar. The appointment owed much to the influence of Chief Justice Powell.[1]
In June 1813 Robinson presided over crown prosecutions at the Ancaster trials, in which nineteen persons were charged with treason arising from wartime disaffection. Fifteen were convicted, one pleaded guilty, and four were acquitted. Robinson recommended seven executions; Chief Justice Thomas Scott ordered one additional. Eight men were hanged on 20 July 1813 in what critics later called the "Bloody Assize," though Robinson maintained that those executed had committed treason during wartime.[1][2]
Robinson obtained leave to study in England from September 1815, entering Lincoln's Inn in London and enjoying the hospitality of Lord Bathurst, the secretary of state for war and the colonies. While in England he met and married Emma Walker on 5 June 1817. He returned to Upper Canada in July 1817 as solicitor general and was promoted to attorney general on 11 February 1818.[1]
Fort William and the Selkirk Affair
In 1818–1819 Robinson became centrally involved in the legal conflicts arising from the struggle between the North West Company and Lord Selkirk over the fur trade and the Red River Colony. Selkirk had seized Fort William — the North West Company's great inland depot at the head of Lake Superior, on the site of present-day Thunder Bay — in 1816. Robinson was retained by the North West Company and undertook prosecutions against Selkirk on criminal charges, but was unable to secure indictments. He then prosecuted a group of Nor'Westers on felony charges; all were acquitted. The episode left Robinson disillusioned, and he regarded it as emblematic of Upper Canada's post-war economic difficulties.[1][3]
Attorney General and political career
During the 1820s Robinson served as the government's spokesman in the Legislative Assembly, having won the York seat in the 1820 election. His political goals included encouraging British immigration, establishing sound banking, defending the Church of England's position in the province, and maintaining the British constitutional connection while resisting what he saw as American-style democratic excess.[1]
In 1822 both houses of the Upper Canadian legislature sent Robinson to London to negotiate the division of customs revenues between Upper and Lower Canada. The mission produced the Canada Trade Act of August 1822, which established duties on American goods and guaranteed Upper Canada one-fifth of duties collected from 1819 to 1824. During the same visit Robinson raised war-damage claims, pressed for post office improvements, and worked with Robert Wilmot-Horton on immigration schemes. He was called to the English bar in February 1823. He declined attractive offers including the chief justiceship of Mauritius, writing that "one day or other we shall become a great people — that's certain."[1]
Robinson's 1824 London pamphlet proposed a federal union of all British North American provinces — an early articulation of what would eventually become Confederation — with an appointed upper house and an elected lower house drawing from the provincial assemblies or high-property-threshold electors. Returning to Upper Canada in July 1823, Robinson became one of the two most influential figures in the province alongside Strachan, sharing the confidence of Lieutenant Governor Peregrine Maitland. They formed the core of the so-called Family Compact, bound by shared friendships, a commitment to the British connection, and support for commercial development.[1][4]
The naturalization question consumed much of Robinson's energy in 1825–1827. British courts had ruled that American emigrants of 1783 and their descendants held no British subject status. Robinson drafted bills requiring seven-year residents to renounce American citizenship to obtain civil rights, and defended these measures persistently against opposition led by John Rolph and others. When Lord Goderich eventually capitulated and ordered a more permissive bill, Robinson found the reversal acutely embarrassing.[1]
In 1827–1828 Robinson was drawn into conflict with the newly arrived judge John Walpole Willis, who questioned the validity of court proceedings and demanded changes to how the Court of King's Bench was constituted. After Willis suspended court sittings, Lieutenant Governor Maitland removed him on Robinson's advice. The Willis affair, combined with the alien question and clergy reserves controversy, contributed to the anti-government result of the 1828 election.[1][5]
Chief Justice of Upper Canada
When Chief Justice William Campbell retired in spring 1829, Robinson accepted the chief justiceship, resigning his assembly seat. He simultaneously took the speakership of the Legislative Council and the presidency of the Executive Council. The appointment ended his direct participation in electoral politics, though he remained a legislative councillor for some years before effectively withdrawing to a strictly judicial role.[1]
Robinson served as chief justice from 1829 to 1862, a tenure unmatched by any predecessor. The Upper Canada Law Journal observed at his death that his opinions were "remarkable for their lucid argument, deep learning, strict impartiality and pure justice." He requested legislation allowing Queen's Bench to convene outside regular terms in order to prevent backlogs from accumulating. Contemporary observers noted that he tended toward severity in criminal matters while remaining courteous and careful on the bench generally.[1][6]
Rebellion of 1837 and its aftermath
During the summer and autumn of 1837, Robinson was aware of rumours of rebellion but maintained a public appearance of calm alongside Lieutenant Governor Francis Bond Head. He joined the militia that marched to Montgomery's Tavern on 7 December 1837 to suppress the uprising led by William Lyon Mackenzie. Bond Head recommended Robinson for a knighthood, which he declined at that time.[1]
As chief justice, Robinson presided over the insurrection trials. Of more than nine hundred persons arrested, most were released without trial and bound to keep the peace. Robinson recommended transportation for twenty-five of the thirty-seven sentenced, but believed some capital examples were necessary; rebel leaders Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, who had pleaded guilty to high treason, were hanged.[1]
Ill health sent Robinson to England in the summer of 1838. The colonial secretary Lord Glenelg summoned him to London in December 1838, where Robinson conferred repeatedly with Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington. He read Lord Durham's February 1839 report with alarm, calling the Upper Canada sections "disgraceful and mischievous" and warning that the proposed union would drag Upper Canada into Lower Canada's difficulties. Robinson set out his objections in detail and proposed alternatives, including annexing Montreal to Upper Canada and governing Lower Canada by appointed councils for fifteen years while assimilating French Canadians through English-language institutions. In February 1840 he published Canada, and the Canada Bill, a full argument against the proposed union.[1][7]
Despite Robinson's opposition, the union of the Canadas proceeded in 1840. Returning to Toronto, Robinson found himself effectively removed from political life — both as a judge and as an unreconstructed Compact Tory whose circle had lost office.[1]
Church, education, and later years
Outside his judicial duties Robinson devoted considerable energy to Anglican affairs. He served on the Church Society executive, was a vice-president of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and supported the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He contributed land to Methodists in recognition of their frontier ministry, and appeared publicly at British and Foreign Bible Society meetings. He played an active role in founding King's College and, following its secularization under Robert Baldwin's 1849 act, advised Bishop Strachan to establish an Anglican college. When Strachan obtained a charter for Trinity College in 1852, Robinson became its first chancellor, serving in that capacity until his death.[1]
Robinson was appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1850 and created a baronet in 1854 on the recommendation of Governor General Lord Elgin.[1]
In spring 1861 severe gout forced Robinson to reduce his bench work. He resigned as chief justice on 15 March 1862 and was appointed presiding judge of the Court of Error and Appeal. Gout recurred severely in the autumn of 1862, and by January 1863 he was confined to his home. On 28 January Bishop Strachan administered communion; Robinson died three days later, on 31 January 1863, at Toronto.[1]
Personal life
Robinson married Emma Walker on 5 June 1817 in England, having met her at the home of William Merry while studying law in London. They had seven children — four sons and three daughters. Three sons became lawyers; the youngest reached the rank of major-general in the British Army; and the second son, John Beverley Robinson (1821–1896), entered politics, held brief cabinet office before Confederation, and served as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in the 1880s.[1][8]
Robinson built one of Toronto's finest homes, Beverley House, during his prosperous years at the bar in the 1820s. By 1852 he held over 1,000 acres in York County, 300 acres in Simcoe County, and numerous parcels elsewhere in Upper Canada, including land inherited from his brother Peter Robinson in 1838.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 Robert E. Saunders."Robert E. Saunders, "Robinson, John Beverley," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).1976.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ E. A. Cruikshank."John Beverley Robinson and the trials for treason in 1814."[newspaper].Ontario History.1929.vol. XXV, pp. 191–219.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ G. M. Gressley."Lord Selkirk and the Canadian courts."[newspaper].North Dakota History.1957.vol. XXIV, pp. 89–105.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Terry Cook."John Beverley Robinson and the conservative blueprint for the Upper Canadian community."[newspaper].Ontario History.1972.vol. LXIV, pp. 79–94.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Robert Hett."Judge Willis and the Court of King's Bench in Upper Canada."[newspaper].Ontario History.1973.vol. LXV, pp. 19–30.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "The late Sir John B. Robinson, baronet."[newspaper].Upper Canada Law Journal.1863.vol. IX, pp. 57–66.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ J. G. Lambton (Lord Durham); edited by C. P. Lucas."Lord Durham's report on the affairs of British North America."[book].1912.3 vols., Oxford.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ C. W. Robinson."Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson, bart., C.B., D.C.L., chief-justice of Upper Canada."[book].1904.Edinburgh and London.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)