1st Parliament of Upper Canada
| 1st Parliament of Upper Canada | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
 The First Legislature of Upper Canada, by Frederick Challener | |||||
| Overview | |||||
| Legislative body | Legislative Assembly | ||||
| Jurisdiction | Upper Canada, British North America | ||||
| Meeting place | Navy Hall | ||||
| Term | September 17, 1792 – 3 June 1796 | ||||
| Election | 1792 Election | ||||
| Legislative Council | |||||
| Members | 9 | ||||
| Chief Justice of Upper Canada | William Osgoode | ||||
| House of Assembly | |||||
| Members | 16 | ||||
| Speaker | John McDonell | ||||
The 1st Parliament of Upper Canada was the inaugural legislature of the province of Upper Canada, instituted upon the province's establishment as a separate colony from the province of Quebec in December 1791. The new province was created by the enactment of the Constitutional Act 1791, which prescribed the governance structure and rules of engagement for the government of the new province.
The Parliament of Upper Canada was modeled after the Parliament of the United Kingdom, consisting of three components:[1]
- The Crown of the United Kingdom – represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada who was advise by a council of ministers, the Executive Council of Upper Canada
- The Legislative Council of Upper Canada – the upper chamber with members who were appointed for life
- The House of Assembly of Upper Canada – the lower chamber with no less than sixteen members to be elected from electoral division determined by the Lieutenant Governor
With election held in August 1792, the 1st Parliament convened on 17 September 1792.[2] From 1792 to 1796, the provincial capital was in Newark (modern day Niagara-on-the-Lake). Various meeting locations were identified by record from that period as having host the gathering of the assembly, including:
- the Anchorage
- the Freemanson's Hall
- the Navy Hall (official residence of Lieutenant Governor Simcoe)
The 1st Parliament convened five sessions during its duration:[3] It was dissolved 1 July 1796.
No copies of the journal of the House of Assembly for the third, fourth and fifth sessions (1794, 1795, 1796) of the 1st Parliament are known to have survived the plundering by American troops following the Battle of York in 1814, during which the buildings of the Legislative Assembly, and Government House were set on fire. Limited records of the assembly proceedings from the 3rd session had been assembled from fragments of documented recovered in the Crown Land Departments.[4]
| Sessions[3] | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 17 September 1792 | 15 October 1792 |
| 2nd | 31 May 1793 | 9 July 1793 |
| 3rd | 2 June 1794 | 9 July 1794 |
| 4th | 6 July 1795 | 10 August 1795 |
| 5th | 16 May 1796 | 3 June 1796 |
The Crown
[edit]The 1st Parliament was in office during the thirty-second to the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King George III of the United Kingdom. The King was represented by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe for the entire duration of the 1st Parliament.
Legislative Council
[edit]The Legislative Council of Upper Canada consisted of the following members during the 1st Parliament.
Departure occurred during later parliament
| Member | Town | Entered | Exited | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Baby | Sandwich | July 12, 1792 | February 19, 1833 | ||
| Richard Cartwright | Kingston | July 12, 1792 | July 27, 1815 | ||
| Richard Duncan | Williamsburgh | July 12, 1792 | 1805 | ||
| Alexander Grant Sr. | York | July 12, 1792 | May 1813 | ||
| Robert Hamilton | Niagara | July 12, 1792 | March 8, 1809 | ||
| John Munro | Eastern District | July 12, 1792 | October 1800 | ||
| William Osgoode | York | July 12, 1792 | February 24, 1794 | Appointed Chief Justice of Lower Canada | |
| William Robertson | Sandwich | July 12, 1792 | November 4, 1792 | Resignation | |
| Peter Russell | York | July 12, 1792 | September 30, 1808 | ||
| Æneas Shaw | York | June 19, 1794 | February 6, 1814 | ||
| Jacob Mountain | Quebec City | July 1, 1794 | June 25, 1825 | Anglican Bishop of Quebec |
Members of the House of Assembly
[edit]| District | Riding | Member[5] | Elected | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern | 1st Glengarry | Hugh McDonell | 1792 | ||
| Eastern | 2nd Glengarry | John McDonell | 1792 | Speaker 1792–1796 | |
| Eastern | Stormont | Jeremiah French | 1792 | ||
| Eastern | Dundas | Alexander Campbell | 1792 | ||
| Eastern | Grenville | Ephraim Jones | 1792 | ||
| Eastern | Leeds & Frontenac | John White | 1792 | ||
| Midland | Prince Edward and District of the Township of Adolphustown | Philip Dorland | 1792 | Did not take seat[a] | |
| Peter Van Alstine | 1793 | Took seat on June 1, 1793[6] | |||
| Midland | Ontario[b] & Addington | Joshua Booth | 1792 | ||
| Midland | Lennox, Hastings & Northumberland | Hazelton Spencer | 1792 | ||
| Home | Durham, York & 1st Lincoln[c] | Nathaniel Pettit | 1792 | ||
| Home | 2nd Lincoln | Benjamin Pawling | 1792 | ||
| Home | 3rd Lincoln | Isaac Swayze | 1792 | ||
| Home | 4th Lincoln & Norfolk[d] | Parshall Terry | 1792 | ||
| Western | Kent[e] | William Macomb | 1792 | ||
| Western | Kent | François Baby | 1792 | ||
| Western | Suffolk[e] & Essex | David William Smith | 1792 |
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ↑ Refused to oath of office in the prescribed form on religious grounds (him being a Quaker); seat vacated with new election called
- ↑ Ontario County 1792–1800 is entirely different from the Ontario County that existed ifrom 1850s to the 1970s. It consisted of Amherst island, Gage island; Wolfe island, Howe island; and the other small islands between Gananoque and Prince Edward County
- ↑ York County covered modern day Peel, Halton and the northern half of Wentworth, while Lincoln cover the southern half.
- ↑ Norfolk county spanned from Six Nations to London at this time
- 1 2 Kent county at this time covered area north of the Thames River, area that would in modern days be in Lambton county and northern portion of Kent and Middlesex counties. Most of modern day Kent county were in Suffolk county at this time
References
[edit]- ↑ UK 1791, s. II, III & IV.
- ↑ Assembly 1792, p. 2.
- 1 2 Archives of Ontario "Library". Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2009.
- ↑ Assembly 1792, p. 45.
- ↑ Campbell 1910.
- ↑ Assembly 1792, p. 23.
Sources
[edit]- Constitution Act, 1791. Statutes of the United Kingdom. Vol. 31 George III. 1791. c. 31.
- Campbell, Wilfred (September 1910). "A List of the Members of the House of Assembly for Upper Canada from 1792, to the Union in 1841". Proceedings and transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. 3rd. 4 (Meeting of Sept 1910, Transactions of Section II. Read in part 27th May, 1909.). Royal Society of Canada: 169–190.
- Froman, Debra, ed. (1984). "Parliament Buildings". Legislators and Legislatures of Ontario: A Reference Guide. Vol. 1. Legislative Library, Legislative Assembly of Ontario. p. v.
- Armstrong, Frederick H. (1985). Handbook of Upper Canadian Chronology. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 0-919670-92-X.
- "Journal and Proceedings of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada, 1792". Journals of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, 1792–1804. 1 (1792). Ontario Archives. 1909.