Henry John Boulton

Henry John Boulton,

Boulton began his legal career under the tutelage of

By the time of his return from Newfoundland, Boulton had become a strong Reformer, supporting Robert Baldwin and the quest for responsible government. At the end of the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry, he retired from public life and devoted himself to his legal practice.

He died in Toronto, Ontario in 1870, aged 80.

Early life and family

Boulton was born at

One of Boulton's brothers, George Strange Boulton, was also a member of the Legislative Assembly and served on the Legislative Council. Another brother, D'Arcy Boulton Jr., also a lawyer, built and lived at The Grange, one of the earliest substantial brick residences in York.

Family Compact member

Boulton was called to the English bar and, in 1816, the bar of Upper Canada. He was appointed Solicitor General in 1818, at age 28, and then Attorney General in 1829. The appointments illustrated the nature of the Family Compact.

Boulton's father, D'Arcy Boulton, had been the Solicitor-General of Upper Canada. When he was later appointed Attorney General,

The string of appointments indicated the patronage nature of the position under the informal control of the Family Compact. However, even critics of the Family Compact acknowledged that Robinson and the Boultons carried out the office with fairness.[1]

Boulton also served three terms as

While he was Solicitor-General, Boulton ended up being charged with being an accessory to a duel, which also illustrated the pervasiveness of politics at that time. The matter arose in early 1828, when a Reform journalist, Francis Collins, was prosecuted by Attorney-General Robinson for libellous utterances in his newspaper. The case came on before Justice Willis, who was an opponent of the government. Collins attacked the prosecution, arguing that Robinson had failed to do his duty by not prosecuting his colleague, Boulton, for having acted as a second at a duel some years before. Justice Willis seized on this allegation and turned the case into a prosecution of Boulton, with Robert Baldwin, then a young leader of the budding Reform movement, acting as prosecutor. The matter became entirely political and ended when the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, dismissed Justice Willis.^[4]

During his tenure as Solicitor-General, Boulton wrote a short book to encourage working-class British to consider emigrating to Canada.

Member of the Legislative Assembly

In 1830, Boulton was elected to represent Niagara in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada. Although he campaigned as an independent, Reformers considered him a "ministerialist", a supporter of the Tories. In his capacity as Attorney General, he was involved in several disputes with members of the growing Reform movement, to the point that William Lyon Mackenzie, one of the leading Reformers, put Boulton at the head of his "Black Book" of corrupt officials. Mackenzie described Boulton and his brother George Strange Boulton, “as bad as bad can be, perhaps the very worst members any country or nation can be afflicted with.”^[1]

While a member of the Assembly, John Henry Boulton instigated several expulsions of William Lyon Mackenzie from the assembly, based on Mackenzie's radical Reform views. In 1832,

Boulton publicly contested his dismissal, publishing his correspondence with the secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of the province, and seeking a public statement for the reasons for his dismissal. He maintained that the Lieutenant Governor had never informed him of the Colonial Secretary's direction to stop attacking Mackenzie. Boulton also travelled to Britain and argued his case with the British government, which ultimately acknowledged that he had been improperly dismissed. In compensation, the British government appointed him as Chief Justice of the colony of Newfoundland.[1]

Chief Justice of Newfoundland

Boulton arrived in Newfoundland in November 1833. The position of Chief Justice was a difficult one, because the Chief Justice was also the president of the Council, which had both legislative and executive functions. Although Boulton's predecessor had been dismissed for mixing his political duties with his legislative duties, it was difficult to avoid doing so.^[1]

Boulon introduced a new system of selecting

In 1835, Boulton was caricatured for his opening address to the grand jury. He found the author of the caricature, Robert John Parsons, in contempt of court, fined him £50, and sentenced him to three months in jail. After the matter was raised in the British Parliament, the British government concluded that while Boulton had the legal authority for these actions, the “practice for many years . . . of this country was against him”, and remitted the sentence. Two years later, Boulton instituted a libel action against three members of the Assembly who had criticised his conduct in office. The case was never heard.^[1]

Boulton was considered notorious by locals and was monikered "the hanging judge."^{[citation needed]} In one particular instance, he sentenced an English servant boy accused of the murder of a woman and two children to an indefinite prison sentence, despite there being no evidence whatsoever against him.^{[citation needed]} Within a year a large crowd marched on the courthouse and the boy was promptly freed. ^{[citation needed]}

In 1837, a delegation from the Assembly went to London to seek Boulton's removal. They had a favourable reception from the

In 1841 he stood for election to the 1st Parliament of the Province of Canada in his old constituency of Niagara. In spite of his previous support for the Tories, he ran as a Reformer. After a close-fought election, the returning officer declared that his Tory opponent, Edward Campbell, had been elected. Boulton's supporters challenged the election by means of an election petition to the Legislative Assembly. In 1842, over a year after the election, the Assembly ruled that Boulton had been elected, not Edwards. Boulton was installed as a member of the Assembly.^[5][6][7]

Once in Parliament, Boulton aligned himself with the ultra-Reformers led by Robert Baldwin. He declared in favour of responsible government, commenting that his "considerable experience of Colonial Office Government" had persuaded him that the Canadian people should have complete management over local affairs.^[1] His support of the Reformers resulted in his defeat in the general election of 1844,^[1][8] but in the general election of 1847, he was elected in Norfolk County.

One of Boulton's major acts of support as a friend of the ministry was in relation to the Rebellion Losses Bill. The Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry had proposed the bill, to compensate individuals who had their property damaged or lost during the Rebellion of 1837–38. The bill had strong support amongst the French-speaking inhabitants of Lower Canada (Canada East). However, it aroused strong opposition among many English-speaking residents of both Canada East and Upper Canada (Canada West), because there had been substantial popular support in Lower Canada for the rebellion. Many English-speaking Canadians saw the bill as compensating those who had supported the Rebellion.

Boulton proposed an amendment to the bill which provided that no-one who had been convicted of treason, or had pled guilty and had been transported to Bermuda, would be eligible for benefits under the bill. This provision received strong support from the French-Canadian members, although opposed by Louis-Joseph Papineau, for apparently affirming the validity of the special courts that had been set up to try individuals accused of assisting in the Rebellion.^[9] The amendment helped convince moderate Reformers in Canada West to vote for the bill,^[1] which passed with majorities from both the English-speaking and the French-speaking members of the Assembly.^[10]

Towards the end of the Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry, Boulton began to drift away from them, proclaiming himself an independent member. He moved towards the nascent "Clear Grit" movement, of more radical Reformers, increasingly voting against the government.

Boulton did not stand for election in the general election of 1851. He retired from politics but continued to practise law until about 1860. In 1855, he was the manager of the Canadian section at the Paris Exposition.^[1]

He died at Toronto, Ontario in 1870.

Publications

Boulton, Henry John, A short sketch of the province of Upper Canada, for the information of the labouring poor throughout England, to Which Is Prefixed Thoughts on Colonization, Addressed to the Labouring Poor, the Clergy, Select Vestries, and Overseers of the Poor, and Other Persons, Interested in the Administration of Parish Relief in the Different Parishes in England (London: J. Murray, 1826).

References

External links

• Henry John Boulton fonds, Archives of Ontario