Edward Hale, D.C.L. (December 6, 1800 – April 26, 1875) was a

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

businessman and political figure. He was Chancellor of

Bishop's University Bishop's University (french: Université Bishop's) is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebe ...

and a significant figure to

Bishop's College School Bishop's College School or BCS is an English-language non-profit independent boarding prep school in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada for students in Grades 7 to 12.Thomson, Ashley; Lafortune, Sylvie (1999). Handbook of Canadian Boarding Schools. To ...

Family and early life

Hale was born in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

in 1800, the son of John Hale and Elizabeth Amherst Hale, who were well-connected in the colonial government and society of

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

.Louis-Philippe Audet
"Hale, Edward"
''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. X (1871–1880), University of Toronto / Laval Université. His father was a British army officer who had settled in Lower Canada. John Hale was appointed to the

Legislative Council of Lower Canada The Legislative Council of Lower Canada was the upper house of the bicameral structure of provincial government in Lower Canada until 1838. The upper house consisted of appointed councillors who voted on bills passed up by the Legislative Assembly ...

in 1808 and served as a member until the constitution was suspended in 1838. He was also a member of the

Executive Council of Lower Canada The Executive Council of Lower Canada was an appointive body created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. Its function was to advise the Governor or his representative on the administration of the colony's public affairs. It was replaced by the Execu ...

from 1820 until his death in 1838. His mother was the sister of

William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, GCH, PC (14 January 177313 March 1857) was a British diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Governor-General of India between 1823 and 1828. Background and education Born at Bath, Somerset, Amhers ...

. Their father, Lieutenant General William Amherst, had fought for Britain in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

and had defeated French troops at the

Battle of Signal Hill The Battle of Signal Hill was fought on September 15, 1762, and was the last battle of the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. A British force under Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst (British Army officer), William Amherst recapture ...

St. John's, Newfoundland St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

. His paternal uncle, also named Edward Hale, was

seigneur ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

of Portneuf. He later served on the

Special Council of Lower Canada The Special Council of Lower Canada was an appointed body which administered Lower Canada until the Union Act of 1840 created the Province of Canada. Following the Lower Canada Rebellion, on March 27, 1838, the Constitutional Act of 1791 was susp ...

, which replaced the Parliament of Lower Canada after the suspension of the constitution in 1838. Edward Hale was educated at a private school in England, obtaining a good education. He returned to

in 1820, where he was named secretary to the auditor general for the province. From 1823 to 1828, he was secretary to his maternal uncle, Lord Amherst, who was the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He then travelled in Europe. After he returned to Lower Canada in 1831, he married Eliza Cecilia Bowen, the daughter of Edward Bowen, a former member of the

Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada was the lower house of the bicameral structure of provincial government in Lower Canada until 1838. The legislative assembly was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. The lower house consisted of ele ...

and later judge of the Court of King's Bench. The couple had seven children.

Business, agricultural and educational interests

Hale and his wife settled on a property in the

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...

area, on the

Saint-François River The Saint-François River is a right tributary of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. Its source is Lake Saint-François in Chaudière-Appalaches, southeast of Thetford Mines. It flows southwest towards Sherbrooke, where it changes course ...

in the

Eastern Townships The Eastern Townships (french: Cantons de l'Est) is an historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, Canada. It lies between the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border, and extends from Granby in the southwest, to Drummondv ...

, around 1834. He was active in agriculture in the area, and gradually acquired significant land-holdings. He was also involved in business developments. He was a shareholder in the

British American Land Company The British American Land Company (BALC) was a company formed in 1832 for the purpose of purchasing land and encouraging British immigration to Lower Canada. It was founded and promoted by John Galt, Edward Ellice and others to acquire and manag ...

which was established to sell land in that part of the province. Hale was also president of the Stanstead and Sherbrooke Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Along with

Alexander Tilloch Galt Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, (September 6, 1817 – September 19, 1893) was a politician and a father of the Canadian Confederation. Early life Galt was born in Chelsea, England on September 6, 1817. He was the son of John Galt, a Scottish ...

, also of Sherbrooke, Hale was involved in the establishment of the

St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad , known as St-Laurent et Atlantique Quebec in Canada, is a short-line railway operating between Portland, Maine, on the Atlantic Ocean, and Montreal, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence River. It crosses the Can ...

, linking Montreal to

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

. The railway ran through the Eastern Townships and Hale was on the sub-committee planning the local route. In 1866, he was named chancellor for Bishop's College, a post previously held by his father-in-law, Judge Bowen. The appointment was in recognition of the services he had provided to the Church of England in the Sherbrooke area. He was also a founder of

. He was also on the administrative board of the Jeffrey Hale Hospital, which his brother had established in his will.

Political career

Lower Canada

In November 1837, the

Lower Canada Rebellion The Lower Canada Rebellion (french: rébellion du Bas-Canada), commonly referred to as the Patriots' War () in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the colonial government of Lower Canada (now southe ...

broke out. Hale served as secretary to the colonel of the local Sherbrooke militia during the rebellion, but did not participate in any of the military engagements. In March 1838, the British government suspended the provincial government of Lower Canada, under the authority of an act passed by the British Parliament. For the next two years, Lower Canada was governed by the Governor General, assisted by the

, whose members were appointed by the Governor General. Hale was considered a leading local figure from Sherbrooke and was appointed to the Special Council in September 1839. His uncle Edward Hale was also a member of the Special Council at the same time. The British government was considering re-unifying Lower Canada and

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

into a single province. As a member of the Special Council, Hale voted in favour of the resolutions calling for the re-unification. Since the Parliament had been suspended, the issue of re-unification was never proposed to the elected members. During the period of government by the Special Council, the Governor General, Lord Sydenham, created a system of local governance by municipal districts. Each district had an elected council, chaired by a warden appointed by the Governor General. The districts were responsible for municipal governance and education. In 1840, Sydenham appointed Hale the warden of the Sherbrooke district. His correspondence from the time showed that he discharged his duties diligently.

Province of Canada

Following the rebellion in Lower Canada, and the similar rebellion in 1837 in

(now

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

), the British government decided to merge the two provinces into a single province, as recommended by

Lord Durham Earl of Durham is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1833 for the Whig politician and colonial official John Lambton, 1st Baron Durham. Known as "Radical Jack", he played a leading role in the passing of the Gre ...

in the

Durham Report The ''Report on the Affairs of British North America'', (1839) commonly known as the ''Durham Report'' or ''Lord Durham's Report'', is an important document in the history of Quebec, Ontario, Canada and the British Empire. The notable British ...

. The ''Union Act, 1840'', passed by the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...

, abolished the two provinces and their separate parliaments. It created the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British North America, British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham ...

, with a single Parliament for the entire province, composed of an elected Legislative Assembly and an appointed Legislative Council. The Governor General initially retained a strong position in the government. Hale was apparently encouraged to stand for election to the Legislative Assembly in the new Parliament. His opponent was Colonel Bartholomew Gugy. Both men were supporters of the union and the government of Lord Sydenham. Gugy tried to persuade Hale to abandon the campaign, but Hale persisted and was elected to the Assembly, for

.J.O. Côté
''Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860''
(Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), p. 45. In the first session of the Parliament, the major issue was the union of the Canadas. The leader of the

French-Canadian Group French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

, John Neilson, introduced a resolution condemning the way union had been imposed on Lower Canada. The Neilson motion was defeated in the Assembly. Hale was one of the members who supported the union and voted against the resolution. Throughout the first Parliament, Hale was a consistent supporter of the Governor General. He criticised proposals for greater control of the government by the Assembly, particularly in 1842 when the ministry was reconstituted in 1842 with a stronger Reform balance and an aim of greater control of government by the Assembly.Cornell
''Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841–67''
pp. 5, 10, 93–99. Hale was re-elected by

acclamation An acclamation is a form of election that does not use a ballot. It derives from the ancient Roman word ''acclamatio'', a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval towards imperial officials in certain social contexts. Voting Voice vot ...

in 1844. He continued to be a consistent supporter of the Governor General, in the group called "British" Tories. He was diligent in his attendance and participation in the affairs of the Assembly, but found that his business interests suffered by his lengthy absences, first in Kingston, later in Montreal. In 1847 he announced that he would not stand for election in the 1848 election. Col. Gugy was elected in his place.

Quebec Legislative Council

In 1867,

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

created Canada, and divided the Province of Canada into

and

, each with its own parliament. Hale was named to the

Legislative Council of Quebec The Legislative Council of Quebec (French; ''Conseil législatif du Québec'') was the unelected upper house of the bicameral legislature in the Canadian province of Quebec from 1867 to 1968. The Legislative Assembly of Quebec, Legislative Assem ...

for the Wellington division, sitting as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

. He served until his death at Quebec City in 1875. He was buried in Sherbrooke.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hale, Edward 1800 births 1875 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Bishop's College School Faculty Canadian people of English descent Conservative Party of Quebec MLCs Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada East Members of the Special Council of Lower Canada People from Estrie