George Sherwood (May 29, 1811 – ??) was a judge, lawyer and political figure in

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

Family and early life

Sherwood was born in Augusta Township in 1811, the son of

Levius Peters Sherwood Levius Peters Sherwood (December 12, 1777 – May 19, 1850) was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born at St. Johns in Lower Canada, the son of Justus Sherwood. He studied law and was called to the bar in 1803. In ...

and Charlotte Sherwood, daughter of

Ephraim Jones Ephraim Jones (April 17, 1750 – January 24, 1812) was a soldier, judge, and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born in Weston, Massachusetts, in 1750. His father, Elisha, and five of his brothers served with the British during the American ...

. He was of

United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America du ...

stock on both sides of his family.''The Canadian biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men: Ontario Volume'', (Toronto: American Biographical Publishing Co., 1880), pp. 235–236.
/ref> His older brother, Henry Sherwood, later became Joint Premier of the

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

. George Sherwood studied law and was called to the bar in 1833, as a barrister at law. The same year he married Marianne Keegan, originally from Nova Scotia. He set up practice in Prescott, originally in partnership with his brother Henry.

Later career

Elected a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of the

Law Society of Upper Canada The Law Society of Ontario (LSO; french: Barreau de l'Ontario) is the law society responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers and paralegals in the Canadian province of Ontario. Founded in 1797 as the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC; frenc ...

in 1849, Sherwood was named

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

in 1856. A member of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

, Sherwood donated land valued at £25 for the foundation of

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, an Anglican college in Toronto. Sherwood was an officer in the local militia, and eventually reached the position of lieutenant-colonel, commanding the 1st Battalion of the Leeds militia. He was also a director of the

Brockville and Ottawa Railway The Brockville and Ottawa Railway (B&O) was an early railway in Upper Canada, today's Ontario. It ran north from the town of Brockville on the Saint Lawrence River to Sand Point on the Ottawa River. It was built primarily to serve the timber tr ...

. In his later years, Sherwood was a warden of the Anglican church in Brockville.

Political career

The Sherwoods were part of the

Family Compact The Family Compact was a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (today’s Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1840s. It was the Upper Canadian equivalent of the Château Clique in ...

, the inter-connected families of strong British and Loyalist sympathies which dominated the government of Upper Canada in the early years of the 19th century. When he first entered politics in the general election of 1841, George Sherwood was associated with the

Upper Canada Tories The Tory movement in Upper Canada was formed from the elements of the Family Compact following the War of 1812. It was an early political party, merely a group of like minded conservative elite in the early days of Canada. The Tories would later ...

. Although he supported the union of

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 th ...

and

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 ...

into the new

, he was a critic of the Governor General, Lord Sydenham, in the 1841 election.Paul G. Cornell, ''Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841-67'' (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93-94. The Tories disagreed with the Governor General's policy of seeking a broad-base of support in the Legislative Assembly, including Reformers, rather than drawing support solely from the Family Compact, as previous governors of Upper Canada had done. Sherwood successfully stood for election for the electoral district of

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Le ...

in the 1841 general election for the 1st Parliament of the Province of Canada. He was re-elected in the elections of 1844 and 1848, but defeated in the general elections of 1851 and 1854. He was re-elected in the general election of 1857 and served in Parliament until 1863. In 1845, Sherwood was appointed a commissioner to review the management of public works in the Province. By 1858 he was a supporter of the Liberal-Conservative party, and entered Cabinet that year in the

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

–

George-Étienne Cartier Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, (pronounced ; September 6, 1814May 20, 1873) was a Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation. The English spelling of the name—George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling—is explained ...

ministry. He served from 1858 to 1862 as Receiver General, and was an ''ex officio'' member of the Board of Railway Commissioners. He held those positions until March, 1862, when he became Commissioner of Crown Lands. He resigned from Cabinet in May, 1862.

Judicial career

In 1865, he was appointed judge of the County Court for

Hastings County Hastings County is located in the province of Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it is located on the border of Eastern Ontario and Central Ontario. Hastings County is the second-largest county in Ontario, after Renfrew County, and its county ...

, a position he held until his death. As a judge, he was reported to be "courteous, cool and impartial".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherwood, George 1811 births Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada West Judges in Ontario Year of death missing Canadian King's Counsel 19th-century Canadian judges