James Morton (August 29, 1808 – July 7, 1864) was a businessman 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 ...

. He was born in Ireland in 1808 and came to Kingston in

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 ...

in 1824, where he learned the brewery business from

Thomas Molson Thomas Molson (September 1, 1791 – February 22, 1863) was a Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist, co-founder of Molson Distillery and member of the Molson family. Born September 1, 1791, son of John Molson (1763–1836) and Sarah Insley V ...

. In 1831, he set up a brewery and distillery there with Robert Drummond and became sole owner after his partner's death in 1834. He later set up a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

and bought several ships to transport his goods. In 1856, he was involved in the construction of a section of the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

. Around 1854, he set up a factory to build railway engines. However, by 1860, he was bankrupt, having overextended himself financially before an economic downturn in 1857. In 1861, he was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper C ...

in 1861 for Frontenac. He died in Kingston in 1864.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, James Morton, James Morton, James Morton, James Morton, James Canadian people of Ulster-Scottish descent 19th-century Canadian businesspeople Irish emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario Immigrants to Upper Canada