James Simonds (December 10, 1735 – February 20, 1831) was a merchant, judge and political figure in

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. He represented

Sunbury County Sunbury County (2016 population 27,644) is located in central New Brunswick, Canada. A large military base (CFB Gagetown) is located in the western part of the county south of the town of Oromocto. The county also hosts forestry and mixed farm ...

in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1773 to 1782 Note that Sunbury County was in the part of Nova Scotia that became New Brunswick in 1784. and Saint John City and County in the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an deliberative assembly, assembly with the authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country or city. They are often contrasted with the Executive (government), executive and Judiciary, ...

from 1796 to 1802. He was born in

Haverhill, Massachusetts Haverhill ( ) is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Haverhill is located 35 miles north of Boston on the New Hampshire border and about 17 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The population was 67,787 at the 2020 United States Cen ...

, the son of Nathan Simonds and Sarah Hazen, and moved to the mouth of the Saint John River, then part of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, in 1762. With partners including William Hazen, Simonds began trading in fish, furs, lime and lumber products with Massachusetts. In 1767, he married Hannah Peabody. Simonds served as magistrate, probate judge, registrar of deeds and deputy customs collector for

. The business encountered problems during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

and Simonds tried to sell his share of the business but his partners were not prepared to buy him out. In 1816, fourteen years after he retired from politics, he was named

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

. His sons

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

and

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

both served in the legislative assembly.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
1735 births 1831 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Nova Scotia pre-Confederation MLAs Colony of New Brunswick judges Canadian magistrates {{NewBrunswick-MLA-stub