John Moore (born before 1814 – died 1858 or later) was a contractor and political figure in

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 ...

(now

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 ...

), first serving in 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 then 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 ...

. He initially was a strong supporter of the Governor General, appointed by the British government, but gradually shifted towards a Reform viewpoint, where the elected Legislative Assembly would have greater powers. Little is known of his life. Moore was probably born in England and emigrated at some point to Lower Canada, settling 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 ...

. In 1824 he married Lois Caswell in a Protestant church at Shipton (now part of

Danville, Quebec Danville is a city in the administrative region of Estrie, in the Canadian province of Quebec. As of the 2016 Canadian Census, the population was 3,836. History Danville is on a stretch of the Chemin Craig, a road built in the 19th century connec ...

). In 1825, Moore was colonization agent for Newport township. He was engaged in railway construction between 1843 and 1853. Moore was elected in 1834 to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Parliament of Lower Canada The Parliament of Lower Canada was the legislature for Lower Canada. It was created when the old Province of Quebec was split into Lower Canada and Upper Canada in 1791. As in other Westminster-style legislatures, it consisted of three component ...

), representing

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 ...

, in tandem with Colonel Bartholomew Gugy. He generally aligned with the Bureaucrats Party, supporting the position of the governor. His position ended when the British government suspended the constitution of Lower Canada in 1838, after the outbreak of 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 ...

in November 1837. He is believed to have organised a group of around fifty men for the government militia during the Rebellion. Following the rebellion in Lower Canada, and the similar rebellion in 1837 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 ...

(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. In the first general election for the new Legislative Assembly in 1841, Moore was 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 ...

for Sherbrooke County, as a supporter of the union. One of the first major issues in the new Assembly was a vote on the way union had been carried out. Moore voted in favour of the union. He was initially a consistent supporter of Governor General Lord Sydenham in the 1841 session. He also opposed changes to the ministry in 1842 which resulted in a greater Reform balance. However, when the ministry resigned the next year in a conflict with the new Governor General, Sir Charles Metcalfe, he voted in support of the outgoing ministers. His voting pattern over the course of the Parliament showed a gradual shift from clear support for the Governor General to increasing support for the Reform movement and the powers of the Assembly.J.O. Côté
''Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860''
(Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), p. 45. Moore was nominated as a candidate in the general elections of 1844, but he withdrew his name before the balloting. Little is known of his later life. He is known to have been living in Sherbrooke in 1858.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, John 19th-century births 19th-century deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada East People from Estrie People from Sherbrooke Pre-Confederation Quebec people Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown