Joshua Upham (November 3, 1741 – November 1, 1808) was a lawyer, 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 served as a member of the New Brunswick Council. He was born in

Brookfield, Massachusetts Brookfield is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Brookfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. The population was 3,439 at the 2020 census. History Brookfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660 and was officiall ...

, the son of Dr. Jabez Upham and Katharine Nichols, and graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1763. He practised law in Brookfield. In 1768, he married Elizabeth Murray. In 1777, when, as a lawyer, he was required to take an oath of allegiance to the American state, he declared himself a loyalist and left for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to join the British. (He was subsequently named in the

Massachusetts Banishment Act The Massachusetts Banishment Act, officially named the "Banishment Act of the State of Massachusetts", was passed in September 1778 "to prevent the return to this state of certain persons therein named and others who have left this state or either o ...

of 1778.) Upham was an officer, ending the war as a major in the King's American Dragoons. He was named a judge in the

Supreme Court of New Brunswick The Court of King's Bench of New Brunswick (in French: ''Cour du Banc du Roi du Nouveau-Brunswick'') is the superior trial court of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Structure The Court of King's Bench of New Brunswick consists of a C ...

in 1784. After the death of his first wife, he married Mary Chandler, the sister of

Samuel Chandler Samuel Chandler (1693 – 8 May 1766) was an English Nonconformist minister and pamphleteer. He has been called the "uncrowned patriarch of Dissent" in the latter part of George II's reign. Early life Samuel Chandler was born at Hungerford in B ...

and sister-law of Amos Botsford, in 1792. Upham, a slave-owner, voted to uphold the legality of slavery in New Brunswick in 1800 in ''

R v Jones Reginald Victor Jones , FRSE, LLD (29 September 1911 – 17 December 1997) was a British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an important role in the defence of Britain in by solving scientific and technical pr ...

''. He died at the age of 66 in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, where he had gone to lobby the British government to make the salaries of Supreme Court judges in New Brunswick comparable with those in Upper and Lower Canada. His daughter Sarah married John Murray Bliss and his daughter Frances married

John Wesley Weldon John Wesley Weldon (ca 1809 – 1885) was a lawyer, judge and political figure in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada. He represented Kent County in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1828. He married Frances Chandler, the da ...

References

* 1741 births 1808 deaths Harvard College alumni Colony of New Brunswick judges {{NewBrunswick-politician-stub