Major Thomas Edmund Campbell (1809 – 1872) C.B., came to

Canada East Canada East (french: links=no, Canada-Est) was the northeastern portion of the United Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new ...

as a British military officer, where he became a political figure and

seigneur ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

who did much to develop Rouville, Quebec. He built Manoir Rouville-Campbell, and was a prominent member of the

Montreal Hunt Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

Early life

He was born at

Bedford Square Bedford Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England. History Built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, the square has had many distinguished residents, inclu ...

, London, January 4, 1809. He grew up in an affluent family, the fifth of the six children born to Duncan Campbell (d.1815), who had made a fortune in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, and Harriet (d.1817), daughter of Robert Young of Auchenshcoch. He was the grandson of Alexander Campbell (1710-1760), 11th

Laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

of Inverawe,

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

, descended from

Archibald Campbell of Inverawe Clan Campbell ( gd, Na Caimbeulaich ) is a Scottish Highlands, Highland Scottish clan, historically one of the largest and most powerful of the Highland clans. The Clan Campbell lands are in Argyll and within their lands lies Ben Cruachan. The ...

. His brother, Colonel James Campbell, built ''New Inverawe'', today known as Ardanaiseig Hotel. He was a brother-in-law of Sir Alexander Spearman 1st Bt., of Hanwell, and his sister-in-law was a niece of Lt.-General Sir James Campbell, 1st Bt., of Inverneill. In 1832, he graduated from the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

and was appointed Captain of the

Royal Scots The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment), once known as the Royal Regiment of Foot, was the oldest and most senior infantry regiment of the line of the British Army, having been raised in 1633 during the reign of Charles I of Scotland. The regimen ...

and aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Campbell. He transferred to the

1st The Royal Dragoons The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) was a heavy cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661 as the Tangier Horse. It served for three centuries and was in action during the First and the Second World Wars. It was amalgama ...

and then joined the

7th Queen's Own Hussars The 7th Queen's Own Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first formed in 1689. It saw service for three centuries, including the First World War and the Second World War. The regiment survived the immediate post-war reduction in ...

, serving in the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

Canada

Montreal Hunt at Manoir Rouville-Campbell

He came to

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 ...

during 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 ...

and he led a group of

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...

s against the Patriote forces at

Châteauguay Châteauguay ( , , ) is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, located both on the Chateauguay River and Lac St-Louis, which is a section of the St. Lawrence River. The population of the city of Châteauguay at the 2021 Cens ...

. He stopped pillaging by other loyalist forces afterwards and arrested the ringleaders who had instigated it. He became Governor Charles Edward Poulett Thomson's military secretary and aide-de-camp in 1838. As such, he helped structure the first election held in 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 ...

in 1841 to aid candidates favoured by the Governor. In 1841, he married Henriette-Julie, the daughter of seigneur

Michel-Louis Juchereau Duchesnay Michel-Louis Juchereau Duchesnay (December 14, 1785 – August 17, 1838) was a Canadians, Canadian Officer (armed forces), officer, Seigneurial system of New France, seigneur, and justice of the peace. He was the son of Antoine Juchereau Duchesna ...

and his wife, daughter of

Ignace-Michel-Louis-Antoine d'Irumberry de Salaberry Ignace-Michel-Louis-Antoine d'Irumberry de Salaberry (4 July 1752 – 22 March 1828) was the son of Michel de Sallaberry and the first member of the family to develop permanent roots in Canada. He had stayed on when his parents returned to Fran ...

. Through his wife, Campbell inherited the seigneury of Rouville in 1844. Their youngest son married one of the daughters of

Sir Hugh Allan Sir Hugh Allan (September 29, 1810 – December 9, 1882) was a Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate, financier and capitalist. By the time of his death, the Allan Shipping Line had become the largest privately owned shipping empire in the wor ...

, of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. Campbell settled at Saint-Hilaire in 1846 and set up a model farm there. A year later, he became civil secretary for the new governor,

Lord Elgin Earl of Elgin is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 July 1641. The Earl of Elgin is the h ...

and superintendent-general of Indian affairs. He resigned this post when the capital was moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1849. In 1858, 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 ...

for Rouville and generally voted with the Conservatives. After he was defeated in 1861, Campbell retired from politics. He was a director of the

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (BMO; french: Banque de Montréal, link=no) is a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank; while its head office remains in ...

and 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 ...

. He was a member of a commission set up in 1862 with the aim of improving civil defence in the province. Campbell continued to supervise the operation of the seigneury of Rouville until his death in 1872. Unlike many seigneur of English origin, Campbell conducted the business of the seigneury in French.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Thomas Edmund 1809 births 1872 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada East Year of birth uncertain People from Montérégie People from Bloomsbury Lower Canada Rebellion people