John Lees (ca 1740 – March 4, 1807) was a businessman, judge 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 ...

. He was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

around 1740 and came to the town of Quebec with his family around 1761. With Alexander Dawson, he formed a company in 1773 that was involved in importing goods and supplying the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

; they also speculated in land. In 1774, he signed a petition requesting a legislative assembly for the province. Lees served in the militia during the siege of the town by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

army 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 Revoluti ...

. In 1787, his company acquired the lease for the Saint-Maurice ironworks at

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of ...

. In 1792, Lees was elected to 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 el ...

for Trois-Rivières; he was reelected in 1796, 1800 and 1804. He was also an honorary member of the Executive Committee from 1794 to 1804, becoming an active member in 1804 and serving until his death. He was named storekeeper general for the Department of Indian Affairs at Lachine and a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or '' puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the s ...

for the District of Quebec in 1795. In 1806, Lees was appointed a judge in the provincial Court of Appeals. He died in Lachine in 1807.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lees, John 1807 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Quebec Year of birth uncertain Lower Canada judges Immigrants to New France Canadian justices of the peace