Charles Lindsey (7 February 1820 – 12 April 1908) was an English-born Canadian journalist, editor, writer, and officeholder. He was the first editor of the '' Toronto Leader'' and published a biography on his father-in-law

William Lyon Mackenzie William Lyon Mackenzie (March12, 1795 August28, 1861) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American journalist and politician. He founded newspapers critical of the Family Compact, a term used to identify the establishment of Upper Canada. He represe ...

, ''The Life and Times of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie'' (1862).

Life and career

Charles Lindsey was born 7 February 1820 in Strubby, England, as the third son of Charles and Susannah Lindsey. He graduated from a grammar school in Lincoln and apprenticed at a press there. At 22 he emigrated to the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

to find employment as a writer. He first joined the staff of a newspaper in Port Hope where he wrote with a

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

slant. In 1846 publisher James Lesslie hired him for the Reformist ''Toronto Examiner''. Lindsey became politically active and met regularly with those who were to form the

Clear Grits Clear Grits were reformers in the Canada West district of the Province of Canada, a British colony that is now the Province of Ontario, Canada. Their name is said to have been given by George Brown, who said that only those were wanted in the p ...

faction in 1850, and gave voice to their views by publishing the ''North American'' with William McDougall. He was critical of

Robert Baldwin Robert Baldwin (May 12, 1804 – December 9, 1858) was an Upper Canadian lawyer and politician who with his political partner Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine of Lower Canada, led the first responsible government ministry in the Province of Canada. ...

and

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Sir Louis-Hippolyte Ménard '' dit'' La Fontaine, 1st Baronet, KCMG (October 4, 1807 – February 26, 1864) was a Canadian politician who served as the first Premier of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible governme ...

and opposed giving in to majority French-Canadian interests, writing "we shall get no real reforms from the French". The ''North American'' and Clear Grits lent its support to

Francis Hincks Sir Francis Hincks, (December 14, 1807 – August 18, 1885) was a Canadian businessman, politician, and British colonial administrator. An immigrant from Ireland, he was the Co-Premier of the Province of Canada (1851–1854), Governor of Ba ...

, who became co-Premier in 1851. On 22 January 1852 Lindsey married Janet Mackenzie (d. 1906), a daughter of

. The couple had four sons and three daughters. When James Beaty, Sr., founded the '' Toronto Leader'' in 1852 he hired Lindsey as editor. There, Lindsey put his support behind Hincks's government, to the consternation of many Reformers who had become disappointed with Hincks. Lindsey's politics were liberal and avoided the extremes of the Tories and the Grits. The paper came to rival Brown's ''

Globe A globe is a spherical Earth, spherical Model#Physical model, model of Earth, of some other astronomical object, celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but, unlike maps, they do not distort the surface ...

'' in influence. Lindsey was appointed an honorary commissioner to the 1855 World Exposition in Paris. In 1862 he published a biography of William Lyon Mackenzie, arguing the long-term positive effects of the

Upper Canada Rebellion The Upper Canada Rebellion was an insurrection against the Oligarchy, oligarchic government of the British colony of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) in December 1837. While public grievances had existed for years, it was the Lower Canada Rebe ...

of 1837. After a series of illnesses Lindsey left editorial work in 1867 to take a sinecure as registrar of deeds for Toronto, and continued to write political articles for the ''Mail'', the ''Monetary Times'', and the ''Canadian Monthly and National Review'' on issues such as free trade and separation of church and state. He became active in the nationalist Canada First movement, was a member of the movement's political arm, the Canadian National Association, edited the movement's organ ''The Nation'', and named his son George Goldwin Smith after the Canada First co-founder

Goldwin Smith Goldwin Smith (13 August 1823 – 7 June 1910) was a British-born academic and historian who was active in both Great Britain and North America. From 1856 to 1866, he was a professor of modern history at the University of Oxford. Smith taught a ...

. Lindsey was an inaugural member of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

upon its founding in 1882. He continued as registrar of deeds of western Toronto until he retired in 1906. He died after a short illness at his son George's home on 12 April 1908 and was buried in the Mackenzie plot at the

Toronto Necropolis Toronto Necropolis is a non-denominational cemetery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the west side of the Don River valley, to the north of Riverdale Farm in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood. The cemetery was opened during the 1850s t ...

Political philosophy

Lindsey was a moderate reformer.

Bibliography

* ''The Clergy Reserves'' (1851) * ''Prohibitory Liquor Laws'' (1855) * ''The Prairies of the Western States'' (1860) * ''The Life and Times of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie'' (1862, two volumes) * ''An Investigation of the Unsettled Boundaries of Ontario'' (1873) * ''Rome in Canada'' (1877)

References

Works cited

* *

External links

* *
Mackenzie - Lindsey family fonds
Archives of Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsey, Charles 1820 births 1909 deaths Canadian male journalists People from East Lindsey District People from Old Toronto English emigrants to Canada Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada 19th-century Canadian journalists Burials at Toronto Necropolis