Sir Alexander Campbell (March 9, 1822 – May 24, 1892) was an Upper Canadian statesman and a father of

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation () was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Name of Canada#Adoption of Dominion, Dominion of Ca ...

Life

Born in Hedon,

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, he was brought to Canada by his father, James Campbell who was a doctor, when he was one year old. He was educated in French at St. Hyacinthe in

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and in the grammar school at

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

. Campbell studied law and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1843. He became a partner in John A. Macdonald's law office. Campbell was a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

of St. John's Lodge, No. 3 (Ontario) of Kingston (now The Ancient St. John's No. 3). When the government was moved to Quebec in 1858, Campbell resigned. He was elected to the

Legislative Council of the Province of Canada The Legislative Council of the Province of Canada () was the upper house 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 Canada, then known ...

in 1858 and 1864, and served as the last Commissioner of Crown Lands 30 March 1864 – 30 June 1867. He attended the Charlottetown Conference and the Quebec City Conference in 1864, and at Confederation was appointed to the

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. He later held a number of ministerial posts in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and was the sixth

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario The lieutenant governor of Ontario (, in French: ''Lieutenant-gouverneur'' (if male) or ''Lieutenante-gouverneure'' (if female) ''de l'Ontario'') is the representative in Ontario of the monarch, who operates distinctly within the province but i ...

from 1887 to 1892. Historian Ged Martin discussed the reasons why Campbell never achieved first rank as a politician; he was lame and suffered from epileptic seizures, and his estranged wife was a certified lunatic (see Family section below). In 1883, he built his home on Metcalfe Street, Ottawa, now known as "Campbell House". He died in office in

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in 1892, and was buried at Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario. Campbell Crescent in Kingston, a street in the Portsmouth municipal district, is named in his honour.

Family

In 1855, Campbell married Georgina Frederica Locke, daughter of Thomas Sandwith of

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, and a niece of Humphrey Sandwith III (1792–1874) of

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. As Ged Martin has detailed in an article on Campbell's private life, the marriage was a failure and his estranged wife spent time in asylums as a certified lunatic. He left two sons (the eldest was Charles Sandwith Campbell) and three daughters.

References

External links

* * * Ged Martin, Alexander Campbell (1822–1892): The Travails of a Father of Confederation , https://www.gedmartin.net/published-work-mainmenu-11/249-alexander-campbell-1822-1892-the-travails-of-a-father-of-confederation. Published in Ontario History (Spring 2013) https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/onhistory/2013-v105-n1-onhistory03918/1050744ar/
Humphrey Sandwith
* * *
Alexander Campbell fonds
Archives of Ontario * Ged Martin, Alexander Campbell (1822–1892): Travails of a Father of Confederation https://www.gedmartin.net/published-work-mainmenu-11/249-alexander-campbell-1822-1892-the-travails-of-a-father-of-confederation {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Alexander 1822 births 1892 deaths Anglo-Scots Canadian senators from Ontario Leaders of the opposition in the Senate of Canada Canadian people of Scottish descent English emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario English Anglicans Fathers of Confederation Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) senators Canadian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Canadian King's Counsel Lieutenant governors of Ontario Members of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada People from Hedon Politicians from Kingston, Ontario Postmasters general of Canada Anglophone Quebec people Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Immigrants to Upper Canada Canadian Freemasons