Peter Livius (12 July 1739 – 23 July 1795) was a Portuguese-born lawyer who became the

Chief Justice of Quebec The title of Chief Justice of Quebec () is assumed by the chief justice of the Court of Appeal of Quebec. From 1849 to 1974 it was assumed by the Chief Justice from the Court of Queen's Bench or Court of King's Bench. Chief Justice of the Province ...

. He was born in

Lisbon, Portugal Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, the sixth child of Peter Livius, a

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from

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and was sent to school in England by his English mother. He married well and in 1763 moved to the

Province of New Hampshire The Province of New Hampshire was an English colony and later a British province in New England. It corresponds to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America. It was named after the Englis ...

, where his wife's family owned land. In 1764 he made a large gift of books to

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and in return was given an honorary master's degree. In 1765 he became a member of the New Hampshire council and in 1768 was appointed a

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, ass ...

. He was removed from the bench in 1772 for partiality and returned to

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on an unsuccessful mission to fight his case. He decided to stay on in England to improve his credentials and reputation. In 1773 a gift of elk horns to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

got him elected as a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

. He entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

to study 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 1775, also receiving an honorary DCL from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He then managed to secure the position of judge of the Court of Common Pleas and judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. He arrived in Quebec just prior to the

American siege ''American Siege'' is a 2022 American action film written and directed by Edward Drake (filmmaker), Edward Drake. It stars Timothy V. Murphy, Bruce Willis, Rob Gough, Johann Urb, Anna Hindman, Johnny Messner (actor), Johnny Messner, Cullen G. C ...

of the town in 1775 and was rewarded for his defensive activities in August 1776 with the post of

and an ''ex-officio'' place on the Council. However, a secret letter from Livius to the enemy commander was intercepted and resulted in Livius being deprived of his estates. After further clashes with Governor Guy Carleton he was dismissed from his post by the Governor in 1778. Again he fled to London to plead his case, successfully this time, but his return to Quebec in 1780 was thwarted by adverse sailing conditions. He was finally relieved of his position as Chief Justice in 1786, without ever having attempted a second time to return to Quebec. He lived thereafter on a pension. He died in 1795 on a trip to

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. He had married Anna Elizabeth, the daughter of

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

John Tufton Mason.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Livius, Peter 1739 births 1795 deaths People from Lisbon Chief justices Fellows of the Royal Society Province of Quebec (1763–1791) judges