Alexander Campbell (Canadian senator)

The Honourable
Sir Alexander Campbell
KCMG PC QC
The Honourable Sir Alexander Campbell KCMG PC QC
6th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
	In office; June 1, 1887 – May 24, 1892
Monarch	Victoria
Governors General	The Marquess of Lansdowne; The Lord Stanley of Preston
Premier	Oliver Mowat
Preceded by	John Beverley Robinson
Succeeded by	George Airey Kirkpatrick
Senator for Cataraqui, Ontario
	In office; October 23, 1867 – February 7, 1887
Member of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada for Cataraqui
	In office; 1858–1867
Personal details
Born	March 9, 1822; Hedon, Yorkshire, England
Died	May 24, 1892 (aged 70); Toronto, Ontario
Resting place	Cataraqui Cemetery, Kingston, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Political party	Conservative
Cabinet	Postmaster General (1885–1887); Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada (1881–1885); Postmaster General (1880–1881); Minister of Militia and Defence (1880); Postmaster General (1879–1880); Receiver General (1878–1879); Minister of the Interior (1873); Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs (1873); Minister of Inland Revenue (Acting) (1868–1869); Postmaster General (1867–1873); Commissioner of Crown Lands (Province of Canada) (1864–1867)
Signature
	• Father of Confederation •

Sir Alexander Campbell KCMG PC QC (March 9, 1822 – May 24, 1892) was an Upper Canadian statesman and a father of Canadian Confederation.^[2]^[3]

Life

Born in Hedon, Yorkshire, he was brought to Canada by his father, who was a doctor, when he was one year old. He was educated in French at St. Hyacinthe in Quebec and in the grammar school at Kingston, Ontario. Campbell studied law and was called to the bar in 1843. He became a partner in John A. Macdonald's law office.^[4]

Campbell was a Freemason 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.^[5]

He was elected to the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada 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 Senate of Canada. 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 from 1887 to 1892.^[6]

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 Toronto in 1892, and was buried at Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario.^[7]

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 Beverley, Yorkshire, and a niece of Humphrey Sandwith III (1792–1874) of Bridlington.^[7] 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.^[8]

References

^ "Federal Political Experience". www.parl.gc.ca. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
^ "The fathers of confederation". www.Canadahistory.com. Archived from the original on November 24, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
^ "Alexander Campbell (1822-1892): The Travails of a Father of Confederation - Ged Martin". www.gedmartin.net. Retrieved 2024-03-06.
^ "Alexander Campbell". www.canadahistory.com. Archived from the original on May 28, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
^ Michael Jenkyns (July 2017). "Canada's Sesquicentennial – Freemasonry and Confederation". Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Canada in the Province of Ontario. Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
^ "Campbell, Sir Alexander National Historic Person". Parks Canada. 15 March 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
^ ^a ^b Browning, Thomas Blair (1901). "Campbell, Alexander (1822–1892)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
^ "Alexander Campbell (1822-1892): The Travails of a Father of Confederation - Ged Martin". www.gedmartin.net. Retrieved 2024-03-06.

External links

"Alexander Campbell". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.
Alexander Campbell – Parliament of Canada biography
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
Works by Alexander Campbell at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Alexander Campbell at the Internet Archive
Works by Alexander Campbell at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
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

Government offices
Preceded by John Beverly Robinson	Lieutenant Governor of Ontario 1887–1892	Succeeded by George Airey Kirkpatrick
Parliament of Canada
Preceded by office created	Leader of the Government in the Senate of Canada 1867–1873	Succeeded by Luc Letellier de St-Just
Preceded by Luc Letellier de St-Just	Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Canada 1873–1878	Succeeded by Sir Richard William Scott
Preceded by Sir Richard William Scott	Leader of the Government in the Senate of Canada 1878–1887	Succeeded by John Abbott