Preceded by none Name John White | Role Frontenac County | |
Profession Lawyer, politician, government minister Died January 4, 1800, York, Upper Canada | ||
Succeeded by Robert Isaac Dey Gray | ||
John White (c. 1761 – January 4, 1800) was a lawyer and politician in Upper Canada. He was the first Attorney General for Upper Canada. He wrote and was responsible for the legislation of the new Province, which stemmed from the partition of Quebec in the Constitutional Act of 1791. His Act to limit slavery, which relied on Christian argument, was the first such enactment ever in the world.
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Early life and journey to Upper Canada
He was born at Hicks Hall, Middlesex, England. He studied at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the bar in 1785. He was recommended to William Osgoode by his friend Samuel Shepherd as a possible attorney general for Upper Canada and was appointed in 1791. He arrived in 1792 at Kingston, where he was elected to the 1st Parliament of Upper Canada as the member for Leeds & Frontenac. He moved to Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), where the government was located in September of the same year.
Later life and death
As attorney general for the province, he wrote the bill in 1793 which barred the introduction of additional slaves, and the legislation which established trial by jury, district courts and Court of the King's Bench. White played an important role in founding the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1797 and was its first treasurer. Legislation passed during the first four years of his tenure includes:
The introduction and passage of the 1793 act against slavery was not without opposition. Four of the original sixteen members of the Legislative Assembly were slave owners: John McDonell, Hazelton Spencer, Peter Van Alstine and David William Smith, and a significant number of landowners. Nine members of the Legislative Council, some of whom were also Executive Councillors, were slave owners or members of slave-owning families. White wrote that there was "much opposition but little argument" to his bill.
As a result of an affair with the wife of John Small, the clerk of the Executive Council of Upper Canada, White was challenged by Small to a duel in York on January 2, 1800. He was shot and died 2 days later. He lived beyond his means and was often in debt, and his estate went unsettled for 37 years.