John Copland was an attorney and a solicitor of the Supreme Court of
Vancouver Island. Before arriving on
Vancouver Island, Copland studied at the University of Edinburgh where he passed his law examinations, hoping to gain an official position as an attorney in the colony of
V.I. On
24 September 1859, Copland began clerkship work, serving as a barrister, under attorney
George Ring. For the purpose of moving up in his legal position, he worked as a law clerk for
12 months. After his time as a law clerk under
Ring, he served as
James Duncan's clerk for five years. Within these years petitions were sent in order to have Copland
admitted to the Bar.
However,
Chief Justice Cameron's original promise to promote and admit Copland was unfulfilled. The
Daily Colonist commented that it was a form of maltreatment and a deprivation of
a man's rights.
Beyond Copland's struggles to become an official attorney for
Vancouver Island, upon his arrival in
Victoria, he initially presented himself as a land agent -- helping those who wished to obtain
cheap land settlements -- primarily on
Salt Spring Island. As a solicitor he advocated for the settlers on
Salt Spring. The petition he circulated to promote their settlement on the island, was equally
a petition to dispossess Indigenous Territory.
Other than his work as a solicitor, Copland ran for Councillor of Yates Street Ward
in
1862, and became a Councillor for the City Council of
Victoria in 1863. On
23 December 1862, the
Daily Colonist commented on a
supplementary law
Copland introduced which prohibited
persons from harboring squaws
, a by-law to introduce
sanitary regulations
to the
disgraceful scenes
of Indigenous women at the height of the smallpox epidemic. It is unclear how long Copland remained in his positions as his date of death is
unknown, but his ads as a solicitor -- to sell land lots -- appear in the newspaper
until at least
1865.
- 1. Pelham-Clinton to Douglas, 31 March 1861, LAC, 426.
- 2. Abstract of Correspondence of Mr. John Copland with the Colonial and Imperial Governments,
relative to his admission as a solicitor in the Courts of Vancouver Island, The Daily Colonist, 7 July 1863, 3.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Moncreiff to Pelham-Clinton, 22 October 1861, 9549, CO 305/18, 420.
- 5. How Chief Justice Cameron, Governor Douglas, and Mr. Young have wronged Mr. John Copland, The Daily Colonist, 7 July 1862, 2.
- 6. R. W. Sandwell, Contesting Rural Space: Land Policy and Practices of Resettlement on Salt Spring Island,
1859-1991, (MQUP, 2005), 22.
- 7. Ibid., 25-26.
- 8. City Council, The Daily Colonist, 1 September 1863, 3.
- 9. The Squaws, The Daily Colonist, 23 December 1862, 3.
- 10. For Sale, The Daily Colonist, 21 January 1865, 1.