b. 1796-12-17
d. 1865-08-27
Haliburton attended Windsor Grammar School, and then Anglican King’s College in Windsor,
Nova Scotia where he was born.
1 He started practicing law at his family’s law office in
1820, as his father and grandfather had done before him.
2 Haliburton became an MLA for
Nova Scotia in
1826, and was called to the Bench in
1829.
3 In
1854, he was made a Supreme Court judge.
4
Haliburton retired from the Supreme Court in
1856, and moved from
Nova Scotia to England.
5 Here he worked for the Canada Agency Association and became the first chair of the
Canadian Land and Emigration Company.
6 In
1861, the latter purchased a large amount of unoccupied land in
Victoria with the hopes of reselling it to settlers.
7 In a letter from Haliburton to
Lytton on
16 May 1859, Haliburton requested that the Canada Agency Association be designated the only agent
allowed to sell land in the colonies of
British Columbia and
Vancouver Island.
8 Murdoch and
Rogers recommended against the request in a
letter to
Merivale on
27 May, 1859.
9 In
1862, Haliburton joined the first board of the British North American Association of London,
which promoted provincial union and spreading information about the colonies in England.
10
On top of his career as a lawyer and businessman in England, Haliburton was also a
celebrated author.
11 He wrote many books reflecting his views on Nova Scotian life.
12 His most popular novels were the Sam Slick series, which were well-known throughout
Nova Scotia and England.
13
- 1. Richard A. Davies Haliburton, Thomas Chandler (1796–1865),
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- 2. Fred Cogswell Haliburton, Thomas Chandler,
Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Davies Haliburton,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- 3. Douglas Lochhead Thomas Chandler Haliburton,
The Candian Encyclopedia.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Richard A. Davies Inventing Sam Slick: A Biography of Thomas Chandler Haliburton (University of Toronto Press, 2005); Cogswell Haliburton,
Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
- 7. Cogswell Haliburton,
Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
- 8. Haliburton to Lytton, 16 May 1859, 4997 NA, CO 60/6, p. 51.
- 9. Murdoch and Rogers to Merivale, 27 May 1859, 5429 NA, CO 60/5, p. 521.
- 10. Cogswell Haliburton,
Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
- 11. Richard A. Davies Inventing Sam Slick: A Biography of Thomas Chandler Haliburton (University of Toronto Press, 2005).
- 12. Lochhead Haliburton,
The Candian Encyclopedia.
- 13. Ibid.