| Notes |
- Wm. Johnstone Ritchie is the third son of Elizabeth Wildman & Judge Thos. Ritchie (NS House of Assembly) Studied law in Halifax. His brother is John Wm. Ritchie, A FATHER OF CONFEDERATION, John Wm. Ritchie was appointed NS Solicitor General 1864, & a delegate to the London Conference of Cdn. Confederation.
"Mr. Ritchie would now ask, in return, "What has the Government done? When the question of yielding up the initiation of money grants to the executive should come fairly before the House, he would be prepared to give his opinion upon it Before sitting down he suggested that the amendment moved by Mr. End, which was intended to shelve the question at issue, should be withdrawn. If the mover persisted in pressing it he could only say to him, as he had said before, that he would bring up the question again in such a shape that he would defy them to get out of it.
Outside the party questions of the day, Mr. Ritchie was an active & useful member of the House. He took an especial interest in all measures designed to promote the various industries of the country - in the improvement of its agriculture, its manufactures, & its commerce, as well as in the construction of railways & other things calculated to develop the resources of a comparatively young & unsettled Province.
In the session of 1851, Mr. Ritchie moved a series of resolutions strongly criticizing the Government of the day, & advocating certain principles of reform & the Government was thought to be tottering to its fall. An incident now occurred which showed that Mr. Ritchie & his colleagues, Messrs. Tilley & Simonds, were men of rugged independence of character, & certainly not opportunists. In August in this year, it was announced that 2 members for the County of St. John, had abandoned their party & had become members of the Government. Messrs. Tilley, Simonds, Ritchie & Needham united in an address to their constituents, condemning the course these 2 members & calling on the constituency to disapprove of it. However, these 2 were re-elected. Upon this Messrs. Simonds, Ritchie & Tilley at once resigned their seats. The sequel proved that the three resigning members were right, for they won much more in public respect by their conduct than they lost by their temporary exclusion from the House. Even those who did not share the views of Mr. Ritchie & his friends could not but admit that they had acted from a high sense of honour.
Mr. Ritchie, UPON HIS RETIREMENT FROM LEGISLATURE, gave himself up to the work of his profession. His practice increased. He was a man of strong physique & boundless energy, & his capacity for work amazing. He was always a student with a very tenacious memory, which made him a ready authority on any point of law. His clients could always feel assured that the closest attention & most profound study of a clear & well-trained intellect would be diligently applied in support of any cause he was retained to advocate. This quality in the advocate naturally produced a deep impression upon the jurors, & contributed not a little to his success as a pleader in the courts. The honour of Queen's Counsel was offered to Mr. Ritchie. This he declined to accept, unless on condition that it should leave him entirely untrammeled as regards his political views. Sir Edmund Head had some correspondence with the Colonial Secretary before the appointment came. The Governor said in one of his dispatches:
'Mr. Ritchie is politically opposed to the existing council. Your Grace will therefore understand that this gentleman's appointment, if made by Her Most Gracious Majesty, is to be considered as offered & accepted without reference to party or political consideration of any kind. His professional claims are amply sufficient to justify my recommendation. On the 17th August, 1855, he was elevated to the Bench of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick to fill the seat left vacant by death. He occupied the position of Judge of the Supreme Court for ten years, discharging the duties of that office with conscientious fidelity & ability until, upon the demise of Chief Justice Parker in 1865, he was promoted to the Chief Justiceship by the Prov. Govt, of which Hon. Albert J. Smith was leader.
Chief Justice Ritchie is very decidedly the ablest lawyer now on the Bench, & will, I have no doubt, discharge the duties of his high office in a perfectly satisfactory manner. His appointment has my entire concurrence & approval & I am satisfied that in selecting him for the post a sound discretion has been exercised. The capacity of Chief Justice Ritchie for work was remarkable. Other members of the court might be disposed to content themselves with expressing concurrence in the judgement of the majority or dissent therefrom in a few words, but the Chief Justice never, failed to give full & explicit reasons for every judicial opinion he delivered & his judgements were veritable storehouses of legal knowledge & careful argument, involving great labour, research & study. A gentle man who had good opportunity to judge, says:
'As a lawyer, Chief Justice Ritchie excelled especially in cases of commercial law, When he was the presiding Judge of the Bench of New Brunswick, he kept himself so thoroughly read up on all points of commercial law, that by reference to a little book which he had under his desk he could at any moment refer to a recent case touching on the subject in hand.'
It is a curious fact that when Sir John A. Macdonald first proposed to establish a Supreme Court for the Dominion of Canada, Chief Justice Ritchie took a decided stand in opposition to the proposal,& embodied his reasons in an elaborate paper which he read before the Barristers' Society. When, however, the Supreme Court; of Canada was established, it was on all sides admitted that Chief Justice Ritchie was the fittest man to represent New Brunswick in the new court.
Judge Ritchie succeeded to the Chief Justiceship of Canada on the 9th January, 1879. He then removed with his family to Ottawa.
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During his early professional & political life, Chief Justice Ritchie resided in St. John, & was a regular attendant at Trinity Church, in which he held a pew in the days of Dr. Gray, with whose evangelical teaching he was in hearty sympathy. He was a man of social instincts, & delighted particularly in the companionship of young people. He was never happier than when surrounded by his children & grand-children. This fondness for young companions kept him young at heart to the end of his long & busy life. He was fond of out-door life, though a student, he enjoyed salmon fishing, & delighted in his garden. While he lived in St. John he owned the property on Mount Pleasant, then called the Crow's Nest, extending from Reed's Castle in the direction of Lily Lake, including the premises occupied in later days by J. P. C. Burpee, J. Murray Kaye, Charles A. Stockton, & others. Ritchie never lived at Mount Pleasant, he built a conservatory upon his property, & brought a portion of it under cultivation. He was exceedingly fond of flowers, & gardening became quite a hobby with him. Ritchie never lived at Mount Pleasant, he built a conservatory upon his property, & brought a portion of it under cultivation. He was exceedingly fond of flowers, & gardening became quite a hobby with him.
After his removal to Ottawa he brought to bear upon the work of the Supreme Court of Canada the same industry & thoroughness that had marked his connection with the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. When at the age of seventy years, we find him entering upon a systematic study of the French language, in order to fit himself more thoroughly for his duty, we have an indication of his strength of purpose. Though always insisting on maintaining the dignity of the Court, he was kindly by nature, & particularly considerate to the younger members of the profession, whom he always took pains to encourage when they had occasion to appear before him, & to show them courtesy & attention.
Ninth of January, 1879, he was appointed Chief Justice of Canada, & on the 1st November, 1881, the Queen was pleased to bestow upon him the dignity of a Knight of the United Kingdom. Sir Wm. J. Ritchie was not only an able & impartial, he was a fearless Judge, & little disposed to be influenced by the question of expediency. Fiat justitia, mat caelum, was his motto - "let justice be done though the heavens should fall."
At the end of Sir Wm. J. Ritchie's life & labours came somewhat unexpectedly. He had been active up to a very short time before his death. He passed to his rest, after an illness of three weeks' duration, at his residence in Ottawa, surrounded by nearly all the members of his large family. Such was his indomitable will power that a few minutes before his death he arose from his bed & attempted to cross the room. commenting on the death of Sir William J. Ritchie, the Ottawa Free Press, in its leading editorial of the 26th September, 1892, observes:
The chief personality in Canada's judicial system is no more. Chief Justice William Ritchie died yesterday. It is only a few days since the Dominion Government granted the deceased gentleman eight months leave of absence, in the hope that complete relaxation might bring about his restoration to health, but alas, Providence has directed otherwise, & Canada's greatest Judge was yesterday summoned before the great Judge of all mankind.
At the time of his deaf Chief Justice Ritchie was in the 79th year of his age, & had worn the ermine for 37 years. To his fellow-countrymen he left the inspiring example of a brilliant & useful life, & the reputation of a learned, upright & impartial Judge, whose memory will be respected & honoured for many years to come.
Ref: Extracted: Judges of NB & Their Times, by Jos. Wilson Lawrence, St. John, N.B., Pub. 1907, Pages 348, 392, 482-499.
. 1892 May the chief justice was stricken with bronchitis upon returning to the capital on 6 September, Ritchie suffered a relapse, & he died at home on 25 September at the age of 78.
Ref: The Perth Courier, Wed. 4 Sep 1985, '25 years ago Perth Fair a success.
Note: Despite the advice in the Courier news warning citizens who attend the fair against being taken in by sharp operators who conduct certain games of chance, a number were gypped for sums of money said to be in the hundreds of dollars....Chief Wm. Ritchie was besieged by citizens complaining that they were taken for a ride by the fast-talking showmen on Friday night, or several large sums, including a grand slam of $230.
[Clearly the newspaper was mistaken about '25 years ago'. - PJA]
Obituary
1892 Sep 29. Chief Justice Ritchie died at Ottawa, Ontario, Sunday Sept. 25th. He was born at Annapolis, N.S. 28th October 1813 & was consequently in his 79th year.
Chief Justice Ritchie was twice married, first to Miss STRANG of St. Andrews & secondly to Grace Vernon Nicholson, d/o late Thos. L. Nicholson, St. John & step-daughter of late Admiral Hon. W.F. OWEN of Campobello.
Mrs. D.D. ROBERTSON, Rothesay, Kings Co. & William Pollock Ritchie were children of the first marriage. The latter died in Malta about the year 1870.
There are 12 children by the second marriage, Nellie Hodgins wife of W.E. Hodgins of the Dept. of Justice, Ottawa; Robert R. Ritchie, barrister, St. John; Frank W. Ritchie, curate of the Established Church in Herefordshire, England; John Almon Ritchie & Owen Ritchie, barristers in practice at Ottawa; Hazen Ritchie, now engaged as an electric engineer in Montreal; three daughters, Beatrice Ritchie, Grace Ritchie & Amy Ritchie with 2 sons, William J. Ritchie & Vernon Ritchie, the latter 2 aged respectively, 11 & 9 years, being at the home of their parents in Ottawa.
Ref. St. Andrews Beacon, Charlotte Co., NB.
Research & transcriptions by PJ Ahlberg. Thank you. - - -
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1813 - 1892 (78 years)