John Beverley Robinson (1791-1863) was one of Upper Canada’s foremost jurists, a dominating influence on the ruling elite, and a leading citizen of nineteenth-century Toronto who owned a vast tract of land on which Osgoode Hall now stands.The loyalists had founded a colony firm in its devotion to the Crown, with little room for dissent. As a true loyalist son, educated by John Strachan, Robinson attempted to steer Upper Canada toward emulation of what he perceived to be Britain’s ideal aristocratic society.As a young ensign in the York militia, he defended his sovereign at Queenston Heights, and as acting attorney-general he prosecuted traitors who threatened to undermine the colony. Later, as attorney-general and de facto leader of the assembly during the 1820s, he tried to mould the government to the British form. But factors he never understood–the influence of American democracy and liberalism in the Colonial Office–ensured that Upper Canada would never be a ‘new Albion.’Robinson

Sir John Beverley Robinson: Bone and Sinew of the Compact (Heritage) PDF

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