A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
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to return to France. On his way he fell in with Roberval, at St. John’s, Newfoundland, but he refused to return with him to Canada, and proceeded on his way to France, where he died shortly after his return. Cartier manifested in all his expeditions adventurous courage. No contemporary navigator had as yet dared to advance so far into the lands of the new world as he. In his braving the rigours of a Canadian winter, and shutting himself up for six months, without means of escape, he gave a signal example of the intrepidity of the mariners of his time and country. Of right therefore in every sense, he heads the long file of visitors of inner North America.
Young, Hon. Charles, LL.D., Q.C., Judge of Surrogate and Probate, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was born on the 30th of April, 1812, at Glasgow, Scotland, and is the younger brother of Sir William Young, Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. The father of these illustrious men was John Young, of Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland, and subsequently of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Judge Young received his early education in Dalhousie College, Halifax, and studied law in the office of his brother, Sir William Young, in that city. He was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1838, and to the bar of Prince Edward Island the same year. He practised his profession for a short time with his brothers, Sir William and the Hon. George Young, now deceased; and on November 23rd, 1847, was created a Queen’s Counsel, being the first barrister in Prince Edward Island on which this honour was conferred. Judge Young entered public life a young man in 1840, where he was returned for Queen’s County to the Island Assembly, and in December following, he was appointed to the Legislative Council. In this latter body he accepted a seat until 1863, ten years of which period he acted as president. He filled the office of Attorney-General from 28th May, 1851 to the 2nd of May, 1852; and from 26th June, 1858 to 11th April, 1859; and held the commission under the Royal Sign Manual as administrator of the Government of the Island for four years. Judge Young has the honour of being the first public man who advocated the question of responsible government for the Island, and he and his co-workers had the pleasure of seeing this boon granted in 1851, together with other important reforms, such as free schools, free lands for tenantry, savings banks, etc. He received his appointment as judge of probate in 1852, and judge in bankruptcy in 1868. On retiring from the latter position in March, 1875, he was presented with the following address, which was signed by every member of the bar in Prince Edward Island, viz:—
“To His Honour Judge Young, LL.D., etc.
“Sir—We, the undersigned barristers and attorneys, cannot permit the opportunity to pass of your honour’s retiring from the judgeship of the Insolvent Debtor’s Court—the jurisdiction of which is now merged in another court by virtue of ‘The Insolvent Act, 1875,’ of the Dominion of Canada—without expressing our entire satisfaction at the manner in which you presided over the meetings of the court; and at the same time thanking you for your many courtesies extended to us during the eight years Your Honour presided over said court.—(Signed), F. Brecken, Attorney-General; W. W. Sullivan, Solicitor-General; John Longworth, Q.C.; Charles Palmer, Q.C.; Charles Binns, Richard Reddin, E. H. Haviland, Edward J. Hodgson, Louis H. Davies, R. R. Fitzgerald, W. D. Haszard, Henry E. Wright, Malcolm McLeod, Neil McLean.
“Charlottetown, P.E.I., March 29th, 1876.”
To which His Honour Judge Young replied:—
“Gentlemen—Be pleased to accept my best thanks for the address you have so unexpectedly presented, and be assured that I do most highly value it on account of the expressions it contains of your entire satisfaction with the manner in which I have presided over the Insolvent Debtor’s Court for the last eight years. Where I have always been treated with marked consideration by yourselves, gentlemen, I could not do otherwise than reciprocate the courtesies to which you kindly refer. (Signed),
“Charles Young.”
While Judge Young was practising at the bar, he had a large and lucrative business, and was generally engaged on one side or the other in most of the leading cases then before the courts. He was invariably retained on behalf of those he was pleased to style the “Bleeding tenantry of Prince Edward Island” against the landlords, and generally succeeded in gaining a verdict in favour of his clients. He was always the friend and advocate of the oppressed. It is pleasing to note here that Judge Young has held no position which he has not adorned. In office and out of office he has rendered great service to the community. In 1838, a Mechanics’ Institute was established in Charlottetown, mainly through his efforts, and he had the honour of delivering the introductory lecture, which was afterwards published in the Gazette. He has since 1845 taken a very deep interest in the cause of temperance, and was Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance of Prince Edward Island several terms, and is a member of the National Division of the Sons of Temperance of North America. He is also an active member of the Methodist church, a local preacher, and a Bible-class teacher, and fills several other important offices in that church. He was instrumental in founding the second Methodist church in Charlottetown, and is president of Prince Edward Island Auxiliary Bible Society. The Judge is a thorough working Christian. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the Newton (United States) University; and in 1858 he was offered the honour of knighthood by Her Majesty, but respectfully declined the royal gift. In Masonry he takes an interest, and belongs to the Royal Arch Chapter. In 1838 Judge Young married Lucretia, daughter of John Starr, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he and his wife, there being no children, enjoy life in their beautiful home, “Fairholm,” Charlottetown.
Ussher, The Right Rev. Brandram Boileau, M.D., Montreal, Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal church in the Dominion of Canada and the Island of Newfoundland, was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, on the 6th day of August, 1845. He is the youngest son of Captain Richard Beverly Ussher, late of H. M. 86th Regt., and Henrietta Ussher (née Boileau). On both sides of the house his ancestors were most distinguished. Captain R. B. Ussher was descended from Richard Neville, the great Earl of Warwick, one of whose descendants (for political reasons took the name of the office which he bore, viz., Usher of the Black Rod, thus retaining his influential and lucrative position when the name of Neville had become unpopular and the “Kingmaker’s” influence had waned,) subsequently settled in Ireland. To distinguish the family name from the office, the second letter, s, was added some eighty years ago. The subject of this sketch is descended from a long line of churchmen. His great-grandfather was rector of the parish of Clontarf, near Dublin, which was held in the family from father to son for over one hundred and fifty years. The Rev. John Ussher, afterwards Astronomer Royal for Ireland, was the last of the family to hold the incumbency. His sons were Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Ussher, K.C.A., who figured in the history of the great Napoleon, taking him to Elba in H.M.S. Undaunted. He died Naval Commander-in-Chief, at Cork, Ireland, and lies buried in one of the vaults of Monkstown church, County Dublin—his record was that of a gallant sailor. John Ussher, of Woodpark, who left four sons, the youngest of whom, Richard Beverly, was the father of Bishop Ussher, of Montreal. He is directly descended from Archbishop Henry Ussher, one of the founders of Trinity College, Dublin, whose brother Arland was the father of James Ussher (Trinity’s first student, buried in Henry VII. Chapel in Westminster Abbey), the celebrated Primate of Ireland, author of “Ussher’s Chronology,” etc., with whom the Duke of Wellington was also connected, owing to the fact that Mary Ussher married Henry Colley, of Castle Carberry, who was the mother of the first Lord Mornington, who was the grandfather of the Duke of Wellington. The Venerable Archdeacon Adam Ussher, rector of Clontarf, was the brother of the above named Mary Ussher and son of Sir William Ussher, clerk of the Council. The Rectory of Clontarf descended to his son Frederick, and from him to his son Henry Ussher, D.D., who held the Andrew’s Professorship of Astronomy in Trinity College, Dublin, and from him is directly descended Captain R. B. Ussher, the father of the Right Rev. Bishop Ussher. Three hundred years ago two brothers of the name of Ussher were driven from Ireland during one of the troubles, and settled in the neighbourhood of Melrose, in Scotland, where they acquired considerable lands, and amongst them the property of Huntley-burn, one of the most celebrated spots on the Borders. The grandfather of the present Thomas Ussher, of Edinburgh, for seventeen years secretary of the Borders’ County Association for the Advancement of Education (and out of which arose the celebration of the centenary of Sir Walter Scott), sold to Sir Walter Scott the chief part of the estate of Abbotsford (vide “Lockhart’s Life of Scott”). By unbroken tradition this branch claims kinship with Archbishop Ussher; and