John Solomon Cartwright, (September 17, 1804 – January 15, 1845) was a Canadian businessman, lawyer, judge, farmer and political figure in Kingston, Upper Canada. He was a supporter of the Family Compact, an oligarchic group which had dominated control of the government of Upper Canada through their influence with the British governors. He was also a member of the Compact Tory political group, first in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, and then in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada.
In spite of his relative youth when first elected in 1836, age 32, he was an influential member of the Compact Tory group in the Assembly. He was courted by two governors general to join the executive council of the Province of Canada, but declined each time, not willing to associate in government with the radical Reform members of the Assembly. He favoured including French-Canadians in the government of the new Province of Canada, but opposed the use of French in the Assembly and the courts.
In the aftermath of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, he acted as a prosecutor in the trials of some alleged rebels, and was one of the military judges in the court martial of Nils von Schoultz, who had led an invasion force from the United States. In the trials, Cartwright worked with a rising young Kingston lawyer, John A. Macdonald, the future Prime Minister of Canada. In addition to his legal practice, he was involved in successful banking and land transactions.
Wealthy, and holding a large farming estate near Kingston, Cartwright donated land and buildings for public purposes in Kingston and neighbouring Napanee. A bon vivant, he enjoyed gambling with cards for high stakes, horse racing, and the elegancies of life, both food and good wine.
Cartwright died of tuberculosis in 1845, aged 40.
Early life and family John Cartwright was born in Kingston, Upper Canada on September 17, 1804, the son of Richard Cartwright, a Loyalist, and Magdalen Secord, sister-in-law of Laura Secord, the Loyalist heroine. John's father was engaged in commerce and politics, being a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. His father was also instrumental in bringing John Strachan to Kingston, initially to tutor John and his twin brother Robert. Strachan went on to become the first Bishop of Toronto for the Church of England in Canada, and a pillar of the Family Compact, an oligarchic conservative group that had informal control over the provincial government.
Richard Cartwright died in 1815, when John and his twin brother were ten years old. He left John an inheritance of £10,000. John and Robert had older siblings, but several died of tuberculosis.
In 1831, John married Sarah Hayter Macaulay, daughter of James Macaulay. The couple had seven children. While studying theology at Oxford University, his brother Robert married Harriet Dobbs of Ireland. Their son, John's nephew, was Sir Richard John Cartwright, who had a notable political career in the Parliament of Canada, although as a Liberal.
Cartwright was somewhat of a throwback to the Regency era, rather than the new Victorian period. He enjoyed horse-racing and betting, gambling with cards for high stakes, and the elegancies of life, good food and wine. Like most of the Family Compact, he was a strong supporter of the Anglican church. He was also a freemason, eventually becoming a warden of a masonic lodge in Kingston.
Legal and business career
Deciding to enter the legal profession, at the age of 16 Cartwright left home for York, the capital of Upper Canada, where he articled with John Beverley Robinson.Donald Creighton, John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician (Toronto: Macmillan Co., 1952), p. 19. Robinson was the attorney general for Upper Canada and one of the main leaders of the Upper Canada Tories and the Family Compact. Following his articles with Robinson, Cartwright was called to the bar of Upper Canada in 1825. In 1827, after the death of his mother, he went to London and studied law at Lincoln's Inn, while his twin brother Robert attended Oxford, studying for the ministry. Cartwright returned to Kingston in 1830, where he established his legal practice and quickly became one of Kingston's leading lawyers.
In addition to his legal practice, Cartwright was involved in banking and real estate transactions. In 1832, he became the first president of the local Kingston bank, the Commercial Bank of the Midland District. He was the unanimous choice of the bank directors, even though he was only 28 years old. Under his leadership over the next fourteen years, the Commercial Bank became the leading bank of the eastern part of the province, and was the only bank that did not suspend payments in specie during the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. In 1834, he became a judge in the Midland District and was named Queen's Counsel in 1838. Although a young man in his mid-thirties, he had developed a strong reputation for prudence, sobriety and integrity in his business dealings.George Metcalf, "William Henry Draper", in J.M.S. Careless (ed.), The Pre-Confederation Premiers: Ontario Government Leaders, 1841–1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), pp. 39–41.
Cartwright also became involved in major land transactions. In addition to projects in Kingston and Napanee, he was involved in land matters in Hamilton, Niagara, and Montreal. He sold a significant tract of land in Hamilton to Allan MacNab, another leading figure in the Tory political group. When one of Cartwright's good friends and business associates, James Bell Forsyth, was in serious financial difficulties, he avoided bankruptcy because Cartwright came to his financial rescue.
With the success of his legal practice and business activities, Cartwright established a country estate outside of Kingston, named Rockwood, with an attached farm. He invested heavily in his cattle and sheep, and by 1841 was winning prizes with them in the local agricultural fairs.
Cartwright gradually accumulated a large collection of law books. When he was in England, he had spent around £250 acquiring legal texts, which he brought back to Kingston. He viewed his collection as public in nature, and readily loaned out books to other lawyers. When he was dying, he was concerned that his collection should stay in the Kingston area, and sold his library at a great discount to John A. Macdonald, then a young lawyer starting his career, who went on to be the prime minister of Canada.
Rebellions of 1837–38
Cartwight was a staunch supporter of the British colonial government during the Rebellions of 1837–1838. He had been an officer in the local militia since 1822, and was the lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Lennox militia during the rebellion. As an officer, Cartwright sat on the court martial in 1838 which tried Nils von Schoultz, who had led the invaders from the United States at the Battle of the Windmill, in the Patriot War. John A. Macdonald acted as von Schoultz's legal adviser, but under the law governing courts martial, von Shoultz had to conduct his own defence. Against Macdonald's advice, he pled guilty and assumed full responsibility for his actions. The court martial, including Cartwright, convicted von Schoultz for leading the invasion and condemned him to death.Creighton, Macdonald: The Young Politician, pp. 63–67. Von Schoultz was hanged at Fort Henry, Kingston, on December 8, 1838.
In the summer of 1838, Cartwright acted as the Crown prosecutor in treason trials for eight individuals from the Kingston area who were alleged to have taken up arms in the rebellion. Cartwright gave them a fair prosecution, allowing the accused a considerable degree of indulgence in their defence. Macdonald was again involved, this time as full defence counsel. In these cases, the jury returned acquittals.Creighton, Macdonald: The Young Politician, pp. 53–54.
Political career Upper Canada Member for Lennox and Addington
In 1834, Cartwright stood for election as a Tory to represent the combined district of Lennox and Addington counties in the Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Upper Canada, but was defeated by the two Reform movement candidates, Marshall Spring Bidwell and Peter Perry. Cartwright came in third in the two-member riding.
Two years later, in the general election of 1836, Cartwright tried again. This time, he was successful, benefiting from the strong showing the Tories made in the election, under the leadership of the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head. The Tories had held political control in the province by means of their strong influence over the succession of governors sent from Britain.Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America, January 31, 1839; re-printed, with an introduction by Sir Charles Lucas (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912), Vol. 2, pp. 148, 167. The members of the Reform movement challenged that oligarchic dominance, arguing for greater popular and democratic control of the provincial government.J.M.S. Careless, "The Place, the Office, the Times, and the Men", in The Pre-Confederation Premiers, pp. 5–6.J.M.S. Careless, The Union of the Canadas: The Growth of Canadian Institutions (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1967), pp. 3–4. Bond Head campaigned on the basis that the election represented a choice between Tory loyalism to the Crown and Empire, and Reformer republicanism. The Tories won a substantial victory, gaining a clear majority in the Legislative Assembly.Sean T. Cadigan, "Paternalism and Politics: Sir Francis Bond Head, the Orange Order, and the Election of 1836", Canadian Historical Review, LXXII: 3, 1991, 319–347. [Subscription needed.] Cartwright and his fellow Tory candidate in Lennox and Addington, George Hill Detlor, defeated Bidwell and Perry. Cartwright and Detlor took their places in the thirteenth Parliament of Upper Canada.
As a member of the Legislative Assembly, Cartwright secured a charter for the town of Kingston in 1838, and helped to draw up the initial procedures for election of town officials. The Council unanimously elected him mayor, but he declined to serve. When the new governor general, Lord Durham, visited Kingston on a tour of Upper Canada in the summer of 1838, Cartwright was chosen to give the welcoming address on behalf of the town.
Cartwright's conditions for union of Canadas
Following the rebellions of 1837, there was a clear understanding that there had to be structural changes in the governments of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The British government sent Lord Durham to investigate the political situation and to make recommendations for change. In his Report, Lord Durham recommended that the two Canadas should be re-united under a single government, with local control through the principle of responsible government, as used in the British Parliament. Durham also had harsh words for the Tories and the Family Compact, and their dominance of public affairs in the province, in spite of their lack of popular support.
Tories such as Cartwright were strongly opposed to Durham's recommendation for responsible government, which would reduce their power. Cartwright was deeply supportive of the British connection and British North America's place in the British Empire, but as he explained some years later in a letter to Governor General Bagot, he viewed the principle of responsible government as unfitted to the local conditions of Upper Canada: "... with our position as a Colony, – particularly in a country where almost universal suffrage prevails, – where the great mass of the people are uneducated, – and where there is but little of that salutary influence which hereditary rank and great wealth exercises in Great Britain."