1st New Brunswick Legislature

The 1st New Brunswick Legislative Assembly represented New Brunswick between January 3, 1786, and 1792. The lower house was the Legislative Assembly and the upper house was named the Legislative Council.

The assembly sat at the pleasure of the Governor of New Brunswick, Thomas Carleton.[1] The first and second sessions were held at the Mallard House, an inn in Saint John. Subsequent sessions were held in Fredericton.

Amos Botsford was chosen as Speaker Of The House.

Composition

The lower house was the Legislative Assembly and the upper house was named the Legislative Council.[1] The governor of New Brunswick was responsible for the appointment of the Legislative Council.[1]

The General Assembly of New Brunswick had three distinct constitutional elements:

In this period, the General Assembly met from two to ten weeks each year and it was then that the elected representatives of the voters could influence public policy. When New Brunswick had a bicameral General Assembly, new legislation had to be read three times and approved by the House of Assembly and then read three times and approved by the Legislative Council. Generally, legislation originated in the House of Assembly sometimes.

History

The Loyalist Migration to Canada (1783-1784) [2] followed the American Revolutionary War brought about 12,000 settlers, chiefly from New York, to this region. Convinced that the government and people of Nova Scotia were alien to their interest, they sought the creation of a new province. Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester urged their claims at London and in 1784, their desire became reality. In 1785, an election was held and on 3rd of January 1786, the first legislature of New Brunswick met in the Mallard House, which at that time, Saint John, New Brunswick's leading hostelry once stood on this site.

Acts

Acts that were commonly passed in the 1st New Brunswick Legislative Assembly generally centered around the topics of law and money. As an example, "An Act For Regulating Pilots". [1]

Members

The following are the members for the 1st New Brunswick Legislative:

Electoral District Name First elected
Saint John[a] William Pagan 1786
Jonathan Bliss 1786
Christopher Billop 1786
Ward Chipman 1786
John McGeorge 1786
Stanton Hazard 1786
York Daniel Murray 1786
Isaac Atwood 1786
Daniel Lyman 1786
Edward Stelle 1786
Westmorland Amos Botsford 1786
Charles Dixon 1786
Samuel Gay 1786
Andrew Kinnear 1786
Kings John Coffin 1786
Ebenezer Foster 1786
Queens Samuel Dickinson 1786
John Yeamans 1786
Charlotte William Paine 1786
James Campbell 1786
Robert Pagan 1786
Peter Clinch 1786
Northumberland Elias Hardy 1786
William Davidson 1786
Sunbury William Hubbard 1786
Richard Vandeburg 1786

Notes

  1. ^ The members elected for Saint John were known as the Government candidates. Another group of candidates, Tertuluss Dickinson, Richard Lightfoot, Richard Bonsall, Peter Grim, Jonathan Boggs and Alexander Reid, actually received a majority of the votes but were unsuccessful because of the actions of the sheriff in validating the votes. A petition from the voters of Saint John was addressed to the governor but was ignored.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Desserud, Donald; Hyson, Stewart (2012). "New Brunswick's Legislative Assembly" (PDF). Canadian Parliamentary Review.
  2. ^ https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/loyalists
  3. ^ History of New Brunswick, J Hannay Archived 2011-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
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