John Solomon Cartwright

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. 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.

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. 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.

Political career

Upper Canada

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. The members of the Reform movement challenged that oligarchic dominance, arguing for greater popular and democratic control of the provincial government. 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. 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.

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."

Province of Canada

In 1840, the British Parliament enacted the Act of Union, which united Lower Canada and Upper Canada into the Province of Canada. The Act was proclaimed in force in February 1841, and elections were held in March and April. Lower Canada was now referred to as Canada East, and Upper Canada as Canada West. The Act provided that English was to be the language of the Parliament, one of the conditions which Cartwright had proposed, even though Cartwright repeatedly stated that he thought French-Canadians needed to be included in the government of the province.

In his Report, Lord Durham had been highly critical of the Family Compact and its previous dominance of the government of Upper Canada. The new governor general, Thomson, made it clear that he wanted to establish a broad-based government, with representatives in the executive council from the different political groups, and a focus on commercial and economic development rather than ideological or constitutional disputes.

In light of these developments, in November 1840 the Attorney General of Upper Canada, William Draper, began corresponding with Cartwright. Draper was a moderate Tory, whose interests were mainly commercial. He had co-operated with Thomson in obtaining the Upper Canada Assembly's approval for the union. Now, with the union approaching, he sounded out Cartwright on the possibility of creating a conservative party which could unite both the high Tories of the Compact, and the more moderate Tories which Draper represented.

Cartwright was apparently interested in the possibility, but after consulting with other Compact Tories, such as Allan MacNab and Robinson (now Chief Justice of the King's Bench of Upper Canada, but still involved in politics), he ultimately rejected Draper's proposal. Unlike his colleagues, Cartwright distrusted Draper's political honesty. Cartwright's leadership role with the Compact Tories was such that his refusal to act with Draper put an end to the proposal. The two Tory factions would continue to be separate in the new Parliament.

In 1841, Cartwright was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the first Parliament of the Province of Canada, again representing Lennox and Addington. One of the first matters before the new Legislative Assembly was a series of motions indicating support for the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. Cartwright, along with Compact Tory members such as Allan MacNab and George Sherwood, again voted in support of the union. However, Sydenham, following his instructions from Britain, was determined to form a broad-based centrist government, and excluded the Compact Tories, precisely as Durham had advocated. The feeling was mutual: Cartwright and the other Tories generally opposed the measures proposed by Governor General Sydenham in the first session of the Parliament.

Patron of architecture

Cartwright and the Cartwright family are credited in having a major effect on the architecture of public buildings in Kingston by choosing or helping influence the selection of architects. He and his brother Robert are believed to have commissioned the architect Thomas Rogers for their two townhouses in Kingston: John Cartwright's house at 221 King Street East, and Robert Cartwright's house at 191 King Street East. Cartwright also built an office building for his law practice at 223 King Street East, connected to his residence. As president of the Commercial Bank for the Midland District, Cartwright likely commissioned Rogers for the bank's Kingston building.

In nearby Napanee, it was said that every public building, including schools and churches, was built on land donated by Cartwright, including both the land and the building for the Anglican church of St. Mary Magdalene. He may have commissioned Rogers for that building as well.

In addition to Rogers, Cartwright commissioned another significant architect, George Browne, to build his country villa, Rockwood. Cartwright likely also helped Browne obtain the commission to build the Kingston Town Hall, which was designated a National Historic Site in 1961.

Death

In 1843, Cartwright began to close down his farming activities. He sold off some of his property for building lots at the same time, as the town of Kingston had expanded to the area. He died at his home of tuberculosis January 15, 1845, two years after his twin brother Robert, also living in Kingston, died of the same disease. Their widows then joined households.

Archives

Queen's University at Kingston holds some of Cartwright's library in its rare books collection. It includes books on philosophy, religion, literature, law, history and politics. There are several volumes of bound pamphlets, piano music, and family photographs. The Queen's University Archives also include a large collection of Cartwright family documents.

There is a Cartwright Family Fonds with the Ontario provincial archives, consisting of documents from 1799 to 1913. The documents were generated by John Solomon Cartwright, his father Richard Cartwright, his brother Reverend Robert David Cartwright, Robert's wife Harriet (Dobbs) Cartwright and their son, Sir Richard Cartwright.