Date Published:
May 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Charles Dewey Day

Day, Charles Dewey (1806-1884), chancellor of McGill University (1857-84), was born at Bennington, Vermont, in 1806, the son of Ithamar H. Day. He came to Montreal, Lower Canada, in 1812, and was there educated. He was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1827 (Q.C., 1838), and in 1838 he was appointed deputy judge-advocate-general at the courts-martial held in Montreal for the trial of the political prisoners arrested during the rebellion of 1837-8. In 1840 he was appointed solicitor-general of Lower Canada , with a seat in the Special Council; and in 1841 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Canada, and became solicitor-general for Lower Canada in the first administration under the Union. His presence in the Executive Council was, however, obnoxious to the Reformers; and in 1842 he accepted an appointment as a judge of the court of Queen's Bench. He was transferred to the Superior Court in 1849, but in 1862 he retired from the bench. In 1857 he was elected chancellor of McGill University ; and this position he occupied until his death in England, on January 3, 1884.

Source  : W. Stewart Wallace, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 187.