Date Published:
June 2005

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

Charles Fisher

Fisher, Charles (1808-1880), judge and politician, was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on September 16, 1808, the son of Peter Fisher, and Susanna Williams. He was educated at King's College, Fredericton (B.A., 1830), studied law, and was called to the bar of New Brunswick in 1833 (Q.C., 1855). In 1837 he was elected to represent York in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, in the Liberal interest, and he continued to hold this seat with but slight interruption until 1868, when he retired from political life. He was a member of the Executive Council from 1848 to 1850; and in 1851 he became prime minister and attorney-general. His government resigned on the prohibitory liquor law question in 1856, but was returned to power the following year, and he remained in office until 1861, when he resigned owing to questions arising out of a Crown Lands investigation, though he kept his seat as a private member. In 1864 he attended the Quebec Conference as a delegate from New Brunswick, and his advocacy of Confederation cost him his seat in the election of 1865. In 1866, however, he was re-elected for his old constituency; and he was one of the delegates sent to England for the final conferences in 1866-7. Upon his return, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the county of York ; and he also resumed his old position of attorney-general of New Brunswick. In 1868, however, he retired from political life, and was appointed a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. He died in Fredericton on December 8, 1880. In September, 1835, he married Amelia, seventh daughter of David Hatfield, a United Empire Loyalist. He was given the degree of D.C.L. by the University of New Brunswick in 1866. He declined at one time the chief justiceship. In 1852 he was appointed one of a commission to codify the provincial statutes; and the results of the work of this important commission were embodied in several volumes, issued in 1856. See J. W. Lawrence, Lives of the judges of New Brunswick and their times (St. John, New Brunswick, 1907).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed. The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 339-340.