Date Published:
June 2005

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

John Elmsley

Elmsley, John (1762-1805), chief justice of Upper Canada (1796-1802) and of Lower Canada (1802-5), was born in 1762, the son of Alexander Elmsley, of the parish of Marylebone, Middlesex, England. He was called to the English bar at the Middle Temple in 1790; and in 1796 he was appointed chief justice of Upper Canada. The same year he was sworn of the Legislative Council of the province; and in 1799 he became its speaker. In 1802, the position of chief justice of Lower Canada having fallen vacant, he was transferred to this post; and he held it until his death at Montreal on April 29, 1805. See D. B. Read, Lives of the judges (Toronto, 1888).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 289-290.