Date Published:
July 2007

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

Lewis Thomas Drummond

Drummond, Lewis Thomas (1813-1882), politician and judge, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, on May 28, 1813. He emigrated to Canada with his widowed mother in 1825, and was educated at Nicolet College. He was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1836, and in 1838 he distinguished himself as one of the counsel in defence of the political prisoners arrested in connection with the rebellion of 1837. He sat in the Legislative Assembly of Canada almost continuously from 1844 to 1863, representing successively Portneuf, Shefford, Lotbinière, and Rouville. From 1848 to 1851, he was solicitor-general for Lower Canada in the Baldwin-Lafontaine administration; from 1851 to 1856 he was attorney-general for Lower Canada in the Hincks-Morin, MacNab-Morin, and MacNab-Taché administrations; in 1858 he held the same office in the short-lived BrownDorion government; and in 1863 he was for a few months commissioner of public works in the Sandfield Macdonald government. His most notable achievement was the abolition of the seigniorial tenure in Lower Canada in 1856. In 1864 he was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal of Lower Canada, and he sat on the bench until his retirement in 1873. He died at Montreal on November 24, 1882. In 1842 he married Josephte Éléonore, daughter of the Hon. P. D. Debartzch.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 238.