Date Published:
February 2005

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

Sir James Monk

Monk, Sir James (1745-1826), chief justice of Lower Canada, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1745, the son of James Monk and Anne Dering. He was educated at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his father had settled in 1749, and was called to the bar of Nova Scotia. In 1770 he went to England, and in 1774 he was called to the English bar from the Middle Temple. The same year he was appointed solicitor-general of Nova Scotia, and was elected to represent Yarmouth in the Legislative Assembly of the province. In 1776 he was appointed attorney-general of the province of Quebec ; and this post he occupied until 1789, when he was suspended from office. In 1792, however, he was appointed attorney-general of Lower Canada ; and in 1794 he was made chief justice of the court of King's Bench for Montreal. The same year, he was appointed a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and he was three times speaker of the Legislative Council. From 1819 to 1820 he was also administrator of the government of Lower Canada. In 1824 he retired from the bench, and went to live in England ; and he died at Cheltenham, England, on November 18, 1826 . In 1825 he was created a knight bachelor. See F. J. Audet, Sir James Monk (Les Annales, 1924).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada , 1948, 400p., p. 320.