Date Published:
March 2005

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

Thomas Walker

Walker, Thomas (fl. 1752-1785), merchant, was born in England, possibly in 1718. He emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1752, and settled in Montreal in 1763. Here he engaged in the fur-trade. In 1764 he was appointed a justice of the peace, and shortly afterwards was the victim of an assault by the military, in which one of his ears was cut off. The incident greatly embittered feeling in the colony, and Walker became the centre of a violent agitation. In 1774, when the Americans invaded Quebec, Walker went over to them, and he left the province. with them in 1776. In 1785 Pierre Du Calvet met him in London, England ; but after that he passes from view. See L. W Sicotte, The affair Walker (Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic journal, 1915); A. L. Burt, The mystery of Walker's ear (Can. hist. rev., 1922) ; and W. S. Wallace (ed.), The Maseses letters (Toronto, 1920).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 252.