Date Published:
March 2005

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

William Walker

(1793-1863)

Walker, William (1793-1863), legislative councillor of Canada, was born in Scotland in 1793. He emigrated to Canada in 1815 ; and he became a partner in the famous mercantile house of Forsyth, Richardson, and Co., of Montreal, which later became Forsyth, Walker, and Co., of Quebec. He was part owner of the Royal William, the first steamship that crossed the Atlantic. In 1838 he was appointed a member of the Special Council of Lower Canada; and in 1842 he was called to the Legislative Council of Canada. He retired from business in 1848, and he died at Quebec, on May 18, 1863. He was the first chancellor of Bishop's College, Lennoxville; and he received from this college the degree of D.C.L.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 253.