Henry John Boulton

Who was Henry John Boulton?

Henry John Boulton, QC was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.

He was born at Little Holland House, Kensington, England, the son of G. D'Arcy Boulton, in 1790. Some time later, the family settled in New York state and then moved to Upper Canada around 1800. He studied law at York and then at Lincoln's Inn in London. He was called to the English bar and, in 1816, the bar of Upper Canada. In 1818, he succeeded John Beverley Robinson as Solicitor General and, in 1829, succeeded Robinson as attorney general. In 1830, he was elected to represent Niagara in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada. He instigated several expulsions of William Lyon Mackenzie from the assembly. In 1832, Lord Goderich, the colonial secretary, asked the provincial administration to stop attacking Mackenzie; Boulton was dismissed from office after expressing his opposition to these instructions.

After he protested his dismissal, he was offered the post of chief justice of Newfoundland in 1833. He introduced a new system of selecting juries based on the method then used in England.