John Solomon Cartwright

Who was John Solomon Cartwright?

John Solomon Cartwright QC was a businessman, lawyer, judge, farmer and political figure.

He was born in Kingston in 1804, the son of Richard Cartwright, who died while John was still young, and Magdalen Secord, sister-in-law of Laura Secord. After studying law at Toronto and Oxford he articled in the offices of John Beverley Robinson and was called to the bar in 1825. In 1827, after the death of his mother, he continued to study law at Lincoln's Inn in London; he returned to Kingston in 1830. In 1832, he became the first president of the Commercial Bank of the Midland District. In 1834, he became a judge in the Midland District and he was named Queen's Counsel in 1838. In 1836, he was elected to the 13th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Lennox and Addington and represented it again in the 1st Parliament of the Province of Canada. He attempted to ensure that British institutions would be preserved in the new union. In 1834, he proposed a form of juvenile reform school that he called "Juvenile Houses of Refuge"; this resolution was not implemented. In 1844, he travelled to England to attempt to prevent the movement of the capital from Kingston to Montreal.