John Galt
Encyclopedia
John Galt was a Scottish
novel
ist, entrepreneur, and political and social commenter. Because he was the first novelist to deal with issues of the industrial revolution, he has been called the first political novelist in the English language.
, Scotland, Galt was the son of a naval captain
. When his family relocated to Malden
in 1789, Galt became an apprentice and junior clerk, writing essays and stories for local journals in his spare time. He moved to London
in 1804 to seek his fortune and in 1809 began studying law
at Lincoln's Inn
.
While subsequently traveling in Europe
, Galt met and befriended Lord Byron. On his return to London, Galt wrote an account of his travels, which met with moderate success. Decades later, he would also publish the first full biography
of Lord Byron. He also published the first biography of the painter Benjamin West
, The Life and Studies of Benjamin West (1816, expanded 1820).
In 1813, Galt attempted to establish a Gibraltar
ian trading company, in order to circumvent Napoleon's embargo
on British
trade; however, Wellington
's victory in Spain
made this no longer necessary. Galt then returned to London and married Elizabeth Tilloch, daughter of Alexander Tilloch
. In 1815, he became Secretary of the Royal Caledonian Asylum in London. He also privately consulted in several business ventures.
Concentrating on his writing for the next several years, Galt lived at times in London, Glasgow
, Edinburgh
and elsewhere, writing fiction and a number of school texts under the pseudonym
Reverend T. Clark. In addition to moving his residence frequently during this period, Galt also switched publishers several times, moving from Blackwood's Magazine
to Oliver and Boyd and then back again.
In 1824, Galt was appointed Secretary to the Canada Company
, a charter company established to aid in the colonization of the Huron Tract
in Upper Canada
. While in Canada
, Galt lived in Ontario
, where he founded the city of Guelph
in 1827. The community of Galt
in Ontario was named after him. His three sons played prominent roles in Canadian politics
; one of them, Alexander
, was one of the 'Fathers of the Confederation
', and Canada's first Minister of Finance
.
During his tenure with the Canada Company, Galt ran afoul of several colonial authorities, including Sir Peregrine Maitland
, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada at the time. He was heavily criticised by his employers for his lack of basic accounting skills and failure to carry out their established policies. This resulted in his dismissal and recall to Great Britain in 1829.
Soon after his return to England
he was imprisoned for several months for failure to pay his debts. One of Galt's last novels, The Member, has political corruption as its central theme.
Despite failing health, Galt was involved in another colonial business venture, the British American Land Company, which was formed to develop lands in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada
. Galt served as secretary but was forced to resign in December 1832 because of his health.
He retired to Greenock
in Scotland
, publishing his two volume Autobiography in 1833.
John Galt is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh and by the John Galt memorial fountain in Greenock. In 2006, the community of Guelph proclaimed the first Monday in August, "John Galt Day."
The city of Galt, Ontario was named after John Galt, but was absorbed into Cambridge, Ontario
in 1973.
His original home in Guelph is currently the site of the local landmark Trapper's Alley.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist, entrepreneur, and political and social commenter. Because he was the first novelist to deal with issues of the industrial revolution, he has been called the first political novelist in the English language.
Life
Born in Irvine, North AyrshireIrvine, North Ayrshire
Irvine is a new town on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland. According to 2007 population estimates, the town is home to 39,527 inhabitants, making it the biggest settlement in North Ayrshire....
, Scotland, Galt was the son of a naval captain
Captain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
. When his family relocated to Malden
Old Malden
Old Malden is a ward of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames south west of Charing Cross.It is one of the more affluent areas in the borough, with Coombe , and Kingston Vale...
in 1789, Galt became an apprentice and junior clerk, writing essays and stories for local journals in his spare time. He moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1804 to seek his fortune and in 1809 began studying law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
at Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
.
While subsequently traveling in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Galt met and befriended Lord Byron. On his return to London, Galt wrote an account of his travels, which met with moderate success. Decades later, he would also publish the first full biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of Lord Byron. He also published the first biography of the painter Benjamin West
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
, The Life and Studies of Benjamin West (1816, expanded 1820).
In 1813, Galt attempted to establish a Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
ian trading company, in order to circumvent Napoleon's embargo
Embargo
An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...
on British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
trade; however, Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
's victory in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
made this no longer necessary. Galt then returned to London and married Elizabeth Tilloch, daughter of Alexander Tilloch
Alexander Tilloch
-Early life:The son of John Tilloch, a tobacco merchant and magistrate of Glasgow, he was born there on 28 February 1759. He was educated at Glasgow University, and turned his attention to printing. In 1781 he began work on stereotypes. In 1725 William Ged had obtained a privilege for a development...
. In 1815, he became Secretary of the Royal Caledonian Asylum in London. He also privately consulted in several business ventures.
Concentrating on his writing for the next several years, Galt lived at times in London, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and elsewhere, writing fiction and a number of school texts under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Reverend T. Clark. In addition to moving his residence frequently during this period, Galt also switched publishers several times, moving from Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...
to Oliver and Boyd and then back again.
In 1824, Galt was appointed Secretary to the Canada Company
Canada Company
The Canada Company was a large private chartered British land development company, incorporated by an act of British parliament on July 27, 1825, to aid the colonization of Upper Canada. Canada Company assisted emigrants by providing good ships, low fares, implements and tools,and inexpensive land....
, a charter company established to aid in the colonization of the Huron Tract
Huron Tract
The Huron Tract Purchase also known as the Huron Block, registered as Crown Treaty Number 29, is a large area of land in southwestern Ontario bordering on Lake Huron to the west and Lake Erie to the east...
in Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
. While in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Galt lived in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, where he founded the city of Guelph
Guelph
Guelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
in 1827. The community of Galt
Cambridge, Ontario
Cambridge is a city located in Southern Ontario at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is an amalgamation of the City of Galt, the towns of Preston and Hespeler, and the hamlet of Blair.Galt covers the largest portion of...
in Ontario was named after him. His three sons played prominent roles in Canadian politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
; one of them, Alexander
Alexander Tilloch Galt
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC was a politician and a father of Canadian Confederation.He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt. He was a cousin of Sir Hugh Allan.Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery...
, was one of the 'Fathers of the Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
', and Canada's first Minister of Finance
Minister of Finance (Canada)
The Minister of Finance is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible each year for presenting the federal government's budget...
.
During his tenure with the Canada Company, Galt ran afoul of several colonial authorities, including Sir Peregrine Maitland
Peregrine Maitland
Sir Peregrine Maitland, KCB, GCB was a British soldier and colonial administrator who played first-class cricket from 1798 to 1808....
, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada at the time. He was heavily criticised by his employers for his lack of basic accounting skills and failure to carry out their established policies. This resulted in his dismissal and recall to Great Britain in 1829.
Soon after his return to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
he was imprisoned for several months for failure to pay his debts. One of Galt's last novels, The Member, has political corruption as its central theme.
Despite failing health, Galt was involved in another colonial business venture, the British American Land Company, which was formed to develop lands in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
. Galt served as secretary but was forced to resign in December 1832 because of his health.
He retired to Greenock
Greenock
Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, publishing his two volume Autobiography in 1833.
John Galt is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh and by the John Galt memorial fountain in Greenock. In 2006, the community of Guelph proclaimed the first Monday in August, "John Galt Day."
The city of Galt, Ontario was named after John Galt, but was absorbed into Cambridge, Ontario
Cambridge, Ontario
Cambridge is a city located in Southern Ontario at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is an amalgamation of the City of Galt, the towns of Preston and Hespeler, and the hamlet of Blair.Galt covers the largest portion of...
in 1973.
His original home in Guelph is currently the site of the local landmark Trapper's Alley.
Works
Galt's novels are best known for their depiction of Scottish rural life, tinged with ironic humour. Galt wrote the following works:- Cursory Reflections on Political and Commercial Topics (1812)
- The Life and Administration of Cardinal Wolsey (1812)
- The Tragedies of Maddelen, AgamemnonAgamemnonIn Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...
, Lady MacbethLady MacbethLady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
, AntoniaAntonia-People:* Antonia , including a list of people with the name* Any woman of the Antonius family of ancient Rome* Antonia of Balzo , queen consort of Sicily* Princess Antonia of Württemberg * Princess Antónia of Portugal...
and ClytemnestraClytemnestraClytemnestra or Clytaemnestra , in ancient Greek legend, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess...
(1812) - Voyages and Travels (1812)
- Letters from the Levant (1813)
- The Life and Studies of Benjamin WestBenjamin WestBenjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
(1816) - The Majolo (2 volumes) (1816)
- The Appeal (1818)
- The Wandering JewWandering JewThe Wandering Jew is a figure from medieval Christian folklore whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming...
(1820) - The Earthquake (3 volumes) (1820)
- Glenfell (1820)
- The Life, Studies and Works of Benjamin WestBenjamin WestBenjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
(1820) - Annals of the Parish (1821)
- The AyrshireAyrshireAyrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
Legatees (1821) - Sir Andrew Wylie (3 volumes) (1822)
- The Provost (1822)
- The Steam-Boat (1822)
- The Entail (3 volumes) (1823)
- The Gathering of the West (1823)
- Ringan Gilhaize (3 volumes) (1823)
- The Spaewife (3 volumes) (1823)
- The Bachelor's Wife (1824)
- Rothelan (3 volumes) (1824)
- The Omen (1825)
- The Last of the LairdLairdA Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...
s (1826) - Lawrie Todd (1830)
- The Life of Lord Byron (1830)
- Southennan (3 volumes) (1830)
- Bogle Corbet or The Emigrants (3 volumes) (1831)
- The Lives of the Players (1831)
- The Member (1832)
- The Radical (1832)
- Stanley Buxton (3 volumes) (1832)
- Autobiography (2 volumes) (1833)
- Eben Erskine or The Traveller (3 volumes) (1833)
- The Ouranoulagos or The Celestial Volume (1833)
- Poems (1833)
- The Stolen Child (1833)
- Stories of the Study (3 volumes) (1833)
- Literary Life and Miscellanies (3 volumes) (1834)
- A Contribution to the GreenockGreenockGreenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...
Calamity Fund (1834) - Efforts by an Invalid (1835)
- The Demon of Destiny and Other Poems (1839)
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- The University of Guelph Library provides page images and full text for many of Galt's works. The collection is available at http://www2.lib.uoguelph.ca/resources/ebooks/galt_list/
- Wellington Guelph Community Portal