Robert Alexander Harrison (August 3, 1833 – November 1, 1878) was an 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....

 lawyer, judge and political figure. He represented West Toronto

West Toronto

West Toronto was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1904. It was located in the City of Toronto, in the province of Ontario. The district was created by the British North America Act of 1867 and was renamed Toronto West in 1903.West Toronto was...

 in the 1st Canadian Parliament

1st Canadian Parliament

The 1st Canadian Parliament was in session from November 6, 1867 until July 8, 1872. The membership was set by the 1867 federal election from August 7 to September 20, 1867, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was prorogued prior to the 1872 election.It was...

 as a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

 member.

Harrison was born in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, 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...

 in 1833, the son of Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 immigrants. The family moved to Markham Township

Markham, Ontario

Markham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. The population was 261,573 at the 2006 Canadian census...

 and then Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

. Harrison studied at Upper Canada College

Upper Canada College

Upper Canada College , located in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are...

 and Trinity College, Toronto

University of Trinity College

The University of Trinity College, informally referred to as Trin, is a college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Trinity was intended by Strachan as a college of strong Anglican alignment, after the University of Toronto severed its ties with the Church of...

. He studied law and was called to the bar in 1855. He served as chief clerk of the Crown Law Department from 1854 to 1859; and then entered private practice. In 1867, Harrison was named Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...

. He served on Toronto city council in 1867 and 1868. He was also a director of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway. In 1875, he was named chief justice for the Court of Queen's Bench of Ontario.

Harrison contributed articles to several legal journals and newspapers, serving for a time as joint editor for the Upper Canada Law Journal. He was one of the arbitrators involved in establishing the western boundary for the province of Ontario.

Harrison died in Toronto in 1878, at the age of 45.

Family

The second wife of Hon. Robert A. Harrison, U.C.L., Chief Justice of Ontario was Kennithina Johana Mackay, daughter of Hugh Scobie, editor of the British Colonist. The couple had one daughter, Justine A. Harrison, who was born in Toronto, and educated, mainly, abroad. While living at Dresden she studied Dresden decoration under Lamm, Ley Kauf and Mrs. Wagner.

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