2nd General Assembly of Newfoundland

2nd General Assembly of Newfoundland
History
Founded	1837
Disbanded	1841
Preceded by	1st General Assembly of Newfoundland
Succeeded by	3rd General Assembly of Newfoundland
Leadership
Speaker	Thomas Bennett (until 1837) William Carson (1838-1841)
Elections
Last election	1837 Newfoundland general election
Next election	1842 Newfoundland general election

The members of the 2nd General Assembly of Newfoundland were elected in the Newfoundland general election held in May 1837. The general assembly sat from July 3, 1837 ^[1] to 1841.

The assembly continue to meet at the Old Court House. ^[2]

William Carson was chosen as speaker. ^[3]

An Education Act passed in 1836 established a public education system in the province. ^[4]

In 1838, Edward Kielley was alleged to have threatened and insulted John Kent, a member of the assembly, regarding remarks made by Kent in the assembly. The assembly considered these actions to violate the parliamentary privilege of the Newfoundland legislature and ordered Kielley arrested. The Supreme Court of Newfoundland upheld the actions of the assembly but in 1842 the ruling was overturned by the Judicial committee of the British Privy Council which ruled that the privileges of the British House of Commons were not transferred to colonial legislatures. ^[5]

Sir Henry Prescott served as civil governor of Newfoundland. ^[6]

Members of the Assembly

The following members were elected to the assembly in 1837: ^{[7] [8]}

	Member	Electoral district	Affiliation [nb 1] [9]	First elected
	Hugh A. Emerson	Bonavista Bay	Conservative	1837
	Henry G. Butler	Burin	Liberal	1837
	Peter Brown	Conception Bay	Liberal	1832
	John McCarthy		Liberal	1837
	Anthony Godfrey	Liberal	1837
	James Power	Liberal	1832
	Peter Winser	Ferryland	Liberal	1837
	Edward James Dwyer	Fogo	Conservative	1837
	William Bickford Row	Fortune Bay	Conservative	1837
	Patrick Doyle	Placentia and St. Mary's	Liberal	1837
	John Valentine Nugent	Liberal	1837
	William Carson	St. John's	Liberal	1833
	John Kent		Liberal	1832
	Patrick Morris	Liberal	1837
	Laurence O'Brien (1840)	Liberal	1840
	Thomas Fitzgibbon Moore	Trinity Bay	Conservative	1837

By-elections

By-elections were held to replace members for various reasons:

Electoral district	Member elected	Affiliation	Election date	Reason
Conception Bay	none [nb 2]	n/a	1840	A Godfrey died [9]
St. John's	Laurence O'Brien	liberal	1840	P Morris named to Executive Council [9]

Notes

1. Indicates political orientation rather than party membership
2. No return due to riots

References

1. Prowse, D W (1971). A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial, and foreign records. Merdian Publishing. pp. 438, 657. Archived from the original on 2014-07-27. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
2. "The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly". Canadian Parliamentary Review. 34 (3). 2011.
3. "The Speaker of the House of Assembly". House of Assembly. Archived from the original on 2009-10-13.
4. "Education". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. Memorial University.
5. Courage, John (1981). "Parliamentary Privilege in Newfoundland: The Strange Case of Kielly vs Carson". Canadian Parliamentary Review. 4 (3).
6. Hayne, David, ed. (1972). "Prescott, Sir Henry". Dictionary of Canadian Biography . Vol. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
7. name=prowse
8. "Roll of Members, 2nd General Assembly" (PDF). House of Assembly Newfoundland and Labrador . Retrieved 2025-03-21.
9. "Elections". Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador . pp. 682–83.