British possession in North America between 1866–1871
This article is about the colony united from the merger of the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. For the former mainland colony, see Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866).
The Colony of Vancouver Island was created in 1849 to bolster British claims to the whole island and the adjacent Gulf Islands, and to provide a North Pacific home port for the Royal Navy at Esquimalt. By the mid-1850s, the Island Colony's non-indigenous population was around 800 people; a mix of mostly British, French-Canadian, Hawaiians, but with handfuls of Iroquoians, Métis and Cree in the employ of the fur company, and a few Belgian and French Oblate priests. First Nations' populations had not recovered from smallpox epidemics in the 1770s and 1780s.[2] Three years earlier, the Oregon Treaty had established the boundary between British North America and the United States west of the Rocky Mountains along the 49th parallel. The mainland area of present-day British Columbia was an unorganized territory under British sovereignty until 1858. The region was under the de facto administration of the Hudson's Bay Company, and its regional chief executive, James Douglas, who also happened to be Governor of Vancouver Island. The region was informally given the name New Caledonia, after the fur-trading district which covered the central and northern interior of the mainland west of the Rockies.
All this changed with the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1857–1858, when the non-aboriginal population of the mainland swelled from about 150 Hudson's Bay Company employees and their families to about 20,000 prospectors, speculators, land agents, and merchants. The British Colonial Office acted swiftly, proclaiming the Crown Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) on 2 August 1858, and dispatching Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, to establish British order and to transform the newly established Colony into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west"[3] and "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific".[4] Moody was appointed Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.
Moody and the Columbia Detachment disbanded in July 1863, and Moody returned to England. Douglas continued to administer the mainland colony in absentia from Victoria, but Sir Arthur Kennedy was appointed to succeed him as Governor of Vancouver Island. New Westminster would welcome its first resident governor, Frederick Seymour, in 1864. Both colonies were labouring under huge debts, largely accumulated by the completion of extensive infrastructure to service the huge population influx. As gold revenues dropped, the loans secured to pay for these projects undermined the economies of the colonies, and pressure grew in London for their amalgamation. Despite a great deal of ambivalence in some quarters, on 6 August 1866, the united colony was proclaimed, with the capital and assembly in Victoria, and Seymour was designated governor.[citation needed]
Seymour continued as governor of the united colonies until 1869, but after the British North America Act, 1867 joined the three colonies (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada) into the Dominion of Canada in 1867, it seemed increasingly only a matter of time before Vancouver Island and British Columbia would negotiate terms of union. Major players in the Confederation League such as Amor De Cosmos, Robert Beaven, and John Robson pushed for union primarily as a way of advancing both the economic health of the region, as well as increased democratic reform through truly representative and responsible government. In this effort, they were supported and aided by Canadian officials, especially Sir Samuel Tilley, a Father of Confederation and Minister of Customs in the government of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. Seymour, ill and beset by protests that he was dragging in his feet in completing negotiations for the HBC's territory, was facing the end of his term, and Macdonald was pressing London to replace him with Sir Anthony Musgrave, outgoing governor of the Colony of Newfoundland. Before the appointment could be finalized, however, Seymour died.[citation needed]
With Musgrave's appointment, the British colonial secretary, Lord Granville, pushed Musgrave to accelerate negotiations with Canada towards union. It took almost two years for those negotiations, in which Canada eventually agreed to shoulder the colonies' massive debt and join the territory to a transcontinental railway, to be finalized. His efforts led to the admission of British Columbia as the sixth province of Canada on 20 July 1871.[citation needed]
Governors of the united Colony of British Columbia
Legislative Council of the united Colony of British Columbia
1866 to 1869 14 members were appointed by the governor and 9 were elected by the public.[5] 1869 to 1872 13 members appointed by the Governor, 8 elected by the public.[6]
Elections to the Legislative Council of the united Colony of British Columbia
In 1869 Supreme Courts were established on the mainland ("The Supreme Court of the Mainland of British Columbia") and on Vancouver Island ("Supreme Court of Vancouver Island"), which merged in 1870 as the Supreme Court of British Columbia.[7]
In 1858 the British Government had sent over Matthew Baillie Begbie as Chief Justice for the colony. Although trained at Lincoln's Inn he had never practised law, but soon published a Rules of Court and a timetable of sittings. He held the post, under consecutive administrative regimes, until his death in 1894. [8]
24Claimed in 1908; territory formed 1962; overlaps portions of Argentine and Chilean claims, borders not enforced but claim not renounced under the Antarctic Treaty.
Amor De Cosmos was a Canadian journalist, publisher and politician. He served as the second premier of British Columbia.
John Foster McCreight, was a jurist and the first premier of British Columbia.
The history of British Columbia covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day British Columbia were inhabited for millennia by a number of First Nations.
John Robson was a Canadian journalist and politician, who served as the ninth premier of British Columbia.
Sir James Douglas, was a Canadian fur trader and politician who became the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia. He is often credited as "The Father of British Columbia". He was instrumental to the resettlement of 35 African Americans fleeing a life of racial persecution in San Francisco who arrived in the province aboard the steamship Commodore in what later became known as the Pioneer Committee. In 1863, Douglas was knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to the Crown.
Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie was a British lawyer, politician, and judge. In 1858, Begbie became the first Chief Justice of the Crown Colony of British Columbia in colonial times and in the first decades after British Columbia joined Confederation as a province of Canada.
Sir Anthony Musgrave was a colonial administrator and governor. He died in office as Governor of Queensland in 1888.
Frederick Seymour was a colonial administrator. After receiving little education and no inheritance from his father, Seymour was offered a junior appointment in the colonial service by Prince Albert. Seymour held positions in various British colonies from 1842 to 1863, when he returned to England.
Hugh Nelson was a Canadian parliamentarian and the fourth Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.
The Colony of Vancouver Island, officially known as the Island of Vancouver and its Dependencies, was a Crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866, after which it was united with the mainland to form the Colony of British Columbia. The united colony joined Canadian Confederation, thus becoming part of Canada, in 1871. The colony comprised Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands of the Strait of Georgia.
The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony in British North America from 1858 until 1866 that was founded by Richard Clement Moody, who was selected to 'found a second England on the shores of the Pacific', who was Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Prior to the arrival of Moody's Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, the Colony's supreme authority was its Governor James Douglas, who was the Governor of the neighbouring colony of Vancouver Island.
The British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) was the provincial police service of British Columbia, Canada, between 1858 and 1950.
Major-General Richard Clement Moody was a British Governor and Commander of the Royal Engineers. He was the founder and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia; and was Commanding Executive Officer of Malta during the Crimean War; and was the first British Governor of the Falkland Islands, of which he founded their capital Port Stanley, Moody Brook, and Moody Point in Antarctica.
John Sebastian Helmcken was a British Columbia physician who played a prominent role in bringing the province into Canadian Confederation. He was also the founding president of the British Columbia Medical Association.
Sir Henry Pering Pellew Crease was a British-Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, influential in the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. He was the first Attorney General of the united Colony of British Columbia, and sat on the Supreme Court of that province for 26 years.
The Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island, sometimes House of Assembly of Vancouver Island, was the colonial parliamentary body that was elected to represent voters in the Colony of Vancouver Island. It was created in 1856 after a series of petitions were sent to the Colonial Office in London protesting the Hudson's Bay Company's proprietary rule over the colony. It was the first elected assembly in British North America west of Ontario. Although at first only handful of colonists met the voting requirement, and most of those that did were tied to the HBC, the franchise was gradually extended, and the assembly began to assert demands for more control over colonial affairs, as well as criticize colonial governor Sir James Douglas's inherent conflict of interest as both governor and Hudson Bay Company's chief factor.
The Columbia Detachment of the Royal Engineers was a contingent of the Royal Engineers of the British Army that was responsible for the foundation of British Columbia as the Colony of British Columbia (1858–66). It was commanded by Colonel Richard Clement Moody, FICE FRGS RIBA, Kt. (France).
BC150 is the name given by the government of the Province of British Columbia, Canada, to a programme of events and celebrations that were held in 2008. The motive for the commemoration, as cited by the provincial government, is the founding of the British Crown Colony of British Columbia 150 years earlier, in 1858.
The Court of Appeal of Prince Edward Island is the appellate court for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and thus the senior provincial court below the Supreme Court of Canada. As the number of appeals heard by the Supreme Court of Canada is extremely limited, the Court of Appeal is in practice the court of final appeal for most residents of Prince Edward Island.
The members of the 9th General Assembly of Newfoundland were elected in the Newfoundland general election held in November 1865. The general assembly sat from 1866 to 1869.
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