Northumberland North (Province of Canada electoral district)

This article is about the pre-Confederation electoral district. For the two successor federal electoral districts, see Peterborough East and Peterborough West. For the two successor provincial electoral districts, see Peterborough East (provincial electoral district) and Peterborough West (provincial electoral district).

Northumberland North
Canada West

Province of Canada electoral district
Defunct pre-Confederation electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
District created	1841
District abolished	1867
First contested	1841
Last contested	1863

Northumberland North was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada West (now Ontario). It was created in 1841, upon the establishment of the Province of Canada by the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Northumberland North was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Ontario.

Boundaries

Northumberland North electoral district was located north of Lake Ontario in the northern section of Northumberland County (now in Peterborough County). The town of Peterborough was the major centre.

The Union Act, 1840 had merged the two provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, with a single Parliament. The separate parliaments of Lower Canada and Upper Canada were abolished. ^[1] The Union Act provided that the pre-existing electoral boundaries of Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself. ^[2]

Northumberland North was a new electoral district, created by the Union Act as the north riding of Northumberland County. ^[3] Northumberland County had originally been bounded by on the south by Lake Ontario and extended north, as described by a proclamation of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, in 1792, and as further defined by a statute of Upper Canada in 1798. ^{[4] [5]}

Prior to the Act of Union, Northumberland County had been represented by two members in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada. ^[6] The Union Act split Northumberland County into two separate ridings, Northumberland North and Northumberland South, each represented by one member. ^[3] The boundaries for Northumberland North were:

... the North Riding of the last-mentioned County shall consist of the following Townships, namely, Monaghan, Otonabee, Asphodel, Smith, Douro, Dummer, Belmont, Methuen, Burleigh, Harvey, Emily, Gore, Ennismore; ^[3]

Members of the Legislative Assembly

Northumberland North was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. ^[3] The following were the members for Northumberland North.

Parliament	Years	Members [7]		Party [8]
1st Parliament 1841–1844	1841–1844	John Gilchrist		Unionist; moderate Reformer

Abolition

Northumberland North electoral district was abolished on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act, 1867 came into force, creating Canada and splitting the Province of Canada into Quebec and Ontario. ^[9] It was succeeded by two electoral districts in the House of Commons of Canada, Peterborough East and Peterborourgh West, ^[10] and two ridings of the same names in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. ^[11]

References

1. Union Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vict. (UK), c. 35, s. 2.
2. Union Act, 1840, s. 16.
3. Union Act, 1840, s. 14.
4. Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792; reprinted in Statutes of the Province of Upper Canada; Together with Such British Statutes, Ordinances of Quebec, and Proclamations, as Relate to the Said Province (Kingston: F. M. Hill, 1831), p. 24.
5. An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798 (38 Geo. III), c. 5, ss. 19, 25. Reprinted in The Statutes of Upper Canada to the Time of Union, Revised and Published by Authority, Vol. I - Public Acts (Toronto: Robert Stanton, Queen's Printer, 1843).
6. Journal of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, from the eighth day of November, 1836, to the fourth day of March, 1837..., p. 15 (November 8, 1836).
7. J.O. Côté, Political Appointments and Elections in the Province of Canada, 1841 to 1860, (Quebec: St. Michel and Darveau, 1860), pp. 43-58.
8. For party affiliations, see Paul G. Cornell, Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1841-67 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962; reprinted in paperback 2015), pp. 93-111.
9. British North America Act, 1867 (now the Constitution Act, 1867), s. 6.
10. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 40, para. 2
11. Constitution Act, 1867, s. 70.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Proclamation, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, July 16, 1792.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : An act for the better division of this province, SUC 1798, c. 5, ss. 19, 25.