Henry John Boulton | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Article

Henry John Boulton

Article by Elinor Senior, Hereward Senior

Published Online January 21, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Henry John Boulton, lawyer, politician, judge (b at Kensington, Eng 1790; d at Toronto 18 June 1870). Although Boulton was an officeholder in the 1830s, he is remembered chiefly for his controversial role in both Upper Canada and Newfoundland.

Boulton, Henry John

Henry John Boulton, lawyer, politician, judge (b at Kensington, Eng 1790; d at Toronto 18 June 1870). Although Boulton was an officeholder in the 1830s, he is remembered chiefly for his controversial role in both Upper Canada and Newfoundland. Coming to Canada around 1800, Boulton studied law in York [Toronto] 1807-11 and continued his education in England until 1816. Returning to Upper Canada, he was welcomed into the governing circles of the FAMILY COMPACT, being appointed solicitor general in 1818 and attorney general in 1829.

An "independent," he was elected to the Assembly for Niagara in 1830 and took a leading part in the expulsion of William Lyon MACKENZIE from the assembly in 1831 and 1832. When ordered in 1832 to reinstate Mackenzie, Boulton sharply criticized the Colonial Office, which promptly dismissed him. The following year he was named chief justice of Newfoundland, where he was again controversial and was recalled in 1838.

He resumed his law practice in Toronto, was elected to the Assembly in 1841, and by 1847 had moved within the Reform orbit of LAFONTAINE and Robert BALDWIN. An individualist, by 1850 he had broken with the Reformers; he gave up politics in 1851 and retired from his law practice in 1861. His widow, the former Eliza Jones of Brockville, married Goldwin SMITH.