John William
Ritchie was born in Annapolis, Nova Scotia, March 26, 1808. He was
brought up in a legal atmosphere; his father was the county judge.
He was educated privately and became a qualified lawyer at twenty-five.
His first
public office was as law clerk to the legislative council in Halifax.
He later became a member of the council and was then taken into
the cabinet as solicitor general.
He maintained
a steady support of confederation, particularly for commercial advantages
expected to follow. He felt that the renewal of the Reciprocity
Treaty with the United States should be the concern of all the provinces
and not of the Canada's only. He acted on the Confederate Council
on Commercial Treaties which met at Quebec in the autumn of 1865
to study the whole question of colonial trade. In their
resolutions the council boldly suggested: that the provinces should
take joint action in commercial policies, that trade missions be
sent to the West Indies and to South America, and that one of their
members be invited to act with the British minister in the Washington
negotiations.
His work on
this committee brought him into greater prominence and, partly as
a result of this, he was named as a delegate to the final conference
in London.
In 1867 he
was appointed to the senate and three years later to the supreme
court of Nova Scotia.
In 1873 Ritchie
was made judge in equity in which office he served for nine years.
In this period, sharing with Archibald an interest in such matters,
he too became president of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. He
died in Halifax, December 28, 1890.
Fathers of
Confederation
