James Robert Gowan, signed as Jas. Robt. Gowan
His skill as a legal draughtsman was such that Mr. Baldwin, who, at the time of Judge Gowan's appointment, was Attorney-General for Upper Canada, availed himself of his services in preparing various important measures which were afterwards submitted to Parliament. This was a remarkably high compliment for a young man of twenty-five to receive, but there is no doubt that the compliment was well merited, for the measures so prepared were models of compact statutory legislation, and gained no inconsiderable eclat for the Administration. The example set by Mr. Baldwin has since been followed by other Attorneys-General, and Judge Gowan has thus made a decided mark upon our Canadian legislation and jurisprudence. It is said, and we believe truly, that it was he who suggested the introduction of the Common Law Procedure Act of 1856, and that the adaptation of the English Act to our local requirements was largely the work of his hand.
At the time of his appointment the judicial system of the inferior courts was in a very primitive condition. He set himself diligently to work in his own district, and, in the face of many difficulties, succeeded in organizing the system which he has ever since administered with such benefit and satisfaction to the community in which he resides. The position of a judge in a rural district was attended in those days with a good many inconveniences which have disappeared with advancing civilization. The roads were in such a condition that he was generally compelled to make his circuits on horseback. Judge Gowan's district was the largest in the Province, and extended over a wide tract of country, the greater part of which was but sparsely settled. He was frequently compelled to ride from sixty to seventy miles a day, and to dispose of five or six hundred cases at a single session. One of the newspapers published in the county of Simcoe gave an account, several years ago, of some of his early exploits; from which account it appears that he was often literally compelled to take his life in his hand in the course of his official peregrinations. It describes how, on one occasion, he was compelled to ride from Barrie to Collingwood when the forest was on fire. The heat and smoke were sufficiently trying, but he also had to encounter serious peril from the blazing trees which were falling all around him. On another occasion, while attempting to cross a river during high water, his horse was caught by the flood, and carried down stream at such a rate that he might well have given himself up for lost. He saved himself by grasping his horse's tail, and thereby keeping his head above water until he came to a spot where he could find foothold, and so made the best of his way, more than half drowned, to the shore. He was also frequently compelled to encounter dangers from which travellers in the rural districts of Canada are not altogether free, even at the present day—such dangers, for instance, as damp beds, unwholesome and ill-cooked food, and badly ventilated rooms. Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, he was able to say, after he had been a judge for more than a quarter of a century: "I have never been absent from the Superior Courts over which I preside;"—by which he meant the County Courts and Quarter Sessions—"and as to the Division Courts, except when on other duties at the instance of the Government, fifty days would cover all the occasions when a deputy acted for me."
In 1853 Judge Gowan was one of the five judges appointed under the Division Court Act of that year, whereby the Governor was authorized to appoint five judges to frame rules regulating the procedure in the Division Courts. His collaborateurs in this task were the Hon. Samuel Bealey Harrison, Judge of the County Court of the United Counties of York and Peel; Judge O'Reilly, of Wentworth; Judge Campbell, of Lincoln; and Judge Malloch, of Carleton. The rules framed by them have since received many additions, and have been elaborately annotated; but they still form the basis of Division Court practice in this Province. During the same year (1853), Judge Gowan married Anna, second daughter of the late Rev. S. B. Ardagh, Rector of Barrie, and Incumbent of Shanty Bay. After the passing of the Common Law and County Courts Procedure Acts, in 1856 and 1857 respectively, Judge Gowan was associated with the judges of the Superior Courts in framing the tariff of fees for the guidance of attorneys and taxing-masters in the Courts of Common Law. He was also associated with the late Robert Easton Burns, one of the Puisné Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, and the Hon. John Godfrey Spragge, the present Chancellor, in framing rules and orders regulating the procedure in the Probate and Surrogate Courts. He also rendered valuable service in assisting the late Sir James B. Macaulay and others in the consolidation of the Public General Statutes of Canada and Upper Canada respectively.
In 1862, during Chief Justice Draper's absence in England, special commissions were issued to Judges Macaulay and Gowan, authorizing them to hold certain assizes which the Chief Justice's absence prevented him from holding in person. Later in the same year disputes arose between the Government of Canada and the contractors for the erection of the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa. The disputes were submitted for adjudication to a tribunal of three persons, consisting of the engineer employed by the Government, an engineer named by the contractors, and an Upper Canadian judge to be accepted by both the parties to the dispute. Judge Gowan was the one so accepted. He acted as Chairman to the tribunal, which settled the matter by a unanimous decision.
In 1869 a Board of County Court Judges was formed under the statute 32 Victoria, chapter 23, for further regulating Division Court procedure, and settling conflicting decisions. The Board consisted of Judge Gowan, and Judges Jones, of Brantford, Hughes, of Elgin, Daniell, of Prescott and Russell, and Smith, of Victoria. They began their labours, and promulgated certain rules, in the early spring of the year; but these rules were only temporary, and were followed, on the 1st of July, by other and more elaborately formed regulations, which are still in operation. Judge Gowan was appointed Chairman to the Board, and still retains that position. His large experience, both in the framing of such rules and in carrying them into effect in the courts, have proved very serviceable to the country at large, where the rules and orders promulgated by the Board have all the force of law. During this same year (1869), he was engaged, with other leading Canadian jurists, in consolidating the Criminal Law of the various Provinces, prior to its submission to Parliament to receive the sanction of that Body. Two years later he was appointed one of five Commissioners to inquire into the constitution and jurisdiction of the several Courts of Law and Equity, with a view to a possible fusion. His colleagues in this important inquiry were Judges Wilson, Gwynne, Strong, and Patterson.
Judge Gowan was one of the Royal Commissioners appointed on the 14th of August, 1873, by His Excellency the Earl of Dufferin, to investigate the charges made by the Hon. L. S. Huntington in connection with the Pacific Railway Scandal. His colleagues were the Hon. Antoine Polette, a Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec, and the Hon. C. D. Day, Chancellor of McGill College, Montreal, and formerly a Judge of the Superior Court of Lower Canada. The Commissioners were appointed by virtue of an Act passed during the session of 1868. They were empowered to investigate the charges, and to report thereupon to the Speakers of the Senate and Commons, and to the Secretary of State. Everybody remembers the excitement which prevailed throughout the country at that time. The Commission met at Ottawa three days after the date of its appointment. The examination of witnesses began on the 4th of September, and lasted to the end of the month. Mr. Huntington, though summoned to appear before the Commission and give evidence, did not present himself, nor was any evidence offered in substantiation of the charges made by him on the floor of the House. The labours of the Commission, therefore, were necessarily unproductive, and they simply reported the evidence taken and the various documents filed.
In 1874 Judge Gowan was appointed one of the Commissioners for the revision, consolidation, and classification of the Public General Statutes relating to Ontario; a task which was finally completed in 1877, and which included all public statutory legislation down to the month of November in that year. The Judge has recently received from the Ontario Government a beautifully-executed gold medal struck in commemoration of the completion of that important work.
From the foregoing account of a few of the most important of Judge Gowan's public services, it will be seen that his labours, in addition to his ordinary official duties, have been many and onerous. He has also held various offices which must have involved a considerable amount of labour, and close attention to details. He was Chairman of the Board of Public Instruction from the time of its foundation to its abolition in 1876. He has been for more than thirty years Chairman of the Senior High School Board of the county of Simcoe. He has also held high office in the Masonic Fraternity, and has taken a warm interest in all matters relating to the Episcopal Church, of which he is a life-long member. In 1855 he was largely instrumental in founding the Upper Canada Law Journal, and for many years thereafter he contributed to its pages. Notwithstanding all these multifarious pursuits he never looks like an overworked man, but carries his sixty-three years with a remarkably good grace. He continues to take a warm interest in public and social matters. He is revered alike by the public and by the professional men of the county of Simcoe, who are justly proud of his well-deserved fame. About twelve years ago, when he had completed a quarter of a century's service on the Bench, he was presented by the local Bar with a life-sized portrait in oil of himself in his robes. The portrait was accompanied by an enthusiastic address expressive of the respect and esteem in which he was held by the donors. He has been offered a seat on the Bench of the Superior Courts, but has preferred to retain the position which he has so long occupied. During the last eight years he has had an efficient ally in the person of Mr. John A. Ardagh, B.A., who was appointed Junior Judge of the County of Simcoe in 1872.
Judge Gowan resides at Ardraven, a pleasant seat in the neighbourhood of Barrie, overlooking Kempenfeldt Bay, an inlet of Lake Simcoe. He also has a delightful summer residence called Eileangowan, situated on an island containing about four hundred acres, in Lake Muskoka, opposite the mouth of Muskoka River, about an hour's ride from Gravenhurst.