Sturdee, Henry Lawrance, M.A., Barrister-at-law, Solicitor, etc., Mayor of Portland, New Brunswick, was born in St. John, N.B., on the 11th April, 1842. His father, Henry Parker Sturdee, was born in Topsham, Devonshire, England, and his mother, Emily Lawrance, in London, England. Mr. Sturdee was educated at private schools in St. John, and at the Collegiate School, and at King’s College, Fredericton, N.B. He matriculated there in September, 1858, and in the following year was awarded the Douglas gold medal. He received the degree of B.A. in June, 1861, and M.A. in June, 1883, in course. He studied law in his native city with Messrs. Gray and Kaye, barristers; was admitted an attorney-at-law in June, 1864, and called to the bar in June, 1865. He has since practised law in St. John. He is one of the referees of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, equity side. He takes an interest in military matters, and is major of the 3rd St. John reserve militia. Mr. Sturdee resided in St. John until November, 1877, when he removed to the adjoining city of Portland. In April, 1883, he was elected an alderman for ward four of Portland, and was re-elected alderman the two following years. On taking his seat at the council board in that year he was appointed by the Portland city council to represent ward four of that city in the municipal council of the city and county of St. John. In April, 1884, he was elected warden of the municipality of the city and county of St. John; and in April, 1885, was re-elected warden without opposition. This office he held until April, 1886, when, having been elected mayor of Portland, he declined re-nomination as warden. On the 11th April, 1887, he was again chosen mayor of Portland, without opposition, and this responsible position he still holds. He has been vestry clerk and treasurer of Trinity Church, St. John (Church of England), since May, 1871; and secretary-treasurer of the Madras School Board since September, 1877. He is a vice-president of the St. George’s Society; and a member of Portland Union Lodge A. F. and A. M., and of New Brunswick Royal Arch Chapter, St. John. He was married at Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton, on the 26th September, 1866, to Jane Agnes, daughter of the late William R. Fraser, Esq., M.D. (Edinburgh), of Fredericton, and has a family of three sons and two daughters.
Hensley, Hon. Joseph, Charlottetown, Assistant Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and Vice-Chancellor in the Court of Chancery, Prince Edward Island, was born on the 12th June, 1824, at Tottenham, Middlesex, England. He is the second son of the late Hon. Charles Hensley, who at the time of his death, in 1875, was a commander in the Royal navy, which service he entered in 1805, and was actively engaged in it for ten years—1805 to 1815—during the last war with France. Subsequently he lived in Prince Edward Island, and was a member of the Legislative and Executive Council there, and treasurer of the province. The Hon. Joseph Hensley was educated in England by private tuition, and afterwards at the Hackney Grammar School, Middlesex. In the year 1841 he came out with his father and family from England to Prince Edward Island, where he has since resided, and has now been a resident for upwards of forty-six years. In 1842, he commenced his studies for the bar in the office of the Hon. Robert Hodgson, then attorney-general of the island. He was called to the bar in January, 1847, and practised in Charlottetown from that time until his elevation to the bench, on the 18th June, 1869. Has since sat uninterruptedly as judge of the Supreme Court and vice-chancellor in Chancery. Judge Hensley has filled the following public offices under the government of Prince Edward Island:—In 1851 he was law-clerk to the House of Assembly, and also solicitor-general; in 1853 and 1854, attorney-general; from July, 1854, to July, 1858, attorney-general; from March, 1867, to June, 1869, attorney-general; in 1857, Queen’s counsel by her Majesty’s warrant; during the years 1853-8 inclusive, member of the Legislative Council; from 1861 to June, 1869, member of the House of Assembly; in 1868-9, president of the Executive Council, and leader of the government; from 1853 to 1876, member of the Board of Education; and from 1869 to 1876, chairman of the Board of Education. He was married on the 8th September, 1853, to Frances Ann Dover Hodgson, only daughter of the late Hon. Sir Robert Hodgson, knight, formerly attorney-general, afterwards chief-justice, and, lastly, lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward Island, who died in 1880. He has had four children, three of whom still survive, namely: Fanny Louisa Catherine, married to George Macleod, manager, in Charlottetown, of the Bank of Nova Scotia; Mary Eva; and Katherine Emily, married to Lieutenant Waldemar D’Arcy Rose, United States navy. Hon. Joseph Hensley’s residence is in Charlottetown. He is a member of the Church of England, and has always taken an active part in connection with the work of various religious societies and associations, particularly that of the Charlottetown Young Men’s Christian Association, since its formation, in 1856, filling at various times the position of its president, etc.
Barbeau, Henri Jacques, Montreal, is descended from an old and distinguished French-Canadian family, allied to the de Noyons and the de Rainvilles. The first of M. Barbeau’s ancestors to come to Canada was the Sieur Jean Barbeau-Boisdoré, who was born at St. Vivien-du-Pont, parish of Xaintes, France, in 1666. Having taken to a military career, the Sieur Jean joined the troops of the marine, and at the age of twenty his name appears on the roll of the Sieur de St. Cirque’s company, then stationed in Canada. This progenitor of the Canadian branch of the Barbeau family married, at Boucherville, Mdlle. Marie de Noyon, and left many descendants, who to-day occupy prominent and influential positions in the Quebec province. Mr. H. J. Barbeau was born at Laprairie in 1832, of the marriage of Edmund Henry Barbeau, merchant, and Sophie Bourassa, a daughter of captain Bourassa. His father having died at an early age, young Barbeau’s education was undertaken by his grandfather, the late Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Barbeau-Boisdoré, notary, of Laprairie, who died in 1864, at the ripe age of eighty. Colonel Barbeau-Boisdoré married Mary Powell, niece of Edmund Henry, who for many years had control of Colonel Christie’s vast seigneuries in the neighborhood of Lake Champlain, and afterwards became government agent for the seigneurie of Laprairie, and notary for the district. This gentleman inherited the military instincts of his ancestors, and when the war of 1812 broke out, he was among the first to offer his services to the Canadian government in resisting the invasion of the country. He served as a lieutenant in the campaigns of 1812-13, and from 1830 to 1840 held higher commands, dying in 1864 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Mr. H. J. Barbeau, the subject of the present sketch, has almost exclusively devoted himself to commercial pursuits. He received a good commercial education, under Mr. H. O’Regan, whom the Jesuit Fathers had made parish teacher at Laprairie, then under their ecclesiastical supervision. Young Barbeau commenced his commercial life at Laprairie, where he held a clerkship, and gave promise of attaining success in business. In 1852 he came to Montreal, and held responsible positions in several of the wholesale houses of the city until 1858, when, having acquired the necessary experience, he went into business for a while on his own account at St. Hyacinthe. Later on he held positions as insurance agent, appraiser for the Trust and Loan Company, and official assignee. In 1870 he was appointed to the management of a branch of the Merchant’s Bank, which was then opened for the first time at St. Hyacinthe. Five years later, the Savings Bank having established a series of branch offices in Montreal, Mr. Barbeau was offered the management of one of them, a position which he accepted and held till 1879, when he was called to succeed his brother, Mr. E. J. Barbeau, as general manager of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank. Mr. E. J. Barbeau, it may be said, was for thirty years the able manager of the Savings Bank, and now retired, to be succeeded by the subject of this sketch. In this new position of responsibility as a banker, Mr. Barbeau has evinced the same judgment, prudence and foresight which has always characterised his own business transactions, marked the character of his earlier career, and won for him success in all his enterprises, with the good opinion of those with whom he came in contact. In 1859 Mr. Barbeau married Josephine Varin, daughter of J. B. Varin, notary, and late member for Laprairie. Eleven children were born of this union, of whom seven survive. It may here be added, that Mr. Varin, whose high character and profound legal attainments are well known, married Hermine, daughter of the late Jean Moïse Raymond, who in his day was a prominent merchant, and member for l’Assomption, and a grand-daughter of M. Jean Raymond, for many years member for Laprairie.
Pope, Percy William Thomas, Assistant Receiver-General, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, eldest son of the Hon. James Colledge Pope and Eliza Dalrymple, his wife, was born at Summerside, Prince Edward Island, on the 8th May, 1856. He was educated at the Prince of Wales College, in Charlottetown. During his early life he was employed in the management of large ship-building and fishing industries in the western portion of the island. In 1882 he emigrated to the North-West Territories, and was one of the earliest settlers who located upon the site of the present town of Regina, the capital of Assiniboia. After the advent of the Canada Pacific Railroad, he engaged in the lumber business, importing the first manufactured lumber ever brought into that district. When, in the fall of 1882, the growth of the town rendered some form of civic organization desirable, he was elected one of three commissioners to represent the settlers’ interests. Mr. Pope remained there until the summer of 1883, when the position of assistant receiver-general, Charlottetown, rendered vacant by the retirement of the Hon. Joseph Pope, was offered to him by the government. This office he accepted, returned to his native island, and has since resided in Charlottetown. In religion, he is a member of the Church of England. In politics, a Conservative. He was married on the 15th day of April, 1882, to Mary Louise, second daughter of John Macgowan, by whom he has issue a son and two daughters.
Sullivan, Hon. William Wilfrid, Charlottetown, Premier and Attorney-General of Prince Edward Island, and a member of the Provincial Parliament for the second district of Kings county, was born at New London, Prince Edward Island, on the 6th of December, 1843. His parents, William Sullivan and Mary McCarthy, both now deceased, were natives of the county Kerry, Ireland. Hon. Mr. Sullivan was educated at the Central Academy and St. Dunstan’s College, Charlottetown. He studied law with the Hon. Joseph Hensley, then attorney-general, and now one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island. He was called to the bar of Prince Edward Island in Trinity Term, 1867, and became a partner of his preceptor, holding that connection until Mr. Hensley was appointed to the Supreme Court bench two years later. No client ever suffers at the hands of Mr. Sullivan for the want of close application to his cause. Possessed of much coolness, clear judgment and sterling good sense, and being candid and logical in his arguments, Mr. Sullivan never fails to make admirable points, or to favorably impress bench and jury. We learn from the “Historical Illustrated Atlas of Prince Edward Island” that Mr. Sullivan was appointed a Queen’s counsel by the government of Prince Edward Island in June, 1876, and by his excellency the governor-general of Canada, under letters-patent, on the 19th May, 1879; that he was one of the counsel for the government in the interests of the tenants before the Land Commissioners’ Court under “The Land Purchase Act, 1875.” Hon. Mr. Sullivan is head of the extensive law firm of Sullivan & Macneill, who do business in all the courts of the province and the Supreme Court of the Dominion; is a deputy judge of the Admiralty Court, and a notary public, and is president of the Board of Education; president of the Board of Trustees of the Prince Edward Island Hospital for the Insane, and a director of the Merchants’ Bank of Prince Edward Island, and a local director of the Canada Life Assurance Company. He first entered public life in 1872, when he was elected to represent the first district of Kings county. He was returned for his present seat at the general election in April, 1873, and again, by acclamation, the following month on being appointed to office. He was re-elected at the general elections of 1876, 1879, 1882, and again at the last general election, 1886. He was a member of the Executive Council from 22nd of April to June, 1872, when he resigned; was appointed to the Executive Council, with the office of solicitor-general, on the formation of the Pope administration, 18th April, 1873; resigned his seat in the Executive Council upon the resignation of the Conservative government, on the 4th of September, 1876; and was unanimously elected leader of the opposition at the meeting of the legislature on the 14th of March, 1877. On the 1st of March, 1879, Mr. Sullivan moved, in the House of Assembly, a resolution of non-confidence in the government, which, after a long and animated debate, was carried by a vote of nineteen to ten on the 6th of March, and the administration resigned the following day. Our subject was then invited by the lieutenant-governor, Sir Robert Hodgson, to form a government, and take the position of premier. He succeeded in forming an administration, and the government were sworn in on the 11th of March, 1879. He was elected leader of the government by the unanimous vote of his party in both branches of the legislature, and was appointed attorney and advocate general, and president of the Executive Council on the formation of the administration, which positions he has held continuously ever since. The House of Assembly was dissolved and a general election held on the 9th of April, 1879, when the government were sustained by a majority of twenty-six to four, being the largest support ever accorded to any administration in the island. Among other acts, Hon. Mr. Sullivan was chiefly instrumental in securing branch lines of railway to Souris and Tignish in 1872; assisted in carrying through the Island legislature terms of confederation in 1873; assisted in passing The Land Purchase Act, 1875, and other acts on the same subject in 1876; introduced and carried through the legislature An Act for Abolishing Imprisonment for Debt, in 1879, and The Jury Act, 1880, which provides for the trial of all civil cases by seven instead of twelve jurors, as well as many other measures of law reform, and acts for the general benefit of the province. The Hon. Mr. Sullivan has been, on several occasions, a delegate to Ottawa, on public business; and, in 1886, was a delegate to London, to lay before the Imperial government the case of Prince Edward Island, concerning the non-fulfilment of the terms of confederation, with regard to continuous steam communication between that province and the mainland of Canada. He declined a nomination for the House of Commons at the general elections in February, 1887. Hon. Mr. Sullivan has been premier for a longer period than any of his predecessors. As a leader he matures his measures thoroughly before submitting them to the house, hence his success in that position; his industry is unwearied; he clings with the utmost tenacity to the cause which he advocates, and never trusts the discharge of any parliamentary duty devolving upon himself to another. He is a thorough master of the English language, and speaks with exactness and precision. He is also extremely cautious, and takes good care not to get his party (the Conservatives) into deep water. Having a strong and determined will, once convinced that he is right, he pushes forward, with unflinching perseverance, and success almost invariably crowns his efforts. He was married at Charlottetown, on the 13th of August, 1872, to Alice Maude Mary, third daughter of John Fenton Newbery, B.A., of Oxford, and formerly of London, England, and Siena, Italy, and they have six children. The family are members of the Roman Catholic church. Their residence, “Brighton Villa,” adjoining Charlottetown, is a beautiful place.