Burrill, James, Merchant, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, is the second son of William Burrill and Catharine Sullivan, and was born on the 22nd February, 1844, at Yarmouth, N.S. He received a common school education, and on the retirement of his father in 1869, succeeded to his business, in company with his two brothers, and they now trade under the style of William Burrill & Co. The firm is largely interested in shipping. Mr. Burrill, the subject of our sketch, is a member of the Board of Trade, and since 1876 he has had a seat on the Board of School Trustees. In 1880 he was elected councillor for Milton, and was re-elected to the same position in 1882, 1884, and 1886. He was chosen warden of the municipality of Yarmouth in 1884, and again elected to the same office in 1886. Mr. Burrill takes an interest in all social reforms and belongs to the order of the Sons of Temperance and to the Temple of Honor. In politics he is a Liberal, and in religion he belongs to the Presbyterian church. Though comparatively young in years, he has devoted a good deal of time for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, among whom he is highly respected as he deserves to be. On the 20th September, 1887, he was married to Jane J., eldest daughter of George H. Lovitt.
Murray, Lieut.-Col. John Robert, Superintendent of Stores and Paymaster of Military district, No. 9, Halifax, was born at Halifax, N.S., February 9th, 1836, and is the eldest son of Thomas Murray of Dartmouth, N.S., (born February 11, 1811), and Caroline Maria Tapper of Blandford, England (born March 5, 1813), who married at Halifax, December 6, 1834. Col. Murray was educated at the National School and the Grammar School (Academy) Halifax, and early entered into mercantile pursuits. He became interested eventually in the hardware business as a partner in the firm of Boggs & Ross, and Thos. Boggs & Co. Colonel Murray served his native town for three years as an alderman for Ward 1, from 1872, and was a justice of the peace for the town. As a young man, he took an active interest in the militia, and this strengthened with each succeeding year. His connection with the militia of Nova Scotia and the Dominion covers a period of over twenty-nine years, and for over a quarter of a century he has held her Majesty’s commissions, viz:—In the 3rd Queen’s, N.S. militia, second lieutenant, February 5, 1863; first lieutenant, June 10, 1863; captain, December 11, 1864; adjutant, July 14, 1865, in the 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers; captain, June 18, 1869; brevet major, September 20, 1872; brevet lieutenant-colonel, December 12, 1874. On February 1, 1884, he was appointed to the district staff, and has since filled the offices of store-keeper and district paymaster, in a most satisfactory manner. In religion he is a Presbyterian, being a member of St. Andrew’s Church. He is a pleasant, agreeable citizen, a good soldier, and a splendid officer. He was married, September 19, 1861, to Eliza Jane, eldest daughter of the late James Reeves of Halifax, and has had issue five children, of whom three survive: James Reeves, who occupies the position of accountant in the Nova Scotia Sugar Refinery, Halifax; Charles Grant, gentleman cadet at the Royal Military College, Kingston, and George William, who is a student at the Halifax Medical College.
Lawson, Professor George, Ph.D., LL.D., F.I.C., F.R.S.C., Halifax, N.S., was born at Newport, parish of Forgan, Fifeshire, Scotland, 12th October, 1827. He is the only son of Alex. Lawson, of a family long resident in the county, and his wife, Margaret McEwen, daughter of Colin McEwen, for many years a civic officer in the town of Dundee. He was educated at a private school, and after several years of private study and law-reading, entered the University of Edinburgh, devoting his attention specially to the natural and physical sciences—chemistry, botany, zoology, anatomy, mineralogy, and geology. His studies at Edinburgh extended over a period of ten years, during which time he was also occupied with scientific and literary work in connection with the university and several of the scientific institutions of that city. He occupied the position of curator of the university herbarium, until it was removed from the university building to the Royal Botanic Garden, and was thus early brought into personal contact and correspondence with the leading botanists of the time. He assisted the professor of botany, Dr. Balfour, in his class-work and field and mountain excursions, and, as demonstrator under the professor’s direction, conducted a select class in histology for advanced students, teaching the practical use of the microscope and the methods of research in regard to the minute structure and development of plants. This class, formed in the Herbarium room at the Royal Botanic Garden, in Edinburgh, in 1853, was one of the first, if not the first organization of the kind in Britain corresponding to what are now known as biological laboratories. This Edinburgh Botanical Laboratory is now greatly extended and well supplied with recent improvements in apparatus and implements of research. On the death of Dr. Fleming, professor of natural science in the New College, Edinburgh, Dr. Lawson, in conjunction with the late Andrew Murray, continued the lectures through the winter session. He prepared, and carried through the press, the catalogue of the library of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a work which was thus noticed by Sir R. Christison in his presidential address: “The council, in noticing the completion of this important labor, cannot express too highly the sense they entertain of the services of Dr. Lawson, who has applied himself to the task put before him with a zeal, diligence, method, and ability which led the council to congratulate themselves and the society on the choice which was made in appointing him.” He acted as secretary for several other societies, being joint secretary with the late Sir Wyville Thomson, of the Royal Physical Society. Being an adherent of the Church of Scotland, he was an active member of the High Church of Edinburgh. In the year 1858 Dr. Lawson accepted the appointment of professor of chemistry and natural history in Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and relinquished the several offices held in Edinburgh. On leaving that city for Canada, a number of the professors of the university and members of societies, including Professor Balfour, Sir R. Christison, Sir J. Y. Simpson, Sir J. Gibson-Craig, Sir A. Douglas Maclagan, Professor Wilson, Sir A. Fayrer, and others, presented him with a purse of sovereigns and a silver salver bearing the following inscription—“Presented to Dr. George Lawson (along with a purse of sovereigns), on the occasion of his departure from Great Britain, to fill the chair of chemistry and natural history in Queen’s College, Kingston, Canada, by some of his friends, who desire thus to testify their high esteem and regard for him, and their appreciation of the services which he has rendered to science in Edinburgh. 5th August, 1858.” One of the speakers at the farewell meeting (father of the professor of botany in the Dublin College of Science), remarked as a reason for the presentation: “We do not know what the Canadians may think of you, but we want them to know what we think of you here.” At Queen’s College, a new laboratory and class-rooms for medical teaching being in course of construction, Dr. Lawson organized there a system of practical laboratory teaching similar to that then in operation by Drs. Wilson and Macadam at Edinburgh. The college grounds were laid out as a botanic garden, and the Botanical Society of Canada was formed, chiefly through his exertions. Whilst at Kingston, he acted as an examiner at Toronto University. In consequence of the disturbed state of affairs in Queen’s College, in 1863, Dr. Lawson resigned his position there, and accepted the professorship of chemistry and mineralogy in Dalhousie College and University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, then being reorganized, and which he still holds. Soon after his arrival in Nova Scotia, a board of agriculture was established by the provincial government, and he was elected secretary. He continued to discharge the duties of that office from 1864 till 1885, when the board was abolished, and its duties assumed directly by the provincial government. His services were retained under the new arrangement as secretary for agriculture of the province. In 1857 Dr. Lawson took the degree of Ph.D. at the University of Giessen. In 1863 the University of McGill College, Montreal, conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. He is a fellow, and at present president, of the Royal Society of Canada; fellow of the Botanical and Royal Physical Societies of Edinburgh; of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland; honorary member of the Edinburgh Geological and Scottish Arboricultural Societies; corresponding member of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, and of the Society of Natural Sciences at Cherbourg; also member of the following: British Association for Advancement of Science, American Association for Advancement of Science, Royal Scottish Society of Arts, Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, Historical Society, Ottawa Naturalists’ Club, etc.; associate of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. Dr. Lawson’s contributions to scientific literature have been published chiefly in the transactions of societies and scientific periodicals, as in “Transactions” respectively of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Royal Society of Canada, Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, and in the “Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,” the “London Phytologist,” the “Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” the “Canadian Naturalist,” the “Chemical News,” etc. A separate work on “Water-lilies,” and one on “British Agriculture,” were published in Edinburgh. During his residence there he was a frequent contributor to “Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal,” and other literary periodicals in London and Edinburgh, and he edited and rewrote a portion of one of the editions of “Chambers’s Information for the People.” He married, in Edinburgh, Lucy, daughter of Charles Stapley, of Vale Cottage, Tunbridge Wells, and King’s road, Chelsea, who died on 1st January, 1871, leaving two daughters. At Halifax, in 1876, he married Caroline Matilda, daughter of William Jordan, Rosehall, Halifax, sister of Rev. Louis H. Jordan, M.A., B.D., Montreal, and widow of George Alexander Knox, lost in the steamship City of Boston, which sailed from Halifax harbor in January, 1870.
Allison, David, M.A., LL.D., Halifax, N.S., Superintendent of Education for the province of Nova Scotia, was born at Newport, Hants county, N.S., July 3rd, 1836. His father was James W. Allison, and his mother, Margaret Elder, both Nova Scotians, but descendants of North of Ireland parents, who had settled in this province. Dr. Allison’s father and grandfather both occupied seats in the local legislature. His preliminary education was received at the Halifax Academy, and the Wesleyan Academy, Sackville, New Brunswick. After studying four years at the latter institution, he entered the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., U.S.A., and graduated in 1859. He then became classical instructor at Sackville Academy, and changed that position in 1862, to take a similar position in Mount Allison College. In 1869 Rev. Dr. Pickard resigned the presidency of the college, and the directorate unanimously elected Mr. Allison to the office, a tribute to his scholarship and character. He occupied the position of president for nine years, and under him the college work was very successfully and effectively performed. In the year 1877 he was appointed to the office of superintendent of education for the province of Nova Scotia, which position he still holds. Under his administration the whole system of the public schools of the province has grown and developed, till it is in the most satisfactory condition that could be desired or expected. Dr. Allison is a member of the Methodist church, and was a delegate to the congress of Methodism held in London, 1881. He married, June 18, 1862, Elizabeth Powell, of Richibucto, N.B., whose ancestors were loyalists. Dr. Allison received the degree of B.A., 1859; M.A., 1862; LL.D., from Victoria College, Cobourg, Ontario, 1873. In 1876 he was appointed a fellow of the senate of Halifax University. In his position as superintendent of education he has been broad in his views, and possesses a thorough appreciation of the high problem which is being worked out by the educational system of the province under his guardianship and direction.
Radenhurst, W. H., Barrister, Perth, Ontario, was born at Toronto on 14th September, 1835. He is the eldest son of the late Thomas M. Radenhurst, Q.C., who settled in Perth in 1824. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Radenhurst, came out from England to America in a semi-military capacity at the time of the revolutionary war. He was from Cheshire, and his mother was a sister of Lord Chief Justice Kenyon. When a youth, he was sent up to London to enter the employ of the banking firm of the Lloyds, in which his mother, who was related to them, had some interest, but he preferred to go to America with the troops then leaving for the war. At the close of the war, being stationed in Montreal, he married Ann Campbell, a daughter of a United Empire loyalist, one of the first who settled on the Bay of Quinté. An uncle of hers, Sir John Campbell, was a distinguished soldier in India. He died at Fort St. John, in early life, leaving a young family to the care of his widow, a woman of energy and capacity. She obtained commissions in the army for her two eldest sons, but her third son, Thomas, she had educated at Dr. Strachan’s school at Cornwall, and he afterwards studied law in Toronto. He commenced the practice of his profession in Kingston, from where he removed to Perth, and built up a considerable law practice. He married a daughter of Surveyor-General Ridout of Toronto. He represented the county of Carleton in the Upper Canada Legislature before the union of the provinces, and was afterwards, as the nominee of the Reform or Baldwin-Lafontaine party, an unsuccessful candidate for Lanark county. He was made a Queen’s counsel in 1849, and acted for a considerable time as Crown prosecutor in the Eastern and sometimes in the Midland Circuit. He was offered the judgeship of the Bathurst district, but declined the honor. He acted as treasurer of Lanark county for several years; and he died in 1854, in his fifty-first year, leaving a large family. The following pen and ink sketch, of Thomas M. Radenhurst, written in November, 1847, by a local scribe, signing himself “Paul Pry,” gives us a very correct idea of the deceased Queen’s counsel: —