Willmott, James Branston, M.D.S., D.D.S., Toronto, is a native of the province of Ontario, having been born in the county of Halton, on 15th June, 1837. His parents, William and Ann Willmott, were both natives of England, but came to this country when children. After a few years’ sojourn in Little York, now Toronto, they removed with their parents to the very verge of settlement in the central part of Halton county, where they did faithfully and well their part in converting the wilderness into a fruitful field. Dr. Willmott’s early life was spent on the farm, and his education was obtained mainly at the common school in the neighbourhood. In 1854-5 he was a student in Victoria College, Cobourg, intending to take a university course in arts, but was prevented by failing health. Having determined to devote himself to the practice of dentistry, he entered the office of W. C. Adams as a student in 1858. On completing his pupilage in 1860, he commenced practice in the town of Milton, near his birthplace. Allying himself with the Liberal party, from a profound conviction that the principles advocated by it were best calculated to advance the material and moral interests of the country, he took an active interest in the affairs of the town, and was soon called upon to occupy positions of trust. In 1863 he was appointed a justice of the peace, and for several years had considerable experience in that capacity. Besides minor offices, he served his fellow-townsmen for three years in the municipal council, and for two years of that time was chairman of the finance committee. In 1870 he entered the Philadelphia Dental College, graduating doctor of dental surgery in March, 1871. Although a foreigner, he was chosen by his classmates to deliver the valedictory on commencement day. Desiring a wider field for practice, he removed in July, 1871, to the city of Toronto, where by diligence and skill he has built up an extensive and lucrative practice. In the year 1866, Dr. Willmott was actively engaged in the movement to place the dental profession of Ontario on a better footing, which resulted in the incorporation of the profession as the Royal College of Dental Surgeons by the legislature of the province in its first session, the act being assented to March 3rd, 1868. From that date the doctor has been very closely identified with the development of dentistry. In the year 1870 he was elected by his fellow practitioners a member of the Board of Examiners constituted under the provisions of the Dental Act, and on the organization of the board he was chosen secretary. At each succeeding biennial election he has been re-elected, and has also continuously filled the position of secretary of the board. In 1875 the dental practitioners of the province assembled in convention, adopted a resolution requesting the board of examiners to establish a dental college in Toronto. Acting upon this resolution the board requested Dr. Willmott to undertake the organization of the college, associating with him L. Teskey, M.D., M.R.C.S. The first session of the college opened in November, 1875, with Dr. Willmot as senior professor occupying the chair of operative and mechanical dentistry. This position he has continued to hold to the present time. During the twelve years which have elapsed he has been largely instrumental, in his capacity of teacher, in developing the very creditable degree of skill which distinguishes the dental profession of Ontario. Since his removal to Toronto the pressure of practice and his duties in the college have prevented him from giving much attention to public matters. What leisure he has been able to command has been devoted mainly to church work. Born of Methodist parents, in early youth he became a member of the Methodist church, and has filled nearly every office open to a layman. Soon after settling in Toronto he connected himself with the Metropolitan Church, and has been deeply interested in its prosperity. He now discharges the duties of Bible-class teacher, leader, trustee, and treasurer of the Trust Board, besides being local treasurer of several important connexional funds. He was a member of the Toronto Methodist Conferences of 1885 and 1886 and of the General Conference of the Methodist church which met in Toronto in September, 1886. Dr. Willmott married in September, 1864, Margaret Taylor Bowes, niece of the late J. G. Bowes, ex-mayor of the city of Toronto, a lady estimable in every relation of life, and his zealous helpmate in every good work.
Patton, Hon. James, Q.C., LL.D., Collector H.M. Customs, Toronto, was born at Prescott, Ontario, on the 10th of June, 1824. He is the fourth son of the late Andrew Patton, of St. Andrews, Fifeshire, Scotland, and formerly major of her Majesty’s 45th regiment of the line. Mr. Patton’s eldest brother (for some years rector of Cornwall and Belleville and archdeacon of the diocese of Ontario) died in Belleville in 1874. The family having removed from Prescott to Toronto in 1830, James was sent to Upper Canada College, where he received the rudiments of a sound education; and in 1840, having resolved to follow the legal profession, he entered the office of the late Hon. John Hillyard Cameron, who then carried on business with the late Chancellor Spragge, to study law. In 1843, on the opening of King’s College (now the University of Toronto), he matriculated in arts, and graduated in law, and in 1858 took the degree of LL.D. In 1845 he was called to the bar, and took up his abode in the town of Barrie, Simcoe county, where in a very few years he acquired an extensive practice. At an early period of his career Mr. Patton took a deep interest in politics. The agitation consequent upon the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill, and the burning of the Parliament buildings in the city of Montreal, seem to have acted as a stimulus to his conservative instincts. Therefore, in 1852, he started the Barrie Herald as the mouth-piece of his party, and conducted it with great energy for several years. At this time there was only one other paper published north of Toronto, whereas now there are nearly forty. In the meanwhile he was also engaged in legal literature,—having published the “Constable’s Assistant”—and in 1855 aided in the establishment and publication of the “Upper Canada Law Journal.” In 1859 he was elected a bencher of the Law Society, and having afterwards been a solicitor-general, is now a life bencher by statute. In 1862 he was created a Queen’s counsel. In 1853 Mr. Patton took into partnership Hewitt Bernard, and the year following the late Sidney Cosens, and in 1857 William D. Ardagh, the Barrie firm changing to Patton & Ardagh on Mr. Bernard being appointed deputy Minister of Justice. In 1860 he opened a branch office in Toronto, and the year following was joined by a former pupil, Featherston Osler, now one of the hon. justices of the Court of Appeal, and subsequently by the late Chief Justice Moss, the firm being known as Patton, Osler & Moss, and soon obtained a prominent position. In 1864 Mr. Patton having been invited by Sir John A. Macdonald to take charge of his large business, left for Kingston, but returned again to Toronto in 1872, on the removal of the Trust and Loan Company’s office to that city, Macdonald and Patton being the company’s solicitors. This partnership continued until 1878, when Mr. Patton retired from the active practice of his profession, in which he had been engaged for thirty-three years, and took charge of the English and Scottish Investment Company of Canada. This important position he held until 1881, when the Dominion government appointed him Collector of Customs for Toronto. Since that period he has faithfully performed the duties of this responsible trust, and has done a great deal to improve and simplify this branch of the civil service. Although in his younger days Mr. Patton was an active politician, yet he did not seem to aspire to parliamentary honours though often asked to become a candidate. However, when in 1856 the Legislative Council (now the Senate) was made an elective body and Upper and Lower Canada were mapped out into forty-eight electoral divisions, with twelve members to be elected every two years, he presented himself as a candidate, and was one of the six returned that year for what is now Ontario, for the group of counties consisting of Grey, Bruce and North Simcoe, known as the Saugeen Division. As a member of the Legislative Council Mr. Patton was a staunch Conservative, and he, without consulting the government, moved (seconded by the late Sir E. P. Taché) in 1858 in that body the resolution condemning the Brown-Dorion government—the same being taken up by Sir Hector Langevin, seconded by Hon. John Beverly Robinson, the next day in the Legislative Assembly—and carried it by sixteen to eight. In 1862 he became a member of the Cartier-Macdonald ministry, with a seat in the Executive Council (now the Privy Council) as solicitor-general for Upper Canada—Sir John A. Macdonald being attorney-general—but was defeated when seeking re-election, and with the fall of the government a few weeks later, he retired from public life. While in parliament the Hon. Mr. Patton carried through among other measures the Debentures Registration Act, and the act that has elevated the status of attorneys, by requiring the passage of examinations in addition to the mere service under articles; also amendments to the Grand Jury law, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to introduce the Scotch system of doing away with the required unanimity of twelve petit jurors—the bill, though passed by large majorities in the Council in four consecutive sessions, was invariably thrown out by the Legislative Assembly. The Hon. Mr. Patton assisted at the formation of the University Association, and was its president for several years, holding the office until his election as vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto. This latter office he held from 1860 to 1864, when he was succeeded by the late Hon. Adam Crooks, Minister of Education. In 1861-2 he was chairman of the University Commission issued by the Crown. In 1886 he occupied a seat in the council of the Board of Trade of Toronto, and did good service as such in helping to prepare the laws that govern that important and influential body. In 1853 he was married to Martha Marietta, the eldest daughter of the late Alfred Hooker, of Prescott.
Harrison, Hon. Archibald, Member of the Executive Council of New Brunswick, Maugerville, New Brunswick, was born at Cambridge, Queens County, New Brunswick, on the 27th May, 1834. He is a son of the Hon. C. Harrison, at one time member of the Legislative Council of New Brunswick, and Mary, daughter of Jeremiah Burpee, of Sheffield, one of the first English inhabitants of the province. His grandfather, James Harrison, was a United Empire loyalist. Archibald removed with his parents from Cambridge to Maugerville, Sunbury county, in 1847, and here the family has continued to reside ever since. He received his education at Cambridge and Maugerville, and after leaving school adopted farming as a profession. In 1868 he was elected a member of the Provincial Board of Agriculture, and for the two following years occupied the same position. At the bye-election in 1868, he contested Sunbury for a seat in the legislature, but failed to secure a majority vote. In 1870 he was chosen warden of his county, and at the general election held during this year was elected to represent Sunbury county in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, and on the 8th April, 1874, he was called to the Legislative Council; on the 3rd of March, 1883, he was made a member of the Executive Council, and shortly afterwards was appointed a member of the Lunatic Asylum Commission. In 1886 he was appointed a member of the board of works. In 1873 he was made a member of the senate of the University of New Brunswick, and on the expiry of his term of office, in 1885, he was re-appointed to the same position. Politically, Hon. Mr. Harrison sides with the Liberals; while religiously he belongs to the Congregational body of Christians. On the 5th November, 1862, he was married to Amy, daughter of W. S. Barker, who at one time represented Sunbury county in the New Brunswick legislature.
Gilmour, John Taylor, M.D., M.P.P. for West York, residence West Toronto Junction, was born in the township of Clarke, county of Durham, Ontario, on the 3rd March, 1855. His father was a farmer and manufacturer of lumber, and his mother, was descended from the United Empire loyalists. He received his education at Port Hope High School, and after leaving this institution he practised the profession of teaching for two years. Tiring of this, he resolved to adopt the medical profession, and entered Trinity Medical College, Toronto, from which college he graduated in 1878. He then opened an office in Durham county, and continued his practice here until 1884, when he removed to West Toronto Junction, county of York, and here he has since resided, and has met with a fair measure of success. Early in 1886 Dr. Gilmour was chosen by the Reformers of West York to become their candidate, and when the general elections came on in December of that year he succeeded, with the aid of his friends, in redeeming the riding for the Liberals. In politics he is strongly democratic, and is destined to make his mark in the political arena. He is an adherent of the Methodist church. He was married on the 18th March, 1878, to Emma Hawkins, of Canton, Ontario; but death claimed this estimable lady on the 18th March, 1886.
Williams, Rev. William, D.D., Pastor of the Division Street Methodist Church Cobourg. The Rev. Mr. Williams is the eldest son of William and Margaret P. Williams, and was born in Stonehouse, Devon, England, January 23rd, 1836. His mother was a daughter of Robert Pearse, of Camelford, Cornwall, England. In 1842 the subject of this notice removed with his parents to Toronto. During the four years of his residence in that city he attended school, and the latter part of the time he was engaged in preparing to enter Upper Canada College. Before he had completed his preparatory studies he removed with his parents to Weston, and some time later to the township of Holland, where his father settled upon a farm. Though removed from school at a comparatively early age, he steadily pursued a carefully prepared course of reading and study, and in his nineteenth year he entered the ministry of the Methodist New Connexion church. His record in that community was that of a successful minister of the gospel. Before the union he was during four years chairman of a district; was one year president of the Methodist New Connexion Conference, and was acting president during the greater part of the following year, filling the place left vacant by the lamented death of the president, the Rev. Samuel P. Gundy. The Rev. W. Williams took an active part in promoting the union of the New Connexion and Wesleyan Methodist churches in this country, being on both committees; and in 1874 he was sent by his conference, with the late Robert Wilkes, M.P. of Toronto, as a deputation to the New Connexion Conference of England to obtain the consent of that body to the contemplated union in Canada. In this he and his companion were completely successful. Not only was the requested consent given, but Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Williams were heartily thanked for the manner in which they had presented the matter before the conference. In 1875, after this union had been consummated, and while he was in charge of the church in Simcoe, Rev. Mr. Williams was sent with W. H. Gibbs, of Oshawa, by the Central Board of Missions as a deputation to attend the missionary services in the leading Methodist Churches in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. In 1876, in response to the special request of the Centenary Church, Hamilton, Rev. Mr. Williams was sent to that charge, then the largest and most influential in the London conference. He remained there for the full term of three years. A leading member of that church speaks of his ministry in that place:—“His discourses showed him to be a man of culture, of extensive reading, of careful thought, and of sound judgment. The Centenary Church never, I believe, had a better expounder of the Word of God, or a more faithful preacher of the gospel. Conscientious in the discharge of his duty, whatsoever he seemed to feel should be said he spoke boldly whether it was likely to please or displease. At the same time he evinced such qualities of heart, such sympathy, such desire to do his people good, as secured for him their affection, and made him very influential. As a man, Mr. Williams was liked by all who knew him. He was pleasant and unassuming, easy to approach, and was ready to lend a helping hand.” In 1879 Rev. Mr. Williams became pastor of Norfolk Street Church, Guelph. He remained there during the full term of three years, was acceptable and useful, and during his ministry there the membership of the church and congregation was largely increased; the debt upon the building in which they worshipped reduced by several thousand dollars; and the financial condition of the church greatly improved in other respects. He was also chairman of the Guelph district during the three years of his pastorate in that city. The following three years were spent by him in Woodstock, where he ministered to a very large congregation in one of the finest church edifices in the province. The first year of his pastorate in Woodstock was marked by his elevation to the presidency of the London Conference. This position he filled with acceptance and ability. He was chairman of the Woodstock district during the full term of his ministry in that rapidly rising town. At the request of the Cobourg (Division street) Church Rev. Mr. Williams was, in 1885, transferred to the Bay of Quinté conference, and appointed to Cobourg. There he preaches to a large and intelligent congregation, comprising, in addition to the general hearers, the principal, professors and students of Victoria University. Mr. Williams is also chairman of the Cobourg district. In May, 1887, the senate of Victoria University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.