ROUER JOSEPH ROY, K. C.
Rouer Joseph Roy, jurist, linguist and an interested student of literary, scientific and antiquarian subjects, was born in Montreal, January 7, 1821, his parents being the late Joseph Roy, M. P. P., and Amelia (Lusignan) Roy. The former, of French descent, rose to a position of prominence, representing his riding in the provincial legislature. His wife was connected with the distinguished family of Rouer de Villeray.
Rouer Joseph Roy attended Montreal College, from which he was graduated with honors in the presence of Lord Durham. Having determined upon the practice of law as his life profession, he entered the law office of the Hon. Mr. Sullivan in 1838 and after four years of thorough and comprehensive study was called to the bar, in 1842. Almost from the beginning his career was a successful one and after several years devoted to active law practice he was appointed joint city attorney for Montreal in 1862, filling that position continuously until 1876, when he became the sole legal advisor of the city, remaining in that office until he resigned in 1898. He afterward filled the position of consulting city attorney. In 1864 he was elected syndic of the Quebec bar and so continued for four years. In the same year he was made queen’s counsel as well as being elected president of the committee in charge of the bar library, which office he continuously and honorably filled for thirty years. In 1887 he was unanimously chosen batonnier of the Montreal bar and the following year was chosen batonnier general of the province. He held high professional rank and on several occasions appeared before the judicial committee of the privy council in England.
In January, 1857, Mr. Roy was married to Miss Corinne Beaudry, a daughter of the late Hon. J. L. Beaudry, M. L. C., who in 1857 was mayor of Montreal. Mr. Roy not only enjoyed a high reputation as a lawyer but also as a scholar, being widely known as a linguist, speaking fluently Greek, Latin, Italian and French as well as English. For many years he occupied the presidency of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society. He was one of the last survivors of the Sons of Liberty, an organization which played a most important part at the time of the rebellion of 1837. His religious faith was that of the Roman Catholic church and he filled the office of church warden of the parish of Notre Dame. His life was characterized by a nobility that lifted him above those traits which mar character and when death called him on the 27th of July, 1905, only words of commendation and respect were spoken concerning his life work. He had done things worthy to be written and had written things worthy to be read, and he left to posterity an unblemished name, linked with many deeds that won him prominence and honor.
CHARLES MACKAY COTTON.
A man of force, experience and capacity, Charles Mackay Cotton has made for himself an enviable position at the bar of Quebec and is numbered among the most able and successful advocates of Montreal, where he is in active practice as a member of the firm of Cotton & Westover. He was born in Durham township, Missisquoi county, Quebec, February 22, 1878, and is a representative of a well known Canadian family of English extraction, being a son of Sheriff Cotton, a grandson of Dr. Cotton and a great-grandson of Rev. Charles Caleb Cotton, B. A. (Oxford), who came from England in 1799 and was one of the pioneer Anglican clergymen in the eastern townships.
Charles Mackay Cotton acquired his preliminary education at Cowansville Academy, Feller Institute, Grande Ligne, Quebec, and afterward entered McGill University, Montreal, from which he was graduated with the degree of B. A. in 1899, winning the high honor of the gold medal for general proficiency. From the same institution he was afterwards graduated B. C. L. in 1902, taking at this time the Macdonald scholarship. In his student days he gave every evidence of the ability and power upon which his present success is founded for besides the honors above mentioned he was class orator in science, arts and law. His record in McGill University is very creditable and one of which he has every reason to be proud, and its promise has been fully justified by his later accomplishments in the professional field. Mr. Cotton was called to the bar as advocate in 1902 and immediately afterwards went abroad in order to get the advantages of foreign travel and to supplement his excellent legal training by further study. He attended lectures at the law school of the University of Montpelier in 1903, thus completing an exhaustive and comprehensive legal education.