Sir James Monk (1746-1826)

He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, and was christened at King's Chapel. He was a nephew of Mrs Elizabeth Wentworth (aunt and mother-in-law of Sir John Wentworth, Lieut.-Governor of Nova Scotia) and Thomas Dering, of Sylvester Manor, New York. From 1749, he grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was called to the bar. In 1770, he went to London - living on Church Lane and then Poland Street, both in Kensington - and continued his studies at the Middle Temple before being called to the English bar in 1774. In the same year, he was appointed Solicitor-General of Nova Scotia and was elected to represent Yarmouth in the Legislative Assembly. In 1776, he went to Quebec as Attorney-General (1776-1789) and then Attorney-General of Lower Canada (1792-94), living at 57-61 Rue Saint-Louis. In 1793, the House of Assembly failed to pass a bill that would have abolished slavery, but that didn't stop Monk - contrary to fact - declaring that slave ownership in Lower Canada was unsupported in law and he systematically dismissed all suits by slaveowners wishing to reclaim runaway slaves.

In 1794, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench at Montreal and a Member of the Executive and Legislative Councils. He was three times Speaker of the Legislative Council. From 1819 to 1820, he was Administrator of the Government of Lower Canada and he retired in 1824. In compensation for not being made Chief Justice of Lower Canada (a position he is frequently, but incorrectly, attributed to), he was knighted the following year (1825) and having lived at Monklands since 1803, he retired to England at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, but died the same year. He was married at London in 1774 to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Adams, of Adam's Castle, Christ Church, Barbados & St. James', London, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Lt.-General Thomas Maxwell. Having no children of their own, they adopted Monk's niece, Mrs Elizabeth (Monk) Aubrey.