Adam Johnston Fergusson Blair Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Adam Johnston Fergusson Blair
Office:1st President of the Privy Council
Term Start:1 July 1867
Term End:30 December 1867
Predecessor:Position established
Successor:John A. Macdonald
Primeminister:John A. Macdonald
Office1:Member of the Senate for Ontario
Term Start1:1867
Term End1:1867
Office2:President of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada
Term Start2:1866
Term End2:1867
Constituency3:Brock
Term Start3:1860
Term End3:1867
Constituency4:Wellington
Term Start4:1854
Term End4:1857
Constituency5:Waterloo
Term Start5:1847
Term End5:1854
Office6:Judge in the Court for Wellington District
Term Start6:1842
Term End6:1847
Birth Name:Adam Johnston Fergusson
Birth Date:November 4, 1815
Birth Place:Perthshire, Scotland
Death Date:December 30, 1867
Death Place:Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Nationality:Canadian
Party:Reform Party
Liberal Party
Occupation:Lawyer, judge

Adam Johnston Fergusson Blair, (4 November 1815 – 30 December 1867), known prior to 1862 as Adam Johnston Fergusson, was a Scottish-born Canadian lawyer, judge and politician.

Life and career

Born in Perthshire, Scotland, the son of Adam Fergusson and his first wife Jemima Johnston Blair, he emigrated to Upper Canada with his family in 1833. He was called to the bar of Upper Canada in 1839 and set up practice in Guelph. He was named a judge in the court for Wellington District in 1842.

He resigned from the bench to run as a Reform Party candidate in the general election of 1847. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for the riding of Waterloo and reelected in 1851. He represented the South riding of Wellington from 1854 to 1857. In 1860, he was elected to the Legislative Council for Brock division. He served as receiver general from March to May 1863, when he was named provincial secretary. He supported the Quebec resolutions in the legislative council and, in 1866, was named president of the executive council after the resignation of George Brown.

Following Canadian Confederation, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada on 23 October 1867 by a royal proclamation of Queen Victoria. Sitting as a Liberal, he represented the senatorial division of Ontario until his death, only two months and six days after his appointment.

He added Blair to his surname in 1862 in order to inherit the Blair estate in Scotland after the death of his older brother Neil James Fergusson Blair.

Fergusson is buried by the Anglican Parish Church of St Luke (founded 1834), the oldest church in Burlington, Ontario.

See also

References