Sir James Monk was Chief Justice

Chief Justice

The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...

 of Lower Canada

Lower Canada

The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...

. He was born in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Province of Massachusetts Bay

The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in North America. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England and Scotland...

 and educated in Halifax, Nova Scotia

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

 where his father had settled in 1749.

Monk served as solicitor general of Nova Scotia and was appointed attorney general of Quebec in 1776 serving until 1789 and then again from 1792 to 1794. In 1794 he was appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench

King's Bench

The Queen's Bench is the superior court in a number of jurisdictions within some of the Commonwealth realms...

 of Montreal. During his career Monk also served on Executive and Legislative Councils and Nova Scotia's Legislative Assembly. Monk was knighted

Knight Bachelor

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...

 in 1825 and in 1826, he would die at his home in Cheltenham

Cheltenham

Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 at the age of 81.

Monkland Avenue in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 is named for him.

The Monk Metro Station and the Monk Boulevard are named for the Monk Family, especially Frederick D. Monk, an attorney who along with Joseph-Ulric Émard purchased land belonging to the Davidson family in order to develop it, the area became Ville Émard.

Further reading

• W. Stewart Wallace, editor, The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada , 1948, 400p., p. 320.
• F. J. Audet, Sir James Monk (Les Annales, 1924)

External links