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William Renwick Riddell, lawyer, judge, historian,
author (b at Hamilton Twp, Canada W 6 Apr 1852; d at
Toronto 18 Feb 1945). The son of a comfortable
Scottish Presbyterian farming family, Riddell
attended Cobourg Grammar School and Victoria
College, earning a BA (1874), BSc (1877) and LLB
(1878) at the latter. After winning the Law Society
of Upper Canada's gold medal and being called to the
bar in 1883, he began a successful law practice in
Cobourg and by 1893 had moved to Toronto. Elected a
bencher of the Law Society in 1891 and named a QC in
1899, he was appointed to the bench of the Supreme
Court of Ontario in 1906 and promoted to the appeal
division in 1925.
Although an able judge who served on several
important public inquiries and ROYAL COMMISSIONS,
Riddell left his greatest mark as a Canadian
historian and publicist. He published some 1258
articles, reviews, lectures, pamphlets and books in
the fields of legal, constitutional, medical and
social history. A life-long student who mastered 8
languages, Riddell was a meticulous researcher and
engaging writer with a penchant for copious
footnoting. His major works include biographies of
William KIRBY and John Graves SIMCOE and The Bar and
the Courts of the Province of Upper Canada or
Ontario (1928). Although the recipient of 12
honorary degrees and numerous other distinctions, he
never achieved the recognition he craved. In his
final years, he unsuccessfully lobbied Liberal Prime
Minister William Lyon Mackenzie KING for a chief
justiceship, an Imperial Privy Councillorship and a
knighthood. When Riddell died in his 93rd year, he
was still serving on the bench and publishing
articles.
Here are a few of his books and articles in pdf
format...
The slave in Canada
(1920)
Law and medicine
(1910)
Canada, her law and
lawyers (1910)
The Constitution of
Canada in Its History and Practical Working
(1917)
Old province tales:
Upper Canada (1920)
The courts and the people
(1910)
William Kirby (1923)
Poet, scholar, patriot
The Life of William Dummer
Powell (1924)
First Judge at Detroit and Fifth Chief Justice of
Upper Canada |
