H n.. Samps®il Salter Blowers (;.J.

SIR JOSEPH CHISHOLM Halifax, N.S.

The seventh Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, Sampson Salter Blowers, had a varied and remarkable career. Left an orphan at an early age, this son of New England'became a noted lawyer . in Boston, filled several public offices, espoused the cause of his King in the American Revolution, was proscribed and imprison- ed by the authorities of the new republic, came to Nova Scotia with other Loyalists, was soon elected a member of the House ,of Assembly and became its Speaker, _was made a member of His Majesty's Council and then, at the age of fifty-five, Chief Justice of the highest court in the Province and President of the Council, filled the offices with distinction until he reached the age of ninety-one and, after his resignation, lived to pass the age of one hundred years. The portrait of him that hangs in the Law Courts in Halifax gives evidence of his robust qualities, mental and physical. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 10th, 1742, the only son of Lieutenant John Blowers and Sarah Salter. His father was the second son of Rev. Thomas Blowers, minister at Beverley. The family - sometimes known as Blower and Blores - had settled in Massachusetts in the sixteenth century. The father of the future Chief Justice, was an officer at the first siege of Louisbourg, where he contracted camp fever and was invalided home, to die shortly afterwards leaving his only son an orphan of tender years. The boy's maternal grandfather took him in charge and sent him to the Boston Grammar School where he studied for six years. He then went on to Harvard College and graduated in 1763. Some writers say that he studied law in the office of James Otis, an eminent Boston lawyer, and others,that he studied with the Hon. Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of the ,colony. It is not unlikely that he was a student of both. He was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts in 1766. Blowers was a loyalist and might probably be called with accuracy a New England Tory. He practised his profession in

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Boston and in 1770 figured in the defence of Capt. Preston and the British soldiers who fired on and killed some of the citizens in what came to be known as the Boston Massacre. Preston and several of these soldiers were charged with murder and brought to trial. They were-defended by Blowers, John Adams, who became President of the United States, and Josiah Quincy; all the accused were acquitted except two who were found guilty of manslaughter. In the autumn of 1774, finding political conditions some- what disturbed, Blowers sailed with his wife for England -where he arrived early in 1775. In the following year the thirteen col onies declared their independence, but New York and the New England colonies were still in the occupation of the British authorities. Blowers remained in England until he returned to New York in 1777. He received a commission as judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Rhode Island and resided in that colony for a few years. While there a French fleet sailed into Newport and the town was under siege for a time. When the siege was raised, Blowers sailed for England to seek compensation for the financial losses he had sustained. It does not appear that his mission was successful except that he returned with the ap- pointment of Solicitor General of New York. When New York was evacuated in 1783, Blowers came to Halifax with his wife, a daughter of Hon. Benjamin Kent, whom he had married in 1774. His sister accompanied them. The influx of the Yankee Loyalists, as they were then called, was not welcomed by the older settlers. Many of the Loyalists were highly educated professional men who had had experience in the public affairs of the colonies they had to leave and who had taken a prominent part in the war of the revolution. They became interested in the public concerns of their new home and, within a short time, several were elected members of the House of Assembly. Prominent among these were Major Thomas Bar clay, a brilliant lawyer and speaker, Major Thomas Millidge, an engineer, and Mr. Blowers. The two first mentioned started proceedings in the House to have the acting Chief Justice, Des- champs, and Mr. Justice Brenton impeached for incompetency and misconduct, but their efforts were defeated by the deter- mination of Governor John Parr and his Executive Council that no bona fide investigation should be had into the charges, not- withstanding that a full inquiry was unanimously demanded by the elected representatives of the people. Mr. Blowers was returned in 1785 as one of the members for Halifax County,

1949] Hon. Sampson Salter Blowers C.J. 577

the others elected for the county being John George Pyke, Richard J. Uniacke and Michael Wallace. He had previously been offered the office of Attorney-General of New Brunswick but had de- clined it. He was made Attorney-General of Nova Scotia in December 1784. Upon this election to the House he was chosen Speaker, which office , he held until 1788. He was the Speaker of the House in which the impeachment charges were made against the judges and was understood to favour an investi- gation into their conduct. - The Governor did not summon the House to meet in 1788 and in the interval an acrimonious con- troversy was taking place in pamphlets and in the press over the impeachment charges and the strenuous efforts of the executive to stifle them. In the-interval the Loyalists who were pressing the charges suffered a loss for Mr. Blowers had moved over with apparent ease to the other camp and was made a member of the Council. He was not slow in noticing opportunities to advance himself and- he had an eye on the office of Chief Justice soon to become vacant. To secure the position; the support of the Governor was of the .utmost importance. Chief Justice Strange, in a private communication in 1790 to the Under-Secretary of the Home Department, suggested that Blowers would likely be his successor and that he considered -himself entitled to it. Strange added:

To explain this, it is necessary for you to be informed that when, some time previous to my connection with the Province, its-two puisne judges were proposed to be impeached, Mr. Blowers took a decided part in their favour, exerting himself . . . in their vindication. From the prin- ciple upon which the prosecution was supposed to be instituted, the vin- dication of those gentlemen was considered as the cause of the govern- ment; and the office of Chief Justice being at the time vacant, if the prospect of succeeding to it was not the Attorney-General's motive upon the -occasion, he at least drew from the zeal with which he endea- voured to maintain their innocence, as opposed to by far the greater part of the profession including the Solicitor-General, an apparently well-founded hope of being recommended by the then Governor Parr to preside in that Court, the authority of which he had been at pains to defend. It is not surprising that the able member for Annapolis, Major Barclay, made some caustic remarks on what appeared to be an unabashed volte face. As was foreshadowed, Mr. Blowers, on the resignation of Chief Justice Strange, was on September 9th, 1797, made Chief Justice of the highest court of the Pro- vince and President of the Council. In 1833 he resigned and lived in retirement until October 25th,- 1842, when he died at

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Halifax. His salary as Chief Justice was £850; he made several efforts to have it increased. Besides the offices already mentioned the Chief Justice was also Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court from 1821 to 1833 and Master of the Rolls from 1821 to 1826. During his tenure of office the decisions of the courts were not reported and none of his judicial opinions can now be found. He did, however, take part in important trials of which some account has been preserved, for example, the trial of Edward Jordan for murder and piracy on board the ship Three Sisters on the high seas. The ship had once belonged to Jordan but had been taken from him in recovery of a debt and he made up his mind to regain possession. He shipped with his wife as a passenger. On September 13th, 1809, he first murdered two seamen and then attempted to murder Capt. John Stairs; in this he failed however when the Captain was able to seize a hatch and jump overboard with it. After being in the sea for some hours, he was picked up by an American fishing - schooner and taken to an American port. Subsequently he reached _Boston and reported his experiences. Meanwhile Jordan sailed for the Bay of Bulls with the ship and steps were taken to bring him and his wife to Halifax, where they were charged and tried for murder and piracy. The trial was not by a judge and jury but by a commis- sion of fifteen of whom Blowers was one. Judge Croke, the judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, refused to act with the other com- missioners because he was not designated as president of the Commission. Edward Jordan was found guilty and sentenced to pay the extreme penalty, which was carried out. His wife was acquitted. The Chief Justice also presided, at Easter term in 1815, over the trial of one James Archibald for the murder of Captain Ellenwood. In 1821 he tried William Wilkie for publishing a pamphlet containing reflections on the magistrates and Wilkie was sen- tenced to two years in the House of Correction. The sentence was considered very harsh at the time. The Chief Justice's commodious home was at the south- western corner of Blowers Street, named after him, and Bar- rington Street; it was later used as a hotel-The Waverley, after wards the Metropolitan -_and then became the property of the Sisters of Charity by whom it was used as an infirmary. When ex-President Adams visited Nova Scotia in 1840 he called on the Chief Justice. Blowers never visited his native country after he left it. Joseph Howe once stated that Blowers never wore an overcoat.

1949] on. Sampson Salter Blowers C.J. 579

The Chief Justice's portrait, now in the Law Courts, was painted at the request of the Quarter Sessions and Grand Jury by John Food ' Drake, a noted English artist who resided for a short time in Halifax.

Portrait of a Nineteenth Century Lawyer Mr. Furnival practised at the common law bar, and early in life had at- tached himself to the home circuit. I cannot say why he obtained no great success till he was nearer fifty than forty years of age. At that time I fancy that barristers did not come to their prime till a period of life at which other men are supposed to be in their decadence. Nevertheless, he had marfied on nothing, and had kept the wolf from the door. To do this he had been constant at his work in season and out of season, during the long hours of day and the long hours of night. Throughout his term times he had toiled in court, and during the vacations he had toiled out of court. He had re- ported volumes of cases, having been himself his own short-hand writer, - as it is well known to most young lawyers, who as a rule fill an upper shelf in their law libraries with Furnival and Staples' seventeen volumes in calf. He had worked for the booksellers, and for the newspapers, and for the attorneys, -always working, however, with reference to the law; and though he had worked for years with the lowest pay, no man had heard him complain. That no woman had heard him do so, I will not say; as it is more than probable that into the sympathizing ears of Mrs. Furnival he did pour forth plaints as to the small wages which the legal world meted out to him in return for his labours. He was a constant, hard, patient man, and at last there came to him the full reward of all his industry. What was the special case by which Mr. Furnival obtained his great success no man could say. In all probability there was no special case. Gradually it began to be understood that he was a safe man, understanding his trade, true to his clients, and very damaging as an opponent. Legal gentlemen are, I believe, quite as often bought off as bought up. Sir Richard and Mr. Fur- nival could not,both be required on the same side, seeing what a tower of strength each was in himself; but then Sir Richard would be absolutely neutralized if Mr. Furnival were employed on the other side. This is a sys- tem well understood by attorneys, and has been found to be extremely lucrative by gentlemen leading at the bar. (Anthony Trollope : Orley Farm)