William Alexander Henry

William Alexander Henry (December 30, 1816 – May 3, 1888) was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and judge. He was one of the Fathers of Confederation and one of the first justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Early life

Henry was born on December 30, 1816, in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Robert Nesbit Henry, an Irish merchant and Margaret Forrestall. The family moved to Antigonish where he was taught by Reverend Thomas Trotter, and he attended Halifax High School. Henry studied law in the late-1830s and was admitted to the Nova Scotia bar in 1840. The elder W. A. Henry served as a cabinet minister in Nova Scotia in governments led by both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Political life In 1840, Henry was elected to the General Assembly of Nova Scotia to be the representative for Antigonish.

Henry was a strong believer in the benefits that could be derived from a British American union such as free trade and the construction of the Intercontinental Railway. Henry was a delegate to all three Confederation Conferences, and upon approval by the union in the Spring of 1866, he travelled to the London Conference as part of the delegation mandated to compose the legislation. The Nova Scotia delegates voted to accept the Quebec Resolutions into the British North America Act, 1867 but Henry objected to the limitation on the number of Senate seats. He also supported the unsuccessful efforts to have the existence of Roman Catholic separate schools entrenched in the Act. He was one of the attorneys general who helped frame the language. However, it is an unproved tradition that he drafted the BNA Act.

Supreme Court Although he was denied a judgeship in Nova Scotia, Henry was one of the first appointed to the newly created Supreme Court of Canada in 1875.

During his time on the Supreme Court, Henry authored minority decisions to reform the rule of Crown immunity, attempting to hold the federal government liable in civil actions brought by people that had experienced loss. Historian Ian Bushnell described Henry as the most controversial member of the Supreme Court in its early years, he was viewed as an "innovate" justice "in an unruly way".

Henry died in Ottawa, Ontario on May 3, 1888.

Henry House in Halifax, which served as Henry's residence from 1854 to 1864, was designated a National Historic Site in 1969 due in part to its association with Henry.

Election results