330 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
part of a large faction of the French Canadians who were dissatisfied with Osgoode. 
Osgoode’s contention was sustained and Prescott recailed in 1800; but Osgoode had 
had enough of Canada and resigned. His resignation took effect May 1st, 1802, 
- and he received a pension of £800 sterling. He returned to England and died in 
1824. He wasa sound lawyer and was skilled both in the common law and in equity. 
Osgoode Hall, Toronto, the seat of the Law Society of Upper Canada and of the 
Supreme Court of the Province is called after him. 
James Monk was of the same family as General Monk, the restorer of the 
Monarchy after the Commonwealth. He was the son of James Monk who was in 
1752 created a Judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the County of 
Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had trouble with the Governor Lawrence and set him 
at defiance. The elder Monk also became Solicitor General of Nova Scotia in 1760; 
and the son was appointed to the same office in 1774, being member for Yarmouth. 
He left Nova Scotia in 1776 for Quebec and was appointed Attorney General 
for Quebec the same year. 
In Quebec he was a party to many disputes with varying success. He was 
appointed Chief Justice of the King’s Bench at Montreal in 1794 and presided over 
that Court till 1825. 
Of the three Justices of the Court of King’s Bench at Quebec, Jenkin Williams 
enjoyed the reputation of being a very sound lawyer. He was for a time Secretary 
of the Executive Council; was during the absence of Chief Justice Livius one of the 
Commissioners who executed the office cf Chief Justice, and became successively 
Attorney General and puisne Justice of the King’s Bench at Quebec. 
Thomas Dunn was born in 1731 in Durham, England. Engaging in commercial 
life, he came to Canada very shortly after the Conquest in 1759-60 and carried on 
business as a merchant. So far as appears he had no legal education but he was a 
man of great executive ability, and was ‘‘most enlightened, able minded and impart- 
tial.” A member of the Executive Council very early, he became a member of the 
first Legislative Council in 1775, and the same year Judge cf the Court of King’s 
Bench, Quebec. He became Administrator of the Government in 1805 and again 
in 1811 and acted with promptness and energy. A Seigneur, he was very popular 
with the French Canadian people and with no small number of the English population, 
but in those days it was impossible to please both factions. 
Pierre Amable Debonne, a French Canadian of noble family, a descendant of 
Sieur DeBonne Mizelle, nephew of Marquis de la Jonquiére, an early French Gover- 
nor, was a member of the first House of Assembly in Lower Canada, and also a member 
of the Executive Council in 1794. Although a Justice of the Court of King’s Bench 
he became the leader of the French Canadian Party in the House of Assembly, and 
it was due, at least in part, to his activity that the bill was introduced in Craig’s 
administration rendering Judges incapable of sitting in the House. This failed in 
successive Assemblies, but at length in 1810 the House by a vote of 18 to 6 resolved 
that Debonne being a Judge of the Court of King’s Bench could not sit or vote in 
the House. Debonne was not re-elected at the general election which followed. 
The Members of the Executive Council (not Judges) call for no special comment 
from a legal point of view, though all of them were more or less active in politics 
and most had a career of considerable interest to the annalist. 
(10) On a Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer issuing, three or more of 
the Commissicners, of whom one of the Quorum must be one, issue a Precept to the 
Sheriff to call a Grand Jury. The time between teste and return day was fixed at 
fifteen days (exclusive of day of teste and return) by a Special Commission appointed 
to try the Rebels of 1745; the Precept in that case was signed by the three Chiefs of the 
