OBITUARIES, CANADIAN. 



627 



constituency in that and the succeeding parlia- 

 ment, retiring at the last general election 

 (1861). In 1848, having received all the de- 

 grees of the order in Liverpool, he was elected 

 Grand Master of the Orangemen of British 

 North America, and held that office for several 

 years. At the time of the annexation move- 

 ment he issued an able manifesto against the 

 movement, warning all Orangemen that in 

 countenancing it they broke their obligation. 

 Mr. Benjamin was a staunch and zealous loyalist 

 an honest, sincere Canadian tory in the days 

 when there were tories as true a conservative 

 in later days and as little swayed by any un- 

 reasoning bigotry as any one in public life. He 

 was singularly astute in his judgment of men 

 and their springs of action, and wonderfully 

 well informed respecting even the most secret 

 negotiations among public men; one of the 

 most useful and truest-hearted counsellors and 

 assistants that any public men have ever had. 



July 13th. OGDEX, Mrs. C. K., died at 

 the residence of her brother, Eichard Clarke, 

 Esq., at Compton, Surrey, England. She was 

 the wife of the Hon. Charles Richard Ogden, 

 formerly Her Majesty's attorney-general for 

 Lower Canada, and a member of the Execu- 

 tive Council of the Province, and now of 

 Liverpool, England. Mrs. Ogden was a native 

 of Montreal, and daughter of the late Commis- 

 sary-General Clarke, whose sister was the 

 mother of the late Lord Lyndhurst, and was 

 most highly esteemed and respected by a nu- 

 merous circle of friends in Canada for her 

 benevolence and many virtues. 



August 5th. BABY, FcAxgois M. L. C., 

 was a descendant of the old French noblesse, 

 which emigrated to Canada after Champlain 

 had laid the foundation of a North American 

 empire. Branches of the family are scattered 

 over both sections of the province, where they 

 are all recognized for their enterprise, industry, 

 and skill. On the conquest of Canada by the 

 English the Babys at once transferred their 

 loyalty to Great Britain, and have ever since 

 been consistent and active supporters of the 

 British crown. 



Few men after the term of life after they 

 pass two score years and ten of their exist- 

 ence are possessed of energy sufficient to 

 commence again life's battle ; but so indomit- 

 able was Mr. Baby's perseverance, so zealously 

 did he labor, so much impressed was he with the 

 importance and value of improving the Lower 

 St. Lawrence navigation, that he conceived all 

 the great projects which have since been carried 

 out, viz., the building of wharves, and im- 

 proved system .of light-houses, and the intro- 

 duction of steam-tugs for the benefit of the 

 commerce of that port. That he made errors 

 of calculation, and that there was the very 

 worst of management in the construction of 

 these public works by which the Province was 

 made to pay heavily, is beyond doubt. But 

 what he did, he did well ; the wharves are the 

 best of their kind on the continent ; the light- 



houses are equal to any on the coasts of Eng- 

 land or France ; and the only objection that 

 can be urged against the steam-tugs is that 

 they are too costly. 



Oct. 25 ESTEX, Yice-Chancellor, was the 

 grandson of a former Attorney-General of the 

 Bermudas, and son of the late Chief Justice of 

 the same islands, the duties of which office his 

 father had discharged for twenty years. Mr. 

 Esten was born in St. George's, Bermuda, on 

 the 7th of November, 1805, and was educated 

 at the Charter House School, in London. He 

 was called to the bar in Lincoln's Inn, and for 

 some time pursued the practice of his profes- 

 sion as a barrister in England. In the year 

 1837, on the establishment of the Court of 

 Chancery in Canada, Mr. Esten, who, a short 

 time previously, had removed with his family 

 to Upper Canada, entered that court as a bar- 

 rister, and immediately assumed at the bar the 

 high position to which his great learning and 

 talents assigned him. From the first he en- 

 joyed a most extensive practice. He was one 

 of the few men in the country who, on the 

 opening of the new court, possessed any knowl- 

 edge of equity law pleading or practice. A 

 most diligent and accurate lawyer, possessed 

 of qualifications which no Government could 

 overlook, he was, in 1849, on the reconstruc- 

 tion of the court, raised to the bench as one 

 of its judges. From that time till June, 1864, 

 when disease compelled him to desist from his 

 labors, he discharged unceasingly the important 

 duties of his office with patience, zeal, hon- 

 esty, and ability. Firm in the administration, 

 of justice, he possessed wonderful equanimity 

 of temper, and an amiability of disposition 

 which endeared him to all who had business 

 in his court, or who enjoyed the pleasure of 

 his society. During his fifteen years of service, 

 Mr. Esten never was absent from his post, and 

 for a couple of years during, and in conse- 

 quence of, the illness of ex-Chancellor Blake, 

 great additional labor was cast upon him and 

 Mr. Vice-Chancellor Spragge. Mr. Esten died 

 at Toronto. 



Dec. 20 TUBCOTTE, JOSEPH E., who died at 

 the city of Three Rivers, was eminently a rep- 

 resentative politician. When the French Cana- 

 dian population of Lower Canada struggled to 

 obtain release from the oligarchical influences 

 of the Colonial Office, with the view of secur- 

 ing fair treatment, Joseph Edouard Turcotte 

 represented the feelings of a large section of 

 that population. He was received at the bar 

 of Lower Canada in 1834. From his earliest 

 days he had looked upon a parliamentary ca- 

 reer as the highest pitch of his ambition. 

 When still young and inexperienced, he at- 

 tempted an electoral contest against Monsieur 

 Hebert, in his native place, the county of Ni- 

 colet, district of Three Rivers. He was de- 

 feated. By no means discouraged, he entered 

 the lists on the North Shore of the St. Law- 

 rence, and his memorable opposition to Gugy 

 andMalhiotinthe county of St. Maurice, and his 



