THE FIRST RECORDER 



Sketch of "Judge Thorn," an early l^ed %inv Celebrity. 



Rev. Dr. Bryce, on 4th of May, in the City 

 Hall, Winnipeg, before the Historical and 

 Scientjtic Society of Manitoba, read the fol- 

 lowing interesting biographical sketch of a 

 remarkable man of Red River of old : — 



In the winter of 1882, while staying in Lon- 

 don, which the subject of this sketch used 

 facetiou&ly to call "the wen of the world," the 

 writer frequently met a retired old gentleman 

 often known as ''Judge Thom," who had 

 more than forty years before made his entree 

 to Red River Settlement as first recorder of 

 Rupert's Land. At the time of meeting in 

 London the judge had entered upon his 

 eightieth year. He was tall, and though 

 walking with a slight stoop, was of command- 

 ing presence. He was what people usually 

 call a man of marked individuality. His 

 opinions were all formed ; he had views 

 on any matter that came up for discussion ; 

 and was very fond of a talk with a passing 

 friend. In conversation with the old gentle- 

 man it would be at once noticed that he had a 

 large fund of information, and to any visitor 

 from Manitoba it was .'■urprising to see how 

 the lapse of 30 years' ab.>ence from thecountry 

 had not effaced a line from memory in regard 

 tu the affairs of all the families of that time 

 resident m Red River. In fact Judge Thom 

 had a marvellouf; mind for details. Some 

 would no doubt have called him loquacious, 

 but to most he was a very interesting man. 

 Dr. Thorn's broad Aberdonian accent had not 

 been greatly softened by his colonial resid- 

 ence, nor by his bubsequeut sojourn in Lon- 

 don. In speech and ideas the Judge was a 

 strong man, and it will be our pleasing duty 

 this evening to give the outlines of his some- 

 what eventful life, which ended a little more 

 than two n)onths ago. 



EARLY LIFT5. 



Adam Thom was born in Aberdeen on the 

 30th of August, 1802, and had the remem- 

 brance to the last of having seen in his third 

 year the great rejoicing that took place after 

 Nelson's great victory at the oattle of Trafal 

 gar, October 21st, 1805. Indeed Judge Thom 

 was of (.)pinioa that a certain weakness of eyes, 

 from which he suffered all his life, was a re- 

 sult of the illuminations that took place in 

 connection with that great event. In the 

 year 1819, young Thom being, as he himself 

 says, "of the same age as Joseph in the pit on 

 his way to the presence of Pharaoh," entered 

 King'.'-- College, Aberdeen, where he was a suc- 

 cessful student, and graduated by 1824 

 with the degree of Master of Arts. It was in 

 the second year of his course at Aberdeen that 

 he met with one who, far away on 

 the plains of Rupert's Land, was to be 



his intimate friend and companion, whom 

 indeed he was to call his "alter ego." Tnis 

 was John McCallum, of whom we shall speak 

 more fully and who it will be remembered 

 founded the school, which became in time St. 

 John's College in this city. Scotland was 

 then as now sending up its young men to the 

 great metropolis, which contains more Scotch- 

 men than Edinburgh, and in 1825 both Thom 

 and his fellow-student McCallum found them- 

 selves earning their bread there, the former 

 in Woolwich and the latter in Blackheath 



EMIGRATE.S TO CANADA. 



About this time a great outflow of the 

 British people was taking place to the new 

 world, [n the year 1831 upwards of 30,000 

 people left the British Isles for Canada. Over- 

 pressure of population and political discontent 

 were no doubt the chief factors in this great 

 emigration. In the foJlowing year a popular 

 movement to Canada was heaoed in the south 

 of England by Lord Egremont and three 

 ships carried the Sussex colony to the St. 

 Lawrence. To the enterprising mind of 

 young Thom the opporttinities said to be 

 afforded by Canada were a great attraction, 

 and so taking thelast ship of the season (1832), 

 the "Rosalind," from Loudon, after a rough 

 passage, the vessel even running aground at 

 Anticosti in the St. Lawrence, the young ad- 

 venturer reached Montreal. Carried away by 

 .the new world fever in the foLowing year his 

 friend, McCallum, also accepted the task, 

 under the patronage of Rev. David Jones, 

 the Hudson Bay chaplain at Red River, 

 of founding a boarding school for the children 

 of the Hudson Bay company officers and 

 others at the headquarters of the company, 

 and sailed by the company's ship early in 

 1833 to come by way of Hudson Bay to the 

 scene of his future labors. Young Thom 

 seems to have at once entered on the study of 

 law in Montreal, and with such diligence, that 

 according to hi& own account, having his time 

 shortened by one year because of his degree, 

 he was admitted into the profession of law in 

 the year 1836. 



A POLITICAL WRITER. 



To any of Mr. Thorn's friends it was evi- 

 dent that there was in him to the end of his 

 life a strange restlessness of dispo.sition. It 

 agrees completely with this that he should n.it 

 h'^ve settled down to the routine of a lawyer's 

 life. His disposition led him to take great in 

 terest m public affairs. He was in mental charac- 

 teristics something of an independent thinker, 

 and yet his conclusions were usually rather 

 staid and ordinary. His mental bias was 

 evidently that of a radical, while his social 



