Collection search - Sir John Abbott fonds [textual record]

Record information – Brief
1
Sir John Abbott fonds [textual record]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1884-1892, 1936.

Reference:

R14085-0-3-E, MG26-C

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

104079

Context of this record:

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Sir John Abbott fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

4 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1884-1892, 1936.

Bilingual equivalent:

Click here

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

35 cm of textual records.

Language of material:

English

Accession:

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J.J.C. Abbott collection [graphic material]

Scope and content:

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Fonds consist of correspondence, 1891-1892, 0.225m; memoranda and notes, 1884-1892, 0.075m; printed material, 1891-1892, 0.025m; additional papers, 1891-1892, 1936, 0.025m. Unfortunately the Abbott Papers are far from complete.

Provenance:

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Abbott, J. J. C. (John Joseph Caldwell), Sir, 1821-1893

Additional name(s):

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Thompson, John S. D. (John Sparrow David), Sir, 1844-1894

Biography/Administrative history:

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Abbott, J. J. C. (John Joseph Caldwell), Sir, 1821-1893 : Prime Minister of Canada (1891-92)

John Joseph Caldwell Abbott was born on 12 March 1821 at St. Andrews, Lower Canada (Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec).

Abbott entered business at age seventeen, studied law at McGill University and became dean of the faculty in 1855. Future prime minister Wilfrid Laurier was one of his students.

Abbott also built a large commercial law practice. In a rare criminal case, he defended Confederate agents who raided Vermont from Canadian soil during the American Civil War. Investments, mainly in railways, made Abbott extremely wealthy.

In 1857, Abbott ran for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada for the riding of Argenteuil, winning only after a two-year legal challenge over voting irregularities. He was re-elected in 1861 and served for a year as solicitor general.

Abbott was elected to parliament as a Conservative for Argenteuil in 1867. He was a central figure in the Pacific Scandal that brought down Sir John A. Macdonald's government in 1873. Abbott was re-elected, but was removed by petition in 1874 for his role in the scandal.

Abbott was defeated in the 1878 general election and his 1880 by-election victory was voided for irregularities. He returned to parliament in an 1881 by-election.

Macdonald appointed Abbott to the Senate in 1887 as leader of the government and minister without portfolio. Abbott served concurrently as Mayor of Montreal (1887-89).

Abbott succeeded Macdonald in 1891. During seventeen months in office, he initiated civil service reforms, revised the Criminal Code, secured a Canadian diplomatic presence in Washington and tried to negotiate a reciprocity treaty with the United States.

As a cabinet minister and senator, Abbott endorsed the federal government's systematically racist relationship with Indigenous Peoples, which caused tremendous ongoing trauma, displacement, disenfranchisement and exclusion.

Abbott married Mary Bethune in 1849. He was knighted in May 1892, shortly before his health failed. He resigned at the end of the year, died at Montreal on 30 October 1893 and was buried in the city's Mount Royal Cemetery.

Finding aid:

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Textual records (Paper) The finding aid is an author and subject index to the correspondence. There is also a file list for the Memoranda and Notes. MSS0183 (90: Open)

Textual records (Electronic) The finding aid is an alphabetical list of correspondents which includes dates, subjects, volume and page numbers. There is also a description of the memoranda and notes. (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000042.pdf

Additional information:

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General note:

Most of the Abbott Papers (vols. 1-5) were discovered in 1950 among records of the Privy Council. They were in despatch cases labelled "Hon. Sir John Abbott's papers, 1891-1892. Sent for to Montreal by order of the Hon. Sir John S.D. Thompson". The additional papers (vol. 6) were received in 1974 from Abbott's grandson, Mr. Arthur C. Abbott of Beaconsfield, Quebec.
Subject heading:

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Sealing - Bering Sea

Canadian Copyright Act

Prime ministers - Canada - Staff, 1891-1892 Arthur A. Browne, 1892

Prime ministers - Canada - Funeral service, 1891-1892 R.W. Powell, 1892

Prime ministers - Canada - Transition period, 1891-1892 W.C. Van Horne, 1892

Newfoundland - Relations - Canada, 1891-1892 North West Territories. Legislative Assembly, 1891-1892

Canada - Relations - Newfoundland, 1891-1892 Lord Stanley, 1892

Steamships - Australia, 1884-1889

Steamboats - Australia, 1884-1889

Canada. Parliament. Senate Legislators - Canada, 1884-1892

Sealing - Canada, 1891-1892

Copyright - Canada, 1889

Tariff - Canada, 1888-1891

St. John's (Nfld.) - Fires, 1893

Bering Sea controversy, 1891-1892

Canada 19th century

Australia

Legislators Canada

Politicians Canada

Prime ministers Canada

Canada 1878-1896
Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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1951-093 NPC

Former archival reference no.:

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MG26-C
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Textual records

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Date modified:: 2024-04-09