Botsford, Amos Edwin

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Lorna Milton Oulton, “BOTSFORD, AMOS EDWIN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/botsford_amos_edwin_12E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Farmer, militia officer, jp, judge, politician, and businessman; b. 25 Sept. 1804 in Saint John, N.B., second son of William Botsford and Sarah Lowell Murray, née Hazen; m. September 1864 Mary Arabella Allison, née Cogswell, in Sackville, N.B.; they had no children; d. there 19 March 1894.
    • In 1808 Amos Edwin Botsford moved with his family to Westcock, N.B., where his grandfather Amos Botsford had settled in 1790. He received his education at the Westmorland Grammar School and likely did some legal studies with his father. He then took up farming, eventually working hundreds of acres of the lucrative Tantramar marshlands and uplands. In the 1830s he served for several years as a justice of the peace and a senior judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Westmorland County.
    • Since his family took an active interest in public affairs, it was perhaps inevitable that Botsford should seek to enter the political arena. In the election of 1830 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Westmorland, a seat formerly held by both his grandfather and his father. Three years later he became a member of the Legislative Council, and he occupied this position until confederation. He was also named to the Executive Council, serving from 1838 to 1840.
    • Botsford was a strong supporter of Samuel Leonard Tilley and confederation. He thus opposed his younger brother Bliss, who represented the anti-confederation position in the House of Assembly. In April 1866 he introduced in the Legislative Council a resolution for a federal union of the provinces, and this motion was carried. When Albert James Smith’s anti-confederation government fell later that month, Lieutenant Governor Arthur Hamilton Gordon called upon Botsford to form an administration, but he declined. His efforts on behalf of Tilley in the subsequent election did little good in Westmorland County, where four opponents of confederation, including his brother, were returned. A government headed by Tilley was nevertheless elected and confederation achieved. In May 1867 Botsford was, by royal proclamation, called to the first Canadian Senate. Although not particularly prominent or vocal in the chamber, he sat in the speaker’s chair from 3 to 5 June 1872 and again from 16 Feb. to 19 April 1880.
    • Botsford’s knowledge of the law and the humanity which he displayed caused him to be held in the highest regard by all classes.
  • Grandson of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=712
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8566181/amos_edwin-botsford