Carmichael, James William

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: L. Anders Sandberg, “CARMICHAEL, JAMES WILLIAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/carmichael_james_william_13E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman and politician; b. 16 Dec. 1819 in New Glasgow, N.S., elder of the two sons of James Carmichael and Christian McKenzie; m. 5 June 1851 Maria Jane McColl (d. 1874) in Guysborough, N.S., and they had one son and five daughters; d. 1 May 1903 in New Glasgow.
    • The son of the founder of New Glasgow, James William Carmichael attended Pictou Academy, and then became a clerk in his father’s store and “occasionally went as supercargo” on his vessels. He gradually took over his father’s mercantile and shipping businesses in the early 1850s, and by 1854 the firm was known as J. W. Carmichael and Company. Carmichael’s brother, John Robert, became a partner sometime afterwards, but left in 1863. 
    • The first vessel registered in Carmichael’s name was the 129-ton Helen Stairs of 1851, and from 1857 to 1869 he built at least 14 more. His ships conducted an extensive trade in supplies from Pictou County to the lumber camps of the Miramichi River, N.B., and during the period of operation of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States (1854–66) they also transported coal from the Pictou fields to American markets. Although the building and use of wooden ships declined in the 1870s, Carmichael remained active. By then his yards were the most important in Pictou County, and he constructed his largest vessel, the 1,174-ton Thiorva, in 1876.
    • Although deeply committed to wooden sailing-ships during the heyday of the industry, Carmichael had from an early date been interested in vessels which employed new technologies. In 1854 and 1865, for example, McKenzie and Carmichael had constructed steamers for the ferry service which connected New Glasgow and Pictou with Prince Edward Island. Carmichael stopped building wooden vessels in 1883 and, like many other Nova Scotian shipowners, began placing orders with prominent builders of iron ships on the Clyde River in Scotland. 
    • Although Carmichael and the New Glasgow mercantile community financed local industrialists and welcomed them into their families, they were less inclined to agree with their politics. The merchants were Liberals and uncompromising supporters of free trade, the industrialists Conservatives and protectionists. Carmichael himself supported the Liberals after his election to parliament for Pictou in 1867 as an opponent of confederation. Ousted in 1872 and reelected in 1874, he was defeated in the general elections of 1878, 1882, and 1896, and in a by-election in 1881. Carmichael was undismayed by his frequent losses, which were caused in part by quarrels among the Liberals and in part by the fact that Pictou County was benefiting from the National Policy of the Conservatives. He remained a key figure in the provincial and national parties, and he was on good terms with Edward Blake, Alexander Mackenzie, and Wilfrid Laurier.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=11460
  • Find A Grave: Cannot locate