Haszard, James Douglas

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Ian Ross Robertson, “HASZARD, JAMES DOUGLAS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/haszard_james_douglas_10E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Printer, journalist, farmer, and businessman; b. 27 June 1797 at Charlottetown, P.E.I., eldest son of Thomas Rhodes Haszard and his wife Jane; d.17 Aug. 1875 at his home in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
    • James Douglas Haszard was the son of Rhode Island loyalists who immigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1785. At an early age James was apprenticed to his uncle, James D. Bagnall, who was king’s printer. When Bagnall was absent from the Island for three years, his young apprentice took over the task of printing royal notices and proclamations. With his uncle’s return in 1811, Haszard resumed his role as apprentice. He broadened his experience by attending school in Halifax from 1816 to 1817, and by working as a printer in Rhode Island.
    • In 1823, two years after his return from the United States, Haszard established the Prince Edward Island Register, which because of the lack of printed matter on the Island was used as a reading text as well as a newspaper. Haszard continued to publish the Register until 1830 when he was appointed king’s printer, a position he held until 1851. During those 21 years he published the Royal Gazette, which carried local and foreign news, and letters to the editor, as well as official notices and proclamations.
    • James Haszard was the first native Island journalist. He was not a gifted writer, and when Governor Huntley was about to strip him of a minor office he wrote that there was nothing to fear from Haszard: “he is without talent of his own, too penurious to pay for that belonging to others, and moreover, he will do nothing to endanger his possession of the office of Queen’s Printer.” Nonetheless, Haszard did introduce several important Island newspapermen, such as John Ings and James Barrett Cooper, to their future profession, and in late 1852 he and his son George imported the colony’s first power printing press. In politics, he was closely associated with the Tory élite which ruled the Island prior to responsible government. It was but natural that he should be displaced when this era came to an end. He appears to have aged prematurely, and not to have taken an active part in public life in his declining years.
  • Son of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3646
  • Find a GRAVE: Cannot locate