Ritchie, Sir William Johnston

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Gordon Bale and E. Bruce Mellett, “RITCHIE, Sir WILLIAM JOHNSTON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ritchie_william_johnston_12E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Lawyer, politician, and judge; b. 28 Oct. 1813 in Annapolis Royal, N.S., third son of Thomas Ritchie and Elizabeth Wildman Johnston; d. 25 Sept. 1892 in Ottawa.
    • William Johnston Ritchie’s father was a member of the House of Assembly for Nova Scotia who later became a judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the western division of the province. His mother was a daughter of William Martin Johnston and Elizabeth Lichtenstein.
    • Although William Ritchie was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1837, he moved to New Brunswick and was admitted to practise law in that province in 1838. It is unclear why he chose to leave Nova Scotia. His early practice in Saint John was not lucrative: he recalled that he handled one case in his first year and that his professional earnings the next year were only £5. Ritchie became much more successful in the early 1840s, however; according to a contemporary, Joseph Wilson Lawrence, he “built up the most extensive and lucrative practice, probably, that any one has enjoyed in the City of St. John.” He developed a reputation for integrity and sound judgement in his legal business, and the energy with which he promoted his clients’ interests contributed to his success with judges and jurors. His forceful advocacy led to his being challenged to a duel on 19 Aug. 1845 by Edward Lutwyche Jarvis, whose father was being sued by Ritchie’s client. Jarvis accused Ritchie of insinuating fraudulent conduct on his part. In a letter to his challenger, Ritchie rejected the notion that he might have wronged him, and said that he had acted honourably, making no statements “but such as the evidence, the just development of the rights of my client, and the ends of justice warranted.” “I shall never,” he concluded, “allow myself to be overawed or deterred from fearlessly doing my duty to my clients, please or displease whom it may.” It was a sentiment he claimed to be guided by, both before and on the bench. Ritchie’s decision neither to apologize nor to fight a duel was taken with the concurrence of his legal peers and marks a salutary and significant change in gentlemanly conduct from that of 1821 when George Ludlow Wetmore was killed by George Frederick Street in a duel near Fredericton.
    • Ritchie became chief justice of New Brunswick on 30 Nov. 1865, succeeding Robert Parker. He was appointed over the head of the longer-serving and still popular Lemuel Allan Wilmot, who had become a puisne judge in 1851. Opponents of Albert James Smith’s anti-confederation government called the supersession of Wilmot an “outrage,” arguing that the “insult to the senior judge appears gross, flagrant and without excuse.” Ritchie’s supporters claimed that Wilmot had used the bench as a political forum for his “harangues” promoting confederation, and that the government could not overlook such shocking behaviour. The controversy focused more on the insult to Wilmot than on Ritchie’s qualifications for the position.
    • In 1869 Chief Justice Ritchie wrote a decision, virtually forgotten today, which for the first time held a provincial statute to be invalid under the British North America Act of 1867. In The Queen v. Chandler Ritchie maintained that a New Brunswick debtor law of 1868 infringed on the exclusive power of the federal government to legislate in the area of bankruptcy and insolvency. Where parliament or the provincial governments “legislate beyond their powers . . . ,” he wrote, “their enactments are no more binding than rules or regulations promulgated by any other unauthorized body.” The case has been rightly compared to Marbury v. Madison, which in 1803 established the concept of judicial review of constitutional validity in the United States. Ritchie’s decision in Chandler merits an important place in Canadian constitutional law for its clear exposition of the nature of judicial review.
    • On 8 Oct. 1875 Ritchie was made a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; the chief justiceship of New Brunswick then went to John Campbell Allen. Ritchie’s appointment was greeted with widespread approval. In Saint John it was said that the wisdom of the “eminent jurist” was to be “extended to a wider and more important sphere.”
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7013
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157054121/william-johnstone-ritchie