Wallace, Michael

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: D. A. Sutherland, “WALLACE, MICHAEL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wallace_michael_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Merchant, politician, jp, judge, office holder, and colonial administrator; b. c. 1744 in Lanarkshire, Scotland; d. 8 Oct. 1831 in Halifax.
    • Michael located at Norfolk, Va, in 1771. As a recent arrival and one with continuing family and business connections in Britain, he naturally opposed the revolution. Driven out of Norfolk after suffering considerable loss of property, he moved about 1779 to Halifax, a garrison port where war had generated commercial bustle. He resumed business as a retailer and wholesaler, dealing primarily in British manufactures, along with fish and lumber received in barter exchanges. 
    • The triumph of the American revolution had a decisive impact on Wallace’s career. The British decision to enforce mercantilist trade regulations against the new United States created the prospect that Halifax might emerge in the post-war period as an entrepôt commanding a large share of the British Caribbean carrying trade. Thus Wallace had cause, as a trader, to remain in Nova Scotia. His persistence was also associated with the large-scale influx of loyalists into the colony during the early 1780s. Their presence and their rapid penetration of the local oligarchy gave him valuable connections, which soon brought him place and preferment.
    • Wallace’s rise to prominence began in 1785 with his election to the House of Assembly as a representative for Halifax County. During the next decade and a half he secured a number of complementary honours such as a magisterial appointment, a place on the bench of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and membership on the commissions responsible for Halifax’s streets and Sable Island’s life-saving station.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=12006
  • Find A Grave: Cannot locate.