Wetmore, Andrew Rainsford

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: T. W. Acheson, “WETMORE, ANDREW RAINSFORD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wetmore_andrew_rainsford_12E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    •  Lawyer, politician, and judge; b. 16 Aug. 1820 in Fredericton, son of George Ludlow Wetmore and Harriet Rainsford; m. 12 Sept. 1848 Louisa Elizabeth Lansdowne in Saint John, N.B., and they had nine children; d. 7 March 1892 in Fredericton.
    • Andrew Rainsford Wetmore was the grandson and great-grandson of prominent loyalist barristers who established a law firm at Saint John in 1788. His grandfather, Thomas Wetmore, served as attorney general of New Brunswick for 19 years. He became an attorney on 14 Oct. 1841 and was admitted to the New Brunswick bar on 21 Oct. 1843. From 1842 to 1847 Wetmore practised law at Oromocto; he then moved to Saint John where he maintained his residence and law practice until 1870. Over the years he acquired a reputation as one of the finest trial lawyers in the province.
    • Despite his prominence in the legal community Wetmore’s role in the province’s politics before the mid 1860s was a small one. The Quebec conference of 1864 changed that. Wetmore did not oppose British North American union but did object to the terms offered to the province. When government leader Samuel Leonard Tilley decided to go to the electorate on the issue in the winter of 1864–65, the anti-confederates of Saint John approached Wetmore to challenge Tilley and his running mate in the Saint John City constituency. The campaign was a bitter one, and Wetmore brought his formidable debating skills to it.
    • Wetmore won election on 4 March 1865 and sat as an anti-confederate back-bencher in the first session of the new legislature. Then, in the middle of the second session, he led the move to abandon the government of Albert James Smith, and from then on he sat as a confederate. A few months later he was Tilley’s running mate in the 1866 election and was returned on 7 June. 
  • Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8950
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114808441/andrew-rainsford-wetmore