John Rolph (politician)

Rolph was born on March 4, 1793 in Thornbury, Gloucestershire. His father was Thomas Rolph, a surgeon from Grovesend.[2] His mother was Frances Petty. Rolph was their fourth child and eldest surviving son. He was baptised at Seyntemaryes parish church.[3] He moved to Cambridge in 1809 to study at St. John's College and studied law at Inner Temple and Trinity Hall.[4]

Rolph intended to immigrate to Upper Canada in June 1812 via New York but the War of 1812 started while he was crossing the Atlantic. He received a special passport from American President James Madison to travel to Upper Canada and Rolph went to the Niagara River.[5] While waiting to cross the river he tried to solve one of Euclid's geometry problems which involved drawing shapes. American authorities suspected his equations were sketches of Fort Niagara and arrested him. He was brought to a prisoner of war camp in Greenbush, New York, and taught lessons in mathematics and grammar to alleviate his boredom.[6] After the Battle of Queenston Heights he was released in a prisoner exchange and lived at his father's farm in Port Talbot.[2] Rolph was paymaster for the 2nd Norfolk militia upon its creation in 1813.[7] The Deputy Inspector of Accounts accused Rolph of accepting claims from officers who did not provide the appropriate vouchers. Although Rolph denied this accusation he was found to be in default to the government and his application for 800 acres of land as a retired officer was denied.[8] Rolph initiated an organising committee to honour Port Talbot's founder Thomas Talbot and he inaugurated the first celebration of the town's creation on May 21, 1817.[9][10]

Rolph returned to England in August 1817.[11] He negotiated payments from his cousin concerning the sale of property in Thornbury that had belonged to their families. He used the payments to enrol in Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital to study medicine and to return to Trinity Hall to study law.[12] On April 20, 1820, he married Mary Slatter who was labelled as a spinster. Although the marriage is recorded in a wedding register, Rolph never referred to this event in his life or his papers and a death record for Slatter has not been found.[13]

He also obtained a divinity degree. He was called to the bar of the Inner Temple in 1821.[10] In September he returned to North America, bought a farm in St. Thomas and became a barrister.[14] He opened a law office in Vittoria and practiced law and medicine concurrently.{{sfn|Godfrey|1993|p=43}| In 1823 he was elected as a school trustee and became a member of the Board of Education. In 1824 he moved to Dundas.[15]

Rolph would visit the home of William Warren Baldwin when he was in York and converse with Baldwin, Marshall Spring Bidwell, and Robert Baldwin about Upper Canada politics. Rolph dubbed this group of men "the cabinet".[16] He also worked with Charles Duncombe to provide medical services in Upper Canada. Rolph opened a medical school in St. Thomas in 1823 which closed after two years.[17][18]

In 1824 he ran for the 9th Parliament of Upper Canada to represent Middlesex County. In his nomination speech, he campaigned on making land deeds easier to obtain, improving public education and ensuring that all voters were able to participate in the election.[19] Rolph one of the two seats with the most amount of votes.[20] Rolph aligned with Reformer politicians.[10] He supported allowing American-born settlers in Upper Canada being given all the rights of British subjects. He spoke for the separation of Church and State and against imprisonment for debt.

In 1825 Rolph represented Robert Randal in the government seizure and sale of Randal's property to pay previous legal debts. Rolph's questioning uncovered that government officials pressured witnesses into providing false evidence that Randal did not own the Niagara property. The jury deliberated for five minutes, then decided in Randal's favour.[21]

In 1826 Rolph travelled to England to petition the Colonial Office to naturalise American citizens who had moved to Upper Canada.[10] He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1826.[22] His request was granted but upon his return to York he proposed a resolution that declared all Americans in Upper Canada as citizens.[22] This went further than the Colonial Office intended, with Lord Bathurst claiming Rolph ignored specific instructions to put stipulations in the legislation. Rolph objected to amendments to the bill and his legislation was defeated in favour of a bill supported by the Colonial Office.[23]

In August 1827 Rolph represented his brother George in a civil suit after he was tarred and feathered.[24] Rolph's opening arguments emphasised that he was reluctant to represent his brother but thought it would be unfair that others in the province could hire him as a lawyer but not his family. He described the crime as one of the worst acts committed in society and said additional damages should be awarded because the act took place at night.[25] He sued for £3000 but the jury's verdict awarded £40 equivalent to £3,466 in 2016 to be paid by two of the defendants.[26]

In 1828 Judge John Walpole Willis ruled that the court of Upper Canada could not proceed unless all the judges were present. Rolph requested that Judge Sherwood issue written rulings, and when this was denied he protested in the courtroom by taking off his lawyer gowns. He was concerned that these actions would cause the court to become biased against him and refused to accept new clients. He sold his law practice to his brother George Rolph in 1832 and focused on his medical career.[27]

He was re-elected to the legislative assembly in 1828.[28] He was licenced to practice medicine in Upper Canada in 1829 although he was practising medicine in the province throughout the 1820s.[10] He decided not to run in the 1830 Upper Canada election.[10]

In 1831, Rolph moved to York, Upper Canada and opened the only medical school operating in Upper Canada at that time.[10] He helped establish a Mechanics' institute in York.[10] In 1834 he married Grace Haines and they would have four children.[10]

He was elected as an alderman and councillor representing St. Patrick's Ward in the first Toronto municipal election in 1834. He resigned from council after discovering his fellow alderman would elect William Lyon Mackenzie as mayor.[10] On November 4, 1835, Rolph was elected president of a new Reform-backed bank called the Bank of the People.[29]

On February 20, 1836, he was appointed to the Executive Council of Upper Canada by the lieutenant governor Francis Bond Head. He led a campaign to have the entire council support a memorandum that would give more powers and oversight of administration to the council. Bond Head rejected the memorandum and the entire council resigned on March 12.[10]

He won a seat in the 13th Parliament of Upper Canada in 1836 representing Norfolk County, one of the few reformers elected to the legislative assembly in that year. He led the Reform party in Parliament.[10]

In November 1837 William Lyon Mackenzie convinced Rolph to support an armed rebellion and suggested Rolph would become President of the State of Upper Canada. They convinced Thomas David Morrison to support an armed rebellion but Rolph wanted to survey support in rural areas and so sent Mackenzie north of the city.[30]

On December 2 Rolph learned that the government was going to arrest Mackenzie. He sent a message to Samuel Lount encouraging him to start marching rebels towards Toronto. The rebels gathered at Montgomery's Tavern and the rebel leaders met on December 4, where Rolph advised abandoning the rebellion.[10]

On 5 December, Rolph and Robert Baldwin delivered a message to the rebel leaders from the lieutenant governor under a flag of truce.[10] They convinced the rebels to stop their march towards Toronto and relayed Bond Head's offer of amnesty. A man who accompanied them named William Ketchum later testified that Rolph encouraged him to exaggerate his description of the rebel's strength to loyalist authorities, but Ketchum did not do this because he wanted to remain neutral in the rebellion.[31] Rolph returned to Bond Head with the rebel's counter-offer, but Bond Head refused further negotiations and the two men relayed Bond Head's response to the rebels. Lount stated that Rolph advised him to continue the rebellion on his first visit, but Rolph stated his encouragement occurred during the second meeting. Rolph spent the rest of the evening recruiting men in Toronto to meet the rebels upon their arrival. He abandoned these efforts after rebels retreated that night and Rolph witnessed the strength of the government's army. He sent a messenger to the rebels calling for an end to the rebellion and their dispersal.[10]

On 6 December, fearing that his involvement would soon be discovered, he fled to the United States. On December 11 Bond Head issued a proclamation and £500 reward for his arrest. He was expelled from the legislature on January 20, 1838.[10]

Rolph mostly lived in Rochester while in the United States. Although active in the Patriot movement upon his arrival, he distanced himself from the group and focused on his medical career. Rolph wrote a rebuttal to Mackenzie's accusations of sabotaging the Upper Canada Rebellion but did not publish it. This document was found among his papers.[10]

Many of his medical students travelled to Rochester to continue their education with him.[32]

Rolph was granted amnesty in 1843 and returned to Toronto in August.[10] He reestablished his medical school as "Rolph School". It was incorporated by an Act of Legislature in 1851 as the Toronto School of Medicine.[33] He advertised the school as an alternative to the university education students could receive at King's College in Toronto.[10] In 1851 he was elected to represent Norfolk County in the Legislative Assembly and gave the administrative tasks of running the school to Dr. W. T. Aikens.[10][33]

Francis Hincks appointed Rolph as Minister of Crown Lands and in 1853 Rolph became the president of the council and Minister of Agriculture.[34] He was reelected for Norfolk County but left the legislature in 1857.[10]

In 1854 the Toronto School of Medicine merged with Victoria College and became their medical school. The medical staff clashed with Rolph's autocratic leadership style and brought their grievances to the college's board of directors. The board sided with Rolph and the medical staff resigned en masse.[35] They reestablished the Toronto School of Medicine and blocked Rolph's ability to use the name at the old school. Rolph's students remained at the school and he remained dean of the medical faculty.[10]

He suffered a stroke in 1861.[10] In 1870 he followed the Victoria College board of director's call to retire.[36] He lived with his daughter and her husband in Perth County.[10]

He suffered another stroke and died in Mitchell, Ontario on October 19, 1870.[10][36]

Rolph is considered by Marian A. Patterson as the "Father of Medical Education in Upper Canada."[42]

• Godfrey, Charles (1993). John Rolph: Rebel with Causes. Madoc, Ontario: Condam Publishing. ISBN 0921453043.
• Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History (1 January 1996). Greenwood, F. Murray; Wright, Barry (eds.). Canadian State Trials: Rebellion and invasion in the Canadas, 1837-1839. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-3748-0.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Patterson, Marian A. (January 1961). "The Life and Times of the Hon. John Rolph, M.D. (1793-1870)". Medical History. 5 (1): 15-33. doi:10.1017/S0025727300025898. ISSN 2048-8343. PMC 1034582. PMID 13733371 – via Cambridge University Press.
• Schrauwers, Albert (2009). 'Union is Strength': W.L. Mackenzie, The Children of Peace and the Emergence of Joint Stock Democracy in Upper Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-9327-2.