New Brunswick Historical Tidbits

Ward Chipman

By Mitch Biggar

Ward Chipman was educated at Harvard and arrived in Halifax in 1776. Soon Ward Chipman was working for Governor Carleton and was made Solicitor General. As the Solicitor General Chipman acted as the crown prosecutor in all major criminal cases before the New Brunswick court. In 1785 Chipman and eight other lawyers formed the first provincial bar association.

Later Chipman would draft the charter for the city of Saint John and with the help od Edward Winslow establish the provincial legal system. In 1800 Chipman would challenge the institution of slavery. The trial was not sucessful but it did manage to challenge the Loyalist belief that slavery was legal. Ward Chipman also assisted a number of black settlers acquire land around Loch Lomond.

Ward Chipman helped establish King's College, the Bank of New Brunswick and built the finest house in Saint John. The most important contribution to New Brunswick history that Ward Chipman made was settling the boundary dispute with Maine.

This page was designed by Irene Doyle September 1999