Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham

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Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham, PC (Waverley Abbey September 13, 1799 – September 19, 1841 Kingston) was the first Governor of the united Province of Canada.

He was the son of John Buncombe Poulett Thomson, a London merchant. After some years spent in his father's business in Russia and in London he was returned to the House of Commons for Dover in 1826. In 1830 he joined Lord Grey's ministry as Vice-President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy. A free-trader and an expert in financial matters he was elected MP for Manchester in 1832, a seat which he occupied for many years. He was continuously occupied with negotiations affecting international commerce until 1839, when he accepted the Governorship of Canada.

Sydenham succeeded Lord Durham as Governor of Canada in 1839. He was responsible for implementing the Union Act in 1840, uniting Upper Canada and Lower Canada as the Province of Canada; that year, he was created Baron Sydenham. Upper Canadians were given a choice in the matter, which they accepted; Lower Canada had no say, and as a result many French Canadians were opposed to both the union and Sydenham himself. Sydenham was just as anti-French as Durham had been, and he encouraged British immigration to make the French Canadian population less significant. French Canadians referred to him as le poulet, "the chicken." Realizing he had almost no support in Lower Canada (now Canada East), he reorganized ridings to give the English population more votes, and in areas where that was infeasible, he allowed English mobs to beat up French candidates. Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine was one such candidate who suffered from Sydenham's influence; Lafontaine eventually left Canada East to work with Robert Baldwin in creating a fairer union for both sides.

Sydenham also settled the Protestant land dispute in Upper Canada (now Canada West), which the Family Compact had interpreted to refer only to the Anglican Church. Sydenham declared that half of the land set aside for Protestant churches would be shared between Anglicans and Presbyterians, and the other half would be shared between the other Protestant denominations.

Sydenham wanted to make Canada more financially independent, so that there would less danger of annexation by the United States. He had been working on this policy throughout the 1830s, when he was President of the Board of Trade in Britain, though he had little time to implement any economic reforms once arrived was in Canada. After less than two years as Governor-General, Sydenham died in 1841.

[edit] External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Portraits of Charles Poulett-Thomson, Baron Sydenham at the National Portrait Gallery, London

[edit] References

This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Manchester 2-seat constituency (with Mark Philips) 1832–1839	Succeeded by Mark Philips Robert Hyde Gregg
Political offices
Preceded by Thomas Frankland Lewis	Treasurer of the Navy 1830–1834	Succeeded by Viscount Lowther
Preceded by The Lord Auckland	President of the Board of Trade 1834	Succeeded by Alexander Baring
Preceded by Alexander Baring	President of the Board of Trade 1835–1839	Succeeded by Henry Labouchere
Preceded by George Arthur	Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada 1839–1841	Succeeded by John Clitherow
Preceded by The Earl of Durham	Governor General of the Province of Canada 1839–1841	Succeeded by Sir Charles Bagot
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by (new creation)	Baron Sydenham 1840–1841	Succeeded by (extinct)
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Preceded by George Arthur	Chancellor of King's College 1841	Succeeded by Sir Charles Bagot