born Dec. 17, 1796, Windsor, Nova Scotia
died Aug. 27, 1865, Isleworth, Middlesex, Eng.
Canadian writer.
He served in the legislature of his native Nova Scotia and later served as a judge of the Supreme Court (1841–54), where he maintained the strong conservatism that informs his writings. He moved to England in 1856 and was a member of Parliament from 1859 until his death. He is best known for creating the character Sam Slick, a Yankee clock peddler and cracker-barrel philosopher whose escapades first appeared in the newspaper Nova Scotian and were later published in The Clockmaker (1836, 1838, 1840) and other volumes.