Francis Maseres
| Francis Maseres | |
|---|---|
Francis Maseres
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| Born |
December 15, 1731 London, England |
| Died | May 19, 1824 Reigate, England |
| Occupation | lawyer, attorney general, judge, mathematician, historian |
Francis Maseres (15 December 1731 – 19 May 1824) was an English lawyer. He is known as attorney general of the Province of Quebec, judge, mathematician, historian, member of the Royal Society, and cursitor baron of the exchequer.
Francis Maseres was born in London on 15 December 1731. His parents were Magdalene du Pratt du Clareau and Peter Abraham Maseres, physician. The Maseres family (Masères) were French Protestants who left France after the revocation of Edict of Nantes in 1685. He was fluent in French. He had a brother, named Peter.
He studied in Rev. Richard Wooddeson's School in Kingston-upon-Thames, then entered Clare College, Cambridge, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (1752) and a Master of Arts (1755). He entered the Inner Temple to study law in 1750, and was admitted to the bar in 1758.
On 4 March 1766, he was appointed attorney general of the new British Province of Quebec, the former French Canada conquered in 1760 and definitively ceded by France through the Treaty of Paris in 1763. He was sworn in office on 26 September 1766 and exercised his functions until the autumn of 1769.
In March 1768, the Carleton government requested of him a report on the reform of the province's law system. He submitted his report in February 1769.
Upon his return to London, he continued to take interest in American colonial affairs. In an essay published in 1770, he recommended that the colonies be represented as quickly as possible in the House of Commons. He was elected member of the Royal Society of London in 1771 and made cursitor baron of the exchequer in August 1773. He was elected senior judge of sheriff’s court in London in 1780.
He involved himself in the movement for a constitutional reform of Quebec which resumed at full speed with the end of the American War of Independence in 1783, and which was concluded with the adoption of the Constitutional Act of 1791 by the British Parliament. He espoused the cause of Pierre du Calvet who intended to bring governor Frederick Haldimand before the courts for violating the British constitution.
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