John Abbott
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The Honourable John Abbott KCMG PC QC |
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|---|---|
 |
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| 3rd Prime Minister of Canada | |
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In office June 16, 1891 – November 24, 1892 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Governor-General | The Lord Stanley of Preston |
| Preceded by | John A. Macdonald |
| Succeeded by | John Thompson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
John Joseph Caldwell Abbott March 12, 1821 Saint-André, Lower Canada |
| Died | October 30, 1893 (aged 72) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Resting place | Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Bethune (m. 1849; his death 1893) |
| Children | 8 |
| Education | McGill University (1847) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 Canada
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| Service/branch | Canadian Army |
| Years of service | 1866-1874 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit | 11th Argenteuil Battalion |
Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (KCMG, PC, QC; March 12, 1821 – October 30, 1893) was the third Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the office for seventeen months, from June 16, 1891, to November 24, 1892.
Born in St. Andrews, Lower Canada (now Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec), to Rev. Joseph Abbott (an Anglican missionary) and Harriet (née Bradford), he became Canada's first native-born prime minister. In 1849, Abbott married Mary Martha Bethune (1823–1898), a relative of Dr. Norman Bethune, a daughter of Anglican clergyman and McGill acting president John Bethune, and a granddaughter of the Presbyterian minister John Bethune. The couple had four sons and four daughters, many of whom died without descendants. Their eldest surviving son, William Abbott, married the daughter of Colonel John Hamilton Gray, a Father of Confederation and Premier of Prince Edward Island. The direct descendants of Abbott and Hamilton Gray include John Kimble Hamilton ("Kim") Abbott, a political commentator and lobbyist and a WWII Royal Canadian Airforce pilot in the infamous "Demon Squadron". Abbott was also the great-grandfather of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer and the first cousin (once removed) of Maude Abbott, one of Canada's earliest female medical graduates and an expert on congenital heart disease.
Abbott received a Bachelor of Civil Law from McGill College (now McGill University) located in Montreal in 1847, and a Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) in 1867. Most of his legal practice was in corporate law; however, his most celebrated court case was the defence of, first fourteen, then upon release and recapture, four of those fourteen Confederate agents who had raided St. Albans, Vermont from Canadian soil during the American Civil War. Abbott successfully argued that the Confederates were belligerents rather than criminals and therefore should not be extradited. The episode brought Canadian-American tensions close to armed conflict. Abbott was widely viewed as the most successful lawyer in Canada for many years, as measured by professional income. He began lecturing in commercial and criminal law at McGill in 1853, and in 1855 he became a professor and dean of its Faculty of Law, where Sir Wilfrid Laurier, future prime minister of Canada, was among his students. He continued in this position until 1880. Upon his retirement, McGill named him emeritus professor, and in 1881 appointed him to its Board of Governors.
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