James Monk

Monk played a significant role in the abolition of slavery in British North America, when as Chief Justice he rendered a series of decisions[which?]

[citation needed] He was the son of Judge James Monk (1717-1768) of Halifax, Nova Scotia and his wife Ann, daughter of Henry Deering of Boston.

This led to George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, appointing Monk Attorney-General of Lower Canada in 1776.

This move did not make things easier for Monk as Germain had placed him over Governor Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester's choice, William Grant, affecting the lucrative private practice that Carleton enjoyed with Quebec's merchants.

Monk was kept out of Carleton's inner circle, but his friendship with Chief Justice Peter Livius led to his appointment in 1778 to Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, a position he held for ten years.

He now acted in a private capacity as the attorney to Quebec's merchants and forcefully opposed a bill, sponsored by the French Party, that had been passed by the Council for the Affairs of the Province of Quebec to extend the use of French civil law in the province, which in Lord Dorchester’s words was "granting by favor to one what they refused to another.

The home he built in 1804, Monklands, still stands today as the central building of the Villa Maria School, Montreal.