[1] He was born in Landscape, County Cork, the son of Jonas Haynes and Hester Carmichael, and came to Victoria, British Columbia by way of Panama in 1858.
Haynes and Thomas Elwyn were named special constables by James Douglas to restore order at Hills Bar following disturbances by gold miners there.
In 1860, he was asked to assist William George Cox at Rock Creek near the border with the United States.
Haynes served briefly as district court judge at French Creek in 1866.
Haynes was married three times: first to Julia, a native woman from Colville, Washington,[2] then to Charlotte Moresby in 1868 and finally to Josephine Pittendrigh in 1875.