John Solomon Cartwright, QC (September 17, 1804 – January 15, 1845) was a Canadian businessman, lawyer, judge, farmer and political figure in Kingston, Upper Canada.

He was courted by two governors general to join the executive council of the Province of Canada, but declined each time, not willing to associate in government with the radical Reform members of the Assembly.

In the aftermath of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, he acted as a prosecutor in the trials of some alleged rebels, and was one of the military judges in the court martial of Nils von Schoultz, who had led an invasion force from the United States.

In the trials, Cartwright worked with a rising young Kingston lawyer, John A. Macdonald, the future Prime Minister of Canada.

A bon vivant, he enjoyed gambling with cards for high stakes, horse racing, and the elegancies of life, both food and good wine.

[1] Strachan went on to become the first Bishop of Toronto for the Church of England in Canada, and a pillar of the Family Compact, an oligarchic conservative group that had informal control over the provincial government.

[1] Deciding to enter the legal profession, at the age of 16 Cartwright left home for York, the capital of Upper Canada, where he articled with John Beverley Robinson.

[1] With the success of his legal practice and business activities, Cartwright established a country estate outside of Kingston, named Rockwood,[8][9][10] with an attached farm.

When he was dying, he was concerned that his collection should stay in the Kingston area, and sold his library at a great discount to John A. Macdonald, then a young lawyer starting his career, who went on to be the prime minister of Canada.

As an officer, Cartwright sat on the court martial in 1838 which tried Nils von Schoultz, who had led the invaders from the United States at the Battle of the Windmill, in the Patriot War.

[12] In the summer of 1838, Cartwright acted as the Crown prosecutor in treason trials for eight individuals from the Kingston area who were alleged to have taken up arms in the rebellion.

[13] In 1834, Cartwright stood for election as a Tory to represent the combined district of Lennox and Addington counties[14] in the Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Upper Canada, but was defeated by the two Reform movement candidates, Marshall Spring Bidwell and Peter Perry.

This time, he was successful, benefiting from the strong showing the Tories made in the election, under the leadership of the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head.

[1] When the new governor general, Lord Durham, visited Kingston on a tour of Upper Canada in the summer of 1838, Cartwright was chosen to give the welcoming address on behalf of the town.

Durham also had harsh words for the Tories and the Family Compact, and their dominance of public affairs in the province, in spite of their lack of popular support.

In the spring session of 1839, the Legislative Assembly debated the union proposal given by the Lieutenant Governor, Sir George Arthur, who had replaced Bond Head.

[21] The Assembly then appointed a select committee to prepare instructions for a proposed delegation to London to set out the views of Upper Canadian supporters of the union.

When the report of the select committee came to the Assembly for consideration, he proposed a series of conditions to seek guarantees of continued influence for Upper Canada.

The Address affirmed that the people of Upper Canada wished to maintain a constitutional system based on "... the representative mode of government under a monarchy, and to a permanent connexion with the British Empire, and a dutiful allegiance to our Sovereign.

"[27] On receiving this version of the Address to the Queen, Governor General Thomson advised that he agreed with the provisions,[28] including that English should be the sole language in the courts and the Assembly.

[30] The new governor general, Thomson, made it clear that he wanted to establish a broad-based government, with representatives in the executive council from the different political groups, and a focus on commercial and economic development rather than ideological or constitutional disputes.

[7] Cartwright was apparently interested in the possibility, but after consulting with other Compact Tories, such as Allan MacNab and Robinson (now Chief Justice of the King's Bench of Upper Canada, but still involved in politics[5]), he ultimately rejected Draper's proposal.

[33] However, Sydenham, following his instructions from Britain, was determined to form a broad-based centrist government, and excluded the Compact Tories, precisely as Durham had advocated.

[35][36] The net effect was that the governor general felt obliged to form a ministry with the strong Reformers, Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, as well as some moderate conservatives.

Writing to Governor General Bagot in 1842, he stated that he was anxious to see the new province function well for all its citizens, and added: "But I do not see how it can be possible to arrive at this desirable end, without the concert and co-operation of the French Canadians."

Metcalfe then tried, as Bagot had tried the year before, to assemble a broad-based coalition that would attract general support, while excluding Lafontaine, Baldwin, and the other strong proponents of responsible government.

Cartwright had some support from other members, including Thomas Cushing Aylwin, the Solicitor-General for Canada East, and the matter was referred to a special committee of the Assembly.

He believed that it was important to keep the capital amongst the British colonists, and that relocating it to Montreal, where the French influence would be stronger, would weaken the Province's attachment to Britain.

Although in failing health from tuberculosis, in March 1844 he travelled to England to present a petition to the British government, with 16,000 signatures, opposing the proposal to move the capital.

[10][54][55] Cartwright likely also helped Browne obtain the commission to build the Kingston Town Hall, which was designated a National Historic Site in 1961.