Article

John Langton

Published Online January 20, 2008

Last Edited December 13, 2013

John Langton, first auditor general of Canada (b at Blythe Hall near Ormskirk, Eng 6 Apr 1808; d at Toronto 19 Mar 1894). Educated at Cambridge, he immigrated to Canada in 1833 where he established a farm near Fenelon Falls, Upper Canada.

Langton, John

John Langton, first auditor general of Canada (b at Blythe Hall near Ormskirk, Eng 6 Apr 1808; d at Toronto 19 Mar 1894). Educated at Cambridge, he immigrated to Canada in 1833 where he established a farm near Fenelon Falls, Upper Canada. He represented Peterborough in the Assembly of the Province of Canada 1851-55. His grasp of administration led in 1855 to his appointment as first auditor for the Province of Canada. As auditor he established systematic and responsible accounting, and after Confederation he became the first auditor general of the Dominion. When the Treasury Board was founded in 1869 he was its secretary.

From 1870 until his retirement in 1878 he was in the unique and somewhat anomalous position of being both auditor general and deputy minister of finance. As vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto, elected in 1856, he pushed ahead with plans to convert a large part of the endowment into the University College building, a project he managed to get planned and completed within 3 years.