Ward Chipman Jr

Chipman, Ward, Jr

Ward Chipman, politician, judge (b at Saint John, NB 10 July 1787; d there 26 Nov 1852), son of Ward CHIPMAN, Sr. Educated at Harvard and in London, Chipman succeeded to his father's extensive law practice and acted with him during the abortive commission established to settle the northeastern boundary dispute in 1817-21. He became a Saint John MLA in 1820, solicitor-general in 1823, Speaker of the Assembly in 1824 and in 1825 was appointed a judge and member of the council. Between 1828 and 1830 he assisted in preparing the British boundary submission for arbitration and was instrumental in convincing the British government of the validity of NB's claim. In 1834 he became chief justice of NB and president of the council.

Conservative in his political and religious views, he trained a large number of lawyers, drafted the amendments to the criminal code in 1831, chaired a special inquiry into the administration of justice in 1832 and supervised the preparation of the first compendium of New Brunswick's laws, thus imposing his conservative approach on the colony's legal system.