Four of Canada's Fathers of Confederation were natives of Amherst and area and are commemorated on Amherst's town hall. They are Edward Chandler, Robert Barry Dickey, Jonathan McCully and one time Prime Minister Sir Charles Tupper.
Edward Chandler's plaque reads as follows:
EDWARD BARRON CHANDLER
1800-1880
Born in Amherst, Chandler was called to the New Brunswick bar in 1823. He represented Westmorland in the legislature (1827-36), was a Legislative Councillor (1836-78) and a member of the Executive Council almost continuously between 1844 and 1858. A Father of Confederation, he attended the Charlottetown, Quebec and London Conferences. Declining appointment to the Senate in 1867 he served in the first provincial administration after Confederation (1867-9) and played a prominent part in negotiations leading to the building of the Intercolonial Railway. Appointed Lieutenant-Governor in 1878, he died in office.
Edward Barron Chandler
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CHANDLER, EDWARD BARRON, lawyer, judge, politician, and administrator; b. 22 Aug. 1800 in Amherst, N.S., son of Charles Henry Chandler and Elizabeth Rice; d. 6 Feb. 1880 in Fredericton, N.B.
Chandler’s father was sheriff of Cumberland County, N.S., and he was brought up and educated in Amherst. Later he studied law with his cousin, William Botsford*, at Westcock, near Sackville, N.B., wrote bar admission examinations in Nova Scotia in 1821, and was admitted to the bar of New Brunswick in 1823. In the same year he was appointed judge of probate and clerk of the peace for Westmorland County, N.B., positions which he held until 1862. Chandler resided at Dorchester and within a few years had built his family residence, Rocklyn, a “home of lavish hospitality even for a Colonial magnate.” His law practice and judicial appointments must have been lucrative for Chandler was soon thought to be a man of considerable wealth. In 1822 he had married Phoebe Millidge, a descendant of the Botsfords; they had 11 children, seven of whom lived to maturity.
Chandler’s long association with New Brunswick politics began when he was elected to the House of Assembly in 1827 to represent the county of Westmorland. From his first session in the assembly in 1828, he took an active part in deliberations and, despite his youth, he was soon regarded as one of the leading members of that body...
Despite his interest in the affairs of the assembly, Chandler aspired to higher things and in 1834, at the age of 34, he applied directly to the Colonial Office for a position on the bench of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. The application was not successful, but in 1836 he was appointed to the Legislative Council where he remained until 1878...
In the fall of 1864, Chandler went as a New Brunswick delegate to the Quebec conference and participated in the drafting of the 72 resolutions. He made ardent representations against John A. Macdonald’s case for a strong central authority, though he soon recognized that he was fighting a losing battle. Faced with the defeat of his stand on provincial rights, Chandler nevertheless acknowledged the inevitability of confederation and took comfort in the strong Maritime representation in the Senate, which he interpreted as an absolute guarantee that the Upper Canadians would not dominate the new union...
The fact that his views on the nature of responsible government and the party system prevailed for so long in the province is a commentary on the lack of political sophistication in New Brunswick in the first half of the 19th century. The province either did not produce or did not want a Howe, a Robert Baldwin, a William Lyon Mackenzie*, or a Louis-Joseph Papineau. Responsible government did come, however, and the fact that it came without bloodshed is to some degree attributable to the stability of Chandler’s leadership.
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