William Steeves

The Honourable William Steeves MLA
Member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick for Albert
In office 1847–1854 Serving with John Smith (1847–50) / Robert Stiles (1850–54)
Preceded by	District created
Succeeded by	Edward Stevens / Abner Reid McClelan
Senator for New Brunswick
In office October 23, 1867 – December 9, 1873
Appointed by	Royal Proclamation
Personal details
Born	(1814-05-20)May 20, 1814 Hillsborough, Colony of New Brunswick
Died	December 9, 1873(1873-12-09) (aged 59) Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Political party	Liberal

William Henry Steeves (May 20, 1814 – December 9, 1873) was a merchant, lumberman, politician and Father of Canadian Confederation.

Early life and education

The William Henry Steeves House in Hillsborough, New Brunswick. It is now a museum.

William Henry Steeves was born on May 20, 1814, in Hillsborough, New Brunswick, the oldest son of Joseph Steeves and Martha Gross. His great-grandparents, Heinrich and Regina Stief, were German immigrants who settled in the area after initially migrating to Pennsylvania; they founded the surname "Steeves" in North America. Steeves was educated in public school, where he later recounted receiving "much more education than was usually acquired in New Brunswick by persons attending only public school," which he attributed to being as a result of being taught by Duncan Shaw, a Scottish-born University of Edinburgh alumnus.

Career

Steeves began his career running a small store before becoming a partner in Steeves Brothers, a family mercantile and lumber exporting business. Steeves moved to Saint John, New Brunswick in order to further the business and became a leader in the city's financial community. There he married his second cousin, Mary. The date of the wedding is unknown.

Steeves was elected to New Brunswick's colonial House of Assembly in 1846 and was an advocate of governmental reform and the election of all members of the Legislative Council. He was appointed to the Legislative Council (the upper house) in 1851. In 1854, the compact government that had ruled the colony was finally defeated by a reform administration and Steeves became Surveyor General in the new government. He resigned the appointment later that year due to opposition to an unelected person from the Legislative Council being appointed rather than an elected member of the House of Assembly.

In 1855, Steeves became the first chairman of the Department of Public Works. He left government in 1856 when the reform administration of Samuel Leonard Tilley was defeated over prohibition, but he returned to office with Tilley in 1857 and remained commissioner of public works until 1861. He continued in Tilley's government as minister without portfolio until 1865 when the government fell due to its support for Canadian Confederation.

Steeves was a supporter of Confederation and was one of New Brunswick's delegates to the Charlottetown Conference and the Quebec Conference of 1864. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada as a Liberal, when the chamber was created in 1867. In that body, he acted as an advocate for the better care of the mentally ill. The circumstances of his death are not known, but he served in the Senate until his death in 1873. He is interred in the Fernhill Cemetery in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Steeves was a maternal great-granduncle of the late Leader of the Opposition and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton and is the maternal great-great-granduncle of Toronto City Councillor Mike Layton.

Later years and death

In his later years, Steeves had worked as a ship broker and managed various ships, and had spent time in Liverpool, England. He died at his residence in Saint John on December 9, 1873.

See also

• Layton family

External links

• William Steeves – Parliament of Canada biography
• Steeves Museum