Thomas Walker’s Severed Ear: Political Legitimacy in Post-Conquest Quebec

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Thomas Walker’s Severed Ear: Political Legitimacy in Post-Conquest Quebec
Abstract
The British-born Walker (d.1788) moved to Boston in 1752 and settled in Montreal in 1763, where he engaged in the fur trade. He was a vocal leader among the town’s small band of Protestant merchants who were demanding that Governor James Murray institute an elected legislative assembly similar to the British model, which did not allow Catholics to vote. Murray opposed this idea, on the grounds that there were only about two hundred Protestants in the colony, most of whom were disbanded soldiers “of little property and mean capacity.” On December 6, 1764, Walker was the victim of an assault by members of the British garrison, in which one of his ears was cut off. This incident nearly divided the English-speaking members of the colony into armed camps, and eventually led to the recall of Governor Murray.
Publication
Lumen: The Canadian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies/La Société canadienne d’étude du dix-huitième siècle
Volume
Vol. 19
Pages
203-214
Date
2000
Language
en
URL
Citation
Pollock, Carolee Ruth. “Thomas Walker’s Severed Ear: Political Legitimacy in Post-Conquest Quebec.” Lumen: The Canadian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies/La Société canadienne d’étude du dix-huitième siècle Vol. 19 (2000): 203–214. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/lumen/2000-v19-lumen0277/1012325ar.pdf.
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