Pyke, George, 1775-1851

George Pyke was a lawyer, judge, and politician who lived in Montreal. He was born in Halifax on 19 January 1775 to John George Pyke and Elizabeth Allan. He began his study of the law under Richard John Uniacke in Nova Scotia. He was called to the bar in Quebec on 6 December 1796. In 1799, he was apppointed deputy durveyor general of land for Lower Canada. After this, he held a succession of public offices, including deputy clerk of the crown in 1800, clerk and protonotary of the Court of King's Bench at Quebec from 1802-1812, law clerk of the Legislative Council from 1816-1819, and acting judge of the Court of King's Bench at Montreal from 1818-1820. He took a permanent position as a judge of the Court of King's Bench at Montreal in 1820, which he held until 1842. During this time, he tried a number of important cases, including some associated with the Patriote insurrections of 1837-1838. Pyke retired in 1842 due to poor health, moving to a large estate at Pointe-à-Cavagnal in Vaudreuil. He married Eliza Tremain on 10 May 1809, and they had 6 children together: George, Marion, John, Isobella, Mary Lee and James William. He died in Vaudreuil on 3 February 1851.

Dates of activity and biographical information based on the contents of the fonds, a burial record, a grave record, two baptism records, and an entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pyke_george_8E.html.