Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Wurtele, Jonathan Saxton Campbell

WURTELE, Jonathan Saxton Campbell, Canadian jurist, b. in Quebec, 27 Jan., 1828. He is the son of Jonathan Wurtele, seignior of River David, and was the last Canadian seignior to render homage, 3 Feb., 1854. He was educated at Quebec high-school and privately studied law, and was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1850. He became professor of commercial law in McGill university in 1869, received the degree of B. C. L. from that institution in 1870, and of D. C. L. in 1882, and is now an emeritus professor. He became queen's counsel in 1873. In 1875 he was elected to the legislature of Quebec, re-elected in 1878 and in 1881, and again in 1882 on his being appointed provincial treasurer. He was speaker of the Quebec assembly in 1884-'6, and in the latter year was appointed judge of the superior court of the province. He was made an officer of public instruction in 1880 and an officer of the Legion of honor in France in 1882. Mr. Wurtele negotiated a loan in France for the province of Quebec in 1880, and organized at the same time the Credit foncier Franco Canadien, of which he is a director. He has been counsel of the German society of Montreal, and has held the offices of chief clerk of the seignioral commission, mayor of St. David, and president of the school commissioners of that place. He is a Liberal-Conservative in politics, and is the author of a “Manual of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec” (Quebec, 1885).