Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Taschereau, Henri Elzear
TASCHEREAU, Sir HENRI ELZEAR (1836–1911), chief justice of Canada, born at St. Mary's in Beauce county, province of Quebec, on 7 Oct. 1836, was eldest son of Pierre Elzear Taschereau, a member of the Canadian Legislative Assembly, and Catherine Hénédine, daughter of the Hon. Amable Dionne, a member of the legislative council. The Taschereau family came from Touraine to Canada in the seventeenth century, and Taschereau was a co-proprietor of the Quebec seigniory of Ste. Marie de la Beauce, which had been ceded to his great-grandfather in 1746. The Taschereaus had been for two generations distinguished in the judicial and ecclesiastical life of Canada. Cardinal Elzear Alexander Taschereau [q.v.] was Sir Henri's uncle.
Henri Elzéar was educated at the Quebec Seminary, was called to the Quebec bar in 1857, and practised in the city of Quebec. He became a Q.C. in 1867, and in 1868 was appointed clerk of the peace for the district of Quebec, but soon resigned. From 1861 to 1867 he represented Beauce county as a conservative in the Canadian Legislative Assembly, and supported Sir John Alexander Macdonald [q. v.] and Sir George Cartier [q. v.] on the question of federation. On 12 Jan. 1871 he became a puisne judge of the superior court of the province of Quebec, on 7 Oct. 1878 a judge of the supreme court of Canada, and in 1902 chief justice of Canada in succession to Sir Samuel Henry Strong [q.v. Suppl. II]. Knighted in 1902, he became in 1904 a member of the judicial committee of the privy council. In 1906 he resigned the chief justiceship, and was succeeded by Sir Charles Fitzpatrick. Twice in that capacity he administered the government as deputy to the governor-general.
Taschereau was a LL.D. both of Ottawa and of Laval universities. When a law faculty was established at Ottawa University he was appointed to a chair, and in 1895 became dean of the faculty in succession to Sir John Sparrow Thompson [q. v.].
Taschereau's extensive knowledge of Roman and French civil law, as well as of the English statute and common law, enabled him to render important service to Canadian jurisprudence. As a legal writer he made a reputation by publishing the 'Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts of 1869 for the Dominion of Canada with Notes, Commentaries, etc.' (vol. i. Montreal, 1874; vol. ii. Toronto, 1875, with later editions), and 'Le Code de Procedure Civile du Bas-Canada' (Quebec, 1876). He further published in 1896 a 'Notice Généalogique sur la Famille Taschereau.' Tall in stature, he was a refined scholar and a cultured gentleman. He died at Ottawa on 14 April 1911. He married twice: (1) on 1 May 1857 Marie Antoinette (d. June 1896), daughter of R. U. Harwood, member of the legislative council of Quebec; by her he had five sons and three daughters; (2) in March 1897 Marie Louise, daughter of Charles Panet of Ottawa; she survived him.
Sir Henri Thomas Tascheeeau (1841-1909), Canadian judge, first cousin of the chief justice, born in Quebec on 6 Oct. 1841, was son of Jean Thomas Taschereau, judge of the supreme court of Canada, by his first wife, Louise Adèle, daughter of the hon. Amable Dionne, a member of the legislative council. After education at the Quebec Seminary and at Laval University, where he graduated B.L. in 1861 and B.C.L. in 1862, and received the hon. degree of LL.D. in 1890, he was called to the Quebec bar in 1863 and practised there. While an undergraduate he edited in 1862 a journal, 'Les Debats,' in which he first reported verbatim in French the parliamentary debates. He was also one of the editors in 1863 of the liberal journal 'La Tribune.' In 1870 Taschereau was elected to the city council of Quebec, serving for some time as alderman, and he represented Quebec on the north shore railway board for four years. As a liberal he sat in the dominion parliament for Montmagny from 1872 to 1878, and actively supported Sir Antoine Aime Dorion [q. v. Suppl. I] and Alexander Mackenzie [q. v.]. On 7 Oct. 1878 he was appointed a puisne judge of the superior court of the province of Quebec. On 29 Jan. 1907, on the resignation of Sir Alexander Lacoste, he was made chief justice of the king's bench for Quebec, and next year (on 26 June) he was knighted. Taschereau left Canada in May 1909 for a tour in England and France; he died suddenly at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. J. N. Lyon, at Montmorency, near Paris, on 11 Oct. 1909. Taschereau was twice married, and had four sons and five daughters (Canadian Law Times, 1909, xxix; 1045-6; Quebec Daily Telegraph, 12 Oct. 1909).
[The Times and Montreal Daily Star, 15 April 1911; G. M. Rose's Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography, 1888; Morgan's Canadian Men and Women of the Time, 1898; Canadian Mag. xx. 291 (with portrait); Canadian Law Journ. xlvii. 284-5; Canadian Law Rev. v. 273-4; Canadian Who's Who, 1910; notes from Prof. D. R. Keys.]