Charles Dewey Day

Charles Dewey Day
Photo of fair-skinned man, balding, wearing a mid-Victorian business suit and seated at a table
Member of the Special Council of Lower Canada
In office
May 23, 1840 – February 10, 1841
Solicitor General of Lower Canada
In office
May 26, 1840 – February 10, 1841
Succeeded byHimself
In office
February 10, 1841 – June 20, 1842
Preceded byHimself
Succeeded byThomas Cushing Aylwin
Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Ottawa County
In office
1841 – June 21, 1842
Preceded byNone; new position
Succeeded byDenis-Benjamin Papineau
Court of Queen's Bench, Lower Canada
In office
June 28, 1842 – December 31, 1849
Superior Court of Lower Canada
In office
January 1, 1850 – 1862
Commission for the Codification of the Civil Laws of Lower Canada
In office
February 4, 1859 – August 1, 1866
Serving with René-Édouard Caron, Augustin-Norbert Morin (1859–1865), and Joseph-Ubalde Beaudry (1865–1866)
Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pacific Scandal
In office
1873–1873
1st Chancellor of McGill University
In office
1864–1884
Succeeded byJames Ferrier
Personal details
Born(1806-05-06)May 6, 1806
Bennington, Vermont
DiedJanuary 31, 1884(1884-01-31) (aged 77)
England
Political partyGovernment Tory
Spouse(s)(1) Barbara Lyon (m. 1830)
(2) Maria Margaret Holmes
RelationsBenjamin Holmes (father-in-law)
Children3
ProfessionLawyer; judge
Known forCivil Code of Lower Canada

Charles Dewey Day, QC (May 6, 1806 – January 31, 1884) was a lawyer, political figure, and judges in Lower Canada and Canada East (now Quebec). He was a member of the Special Council of Lower Canada, which governed Lower Canada after the Lower Canada Rebellions in 1837 and 1838. He was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1841, but resigned in 1842 to accept an appointment to the Court of Queen's Bench of Lower Canada.

Day also served on the commission for the codification of the civil laws of Lower Canada, which produced the Civil Code of Lower Canada, enacted in 1866. Day wrote all of the provisions of the Civil Code relating to commercial law, and most of the provisions relating to property rights. He was later appointed to the federal royal commission investigating the Pacific Scandal, whose investigation contributed to the downfall of the federal Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald in 1873.

Day was interested in promoting education throughout his life, and from 1864 to his death in 1884 while visiting England was the first chancellor of McGill College (now McGill University).