Mathew Baillie Begbie was synonymous with the justice system in mainland B.C. from 1858 to 1894. He was a thoroughly committed and qualified arbiter of justice. He is often referred to as “the hanging judge,” but was not so known while he lived. Evidence shows it to be less than fair.
Begbie was born in 1819. His father was in the British military, stationed in Mauritius at the time. Begbie attended the University of Cambridge from 1836 to 1841, graduating with a BA. He then studied law at Lincoln’s Inn. He became a barrister, and established a successful practice in London. In 1858, Begbie was appointed judge for the new colony of (mainland) British Columbia.
Early on, the judge developed a contentious relationship with two very prominent newspaper editors of the day, John Robson and Amor De Cosmos, both future premiers. Robson published an unproven accusation that Begbie accepted a bribe in the New Westminster British Columbian. Begbie showed no tolerance. He ruled Robson guilty of contempt and jailed him.
Begbie came to occupy an important social position among Victoria’s elite. He was a rugged, vigorous man who took his position very seriously. In January of 1859, he accompanied Colonel Richard Moody and a group of Royal Engineers to Hill’s Bar and Yale, north of Fort Hope, to quell a revolt of the miners there and to try one of the perpetrators.
The next month he walked from New Westminster to Lillooet, a distance of 350 miles, to meet the miners on the Fraser. Over the next 10 years, Begbie lived primarily in New Westminster in winter months and travelled north to communities along the Fraser and in the Cariboo the rest of the year. His decisions were criticized as autocratic by some, but he retained the respect of the miners.
In 1864, as a crew built a road through their territory, the Tsilhqot’in people attacked the crew and other white people in the area. The Tsilhqot’in had been decimated by smallpox, and apparently were attempting to protect their people and their territory. As well, Tsilhqot’in men on the road crew had not been paid or provided with food and were starving. Five Tsilhqot’in Chiefs were arrested.
The charge was murder. One of the five, Klattasine, said they were waging war, not murdering people. Some criticize Begbie for imposing the death sentence. They ignore that a jury determined the verdict. The law required the death penalty. Begbie was conflicted with the result. He wrote, it “seems horrible to hang five men at once…. Yet the blood of 21 whites calls for retribution.”
Twenty-two aboriginal people were executed before 1871. Begbie secured reprieves for 11 others. He never recommended reprieve for any white man. Only three were executed in the time period. Biographer, David R Williams, points out the aboriginal people greatly outnumbered the white population. And apparently, some whites who should have been charged and convicted were not.
The judge became fluent in the Chilcotin and Shuswap languages, and enjoyed good relationships with most first peoples. He maintained that they had land rights, and resisted displacing them in his legal rulings. He also protected the rights of the oppressed Chinese population, even striking down offending local and provincial legislation.
In 1871 Begbie was named Chief Justice of the united colony of B.C. and a year later of the province of B.C. He still travelled his circuit, but officiated in court cases in Victoria too. Begbie resided in a pleasant home in Victoria from 1870 onward. He worked until just weeks before his death in 1894.
Begbie was an imposing figure, six foot five, and often provocative and intense. In part, his fierce demeanor was performative, a warning to potential criminals and to prospective jurors.
Begbie vigorously objected to a verdict delivered at a murder trial, and to the jury, which he deemed a “pack of Dallas horse thieves.” He spoke to the jurors directly, “permit me to say, it would give me the great pleasure to see you hanged, each and every one of you, for declaring a murderer guilty only of manslaughter.” But his rhetoric cannot justify designation as “the hanging judge.”
From 1858 to 1872, 38 men were convicted of murder. Neither verdicts nor capital sentences were subject to Begbie’s discretion, despite his bluster. David Williams wrote, “Undoubtedly he was stern, but the criminal law of the time was also stern and Begbie could do little to soften its rigours.”
“There is no doubt that [Governor James] Douglas, Begbie, and a handful of others … had kept British Columbia from falling into the hands of the Americans and thus ensured its eventual incorporation in the Dominion of Canada,” Williams observed.
They had achieved this by imposing law and order, even as thousands of American miners surged across the southern border. “Guardian of British Columbia” is a more fitting epithet for Begbie.
A column by Bruce Uzelman
Bruce Uzelman, based in Kelowna, holds interests in British Columbia history as wells as current political and economic issues.
Bruce had a career in small business, primarily restaurant and retail. He holds a Bachelor of Arts, Advanced from the University of Saskatchewan, with Majors in Political Science and Economics.
Contact: urban.general@outlook.com
