=Rice, Charles=, Registrar of the High Court of Justice, etc., Perth, Ontario, was born on the 7th of November, 1822, in the township of Drummond, in the county of Lanark, about two miles from the town of Perth, which then contained but a few log buildings used chiefly for government stores, the settlement being composed of discharged soldiers and their families located by the government at the close of the American war of 1812. His father, John Rice, was born in the county Down, Ireland, at or near Newry, and was descended from a collateral branch of the Monteagle family. Returning home from school one afternoon when about sixteen years old, he was kidnapped by the press-gang and forced on board a British man-of-war bound on a cruise for the coast of Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence. He continued on board ship doing duty as a sailor, until the American war broke out, when he left the vessel and enlisted as a private soldier in the Newfoundland Fencibles and took part in the battles of Chrysler’s Farm, Stoney Creek, Burlington Heights, and other engagements. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant, was wounded at Burlington Heights, and at the close of the war got his discharge with a pension and a grant of land. He had married Hannah Van Boeler, then the widow of John Woodlands, who had been killed in battle. She was born at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, of Dutch parents who had emigrated from the Netherlands and settled at Annapolis. They were descended from those sturdy and brave Dutchmen who had battled for their liberty for forty years against the colossal power of Spain under Phillip II. John Rice, through hard work, had effected a considerable clearance on his lot, and was prospering apace, when one summer, at the latter end of August, the barn in which all the produce of the farm had been stored, took fire and was burned down with all its contents, and he had to run in debt to the late Hon. R. Matheson for supplies to support the family for an entire year. This debt accumulated in Matheson’s books at compound interest at ten per cent., and in a few years Matheson got a deed of the farm, with a verbal understanding to re-convey when the debt should be paid off, which was never done in the lifetime of John Rice. Born and brought up in a log shanty, in what was then the backwoods, the subject of this sketch, Charles Rice, had but a poor chance of getting any education. There were no public schools, no free schools, in those days; and at intervals he was sent to a private school kept in Perth by the late Mr. Hudson, and afterwards to another kept by the late Dawson Kerr. On arriving at the age of fourteen Mr. Rice had been at school for about two years in all, and had only acquired some knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic. When about twelve years old, in the month of November, he hired out at six dollars a month to burn coal to earn money to buy himself a pair of boots for the winter. The following year, in