A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
=Guthrie, Donald=, Q.C., M.P.P. for South Wellington, Guelph, Ontario,
was born on the 8th May, 1840, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was
Hugh Guthrie, and his mother, Catharine Macgregor, sister of Patrick
Macgregor, M.A., barrister-at-law, Toronto, a distinguished Gaelic and
general scholar. Mr. Guthrie received his early education in his native
city, and, when about fourteen years of age, he left his fatherland. He
reached Toronto in August, 1854. Here he entered the office of the Hon.
Oliver Mowat, as a junior clerk; and afterwards became managing clerk
for John Helliwell, barrister. In 1859 he left Toronto and settled in
Guelph as managing clerk for Fergusson & Kingsmill, barristers. The Hon.
Fergusson-Blair, one of the partners of the firm, having retired in
December, 1863, Mr. Guthrie was admitted into partnership, and the name
of the firm was changed to Kingsmill and Guthrie. Under this style the
business was carried on until Mr. Kingsmill was appointed judge of the
County Court of Bruce, in January, 1867, when Mr. Guthrie became head of
the firm, and has continued such ever since, the firm now being known as
Guthrie and Watt. Mr. Guthrie was admitted an attorney in 1863;
barrister in 1866, passing his examinations with distinction; and, in
March, 1876, was created a Queen’s counsel by the Lieut.-Governor of
Ontario, and by the Governor-General of Canada, October, 1885. In
December, 1882, he was elected a bencher of the Law Society, and was
re-elected for five years in April, 1886. Since 1863 he has been
solicitor for the county of Wellington, and also for the same period he
has been solicitor for the city of Guelph, and acts in this capacity for
several other municipalities, banks, etc. He has been president of the
Guelph Gas Company since its incorporation in 1870; is a director of the
Guelph Junction Railway Company, and of the Wellington Hotel Company. He
occupied the position of treasurer of the St. Andrew’s Society of
Guelph, from 1862 to 1869, and in 1870 was chosen its president. Mr.
Guthrie was elected a member of the House of Commons in 1876, as
representative for South Wellington, and served until the general
election in 1878, when he presented himself for re-election, and was
returned by 303 majority. He continued in the House of Commons until the
general election of 1882, when he voluntarily retired from active
political life, with the view of devoting his whole attention for some
years to his professional duties. However, in 1886, he once more sought
parliamentary honours, and the sturdy Liberals of South Wellington sent
him to the Ontario legislature as their representative on the 28th of
December in the same year, by the handsome majority of 671. Mr. Guthrie
was selected in February, 1877, to move the reply to the speech from the
throne in the House of Commons; and on the 2nd March, 1887, he moved the
reply to the Lieut.-Governor’s address in the Ontario legislature. While
in the House of Commons—1876-78—Mr.
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