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Authorized form of name
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Brenton Halliburton was born on 27 December 1774 in Newport, Rhode Island. He came to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1782 when his father, a doctor in the Royal Navy, joined the Loyalist exodus. He was educated in London but returned to Nova Scotia and joined the army when war broke out with France in 1793. In 1799 he married Margaret, the eldest daughter of Reverend Charles Inglis, Bishop of Nova Scotia. After the French war, Halliburton, who had begun studying law before the war, resumed his studies and was admitted to the bar in 1803. In 1807 he was appointed an assistant judge of the Supreme Court, becoming the first with legal training. In 1815 he was made a member of the governing council by the Lieutenant Governor, and attended sessions faithfully until 1837. In 1833, when the aging Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, S.S. Blowers, was finally forced to retire, Halliburton succeeded him. He presided over Joseph Howe’s libel trial in 1835, and was the last chief justice to sit as a member of the council that governed the province. Though he was removed from the council in 1837, he remained active as chief justice. Advancing age and infirmity prevented him from going on circuit during the 1850s but he attended court in Halifax until January 1859. In that year Queen Victoria bestowed a knighthood upon him. After enduring a long illness, he died on 16 July 1860.