Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie's Biography
by Sally Jennings
Chief Justice Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie used words like weapons. He berated lawbreakers even when they were armed and he was not. He scolded juries that had not made the right decision in his opinion and hoped that the freed criminal would choose one of the jurors as his next victim. He warned miscreants that if they got up to mischief, hangings would take place. He threatened wrongdoers that if they did not leave British Columbia, they would be flogged.
He also had a great sense of humour, sang opera as a tenor and played an excellent game of tennis. Of Scottish parentage and educated at Cambridge University, England, in mathematics and classics, Begbie studied law at Lincoln's Inn, London. He was well travelled and leapt at the chance to establish the law in Victoria, then a quiet Hudson's Bay outpost being flooded by gold prospectors from California. He believed in the might of British common law and upheld it in his legal robes and wig whether it was from the stump of a tree or in a log cabin in the interior of British Columbia. He was six foot four inches, bearded and elegant, and a great outdoorsman. To hear a case, Begbie strode 350 miles through the wilderness of BC more than once. Travel was possible only on foot, horseback or by water. In 1865, he is said to have ridden 3,500 miles to perform his legal duties. He was nothing if not impressive.
The First Nations called him Big Chief. He learned several native languages and described the Indians as "a race of laborious, industrious workers." Unusually for the time, Begbie upheld the rights of the First Nations and Chinese with as much fervour as he did the Americans or the British. His goal was fairness above all and support for the little man.
Although Begbie gave impressive dinner parties, loved gossip and gardens, and was a favourite of the ladies, he never married. Perhaps he had escaped a broken heart in England. Perhaps he just loved travel and adventure.
Begbie established British law as gold miners flooded in from California and China. With the arrival in 1858 of boatloads of prospectors from San Francisco, Victoria changed overnight from a small fort to a tent city of 20,000 prospectors. Suddenly, there were three saloons to every church. Miners landed in Victoria to get their license and equipment, and then headed to the Fraser Valley, the Caribou and later the Klondike. Begbie had to oversee this vast province and keep law and order. First, he had to write much of the early legislation that established immigration, commerce and settlement.
As in the East, whether to join America or even to join the other provinces was fiercely debated. Like many Victorians, Begbie was initially against Confederation but finally accepted it with good grace.
For the thirty-six years he lived in BC, he worked tirelessly to create the provincial laws and after Governor Sir James Douglas's death was the province's "First Citizen" until his death seventeen years later. His statue stands at the door of the Legislature, opposite that of Sir James Douglas.
After his death, he became known as the Hanging Judge. It is no wonder he haunts Victoria in order to set the record straight - there is no evidence that supports this description. He was lenient, fair and hanged fewer criminals than his contemporaries did. It is all a mistake. In fact, the Barkerville Gazette once called him the Haranguing Judge because he regularly lectured prisoners in the dock. Unfortunately, it has been corrupted to "hanging." This word has become a weapon that has been turned on a gallant wordsmith.