CHIPMAN, WARD (1754-1824)

CHIPMAN, WARD, non-resident MLA; b. Marblehead, Mass., 30 Jul 1754, s/o John Chipman and Elizabeth Brown; m. 1786, Elizabeth Hazen; d. Fredericton, 9 Feb 1824.

Ward Chipman was a graduate of Harvard College (BA 1770) and one of early New Brunswick's most prominent lawyers, politicians, and judges. He won a Saint John seat in the House of Assembly in the first provincial election in 1785. When he failed to get re-elected there in 1792-93 he allowed his name to stand with that of John Black for one of the two Northumberland County seats, and won it when the election was uncontested. He sat until 1795 and did not reoffer in the election held that year.

Chipman, who was New Brunswick's first solicitor general, was appointed to the Executive Council in 1806 and to the bench of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick in 1809. He had been serving as president and commander-in-chief of the province for a number of months prior to his death in 1824.