LOBBAN, JOHN (1769-1832)

LOBBAN, JOHN, teacher and lawyer, b. c1769; m. Elizabeth - ; d. Chatham, 9 Oct 1832.

John Lobban, who had previously practiced law in Prince Edward Island, presented his credentials to the New Brunswick bar in 1822. He was admitted as an attorney in 1823 and barrister in 1825, when he was approximately fifty-six years of age. In the period that followed he acted as an administrator or attorney for several estates, including the estate of George Henderson of Chatham, which remained unsettled for many years.

Lobban's wife died in 1831, and a few months afterwards he applied for the position of teacher of a new Presbyterian parochial school which had been erected in Chatham, claiming possession of an MA degree and teaching experience "in this and the adjoining provinces." When he was not hired, and the school was let stand vacant, he began teaching pupils privately in his apartment. He died a year later, and within two weeks the trustees announced that they had engaged James Millar as teacher and would be opening the parochial school to students.

Lobban was undoubtedly the man referred to as "L" by Robert Cooney in his Autobiography. "L. was an attorney," Cooney states, and "an excellent scholar too, having taken the highest honours in Marischal College, Aberdeen. He was a singular compound, formed, one would judge, of the most conflicting materials. He was in fact a bundle of absurdities tied up in contradictions." Because he prided himself on his knowledge of mathematics and was constantly using mathematical terms, he was nicknamed "Parallelogram."

The remains of Lobban and his wife were consigned to St Paul's churchyard at Chatham Head.