Creation and Beginnings of the Court
Current and Former Chief Justices
Current and Former Puisne Judges
About the Court
Judges of the Court
The Right Honourable Sir Samuel Henry Strong, P.C., Kt.
![[Photo - Samuel Henry Strong]](/web/20061029064026im_/http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/_images/display/pi_28.jpg)
Samuel Henry Strong was born in Poole, England, on August 13, 1825. He was
the son of Samuel Spratt Strong and Jane Elizabeth Gosse. His family emigrated
to Canada in 1836 and settled in Bytown, Upper Canada (Ottawa, Ontario). While
enrolled as a student with the Law Society of Upper Canada, he articled with
Augustus Keefer of Bytown, then with Henry Eccles of Toronto. Called to the
bar in 1849, he established his practice in Toronto, where he later founded
the firm of Strong & Matheson. In 1869, as a legal adviser to Prime Minister
John A. Macdonald, he worked on a legislative proposal for the creation of
a national supreme court. That year, he was appointed Vice-chancellor of the
Court of Chancery of Ontario, and in 1874 he was elevated to the Ontario Court
of Error & Appeal. He was appointed to the newly established Supreme Court
of Canada on September 30, 1875 and named Chief Justice of Canada on December
13, 1892. He served on the Supreme Court for 27 years before retiring on November
18, 1902. Chief Justice Strong died on August 31, 1909, at the age of 84.
