Lieutenant Governor

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The Honourable Colonel John Ready
Governor from 19 April 1824 to 16 August 1830

Colonel John Ready was the fifth Governor of Prince Edward Island since the creation of the Colony in 1763. Governor John Ready was born in England in 1777. In 1796 he entered the British army as an ensign. In 1804 he married Susanna Bromley and had four children. He served on the Duke of Richmond's staff and in 1818 accompanied the Duke to Canada and continued to serve as the Duke's Military Secretary and later as his Civil Secretary.

On 19 April 1824 he was appointed Governor for Prince Edward Island. The Island legislature had not sat since 1820 because of difficulties between the former Governor Smith and the elected House of Assembly. One of Ready's first acts was to dissolve the Assembly and call a general election. Governor Ready's wife passed away in March 1925 and three of his four children died within the next two years. Personal tragedy did not deter the Governor who traveled the Island inspecting new roads and bridges. During this period of time, there was division between the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council pertaining to expenditure matters and Governor Ready, with the help of the Colonial Office, resolved this issue by the passing of the 1829 Appropriations Bill. Ready urged the legislators to deal only with "essential" matters in the first session. Money was appropriated for road and bridge building and the support of schools. At the beginning of Ready's term of office there remained in the treasury a considerable balance of funds that his predecessor had not used. It was with these funds, and those granted by the Assembly, that Ready was able to undertake a generous program of road and bridge building. During the summer he made numerous tours of the Island to tour the work completed and to make plans for additional construction. Ready's numerous visits and travels throughout the colony had a deep and positive impact on Islanders.

The Island was served well by Governor Ready however in June of 1830 the Colonial Office advised Governor Ready that he was to be replaced. In April of 1831 the Royal Gazette observed, "perhaps no public officer ever retired from so elevated a station, more unfeignedly and generally regretted."

The day after his departure in October of 1831, the same newspaper concluded that he would always be remembered as a gentleman "endeared to our recollection by qualities of his heart and his numerous acts of unostentatious benevolence ... by his general conciliatory deportment in the exercise of his official duties and in (his) ... social life."

In August there was news that his successor, Sir Murray Maxwell, had died in England and shortly there after Sir Aretas William Young was appointed as the Governor. The following year, Ready was appointed Governor of the Isle of Man and was sworn in 1832. In 1836 he married again, to Sarah Tobin, and they had two children. In 1841 he was promoted to Major General and he remained as Governor until his death. He was buried with full military honours at Malew, Isle of Man, on 17th July 1845.

Photograph courtesy of PEI Public Archives and Records Office, Reference Number 2320-55-7