Thomas H. McGuire (b. 1849)

Thomas McGuire was born in Kingston, Ontario. He attended Queen’s University and was admitted to the Ontario bar as a lawyer in 1875. He practiced law, served as an alderman for Kingston, and became the editor of the Kingston Daily News and Canadian Freeman. In 1887, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. During the Klondike gold rush, the Canadian Government established the Territorial Court of the Yukon Territory in the Yukon Judicial District and Justice McGuire was assigned to the Yukon.1)

T. H. McGuire was appointed as Judge of the Court of the Yukon Provisional District in August 17, 1897.2) Judge McGuire was part of Commissioner Walsh's party and they left Ottawa on September 23rd. The party included Frederick Wade, the Crown Prosecutor, several other officials (the mining inspectors McGregor and Bliss), and James Walsh's brother Philip Walsh. McGuire was escorted into the territory from Skagway by Inspector Cortlandt Starnes in September 1897. The party made it to Little Salmon before the weather caught up to them. McGuire made a practice of walking out on the trail for a few miles with passing travellers and toughened himself up for the rest of the trip. Inspector Starnes escorted McGuire and the rest of the court party to Dawson by dog team. The journey was made without serious difficulty although the temperature dropped to -72 F on two nights. The dog handler for the group was Constable Bill Newman, who was in charge of hauling freight, mail and officials from Tagish Post to Dawson.3)

Judge McGuire formally requested that he be transferred from the Yukon on 18 April 1898.4) Justice Dugas was appointed when McGuire resigned.5) McGuire left the Yukon in August and Dugas did not arrive until October, so the Yukon was without a superior court judge for about two months.6)

McGuire returned to Saskatchewan in 1898 and in 1902 was appointed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the North-West Territories. Justice Richardson had seniority and an uncomfortable situation was resolved when McGuire resigned less than a year later.7)

1) , 7)
“The Honorable Thomas H. McGuire.” Saskatchewan Law Courts, 2019 website: https://sasklawcourts.ca/index.php/thomas-h-mcguire
2)
David Morrison, The Politics of The Yukon Territory, 1898-1909. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968: 10.
3)
Jim Wallace, Forty Mile to Bonanza: The North-West Mounted Police in the Klondike Gold Rush. Calgary: Bunker to Bunker Publishing. 2000: 61, 69, 146.
4) , 5)
Hamar Foster and John McLaren, ed., “A Case Study of R. v. Nantuck” in The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Vol. VI British Columbia and the Yukon. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1995: 99-101, footnote #83 on page 119.
6)
Hamar Foster and John McLaren, ed., “The Yukon Legal Profession,” in The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Vol. VI British Columbia and the Yukon. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1995: 466.