This distinguished lawyer, historian and bibliophile made an outstanding contribution to the early development of archives in Canada. Convinced of the need to preserve and catalogue government documents, he agreed to become commissioner of public records for Nova Scotia in 1857, 15 years before the appointment of the first Dominion Archivist. Over the next 34 years, he set up one of Canada's earliest and finest documentary collections. The additional legacy of his own impressive accumulation of printed materials has enriched the libraries of both the Legislature and Public Archives of Nova Scotia.