Charles Bagot

Sir Charles Bagot

Sir Charles Bagot GCB (23 September 1781 – 19 May 1843) was an English diplomat and colonial administrator who served as Governor General of the Province of Canada 1841-1843).

He was the second son of William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot of Blithfield Hall, Staffordshire. His marriage to Mary Charlotte Anne Wellesley-Pole, the niece of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, and other family connections made possible his subsequent diplomatic career.

He was named minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinaire to the United States 31 July 1815 in the aftermath of the War of 1812. With Richard Rush he negotiated the Rush-Bagot Agreement to limit naval forces on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. He also contributed to negotiations leading to the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 which defined the border between British North America and the United States from Lake of the Woods (see Northwest Angle) to the Pacific Ocean.

He subsequently served as British Ambassador to Russia where he took part in negotiations leading to the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1825 and as British Ambassador to the Netherlands where he was involved in negotiations leading to the establishment of Belgium in 1831.

After a hiatus of 10 years, Bagot agreed to succeed Lord Sydenham as governor-general of the newly proclaimed Province of Canada. He was chosen because of his diplomatic knowledge of the United States. Bagot was appointed 27 September 1841 and arrived in the Canadian capital Kingston on 10 January 1842, taking office two days later. Bagot was ordered by the British government to resist the demand for responsible government. Bagot did allow Robert Baldwin and Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine to form a ministry on the basis of their parliamentary majority.

Having resigned his office in January 1843, Sir Charles Bagot died at Alwington House in Kingston, too ill to return to the United Kingdom. Today he is chiefly remembered for his contributions to the development of the "undefended border" between the United States and Canada.

External links

• Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 ]
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
• List of Lieutenant Governors of Quebec