3rd General Assembly of Newfoundland

3rd General Assembly of Newfoundland
History
Founded	1843
Disbanded	1848
Preceded by	2nd General Assembly of Newfoundland
Succeeded by	4th General Assembly of Newfoundland
Leadership
Speaker	James Crowdy
Elections
Last election	Newfoundland general election, 1842

The members of the 3rd General Assembly of Newfoundland were elected in the Newfoundland general election held in 1842. The General Assembly sat from January 14, 1843^[1] to 1848.

The General Assembly had not sat from 1841 to 1843 as the conony's constitution had been suspended. Following the passing of the Newfoundland Act of 1842 by the British Parliament,^[2] the elected assembly and appointed Legislative Council were combined into a single unicameral legislature.^[3] The legislature continue to meet at the Old Court House until 1846 when that building was destroyed in a fire; for the next two years, the legislature met in a classroom in an orphan asylum.^[4]

James Crowdy was chosen as speaker.^[5]

In 1843, a new Education Act was passed which redistributed education funding between separate Protestant and Catholic school systems.^[6]

Sir Henry Prescott served as civil governor of Newfoundland until 1846.^[7]Robert Law served as colonial administrator^[8] until the arrival of Sir John Le Marchant in April 1847.^[9]

Members of the Assembly

The following members were elected to the assembly in 1837:^[10]

Member	Electoral district	Affiliation[11]
Robert Carter	Bonavista Bay	Conservative
Clement Pitt Benning	Burin	Liberal
Thomas Ridley	Conception Bay	Conservative
John Munn		Conservative
James Luke Prendergast		Liberal
Edmund Hanrahan		Liberal
Thomas Glen	Ferryland	Liberal
John Slade[nb 1][12]	Fogo	Conservative
Bryan Robinson	Fortune Bay	Conservative
John Dillon	Placentia and St. Mary's	Liberal
Simon Morris		Liberal
Laurence O'Brien	St. John's	Liberal
John Valentine Nugent		Liberal
William Carson		Liberal
Richard Barnes	Trinity Bay	Conservative

Notes:

1. Elected after general election

By-elections

By-elections were held to replace members for various reasons:

Electoral district	Member elected	Affiliation	Election date	Reason
St. John's	Robert John Parsons	Liberal	1843	W Carson died February 26, 1843[11]
Trinity Bay	Thomas Bulley Job	Conservative	1846	R Barnes died September 3, 1846[11]

Notes:

Members of the Legislative Council

The following members were appointed to the Legislative Council:^[10]

Member	Role
James Simms	Attorney general
James Crowdy	Colonial secretary
John Dunscombe
William Thomas	Colonial treasurer
William Bickford Row
James William Tobin
Joseph Noad	Surveyor general
Charles Fox Bennett
John Kent

References

1. Prowse, D W (1971). A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial, and foreign records. Merdian Publishing. pp. 438, 657.
2. Rowe, F W. "Newfoundland Acts". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
3. "Government Structure, 1832-1855". Newfoundland Heritage. Memorial University.
4. "The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly". Canadian Parliamentary Review 34 (3). 2011.
5. "The Speaker of the House of Assembly". House of Assembly.
6. "Education". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. Memorial University.
7. Hayne, David, ed. (1972). "Prescott, Sir Henry". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
8. Hayne, David, ed. (1972). "Law, Robert". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
9. Hayne, David, ed. (1972). "Le Marchant, Sir John Gaspard". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
10. Journal of the General Assembly of Newfoundland : anno sexto Victoria regina : 1st session of the third General Assembly. W R Shea. 1843.
11. "Elections". Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. pp. 683–84.
12. Journal of the General Assembly of Newfoundland : anno septimo Victoria regina : second session of the third General Assembly. W R Shea. 1844.