Edward Barron Chandler was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia on August 22, 1800, to parents Charles Henry Chandler and Elizabeth Rice. His grandfather, Colonel Joshua Chandler, was a wealthy Connecticut legislature member-turned loyalist.[2]
Career
He later moved to New Brunswick to study law. He moved to Dorchester, New Brunswick and served in the colony's government. In 1827 he was elected to the New Brunswick legislature as an opponent of responsible government and later served on the province's Legislative Council (the legislature's Upper House) and in Cabinet serving as leader of the "compact" government that ruled the colony from 1848 to 1854 prior to the institution of responsible government.
In 1836 Chandler became a member of New Brunswick's Legislative Council.
Later, Chandler was a New Brunswick delegate to the conferences in London, Charlottetown, and Quebec that led to Canadian confederation. Though he supported the federal Conservatives of Sir John A. Macdonald he was a cautious supporter who opposed a strong central government.
Chandler was a supporter of railway development and was instrumental as a federally appointed commissioner overseeing construction of the Intercolonial Railway in having its surveys diverted from a direct route between Amherst and Moncton to run through his community of Dorchester. He also supported the policy of reciprocity with the United States. He refused an appointment to the Senate of Canada but accepted an appointment as the fifthLieutenant Governor of New Brunswick in 1878.[3]
Chandler was a Freemason of Sussex Lodge, No. 480 (England).[4]
Personal life and death
In 1822, Chandler married Phoebe Milledge; they had 11 children, of which seven survived into adulthood. Chandler died in Fredericton on February 6, 1880.[2]
