Distinguished as:

Forming one of the first legal partnerships in Wentworth County with Crerar and Muir

Biography:

Muir, John, lawyer, judge; b. 13 June 1843 at Grimsby, Canada West; m. Anna Pettit and they had one son and one daughter; d. 12 January 1899 in Toronto, Ontario.

The son of Andrew P. Muir and Sarah Smith, John Muir attended St. Andrew Parochial School in Grimsby. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1865 with his BA and received his MA in 1866. While a student, Muir was captain and drill master at the military school in Toronto. In 1865 he obtained his first-class certificate. Muir began practicing law with Cameron and McMichael, In Toronto, in 1866. By 1869 he moved to Grimsby and became a barrister. Two years later, with John Crerar (DHB I), he formed Crerar and Muir, one of the first legal partnerships in Wentworth County. In 1873 Muir received his LLB from the University of Toronto; in 1881 Crerar became Wentworth County’s crown attorney. They were partners until 1888.

Muir was appointed junior judge of Wentworth County in June 1888 and was esteemed by his peers for his fairness and impartiality. He retired in 1896 because of illness.

Muir was appointed to the bench, Muir was secretary of the Conservative Association for many years. For some years he chaired the board of the Hamilton Public Library. On 23 October 1889 Muir laid the cornerstone of the Hamilton Public Library. With James Vernall Teetzel (DHB III) he helped set up the mechanics Institute in Hamilton.

Muir was an Anglican by faith, a member of the Church of the Ascension. On 30 July 1890 he laid the cornerstone of St Johns Church in Winona. He was a quiet, retiring man, highly respected in the community. Muir suffered paralysis for three years before his death. HE went to live with his daughter and his son-in-law, Ernest S. Hall, in Toronto in 1898. Executive of his estate was Peter Duncan Crerar (DHB II), younger brother of John Crerar, who had entered Crerar and Muir in 1883. One of his bequests was twenty-five dollars to his aunt, Mrs. Foster, ‘not that she requires it, but because I think she will be pleased that I should remember her’.

Source: "Muir, John.," Dictionary of Hamilton Biography, Volume II (1876-1924) pg 117