Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management. Commissioner of Public Records collection – Journals of the Council (legislative), 1758-1763
RG 1 vol 215
Journals of the Legislative Council - Legislative Council account of the first day the Assembly met
October 2, 1758
Contemporaries make a clear distinction between the elected house of representatives or the more common usage of the house of assembly and the general assembly. A general assembly consisted of all three components of the legislative branch of government—governor, council and an elected assembly. An anomaly of the government of Nova Scotia in the colonial period, as the result of the establishment of representative government, was that the council had both executive and legislative roles. In the former, with the governor presiding, it continued in that capacity, but when the assembly was sitting, it became the upper house or legislative council. Instead of the governor, the chief justice usually presided (referred to as President of the Council) when it sat as the Legislative Council. When, for example, the new colony of New Brunswick was created in 1784 and the First Assembly met a year later, a legislative council, separate from an executive council, was appointed. This appointment of a separate legislative council was the course followed for all other British North American colonies and remained a contentious issue in Nova Scotia until 1837 when finally two separate councils were appointed.
Documents from 1758
February 7, 1758
October 2, 1758
Journal and Proceedings of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly – account of the first day the Assembly met
October 2, 1758
An Act... Relating to the Duties of Import on Rum and other Distilled Liquors... - initial statute passed by the first Assembly
October 18, 1758
An Act…Relating to the Duties of Import on Rum and other Distilled Liquors… – initial statute passed by the first Assembly
1758
May 20, 1758
Proclamation, Call for Election - resolutions for the election of representatives to sit in Nova Scotia's first General Assembly
October 30, 1758
An Act for Confirming Titles to Lands and quieting possessions - second statute passed by the first Assembly
December 6, 1758
Journal and Proceedings of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly - Assembly first defends rights of Members against Legislative Council
July 31, 1758
