How we got started
Minutes from the Leeds & Grenville Law Association meeting held on the 29th day of December 1887 in order to agree on the incorporation of the Association.
“We the undersigned having subscribed for a sum exceeding one hundred dollars for the use of “The Leeds & Grenville Law Association” hereinafter described and hereinafter intended to be incorporated, do hereby declare that it is our intention to establish a Library Association at the Town of Brockville pursuant to and in accordance with the provisions of the Statute chapter 168 of the revised Statues of Ontario titled “ An Act respecting Library Associations and Mechanics Institutes.”
And we further declare and state as follows…
- That the name of the said Association shall be “Leeds and Grenville Law Association.”
- Its purpose shall be the formation and support of a Law Library for the use of its members, to be kept and maintained in the Court House in the said Town of Brockville and to promote the general interests of the profession and good feeling and harmony amongst its members.
- The amount of money or moneys worth subscribed by the undersigned is in all the sum of Two hundred dollars, and the respective amounts of such subscription are set opposite our respective names. Shares shall be five dollars each and each member shall be entitled to one share for every five dollars paid in cash and to one share for each ten dollars worth of books approved and valued by and delivered to the Trustees.
- There shall be five Trustees for managing the affairs of the Association and the first Trustees shall be Herbert Stone McDonald, James Reynolds, William Sherwood, Jacob Dockstader Buell and William Hamilton Jones.
- There shall be an annual meeting of the Association held under the said Act at which the successors of the said Trustees shall be appointed. Any Barrister or Solicitor duly authorized to practice, residing or having a place of business in the territorial limits of the united Counties of Leeds and Grenville and the Town of Smith’s Falls may become a member of the Association by signing the By-Laws and subscribing and paying for one share in the Association. The Trustees shall have power from time to time until otherwise provided by By-Laws or election or appointment at the annual meeting to name and appoint all other officers of the said Association and the Trustees shall have power to make, alter and repeal all By-Laws necessary for the due regulation of the affairs of the said Association, but the same shall be submitted for approval to the next general meeting of the members and the said By-Laws may be made altered or repealed at such general meeting of the members from time to time as the Association shall see fit.
- No person or persons other that Barristers or Solicitors as aforesaid shall be eligible for membership, but the Trustees shall have the right from time to time to issue to Law students and others, annual tickets of admission to the said Library upon such terms as to the Trustees shall seem met.
And to confirm with Rule 142 of the Law Society of Upper Canada – It is hereby provided…
A, The Trustees shall hold all the books of the Association on trust in case of the dissolution or winding up of the Association or the disposal of its property, to satisfy and repay to the Law Society all sums advanced by the Society to the Association.
B, That a room for the custody and use of the books and proper arrangements for their custody shall be provided, if possible, in the Court House.
C, That the books shall be for the use of the Judges of the County and of those practitioners who become members of the Association and pay the prescribed annual and other fees and also be for use during Courts and hearings before the Master in Chancery, of the Judges and of all members of the profession residing out of the Counties.
D, That the prescribed annual and other fees shall not exceed – for those practitioners who do not keep offices in the Town of Brockville – one half of the amount fixed for those who do keep offices therein.
E, That at least one half of the said fees and the whole of the aid at any time granted by the Law Society shall be applied in the purchasing and repairing of books for the Library.
F, That the Association shall make an annual report to the Law Society showing the state of its finances and of its Library, for the fiscal year which shall commence on the 1st of January and end on the 31st of December of each year, with such other particulars as may be required by the standing committee.
THE NAMES OF THE INITIAL MEMBERS AND THEIR NUMBER OF SHARES CAN BE VIEWED IN THE MINUTE BOOK IN THE LIBRARY BOOKCASE