Fonds
Born in New Hampshire, John Sewell Sanborn (1819-1877) was a graduate of Dartmouth College. He became a lawyer in Sherbrooke and in 1850 as an annexationist he won the Sherbrooke County seat in the Legislative Assembly. An active railway promoter, Sanborn worked closely with A.T. Galt on the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway and was also involved with the St. Francis and Megantic Railroad. A Liberal, Sanborn held his seat in Sherbrooke until he was named to the Legislative Council in 1863. In 1867 he was named to the Canadian Senate and later served as a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench in Montréal. A deacon of the Congregational Church in Sherbrooke, Sanborn was also active in temperance associations and served as the president of the Temperance and Prohibitory League of Quebec. In 1853, Sanborn's first wife died and three years later he married Nancy Judson Hasseltine (d.1874) of Bradford (Massachusetts).
(Source: Guide to Archival Resources at McGill University: Private Papers at McGill University. McGill University Archives. 1985. Vol. 3, p. 220-221.)
Scope and Content
The Sanborn family fonds gives information on business activities, social concerns and the political career of John Sanborn and on Nancy Judson Hasseltine Sanborn and other family members. It contains correspondence to Nancy Hasseltine (Sanborn) from friends and other family members on her marriage and health, and with some family news (1854-1857); and from her husband on political matters (1856-1857, 1869). The fonds also contains business papers: as a promoter of the St. Francis and Megantic Railroad, Sanborn received correspondence from A.T. Galt and Luther Holton on the passage of a bill on the railroad through the Assembly and the financing of the railroad with debentures (1871-1872) and received estimates and bills of contractors (1872). Sanborn's interest in temperance is shown by incoming correspondence from Rev. T. Gales, Secretary of the Quebec Temperance League on temperance legislation and plans for meetings (1873-1874).
The fonds is divided into the following series:
P058/A
Correspondence
P058/B Business
(Source: Guide to Archival Resources at McGill University: Private Papers at McGill University. McGill University Archives. 1985. Vol. 3, p. 220-221.)
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