1814-1889
Two Fathers of Confederation were named John Hamilton Gray, one from Prince Edward Island, the other from New Brunswick. It is the latter one who lived briefly in Sandy Hill. During his career, John Hamilton Gray was a lawyer, politician, judge and arbitrator. He was an early advocate for Confederation in New Brunswick; he represented the constituents of Westmoreland in the House of Commons from 1867 to 1872. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in July 1872 and died in 1889.
In 1872-73, Gray lived in a house that no longer stands at the corner of Daly Ave. and Friel St. Gray advocated in favour of creating a federal district for Ottawa, as the United States had done for Washington, but this proposal did not receive sufficient support to go forward although the idea re-surfaced periodically before being definitively set aside in the 1930s.