Meet Judge Begbie

At age 39, Matthew Begbie was appointed as Judge of the new colony of British Columbia, and by all accounts, he took this job very seriously. So, he left England for British Columbia in 1858. After arriving in Victoria, he began acting as the province's traveling judge in 1859, earning a reputation as the person who was responsible for upholding law and order in the booming but remote areas that made up British Columbia's goldfields.         Next...

Photograph from Barkerville Archives. A-8953.