CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Edward Mortimer (businessman)

Canadian politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 1, 2024
Entity authorityQ5344528 ↗
Source-derived summary

Edward Mortimer (1768 – October 10, 1819) was a Scottish-born businessman, judge and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented Halifax County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1799 to 1820.

He was born in Keith, the son of Alexander Mortimer and Mary Smith, and came to Nova Scotia in the late 1780s as an employee of a firm from Glasgow. He purchased land at Pictou and became involved in the trade in fish and timber. Mortimer married Sarah Patterson around 1790. In 1813, he established his own company. Mortimer also operated coal mines at Pictou. Mortimer served in the local militia, was a trustee for the Pictou grammar school and was named a justice in the Court of General Sessions and the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Pictou district. He died at Pictou at the age of 51.

References

Buggey, Susan (1983).

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Edward Mortimer (businessman)” as canadian politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Edward, Mortimer and businessman.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1768, 1819, 1799, 1820—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1768. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Edward, Mortimer and businessman providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Edward Mortimer (businessman)”, the useful work is to connect “canadian politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 1, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5344528. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1768, 1819, 1799 and 1820.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Edward Mortimer (businessman)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Edward Mortimer (businessman) primary sources, Edward Mortimer (businessman) archive and Edward research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Edward Mortimer (businessman)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Edward Mortimer (businessman)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.