Allen Bristol Aylesworth is Born

Today in Masonic History Allen Bristol Aylesworth was born in 1854.

Allen Bristol Aylesworth was a Canadian lawyer and parliamentarian.

Aylesworth was born in Newburgh, Ontario a descendant of United Empire Loyalists. United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given to American Loyalists who resettled in other parts of North America and other British colonies during the American Revolution.

Aylesworth was educated at the University of Toronto and was admitted to the bar in 1878.

In 1903 Aylesworth served on the Alaska Boundary Tribunal as a Canadian representative. The tribunal was tasked to resolve a border dispute and Britain, Canada was still under British dominion at that time. The dispute was inherited by the United States after the 1867 purchase of Alaska. The dispute itself existed between Britain and Russia since 1821.

Aylesworth was elected to the Canadian Parliament in 1905 and would serve in Sir Wilfrid Laurier's cabinet as as postmaster general and minister of labor until 1906.

Aylesworth was a member of Ionic Lodge No. 25 in Toronto, Ontario and served as Worshipful Master of the lodge.

From 1906 to 1911 he was the minister of Justice and oversaw the pardon of Angelina Napolitano, a women who murdered her abusive husband. The case ignited a public debate in Canada about domestic abuse and the death penalty.

In 1910 and 1911 Aylesworth also served in the Hague as the British Representative at the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration. For his efforts Aylesworth was knighted.

This article provided by Brother Eric C. Steele.