Alexander Pattullo, for twenty-five years a practicing Physician and Surgeon in the town of Brampton was born on the 26th of March, 1830, in the township of Caledon, in the county of Peel. His father, James Pattullo, was a farmer in that township, and his grand father was Alexander Pattullo, at one time a corporal in the “Loyal Tay Fencibles,” under Colonel Anstruther, and afterwards of the Forfar and Kincardine Regiment, under the Hon. Archibald Douglas, and subsequently a non commissioned officer in the 42nd Highlanders, better known as the “Black Watch,” and saw much service prior to his emigration to Canada and settlement in Caledon, 1820. The Doctor’s forefathers, on the paternal side, were from Scotland, but the family history is traceable back to the time when they were citizens of France, under Louis XIV, who with singular fatality, in the year 1685, revoked the edict of Henri V, granting religious freedom to the Huguenots, and in the struggles which ensued, the founder of the family who then held a high position under the Crown in one of the Rhenish Provinces, preferred rather than abjure his religion to be an exile from his native land, and fled to Scotland with his fellow patriots and much of the best blood of the Kingdom, escaped to Germany and other countries in Europe, and have since enjoyed that much prized freedom which was denied them at home. The exodus being much to the enrichment of the British Isles, as well as those other States which afforded a shelter to these refugees, but greatly to the loss of France, in arts, sciences and many ways, but particularly felt by the large numbers of descendants of the persecuted Huguenots, who have from time to time revisited France as officers and soldiers in the many armies which have invaded that country from the time of Louis XIV down to the dethronement of Louis Napoleon at Sedan. Doctor Pattullo’s mother was Mary Campbell, daughter of James Campbell, an officer in one of the Niagara Volunteer Regiments, which served during the war of 1812, and did much to sustain the valor and honor of the British arms during that trying period; he was son of Alexander Campbell, a United Empire Loyalist, who emigrated from Argyle, in the Highlands of Scotland, to the State of Pennsylvania, then a British Colony, and on the Independence of the United States being established, preferring British rule, left his possessions, and with his family settled on the Niagara frontier, where he died early in the present century, much esteemed, and leaving a large family, most of whom removed to the township of Chinguacousy, where the family name is well preserved to the present time. The Doctor received his medical education at Trinity College, Toronto, was a licentiate of the Provincial Board, in. 1854, and since that date has been in continual practice at Brampton, and has for years maintained a well acknowledged position as a leader in his profession, and enjoys a large and lucrative practice. He was one of the first members of the Medical Council of the Province, representing the Electoral Divisions of Home and Burlington in that body for three years, is well known and in excellent standing with his professional brethren.
The Doctor has done much valuable work outside of his profession; for the past 15 or 20 years he has filled the position of Chairman of the High School Board of Trustees, and has done much to improve the standard of education in the county. The Doctor is well posted, not only in medicine, science and politics, but in current events and literature generally. He is an extensive reader nor is his pen always idle. About the time he commenced the practice of his profession, he took editorial charge of the Brampton Times, and managed that part of the paper with ability and much skill for over two years, when his continued increase of practice obliged him to relinquish all work outside his profession. The experience thus gained has been a source of valuable discipline as well as literary recreation.
The Doctor is a Reformer of the most pronounced character, fearless and outspoken, holding in utter contempt those professional politicians and political’ demagogues who so often by intrigue acquire an ephemeral position of prominence in all political parties of the present age. While he has never sought Parliamentary honors, his name has often been mentioned in connection with that position, but he has always preferred lending his influence in favor of the candidate who supported the party with whom he has always acted.
The Doctor has a well selected miscellaneous as well as medical library, embracing many of the standard British and American authors, and is well read in all the best literature of the day, and his study is a centre for the large number of students and of the literary interest of the town and county.
The wife of Dr. Pattullo is Rebecca, daughter of the late Barth Bull, one of the early settlers of York township, and sister of John P. Bull, of Downsview, a prominent agriculturist, Dr. Edmund Bull, of Toronto, and Thomas H. Bull, clerk of the peace for the county of York.
They were married in 1857, and have four children, two sons and two daughters, both sons being now in attendance at University College, Toronto.
The Doctor has several brothers, with one exception, famous, and three sisters; his mother is dead, but his father is still alive and resides with his sons in the township of Garafraxa, county of Wellington.