Robert Lyon, one of the judges for the county of Carleton, born July 6, 1829, is a son of the late George Lyon, a native of Scotland, an officer in the British army, and one of the founders of the town of Richmond, which was named for the duke of Richmond, then
Governor-General of Upper Canada. It was made a military settlement, and Mr. Lyon cut the first tree there when it was decided to start a town. That was a few years before the birth of our subject, who was educated in the common schools of the village of Richmond, and in the
classics, preparatory to legal studies, at Montreal. He read law four years with his brother, George Byron Lyon, at Ottawa, and one year at Toronto, with the late lieutenant-governor, John Crawford, and John Hagarty, now chief justice of the Queen’s Bench; was admitted at Toronto in 1851, as an attorney, and in 1853 as a barrister.
Mr. Lyon was elected mayor of the city of Ottawa in 1867, being alderman at the same time, and represented the county of Carleton in the first Parliament after the Confederation (1867), serving the four sessions.
He went on the Bench in 1873. He is a well read lawyer, and on the Bench is impartial, cool, dignified and popular.
Judge Lyon is a member of the masonic fraternity, though rarely, we believe, attending the meetings of the order. At one time, several years ago, he held the office of district deputy grand master.
He is a member of the Church of England, and finds nothing in “law,” so far as we can learn, to conflict with the “prophets.”
May 25, 1865, Mary Ann, daughter of the late Archibald Foster, of Ottawa, became the wife of Judge Lyon, and they have had five children, and lost one of them in infancy. The other four are living.