John Dewar, County Attorney and Clerk of the Peace, is a son of John and Emily (Knight) Dewar, both being Perthshire, Scotland, families. He was born in that County August 22, 1829, and before he was a year old the family immigrated to Canada, and settled on a farm in the Township of Esquesing, four miles from Milton.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the common and grammar schools, and Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, where he spent a few term; studied law in Toronto with John McNab, at one time County Attorney, and Angus Morrison, ex-Mayor of Toronto, and formerly a member of the Canadian Assembly; was admitted as an Attorney at Michaelmas term, 1858; called to the Bar at Easter term the next year, and has worn a barrister’s gown at Milton, for nearly twenty-one years. During the earlier half of this period he was Superintendent of Town Schools; has since been a School Trustee, and is Chairman of the Public School Board. He was for several years Secretary of the Reform Association for Halton, and is and has been for a number of years, President of the Milton Mechanics Institute.
Mr. Dewar was appointed to his present offices of County Attorney and Clerk of the Peace, 21st of August, 1868. He is also Deputy County Judge, and has had occasion to act once or twice in the absence of Judge Miller. As a Crown officer. he is just and painstaking; as a lawyer, able, reliable and thoroughly conscientious, endeavoring to settle differences between parties, rather than to make costs by bringing suits.
He belongs to the United Prebyterian Church, and, as a Christian citizen, is highly respected. His efficiency in school matters and other local interests, is well appreciated.
October 28, 1874, Mr. Dewar married Jane Walker Somerville, daughter of Robert B. Somerville, then of Sarnia, Ont., and at one time a member of Parliament for the County of Huntington, Province of Quebec. Mrs. Dewar has had three children, losing one of them.