James Robb, Q.C., the present
judge of Norfolk county, first saw the light of day in Fifeshire,
Scotland, on the 17th of April, 1837.
His father was a minister of
the Church of Scotland, and when the subject of this sketch was yet a lad,
vix., in 1842, he received a call to a church in Halifax, N.S., in which
city the family spent the following six years. In 1848, a move was
made still further, westward to Hamilton. It was in this city that
the future Judge grew from youth to manhood, and it was in the excellent
schools of Hamilton that his education was acquired. The famous Dr.
Tasare was principal of the Grammar School during the years that young
Robb was in attendance there.
Nine years were devoted to
scholastic study, and Judge Robb was then entered as a student-at-law in
the offices of Freeman, Craigie and Proudfoot, in those days one of the
leading legal firms in Upper Canada. In the prescribed period of
five years he was "called" and immediately began practice. In 1873, he removed to Simcoe, where he very soon won for himself a
leading position, both professionally and socially.
The first
partnership that he formed was with Col. Tisdale and the late Judge
Livingstone. Afterwards the late G. Bruce Jackson was taken in and for
some years the firm of Tisdale, Livingstone, Robb and Jackson, almost
monopolized the legal business of Norfolk county. When the
long-standing partnership between Messrs. Tisdale and Livingstone was
dissolved, Judge Robb remained the elder partner and had practical charge
of the Simcoe business.
On January 6th, 1890, he was
appointed a Q.C., by the Dominion Government, he had already had his
commission from the Ontario Government. A week later, Judge Livingstone
died, and in a few days Judge Robb succeeded in the honors vacated by the
death of his old partner, the appointment being universally commended as
the most fitting that could be made.
As a lawyer Judge Robb was
painstaking, thorough and industrious. He carried these
characteristics to the performance of his duties upon the bench and added
to them a dignity very appropriate to the high position he occupies in the
community.
Judge Robb is a considerable
reader, and has stored away for use at fitting moments a vast fund of
bright sayings and good stories, gathered from many sources. He had
long taken a very warm interest in the Free Library and is at present
Chairman of the Library Board.
Judge Robb is as enthusiastic
a devotee of golf, as a Scotchman should be, he dearly loves a rubber of
whist and last winter became a convert to curling. He was married in
January, 1875, to Emma, daughter of the late Judge
Salmon.
