The law of servants and the servants of law: enforcing masters' rights in Montreal, 1830-1845.

• Author: Pilarczyk, Ian C.

The law governing masters and servants offers a unique point from which to examine the history of Montreal labour law during the early nineteenth century. The author examines the methods by which masters attempted to enforce their employment rights in the judicial district of Montreal during the years 1830 to 1845. Using primary sources from various Montreal court records, the author reconstructs the judicial and quasi-judicial processes that accompanied the manifold master-servant disputes. He concludes that while the letter of the law may have favoured masters, courts were relatively even-handed in adjudicating such disputes. He examines the role of newspaper advertisements as tools for protecting masters' rights. Through analysis of these advertisements the author paints a colourful and animated portrait of master-servant relations at that time. The article also focusses on the role of courts in interpreting disputes--especially those involving desertions of indentured servants. While the author concentrates his attention on the role of courts within the city of Montreal, he also draws a comparison with the role of courts outside the city limits. Although many similarities existed between the respective courts, there nevertheless remained significant differences.

Le droit regissant les relations entre employeurs et ouvriers constitue un excellent point de depart pour l'etude de l'histoire du droit du travail montrealais au debut du XIXe siecle. L'auteur examine les moyens auxquels les employeurs avaient recours pour faire respecter leurs droits dans le district judiciaire de Montreal durant les annees 1830-45. Il reconstruit les processus judiciaires et quasi-judiciaires associes aux differents conflits employeur-ouvrier en analysant diverses sources primaires provenant des dossiers des tribunaux montrealais. Il arrive a la conclusion que, bien que la lettre de la loi semble avoir ete en general plus favorable aux employeurs, les tribunaux etaient relativement impartiaux dans la resolution de ce type de conflits. Il examine le role qu'ont joue les annonces placees dans les journaux a titre de moyens de proteger les droits des employeurs. A travers l'analyse de ces annonces, l'auteur presente un portrait colore et vivant des relations employeur-ouvrier au debut du XIXe siecle. L'article met egalement l'accent sur le role des tribunaux dans l'interpretation des conflits, en particulier ceux resultant de l'abandon de l'emploi par des ouvriers lies par contrat. Bien que l'auteur se concentre principalement sur le role des tribunaux dans la ville de Montreal, il effectue egalement une comparaison avec le role que jouaient les tribunaux en dehors des limites de la ville pour conclure que, malgre de nombreux points de ressemblance, il existait a ce niveau d'importantes differences.

Introduction I. Newspapers as Quasi-judicial Tools II. The Role of Courts within City Limits A. Desertion Prosecutions 1. Convictions a. The Police Court b. The Court of Weekly and Special Sessions 2. Suspended and Variant Dispositions 3. Acquittals B. Refusal to Obey Orders, Refusal to Work or Enter Service, and Negligence C. Third Party Employment Offences III. The Role of Courts outside City Limits A. Desertion Prosecutions 1. Convictions 2. Suspended and Variant Dispositions 3. Acquittals B. Refusal to Obey Orders, Refusal to Work or Enter Service, and Negligence C. Third Party Employment Offences Conclusion Appendix: Figures Introduction

On 26 January 1841, a seventeen-year-old apprentice painter and chair maker named Robert Bruce McIntosh stood before a Montreal court, charged with having deserted Thomas Albert Martin's service for the second time. McIntosh had earlier been convicted and sentenced to fifteen days' hard labour in the local prison, and was ordered to return to Martin's service immediately after his release. The day McIntosh's term of imprisonment was over, he sought refuge with his mother, but was arrested once again. In light of his previous conviction the court viewed him as incorrigible and sentenced him to two months in the Montreal Gaol. (1)

The story of Robert Bruce McIntosh is one thread in the rich tapestry of Montreal's labour history, illustrating the experiences of an apprentice who ran afoul of the law while bound to his master's service. Thousands of servants like McIntosh laboured each day, employed in innumerable occupations but united by the commonality of contributing to the city's economy. While most servants left behind no written documentation of their rives, a few are immortalized in contemporary judicial records and newspapers. Examination of the judicial archives for the courts that heard master-servant disputes within the city limits, as well as for the greater district of Montreal (which encompassed surrounding parishes outside the city), assists in reanimating the history of Montreal labour law during the early nineteenth century. (2)

The number and variety of cases clearly reflect that master-servant disputes--instigated by both parties--constituted a significant part of the legal business heard by the courts during this period. Through the use of primary sources, this article attempts to dissect the manner in which masters sought to enforce their employment rights in the judicial district of Montreal during the years 1830 to 1845. At a time when the contractual nature of these relationships was already well established and readily enforced by courts, analysis of the dispositions of these cases indicates that while the letter of the law favoured masters, courts were relatively even-handed in adjudicating such disputes.

1. Newspapers as Quasi-judicial Tools

   When a servant absented himself from service, refused to obey his master's orders, or otherwise proved negligent or obdurate, a master had a variety of legal and quasi-legal tools at his disposal. He could discharge his servant within the parameters of the applicable master-servant law or request that a notary (or a court) cancel an indenture. (3) He could also prosecute his servant in a court of law, advertise him as a deserter, or both. The case of an apprentice printer in Montreal in 1830 reflects a common approach. Following the apprentice's deserdon, his master filed a complaint against him on 18 November 1830. (4) The following month he placed an advertisement in a local newspaper, stating that the "sole cause for his [apprentice's] absconding arises from the contagion of Idle and Dissolute Company, and a Propensity to Gambling." (5) The apprentice was likely arrested or returned shortly afterwards, as Tracy brought another proceeding against him later the same month. (6)

   For many masters the issue of greatest immediacy would have been how to ensure that servants fulfilled the terms of their employment. For others, enforcement of master-servant law was a means of seeking justice and combatting desertion and delinquency. This section analyzes in detail the legal and quasi-legal options available to masters to enforce their rights vis-a-vis servants.

   Masters who were unwilling to let their servants desert without recrimination, or who wished to protect themselves legally against liability, or both, often took advantage of newspaper advertisements. Desertion advertisements appeared in North American newspapers throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and well into the nineteenth. (7) In earlier times in Canada similar advertisements were placed for runaway slaves, and unhappily, continued to appear in American newspapers in slaveholding states during this period. In Montreal masters commonly placed notices that employees had been discharged or had left employment, (8) and fathers renounced claims against their sons' earnings by publishing advertisements to that effect. (9) As such advertisements suggest, money earned by children in the nineteenth century was commonly considered to be familial property, and an ethic of children contributing to their family's upkeep strongly permeated Victorian society. (10) Advertisements also publicized employment opportunities, (11) and were placed by unemployed servants seeking positions. (12) Most relevant for the purposes of this article, however, is the multitude of advertisements placed by English and French masters pertaining to servants who had fled from their service. (13)

   Newspaper advertisements are an intriguing source of intelligence on labour relations for several reasons. First, they provide an additional source of information on the prevalence of desertion, especially as few of the servants appearing in them were identified as later having been prosecuted; second, they often provide information on the capacity in which the servant was employed; and third, they represent a quasi-legal tool used by masters to enforce their interests. (14)

   For the years 1830 to 1845, advertisements of this kind were found in seven of the ten Montreal newspapers examined. (15) Analysis of these papers identified seventy-two servants who had deserted their master's service within the judicial district of Montreal. (16) Of these advertisements, nearly two-thirds were for apprentices. (17) A variety of explanations may be forwarded as to why apprentices appeared so often. Apprenticeship as a form of work-study meant that masters had (at least in theory) invested considerable time and effort in teaching their apprentices the mysteries of their chosen craft, more so than would have been the case for domestic servants, labourers, or journeymen. As a result, many masters were unwilling to accept their apprentices' desertions without attempting to secure their return. Furthermore, apprentices often had a vested interest in terminating their periods of apprenticeship as soon as possible, so as to join the mobile and better-paid class of journeymen. Apprentices were also usually minors and hence more vulnerable to mistreatment and exploitation; desertion may have been their most immediate...