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Francis L. Walsh |
| Mr. Walsh, who is now in his 89th year, has for 67 years held the office
of Registrar of the County of Norfolk, having been appointed to the office on he
resignation of his father, Mr. Thomas Walsh, in the year 1819. Francis had at that time
assisted his father in the duties of the Registry Office for ten years, so that his period
of public service really dates from the year 1809. The Walsh family was one of the
families that settled in Norfolk, at the close of the eighteenth century.
Mr. Thomas Walsh
was the first to survey the Township of Charlotteville, and was Registrar from 1796 to
1810. Mr. Francis L. Walsh was for ten years member of Parliament for Norfolk. He was first elected in the year 1820. For many years, however, he has stood aloof from the strife of political parties. Two of his sons, however, Aquila and Thomas, have been prominent political leaders, the former having been in Parliament from 1860 till 1872. Probably no man is better known or is more generally beloved by the people of Norfolk than Mr. Francis L. Walsh. His extreme age, his devotion to the duties of his office, his unbounded hospitality in days gone by, and his long and intimate connection with the people of the County, combine at present to render him an object of general esteem and reverence. A few years ago Mr. Walsh was presented with a costly portrait of himself and a valuable silver set, in token of the love which both Reformers and Conservatives bore towards him, and of their appreciation of the services of a public officer who from the century's grey dawn had worn "The white flower of a blameless life." |
| From page 66 of the Mika re-print of 1877 Illustrated Historical Atlas of Norfolk County Copyright 1998-2012 John Cardiff |