View source for Samuel Bickerton Harman

{{Short description|Canadian politician (1819–1892)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = 
| name             = Samuel Bickerton Harman
| honorific-suffix = 
| image            = Samuel Bickerton Harman.png
| imagesize        = 
| order            = 18th
| office           = Mayor of Toronto
| predecessor      = [[James Edward Smith (Toronto)|James Edward Smith]] 
| successor        = [[Joseph Sheard]]
| term_start       = 1869
| term_end         = 1870
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1819|12|20}}
| birth_place      = [[Brompton, London]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1892|03|26|1819|12|20}}
| death_place      = [[Toronto|Toronto, Ontario]]
| nationality      = 
| spouse           = Georgiana Huson
| party            = 
| relations        = 
| children         =  six sons<br/>two daughters
| residence        = 
| alma_mater       = [[King's College School]]<br/>[[Trinity College, Toronto]]
| occupation       = 
| profession       = [[Lawyer]], [[accountant]], [[politician]], [[civil servant]]
}}
'''Samuel Bickerton Harman''' (20 December 1819 – 26 March 1892) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] lawyer, accountant, politician, civil servant, and [[Mayor of Toronto]] from 1869 to 1870.

==Early life==

Harman was born in [[Brompton, London]], England, to Samuel Harman, West Indian planter and office holder, and Dorothy Bruce Murray. After graduating from [[King's College School]] in [[London]], he became a clerk with the Colonial Bank at its [[Barbados]] branch in 1840, and in 1843 became [[accountant]] and later manager of its [[Grenada]] branch. He married Georgiana Huson, the daughter of a Barbadian planter, in Toronto in 1842.

He returned to England in 1847 and moved to [[Upper Canada]] the following year in order to tend to some investments of his wife's family. By the early 1850s, he was reading law, and was [[called to the bar]] in 1855. He would serve as a [[bencher]] of the [[Law Society of Upper Canada]] from 1869 to 1871.

Harman was involved in many significant activities concerning Toronto's upper class:

:* member of the first [[synod]] of the [[Anglican Diocese of Toronto]] in 1853, eventually being appointed as its treasurer and then as its registrar;
:* helping to form the Toronto Boat Club (the predecessor of the [[Royal Canadian Yacht Club]]) in 1852;
:* serving on the executive of the Saint George's Society, eventually becoming its president in 1860;
:* being a master [[freemason]] from 1842, and instrumental in introducing the [[Knights Templar (Freemasonry)|Knights Templar]] into Toronto in 1854 (in which he would act as a senior officer until 1882).
:* he was also a member of the [[Orange Order in Canada]].

When the Institute of Accountants and Adjusters of Ontario failed to secure an Act of incorporation from the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario]], Harman was named as its president. His political skills and stage-managing of the Toronto business élite enabled its incorporation as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 1883.<ref>{{Cite canlaw|short title = An Act to Incorporate the Institute of Accountants of Ontario|abbr = S.O.|year = 1883|chapter = 62|link = https://archive.org/stream/statutesofprovin1883onta#page/494/mode/2up}}</ref>

==Political career==
Harman held many elected and appointed positions with the [[Old Toronto|City of Toronto]]:

:* alderman for St Andrew's Ward (1866{{endash}}1868, 1871{{endash}}1872)
:* [[Mayor of Toronto]] (1869{{endash}}1870)
:* assessment commissioner (1872{{endash}}1874)
:* city treasurer (1874{{endash}}1888)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{DictCanbio|ID=6145}}

{{TorMayors}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harman, Samuel}}
[[Category:1819 births]]
[[Category:1892 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century mayors of places in Ontario]]
[[Category:Mayors of Toronto]]
[[Category:Lawyers in Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian accountants]]
[[Category:British emigrants to Canada]]
[[Category:People from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea]]
[[Category:People educated at King's College School, London]]