Halifax was a borough by prescription, its privileges growing up with the increased prosperity brought by the cloth trade, but it was not incorporated until 1848.
On the 15th of November the Exclusion Bill, having passed the Commons, was brought up to the Lords, and an historic debate took place, in which Halifax and Shaftesbury were the leaders on opposite sides.
In 1865 he was re-elected for Halifax, and in 1866 became undersecretary of state for India.
From 1761 to 1763 Governor John Wentworth of New Hampshire issued 108 grants, and settlements were established in Brattleboro, Putney, Westminster, Halifax, Marlborough, Wilmington, New Fane, Rockingham, Townshend, Vernon (Hinsdale) and Dummerston (all in Windham county, except Vernon, which is in Cheshire county).
He was educated at Glasgow university, where he had a brilliant academic career; and having entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, he returned to Canada and obtained a pastoral charge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which he held from 1863 to 1877.
