Hamilton Hartley Killaly

Province of Canada politician and civil engineer

Hamilton Hartley Killaly (December 1800 – March 28, 1874) was a civil engineer and political figure in Canada West.

Killaly was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1800, the son of a prominent engineer, and graduated from Trinity College. He served with the Irish Board of Works as consulting engineer. In 1834, with his wife, Killaly came to New York state, later settling in London township in Upper Canada, where he tried his hand at farming. In 1837, he was involved in a re survey of the Welland Canal and, in 1838, was appointed engineer for the Welland Canal Company. In 1840, Governor General Thomson (later Lord Sydenham) appointed Killaly the chairman of the Board of Works for Lower Canada. In March, 1841, Governor General Sydenham named him to the Executive Council of the Province of Canada, and in December 1841, he was appointed chairman of the provincial Board of Works. Since that position was an office of profit under the Crown, he was required to resign his seat in the Assembly. He did so, and was re elected in the resulting by election in September 1842. He did not play a major role in the politics of the Assembly, being seen more as a professional engineer in government service. However, in 1843, he resigned from the Executive Council as part of the mass resignation to protest Governor General Metcalfe's failure to consult the councillors on political appointments. He resigned his seat in the Assembly on November 30, 1843, and did not again stand for election.

As Commissioner of Public Works, Killaly was heavily involved in the construction of the canal systems along the St. Lawrence, financed in part by the British government to contribute to the defence of the province. Although highly competent as an engineer, Killaly had little patience for cost estimates or financial reporting. Speaking of the government audit procedures, designed to keep control over the spending of public funds, Killaly commented: “What earthly use there is in this Roundabout I never could see.” William Agar Adamson, chaplain to Governor General Sydenham, described Killaly as "the most expensively and ill dressed man on the wide continent of North America".