page_title: George Prévost
section_title: Service as Governor-in-Chief of British North America
hierarchical_section_title: George Prévost / Service as Governor-in-Chief of British North America
caption_attribution_description: Sir George Prevost (1767-1816), first Baronet, was a Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, between 1808 and 1811, and Governor-in-Chief of British North America from 1811 to 1815. Note the typographical error on this print. Creator: Robert Dighton (British, 1752-1814) Date: 1812 Identifier: JRR 1623 Format: Picture Rights: Public domain Courtesy: &lt;a href="http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/digital-archive/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Toronto Public Library&lt;/a&gt;. More information: &lt;a href="#//www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-OHQ2-PICTURES-S-R-9&amp;R=DC-OHQ2-PICTURES-S-R-9" rel="nofollow"&gt;(view details and larger image)&lt;/a&gt;
context_page_description: Sir George Prévost, 1st Baronet was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who is most well known as the "Defender of Canada" during the War of 1812. Born in New Jersey, the eldest son of Genevan Augustine Prévost, he joined the British Army as a youth and became a captain in 1784. Prévost served in the West Indies during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, and was commander of St. Vincent from 1794 to 1796. He became Lieutenant-Governor of Saint Lucia from 1798 to 1802 and Governor of Dominica from 1802 to 1805. He is best known to history for serving as both the civilian Governor General and the military Commander in Chief in British North America during the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States.
context_section_description: On 4 July 1811, Prévost became a lieutenant-general outside of Nova Scotia, and was appointed as commander-in-chief of British forces in North America. On 21 October, he was appointed to be the governor-in-chief of British North America. As commander-in-chief, he took over the presidency and administration of Lower Canada from Thomas Dunn on 14 September. He would remain the president of Lower Canada until 15 July 1812. During his time as commander-in-chief, he was focused on ensuring the military security of the Atlantic colonies.
  Prévost was worried about the disposition of Canadians if a war started involving British North America and tried to conciliate Canadian political leaders, who had been disappointed by the partisan alliance between Craig and the British oligarchy. The leader of the Canadian party, Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, was opposed by several people trying to gain his position, and Prévost exploited the rivalry. In 1812, Bédard, losing his motivation for continuing as leader, was given a judgeship in an area of British North America from which he could not have a major influence over the general political system. Prévost worked with the moderate Louis-Joseph Papineau, treating him as the leader. Prévost also nominated five Canadians to be appointed to the Legislative Council between 1811 and 1815, an unusual move as Canadians had usually been excluded from being appointed since 1798. In a report to the Colonial Office, Prévost said that he wanted to create a Legislative Council "possessed of the consideration of the country, from a majority of its members being independent of the government", in order to transfer to it "the political altercations which have been hitherto carried on by the governor in person."
caption: Prevost in 1812
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