John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar (1807-1876)

John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar, Bt, GCB, GCMG, PC (31 August 1807 - 6 October 1876) was the second Governor General of Canada, in office from 1869 to 1872.

Biography
Young was born in Bombay, India, eldest son of Sir William Young, 1st baronet of Bailieborough, who was a director of the East India Company. He was educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, graduating in 1829 and was called to the bar in 1834. He married Adelaide Annabella Tuite Dalton in 1835.

In 1831 when he became a member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, a position he held until 1835. He entered service again in 1841 as a cabinet minister for Sir Robert Peel, remaining through 1846. Young was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the Ionian Islands in 1855. His secret despatches recommending that the islands become a British colony were leaked, leading to his recall in 1859.

Young was appointed Governor of New South Wales in 1860 and was immediately confronted by a crisis stemming from the attempt by the Secretary for Lands, John Robertson to push radical land legislation through the Parliament. This legislation was passionately opposed by the majority of the Legislative Council. Young agreed to the request of the Premier, Charles Cowper to swamp the Council with new 21 appointees to get the legislation through, although in fact sufficient members of the Council resigned that a quorum could not be formed, forcing it to be prorogued and replaced by a new Council with appointed life members. In due course this passed the land legislation. The rest of his term in New South Wales was less eventful.

Young assumed the office of Governor General of Canada in 1868, when it was vacated by his predecessor Charles Stanley Monck, 4th Viscount Monck of Ballytrammon, but did not officially take up the position until his swearing in on 2 February 1869. After the end of his term in 1872, he returned to Ireland. He died on 6 October 1876 at Lisgar House, Bailieborough, Ireland, survived by his wife.