"Robert Sutherland"(1830-1878)

A native of of Jamaica was the first known graduate of colour at a Canadian University,and the first black man to study law in North America.A graduate of Queens University.Robert qualified to practice law in Ontario under the prevailing system of apprenticeship and examination.He studied at Osgoode Law School and practice law for 20 years in Walkerton Ontario.Upon his death in 1878,Robert left a large bequest (his entire estate of $12,000) to Queen's University,roughly equivalent to the institution's annual operating budget.This donation was the largest the school had ever received,saving it from financial catastropehe in a baking crisis.He is rumored to have had a son which he named Robert Sutherland Jr,after his father who was also called Robert Sutherland.