John Henry Dunn was a businessman and political figure in Canada West. He served as Receiver General for Upper Canada from 1820 to 1841. He was born on Saint Helena of English parents in 1792. In 1820, he was named Receiver General and left for York. During Dunn's term in this post, an agreement regarding sharing of customs revenues between Upper and Lower Canada remained unresolved for some time, forcing him to borrow money from private lendors to finance government expenditures. In 1822, he was named to the province's Legislative Council. Dunn also served as president of the Welland Canal Company from 1825 to 1833 and helped to raise funds for the project from both public and private sources. In 1836, he was named to the Executive Council of Upper Canada. However, three weeks later, Dunn resigned with his fellow councillors when lieutenant governorSir Francis Bond Head refused to take the advice of the council into account with respect to the governing of the province. He was named Receiver General for the newly formed Province of Canada in 1841 and was elected to represent Toronto in the Legislative Assembly in the same year. In 1843, he resigned from his post to protest Governor Metcalfe's refusal to consult the Executive Council on patronage appointments. After he was defeated in an attempt to gain reelection in 1844, he returned to England the following year with his family. He died in London in 1854. Both the Township of Dunn, and the Town of Dunnville in Southwest Ontario are named for him.
Family
His son, Lieutenant Alexander Roberts Dunn, l00th and 33rd Regiments, received the Victoria Cross for having been "the bravest of the brave" for his role in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. His daughter Louisa Dunn, daughter by his second wife, Sophia Louisa, eldest daughter of Hon. A. N. J. Duchesnay, Seigneur of Beauport, P.Q., married, 1868, Colonel William Henry Rodes Green, C.B., son of the late Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew P. Green, K.C.H., who became a Major-General in 1875, and, in 1886, was created a K. C.S.I. Their daughter, Ethel, married, December 1, 1896, John Forsyth Burstall, Esquire, of Quebec.
