Head, Sir Francis Bond

Head, Sir Francis Bond, 1793–1875, British administrator in Canada. A soldier (1811–25) and unsuccessful mining adventurer in South America, he had had little experience to prepare him for the post of lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (Ontario), to which he was appointed in 1835. Sir Francis's reactionary policy in Canada and his alliance with the Family Compact estranged Robert Baldwin and the moderate reformers and drove William Lyon Mackenzie and other radical reformers into open rebellion in 1837. Head, who had resigned but had not yet been replaced in his post, quelled this uprising. He left Canada in 1838, never again to hold public office, and devoted his later years to writing.