John Rolph

John Rolph
Rolph c. 1870
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada for Middlesex County
In office 1824–1830
Toronto Alderman for St. Patrick's Ward
In office 1834–1834
Member of the Executive Council of Upper Canada
In office February 1836 – March 1836
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada for Norfolk County
In office 1836–1838
Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Norfolk County
In office 1851–1857
Personal details
Born	(1793-03-04)4 March 1793 Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England
Died	19 October 1870(1870-10-19) (aged 77) Mitchell, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Spouses	Mary Slatter ​ ​ (m. 1820, died)​ Grace Haines ​ (m. 1834)​
Children	4
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge Inner Temple Trinity College, Cambridge
Profession	Physician, lawyer

John Rolph (4 March 1793 – 19 October 1870) was a Canadian physician, lawyer, and political figure. As a politician, he was considered the leader of the Reform faction in the 1820s and helped plan the Upper Canada Rebellion. As a doctor, he founded several medical schools and incorporated new teaching techniques and medical practices into his lectures. However, his actions against rival medical schools decreased public confidence in the ability of medical professionals to regulate themselves.

Rolph grew up in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, and was educated in medicine and law. He immigrated to Upper Canada in 1813 and lived on his father's farm in Port Talbot, where he practised law and medicine concurrently and opened a medical school called the Talbot Dispensary. In 1824, Rolph was elected to the Parliament of Upper Canada and returned to England to petition the Colonial Office to allow the naturalisation of American citizens in Canada. He was elected as an alderman to Toronto's first city council, though he resigned after his council colleagues did not select him to be the city's mayor.

William Lyon Mackenzie persuaded Rolph to support the Upper Canada Rebellion after the latter was promised he would become president of a newly formed Republic of Canada. When the rebellion began, Rolph did not join the rebels at their headquarters and the Lieutenant-Governor appointed him as his emissary to deliver the government's offer of a truce. Rolph fled to the US after the rebellion and focused on practicing and teaching medicine. The Canadian government granted him amnesty and he returned to Canada in 1843, and later created a new medical institution called the Rolph School in Toronto. In 1851 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, but when Rolph became an opposition member of the government his focus returned to running his school. He retired as dean of his medical school in 1870 and died later that year after suffering a stroke.