British-born Canadian self-taught working class poet who took Shakespeare and the Bible as his models to create ambitious verse dramas. Although lively and imaginative, his work is somewhat handicapped by an unoriginal and overblown rhetorical style.

In 1853 he emigrated to Canada, where he worked as a cabinetmaker in a Montreal factory. He was subsequently employed as a reporter on the Montreal Transcript and Daily Witness. Saul, his major work, is a drama of 135 scenes containing the remarkable character of the fallen angel Malzah, who has been compared by critics to Shakespeare's Caliban. Other works include Count Filippo (1860), an “Italian” tragedy; Jephthah's Daughter (1865), a Biblical drama; and The Advocate (1865), a novel set in Montreal.