NOAD, JOSEPH, public servant and legislator; b. c. 1797 in England; d. 20 Feb. 1873 in Woodstock, Ont.

Nothing is known of Joseph Noad’s background or his career before he arrived in Newfoundland. Just out from England, he was appointed surveyor general of Newfoundland on 20 Aug. 1832. Despite the criticism of a Liberal politician, Dr William Carson*, that Noad had no stake in the colony and could only be interested in his salary and fees, he was appointed by Governor John Harvey* in 1842 to the Executive Council. With the introduction of the new constitution the following year he also became an appointed member of the Amalgamated Legislature [see Kent], from which he resigned in 1845. He continued to sit in the Executive Council until the restoration of the older form of representative government in 1848 ; he was then appointed to the Council, a body that performed both executive and legislative functions by advising the governor and acting as an upper house. On the introduction of responsible government in 1855 Noad, along with other members of the local oligarchy, was forced to resign his government position.

Noad’s major projects as surveyor general were probably street plans for Harbour Grace after the fire of 1832 (Noad Street in that town gets its name from him), and for St John’s after the conflagration of 1846. In 1847 Governor John Gaspard Le Marchant wrote of him that “the zealous and indefatigable manner in which this officer has ever discharged his duties is deserving of the highest praise and encouragement.” That summer Noad accompanied Le Marchant on a cruise along the south and west coasts of Newfoundland. His report of the survey stressed the importance to the colony of the west coast, then included in the French Shore, stating that the fertility of the soil and the valuable fisheries made the area desirable for settlement.

Noad was also a director of the Newfoundland Steam Navigation Company, a member of the St George’s Society, and a leading figure in the small Congregational church to which he had been admitted in 1833. He was twice married. Two sons of his first marriage, both of whom were educated in England, survived him. On 7 July 1835, in St John’s, he married his second wife, Emma Gaden Lilly; they had two daughters and one son. At the time of his forced retirement in 1855 Noad, like most of the other pensioned officials, left Newfoundland. He moved with his family to Woodstock, Upper Canada, where he died a poor man.

Elizabeth A. Wells