Robert Nelson insurrectionist

Robert Nelson (1794–1873) was an Anglo-Quebecer physician and a prominent figure in the Lower Canada Rebellion. Born in Sorel near Montreal to William Nelson, an immigrant from Yorkshire, England, and Jane Dies, whose family owned land in New York, Nelson studied medicine in Montreal and later at Harvard University. During the War of 1812, he served as a surgeon in the Deschambault Corps and the Indian Braves Corps.

Nelson entered politics in 1827 at his brother Wolfred Nelson's urging, who was also a Patriote leader. On November 24, 1837, he was arrested alongside other politicians, though he was not directly involved with the rebels at that time. His arrest led him to join the rebellion and flee to the United States, where he was made General of the rebel army and elected as the future President of the Republic of Lower Canada.

In February 1838, Nelson led a group of insurgents from Alburg, Vermont, proclaiming independence and distributing copies of a declaration of independence. The U.S. Army arrested them for violating neutrality laws, but a sympathetic jury acquitted him and his men. After another failed attempt in November 1838, Nelson and other insurrectionists formed the Frères Chasseurs, a clandestine paramilitary group aimed at overthrowing British colonial rule.

Eventually granted amnesty by the British government, Nelson returned to Canada and died peacefully in Staten Island, New York, on March 1, 1873. He was buried in Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery.