Reverend Richard Vaughan, a Baptist minister, a free man. The couple
had three children.

In 1833 Harris effected his escape to Upper Canada and came to Toronto
(then York) in the spring of 1834 under the name of George Johnstone.
In 1847 he obtained from John Beverley Robinson, Chief Justice of
Upper Canada a deed of three acres of land part of Lot 12 in the First
Concession from the bay east of the river Don in the Township of York.
He died without a will in February, 1851. The deserted wife after his
escape married a man by the name of Brown. She continued a slave
until the fall of Richmond and died in 1869 or 1870.[46]

About that time the eldest son came to Canada, and he brought an
action as the heir-at-law against one Cooper, the person in
possession. All the facts were clear and the only difficulty in the
way was as to the validity of the marriage of the Negro. Chief Justice
William Buell Richards, of the Court of Queen's Bench tried the case
at the Fall Assizes, 1870, at Toronto. Evidence was given by a
Virginia lawyer and judge[47] that there was no law in Virginia either
authorizing or forbidding the marriage of slaves because "slaves were
property and not persons for marital purposes.... In short, by the law
of Virginia, slaves were but property, treated as property
exclusively, except where by special Statute they were made persons."

On this evidence, therefore, the Chief Justice dismissed the action.
The plaintiff appealed to the full Court of Queen's Bench urging that
the slaves had done all they could to make their marriage legal. In
vain, they were not British subjects and the rules of international
law were too rigid to allow of the court holding the marriage legal.
Mr. Justice Wilson in giving the judgment of the Court said:[48]

"This is, no doubt, an unfortunate conclusion, for the plaintiff is
undoubtedly the child of John Harris and Sarah who were made man and
wife in form and by all the usual solemnities of real matrimony. The
parents were of mature age, of sound sense, reason and understanding.
The father had a trade which he followed by permission of his master
for a yearly sum which he paid to him for the privilege, or as it is
said 'he hired his own time.' He rented a house for himself; he was
married with the consent of those who could give it by a minister in
orders and in form at least under the sanction of religion: he lived
with the woman he had taken as his wife and had children by