William Pittman Lett

author

William Pittman Lett

1819–1892

A lively 19th-century Ottawa voice, he balanced civic work with poetry, journalism, and a deep love of the natural world. His writing offers a window into early Canadian public life, where wit, politics, and local color often met on the page.

1 Audiobook

Recollections of Bytown and Its Old Inhabitants

by William Pittman Lett

About the author

Born in Ireland in 1819 and brought to Upper Canada as an infant, William Pittman Lett became a familiar figure in early Ottawa life. He worked as a journalist, wrote poetry, and built a long public career that linked literature with the day-to-day business of a growing city.

Lett is especially remembered as Ottawa’s first city clerk, a role that placed him close to the making of local civic history. Alongside that work, he wrote verse and prose shaped by strong opinions, public debate, and an evident delight in language.

He was also known as an orator and naturalist, and that mix of public energy and curiosity gives his work much of its character. Dying in 1892, he left behind a portrait of 19th-century Canadian life that is both civic and personal, formal and vividly human.