Nelson, Robert, 1794–1873, Canadian rebel, b. Montreal; brother of Wolfred Nelson. Like his brother, he was a surgeon in the War of 1812, and with him he entered the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1827 as a supporter of Louis Joseph Papineau. Although Robert Nelson took no active part in the rebellion of 1837, after its collapse he organized in the United States a band of adventurers with whom he invaded Canada in 1838, proclaiming it a republic and himself president of the provisional government. The invasion was quickly put down, and Nelson fled to Vermont.
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