Inaugurated the Lagos Legislative Council on 22 March 1862 under the 1861 Letters Patent — Nigeria's first legislature. Appointed members only.
Nigeria's first legislature. Established 1862 by Governor Henry Stanhope Freeman in the Colony of Lagos under Letters Patent of 1861, following the British annexation of Lagos (6 August 1861). It was an entirely appointed body of officials and a handful of European merchants — no African elected members — and legislated only for Lagos Colony. It survived the 1874 merger into the Gold Coast Colony, the 1886 re-separation, and continued until 1913, the eve of amalgamation. From 1914 it was replaced by Lord Lugard's Nigerian Council, which covered the unified Colony and Protectorate but was purely advisory; the next genuinely legislative body was the 1922 Clifford Legislative Council.