Sir Charles Fitzpatrick was born on December 19th, 1853, in Quebec City, Canada East, to John Fitzpatrick and Mary Connelly.

He was called to the Quebec bar in 1856 and founded the firm of Fitzpatrick & Taschereau in Quebec City.

In 1885 he acted as chief counsel to Louis Riel who was on trial for leading the North-West Rebellion. Riel was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Fitzpatrick entered politics in 1890 winning election to the Quebec Legislative Assembly.

He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1896 Canadian election as a Liberal MP and served as Solicitor General of Canada from 1896 to 1902 and as Minister of Justice from 1902 until 1906. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada as Chief Justice and served in that position until 1918 when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Quebec.

He is the only Chief Justice other than Sir William Buell Richards to have served in that position without having first been an Associate Justice on the court, Richards having been Chief Justice at the court's creation in 1875.

He died on June 17th, 1942.

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Henri Elzéar Taschereau | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Chief Justice of Canada
June 4, 1906 – November 21, 1918 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Louis Henry Davies