The Honorable Charles Connell was born on the family farm in Northampton, New Brunswick, in 1810. He was the son of Charles Connell, Sr., a Loyalist, who arrived in New Brunswick in 1789, and his wife, Mary Palmer. Charles received a public school education in Northampton and later moved to Woodstock. In 1835, he married Ann Fisher, a sister of L.P. Fisher and Charles Fisher, New Brunswick's first Liberal premier under whom Charles would later serve. Charles and Ann Connell had four sons and three daughters.

Charles Connell was active in the lumber industry, at one time supplying poles for the building of the telegraph line. He was also involved in the opening up of new tracts of land, especially in the Glassville area and around the mouth of the Presquile River. Charles Connell was also a justice of the peace and was a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Carleton County.

Charles Connell was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1846 and became a member of the Legislative Council in 1849. In 1858, Charles was appointed Postmaster General of New Brunswick by Premier Charles Fisher. While holding this cabinet post, Charles Connell was involved in an 1860 scandal, concerning a new issue of five cent New Brunswick stamps. When the stamps were released, one held the image of Charles Connell rather than the head of Queen Victoria. Connell resigned when the Executive Council advised the Lieutenant Governor, J.H.T. Manners-Sutton, to disapprove the design in favor of one bearing the Queen's portrait.

Charles Connell was returned to the Legislature in 1864, where he took a pro-Confederation stand. In 1867, he ran as a candidate in the first federal election and won by acclamation. He was re-elected in 1872. After his death, he was followed to Ottawa by one of his sons, George Hebert Connell (MCC70).

Charles Connell, in 1852, purchased lands owned by Judith Morehouse of Woodstock. These consisted of the former Loyalist grants on which downtown Woodstock was being built as well as the residential neighborhood on the north side of the Creek. The estate formed a triangle made by the river, the Meduxnekeag, and Elm Street. After the death of Charles Connell's widow, Ann, in 1895, his brother-in-law, L.P. Fisher, began the process of purchasing the shares of Charles Connell's surviving children. Eventually, the Charles Connell estate was totally amalgamated into the L.P. Fisher estate.