When we name John Greenshields, D. Munro (the partner of the Hon. Matthew
Bell), J. Blackwood, Matthew Lymburner, Peter Stuart, William Grant, John
Mure, John McNider, J. G. Hanna, John Crawford, David Stewart (the David
Stewart of "Astoria" described by Washington Irving?) James Orkney, Robert
Wood, Alexander Munn, James McCallum, Thomas White, Fred. Petrie, Robert
Ritchie, we recall many leading merchants in St. Peter street, Notre Dame
street and the old Cul-de-Sac.
"Ebenezer Baird," we take to have been the progenitor of a well-remembered
Quebec Barrister, James E. Baird, Esq., the patron of our city member,
Jacques Malouin, Esquire.
George Pyke, a Halifax barrister, had settled here. He rose to occupy a seat on the judicial bench.
Robert Harrower, was doubtless the father of Messrs. Robert, David and Charles Harrower, of Trois Saumons, County of L'Islet. Honorable James Irvine, in 1818, a member of the Legislative Council, was the grandfather of the Hon. G. Irvine, of this city. The Hon. John Jones Ross, the present Speaker of the Legislative Council, Quebec, traces back to the "James Ross" of 1802, and the Hon. David Alex. Ross claims for his sire that sturdy Volunteer of 1759, under Wolfe, "John Ross," who made a little fortune; he resided at the house he purchased in 1765, near Palace Gate within. He held a commission as a Captain in the British Militia in 1775, under Colonel Le Maitre; we can recollect his scarlet uniform which he wore in 1775, also worn in 1875, by his grandson, our worthy friend, Hon. D. A. Ross, at the ball of the Centenary of the repulse of Brigadier- General Richard Montgomery, 31st December, 1775. He had three sons, David was Solicitor-General at Quebec; John was a lawyer also, and Prothonotary at Quebec (the signer of the memorial of 1802); the third died young; of three daughters, one was married to the Rev. Doctor Sparks, already mentioned; a second was married to Mr. James Mitchell, A.C.G., and the third to an army surgeon. John Ross, Sr., died at an advanced age. Charles Grey Stewart, our Comptroller of Customs died in 1854; he was the father of Messrs. McLean, Charles, Alexander, Robert and John Stewart, of Mrs. William Price, of Mrs. William Phillips, of the Misses Ann and Eleanor Stewart.
"Joanna George" the mother of an aged contemporary, Miss Elizabeth George,
and of [44] Miss Agnes George, the widow of the late Arch. Campbell, Esq.,
N.P., and grandmother of the present President of the St. Andrew's
Society, W. Darling Campbell, died about 1830.
"Maya Darling" was another daughter, and wife of Capt. Darling. "John Burn," also one of the signers of the Memorial, and who afterwards settled in Upper Canada, was the son of "Joanna George" by another marriage; the eccentric and clever Quebec merchant, Mr. James George, was another son. He was the first who suggested in 1822, a plan of the St. Charles River Docks—the first who took up the subject of rendering the St. Lawrence Rapids navigable higher than Montreal. The idea seemed so impracticable, and what was still worse, so new, that the far-seeing Mr. George, was at the time branded as non compos! and still for years the "Spartan," "Passport," "Champion" and other steamers have safely ran these rapids daily every season!
James George had also suggested the practicability of Wooden Railways or
Tramways, with horses as locomotive power, forty years before the Civil
Engineer Hulburt built the Gosford Wooden Railway, with steam as
locomotive power.
"William Grant, of St. Roch's, after whom Grant street was called, was member for the Upper Town of Quebec, during our two first Parliaments, from 17th December, 1792, to 29th May, 1800, and from 9th January, 1805, to period of his death at St. Roch in 1805. An enterprising and important personage was the Hon. Wm. Grant, the Receiver General of the Province in 1770. He had married the widow of the third Baron de Longueuil.
"John Mure" represented the County of York (Vaudreuil) in three Parliaments, from 9th January, 1805, to 26th February, 1810, and was member for the Upper Town of Quebec, from 1810 to 1814. A man of intelligence, he also, though a Presbyterian, became a benefactor to the R. C. Church, having, in 1812, given to the R. C. parishioners of St. Roch's, a site whereon to erect their church in that thriving suburb.
"John Blackwood" also represented the Upper Town in two Parliaments, from 9th April, 1809, to 20th February, 1810.