of the Stuart Tract. The Stuart Tract, significant in the history of the Glengarrians’ involvement in the forest trades, and in GC recollections, was a large block of land in Stormont County, northeast of St. Andrew’s and west of Martintown. On 16 Feb. 1903, Sir Edward Andrew Stuart, Baronet, of London, Eng., sold this block for $36,600, Canadian currency, to the GC lumbermen Archibald McArthur and John D. McArthur. Since there was little prospect of using land in that part of the province at that time for any developmental purpose, it must be assumed that virtually the only intentions these prominent lumberman had were those of cutting the virgin or renewed-growth forest which had survived there, and then re-selling the land to farmers. The tract as described in the deed of sale contained nearly the whole of Lots 3-5 in Concessions 6-8 of Cornwall Township. The total acreage is not stated, but it must have been in the upper range of the 1100, 1300, and over 1300 acres that have been estimated in later sources. Both McArthurs (who were father and son) died in 1906, but other lumbermen (names surviving: Campbell, Graham; and see the entry for Duncan James Macpherson) continued to log the Stuart Tract, till the logging of the Stuart Tract was completed in the winters of 1912-1914.

     The system used in the logging of the Stuart Tract was that the logs were floated down the Raisin River past Martintown and Williamstown to the sawmill at South Lancaster. Rhodes Grant reports that there had been “a great many oak trees” in the Stuart Tract, and that, oak being heavy, some of the oak logs had sunk to the bed of the Raisin River. From there, some people, about 25 years before his time of writing, had managed, taking advantage of a year of low water, to salvage some of the logs, which proved to be still in good condition. But despite their enterprise, most of the sunken oak logs, he stated, were however still in the river mud.

     The spellings Stuart Tract and Stewart Tract are both found, but this name, under whichever spelling, seems to have been always informal and local, rather than a legal or business name, and it does not appear in the 1903 deed of sale.

     What was the history of this tract, the boundaries of which seem to have changed little through its history up to 1903? The tract was originally patented to Thomas Robertson in 1796. When Robertson died intestate in 1807, the land passed to his son Neil Robertson, but on his death intestate in 1813, it passed to Neil’s “only child” Elizabeth Ann Robertson, but she died intestate, a minor, and unmarried in 1823. The land then passed to her cousin Elizabeth Robertson, who was a grandchild of Thomas Robertson. Elizabeth (died intestate, 1849) was married (1818) to a major figure in mid-19th century Canada, Sir James Stuart (1780-1853), Baronet, chief justice of Lower Canada. The Stuart Tract was inherited in turn by her son Sir Charles James Stuart (died 25 Feb. 1901), then after an interval, though a brief one, of what appears to have been trusteeship by his sister Mary Catherine Stuart, who survived him by only a few days, it came into the possession of their brother Sir Edward Andrew Stuart, who sold the land, as already described, to the McArthurs in 1903. The memoir-writer P. H. McDermid (1842-1926) could remember when the tract was known as the Robertson Tract, before the change of the name to Stuart Tract.

     The Glengarrian (Alexandria), 6 Sept. 1895, reported the recent visit to GC of a “Major-General Stuart of the British Army,” interviewed by the Glengarrian editor, or some representative of the editor. General Stuart, born in Canada, was “the son of Sir James Stuart who was chief justice of Lower Canada from 1838 to 1853. General Stuart was through the Crimean war, and received a bullet wound in the leg. He was also in the China war of 1860, and was in the army 42 years.… In company with Chief of Police McKie of Lancaster, he visited the cemetery at Williamstown on Monday and located the grave of his great grandfather, who was buried there 88 years ago. He sent for a photographer to Cornwall and after opening the grave had the remains of the deceased, the cemetery and church photographed… We believe the object is to prove the death of these parties, and thus secure a large sum of money to which he falls heir.” The general was Edward Andrew Stuart, who later as Sir Edward Andrew Stuart (20 Dec. 1832-Aug. 1903), the third Baronet, sold the Stuart Tract as already described in 1903 to the McArthurs. It is not known who the great-grandfather was (perhaps the aforementioned Thomas Robertson who died in 1807?) or what GC kinship connections, if any, the Stuarts and Robertsons of this family had. With regard to the grave, it is hard not to suspect that the editor, Isaac Wilson, was the victim of one of the merciless GC wits and jokers of the time. For another General Stuart or Stewart, of a GC connection, see Clement Dickson.

Registry Office, Stormont County, for lots named, with aforementioned 1903 deed of sale (Instrument No. 10051) * Ontario Law Reports: Cases Determined in the Court of Appeal and in the High Court of Justice for Ontario: 1901, Vol. II (Toronto, 1902) pp. 403-410, relating to the Stuart family’s liability to succession duties; this law article, and the 1903 deed of sale, together provide a succinct history of the Robertson and Stuart owners of the tract * MacGillivray & Ross 468-470 (uses sp. Stewart not Stuart) * memoirs of P.H. McDermid, 101, in Hartley * Rhodes Grant, i, 66-67 (uses sp. Stewart not Stuart), ii, 78-79 (uses sp. Stuart not Stewart) * Ross, Lancaster, 276-277 (sp. Stuart) * Belden Atlas 19 (map, sp. Stewart) * Heritage Highlights of Cornwall Township (1984) 132-135 (by Marland Murray), 185 (map) * Sir James Stuart: his life (Stuart Tract not mentioned) in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, which has lives of several members of this Stuart family, and in DNB and MDict * Robertsons: Pringle 407-408 (from McNiff’s map); and cf. UE List 243, Cruikshank King's Royal Regiment of New York 250 & Fraser, Gravestones, I, 171-172 * Gen. Stuart: Glengarrian 6 Sept. 1895, quoted in GHS Newsletter April 1997; unfortunately, the Glengarry News files for the year 1895 have been destroyed; Morgan (1898) 982; A. H. Young, The Revd. John Stuart D. D., U.E.L. of Kingston, U. C. and His Family: a Genealogical Study (Kingston, Whig Press, n.d.) 27-29