Ronald Stewart - Catherine MacKay

Notes:

1. Either John or Malcolm had a daughter Christina who married an American James White. One of her sons was Malcolm White who was a state senator in Massachusetts. They lived in Woburn, Mass. Note from ^[WJHS].

2. There was a curious persisting rumour in the family that the Stuarts were originally Roman Catholics, and "took their own priest to Canada. Note from ^[WJHS].

3. Who fell down a lift shaft in New York? ^[IWS]

4. Who were the Courtneys? ^[IWS]

5. Great aunt Mary was an old maid, Sadie looked after her. ^[AB]

6. The Stuarts were powerful people. John used to go to country fairs. Could pick up a horse. 3/4 mile away was the Cousin's store. Mary went to get supplies with the horse and wagon. She went to buy flour which came in large barrels. Cousin (the owner) said if she could pick it up and put in it the wagon herself she could have it for free. So she did and left. Cousin contacted the constable and accused Mary of theft. The constable declared that Mary had won the bet fair and square. The story was told to Andy by the Cousins. ^[AB]

7. When Andy working on PEI he bought a trunk from a Malcolm Buchanan. Malcolm was a distant relation. ^[AB]

8. Ronald and Catharine had formerly lived at Belle Creek (now Belle River), Lot 62 until sometime after the 1841 census when they moved to Rose Valley. Ronald left a will, dated 3 Dec. 1876 and proved 8 Jan. 1877 (P.E.I. Wills, 9:248-249). They lived on Anderson Road [now called the Kinkora Road], which is Route 225 on the highway map. ^[GS]

9. Ronald was born in the Parish of Portree, Isle of Skye (not sure of when, but probably before 1800), the son of Charles and Mary (MacMillan) Stewart who came out in 1803 with the Selkirk settlers to Belfast, and are buried there in St. John's Presbyterian Cemetery, Belfast. Charles died at Belle Creek (now Belle River) on 27 September 1850, aged 90 years. I do not know when Mary died. ^[GS]

10. Catherine MacKay, Ronald's wife, was born in Scotland about 1816, but I do not know where nor do I know who her parents were. I would like to find out. Ronald and Catherine had at first lived on Three Rivers Road. Now that is an old name, and I am not sure exactly where they lived, but Three Rivers was the old name for the area around Cardigan, P.E.I. If you look at the 1880 atlas you will see Stewarts around there, and I am not sure what the connection is, but I suspect there is one. At any rate, after living around there somewhere for a few years, where their first child was born, they went back to Belle Creek briefly, and then settled up at either Springton or Rose Valley, Lot 67, on the Anderson Road, but eventually ending up at Rose Valley. ^[GS]

Notes on Ronald Stewart:

1. Ronald and Catharine were Gaelic speaking and had a farmstead. ^[HMS]

2. Ronald Stuart was dark haired and had, according to Auntie Katie, navy blue eyes. Ronald was blind in one eye which was meant to have been caused by his mother being tipped out of a carriage when pregnant - in other words he had a lazy eye like Harriet, which because it was not corrected became useless - Oh these genes - my granddaughter Genya had that sliding eye. ^[HS]

3. Auntie Katie told me that Catherine Stuart was able to spin and weave her own blankets, so it was vey much a working farm. It should be easy to trace where the farm was, as it was still in Mary Stuart's hands when she died (1930s? IWS). Dad went and saw it, I remember him telling me that it was a 'humble place', not the rolling acres of South Fork, in Auntie Katie's imagination. I expect it was very rundown as Great Aunt Mary was trying to run it on her own, with some help from Sadie (Sarah) Buchanan and Mamie (Mary) Buchanan. Buchanans must figure in the Island's records as they were living there in the 1930s so the location of the farm could be found. ^[HS]

4. Bill says originally the family settled at Belle River near a place called Stuart Point on the south coast. When Ronald Stuart married Catharine MacKay they moved to Breadalbane, a much more lush farming area in the centre of PEI and there Grandpa Stuart was born - Strathablyn?) ^[IWS]

Notes on Catherine MacKay:

1. Parents listed as Scot-Scot in census. ^[1881][1891]

Notes on Hector Stuart:

1. Drowned at sea and only recognized by his tattoos - the ship was carrying rice and water and got into the cargo. Slain by the biggest rice pudding in the world - was this Malcolm? ^[IWS]

Notes on Neil Stuart:

1. The aunts, who enjoyed a sort of folie a quatre and did not believe we children were really Stuarts, destroyed the family bible and burnt or lost most of their photographs, so no record survives, for example, of grandfather Captain Neil Stuart. ^[IWS]

2. I can just remember seeing a daguerretype, probably taken at the time of his marriage: tall (6 ft 2) blond, good looking, and there was once another of him standing on Liverpool Docks - all gone. ^[IWS]

3. According to a whisper the Aunts tried to suppress, Capt. Neil S. swallowed the anchor and opened a grocery shop in Prescott Street, Liverpool, 'Stuart's prize teas, etc.' (If the business survived it may appear in the Liverpool Trades Directory for the 1890s.) He was about to go back to sea when he became ill and died. The family he left was quite poor and absurdly proud. ^[IWS]

4. Grandpa, so the story goes, ran away to sea at 14. I have heard that he was sailing down south in the Cival War, so I always thought he was gun-running, because it seemed to fit the character I had built up for him. ^[HS] (Bill says he served in the US Navy - a PEI man told him. ^[IWS])

Notes on Mary Stuart:

1. It should be easy to trace where the farm was, as it was still in Mary Stuart's hands when she died (1930s? IWS). Dad went and saw it, I remember him telling me that it was a 'humble place', not the rolling acres of South Fork, in Auntie Katie's imagination. ^[HS]

Notes on Malcolm Stuart:

1. Dr Campbell 'later married our father's brother Malcolm' Aunt Katie's note to a Montreal newspaper cutting of June 1917. The note says Malcolm became a good friend of Dr. Campbell - which suggests he stayed in Montreal. ^[IWS]

Notes on Catherine Stuart:

1. Falconwood Hospital is now called Hillsboro Hospital.

2. Auntie Katie told me that Catherine Stuart was able to spin and weave her own blankets, so it was vey much a working farm. ^[HS]

3. Catherine is a direct descendant of the Royal Stuarts, descended several generations from a daughter. ^[AB]

Notes on John Stuart:

1. Stayed on PEI. ^[HS]

2. He was by all accounts a 'dropout'. He wrote poems and liked to indulge in bare fist fighting for wagers when he had had a drink. I believe his poems were printed in the Charlottetown. Auntie Katie must have heard that from her father, or from Great Aunt Mary's letters. ^[HS]

Sources:

• [1881] Census
• [1891] 1891 Census
• [1901] 1901 Census
• [AB] Andy Buchanan
• [CEM] Cemetery Grave Stone
  1. 67/6-?
• [GS] George Sanborn
• [HMS] Hazel MacKay Stuart
• [HS] Unknown.
• [IWS] Ian Wright Stuart
• [MR] Marriage Record
• [PA] PEI Public Archives
• [RNS] Ronald Neil Stuart
• [VSPEI] Vital Statistics PEI
• [WJHS] William Stuart

Last Updated: Thursday, August 02, 2001.

Goto Buchanan Family Genealogy

This material is Copyright © 1997-2001 Craig Buchanan. All rights reserved. This page may be freely linked to.
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