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Subject: [Antigonish] Ancestral turbulence
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 05:24:34 +0000

Below is an excerpt from a fellow genealogist in Alberta.
Our only ties so far; the close proximity of where our
ancestors lived.


Subject: Re: Flora MacKinnon
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 22:11:38 -0600
Here is why I asked about Glenaladale - my 4th great-
granduncle was John
"Hellfire Jack" Stewart - this excerpt comes from a
formal biography on
him:

"In 1789 (John) Stewart had become the neighbour of
another turbulent
Islander, John MacDonald of Glenaladale, by purchasing
part of Lot 37.
There, on a rising stretch of ground overlooking the
Hillsborough River,
he built his country home, Mount Stewart. The formidable
Glenaladale, no
friend of the Stewarts, was the proprietor of Lot 36. In
1797, as the
movement for escheat of the lands on which proprietors
had not fulfilled
the terms of their grant gained fresh momentum,
Glenaladale complained
of a " Levelling Party" whose object was to prevent the
settle- ment of
the lands and thereby make them liable for escheat. When
pressed to
reveal the names of the members of the supposed party,
he obliquely men-
tioned Stewart, among others. Stewart disclaimed all
knowledge of a
levelling party; however, he declared that he had
noticed a recent
revival of the subject of escheat. This, he felt, was
due to the
machinations of Glenaladale himself, who was
endeavouring to gain the
confidence of the proprietors in Britain for the
furtherance of his
views against the local government- On one occasion in
the winter of
1797-98, Stewart insulted Glenaladale in the streets of
Charlottetown
and Glenaladale attacked his tormentor with a small
dirk. Bound up " in
two heavy watch coats and loaded with other defenses
from the cold, so
as to be scarcely able to move," Glenaladale would have
been unable to
withstand the pressure from Stewart's "Prodigious long
cut-and-thrust
sword, " he later declared had his opponent's sword arm
not trembled. As
it was the combatants were parted before any injury was
done. The feud,
however, continued.

In 1802 Glenaladale, in London at the time, horrified to
learn that John
Stewart, also in London was to return to the Island with
powers to
prosecute for arrears of quitrents. He predicted that
his own wife and
children would shortly be " without a house to shelter
them or a bed to
lie upon ... and without a bit of bread to eat. " Events
did not move
that swiftly. Upon his arrival Stewart did commence
proceedings against
a number of the defaulters and, having obtained the
requisite court
judgements, eventually made his report to the Colonial
Office. In the
mean time, however, a change of administration had taken
place in
London, and he received no directions to proceed
further. A compromise
in 1803 on the matter of quitrents owing satisfied the
Stewarts and
began their turn away from the escheat movement."

If we don't find a family tie along the way, they (our
families) did at
least find close quarters, on occasion! ( - : If you
would like to see
more on John or the rest of the Stewart clan, I have
lots more. Jack's
father Peter (my 5th ggpa), was appointed 2nd Chief
Justice of the
Island in 1775.


Don MacDonald

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