Loyalist Freemasons from the State of New York - Onondaga and ...

was buried. According to Dr. Strachan's funeral sermon, preached in Kingston some days later, he had had thoughts of becoming a
clergyman, but, the Revolutionary War breaking out, the course of his life was changed. In 1777, after the disaster which overtook
the British arms, he came to Canada by way of St. John's, P.Q. He appears to have heen for a short time secretary to Col. Butler,
Commanding Officer of the Rangers called by his name.
Between 1777 and 1788 Cartwright came into close contact with the Hon. James McGill, one of the great merchants of Montreal
and the founder of the University which bears his name. Like McGill, he became a trader and a merchant, establishing himself first
at Carleton Island, in partnership with the Hon. Robert Hamilton, and subsequently at Cataraqui. The business relations and the
friendship which he formed with these two men endured till the death of the latter of them in 1809 and of the former in 1813.
From a petition for land which he presented to the Executive Council of Upper Canada, on June 20, 1794, it appears that from 1787
to 1792 he was a Justice of the Peace and a member of the Land Board of the District of Mecklenburg.* Of this body be seems to
have been perhaps the most active member, for in many of the reports made to the Governor in Chief and the Council at Quebec
his hand is clearly visible.
*The first Land Board for the District consisted of the Revd.Mr. John Stuart, Neil McLean, James Clark, Richard Cartwright, Junr.,
and the Officer commanding for the time being. On June 8, 1791, all the Land Boards were continued from and after May 1, 1791.
Mr. Clark's name does not appear in the Order in council of that date, but the other three do, together with those of James
McDonnel and Hector McLean. To these were added on Decemher 24, 1791, Richard Cartwright, Seur., and William Atkinson.
These Seven men, with the Officer Commanding for the time being at Fort Frontenac, composed the Board for the Midland District
and later for the County of Frontenac till its dissolution on November 6, 1794, by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe.
On Mr. Stuart's declining to accept appointment as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1788, Mr. Cartwright's name was
substituted for his in the commission.*
*The other Judges who were appointed for the District in 1789 were James clark and Neil McLean.
In 1795 Mr. Cartwright was appointed, with his fellow magistrates, Messrs. Atkinson and Markland, to contract for and superintend
the building of a gaol and court house agreeably to a plan approved by the magistrates. In 1797 and subsequent years he sat as a
member of the Land Claims Board for the Midland District, to decide the ownership of parcels of land which had changed hands or
which had been inadequately or improperly described when being allotted to Loyalists.
For some time previous to 1792 he had been in occupation of the King's Mills at Kingston, already referred to. He also held at one
time those at the Apanee River. These mills had been erected by Government with a view to providing the settlers with facilities for
procuring timber and for getting their grain ground. In 1798 he represented to tbe Executive Council of the Province that, as the mills
had served their original purpose, those at Kingston might be granted as an endowment for the Grammar School at that place. U. C.
State Book B. pp. 184-5.
From a Letter Book, the property of the Library of Queen's University, it is clear that he was deeply interested in education, which he
sought to promote in both his public and his private capacity. Through Mr. Hamilton and the latter's brother, he was instrumental in
bringing Mr. Strachan to this country. For Strachan he, with the co-operation of the Hon. James McGill, procured, at the public
expense, a set of physical instruments, and this in spite of the dead-weight of the opposition of the Commons' House of Assembly.
Dr. Scadding is authority for the statement that these instruments ultimately became the property of Upper Canada College, Mr.
Strachan being merely the custodian for Government
From the same Letter Book can also be seen how serious were the views which Mr. Cartwright entertained of his duties as a
member of the Legislative Council of the Province, in which he had a seat from 1792 to 1815. This is noticeable particularly in
respect of the Marriage Act, for he was liberal enough to wish to see ministers of all communions empowered to solemnize
matrimony. His impatience at the illiberality of the interpretation put upon the clause of the Constitutional Act touching the provision
for a "Protestant Clergy," has been already noted. At any waste of public funds he was righteously indignant, as, for instance, at the
voting, in a thin House at the close of the session, aid to certain congregations for building Churches, when the original proposal had
been only to purchase a pew in the Church at York for the accommodation of the members of the Legislative Council and of the
House of Assembly.
Of successive Lieutenant-Governors and Administrators he was the trusted, if unofficial, adviser, for he was never called to the
Executive Council. He was also a Commissioner of Roads for the Province and a representative of it in negotiations with the
Province of Lower Canada in regard to financial matters.
How early he settled in Kingston, is not quite certain, but, from an entry in Land Book G, p.42, it is clear that he had been in
possession of Lot 263, 2-5 of an acre, since 1789 and that a house had been erected upon the lot. On April 16, 1793, he was given
permission by the Honourable Council "to build a store upon the Water Lot opposite his Town Lot at Kingston; and likewise to
include in the Grant the beach marked “A” up to the bank B" (Land and State Book A, p.69). On June 21, 1794, he was refused
some islands for which he petitioned, all islands being reserved for the uses of the Crown, but he was allowed 3,000 acres on the
mainland, "His Excellency and the Council being apprized of the Advantages derived in various Instances from the Public Spirit and
exertions of the Petitioner both as a Magistrate and in his private Capacity." Accordingly they thought themselves "fully justified in
supporting his Claim upon the most Equitable Principles" (Land and State Book A, p. 172). His name appears in other connections
in succeeding Land Books, among others for a town lot each for his wife and himself in York. Mrs. Cartwright and four children were
granted 1,200 acres each, in accordance with the custom of the time, the intention of the framers of the Constitutional Act being to
create a landed aristocracy.
Like other traders and merchants, Mr. Cartwright was often forced to take land in satisfaction of debts owing to him. Therefore he
was very directly interested in the law regarding the transfer and the registration of land, also in the application to lands alienated by
the original grantees of the Orders in Council relating to the issue of patents without payment of fees.
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