Cartwright, John Solomon

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. Douglas Stewart and Mary Stewart, “CARTWRIGHT, JOHN SOLOMON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cartwright_john_solomon_7E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Lawyer, militia officer, author, judge, jp, businessman, politician, farmer, and architectural patron; b. 17 Sept. 1804 in Kingston, Upper Canada, son of Richard Cartwright and Magdalen Secord; m. 11 Jan. 1831 in York (Toronto) Sarah Hayter Macaulay, a daughter of Dr James Macaulay, and they had three sons and four daughters; d. 15 Jan. 1845 at Rockwood, his estate near Kingston.
    • Cartwright was educated in the Midland District Grammar School at Kingston, and in 1820 he went to York to enter the law office of John Beverley Robinson, attorney general of Upper Canada. He was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada as a student in the Michaelmas term and was called to the bar in the same term, 1825. In January 1827 Cartwright’s mother died, and he was thus free of immediate family ties in Kingston. He decided to continue his legal studies in England, at Lincoln’s Inn, London. There he would be in easy reach of his twin brother, Robert David, who was studying for the ministry at Oxford.
    • Cartwright kept a journal of his trip, at least for the first months. It shows he had developed a strong and personal visual sense in his response to natural scenery and, to a lesser extent, buildings, though at times both also appealed to him for their literary or historical associations. Although he had been brought up in the United Empire Loyalist tradition, he apparently bore no grudge against the Americans.
    • By the autumn of 1830 Cartwright had returned to Kingston, where he resumed his law practice. In 1834 he was appointed a judge of the Midland District Court; he was elected a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1835 and in 1838 he was made a qc.
    • Another activity in which Cartwright became deeply involved was banking. In May 1832 he was elected a director of the newly formed Commercial Bank of the Midland District, and when the directors met they unanimously chose him president.
    • The land developments in which Cartwright took the most personal interest were those in and around Kingston and in Napanee. He is said to have given the land for every school, public building, and church in the latter town. To his own denomination, the Church of England, he gave not only the land but the church itself, St Mary Magdalene.
  • Grandson to Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=1334
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/162520016/john_solomon-cartwright