Stuart, Rev John

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: T. R. Millman, “STUART, JOHN (1740/41-1811),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/stuart_john_1740_41_1811_5E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Church of England clergyman; b. 24 Feb. 1740/41 in Paxton Township (near Harrisburg), Pa, son of Andrew Stuart and Mary Dinwiddie; m. 12 Oct. 1775 Jane Okill of Philadelphia, Pa, and they had eight children; d. 15 Aug. 1811 in Kingston, Upper Canada.
    • John Stuart received his ba from the College of Philadelphia in 1763 and his ma in 1770. Between these years he was a schoolmaster in Lancaster County, Pa.  His intellectual and social qualifications and even his height, well over six feet, earned him the admiration of his contemporaries.
    • In 1771, following his appointment as a minister of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Fort Hunter, N.Y., Stuart was dubbed “the little Gentleman” by Charles Inglis, later the first Anglican bishop in British North America.
    • Stuart’s close connection with the Johnson family, avowedly loyal to Great Britain, and his own undisguised political opinions soon made him an object of suspicion to commissioners of the Indian Department who had been appointed by the second Continental Congress to maintain the neutrality of the various tribes.
    • Finally, however, in early 1781, his situation became so unpleasant that he applied for permission to leave for the province of Quebec. He eventually obtained an exchange with an army officer held prisoner by the British, quitted Schenectady on 19 Sept. 1781, and arrived at St Johns (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu), Que., on 19 October after a fatiguing journey.
    • In Montreal, he was given a chaplaincy in the 2nd battalion of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York by Sir John Johnson. He operated a school that was open to all denominations, for a short time assisted the clergyman at Montreal, preached occasionally at St Johns, and gave oversight to the Fort Hunter Mohawks who were making a temporary home at Lachine.
    • In the summer of 1784 he travelled as far as Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. ), where he was welcomed by members of his former Indian flock who had congregated near by and had built a church on what is now the American side of the river. Both going and coming he ministered to loyalist settlers and, as prospects of obtaining a parish in Quebec were poor, he decided to move to Cataraqui, where he hoped to become rector and to obtain the chaplaincy of the garrison. In August 1785 Stuart and his family arrived at Cataraqui, his permanent home until his death in 1811.
  • Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8220
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41425746/john-stuart