David Monro (ca. 1765 – September 3, 1834) was a

seigneur ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

, businessman and political figure in

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

. His surname was also sometimes spelled Munro.

Life

He was born around 1765 in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The date of his arrival at

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

is not known but, in 1791, he was involved in administering the dissolving of a partnership between Alexander Davison and John Lees. Monro later became partners with

Mathew Bell Mathew Bell (1769 – June 24, 1849) was a seigneur, businessman and political figure in Lower Canada. His first name is also sometimes recorded as Matthew. He was born at Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, the son of James Bell, a merchant of ...

and, with George Davison, they purchased the Saint-Maurice ironworks in 1793. George Davison died in 1799, which left Monro and Bell the sole owners of the ironworks at Saint-Maurice. In 1804, he was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada was the lower house of the bicameral structure of provincial government in Lower Canada until 1838. The legislative assembly was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. The lower house consisted of ele ...

for Saint-Maurice and generally supported the English party. In 1807, Munro married Catherine MacKenzie, who was the sister of Mathew Bell's wife. He helped found the Quebec Committee of Trade in 1809. He also served in the local militia, becoming major in 1813. Monro served as justice of the peace for Trois-Rivières and Quebec districts. He was a member of the management committee of the Union Company of Quebec, which operated the Union Hotel at Quebec. Monro retired from the business in 1816, selling his share to Bell. In 1817, he bought the seigneury of Champlain with Bell. He was offered a seat on the Legislative Council in that same year but declined as he was planning to leave the province. Monro died at

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1834.

Family

Monro's daughter Margaret married

Thomas Levett Thomas Levett (1594 – ca. 1655), was an Oxford-educated Lincoln's Inn barrister, judge of the Admiralty for the Northern Counties and High Sheriff of Rutland. But Levett's chief accomplishment was as antiquarian, preserving a centuries-old cha ...

, of

Wychnor Park Wychnor Hall (or Wychnor Park, ) is Grade II Listed early 18th-century country house near Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, formerly owned by the Levett Family. The hall has been converted to a Country Club. History Wychnor takes its name from th ...

, Staffordshire, in 1831, three years before Monro's death. (Levett later hyphenated his last name to Levett-Prinsep, and inherited

Croxall Hall Croxall Hall is a restored and extended 16th century manor house situated in the small village of Croxall, Staffordshire (close to the southeastern border with Derbyshire and historically part of it). It is a Grade II* listed building. The man ...

, Derbyshire, a holding of his uncle Thomas

Prinsep Prinsep may mean any of several notable members of the British Prinsep family. The family descended from John Prinsep, an 18th-century merchant who was the son of Rev. John Prinsep, rector of Saundby, Nottinghamshire, and Bicester, Oxfordshire. Jo ...

's family.)After the death of his wife, the former Margaret Monro, Thomas Levett-Prinsep married as his second wife Caroline Mary Templer, daughter of Rev. John James Temple

of

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...

, Devonshire, the rector of

Teigngrace Teigngrace is a civil parish centred on a hamlet that lies about two miles north of the town of Newton Abbot in Devon, England. According to the 2001 census, its population was 235, compared to 190 a century earlier. The western boundary of the p ...

and a member of the Templer family who owned Stover House and the 80,000-acre Stover Estate in Devon, later sold due to Templer family financial troubles to

Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset Edward Adolphus St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset (24 February 1775 – 15 August 1855), styled Lord Seymour until 1793, of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire and Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon, was a British landowner and amateur mathematician. Biogr ...

. Rev. Templer's daughter Henrietta was married to Thomas Levett-Prinsep's brother Theophilus Levett. The son of Theophilus Levett later lived at his 'Colehays' estate near

Bovey Tracey Bovey Tracey () is a small town and civil parish in Devon, England, on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the "slogan" used on the town's boundary signs, "The Gateway to the Moor". It is often known locally as "Bovey". It ...

, which his son Major Edward Levett sold in 191

/ref> That same year Monro's daughter Helen married

Sir Edmund Filmer, 8th Baronet Sir Edmund Filmer, 8th Baronet (14 June 1809 – 8 January 1857) was an English Conservative Party politician. Life He was the son of Edmund Filmer, a younger son of Sir Edmund Filmer, 6th Baronet, and his wife Emelia Skene, daughter of George S ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Monro, David 1760s births 1834 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Quebec Immigrants to the Province of Quebec (1763–1791)