George Hamilton (April 13, 1781 – January 7, 1839) was a lumber baron and public official in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

Ireland

In 1781, George Hamilton was born a
Hamwood House
in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He was the third son of Charles Hamilton (d. 1818), who built Hamwood, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Crewe Chetwood of Woodbrook, Queen's County. His family were descended from

James Hamilton of Finnart Sir James Hamilton of Finnart (c. 1495 – 16 August 1540) was a Scottish nobleman and architect, the illegitimate son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran, and Marion Boyd of Bonshaw. Although legitimated in 1512 while still a minor, he contin ...

and had come to Ireland during the reign of

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

in the

Plantations of Ireland Plantations in 16th- and 17th-century Ireland involved the confiscation of Irish-owned land by the English Crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from Great Britain. The Crown saw the plantations as a means of controlling, angl ...

. He was a nephew of Hugh Hamilton,

Bishop of Ossory The Bishop of Ossory () is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Provinces of Ireland, Province of Leinster, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remain ...

, and his first cousin, George Hamilton of Hampton Hall,

Co. Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

(a priest), was the father of

George Alexander Hamilton George Alexander Hamilton (29 August 1802 – 17 September 1871) was a minor British Conservative Party politician and later a prominent civil servant. He was an extremely zealous and active Protestant and a supporter of the Orange Order. Pol ...

Quebec

Hamilton came to

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

sometime before 1807. He and his brother William were merchants importing

Madeira wine Madeira is a fortified wine made on the Portuguese Madeira Islands, off the coast of Africa. Madeira is produced in a variety of styles ranging from dry wines which can be consumed on their own, as an apéritif, to sweet wines usually consumed ...

and selling other goods. In 1809, they set themselves up in the timber trade 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 ...

, exporting lumber and supplying shipbuilders. As a result of a timber operator being unable to honour his contract, they became owners of a mill at

Hawkesbury, Ontario Hawkesbury is a Franco-Ontarian city in United Counties of Prescott and Russell, Prescott-Russell county in Eastern Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Canada. The vast majority of its 10,550 inhabitants are Francophone Canadians, francophone. The Long-Sa ...

associated with lumbering along the

Rideau River The Rideau River (french: Rivière Rideau) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writin ...

. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, George served in the Quebec militia reaching the rank of major. When his brother retired, he moved to Hawkesbury to look after the mill. In 1816, Hamilton became a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and judge in the new

Ottawa District The Ottawa District was a historic district in Upper Canada which existed until 1849. It was created in 1816 by splitting the counties of Prescott and Russell from the Eastern District. The district town was L'Orignal. In 1838 Gloucester towns ...

Court of

. During the 1820s, a downturn in the timber trade resulted in hard times for the Hamilton family and the business teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. In 1830, Hamilton formed a partnership with Charles Adamson Low. The mill at Hawkesbury grew to become one of the top producers in the country. Although Hamilton had resorted to illegal cutting on crown lands when establishing his business, he now began to lobby the government to introduce a system of licenses to control timber cutting on crown land. A fee-based system was introduced and, at

Bytown Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a Grou ...

, a down payment was collected against future cutting fees which favoured the wealthier operators and discouraged speculation. In the valley of the

Gatineau River The Gatineau River (french: Rivière Gatineau, ) is a river in western Quebec, Canada, which rises in lakes north of the Baskatong Reservoir and flows south to join the Ottawa River at the city of Gatineau, Quebec. The river is long and drains ...

, Hamilton helped establish the so-called

Gatineau Privilege {{other uses, Gatineau (disambiguation) The Gatineau Privilege referred to a monopoly introduced to limit the cutting of timber along the Gatineau River in Lower Canada from 1832 to 1843. Quotas were established for each participant and no other t ...

, established by an order-in-council in November 1832 which limited the number of operators in the region. Despite protests, it remained in effect until 1843. Hamilton and Low had a similar arrangement in the valley of the Rouge River.

Family

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 ...

, Hamilton married Susannah Christina "Lucy" Craigie, daughter of John Craigie and Susannah Coffin, daughter of John Coffin (1729-1808) of

and a first cousin of admiral

Isaac Coffin Major-General Sir Isaac Campbell Coffin ( bap. 24 August 1801 – 1 October 1872) was an officer of the East India Company's military service who served during the company's rule in India, the First Anglo-Burmese War and the Indian Mutiny. He ...

. Lucy Hamilton was a niece of Margaret Coffin Sheaffe (wife of

Roger Hale Sheaffe General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, 1st Baronet (15 July 1763 – 17 July 1851) was a Loyalist General in the British Army during the War of 1812. He was created a Baronet in 1813 and afterwards served as Commander and acting Lieutenant Governor of ...

) and a half-sister of the wife of

Benjamin Joseph Frobisher Lt.-Colonel The Hon. Benjamin Joseph Frobisher (March 26, 1782 – March 18, 1821), M.P., J.P. was a fur trader and political figure in Lower Canada. Career He was born in Montreal, the son of Joseph Frobisher, and studied in England. In ...

. In 1822 or 1823, while Hamilton and his family were descending the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, their canoe overturned in rapids and their three young children drowned. Hamilton died of a severe cold at Hawkesbury after a trip to review militia in the 1837–38 rebellions. He was survived by at least six children, *Robert Hamilton (1822-1898), continued the family's timber trade. He married Isabella, daughter of John Thomson of Quebec; parents of John Hamilton. *George Hamilton (1824-1856), married Julia, daughter of Judge

George Stephen Benjamin Jarvis George Stephen Benjamin Jarvis (April 21, 1797 – April 15, 1878) was a judge and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1797 and moved to York (Toronto) with his family in 1809. He joined the 49th Regimen ...

. They were the parents of

George Wellesley Hamilton George Wellesley Hamilton (1846–1915) was an Ontario political figure. He represented Prescott in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Conservative member from 1871 to 1874. He was born in Hawkesbury in Canada West in 1846, the grand ...

. * John Hamilton, senator, President of

Sir Hugh Allan Sir Hugh Allan (September 29, 1810 – December 9, 1882) was a Scottish-Canadian shipping magnate, financier and capitalist. By the time of his death, the Allan Shipping Line had become the largest privately owned shipping empire in the wor ...

's Merchants Bank of Canada,

. *Henrietta Hamilton (1830-1857), married Andrew Thomson (1829-1907), President of the Union Bank of Canada and the Quebec Railway, Light, Heat & Power Company. Their only son, George Hamilton Thomson, married Hylda Graves Meredith, daughter of Chief Justice

William Collis Meredith Sir William Collis Meredith, (23 May 1812 – 26 February 1894) was Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Quebec, Superior Court for the Province of Quebec from 1866 to 1884. In 1844, he was offered but refused the positions of Solicitor General ...

. * Charles Hamilton, 1st

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Archbishop of Ottawa. *Francis Hamilton (b. 1838), died unmarried.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, George 1781 births 1839 deaths People from County Meath Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople Canadian people of Ulster-Scottish descent Canadian businesspeople in timber People from Hawkesbury, Ontario Irish emigrants to pre-Confederation Quebec Immigrants to Lower Canada Anglophone Quebec people