Hello all, My 4x great grandmother was Sarah Janet Orr Stewart nee. McKenzie. A lot of people got her date of birth confused on ancestry (it's around 1808). She married Captain Alexander 'Sandy' Stewart (1789-1855) of the 94th regiment, illegitimate son of Robert Stewart 3rd of Garth, in Gibraltar in 1828. They had 3 daughters and maybe a son. My 3x great grandmother, Isabella, was their youngest daughter born in October 1832 in Malta after Sandy's regiment was sent there from Gibraltar earlier that year (the other daughters were born in Gibraltar). After the record of Isabella's baptism, I can't find any trace of Sarah in any records. She died before 1843 because Sandy remarried in Ontario, Canada. I can't find any British records of Sarah's death so I believe it's most likely she died in Malta or Gibraltar in the 1830s. Can anyone do any sleuthing for a death notice or certificate? I've almost given up and am just coming to the conclusion that there's no record but I really want to find out what happened to her. I've attached some photos of the records I mentioned earlier (marriage and baptism) Thank you Freya
@Half Hour I don't have any records to hand but he got married in Hamilton-Wentworth, Ontario in 1842 to Anna Maria MacNab (b.1810) who was the aunt of Sophia MacNab Keppel, wife of the 7th Earl of Albemarle. Sandy became the Registrar of Hamilton-Wentworth in 1844 and lived in Garth Cottage. He was due to go to Ceylon with his regiment in 1838 but sold out in 1837. I can't find any records of travel but I presume it was around this time that he went to Canada. Isabella married Alexander Campbell in 1850 aged 17 in Hamilton-Wentworth so I can only assume that he bought his children with him
Code: https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Lieutenant_A._Stewart According to this bio of Captain (Lieutenant) Stewart the regiment returned home in 1834. Have you searched for Sarah in Scotland?
Find a Grave: Sarah Jane Stewart died 1831 Infant daughter of Captain Alexander Stewart and Sarah McKenzie Stewart (1811-1840) Withams Cemetery Gibraltar. If this is correct then at least there is a year of death for Sarah Janet.
Wow, I've never seen the website about Lieutenant A Stewart! That's amazing. I manage the find a grave memorial for Sarah Jane Stewart. I forgot to write circa 1840 because I don't know her death date. A lot of ancestry trees say 1840 but I'm not sure. She could've died in childbirth but I will check Scottish records. Thank you
My brother in law is also a Stewart/Stuart descended from Robert the Bruce. Although adopted at birth he traced his parentage back to the great man.
Have stumbled across a great Facebook page ‘Pioneer Families of Hamilton’ and although so far I haven’t come across Alexander Stewart I did however find some information on his father in law Lt Allan MacNab and his home in Burlington Heights ‘Dunburn’ or Dunburn Castle. Even has the architects drawings. Will keep browsing through a bit later. Something might turn up. Interesting that Anna Maria’s mother was also a Stewart (more searching around trees) Being of Scottish blood myself that could mean absolutely nothing.
Caused me to spend an hour or more reading up on Robert the Bruce instead of going to bed! Revision if you like. Hadn't realised before he claimed connection to royal lines in Ireland, including to Aoife of Leinster, daughter of Dermot Macmurrough who married Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow, who through their daughter Isabell who married William Marshall and inherited the title of Earls of Pembroke from the de Clares are all persons from whom I claim descent!
I'll have to have a look at this Facebook page! Thank you. Because of Sandy being illegitimate I have no claim to the Scottish Throne! Sandy didn't have it easy with his family unfortunately. His half brother was Major General David Stewart (1772-1829) and he hated him because of his illegitimacy. Never once blamed his father for having an affair when his wife was on her deathbed, only Alexander for being born! His half sisters began to feel sorry for him because of how he was being treated. They invited him on a family holiday but David and his other 2 half-brothers stopped that from happening because it would ruin the family prestige to assume him as part of the family. Then funnily enough David had an affair a couple of years later and had a son. Hypocrite. In my biased opinion I think Sandy was a way better soldier and leader than David! Sandy was still thankful for his sisters as he named his first daughter after the two of them (Clementina Janet). Sandy's half brother John also had a daughter called Anne with a freed slave native to Grenada, a lady named Charlotte (married in 1809), in 1810 and yet again David did not approve when she was taken in by her aunts Clementina and Janet. She remained the carer for her aunt Janet until Anne died in 1859. Other members of the family had been fed bad information as they thought that every time Alexander returned to Scotland he was feeding off of his families' "prestigious" reputation. Of course he wasn't, he only had one sister left by the end of the 1830s and he had many friends in Glasgow. I'll attach a portrait of his father Robert "Fear Ghart" Stewart of Garth by Sir Henry Raeburn. Don't know why but he kind of reminds me of the actor Geoffrey Rush!!
It was interesting to discover your post because I live in Hamilton and am currently writing a biography of Sir Allan Napier MacNab which will include as complete a family tree as I can create. The date of birth of Anna Maria MacNab (1810) must be incorrect; there are records of her attending school in Toronto a few years before that and I wonder if you can help me at all in finding something to confirm the correct date. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. As you may be aware, Sophia MacNab Keppel is also the great-great-grandmother of Camilla the Queen Consort. - Bill King.
