Pages 213-215 from unknown document in the Stewart family file at PAROPEI, received by Donald Lowe from Donna Collings, 22 Jan 2001.
Petition of Annabella Stewart, 1789
To His Excellency Edmund Fanning L L D Lt Governor and commander in Chief In and Over His Majesty’s Island Saint John and the Territories Thereunto Adjacent Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same &c, &c, &c – In Council
The Memorial and Representation of Annabella Stewart Relict of Robert Stewart Esqr. late of Prince Town.
Most Respectfully Sheweth,
That the Memorialist’s Husband having been one of the first Settlers in Prince Town within this Your Excellency’s Government in the year 1770, and having Expended considerable Sums of Money in Building Houses, Fishing Vessels &c, cleared and cultivated the Pasture Lotts granted him and Family in the Royalty of Prince Town, but finding them not sufficiently extensive to Raise Stock & Bread for his large Family, purchased several other Lotts from the original Grantees, Viz., Numbers 131, 132 and 140 – That he also cleared these Lots at a considerable expense, and for years past some part of them has been cultivated and now produce large Crops of Hay
That a Proclamation from Your Excellency and the Council having some time ago been published requiring all Grantees to Record their Grants, in order, as Memorialist has been informed, that it might be known with certainty by Your Excellency what were really Granted and were then to Grant, Memorialist satisfied that all the Grants, to which She and her Family had right, were recorded from her being in Possession of an Account from the late Deputy Secretary and Register, which is herewith produced and referred to, in which the Fees of all the Grants she had any Connection with that were not formerly recorded, were Charged, could not suppose herself concerned with said Proclamation.
Your Memorialist is now informed that her Neighbor James Woodside, having last Fall come to Charlotte Town and privately examined the Register, in which the above Grants were not Recorded, has most ungenerously and unjustly taken advantage of the Neglect of the late Deputy Register in order to deprive Your Memorialist of the above Three Lots, of which She has been so long in Possession and Cultivated at so great an Expense—
Your Memorialist flatters herself it will appear to Your Excellency, and the Honourable Board that there was no Neglect on her part or that of her Husband And She most cheerfully Submits to the Consideration of Your Excellency and the council whether the Neglect of the Deputy Register ought to be imputed to her, or that She and her Fatherless Children should, in consequence of it, be deprived of so valuable a part of their Small Property.
Memorialist begs leave further to remark that Mr. Woodside has plenty of ungranted Land to pitch upon, but Willing to step into Land made fit to Yield large Crops at Memorialist Expense, he chose the above Lots rather than Wilderness Land. But Memorialist trusting to the justice of her Cause, the great injustice of that of her Opponents, and the universally known Candor and Justice of Your Excellency and the Council, hopes she will be considered as Intitled to Continue in the Possession of the above Lots No. 131, 132 & 140, which there is now an Attempt so unjustly to Wrest from her
And as in Duty Bound Will Ever pray
Charlotte Town
6th April 1789 (unsigned)(Read in Council 6 Apr. 1789. Petition #16, P.E.I. Archives, Ch’town)
Note. Annabella Stewart was born 11 June 1732, younger daughter of Rev. Charles Stewart, minister of Campbelltown, Argylshire, by his wife Annabella, daughter of John Campbell of Kiladloig, Chamberlain of Kintyre. She was a sister of Peter Stewart, 2nd Chief Justice, and wife of Robert Stewart, Speaker of the first House of Assembly, who died at Princetown, 13 Feb 1787, aged 56 years.
On 18 Sept. 1804 Dugald Stewart of Nouvelle in the Bay of Chaleur, as "attorney to my mother Annabelle Stewart of the same place", sold to John Ramsay of Oyster Cove, Lot 18, 100 acres "bounded on the South and East by Edward Ramsay and North and West by land of Charles Stewart, Esq., likewise son of the said Annabelle", witnesses being John MacGougan, Jr., and William Craig. (Reg. of Deeds, Archives)
Annabella Stewart died – Jan. 1818, aged 85 years, and was buried in the Stewart Brook Cemetery, St. Omer {New Brunswick?}. This graveyard is on high ground overlooking the Bay of Chaleur. The stone reads, in part,
SACRED
To the Memory
Of
Mrs. Annabella Stewart
Widow of Robert Stewart
Who………..
…….
(Died – or Departed this Life – January 1818 Aged 85 Years)