 By Tom Fournier One of my favourite books is “This Was Montreal in 1814, 1815, 1816 & 1817” by Lawrence M. Wilson. It is simply a number of excerpts from the Montreal Herald that gives insights as to what life in Montreal might have been like during the Regency era. I particularly like the “society pages” type descriptions of the balls. Two of these I will share in this article. The first comes from January 1816 and it describes a Regimental Ball. These were staged by the Officers of a regiment trying to recreate some of the society that they were used to at home. With a population of approximately 15,000 people, Montreal was one of the largest cities in Canada and one of the few cities that had the facilities and local society that made this possible.
In this description we get a sense for the appearance of the room and some of the atmosphere within. Very striking is the timing of the whole affair. Dancing commences in the evening, is interrupted by a very large meal at midnight and then followed by more dancing until dawn! All this on a Tuesday evening. The Bachelor Officers of De Meuron’s Regiment, gave a most, elegant BALL & SUPPER on Tuesday last, at Ste Mary’s, to which the Officers of the garrison and all the principal inhabitants of this were invited. Upon the occasion, the rooms were enlarged, brilliantly illuminated, and fitted up in a superior style of taste and elegance; the walls were hung round with grey cloth, and ornamented with mirrors, and branches of Evergreens, fancifully arranged; from the ceiling of the appartments was suspended a drapery of various colours, in festoons, which had a very pleasing and grand effect. A temporary orchestra was erected, decorated with the Regimental Colours, in which was stationed the Band of the Regiment. Dancing commenced at 8 o’clock, and was kept up with great spirit until 12 when the company retired to an excellent supper, consisting of every delicacy that taste and liberality could procure. Dancing was resumed after supper, and continued until the dawn of morning peeped forth, when the company begun departing not more gratified with their entertainment, than pleased with the attention they experienced. And then we get this, from January 1816, first there is this notice: On Wednesday evening, the most Noble the Marquis of Tweedale[1] gave a Grand Ball and Supper at Holme’s Hotel to about one hundred of his friends; nearly half of them were citizens of Montreal. And then follows this more substantial description. I have done my best to identify who I believe some of the individuals are in footnotes. Please do read through the footnotes, it is a fascinating mix of people that combined prominent military figures with some of the very best elements of Montreal society. It was not just a “Grand Ball”, it was in fact a “Masquerade”. The evening for the Masquerade followed much the same flow, this time with supper at 1:00 a.m. to be followed by dancing until the sun rose. The Marquis of Tweeddale’s Masquerade. Amidst the many masks …the following appeared the most remarkable: -- Mrs. General De Rottenburg[2], an interesting Squaw when masked; at supper when the fair revealed their charms; her beauty was conspicuous, and shone forth unrivalled in spite of the savage costume, which in vain attempted to hide the Symmetry of her Person. – Mrs. Judge Reid[3] a good soldier’s Wife – Mrs. Major Martin[4] an Augustin Nun – Miss Macrae, an inviting peasant girl – Miss Madelaine McGillivray[5], a new market Jockey of feather weight – Mrs. Richardson[6] a Columbine of the old Theatre. MEN A silent old Friar Gen. De Rottenburg – Lt. Col. Robertson[7] a noisy Watch man. Col. Tucker[8], a servant out of place – A Devil by Major Wauchope[9], his Tail more remarkable than his wit -- A Dennis Bulgruddery by Major Robinson[10], truly characteristic of Hibernian Rusticity; this was a very good mask – a good jack Tar by Commry, General Clarke[11] – Major Martin, an Irish man all over, even to his buttons which were made of potatoes – Dr. Waring[12] a good Jean Baptiste. At one o’clock the company unmasked and proceeded to supper, where all the delicacies of the first Maitre de Cuisine were laid out in a style seldom before witnessed in this country. At two o’clock, the dancing, in character, commenced; and was ably kept up, till the brightness of the sun eclipsed the dim light of the Chandeliers. The whole concluded by a Promenade in mask through the streets; to the wonder of the industrious peasant, as he came to market. What a striking image, “the wonder of the industrious peasant”. Somehow, I do not think it was with wonder that the local populace gawked! Footnotes: [1] The Montreal Herald had two spellings for Tweeddale. HAY, GEORGE, Marquis of Tweeddale: ensign 88th Foot -- June 1804, lieutenant 52nd Foot 12 October 1804, captain 10th Foot 14 May 1807, captain 15th Light Dragoons 25 July 1811, major 41st Foot 14 May 1812, brevet lieutenant-colonel 21 June 1813, lieutenant-colonel 100th Foot 20 January 1814, half pay 7 December 1815, brevet colonel 27 May 1825, major-general 10 January 1837, colonel 30th Foot 7 February 1846, lieutenant-general 9 November 1846, general 20 June 1854, colonel 42nd Foot 7 March 1862, colonel 2nd Life Guards 9 September 1863, field-marshal 29 May 1875, died 10 October 1876 at Yester, Scotland. Present: June 1814-February 1815. Actions: Chippawa (severely wounded); Fort Erie siege, Fort Erie assault; Cook's Mills. Honours: Marquis of Tweedale 9 August 1804; companion of the Order of the Bath 4 June 1815; knight of the Order of the Thistle 22 May 1820; knight commander of the Order of the Bath 10 November 1862; knight grand cross of the Order of the Bath 13 May 1867. Biographical reference: Dictionary of National Biography. His Majesty's Gentlemen : a Directory of Regular British Army Officers of the War of 1812. By Stuart Sutherland [2] ROTTENBURG; FRANCIS DE: Born in Gdansk, Poland, he served in the French Army before resigning in 1791. He joined the British Army in 1795. He was instrumental in compiling the “Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen and Light Infantry. He came to Canada in 1810 where he was promoted to Major General. He had command of the Montreal District in 1812. In June 1813, he took over the administration and command responsibilities for Upper Canada. Upon the arrival of Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond in December 1813, de Rottenburg returned to Lower Canada. He returned to England in July 1815. Prior to his departure he presided as the president of Henry Proctor’s court martial. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume 6. “ROTTENBURG, FRANCIS DE, Baron de ROTTENBURG,”. W. B. Turner http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/rottenburg_francis_de_6E.html [3] Mr. Reid was admitted to the Bar in the year 1794, and in May, 1807, raised to the Bench, as one of the Puisne Judges. In the year 1823, he was elevated to the office of Chief-Justice, and presided as such on the Bench until the year 1832, when the weight of declining years warned him to seek repose, and he then resigned his office. After relinquishing office, Mr. Reid and his family visited Europe, and while in England, the honour of Knighthood was offered to him as a mark of the Royal approbation of his long and valuable services; "but a long life of public service, and a conscientious and faithful discharge of public duty, had secured him the esteem of his fellow citizens, and conferred upon him a rank beyond the records of the Herald's office, or the fugitive honors of a title, and he declined accepting it." He died 19th June 1848, aged seventy-nine years. Judge Reid's wife was the sister of Hon. William McGillivray (From the webpage “Notable Montrealers”) [4] MARTIN, JOHN: ensign ------ 1 October 1799, lieutenant 28th Foot ------ 1803, half pay ------ 1803, lieutenant 26th Foot 4 January 1805, captain 100th Foot 28 February 1805, brevet major 19 December 1813, major 99th Foot 4 December 1817, retired 1 November 1818. Present: July 1812-February 1815. Actions: Goose Creek; Fort Niagara; Chippawa; Cook's Mills. His Majesty's Gentlemen : a Directory of Regular British Army Officers of the War of 1812. By Stuart Sutherland [5] McGillivray, William The Honourable William McGillivray, nephew of Simon McTavish, was born in Scotland in 1764. In 1784 he joined the N.W.C. as a clerk. In 1785-86 he was stationed in the Red River department, and in 1786-88 he was in charge of the post at Lac des Serpents. In 1790 he became a partner of the N.W.C., and three years later a member of the firm of McTavish, Frobisher & Co. At Simon McTavish's death in 1804 he succeeded him as Chief Director of the N.W.C., and Fort William was named after him in 1807. In the War of 1812 he served as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Canadian Voyageurs and took part in the capture of Detroit. In 1814 he was created a Legislative Councillor for Lower Canada. He was responsible for the N.W.C. policy towards Lord Selkirk, by whom he was arrested in 1816 at Fort William and sent to Canada for trial. He left Canada for Scotland before the amalgamation between the H.B.C. and the N.W.C., which he helped to negotiate with his brother Simon. He retired to Argyllshire but died in St. John's Wood, London, on 16th October, 1825. McGillivray married in 1800 Magdeline (d. 1810) the sister of John McDonald of Garth. (From the webpage “Notable Montrealers”) [6] RICHARDSON, JOHN, businessman, politician, justice of the peace, office holder, and militia officer; b. c. 1754 in Portsoy, Scotland, son of John Richardson and a daughter of George Phyn; m. 12 Dec. 1794 Sarah Ann Grant, a niece of William Grant, and they had seven children; d. 18 May 1831 in Montreal. In 1787 he was sent to Montreal to help reorganize Robert Ellice and Company. The firm had greatly overextended its operations south of Detroit and Michilimackinac. As part of these responsibilities, he oversaw construction of the company’s schooner, Nancy, designed for use on lakes Huron and Michigan. From the outbreak of war with revolutionary France, Richardson exerted himself to the utmost in the interest of security. During late 1796 and in 1797 Richardson acted as the chief of Lower Canadian counter-intelligence, intercepting correspondence, having suspected traitors examined, and directing a string of informers from Montreal to the American border. Richardson was one of the partners who founded the New North West Company, which amalgamated with the North West Company in 1804. Montreal traders to the southwest – of whom Richardson and William McGillivray were the principals – had joined together in the Michilimackinac Company in 1806. In 1810–11 Richardson and McGillivray negotiated an amalgamation with John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. Richardson and McGillivray exercised considerable influence on events in the west during the war. The support given by the agents, engagés, and dependent Indians of their companies enabled a small British force under Charles Roberts to seize Fort Michilimackinac on 17 July 1812. The two men personally persuaded Prevost of the political and economic value of the southwest trade and of the fort’s strategic importance for securing it. On their recommendation, Prevost commissioned the trader-adventurer Robert Dickson to raise an Indian force; it played a part in the successful defence of the fort under Robert McDouall in August 1814. Tradition has assigned to Richardson authorship of a famous series of letters signed Veritas, which appeared in the Montreal Herald in April–June 1815 and later in pamphlet form. They unmercifully attacked the character and generalship of Prevost, described in one as an officer who had the “extraordinary fatality of either never attempting an active operation, or thinking of it only when the time for practical execution was past.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume 6. “Richardson, John,”. F. Murray Greenwood http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/richardson_john_1831_6E.html [7] ROBERTSON, GEORGE: ensign ------ 13 January 1793, lieutenant ------, captain York Rangers 24 March 1795, reduced on full pay 24 August 1797, captain 1st Ceylon Regiment 25 April 1803, major Canadian Fencibles 20 August 1803, brevet lieutenant-colonel 25 July 1810, lieutenant-colonel Canadian Fencibles 27 June 1811, half pay 20 August 1816, died 25 February 1818 at Newport, England. Present: July 1812-February 1815. His Majesty's Gentlemen : a Directory of Regular British Army Officers of the War of 1812. By Stuart Sutherland [8] TUCKER, JOHN GOULSTON PRICE: ensign 78th Foot 29 April 1795, lieutenant 78th Foot 25 May 1796, lieutenant 72nd Foot 4 July 1797, captain 72nd Foot 31 August 1801, major 72nd Foot 7 March 1805, brevet lieutenant-colonel 17 April 1807, major 8th Garrison Battalion 2 October 1808, half pay 25 March 1810, major 41st Foot 27 January 1814, brevet colonel 4 June 1814, major 5th West India Regiment 30 November 1815, half pay 25 April 1817, commuted half pay ------ 1827, died 9 February 1841 at Paris, France. Present: May 1814-February 1815. Actions: Lewiston; Conjocta Creek (commanding officer). Staff appointments: lieutenant-colonel commanding Volunteer Incorporated Militia Battalion of Upper Canada, October 1814-January 1815. His Majesty's Gentlemen : a Directory of Regular British Army Officers of the War of 1812. By Stuart Sutherland [9] WAUCHOPE, WILLIAM: ensign 93rd Foot 14 April 1803, ensign 94th Foot 12 May 1803, lieutenant 94th Foot -- March 1805, captain 22nd Foot 8 August 1805, major De Meuron's Regiment 14 January 1813, lieutenant-colonel 48th Foot 8 December 1814, half pay 25 December 1814, lieutenant-colonel 31st Foot 25 May 1815, lieutenant-colonel 26th Foot 8 June 1815, half pay 23 October 1817, died 1 or 2 April 1825 at Genoa, Piedmont. Present: June 1813-February 1815. Actions: Plattsburgh campaign. His Majesty's Gentlemen : a Directory of Regular British Army Officers of the War of 1812. By Stuart Sutherland [10] ROBINSON, WILLIAM: ensign 8th Foot 9 February 1797, lieutenant 17th Foot 28 November 1801, lieutenant 8th Foot -- February 1802, half pay ------ 1802, captain ------, captain 8th Foot 5 September 1805, brevet major 19 December 1813 [commission backdated; awarded early 1814], retired 30 September 1824, died 7 December 1827 at Newport, England. Services: July 1812-February 1815. Actions: Fort George blockade, Fort George reconnaissance; Black Rock/Buffalo; Lundy's Lane (severely wounded). Staff appointments: acting inspecting field officer of militia in the Canadian command, November 1812-May 1813; major of brigade in the Canadian command, May-July 1813; lieutenant-colonel Volunteer Incorporated Militia Battalion of Upper Canada, March-November 1814. His Majesty's Gentlemen : a Directory of Regular British Army Officers of the War of 1812. By Stuart Sutherland [11] CLARKE, ISAAC WINSLOW: Deputy Commissary-General of Montreal. One of the sons, and a partner of Richard Clarke, Boston Merchant and consignee of the tea which was destroyed by the mob in Boston Harbour. He is said to have been the organizer of the bateaux brigade on the St. Lawrence. Clarke was also brother-in-law to the famous painter John Singleton Copley. 1812: The War, and its Moral: A Canadian Chronicle. By William F. Collin. 1864. Pages 170 -172 [12] I have less confidence in this one but can find no other references to a Doctor Waring in Montreal in 1815. WARING, CHARLES: assistant surgeon 8th Foot 1 July 1809, surgeon 8th Foot 6 January 1814, half pay 25 December 1815, surgeon 41st Foot 18 January 1816, half pay 8 June 1820, surgeon 39th Foot 29 May 1823, surgeon 5th Foot 1 December 1835, resigned 11 December 1838. Present: July 1812-February 1815. Actions: Fort George blockade; Plattsburgh campaign. Staff appointments: surgeon 2nd Militia Light Infantry Battalion, May-November 1813, acting surgeon De Meuron's Regiment, November 1813-May 1814. His Majesty's Gentlemen : a Directory of Regular British Army Officers of the War of 1812. By Stuart Sutherland
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