LADY ELIZABETH STUART, née Robertson
Long before her birth in Lower Canada, Elizabeth Robertson’s roots stretched deep into the Scottish Highlands. Through her paternal lineage, she descended from the early chiefs of Clan Donnachaidh and from the noble families connected to Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, and ultimately the royal bloodline of Robert the Bruce. Her ancestry therefore reaches across centuries of Scottish history, connecting her to a remarkable network of Highland families.
Born in Montreal on January 31, 1795, Elizabeth was the daughter of Alexander Robertson and Mary MacPherson. Her story is particularly revealing because the discovery of her father’s true identity opened the door to a much deeper Scottish lineage. While this account focuses primarily on Elizabeth’s paternal ancestry through Alexander Robertson, her mother’s MacPherson family provides an equally important connection to the Scottish community that surrounded Elizabeth throughout her life.
Alexander Robertson, the 5th Chief of Clan Donnachaidh: 8th Great-Grandfather
For years, Elizabeth’s paternal ancestry was hidden behind the kind of genealogical brick wall every researcher dreads. The difficulty arose from something deceptively simple: her father’s surname had been incorrectly transcribed in his marriage record. Although Alexander Robertson was known from surviving records, the uncertainty surrounding his identity made it difficult to establish Elizabeth’s connection to the Robertson family of Perthshire.
The breakthrough came through archival research. Alexander’s inventory records, preserved in Montreal at BAnQ, confirmed his identity and established that he was the son of Thomas Robertson of Faskally and Katherine Robertson of Auchleeks.
Alexander was born on March 4, 1760, at Over Bohespick, a small cluster of houses near Blair Atholl in Perthshire, Scotland, now surviving only as ruins. His parentage is documented on page 522 of Gordon MacGregor’s Red Book of Scotland. Through his parents, Alexander descended from two distinct cadet branches of the Robertson family, both stemming from Alexander Robertson, the 5th Chief of Clan Donnachaidh.
Alexander Robertson (c. 1440–1505) married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth Lyon, daughter of Lord Glamis. Their son, James, became the progenitor of the Robertson families of Calvine and Auchleeks. Alexander later married Lady Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, 1st Earl of Atholl, and Eleanor Sinclair. John Stewart was a uterine half-brother of King James II of Scotland, being the son of Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, and Queen Joan Beaufort. Their son, also named Alexander, became the progenitor of the Faskally branch.
More than three centuries later, Alexander Robertson and his brother James carried this Scottish lineage across the Atlantic to Montreal. They established themselves as merchants and became part of the city’s growing Scottish commercial community. In 1792, Alexander married Mary MacPherson and made provision for her in his will before embarking on one of his regular journeys to Britain.
That journey would be his last. In December 1797, while travelling toward England, Alexander was aboard a vessel that was wrecked off the coast of Cornwall, England. He died on December 16, 1797.
Elizabeth was only two years old. Her mother, Mary, was pregnant with their second child when Alexander died, leaving her to raise their young family without him. Yet Alexander’s death did not sever Elizabeth’s connection to her father’s family. On the contrary, records identify Elizabeth as his heir, indicating that she inherited his property and interests.
Through Alexander, Elizabeth was also connected to her grandfather, Thomas Robertson of Faskally, and to the Robertson family’s longstanding Scottish inheritance. Her position as Alexander’s heir therefore carried both practical and genealogical significance: she was the daughter through whom part of the Robertson legacy passed into the next generation in Canada.
The MacPherson Family Connection
Elizabeth’s maternal family created another important network. Her mother, Mary MacPherson, was the sister of Joan MacPherson, who married Archibald McLean. McLean became a prominent lawyer, politician, and judge. He established his legal practice in Cornwall, Upper Canada, in 1816 and became an important figure in the community. He later served on the courts of Upper Canada and was appointed Chief Justice of Upper Canada in 1862.
This connection helps explain why Cornwall, Ontario, became an important place in Elizabeth’s extended family history. It was not the Cornwall where her father died—that was Cornwall in England—but a community in Upper Canada where members of her mother's family established themselves.
Elizabeth would have been particularly familiar with her first cousin, George McPherson. George was the grandson of Mary Cameron, Elizabeth’s grandmother, and family letters provide unusually personal evidence of their relationship. In one letter, Mary Cameron refers to George as “my grandson” and states that he would deliver her letter. Her correspondence also reveals the close and practical care she exercised over younger members of the family, including instructions concerning clothing and ensuring that George had a proper place to sleep.
These letters provide something that conventional genealogical records often cannot: a glimpse into the family’s everyday relationships. They show Mary Cameron actively involved in the lives of her grandchildren and demonstrate that George was not merely a name on a family tree. He was part of a living family network in which relatives travelled, delivered letters, provided clothing, arranged lodging, and looked after one another.
George McPherson later developed a remarkable career of his own. He joined the Hudson’s Bay Company as a young man and worked at several posts before settling in the Lake of the Woods region. By 1873, he was serving as personal interpreter to Treaty Commissioner Alexander Morris during the negotiations for Treaty No. 3. Contemporary accounts describe Morris relying on McPherson as an interpreter during the negotiations. George was also recorded as a witness to the treaty.
The original Government of Canada transcription of Treaty No. 3 lists “GEORGE McPHERSON, Sr.” among the witnesses present when the treaty was signed at the Northwest Angle of the Lake of the Woods on October 3, 1873.
Thus, Elizabeth’s family connection extended from the Scottish Highlands to Montreal and Cornwall, Ontario, and eventually into one of the major treaty-making events of nineteenth-century Canada.
Elizabeth Robertson, Heiress
Elizabeth’s position as her father’s heir gave her a distinctive place within this family network. She was not simply the daughter of a Montreal merchant who had died tragically young. She was the surviving daughter of Alexander Robertson, granddaughter of Thomas Robertson of Faskally, and the inheritor of property and family interests that connected her to the Robertson lineage of Perthshire.
At the same time, her mother’s family placed her within a broader Scottish-Canadian network. Through Mary MacPherson and her sister Joan, Elizabeth was connected to the McLeans and to the influential legal and social circles of Cornwall and Upper Canada. Her relationship with her cousin George further demonstrates how closely these extended families remained connected across generations and communities.
It was within this interconnected Scottish-Canadian world that Elizabeth eventually met James Stuart.
Marriage to James Stuart
Elizabeth married James Stuart in Montreal on March 14, 1818, when she was twenty-three.
Stuart was already an established lawyer and public figure. Over the following decades, his career placed him at the centre of the political and legal establishment of Lower Canada. He ultimately became Chief Justice of Lower Canada in 1838.
When Elizabeth married him, however, he was not yet “Sir James.” That distinction came more than two decades later. On May 5, 1841, James Stuart was created a baronet, making him Sir James Stuart, 1st Baronet. Elizabeth consequently became Lady Elizabeth Stuart.
Their marriage brought together two established families whose influence extended into different spheres of British North American society. Stuart’s career placed him among the leading figures of Lower Canada’s legal and political establishment, while Elizabeth brought with her the inheritance and family connections of the Robertsons and MacPhersons.
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that Elizabeth and James had three sons and one daughter. Their children were:
Sir Charles James Stuart
Mary Catherine Stuart
Sir Edward Andrew Stuart
Sir James Stuart
All three sons would eventually succeed to the Stuart baronetcy, which continued until the death of the youngest son in 1915.
A Scottish Legacy in Canada
Elizabeth’s story began with loss. At only two years old, she lost her father in a shipwreck off Cornwall, England, while her mother was carrying her second child. Yet from that tragedy emerged a life shaped by inheritance, family connections, and the remarkable movement of Scottish families across the Atlantic.
Through her father, Elizabeth inherited the Robertson lineage of Faskally and Auchleeks and descended from the ancient chiefly family of Clan Donnachaidh. Through her mother, she belonged to the MacPherson family and was connected through her aunt Joan to Justice Archibald McLean and the influential Scottish community of Cornwall, Ontario. Through her cousin George McPherson, that family network eventually reached the negotiations and signing of Treaty No. 3.
And through her marriage to James Stuart, Elizabeth entered the highest levels of the legal establishment of Lower Canada, becoming Lady Elizabeth Stuart when her husband was created a baronet in 1841.
Her life therefore forms a remarkable bridge between two worlds: the ancient Robertson families of Perthshire and the emerging institutions of nineteenth-century Canada. The inheritance she received from her father, the family relationships preserved through her mother and grandmother, and the descendants she raised with Sir James Stuart carried that Scottish legacy forward into another generation.
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Sir Edward Andrew Stuart Bart. 1832-1903. |
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| Mary Cameron's letter |
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| Mary Cameron's letter |
Sources and References
Primary Sources
Cameron, M. (n.d.). Personal letters to family members [Unpublished family correspondence]. Private family collection.
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. (n.d.). Treaty No. 3. Government of Canada.
Robertson, A. (1797). Inventory and testamentary records [Archival record]. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Montréal, Québec.
Genealogical and Historical Sources
MacGregor, G. (n.d.). The Red Book of Scotland (p. 522). [Consulted for the parentage of Alexander Robertson, son of Thomas Robertson of Faskally and Katherine Robertson of Auchleeks.]
Paul, J. B. (Ed.). (1904–1914). The Scots peerage: Founded on Wood's edition of Sir Robert Douglas's peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom (Vol. 8, p. 272). David Douglas.
Canadian Biographical Sources
Hodgins, B. W. (1976). McLean, Archibald (1791–1865). In Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Vol. 9). University of Toronto/Université Laval.
Kolish, E. (1985). Stuart, Sir James. In Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Vol. 8). University of Toronto/Université Laval.
Assemblée nationale du Québec. (2021). James Stuart.
George McPherson and Treaty No. 3
Ontario Métis Facts. (n.d.). George McPherson’s life of service.
Ontario Métis Facts. (n.d.). Métis interpreters and guides.
Métis Nation of Ontario. (2021). Métis Voyageur (Vol. 105, Issue C).
Archival and Family Evidence
The Mary Cameron letters are particularly important to this research because they provide firsthand family evidence that is not available in the published genealogical sources. In one letter, Mary Cameron identifies George McPherson explicitly as “my grandson” and describes him as the person who would deliver her letter. Her instructions concerning the care of George—including her concern that he have suitable clothing and a proper place to sleep—also provide an unusually personal glimpse into the family’s relationships and responsibilities.
These letters should therefore be treated as primary sources for the relationships within the MacPherson–Cameron family. Where possible, the final citation should include the exact date of each letter, recipient, and location of the original document.
Note on Treaty No. 3
The Government of Canada’s reproduction of Treaty No. 3 is the preferred source for the statement that George McPherson, Sr. was listed as a witness to the treaty. The Ontario Métis sources provide valuable biographical context concerning his work as a Hudson’s Bay Company trader and interpreter and his role during the negotiations.
Note on Sir James Stuart
For James Stuart, the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the National Assembly of Québec are the strongest sources for the chronology of his career. Together they establish his marriage to Elizabeth Robertson in 1818, his appointment as Chief Justice of Lower Canada in 1838, and his creation as a baronet on May 5, 1841. This distinction is important because Elizabeth became Lady Elizabeth Stuart only after Stuart received his baronetcy; he was not yet “Sir James” when they married.
Note on Archibald McLean
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is the principal source for Archibald McLean. It establishes his marriage to Joan McPherson, his legal career in Cornwall, Ontario, and his eventual appointment as Chief Justice of Upper Canada. This source is particularly useful for establishing the wider MacPherson–McLean family network surrounding Elizabeth.
Image Credit: AI depiction based on photo of her son.
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