Category: Mile End Tavern

The Life and Times of Phineas Bagg

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Last spring, my husband and I travelled to Pittsfield, in western Massachusetts, where Phineas Bagg (c 1751-1823), my four-times great-grandfather, lived. As we wandered around the nearby town of Lenox, we spotted a sign indicating that a small office building had once been the Berkshire County Courthouse.

Simply by chance, we were standing in front of the building where my family’s history had taken a dramatic turn.

former courthouse, Lenox, MA

In 1794 and 1795, my ancestor appeared in that courthouse because he owed local merchants money he couldn’t pay. After he lost most of his land to pay off these debts, he left Massachusetts for good.

Phineas did not have an easy life. He was born in Westfield, MA around 1751, the youngest of eight children of farmer David Bagg and his wife Elizabeth Moseley.1 His mother died when Phineas was about eight years old and his father remarried, but that second wife also died. In the mid-1760s, the family moved to Pittsfield, a new town on the western frontier of Massachusetts, and David Bagg remarried a third time.  

The family cleared the forest so they could plant crops and likely built their own log cabin. As a young single man in 1777, Phineas purchased a farm of his own of about 100 acres.

Although Pittsfield was remote, the political events of the time were of great interest to its residents and opposition to Great Britain was strong. When the American Revolution (1775-1783) broke out, Phineas, his father and several of his brothers served as a soldiers. On three occasions, Phineas marched in a local militia unit, and he served in the Continental Army for about a month.2

Phineas Bagg

By the time the war ended, Phineas had his own family. In 1780, when he was about 29, he married 20-year-old Pamela Stanley.3 There are no records of their children’s births or deaths, but Phineas and Pamela had four children who survived to adulthood: Polly, Stanley, Abner and Sophia.4

When his household was counted in the 1790 United States census, it included six people: one white male age 16 and older, two white males under 16 and three white females.5 Phineas Bagg’s name also appeared in other Berkshire County records. His household was included in a 1786 local census, his name appeared in the ledger of a local merchant between 1791 and 1794, and he paid $49.11 in real estate tax in 1795.6

What was not recorded was his wife’s death. Pamela probably died between 1792 and 1794, a period when there were many deaths in the community. This would have been a hard blow to the family, not only emotionally, but also because women usually contributed to the work on the farm.

Farmers Under Pressure

Many New England farmers had faced financial difficulties ever since the end of the revolution. In 1886 and 1887, many of them joined in what became known as Shays’ Rebellion.7 I do not know whether Phineas joined the rebels, but he shared a similar financial situation.

Phineas was a yeoman: a farmer who owned his own land. Land ownership gave yeomen a great deal of pride and independence. Before the revolution, the farmers in the interior regions of Massachusetts were subsistence farmers: they grew enough crops to feed their families (mostly Indian corn, apples and vegetables) and bartered the small surplus of goods they produced with local merchants to obtain products such as nails and sugar.

After the revolution, new economic forces squeezed the merchants, and they in turn pushed their customers for cash. The farmers did not have cash, so the merchants took them to court. Many yeomen lost their land as a result, others were sent to jail – and jail was a dirty and dangerous place.

This was exactly what happened to Phineas, although his troubles took place a few years later. In 1793, he mortgaged his farm to the Union Bank for $500. The following year, three creditors took him to the Berkshire County Courthouse for debts totaling about 44 pounds. If he did not repay the money within six months, the court commanded the sheriff to “take the body of said Bagg and him commit into our gaol” until his creditors were satisfied. Several weeks later, Phineas gave each of his creditors several acres of the farm as repayment.8

In 1795, he took out another mortgage on his property. Then ten additional creditors to whom he owed a total of $650, including substantial court costs, assessors’ fees and inflated travel expenses, won judgments against him. To repay them, Phineas lost another 62 acres of farmland, the barn and half his house.

The final case, heard in 1797, involved money he owed to tailor John George Randow. Once again, the court ordered that Phineas should be jailed if he did not pay. Phineas did not pay and he did not appear in court. In fact, by that time, he was probably in Canada. Several weeks later, Randow acquired title to a piece of land from Phineas’ farm.

Perhaps these events had convinced Phineas that he could not support his children in Pittsfield. Perhaps he was so distraught, he did not want to try. I do not know whether his extended family members tried to convince him to stay. Meanwhile, it appears he had found a companion who wanted to join him in a new life – or perhaps she persuaded him to go. At some point, he and the children left for Canada, where he lived with Ruth Langworthy, a young woman who had probably accompanied them from Pittsfield. As far as I know, she and Phineas did not marry.

How they chose their destination is another mystery. Probably Phineas knew someone who lived in La Prairie, a town on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, because that is where they ended up.

La Prairie Innkeeper

old houses in La Praire

Phineas received a license to run a tavern in La Prairie on March 15, 1797 and he became an inn keeper.9 La Prairie notary Ignace-Gamelin Bourassa handled six acts for Phineas between September, 1796 and March, 1801, including a lease, an agreement for transportation and a loan guarantee, while notary Edme Henry handled two leases from Joseph Nolin to Phineas Bagg in 1800 and 1803.10 Other notarial records show Phineas purchased land in the La Prairie area in 1805 and sold it in 1813.

Ruth Langworthy gave birth to two children in La Prairie. Daughter Lucie Bagg was baptized in the Catholic parish church in La Prairie on January 11, 1798 by a French-speaking priest and with French Canadian godparents. Son Louis died shortly after birth and was buried April 1, 1800, but Lucie grew to adulthood. I have found no further record of Ruth. By 1809, Phineas had moved across the St. Lawrence and was living on the Island of Montreal, near the mountain. In October of that year, he was appointed overseer of highways for the Ste-Catherine district, an annual unpaid appointment that rotated among parish householders.11

About this time, Phineas may have been a member of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Montreal.12 A number of Americans were members of the same church. In 1810 he went into partnership with his eldest son, Stanley, as P & S Bagg. They leased a building from landowner John Clark and started a new enterprise as tavern keepers. The Mile End Tavern was in the countryside north of the city of Montreal, at the junction of the only two roads in the area. It must have been a popular spot, especially on days when there was horse racing at the nearby track. Meanwhile Stanley was busy with other business opportunities as a merchant and contractor.

The family never did move to Upper Canada

In 1818, when Phineas was around age 67, they closed the business. The following year, Stanley married Mary Ann Clark, their former landlord’s daughter. Perhaps Phineas lived with Stanley and Mary Ann in their house on St. Lawrence Street for the last few years of his life.

Bagg Family crypt, Mount Royal Cemetery

When he died in 1823, his funeral service was held at Montreal’s Anglican Christ Church. Phineas Bagg Esquire was probably buried in the old cemetery downtown and his remains later moved to the Bagg famly crypt in Mount Royal Cemetery. Once a debtor threatened with imprisonment, Phineas had become part of a well-respected family.  

See also:

“David Bagg’s Life on the Massachusetts Frontier,” Writing Up The Ancestors, June 22, 2018, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2018/06/david-baggs-life-on-massachusetts_22.html

“The Elusive Pamela Stanley,” Writing Up The Ancestors, Sept. 28, 2018, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2018/09/the-elusive-pamela-stanley.html

“Who was Phineas Bagg?”  Writing Up The Ancestors, Oct. 11, 2014, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2014/10/who-was-phineas-bagg.html  

“Lucie Bagg’s Mother, Ruth Langworthy,” Writing Up The Ancestors, April 15, 2016, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2016/04/lucie-baggs-mother-ruth-langworthy.html

“An Economic Emigrant,” Writing Up The Ancestors, Oct. 16, 2013, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2013/10/an-economic-emigrant.html.

“The Mile End Tavern,” Writing Up The Ancestors, Oct. 21, 2013, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2013/10/the-mile-end-tavern.html

“The Life and Times of Stanley Bagg, 1788-1853,” Writing Up The Ancestors, Oct. 5, 2016, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2016/10/the-life-and-times-of-stanley-bagg-1788.html

“Abner Bagg: Black Sheep of the Family?” Writing Up The Ancestors, April 9, 2015, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2015/04/abner-bagg-black-sheep-of-family.html

Notes and footnotes

  1. The best evidence for his date of birth comes from the record of his burial at Montreal’s Anglican Christ Church. Dated Nov. 3, 1823, it says, “Phineas Bagg esq of Montreal, merchant, died on the 31 day of November [sic] 1823, aged 72 years, and was buried on the 3rd day of November following by me. John Bethune, rector.” (The minister made a mistake on the date of death: it was actually 31 October.)
  2. A summary of his service record reads as follows:  “Bagg, Phineas, Pittsfield.Capt. William Francis’s co.; list of men who marched to Albany Jan. 14, 1776, by order of Gen. Schuyler, and were dismissed Jan. 19, 1776; service, 5 days; also, Lieut. William Barber’s co., Col. Simonds’s regt.; list of men who marched to New York Sept. 30, 1776, and were dismissed Nov. 17, 1776; service, 7 weeks; also, Private, Capt. William Francis’s co., Maj. Caleb Hyde’s regt.; list of men who marched to Fort Edward July 8, 1777, and were dismissed Aug. 26, 1777; service, 7 weeks; also, list of men who enlisted Oct. 26, 1779, to reinforce Continental Army, and were dismissed Nov. 30, 1779.”   Ancestry.com. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, 17 Vols .[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1998. Original data: Secretary of the Commonwealth.  Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution. Vol. I-XVII. Boston, MA, USA: Wright and Potter Printing Co., 1896. (accessed Jan. 12, 2013)
  3. Early Vital Records of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden & Hampshire Counties, Mass. to about 1850 (electronic resource) Wheat Ridge, CO: Search and Research Publ Corp. c2000, p. 22 of sheet 99, F94/p6/M37.
  4. According to date of birth calculated from age as listed on her tombstone, Polly Bagg Bush was born April 22, 1785 and died Jan 9, 1856. (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65952231/polly-bush). Stanley Bagg and his brother Abner were both baptized as adults in Christ Church (Anglican) Montreal in 1831. At that time Stanley gave his date of birth as June 27, 1788 and Abner said his date of birth was August 5, 1790, however, this date does not make sense in light of his sister Sopha’s calculated birthdate.  “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line].  Ancestry.com, (www.ancestry.ca, accessed 2 Oct. 2016), entry for Stanley Bagg, 2 April, 1831; citing Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin. Sophia was probably the youngest of the Bagg children. Dame Sophia Bagg, veuve (widow) Gabriel Roy died Nov. 12, 1860, and at the time was said to have been 69 years, eight months of age. Calculating her date of birth from that, she would have been born around February 20, 1791. (“Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line]. Ancestry.com.)
  5. United States Census, 1790 Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, familysearch.org, results for Phinehas Bagg. “United States Census, 1790,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKL-1HW : accessed 29 September 2018), Phinehas Bagg, Pittsfield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States; citing p. 483, NARA microfilm publication M637, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 4; FHL microfilm 568,144.
  6. The people of Pittsfield were not great record keepers at this time, however, the Berkshire Family History Association (http://www.berkshirefamilyhistory.org/) has done a good job of transcribing the records that do exist and publishing them in Berkshire Genealogist. The Berkshire Atheneum, the public library in Pittsfield, has an excellent collection of genealogy resources and local history books. I also found some records of Phineas at The New England Historic Genealogical Society library in Boston.
  7. David P. Szatmary, Shay’s Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980.
  8. I copied the microfilmed records of Phineas’ court appearances at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston in 2011. At that time, I was fairly new to genealogy and did not take proper note of the source. First, I consulted the index to deeds granted by Phineas Bagg in Pittsfield, dated between 1794 and 1797, (character Levy, volume 32, between pages 46 and 111.) The grantees included Williams, Randow, Minteur, Van Schaal, Danforth, Metcalf, Messenger, Gold, Cadwell, Hallister, Noble, Ford and Thayer. Phineas transferred property to these men to cover the money he owed them. These legal documents have been digitized by Familysearch.org and can be browsed under Massachusetts Land Records 1620-1986, Berkshire, Deeds, 1792-1813, vol 31-32,  images 438- 442. These online documents are much clearer than the microfilmed version was.
  9. Historian Donald Fyson told me he came across this license, issued by the Special Sessions of the Peace, in the archives of the City of Montreal when he was working on his PhD.
  10. Once again, I did this research many years ago and I did not make a full notation of the sources. The indexes to these acts are not online. I remember looking at actual old books at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) on Viger Street in Montreal. My notes mention notary Ignace-Gamelin Bourassa, 1789-1804 La Prairie, microfilmed, reel 2718-2723, Cote CN601,S47; and notary Edme Henry, 1783-1831, Cote CN601,S200.
  11. Fyson mentioned this in a note to me.
  12. Rev. Robert Campbell, A History of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, St. Gabriel Street, Montreal, Montreal: W. Drysdale & Co. 1887, P. 252. https://archive.org/details/cihm_00397/page/n1. A section of this book that discusses the large number of New Englanders living in Montreal at the beginning of the 1800s. The author mentions Phineas but incorrectly describes him as Abner Bagg’s brother, rather than his father, so he may have confused Phineas with Stanley.

The Life and Times of Stanley Bagg, 1788-1853

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My three-times great-grandfather Stanley Bagg’s claim to minor historical fame is that he was the English party candidate in the 1832 by-election in Montreal that ended in the deaths of three innocent bystanders who were shot by the British army. Because that incident was one of the factors that led to the outbreak of a violent rebellion in Lower Canada five years later, Stanley’s name has appeared in numerous books about Quebec history.  

Stanley’s foray into politics only lasted about a month. For most of his life, he worked as a merchant and, as far as I can tell, he was just a hard-working individual who did not seek the spotlight. As a result, none of the historians who have mentioned his name have known much about him, or worse, what they have published is incorrect. Now, it is encouraging to see that recent research into his life and times is becoming publicly available. This fall, Stanley’s portrait, along with a brief accurate biography, appeared in Quebec’s new grade 10 history textbook.

There are several articles on this blog that detail various aspects of Stanley’s life (see the links below). Here, for the record, is an overview of his life:  

The most common error about Stanley Bagg is that his family immigrated to Canada from England in the late 18th century. In fact, the Bagg family had lived in western Massachusetts since the mid-1600s.1 Stanley was born on June 27, 17882 in Pittsfield, MA, where his father, Phineas Bagg (c. 1750-1823) was a farmer. His mother, Pamela Stanley (1760 – c. 1793), died, leaving Phineas with four young children: Polly (1785-1856), Stanley (1788-1853), Abner (c. 1790-1852) and Sophia (c. 1791-1860).

Lachine Canal, JH photo

Phineas ran into serious financial difficulties and lost his farm to pay off his debts. The family left for Canada around 1795 and settled in LaPrairie, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, and Phineas became an innkeeper. Lucie Bagg (1798-1874), Stanley’s half-sister, was born in LaPrairie.  

When Stanley was a young man in 1810, he and his father rented a house from butcher John Clark (1767-1827) on St. Lawrence Street about a mile north of Sherbrooke Street, and opened a tavern. The Mile End Tavern was located at the point where the only two roads in the area crossed, and Stanley probably met many people there. 

Exciting business opportunities came his way. For starters, he and business partner Oliver Wait got a lucrative contract to transport six cannons from Montreal to Kingston during the War of 1812. The subcontractors to whom they gave the job delivered the cannons safely. In 1819, the pair landed a contract to level Montreal’s Citadel Hill, where the army stored its arms and ammunition. Along with two more partners, Andrew White and Thomas Phillips, they then won contracts to provide building materials for two new forts outside the city walls, one on Île Ste. Hélène, the other on the Richelieu River, near the American border. 

Stanley and Mary Ann Bagg

 Stanley became a family man. He married John Clark’s daughter, Mary Ann (1795-1835), on Aug. 7, 1819.3 As a wedding present, Clark gave the couple a house on St. Lawrence Street, just north of Sherbrooke Street, in an area known as Côte à Baron (sometimes spelled Côteau Barron). It was named Durham House, after the Clark family’s native Durham, England. The couple’s only child, Stanley Clark Bagg, was born there on Dec. 23, 1820.4

In 1821, Bagg, Wait, White and Phillips won a huge contract to construct the Lachine Canal. The project, designed to allow boats to bypass rapids in the St. Lawrence River, involved excavating the 14-kilometer canal and building six stone locks and several bridges. It took four years to complete and employed thousands of mostly Irish immigrant labourers. Stanley was the project’s treasurer. 

After the Lachine Canal was finished, Stanley became what we would consider a small businessman. In contemporary documents he was usually called a “trader.” He was always on the lookout for promising deals, however, the economic climate in Lower Canada was difficult as it depended on decisions made in England. Cash was always in short supply and the colony’s banking system was rudimentary, but the timber trade was thriving. Collaborating with various partners and sub-contractors, Stanley invested in steamboats, traded dry goods and harvested timber.5

He collaborated with his brother Abner to import flour from Upper Canada and he sold beef to the army in partnership with butcher John Clark. He and his friend Matthew Campbell went into business together as general merchants. But it was always a scramble, and in many of the letters he wrote in the mid-1830s, he complained to customers who were late paying their bills.

From a display at the Pointe-à-Callière Montreal Archaeology and History Museum. The Bagg building was no 10.

Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, he was especially active as a timber merchant. He contracted to buy timber from logging shanties in several locations, but especially in the Chateauguay River valley, southwest of Montreal. He sold the large squared pine timbers for shipment to England, where they were used in shipbuilding or for construction projects closer to home, and he sold the small logs to the army and to local residents for firewood. In a letter to a client dated April 27, 1835, he wrote, “I have always been apprehensive of danger on small streams in my timber operations, and with much pleasure have to inform you that my timber made on the River Chateauguay got safely down to the basin some time ago and I expect a part of it in here tomorrow, which I will forward on to Quebec as soon as the state of the navigation will allow.” 6

Stanley never owned a great deal of land at any one time, but he tried to profit by buying and selling real estate, or by renting out properties to tenants. These properties were all over the city and surrounding region. One commercial building that people still associate with his name was located near the market square in Montreal’s Old Port. Today, its foundations can be seen in the underground level of the Pointe-à-Callière Montreal Archaeology and History Museum. Another building that Montreal historians have associated with Stanley and Abner Bagg is now the Outremont City Hall. They owned it from 1814 to 1829, when it was an ordinary house.7

As executor of his father-in-law’s estate, Stanley collected the rental income from several large farms on the west side of St. Lawrence Street, from Sherbrooke Street to the Rivière des Prairies. John Clark had left these properties to his daughter and to his seven-year-old grandson. When Mary Ann died in 1835, Stanley became executor of her estate also, overseeing these investments and buying and selling adjacent lots until Stanley Clark Bagg reached 21 years of age.  

Stanley was probably very familiar with farming methods. Mile End, where the tavern had been, was a working farm, and Durham House had an orchard, beehives, a dovecot and several pigs, cows and horses. Stanley especially enjoyed riding horses and owned many throughout his life. He even opened a race track near the Mile End Tavern.  Meanwhile, although Stanley was a moderately successful businessman, his financial situation became complicated after Abner’s hat manufacturing business went bankrupt in 1827. Stanley tried to help his brother pay back some of his debts and, through various legal manoeuvers, hold on to a small income stream from property rentals. Abner never fully recovered from this crisis and still owned money to Stanley and to other creditors when both brothers died in the early 1850s.  

Durham House, private collection

In 1832, as a well-liked member of the English-speaking business community, Stanley ran in a by-election for a seat in Lower Canada’s Legislative Assembly. His opponent was Irish physician Daniel Tracey. The voting continued for several weeks and was marred by violence throughout. After the British troops opened fire on a crowd near the polling station, killing three innocent bystanders, Stanley withdrew his name from the ballot. According to a family story, he was devastated by these events. He never ran for elected office again, although he did serve as an appointed councillor on the 1840-1842 Montreal City Council.  He was active in the community in other ways. In 1841, he was listed as a founding shareholder in the City Bank and, four years later, he was one of 400 people named Justice of the Peace for the District of Montreal.8

During the Rebellions of 1837-38, Stanley did what he no doubt saw as his duty to help protect Lower Canada. He was a major in the 1st Battalion Loyal Volunteers during that conflict, and Durham House served as a headquarters for militia officers. When he retired from the militia in 1852, he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. 

In 1842, Stanley took what must have been the trip of a lifetime: he and his son went to England. Stanley Clark had turned 21 and had completed his apprenticeship as a notary. Many years later, Stanley Clark recalled visiting Durham Cathedral on that trip when he wrote, “The first time I had the privilege of attending divine service in Durham Abbey, I was enraptured with the sweet and masterly chanting, unsurpassed in the empire. My father and I obtained seats in the choir.” 9

Durham Cathedral, JH photot

After they returned from abroad, Stanley began to turn over to Stanley Clark the property and income the young man had inherited from his grandfather and mother. At this point, Stanley admitted that, as executor, he had not kept track of the income and expenses of the estates, and that he had used 3,000 pounds “for his own profit and advantage”.10 He mortgaged several of his own properties to repay his son. 

He also admitted that managing Durham House was a big responsibility, and he had not paid his servants’ wages for some time. He made an agreement with Stanley Clark to give him the house and sell him the furniture and other contents. In return, Stanley Clark promised to provide his father with clothing, food and care and to let him live at Durham House for the rest of his life.

Stanley Clark Bagg married Catherine Mitcheson in Philadelphia on Sept. 4, 1844. I do not know whether Stanley attended the wedding. The young couple built a home of their own, Fairmount Villa, not far from Durham House, so Stanley probably had the opportunity to see his young grandchildren.

Stanley’s notebook at the McCord Museum

When Stanley signed his will on May 28, 1851, he had already sold his real estate or given it to Stanley Clark. He owned almost nothing. Most of the provisions of the will were designed to forgive Abner’s long-standing debts to Stanley, and to protect Stanley Clark from Abner’s remaining creditors. In his will, Stanley admitted that some of the transactions in which he had been engaged were of an “uncertain nature.”11

In the summer of 1852, father and son had a notary make out one final agreement between them.12 It appears that Stanley was now so ill he needed a medical attendant, but Stanley Clark may have been surprised by the bills. In this agreement, Stanley was able to spend up to 25 pounds a year to hire someone to look after him.  

Stanley died on Oct. 31, 1853.13 His remains were buried in the Protestant cemetery in Montreal, but when that cemetery was closed, they were moved to the Bagg family crypt at Mount Royal Cemetery.  As he requested in his will, he was buried with his wife and his father. 

In the last two years of his life, Stanley claimed to be sound of mind but sick in body. Indeed, he seemed but a shadow of the ambitious young merchant he had once been. He was probably in pain, perhaps depressed and lonely. Hopefully he would have been consoled to know that his accomplishments, his trials, his failures and his honesty are remembered almost 200 years later.  

Related Articles

Janice Hamilton, “An Economic Emigrant,” Oct 16, 2013, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2013/10/an-economic-emigrant.html

Janice Hamilton, “The Mile End Tavern,” Oct. 21, 2013,https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2013/10/the-mile-end-tavern.html

Janice Hamilton, “Mary Ann (Clark) Bagg,” Nov. 29, 2013, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2013/11/mary-ann-clark-bagg.html

Janice Hamilton, “A Home Well Lived In,” Jan. 21, 2014, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2014/01/a-home-well-lived-in.html

Janice Hamilton, “Stanley Bagg and the Lachine Canal.  Part 1: the Contract,” Feb. 27, 2015 https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2015/02/stanley-bagg-and-lachine-canal-part-1_27.html

Janice Hamilton, “Stanley Bagg and the Lachine Canal.  Part 2: Rocks and Water,” March 13, 2015. https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2015/03/stanley-bagg-and-lachine-canal-part-2.html

Janice Hamilton, “Stanley Bagg and the Lachine Canal. Part 3: Contractor to the British Army,” March 27, 2015, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2015/03/contractor-to-british-army.html

Janice Hamilton, “Stanley Bagg and the Montreal West By-Election of 1832,” Sept. 16, 2016, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2016/09/stanley-bagg-and-montreal-west-by.html

Janice Hamilton, “Stanley Bagg’s Difficulties,” Jan. 10, 2014, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2014/01/stanley-baggs-difficulties.html

Janice Hamilton, “Who Was Phineas Bagg?” Oct. 11, 2014, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2014/10/who-was-phineas-bagg.html

Janice Hamilton, “Abner Bagg: Black Sheep of the Family?” April 19, 2015, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2015/04/abner-bagg-black-sheep-of-family.html

Janice Hamilton, “Polly Bagg Bush and Her Family,” April 28 2016, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2016/04/polly-bagg-bush-and-her-family-part-1.html

Janice Hamilton, “Lucie Bagg: Her Story,” March 30, 2016, https://www.writinguptheancestors.ca/2016/03/lucie-bagg-her-story.html

Sources

  1. John Bagg, Stanley’s great-great-grandfather, married Hannah Burt in Springfield, MA in 1657.  Henry M. Burt, The First Century of the History of Springfield. The Official Records from 1636 to 1736, with an Historical Review and Biographical Mention of the Founders. Volume II. Springfield, Mass: printed and published by Henry M. Burt, 1899. p. 524.  
  2. Stanley and his brother Abner were both baptized as adults in Christ Church (Anglican) Montreal and his date of birth was recorded at this time. “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line].  Ancestry.com, (www.ancestry.ca, accessed 2 Oct. 2016), entry for Stanley Bagg, 2 April, 1831; citing Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
  3. “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line].  Ancestry.com, (www.ancestry.ca, accessed 30 Sept. 2016), entry for Stanley Bagg, 7 Aug. 1819; citing Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
  4.  “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line].  Ancestry.com, (www.ancestry.ca, accessed 30 Sept. 2016), entry for Stanley Clark Bagg, 2 July 1822; citing Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
  5. A variety of sources provide background on Stanley Bagg’s business activities. Notarial records of business agreements, especially wood contracts and leases, are the most important and can be found on microfilm and online at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) in Montreal.  Among the notaries Stanley used frequently were H. Griffin (1812-1847), Joseph Desautels (1810-1821), N-B Doucet (1804-1855), A-T Kimber (1825-1832), T. Bedouin (1812-1844), J-H Jobin (1833-1881), W.N. Crawford (1826-1850), G.D. Arnoldi (1827-1836) and John H. Isaacson. The Canada Gazette and newspaper articles also provide records of his activities. The Bagg Family Fonds at the McCord Museum in Montreal holds a number of records, especially pertaining to the construction of the Lachine Canal (P070/A3), as well as copies of Stanley’s business letters (P070/B2.3) and other business documents (P070/A5.2).
  6. Stanley Bagg, letterbook, Bagg Family Fonds, P070/B2.3. McCord Museum
  7. N.B. Doucet (CN601,S134), no. 16251, 8 June 1829, BAnQ
  8. Canada Gazette, 11 October, 1845, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?document_id_nbr=1873&image_id_nbr=2837&f=p&PHPSESSID=j1au0sblq8sejaol266jar2vp4
  9. Stanley Clark Bagg, “The Antiquities and Legends of Durham; a Lecture before the Numismatic & Antiquarian Society of Montreal”, Montreal: Daniel Rose, 1866.
  10. J-H Jobin (CN610,S216) no. 3537, 8 Oct. 1842; J-H Jobin (CN601.S216), no. 3556, 2 Nov. 1842; J-H Jobin (CN610,S216) no. 3556h, 2 Nov. 1842, BAnQ.
  11. John H. Isaacson, 469-1797, 20 May 1851.
  12. J-E-O Labadie (CN601,S220) no. 520, 5 June 1852, BAnQ 
  13. “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line].  Ancestry.com, (www.ancestry.ca, accessed 2 Oct. 2016), entry for Stanley Bagg, 3 Nov. 1853; citing Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.