RICHARDSON, John businessman in Montreal ^{1 2}

   User ID: N84.

  General Notes:

"Richardson, John, businessman, politician, jp, 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.

John Richardson studied arts at King's College, Aberdeen, Scotland, before becoming apprenticed in 1774, through family connections, to the successful Scottish fur-trading partnership of Phyn, Ellice and Company, then with headquarters at Schenectady, N.Y. "

from from Dictionary of Canadian Biography online (John Richardson)




"He (William Grant of St Roch) left for his executors, John Richardson, the powerful Montreal merchant who had married his niece, and Dunn, who soon renounced the responsibility, an enormous and tangled estate." [....]

"In 1809 his estate was condemned to compensate the crown £9,729 for lods et ventes collected by Grant as 'seigneur' of Saint-Roch. Richardson contested the latter judgement, but the ultimate resolution of the matter is unknown." [....]

"All his possessions, however, were insufficient to cover his debts, and in 1807 his universal legatee, Charles William Grant, renounced his rights to the succession. Grant had left a lifetime annuity of £200 to his wife, who died in 1818. By 1811, in order to settle claims, Richardson had disposed of virtually the entire estate."

from Dictionary of Canadian Biography online (William Grant) ^{2 3}

John married Sarah Ann GRANT, daughter of Son GRANT and Daughter GORDON, on 12 December 1794.^{1 2} (Sarah Ann GRANT was born in 1773 ¹ and died in 1847 ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

"She (Sarah Ann Grant) was the grand-daughter of the Laird of Blairfindy. Her uncles included the prominent Jacobite Colonel David Grant and his younger brother, The Hon. William Grant, Seigneur of St. Rochs etc., Receiver-General of Lower Canada. Sarah's first cousin, Captain David Alexander Grant, married their uncle's stepdaughter, the 4th Baroness de Longueuil, and their son became the 5th Baron de Longueuil. In 1794, Sarah married The Hon. John Richardson who was considered to be the most prominent businessman of his era in Montreal. They were the parents of 7-children (Ann, Everetta, Elizabeth Jane, Charlotte, Helen, John, Thomas)"

from americanaristocracy.com website ¹