Stonemason, architect.
Born at Stornoway, Scotland in 1813, while still in Scotland he entered a contract with the Hudson’s Bay Company to build Upper Fort Garry and Lower Fort Garry. It took him ten years to build the two forts, the stones for which were quarried and hauled from St. Andrew’s. After his marriage he lived in a log house at St. Andrew’s for fifty years and was responsible for the design and construction for numerous buildings in the region, all of which were executed in stone in early Gothic style. In 1847, he married Mary Smith at Lincolnshire, England and they had 12 children. One of his daughters married John Matheson and another married George Rolph. He died at Red River on 3 February 1898 and was buried in the Little Britain Presbyterian Cemetery.
Some of the buildings that he designed or constructed:
Building
Location
Year
Status
RM of St. Andrews
1845-1849
201 John Black Avenue, Winnipeg
1852-1854
RM of St. Clements
1853-1854
RM of St. Andrews
1854
RM of St. Andrews
1858
RM of St. Andrews
1862-1865
RM of St. Andrews
1872-1874
Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association, 1971.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 9 April 2017
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