| Notes |
- Excerpts from the Stewart Family File, compiled by Nina C. Ross:
"Peter Stewart was descended from a branch of the Stewarts of Blackhall in Renfrewshire, Scotland.
Of his life in Scotland we know but little. When young he studied law but the details are scanty. He became a writer in Campbeltown and later the Provost of the town.
With two partners he engaged in the herring fishing industry and it may have been in connection with this business that he became a merchant there. This business failed and left Peter with a considerable debt.
Appointment to office in the colonies always involved much preparation and expense on the part of the recipient. Peter Stewart's personal and business affairs had to be settled. In August 1775 he made an Assignment of £60 to be paid annually from his salary to his creditors in order to pay off his debt. He prepared ready for shipping, building supplies, bedding, clothing, utensils, a year's supply of food, etc. It was fall before Peter left Scotland to take up his new position in America.
On or about the 10th of September 1775, Peter Stewart, his second wife, some of his children, servants, etc., with a few settlers boarded the "Elizabeth" with Capt. Russell, at Cork, Ireland, for St. John's Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They arrived there two months later.
The north shore of the Island, where they found themselves, is and was not noted for its gentle breezes and calm waters. Their first night saw them blown out to sea again and it was some days before they attempted to land. The force of the wind and waves lifted their small vessel through the breakers on to the long sand bank which lay along the shore. Most of the cargo was lost with the supplies of the passengers. The date was November 6th.
It was an inauspicious arrival for the new Chief Justice. In a Memorial to the Board of Trade & Plantations dated October 1781, Peter Stewart claimed his loss to have been £1500.
Peter and his family spent the winter somewhere in the vicinity but the location is indefinite. The story that they lived in tents during the winter is doubtful. Men were available on the Island well able to build a log hut and there was no lack of trees. It was spring before the party finally arrived in Charlottetown, the little Capital of the Island. Peter was sworn into office 25 Jun 1776. There Peter lived until his death, with nothing found to suggest he ever returned to Scotland.
In his new life Peter Stewart had his problems, some of his own doing and some of his relatives' and in-laws'. Life on St. John's Island during those years of the Revolution was a matter of keeping body and soul together. With the coming of quieter years, conditions improved but money always was in short supply. Like others before and after him, Peter came to the Island in debt and never got out of it. Those in public office found the necessity to keep up some degree of appearance on a meagre and often non-existent salary to be beyond their achievement. It was a time of "each for his own".
Peter and his family were not inclined to compromise. Through the years many lawsuits in the Island Courts involved him and his children."
There is a formal biography for Peter Stewart in The Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
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1725 - 1805 (80 years)
