John Lovet MacTavish ( – June 21, 1852)Sylvanus Urban: The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume XXXVIII, New Series, July to December 1852, John Bowyer Nichols and Son, London, p. 213. was a Scots-Canadian heir to the North West CompanyJehanne Wake: Sisters of Fortune: America's Caton Sisters at Home and Abroad, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2011. and diplomat.
Early life MacTavish was born around 1787 in Stratherrick, Invernesshire, Scotland into Clan MacTavish. He was the son of Alexander MacTavish (1753–1788) and Marjory (née Fraser) MacTavish (1758–1828), and a nephew of Scots-Quebecer entrepreneur Simon McTavish, of the Garthbeg branch of Clan MacTavish, who took him in to raise after his father's death.
His paternal grandparents were John McTavish, tacksman of Garthbeg, and Mary (née Fraser) McTavish of Garthmore. His grandmother was said to be descended, through Simon Fraser of Dunchea and the Frasers of Foyers, from an illegitimate son of the 1st Lord Lovat — a claim of descent that has not been independently verified.
Career MacTavish served as the British Consul to the State of Maryland.Cynthia H. Requardt: Descriptive Summary, Register of the Carroll-McTavish Papers, MS 220, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Md., http://www.mdhs.org/findingaid/carroll-mctavish-papers-1652-1867-ms-220, June 1979.
After his wedding to Emily Caton of Maryland, they lived at Brooklandwood estate in the Green Spring Valley of Baltimore County, where Emily had been born,Robert Erskine Lewis: "Brooklandwood, Baltimore County" in: Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. XLIII, No. 4, December 1948, pp. 280-293, before moving to 1,000 acres of the "finest farm land in Howard County, given as a wedding gift from his wife's grandfather and named "Folly Quarter" after the MacTavish family estate in Scotland. Folly Quarter was built near her grandfather's estate and home Doughoregan.Maryland Historic Trust: Nomination Form for the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, Folly Quarter Manor, Carrollton Hall, MacTavish House (including photos of the house), http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/stagsere/se1/se5/015000/015500/015589/pdf/msa_se5_15589.pdf, undated.
Personal life
On August 15, 1815, MacTavish was married to Emily Caton, the fourth daughter of Richard Caton and Mary (née Carroll) Caton.John Martin Hammond: Colonial Mansions of Maryland and Delaware, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia & London, 1914, pp. 125-127. Emily's maternal grandfather was Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic and the longest-surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.Shrine of Saint Anthony: Faith at Folly Quarter, http://www.shrineofstanthony.org/history-declaration-independence.htm , http://www.shrineofstanthony.org/history-the-manor-house.htm , accessed 8 Sep 2011.Anne Sebba (reviewer): "They adore titles..." Sisters of Fortune: The First American Heiresses to Take Europe by Storm, by Jehanne Wake, , accessed 10 Oct 2011. They were staunch Roman Catholics, members of St. Paul's Catholic Church in Baltimore County.Celia M. Holland: Ellicott City, Maryland, Mill Town, U.S.A., Printers II, Tuxedo, Md., 1970, p. 48. John and Emily were the parents of four children:
Charles Carroll MacTavish (1818–1868), who married Marcella Scott, youngest daughter of Gen. Winfield Scott.John O'Hart: Irish Pedigrees, or, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, Third Edition, Edinburgh: M. H. Gill & Son, 1881, p. 109fn. Mary Wellesley MacTavish (1826–1850), who married the Hon. Henry George Howard, youngest son of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle.Edmund Burke: The Annual Register, or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1845, Vol. 87, London: F. & J. Rivington, 1846, p. 218.Thomas Allen Glenn: Some Colonial Mansions and Those Who Lived in Them, Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Company, 1899, p. 362. Alexander Simon MacTavish (1829–1863), who married Ellen Gilmor (1835–1909), sister of Harry Gilmor, Confederate officer.Green Mount Cemetery: Features, http://greenmountcemetery.com/greenmount-cemetery-features.html, accessed 10 Sep 2011. Richard Caton MacTavish (1831–1841), who died young.
Emily's three sisters Marianne, Bess, and Louisa Caton, entered British society and married into British nobility. Marianne marrying first Robert Patterson (brother of Elizabeth Patterson, the first wife of Napoleon's younger brother Jérôme Bonaparte) and second Richard Wellesley 1st Marquess Wellesley and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (older brother of the Duke of Wellington); Bess marrying George Stafford-Jerningham, 8th Baron Stafford of Costessey Hall in Norfolk, England; and Louisa marrying first Sir Felton Hervey-Bathurst, 1st Baronet and second Francis D'Arcy Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen (the future 7th Duke of Leeds).
MacTavish died on June 21, 1852, at age 65. His widow died on January 26, 1867, at Folly Quarter and was interred with MacTavish at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
References
External links
Carroll-McTavish Papers, 1652-1867, MS 220 at the Maryland Historical Society