Hourgian & Scott, Clare men to Canada 1820s

[smcarberry]

The below excerpts are from a Google book, provided online with a search engine, which can be used to view these biographies; the format I used does not display page numbers.

Leeds and Grenville are two counties linked together in history,south of Ottawa/Bytown, in the well-used transportation corridor between Lower Canada (Montreal and Quebec cities) and Upper Canada (Toronto and Peterborough), served by the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. In this early time period, the southern counties of Ireland provided many of the settlers who were not French, according to this description:
"Eastern Ontario
Large numbers of Irish Catholics, mainly from Cork and surrounding counties also settled in the area in the decades following the war of 1812, the majority of them in or near present-day Ottawa. Many arrived through government backed immigration schemes to settle unoccupied lands and fill labour shortages. Along with the Franco-Ontarians in particular, they made up the majority of canal builders on the large Rideau Canal project and were heavily employed in the area's extensive lumber industry."
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Eastern_Ontario

Sharon Carberry
not related


History of Leeds and Grenville, Ontario, From 1749 to 1879
BY Thad. W. H. Leavitt

James HOURIGAN
Mr. Hourigan was born July 25th, 1808, in the County Clare, Ireland, and came to Canada in 1828, settling first at Smiths Falls, afterwards taking up his residence in Kitley. In 1833, he removed to his present residence on Lot No. 15, of the Third Concession of South Elmsley. He married in 1832, Helen, daughter of the late George O Rielly, who has borne him twelve children, three sons and nine daughters. Mr. Hourigan was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1856 ; in 1855, he was first elected Reeve and has held the position for twenty years. In the Counties Council he has always been distinguished for his unflinching integrity.


HON. R. W. SCOTT, Q. C.
This distinguished Canadian is the son of the late W. J. Scott, M. D., a descendant of an influential family in the County of Clare, Ireland. Dr. Scott served on the Medical Staff of the British army during the Peninsular War, afterwards removing to Canada, where he became Registrar for the County of Grenville. He married Sarah Ann, daughter of the late Captain Allan McDonell, of Matilda, formerly an officer in the "Kings Royal Yorkers."

Richard William Scott was born at Prescott, February 24th, 1825, and educated at Upper Canada College. He married Mary Ann, daughter of the late John Heron, Esq., of Ottawa. Studying law with the late Marcus Burritt, of Prescott, and Crooks and Smith, of Toronto, he was called to the Bar of Upper Canada in Easter Term, 1848, and created a Q. C. in 1867. In 1852, he became Mayor of Ottawa, and was elected Speaker of the Ontario Assembly December 7th, 1871, but resigned upon being appointed a member of the Executive Council and the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Ontario, on the 21st of the same month. He retained this position until November 7th, 1873, when he became a member of the Queens Privy Council. On the 9th of January, 1874, he accepted the office of Secretary of State for Canada, being also ex officio Registrar-General and a member of the Railway Committee of the Privy Council, and also the Liberal leader, with the Hon. Mr. Pelletier, in the Senate. During the absence of Mr. Cartwright in England, in 1874-5, he acted as Minister of Finance, and as Minister of Inland Revenue during the illness of Mr. Geoffrion, in 1875-6; also as Minister of Justice during the absence of Mr. Blake in England, in 1876. Mr. Scott represented Ottawa in the Canadian Assembly from 1857 to 1863, when he was defeated; and the same seat in the Ontario Assembly from 1867 until November, 1873, when he resigned.

His principal legislative achievement is the Separate School Law for Ontario, which he carried in 1863, as a private member, a measure which removed a vexed question from the political arena. He was called to the Senate March 13th, 1874, and ceased to be a Cabinet Minister on the resignation of the Mackenzie Government in 1878.