A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
=Craig, James=, B.A., Barrister, Renfrew, Ontario, was born at
Inveraray, Scotland, on the 31st of July, 1851. He is son of George
Craig, of Arnprior, Ontario. This gentleman was born at Ellon,
Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and his wife, Annie Clark, was born at Daviot
in the same county, and Mrs. Craig, sen., is sister of the Rev.
Professor William Clark, of Trinity College, Toronto. Mr. Craig, sen.,
came to Canada in 1854, and after residing in Ottawa city for about
three years, settled in Arnprior in 1857, where he has since resided.
For many years he has been a prominent justice of the peace there. James
Craig studied in McGill College, Montreal, and graduated in arts in
1874. In the same year he was articled to W. A. Ross, then barrister in
Ottawa, and now county court judge for the county of Carleton, and was
called to the bar and sworn in as solicitor in May 1878. In this year he
began to practise his profession in Pembroke, but shortly afterwards
moved to Renfrew, where he has since resided and practised with
considerable success. Mr. Craig has always taken an active interest in
public affairs, and was for over four years president of the Mechanics’
Institute, and occupied a similar position in the Curling Club. He is
now master of Renfrew Masonic lodge. Mr. Craig is a Presbyterian, and in
politics a Reformer, and is likely some day to sit in one of our
legislative assemblies. He was married in New York city on the 22nd of
May, 1879, to Lizzie Olivier, daughter of the late Judge E. S.
Macpherson, and Elizabeth Balmer Penton, who was a daughter of William
Penton, of Pentonville, England. Mr. Penton, the grandfather of Mrs.
Craig, was a man owning considerable property in England, and occupied a
good social position, but having taken a strange dislike to the
monarchical form of government that the people of Great Britain are so
proud of, he embarked in 1835 with all his family, servants, and effects
to the United States of America. After residing there for some time he
was induced by Lord Gosford, then governor-general of Canada, and an old
friend of his, to come and settle in Her Majesty’s possessions. To this
he consented, and took up his abode in Port Hope, on Lake Ontario; but
feeling dissatisfied, he again returned to his favourite republic, and
fixed his home at Utica, New York State, where he died. His descendants
are very numerous, and during the late war many of them were found
fighting on opposite sides. His grandson, a Federal officer, on one
occasion chased his uncle, a Confederate colonel, with a view of taking
him prisoner.
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