by Janice Hamilton and Lucy Anglin (second cousins)
Fairmount Villa was the home of our great-great-grandparents, Montreal notary and landowner Stanley Clark Bagg (1820-1873,) or SCB, and his wife, Catharine Mitcheson Bagg (1822-1914). SCB died of typhoid at age 53, but Catharine continued to live in the house with her son and four daughters until they all married, and she remained there until her death at age 92.
1913– CMB, Mary Heloise Lindsay, Ada Griffiths & son Julius
In his family history notes, Stanley Bagg Lindsay, SCB’s and Catharine’s grandson and Lucy’s great uncle, reminisced about playing in Granny’s garden. “There were apple trees, especially one which was easy to climb and play house in. There was an iron bench under it, painted blue green…. There was a chestnut tree which we loved, the summer house, the white statutes of Adam and Eve with no arms, … the bleeding hearts, snowballs and lilacs … Nora the housemaid and Jessie the cook, who made good ladies fingers and sponge cakes and who we could always see through large sunken window which gave light to the kitchen.”
“There were the stables, the horses, the rockaway and the brougham (buggy) and Willis the coachman with white mutton chop whiskers whom we liked and who afterwards drove a wagon for Joyce the confectioner. We were very fond of Odell Comtois who did sewing…. She was practically one of the family.”
Stanley Lindsay continued in his notes about visiting Granny Bagg: “We fondly remember her sitting at the front drawing-room window at Fairmount, her white lace cap perched on her head, watching the world go by.” He concluded, “The garden had become quite shabby.” “It seemed a large garden to us. It went as far as our house which was at the corner of Milton Street. The west side adjoined the Wilson-Smith property. Long before our house was built, a large house called Tara Hall stood just north of Milton Street. Mother [Mary Heloise (Bagg) Lindsay] remembers it burning down one night when she was a child. Where the house used to stand is a street called Tara Hall.”10
The property records date back 300 years. In 1701, the land where the house later stood belonged to a religious community called the Charon Brothers. Later, in the mid-1700s, the Grey Nuns (Soeurs grises) inherited it. Around 1780, the sisters sold three lots at the crest of the hill, which would later become Sherbrooke Street. These lots were subdivided and resold multiple times. In 1837, merchant Stanley Bagg (the father of SCB) purchased lot number 58A at a sheriff’s auction. Sheriffs often seized properties when owners couldn’t pay their debts and auctioned them off at a discount for new buyers.
Catharine Mitcheson Bagg, William Notman, year unknown, private collection.
When SCB and Catharine were married in 1844,5 Stanley sold the property to his only son. It was at the north-west corner of Sherbrooke Street, running 2½ arpents north along Upper Saint–Urbain Street to the property line of Durham House, where SCB was born and grew up.
The notarial act in which the transfer was recorded described the Fairmount property as having “a two-storey stone house and other buildings thereon erected.”6 So the house was probably still under construction in 1844, and SCB and Catherine lived at Durham House with Stanley for a few years until Fairmont Villa was built. Their first child, who died at age two, was born at Durham House, but the others were all born at Fairmount Villa.
Some years later, an addition was added to the west side of Fairmount Villa. It included SCB’s office and a second front door so that farmers coming to pay the rent they owed to SCB did not have to walk through the house to get to the office.7
In his letter to The Montreal Gazette, Sydenham Bagg Lindsay, Stanley’s brother and Lucy’s grandfather, also noted there was a family chapel at Fairmount Villa, called the Oratory of the Holy Cross. “The stained glass window in this chapel depicted Christ as the Saviour of the World; it was given in recent years to the Anglican Church at Lake Echo….”9
Sydenham explained that the name Fairmount Villa was reminiscent of Philadelphia. Catharine Mitcheson grew up in a rural area just north of Philadelphia called Spring Garden.8 (It is part of the city today.) Philadelphia’s famous Fairmount Park was located nearby. The naming of Fairmount Villa after a place associated with Catherine’s early life was something of a family tradition: the house in which Catharine grew up was called Menteith House, after Catharine’s mother’s birthplace, Menteith, Perthshire, Scotland.
This painting of Monteith House, the family home in Spring Garden, was painted by Catharine Mitcheson. Bagg family collection.
After Catharine’s death in 1914, the house was sold to the Asch advertising company, which eventually became known as Claude Neon. The City of Montreal expropriated the property in 1948 in order to widen Saint-Urbain Street.
In September 1948, The Montreal Gazette published a letter announcing the demolition of Fairmount Villa, a house that had stood proudly on Sherbrooke Street near Saint Urbain for over a century.
The house has been gone for over 75 years, yet it’s not entirely forgotten. After all, Fairmount Avenue in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood was named in its honour in 1892!
1. Sydenham Bagg Lindsay, “Montreal Landmark Destroyed,” Letters From Our Readers, The Montreal Gazette, Sept 1, 1948, p. 6.
2. Justin Bur, Yves Desjardins, Jean-Claude Robert, Bernard Vallée et Joshua Wolfe, Dictionnaire Historique du Plateau Mont-Royal, Montréal: Les Éditions Écosociété, 2017, p. 149.
3. Justin Bur, email to the author, Dec. 9, 2019.
4. J.A. Labadie, Inventory of Stanley Clark Bagg’s Estate, notarial act #16732, 7 June 1875, item no. 236; Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
Stanley Bagg only bought about half of lot 58A, but he also purchased two neighbouring lots, greatly expanding the grounds. Later, SCB sold off a part of the property that he didn’t want, creating a long narrow piece of land along Upper Saint Urbain Street that he divided into lots.
5. The wedding took place on Sept. 9, 1844 at Grace Church, Philadelphia.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; database and images; Reel: 1078; Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.ca, accessed Dec. 16, 2019,) entry for Catharine Mitcheson; Citation Year 1844, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013, citing Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
6. Henry Griffin, notarial act # 20645 (approximate page number;) June 1, 1844; also mentioned as items 235 and 237 in the inventory of SCB’s estate, prepared by J.A. Labadie, notarial act #16732; Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
7. Stanley Bagg Lindsay, handwritten notes on Stanley Clark Bagg; Lindsay family collection.
8. 1840 United States Federal Census, database; Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.ca, accessed Dec. 16, 2019), entry for Robert Mitcheson; Citation Year:1840; Census Place: Spring Garden Ward 1, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 487; Page: 259; Family History Library Film: 0020555; citing Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. (NARA microfilm publication M704, 580 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
9. Sydenham Bagg Lindsay, Ibid.
10. Stanley Bagg Lindsay, handwritten notes on Catharine Mitcheson; Lindsay family collection.
According to family lore, my four-time great-grandfather John Clark (1767-1827) was a butcher who came to Canada from County Durham, in northeast England, with his wife and young child around 1797. A search of the baptismal records of Durham for the mid-1700s brought up more than a dozen men named John Clark. Which one was mine?
Fortunately, about 100 years ago another descendant left a note in the family records: “John Clark, pork butcher, 9-6-1767.” I checked the parish records again, and there it was: John Clark, of Wingate Grange, was baptized at Kelloe parish church, County Durham, on 9 June, 1767.
Portrait of John Clark, private collection. It may have been painted after his death from a miniature by Sir Martin Archer Shee RA, (1769-1850).
County Durham was later known for its coal mines, but when John Clark was born, the region was mostly farmland, and Wingate Grange was a rented farm, located several miles south of the city. A rental noticepublished in the Newcastle Courant in late 1777 described Wingate Grange Farm as being “526 acres and tithe free, within six miles of Durham, well watered and enclosed; a draw kiln lies contiguous and limestone upon the premises; there are two very good farm houses, four barns and all other necessary buildings.”
John was the eleventh of the twelve children born to Ralph Clark and his wife Margaret Pearson. Ralph Clark was born in rural Kirk Merrington Parish, County Durham in 1721 and Margaret Pearson was baptized in 1725, also in Kirk Merrington.1 Ralph and Margaret were married on May 8, 1746 in Kirk Merrington2 and their first child was born a year later. The family probably rented Wingate Grange around 1763, and the three youngest were baptized at St. Helen Church, Kelloe Parish.
St. Helen Church, Kelloe Parish. JH photo.
When John was just eight years of age, his mother died. His father wrote his will the following year and died in November, 1776.3 Knowing that his children would be orphaned, Ralph was clearly concerned about their prospects, and in his will he gave his cousin Robert Dent, of Morden Red House in Sedgefield parish, some financial control over the bequests left to the younger children.
Ralph realized that each of his children had different needs, so he varied his bequests to them. He also ensured that not just his sons, but also his daughters, received inheritances.4
Daughters Letitia and Elizabeth were already married when their father died. Letitia (also known as Lettice, and married to butcher Richard Jefferson,) was to receive £15. Ralph seems to have been particularly concerned about Elizabeth. He left her £40 in trust, and her husband “shall have no power or control whatsoever and shall in no wise be liable to the payment of his debts or otherwise.”
Son Thomas was left £20 and a horse. Anne was to have £40 and a third of Ralph’s household goods when she reached 21. Ralph jr. and Edward would each get £60 when they reached 21. Lancelot, the youngest child, was to receive £90 when he turned 21. Ralph appointed William, Mary and Margaret as joint executors and residuary legatees. John was to receive £70 when he turned 21 – about £8500 in today’s money.
I do not know where John lived after his parents died. Perhaps he stayed with his sister Letitia, and perhaps it was her husband who trained John to become a butcher.
Fields of Wingate Grange Farm. JH photo.
In 1785, John Robson Clerk married Eleanor House.5 If this was my John, he would have been just 18 years old. This marriage had been left out of the family stories until I found The Marriage Bonds and Allegations document associated with John’s second marriage.6 This document stated that John was a widower when he married Mary Mitchinson in 1794. I know nothing about Eleanor, including where or when she died.
John’s second marriage took place on June 10, 1794, at St. Giles parish church, on a hill above the Wear River. Mary Mitchinson, or Mitcheson, (1776-1856), was my eventual ancestor and the daughter of Joseph Mitcheson (1746-1821) and Margaret Philipson (1756-1821).7 The fact that John and Mary were not married at Whickham parish church, where she had been baptized and her parents were later buried, suggests that perhaps her parents did not approve of the marriage.
St. Giles Parish Church, where John Clark and Mary Mitcheson were married. JH photo.
The following year, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Mary Ann Clark, and around 1797 the family boarded a ship, bound for a new life in Montreal, Canada.
A Freehold Estate in Durham
According to another family legend, John owned a freehold estate near the cathedral in Durham. I imagined a large house surrounded by shady old trees. This was a misunderstanding on my part: the term freehold estate simply refers to a property, or real estate, that is “free from hold” of any entity besides the owner. I also imagined that Clark lived on his own land. When he married Mary, he lived in St. Giles parish, a largely agricultural suburb of the city of Durham, however, I found no evidence that he owned property there.
Furthermore, if he owned land in England, why would he want to go to Canada? I began to wonder whether John Clark owned property in England at all.
John Clark’s will, written in Montreal in 1825, settled the question. It stated, “The said testator doth will, bequeath and devise unto his said daughter Mary Ann, her heirs and assigns, the whole of his real estate of all and every nature and description soever, situated and being in the city or town of Durham or in the neighbourhood thereof in England.”8 In other words, Clark did own property in Durham, but his will gave no clue as to its use or location.
Over the years, I hired several professional researchers in Durham to search collections such as land tax records, deeds, enclosure records and tithe applotment records at the archives in Durham, and they added small pieces to the puzzle. Finally, after many years of looking at this question off and on, it became clear that the exact nature and location of this freehold estate will likely remain a mystery, however, Clark’s property may have been located in the heart of the city.
Durham is a very old city built on a peninsula surrounded by the meandering River Wear. Several bridges cross the river, leading to the market square, and from there, Sadler Street goes up a hill to Durham Cathedral and Durham University. At one time, Sadler Street was also known as Fleshergate and butchers had their shops there.
Sadler Street, Durham, England. JH photo
An old Durham city deed notes that a man named John Clark was an occupant of the building at no. 5 Sadler Street until 1796,9 which was shortly before my ancestor left for Canada. He was probably renting or subletting, since his name is not listed among the main parties to the deeds.
When Clark died in 1827, he left his Durham property to his daughter, Mary Ann. Her husband, Montreal merchant Stanley Bagg, was executor of the will. Clark also left 13 bequests of 50 pounds each to several of his brothers and sisters in England, and to several of his wife’s relatives.
In 1829, Mary Ann decided to sell the property in Durham.10 It was probably difficult to manage the property from across the Atlantic, and she could use the proceeds to pay these bequests. William Mitcheson, John Clark’s brother-in-law who was an anchor maker in London, was appointed an executor of Clark’s will in England, however, I was unable to find proof of Clark’s will being probated in England.
It is clear, however, that the family sold some property in Durham in 1842. Mary Ann had died in 1835, leaving it to her son, Stanley Clark Bagg (SCB), who was then a minor. Stanley Bagg was the executor of her estate until SCB turned 21 in 1841.
Durham Cathedral at sunset. JH photo
The following summer, Stanley and SCB travelled to Durham and sold the remaining property. On their return, Stanley recorded the names of the three buyers in a notarized document in which he admitted he had used some of the rental income from the Durham properties for his own purposes. He arranged to repay his son and listed the names of three people who purchased the properties, as well as the name of a Mr. “Bromwell” who had collected the rents. The name “Bramwell” was listed in the document regarding no. 5 Sadler Street at the Durham University archives.
Several questions remain: how extensive was Clark’s property? Did the properties SCB sold in 1842 represent all of Clark’s English real estate? And how and when did Clark acquire it in the first place? His father left him 70 pounds when he was a child, so perhaps someone helped him invest it wisely.
Later in life, John Clark proved to be a successful butcher and an astute businessman who supplied meat to the British army and invested in properties near Montreal.
Notes:
This article has been revised and condensed from four articles previously posted on my personal family history blog Writing Up the Ancestors: John Clark of Durham, England, May 30, 2014; A Freehold Estate in Durham, May 4, 2019; Ralph Clark’s 1776 Will, April 17, 2019; A Trip to England in 1842, Feb. 7, 2020 (also posted on Genealogy Ensemble)
Special thanks to Margaret Hedley, Past Uncovered, for research in County Durham, 2018-2019, and to Geoff Nicholson, a highly respected genealogist in the area. We corresponded for several years, and in 2009 he took my husband and me on a tour of the area. Geoff died in 2021.
Recently a Clark descendant who lives in New Zealand, contacted me to say that he has researched two more generations of the Clark family, bringing their tree back to the mid-1600s. He has posted the Clark family tree on MyHeritage.com and the Kane-Wilson and Hurworth-Hirst public member’s tree on Ancestry.
When I first did this research, I found the record of John Clark’s birth at St. Helen Church, Kelloe parish, Easington, in the Northumberland and Durham Baptisms on Findmypast.com. Find My Past is a good source for County Durham records. Another good place to search for obscure County Durham records is Durham Records Online, www.durhamrecordsonline.com. The Northumberland and Durham Family History Society is an active organization with an extensive website and helpful members. See https://ndfhs.org.uk/. The Story (formerly The County Durham Record Office) has a variety of historical resources; see https://www.thestorydurham.org/.
The note about John Clark’s date of birth was made by his great-grandson Rev. Sydenham Bagg Lindsay (1887-1975) of Montreal. I found it in the Bagg family bible at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal around 2010.
Marriage of Johannes Dent to Elizabetha Clark in Sedgefield in 1721: “England Marriages, 1538–1973,” database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NLZY-9MB : viewed 10 February 2018, Johannes Dent and Elizabetha Clark, 16 May 1721; citing Sedgefield, Durham, England; index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 91,112.
In 2012, I found a record of the marriage of John Robson Clerk and Eleanor House in Kelloe parish in the Bishop’s Transcripts on familysearch.org. The link – www.familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NKXW-BHM — still leads to a record of the marriage, but the image is no longer available. The Bishops Transcripts were copies, made annually, of the original parish records. John did not usually use his middle name, but he is remembered as John R. Clark on a plaque in the Bagg family mausoleum in Montreal, Canada
Prior to most marriages in England, banns were read and people could express their opposition to the union. Couples could bypass this step by paying a fee for a marriage license. A marriage allegation is a sworn statement in connection with the license application, in which the couple state there is no known reason for the marriage not to take place. The Durham Diocese, England, Calendar of Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1494-1815, can be found on Ancestry, while familysearch.org has the records for the years 1692-1900. CHECK
I have written a number of articles about the Mitcheson family in Durham, Montreal, London and Philadelphia, searchable on my personal family history blog Writing Up the Ancestors (www.writinguptheancestors.ca), and will copy them to Genealogy Ensemble in the near future.
There are several clues that father and son visited Durham. In 1866, John Clark’s grandson, Stanley Clark Bagg, wrote an article called “The Antiquities & Legends of Durham, a lecture before Numismatic & Antiquarian Society of Montreal” in which he recalled his own visit to the cathedral with his father more than 20 years earlier. There is a record in a passenger list of Stanley Bagg and S.C. Bagg travelling from Liverpool to Boston aboard the Acadia. Boston Courier (Boston, Massachusetts, Monday, Sept. 19, 1842, issue 1921;) 19th Century Newspapers Collection, special interest databases, http://www.americanancestors.org; accessed 18/04/2019. A search for Mary Ann Bagg in the Durham University Archives online catalogue brings up a result in the Durham Cathedral Library: J.H. Howe Collection. It cites Montreal parish records showing how John Clark was related to Stanley Clark Bagg, and includes an affidavit from Montreal notary Henry Griffin and a note from Charles Bagot, Governor General of British North America, verifying the information. Reference: JJH 11 Dates of creation: 1842 JJH 11/1, 27 April & 9 May 1842. Similarly, there is a note appended to Clark’s will, dated 13 May, 1842, from Charles Bagot, certifying the information; attached to records for lot 110, Saint-Laurent Ward, Montreal, p. 395, Registre foncier du Québec online database.
Revised Sources
1 “England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NBC9-BQD : accessed 11 February 2018), Margret Pearson, 31 Oct 1725; index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 91,097, 94,097.
2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “International Genealogical Index (IGI),” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:MDK6-CRN : accessed 15 April 2019), entry for Ralph Clark, batch A23286-7; citing FHL microfilm 455,471. This marriage is also included in Boyd’s Marriage Index, 1538-1840, Findmypast.com
3. Burials, Stockton District, record # 573795 2, St. Edmund the Bishop Church, Sedgefield, 8 Nov. 1776, Ralph Clerk {Clark] of Wingate Grange in the Parish of Kelloe.
4. Will of Ralph Clark, Oct. 11, 1776; 1776/C8/2, University of Durham Special Collections Department.
5. Marriage of John Robson Clerk and Eleanor House “England Marriages, 1538–1973”, FamilySearchhttps://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NKXW-BHM, Entry for John Robson Clerk and Eleanor House, 10 July 1785.
6. England, Durham Diocese, Marriage Bonds & Allegations, 1692-1900, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q21P-XMQK : accessed 29 July 2017), John Clark and Mary Mitchinson, 07 Jun 1794; citing Marriage, Durham, England, United Kingdom, Church of England. Durham University Library, Palace Green; FHL microfilm.
8. “Last Will and Testament of Mr. John Clark of Montreal,” Act of notary Henry Griffin, #5989, 29 Aug. 1825, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, p. 9.
9. Durham University Library, Special Collections Catalogue, http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/search, results for John Clark, Durham City Deeds, Bundle 22, Sadler Street alias Fleshergate, 5 Sadler Street, east side, Reference: DCY 23/1-34, Dates of creation:1776-1856. The entry says, “These premises were described as a burgage [land or property in a town that was held in return for service or annual rent] and shop, with appurtenances, almost throughout. In 1856 it was called a freehold dwellinghouse and shop….The occupants of the property included, initially, John Clark, by 1796 one Haswell ….”
10. Annex attached to John Clark’s Last Will and Testament, by notary Henry Griffin, 10 Nov. 1829 and attached to records for lot 110, Saint-Laurent Ward, Montreal, p. 391, Registre foncier du Québec online database.
As a well-known Montreal land-owner, writer and philanthropist, my great-great grandfather Stanley Clark Bagg (1820-1873) was profiled in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB). Unfortunately, several errors appeared in that article and, when researchers look to the DCB as a reliable source of information, these mistakes are perpetuated.
The DBC is correct in saying that SCB, as I like to call him, was the only son of Stanley Bagg, a Montreal merchant, and his wife, Mary Ann Clark. The entry adds that SCB was a notary, large landowner and president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal and of the English Workingmen’s Benefit Society.
Then it states, “The Bagg family claimed to be of Norman descent. At the end of the 18th century Stanley Clark’s grandfather emigrated from England to America. At his death he left large estates in Durham County, England to his son Stanley.” This paragraph seems to refer to SCB’s grandfather Bagg. In fact, it was SCB’s maternal grandfather, John Clark, who emigrated from Durham, England. A butcher by trade, Clark owned property in Durham and he purchased a number of farm properties in Montreal that his grandson inherited.
Far from being wealthy, SCB’s paternal grandfather, Phineas Bagg, brought his family to Canada after he lost his farm in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to pay off his debts. On this side of the family, SCB’s immigrant ancestor was John Bagg, possibly from Plymouth, England, whose marriage in Springfield, Massachusetts was recorded in 1657.
The DCB was correct in saying that Stanley Clark Bagg married Catharine, eldest daughter of Robert Mitcheson and Frances MacGregor of Philadelphia in 1844, however, it went too far in adding that Frances was descended from the chiefs of the MacGregor clan and the old Scottish kings. This is a family story that may or may not be true. My research on Mary Frances MacGregor’s ancestry has come up against a brick wall.
The Dictionary says that SCB and Catharine “had one son, Robert Stanley.” True, Robert Stanley Clark Bagg was their only son, but they also had four daughters: Katharine Sophia, Amelia Josephine, Mary Heloise and Helen Frances.
The final inaccuracy in the DCB article was the statement that “his family was one of the oldest English families on Montreal Island .…” Both the Bagg and Clark families arrived in Montreal in the late 1790s, three decades after the British conquered New France and after many English, Scottish and Loyalist families had made their way here.
These errors may be minor (although the descendants of SCB’s daughters might consider them quite important), but the online version of the DCB should be corrected quickly when issues are brought to their attention. The home page of the DCB (http://www.biographi.ca/en/index.php) invites readers to suggest corrections or additions, so I assume SCB’s biography will eventually be fixed. Meanwhile, in 2013, I wrote them and included extensive footnotes so they could verify my sources. Not long after that, without changing a word, they highlighted Stanley Clark Bagg as the Biography of the Day. Two years later, the corrections have yet to be made.
The takeaway from this article: even if you read about your ancestor in a source you consider reliable, check as many details as possible and be skeptical about sweeping or grandiose claims.
Photo: Stanley Clark Bagg, portrait by William Raphael; private collection.
The wording I have quoted here is from the online version of SCB’s biography: Pierre Landry, “Bagg, Stanley Clark” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bagg_stanley_clark_10E.html, accessed November 29, 2015. This is a rewrite of the original print version of SCB’s biography, published in Volume X of the DCB in 1972, which had even more errors.
I decided to blog about this after a friend showed me an article about Robert Stanley Bagg and Stanley Clark Bagg in a book edited by Col. William Wood, William Henry Atherton and Edwin P. Conklin, The Storied Province of Quebec, Past and Present, vol. IV, Toronto: Dominion Publishing Company Ltd., 1931, 435; http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=3660140&qryID=7ac7b13a-a7be-4ef4-9eb9-ab5b20789894, accessed Nov. 29, 2015. That article not only invented a military career for SCB, it also erroneously stated that Stanley Bagg was born in England.
The most extensive biography of SCB was written shortly after his death and appeared in the journal to which he had been a regular contributor. The article is “In Memoriam, Stanley Clark Bagg, Esq, J.P., F.N.S.”, The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, vol. II, no. 2 (Montreal, Oct. 1873), p. 73, accessed through Google Books, Nov. 29, 2015.
Genealogy Ensemble 