With Persons Of Wider Knowledge, Sir Peregrine Was Invested With
Further Associations.
Besides being the royal representative in these
parts, he was the son-in-law of Charles Gordon Lennox, fourth
Duke of
Richmond, a name that stirred chivalrous feelings in early Canadians
of both Provinces; for the Duke had come to Canada as Governor-in-
Chief, with a grand reputation acquired as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
and great benefits were expected, and probably would have been
realized, from his administration, had it been of long continuance.
But he had been suddenly removed by an excruciating death. Whilst on a
tour of inspection in the Upper Province, he had been fatally attacked
by hydrophobia, occasioned by the bite of a pet fox. The injury had
been received at Sorel; its terrible effects were fatally experienced
at a place near the Ottawa river called Richmond.
Some of the prestige of the deceased Duke continued to adhere to Sir
Peregrine Maitland, for he had married the Duke's daughter, a graceful
and elegant woman, who was always at his side here (York, now
Toronto), and at Stanford Cottage across the lake. She bore a name not
unfamiliar in the domestic annals of George III., who once, it is
said, was enamored of a beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, grandmother, as
we suppose, or some other near relative of the Lady Sarah Lennox here
before us. However, conversationists whispered about (in confidence)
something supposed to be unknown to the general public, that the match
between Sir Peregrine and Lady Sarah had been effected in spite of the
Duke. The report was that there had been an elopement, and it was
naturally supposed that the party of the sterner sex bad been the most
active agent in the affair. To say the truth, however, in this
instance it was the lady who precipitated matters. The affair occurred
at Paris, soon after the Waterloo campaign. The Duke's final
determination against Sir Peregrine's proposals having been announced,
the daughter suddenly withdrew from the father's roof, and fled to the
lodgings of Sir Peregrine, who instantly retired to other quarters.
The upshot of the whole thing, at once romantic and unromantic,
included a marriage and a reconciliation, and eventually a Lieutenant-
Governorship for the son-in-law, under the Governorship-in-Chief of
the father, both despatched together to undertake the discharge of
vice-regal functions in a distant colony. At the time of his marriage
with Lady Sarah Lennox, Sir Peregrine had been for some ten years a
widower. [39] After the death of the Duke of Richmond, Sir Peregrine
became administrator, for a time of the general government of British
North America.
One of the Duke of Richmond's sons was lost in the ill-fated steamer
President in 1840. In December, 1824, Sir Peregrine revisited Quebec
with Sir Francis Burton, Lieutenant-Governor, in the Swiftsure, steamer
escorting some very distinguished tourists. A periodical notices the
arrivals at the old Chateau as follows: -
"Sir Peregrine is accompanied by Lord Arthur Lennox, Mr. Maitland,
Colonels Foster, Lightfoot, Coffin and Talbot, with the Hon.
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