John MacTavish

Who was John MacTavish?

John MacTavish, born ca. 1787 in Stratherrick, Invernesshire, Scotland, was a Scots-Canadian heir to the North West Company and British Consul to the State of Maryland. He was a nephew of Scots-Quebecer entrepreneur Simon McTavish, who took him in to raise after his father's death.

MacTavish married on August 15, 1815 to Emily Caton, the fourth daughter of Richard and Mary Caton, and granddaughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton the only Catholic and the longest-surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. They lived first at Brooklandwood estate in the Green Spring Valley of Baltimore County, where Emily had been born, and later at Folly Quarter, built by her grandfather Charles Carroll near his home Doughoregan in present-day Howard County, Maryland. They were staunch Roman Catholics, members of St. Paul's Catholic Church in Baltimore County.