George Washington Stephens, Sr.

Who was George Washington Stephens, Sr.?

George Washington Stephens was a Canadian businessman, lawyer, and politician.

Born in Swanton, Vermont, the son of Harrison Stephens and Sarah Jackson, his father was a wealthy Montreal merchant who was from Vermont and Stephens was born there when his mother was visiting. After working in the retail hardware trade and working with his brother in the family business, Stephens received a law degree from McGill College in 1863 and was admitted to the Quebec Bar. He started practicing law in a partnership but soon practiced alone.

In 1865 he married the much younger Elizabeth McIntosh, who was of Scottish origin. They had a son, George Washington Stephens, Jr.. After the sudden and unexpected death of Elizabeth, Stephens married her younger sister, Frances Ramsey McIntosh, in 1878. They had a son together, Francis Chattan Stephens, who went to become a stockbroker and, during World War I, a Captain in the Canadian 13th Battalion. Chattan, as he was called, married a daughter of Canadian military minister Albert Edward Kemp in 1912. Their daughter, Frances Elizabeth married Murray Gordon Ballantyne, son of Charles Colquhoun Ballantyne, politician.