George H. Steuart (politician)

According to the Old Statistical Account of 1799, Scottish Gaelic was the language of the "common people" of Balquhidder and the surrounding area, although English would have been spoken in the "low country", around Stirling.

[4] In 1747 Steuart purchased the estate of Dodon in South River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay, from Stephen Warman.

George Washington attended early meetings of the Maryland Jockey Club,[7] and Steuart entertained the future president at his home in Annapolis.

[11][12] The boy was provided with a tutor, the Italian Onorio Razzolini,[13] and lived at Steuart's "old-fashioned house" on Francis St in Annapolis.

Court records show that Steuart and his successor as Annapolis mayor, Michael MacNamara, were both required "to post a bond to keep the peace...especially with each other".

By 1761 Steuart was back in Maryland; a series of letters dated March 1761 shows him, as Commissioner of the Loan Office, attempting to collect taxes due to the Proprietary Government from Sheriffs who were behind in their payments.

Steuart was and would remain a Loyalist; like many Scots he was likely influenced by memories of the consequences of the failed Jacobite uprisings against the Crown in his home country.

However, like other Marylanders, Steuart opposed the taxes imposed by Parliament and in 1764 he traveled to England where he made representations to the government at Westminster.

[25] In an open letter dated 18 July 1766 Chase attacked John Brice, Steuart, Walter Dulany, Michael MacNamara and others for publishing an article in the Maryland Gazette Extraordinary of 19 June 1766, in which Chase had been accused of being: "a busy, reckless incendiary, a ringleader of mobs, a foul-mouthed and inflaming son of discord and faction, a common disturber of the public tranquility".

In his response, Chase accused Steuart and the others of "vanity...pride and arrogance": Such protests were essentially a complaint against a civic government which was still dominated by men loyal to the Calvert interest.

[27] War broke out in 1775, and the fact of owning estates in both Scotland and Maryland caused Steuart considerable political difficulties.

[8] According to Richard Sprigg Steuart: A stone obelisk at Dodon marks the burial place of Ann Digges and a number of other family members.