Quetton St. George

Born in Vérargues, near Montpellier, France, St. George was forced into exile by the revolution in France that lead to the fall of the Emperor of France.[1]

He initially settled in the Rhineland and then joined the Légion de Béon around 1794-1795 and then marched with the Royalist army to Brittany in 1796.

St. George then acquired land offered to French Royalists in Upper Canada and arrived via Quebec in 1798.[2] St. George was led by Joseph-Geneviève de Puisaye to land located in Windham where his son Henri would live in his later years.[3]

St. George spent time as a trader with natives around Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching before becoming a merchant at York, Upper Canada in 1802.[4] St. George worked with the British Army and English speakers associated in Upper Canada. He formed a friendship with John Spread Baldwin and William Warren Baldwin,[5] but his poor English meant he did not form a close bond with others in Upper Canada.[6]

Despite working in the New World, his family returned to France leaving him alone in Canada.

In 1815 he travelled to France and England and remained in Europe until his death in 1821.[7] In France in 1819 he married Adèle de Barbeyrac, who gave birth to son Henri. He also married Marguerite Valliere in Upper Canada and had a son and daughter.

His Toronto home was built by William Baldwin in from 1807 to 1810 and would outlast him, but was demolished in 1904.[8]

His son Henri Quetton de St. George (1822 or 1823-1896) was not born in Canada, but would arrive after his father's death to Canada and died in Richmond Hill, Ontario in 1896. The younger Quetton would remain in Canada other than a brief time in the brewing business in Oswego, New York including the founding of Washago, Ontario; establishing a lumber business (Quetton St. George and Co.), and becoming a wine merchant in Toronto.[9]

Quetton's wife and daughter would not remain in Canada. His daughter, Madeleine St. George, would return to France to work at an orphanage in Paris and died there in 1914; and his wife left for France without him. Quetton died in Canada in 1896 and is buried at Temperanceville United Church in Richmond Hill.

• St. George station and St. George Street in Toronto are believed to be named for him.[10]
• Lake St. George (Ontario) is named for his son, whose estate (built in 1850s and burned down in 1908[11]) is located next to the kettle lake.

• Chouannerie
• Joseph-Geneviève de Puisaye