absentee proprietors the world over and appoint an agent. On Nov. 15, 1842 William Stewart and Peter MacGowan were appointed joint agents. in all matters pertaining to the Mount Stewart Estate. William, a nephew of the late John Stewart, known for his “unbusinesslike” habits in money matters, left for England in 1843, requesting that MacGowan take over full responsibility. This Mr. MacGowan did for many years in an entirely

forthright and honourable manner.

It must be understood that, after Capt. Stewart’s death, Mount Stewart Estate was held by two distinct categories of tenants. There were, first of all, those who could be termed “tenants-in—ordinary,” people» who leased small holdings of 50 or 100 acres to be operated as separate farms. There was also the major tenant, the person to whom Mount Stewart Farm, the central heartland of the estate, comprising nearly 500 acres, had been leased. Among the small-scale tenants was Isaac Jay (1784- 1857) a native of Meadon, Suffolk, England. By an agreement dated Aug. 8, 1831, he took out a 999 year lease on 100 acres at a yearly rental of 1 shilling an acre. He paid the rent until 1851 when the farm was divided between his sons, George and John. It is interesting to note that in 1850 he was employed shingling the front and one end of Mount Stewart House. John Birt and James Rodgerson rented farms on the same date, farms which were eventually passed on to their sons, Jonathan and James res—

pectively.

The first major tenants, David and William L. Douglas, held Mount Stewart Farm between the years 1842 and 1845. In the autumn of 1850 it became necessary for Peter MacGowan to visit them in their new homes in an effort to collect the balance of an old account. A glance at their situation convinced him that nothing could be collected. “They are perch- ed,” he writes, “in the midst of a dense forest, each occupying a log hut with about six acres cleared around them. Both have large families and the trouble of the world all before them. In short, the prospect of ever getting anything from them appears to be so distant that I would recom- mend Sir John to give up the debt altogether.” This, to give him credit, Major Littler did. In a letter from Calcutta, dated Sept. 18, 1852, he re- marks that “under the circumstances stated by Mr. MacGowan the debt due by Mr. Douglas may be cancelled.”

The plight of the Douglasses was in no way different from that of any of the tenants, major or minor, during this period. Writing in July, 1848, Mr. MacGowan stated that, on visiting Mount Stewart Estate, he found “the small tenants utterly unable to make me a single payment in consequence of the potato blight the last three years and the entire failure of the grain crop last year.” In another letter on the topic of rents that perspicacious agent declared that “a poor man settling down in the midst of a thick forest should receive a premium rather than give one. Wilder- ness lands are of no value whatever until rendered valuable by the hard labour of the settlers.” The days of the Family Farm Programme and government grants were still very far in the future.

In separate letters to William L. and David Douglas, dated January 28, 1845, Peter MacGowan informed them that they were to vacate the premises on March 25th in order to make way for the new tenant, the Hon. William Swabey whose son was to occupy and cultivate the farm. By 1848 Mr. Swabey was likewise in arrears for rent. He explained that he had found the farm greatly run down and had been obliged to expend

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