[herrington] first LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO 225 



There was a singular unanimity of sentiment upon the question 

 in Upper Canada. Upon the motion before the Legislative Assembly 

 proposing an address to Her Majesty, praying that a measure be sub- 

 mitted to the Imperial House embodying the principles of the resolu- 

 tions of the Quebec Conference, out of sixty-two representatives from 

 Upper Canada only eight recorded their votes against it. 



Politics were for the time forgotten and Liberals and Conserva- 

 tives worked hand in hand to secure the desired end. That the first 

 government of the province of Ontario should be a coalition of the 

 opposing forces, which had divided the province for years, was the 

 natural consequence of the new order of things. The new province 

 was fortunate in securing the best men in public life as its first represen- 

 tatives, and these representatives, without violating any party 

 affiliations, selected for the executive the best men of both parties 

 returned to the House. The choosing of a Speaker was a very import- 

 ant matter, for, as the new body of legislators set out in the beginning 

 of their career, so they were likely to continue. To find a man capable 

 of filling the position and free from party prejudice was the first con- 

 sideration. Their choice fell upon John Stevenson, who had been re- 

 turned as Independent member for Lennox and Addington. 



Standing side by side in an old graveyard at Sennett, Cayuga 

 county, in the State of New York, are two plain tombstones, upon 

 which the lettering may still be easily deciphered. The one is to the 

 memory of "Arthur Stevenson, died Nov. 1st, 1821, aged 70 years" 

 and the other to "Rachael, his wife, died July 9, 1852, aged 92 years, 

 5 months and 27 days." In a genealogical sketch of the family of 

 Arthur Stevenson published in 1903 by one of his descendants. Dr. 

 John R. Stevenson of Hoddonfield, New Jersey, the author does not 

 pretend to trace his lineage with any degree of certainty beyond the 

 ancestor whose remains are buried at Sennett. By a series of infer- 

 ences, by no means conclusive, he argues that he was in all likelihood 

 a son of Samuel Stevenson of Hunterdon county, New Jersey, and 

 grandson of Thomas Stevenson, who migrated from Newton, Long 

 Island, to Buck's county, Pennsylvania. From other sources, per- 

 haps quite as reliable, we are told that the Stevensons were originally 

 of English descent and settled in Pennsylvania shortly after the arrival 

 of William Penn, and that the first representative in this hemisphere 

 was Surveyor-General of the state, that one branch of the family went 

 to New Jersey and others to Virginia, and that Andrew Stevenson, at 

 one time Speaker in the United States House of Representatives and 

 afterwards Minister to the Court of St. James, was a descendant 

 of the Virginia branch. 



Sec. I and II, 1915—15 



