Roderick Cameron

For other people with the same name, see Rod Cameron.

Sir Roderick William Cameron (July 25, 1825 – October 19, 1900) was a Canadian and American businessman noted for co-founding the R. W. Cameron and Company shipping line in New York City, as well as for his role as an official representative of Canada and Australia at several international exhibitions during the 1870s and 1880s.^[1]

Sir Roderick Cameron
R. W. Cameron in 1883
Born	Roderick William Cameron (1825-07-25)July 25, 1825 Glengarry County, Upper Canada
Died	October 19, 1900(1900-10-19) (aged 75) London, England
Resting place	Williamstown, Ontario, Canada
Occupation(s)	Businessman, statesman, racehorse owner/breeder
Board member of	R. W. Cameron & Co.
Spouses	Mary Ann Cummings ​ ​ (m. 1845; died 1859)​ Anne Fleming Leavenworth ​ ​ (m. 1860; died 1879)​
Children	Margaret Duncan Roderick Catherine Alice Anne Isabell
Parent(s)	Duncan Cameron Margaret MacLeod
Relatives	Rory Cameron (grandson)
Honors	Knight Bachelor (1883)
Signature

Early life

Cameron was born in Glengarry County, Upper Canada on July 25, 1825 to Duncan Cameron (c. 1764–1848), a prominent fur trader with the North West Company who represented Glengarry in the Upper Canadian House of Assembly during the 9th Parliament, and Margaret MacLeod.^[2]

His paternal grandparents were Alexander Cameron and Margaret (née McDonell) Cameron.^[2] His father, along with his grandparents, immigrated to Tryon County, New York in 1773. In 1785, following the Revolutionary War, the Loyalist Camerons moved to Williamstown, Ontario in Canada.

He was tutored in Williamstown by Dr. John Rae and later at the district school at Kingston.^[3]

Career

 

A Passenger ticket for the Australian Pioneer Line clipper ship Baltimore from New York to Melbourne 1853, issued by R.W. Cameron from his offices at 116 Wall Street, New York

From 1839 to 1847, he was in business in Hamilton, Ontario, working as a clerk in a dry-goods business.^[1]

In 1852, during the Australian gold rushes, Cameron chartered a ship to take supplies and passengers from New York to Australia. Shortly thereafter, he added more ships and consolidated his business into a shipping company known as the Australian Pioneer Line. In 1870, he took on William Augustus Street as his partner, and the firm became known as R. W. Cameron and Company.^[1] The company maintained success during the Panic of 1857, the American Civil War, and the boom of the Clipper. Cameron generally focused on trade routes between New York and Australia, linking with New Zealand, England, and certain areas in Asia, transporting kerosene and farm machinery as well as Australian wool. By the end of the 1800s, the company no longer owned ships, instead they chartered them, leaving risk elsewhere.^[1]

Thoroughbred racing

Roderick Cameron owned a 130-acre (0.53 km²) estate, which he named Clifton Berley, in Rosebank, Staten Island. There, he established a stud farm which, according to his New York Times obituary, was "one of the most noted in the country." For his horse breeding operation, Cameron imported a number of stallions and broodmares from England, notably Leamington, the sire of Iroquois, which in 1881 became the first American horse to win England's prestigious Epsom Derby and St. Leger Stakes. Among the horses bred at Clifton Stud was Glenelg, the 1869 Travers Stakes winner and a four-time Leading sire in North America.^[4]

The Canadian government recommended a Knighthood that was formally bestowed on Cameron on June 16, 1883.^[5]

Society life

Cameron, although he never renounced his British citizenship, was prominent in New York and Newport society. In 1892, he was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.^[6] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.^[7]

He was a member of the Knickerbocker Club, Metropolitan Club, New York Yacht Club, and Down Town Association.^[3]

Personal life

On August 6, 1845, he married Mary Ann Cumming, the daughter of George Cumming of Quebec. She died in 1858; they had no children together.^[1]

In July 1860, Cameron was married to Anne Fleming Leavenworth (1840–1879), the daughter of Nathan Leavenworth of New York.^[8] Together, they were the parents of two sons and five daughters, including:^[9]

• Margaret Selina Ewen Cameron (1862–1919), who was presented at the British Court in May 1883.^[10] She later lived at 1706 18th Street in Washington, D.C.^[11] in a home designed by Jules Henri de Sibour.^[12]
• Duncan Ewen Cameron (1866–1927),^[13][14] who married Mary Glowacki Turnure (b. 1863), the daughter of Lawrence Turnure.^[15] After her death, he married Mrs. Mary Crampton Welsh. After their divorce, he married Mrs. Elsie Howland Quinby, in 1926.^[16][17]
• Roderick MacLeod Cameron (1868–1914),^[11] who became a member of the Union Club of the City of New York in 1889.^[18] In 1913, he married Australian wine heiress Enid Maude Lindeman (1892–1973), daughter of Charles Lindeman.^[19] After his death, she married Brig. Gen. Frederick William Cavendish, Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness, and Valentine Browne, 6th Earl of Kenmare.^[20]
• Catherine Natalie Cameron (1870–1923),^[21] who married Judah Howes Sears, the son of Zenas Sears of Boston, in 1912.^[22][23] She died a few years later and he remarried to Mrs. Nona Newlin Hooper in 1925.^[24]
• Alice Cameron (1871–1880), who died shortly after his wife.^[3]
• Anne Fleming Cameron (1873–1961),^[25] who married Belmont Tiffany (1871–1952), a son of George and Isabella Perry Tiffany and grandson of Comm. Matthew Calbraith Perry,^[26] in June 1895.^[27]
• Isabell Dorothy Cameron (d. 1906), who died unmarried.^[28]

In New York City, Cameron lived at 149 Second Avenue, in Staten Island, he lived at Rosebank, where he had Frederick Law Olmsted design his gardens,^[29] and in Canada, he has a home in Tadoussac, Quebec, which had been owned by the former Governor General of Canada, the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava.^[1]

In declining health, Roderick Cameron was visiting England when he died on October 19, 1900,^[3] at the Hyde Park Hotel.^[30] His body was returned to New York where funeral services were held before being sent to Williamstown, Ontario, Canada for burial.^[31][32] His estate was worth approximately $250,000 upon his death.^[33] The estate in Staten Island was inherited by his second son, Roderick MacLeaod Cameron.^[11]

Descendants

Through his son Roderick, he was the grandfather of Roderick "Rory" William Cameron (1914–1985),^[34] an American travel writer who was a contributing editor of L'Oeil.^[35]

In January 1921, his granddaughter, the debutante Mary Cameron, was given a dance for 600 people at the home of Edith Kingdon Gould, the wife of George J. Gould, at 857 Fifth Avenue.^[36] In May 1921, she was married to Juan R. Mayer, the son of Charles W. Mayer, at St. Thomas's Church in New York.^[37]

References

1. . biographi.ca. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
2. . biographi.ca. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
3. "SIR RODERICK CAMERON DEAD. Well-Known Anglo-American Passes Away in London" (PDF). The New York Times. October 20, 1900. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
4. "SIR RODERICK W. CAMERON.; RETURNING AFTER THREE YEARS TO THE HOME HE HOPES WILL BE A CITY" (PDF). The New York Times. July 14, 1884. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
5. "THE NEWS OF NEWPORT". The New York Times. October 20, 1900. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
6. McAllister, Ward (February 16, 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
7. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
8. A Genealogy of the Leavenworth Family in the United States: With Historical Introduction, Etc. S. G. Hitchcock & Company. 1873. p. 156. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
9. Derby, George; White, James Terry (1898). The National Cyclopedia of American Biography ... V.1-. J. T. White. p. 400. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
10. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography ... V.1-. J. T. White. 1898. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
11. "R. MacL. CAMERON DEAD. Son of Late Sir Roderick of Staten Island and Union Club Member" (PDF). The New York Times. October 23, 1914. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
12. "SOCIETY". The Washington Herald. April 18, 1914. p. 5. Retrieved July 18, 2018. Miss Margaret Cameron was hostess last night at a charming masquerade dance at her residence In Eighteenth street in compliment to her small niece. Miss Daisy Cameron. She was assisted in entertaining by her juvenile guests by her sister. Mrs Judah Sears, of Boston, who Is her house guest.
13. "Duncan Ewen Cameron Ill". The New York Times. May 11, 1927. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
14. "DUNCAN CAMERON DIES; SON OF SIR RODERICK; Former Club Man Whose Family Lived on Staten Island Became Ill in Paris". The New York Times. May 12, 1927. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
15. Ward, George Kemp (1910). Andrew Warde and his descendants, 1597-1910: being a compilation of facts relating to one of the oldest New England families and embracing many families of other names, descended from a worthy ancestor even unto the tenth and eleventh generations. A.T. De La Mare Printing and Publishing Company. p. 413. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
16. "DUNCAN E. CAMERON TO MARRY AGAIN; Sir Roderick's Only Surviving Son to Wed Mrs. Elsie H. Quimby on March 1. EACH HAS BEEN DIVORCED No Invitation lssued for Wedding, Which Comes as a Surprise to Washington Society". The New York Times. February 23, 1926. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
17. "Cameron -- Quinby". The New York Times. March 2, 1926. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
18. Officers, Members, Constitution and Rules of the Union Club of the City of New York. Union Club of the City of New York. 1904. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
19. "CAMERON -- LINDEMAN" (PDF). The New York Times. February 21, 1913. Retrieved July 18, 2018. On Feb. 19, at Sydney, New South Wales, Enid, daughter of Charles Lindeman, to Roderick MacLeod Cameron
20. Mayhew, Augustus (March 7, 2013). "Palm Beach - 1937". New York Social Diary. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
21. "DIED. Sears" (PDF). The New York Times. November 21, 1923. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
22. "MISS CAMERON ENGAGED | Daughter of Late Sir Roderick Cameron to Wed Judah H. Sears". The New York Times. September 25, 1912. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
23. "JUDAH H. SEARS AND MISS CAMERON WED; The Late Sir Roderick Cameron's Daughter Married at Home of Sister, Mm. Tiffany". The New York Times. October 25, 1912. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
24. "MRS. NONA N. HOOPER TO WED J. H. SEARS; New York Woman Engaged to Bostonian". The New York Times. December 16, 1925. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
25. "MRS. CAMERON TIFFANY". The New York Times. September 23, 1961. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
26. "BELMONT TIFFANY". The New York Times. January 22, 1952. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
27. "A DAY'S WEDDINGS. Tiffany -- Cameron". The New York Times. June 2, 1895. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
28. "ISABELL CAMERON DEAD.; The Daughter of the Late Sir Roderick William Cameron". The New York Times. July 17, 1906. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
29. Olmsted, Frederick Law (2013). The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted: The Early Boston Years, 1882–1890. JHU Press. p. 406. ISBN 9781421409269. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
30. "Funeral of Sir Roderick Cameron". The New York Times. October 26, 1900. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
31. "Sir Roderick Cameron's Body Here" (PDF). The New York Times. November 4, 1900. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
32. "WHAT IS DOING IN SOCIETY" (PDF). The New York Times. November 6, 1900. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
33. "CAMERON WILL PROBATED Executor Estimate Property Left by Sir Roderick to be Worth $250,000". The New York Times. November 17, 1900. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
34. "Roderick W. Cameron Dies; Wrote on History and Travel". The New York Times. September 26, 1985. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
35. Petkanas, Christopher (June 9, 2010). "Fabulous Dead People | Rory Cameron". T Magazine. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
36. "600 GREET MARY CAMERON.; Mrs. George J. Gould Gives a Dance for Debutante at Her Home". The New York Times. January 15, 1921. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
37. "MISS CAMERON WED TO JUAN R. MAYER; Bridal Attendants of Daughter of Duncan Cameron in White in St. Thomas's Church". The New York Times. May 1, 1921. Retrieved November 7, 2017.