given. According to a notebook kept by Harline David Ruben, the wedding did not take place until some time in 1812. One might wonder why this 44-year-old groom and his bride, who was close to her thirty-fourth birthday, would have delayed the wedding at all. It also is unclear why he would have gone to Montreal twice — first, in September 1811 to sign the marriage contract, and again several months later to attend his wedding. The only conclusive proof that the ceremony had been performed some time before October 2, 1812, is the fact that on that day Moses and Charlotte met at her mother’s house on Gabriel Street in Montreal,103 where they signed an addendum to their marriage contract as a married couple. It not only acknowledged their original agreement of September 29, 1811, but also reaffirmed the circumstances relating to the disposal of the monies Charlotte had inherited from her late father.104 In addition, the addendum gave David David and Alexander Hart joint powers-of-attorney to purchase bills at interest.
Returning to Sandwich after the onset of cold weather when travel was far more difficult,105 Moses would have brought his new wife to a house built on one of the lots he owned. It was likely the one he purchased on August 6, 1801, from John Hembrow and Robert Jonas for £14.106 In 1813, a few months before Moses’ death, he and Charlotte sold a piece of lots No. 3 and No. 4 on the east side of Bedford Street, where they resided, to Augustine Roy.107
Throughout her marriage to Moses, Charlotte remained in full control of all the properties she owned, as well as continuing to conduct her own business affairs. Indicative of her activities as a moneylender, is the following note in French:
Le 2 September 1812, Charlotte Hart qui avait éspousé Moses David, de Sandwich, Haut-Canada, transportait à sa mère une créance de deux cent cinquante livres à elle léguée par son pêre et due par Sir John Johnson.108
On March 18, 1813, Charlotte gave birth to a son named Moses Eleazer. Regrettably, his father died when the boy was only about 18 months old. He was subsequently “educated in Edinburgh and Paris, and lived almost half of his life abroad.”109 On November 25, 1846,110 in Philadelphia, at the age of 33, Moses Eleazer David married Rosina, who was born on February 11, 1827,111 the daughter of Jacob Levy Florance. She bore him two children,112 Charlotte (Nina), born in London in December 1847, and Arthur Meredith, called Florance, born on October 5, 1849, in Montreal.113 Rosina David died on December 8, 1850, in Teignmouth, England, and was buried in Philadelphia on February 9, 1851.114 On December 8, 1853, her daughter Nina died in Montreal at the age of 6, and was buried next to her mother.115
On April 15, 1872, at the age of fifty-nine, Moses Eleazer David married a second time to Ada S. Abraham of Bristol, England.116 We must conclude that he returned to Montreal with his new wife, since records show that he laid the cornerstone for the new synagogue building on Chenneville Street.117 Following in his family’s footsteps, he was an active supporter of the Spanish-Portuguese congregation, as well as becoming involved in more mundane ventures. Keen on horse racing, he entered a horse in the first King’s Plate race,118 run at Trois Rivières on July 27, 1836. Records also show that he was a founder of the St. James Club,119 served as a militia officer in 1837 and 1851,120 and had an interest in the Grand Trunk Railway.121 In 1891, he sold the land in Sandwich that his late father had originally received from the Crown.122
The End of the Moses David Family Line
Moses David died on September 26, 1814, the cause of death unknown. Although some have wondered why he was not buried at the same place as other members of his prominent family, the answer may lie in the fact that it would have been very difficult for his wife to travel to Montreal for the funeral with her infant son.
On January 14, 1811, Moses David had bought a piece of land from George Meldrum and William Park, for which he paid £10. According to the diagram attached to the memorial of bargain and sale, he may also have intended that narrow strip running the full depth of Lot No. 4 to be his gravesite. Its precise location is described in that document as follows:
An indenture of Bargain and Sale dated the fourteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eleven, made between George Meldrum and William Park of Sandwich in the Western District Esquire of the one part and Moses David of Sandwich merchant of the other part. Whereby the said George Meldrum and William Park for and in consideration of the sum of ten pounds New York currency to them in hand paid, grantee, bargained, sold alien and confirming unto the said Moses David and to his heirs and assigns for ever a certain piece of ground being the northern part of lot number four Bedford street with the appurtenances situated lying and being on the east side of Bedford street, aforesaid, in the town of Sandwich in the county of Essex, which said piece of ground is butted and bounded as follows, that is to say, beginning at a jog or offset at the Easterly end of a purchase made from John Hembrow, containing six feet in breadth and thence running the whole depth of the lot along the sideline of lot number three as described in the margin from A to B six feet thence in depth to C-D and all profits, commodities, and appurtenances whatsoever to the premises belonging or in any wise appertaining and the reversion and reversions remainder and remainders, rents, issues and profits of all and singulars the said premises, which saw indenture of bargain and sale is witnessed by the Reverend Richard Pollard of Sandwich, clerk and John McGregor of Sandwich, Esquire and is hereby required to be registered pursuant to the said act by the said Moses David.123
Although Moses David owned all of Lot No. 3, as well as a strip of Lot No. 4, there is no specific record of his intentions for a Jewish cemetery or his own burial. However, later documents reveal that his actual burial plot was on land acquired on October 22, 1913, by Adolphe S. Gignac from Jane Phyllis McKee, which included the
Northerly fifty-feet in width lot number three on the east side of Bedford street by the full depth of the said lot, excepting therefrom the Jew Cemetery at the east corner thereof.124
The so-called “Jew Cemetery” had only one grave, that of Moses David.125
After returning to Quebec, Charlotte David continued to look after her own business interests, as well as those of her deceased husband. Attempting to wrap up his affairs, she wrote to tell Detroit lawyer Solomon Sibley in August 1819:
Sir,
Will thank you to inform me if Mr. George Meldrum has made you any payment in account of the bond due the estate of the late Mr. Moses David and what sum you have received from the estate of the late Mr. James Henry.
I am sir, your obedient servant.
[signed] Charlotte David126
By 1825, Charlotte was residing in Montreal with her young son. As part of her business activities that year, she lent £500 to the Church of Our Lady of Montreal127 on July 15, against which she registered one mortgage on November 29, 1825,128 and another one on December 17, 1825.129 Four years later, when she was getting ready to travel in Europe, she appointed Alexander Hart and Moses J. Hayes to act as her attorneys during her absence.130
Charlotte David died one day after her sixty-seventh birthday, on January 5, 1844.131 Reverend David Piza officiated at her funeral, which was recorded in his registry book as follows:
Charlotte Hart, widow of the late Moses David, in his life-time of Sandwich, Canada West, died on the fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty four, and was buried by me on the twelfth day of January, one thousand eight hundred forty four, in the presence of Moses Samuel David of the city of Montreal, Advocate, and of Moses N. Binley of the same place, Advocate, and of G. Joseph of the same place, Advocate, aged sixty-seven years.
[signed]
