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Charteris, Charles George,
Chatham Ontario, was born on the 25th July 1828; in Dumfriesshire,
Scotland, and is the youngest son of Charles Charteris, of CuIlivait
House, in the same country, by his wife, Diana, daughter of John Reed, off
Craggs, Northumberland, England. The Charteris family is a very ancient
one in the annals of Dumfriesshire,—the Charteris, of Amisfield, who are
believed to have been originally French, having settled in Scotland in the
reign of Malcolm IV. (1153), more than seven centuries ago. A large tract
of land in Dumfrieshire was granted. to the family for important services
to the king, and a portion of this land is still in the possession of some
of the descendants. The following may prove interesting in connection with
the ancient history of the family. On the night of April 4th., 1608, James
VI. slept at Amisfield, on his way to England, and the bed on which the
king slept on this occasion is still preserved in the Museum of
Antiquities in Edinburgh; as also a door on which a hero of the Charteris
family is represented in the act of tearing the jaws of a lion asunder,
the same being the representation of an incident verified in the history
of the family. Mr. Charteris’s father was a captain in the 28th Light
Dragoons, and on the disbandment of that regiment, he became adjutant of
the Dumfriesshire Yeomanry Cavalry. Charles George received his education
in part at the High school of his native county, and at a private academy
in Brampton, England. In his eighteenth year he set out to seek his
fortune in the new world, and on reaching Chatham, was for a time employed
in the establishment of Witherspoon & Charteris, general merchants and
agents for the Gore Bank, his cousain, Alexander Charteris being one of
the partners. Five or six years later Mr Charters engaged in the lumber
business with William Baxter, and continued in the same until 1857, when
he received the appointment of treasurer of Kent county. This office he
still holds, and there is not in the province, if the testimony of the
inhabitants of the county is to be accepted, a more popular and capable
official. Mr. Charteris has had a conspicuous career in municipal
politics. He sat for two terms in the town council; was the second mayor
of Chatham (1857) and acted for a period as chairman of the Board of
School Trustees. In numerous ways he has rendered good service to the
community, and has always had the progress of his adopted place and the
people at heart. Mr. Charteris is a staunch Reformer of much local
influence, and his religious tenets are those of Presbyterianism. He was
at one time agent for the Bank of Upper Canada at Chatham, and was
retained in the disposal and management of its real estate in Kent county.
He married on the 25th December, 1849, Elizabeth, daughter of William
Baxter, and by this lady has had a family of eight children. Five of these
survive, three sons and two daughters.
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