| Notes |
- Will of Ezekiel Stewart
Ezekiel Stewart's will dated June 21, 1734, mentions his sons, William, Charles, Michael and Annesley. In papers in possession of the Baronet, it is stated that Ezekiel's will named four sons and referred to his brothers, Robert and Alexander. (Note to File - J.P. Rhein)
"Ezekiel Stewart, baptized Apr. 81 1698, in Londonderry, was, it might be assumed, the eldest boy in the family to grow up, because we never hear of the brother Thomas, who was baptized on Apr. 12, 1697. But we shouldn't be too sure. Ezekiel was named for his grandfather, Rev. Ezekiel Hopkins, the sly old bishop of Londonderry who tried to play into the hands of King James II at the beginning of the siege, and Grampa may have put flowers in the pathway of his namesake, making the brothers look like black sheep. Since the father, Col. "Buda Will" Stewart of Fort Stewart, seems to have relinquished his title to the property to the head of the Mountjoy family, Ezekiel and his brothers may have had to start their fortunes from scratch. The parliament of Ireland passed a bill of attainder against William Stewart, the first Viscount Mountjoy, while he was confined in the Bastille in France. and "the Irish army burned and destroyed the castle of Newtown-Stewart and all the furniture therein, also the town of Newtown Stewart and the castle and town of Ramelton, and wasted all of the family estate." This was recounted by Lord Mountjoy's son, William Stewart, in a petition Apr. 8, 1696, to King William's government for the restoration of the family's honors and estates. The system of land ownership was gradually changing from the concept of herd, or tribal possession, as personified by a head man, or king,' to the concept of individual proprietorship, that every man's house was his castle. The parliament passes successive land purchase acts, which resulted in the dividing up of large land holdings among the common people - and making common people out of the scions of aristocracy.
Ezekiel married, about 1717, Anne Ward, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Charles Ward of Mount Panther, County Down, and sister of Rev. Bernard Ward. He lived at Fort Stewart, County Donegal, where he died in 1734. He made his will June 11, 1734, and it was probated Oct. 17, that year. "He devised his estate, in failure of heirs male of his own sons to his brothers Robert and Alexander and their issue, remaindur (unused title) to William Stewart, Viscount Mountjoy and the Honorable James Stewart, successively in tail male; remainder to his own daughters". That meant that the line of the eldest son really " owned" the lands: the others were merely lifetime occupants. Ezekiel's widow Anne visited at the home of Rev, Archibald Stewart, rector of Ballintoy parish, in County Antrim, when a child was born to the rector. This brings up a question of relationship between the two Stewart families, although the association probably came about through church affiliation. Archibald Stewart and his wife, a daughter of Robert Vesey, bishop of Tuam, had been married nearly 20 years before a baby was born to them, as recounted by Samuel Stone. in his manuscript, "Being solicitous to strengthen the constitution of this only child of their old age, they had him bathed in a large vessel of cold water for several mornings . Mrs. Stewart, the widow of Mr. Ezekiel Stewart of Fort Stewart, being at Ballintoy, undertook the office of bathing the child, and having dipped him two or three times into the water without sufficient intermission for him to recover his breath, she wrapped him in a blanket and carried him to the nursery. When the blanket was opened he was found to be dead, to the astonishment and grief of the family." (Source - Stewart Clan Magazine, Tome I, Volume 37, February 1960)
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1698 - 1734 (36 years)