George Steuart (1700-ca. 1784)
MSA SC 3520-1181
Biography:
Born in 1700 in Perthshire, Scotland, son of George Stewart and Mary Hume (George of this sketch changed the spelling of his last name to "Steuart" as an adult). Graduate of the University of Edinburgh. Married Ann Digges (1718-1814) about 1743, daughter of Charles and Susanna Maria (Lowe) Digges; children George Hume (1747-1800), Susanna Maria (1749-1774), Charles (1750-1802), David (1751-1814), William (1754-1838), James (1755-1845), Ann (1757-1767), Mary (1759-1776), and Jean (1761-1778). Anglican. Died by August 2, 1784 in Argaty, Perthshire, Scotland.
After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, George Steuart immigrated to Annapolis, Maryland about 1721. He was a medical doctor and officeholder. From 1743 to 1746 he was a riding surveyor of Pocomoke, and from 1746 to 1766 he was a commissioner of the Paper Currency Office. From 1746 to 1749 he was a justice for Anne Arundel County; in 1752, 1762, and 1764 he was commissioned a justice in the Court of Oyer, Terminer, and Gaol Delivery in Anne Arundel County. He was an Annapolis alderman from 1754 to 1766. After four controversial elections in 1745, 1753, 1757, and 1758 to the Lower House representing Annapolis that were voided, Steuart was finally seated on April 4, 1759 and served 1759-61, 1762-63, and in the Upper House 1769-70, 1771, and 1773-74. He was a judge in the Land Office from 1747 to 1775. In 1755 and 1756 he was deputy secretary of Maryland. He was a judge of the Court of Admiralty and a justice in the Provincial Court from 1749 to at least 1766. He was mayor of Annapolis, 1759-60 and 1763-64. In 1768 Governor Horatio Sharpe nominated him to the Council Board. In 1769 he was commissioned a justice in the Assize Court for the Western Shore. He was on the Executive Council from 1769 to at least 1774. He was commissioned a commissary of the Court of Vice-Admiralty in 1773.
George Steuart was a descendant of Kenneth II, King of Scotland in 854 and 855 A.D. The Steuart family resided on Francis Street in Annapolis, on the grounds of the current Government House. In 1725, Steuart purchased a country home from Nicholas Carroll called "Dodon," near Annapolis. Steuart was an Anglican and a member of St. Anne's Protestant Episcopal Church in Annapolis, serving as vestryman of the parish from 1756 to 1759. In 1769 Steuart's daughter Susanna Maria married James Tilghman (1743-1809), the first attorney general of Maryland (1777). While a member of the Virginia house of burgesses in 1771, future president George Washington visited Annapolis and noted in his diary entry for September 25 that he "Dined at Docr Steward and went to the Play and Ball afterward." Steuart was allied with proprietary interests and returned to Scotland in 1775 at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. In 1780, he transferred his Maryland land to his sons Charles and William, about 4,100 acres in Anne Arundel County. Steuart died about 1784.
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