The Hon. Robert Unwin Harwood (January 22, 1798 – April 12, 1863) was the last Seigneur of Vaudreuil and a political figure in Lower Canada and Canada East.
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Robert Unwin Harwood was born in Sheffield, England in 1798, the son of William Harwood and Elizabeth Unwin. Coming to Montreal in 1821, he represented the family-owned wholesale silver and hardware House of John Harwood & Co., run by his brother, John, back in Sheffield. Two years later he married Marie-Louise-Josephte Chartier de Lotbinière (1803-1869), the eldest daughter of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière, and heiress to the Seigneury of Vaudreuil. From having been a relatively obscure young merchant in Montreal, this opportune marriage improved his life significantly.
He was named to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada in 1832 and served until the Lower Canada Rebellion led to the dissolution of the council. He was a member of the Special Council from August 1839 until it was dissolved in 1841. After several unsuccessful attempts, in 1858, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Vaudreuil; he resigned in 1860 to run (successfully) for a seat in the Legislative Council for Rigaud division. In 1853, Harwood helped found the Vaudreuil Railway Company.
Despite being an Englishman who had married into the right to be called a seigneur, Harwood was held in great respect by his tenents. Exchanging a life of society and business in Montreal, he and his wife arrived in Vaudreuil in 1829 to bring the estate back to order. Rather than relying on rents as an income he built a large scale co-operative mill to the great benefit of all those who lived on his land. He gave generously to churches, schools and the needy in Vaudreuil. He described his interest in pursuing reforms in agriculture and transportation as a 'a hobby', but he displayed a firm grasp of the problems facing his tenants, and it revealed his genuine concern to improve things.
When it came to collecting his seigneurial dues he preferred leniency to litigation, adding to the respect and admiration that his tenents held for him. His brother in England on the other hand berated him for his liberal attitude writing to him that 'the management of property to advantage is a talent not possessed by many, and certainly not by our family'. But the French speaking newspaper La Minerve wrote at his death,
Mr Harwood's conduct as a seigneur has been and remains irreproachable... Few seigneurs were as well liked by their censitaires as he was... The Hon. Robt. Harwood was much respected, indulgent to his tenantry, of unspotted reputation, courteous and considerate to all with whom he had relations
In 1830, Harwood rebuilt the old manor house at Vaudreuil where his wife had grown up, naming the new house 'Chateau Vaudreuil'. It was a large and imposing four storey, stone house on a hill. After Harwood's death, when the Seigneurial system of New France had been abolished, his heirs sold the house and it subsequently became the College de St. Raphael before it was destroyed by fire. After the fire, under the foundation stone a leaden plate stamped with three fleurs de lys was found bearing the French inscription -
This stone was laid by Lady Louise Elyzabeth de Joybert, wife of the high and powerful Seigneur Philippe de Rigaud (Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil), Chevalier, Marquis de Vaudreuil, Grand Cross Order of Saint Louis, Governor and Lieutenant-General to the King of all of New France in 1723, the 15th of March.
Lady Louise de Joybert was the daughter of Pierre de Joybert de Soulanges et de Marson and his wife Marie-Francoise (who died in Paris, 1732), the daughter of Louis-Théandre Chartier de Lotbinière, Mrs Harwood's great, great, great grandfather.
Robert Unwin Harwood died at Chateau Vaudreuil in 1863, and he and his family are buried in the Chartier de Lotbiniere (subsequently the de Lotbiniere-Harwood) vault at their Church, Saint-Michel, Vaudreuil, built by Mrs Harwood's grandfather, Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière. He and his wife were the parents of ten children. Their sons, Henry Stanislas Harwood and Robert William Harwood, became members of the Canadian House of Commons, and another, Antoine Chartier de Lotbinière Harwood, represented Vaudreuil in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1863 and then for Quebec in 1867. Harwood's nephew, Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière served as the Prime Minister of Quebec and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Of their daughters, one was married to Sir Henri-Elzear Taschereau, and another married a grandson of Jean-Antoine Panet. One of his grand-daughters married Major-General Sir Sam Steele. His family became known as the de Lotbinière-Harwood family, the co-seigneurs of Vaudreuil.
