Marriage, Property, and the Law in a Square Mile Family: The Case of Annie Stevenson Anderson vs. David Morrice, 1884-1885

The Scottish-born Annie Stevenson Anderson (b.1841?) and David Morrice (1829-1914) met in Toronto and married there in 1860. In 1863 they moved to Montreal where David Morrice established a wholesale trade of textiles business. In 1870, the couple hired the architect John James Browne to design a stately home at 10 Redpath Street in the Square Mile neighbourhood for themselves and their six children. They had six domestic servants to help run the house. By the early 1880s, Morrice’s firm had established itself as the exclusive selling agent for more than thirty-five cotton textile mills in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. In addition, Morrice was also a major shareholder in several textile manufacturing companies across the four provinces. Around 1883, the cotton textile industry experienced serious difficulties as dozens of new textile manufacturers established themselves, producing cotton goods that, along with Morrice’s companies, far exceeded demands in Canada. The authors outline the legal strategies used by David Morrice and his wife, in collaboration with neighbouring Square Mile lawyers and bankers, to maintain their wealth and social prestige in the wake of the textile crisis of 1883-1884, including how, in 1884, Annie Stevenson Anderson Morrice brought a civil suit against her husband to obtain judicial separation of property to keep most of their wealth, including their Redpath Street home, out of the hands of creditors.

Montreal’s Square Mile: The Making and Transformation of a Colonial Metropole

Toronto, ON

University of Toronto Press

2024

147-174

en

978-1-4875-0805-0