Page 9 - Dictionary of Heraldry and Related Subjects

ARTHUR HOPPER OF MERIVALE, HIS CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN
by Bruce 5, Elliott
Alth~r Hopotr was horn in Rorcrea, Co. Tipperary. Ireland in 1784, the ran of
Arthur Hoooer. a 4entlemdn. bv hi? wife Sarah. dauahter of Albert Maxwell. all of

As a young mzn, the later resident af Merivale lived in Dublin, probably learn-
ing ti)" trade of a jeweller triere. He witnessed the closing of the last Irish
Parliament in 1891 and took his first degree as an Orangeman in Dublin in 1802. He
ilrved in a yeomanry corps during diit.urbances there the following year.!Z) On
.Ivly 27, 1807 he war -,arried by Dublin license to Anna, daughter of Paul Sparling.
d far~ller of Bal lynakill, Co. Tipperary, near Rarcrra. (3) Her family had been
far~neri there for sonle generations, being descendants of a German Palatine who had
obtained a lease there early in the eighteentll centkry.(d) By 1813 the couple had
return~d tc Pa.,crea, where Arthur worked ar a jewellpr (a trade also plied by his
brother-in-law. Pal81 Spar1 ing, Jr.) It was there, too, that Arthur became Deputy
Grand Master of County Tipperary in the Orange Order.15) The family lived at first
an the north side of Linlrrlck Street in the town, bs~t nlored by 1817 to the east ride
of Main Street.(6) iariy in 1811 they were living just outside the town in the
townland of Fancroft.!7) Later the same year they migrated to Canada with their
five children. Tn? you.>gert daughter, Annie, then barely a year old, died during
the croisinq.
It is, not certair that the Hoppers settled in the city of Montreal imrdiately.
ilrthur vai iarking there as a jewller in September 1825, but he had evidently
d~q~iretl lioisession of at least six lots in the Seigneurie of Monnoir, county of
Rn'lville, south of Montreal, where there was a rn~nll and short-lived Tipp?rary
colony. in 1825 he gave Loti 6 and 23, on the Sauth West River, to his hrother-in-
law Eenjamin Sparling. *ha ,bay have accoanpanied the Hoppers from Ireland.(B)
Sparling later. lived at Eoltor. in Brome County. Ouehec.
In the 1825 census Happcr is recorded living in the City af Hantreal not far
front his old friend ilil!iam Llurtan from Sbinrunn, and other Tipperary area people
includirtg Ralph Smith from Shirrone. Francis Abbatt frolr Cloonawillan, Thamar
Delahunt from Shinrone, and ireeman Blackwell.(9) In 1831 he war living in the
countryside, farming 60 of 180 arpents he rented at Cbte St.-Antolne an Montreal
island, qrowinq harle,, oats, and above all, potatoes. He also had eiqht uior.
thirteen-horned cattle, and three horses.(l0) He soan moved back to the city, far
in June 1832 he was addressed at 84 St. Paul Street by his wife's brother-in-law.
George Hayes of Roicrea. (11)
With d number of Tipperary neighbours living in Montreal he organized the first
Orange ILodqt there, one of the earliest in Canada. His friend William Burton re-
turned to Ireland in 1827 to DrOcure a warrant of establishment from the Gran.l Lodqe.
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The olher arraclates nlentioned in connection with the founding of the Lodge are
Frank Rbbott. who mved to Nepean near R~chnlond about 1830, and John Dyer.(l2) who
was a grocer in %ntreal.(l3) When Ogle Robert Govan, a prominent Wexfard Orangeman,
arrived from Dublin en route to Brockville in 1829, he apparently contacted the
Montreal Lodge, far on Oecemher 13. 1829 his son Henry Samuel Eldan Gavan was
baptized at Christ Church, Montreal with William and Elizabeth Maria 8ut.ton as