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- The Hon. Robert Unwin Harwood was a businessman, seigneur and political figure in Lower Canada and Canada East, after whom the hamlet of Harwood in Ontario is named. He was born in Sheffield, England in 1798, the son of Robert Harwood and Elizabeth Unwin. Coming to Montreal in 1821 he entered the family-owned wholesale hardware House of John Harwood & Co. , being run by his brother in Montreal. In 1823, he married Marie-Louise-Josephte de Lotbiniere (1803-1869), the eldest daughter of Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière and heiress to the seigneury of Vaudreuil. After this opportune marriage his life improved significantly. Robert Unwin Harwood Marie-Louise-Josephte Chartier de Lotbiniere 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, he was held in great respect by his tenants. 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 it displayed a firm grasp of the problems facing his tenants, and it showed 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 tenants held for him. His brother in England on the other hand berated him for his liberal attitude saying '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 the same time that, 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 he rebuilt the Manor House at Vaudreuil, a large and imposing, four storey stone house on a hill (later destroyed by fire) and died there in 1863. He and his family are buried in the de Lotbiniere (subsequently the de Lotbiniere-Harwood) vault at their Church, Saint-Michel, Vaudreuil. His sons, Henry Stanislas and Robert William, became members of the Canadian House of Commons; his son, Antoine Chartier de Lotbinière Harwood, represented Vaudreuil in the legislative assembly for the Province of Canada in 1863 and then for Quebec in 1867. His nephew, Sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière served as the Prime Minister of Quebec and Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.
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