Fonds BCHS006 - Stephen Westover fonds

Stephen Westover, born at Caldwell's Manor, Quebec (Canada) on October 11 or November 24, 1786, son of Moses Westover and his wife Elizabeth Holmes, was the second youngest in a family of eight boys and three girls. Moses Westover came from Sheffield, Mass., in 1785, first settling at Caldwell's Manor, moving to Sutton in 1802.
Stephen Westover was a self-taught land surveyor, and practiced his profession in Brome and Missisquoi Counties. His commission appointing him Surveyor of Lands was issued under date of March 9, 1816. On December 9, 1816 he married Dorinda Ball, daughter of Jacob Ball (who built the first frame house in the County of Brome) and Elizabeth Stone. They had three daughters and two sons: Elizabeth, born in 1817; Sophronia, in 1819; Olive, in 1821; Roswell William, in 1823 and Stephen Egbert, in 1825.
On March 3, 1814, Stephen was appointed Ensign and Quartermaster of the Second Battalion of the Militia of the Townships, and on March 10, 1824, he was promoted to Captain. Later that year, on May 20, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace.
On Thursday, October 5, 1826, barely ten years after Westover married, he met a sudden death when he fell overboard from a ferry boat on the St. Lawrence River. His cousin Catherine Westover and her husband Henry Rosenberry also fell in the water but survived. He was buried in the Spring of 1827.