Sir Roderick William Cameron (July 25, 1825 – October 19, 1900) was a Canadian and American businessman noted for co-founding the R. W. Cameron and Company shipping line in New York City, as well as for his role as an official representative of Canada and Australia at several international exhibitions during the 1870s and 1880s.
Early life
Cameron was born in Glengarry County, Upper Canada on July 25, 1825 to Duncan Cameron (c. 1764–1848), a prominent fur trader with the North West Company who represented Glengarry in the Upper Canadian House of Assembly during the 9th Parliament, and Margaret MacLeod.
His paternal grandparents were Alexander Cameron and Margaret (née McDonell) Cameron.
The Canadian government recommended a Knighthood that was formally bestowed on Cameron on June 16, 1883.
Society life
Cameron, although he never renounced his British citizenship, was prominent in New York and Newport society. In 1892, he was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.
He was a member of the Knickerbocker Club, Metropolitan Club, New York Yacht Club, and Down Town Association. Together, they were the parents of two sons and five daughters, including:
- Margaret Selina Ewen Cameron (1862–1919), who was presented at the British Court in May 1883. She later lived at 1706 18th Street in Washington, D.C.
- Duncan Ewen Cameron (1866–1927), who married Mary Glowacki Turnure (b. 1863), the daughter of Lawrence Turnure. After her death, he married Mrs. Mary Crampton Welsh. After their divorce, he married Mrs. Elsie Howland Quinby, in 1926.
- Roderick MacLeod Cameron (1868–1914), who became a member of the Union Club of the City of New York in 1889. In 1913, he married Australian wine heiress Enid Maude Lindeman (1892–1973), daughter of Charles Lindeman. After his death, she married Brig. Gen. Frederick William Cavendish, Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness, and Valentine Browne, 6th Earl of Kenmare.
- Catherine Natalie Cameron (1870–1923), who married Judah Howes Sears, the son of Zenas Sears of Boston, in 1912. She died a few years later and he remarried to Mrs. Nona Newlin Hooper in 1925.
- Alice Cameron (1871–1880), who died shortly after his wife. who married Belmont Tiffany (1871–1952), a son of George and Isabella Perry Tiffany and grandson of Comm. Matthew Calbraith Perry, in June 1895.
- Isabell Dorothy Cameron (d. 1906), who died unmarried.
In New York City, Cameron lived at 149 Second Avenue, in Staten Island, he lived at Rosebank, where he had Frederick Law Olmsted design his gardens, and in Canada, he has a home in Tadoussac, Quebec, which had been owned by the former Governor General of Canada, the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava. at the Hyde Park Hotel. His body was returned to New York where funeral services were held before being sent to Williamstown, Ontario, Canada for burial. His estate was worth approximately $250,000 upon his death. The estate in Staten Island was inherited by his second son, Roderick MacLeaod Cameron. an American travel writer who was a contributing editor of L'Oeil.
In January 1921, his granddaughter, the debutante Mary Cameron, was given a dance for 600 people at the home of Edith Kingdon Gould, the wife of George J. Gould, at 857 Fifth Avenue. In May 1921, she was married to Juan R. Mayer, the son of Charles W. Mayer, at St. Thomas's Church in New York.