Item 0004 - Letter from Billa Flint, 15 June 1836

Billa Flint was a businessman and politician born 9 February 1805 in Elizabethtown, Upper Canada (Brockville, Ontario). Flint left school at age 11 to work for his father, a merchant and innkeeper. He started his own business in Belleville when he was 24. His enterprise included the management of a number of mills along the Moira river, investment in steamships and other transport industries, and a general store. He was a major advocate of temperance, founding several temperance societies, including the Canadian Temperance League (founded 1845). Flint held a number of public offices including mayor of Belleville and member of the Legislative Assembly. He married Phoebe Sawyer Clement on 10 September 1827. Together they adopted a child, John James Bleecker. Flint died in Ottawa in 1894.

Robertson Masson & Co. was an import-export company that existed under several names between 1811 and roughly 1900. Initially owned by brothers William and Hugh Robertson, and based in Glasgow, Scotland, the business expanded to Canada. The business dealt in import of goods to Canada, especially textiles, and export of Canadian goods to Europe, especially wheat and potash. In 1915, Joseph Masson became a senior partner and the company operated on Montreal under the name Robertson, Masson & Co. In 1930, they established a branch in Quebec City under the name Robertson, Masson, Strang & Co., overseen by John Strang, who was later succeeded by Charles Langevin. After the deaths of Strang and Masson in 1841 and 1847, new partners were brought in and the Montreal and Quebec companies became Masson, Bruyère, Thomas & Co. and Langevin, Masson, Thibaudeau et Compagnie, respectively. By 1859, a number of the partners retired or left the business, leaving the enterprise to Thomas and Thibaudeau. The company eventual became Thibaudeau Brothers & Co in the 1870s, and it contiued to exist under that name until at least 1895.