Alexander Turney Stewart - Early Years

Early Years

Alexander Turney Stewart was born in Lisburn, Ireland to Scottish Protestant parents on October 12, 1803. Three weeks after his birth, Stewart’s farmer father died of tuberculosis. About two years later Stewart’s mother remarried and followed her new husband to America, leaving Stewart behind to be raised by his grandfather, John Torney.

Torney wanted his only grandson to become a minister in the Church of England. At age seven Stewart was sent to a village school, and in 1814 entered Mr. Neely’s English Academy. When Stewart’s grandfather died in 1816 he was brought into the home of Thomas Lamb, an Irish Quaker.

Upon completing his formal education at Belfast Academical Institute he wrote his mother in New York City. While incubating a desire to move there the fifteen year-old Stewart was prevailed upon by Lamb to gain some business experience by earning money as a grocer in Belfast. Quickly wearying of the work, Stewart packed his bags in the spring of 1818 and left for New York with the $500 he had earned as a bag boy.

After six weeks at sea Stewart arrived at his mother's home. He became a $300 a year tutor at Isaac N. Bragg’s Academy, a school for wealthy youths on Roosevelt Street., and joined an Episcopal church run by Reverend Edward Mitchell. There he met his future wife, Cornelia Mitchell Clinch, the daughter of Susannah Banker and James Clinch, a wealthy ship chandler. Cornelia's brother was Acting Collector of the Port of New York, Charles P. Clinch (1797–1880).