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Details of Patrick Hartney’s early life remain somewhat a mystery. He was born in King’s County, Ireland, in 1754 or 1764, and enlisted as a soldier in His Majesty’s 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot about 1779. Later he transferred to the 6th Foot (1st Royal Warwickshire). His service history in Canada is unknown, but he was certainly in Kingston in July 1788 when his first child was baptized at St. George’s Anglican Church there.
By the summer of 1805 his regiment was under orders to return home to England, but Hartney did not accompany it. Earlier that year he accepted the appointment of assistant barrack master at York in the Civil Branch of the Storekeeper General’s Department. He was the second to hold the situation at that post. He and his family arrived at York from Kingston on 8 November 1805.
The duties of a barrack master were several, but his primary responsibilities were to monitor the physical condition of the various government buildings at his particular post, and maintain the “King’s Stores” under his charge. This meant keeping an eye not only on the structures themselves–the condition of the ceilings, walls, floors, windows and doors, the paintwork/whitewash, etc.–but also the “Utensils” provided within them (berths, bedding, tables, forms, arms and accoutrement racks, cooking pots, wash, water, and urine tubs, fireplace implements, posted regulations and orders, and so on.) Most having formerly been soldiers themselves, barrack masters were well acquainted with the habits and tendencies of the common soldier.
Soldiers were very often poor “tenants,” and rarely left a barrack in the same condition as they had found it. With the constant rotation of troops from one post to another, it was the job of the barrack master to record the damages and deficiencies, charge the commanding officer of the regiment or detachment for it accordingly, and prepare the barracks for the new arrivals.
In 1813, the war had made the usual scarcity of specie in Upper Canada particularly acute, and Hartney, who was having difficulty honouring his drafts, could not even muster enough currency with which to pay the washerwoman who laundered the barrack bedding, nor the man who swept the chimneys at the garrison. As might be expected, the barrack master was required to maintain meticulous records of all such transactions which, for the most part, Hartney managed to do very well over the course of his long career. Happily, many of his reports from York survive amongst the millions of documents pertaining to the British army in Canada as part of Record Group 8 series at Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
Hartney’s family had grown to seven children by 1812 and he was clearly finding it difficult to make ends meet. Sometime in June that year he gained some relief when his son Edward was appointed to work in his office. A decade later his son John also joined his staff as Issuer of Stores, replacing an unreliable fellow who absented himself without leave. Lieutenant Governor Maitland in assenting to John’s appointment noted that, “…Mr. Patrick Hartney has now served His Majesty nearly 43 years: 26 years of that period (16 of which he held the rank of Serjeant), he served in the 6th Regiment of Foot [sic]; and for 17 years he has been in charge of the Barrack Department at York. – He has a Wife and large family to maintain.”
When Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s fleet appeared off York, on 26 April 1813, it became apparent that the long-awaited American attack was imminent. Ever the old soldier, Hartney voluntarily attached himself to the Grenadier Company of the 8th Regt., which marched to oppose the attack. Firing on the troops and boatmen as they landed on the beach, Hartney received no fewer than three gunshot wounds in quick succession, one ball perforating his right leg, another embedding itself in his right thigh, while the third tore the skin off his left thigh. In a way, he was lucky–other elderly civilian volunteers, such as Donald McLean, were killed. Hartney was carried off through the woods in the retreat to the garrison, and the severity of the lower wound to his right leg later resulted in its amputation at the knee.
Sometime in the same year Hartney’s beloved wife of many years, Ann, died leaving him a widower. Having such a large family to care for, Patrick remarried quickly. On 12 January 1814, the Reverend John Strachan officiated at his wedding to Mary Marshall, of the town of York.
By 1829, clearly feeling his advanced age, Hartney requested permission to retire. Sadly, as his personal vitality had diminished, so too had the condition of many of the buildings at the garrison which he’d superintended for so many years. Owing to constant neglect these had reportedly become by May of 1829 “too dilapidated for repair.” Patrick Hartney officially retired as Barrack Master on 14 August 1829, after twenty-four years of service to His Majesty in that capacity. He died at York sometime in 1836, and was buried at the cemetery of St. James Anglican Church.
Not only did Patrick Hartney manage to raise himself up from his humble origins, but he went on to distinguish himself in an era when polite British society considered the Irish a separate and quite inferior race, unworthy of the public trust. His achievement is perhaps all the more remarkable considering it occurred during an era when mediocrity, incompetence, and corruption pervaded all corners of the various military departments in the Canadas. Perhaps his most enduring legacy remains his stalwart defiance of all expectations in both stereotypes, by quietly and conscientiously fulfilling his private and professional duties as best he knew how, even under the most trying of circumstances. His strength of character, bravery, and resilience in the face of adversity remains an inspiring example.
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