Hugh Paton (1852-1941)
of Montreal & Île Paton, L'Abord-à-Plouffe, Quebec
Born in Scotland at Johnstone, Renfrewshire, to a successful manufacturing family, he was educated at Paisley Grammar School. He came to Toronto in 1871 as private secretary to his uncle, John Shedden (1825-1873), a railroad president and promoter. Two years later his uncle (a lifelong bachelor) was crushed to death between railway carriages and Paton inherited his business empire. He became President of the Shedden Forwarding Company and moved to Montreal. There he became one of the city's most conspicuous leaders in business and the community. He was a director of the Bell Telephone Company and the Royal Bank of Canada etc. He was a governor of the Montreal General Hospital and the Notre Dame Hospital. He was President of the Saint Andrew's Society and Master of the Montreal Hunt. "Small and stocky with a smiling face," he was a jovial, generous character who was as popular among the French as the English".
