His sympathies lay with men such as George Brown* and other Reformers concerned with the commercial expansion of Toronto and Canada West. William McMaster entered politics in 1862 when he was elected as a Liberal to represent the Midland division in the Legislative Council. Contemporaries described the family as “close people, their affairs known only to themselves.” McMaster took up residence in Manchester to oversee the English interests of the company. They became his partners in the firm William McMaster and Nephews on 1 March 1859 and J. S. Having no children, McMaster had taken two of his nephews from Ireland, Arthur Robinson McMaster and James Short McMaster, into the business as bookkeeper and English buyer respectively. Dun to be “the largest Dry Goods Concern in Western Canada.” By 1860, when the dry goods wholesalers had emerged as the wealthiest merchants in the city, McMaster’s company was considered by R. G. Early in his career he had been described by Dun’s agent as “probably the safest man in business in Toronto” and later reports repeated that his judgement could be relied upon for any credit he requested. McMaster resisted the temptation to expand beyond his financial resources and his caution enabled him to emerge from the recession of 1857 with his business intact. In 1850 the business cleared $10,000, but apparently did not as yet rank among the largest general wholesalers in Toronto. An enterprise such as McMaster’s fulfilled the requirements of a population clamouring for imported goods. The dry goods trade, located at the southern end of Yonge Street, would prove to be one of Toronto’s most profitable lines.

Decisions he made in 1844, to concentrate on wholesale dry goods and to move his company to Yonge Street, were shrewd ones. McMaster’s further success owed much to his skill in recognizing opportunities and to his ability to move in time with important commercial trends. In July 1844, when Cathcart retired, he took over the business. Within a year or two of his arrival he was a partner in the firm. Both versions agree that McMaster rapidly became an asset to his employer. Another account states that Cathcart, who had established his business in 1828 or 1829, later brought out his nephews from Ireland, one of whom was William McMaster.

The popular version of McMaster’s immigration holds that he arrived in York without friends or money, found employment as a clerk in Robert Cathcart’s wholesale and retail dry goods firm, and owed his success to merit alone. After he had gained some experience as a clerk in an Irish mercantile house, he came to North America and, following a brief stay in New York City, moved to York (Toronto), Upper Canada, in August 1833. William McMaster was educated privately by a well-regarded local teacher, and when about ten he was converted and apparently joined the Baptist church in Omagh. 1811 in County Tyrone (Northern Ireland), son of William McMaster, a linen-draper d. 22 Sept. McMASTER, WILLIAM, businessman, politician, banker, and philanthropist b.

Source: Library and Archives Canada/MIKAN 3418752

Macmaster furniture