Roby Hughes
Born in Toronto in 1883, the eldest daughter of Sir Sam Hughes and Mary Emily Burke was registered at birth as Mary Caroline Roby Hughes but always known as Roby.
From the birth registry. "Canada, Ontario, Births and Baptisms, 1779-1899", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XLG8-5QJ : 9 October 2026), Mary Caroline Roby Hughes, 1883.
Roby’s father moved his family to Lindsay, renting a place on Kent Street in 1885 when he left teaching in Toronto to take over The Victoria Warder. According to Lindsay’s voters lists, by 1889, the Hughes family owned their home at 11 Russsell Street West (possibly near where White’s of Lindsay is located) and by 1905, they were at 7,8 Melbourne Street East. By 1906, the Hughes family was at 2 Glenelg Street West.
Roby became popular among her schoolmates. She and her younger sister, Aleen Victoria Hughes, were often mentioned in the social column of the papers. This popularity probably contributed to Roby assisting her mother with hostess duties both at home and in Ottawa.
On October 19, 1912, when she was age 28, Roby married Byron Green with the reception at her parents’ Lindsay residence on the north-west corner of Glenelg and Lindsay streets (formerly 2 Glenelg Street West.)
It was a grand event that was captured by the Toronto papers, including The Toronto Sunday World below:
Item: 2010.385.1a-d
The caption of the photo on the left reads: Green-Hughes wedding at Lindsay. The father of the bride, Col. the Hon. Sam Hughes, Minister of Militia, is seen in the foreground.
The caption of the photo on the right reads: Green-Hughes wedding at Lindsay. From left to right: F. Hopkins; Boyd Sylvester, Best Man; Aleen Hughes, Maid of Honor; Byron Green, Groom; Mrs. Byron Green, Bride; P. Whitney; Miss Mabel Sootheran, Bridesmaid; Ross Cameron; Miss Laura Hughes, Bridesmaid; Fred Holmes. The photograph [torn] front of the residence of Col. The Hon. Sam Hughes, Es.
Below are reproduction photos gifted to our collection by Jacqueline Damato. Item: 2010.392.1
The wedding was described in the Lindsay Post as one of the largest and most beautiful. The ceremony took place at the Cambridge Street Methodist Church, the interior adorned with white chrysanthemums, palms and ferns.
The gown was made in Paris of white satin, draped with ninon, embroidered with pearls, and draped with a cascade of lace and orange blossoms. The veil was white tulle and the bride carried a bouquet of lily-of-the-valley and roses. She wore a diamond and sapphire ring, a gift from the groom.
The maid of honour, Aleen Hughes, wore peach satin with white chantilly lace, and a black hat trimmed with peach roses.
The reception took place at the Hughes home at 2 Glenelg St. W., where the spacious rooms were decorated with hot-house plants and ferns.
Roby Hughes Green in her wedding gown. Item: 2010.393.1
Roby and Byron with Sir Sam and Mary Emily outside the family’s private train car "Roleen”, October 19, 1912, following Roby’s wedding. Item: 2010.390.1, 1912.
After the wedding, Roby and Byron Green lived in New York. They had two daughters: Aleen Meritta, born in 1913, and Mary Roby, born around 1915.
In 1988, Roby’s wedding gown was worn by her granddaughter, Alina, for her own wedding. And in 2010, the gown was gifted to our collection by Jacqueline and Charles Domato.
Photos below include the front and back of the gown photographed at the time it was gifted to our collection, and Alina Damato wearing the gown in 1988 with her father’s sister. Items: 2010.393.2 (gown) and 2019.7.2 (photo)
Photos below show the house at 2 Glenelg Street West, Lindsay, the location of Roby’s wedding reception. At left, at an unknown date, photo found in our collection. At right, also taken at an unknown date, but presumed to be around 2004, when the photo was gifted to our collection by the estate of Russell K. Taylor. The 1912 Voter's List confirms 2 Glenelg was Sam Hughes’ residence at the time of Roby’s wedding. The land registry shows Sam Hughes purchased the house in 1906. A year or so later, he sold the house to his wife, Mary Emily, and she maintained ownership until her death. Around 2005, the house was sold and demolished to build an office building.
Roby and Byron’s eldest daughter, Aleen Meritta Green (1913-1984), married Francois de Lesseps on August 12, 1930 in Toronto, a ceremony that the Toronto Star called a great surprise to the couple’s friends. The news report says Aleen and Francois were both 17 years old. Francois died in a car accident in July 1936. Francois’s parents were Jacques Benjamin de Lesseps, a French aviator, and Grace MacKenzie, daughter of Sir William McKenzie, the railway baron of Kirkfield, ON. Jacques’s father was Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French diplomat and developer of the Suez Canal. Aleen later remarried in 1948 to William Ross Hutchinson.
Roby Hughes Green passed away in Lindsay after a short illness on December 22, 1948.
Mary Roby Green (youngest daughter of Roby and Byron) was born around 1915, married Thomas Ross Arnold later in 1939, and passed away in 1970 at age 55. Her sister, Aleen later remarried to Thomas Ross Arnold. Before Aleen (then Mrs. Ross Arnold) passed away, she gifted many family items to our collection. She died in 1984 in California where she is buried.
Jacqueline de Lesseps, daughter of Aleen and Francois de Lesseps, married Charles Damato and gifted many items from her family to our collection. Jacqueline was born on June 5, 1935, and for a while lived in Lindsay. She passed away in 2022. Her account of growing up with the Hughes family in Lindsay and how she came to own Roby’s wedding gown is below.
Roby Hughes Green holding her daughter Aleen. Item: 2010.388.1
Aleen Meritta and Mary Roby, daughters of Roby Hughes and Byron Green. Item: 2010.395.1
“In 1937, aged 2, I was taken to Lindsay to live with my grandmother, Roby, who was managing the Hughes household and supervising the nursing care for my great-grandmother, Mary Emily Hughes, then incapacitated by a series of strokes suffered over the years since the death of Sir Sam.
It was a large house on Glenelg Street, by Lindsay Street, surrounded by tall maple trees. My hands remember the feeling of the red brick. The household included Lady Hughes’s two nurses, a cook, a housekeeper, my grandfather, Byron Green, aunt Mary, and soon enough, a nanny for me.
I met Lady Hughes, known to me as Bana. A formal introduction: one afternoon dressed in my best clothes, I was ushered into her room by the nanny. Present were also my grandmothers, several members of the household staff and the day nurse. My great-grandmother was seated in a large chair, supported by numerous pillows, attired all in white. Slits of light along the edges of the window blinds entered the dark room. Birds chirped in the ivy under the eaves. As instructed, I advanced a few steps and, holding the sides of my skirt between thumbs and index finger, executed a wobbly curtsey. “So this is little Jacqueline,” said Bana. (“She said that the last time,” I thought, “and the time before that...” She had no memory but was kind, wished me well.) Behind my grandmother, in a larger wing mirror on the dresser, I could see the three of us reflected again and again into the past.
In 1939, Lady Hughes having died, the house was sold, as well as the family’s property at Eagle Lake. I was taken back to Toronto. Later that year, Ross Arnold, owner and manager of Arnold Motors on Kent Street, and my Aunt Mary, were married. For a few years there was a rented apartment on Russell Street by Lindsay Street. My grandmother, Roby kept house for them because Mary was an invalid.
In 1946, Ross Arnold bought a house on William Street South, number 81. It was there on December 24, 1948, after my grandmother Roby’s funeral that I climbed up the stairs to the attic and looked into all the trunks and boxes. I saw Roby’s wedding dress, Sir Sam’s dress uniform, photographs, books, a water colour painting done by Roby in 1907, copies of etchings of Scottish landscapes in an eighteenth century style.
In 1949, Ross and Mary moved to a small house on Sylvan Crescent. The trunks were placed in the basement. Many pleasant times were shared with my mother and stepfather when they came to visit. I overheard them all reminiscing about one winter Sunday morning when my stepfather, wearing Sir Sam’s dress uniform, walked down the centre of Kent Streeet. The uniform was later donated to the museum.
In 1969, Mary died. Ross asked me to take some family furniture, jewelry, silverware, photographs, Sir Sam’s sword and bayonet and Roby’s wedding dress.
My daughter, Alina, told her sister that she wanted to wear the wedding dress when she married. In 1988, she did so. Twenty years later, she told me that she wanted the dress to be transferred to an appropriate place for safe keeping.”
