Family of William Gillespie and Eliza Atkinson of “Upper Canada”

Later The Province of Ontario, CANADA

    Compiled by Norma Gillespie                                         February 2024

Introduction

In 1809, one settler took up land on the south shore of the Ottawa River near Chaudiere Falls, and built the first shanty by 1812 with  the help of three other early settlers. In 1818, a group of disbanded soldiers made their way into the nearby interior and started the community of Richmond. In 1820 the interior of the second surveyed area, called Gloucester Township, was divided into lots along the banks of the Rideau and Ottawa Rivers.

Immigrants began arriving in Bytown seeking jobs. A military presence, led by Lieutenant Colonel By, oversaw the development of the canal. A crew, mainly arriving Irish immigrants, was hired to build the canal, following the Rideau River. It  stretched from Bytown across country to Kingston on Lake Ontario. There were concerns about an American attack after the War of 1812. This canal could protect the movement of troops. It has a system of locks still in operation today.

The names of the men who build the canal is found on a document, The McCabe List, and provides the introduction to William Gillespie, my paternal great- grandfather from Northern Ireland in February 1829.

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Code: Signature, description of. Each is numbered. Place from whence they emigrated re County, Parish, Town, Village or Townland.  Applicants numbers in family=males/females and total

(156) William GILLESPIE

          Fermanagh   Clogher  Scribby           1/1/=2

Has a nephew John Lendrim, with a large family residing at Scribby near Fivemiletown and is known to Col. Montgomery of said place

Also:

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This whole Canadian region was a wilderness of towering trees, with less than a thousand people for a great distance. Shanty Town in Bytown developed in the swamps south of the main buildings that housed the more prosperous military families and government officials. Shanty Town was where most canal workers lived. Just south of there in Gloucester Township is where the history of my paternal great-grandparents begins.

Generation One

1. William Galespie (also Gillespy & Gillespie) was born between 1810 to 1813 in Northern Ireland near Five Mile Town (Screeby, Clogher, Co Fermanagh). He  had arrived in Canada the previous fall 1828 via  a ship from Ireland, docking at Quebec City. A smaller boat  transported passengers from there to Montreal (area was called Lower Canada,  or what is today the Province of Quebec).

Those seeking the interior further west (called Upper Canada)  had to follow a trail  along the banks of the turbulent St Lawrence River to a small community developing at Prescott. Most settlers walked, but some were able to travel in a small boat pulled by a horse on the shoreline. From Prescott was another trail through the bush north to Bytown. As time passed,  roads were developed and inns hosted overnight visitors. Boats began to go up and down the Ottawa River, making the passage much quicker for later arrivals, as did wider, safer roads along the St Lawrence River. Stagecoaches began to move passengers further into the interior.

William purchased land in Gloucester Township on June 9, 1832.  No Gillespie was living on this land, however, until 1835. It had to be logged first to clear a spot to put up a shanty in which to live. More land was cleared, a barn built, fences put up, and pasture land and vegetable gardens established.

William and  his family were recorded on the Agricultural census each year between 1835 -1841  for Gloucester Township, Carleton County near Billings Bridge. His lot was initially identified as SE 1/4 Con 3, Lot 2, (1835) 50 acres. Others were living with William and his wife: another male and another couple above age 16. There is also one male child under age 16.  But in 1836, there is a change  – identified as SE1/2 Con 4, Lot 3 River Front. 100 acres .

William and family appear to have moved. He does buy and sell property several times in this lifetime making profit to help him expand. The other adults are gone by the next year. In 1837, William has a total of 200 acres, of which he has 10 acres cleared in the same location. He later sells some of this land and settles for a total of 100 acres, 10 acres cleared.

Nearby is Samuel Gillespie, a farmer, single,  born about 1812 in Ireland, living in a shanty on a 50- acre farm, later identified in 1836 as  SE, 1/4, Con 3, Lot 3, River Front. This is William Gillespie’s original property.  Samuel is Church of England. He and William’s relationship is unidentified,  but they may have been brothers, not father and son. They had travelled together from Ireland,  according to an immigration record. Once settled, Samuel does not move.

The Irish naming pattern of the time indicates that the father of William Gillespie was a Samuel Gillespie in Ireland. A record has been found in the location expected, as a probable relation. The sad reality was that many families broke apart, never to see each other again. Early Irish records are very limited because so many were destroyed in 1921. How interesting that the first name Samuel has passed down each generation to my older brother.

William married Eliza ATKINSON (b 1817), probably 1833 to 1834 in a period of no birth control. She is also called Elizabeth. But in February 1829, there are two  listed  as family for him on the McCabe List.   It could have been another male or female relative. Did this person marry by 1835 from the indication of a male and a female adult  living with William and Eliza. Where they a married couple,  who then moved out in 1836 to establish their own home? (Note: She may have been William’s sister who married a Keys,  from a record of a tragic death of a child)

William and Eliza had four children. They were a Church of England family.  William purchased additional property in 1836 and continues to buy and sell, until by 1840 he has 100 acres. William was knifed in a fight on December 11, 1841, and died five days on the 16th at home (Death Record). Eliza was suddenly a widow, aged 23 with her children: Sam age 7, Mary age 6, John age 4 and Martha a one-year-old.

The only Atkinson on the McCabe seems to indicate that Eliza was from Co Sligo, Ireland. Eliza was still on the farm in 1851, a widow, age 34 with her growing children 10 years older.   Samuel was nearby, still single, age 40.

However,  both Eliza and Samuel disappear by the 1861 census. John now owns William’s farm (J Gelespie) But Samuel Gelespie still owns his lot (map of 1863). Eliza was about 43 and Samuel age  50. Confusing. The hunt to find them has been ongoing for  years with no success. It is unlikely they died, but that is a possiblity to consider since record keeping was in its initial stages for vital statistics. Could they have moved to the States? No records finds them still in Canada or in Ireland. Proof that this William Gillespie and Eliza Atkinson were parents of their son, John, who is my paternal grandfather, comes from his statement on his second marriage record 1901. No burial has been found for either William or Eliza nor Samuel.

Children (all last names later changed to Gillespie)

2. i. Samuel Galespie           b 1835
3. ii. Maryann Galespie        b 1836

(possible birth & death of a little girl in 1837)

4. iii. John Galespie                b May 4, 1840  (My Grandfather)
5. iv. Martha Galespie           b  1841
6. Samuel Galespie (Gillespie). Born Gloucester. Died March 11, 1896, age 60, of cancer of the liver. The informant for this death record is his brother, John Gillespie of Gloucester. His religion is listed as Episcopalian.(Death registration 002908 page 491). He is not, however found on census records. A mystery.
7. Maryann Gillespie. She lived with her brother, John, until his marriage in 1867. She moved to Ottawa. At age 38, she married George GILL March 4, 1874, in Bishop’s Chapel, Ottawa. George was a Batchelor, age 35, a tailer, from Co Down, Ireland. He was son of James & Jane Gill. (Marriage Record 001837, page 331) Maggie Mulligan was a witness at her wedding. The Gill family was not researched very deeply, so location of her burial has not been found.
8. John Gillespie, farmed River Front Con 2, Lot 3f. which seems to be Samuel’s property. He lived there with his sister, Mary Ann until her marriage. In 1860, John was age 23, a farmer, Protestant, single. Maryann is age 25, single [Reel C-1012, page 72]. He continued to live on this farm his whole life. He married Elisabeth (Betsy Ann) Mulliigan (b 1841) on December 12,  1867. Daughter of John Mulligan and Elizabeth Boyd of Nepean Twp. A large Irish family from County Down, Ireland. (Several marriage records for John & Elisabeth.  The Gillespie farm was damaged in a terrible fire that swept the area in the 1870s. John rebuilt.

 

Children of John Gillespie & Elizabeth Mulligan                               

            6                      i. William Gillespie                          b Sept 5, 1868

7                      ii. John Gillespie                              b January 22, 1870

8. iii. James Gillespie                          b. Nov 7, 1871
9. iv. Elizil Gillespie (Elizie)                b. July 21, 1873
10. v.  Samuel Gillespie                        b. July 10,  1875  My Father
11. vi. Nathan Gillespie                        b. 1877 – died young
12. vii. Martha Gillespie                       b. March 11, 1877
13. viii George Gillespie                       b. Oct 2, 1878
14. ix.   Bertha Gillespie                       b. July 15, 1881 – died age 5
15. x.    Maybelle Gillespie (Mabel)  b. Feb 4, 1883

John’s wife, Elizabeth, died January 4, 1898 age 57. All of her children had left home by then. John Gillespie, widower,  lived alone for about two years. His second marriage on June 19, 1901, age 60, was  to his neighbour,  Mrs. Mary Clifford b. 1861,  (d/o Whitcombe Davis & Jane Lovett)). [‘Marriage Record ID 004239]  She had been the wife of William Clifford, who had died in late 1895. The Clifford children had been raised with the Gillespies two houses away. William was Thomas’ son.

Mary had four young Clifford children she brought with her marriage, that John helped raise:  Edith Clifford (b April 23, 1890, age 11; Davis Clifford (b April 22, 1892 age 9; Earnest Clifford b April 19, 1894 age 7; and Alice Clifford b April 10, 1896, age 5. All children were born in April. Was William away for part of each year, to return in August? His death record has not been researched.

John and Mary Gillespie had only one child together:

16. i.  Ruth Amy Gillespie                    b. Aug 31, 1902, Pittsburgh Twp

In  1911, John and Mary have three  children still living with them, Ernest Clifford, age 17, and Alice Clifford, age 15, along with daughter Ruth, who was six years old.

John Gillespie Sr died May 4, 1916, in Elizabethtown, age 79. Burial Woods Cemetery in Ottawa. He and Mary were together about 14 years. What became of her has not been researched. One of her sons, Ernest, move to Saskatchewan and then went overseas in World War I and was killed.  He named his mother as next of kin. Burial found in France. However, no military record found for Davis, and could he have died by then? Not found on military websites nor census.

5. Martha Gillespie – born late 1841. May have moved to Ottawa. Did she leave with her mother? Did she die young? No information has been found for her.

 Notes:

The only Atkinson on the McCabe List was Robert Atkinson from Co Sligo, Kilmacshalkin Rathurisk. ‘His father Henry with a very large family lives at Rathurlisk, Co Sligo and is known to Rev Mr Grove.” It is highly probably that Eliza Atkinson, wife of William Galaspie, belonged to this family. Research in Irish records found two Henry Atkinsons near each other, in Sligo,  but unable to determine how to distinguish between them in nearby locations. Atkinson land was near the sea to the west of the town of Sligo.