Wallaces of the Pennines, Canadian Pioneers
The name Wallace was often spelled Wallasse, Wallas or Wallis, depending on who wrote it. They
come from the Celtic Weallise, the word for 'foreigner' they applied to the tribe of Celts of the
kingdom of Strathclyde, then the east half of the island from Cumbria north to Glasgow. (They also
applied it to the old Britons, hence our name Wales for their refugium as opposed to their name
Cymru.)
Many of my ancestral lines come from the Pennine hills of Cumbria, primarily the area between
Alston and the Eden River. 'My' places from Newbiggin to Melmerby can be visited within a
brisk day's walk. However, the route from Renwick to Alston involves a climb of 400 meters up
and 300 down, and Alston to Tynehead is equally hilly. All are virtually the same population as
they were two centuries ago. The name Wallace appears from the beginning of surviving parish
records there, but very rarely until the 1760's. However, the form Wallis is fairly common, and a
Richard Wallasse, fluent in Latin and Greek, was schoolmaster and parish clerk for the busy
mining center of Alston from the earliest parish record until his death in 1729. Such a skill
(especially Greek) was so unusual in that area at that time that a connection has to be suspected
with my 2-greats grandfather Isaac Wallace, who also read both languages, owned a number of
books in both, and wrote educated English in a fine Spencerian script.
Three other ancestral names, Gill, Salkeld and Watson, appear in profusion from the earliest surviving
records of the area. In the Pennines, Gill is of Norse origin, a stream in a deep wooded ravine. Sal was
the Anglo-Saxon term for willow tree, and keld for a smooth upwelling spring; there is still today a Great
Salkeld and Little Salkeld in the area. Oxford considers that Wat, and hence Wat('s)son is probably a short
form of Walter, then a nautical term for a ship that wallowed. (Not exactly a compliment!) In medieval
times, surnames as we presently use them did not exist in Britain. People were known by a given name
plus their father's name (Fitz-, O', Mc-, and -son all mean 'son of'), their trade (e.g. the baker),
their place of residence (by the salt spring), their tribe or clan (the Wallace), or, occasionally, by
some noticeable personal characteristic (the town drunk?). Few surnames there indicate common
ancestry until recent times.
My Wallace family tree was begun by my aunt Maud, and continued by my mother. She passed on to me her mother's photo
album of labelled family portraits, and corresponded with a number of other family members. She believed her earliest known
ancestor to be a Thomas Wallace ("with an estate in Scotland"), then William ("a drover on the border with Scotland"), then
another Thomas, my 3-greats-grandfather. This oral tradition was elaborated by Henry S. Rogers in his 58 page
Descendants of Thomas Wallace. However, the primary evidence is clear that my 4-greats-grandfather is a John Wallace;
however he had a brother William, and his father is probably a Thomas who had significant property. In any case, the second
Thomas is buried in the graveyard of St.Paul's Abbotsford, as are his brother William and sons Isaac and Jacob, overlooked
by the white wood-frame church erected in 1822. One document my mother obtained is a letter written by Ann (Wallace)
Dearstyn to her grand-niece Julia (Wallace) Robinson about 1907:
I will tell you who my ancestors were, as near as I can. Grandfather's name was
Thomas Wallace. Grandmother's name was Jane Heatherington. They had three children, triplets,
born at Tynehead, Cumberland, England, February 19, 1794. Their names, Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. Abraham died March 4,1794. Jacob died May 23, 1849. Isaac died May 8, 1882.
My father came to America in 1817. Their house was burned and all that was in it except wife
and children. Grandfather thought they must be suffering, and in 1819 he and Uncle Jacob came
to America, to find Father all right.
Before Grandfather came, he gave his old Bible to his nephew, Joe Millican. When Father went
to England on a visit, Joe Millican gave the Bible to Father. That was in 1855. Father gave the
Bible to me, his daughter, Ann Wallace Dearstyn, June 23, 1904.
My Father's marriage:- Isaac Wallace married to Mary Scholick, widow, Jan. 22, 1816. Their
children -
Elizabeth Scholick, born Feb. 21, 1813
Mary Scholick Dec. 25, 1814
Thomas Wallace Dec. 14, 1816
Isaac Feb. 1, 1818
Jane Dec. 4, 1820
Ann July 12, 1822
Jacob May 25, 1824
William Aug. 1, 1826
Jacob & Rachel Oct. 21, 1827
William Story Jan. 26, 1829
Nathaniel July 28, 1832
Isabella Aug. 19, 1833
They are all dead but Ann, that is myself, and I am nearly 85, will be on July 12....
According to my aunt Maud, a bureau brought from England also survived the fire, and was the one used by
Isaac's son Thomas, then by his son George, and, after George's death, donated by Julia Robinson to the
Brome County Historical Society. It is on public display in the bedroom exhibit at 130 Lakeside St., Knowlton.
The museum label states that it dates from about 1850, but no authority for this attribution is on record there.
There is another bureau in the family which is of comparable age, one in Empire style that was in use by my
grandparents (in Thomas' homestead) as early as my aunt Margaret can remember. It was in poor condition when
my grandparents took over the Milton home, so they had it repaired. The only identification mark on it is of
a Granby firm, with no date. Probably it was bought there ca. 1850.
Isaac's cousin Mary (Wallace) McKerley was interviewed for the Granby Leader in 1898 by
William Gill (possibly also a relative of mine), at the behest of her son Mark, a correspondent of
the newspaper. Some extracts from that article (printed 17 March 1898):
Last New Year's Day 1898 we had the pleasure of an interview with Mrs. Mary McKerley of
Abbotsford, widow of the late Mr. Wm. McKerley, who is now 83 years of age and has resided
at Abbotsford since early childhood, and is a native of Alston Moor, County of Cumberland....
Her father's name was Mr. Wm. Wallace and when they came to this country they had quite a
large family of which she was the youngest, and some of them went to Upper Canada.
Those best known in this vicinity were, Mr. Job Wallace, father-in-law of the late James Irwin
of Granby, Mr. Joseph Wallace father of Mr. Wm. Wallace of Granby, who settled in Canaan
and Mr. Thos. Wallace who recently died at Waterloo at an advanced age.
The family sailed from Liverpool in 1820 and at the same time came Messrs. Isaac and Jacob
Wallace, these two were the survivors of triplets.... The late Thomas Gill of Abbotsford, also
came from the same county in England 1832.
Mr. Wallace, Mrs. McKerley's father came on to Abbotsford, where his son Job who had
preceded him two years before had settled.... The Wallace Family located at the east end of
Yamaska Mountain, on a place where there was an old rude cabin; as they had masons in the
family they built a stone house as soon as they could.... Her brothers went to Granby to mill, a
distance of eight miles, with a bushel of corn on a hand sled, with blazed trees to guide them.
At times they had to come back without their grist, the mill being so full. Mr. Wallace had to
pay twenty-five cents a day for the use of a plough, and he had the first pair of cart wheels in
the place that had iron tiers or bands around them.
When he commenced to farm in Canada he had only six shillings in his pocket and he owed his
brother the amount of his passage money. He was a miner in England and consequently did not
know much about farming. When he began land clearing he chopped all around the tree to his
own great danger, and then sat down and shed tears at the hard prospect before him, but
plucking up courage he tried again until success rewarded his efforts....
Mrs. McKerley had in the winter time to walk a distance of four miles to school, "across lots"
through the deep snow. Her route lay across the high hill or spur of the mountain, then as now
called the hog-back, and she had often to sit in wet clothes all day, her body chilled by the
unnatural exposure....
She thinks her uncle, Mr. Thomas Watson also came out at the same time....
Regrettably, such articles were the exception for the Leader, and for the Mail, the other Granby
newspaper of the time. Patent medicines, and items suitable for International Trivial Pursuit,
were considered far more important!
The slight disagreement between these accounts, of the dates of arrival in Canada, is settled by
the land petition of Isaac Wallace, preserved in the National Archives of Canada:
To His Excellency George Earl of Dalhousie and Governor in chief of Upper and Lower
Canada &c &c &c &c
The memorial of Isaac Wallace Humbly sheweth that your Memorialist left his Native Country
Cumberland in the summer of 1818 for Canada where your Memorialist has resided ever since
at Ymaskaw Mountain, being the first English man that settled at this place: - your Memorialist
immediately wrote to his Father that he liked this place very well, advising them to come out
without delay, accordingly they arrived here in the summer of 1819, viz my Father, Brother
and wife, and my Uncle and Family and a number of your Memorialist's Country people; and
we now feel anxious for a real Settlement, and understanding that the Land of the Township of
Granby has fallen into the hands of Government,
Therefore your Memorialist Humbly Hopes that your Lordship will be Graciously pleased to
Grant him a portion of Land in the Township of Granby; that your Memorialist may be enabled
to get a Farm Cleared of his own for the support of Himself, Wife Two Sons and Four
Daughters, and your Memorialist as in Duty Bound will ever pray for your Lordship &c.
Ymaskaw Mountain 6th Day of October 1823
Isaac wrote his own letter, but Jacob had someone (not Isaac) write his for him. Jacob adds to the
above information:
[I] came from England to Canada in the latter end of August 1819 with a Wife, and now that
we have one Son, your Memorialist having a brother living at Ymaskaw Mountain to which
your Memorialist came....
What memories must have been summed up in those few words, "came from England to
Canada"! Ports on both sides of the Atlantic swarmed with con-men selling non-existent berths,
accommodation and money exchange. Generally the worst vessels were used for the emigrant
trade to Canada - the usual steerage hold was 1.7 m high; on either side of a 1.5 m aisle were
bunks 3 m wide and 1.5 m long, each for 6 adults. Infants under a year were not counted,
children 1-6 counted only as 1/3 a person, those aged 7-13 as 1/2 a person, for space, food and
water. In fact slaves being deported from Africa to America usually had better quarters.
Slaves were paid for on delivery; the healthier they were, the higher the shipmaster's profit.
Emigrants had to pay in advance; dead or alive they had no redress on arrival.
The only ventilation was through the hatches, which were closed in bad weather, often for
a week at a time. During a storm, those unused to the sea, sealed up in total darkness, were
frightened out of their wits by what, to the uninitiated, sounded like their ship was breaking
apart. They would be thrown from their berths and hurled headlong among their companions
who lay on the opposite side, together with all their food and belongings. Water usually leaked
through the deck in such quantities that beds were soaked and the floor could be ankle deep in
water. The bread for steerage passengers on the Rothiemurchus in 1817 was over a year old and
the beef much older, while the drinking water was "no clearer than that of a dirty kennel after a
rain ... the stink it emitted was intolerable". The damp below decks rotted most fresh food within
a week. The average Liverpool-Quebec City trip took six weeks, but adverse weather could
double that time. Those who had the foresight, as our Pennine ancestors did, to fill their bunks
with oatmeal - which keeps for months and has sufficient nutrients to be a healthy diet for weeks
on end - had to listen and watch as those who packed only fresh produce sickened and died about
them. Small wonder that the historian Guillet refers to it as "a time of horror which could never
be effaced from memory". (I celebrated Y2K with oatmeal, in a bowl that belonged to my great
grandparents, to honour their memory.)
Anyway, the Wallace letters were successful - the decisions of an Imperial board set up 29 April
1823 to distribute the "waste lands" of Lower Canada show that Isaac Wallace was granted "the
North half of the Lot no3 in the 4th Range of the Township of Granby containing about one
hundred Acres" (in magenta below), the amount due a head of a household, while Jacob got 100 acres
on "lot no1 in the 5th Range" (in blue below), on 6 November 1823. The conditions of grant were
"that the said ___ shall immediately settle thereon, and that he, or his family, do remain thereon
for the term of three years from the date of this assignment, and that four acres ... be cleared
and cultivated and ... a dwelling house be erected". The civil records of Lower Canada in Quebec
City show that by 1835 Jacob had met these conditions, and in 1837 that Isaac had as well.
The Granby area, 1842
By great good fortune, a census of the seigniory of St.Hyacinthe in 1825 survives, and shows
"Wallace père" (William), Isaac and Job Wallace each occupying a household "on
Yamaska
mountain", with 17 residents between them. (Prior to 1851, Canadian censi record only the name
of the head of the household and age classes of residents, not relationships.) The next census of
the area, in 1831, shows Isaac, Job, William and Jacob with 30 family members on what was
now called the St.Charles concession of St.Pie. The census numbers give a clear result - although
no Wallaces appear in the 1825 census of Granby Township, Jacob was there, together with his
wife Rachel, 2-year-old son Thomas, and Isaac's sons Thomas (aged 8) and Isaac (6), meeting
the terms of the land grants. The next census of Granby Township, in 1842, shows William
Wallace with wife & 3 children (including Mary McKerley), and his son Joseph with wife & 2
children, but no other Wallaces. So, it seems that both Isaac and Jacob sold their lots as soon as
they could. Perhaps they had expected to get land just across the border in Granby, and were not
prepared to live so far from family. More probably, they may have been caught up in the land
speculation fever of the time and saw the lots as a source of riches from the beginning.
One of the earliest records in the parish register of St.Paul d'Abbotsford is the following entry:
On this eleventh day of September one thousand eight hundred and thirty one Jacob son of
Isaac Wallace of Abbotsford farmer and Mary Scholick his wife born on the twenty fourth day
of October one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven & Rachel daughter of the above born
on the twenty fourth day of October one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven & William
Story son of the above born on the twenty sixth day of January one thousand eight hundred and
twenty nine were Baptised (the sponsors are David Buzel Isaac Vipond Betsy Scholick Rachel
Wallace & Anna Johnson) by me Thos Johnson
With all this information, it was easy to find, with the assistance of the Latter-day Saints (LDS),
many parish records in Cumberland of my family.
The transcripts of the parish register of Renwick, given to the bishop at each annual visit, record
that "Thomas Scholic of the Parish of Kirkoswald aged 22 years and Mary Salkeld of this Parish
aged 21 years were married in this Church by Banns this 11th Day of April 1812". The same
transcripts record the baptism on 21 October 1790, of "Mary illegitimate Daughter of Elizabeth
Salkeld of Fellgate in the Parish of Kirkoswald." The transcripts of the parish of Kirkoswald
record the baptism of John & William, illegitimate twins of Elizabeth Salkeld, on 31 January
1794, and her marriage to Isaac Nicholson a month later, on 3 March.
A year later, the parish of Renwick records the baptism 25 October 1795 of Ann to Isaac
Nicholson of Haresceugh, parish of Kirkoswald, and Elizabeth Salkeld; on 3 November 1799 of
Jane (Isaac now described as a collier of Vale moor, Kirkoswald); of Elizabeth 14 February
1803; and of Hannah 11 March 1804 (Isaac now described as a coal miner of Renwick). Next
comes the burial of John the son of Isaac Nicholson of Renwick 4 June 1805. From this we can
conclude that Isaac was the father of John & William, but probably not of Mary. We may also conclude
that Elizabeth was an expert mother - to lose only one child out of eleven, and that at age 11, was
unusual for that time.
The transcripts continue with the baptism of Thomas on 29 December 1805 and of Sarah 16 July
1809. And then comes the baptism of a second set of twins, Isaac and Isabella, on 11 April 1812,
the same day that Elizabeth's Mary was married. Imagine the pride of all those smiling faces,
decked out in the finest that two coal miners could provide, on that spring day!
It was not to last long for Mary. Her Thomas had been born 6 September 1789 in the parish
of Croglin, the illegitimate son of Elizabeth Scholic of Nubigin. The Scholic name (there are as
many spellings for it in the registers as for Wallace) had been vilified in the parish records there
since 1679 when one Henry Schollick joined the Quakers. By the 1780's it was the turn of
Elizabeth & Rachel: living "under a common fame" and guilty of "negligent romance" among
other things! I have found no baptismal record for Thomas' and Mary's first child Elizabeth.
But, then comes the record, in Croglin 2 November 1814, of
the burial of Thomas Scholick of Lowhouse, parish of Weatheral, aged 25. One suspects that the
Croglin minister was not of much comfort to Mary; it must have been a trial for her even to
arrange for Thomas' burial on sacred ground there. In any case, she returned to the parish in
which she had been married to give birth to her second daughter, Mary, baptised 15 January 1815.
How very different that church must have felt to her, dank and cold in the congealed fog of
winter (as unheated stone buildings there were still in the 1960's when I studied in England)
than it had less than three years before. How
could she ever have imagined that she would soon be married again, and live a decade beyond
the biblical three score years and ten in the prosperous and well-educated community of
Abbotsford, far across the sea in Canada East? But, that was what did happen, following her
marriage in Renwick, 22 January 1816, to my 2-greats-grandfather Isaac Wallace. Isaac's best
man was his brother Jacob, who married Rachel Watson of Kirkoswald 12 May 1819, just prior
to following his brother overseas to Abbotsford.
According to the LDS Index, only three Elizabeth Salkelds were born in Cumberland county
during that time, all within walking distance of each other. One was born in Renwick 1779 (she
would be only 11 in 1790, when Mary was born), and died in Renwick still named Salkeld in
1843, consistent with the record that an Elizabeth Salkeld of Renwick married shoemaker Joseph
Salkeld in 1812. Another was born in Croglin 1775. I am indebted to Robert Salkeld of
Salisbury, Wiltshire, for the information that this Elizabeth is mentioned in her father's will,
proven 1803 at Carlisle, as being married to a Gibson, probably to Thomas Gibson at Cumrew
1793. The third Elizabeth was born to Thomas & Ann Salkeld of Unthank,
parish of Addingham, 29 May 1771. The only possible marriage in the Index for Cumberland to
match them is that in the parish of Melmerby, 1 September 1768, of Thomas Salkeld and Ann
Storey. This then is the source of Isaac and Mary's son's name William Story.
At this point, I got in touch with the Family History Society of Cumbria, and promptly received a
letter from another descendant of my Elizabeth, Geoff Nicholson, a professional genealogist and
chair of the Northumberland & Durham FHS. He had located our Elizabeth in the 1851
census, living with her son Martin, his direct ancestor, in Foresthead, parish of Farlam, where she
was buried 22 June 1854, and was able to add eighty new members to my family tree. But, it
hadn't come easily - there is no baptismal record for Martin Nicholson, in Kirkoswald or in any
of the surrounding parishes. He appears in 3 censi, two parish marriage records, and his burial
record, so he certainly believed that he was born in Kirkoswald in 1798. His second marriage
record, to Ann Raine, the Garrigill blacksmith's daughter, states that his father was Isaac,
Elizabeth's burial record states that she was the widow of Isaac Nicholson, and there was only
one Isaac Nicholson married to an Elizabeth from the Kirkoswald area at the time. So, there is no
room for doubt about the family connection. But, was the minister so far into the sacramental
wine the day Martin was baptised that he forgot to write it in the register? Or, did Isaac not
pay him enough? (I have found several records of original register entries being furiously scratched
out by a minister who noted that he had not been paid!)
The move from Renwick/Kirkoswald to Farlam took place because the Kirkoswald coal mines
were worked out early in the 19th century. When the Farlam mines in turn were declining, about
1890, Elizabeth's grandson Isaac, Geoff's great-grandfather, moved from Cumberland to
Durham to work in the coal fields there. Geoff believes that his grandfather was the first in the
family to have sufficient education to read and write, and that his father was the first to not work
in the mines.
Of Jane Heatherington, there are two certain records in England. One is the baptism of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob to Thomas Wallace and Jane at the Redwing (Congregational) chapel of Alston,
19 February 1794. There is a record in the parish of Stanhope, co.Durham (the parish
immediately to the east of Alston; Alston reported to the bishop in Durham, not to Carlisle) of
the marriage of Thomas Wallace and Jane Heatherington on 18 May 1793. Then, there is a
record of the burial of a Jane Wallace aged 55 of Scalehouses, parish of Renwick, 10 December
1814. This is the only occurrence of that name that I could find in that area at that time, and her
death then is consistent with Isaac Wallace's father being a widower when he came to Canada in
1819. If her age in this record is correct, Jane was born 1 July 1759 to William Heatherington
of Tynehead. Probably he, and the Heatheringtons in Stanhope, were lead miners. At some time
between 1794 and 1814, my Wallaces must have moved from the Alston moor to Renwick.
This matches the history of lead mining in the area. Tynehead lead was first mined by the Romans, who built
the still-spectacular earthworks of Epiacum two miles north of today's Alston town. A millenium later, it was
quickly taken by William the Conqueror to control its mines. However, the wildness of the area led it to be
split between Scottish and English control for 700 years, during which time the English tried to protect the
miners and their produce, the Scots to control civil affairs. Definitely a state of affairs to select for
street-smart and resilient people! But then came the food crises of the 1790's, lead prices began to slide
downward, and employment slumped.
Parish records from anywhere in the Pennines have limited usefulness for one who would trace family
relationships. A substantial portion of the population were 'nonconformist', that is, of a protestant
religion other than the Church of England. Most of my ancestors there were Methodists, who generally
considered themselves Anglicans, but the Church of England strongly disagreed. From the Act of
Uniformity of 1559, aimed especially against dissenting Protestants, until 1753, nonconformist
marriages in England were illegal, so few records of them have survived. And, nonconformist
cemeteries were not legal until 1880! However, Church of England parishes were required to
provide relief under the Poor Laws to those unable to support themselves if, but only if, they
could prove residence in the parish. So, it seems that many nonconformist parents christened
their children in the state church to assure them of a parish residence. No fewer than four times as
many Salkeld birth records of the area are recorded prior to 1800 as of their subsequent marriages
or deaths. It wasn't due to emigration - the population there increased steadily between 1800 and 1850.
Parish records were until a few years ago considered private property by many British clergy, and not made
available for microfilming. So, most LDS microfilms are of bishops' transcripts. These have a further
drawback - they were often hurriedly scribbled on any handy piece of paper just before the
annual visit of the bishop. Details noted in the original parish records (required by law to be
written on proper parchment), that enabled the minister to remember which family was which,
are often omitted, and the handwriting has to be seen to be believed. And, no equivalent of the
bishops' transcript system seems to have existed in Scotland prior to 1855. So, microfilms alone
are rarely adequate to trace the ancestry of common names of the area, Hetherington, Gill,
Salkeld and Watson in particular. (There is now a central repository of registries for the area
in Carlisle, which will help future researchers a bit as long as it doesn't burn down as the
matching one in Ireland did.)
Ann Dearstyn's letter provides the link to Elizabeth Wallace, who married Thomas Millican in
1793 at St. John's chapel, Garrigill, had 8 children besides Joe (who was born 4 December
1795), and is buried at Garrigill along with her husband and most of her children. Thomas was a
Methodist preacher; a John Millican was one of the first Methodist preachers in the area,
ca.1760-80. Joe died at Howgillside 9 February 1849, a surveyor. So, he could not have
personally given the bible to Isaac Wallace in 1855. Probably, it was returned to Isaac as the son
of the original donor. In any case, Julia Robinson's son Alan still has the bible, a large table-size
volume with brittle but still perfectly clear pages.
The only possible parents for my Thomas, William and Elizabeth Wallace in the LDS records for
the Pennines are a John & Elizabeth Wallis of Aimsaugh, Alston, with children Thomas
baptised 3 Jan 1764, Elizabeth 8 Oct 1769 and William 7 Jan 1775. They were married in
Garrigill 1759 as John Wallace and Elizabeth Johnston, and also had children Joseph, Ann, John,
Job, and Benjamin. After they moved to Howburn Garrigill about 1772, they were again
recorded there as Wallace except for William's birth. Elizabeth died in 1778 shortly after their
last child died at birth, but I have not been able to identify a burial record for John. I am indebted
to Don Salkeld of Abingdon Oxford for the information that a Jane Wallace of Ousbie, widow of a
Thomas, left the then substantial amount of 25 pounds to her children in 1733, including 5 pounds to
a son John. This matches the family tradition of an estate being divided about this time.
Another Thomas Wallace, schoolmaster, is listed as one of 14 "Most Ancient"
Wesleyan Methodists of Tynehead & Garrigill at about this time.
Returning to Canadian records, the 1851 census for the Granby area has not survived. The early
censi of Canada had severe problems with households who refused to be enumerated. In the
words of the introduction to the 1852 census
A very general feeling was found to prevail throughout the Colony, that the Census had some
direct or indirect reference to taxation - and in this belief the Enumerators were frequently
received most ungraciously, and the information sought was, not only partially, but, in some
cases, altogether withheld.
The 1841 census was so badly marred by this and related problems that much of it was redone in
1842. Large portions of the 1852 census, in particular, the Granby area, were not even tabulated
for the same reason. The time chosen for the censi until 1911, 1 April, was the worst of times
then to travel rural roads, as neither sleigh runners nor wagon wheels are suitable for deep mud
mixed with broken ice, the usual state of most roads there at that time of the year. The Granby
Leader editorialised on "the impassable condition of the roads", and the resultant frequency of
"language quite unsuitable for Lenten-tide" from enumerators, even in 1901.
However, the 1861 census lists Thomas Wallace, wife Anna Watson, children Isaac, William,
Julia, George and Mary Elizabeth, and niece Elizabeth Watson, living in a one story wood house
on 100 acres, lot 1 range 3 Milton Township (the red square in the map above), with 5 milk cows
and 2 horses. Thomas' sister Jane
(Wallace) Gillespie is also listed, with husband Charles and two children. In 1871, Thomas and
family are shown as having 200 acres on lot 14 range 4, with 2 houses, 3 barns, 2 carriages,
3 ploughs, 25 milk cows, 3 horses, 5 pigs and 4 hives of bees. The produce of the farm in 1871
included 120 cords of heating wood; obviously land was being cleared. I assumed that they had
moved, until I noticed that they still had the same neighbours!
Originally, land in Lower Canada was held in the French seigniorial manner, essentially a
hierarchical tenancy. Since United Empire Loyalists (one imagines, those of Scottish extraction
in particular) refused to be subject to such a system, new grants, from 1791, were decreed to be
"in free and common soccage", 100 acres for a head of household, 50 acres for a single person.
The Eastern Townships, Granby included, were laid out in nominally 200 acre lots for this
purpose. But, as the 1838 report of Lord Durham put it,
On actual recent survey it has been found that no one lot agrees with the diagram on record.
The lines dividing the lots, instead of running perpendicularly according to the diagram,
actually run diagonally ... the lines dividing the ranges are so irregular as to give to some lots
two and a half times the extent of others, though they are all laid down in diagram as of equal
extent; there are lakes ... that are entirely omitted ... I have no reason for believing that the
surveys of other townships are more accurate....
The Introduction to the "List of Lands Granted by the Crown in the Province of Quebec" (1891),
written by the Deputy-Registrar of Quebec, adds
The Surveyor-General ... did not occupy himself nearly so much in controlling the surveys as
in the selection of the best lands which he pointed out to the favourites of the administration ...
Many professed surveys ... were made by persons who had never been on the ground ... the
interior plan was filled up ... according to the fancy of the surveyor ... there [is still]
considerable confusion and uncertainty as to the original title deeds ... conceded from 1796 to
1840.
There were about seventy such "favourites", who gained control of no less than 4600 square
kilometres of the Eastern Townships by 1809 - one Thomas Ainslie obtained some 19 square
kilometres of Granby Township. In 1823, the government finally acted to correct the abuses -
among the forfeited land was most of the holdings of Ainslie. And so, as Isaac Wallace put it,
"the Land of the Township of Granby [fell] into the hands of Government". The layout of Granby
was accurately recorded only in 1842, in a map "drawn principally from actual survey" by
A.Wells for the British American Land Company.
So, the 1861 census used in the area a land location system completely different from the
provincially accepted one - for example, the total area of the farms sharing Range 3 Lot 1 in
Census District 1 of the Township of Milton with Thomas Wallace is 3330 acres, about the area
of an entire range. The French village of St.Cécile was well to the east of the
English
Milton East, but the federal and Quebec governments considered the whole south half of Milton
township. to be St.Cécile de Milton. And, as if that isn't enough, a map of "Shefford,
Iberville,
Brome, Missisquoi and Rouville, Canada East" published by H.F.Walling in 1864, purporting to
show all the family names of the area and their locations, doesn't show Thomas Wallace.
(Possibly one had to pay to be listed.) It's taken a while to sort out!
By 1851, the farm of Isaac and Mary Wallace was part of Abbotsford village; in 1861 Mary was
recorded with their daughter Isabella Watson in Milton. I have found no entry for Isaac Wallace
in 1861, 1871 or 1881, however my aunt Maud was told that he was looked after by my great-grandfather
Thomas - Thomas was the witness at Isaac's burial 10 May 1882. There is a family
story that the elder Isaac became extremely anti-Papist in his later years, even going so far as to
twice attempt to burn down a local Catholic church! Possibly the embarrassment over this, and
that most enumerators were French and therefore "Papist", resulted in his name remaining
unmentioned at census time.
Jacob Wallace is described as "of the township of Shefford, farmer" at his death in 1849;
possibly he spent his last years with his cousin Thomas, for two of his children, Jane and Jacob,
had established farms near Thomas' in Shefford township by 1861.
Contrary to what Mary McKerley thought, my 2-greats grandfather Thomas Watson and his
family could not have arrived in Canada with the Wallaces - his son Joseph Mark was born in
England in 1832 according to census records.
A Church of England mission at Milton Corners, as it then appears on maps, was established in
1843; it became a full church, Milton East, in 1851. My great-grandparents Thomas Wallace and
Hannah Watson were described as residents of Milton at the time of their marriage at Abbotsford
in 1842. The main part of the house in which my mother was born is still in use. It is on today's
highway 137 a bit over a
kilometre north of the east-west road that joins St.Pie, St.Cécile-de-Milton and Roxton
Pond, in
the notch of a Y intersection; the old road branches to the right, the new (137) to
the left. (The veranda has been removed, the house stuccoed, and the wing containing the
kitchen, pantry and hired man's room replaced by a shed about the same size.)
By 1881, only three children remained in Milton, William, Archie & Minnie; by 1891, the entry
is for my grandfather A E Wallace, wife Stella and son Frederick. The Granby Mail for 10
September 1898 records that grandfather won 1st place at the Shefford County Fair for his
orchards. Archie's brother George and his family had a farm just to the north in 1891, but moved
to the south side of Denison Avenue in 1901. (A Wallace St. there was named after him.)
Thomas was a "gentleman" in 1891, living in Granby with his wife Hannah and daughter Minnie.
There are four Irwin-Wallace marriages in my family. I am indebted to Margery Strom of Sherbrooke Quebec for showing
that all the Irwins involved descended from James Irwin & Martha Ruddell, both of whom
are buried at Abbotsford.
My mother's book,
Memories of a Country Childhood,
details the family story from there. The
"Boyd place" (green in the map above), in which my mother grew up, is also still in use as my
mother knew it, complete
even to the lilac bush that appears on old family photos - its current address is 487 Dufferin
Road.
Notes
In 1831 the household of Isaac Wallace included two women born between 1786 and 1817, and that of Jacob Wallace a
boy between 1814 and 1817 and a woman between 1786 and 1817, who have not been identified; they may of course
be servants, not Wallaces. The relationships of three Wallaces recorded in the Granby area prior to 1900 have not
been established: Amarilla b.1854 the wife of M.T.Norris, William May1818-Sep1849 arrived Quebec 1819, and Robert
b.1801 married Ann. All the rest are known to be descended from John & Elizabeth Wallace.
The National Archives of Canada hold microfilms of the surviving Canadian censi, maps and
land grant records mentioned; the National Library of Canada the Canadian publications cited.
The Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Ottawa
provided microfilms of the bishops' transcripts for the English parishes, and of the genealogical
books. Dr.Richard Virr, Archivist of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal, permitted me access to
the original registers of Abbotsford. "The Great Migration" (E.C.Guillet) describes the forces that
drove families such as ours to emigrate, and the experiences of emigration. My mother and aunt
Maud compiled about half of the Quebec Wallaces, Jack Jefferies of Cochrane Alberta
compiled most of the rest. The descendants of Mary Wallace Beebe McKerley were compiled by her
gggranddaughter Margery Strom. Henry S Rogers of Bellevue Washington compiled the Ontario descendants.
Sankey of Ottawa
Ancestral Names
other notes on family history