William P. Peterson (1806 - abt. 1887)

Born 15 Jan 1806 in Adolphustown, Lennox, Upper Canada

Ancestors

Husband of Isabella (Lawson) Peterson — married 23 Nov 1829 in Adolphustown, Lennox County, Ontario, Canada

Descendants

Died about 12 Oct 1887 at about age 81 in Adolphustown, Lennox and Addington, Ontario, Canada

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Biography

William Peterson was the youngest of Nicholas and Elizabeth Peterson's 15 children, born in Adolphustown. He spent his life on the south shore of Hay Bay. He was born in 1806, probably the year the family moved from Concession 3 Lot 19 to Lot 14. Nicholas deeded him 50 acres in 1840 and he probably inherited most of the rest--some 250 more acres--in 1846. He was a respected citizen of Adolphustown in a "substantial stone house." He married Isabella Lawson in 1829 in Kingston. They produced three children in Fredericksburth, 1830-1833, followed by two children in Adolphustown, 1839 and 1847. William died in 1887 and Isabella in 1890.

Footnotes

William and Isabella's home was well populated. Beyond their five children, William's uncle John and Isabella's sister Elizabeth lived there at times. Two children, Elizabeth and Samuel, did not marry and lived in the house into the 1920s. Daughter Rebecca, 1830-1914, was there except during her marriage of 1881-1903.

Land records for Lots 13 and 14 are complex; at times William's brother David, David's son Robert, William's sister Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's son Charles Brennan, and relatives of his wife Isabella held parts. But it appears that William was substantially the owner of Lot 14 and at times had 50 to 100 acres of Lot 13; in 1878 his farm comprised 300 acres.

Graves for William, Isabella, William's parents, and many others of the family are unknown. Some, at least, were in a family cemetery on the farm; see father Nicholas's profile. That William's children Elizabeth and Samuel in the 1920s chose to be buried at the Dorland church suggests the closing down of the farm plot.

Sources

Canada West Census, Lennox County, Adolphustown Township, 1851, http://ontariocensus.rootsweb.ancestry.com/transcripts/1851/1638-2.html, AND https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1851&op=img&id=e002357321 (William 47, Isabelle 42, Rebecca 22, John 21, Nicholas 19, Elizabeth 13, Samuel 5)

Canada West Census, Lennox and Addington County, Adophustown Township, 1861, p. 10, http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/1861/pdf/4391943_00031.pdf AND https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQWW-9X1

Ontario Census, Lennox County, Adolphustown Township, 1871 and 1881 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4QF-LTS AND https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVXV-SGQ

J.H. Meacham & Co., 1878, Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Ontario. Toronto. Pp. 14 and 66 (with a drawing of the William Peterson farm)

Sherwood/Soules/Kelsey/Pauw http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/4648/person/-1305497969?ssrc=

Shea Family Tree, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/36337615/person/29786660911?ssrc=

(William was alive for the 1881 census but not the 1891. His death-date seems not to be in available primary sources. I take 12 Oct 1887 from notes on Peterson history by Methodist minister Malcolm Gerald Powley-67 (1872-1949), transmitted to Shorey Peterson-2110 by Gerald's son Stanley Powley-70 in the 1960s. Powley pairs the date with the correct (from other sources) birth date. ---R.S.P. May 2015.)

"Land Transfers, Adolphustown: 1797-1999" by Lois O'Hara, information from the Napanee Land Registry, excerpts sent to R.S.P. by Katharine Staples in 2017.

Acknowledgments

Katharine E-173 started this profile in 2013. R.S. Peterson-2111 added.