Stories from the family tree of Rick & Laurie Hill
- Profile
- Images
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Hill Navan Ireland
The four Miller girls who married four Ireland boys
The family of Lancelot Miller (abt.1788-1870) and Elizabeth (Waters) Miller (1807-1885) comprised three sons, born between 1827 and 1832, followed by six daughters (1835-49). Remarkably, four of the latter all married members of the Ireland family! The eldest girl, Mary Jane Miller (abt.1835-1908), married William Musgrove Ireland (abt.1828-1879), the son of William Ireland (abt.1792-1873) and Eliza (Bullock) Ireland (1799-1858). Then, daughters nos. 3, 4 & 5 married three brothers─all cousins of Wm. Musgrove Ireland─sons of Wm. Ireland's brother Richard Ireland (1805-1874) and his wife Elizabeth Arabella (Snelgrove) Ireland (1810-1894).
The final box score:
- Mary Jane Miller (abt.1835-1908) married William Musgrove Ireland (abt.1828-1879) ca 1851-56
- Sarah Eliza Miller (1840-1915) married George Ireland (1833-1920) 23 March 1859
- Rebecca Miller (1843-1894) married James Michael Ireland (1838-1874) 20 June 1865
- Caroline Miller (1845-1914) married William Henry Ireland (1843-1914) 30 Sept 1867
Twins running in the family
Richard Ireland (1805-1874) and Elizabeth Arabella (Snelgrove) Ireland (1810-1894) had eleven children between 1831 and 1855. Nos. 4 & 5 were twins, a boy and a girl born Feb. 5, 1840, who were given the names Pitkin Gross Ireland and Rebecca Gross Ireland. Clearly, they were named after the Brighton, Ontario physician, Dr. Pitkin Gross, and his wife Rebecca; but the reason is unknown. (Did Dr. Gross deliver them? Were Dr. & Mrs. Gross friends of the family?)
Richard and Elizabeth's eldest child, David Ireland (1831-1881), and his wife Eliza (Powers) Ireland (abt.1837-1904) had a son, Walter Herman Ireland (1856-1934), whose wife Estella S. (Lowe) Ireland (1858-1946) bore him another pair of twins, again a boy and a girl, born April 22, 1887, and whimsically named Zetland and Zella.
Then Walter and Estella's son Hedley Vicars Ireland (1899-1974) and his wife Hettie Eliza Marie (German) Ireland (1901-1987) had a daughter, Gala Estella (Ireland) Bird (1931-1996), who presented her husband Martin with, once again, boy and girl twins, born in 1962, but simply named Brian and Brenda.
If the pattern holds, then, not Brian nor Brenda, but one of their siblings seems due to have twin grandchildren!
Black sheep
Did she murder her husband?
Edward Naven (or Navin) (1843-1880) was working as a hired man on the farm of Fred. Ham, two miles from Ernestown Station, at the time of his death on Nov. 19, 1880 at the home he shared with his wife Eleanor (Simpson) Naven/Navin (1847-1934) and their children on the 2nd Concession. His death was reported to be due to a "blow with some blunt instrument". Eleanor claimed that Edward had been intoxicated, and had fallen and struck his head on the stove, and then on the axe on the floor, so splitting his head open and bleeding to death.
On Nov. 22, 1880, the jury at the inquest into Ed's suspicious death heard that Eleanor was "of a very violent temper", was "addicted to the use of liquor", and "had frequently threatened her husband's life". It found her guilty of his murder; and she was arrested and jailed in Napanee.
On April 18, 1881, she was indicted on a charge of murdering her husband; but she was acquitted at her trial in Napanee three days later, where it was concluded that Ed's death was accidental. The medical evidence suggested that the bones in Ed's head were unusually thin, and that the damage done to them was consistent with Eleanor's story. The jury took only 15 minutes to return a verdict of "not guilty".
Eleanor was set free only after the judge had strongly cautioned her against the continued use of liquor. However, she was reported to have joined a wild drinking party within two hours of having left Napanee.
The death, inquest and trial aroused tremendous interest in the Napanee area, and were reported in newspapers as far afield as Hamilton, Clinton (near Goderich) and Montréal.
A short time after the trial, she was jailed for two months for "keeping a house of ill-fame"; and, about three or four years later, she appears to have had a daughter out of wedlock, to whom she gave her late husband's surname.
The black sheep of the Sharplesses
According to Joan (Sharpless) Hill, the "black sheep" of her family was Edward Herbert Sharpless (1910-1993), her Uncle Herb.
For one thing, he and his wife Jean retroactively backdated their wedding so that it would appear that their first-born, Bill, had come along 9+ months after they were married (which isn't what had happened).
More dramatic was the outcome of a May 23, 1935, police raid on Toronto's Jolly Miller Tavern, at 1:00 a.m., for illicit gambling taking place within. The photos in the next day's papers, showing suspects being led out by Toronto's finest, featured Uncle Herb front and centre. (One hopes that his parents, who didn't approve even of playing cards on Sunday, never knew about it!)
The gold-hunting bigamist
George Ireland (1821-1905), the son of Yorkshireman Michael Ireland (1797-abt.1870) and his wife Mary (Inman) Ireland (1799-1889), was born in Prince Edward Island in 1821. By 1848, he had moved to Murray Township (subsequently Brighton Township), where he worked as a labourer. He and his wife Ann (Rogers) Ireland (1821-1901) had two daughters, Rebecca Jane (1847-1930) and Mary Ann (abt.1850-) (both of whom married members of the Huff family).
But, while the younger of the daughters was still a toddler, George abandoned his family and headed to the other side of the world to seek his fortune in the New South Wales gold rush. He arrived in Australia in 1854 aboard the "Nightingale". Regardless of the fact that his wife Ann was still living in Canada, George married Eliza Jane Mackenzie Ross (1826-1896) in the Braidwood district of New South Wales. They had at least five children. George died there in 1905.
Meanwhile, back in Canada, Ann Ireland was telling the census enumerators that she was a widow.
Living in Interesting Times: our Loyalist ancestors in York Township, Upper Canada
Our ancestress Rebecca (Johnson) James (abt.1807-1856) had three United Empire Loyalist grandparents, and a UEL great grandfather as well! All four of these UEL ancestors lived in or near Philadelphia. Three of the four─Henry Dennis (abt.1720-abt.1783), John Dennis (abt.1758-1832) and Martha (Brown) Dennis (abt.1749-1837)─were born in or near that city, too. Lawrence Johnson (abt.1740-1811) probably came to Pennsylvania from England. Henry and John Dennis were Quakers (Friends). Lawrence Johnson is believed to have been as well.
Henry Dennis worked as a shipbuilder in Pennsylvania. He was also the proprietor of an ironworks and a wealthy landowner on the banks of the Delaware River in Bucks County, PA. John Dennis, Henry’s son by his second wife, Martha (Lynn) Dennis (1722-1774), became a shipbuilder as well.
Fleeing Philadelphia for New York
Following the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, British troops occupied Philadelphia from Sept. 26, 1777 to June 18, 1778. Lawrence Johnson had been working as a teamster in Pennsylvania. During the British occupation of Philadelphia, he and his horses were pressed into service in support of the British forces. (His teenage son Abraham Johnson Sr. (abt.1767-1840) worked for them, too, as a wagon boy.) As a Quaker, Lawrence would not join their fighting forces, and may have been imprisoned briefly in consequence.
When Philadelphia was evacuated, many loyalists were sent by sea to New York. Henry Dennis was compelled to leave all of his Pennsylvania properties and interests behind. He would never see any of them again. Practically the very day that the British forces pulled out of Philadelphia, a proclamation was published by the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, declaring Henry Dennis, John Dennis and dozens of other loyalists to be traitors, and calling on them to present themselves for trial, failing which they will be “attainted of High Treason”. By early 1782, their estates had been declared forfeit to the Commonwealth. Following their arrival in New York, Henry and John Dennis supported the British forces by refitting and reequipping their ships.
In 1778, France signed a “treaty of friendship and commerce” with the Americans, and entered the War on their side. Besides supporting the Americans, France also took the opportunity to fight the British over some Caribbean islands. One of these was St. Lucia. John Dennis “quickly tired, as he later put it, of ‘his Father’s peaceable employment’ and joined the British army. He saw action at the taking of St. Lucia in December 1778, contracting a fever there which left him with a game left leg and thus rendered him ‘incapable of Hard service’. He returned to New York and shipbuilding.”
Martha Brown's two marriages
Martha Brown’s first husband, Dr. Andrew McLaney (abt.1740-abt.1780), seems to have been a well-respected physician of Sussex County, New Jersey. Dr. McLaney acted as a Commissary, a fairly responsible job, for the British Forces in the Town of New Brunswick, New Jersey, during the occupation of Philadelphia, and he moved his family to New York City in 1778 along with the British troops. Dr. McLaney then served as a British Navy surgeon and was lost at sea around the time of Elizabeth’s birth. Much later, in 1798, Martha petitioned the government of Upper Canada for a land grant as the widow of a Loyalist, and for another for Elizabeth as the daughter of a Loyalist. They each received 200 acres.
Within a year of the loss of her first husband, Martha remarried. John Dennis became a supportive stepfather to her two children, John McLaney (abt.1780-abt.1846) and Elizabeth (McLaney) Sanders (abt.1780-1834). The marriage of John and Martha McLaney was “contrary to our discipline” according to the Quakers: they had not gone through the approved process of having the marriage vetted in advance at the men’s and women’s monthly meetings. They had a son, Henry Dennis (abt.1782-1792), in New York. John Dennis was also disowned outright for having violated the Friends’ pacifist principles by participating as a combatant with the British forces.
On Sept. 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the War, and acknowledged the creation of the United States of America and established its boundaries. Ironically, in that same month, Henry Dennis died of an "appoplitick fit" while encamped with others on Staten Island.
Leaving New York for Nova Scotia
On “Evacuation Day”, Nov. 25, 1783, British forces left New York City, and American forces entered it. Large numbers of Loyalists – including the Dennis and Johnson families – left New York then, too, heading north to Canada. Thousands of Loyalists settled on lots granted by the British government in Nova Scotia (part of which became the separate province of New Brunswick in 1784). Laurence Johnson’s family settled in Digby; John & Martha Dennis and their children in Beaver Harbour a.k.a. Bellevue at the mouth of the St. John River.
A group of 49 Quakers and others (including John Dennis) had agreed to sail together from New York and settle in Nova Scotia. They founded the community of Pennfield (named for William Penn, founder of the “Quaker State” of Pennsylvania) and established rules for it, including a ban against the buying, selling or keeping of slaves. Martha and John had a daughter, Hannah (Dennis) Johnson (1787-1865), and another son, Joseph Dennis (1789-1867), while they lived in Pennfield.
Lawrence Johnson and his sons on Yonge Street
In 1792, Lawrence Johnson and his family left Digby, NS, where they had been farming, and relocated to Upper Canada, which had been created out of the Province of Quebec in 1791. They moved first to its then-capital, Newark. The next year, on June 8, 1793, they and three other families arrived via tall ship in Smith’s Creek (subsequently Port Hope) and were Hope Township’s first settlers. Apparently dissatisfied with this situation, they moved on to Yonge Street in York Township, York County, about 1795. Yonge Street had only just been “cut out” from the town of York northward. Settlers on Yonge Street were required to build and occupy a house, to clear and fence 5 acres of their land, and to “open” their side of Yonge Street along the length of their frontage─about an acre. Lawrence Johnson and four of his five sons settled on adjacent lots on the east and west sides of Yonge Street, in what became Willowdale in the borough of North York. By 1797, they had satisfactorily met the required conditions to be confirmed as owners of their lots. (Lawrence’s youngest son William Johnson (1780-1858) also acquired a lot, elsewhere along Yonge Street.) In 1804, Lawrence Johnson sold the south half of his lot to Jacob Kummer (or Cummer). Lawrence Johnson died on July 27, 1811, and was reputedly the first person to be buried in the new burial grounds on land donated by the Cummers out of that purchased half-lot. The cemetery is located at the corner of Yonge Street and the present-day Church Avenue.
Lawrence Johnson’s son, Thomas Johnson (1778-1834) (our ancestor), served as a Private in the 3rd Regiment of the York Militia during the War of 1812. Between 1812 and 1814, he served variously in the King's Works, Engineers Dept., Batteaux Service and "Employed in empressing Teamsters for Transporting Government Stores". He was captured by the Americans during the Battle of York on April 27, 1813. As a militiaman, he was mostly likely paroled after having signed a document pledging not to take any further part in the War.
John Dennis, Upper Canada shipbuilder
After fire had destroyed their property at Pennfield, early in the last decade of the 18th century, John Dennis and his family relocated to Alexandria, Virginia, where they farmed for just a few years. Their daughter Rebecca was born there. But in 1796 they moved to the town of York in Upper Canada, where Lieut.-Governor John Graves Simcoe wanted to exploit John’s shipbuilding skills. John Dennis received a grant of 200 acres, followed by a second grant of 500 acres, west of the town, on the Humber River at the village of Weston, where he lived and built ships. In 1797 he was appointed Overseer of the High Way for the Humber. He was appointed poundkeeper (i.e., animal control officer) for the Humber annually from 1800 to 1802. One of the ships he was commissioned to build was the Toronto, a schooner-rigged yacht launched in 1799 and operated by the Provincial Marine to ferry Upper Canada government officials between meetings around Lake Ontario. The Upper Canada Gazette, 14 September 1799, stated of the Toronto that “She is one of the handsomest vessels, of her size, that ever swam upon the Ontario” and that “she bids fair to be one of its swiftest sailing vessels.”
In January 1803, John Dennis took up an appointment as the master builder at His Majesty's dockyard, at Point Frederick in Kingston (now the site of Royal Military College). He is thought to have built as many as eight ships there: the Royal George, Moira, Melville, Duke of Gloucester, Princess Charlotte, Prince Regent, St. Lawrence, and Wolfe. An historic plaque on Loyalist Parkway (Highway 33) west of Bath commemorates the Nov. 9, 1812 escape of the Royal George (built by John Dennis) from an American fleet, followed the next day by a shootout in Kingston harbour.
The War of 1812
When the War of 1812 broke out, John Dennis was recalled from Kingston to York to complete the building there of a new sloop-of-war, the Sir Isaac Brock. Before it could be completed, however, an American fleet approached York on April 26, 1813. John Dennis, as master builder, became captain of a company of officers and attachées of the dockyard. The British Army regulars, militia, civilians and natives who attempted to defend York were greatly outnumbered by the American attackers. The April 27th Battle of York was over by 1:00 PM: Major-General Sheaffe (the Lieut.-Governor of Upper Canada) had decided that the day was lost, and ordered his regulars to retreat. The incomplete Sir Isaac Brock was burnt in its stocks – not by the Americans, as many secondary sources state, but by the British to prevent it from falling into American hands. Terms of capitulation were drafted the same day, and agreed on the following day. Among other conditions, they provided for civil servants (such as John Dennis) to continue to carry out their duties in York.
Martha and John Dennis’s son-in-law Matthias Sanders (abt.1773-1813), the husband of Martha’s daughter Elizabeth McLaney, was also a shipwright who built ships at York. As a member of the York Militia 1st Regiment, he served at the Battle of York on April 27, 1813. He suffered severe injuries and died in May. Sanders left his wife a widow with six children. Fortunately, Matthias had specifically bequeathed to her the land she had been granted as the daughter of a Loyalist in 1798, the house that stood on it, and all their chattels and belongings. Unfortunately, her wealth attracted the suit of another transplanted American, one Dr. John T. Elrod. They married and had two daughters; but he was an abusive spendthrift. Then it was discovered that he already had a wife in the U.S., still living at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth; so the marriage was annulled, he took off, and she retained her house and land.
Following the War of 1812, John Dennis was invited to return to Kingston, but decided to leave the government’s service. He continued to do some shipbuilding on his own account. He had also begun to acquire some property in the town of York. In 1813, he purchased a lot at the southwest corner of King and Bay Streets (later the site of the Evening Telegram newspaper’s offices). In 1814-15, he acquired a lot at the northeast corner of King and Yonge Streets, on which he built a cottage about 1820. It was remodeled and had a second storey added in 1823. (It was torn down about 1830 and a 4-storey warehouse erected in its place.)
The “second cholera pandemic” of 1826-1837 reached Canada in 1832; and John Dennis was one of its victims. His wife Martha lived long enough to see the town of York become the city of Toronto, then died in 1837. Henry, John, Martha and other members of the Dennis family are remembered on a memorial at the Riverside Cemetery in Etobicoke.
Rev. James Richardson, Methodist bishop
Martha and John Dennis’s son-in-law, James Richardson D.D. (1791-1875), the Kingston-born son of English parents, entered the service of the Provincial Marine when he was 18, and received a Lieutenant’s commission in 1812, the year war broke out with the U.S. He was attached to the Royal Navy, in which he served in 1813-14 as a Master and Pilot. On May 6, 1814, he participated in the successful capture of Fort Oswego in New York. (At least two of the ships which participated in the attack were built by John Dennis.) Speaking of the gunners at the fort, Richardson recounts: “The shots with which they complimented us were evidently ‘hot’, for they set our ship on fire three times. One of them made so free with me as to carry off my left arm, just below the shoulder.” Richardson returned to active service following his recovery. After the war's end in 1815, he was allotted £100 plus an annual £100 pension for life. He also received an appointment in Customs and on the Commission of Peace. He and his wife, Martha and John Dennis’s daughter Rebecca, lived at “Presque Isle”, where Richardson worked as a Collector of Customs and a Justice of the Peace. But, in September 1824, he responded to a call to serve as a Methodist preacher. The family moved to the town of York, and James became one of the "saddlebag preachers" on the Yonge Street circuit, which included York and eight neighbouring townships. (Egerton Ryerson was also a preacher on this circuit.) In 1825, he was admitted to trial as a candidate at Fifty-Mile-Creek in Saltfleet Township, Wentworth County, and in 1827, in Hamilton, was ordained a Deacon in the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church. Before and after this time, he preached on several different circuits, each with its own challenges. In 1830, at the Kingston conference, he was ordained an Elder. He was Editor of the Christian Guardian from 1832-33 (succeeding Egerton Ryerson, its founding editor). In 1839, he became a Vice-President of the Upper Canada Bible Society (a position he held until his death). In addition, he served as the Society's agent in Canada from 1840-51. In 1842, he became a Vice-President of the Upper Canada Religious Tract and Book Society, and its President in 1851. On Aug. 22, 1858, at the M.E. Church's conference in St. David's (now part of Niagara-onthe-Lake), he was consecrated as a Bishop. Sadly, his wife Rebecca had died earlier that same year. James Richardson died in 1875. He and Rebecca are both buried at the Toronto Necropolis Cemetery.
Joseph Dennis, shipbuilder and sailor
Martha and John Dennis’s son, Joseph Dennis, learned the shipwright’s trade, like his father and grandfather. He assisted his father in the building of his ships in Kingston. He also made models of as many as nine of the ships that his father built. Joseph Dennis enjoyed sailing ships even better than building them. One was a schooner, the Lady Gore (named in honour of the wife of Lieut.-Governor Sir Francis Gore). Joseph coowned this vessel with his brother-in-law Matthias Sanders, the husband of his half-sister, Elizabeth McLaney. The Lady Gore had been built at the Humber in 1809, and was described as “a strong vessel, a good sailer”. When the War of 1812 began, Dennis and Sanders placed the Lady Gore at the disposal of the government. It was attached to the Provincial Marine and served as a transport vessel to carry troops and stores between Kingston and the upper end of Lake Ontario, with Joseph as its master. During an engagement in early October 1813, the ship was captured by the Americans, on Oct. 5th, off the southeast tip of Prince Edward County, and Joseph became a prisoner-of-war. Joseph Dennis was held as a POW from October 1813 to June 1814. As part of a prisoner exchange, he was released at Halifax on June 13th and left to make his own way back to York as best he could.
With the War of 1812 behind them, both John Dennis and, later, Joseph Dennis commanded the Charlotte, an early Lake Ontario steamboat. It traveled between the Bay of Quinte and Prescott. In 1826, Joseph Dennis had built a new steamboat at the mouth of the Rouge River in York. Named the Canada, it made its first trip from York to Niagara in that year. It was praised in the press: “Her appearance reflects much credit on her builder, Mr. Joseph Dennis, and the machinery, manufactured by Messrs. Ward Brothers, of Montreal, is of superior workmanship. The combined excellence in model and machinery of this boat is such as will render her what is usually termed a 'fast boat.’” Like his father, Joseph Dennis acquired a number of properties in the town of York, subsequently the city of Toronto. "The numerous properties, bequeathed to his wife and three sons when he died of cholera [in] 1867, read in his will like a city assessment roll." Joseph Dennis continued to live, until his death in 1867, in the village of Weston, west of Toronto, on the Humber River, on the land originally granted to his father, John Dennis, as a UEL. Joseph’s son, John Dennis, established a mill on the Humber. The growing Dennis family became a significant enough presence in their corner of Weston that they gave their name to the present-day Toronto neighbourhood of Mount Dennis.
- Login to edit this profile and add images.
- Private Messages: Send a private message to the Profile Manager. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)