Fielder Bowie and Anne Pearce
Fielder Bowie was born Abt. 1810 in Maryland, USA and between Jun 1862 and March 1863, Grey County, Ontario
Anne R. Pearce (Pierce) was born Abt 1818 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA and died on 7 Apr 1880 in Chatsworth, Grey, Ontario
Farm – Con 1, 3rd Division, Lot 4, Sullivan Township, Grey County, Ontario
Fielder Bowie arrived in Sullivan Township around 1843-1844. Based on the 1846 birth year of their oldest child Abraham, we surmise that he married Anne Pearce (Pierce), a widow around 1845. Anne brought at least two children to the union from her previous marriage, a son John born about 1835, and a daughter Susan born about 1838.
It is in the 1851 Canada Census that we first find Fielder aged 40 and Anne age 32 residing as man and wife along with their children, John Pearce age 16, Susan Pearce age 13, Abraham Bowie aged 5, Rachel Bowie aged 3, and Moses Bowie aged 1-year-old in a one-story log house 50-acre plot located at Conc 1, the 3rd Div., of Lot 4 in Sullivan Tsp
Fielder and Anne Bowie & Family - 1851 Canada Census
In the Agricultural Schedule of that census Fielder had 12 acres under cultivation with 4 of them under crops and the other 8 being used for pasture. He had planted 1 acre of wheat producing 8 bushels, 1 acre of peas which produced 10 bushels, 1 acre of potatoes producing 10 bushels, 5 tons of hay, and 13 pounds of maple sugar plus 100 pounds of pork along with 1 calf or heifer. He still had 38 acres that were under wood or wild that needed to be cleared for planting.
It took another five years of working and cultivating his land before Fielder finally received his Crown patent on 26 Aug 1856, A few months later in November, Fielder began severing and selling small pieces of his lot. He sold a one and a quarter acre parcel in the northeast part to George Deavitt for £62.10. Then he took a £20 mortgage out with Hugh Gordon for his entire land holding. On 18 May 1859, he went on to sell three more acres in the southeast part of the lot with a thirty-three foot right of way to Hugh Gordon for $100.00, and then he sold a small quarter acre piece for $20 to Samuel Foster the following year on 7 June 1862.
Note: There is an unusual notation in the Land Registry Abstract Index Book 1, on page 68 – It refers to Book 59, Instrument 584 – a Deed/Mortgage (DM) dated 10 Nov 1864, and Registered 10 Nov 1873 – The Grantor is Hugh Gordon, and the Grantee is Fielder Bowie covering the 50 acres of Con 1, 3rd Div., Lot 4 – in the column where the price of the deal should be noted instead there is an instrument #2289. This instrument number refers to the original £20 Mortgage that Fielder entered in with Hugh Gordon for his farm on 25 Nov 1856. It is my humble opinion that the paperwork for this repayment had not been completed or registered before Fielder’s death. The date of 10 Nov 1864 is possibly the probate date of Fielder’s estate. Once it was realized that the mortgage had not been registered as being paid off, the registrar would have needed to clear this piece of legal paperwork from the books so that any potential sale of the acreage would not be interrupted or made invalid in the future.
After Fielder sold a few acres of his land, he remained working the rest of his farm as we see in the 1861 census. He is noted as a fifty-one-year-old farmer along with his forty-five-year-old wife Anne and six of their young children all residing together in their one-story log house. (Missing in the household are Anne’s two oldest children John and Susan Pearce. As of this writing, research is still ongoing on their lives.)
Two years later Mrs. Bowie is found listed in the 1863 Tax Assessment for the Township of Sullivan as a forty-year-old widow. The Gazetteer and directory of the county of Grey 1865-66 (page 298), was published in April 1865, Anne Bowie was noted as simply ‘Mrs. Bowie’ who was residing on their farm located at Con 1, Lot 4 in Sullivan Township, with no mention anywhere in the directory of Fielder Bowie.
With Fielder Bowie’s name missing in the 1863 Tax Assessment rolls but documented selling a small parcel of his land in June 1862, one can assume that Fielder passed away sometime after he sold that quarter acre to Sam Foster, but before the March 1863 Tax Assessment was recorded. To date, Fielder’s name has not been found in any of the area cemetery internment lists, there is a possibility that he may have been buried in the now lost Negro Creek Burial Ground.
When the enumerator arrived at the Bowie farm in 1871, Ann was listed as being a fifty-year-old widow who was born in the USA, was of African descent, and was unable to read or write. Her son Abraham Bowie aged twenty-five is now noted as the ‘Farmer’, daughter Rachel aged twenty-three, sons, Moses age nineteen, William age fifteen, Allen age fourteen, and Ezekiel aged twenty-three (this had to be an error as he was only three in 1861) and young Ann who is listed as being twenty-nine but was most likely born later in 1861 and should have been listed as age 9, are all residing on the family farm with their mother.
Anne is still noted as the person who is responsible for paying the taxes on the family farm in the March 1879 Tax Assessment for Sullivan Township. One year later Anne Bowie, the matriarch of the Sullivan Township Bowie family died on 7 Apr 1880. The reason for her death was not listed on her death registration although she must have been treated for an illness as her doctor’s name is noted and Geo. Kay a neighbour of the Bowie family in the village of Chatsworth was the informant. Her place of birth was noted as being in Baltimore, USA.
In the March 1883 Tax Assessment, with Anne Bowie no longer listed on the tax records, her children Abraham, William, Allen, Rachel, and Ezekiel are noted as individual landowners on their respective severed parcels of the old family farm.
A section of the Bowie farm eventually became part of the village of Chatsworth known as the Bowie Estate. Plan #144 was noted as far back in the land registry books as 28 Feb 1883 when the children of Fielder and Ann Bowie are now listed as each owning severed parcels of the family farm. Plan#144 for the ‘Bowie Estates takes the remaining acreage of the Bowie farm and severs it into housing lots. Lots #A, B, C, D, E, P, and parts of O and 11 are in the rural township of Sullivan, and lots #N, M, L, and parts of O and 11 are located right in the village of Chatsworth.
Written and researched by: Nancy M. Lee
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Year: 1851; Census Place: Grey, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule: A; Roll: C-11723; Page: 3; Lines: 7-13
Year: 1851; Census Place: Grey, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule: A; Roll: C-11723; Page: 23; Line: 8
Abstract index books, ca. 1832-1958, Sullivan Township, v. 1-2 ca. 1847-1958, page 2, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVG-GSNL-8?i=7&cat=330982, Film# 008129700, microfilm page 8
Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Census Returns For 1861; Roll: C-1028-1029, page 13, Lines 7-14
"Canada, Ontario Tax Assessment Rolls, 1834-1899", database, Film # 008661169 microfilm page 7
FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-X3CJ-W9KF-D?cc=4130007 : 18 July 2022), > image 1 of 1
Year: 1871; Census Place: Sullivan, Grey North, Ontario; Roll: C-9953; Page: 20; Family No: 60
"Canada, Ontario Tax Assessment Rolls, 1834-1899", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-X3CJ-W9K4-H?cc=4130007 : 18 July 2022), > image 1 of 1. Film # 008661169 – microfilm page 167
Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 24, microfilm page 35
"Canada, Ontario Tax Assessment Rolls, 1834-1899", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:41CP-DLZL : 23 June 2022) Film # 008661169, microfilm page 344
Grey (16) Sullivan, Book 243, page 2, ONLAND.ca, https://www.onland.ca/ui/16/books/49545/viewer/26804882?page=123