James and Ellen Douglas
THE DOUGLAS FARM – CON 1, LOTS 20 & 21, HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, GREY COUNTY, ONTARIO
To appreciate the history of James Douglas Sr and his family in Holland Township, we need to discover the history of the land itself.
James Douglas Sr was born Abt. 1805 Maryland, USA and died on 3 Nov 1893 Owen Sound, Grey, Ontario
Ellen Douglas – Abt. 1801 Baltimore, Maryland USA – 12 Feb 1876, Con 1, Lot 20, Holland Tsp, Grey, Ontario, Canada
Per the Naturalization Records James Douglas Sr. arrived in Ontario in the fall of 1838 and was residing in Etobicoke, Ontario as of 10 Feb 1841. He was eligible to apply for British citizenship in Sept 1845, as per the criteria seven years after arriving in Canada. By the time his Naturalization was registered on 25 Oct 1848, he was living in Wellesley Township.
James and his family moved to Holland Township and bought a 50-acre plot of land on the east side of the Garafraxa Road on Con 1, 1st Division of Lot 20 from Richard Crane on 25 May 1850 for £57.10. (Richard Crane had received his location ticket for this lot on 18 August 1842 and received the crown patent on 30 June 1849 .
James, his wife Ellen, and their nine children ages ranging from twenty-five years old down to age seven are noted in the 1851 census as occupying two side-by-side lots on Concession 1, 3rd Div. of Lot 19, and 1st Div. of Lot 20. The family lived in a one-story log house and James’ occupation was noted as a bricklayer and farmer and there had been a female death sometime during the year 1851. All of 18 acres had been cultivated and planted with 6 acres of wheat, ½ acre of rye, 3 acres of peas, 4 acres of oats, 2 acres of potatoes, and 1 ½ acre of timothy grass. They also harvested 6 tons of hay and produced 50 lbs of maple sugar and 80 lbs of butter. They had an ox and or a bull, 3 milking cows, a calf, 2 horses, 3 sheep, and two pigs. The family seemed to be fairing well.
1851 Canada Census
James and Ellen sold their interest in Con 1, 1st Div. of Lot 20 to Kennedy Orr on 11 January 1958 for £150. The Orr family is listed as residing next to the Douglas’ in the 1861 census. In May 1866 a neighbouring landowner named Walter Blatchford acquired this lot through mortgage foreclosure. However, members of the Orr family were still residing beside the Douglas’ in the 1871 census.
There is no record of ownership of the 3rd Div. of Lot 19 by James Douglas. According to Charles Rankin’s ‘Squatters Returns of January 1859 that Ben Heywood-MacLeod found while researching at the Ontario Archives, “The clearing included in these two small town lots is part of a clearing of several acres made on No. 19 of first (con/div) Holland (part of the town plot) by Douglas - a coloured man. Some years ago, Douglas at that time owned and occupied part of the adjoining farm lot - no. 20 on the south - but having some little time back sold his own property and severed from it, he seemed to have abandoned all his clearing on this plot…”
After James sold his interest in the 1st Div. of Lot 20, he moved over to the 3rd Div. of that Lot along with the 1st Div. of the neighbouring Lot 21. In the 1848 Inspection and Valuation Report, a man named John Dillard held the location ticket for Con 1, 3rd Div. of Lot 20 as of 10 May 1846 and had cleared 6 acres. He was also noted as a “Coloured Man, Poor” also holding the neighbouring 50-acre plot located at 1st Div. of Lot 21 in reserve but had not cleared any acreage as of the date of the report. Dillard may have sold his interest in the land to James Douglas or perhaps James simply squatted on the land after Dillard left the area. There are no written records that document any land sale between Dillard and Douglas.
On the 8 of January 1858 James Douglas (we’re not sure if this is James Sr or his son James Jr), bought the 2nd Div. of Lot 21, from George Billings and his wife for $700.00. Billings held the mortgage on this lot for the full amount. Billings had bought the land from Wm. C. Boyd only the month before on 4 Dec 1857 for £200. Twelve years later, on 24 Sept 1870, this 50-acre parcel of land was sold to William Davidson by the Sheriff for ‘D.Poll’ (Consideration of amount of Mortgage), in the amount of $19.34.
By the taking of the 1861 census in Canada the Douglas’ were still farming on Lot 20 in Holland Township. Their son James Jr was noted as being the ‘farmer’ while James Sr was a labourer along with his son Daniel. Their younger son William was working as a servant as was their daughter Ellen. In the Gazetteer Grey County Directory 1865-6, page 132 (microfilm page 71), James Sr., is listed as still living in Holland Tsp on Con 1, Lot 20 along with sons James Jr., and William.
James Douglas Sr. had been trying to secure the patent for his 100-acre parcel of land consisting of the 3rd Div. of Lot 20 and the 1st Div. of Lot 21, for twenty-five years when he sent his 6 Apr 1877 letter to the Governor-General. He had cleared more than 60 acres and had a productive working farm. However, he had no written proof that he had bought these two side-by-side 50-acre parcels of land from John Dillard, and the government wasn’t in the habit of allowing squatters to obtain patents on crown land. There are many letters spanning thirty years from James requesting a patent for these two parcels of land. An affidavit was written and signed by two of James’ long-time neighbours Joseph Byers and John Halliday on 19 April 1877 which was witnessed by Robert Gillies stating that James was “the actual settler” of the land. Even the Commissioner of Crown Lands William Jackson wrote a letter on 23rd Apr 1877 on James’ behalf attesting to the truth of James’ claim. Letters went back and forth for another 10 years but in the long run, it didn’t work. James was never awarded the patent for the land.
Finally, most likely realizing this would be the only way to gain legal ownership of his land on 3 March 1887, James signed a bill of sale covering both parcels of land to his neighbour Robert Gillies (a Scotsman who was a well-known local merchant and landowner and who had also stood as witness to the April 1877 affidavit in James’ favour), for $100. Then on 25 March 1887, a letter was written on the behalf of the same Robert Gillies, stating that he was the owner of both lots and wanted to obtain the patent for the land, which was granted immediately on 13 May 1887. One can only surmise that in this case, the issue of denying James Douglas a patent on land that he and his family had been productively farming for thirty-plus years may have been racially motivated however, there is no actual proof of that.
In the land registry books for Grey County, Holland Tsp it notes on 19 May 1887 Robert Gillies sold both the 3rd Div., Lot 20, and 1st Div., Lot 21 to James’ son Daniel Douglas for $500. The merchant Robert Gilles held the mortgage for the full amount. There is a lot of mortgaging and borrowing against these pieces of land by the Douglas family and others for years.
James’ sons James Jr and Daniel took over the day-to-day working of the family farm. After being a widower for nine years, and at the age of seventy-nine James married a Scottish widow named Margaret Hay in Owen Sound on 18 Jan 1885. The two witnesses were his old friends and former neighbours Thomas Henry Miller and Catharine Chuckee of Owen Sound.
James died of “Debility Some Months” on 3 Nov 1893 in Owen Sound. He was buried in the Indigent Plot at the Greenwood Cemetery in Owen Sound.
There are not a lot of specifics known about the life of Ellen Douglas other than she came to Canada from the U.S. along with her husband James and six of their children in the fall of 1838 and settled west of Toronto in Etobicoke. By 1850 they had arrived in Holland Township. Ellen had at least ten children with her husband James Douglas Sr. She lived and worked alongside him building a farm and raising a large family until her death on their farm of ‘natural decay’ on 12 Feb 1876 .
We don’t know exactly where Ellen Douglas was laid to rest as she does not appear in any of the surviving cemetery internment lists in the area. We can only surmise that she may have been buried in the now-lost Negro Creek burial ground.
Descendants of Ellen and James Douglas Sr continue to have a presence in Grey County. The family has owned their land on what is now known as Negro Creek Road for over 150 years.
Written and researched by Nancy M. Lee
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www.bac-lac.gc.ca – Naturalization Records, 1828-1850 – Upper Canada and Canadas, West
Abstract Index book ca. 1832-1958, Holland Township, v.1-2 ca. 1847-1958, microfilm pg. 12. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLG-LQ2L-3?cat=330982
Inspection and Valuation Reports, Huron District – Certain lands on Garafraxa Road, 1848-1853, RG 1 A-VI-16-Vol.3
https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1851&op=pdf&id=e002350252
Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Census Returns For 1861; Roll: C-1027-1028
https://www.onland.ca/ui/16/books/49556/viewer/817047936?page=301
Year: 1871; Census Place: Holland, Grey North, Ontario; Roll: C-9953; Page: 34 & 35
Inspection and Valuation Reports, Huron District – Certain lands on Garafraxa Road, 1848-1853, RG 1 A-VI-16-Vol.3
Abstract Index books, ca. 1832-1958, Holland Township, v.1-2 ca. 1847-1958, microfilm pg. 12. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLG-LQ2L-3?cat=330982
https://www.onland.ca/ui/16/books/49556/viewer/304294331?page=309
Thank you to Guylaine Petrin who sent me copies of the file #L 1415-71, in the Numerical land Files RG 1-246 at the Archives of Ontario. The file contains over 30 pages of documents detailing the various attempts by James Douglas at obtaining the patents to lot 21 part 1 and lot 20 part 3 on the first concession East the Garafraxa Road in Holland Township.
Archives of Ontario, Numeric Land Files – Grey County
https://www.onland.ca/ui/16/books/49556/viewer/814820225?page=305
https://www.onland.ca/ui/16/books/49556/viewer/304294331?page=305
Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 49
Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 67
Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1948 (MS 935, reels 1-694)