William and Maria Gordon
William was born Abt. 1814, Maryland, USA and died on 14 Dec 1895, Owen Sound, Grey County, Ontario, Canada
Farm – Conc 1, Parts 2 & 3, Lot 20, Sullivan Township, Grey County, Ontario, Canada
William Gordon Land Registration
William Gordon was noted as being one of the original three black settlers on the first concession of Sullivan Township settling on Parts 2 and 3 of Lot 20 as of 20 June 1842.
On 25 Sept 1843, William married Maria the widow of the Englishman William Barnes who died of starvation earlier that year. She brought two children into the marriage, Daniel was born around 1834 and his younger sister Elizabeth was born around 1840 both in Ontario. The family which now included Maria and William’s daughter Mary Ann is listed in the 1851 census residing on their 100-acre farm that is noted as Lot 21 (which must have been an error on the enumerators part as all the historical documentation has the land being noted as Lot 20). According to this census William had 10 acres cultivated and planted with 4 acres under crops and the other 6 under pasture. They planted 3 acres of wheat which produced 30 bushels., 1 acre of potatoes yielding 20 bushels, produced 1 ton of hay, and 6 lbs of wool from their sheep plus they had 2 cows.
William probably understood that he could not meet the criteria needed to qualify for a crown patent for Part 2 of Lot 20, and sold his interest on 6 Mar 1855, to a local shopkeeper named John Creighton for £12.10p. Creighton later transferred the 50 acres to David McClure on 30 Jan 1856 for £56. McClure requested and received the patent for that lot in July 1856. William went on to receive his crown grant on 13 Apr 1849 for the 50-acre plot on Part 3 of Lot 20 with the crown patent being registered on 10 July 1849. He then took a mortgage with W.C. Boyd for £17 on 19 May 1851. There were mortgages and debt payments back and forth until William and Maria finally sold their 50-acre farm near Negro Creek to Benjamin Burdon on 13 Feb 1856 for £100.
The following year, William and his wife Maria bought a 2-1/2-acre lot on the 1st Range West of the River from John Creighton for £350 on 2 Dec 1857, with Creighton holding a mortgage for £175. There was a lot of mortgaging going on until the parcel was finally sold in 1859.
William is listed as a labourer living with his wife Maria in a one-story frame house in the town of Owen Sound along with a 3-year-old child named James Gordon, who was most likely their grandchild in the 1861 census. William is also found listed in the Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Grey for 1865-6 on page 244 as a labourer living on Poulett Street South in Owen Sound.
1871 Canada Census -William and Maria Gordon
The 13-year-old James Gordon was still living with William and Maria, along with three lodgers at the time of the 1871 census. The Gordon’s had not moved from Poulett Street and were four houses down from lay-preacher Thomas Henry Miller Sr. the son of their old friend and neighbour Henry Miller from the Negro Creek area in Sullivan Township.
After the 1871 census was taken, we lost Maria into history. We assume that she died before 1873, but have not been able to verify an exact date. William began cohabitating with a Scottish woman named Margaret Coventry-Lane. She and her infant son John were two of the lodgers in the Gordon household in the 1871 census. By the time the enumerator arrived at their door in March 1881, William who was now listed as being seventy-five and once again listed as a farmer and is noted as being married to Margaret. Her son John is now eleven and a younger boy named Donigar(?) aged eight are both carrying the Gordon surname. They are all living together as a family unit in the “Town plot of Brooke”, Sarawak Township, Grey County which was a small village just east of Owen Sound.
When the April 1891 Canada Census was taken, William and Margaret are in the same area in Sarawak Tsp as they were in 1881 and their sons John and Donigar still residing at home with them.
According to William’s death registration, he died of "Extreme Prostration and Enfeeblement of Vitality", in simpler terms, he died of natural causes of old age, on 14 Dec 1895 in Owen Sound at the age of eighty-seven, just two days after his stepson John Lane Gordon was married.
Written and researched by Nancy M. Lee
Maria Barnes-Gordon
Maria was born Abt. 1808 in England and died between 1871 and 1873 in Owen Sound, Grey County, Ontario
Maria migrated to Canada with her husband William Barnes from England around 1832. They originally settled in the Spadina Road area in the town of York. William Barnes was one of a long list of early settlers on the Garafraxa Road who signed a petition dated 17 Sept 1842. He was also noted as being called as a witness in a court case on the 1st of November of that same year concerning a neighbouring woman named Betsy Deadman who claimed she had been attacked by another man.
Maria would have been about thirty-five years of age when she and her first husband William Barnes and their two young children Daniel and Elizabeth, made their way up to Sullivan Township in Grey County and settled on a plot of land. Unfortunately, William died their first winter in this newly surveyed land outpost. In the History of Grey County on the Sullivan Township Chapter Pages 136-137, a story is noted about Barnes starving to death during their first winter in the northern part of Upper Canada in early 1843.
Later that year in Sept 1843, Maria married another Sullivan Township settler, William Gordon. (see 2nd Source). Together they raised her two children from her first marriage and a daughter of their own named Mary Ann on the Gordon Sullivan Township farm near what is today known as Negro Creek. Maria and William sold the farm and moved to the town of Owen Sound in 1857 and settled on Poulett Street. Maria is documented as living with her husband William and a young boy named James Gordon whom I suspect may be their grandson, through the 1861 and 1871 Canada Census.
To date, I have yet to find any historical documentation on Maria Barnes-Gordon, that would positively document details concerning the rest of her life after the 1871 census to her death. Nor have I been able to confidently identify her final resting place.
We assume that Maria died sometime around 1872-73 as her husband William began cohabitating with one of their lodgers Margaret Lane whom he had a son named Donager with around 1873 or 1874.
Written and researched by Nancy M. Lee
-
We first meet Mary Ann Gordon in the 1851 census when she is about eight years old residing with her parents Maria and William and two older half-siblings Daniel and Elizabeth Barnes. When she was seventeen, she met and married the thirty-year-old John Green in Owen Sound on 22 Dec 1860. They are found residing in town together as being married in the 1861 Canada Census where husband John is now noted as being thirty-five and Mary Ann is noted as being seventeen years of age.
The following year their son Thomas John was born on 22 Jun 1862, and they went on to have at least seven children together over the next fifteen years. Philemon was born in 1864, Rachel Annie was born around 1866, and James W. was born in 1869 and were all noted in the 1871 Canada Census when the family was residing in the township of Artemesia. Mary Ann and John went on to have Daniel in 1873, Samuel followed around 1876 and Joshua in 1878.
Mary Ann’s husband John died on 29 Dec 1895 of senility at the age of seventy-nine, just two weeks after her father William had passed. Their oldest son Thomas was the informant for his death.
Mary passed away on 14 Feb 1901 while residing with her son James in Bentinck Township. We have not been able to positively identify where she was buried.
Written and researched by Nancy M. Lee
-
Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 74, microfilm page10
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca Upper Canada Land Petitions (1763-1865) c-2486
CANADA LAND PETITIONS “O” Bundle 1, 1841-182 (RG 1, L3, Vol. 396 Microfilm pages 1039-1042
Archives of Ontario - Judge John Beverely Robinson Benchbooks. RG22, Series 390-2, Container 24, Envelope 7. J.B. Robinson Assize 1841-1842
Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Census Returns For 1861; Roll: C-1027-1028
Year: 1871; Census Place: Artemesia, Grey South, Ontario; Roll: C-9952; Page: 19, Lines 11-15
Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 79, microfilm page 106