| Notes |
- A great deal of documents exist for John Willson, Esq., of which a selection are recorded here:
PART ONE:
John is the son of Sara Ladner & John Willson, Senior.
. 1760 Oct. 16 - WILL of John Landstaff of Piscataway, New Jersey:
To wife Mary & grandson John Langstaff, lands south of Ambrose Book.
Witnesses John Willson, Jr. & John Arnold. Langstaff & Arnold also went to Upper Canada, where they were amongst many New Jersey exiles located near each other on north Yonge Street, Toronto. - PJA
. Old United Empire Loyalists List
John Wilson of Piscataway, Middlesex Co., Memorial, Summary now of Miramachi Northumberland Co. 1786, joined troops at Woodbridge in 1777 in Forge Dept. Claim for 50 Acres & an house.
Ref: Commission for Loyalist Losses. # 12 /16 /187 -192, 63/115 &109/320. Jan. 1787.
. Settled 1784 May, New Brunswick, Canada: John Wilson, Esq,. 8 in Family, 2 acres improved & house.
. 1789 -11 Jul 1793 John Willson & Family landed in New Brunswick, Canada in 1783 & was granted land on the Miramachi River, in Northumberland County. Gov. Thomas Carlton made John a & Justice of the Peace. The salary for a magistrate in New Brunswick was £300 a year. His adventures there in this wild land would be enough for one lifetime, to speak nothing of what preceded the Miramichi or what would come after.
A more complete history may be found at North York Public Library, Toronto under Richard Lawrence, John Brown Lawrence & John Willson of New Jersey, NB & Ontario. P J Ahlberg, May 2009.
. 1791 Nov., Upper Canada Proclamation, creating new province; & by
. 1792 Aug 16 - In Quebec City John Willson visited Gov. J G Simcoe. (before Simcoe left for Niagara), who invited him to Upper Canada.
. 1793 Apr 26, John Willson, JP, paid for a tombstone at Willson's Point, Miramichi, NB made for his grandson, Abraham Willson.
WHY HE LEFT NEW BRUNSWICK:
Mr. Wilson further says, that when he left the Miramichi Settlements in the NB, he did it because the lands are not valuable for farmers & not worth clearing from the severity of the climate, that one of his sons-in-laws had already left the Settlement. Mr. Wilson says that a due care to provide for his family was the sole reason of this quitting Miramichi. He is his own person being better off there then he would possibly be elsewhere living almost without labour upon offices he possessed in that Country. A true statement, Signed, E B Littlehales, 16 July, 1794, Niagara.
1796 UPPER CANADA LAND PETITION & Revolutionary Muster:
To John Graves Simcoe, Lieut. John Willson, Jur. He suffered much by this Rebel party (at the point of the bayonet) before the British Army Landed on Staten island, the making several attempts to join them but always hindered till when the British Army was Advancing from the White Plains (NY) to the Jersey. I then joined them at Woodbridge [New Jersey ] & went with them to Brunswick (NJ).
I then entered into James Christies' employ [i.e. the Quartermaster] as a Foragemaster & ran Many risks of my Life, being twice taken Prisoner & confined but maid my escape & returned to my service again, till when the army returned from the Jerseys to Staten Island & embarked for the Head of Elk [River flowing towards Philadelphia] were my health would not admit of my going on board to retrieved with my family on said Island where I continued till the commencement of the peace.
I then with my family embarked with my family for Nova Scotia (since New Brunswick), where I drew 270 acres in Northumberland where I served in Sivil Commission & offices under Governor Carleton till July the 19th, 1793. There I set out with 60 men, women & children (Including my own family) for Niagara where we arrived on the 7th of next October.
... He wants Lots 4 & 5 on the River Humber & Lot 30 on west side of Yonge Street. March 25th, 1796, John Willson.
. Schedule of grants to pay full fees to the Home District - William Jarvis Copy Books:
Grant # 166 Wilson, John, Jun, 190 Acres, York, 12 Mar. 1794, U.E., Fee £3.5.2
. Willson I, John Sur., UE, UCLP W Bundle 2, 1796. Vol. 522, Petition #57, Yonge Street, Microfiche C2950.
On March 16, 1810 John purchased a Town of York, Lot 3 & 4 N side, Hospital Street for £100 & sold it at an apparent lost of £50, the next year to Jesse Ketchum. - . - [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
- PART TWO, NB to Toronto:
X-Reference: Richard Lawrence & John Willson Petition for RATIONS AT NIAGARA my W25- W31 IV
The Simcoe Papers Toronto Public Reference Library & John McGill papers,
[TPL also, at the Baldwin Room: comprises 3 boxes of 'True' hand written duplicates of correspondences & accounts for Upper Canada. Documents are In precarious state. Photocopies of the original documents may be seen in my book on R Lawrence & J Willson.]
, MAY FLEET's ARRIVAL AT YORK, Summary
John Willson & 46 people assembled & left New Brunswick together in 1793 to come to Ontario. Many of these people had known each other back in the United States, during & previously to the Revolutionary War. The May Fleet journey began in 1783 at Staten Island, New York with British evacuation to New Brunswick & Nova Scotia were the new life was crowed & difficult. New land was being offered in Upper Canada. Here is part of that journey from the Kingston to the Town of York, today's Toronto, on north shore of Lake Ontario.
On 11 July, 1793 the group took a ship around NB & then up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. On the 17th of August, at Montreal, Commandant Isaac W Clarke assigned, the group an six extra Canadians to guide the three bateaux past the Rapids of Lachine. The open bateau were thirty feet long & propelled with both a moveable sail, ropes & barge poles.
When they arrived at the Port of Kingston they were sick & needed treatment from the kind doctors at Fort William Henry. They promised to repay the Fort for the 1543 rations they had been assigned,. Even though the Commandant risked having to pay for the rations from his own military salary, Capt. Porter wrote, "humanity induced me to act as I have done."
The Assembly had arrived at Kingston 28th day of August. For a month they waited for the next bateaux "but did not gain Niagara until 7th October, 1793." The late Chief Justice, the Honorable William Osgood, said he would speak to Simcoe for the further 1529 Rations the starving & sick families again required upon their arrival at Fort George at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Upper Canada. (Also referred in the documents as Newark or Head of the Lake (Ontario). By return poste, Governor Simcoe ordered the Fort commandant to convey the Loyalist by the Government boat, to north bank of Lake Ontario to the Town of York.
THE SIXTY PEOPLE of this new 'MAY FLEET arrival at York' included an additional fourteen members of whom it is likely the Kendricks joined up at Kingston. The names of those twelve families who made the journey were:
John Willson, Richard Lawrence, Patrick Cobgon, Joseph Kendrick, Peter Whitney (signed), John Kendrick, Titus Fitz, Duke William Kendrick, Samuel Sinclair, Samuel Osborn, Hiram Kendrick, Peter Long.
John Willson had signed, for the provisions for the group & it was he that was required to sign a receipt on 2 Nov., 1793 for £100 repayment in three years. Some of the assembly had already moved on from the area & thus leaving no chance of their earning money for to repay Willson.
THE KINGS MILL ON THE HUMBER ( The Old Mill, Etobicoke, Ontario):
, Gov. Simcoe gave a License to John Willson & to John Brown Lawrence to build & operate the Kings Mill on the Humber River. Both Willson & Lawrence were lawyers who had done legal business together on occasion back in Burlington, NJ. As well both were friends of Gov. Simcoe.
* 1797-99 ' KINGS MILL First Hand DESCRIPTION *
The Kingsmill was located between the two roads on the west side of the Humber at the spring above at the meadow. * The Mill seat was a log structure thirty feet by sixty feet long built on a small island in the Humber. A dam & mill race were built to allow salmon & other fish free passage up & down without being destroyed in the race or by the mill wheel. No one must allowed to catch these fish. It was also here that one one of Gov. Simcoe's personal horses was stolen while in pasture on John Lawrence's land & recovered sometime after his death.
A beautiful cedar swamp provided fencing for the house at the spring on the high banks. The Kingsmill was on the lower end of the famous Toronto Carrying Place Trail. On the high sandy bank opposite Kingsmill there stood for over thousand years a large village of Seneca longhouses.
The best British regulations to preserve the large runs of salmon & trout, also encouraged the cutting of trees along the river habitant. Old photos show graphically the hazards of spring break-up as ice boulders overflow onto the location of the mill race & pond & on the island adjacent the Kingsmill.
LUMBER from the HUMBER: One fourth of all lumber cut was due as rent payment to the Government. Thick pine slabs from the Kings sawmill were used in the Navy Hall at Niagara-on-Lake, Gov. Simcoe's home called Castle Frank; the First Parliament buildings, Kings St., Toronto & cedar was used to build the Howland's the Lambton Mill, a mile up stream at Dundas Street.
. Willson was paid from the public purse to deliver by oxen, the thick pine planks to Castle Frank on Bloor Street. John Willson had cut lumber in May 1798 to build on his front lot in the Town of York.
. On 9th Nov., 1797 Lt. John McGill registered in his papers, an application from John Willson to purchase the Kings Mill which Willson found in need of improvements when he first took up the lease. A total of £299 income had been generated from 1794 - 1796 the saw mill operations. Willson might have had an opportunity to purchase the Kingsmill, if Lieut. Gov. Simcoe remained in Upper Canada when the Mill lease opened up again in 1799.
, . On 16 July 1796 from the government stores Gov. Simcoe ordered to be issued to John Lawrence, Esq., a pair of French Bur Mill Stones & grist mill irons as needed for the befit of the settlers in that district. The first seven barrel of corn ears to be shelled & measured with government's four barrel arrived at the grist mill on 20th October, 1796.
Lease from the Kingsmill ran from 1 Jan 1796 to end of 1798.
[ - Is this the same French bur mill stone sitting outside of current 'Old Mill Inn' on the Humber River?
Lease from the Kingsmill ran from 1 Jan 1796 to end of 1798. Unfortunately his partner John Lawrence died about the 10 July, 1798 & Willson friend & sponsor, Gov. Simcoe had returned to England due to ill health. Photos of ice jams at spring break up show clearly that the British engineers who chose this location in Upper Canada had no idea of the force of the Humber River in spring or the storm run off, especially with the increased deforestation would decimate the salmon fishery... Since Hurricane Hazel in 1957 the Humber Valley is considered a flood plain & is preserved as park land only. Contractors hired by the British to build the mill did not finish the job. The millstones cut too slowly & the mill race & pond & other repairs had to be done at the expense of John Willson. Willson was granted Lots 4 & 5 on the Humber River, but the Government mill on this property had to be leased out at the cost of half of the wood cut. The normal fee was usually one quarter of the wood cut. - P J Ahlberg 2009.
. 1799 Mar 23rd, John Willson advertised in the Oracle, York to sell Lots 4 & 5, the 50 acres & a most beautiful cedar swamp. Persons willing to purchase may know the conditions by applying to John Wilson, Esquire, on Yonge Street. When the lease expired it was purchased by Peter Whitney.
. 1800 Apr 8, Tues. First Sitting of Home District Magistrates (York Co.): Wm. Jarvis, John Willson.
Ref: Toronto Sundries, Quarter Session Minutes. - . - [4, 5]
- PART THREE, Life in Upper Canada:
. 1798 May 4, John Willson, Esq. Identification marks of Cattle, hoggs, sheep & swine: a swallow-fork in each ear.
UC LAND GRANTS: 1200 ACRES - Lots 4 & 5, on the Humber (adjoining the Kings Mill (Old Mill) June 1797;
Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, Con 3, Dorchester Twp., Elgin County, 800 Acres ( in the 'future Capital of Upper Canada', also near the land of Lt. Gen. John Graves Simcoe.)
. Lot 30, Con 1 West Yonge Street, Vaughan, Settlement Duty paid 1801, finally granted Feb. 1809;
. Town of York Lots 3 & 4 N side of Hospital St., Purchased £100, Ontario St. to Sherbourne St. [In 1827 Bank of Upper Canada Building, 252 Adelaide St. E. 1830 Toronto's First Post Office, 260 Adelaide St. E.]
. From 1798 to about 1820 John lived at Lot 30, Con 1 Yonge Street. He ran a saw mill on his property & he was also a Justice of Peace. John's wife, Rebecca Thixton, died in June 1804 & was buried on her son property, at Lot 26, Yonge Street & Steeles.
(X-Ref: Wm. L. Willson for description of first burial site.)
UPPER CANADA SUNDRIES:
Willson J., 1814 February 8, York, page 7839 & Willson, John, 1814 March 12, York, Pg. 8019-21.
Ref: Archives of Canada, microfiche C 9822-25.
* 1798 Dec 19th, York Officers of the York Militia: John Willson, Esq., Justice of the Peace, formerly Capt. of Militia, in Nova Scotia, to be a Captain in the York Militia.
. UCLP15, Y Batch 5, p417. -1801 Jul 16 - East Side Yonge St, Lot 30, No clearing, Longs in the Street not burnt.
. June 28th, 1802, a wolf's scalp certified by J. Wilson, Esq., taken in part of assessment £1. "Page n515.
* 1800 Apr 8, Tuesday. The First Sitting in Upper Canada of the Home District Magistrates:
Wm. Jarvis, JOHN WILLSON, John Small, James Macauly, Wm. Willcocks, Wm. Allan, John McGill, Alex Wood, Wm. Chewett, James Ruggles, Signed, Justices of our said Lord the King, assigned to keep the Peace of our said Lord, the King in the Home District & also to hear & determine divers felonies, trespasses & other incidences in the said District. Wm. Jarvis, Esq., chose chairman. Commission opened & read.
Ref: Home District Quarter Session of the Peace Minutes. [i.e. Toronto, York County, Ontario.]
Note2: William Willocks, 1735 Co. Cork, Ireland-1813 Jan 7 Toronto, was the first cousin of Peter Russell. Willocks was the only magistrate not a barrister.
. 1805 Sept 18. John married Catherine B Kuhn who was the widow of a man also named John Willson, who had died 1788 in Duchess Co., New Jersey. They moved northward to Hope (Sharon, Ontario) which is very near Lake Simcoe. Catherine's s on David Willson had split off from the local Quaker group, to start his own group called the Children of Peace, who were having a renaissance of intellectual thought & music. John taught school at the Children of Peace & John & his 2nd wife Katherine were buried in the Sharon Burial Grounds. John remained Anglican & Bishop Strachan said officiated at his funeral. When eventual son Wm. Ladner Willson's land was sold, Rebecca & John were reburied together under cairn at the Holy Trinity Church in Thornhill, not far from their home on Yonge Street. The Sharon Temple / Children of Peace celebrated their 200 anniversary in 2008 with candlelight concerts & is open as a museum.
* * Recapitulation of Fort York, (Toronto), WAR of 1812,
As a captain of the 1st Regiment, York Militia on duty at the captured at Fort York, John Willson was arrested & jailed. John Willson was one of the 6 officers that signed the papers of Recapitulation to the American invaders. Geo. Playter's Diary tells us, like him, John Willson was armed with a musket & ready for action!
* 1813 Apr 25 - York. Capt. John Willson, 1st York Militia, Prisoner of War at surrender of the Garrison of Ft. York 24 Apr 1813, captured by the Army & Navy of the US at York.
* 1820 Jun 28 - UCLPetition 219, 1820 Re: War of 1812. Petition of John Willson, Markham, Ontario. American loyalist & was again on service as a Captain commanding a company of the 1st Regiment of York Militia, part of the time in York Garrison in 1812 & was on duty till the capture of York. (June 1813.) John Willson, York 28 Jun 1820.
Also attached was a certificate signed, Colonel W Allan, Commanding Militia & Garrison of York, 15 Jun, 1820.
Obituary notice: "Died At Hope Village, East Guillimbury, on the 8th inst., much & generally regretted, John Wilson, Esq., a native of the Province of New Jersey, aged 90 years & 14 days. Mr. Willson was a U.E. Loyalist & for a long period an active magistrate in the province of New Brunswick. He emigrated into Upper Canada 35 years ago [1793] & contented to enjoy good health until with a few days of his demise. At his request, expressed on his death bed, Doctor Strachan, Archdean on of York, went out to Gwillimbury & performed the last offices of the church over the remains. The venerable dignitary delivery a funeral oration in the chapel of the Children of Peace, in Hope, on the occasion, which was attended by a great concourse of friends, acquainted & relate vies the deceased.".
Ref: Colonial Advocate, Published 16 Jul 1829.
Note1: Hope, E. Gwillimbury is also now know as Sharon, Ontario.
* DEATH OF JOHN WILLSON: In your letter of the 24th ult., 1829, you asked about one John Willson who died at Hope (Sharon, ON) about. This old man was called Squire Willson. He was David Willson's stepfather, my father's stepmother's second husband (Katherine Kuhn). Her first husband, also called John Willson, died about 1788 in Duchess County, New York). She soon after married Squire Willson who was a man highly respected. He came, I believe for NS in Gov. Simcoe's time & was by the Governor much thought of. He had a large family by a former wife, but none by this one. There are a number of great grandchildren, living in the Twps. of York & Scarborough. Service of the Canada Company at the time of the settling of Goderich & neighborhood. When these old people became helpless, David Willson took them home & kept them until they died. They died poor but honest. They once had property which his children spent for them.
Ref: Extracted from a letter of 5 December, 1869, Holland Landing Richard Titus Willson.
A still more complete family history & pictures may be found at North York Public Library, Toronto & at the Richmond Hill Library, under Richard Lawrence, U.E., John Willson & John Brown Lawrence of New Jersey, NB & Ontario. P J Ahlberg, U.E, May 2009. - - - [8, 9, 10]
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1739 - 1829 (90 years)