My Scottish Ancestors

by Leonard A. Curchin

My great-great-great-great-great-grandparents James Thompson (born around 1757 at Kilmacolm, Scotland) and Agnes Gardner were married at Kilmacolm on June 18, 1782. Kilmacolm, a village located in the old county of Renfrewshire but now in Inverclyde, dates to the 7^th or 8^th century AD, its name being derived from the Gaelic Cill ma Coluim “cell of Columba”, a 6^th-century Irish missionary who brought Christianity to Scotland. Agnes was born on Aug. 19, 1764 at Greenock, 11 kilometres north-west of Kilmacolm, the daughter of Alexander Gardner and Janet Stevenson. James and Agnes lived at the Thompson ancestral home near Stepends Bridge in Kilmacolm and produced eight children: Jannet (born 1782), George (1785), Alexander (1788), Margaret (1791), James (1793), Elizabeth (1796), William (1803) and Agnes (1806). The third child, Alexander Thompson, served as a ferrier with the British army at the battle of Waterloo. His wife Ann Rachel Daubney (also spelt Daubeny; born in London, England in June 1800, the daughter of James and Sarah Daubney) gave birth to a son, William Thompson, in London, England on Dec. 11, 1819. William had three siblings, Elizabeth (born in London Jan. 6, 1818), James B. (1827) and Anne. The family emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832, and in the autumn of that year Alexander was hired to work on construction of the Egremont Road in Warwick Township, Lambton County. In 1840 Alexander was granted the west half of Lot 19, Concession 3, Warwick Township. Two years later he sold the north half of this plot (i.e. the NW quarter, comprising 50 acres) to William. The south half was left in Alexander’s will to James, who was only 19 years old at the time of his father’s death. Alexander died in Warwick on June 1, 1846; Ann lived until Sept. 2, 1888.

William’s sister Elizabeth was married in 1835 to Israel Malton, youngest son of farmer Robert Malton who had emigrated to Canada with his family in 1819 and was granted 100 acres in Lot 32, Concession 5, London Township in recognition of his naval service on HMS Acasta in 1797-98. Israel and Elizabeth eventually moved to Warwick Township, where Israel is shown in the 1851 tax assessment roll as farming the quarter which James had inherited. Israel died on Aug. 8, 1854, leaving Elizabeth to raise her eight children alone. In 1879, at the age of 61, she was remarried to George Mayhood, an Irish-born widower farming near Arkona, son of Jacob and Jane Mayhood. Elizabeth died on June 12, 1887. In 1855 her brother James B. Thompson (1827-1892) married Irish-born Margaret Calvert (1832-1915) and they produced ten children. The descendants of both Elizabeth and James can be traced in detail to the present day. However, our concern is the descendants of William.

William Thompson married Mary Steele, who was born in England in Feb. 1823 and emigrated to Canada as a child in 1829, the eldest of six children of Anthony Steele (1795-1870) and Caroline Page (1797-1837). Anthony was one of nine children of Philip Steel (1757-1810), caretaker of a gentleman’s park in Market Weighton, and his wife Mary. Mary Steele Thompson thus appears to have been named after her grandmother. Anthony owned 100 acres in Lot 31, adjacent to the farm of Robert Malton. Mary’s brother William (1827-1891) bought part of Anthony’s land in the 1860s, inherited the rest upon his death, and also purchased Robert Malton’s farm. William and Mary lived for a time in London, Ontario and had two sons, Andrew Thompson (born in London, July 13, 1840) and William Jr. (birth variously listed as 1842 or 1850), and four daughters, Caroline (1843), Christina (1845), Margaret (1853) and Mary (1863). By 1851 the family owned 350 acres north of the Egremont Road in Warwick Township (near Arkona), where William Sr. was a farmer, and in the 1880s and '90s a cheesemaker. His religion is listed as Methodist in the 1871 census. William Sr. died in Warwick Township on Oct. 10, 1902, and Mary on Nov. 7, 1905. William Jr. (died 1901) and his wife Ellen Brooks (born in Yorkshire, England in 1846; died 1936) had five children. The eldest child, William Daniel (1869-1946) and his wife Henrietta Brock (1869-1948) had a son, William Douglas, who was President of New United Salt Mines Ltd. at Warwick in the 1960s. The youngest child, Hamlet (1883-1967) was a doctor in Toronto.

Andrew married Catharine Overholt on Oct. 22, 1862 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church. She was born at Thorold near Welland on Nov. 30, 1842, and was the daughter of Isaiah Overholt (born at Thorold in 1810) and his wife Eva; Isaiah was the son of Isaac and Mary Catharine Overholt. Isaac was a Mennonite from Bucks County, Pennsylvania but moved to Lincoln County, Ontario with his parents. His ancestors Marcus and Elizabeth Oberholtzer emigrated from Switzerland to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 1710, part of the exodus of Mennonites from their homeland due to religious persecution. A few years later, the surname was shortened to Oberholt. The family can ultimately be traced back to Jakob Oberholzer, born at Oberholtz near Zurich in 1532. Andrew and Catharine farmed in Warwick Township. They had numerous children, several of whom died in infancy. These included Anthony Alex (1859-1860), William A. (1863-1942), George (born and died 1866) Catharine (1867-1955), another George (1868-1949), Ann Rachel (born and died 1869), Mary (born and died 1870), John R. (born Dec. 13, 1871), Alice (1876-1940), Charles (1878-1915), Henry (1880-1963) and Allan (1882-1970). Their mother Catharine died in Warwick Township on Oct. 16, 1908, and their father Andrew in April 1925.

On Nov. 6, 1894, John R. Thompson married Lavina George (born in Adelaide Township on Nov. 3, 1870). She was the eldest daughter of James George (born Aug. 5, 1842, died Aug. 25, 1914) and Mary Ann George (born Jan. 2, 1839, died at Strathroy Apr. 18, 1899) who were married in 1866. Lavina had a sister who died in her teens (Sarah Jane, 1874-1890) and a brother, Dr. Nelson George (born Mar. 17, 1877, later married Laura Diprose). John and Lavina settled in Warwick Township; his profession is listed on the marriage certificate as "farmer". Their son Curtis Garfield Thompson was born at Mr. George's home in Adelaide on Jan. 5, 1897. A notice in the Forest Standard records the birth of a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson in Warwick on Feb. 17, 1898. This girl must have died in infancy, since Curtis always believed he was an only child. In the spring of 1898 Lavina contracted exopthalmic goitre (swelling of the neck due to thryroid disorder) and died three months later, on Aug. 23, 1898. She was buried in her family's plot in Strathroy.

On Dec. 28, 1899, John took a second wife, Annie Ellen Barnes, born in Warwick Township on Sept. 11, 1872. They farmed at Flett Springs (south-east of Prince Albert, in the Saskatchewan Valley) in what was then the North-West Territories, where Annie's father, Samuel David Barnes, had purchased 160 acres of wheat land. Samuel, born in Brant County in 1843, was an unsuccessful candidate for Parliament in 1890 with the Prohibition Party. The Barnes family can be traced back to Samuel’s grandfather Jonathan Barnes (1773-1859) who emigrated from England in 1812, becoming a brickmaker in Brant County. John and Annie went ahead to Flett Springs to get settled, leaving the infant Curtis to follow with Annie’s teenage brother Henry Barnes. At one point Henry had to tie Curtis to a tree while he ferried their luggage across a river in a small boat! John's brother Charles also lived at Flett Springs, where he married Ann Coombs in 1905. By that time, John and Annie had moved back to Ontario, where John was an honours student at the Ontario Veterinary College in Toronto from 1903 to 1905. After graduation, John opened a practice as a veterinary surgeon in Strathroy. He died in 1921 and was buried in Bethel United cemetery, Warwick Township; Annie lived until 1943. They had five children: Lois Ella May (born in Flett Springs on May 17, 1901; died unmarried in 1990), Kenneth Lovell (born in Strathroy on Aug. 13, 1907, died 1980), Leda Belle (1904-1943), Clayton (1903-1980) and John Gordon (1912-2002), known as Gordon to avoid confusion with his father. Kenneth was later mayor of Weston.

Curtis Thompson's uncle, Dr. Nelson George (who had no children of his own) sent him to London, Ontario to become a doctor; however, he completed only two years of medical school before becoming a bookkeeper in Chatham, Ontario. He also spent two and a half years with the ambulance corps of the Kent Regiment. In January 1916 he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, going overseas as a medic. A photograph taken after the war portrays him as a lieutenant in the Essex Scottish Regiment, wearing the General Service Medal and Victory Medal. Curtis became an auditor and accountant. While overseas he met a British army clerk, Eva Millicent Ledger, born in Portland Bill, Dorset on July 19, 1896.

Eva’s parents were Edward Ledger and Rosa Elizabeth Gull, who were married March 20, 1888 at St. John’s Church, Carisbrook, Isle of Wight (Hampshire). Their marriage certificate names Edward’s father as William (deceased), on whom I can find no further information. However, since the 1891 census lists Edward as a British citizen born in India, his father William may have been a soldier or civil servant there. A Private William Ledger of the 52^nd Foot (Oxfordshire Light Infantry) is recorded as a recipient of the Indian Mutiny medal, but may be unrelated. Edward was 25 years old at the time of his marriage (but 29 in 1891, therefore born in 1862) and serving in the 2^nd Battalion, Shropshire Light Infantry, stationed at that time at Kilkenny, Ireland. Rosa was born at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, which explains the location of the wedding. She was the second of eight children of Henry Gull, a coachman (born at Ipswich, Suffolk, Oct. 27, 1839) and Elizabeth Baynes (born at Canterbury, Kent, 1840). Henry and Elizabeth were married at Capel St. Mary, Ipswich on June 10, 1864, and all their children were born either on the Isle of Wight or at nearby Portsmouth. Henry’s ancestry can be traced all the way back to his great-grandparents John Gull (born about 1709) and Mary Luffkin (born about 1711), both of Ipswich.

After their marriage, Edward and Rosa evidently returned to his regiment’s base in Ireland, where their eldest son Edward Henry was born in late 1899 or early 1900. The elder Edward was at this time a Colour Sergeant in the Shropshires. During World War I the younger Edward served as a private in the 9^th Royal Fusiliers and was killed on the Somme on July 7, 1916. His parents were living in Ilfracombe, Devon at this time. Edward died on Dec. 15, 1936; Rosa died around 1955. Eva had four other siblings (Arthur, Eileen, Mabel and Dorothy). Arthur is said to have been killed in World War I, but there is no record of a grave.

On July 4, 1919 Curtis Thompson and Eva Ledger were married in London, England. They lived variously in Brixton (England), Chicago, Detroit, Sandwich (Windsor) and London, Ontario and had seven children, before Curtis' death from tuberculosis (contracted during the war) on Feb. 9, 1933. These were my grandparents. Eva later married Robert Wilfrid (Bob) Borthwick on Nov. 27, 1940. Bob was born in Puslinch Township near Guelph on Sept. 7, 1897, the son of farmer John Borthwick (1843-1928) and Mary Wideman (1862-1926). He worked for a while as a teller with the Royal Bank in Winnipeg and Regina, served as a pay sergeant in World War I (he was part of the Canadian "Polar Bear" contingent that helped the White Russians against the Communists in eastern Russia), and after the war became a butcher and restaurateur in London, Ont. Bob and Eva operated the Paragon restaurant in downtown London, and later the Blue Moon restaurant at Ipperwash. Eva died in London on Oct. 2, 1986, and Bob on May 9, 1987.

My thanks to Helen Bates and Deborah Hodgkinson for providing much of the information on the Thompson family.

Revised August 2005