More About The Bulmers From Various Sources

We descend from the Bulmer family through Ida Bulmer, who married William Rutherford Junior. She was the daughter of John Bulmer, who was born in Quebec (Trois Rivieres) in 1836.  John was the son of Thomas Bulmer, who immigrated from England to Quebec with his family in 1832.  The original connection between the Bulmers and the Rutherfords was probably through business, as John Bulmer was a building contractor in Montreal, where the Rutherfords owned a lumber factory.  It is also possible that there was a connection between William Rutherford Jr. and John Rutherford's older brother Henry, who were both involved in Montreal politics. Here are a few miscellaneous bits of information about the Bulmer family. 

Marjorie Bulmer's recently published (2000) book Bulmer Genealogy agrees with other sources in stating that  Thomas Bulmer and Mary Bowling were originally from Hatfield, England.  


"Hatfield, York Co., England, Montreal, Canada.
Thomas Bulmer b. ca. 1793 m. 2 July 1816 Mary Bowling b. 1792 in St. Lawrence Church, Hatfield, Yorkshire.  They came to Canada in 1832 with four children born and baptised in Hatfield.  [They would be Thomas Jr., William, Henry, and the first John, who died young.] They settled first in Quebec P.Q. where 4th son John died and a daughter Mary was born.  The next move was to Three Rivers, P.Q. where a son John was born, Thomas was listed as a bricklayer in the parish records. Later they moved to Montreal P.Q. where they finally settled..."


Thomas Bulmer would have been about 39 years old when he brought his family to Canada.  He  appears to have worked as a bricklayer throughout his life, which was a long one.  His daughter Mary's Quebec birth record refers to him as a "bricklayer and plasterer".  His death record from the St. George Anglican Church of Montreal register reads:  "Thomas Bulmer died on the twenty-fifth day of April One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-one and was buried on the twenty-seventh day of the same month and year.  Aged eighty-seven years and seven months."  

I also found a death notice for Thomas Bulmer in, surprisingly, the True Witness and Catholic Chronicle newspaper of April 27, 1881.  On page it reads "Yesterday morning Mr. Thomas Bulmer, while ascending a ladder, lost his balance and fell to the ground a distance of some twenty feet.  He was at once conveyed to his home and Dr. McCallum summoned.  Despite the exertions of the doctor, Mr. Bulmer never recovered, dying yesterday afternoon from the effects of the injuries." 

I'm curious about what a man of roughly 87 years was doing twenty feet up a ladder away from home.  Was he still involved in construction?  He must have had remarkable stamina.

Here is the death record for Mary Bowling, age 90, 1882.  Thomas Bulmer predeceased her by just under a year.  This is from St. George Anglican Church, Montreal.

Her death notice in the Montreal Gazette on June 12, 1882, reads:

"Bulmer.  At the residence of her daughter, No. 40 Catheart street, on the 10th instant, Mary Bowling, relict of Thomas Bulmer, aged 90 years.  The funeral will take place from No. 40 Catheart street, this (Monday) afternoon, the 12th inst., at 2:30 o'clock.  Friends will please accept this intimation."

Thomas Campbell Bulmer, their grandson (he was the son of Thomas Bulmer Jr. and Emma Phoebe Fearon), was a successful businessman in Montreal before he ended his own life (see previous post). Here is a brief biography of Thomas from the book  Montreal 1535-1914 Vol. 3 by William H. Atherton,  p. 398-99.

"THOMAS CAMPBELL BULMER.  The attractive suburb of Westmount is largely the monument to the business enterprise and progressive methods of Thomas Campbell Bulmer, now deceased, who was almost a lifelong resident of Montreal, and for a long period an active factor in its business circles.  He was born at Three Rivers, Quebec, in 1846, and was educated in the public schools there and in Montreal, being brought to the latter city when a youth of ten years by his father, Thomas Bulmer, who was a native of Yorkshire, England, and on coming to Canada settled at Three Rivers, but in 1856 removed to Montreal, where for many years he was active as a contractor and builder. He married Anna Phoebe Fearon, [sic--her name was Emma Pheobe Fearon and she was  actually T.C. Bulmer's  mother] also a native of England.

When his school days were over, Thomas Campbell Bulmer served an apprenticeship to the book binding trade, became proficient as a workman and in 1868 joined Henry Morton and Charles Phillips in a partnership under the style of Morton, Phillips and Bulmer.  The business developed and grew until until the firm occupied a prominent position among stationers, blank book makers and printers.  A few years prior to this death Mr. Bulmer withdrew from that connection, in which he had realized a handsome profit, to engage in the real-estate business at Westmount.  He was recognized as the father of that beautiful suburb, having been one of the first men to foresee the value of that section as a residential district.  He was actively engaged to the time of his death in its improvement, development and upbringing and made it one of the most beautiful suburban districts of Montreal.

Mr. Bulmer passed away on April 7th, 1902.  For many years he had been an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity and had been equally faithful as a member of the Anglican church.  Sterling motives and high principals guided him in all of his relations and made him an upright man, so that he left behind him not only the substantial rewards of earnest, persistent labor, but also that good name which is to be chosen in preference to great riches."  

An advertising calendar from the firm Norton Phillips & Bulmer, 1883.

Thomas and Mary's son John Bulmer (our ancestor) married Elizabeth Ladd,  the daughter of Calvin Palmer Ladd and Polly Harmon, and grand-daughter of the explorer Daniel Williams Harmon and his half-native wife Lisette.  Here is a copy of John and Elizabeth's marriage record:

I love this record, because it has so many family signatures on it:  not just John and Elizabeth, the newlyweds, but also Calvin Palmer (C.P.) Ladd, Henry Bulmer, a member of the Maxwell family (Henry Bulmer's wife was Jane Maxwell), and lastly, a Harmon signature.  Too bad it's only initials--I wonder if it could be the signature of Abby Maria Harmon, who would be Elizabeth Ladd's aunt?