William Scott Elliot and Muriel Lailey

William Scott Elliot was the son of Robert Watt Elliot and Catherine Scott.  His wedding to Muriel Lailey is described in detail in the Toronto newspaper, the Globe.  William and Muriel both attended the Jarvis Street Baptist Church.  Thomas Sutherland Stayner and his wife Harriet Rose Elliot were among the guests (Harriet Rose was a daughter of William Elliot and Mary Oliphant, and would have been  the groom's aunt).   The account was published on October 4, 1899. 

Here is Muriel's obituary in the same newspaper, many years later, on June 19, 1951.

The Jarvis Street Baptist Church and the Elliot/Scott Families

Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Toronto, circa 1917.   By Valentine & Sons Publishing Co., Ltd. - Saskatchewan Postcard collection, http://digital.scaa.sk.ca/gallery/postcards/permalink/37418, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63214236

I've known for a long time that both John Galloway Scott's family and William Elliot's family were associated with Toronto's own Jarvis Street Baptist Church.  The Jarvis Street Baptist Church Directory and Historical Sketch, published in Toronto in August of 1897 and available on the database Canadiana, gives us a snapshot of what church life was like for the Scott and Elliot families.  Our ancestor William Elliot,  the father of Mary (Elliot) Scott, died in 1893, so he was no longer alive when this publication came out, but some of his children and grandchildren are still involved in this church, as is John Galloway Scott et al. 

I really like the page below for how it lays out the rhythm of the life of the Jarvis Street Baptist congregation.  There's public worship on Sundays, and also Sunday School, Bible Class, and a Prayer Meeting.  There also seems to be a Prayer Meeting on Wednesday, although it's not named as such, and various groups meeting throughout the week.  It seems like a bustling place. 

John Galloway (or J.G.) Scott is listed as a Deacon.  Notice the name McMaster on the list of Deacons;  William McMaster (of McMaster University fame) was one of the men who helped finance the building of the Jarvis Street Baptist Church in 1875, along with William Elliot.  William McMaster died in 1887 but it looks like his family is still in attendance.

John Galloway Scott is also a Trustee, and holds the position of Secretary to this group.  Being a Trustee means that John Galloway is also on the Finance Committee, and it looks like he is also the Sub-Treasurer for the Poor Fund.

John Galloway Scott is a Plate Collector on the ground floor, south side.  J.C. Scott, listed under main floor, south side, is not related to our branch of the Scott family. 

Mrs. Robert Watt Elliot (Catherine Scott) was President of the Dorcas Society.  From what I understand, Dorcas Societies were charitable organizations which gave clothing to the poor. 

The following pages are from the directory.  They give us the name and address of all church members.  The double-t Elliott family are not related to us.  Notice that Cynthia Jane Elliot (C. Janie) is living at 341 Sherbourne Street, which means she is living in the Robert Watt Elliot household headed by her sister and brother-in-law. 

There are a few Scott families in attendance at Jarvis.  I believe that only the John Galloway Scott family are related to us.  John G. Scott did have a son named Arthur, but his middle initial was H. for Herbert, and not E, and I am not aware of his ever living in New York.  In 1892 Arthur Herbert Scott married Minnie Davis and they settled in Montreal. 

There is a relationship between the Elliot family and the Yates family (William Elliot's sister Maria Elliot married David Yates of Dundas, Ontario, in 1828.  I'm not certain if Mrs. Eliza Yates is a relative of our Elliots or not. 

Muriel Lailey is the future wife of William Scott Elliot.  They marry in October 1899.  She appears to be the only member of her family to attend Jarvis Street Baptist.  Perhaps they met through the church. 

Mrs. T. Sutherland Stayner was born Harriet Rose Elliot.  She is the daughter of William Elliot and Mary Oliphant,  the sister of Robert Watt Elliot, and the sister-in-law of John Galloway Scott.  Her husband Thomas Sutherland Stayner was an Anglican, and so it seems she was the sole representative of her family in this congregation.  

Although William Elliot was dead by the time this document was published, his work as a church deacon is briefly described.  He and his family were originally members of the Disciples of Christ church. 

 

Notice that James Lesslie was mentioned in early records of this church.  The Lesslie family were known to both the Scotts and the Elliots.  Thomas Chalmers Scott was persuaded to come to Toronto by a Lesslie, and William Elliot got his start in pharmacy at the Lesslie family pharmacy in Dundas.

Sophia Watt's Aunt Taddie

My post on Thomas Watt and his family is still in progress, but I have discovered the will of Sophia Watt's "Aunt Taddie", who, according to Edith Kilgour's Oliphant Family History, was the sister of William Watt and left her niece Sophia a legacy.  It is an immensely useful will as it confirms she is really Sophia's aunt, as Edith Kilgour stated, and it names other family members as well.   It turns out that she got her nickname "Aunt Taddie" through her marriage, which took place in St. Andrews, Scotland, on 19 November 1802, to James Toddie (Scotland Marriages, 1561-1920, FamilySearch.org).  She is a widow at the time her will was made, and her wealthy brother Thomas Watt is her executor, although her own legacies are quite modest.  Her husband James was a mason by trade.  Isabella, or Aunt Taddie, died in St. Andrews on January 13, 1841.

Here is a transcript of the relevant section of the will of Isabella (Watt) Toddie:

"To my sister Mrs. Elizabeth Watt or Mayhew wife of William Mayhew Esquire of Raydon in the County of Suffolk two pair of my Linen sheets--two pair of my best tweeled (sic) sheets and two Table clothes.  To my niece Isabella Watt oldest Daughter of the said Thomas Watt one dozen of my silver Tea spoons, one pair of my Tea Tongs, and one silver milk pot.  To my niece Josephine Watt second Daughter of the said Thomas Watt and wife of George Thomson Esq. Wine Merchant Leith eight old Silver Tea spoons, and pair of Tea Tongs and two Table silver spoons.  To my niece Elizabeth Watt daughter of the said Thomas Watt the best white counterpane I may be possessed of at the time of my death, with one pair of my best unmade sheets.  To my niece Louisa Frances Watt fourth daughter of the said Thomas Watt my Tea Box.  To my niece Mrs. Sophia Watt or Oliphant Daughter of William Watt my Brother and wife of David Oliphant presently residing in America, in the event of her being resident  in this Country at the time of my death, but no otherways all my body clothes....and I request that the said Thomas Watt and Mrs. Louise Antoinette Josephine Dubois or Watt his wife may give at their discretion any memorandum they please to my cousin Catherine Wallace daughter of the late Louis Wallace..."

I don't know if Sophia ever collected her legacy of all of her aunt's clothes, but she must at least have known about the intent. It is interesting to me that Isabella's will names only one sibling apart from her brother Thomas.  I wonder if the others were all dead by that time?  Sophia's parents certainly were.  And it's going to be useful to have the name of one of the Wallace cousins since I currently have no leads at all on the family of Agnes Wallace, William Watt the elder's wife.  Thanks, Aunt Taddie!   

Update on Possible Parents for Sophia Watt: Now We Know

Way back in 2014, I wrote this post speculating that Sophia Watt's parents might have been William Watt and Jane Bond, whose first husband was John Powis.  My guess was based upon knowing Sophia's birth date and place from the obituary written by her son David Oliphant Jr. and published in The Christian Banner, Volume 11, No. 4, April 1857.   I could only find one birth record for a child named Sophia Watt in London in late March of 1782.   However, finding a record for a Sophia did not prove definitively that this was our Sophia.  

 However, another researcher has recently and very generously sent me an 18-page history of the Oliphant family written by Edith Kilgour, who was a great granddaughter of David Oliphant and Sophia Watt.   Edith tells us that she had access to many old family letters and other documents when writing her family history, so she was relying on more than oral history to create it.  And it is truly a goldmine of information!  I'm so excited and happy to have seen it.

First of all, Edith tells us of a rumour that Sophia was "closely related to James Watt the inventor of the Steam Engine", who was born on January 19, 1736, in Greenock, to another James Watt (shipwright and merchant) and his wife Agnes Muirhead.  James Watt Senior's father was Thomas Watt, mathematics teacher.  At the moment I can't find any relationship between these people and Sophia, and Edith doesn't know what it was precisely.

She does, however, know the names of Sophia's parents and her paternal grandparents.  Hooray!  Now we can go back two generations, which is very good news.

"The first Watt of whom we have record is William Watt of St. Andrews and his wife Agnes Wallace. They had a son William born 17th August, 1759.  The latter married in London "Jean" Bond, an English woman, and they had a son James born on March 26, 1786 and registered in St. Andrews, and a daughter Sophia born March 26, 1783 in London. After the birth of Sophia they evidently returned to St. Andrews to live."  

It's kind of strange that both children were born on the same date, three years apart.

Edith also confirms something that I'd already discovered in the records, that Jane Bond's marriage to William Watt was a second marriage for her.  Her first husband was named John Powis.  

Edith has a lot to say about Sophia's other relatives.  On her mother's side, "not much is known except that her [Sophia's] great grandfather was one Percival Bond and that she had two aunts, Frances and Phyllis, the latter of whom, unmarried, left her a legacy...Sophia Watt had an aunt Isabella (Taddie) who died in 1841 and left her a legacy.  She also had legacies from two other aunts, Anne Turner and Phyllis Bond.  She had at least two uncles, one of whom was  Thomas Watt who was wealthy and travelled to the West Indies.  There he married the daughter of the Governor of Guadeloupe, and afterwards returned to Edinburgh where they lived "in style" in Claremont Crescent...This Thomas Watt had several children.  A daughter, Isabella, married a Mr. Anderson of Jamaica, W.I.  The son, Edward, lived in Trinidad.  Another son, William, also lived in Trinidad and a son, Henry, went as A.D.C. to the Governor of Domenica.  His father [Sophia's Uncle Thomas] wrote to Sophia Watt that this son had been given a handsome establishment and later accepted a judgeship."

And finally, Edith provides us with a Watt-Bond family tree:

There's even more here, mostly about Sophia and David Oliphant's life, but this is enough information to get started with.  First of all, one of the reasons I was so happy to learn that Sophia was indeed the daughter of William Watt is that I have a biography of a William Watt of St. Andrews. This turns out to be a biography of Sophia's grandfather, William Watt Senior.  It was published in 1839, well after his death, in "The Gardener's Magazine, and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvement".

The archives of St. Andrews University were able to give me some supplementary information.  From the book "Biographical Register of the University of St. Andrews 1747-1897" by Robert Smart:

"Watt, William.  Cook and gardener to St. Mary's College 1757-1786 (retired).
 Previously gardener to the Earl of Buchan.

Watt, William.  Cook and gardener to St. Mary's College 1786-22.4.1800 (died aged 83). 
Also worked as a surveyor. 
Born c. 1717 son to William Watt, cook and gardener to St. Mary's College. 

Watt, William.  Cook and gardener to St. Mary's College.  
Son of William Watt, cook and gardener to St. Mary's College."

I think the author incorrectly attributed the death date of the elder William Watt to his son.  It is probably the elder William Watt who died in 1800, age 83 (although to add to the confusion, his biographer in the "Gardener's Journal" has him dying in 1798).  

The librarian at the archives pulled out several relevant entries from the Minutes of St. Mary's College. According to these records, the first William Watt began work at the College on November 24, 1757.  On 16 June 1786, the minutes mention a gratuity awarded to "William Watt Younger" for "extraordinary work" in the gardens, and says that Watt Sr. was retiring due to "age and infirmity".  On 22 July 1800, the minutes report:

"The meeting considering that the offices of Cook and Gardener to the College had become vacant by the death of the late Mr. Watt Senior on the day of _____ last, agreed to nominate Mr. Watt Junior to officiate as a cook for the next session of College."  


On April 3 1801, there is an entry that records the full appointment of William Watt Junior.

By the way, in case it's not clear, St. Mary's College is part of St. Andrew's University in the town of St. Andrews.  


This information is both very helpful and a tiny bit confusing.  It makes it seem as if there are three William Watts, but I think there are only two.  Sophia's father, William Watt, was born in 1759.  He would have been 27 years old in 1786, when the first William Watt retired and the second took his place, which makes sense, especially since it seems as though he was already gardening there in some capacity anyway.  The part about him also working as a surveyor is unexpected.  I think it was the elder William Watt, Sophia's grandfather, who was born circa 1717.  This would make him 22 when entering the Earl of Buchan's service, and 34 when his first child was born.

I don't have a marriage record for William Watt Sr. and Agnes Wallace, but I do have birth records for seven of their children, three more than Edith's family tree contains.  William and Agnes had:

• Henry, born May 6, 1751, in the parish of Liberton (parish record says the family lives in "Goodtrees").  In the family history Edith refers to this child as Henry David. Apparently Liberton is a parish in the county of Edinburgh, 2 miles outside the city of Edinburgh.   Fun fact:  "Liberton" derives from "Leper's Town", due to a leper hospital the area once containted.  
• Cardross (male) born September 29, 1754, also at Liberton.  Cardross is a name associated with the Earl of Buchan's family.  
• Isabelle (on the birth record) or Isabella (on the family tree).  Born December 6, 1757, in the parish of St. Andrew's.  This makes sense, as William Watt the elder began working at St. Andrew's University that year.  From here on in, all the birth records refer to William as being a "Gardener at New College".  According to the St. Mary's College Minutes, St. Mary's College was sometimes referred to as New College at this time.  
• William, born August 17, 1759, St. Andrews.  This is Sophia Watt's father.  
• James, born February 28, 1761, St. Andrews.
• Jean, born January 7, 1763, St. Andrews. 
• Thomas, born January 31, 1765, St. Andrews.  

It is possible that not all these children survived.

There are two different death records in the St. Andrew's parish records in the name of William Watt.  It makes sense to me that the first William to die would have been Sophia's grandfather, who would indeed have been 83 years old if he was born in 1717 and died in 1800.  His son, Sophia's father, who died in 1803, would have been a relatively young 44 years. 

"William Watt Gardner to St. Mary's College St. Andrews died 27th of April 1800".  

"William Watt Gardner to the New College died here 6 of May 1803". 

Additionally, the book "Monumental Inscriptions pre-1855 in East Fife" by John Fowler Mitchell and Sheila Mitchell records this gravestone inscription in the churchyard of St. Andrew's Cathedral:

"Wm Watt gardner and surveyor here 27.4.18(0)(0 or 6) (83)".   

There are still clues to the Watt and Bond families to explore, and next I am going to look into the family of Sophia's globe-trotting uncle Thomas Watt. 



  

The Family of Stephen Bland, Gardener in Hammersmith

I'm trying to sort out what I know about the Bland family, specifically Stephen Bland, gardener in Hammersmith, who was the father of Ann (Bland) Elliot. I feel like I have lots of bits of information, but it's not necessarily tying together.  In an earlier post I went over the will of Stephen's brother, John Highlord Bland, sword-cutler, and posited that a Thomas Bland who married Gwyn unknown was also a brother.  Here are some clues about Stephen's life and about other potential relatives.

According to his death record, Stephen was born circa 1733.  His brother John Highlord Bland was born around a year earlier, according to the dates on his  tombstone in St. Paul's churchyard, Hammersmith.  John Highlord Bland, who died in 1791, left a very useful will which establishes Stephen as his brother and Stephen's children as his nieces and nephews, and Mrs Gwyn Bland as his sister-in-law and her children as nieces and nephews also.

Stephen Bland, who died in 1810, also left a will.  In it, he made provisions for his daughters Anne Elliot (and her children, John and Robert Elliot, his grandsons) and Harriot Pontifex (wife of Daniel Pontifex, silversmith).  He also left money to his son John Thomas Bland, whom he had with his first wife, and he left income property to two other sons, James Bland and Edward Bland.   Finally, he instructs his son James, to whom he has left "two houses known by the name of (Bawdon?) place in the hamlet aforesaid [i.e. Hammersmith] & now in the occupation of the Rev. Raffles  & Mme. Ann de St. Hippolite" that "the said James Bland will let unto Mrs. Ann & Elizabeth Watts two rooms...during their natural lives out of the house now occupied by Mme. Anne de St. Hippolite".   (Fun fact:  Stephen's tenant, the Rev. Raffles, has his own wikipedia page!)

Although Stephen does not specify why he is leaving instructions for James to house Ann and Elizabeth Watts, it turns out that there is a Bland family connection.  They are the daughters of a Sarah Bland, who married  Peers Watts, a gardener in Fulham, in 1720.  We have a marriage agreement between Sarah and Peers which indicates that Sarah is the daughter of Edward Bland, also a gardener in Fullham.  (Hammersmith is a parish in Fulham, so this is consistent with our Bland family living in Hammersmith).  I don't have a birth record for Sarah, but if she is marrying in 1720 she is not likely to be Stephen's sister, given his later birth date, although it is not impossible.  She might be an aunt, which would make her children Stephen's cousins.

London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812.  London, All Hallows London Wall Parish Register.  Marriage of Peers Watts and Sarah Bland, September 11, 1720.  Marriage of  William Bland and Sarah Watts, May 10, 1719. 

Sarah married Peers Watts in All-Hallows-on-the-Wall Church in London.  Interestingly, the year before, a William Bland married a Sarah Watts at the same church.  Do these two also fit into our family tree?

London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597-1921.  Marriage Bond for William Bland of St. Giles in the Field, Middlesex, a bachelor age 30, and Sarah Watts of St. Andrew Holborn parish, a spinster, also age 30.  Dated 3 May 1720.  Marriage to be performed at All Hallows on the Wall, London. Why was the bond taken out after the ceremony? 

Peers was a widower when he married Sarah Bland.  His first wife was Elizabeth Keep, whom he married in 1713.

London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812.  City of London, St. Benet's Wharf Church, 1619-1732.  Marriage of Peers Watts to Elizabeth Keep, 17 September 1713.  

Peers Watts' will, which was written in 1764 and probated 14 July 1772, leaves everything to his "dear wife Sarah Watts", (including "my whole stock of Rabbitts") except for ten pounds which he leaves his son Peers Watts Jr. for mourning.  After his wife's death his property is to be divided equally amongst his three daughters, Sarah Brooks, Ann Watts, and Elizabeth Watts. His wife's death date is unknown, but I imagine it is before 1810 when Stephen wrote his will, otherwise they would still be living with their mother.

Getting back to Stephen's children, we know that his son James apprenticed to become a cutler like his uncle.  Sword-making seems to be a major theme in the Bland family history.  But if we have the correct will, he seems to have changed his occupation later to become a sexton. 

London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1820-1840. James Bland, son of Stephen Bland of Hammersmith, gardener, apprentices himself to John Foster of Fetter's Lane, London, Sword Cutler.  October 7, 1789. 

Stephen's son James Bland was married and living in Hammersmith by 1806, when the St. Paul Hammersmith church begins recording his children's baptisms.  James and his wife Mary Ann baptize Mary Ann Bland on April 6, 1806, George Bland on April 1, 1808, Eleanor Bland on June 25, 1809, Robert Bland on November 9, 1810,  and Ann Bland on August 14, 1812.  Some of the children who are named in Mary Ann Bland's will are not represented here.   It is around this time that Robert Elliot and his wife Ann Bland are having children in the same parish:  in fact, their names appear only one month apart in one case.  

James Bland wrote a will on October 14, 1825 which was probated on July 2, 1836, in which he basically left all his possessions, including the property he inherited in ShortLands from his father, to his wife Mary Ann  Bland.  His wife, in turn, left a rather poignant will stating that her late husband James was "a sexton in the hamlet of Hammersmith in the Parish of Fulham in the County of Middlesex".  She leaves her house, situated in "the Broadway King Street Hammersmith" to her youngest daughter, Frances Ann Bland, to be managed by Mr. Edward Bland "during the time of her insanity she being at this time in Saint [?] Asylum but if it should please God to restore her to her rational ? so as to be enabled to provide for herself" Mary Ann instructs that her property be divided equally amongst her surviving children.  Her sons, Henry Nicholas (Lionel?) Bland and George Bland are named executors, and the will is proved  July 30, 1836.

The London Metropolitan Archives houses the records of the St. Paul Hammersmith church (St. Paul Hammersmith:  Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith and Fulham, DD/0071).  The description suggests that being sexton for St. Paul's was a Bland family occupation:

The second group consists of books kept by the sextons of the church, an office held by members of the Bland family. These also are not primarily registers, and frequently contain details of tolling the bell, the allocation of grave spaces and dealings with undertakers. They also provide evidence of the way in which the overseers and churchwardens settled their accounts with the sexton. In the early 19th century the then sexton, James Bland, provided many of the older books with covers, and gave them numbers and titles. He, or his children, also seem to have used them on occasion as scribbling pads and may be responsible for the large number of missing pages. 


Was Susanna Watts also a child of Peers Watts and Sarah Bland?  Probably not, since she was not mentioned in Stephen's will.  However, she was buried at St. Paul Hammersmith, which has strong associations with the Bland family.

Burial record for Susanna Watts, Jan 17, 1812, age 77, St. Paul's Hammersmith Church.  London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812.

Here are a few records which probably relate to family members, but I'm unsure exactly how.

London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921.  Marriage of Stephen Edward Bland to Mary Dennis, Feb 15, 1852, in St. George Bloomsbury Church (Camden).  Stephen Edward Bland is a cutler, and son of Stephen John Highlord Bland, also a cutler.  Stephen John Highlord Bland was himself the son of Edward Bland, cutler.   

London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1820-1840.  Apprenticeship of Stephen John Highlord Bland, son of Edward Bland of Cow Cross Street, West Smithfield, Sword Cutler. Apprenticing to Charles Matthews of Kings Head Court, Shoe Lane, London, Cutler.   1817. 

London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1925.  March 17, 1758.  Thomas Bland, son of Edward Bland of Hammersmith, Clerk, apprenticed to Sanders Davenport, Cutler. 

Getting back to our Stephen, who was a gardener, not a cutler or sexton, and who named one of his sons Edward (granted, Edward was a very popular name at the time):  could he be related to this Edward Bland, also a gardener in Hammersmith?

London, England, Clandestine Marriage and Baptismal Registers, 1667-1754.  Marriage of Edward Bland, Widower and Gardener of Hammersmith, and Hannah Every, Spinster, Hammersmith.  January 1719.

London, England, Crisp's Marriage Licence Index, 1713-1892.  Marriage License for John Bland, in the parish of St. James, Westminster, widower, and Frances Messenger, of St. Martin in the Fields, Spinster, Feb. 1, 1779.  This could perhaps be Stephen's son John Thomas? 

Hampshire Chronicle, Monday May 1. 1786. John Highlord Bland was a sword-cutler to the King at this time. 

I think putting all these pieces together may be slow work, and some of the above records are probably dead ends.  Hopefully the more I find out, the more the family will come together.

Frank Keyes Foster, Son-in-Law of Calvin Palmer Ladd and Polly Harmon

Our ancestors Calvin Palmer Ladd and Polly Harmon had a total of eight children before Polly's death in 1861 (Calvin would have one more child later in life with his second wife, Charlotte Welsh). We descend through Calvin and Polly's second child, Elizabeth Ladd, who married into the successful Bulmer family of Montreal.  Elizabeth's youngest sister, Lucretia Ella Ladd, born in 1853 when Elizabeth was thirteen, had quite a different type of husband.  In 1879 Lucretia Ella married Frank Keyes Foster, American trade unionist.  The book Workers in America:  A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1 by Robert E. Weir (2013, ABC-Clio publications) has quite a bit of information about his career.  A journalist, activist and would-be politician, life in the Foster home must have been very stimulating.  I am left wondering what the relationship between the Bulmers and the Fosters would have been like--did politics create a divide between the sisters?   By the time Lucretia married Frank, her mother Polly had passed away. Her father Calvin died in 1880, so could not have known his radical son-in-law for long.

Here is Frank's biography from Workers in America.  

Here's a link to Foster's biography in Wikipedia, which mentions that he was a trustee of the Boston Public Library (hooray!).

A Short Obituary for Margaret (Whitfield) Berkeley

I found a short death notice for Margaret Berkeley, sister of Eleanor Whitfield, and daughter of James Whitfield, peruke-maker in London, and Ann Unknown.  Doesn't give a death date, but this is from the Oxford University and City Herald, July 11, 1807.