The Maturin and Johnston Families
Liz Augereau, Sally Lloyd, Caroline Glass, Barry Johnston and Hugh Casement have spent enormous effort on researching the detail of the Johnston family. The links to the other Johnston settlers from Scotland are still uncertain but there is confidence in the identity of the family which settled in Dublin, where Benjamin married, firstly Mary Osborne at St Pauls, Dublin, and secondly Mary Weld at St. Peter & St. Kevin's (as demanded by the law and Establishment); the latter's children were, however, baptised at the Eustace Street Presbyterian chapel.
The Number Code
The number before the name "J1)" or "J11)" is the individual reference based on Neville de Mestre's system and starts at 1 with patriarch Benjamin. Each generation then adds one more digit so that Benjamin's fourth son, Edmund, is J14 and John (J15)'s son, Benjamin, is J152. When there are more than 9 children T is used for the 10th, E for the 11th offspring and Tw for the twelfth. Therefore J152E311), Peter Richard Graydon JOHNSTON is the first child of Hugh Graydon Johnston, first child of Augustus Henry Graydon Johnston who was the third child of Augustus Johnston; he was the eleventh child of Benjamin Johnston and Catherine Graydon and Benjamin was the second child of the original Benjamin's fifth child, John.
Only Johnston children have been coded as, in theory, other families marrying-in could have their own codes.
The Johnston Story
J1) Benjamin JOHNSTON, born about 1703, married firstly Mary OSBORNE in St Paul’s Church, Dublin on 25th March 1727. Benjamin was a Public Notary and had his office in Castle Street. Notes from a family bible (held by the Figgis family) state that there were five children :
Dorothea born 15th December 1727
Benjamin born 15th October 1729
John born 9th February 1732
Benjamin born 27th September 1735
Joseph born 9th May 1739.
Mary died on 13th June 1741, at about 35 years of age. Sadly her five children had already predeceased her.
Benjamin married secondly, in St Peter & St Kevin’s Church, Dublin on 25th September 174, Mary WELD, daughter of Edmond Weld, and Margaret, nee Kane, daughter of Joseph, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 1725-6, and grand-daughter of the Reverend Nathaniel Weld of Eustace St., Dublin, a Presbyterian Minister. Mary`s 1st cousin-once-removed was the celebrated Isaac Weld (1774-1856), F.G.S.D., J.P., explorer and traveller in North America and author. Benjamin and Mary had a total of twelve children, of whom eight survived. Although they had married in the Church of Ireland, their children were baptised in the Eustace Street Meeting House, Dublin.
In a family archive, kindly submitted by a member of the Figgis family, Benjamin Johnston wrote that their first child “was lost coming into the world to save its mother’s life” in 1742. Their youngest child, Jane, was born in 1757 after her father’s death.
Benjamin Johnston died on 18th July 1757, aged about 54 years. When Mary Johnston, née Weld, died in 1787 her Will mentioned seven children.
J11) Edmond JOHNSTON, born 17th August 1743 – died young.
J12) Benjamin JOHNSTON, born 8th August 1744. The date of Benjamin’s marriage is still uncertain. However, the family bible, mentioned above, gives a list of his issue :
J121) Jane JOHNSTON, born 2nd June 1767
J122) Mary JOHNSTON, born 28th August 1769
J123) Benjamin JOHNSTON, born 14th October 1770
J124) Elizabeth JOHNSTON, born 7th October 1773 – she married (?) UNDERWOOD
J125) Edmund JOHNSTON, born 18th September 1775
J126) John JOHNSTON, born 18th November 1777.
J13) John JOHNSTON, born 21st September 1745 – died young.
J14) Margaret JOHNSTON, born 15th January 1746
J15) Edmond JOHNSTON, born 2nd January 1747. He was a "Gentleman" and lived in Camden Street, Dublin. He remained a bachelor and at his death in 1828 he left his Estate to his sisters Mary Johnston and Jane Holmes and to his nephews and nieces, Holmes, Figgis, Dunne, Hall, Stephenson, Wybrants and Sisson. Edmund's will, dated 7th February 1826 with Codicil dated 9th May 1828, is in the National Archives Dublin, under the reference T 19907. The Executors of the will were his nephew Jonathan Sisson, Henry Hutton, barrister and Robert Moore Peile Junior, barrister. Edmund is buried in St Paul's churchyard, Gormanstown.
J16) John JOHNSTON, born 19th November 1749. John was an Ironmonger. He lived in College Green, Dublin. He married Maria HIGGINSON in St John's Church, Dublin on 22nd December 1772. They lived in Belvedere Place, Dublin. Other addresses include : Trough Lodge, Co Monaghan; The Copse, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow and 9/10, Upper Pembroke St, Dublin. When John died in 1823, Maria lived in Upper Dominick St. She died around 1828; she was the daughter of Rev Thomas HIGGINSON and Anne MOORE (see HIGGINSON). John & Maria had four children :
J161) Elizabeth JOHNSTON married Rev Henry MATURIN (1111271) in St George's Church, Dublin on 24th May 1802. She died in 1826. (see the MATURIN STORY part two)
The story of the descendants of Benjamin Johnston
Catherine Johnston
The above portraits were painted by Martin Cregan of County Meath, 1788-1870 (President of the Royal Hibernian Acadamy for twenty three years).
Benjamin Johnston
Jervois & Letitia August 1918
Art McKay
Georgina, Hazel and May - in Toronto
Hugh Larratt Henderson
Alexander Bergin Perry Shearwood
George Armand Furse
J162) Benjamin JOHNSTON, "Gentleman", married Catherine GRAYDON at Trough Lodge , Co Monaghan on 17th February 1809. (Catherine Graydon's mother was possibly Letitia HIGGINSON, Maria's sister, who married Capt GRAYDON, H.M. Dragoons; widowed, she married secondly Edward Henry MURRAY in 1789). Benjamin died in 1849 and his wife Catherine in 1855. They had 12 children, 3 daughters and 9 sons :
J1621) Letitia JOHNSTON, born 5th October 1809 in Trough Lodge, Co. Monaghan. She married the Rev Robert HENDERSON, of Derry, on 10th November 1831 in St Peter's Church, Aungier Street, Dublin. Robert Henderson was born in 1801 in Tyrone. He qualified at TCD in 1822 and was ordained by the Bishop of Derry in 1825. Principal of Foyle's College, Londonderry, the family is then in Brompton Ralph, Somerset in the 1861 census, and in Clifton, Gloucestershire in 1881.
Rev Henderson died in Clifton and was buried in Brompton-Ralph on 4th October 1878, aged 77. Letitia died in Clifton too, and was buried in Brompton-Ralph on 30th April 1890 aged 79. Letitia & Robert had six children :
William HENDERSON, born in Londonderry on 22nd May 1834. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he graduated in 1854 and was ordained in 1857. Curate in Brompton-Ralph and Monksilver in England, and Ballymore in Ireland. From 1862 to 1869 he was Rector in Pembroke, Ontario.
He married Mary Agnes BERGEN on 17th August 1863 in Portage du Fort, Quebec. She was born in Dublin, Ireland about 1842. William & Mary spent a few years in the United States in Cleveland, Ohio and Nevada. They returned to Quebec where William was Rector in Dunham.
In 1877 he was appointed Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal and in 1878 he became Principal of the Montreal Diocesan Theological College. In 1886 Canon Henderson was conferred a Doctorate of Divinity by Trinity College, Dublin.
Canon Henderson published several works, among which are Lectures on « Total Abstinence » and « Baptismal Reformation ». Under his management, the Theological College began a useful and prosperous career for the Diocese.
He died he died of a stroke on 20th October 1896, aged 62. His wife Mary died in Preston Springs, Ontario on 26th April 1908. They are both buried at Mont Royal Cemetery, Outrement, Montreal. William & Mary Henderson had 6 children :
Letitia Agnes HENDERSON, eldest child of William and Mary, born 14th April 1865 in Pembroke, Ontario, Canada. She was educated in Montreal and married the Rev Jervois NEWNHAM in 1892. Jervois was born on 15th Oct 1852 in Combe Down, Somerset and died 11th January 1941 in Hamilton, Toronto. He became Bishop of Moosonee and later Bishop of Saskatchewan in 1903.
Letitia was a “devoted companion and assistant” during Jervois’ missionary years. She founded St Alban’s Ladies College, Prince Albert. They had 5 daughters:
Georgina Agnes NEWNHAM, eldest daughter to Jervois and Letitia, born 13th March 1893, in Moose Factory. She married Joseph Fortescue McKAY born in March 1890 in Fort A La Corne, Northwest Territories, son of the last in line of the Hudson’s Bay Company men. (Hudson’s Bay Company – the oldest surviving commercial corporation in North America, founded in eastern Canada in 1670 and, for over a century, dominated the fur market in that area.)
Joseph served in the First World War in the 28th Infantry Battalion. After the war he set up a Law Practice in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. From there, the family moved in Winnipeg (1930), to Prince Albert (1935) and to Regina in 1940. Joseph died in June 1977 in Regina. Georgina & Joseph had a son :
Arthur Fortescue McKAY, born 11th September 1926 in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. After High School, Art joined the army but by the time his training was over, so was the war … He then studied Art at the Provincial Institute of Technology & Art in Calgary, Alberta, where he met and married Lori SINGER, another student.
In 1949, after art school, Art & Lori made a remarkable trip across Canada on a motorcycle before leaving by freighter for Europe where they worked in England and later studied in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
One of many Saskatchewan artists influenced by the Emma Lake Artists Workshops, McKay is widely known as a member of the Regina Five. The name originated from an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in 1961.
Art McKay is most noted for his scraped enamel “mandalas” – circular and rectangular highly contemplative images reflecting his interest in Zen Buddhism.
He retired in 1987 and moved to Vancouver in 1994. He died on 3rd August 2000.
“If I realized I was this good, I would have painted more…” he said at the opening of the 1997 MacKenzie Art Gallery retrospective. Art & Lori McKay had two daughters.
Hazel Grace NEWNHAM, born 31st October 1894, second daughter to Jervois and Letitia, christened in St Martin’s Church, Montreal on 8th December. She spent her childhood at a Hudson Bay Company post, Moose Factory, Ontario until she was 9. She attended St Alban’s College, founded by her mother. She came to the United States in 1917 where she studied art for four years at the Child-Walker School of Fine Arts in Boston and attended the Charles Woodbury Summer School of Painting at Ogunquit, Maine.
She married Charles Benjamin ABBOTT, a civil engineer, on 15th October 1921. They were married by Hazel’s father, Jervois Newnham, Bishop of Saskatchewan, in the Chapel of the Diocesan Theological College in Montreal.
Charles was born in Germany on 6th June 1892 and in the 1910 US Federal Census, he was living in Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts. At the time of his marriage, he was in Madison, Wisconsin. Hazel had a mental breakdown and took ten years to recover. By that time, she was living in Colorado Springs. In 1935, she and her sister-in-law, Agnes Abbott, had a two-woman exhibition at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and several years later Hazel had a solo exhibition at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Hazel was best known as a western landscape painter, especially of Colorado. Hazel died on 23rd April 1984. Charles died , aged 100, in July 1992. They are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery, South Hancock Avenue, Colorado Springs.
May Louise NEWNHAM, born 31st October 1894, third daughter to Jervois and Letitia, christened in St Martin’s church, Montreal on 8th December. May went to McGill University in 1913 and graduated in 1917, a Gold Medalist in Modern Languages. During the next two years she taught German at the University of Saskatchewan, then spent a year in Paris on a scholarship, teaching English at the College Sévigny and taking classes at the Sorbonne. On her return to Canada, she took her Master's degree at McGill in 1921. May married Noël JACKMAN in 1921. He was born in England in 1886 and emigrated to Canada. He was living near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan at the time of his marriage.
After being crippled by an infection, which killed their baby son, May moved with her family to Hamilton, Ontario in 1928, in order to have easier access to the medical facilities she needed. There she tutored in French and German and, after her husband's death in 1947, she taught at McMaster University for several years. She died on 3rd January 1982. May & Noël also had a daughter :
Letitia JACKMAN was born in August 1923, she spent her early years near Prince Albert in Saskatchewan. Her parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, where she grew up and graduated from McMaster University. She married Arthur William WALLACE in October 1948 in Burlington, Ontario. (She & Arthur were first cousins, once removed) Letitia later became a dedicated Social Worker. She remarried after Arthur’s death in 1978, to Craig Fraser. Letitia died in February 2018 aged 94. Arthur and Letitia had four children, of whom :
Kenneth Arthur WALLACE 1951 - 2009
Kathleen NEWNHAM, born 8th May 1900, fourth daughter to Jervois & Letitia Newnham.
Kathleen was a student at McGill University and David Hepburn ELLIS was there at the same time. While they had mutual friends they never met in person at McGill !
David was born in Newfoundland. He attended Bishop Field College in St John’s and St Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario. At McGill he received a scholarship in geology and then obtained a degree in Engineering in 1926. He went to Northern Rhodesia with the Anglo-American Copper Company of South Africa. Kathleen’s godfather was also out there and asked Kathleen to come and work as his private secretary. So Kathleen & David met in Ndola and, in 1928, they were married in the gardens of Government House in Livingstone.
In 1930, David, known as "Hep", became Geologist to the Rhodesian Congo Border Concession Ltd at N’Changa. When mines began closing down due to effects of the Depression, Hep returned to geologic prospecting and mapping work at Bushtick Gold Mines., sixty miles south east of Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia. When on a surveying safari, he developed appendicitis. He survived the operation in Bulawayo but died from peritonitis, in November 1935. Practically his entire active career since graduation had been spent in Africa.
Kathleen & her two children stayed on in Africa for three years before returning to Canada. She married, secondly, Volney Godden REXFORD, in St Paul’s Church, Knowlton on 19th May 1938.
Volney was born on 18th January 1890, the son of the Rev Dr Elson I. Rexford, rector and assistant headmaster of the High School of Montreal and then principal of the Montreal Diocesan Theological College. Volney served in the First World War and was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant of the 14th Battalion of the Royal Montreal Regt. He died in 1972 and is buried in the Rexford family grave in Knowlton Cemetery, Knowlton, Brome County, Quebec.
In 1940, Kathleen moved to Hamilton, Ontario with her children and then further north to Mount Forest, Ontario. During the war she was a chauffeur with the UK & Canadian Inspection Board. After the war she joined the Ontario Dept of Public Welfare. She retired in 1965. Kathleen died in April 1982 and is buried with her parents and twin sister Dorothea, in Woodland Cemetery, Hamilton.
William Ellis, Kathleen & Hep’s son, returned to Africa in 1988 to look for his father’s grave. He found it, in a corner of the older part of the municipal cemetery in Bulawayo. William then drove thirty miles south to the Matapos Hills to scatter part of his mother’s ashes, according to her wishes.
Joan Berenice ELLIS (Bengie), born in Bulawayo on 2nd February 1931. She went to school at Strathallan, Hamilton where she became Head Girl. She did her nurse’s training at Toronto Western Hospital and gained her RN in 1952. She joined the hospital in Mount Forest and became night supervisor.
In 1959, Bengie married John Southham KER, son of Frederick Innes Ker. They lived on a large farming estate, * Malahide Farm, overlooking Lake Erie in south western Ontario. John’s father had purchased the estate about 1955 which was the residence of Colonel the Honourable Thomas Talbot (1771-1853), an Irish born Canadian soldier and politician.
Bengie died on 14th May 1983, aged 52. She & John had three daughters.
John married secondly Margaret Mc Keown. He died on 26th March 2014.
* By coincidence, a cousin of Bengie's, Benjamin Johnston & his wife Christina Stapleton retired from Listowel in rural Ireland to live in Malahide, Co Dublin about 1918. Colonel the Honourable Thomas Talbot, who built and was the original owner of Bengie's home in Port Talbot, was born in Malahide Castle in 1771. Malahide Castle still stands today (2018) although it is no longer in the hands of the Talbot family. It passed to state ownership to pay death duties when Milo Talbot, 7th Baron Talbot of Malahide, died unexpectedly in 1973. Several distant cousins of Bengie's, descendants of Benjamin Johnston, were born in Malahide and some still live there today (2018)
Dorothea NEWNHAM, born 8th May 1900, fifth daughter to Jervois and Letitia. She died in November 1982 and is buried in Woodland Cemetery, Hamilton.
Robert Benjamin HENDERSON, born 1st December 1866, second child of William and Mary Henderson, in Pembroke, Ontario. He was a barrister. He married Audrey Irene SMITH on 4th July 1907, Deer Park, Toronto.
Audrey was born about 1874 in York, Toronto, daughter of Larratt William Smith & his second wife Mary Elizabeth. Larratt W. Smith was a well-known figure in Toronto, a lawyer, businessman and Vice-Chancellor of the University.
Audrey died on 17th August 1918 aged 42, following the birth of their son Hugh, by caesarian section. Robert died on 11th January 1925, aged 58. They are both buried in St James Cemetery, Toronto.
Hugh Larratt HENDERSON, born 13th August 1918. He was orphaned at age 6, on the death of his father, Robert William Henderson, on 11 January 1925. Until adulthood, Hugh lived with his guardian’s, Reginald Ramsay and Grace Wallace, mostly in Halifax. Like his maternal grandfather and his father Robert, Hugh studied law and became a barrister. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve and, in January 1941, when he was Sub-Lieutenant posted in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, he married Mary Elizabeth ROGERS.
Hugh & Mary then settled in Victoria, British Columbia. Hugh was the progressive conservative candidate at the 27th British Columbia election in 1953.
Hugh died on October 31st 1986, aged 68. His funeral service was held in Christchurch Cathedral, Victoria. He & Mary had three children.
Mary Howard HENDERSON, born 12th July 1869, in Ontario, third child of William and Mary Henderson. Mary studied at McGill University and left there in 1890 as one of its first women graduates. She wrote three books of which “By Water & The Word” is the best-known. It is a transcription of the diary of the Right Reverend Jervois A. Newnham, her brother-in-law, while plying the waters and ice fields of northern Canada in the Diocese of Moosonee.
Mary married Frederick Perry SHEARWOOD in St James' Cathedral, Toronto on 3rd September 1898. Frederick was born in London in September 1869, son of George Perry Shearwood. He began his career in 1884 with the Sao Paulo Railway in Brazil. In 1887 he joined the Dominion Bridge Company, firstly as design engineer and then chief engineer, notably for the Alexandra Bridge between Ottawa and Hull (1900) and the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal (1929). President of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers in 1934, he was also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Railroad Engineering Association and the Corporation of Professional Engineers of Quebec. In 1955, he was awarded the EIC’s Gzowski medal for his paper on “The Stabilization of Suspension Bridges”.
With his colleague D.H. Duggan, he designed and built yachts that won the Seawanhaka Cup from 1896 to 1904.The Seawanhaka Cup is the oldest yachting trophy, originating in America, that is still in active competition. Frederick died in 1956. Mary died in April 1962 aged 93. They had two children :
Grace Eleanor SHEARWOOD, born 1901. She married Charles F. FURSE in 1930 in Newton Abbott, Devon, England.
George Armand FURSE was born on 22nd May 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, son of Charles Francis & Grace Eleanor Furse. He graduated from The Thomas More Institute/University of Montreal and then obtained his Master 's Degree from the University of Waterloo, Ontario. He received his Doctorate Degree in Psychology from Temple University, Philadelphia. For many years Dr. Furse was in private practice as a Psychologist and served on the staff of Haverford State Hospital until retiring in 1991. An avid writer, at one time he was a reporter for local newspapers in both Halifax, Nova Scotia and Montreal. George married Jonquil BARRY, they had two children. He died on 1st August 2007.
Alexander Bergin Perry SHEARWOOD, born 8th July 1908 in Montreal, Quebec and christened in Christ Church, Montreal, on the 20th September by his uncle, Jervois Newnham, Bishop of Saskatchewan. He was educated at Westmount High School and went to McGill University where he obtained his B.A. in 1930.
Alexander worked for the Dominion Bridge Company, then the Canadian Pacific Railway and spent 1931 travelling in Europe. On his return to Canada, he joined the National Steel Car Corporation, in Hamilton, Ontario and then in Montreal, rising to Chief Executive Officer 1953-1966. He was Chairman of the Board until 1974 and retired in 1977. He married Christina FRASER in 1950 and they had three children.
William HENDERSON was born on 6th September 1872 in Dunham, Quebec, the fourth child of William and Mary. He enlisted with the 36th Battalion in 1915. This was an infantry battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. It was recruited in Hamilton, Ontario. The battalion embarked for Britain in June 1915 where it provided reinforcements to the Canadian Corps until January 1917.
After the war, William moved to British Columbia and lived in Victoria. He was 91 years old when he died in December 1963 at the Veterans' Hospital. He was buried in the Veterans' Cemetery, Esquimalt.
Grace HENDERSON was born August 17, 1875 in Dunham, Quebec, the fifth child of William and Mary. In 1897, she graduated with a B.A. from McGill, majoring in Latin and Greek. She married Reginald R. WALLACE, a direct descendant of Michael Wallace, Provincial Treasurer of Nova Scotia in the early nineteenth century and after whom the town of Wallace, Nova Scotia was named.
Reginald worked for the Bank of Montreal and had various postings in the United States and Canada. Reginald and Grace were living in New York at the beginning of the 1900s where their two sons Reginald Henderson and Arthur William were born; they became British subjects in 1903, when their father Reginald, before returning to Canada, registered them with the British Consulate in New York. They then came back to Canada and lived in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Hamilton and Halifax.
Reginald Henderson WALLACE, born 18th February 1902 in New York. Reginald was a graduate of Royal Military College as well as McGill University. He was a mechanical engineer and a member of the Brockville Rifles (NPAM) prior to his appointment to the Canadian (Active) Army in October 1940 with the rank of Lieutenant. He proceeded overseas in December 1940 and was promoted to the rank of Captain in June 1942 and in September 1943 he rose to the rank of Major. In December 1944, he was awarded an M.B.E. for gallant and distinguished services in the field.
Reginald married Marjorie RUTHERFORD in September 1929 at St Andrew’s United Church in Westmount, Quebec. They had three children : Reginald Rutherford Wallace (born 19 May 1933, Montreal, died 27 Sept., 2018, Toronto) . John and Elzabeth. Though the children were born in Montreal, the family resided in Cardinal, Ontario where Reginald was Chief Engineer of the Canada Starch Company. He retired at age 60 because of a serious stroke Reginald died in 1974 and Elizabeth in 1978. They are both buried in St Paul's Anglican graveyard in Cardinal, Leeds & Grenville, Ontario.
Arthur William WALLACE, born 1903 in New York. He was an architect, historian, collector & bibliophile who worked in Hamilton, Ontario from 1946 until his retirement in 1971.
Arthur entered the School of Architecture at McGill in 1922 and it was here that Ramsay Traquair and Percy Nobbs awakened his interest in recording and preparing measured drawings of historic buildings in the province of Quebec. Many of Wallace's drawings were subsequently published in Traquair's landmark work entitled The Old Architecture of Quebec (1947). He worked in the office of Nobbs & Hyde during the summer of 1923 and graduated from McGill University in 1926. He travelled to New York City and took a position with McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin in August, 1927 and during the next four years assisted with the design of large exchange buildings for the New York Telephone Company.
Arthur returned to Nova Scotia in mid-1931 and during the next two years devoted most of his time to photographing and measuring early Nova Scotia buildings. His drawings formed the basis of his book published in 1976 by the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia entitled “An Album of Drawings of Early Buildings of Nova Scotia.”
In 1935 he travelled to London, England and worked as a draftsman until 1939 when he joined the War Office in England to assist with the design of industrial and military buildings for the Directorate of Fortifications and Works in France and the Middle East.
In 1946 Arthur returned to Hamilton, Ont. Much of his work after 1950 involved major restoration projects for residences, churches, military fortifications and museums; the largest project he undertook was at Dundurn Castle, the palatial residence of Sir Allan MacNab in Hamilton (restored 1964-67).
Arthur died in Hamilton in 1978, and his extensive architectural library of more than one thousand books was auctioned in Toronto on 27 May 1981. The National Archives of Canada acquired the Wallace Collection of more than 20,000 photographs, clippings, maps, drawings and articles on architecture and style in 1982.
Kathleen HENDERSON, born 13 November, 1882 in Montreal, the youngest daughter of the Rev Canon William Henderson & his wife Mary née Bergin. In 1891 the family are living in Montreal. In the 1906 census for Saskatchewan, Kathleen is staying with the Newnham family in Prince Albert. Kathleen came to Vancouver in 1910. She married Alec Alfred PLUMMER.
Alec was born on 18th September 1889, the son of Alfred Plummer and his wife Alice née Becher. He was a lumberman. They lived in Caulfeild, West Vancouver, 5037 Howe Lane.
Kathleen was active in the woman's auxilliary to the Vancouver General Hospital and the Navy League auxilliary to the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.
They both died in 1958, Alec in April and Kathleen in December and are buried in Capilano View Cemetery. Alec & Kathleen had two sons :
Alexander Bergin PLUMMER, born about 1916. He was educated at Shawnigan Lake School in Vancouver (1927-1932). He joined the Marines and was an active lieutenant during the second World War, on minesweeper HMCS St Joseph from May 1944 to November 1945. This ship was built in Nanaimo, so it is probable that Alex was working along the west coast of Canada and not overseas.
After the war, Alex worked for Timber Sales & Distributors Ltd and was appointed Eastern Sales Manager, opening an office in Toronto in the early 1960s
Alex married Muriel Shirley MACDONALD on 3rd July 1943 in Vancouver. Shirley was the daughter of Mr & Mrs James Vans Macdonald. They divorced in about 1961. Alex died 22 February, 1998 in Victoria, B.C. (posted in Vancouver Sun, Feb. 25, 1998)
Stephen Fane PLUMMER, born 4th November 1918. He died on 3rd February 1919, aged three months. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver.
Catherine HENDERSON born in Londonderry in 1835, the second child of Robert Henderson and Letitia (Johnston). Catherine died in Minehead, Somerset on 3rd May 1864 and was buried in Brompton-Ralph on 6th May 1864.
Benjamin David HENDERSON, born around 1836, the third child of Robert and Letitia. He died aged 23 on 15th July 1859 and was buried in Brompton-Ralph on the 19th July 1859.
Mary HENDERSON born in Londonderry in 1838. Mary lived with her parents, the Rev Robert Henderson & his wife Letitia nee Johnston, in Clifton, Bristol, Gloucestershire. She married the Rev Alfred MEDLAND, in St Andrew’s Parish, Clifton on 31st May 1888. Rev Medland was a widower, his first wife Ann Pratt Phillips having predeceased him in 1886. Mary died in July 1909 aged 71 and the Rev Medland in March 1915.
Robert John HENDERSON, fifth child of Robert and Letitia Henderson, born in Killelagh or Killela, Co Donegal, Ireland about 1847. He appears in the 1871 British Census as Second Officer in the Mercantile Marine.
Robert was living in Clifton, Gloucestershire at the time of his marriage to Alice Leslie MARRIOTT on 26th March 1879. They were married in the Channel Islands by the Rev. Henry M.C. Price, in St Luke’s Church, St Saviour’s Parish, Jersey. Alice was born in Lucknow, India, daughter of Edwin Marriott, colonel in the Bengal Army.
Robert & Alice appear in the 1881 Canadian Census, with their daughter Pauline. R.J. Henderson is listed in the 1885/6 Ceylon Directory as a junior pilot living in Kollupitiya, Colombo. In the 1891 British Census, Alice and two children, Pauline & Leslie, are living in Holdenhurst, Bournemouth, Hampshire.
The date of Robert’s death is still uncertain (between 1898 and 1901). His wife Alice married secondly George Emerson BODGE on 27th July 1901 at Bromfield Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, Mass. George was an engineer, he died in Boston in 1919.
Photo (right) by kind permission of Tony W. His great grandmother Prue Selfe was a Cook for Robert’s mother Letitia Henderson in Clifton (1881 Census). Robert was in Canada at the time and sent this photo to her at Christmas.
Robert & Alice Henderson had two children :
Pauline Carlyle HENDERSON (the first child of Robert and Alice) was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1880. Pauline married John Leigh Smeathman HATTON at St Luke's Church, Paddington, on 20th April 1897. John was born on 27th May 1865, eldest son of the Reverend J.L.S. Hatton & his first wife Lois Caroline Marsh. He was educated at Hertford College, Oxford where he obtained an M.A. He also qualified as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn. He was a well-known mathematician and educator and he worked for forty years at a pioneering educational project in East London which eventually became Queen Mary College in the University of London. He was Principal from 1908 until his death in 1933. Pauline died in Torbay, Devon in 1969. They had three children :
Lois Leslie Smeathman HATTON, born 3rd Quarter 1899. Lois died in 1917 in Ventor, Isle of Man.
John Boydell Smeathman HATTON, born in February 1904. John was a mechanical engineer at T.I. Cycles in Ambattur, Madras, India. T.I.Cycles was established by the Murugappa Group in 1949, in collaboration with Tube Investments U.K. John died at the Lady Willingdon Nursing Home in Madras on 11th January 1956.
Paul Leigh Smeathman HATTON, born in 1906. Paul was a doctor. He married Zadia Vivienne PARK on 16th November 1935 at All Saints' Church, Sanderstead, Surrey. Paul died in September 1973 aged 67 in Norwich, Norfolk. Vivienne died on 10th June 1981. They had three children.
Robert Leslie Sinclair HENDERSON, (the second child of Robert and Alice) born in Jersey, Channel Islands, on 26th October 1881 and christened on 22nd May 1882. In the 1901 Census, Leslie is a Bank Clerk, living in Kensington.
During the First World War, Leslie served with the South Stafford regiment, and was promoted from Cadet to Second Lieutenant Artists Rifles O.T.C. in July 1916.
Leslie married Mabel Gertrude Stanton POND, on 28th October 1922 in St George's Parish, Hanover Square, London. Mabel was born in Canonbury, Middlesex on 26th October 1896, daughter of Ralph & Elizabeth Pond,
Leslie, of 26 Darby Crescent, Sunbury on Thames, Middlesex died on 11th December 1960 at Ashford Hospital, Stanwell. His wife Mabel died on 23rd March 1978 and was buried in Sunbury. Leslie & Mabel had a son :
Derek Leslie HENDERSON, born 2nd December 1923 in Brentford. His birth is registered under the christian name Derrick… He appears in numerous electoral rolls in the 1960s with his mother living at the family home in Darby Crescent.
Derek died in November 2000.
Letitia Anne Smyth HENDERSON born in Ireland in 1853, the sixth child of Robert and Letitia. She died in Minehead, Somerset on 8th June 1863, aged 10 and was buried in Brompton-Ralph on 11th June 1863.
J1622) Maria JOHNSTON, born 5 Oct 1810 at Ecclesville, Co. Tyrone. She died on 11 July 1811.
J1623) Maria JOHNSTON, born 5th January 1813, at 9 Upper Pembroke St, Dublin. She remained a spinster and lived with her brother Augustus & family in Ambleside, Westmoreland.
J1624) John JOHNSTON born on 28th October 1814 at The Copse, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow and baptised on 17th November 1814. John was a bachelor and emigrated to Demerara, Guyana. Demerara was a Dutch colony until 1815 and then a county of British Guyana from 1838 to 1858.
John died there in 1845 and probate for effects of less than £200 was granted to his brother William Johnston of Dunedin, New Zealand.
Benjamin Johnston (1703) John (1749)
Benjamin ( c1770) and his first four children
Joseph Fortescue McKay
Georgina McKay
Georgina Newnham
Robert J Henderson 1881
John Leigh Smeathman Hatton
Canon William Henderson
Bengie and John Ker
Kathleen & David Ellis wedding at Government House, Livingstone, Zambia.
Frederick Perry Shearwood
Letitia Jackman
