William Anderson and Mary Thompson were both born and raised in County Down, Ireland. William was the son of Hugh and Elizabeth Anderson and she was the daughter of John David Thompson. They married in 1841 in Killinchy, County Down, Ireland. The 1840s in Ireland were years of suffering and deprivation – the Potato Famine was coming on with a vengeance.
William Anderson (1813 – 1879) m. (1) Mary Thompson (1819-1866) and they had 9 children in all. Mary died at age 46 years in 1866. William then married (2) Grace Goodwin but they had no children. William Anderson died in 1879 at age 63 and is buried in Lowry Cemetery, Lanark,County, Ontario, with his wife Mary.
The couple’s first two sons David and Samuel, were born in Ireland before the family decided to come to the Canada about 1844. Shortly after coming into Fitzroy Township, Lanark County, ON, a third son named John Thompson Anderson was born on a farm in Fitzroy Township, near Kinburn, Ontario – Lot 9, Concession 7.
The eldest son David Anderson was the first of his family to come to settle in Westmeath Township. Like so many others, he took advantage of the government’s push to populate the Upper Ottawa Valley. He bought Lot 14, Concession 9, now Canola Road, Westmeath Township. His younger brother John Thompson Anderson would join him in Westmeath and buy the North-half of Lot 14, Conc. 9 from him.
Images in this entry from Ancestry.ca
To Come: An article concerning a mystery in later generations of this family was published in the April 2002 Timberline Newsletter from the Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogy Group: Anderson Timberline Article 2002 , written by Gordon Merritt. A swindle of an inheritance maybe?
The Descendants of William Anderson and Mary Thompson
1. David Anderson (1842 – 1912) m. (1) Isabella McPherson (1854-1871) and (2) Jane McDonald (1852-1926). David was born in Belfast Ireland and immigrated with his parents. In 1870 he was a member of the Militia (Canada, Nominal Rolls and Paylists for the Volunteer Militia, 1857-1922), with the rank of Corporal in the 42nd Regiment, Lanark and Renfrew-Brockville. He was the first of this family in Westmeath Township, probably as part of the land-grants made available to veterans who had given “Service to the Crown“.
2. Samuel Anderson (1843 – 1900) m. Margaret Smyth (1846-1936) stayed in Lanark County. Edith Anderson
3. John Thompson Anderson (1845–1892) m. Eliza Armstrong (1847-1884) and moved to Westmeath Township. He died of cancer of the stomach at age 46. They had 11 children. More details below.
4. Mary Anderson (1847 – 1907) m. Alexander Todd (1882-1956) and lived in Lanark County.
5. Margaret Anderson (1849 – 1937) m. Edward H. Owen and moved to Western Canada and died in Roblin Manitoba.
6. Catherine Anderson (1851 – 1926) m. John Belbin and lived in Fitzroy, Lanark County.
7. Hugh Allen Anderson (1853 – 1929) m. Ellen Groves and lived in Fitzroy.Anderson,Hugh 1853-1929
8. Eliza Jane Anderson (1855 – 1927) m. George Allen Anderson and lived in Fitzroy and Carleton.
9. Jane Anderson (1857 – 1933) m. Francis Dredge and lived in Carleton County.
John Thompson Anderson and (1) Eliza Armstrong; (2) Annie German Family
Lot 14, Conc.9, Canola Road, Westmeath.
Third son John Thompson Anderson was known as “John T” to stop confusion with another John Anderson that lived in the township. Eliza Armstrong Anderson died at the age of 36 on August 2,1884, just eleven days after the birth of her eleventh child in 16 years and 4 months. A very long period of Eliza either preparing for a birth or getting over a birth.
The eleven children are:
Mary Anderson (1866-1949) m Benjamin Dickson (1853-1943). They had 13 children in Westmeath. They married 10 May, 1884, when she was age 18. See DICKSON entry.
William Anderson (1869 – 1946) m. Emily “Emma” Lyons (1872-1959) from a local Westmeath family and they had 11 children. The family moved to Calgary, Alberta about 1915. See LYONS entry.
David Anderson (1871 – ) m. (1) Harriett Gwinn and they had 5 children. He then m. (2) Margaret Hamilton in Calgary in 1914.
Robert Anderson (1872 – ) m. Margaret Ellen Cavanaugh (1872-1929). They had six children.
John Anderson ( 1874 –1929 ) m. (1) Harrietta Cook (1882-1916). He then m. (2) Anna Copeland. He worked in mining exploration in Algoma District, Ontario.
Samuel Hugh Anderson (1875 –1919) m. Julia McMullen. Died at 46 years in Sudbury, ON. See MCMULLEN entry.
Anne Anderson (1877 – 1940) m. Moses Lowe and lived in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
Eliza Jane Anderson (1879 – 1880) – died in infancy.
Margaret Jane Anderson (1880 –1928) m. Edward Lyons (1870-1944) of Westmeath Twp. They had 6 children. Margaret died at age 47. See LYONS entry. A brother and sister of each family married one another.
Catherine “Cassie” Armstrong Anderson (1882 –1956) m. Peter Ethier. They lived on the Ethier homestead north of Westmeath Village on the River Road, later renamed Rapid Road. See ETHIER entry. Like what commonly occurred in many families at that time, Cassie’s marriage to a French Roman Catholic alienated her from her Protestant family. A rift that never healed.
James Thomas Anderson (1884–1973) m. Mable Hicks in 1905 and they lived in Calgary, Alberta.
A Swindle Out of an Inheritance?
“On January 20,1887, in Pembroke, John Anderson, 40, farmer,living in Westmeath, born in Fitzroy, the son of William and Mary Anderson, married Annie German, 27, spinster living in Westmeath, born in Mansfield, Quebec, the daughter of Daniel and Mary German. John and Annie who were both Presbyterians were married by the Rev. W.D. Ballantyne by license in front of witnesses R.C. Millar and J.F. Ballantyne, who were both from Pembroke. – from Timberline Article 2002.
Two children were born of the marriage of John T. Anderson second marriage to Annie German (1860- ). They are:
- Elizabeth Eliza Anderson (1887- ) William Viggers (1881-1961). They had 6 children.
- George Hubert Anderson (1889 – 1955) m. Mary Harriette McGuire (1894-1966) in Cobden, ON in 1911.
It appears that after their father’s death, his older children took steps to disinherit this second family. The Merritt “Timberline” article sets out:
“On March 28, 1892 only 11 days after John T. Anderson’s death, the mystery begins. William Anderson, born on October 20, 1869, successfully petitions the Surrogate Court of the County of Renfrew to be made Administrator of the estate of his father, John T. Anderson, who died a widower leaving ten lawful children. William Anderson lists the names and birth dates of the ten children of John T. Anderson and Eliza Armstrong. There is no mention of John T. Anderson’s second wife Annie German who at the age of 32 years was very much alive, nor of their children Elizabeth Anderson 4, and George Anderson, 2.
“In subsequent land transactions to settle the estate of John T. Anderson, his eldest daughter Mary Anderson, the wife of Benjamin Dickson, states that her father died “a widower leaving him surviving ten children who are now all alive” and that she is entitled to “one tenth undivided interest in said lands.”
The article’s author Gordon Merritt, a grandson of Annie German and John T. Anderson asks: “Were John T. Anderson’s widow Annie German, and her children swindled out of their inheritance?”
Did John T’s older children perjure themselves?