With modern transatlantic travel possible by air in a matter of hours, it is easy to lose sight of what an ordeal such travel by sea was for our ancestors who settled in Canada in the nineteenth century. One of those pioneers was James Brown (1807-1895), a maternal third great grandfather who in 1847 settled in Biddulph Township north of London, Ontario.
James and his wife Jane Hopkins (1807-1892) were from County Antrim, Ireland, more specifically an area known as Ballytober about two and one half miles from the Giant’s Causeway, the famous basalt rock landmark in the very north of the County. Irish immigration to Canada in 1847 would reach an all time high as a result of the calamitous and continuing famine in Ireland. Almost one hundred thousand Irish sailed for Canada that year, known as the “Black 47”, when twenty per cent of the population in Ireland was dying from disease or malnutrition.
Most of those leaving for Canada travelled in overcrowded and unsanitary ships known as “coffin ships” on account of one in six passengers dying of “ship fever” (typhus) during the voyage or shortly after arrival. The difficult journey endured by thirty-nine-year-old James and his family is recounted almost eighty years later in the 1926 obituary of his daughter Rebecca who lived to the age of ninety-two. Twelve years of age at the time the family emigrated, she would have been old enough to remember many events for herself and also to have heard other parts of the story repeated by her family. She no doubt had in turn passed the on the story to her own family, the source of the obituary’s details.
The obituary describes James, his wife, nine children, and a two others (a brother and sister hired to assist the family) initially sailing from the port of Portrush, near their home in Ireland, to the English port of Liverpool. After arriving at Liverpool, the family remained there for three days until passage was secured for Canada on a sailing ship named “The Beatrice”. This ship and its complement of about five hundred passengers, appears to have set sail for Canada sometime in April of 1847.
Things went quickly awry when, six days out, there was an outbreak of fever and measles. The ship was stopped with about a hundred passengers and some crew being offloaded and returned to Liverpool. Also offloaded, apparently stolen, was the family’s largest box of provisions, something only discovered two days later after the crossing to Canada had resumed.
With thirteen mouths to feed, the Browns would now have to in large part rely on the limited food and water provided to all passengers. Although the loss was keenly felt, the captain, when made aware of the situation, offered assurance that the family’s young children would not suffer. As well, James, said to be “well to do”, also was able to receive an extra allowance for all by paying for it.
The family was on board a total of thirteen long weeks, typical of the time taken for sailing ships at the time. The obituary recounts that fever, the scourge of all ships, broke out again and five or six passengers died of it and were buried at sea with their bodies wrapped in a large canvas sack with a large stone for weight at the foot.
Just east of Quebec City the ship was required to stop at the island of Grosse Ile, the immigration and quarantine depot where medical inspections were mandatory for all passengers on ships with fever cases aboard. The sick were removed and the healthy were allowed to proceed.
The Brown family, fortunately not stricken with fever, was allowed to proceed to Quebec City where they were then taken on to Montreal before finally landing at Hamilton. There they secured horses and a wagon and made their way to London where, it is said, they had to undergo further medical examination. All passed with the exception of James Campbell, one of those hired to assist the family during their journey. He was placed in the hospital, at the time housed in a building on the Old Market Square, where he died two weeks later.
In London James is understood to have then hired two wagons to take them to their final destination, the home of William Brown, a cousin living in McGillivray Township. En route the family stopped for milk at a tavern at Flanagan’s Corners, now Clandeboye, where the proprietor is said to have cheated them on the cost. After finally arriving at their final destination only to find their cousin’s home far too small for all of them, the family decided to take temporary refuge in an old log abandoned schoolhouse which they managed to put it in a liveable condition.
It was not long, however, before tragedy struck. James’ three sons all took ill and a doctor was sent for. Nothing could be done for the boys and they all died, perhaps due to diphtheria or one of the other diseases that could quickly decimate families in those days. The sons were buried in Lewis Cemetery near Clandeboye where two other members of the family, presumably daughters, were also said to have been buried. It would appear that all of this occurred within the first few years of arrival since there are only four children of James and Jane who were born in Ireland and living with then four years later on the 1851 census.
The year 1847 was, as previously mentioned a memorable one for tens of thousands of Irish. It seems to have been all the more so for James and his family. Having made the decision to leave famine stricken Ireland, their ship is racked with fever and measles and most of their provisions are stolen. They endure a thirteen week passage to Canada under appalling conditions marked by the deaths of several passengers. After finally clearing the immigration quarantine at Grosse Ile, they arrive in London and immediately lose their hired man to an undetermined illness. This is shortly followed by the devastating loss of all three sons and two daughters. Against all this James and his family have to deal with the myriad of other hardships facing a pioneer family in a primitive environment. Despite these odds, James’ wife Jane, pregnant throughout this ordeal, still manages to deliver, five months after their arrival, the couple’s last child born on Christmas day of 1847.
In due course James and his family prospered. Although James’ occupation in Ireland is not known, he took up farming in Canada and, all sons having died, managed with the assistance of his daughters, to clear several acres of land. An ardent Presbyterian, he also later donated a portion of his land for the erection of a church.
All Brown family members who survived until adulthood seem to personify the stereotypical hardy pioneer family. James and his wife lived well into their eighties. With the exception of one daughter who died of pneumonia at the age of sixty, his remaining children also lived long lives, two into their eighties and two more into their nineties, a rather remarkable achievement given their ordeal and expected life spans for the times.
The story of James and his family is perhaps not unique given that similar hardships were no doubt faced by many leaving the poverty of Ireland for a better life in North America. Notwithstanding the adversity suffered by all such emigrants, one cannot help but be taken by the particular story of hardship, struggle, and loss that belongs these particular ancestors.
David Arntfield
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