THE CAMPBELLS FROM COUNTY CAVAN - Ulster Scots who settled in Canada

Transcription

1 THE CAMPBELLS FROM COUNTY CAVAN - Ulster Scots who settled in Canada By Brian McConnell * In the cemetery beside the United Church at Little Britain, Ontario, now stands an impressive eight foot stone, placed by the descendants of John James Campbell to the memory of him, his wife Jennie and family. John James Campbell was an Ulster Scot whose grandfather William Campbell traveled with his wife Jennie Ferguson and children to Upper Canada, now Ontario, from Belturbet, County Cavan, Ireland in 1847.(1) Little Britain is a long way from the Castle of Clan Campbell near Inverness, Scotland. How this Campbell family came to be there is a story that mirrors the tales of countless other Scots who now live in Canada after, in some case, several hundred years in the north of Ireland. It is approximately a two hour drive northeast from Toronto, Canada s largest city and once known as the Belfast of Canada, partly for the large number of Irish who belonged to Orange Lodges there, to Little Britain, a village in a rural farming area with several nearby lakes. The area was settled mainly by English, Irish and Scots in the middle of the 19th century when the land was made available by the Crown before the coming into being of a Canada. (2)

2 . Page 2 According to John James Campbell who in his 81st year in 1950 spoke to his grand-daughter Irma Wilson about how they came to be in Canada: "Our family was chased out of Scotland (by the English) and then chased out of Ireland (by the Irish)." In the 1600s England transplanted several hundred thousand lowland Scots and English in the north of Ireland on lands previously held by rebellious Irish. Among these Scots were Campbells who at some time settled between Belturbet and Cootehill in County Cavan, one of the nine northern counties which made up the old province of Ulster. In these northern counties of Ireland and present day Northern Ireland, many of the Scots who settled there attended the Church of Scotland, what became the Presbyterian Church. These Irish are now known by some as Ulster Scots. (3) The other two major historical groups on the island of Ireland were the original Celts and the Anglo - Irish, descended from the Norman - English, who invaded and like those who came to control that part of Ireland around Dublin known as the pale. Seated below is John James Campbell reading the family Bible at Christmas in John James Campbell

3 Page 3 In 1833 William Campbell occupied 6 acres and 2 roods ( a rood was a land measurement of Anglo - Saxon origin popular in SE of Scotland based on the land's productivity. Four Scottish roods made up a Scottish acre) of 1st quality land and 4 acres and 2 roods of 2nd quality land in total 11 acres in Townland of Barragh, Parish of Killsherdeny, County Cavan, Ireland. (4) List of Names of Occupiers of Land in Townland of Barragh, Parish of Killsherdeny, County Cavan, Ireland including William Campbell in 1833

4 Page 4 Eliza Campbell, daughter of William Campbell and Jane ( Jennie ) Ferguson was baptized on December 22, 1822 in the Church of Ireland, Ashfield, (5) Baptism of Eliza Campbell in 1822 at Church of Ireland, Ashfield, Parish of Killsherdeny, County Cavan, Ireland

5 Page 5 Although Eliza Campbell, daughter of William and Jennie Campbell was baptized in the Church of Ireland, Ashfield, members of the Campbell family and other related families including the Fergusons were Presbyterians in County Cavan, Ireland. The baptismal records of Coronneary Presbyterian Church record the baptism of Jean Ferguson in 1783, an aunt to Jennie Campbell. William Campbell and his wife Jennie Ferguson left for Upper Canada along with two of their seven, James and John. The trip took six weeks. Other family members followed and within a few years all of the Campbells, except for one son, Joshua, and an uncle, Lancelot Campbell, had arrived in Canada. (6) The 1840s were a difficult time throughout Ireland. There was the catastrophe of the potato famine and religious conflict between Protestants and Roman Catholics. In County Cavan, the Protestants were in the minority. They made up it has been estimated no more than 15 per cent of the population. The insecurity of this situation encouraged the growth of Orange Lodges. The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland was founded as a result of the struggle by Protestants to survive in Ireland where the majority of the population was Roman Catholic and to worship freely and support the constitutional monarchy of the British Isles. It spread from there to nearby Scotland and England. Many early settlers of Canada and their descendants were Orangemen and Orangewomen due to the number of people arriving from the British Isles where the Lodges were numerous. In pre- confederation Canada when areas were settled one of the first buildings often built was an Orange Lodge. It served as a community centre. The Campells belonged to the Orange Lodge in Ontario where they settled. Three of Canada's Prime Ministers have been Orangeman including Sir John A. MacDonald, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and John Defienbaker. Premier Joseph Smallwood of Newfoundland who brought his province into Canada in 1949 was an Orangeman. (7)

6 Page 6 John Campbell, son of William and Jennie Campbell, farmed lands north of Lake Scugog and south of Little Britain, in Mariposa Township, Victoria County, Ontario as shown by the X on the map below. X on Map above shows location of John Campbell s Farm in Mariposa Township, near Little Britain, Ontario He also raised champion Leicester Sheep. In 1882 he was President of the Mariposa Farmers Club which held its first meeting at Oakwood, Ontario. The gold medal then awarded annually for the best cultivated and administered farm in Ontario was awarded to him in 1884.(8)

7 Page 7 Samuel Ferguson (brother-in-law of William Campbell) Pictured above is Samuel Ferguson, one of the first settlers of Cartwright Township, Ontario, and the brother of William Campbell's wife, Jennie. After he emigrated from County Cavan, Ireland in 1836, 11 years before his sister and brother-in-law, he settled at Lot 8, Concession 5, in Cartwright Township. (9)

8 Page 8 When the Campbells arrived in Ontario they built large log homes out of the virgin forest. Their efforts and those of other settlers are recalled in the words of the Dominion Hym. Dominion Hymn Our Sires when times were sorest, Asked none bu aid Divine They cleared the tangled forest, And wrought the buried mine. They tracked the floods and fountaines, And won, with master hand Far more than gold in mountains - The glorious fruitful land William Campbell died in 1898 at the age of 85 and his wife Jennie passed away in 1918 at the age of 84. The ancestors of their children are now spread throughout Canada and the United States. There are now fewer of the relatives left in Ireland. The lands that originally supported them were also the places they had to leave in search of a better life for their families. Nonetheless, these lands in the old province of Ulster, in Ireland influenced who they became in the New World and were never forgotten. That is why until this day some of their descendants call them Ulster Scots.

9 Page 9 Notes: * Article revised and completed October 23, 2015 by Brian McConnell, the maternal 3 rd great grandson of William Campbell and Jennie Ferguson. To contact him please brianm564@gmail.com (1) As discussed in "Centennial Church History of Little Britain United Church, " (2) See: This Green & Pleasant Land: Chronicles of Cavan Township, edited by Quentin Brown, published by Millbrook and Cavan Historical Society, 1990 (3) See: The Ulster Scot - His History and Religion, by Rev. James Barkley Woodburn, M.A., London, H.R. Allenson Limited, 1914 (4) Source: Tithe Applotment Book, Parish of Killsherdeny, Cavan, Ireland, 1833 (5) See: Church of Ireland Register for Church of Ireland, Ashfield, Parish of Killsherdeny, Diocese of Kilmore, County Cavan, Ireland, 1822 (6) Details found in "Campbell Family Tree" prepared in 1967 on occasion of Canada's Centennial by H. Louisa Campbell, grand-daughter of William Campbell (7) See: "The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical Geography of the Orange Order in Canada" by Cecil J. Houston and William J. Smyth, Toronto, Canada, University of Toronto Press, 1980 (8) See: County of Victoria Centennial History by Watson Kirkconnell, Lindsay: John Dyell Limited, 1967, p. 70 (9) See: Cartwright Revisited 1983, Sesquicentennial Edition, compiled and edited by Doreen M. Van Camp for the Scugog Township Council