Sergeant John ASHBY (1769-after Jun 1843)

Progress through the Ranks

• On 17 December 1810 John was appointed Corporal.
• By 6th of January 1813, John’s had attained the rank of Lance Sergeant.
• By the 27th of October 1813, John was a Sergeant.
• In 1817, John is listed in the British Army Service Records with the Royal Regiment of Veterans, 4th Royal Veteran Battalion, pension payable in the colonies.
• After settlement in 1819, John participated in the local militia group under Col. Playfair. In later life, he served with the 3rd Battalion Incorporated Militia between 1838-1843.

First Marriage

John Ashby married Susanna Payne in 1795 in Cambridge, England. When he enlisted in the military in 1805, John left a young family in his wife’s care. Susanna Payne died in 1806 in Surrey England at the age of forty-one. John and Susanna had five children, three of whom are known to have survived to adulthood. Little more is known of this family.

At the time, the military was severely limiting the number of families who could accompany soldiers when they were posted, especially when posted outside Britain. In many cases, only commission officers could be accompanied. The quota was six to twelve women per one hundred men. As a result, men sometime partnered as they moved from station to station, leaving abandon families in their wake. These abandoned families sometimes became a burden for parishes and various attempts were made to address this issue. On the other hand, life for women and children in a military garrison was often grim.

Second Marriage

On the 6th of January 1813 John Ashby, Lance Sergeant of the 10th Veteran Battalion, a widower, was married by license of Sir George Prevost, to Dorothy ?, (Preston) of Quebec, a widow. A daughter, Ann Ashby, was born about 1814 and it seems that both Dorothy and the baby died at this time.

Third Marriage

On 26th February 1816, in St. Andrew’s Church, Quebec, Sergeant John Ashby, of the 4th Royal Veterans Battalion, aged about 45 years, widower, married a widow, Susanna Andrews, widow, (previously married Shields  (7 Apr 1800) and Bird (7 Mar 1808), of Quebec, by license of Sir Gordon Drummond at Quebec.

John and Susanna’s Story

Susanna Andrews outlived two previous military husbands and throughout her lifetime bore eight children. Joseph, the first son of John and Susanna Ashby, and Susanna’s seventh child, was born August 1817 and was baptized in Perth Ontario, but did not survive. William Ashby, Susanna’s eighth child, and my 2nd great grandfather, was born July 1819 near Fallbrook, Lanark County, Upper Canada. He was the only child of Susanna’s to survive to adulthood.

Five of Susanna’s previous children died as infants. A sixth, a daughter, was accidentally shot and died of a pistol wound at age seven. Unsanitary living conditions and scarce food supplies made life in the garrison difficult. Medical care was limited and weapons were everywhere. It was not a favorable environment for children.

The Search for a Home

Front of Young township, Leeds county, Johnstown district

In 1817, Sgt. John Ashby (Ashley) received an initial location ticket for all of lot 24 in concession 2, Front of Yonge Township, Leeds County, Upper Canada. This property is slightly to the north west of the village of Mallorytown. An investigation of this property reveals that it was swamp-land draining into Jones creek. Jones creek flows through the southern end of the property. Early maps indicate much more open water on the creek than is visible on today’s GIS maps. This suggests that the water table has changed. Today this area remains undeveloped. Farmland in the township begins in concession 3.

Kitley township, Leeds county, Johnstown district

A second location ticket was obtained in Leeds County near Frankville but was abandoned in favor of a ticket issued for lot 19 SW concession 10 in Kitley township, Leeds county, District of Johnstown.

Bathurst township, Lanark county, Bathurst district

In 1819, the survey of Bathurst township was finally completed. John sought a lot here. The Bathurst lot, concession 10 Lot 19 W, was a remote property located on Bolton Creek. the lot was originally located where water flows out of Bennett Lake. Today the water level in the lake has dropped and the shoreline of the lake is not close to the property. The lot is about two miles from the village of Fallbrook. The Ashby family settled on their lot about 1817 and John received his crown patent on the 8th of September 1820, having completed his settlement requirements.

Getting Settled

As in other communities, a senior officer in the community organized military settlers into work crews to share the work. They built a shanty and cleared enough land on each lot to meet patent requirements. Col Playfair was most likely the organizer in this community. When one considers the nature of the land that these families settle on, one wonders why they chose to do so. Colonel Playfair is quoted as saying that he, “came far back from the frontier to avoid the horrors experienced during the war of 1812.” Other shared the sentiments of Col. Playfair and followed him into the backwoods.

The Early Years

Finding a home in Upper Canada was a challenge for John and Susan but imagine their delight when they arrived at their allotment in Bathurst Township. Tall trees covered the hillside although some oak harvesting may have already occurred. Blue lake waters sparkled in the sunlight. Wildlife abounded in the forests and fish in the lake. Birds flew overhead and wild geese migrated through in the spring and fall. Berry bushes could be found in forest openings.

During that spring or summer of 1817, John aged 48, and Susanna aged 42, prepared for winter in a log shanty on the hill overlooking the lake. John, accustomed to hunting for birds and game, and Susanne who had survived life as a garrison wife, had knowledge of food preservation and of edible and medicinal plants. Other supplies were carried from Perth, or even Brockville, during the first few years. First Nations people who lived in the area often befriended the settlers and taught additional survival skills.

Impact of the Timber Trade

When John and Susanna arrived at their new home, the timber trade was firmly established along the Ottawa river and soon turned its attention to the trees in the Mississippi watershed. The Madawaska and Mississippi and their tributaries, river highways  made famous by the exploits and conflicts of the Caldwell and McLaren timber concerns, made the area attractive. In turn, the timber trade made this area desirable for settlement in the early 1800s.

On the 17th of September 1831 John sold a piece of his property for a mill site to Benjamin and Samuel Bolton, a United Empire Loyalist family. Logs were floated down the lake and it was an ideal location for a sawmill to service the needs of the settlers. A road between Fallbrook and Watson’s Corners ran along a portion of the Ashby lot. A simple bridge was built to cross the creek. This quickly became a major route servicing timber shanties located to the north of the lake.

Many settlers decided to move on when logging slowed and the land under the trees was revealed. There was little potential for agricultural activities on the land they had settled. in 1835, Mr. C. Rankin, was commissioned to report on the situation of 1820-21 assisted settlers in the vicinity.  He described the land as “a continuous succession of rocky knolls with scraps or bits, seldom exceeding an acre in extent, of good land between.” Along the creek, the rocky knolls drained into low-lying swamp.

The Neighbourhood

Some of the lots nearby were second or third grants to officers. The officers made their homes elsewhere. As a result, many of these lots remained patented but vacant land for many years. Often squatters lived on these properties for a time and then moved on. John and Suzanne’s home remained somewhat isolated as only a few land owners chose to live or to remain on their lot. The village of Fallbrook developed quickly. The community grew quickly as several hotels, saw mills, a grist mill and a shingle factory expanded the business sector of the community. As it grew, the village became a stopping place for teamster travelling to and from the logging camps. Once famous as the home of Walter Cameron, famous blacksmith of Lanark County, Fallbrook is a pretty rural hamlet.

Today the Ashby property is a “country property” in “cottage country.” Few descendants of the original settler families remain. The Ennis family operates a popular cottage resort. On the north side of the 10th line of Bathurst, the Foster’s from Ireland who received their patent in 1826, live nearby. Richard Jones, Wentworth Winslow and William Matheson received patents in 1820. Their lots were probably military grants. Some of these lots remained unoccupied for many years. On the south side of the 10th line only Robert Moore, Charles Duncan, James Warner receive patents in 1820-21. Theophilus Bartlett, James Ward and Henry Watts received their patents in 1824. Many of the later arrivals sought  proximity to the timber trade and hoped to purchase land from the patent holders. While the Watt and Foster families intermarried with Ashby descendants, other names of settlers soon disappeared from records.

Although their early days of their life on the 10th line of Bathurst township were difficult, I like to think that, John and Susanna Ashby lived a good life. However, life in the vicinity of Fallbrook, was to become more complex for later generations.