Amy Johnson Crow, on her blog No Story Too Small, has challenged her fellow bloggers to post 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. This is week forty-two, in my attempt to catch up before the end of the year!
My great-great-great-great grandfather was Philip St. John. He was the son of Philip St. John, Sr., and Anne Dolmage and was born in March 1793 in Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, Ireland. I know very little about his early life but he married Ann Nancy Baker on May 7, 1811.
They emigrated to New York but did not find the United States to their satisfaction and on April 23, 1817, James Buchanan, Esquire, His Britannic Majesty’s Consul General for the State of New York, forwarded the family to Upper Canada for producing “evidence of loyalty“. The family consisted of Philip and Ann, two sons and a daughter. Â James and George were born in Ireland and Eliza was born in New York.
After the family settled in Brock Township in Upper Canada, several more children were born – Philip, William, Adam, Mary, Margaret, Phoebe, Jane and Julius. Somewhat uncommonly for that era, all eleven children lived to adulthood and went on to have families of their own.
By the 1851 Township of Brock census all the children are grown and gone except for Julius (15), who is still living with Philip (61) and Ann (60) in a one story frame house. By the 1861 census Philip (70) and Nancy A (69) are living with Julius (24) and his new wife Martha (26) and their son Philip (1).
The 1871 census finds Philip (80) and Ann (79) still living in the Township of Brock, along with Julius (34) and his wife Martha (38), and their children Philip (10), Annie (8), Emma (3) and Martha (1).
Philip passed away on December 13, 1874 in Brock, Ontario. Ann died on October 4, 1880.
