Why Being Related to Diana, Princess of Wales Puts Me No Closer to a Place in Line for the British Throne

Yes, it is true. Diana is my ninth cousin once removed (which is really to say she and my father are ninth cousins).  That makes me 10^th cousins with her son Prince William, who is second in line for the Throne after his father Prince Charles. While this sounds impressive to some, it shouldn’t. I’ll show you why.

The Basics: “Nth" Cousins, “X” Times Removed

Let’s start with a few simple definitions and observations that will help keep things straight.

Your 1^st cousin is one with whom you share a pair of Grandparents (you have two pair). That is, one of their parents is a sibling of one of your parents.  The pair of common ancestors is two generations back from you.

Your 2^nd cousin shares with you one pair out of your four pairs of Great Grandparents. Here, the common ancestors are three generations back.

Your 3^rd cousin shares one of your 8 pairs of Great Great Grandparents (or “2^nd Great Grandparents”), who are four generations back.

So now you can see the basic rule emerge:

Your “n^th” cousin shares with you a pair of common ancestors, Grandparents with “n-1” Greats in front of the Grand, who are “n+1” generations back from you.

My 10^th cousin Prince William shares with me a pair of 9^th Great Grandparents who lived 11 generations ago.  That pair was Jedediah Strong (1637-1733) and his wife Freedom Woodward (1642-1681).

“X times removed” just means you are that many generations down the line from the stated cousin relationship.  If Diana is my father’s 9^th cousin, she is my 9^th cousin once removed and my daughter Nicky’s 9^th cousin 2x removed. Being one generation removed from Diana’s 9^th cousin relationship with my father, I am 10^th cousins with someone one generation down from her, i.e. Prince William.  And Nicky will be 11^th cousins with any children born to Prince William and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge.

Now that that’s clear, let’s move on….

How Many Great Great etc. Grandparents Does One Have That Far Back?

Simple answer: potentially 1024 pairs (or potentially 2048 individuals). When we talk about first cousins, each has two pairs of grandparents, one pair of which is common to each individual in the cousin group. Second cousins each have 2 x 2 pairs at the level of the common pair.  Third cousins 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 pairs, etc.  For n^th cousins, each has 2ⁿ pairs of ancestors at the level of the common pair.

So Prince William and I (whom we have already said share one pair of 9^th Great Grandparents who lived 11 generations ago) each have 2¹⁰=1024 pairs of 9^th Great Grandparents, and one of my 1024 pairs is the same as one of his 1024.  Unfortunately for my royal aspirations, eligibility for the Throne is contingent upon descent from a different one of his 1024 9^th Great Grandparent pairs, one that I do not share (that I know of, yet). That would be Electress Sophia of Hanover (1630-1714) and her husband Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg, parents of George I of Great Britain.

Now for a minor adjustment that explains why I said “potentially” 1024. It is likely some of the pairs, in fact many of the pairs, in each group will be duplicates. My Great Grandfather Burpee Tupper married his first cousin Linda Azuba Tupper, which means their common grandparents show up twice in the 16-pair-long list of my 3^rd Great Grandparents.  By the time this duplication ripples through my pedigree to the level of 9^th Great Grandparents, it is responsible for 64 pairs of my 1024 pairs being duplicates of others in the group. This is the result of just one known overlap. There are undoubtedly many others and they become more likely to occur the further back the tree is constructed.

To calculate the potential size of groups in this exercise, one must assume no inter-marrying between related individuals.

How Many Other 10^th Cousins Do Prince William and I Have In Common?

To answer this question one must make an assumption about how many children on average in each family group in each generation go on to have children of their own.  This number varies depending on culture, economic circumstances, child mortality rates and many other things. For the sake of this demonstration I am going to assume that each couple has three children that in turn reproduce.  This number may seem high by modern standards, but one doesn’t have to look back many generations to see families with double digit numbers of children were the norm.

If the original ancestral pair had three children and they each had three, then two generations down the line we have a total pool of 3 x 3 = 9 first cousins. (From the perspective of an individual member of the group that would be one “self” + two siblings + six 1^st cousins). In the following generation there are 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 cousins (from the perspective of an individual member: one self, two siblings, six 1^st cousins, and the balance of eighteen 2^nd cousins). For simplicity’s sake let us just observe that the total number of cousins at a level that includes up to and including “n^th” cousins is represented by 3ⁿ⁺¹. If we had assumed four children per family we would use 4ⁿ⁺¹, etc.

As we have assumed 3 children per family, Prince William and I as 10^th cousins could be expected to belong to a group of 10^th cousins numbering 3¹⁰ = 177,147 (but again, from an individual’s perspective a couple of these are siblings, six are 1^st cousins, 18 are second cousins, etc.).  To give you a sense of the power of our family size assumption, changing the assumed number of children per family from 3 to 4 pushes the 10^th cousin pool size from 144,147 to over 4.1 million. Assuming 5 children per family makes it 48.8 million.  Suddenly being Prince William’s 10^th cousin doesn’t seem quite so special.  It is even less special when one remembers that this is not even the “throne-eligible” cousin pool.  Prince William belongs to the Royal group, equally as large, that has descended from Sophia of Hanover.  And he also belongs to possibly over a thousand other equally large groups, each equally as un-royal as the one I share with him.

How Many Total 10^th Cousins Might I Have?

The numbers we calculated above represent only the potential 10^th cousin pool descending from Jedediah Stong and Freedom Woodward, the one ancestral pair that was common to me and Prince William. But each of us has potentially 1024 such pairs of 9^th Great Grandparents.  Therefore with an average of 3 children per family one would have 1024 x 144,147 = 181.4 million cousins just extending out to the 10^th cousins (adding more generations, e.g. 11^th cousins, 12^th cousins, etc. would grow this number exponentially). With a 4 child per family assumption the 10^th cousin pool for each of us becomes 4.3 billion, while a 5 child assumption grows it to over 50 billion cousins each. And this is just at our own generation level.  What about when we add in the great many of our parents’ cousins (our cousins once removed) that would still be alive as well as the offspring of our many cousins who might have children of their own already? Now we’re easily into the realm of over 100 billion living cousins each! The entire population of the planet is estimated to be just over 7 billion. What is going on here?

The Grand False Assumption

The reason our calculation unrealistically brings us to many multiples of the total population of the Earth is that we made a whopper of a false assumption right at the start. We assumed “no inter-marrying between related individuals”. In fact for all practical purposes, virtually all marriages are between related individuals! By the time one looks back just ten or eleven generations the overlapping of tree branches is overwhelming and comprehensive.  If one has thorough information available one can find a connection to just about anyone.  Certainly 10 or eleven generations is enough to connect virtually any two persons of European descent, i.e. most of the population of Europe, North American, Australia and large parts of South America.  Just the living descendants of your many pairs of 9^th Great Grandparents may number in the hundreds of millions.

Yes, I am related to Diana, Princess of Wales. But so are you. The difference is I have found enough information to connect a line of dots between her and me. There are likely many more possible connecting-dot-routes from me to the Princess.  And likely many routes connecting you to her, and you to me, and you to any one of my neighbours and quite possibly to everyone I’ve ever met.

So unless some cataclysm renders me the last person on Earth, I think I am unlikely to ever lay claim to the British throne.  But just in case, I plan to start working on establishing a legitimate line of descent from Electress Sophia.

Just Cuz (s) Part 2: Presidents, Poets & Performers

Mayflower Descendants Again
      

Amateur genealogical research is often hampered by incomplete or apparently non-existent  records. Countless branches of many family trees, including my own, come to abrupt dead-ends, sometimes only a few generations back, as recent immigrants seem to have truly left their pasts behind them, perhaps deliberately.  And so it is very satisfying to have one of your branches take you into colonial New England and in particular to the Plymouth Colony which has been extraordinarily well researched and documented. 

Some have claimed that early settlers kept meticulous records tracing their genealogy in order to secure or maintain social standing within the British Empire (a notion that seems at odds with most of the settlers’ professed pursuit of egalitarian utopias). An ongoing pride in one’s ancestors’ roles in the founding of colonies and later the Revolutionary War fed the practice. Today the New England Historic Genealogical Society is one of the most prominent organizations in the field, and should you make your own connection to early New England colonists, chances are the extensive work already done will then lead you to a treasure trove of famous cousins who have already been traced to the same roots.

The most recent article (No.7) in this series looked at celebrity cousins related to my wife Jennifer Lanthier through her McDougall/Parlee bloodlines, which led in turn to the Soules of New England. This installment looks at famous relations connected to my side of the family by way of the New England heritage of my paternal Grandmother, Juanita Tupper.  Surprisingly, a handful of the personalities are common to both groups, albeit by different routes.
    
The Mayflower

    
The Mayflower brought colonists, known today as Pilgrims, to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.  There were 102 passengers and a crew of about 25.  Many were fleeing religious persecution, others were hired servants or farmers recruited by London merchants.  A group of 37 were members of a separatist congregation picked up from Leiden, Holland en route . The colony was the second established successfully in North America by the English after Jamestown, Virginia and it would later become the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in what was to become the United States.

During the first winter roughly half of the original passengers died. Of those that survived, three feature in the Lanthier-Rogers/Tupper family tree, each from a different contingent of the colonists.

John Alden, from Harwich, Essex, was a hired-hand, the ship’s cooper, but decided to join the settlers.  He is said to be the first person from the ship to set foot on Plymouth Rock and was the seventh signer of the Mayflower Compact, the colony’s governing document.  He served terms as assistant governor and treasurer of the colony and was a member of its council of war.

Myles Standish, from Chorley, Lancashire, was a military officer hired by the Pilgrims as a military advisor for the colony.  Standish was active in the colony administration in a number of roles including assistant governor, treasurer and agent for the colony in England. He also served as the commander of the colony’s militia from its inception until he died in 1656.

Henry Sampson (Samson), originally from Henlow, Bedfordshire, was a child of 16 when he was picked up with his aunt and uncle Ann and Edward Tilley in Leiden.  Both the Tilleys were among those who died in the first winter.

Both John Alden and Myles Standish are my 10^th Great Grandfathers by way of their children Sarah Alden and Alexander Standish who married in Plymouth and produced Mercy Standish, my 8^th Great Grandmother.  Henry Sampson is my 9^th Great Grandfather by way of Mercy Standish marrying his son Caleb.

Rogers Lineage

Stephen Rogers (& Michael, Debbie & Greg) → Charles Dawson Rogers → Juanita May Tupper → Rufus Burpee Tupper →  Ruth Amelia Newcomb → Eleanor Pineo → Elijah Pineo → David  Pineo → Elizabeth Polly Sampson → David Sampson…

• David Sampson…       → Mercy Standish → Sarah Alden → John Alden
• David Sampson…       → Mercy Standish → Alexander Standish → Myles Standish
• David Sampson…       → Caleb Sampson → Henry Sampson

Other Descendants of Henry Sampson

Sarah Heath Palin is a former Governor of Alaska and Republican Party nominee for Vice President in 2008.

Through her father Sarah shares Henry Sampson with us as an ancestor. Through her mother, Palin can trace her heritage to four additional Mayflower passengers; John Howland, Richard Warren, Stephen Hopkins and William Brewster, and also to the sister of yet another - Sarah Soule, sister of George.  Sarah Soule is also an ancestor of my wife Jennifer Lanthier (see No. 7 in the Series).

Sarah Heath →  Charles Heath →  Nellie Brandt →  May Ruddock →  Thomas Ruddock →  Rhoda Damon →  Rhoda Thayer  → Micah Thayer →  Elizabeth Sampson  →  Stephen Sampson →  Henry Sampson

George W. Bush was the 43^rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

George W. can claim Mayflower ancestors through both his mother and his father, George H.W. Bush, the 41^st President of the United States. Through his father George W.’s Mayflower ancestors include Francis Cooke and John Howland.  Both father and son also share lineage with Sarah Soule and thus with Jennifer Lanthier. Through his mother’s family Bush shares the same ancestor with us as does Palin - Henry Sampson

George W. Bush  →  Barbara Pierce →  Marvin Pierce →  Scott Pierce →  Jonas Pierce →  Chloe Holbrook →  John Holbrook →  John Holbrook →  Zilpha Thayer →  Mary Sampson →  Stephen Sampson →  Henry Sampson

Other Descendants of John Alden

John Adams was the 2^nd President of the United States following his two terms serving as Vice-President in George Washington’s administration.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

    

John Quincy Adams was the 6^th President of the United States and son of 2^nd President John Adams.

John Quincy Adams → John Adams → John Adams → Hannah Bass → Ruth Alden → John Alden

    
    
    
   
   
   
   
   
  
   

    

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a poet known mainly for his lyric poems depicting stories from mythology or legend. Among his better known works are “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “The Song of Hiawatha”.  He was one of the Fireside Poets, a group of 19^th century poets from New England and was considered the most popular American poet of his day.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  →  Zilpha Wadsworth →  Peleg Wadsworth → Mercy Wiswall →  Priscilla Pabodie → Elizabeth Alden → John Alden

    
    
    
    
         

  

William Cullen Bryant, another of the Fireside Poets, was perhaps best known for “Thanatopsis” (meditation on death) and his book “The Ages”, a panoramic history of civilization told through verse.  He career also involved time as editor of a number of publications including half a century at the head of the New York Evening Post.

William Cullen Bryant  →  Sarah Snell →  Ebenezer Snell → Zachariah Snell →  Anna Alden → Jonathan Alden → John Alden

    
    
     
    
    
    
     

Orson Welles was an actor, director, writer and producer in theatre, radio and film. In theatre he is best remembered for Caesar (1937), a Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar, and in radio for The War of the Worlds (1938), considered the most famous broadcast in the history of the medium. His film Citizen Kane (1941) is considered by many film scholars to be the greatest motion picture of all time.

Orson Welles  →  Richard Welles →  Mary Head →  Orson Head → Jonathan Head → Ruth Little →  Fobes Little → Constant Fobes →  Martha Pabodie → Elizabeth Alden → John Alden
    

Marilyn Monroe (her professional name) was an actress who starred in many successful films in the 1950s and 1960s and became known as a major sex symbol.

Marilyn was born Norma Jeane Mortenson with her birth certificate naming her father as Martin Edward Mortenson. Her surname was almost immediately changed to Baker, the last name of her mother’s first husband and whose name her mother still used (Monroe was her mother’s maiden name). Throughout her life Monroe maintained that Mortenson was not her father and that as a child she had been shown a photograph by her mother that she was told was of her actual father, Charles Stanley Gifford.  If this claim is true, then Marilyn joins the ranks of John Alden’s descendants.

Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Baker) → Charles Stanley Gifford →  Frederick Gifford →  Charles Gifford → Lydia Tompkins → Uriah Tompkins →  Micah Tompkins → Sarah Coe → Sarah Pabodie → Elizabeth Alden → John Alden

Descendants of John Alden and Myles Standish via Sarah and Alexander

Deborah Sampson is famous as one of a small number of women who have documented military combat experience from the Revolutionary War.  In order to join the Continental Army she impersonated a man and was nearly discovered a number of times, particularly after receiving two musket balls in the thigh in a skirmish near Tarrytown, New York and needing medical attention. In this instance she fled the hospital rather than be discovered and removed one of the musket balls herself with a penknife.

She was honorably discharged at West Point in 1783.

Deborah Sampson →  Jonathan Sampson → Jonathan Sampson →  Lydia Standish → Alexander Standish & Sarah Alden → Myles Standish, John Alden
    

Dick Van Dyke is an actor and comedian best known for the TV series The Dick Van Dyke Show and films Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bye Bye Birdie. 

Dick Van Dyke  →  Hazel McCord  → Charles McCord →  Susan Child → David Lorenzo Child → Susannah Tinkham → Isaiah Tinkham → Sarah Soule → Zachariah Soule → Sarah Standish →

Alexander Standish & Sarah Alden → Myles Standish, John Alden

    
    
    
    
   
    

    

Dan Quayle was the 44^th Vice President of the United States, serving under President George H.W. Bush.

Dan Quayle  →  James Quayle →  Marie Cline →  Adelia Burras →  Oscar Burras → Sally Standish → Peleg Standish →  Zachariah Standish → Zachariah Standish →  Ebenezer Standish → Alexander Standish & Sarah Alden → Myles Standish, John Alden

    
    
    
    
    


     

Summary of Relationships to Me (Steve Rogers):

Henry Sampson                                    9^th Great Grandfather

John Alden                                           10^th Great Grandfather

Myles Standish                                     10^th Great Grandfather

Deborah Sampson                                3^th Cousin 7x Removed

John Adams                                         3^th Cousin 8x Removed

John Quincy Adams                             4^th Cousin 7x Removed

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow              5^th Cousin 6x Removed

William Cullen Bryant                           5^th Cousin 6x Removed

Sarah Palin                                           9^th Cousin 1x Removed

Dick Van Dyke                                    9^th Cousin 1x Removed

Dan Quayle                                          9^th Cousin 1x Removed

Orson Welles                                       9^th Cousin 2x Removed

Marilyn Monroe                                   9^th Cousin 2x Removed

George W. Bush                                   10^th Cousin

Just Cuz (s)

“Listen here, Pilgrim…”

In a general sense, a pilgrim is any traveler who is on a journey to a holy place, but in the United States “Pilgrim” generally refers to any of the early settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts who came seeking religious freedom.  The Pilgrims’ Plymouth Colony established in 1620 was the second successful English settlement in the U.S. after Jamestown and eventually came to be the oldest continuously inhabited British Settlement in the U.S.

The Mayflower was the ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, and its story is well known as a symbol of early European colonization of North America.  But between 1600 and roughly 1640 over 250 ships arrived in Virginia and Massachusetts and with over 7100 families considered to be pilgrims. There are millions of Mayflower descendants living today and many millions more who can legitimately be called descendants of other New England pilgrims. Featured below are just a few who all trace their bloodlines back to the same Plymouth colony family, the Soules (Sooles).

George Soule (1595-1679)

George Soule was one of the original 102 Pilgrims who arrived in 1620 on the Mayflower and was one of the forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact, the governing document of the Colony. George and his wife Mary had nine children, and it is their second, John, from whom our first two featured cousins descend.

Richard Gere is an actor who starred in numerous hit films including American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman and Pretty Woman.  Richard is George Soule’s 9^th Great Grandson.

Richard Gere → Homer Gere → Albert Gere → George Gere →Sarah Tewksbury → Lucinda Fuller → Consider Fuller → Archippus Fuller → Sarah Wright → Sarah Soule → John Soule → George Soule

   
   
   

Dick Van Dyke is an actor and comedian best known for the TV series The Dick Van Dyke Show and films Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bye Bye Birdie.  Dick is also a 9^th Great Grandson of George Soule.

Dick Van Dyke  →  Hazel McCord  → Charles McCord →  Susan Child → David Lorenzo Child → Susannah Tinkham → Isaiah Tinkham → Sarah Soule → Zachariah Soule → Benjamin Soule → John Soule → George Soule

   
   





 

Sarah Soule (Soole) (1600 – 1656)

Sarah was George Soule’s eldest sister.  Both were children of Thomas Soule (1569 -1615) and Mary Iddenden (1573 -1656).  Sarah married Samuel Hinckley in 1617 in Hawkhurst, Kent, England and had at least the first six of their nine children before moving in 1635 to join her brother in Massachusetts. Three of her children, Susannah, Thomas and Elizabeth, figure in this note.

Sarah and Samuel’s eldest was daughter Susannah, born 1607. Among Susannah’s 9^th Great Grandchildren are two political adversaries from the bitterly fought 2008 U.S Presidential election.

Sarah Heath Palin is a former Governor of Alaska and Republican Party nominee for Vice President in 2008.
    

Sarah Heath →  Sarah Sheeran →  Helen Louise Gower →  James Carl Gower →  Arthur Collins Gower →  Cornelius Norton Gower →  Susannah Norton  → Lydia Claghorn →  Susannah Gibbs  → Abigail Smith →  Shubael Smith →  Susannah Hinckley → Sarah Soule

Barack Obama is the 44^th and current President of the United States.

The Obama link to the Plymouth colonists was first revealed during the 2008 campaign by researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Palin’s connection was first announced in a 2010 press release by Ancestry.com, which also sponsors the NBC show Who Do You Think You Are?

Barack H. Obama →  S. Ann Dunham →  Stanley A. Dunham →  Ralph W. E. Dunham →  Jacob William Dunham →  Jacob Mackey Dunham →  Jacob Dunham →  Samuel Dunham →  Mary Smith →  Shubael Smith →  Samuel Smith →  Susannah Hinckley →  Sarah Soule

    

Sarah Soule and Samuel Hinckley’s second child after Susannah was Thomas, born 1618.  Thomas held several prominent government roles in the colony during his lifetime including serving as its Governor from 1680 – 1692.  Through his son Samuel, born to his first wife Mary, Governor Thomas is the direct ancestor of two U.S. Presidents.

Thomas’s 9^th Great Grandson is George W. Bush, the 43^rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

George W. Bush →  George H.W. Bush →  Dorothy Walker →  George Herbert Walker →  Martha Adela Beaky →  Mary Ann Bangs →  Elijah Keeler Bangs →  Lemuel Bangs →  Joseph Bangs →  Mary Hinckley →  Samuel Hinckley →  Gov. Thomas Hinckley →  Sarah Soule

George H.W. Bush was the 41^st President of the United States (1989-93), and a former Vice-President of the U.S. and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He is the father of 43^rd President George W. Bush, and Gov. Thomas Soule’s 8^th Great Grandson.

  
  
  
  
   
  

Sarah and Samuel’s fourth child, their third daughter, was Elizabeth, born 1631.  It is through Elizabeth that we are able to connect our family tree to the impressive collection of celebrities and political figures outlined above.  Elizabeth is the 8^th Great Grandmother of Jennifer Lanthier and her siblings.
    

Jennifer, Kateri and James Lanthier  →  Jane Frances McDougall →  Cyrus William McDougall →  Mary Louise Parlee →  Zachariah Parlee →  Henry Parlee →  Peter Parlee →  Lydia Robbins →  John Robins →  Mary Parker →  Elizabeth Hinckley →  Sarah Soule

Summing up, Jennifer, James and Kateri are Sarah Soule’s Ninth Great Grandchildren, President George H.W. Bush’s 10^th Cousins, 10^th Cousins 1x Removed of President George W. Bush, President Barack H. Obama and Sarah Palin, and 11^th Cousins of Richard Gere and Dick Van Dyke.

One Big Happy Family

Before one gets too excited, proud or embarrassed of any of these connections, a little perspective is needed.  By the time one gets back to 9^th Great Grandparents, each of us has over 2000 direct bloodline branches in our family tree (assuming no overlaps, which is almost never a valid assumption) so chances are someone famous is in there.  But looking at it the other way is far more impressive. If one assumes an average of three reproducing offspring per family per generation, a conservative assumption given the much larger families of yester-year (and again assuming no overlap due to inter-relation marriages), any single descendant today of one person 11 generations ago such as Sarah Soule’s father Thomas, would have 11^th cousins numbering in the hundreds of thousands tracing to that ancestor.  If the average number of children per generation is assumed to be five, that total number of cousins climbs to the tens of millions.  Add a couple of additional generations and you quickly get to a hypothetical cousin pool that exceeds the current population of the planet.  How is that possible?  Because we started by assuming no inter-relation marriages.  In fact the vast majority of marriages in any family tree can be found to be between relations if one had full information to trace back far enough.  The fun is in finding the connections and hoping they are far enough back to ensure the health of the gene pool.

Steve Rogers is married to Jennifer Lanthier and undoubtedly some sort of distant cousin to her.

           

James Beaman and the 100th Regiment of Foot

The War of 1812 and the Settling of Carleton County

Note:

In the original version of this article, posted April 2012, I asserted that James Beaman, my third great grandfather, was part of the original 100^th Regiment of Foot corps raised in 1804-05, and thus a participant in the regiment’s colourful history in the War of 1812. Most of my original sources for the article implied all regiment members offered land grants were veterans of the war, and recruitment dates were not specified. One source, the website “Bytown or Bust”, specifically said James was a private in the 1812-14 war. I now know this to be false. I am embarrassed and sorry for my mistake.

The truth is a little less exciting. James was recruited shortly after the war’s end to reinforce the regiment whose numbers had been significantly depleted in battle. He joined the ranks too late to see action, but not to late to participate in the land offer in Canada.

Here is the true story of James’ journey to Canada as a British army recruit, gleaned from an intensive scouring of army muster books and pay records. The details have also led me to new possible insights into his wife and marriage.

James Beaman was born in County Down in 1799. On June 16, 1815, at the age of 16, he enlisted in the 100th H.R.H. the Prince Regent’s County of Dublin Regiment of Foot. According to the British Army muster books and pay records, James was 5 feet 5 inches in height. As a new recruit, he was paid at a rate of one shilling per day. Private Beaman began his service stationed at Newtonards, a town in the north of County Down, about fifteen kilometres east of Belfast. One month later, he “marched” to the British Army’s Dublin Depot, arriving July 21 at the Royal Barracks (now known as the “Collins Barracks” and home to the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History). From the Depot, he then joined other recruits for his regiment at barracks in Chapelizod, a village within the City of Dublin, about four kilometres west of the Royal Barracks, along the River Liffey.

Collins Barracks (Royal Barracks). Photo: National Museum of Ireland

According to the muster books, James remained in Dublin until October 29, when he began another five-day “march” back to Newtonards. He was stationed there until March 25, 1816, when he departed, or “marched to join the regiment”. James and dozens of other recruits for the 100th Regiment headed south to Cork, under the command of Captain C. Hanley and Ensign M. Harris. Another officer, Lieutenant John Armstrong, headed for the Albany Barracks on the Isle of Wight – often used as a mustering point for transiting troops because of its location just across from the entry to Portsmouth Harbour. On April 23rd, at port town of Cowes, Armstrong and some additional recruits boarded the ship “Diana”, which had departed a few days earlier from London with civilian passengers. The Diana then headed for Cork, where Capt. Hanley, Ensign Harris, and the Irish recruits embarked April 29th and set sail for Quebec.

The Diana arrived at Quebec in mid-July. According to the arrival notice in the August 1st, 1816 issue of the Quebec Gazette, the journey from London took 87 days, about double the duration typical of crossings in those days. Another notice, published by the Gazette in September, detailed a breakfast held by some passengers for the Diana’s Captain to recognize his attentions during the passage. Here the long voyage was described as “tedious”.

In reviewing centuries-old records, hand-written in an era of wide-spread illiteracy, spellings of names are, as a matter of course, pretty fluid. Parish priests, military officers, census-takers, etc. generally recorded their own version of whatever they thought they were hearing. Further variations and errors arise in modern digitized and indexed records, where transcribers often made errors interpreting the original handwritten documents. In James’ case, his last name appears in various instances as Beaman, Beamon, Bamand, Bayman, Beamand, Beammand, Beemond, and Beamond – not settling as “Beaman” until sometime after 1818.

James’s first son, John, was baptized in the Anglican chapel in the Montreal garrison on July 22, with the register entry stating the boy was born July 9. Since the Diana had not yet arrived at Quebec by July 9th, this suggests either that James’s wife Elizabeth travelled to Lower Canada ahead of him, or that the child was born at sea. In either case, it appears Elizabeth made the crossing in an advanced stage of pregnancy! The timing of the birth suggests James and Elizabeth were married by October 1815, when he was in Dublin, and no earlier than July, since he arrived at the Dublin Depot a single man.

Elizabeth’s maiden name has so far been cloaked in uncertainty. In various family histories she has been labelled Goodacre, Godacre, and Godmair. Each of these is of highly questionable accuracy, given that none has ever been linked to an original source document (to my knowledge). With that said, I now believe Elizabeth, my third great grandmother, was originally named Elizabeth Gannon – not too much of a stretch, given the issues around deciphering ancient handwritten records described earlier.

St. Paul’s Church, Dublin City, Arran Quay.
Photo: SPADE Enterprise Centre – Smithfield and Stoneybatter Business Association.

Less than 300 metres from the Royal Barracks in Dublin, on North King Street, Arran Quay, stands the former St. Paul’s church (now the “Spade Enterprise Centre”). One might guess from the proximity that the church’s congregation drew heavily from the nearby army barracks, and descriptions of the church’s monuments and courtyard inscriptions in Dublin travel guides make it clear that was indeed the case. Although original parish records are not available, the National Library of Ireland maintains microfilm copies of the original indices of marriages, baptisms and burials performed at the church. An entry for October 7, 1815 records the marriage of James "Bayman" and Eliza. Gannon. The location, timing, and name similarities suggest strongly that this is our James and Elizabeth.

As we’ve seen, James and Elizabeth’s son John, was born nine months later, on July 9, 1816 and is believed to have died young (spending the final months of pregnancy at sea wouldn’t have helped). Their second child, Joseph, was born July 25, 1818 and baptized four days later in the Anglican chapel in the Quebec City garrison. Joseph was my second great grandfather, the father of George A. Beaman, patriarch of this Facebook group. Shortly after Joseph’s birth, the 100th Regiment was disbanded and the men offered land in the newly-surveyed township of Goulbourn. 

Demobilization

With the end of the war, Britain was faced with large numbers of soldiers who would cause incredible unemployment problems if they all returned to England and Ireland.  Additionally, there was a desire to continue to colonize Upper Canada with “loyal” settlers to add protection against another American invasion. The United Empire Loyalists were being regarded by some with suspicion due to rumours that the former American population had aided in some of the American raids in the Johnstown district during the war. The solution was to offer the demobilized soldiers land grants on military settlements.  Each private who agreed to accept the grant rather than passage home would receive 100 acres, tools, 12 months rations and their army pension.  Higher ranks were offered larger grants (up to 1000 acres for a colonel). To protect key points between Kingston and the Ottawa River three settlements were to be established near the route of the planned Rideau Canal.  These military settlements were Lanark (1816), Perth (1816) and Richmond (1818).  Additionally, officials in Ireland encouraged further emigration of civilians to counter unemployment and overpopulation there.

In July 1818 the 100^th Regiment was disbanded and the men offered land in the newly-surveyed township of Goulbourn.  About 200 of the 400 or so remaining men accepted the deal and made preparations to provision the settlement. An advance party of about 30 including a surveyor was dispatched up the Ottawa River, carving a road from Richmond Landing (now Lebreton Flats) just below the Chaudière Falls to a site on the Jock River about 20 miles inland.  Here the village of Richmond was laid out and Major Burke of the 100^th (now 99^th) Regiment began supervising the placement of his soldiers.  By the end of 1818 about 400 families were on site, those of the 200 soldiers as well as a large number of civilian Irish settlers who joined them.  James and Elizabeth may have been in this group, but may not have travelled to Richmond until as late as 1820, possibly due to the presence of infant Joseph. Major Burke placed most of his soldiers in Goulbourn, while Irish and Scottish civilians were settled in adjoining townships. In 1821 James was awarded his land grant, 100 acres in Goulbourn Township, the east half of Lot 12, Concession 2.  Here he and Elizabeth had seven more children, first three girls, then four more boys.

The Beaman children and grandchildren mostly stayed in the area, many in Goulbourn Township, some in neighboring Marlborough and Beckwith Townships, and a few in the villages of North Gower and Kemptville.  James and Elizabeth’s eldest son Joseph married Anne Susan Pettapiece (b. 1826), daughter of Irish immigrants who arrived in the area shortly after the establishment of the settlement.  They bought Lot 3, Concession 4 in Marlborough, a property that continued to be farmed by Beamans for more than the next hundred years, passing it first to their son George Andrew (b. 1865) and from him to his son John Mackey Beaman (b. 1896).

Over 26,000 Irish settlers arrived in Upper Canada between 1815 and 1820 to provide the buffer against the Americans. About another 100,000 came in the decade that followed, many to provide the labour to build the canal and staying to settle the land along its corridor once the construction was complete. This number more than doubled again in the decade after that. Early census data indicates close to 60% of the population of this corridor was Irish.  In four townships, Goulbourn, Marlborough, March and Huntley, 80% were Irish. Richmond, as the centre for administration of land in the area was the first major settlement in what is now Carleton County.  The town was intended to be a major urban centre, but with the founding of Bytown (now Ottawa) in 1826 and its rise once the Rideau Canal was complete, Richmond’s growth stalled.  Today it is mainly a bedroom community for the nearby City of Ottawa.

Steve Rogers is Grandson of John Mackey Beaman, and Third Great Grandson of Priv. James Beaman, 100^th H.R.H. Prince Regent’s County of Dublin Regiment of Foot. Born in Ottawa, Steve moved with his family to Goulbourn Township when he was 4.

Sources

Births, Deaths and Marriages

Public Member Trees, Ancestry.com

Canadian Censuses of 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, Library and Archives Canada

(Indexed on-line at Ancestry.ca and AutomatedGenealogy.com)

100^th Regiment

The Prince Regent’s County of Dublin Regiment, Prince of Wales’ Leinster Regiment Association, http://www.leinster-regiment-association.org.uk/

The Regiments of the Richmond Military Settlement, Ron Dale and Wes Cross, April 2003, ancestry.com

The 100^th Regiment, Goulbourn Historical Society and Museum, http://www.goulbournmuseum.ca/

Settlement of Richmond and Goulbourn

Goulbourn: How it all Began, Goulbourn Historical Society and Museum, http://www.goulbournmuseum.ca/

From Ireland They Came, Neil Patterson

Wikipidia Article:

- Richmond, Ontario

 

Images

Regiment Recruitment Area Map

For King and Canada, A. Barry Roberts, p 11

Military Settlements of Upper Canada

Perth: Tradition and Style in Eastern Ontario, by A. Larry Turner, p.12, Original is in National Map Collection, Library and Archives Canada, #15,712