The early Scottish Settlers to Upper Canada and their influence
9th installment – Conversations – Part 2 of 2 by Nancy Dupuis, Volunteer Writer to the Communications Team, Scottish Society of Ottawa, September 2023
What follows is the storyline of William McOuat (1799-1893) with information provided by Bonnie Wright, daughter of Genevieve Swartman (nee Parsons), a 5th generation of the McOuat family.
McOuat Family History
Again, a story of the weaving profession falling on hard times with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the Clyde region being flooded with unskilled and poorly paid immigrants from Ireland which then created stiff competition for the remaining hand loom weavers.
Unrest resulting in riots in Paisley, Greenock and Glasgow – further resulting in the beginnings of the Emigration Societies previously mentioned. The government then offered a package consisting of free transportation from Quebec to Upper Canada, seed corn and implements, a 100-acre grant of land and bonus loans of 10 pounds of sterling which had to be repaid within 10 years (repayment was later revoked).
Luckily the societies were able to secure enough private donations from landowners, merchants, and local councils to enable the first contingent of weavers to leave Scotland in 1820-21. Upon arrival in Perth, Ontario, the settlers would receive 1/3 of their bonus, and would be taken by wagon to Lanark Village where their luggage would be put down. The families then walked to their lots within a few miles of Watsons Corners.
William McOuat and his wife Jane McHaffie, already with a number of children in Scotland, came across as indicated in the June 1841 census.
Being there was no record of the actual boat this family took to come across, William and his family appeared in the February 1842 census as settling in the Front of Leeds Township, just northeast of Kingston – likely still in transit to their new homestead in Dalhousie.
The family eventually traveled to the Ottawa valley in Ontario and “squatted” in Lanark County near a small hamlet called Watsons Corners. It was here the McOuat family built its roots. The quality of the land in Dalhousie and Lanark Townships had very little to offer these new immigrants, as the original 1820 settlers had grabbed the choice pieces of land in Ramsay.
William was a very well-read man. Developing out of the private libraries brought over by the emigrant Scots, the public library had been founded in 1828 and its 500 books were housed at St. Andrews Hall, a log building with shingles measuring 32’ x 22’. This building served as a meeting place for church, township meetings as well as the library.
The First Federal Agricultural Census of 1852 sheds special light on the life of the McOuat family in their first years in Canada. From what can be determined, the family was quite successful in farming and were able to live off what they produced. Also enlarging their family, they were no longer required to hire laborers as the eldest sons were now capable enough to be of great help.
It appears that the family did “squat” down in Dalhousie Township as there is no record of William ever having purchased the land – instead the Archives of Ontario has a patent dated January 12, 1858 (16 years after the family arrived) when the Crown granted 100 acres of land to William McOuat on the East Half of Lot 15, Ninth Concession, Dalhousie Township, Ontario. The land is mentioned again in the Provincial Census of 1862 as a one and a half story log house, housing ten occupants.
William lived to the ripe old age of 93 and was buried in Highland Line Cemetery, MacDonald’s Corners beside his wife.
Another storyline taking place in a totally different part of the country;
A Conversation with Robert (Mac) McPherson
As I sat down to chat with Mac, I soon realized that not all coming from Scotland in the early 1800s settled in this area I call home.
Mac’s grandfather MacLay’s home back in Scotland and the actual key to the home – what a treasure!
He is one of many in Canada with both sides of his family having Scottish roots. After first landing in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, with some then moving inland to New Brunswick, Mac’s paternal grandfather and three of his brothers eventually headed out west to take up farming, settling in Sunkist, in the Demaine district of Saskatchewan. Two of the boys worked for the CPR providing much needed cash for the others busy farming. Sod houses were a norm in those days. His Grandfather worked for the CPR as a regional manager and had 7 daughters and 2 sons, after marrying the girl next door, a 17 year old. Mac’s Dad was the oldest boy, born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where they lived in an apartment above the train station. Single shot .22 rifles were brought to school on a regular basis when his Dad attended school as you could receive a nickel in those days for a jackrabbit pelt.
Mac, in the 1970s went on a trip out west to see the ranch and saw the machinery his father and grandfather had used; Massey & Ferguson and eventually what was called Massey Ferguson machinery had all been kept in tip-top shape.
His father had first joined the Royal Bank in North Bay, Ontario, a career his mother had thought best for him - the banking career winning out over a chance at a hockey career or going on to university.
Prior to Mac’s father going overseas with the military, his mother and father had married, he in his uniform. His father, serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force, had been snagged in the top 5% of the recruits during his initial training and soon became an instructor. He spent the last three years of the war in Europe.
After the war, Mac’s father came back to the Royal Bank in Montreal. To be noted here was the generosity of the Royal Bank who had continued to give Mac’s mother funds while his father was away at war to help keep the household afloat.
Mac’s father had excellent people skills and always was at the helm at the bank. In later years he moved to Cornwall, Ontario with the Royal Bank as Manager there dealing with a varied clientele (international, rural and industrial). He went back to Montreal East after his stint in Cornwall, now part of the Executive Suite at the Royal Bank, but retired early to go to Nassau to start a bank in the Bahamas with a friend and colleague Jack Smith (The Roywest Bank).
The mother of Mac side of the story –
Anecdotes of his memories of these folk; Gramps & Nana MacLay married in a Masonic Lodge in Montreal and had two girls and two boys; Gramps had belonged to the Masonic Lodge prior to coming to Canada and knew that the value of the connections through this group would bode well in the new country/Gramps had insisted no one was to name their newborn Archibald? That request remains a mystery to this day/it was common in those days for folk like these grandparents to only have acquired a Grade 7 education, which was the case for Mac’s grandmother – most times children were needed at home or to go out to work to help provide funds for those at home usually younger in years. These were tough people in Mac’s own words and very Victorian.
I was privy to a beautiful old photograph of Mac’s grandfather MacLay’s home back in Scotland and the actual key to the home – what a treasure!
Mac’s parents marrying, he in his RCAF uniform
What strikes me most of this conversation with Mac McPherson is the people of the story all with their own set of principles – strong principles that were passed on to each generation either by how you observed things possibly or by the expectations that were set upon you, as far down even today to Mac’s own son, Hamish. Everyone lived by those same principles. If you asked a question, you would always get a straight answer.
Mac left me with a chuckle; he is forever grateful that the name “Archibald” ended with Uncle Jack.
Please keep in mind, this installment and others are my interpretation only of what I have read and heard. I have always been interested in the history of the past, myself deeply intent in preserving and further educating on the rich heritage we have inherited from years gone by.
All photos by authour.