Week 23 - James Garrick

James Garrick/Garrioch (1871-1898)

James Garrioch was my second great grand uncle but his decision to leave the Orkney Islands in Northern Scotland for Canada brought a chain of events that make him an important ancestor of mine.  I can't find any record of when he left home but guess it would be in the 1850's or 60's.  The Hudson Bay Company hired many of Orkney's sailors so if he didn't work for them directly, he likely knew some men who did.

From the South Ronaldsay.net website; 

 

 1817 / April {birth}-  [Registered in North Parish] --
      James 'GARRIOCK'--
   parents: Robert 'GARRIOCK'/'Caithren' BERSTON--['Acres', EastSide] -- 
    Witnesses to baptism: John BRUCE, William CHRISTIE.
        {NOTE: There is a 2nd birth/baptism register entry for this child, shown in a different
            location in the Register, and in the handwriting of the Revd. John Gerard, who became
             Minister of South Ronaldshay and Burray in 1815.  This 2nd register entry notates
              the child as 'James GERRACK', has the same date for the birth but the baptism
               date differs, the placename was shown as 'Aikers', and the mother's name was
                shown as 'Catharine BERSTON'.}

He was the younger brother of my 2nd great grandmother Jane Garrioch who married William Sinclair.  They had a son, James Sinclair my great grandfather, who would follow his uncle to Canada in 1883 and find a new life there.  Uncle James' name is spelled "Garrick" on all documents in Canada. His birth certificate above uses the "Garriock" spelling variation and the Orkney websites I've found  spell it "Garrioch".

My first find of his paper trail is on the 1871 Canada Census in the township of East Gwillimbury in Ontario with his wife Ada, niece Mary (or Maggie) Baker (1861-1958)  pictured above.  His occupation is a merchant, a storekeeper.  Ada (or Adelaide) Thomas was born in England in 1834 and came to Canada in 1850.  I have not found their marriage record or much more information about her.  Her death certificate names her father was William Thomas.

A google search turned up James Garrick being in the index of a book written in 1967, "East Gwillimbury In The Nineteenth Century" by Gladys M. Rolling. A kind Facebook connection of mine, Sandy, offered to go to the East Gwillimbury Library and look up the references for me as it is not available online. The pages show a diary from  Ezra Doan from 1871 and he records his sale of 6 lbs and 2 oz of butter at 16 cents per lb to Mr. Garrick. Later in the entries, he gives Garrick 35 cents for 1/2 lb of tea and two bunches tape. That would seem to confirm James Garrick was a storekeeper in Queensville in 1871.  Genealogists are a helpful bunch!

 

Lot 20 concession 3 was still his residence on a Voter's List from 1877 East Gwillimbury.   

 

The Western Land Grants of 1879 and 1880 give his address as Queensville, which is a town in East Gwillimbury township, part of present day Toronto.  He was granted 13-13-15  W1 and 16-14-15 W1 in 1879.  In 1880, he purchased 16-14-22 W1 and 17-14-22 W1 from the Secretary of State and the N.W. M. Police.  I rather doubt that James ever planned on farming the land himself but that he acquired it based on the speculation that the railway was soon being built in the west and the land would become valuable.

 

In the Canadian census of 1881, James' occupation is listed as a Gentleman and lives with his wife Adelaide and their niece Maggie Baker in Middlesex County. He is recorded as 69 years old, she is 54, and Maggie is 25. 

The above signature is from an original Land Deed I have from April 21, 1887.  It is between:

 

James Garrick formerly of the village of Queensville in the county of York in the province of Ontario now of the village of Lambeth in the county of Middlesex in said province, merchant of the first part 

and 

James Sinclair of township fourteen (14) and range twenty-two (22) West of the principal meridian in the province of Manitoba, farmer of the second part

The Deed is to buy the Northwest quarter of section 16 for the sum of $1000.  My great grandfather James had previously purchased the Northeast quarter of this section for the same amount from his Uncle James the year earlier and went on to buy the other two quarters of the 16 section in the next few years. 

 

The farm was designated a Century Farm in 1980 when it was owned by the great niece of James Garrick, Ellen Sinclair.  Family lore says that James Garrick got sunstroke and returned to Orkney.  This may indeed be possible but so many clues lead to him being the James Garrick who died in Ontario in 1896.  It is rather sad to think his nephew and his family would not know where he ended up but in this era of instant communication, we have no concept of how different it was back then!

 James and his wife Adelaide are buried in London at the Woodland Cemetery and a fellow genealogy researcher there was kind enough to take the photos below and send them to me. Adelaide can be found living with her nephew Charles Baker and his family in London, Ontario and died at 1358 College Road in York County in January of 1911.

Left:
"Adelaide
wife of James Garrick
born 1835
died 1911"

 

Right:
"James Garrick
died Dec 31 1896 aged 77 years
Native of  Orkney Scotland"