John Slimmon
ID # 7769, (1818-1895)
| Birth | John Slimmon was born in June 1818 at Lanarkshire, Scotland. |
| Marriage | He married Grizzell (Grace) Watson, daughter of James Watson and Jean Tweedie, in 1847. The 1861 census for John Slimmon and wife Grace tells that they were married in 1847. A marriage registration has yet to be found. |
| Death | He died on 11 March 1895 at Peel Twp., Wellington Co., at age 76. |
| Burial | He was buried at Hollen Cemetery, Maryborough Twp., Wellington Co.. |
| Note | He Information for the Slimmon and Watson families is to be found in the 1906 Historical Atlas of the County of Wellington, Ontario. Toronto: Historical Atlas Publishing Co., 1906 (from which biographies have been excerpted by Wellington GenWeb), cemetery transcriptions, death registrations, and census information, some of which conflict. The odd choice of death dates, or places of birth are occasionally arbitrary. At least broadly, the 1906 atlas has some merit. The atlas shows John Slimmon's place of birth as Aberdeenshire, but his gravestone shows it as Lanarkshire, which is shown here. John's death registration shows his age as 74 at time of death, but his gravestone in Hollen Cemetery, Maryborough Township, Wellington County, shows his age at time of death as 76 years, 9 months. His birth month and year, June 1818, is calculated from this, but his year of birth as might be calculated from census information varies greatly. A sure record of John's birth has not been found, so the calculated date could be rather arbitrary. The 1906 atlas tells that John came to Canada in 1844 and settled in Darlington Township of what became Durham County. He is said to have removed to Peel Township in Wellington County in 1851. Much of the 1851 census in Darlington is missing, but a pertinent portion of the agricultural census has survived, namely part 3, and this shows a John Slimmon on lot 34 of the 4th concession of Darlington and shows him on what must have been the whole township lot of 200 acres. This probably is indeed John, though a problem here is that when the Abstract Index of land transactions is examined, it does not show his name at all. It would appear then that in Darlington he was renting. This is not uncommon when viewing pages of the 1851 agricultural census. The 1906 atlas tells us that he settled on lot 16 of the 6th concession of Peel Township and that he bought out some squatters and cleared his 200 acres. The Abstract index tells that he received a patent for what amounted to three quarters of the lot and was able to purchase the remaining quarter lot some time later. A difficulty here is that the writing on the available image is very faint and the date that John took his lot is unreadable. Of rather more interest to this tree is how we may identify John Slimmon's wife as Grace Watson, and for that, turn to notes for Grace. Death reg. 018649-95 Peel Twp., Wellington Co. John Slimmon died March 1st, 1895. Age 74. Farmer. Presbyterian. Born Scotland. Physician Dr. McWilliams. Informant Thomas Slimmon, lot 16, cons. 6, Peel. |
| Last Edited | 7 Feb 2020 |