James Johnston
ID # 1634, (1819-1892)
| Baptism | James Johnston was baptized in 1819 at Fermanagh, Ireland. |
| Marriage | He married Margaret Vrooman, daughter of James Vrooman and Jane Purdy, on 3 March 1840 at Brock Twp., Home District. Home District marriage register, page 268, shows a certification of marriages performed in the Home District by Horace Dean during the year ending June 15, 1840. March 3, 1840 James Johnson and Margaret Vroman, both of Brock, witnesses John Johnson and Elizabeth Johnson. By publication of banns. The Home District registration confirms the statement in the 1949 Vrooman Family History book that Margaret Vrooman married James Johnson. It should be noted that in most census enumerations and on their grave stones, the name is spelled as Johnston. |
| Marriage | He married Patience Clapp. A marriage record for James Johnston and Patience Clapp has yet to be found. For the moment, the best we may say is that they were married after the 1861 census but prior to the birth of daughter Annie in 1866. |
| Death | He died on 7 March 1892 at Brock Township, Ontario County. |
| Burial | He was buried at All Saints Anglican Cemetery, Brock Twp., Ontario. |
| Note | We have for James Johnston the following death registration: Death reg. 012730-92 Brock Twp., Ontario County James Johnston, farmer, age 72, died March 7, 1892. Born Ireland. Informant Mrs. James Johnston, Wilfrid. (Wilfrid is near the east border of Brock Township. Wilfrid had a post office from 1866 to 1967, so this was probably Patience' postal address.) James gravestone in All Saints Anglican Cemetery in Brock Township gives his age as 72 years and 5 mos. If this is correct, then we may take his year of birth to be 1819. With the death of his wife Margaret Vrooman in 1859, James was widowed and appears as such in the 1861 census on page 2, district 6, Brock Township. In this, he and his children are mostly represented with their initials rather than their given names. The list of children shown in this tree for James and Margaret is almost but not quite complete. Per the 1861 census, there was a son with the initial C. born approximately 1841. A name for this son has yet to be found. Going by the ages of the children of his second family, we may guess that James married Patience Clapp of Prince Edward County (Bay of Quinte) around 1864 or '65. No marriage record to this point has been found, though the Clapp family history as it appears in Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte, page 197, confirms Patience' marriage to James and names their children and agrees with the 1871 and later censuses. It might be argued that the link between James Johnston as he appears in the 1861 and later censuses and Margaret Vrooman, his first wife, is rather tenuous. We have reasonable confirmation, however, in the fact that their son John Henry Johnston and his wife Barbara Ann Dolson had a daughter who they named Margaret Vrooman Johnston. Since it is now found that James Johnston and Margaret Vrooman are buried side by side, this is sufficient to consider the matter settled. |
Children of James Johnston and Margaret Vrooman |
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Children of James Johnston and Patience Clapp |
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| Last Edited | 22 May 2020 |