John Buchanan
ID # 4276, (1773-1829)
| Birth | John Buchanan was born on 4 July 1773 at Scotland. |
| Marriage | He married Margaret McArthur, daughter of Christianna (--?--). |
| Death | He died on 4 July 1829 at Branchton, Dumfries Township, Gore District, at age 56. |
| Burial | He was buried at High Park Galt, later moved to Section 2, Mountview. |
| Note | Dates for John and Margaret's births and deaths are taken from the Buchanan family stone at Mountview Cemetery in Galt, Cambridge, Ontario. John and Margaret came from New York State to Upper Canada and settled in Dumfries Township. They were part of a group of pioneers put together by Absalom Shade at the behest of Hon. William Dickson, the founder of Dumfries Township. Their presence in Dumfries dates from at least 1818 and they may have been present in 1817. That at least is the prevailing wisdom as presented to us by the Hon. James Young in his book Reminiscences of the early History of Galt and the Settlement of Dumfries, 1879. The story is a bit more complex. In 1816, several persons in Caledonia, New York, claiming to be natives of Scotland, petitioned the governor of Upper Canada for land. This may be found on Upper Canada Sundries microfilm C4547 1816 Vol. 29, pages 13170-72. The signatories include John Buchanan, the Alex Harvies senior and junior, Robert Carrick, John Campbell, and William, Donald, and John McKenzie, among other. There is no indication on the cover page of any response, but it would appear from this that when Dickson despatched Shade to New York State, he had a target group of potential settlers in mind and it seems probable that the above petition was his 'lead'. John Buchanan was evidently literate. At the least, he could sign his name. His signature appears on the above document. Ten years later, as executor of Alex Harvie Sr.'s will, John Buchanan signed that document and the handwriting is the same as the 1816 Caledonia, New York document. It is evident from the different handwritings that whoever signed the document for the Alexander Harvies, senior and junior, was one and the same person. There is evidence of the same for McKenzie signatures. From this, we may say that John Buchanan was born in Scotland. There is other evidence that Margaret McArthur was as well. There is evidence that they, as well as other members of the original settlement, spoke Gaelic upon their arrival. Some of the first settlers spoke only Gaelic, for there are records of preachers visiting the settlement and preaching in English and then waiting while their message was translated into Gaelic. A mystery exists with regards to John: In response to a law passed in 1867, the land registry offices abstracted transaction information for each lot on each concession and entered a sequential list, usually all on one page, for each lot. This gives an interesting account of owners of the lots (which works quite well in the years after the War of 1812.) In most cases, the first page ends with transactions to 1867, though with some lots more pages were necessary. Since the county land registry offices were working with information passed along to them from the district clerks when the district system terminated around 1850, earlier records probably aren't always perfect. For example, sales can be seen where the date a property was purchased by a given seller is not shown. It seemed reasonable that John Buchanan purchased land from William Dickson in Dumfries Township. The 1832 census showed son William Buchanan and 'Widow Buchanan' on lot one of the 7th concession. The Abstract Indexes do not show a record for John Buchanan, however. We now find a record of John Buchanan purchasing the north half of lot 2 on the 7th concession from William Dickson in ledger B, page 19, of the Dickson Papers, MS5 reel 3, in May of 1817. Dickson's handwriting is a bit cramped, but it seems that 'son Alex' took over the debt in 1820. Alex Buchanan does not appear on the Abstract Index page for lot 2, but he does appear on the Abstract Index page for lot 3, with the comment that he purchased the north halves of both lot 3 and 2 from William Dickson. This seems to have taken John out of the record. John and Margaret had three children between 1820 and 1823 and in 1826 John was an executor for the will of Alex Harvie Sr. It may be that he suffered from some incapacitation that prevented him from working his land. It's unclear just when Alex moved from Shades Mills to Branchton, but it seems likely that, at least for a time, William worked with his father. He certainly had his own property next door later on. John died in 1829 at age 57. Most of the children of John Buchanan and Margaret McArthur shown in this tree can be documented without difficulty. Alexander, Elizabeth, William, Susannah, Archibald, and Christianna are documented. One source says there were two other sons, John and James Robert. The story goes on to say that they remained in New York State after their parents and siblings came to Canada, later moving on to Michigan. We may note that between the births of William and Susannah there is a break of twenty years. It seems reasonable that there were other children born during this time period and sons John and James Robert may well fit into this time period. The difficulty with the idea of children remaining in New York State after the the rest of the family came to Canada would be that such children were likely quite young. Alternatively, they may well have come with their parents to Canada and then moved on without leaving us the benefit of a record....almost. We may have such a record with the 1832 census of East Dumfries (the township of Dumfries east of the Grand River). Here, Widow Buchanan is shown with 20 acres on lot 1 of the 7th concession. With her are two males under 16 (one, presumeably, being Archibald). Also shown are two females under 16 (reasonably Susannah and Christianna) and one female over 16, Margaret herself. The second male under sixteen may well represent another son, now unknown to us. Son William is approximately age 32 in 1832 and is also established on the same lot of the 7th concession and shown separately with two males and two females under 16. Alexander is on lot 2 of the 7th. (Dugald McColl is shown on lot 3 of the 8th concession and his wife Isabella is believed to be Margaret McArthur Buchanan's niece.) |
Children of John Buchanan and Margaret McArthur |
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| Last Edited | 10 Jan 2021 |