William Jack

ID # 7034, (1788-1860)
Pedigree
BirthWilliam Jack was born in 1788 at Scotland. 
MarriageHe married Mary Hood. 
DeathHe died on 1 July 1860. 
BurialHe was buried at Sixth Line Cemetery, Innisfil Twp., Simcoe County. 
NoteWilliam Jack and his wife Mary Hood came to Canada from the Glasgow area of Scotland. Initially, they settled in Dalhousie Township in what became Lanark County in Eastern Ontario and they and their fellow immigrants are betimes referred to as the Dalhousie Settlers. There were committees in Glasgow that raised money to assist people with their immigration. Information relating to these committees and, in some cases, passenger lists, can be found in such books as Carroll Bennett's The Lanark Society Settlers, and Gerald Neville's The Lanark Society Settlers: Ships' Lists of the Glasgow Emigration Society 1821. These are available from Global Heritage Press and are worthy reading for descendants or students of these times.

Per Ms. Bennett, the Jack family sailed on the 'Prompt' in 1820 and settled on lot 18 of the 2nd concession of Dalhousie Township. Familysearch and Onland.ca have images for the Abstract Index pages, but these are of little help, beginning at a relatively late date, the patents probably being re-assigned and previous ownership history being wiped out. (An examination of the Township Papers file for this township lot, available at the Archives of Ontario, would probably be useful. See MS658 reel 237.)

We have something of a background to what happened to William and his family in a file to be found in Upper Canada Sundries and which may be searched out at Canadiana.ca. See C-6872, pp. 60622-60627. In 1831 (approx.) William Jack petitioned Sir John Colborne, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. He tells that he settled on the 18th lot of the 2nd concession of Dalhousie. He tells that the land is very bad and he is only able to obtain from it a scanty support for himself and his family. He appeals for 100 acres based on his being a discharged soldier. He gives his military background as being in the Princess Charlotte of Wales regiment and with an Argyllshire militia regiment.

That the above petition wound up in Sundries would seem to indicate that no action was taken upon it, but we find the William Jack family in Innisfil Township of Simcoe County in later years.

We will mention here that the appeal sent by William to Sir John Colborne does not say which half of lot 18 in the 2nd concession upon which the family had settled. The available Abstract Index pages show the west half entries as beginning in 1862 with a patent granted by the Crown to a David Machan. The east half shows a patent granted by the Crown to an Archibald Nairn in 1838. The Jack family is not mentioned. These latter patents probably cancelled out the previous history. This certainly was the general practice when these entries were made, though exceptions may be found.

In 1842, a James Brooke of Plympton (a township that was in what became Lambton County) sold 100 acres of the north half of lot 21, concession 5, Innisfil, to William Jack. These men probably knew each other from earlier days. A number of Dalhousie Settlers removed to Simcoe County, especially Innisfil, but some also went to Plympton. William sold this half lot to son Thomas in 1853.

The 1851 census for none of the Simcoe County townships has survived.

As it happens, William Jack Sr. appears in the 1861 census in Innisfil Township. He died the previous July, but the census page has a column that asks for Deaths in 1860. This shows William's death by a cancer, the nature of which is illegible. His age is presented as 72 and it seems reasonable to believe that this was his age at the time of his death. By way of confirmation, we have the following:

The inscription on his gravestone in the Sixth Line Cemetery, Innisfil, is interesting. It reads:

William Jack / Died July 1, 1860 / Age 72 Years / Native Of Scotland /
Erected By His Daughter Hannah

Identifying William's daughter as Hannah Duncan is not difficult. Mary Hood Jack, as well as deceased husband William, are obviously connected with the household of Thomas and Hannah Duncan in the 1861 census at Innisfil Township. There is more, however, and something that your researcher has not previously met with.

The Abstract Index page for the north half of lot 22 of the 5 concession of Innisfil tells that this was obtained by William Jack Sr. for 50 pounds in 1844 from John White Jack of West Gwillimbury, William's son. There was some back and forth by way of transactions on the index page between William and John, but it finally settled in William's hands in 1853, the price at that time being 200 pounds.

Then, on 1st March, 1860, in a Bargain & Sale transaction (theoretically a normal sale), William Jack Sr. of Innisfil sold the whole half lot (100 acres) to Hannah Duncan, wife of Thomas P. Duncan of Innisfil, for the princely sum of...one dollar and love. This was just four months prior to his death.

As mentioned, daughter Hannah put up his gravestone.

What follows is an update of William Jack's land petitions. Note that these petitions do not include the outcomes - that is to say they do not tell if they resulted in land grants or where such grants, if made, were located. (If a positive response to a petition is obtained, it is usually listed in the Ontario Land Record Index at the Archives of Ontario. This is to be found on microfiche, quite readable with the microfilm readers, and is an alphabetical list based on the surname of the individual. The list provides volume and page information. The associated instructional pages will lead to the microfilm that has the required information. Definitely a two-step.)

See C-2111, image 00489 -
Vol. 259, I-J Bundle 17, 1831-1833

This is datelined York 9th March 1832 and signed by William Jack and appears to be a second petition for better land and dated approximately a year after his deadended petition that appears above in Upper Canada Sundries.

He tells that he served in the Princess Charlotte of Wales, or Loyal McLeods Fencibles, having enlisted in 1800 and discharged 1802 in consequence of the peace. He then enlisted in the Argyll Militia in 1803 and served eleven years and 80 days. He retells that his house and contents, along with his discharge papers, were burned, but can provide testimony to prove their existence.

He tells that he has a family of six children, all of whom were born in the army (while he was in the army). He is asking for 100 acres of government land.

This petition had attention in May of 1832. It has considerable endorsements on the file cover, but much of this is illegible and a distance from clearly stating if it had positive results.

The next petition is to be found on C-2112, beginning image 01026, Vol. 261(a), J Bundle 22, 1839-1840.

This is datelined Innisfil, 5th March 1840, P.O.(post office) Holland Landing.

This petition tells that he was 'located by the Lanark Settling Department upon the south west half of lot 18, 2nd concession of Township of Dalhousie and that he had to remove from said land, it being totally unfit for cultivation, very rocky.'

He goes on to ask that the Dalhousie location be cancelled and that he be allowed to locate in the Township of St. Vincent 'or any other open for location.'

(St. Vincent Township is in Grey County, on Georgian Bay. The town of Meaford is in St. Vincent Township. After the outbreak of World War II, a significant portion of St. Vincent Township was requisitioned by the Canadian military and the Meaford Tank Range was created.)

The signature of this petition is 'William Jack by James Jack'. Since the name Jack is obviously written in the same hand, we must believe son James to be literate.

While the foregoing doesn't say so, it's entirely possible that William is residing with son James.

Included with the file is a note datelined Dalhousie, 25th April, 1836, and signed by R. Currie, deputy surveyor. This tells that he has examined the S. W. half of lot 18 in the 2nd concession and that 'it is so rocky that it is unfit for cultivation.'

The file cover of the above petition does not indicate as to whether William was successful in gaining a substitute property. Considering what we do have, however, it is reasonable to say that William finished up with the property he essentially gave to his daughter Hannah. This was obviously in return for her and her husband keeping William and Mary for the remainder of their days.

William and Mary Jack are buried in the Sixth Line Cemetery in Innisfil Township, Simcoe County. The transcription of this cemetery, as done by the Simcoe County branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, quotes the names of families of Scotch Dalhousie Settlers who came to Innisfil in 1832. Among the family names shown are those of Jack and Duncan.

A problem with some of the above information:

As noted, William petitioned the Lieutenant Governor for a replacement lot as stated on C-6872 microfilm which covers some files in Upper Canada Sundries. In this he refers to his property in Dalhousie Township as being lot 18 in the 2nd concession. This description of his Dalhousie Township grant is repeated in his 1840 petition for land in St. Vincent Township which also appears above.

Recently found are four spreadsheet images in PDF format as apparently originally assembled with what must have been a great deal of work by Fay Lucille Bertrand of Granny's Genealogical Garden. This is essentlly entitled Settlers Lanark County 1820-1822. It is extensive and probably covers the original Society immigrants from the Glasgow area of Scotland. This essentially repeats the description of William's grant with the exception that it places him on concession 3 rather than concession 2. It does describes William's grant as the west half of the lot. It also shows a James Jack, probably William's son, as being on the east half of the same lot, again on concession 3. There is also a James Jack shown on the west half of lot 5 on the 9th concession. This may be William's brother. (At the moment your researcher is guessing...considerably.)

The origin of the land descriptions as they appear in these spreadsheets is unknown. It is probably that some information for these land descriptions appears in microfilm series known as the Township Papers, but the spreadsheets look a bit broad for this. A better guess might have been early township assessments. If this is the case, that concessions got mixed up in Dalhousie Township assessments would hardly be unique to Dalhousie, though why such a situation should ever have been gets into stratospheric guessing.

The spreadsheet file does note a James 'Brooks' on the east half of lot 10 of the 3rd concession. As noted above, William Jack purchased land in Innisfil from a James Brooke of Plympton. By the time William Jack purchased land from James 'Brooke' of Plympton, James Booke, or Brooks, was dead. If in fact the Brooke-Jack transaction is really a Brooks-Jack transaction, entirely possible, then he probably bought the Innisfil property from the son of the original Brooks settler, originally in Dalhousie Township. Certainly, several Dalhousie settlers went to Innisfil and Plympton.

Further note: There are some microfilm reels at the Archives of Ontario that might, just, explain some of the above. See reels 119 and 120 of MS693. Such indexing as is found seem to show a list of land grants to original Lanark Settlers.
(Apologies to the reader if the foregoing seems abstruse, but the more information that has been found the more questions are opened that require research.) 

Children of William Jack and Mary Hood
Last Edited22 Jun 2019