Miscellanea Manitobiana

No. 3
The Crandell family,
founders of Crandall, Manitoba

By John Blythe Dobson

Byron Crandell and Alice Rattenbury (From The Chronicles of Crandall, p. 172)

The present issue, following after a regretably long gap in the publication of this magazine, is a brief one. The present writer acquired some materials relating to the families treated herein by happenstance, his step-grandmother, the late Philippa Marjorie Oxenham (Menzies) (Mark) Blythe, having been first the wife of Alvin Edwin Mark, of Winnipeg, whose paternal grandmother, Martha Ann (Moon) Mark (1857-1929), was a niece of Alice Rattenbury, wife of Dr. Byron Crandell.[1] It would seem a shame not to share this information with those with a more personal interest in it than his own; and he has attempted to round out the account with other readily-available materials. The Chronicles of Crandall, published in 1971 by the Crandall History Society (note the difference in spelling generally observed between the names of the family and the town[2]), is a treasure-trove of genealogical information, although the accounts are sometimes disorganized and unclear. A nearly complete edition of the work is now available online.[3] The Crandell family is treated in pp. 172-174.

    The fact that the earliest known ancestor of the Manitoba Crandells was named Reuben immediately suggests, to anyone with an interest in colonial American genealogy, a possible connection with the Crandalls of Rhode Island; and with some effort, an account of these persons was found among the strays at the back of the large 1949 Crandall genealogy.[4] This account, so far as it goes, is remarkably well-informed, being obviously derived from family members, and actually mentioning Byron Crandell, M.D., of Manitoba, and his son Morley. Unfortunately, it offers no clue as to the parentage of Reuben Crandell, and a search of its pages for other Crandells in Saratoga Co., New York, from which he is said to have come, fails to find a family into which he might fit. We also searched for occurences of the name Elmore, the middle name given to Reuben Crandell’s eldest son, but the few examples that were found were too late to be relevant, and have to be written off as coincidences.

    Since the first appearance of this article in 2005, we have received valuable additions from the following persons:

Reuben Crandell, Sr., of Crandell’s Corners (later Borelia), near Port Perry, Reach Tp., Ontario Co., Ontario, the earliest known ancestor of this branch of the family, is said to have been b. 24 Oct. 1799 at Saratoga, New York, d. 7 Oct. 1874 at Port Perry aforesaid, and was buried 11 Oct. following with his wife in Pine Grove Cemetery, Prince Albert. He m. 20 Nov. 1819 in “Haldimand” (i.e. Haldimand Tp., in Northumberland County), Catharine Moore, of unknown parentage, said to have been b. 7 May 1800 in Pennsylvania (?), d. 30 July 1871 at Borelia or at Port Perry, and buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Prince Albert. We take these dates from the 1949 Crandall genealogy; a brief biographical notice of their fifth son, Clark(e) Crandell, gives the dates slightly differently and states that they were both “natives of the State of New York.”[5] Catharine Moore’s dates must be pretty much correct, because a death notice published in August of 1870 reads, “At Borelia, Catherine Crandell, 71, beloved wife of Mr. Reuben Crandell died, Reach Township’s first white settler.”[6]
    According to an account published in 1869, “Borelia, a village in the Township of Reach, 17 miles north-east of Whitby, was first settled by Mr. Reuben Crandell, sen., in 1821, who was also the first settler of the Township, and his second son, Mr. Benjamin Crandell, has the honor of being the first white man born in the township.”[7] “The Crandells,” adds an early local history, “came from New York State to Prince Edward County in 1812, and from there to Reach in 1821 through the Township of East Whitby…. The forest was so dense it took Crandell two days in clearing a road sufficient to get his ox team there [from Goodman’s mill].”[8] It will be noticed that this account implictly combines two generations into one: the present Reuben Crandell, born in 1799, can hardly have come to this country on his own accord at the age of thirteen. Nevertheless, the 1949 Crandall genealogy likewise also specifically states that this man “came to Prince Edward Co. during the war of 1812.” But surely if Reuben Crandell’s family was in Canada so early as 1812, he was brought here by some older family member. And no matter who headed up the migration, no person arriving in 1812 can deserve the desig­nation of United Empire Loyalist which is so incongruously applied to them by the local historian Samuel Farmer.[9]
    Attempts to identify earlier Crandells in Saratoga Co. (which was set off from Albany County in 1791) resulted fairly readily in the discovery of the well-known Elder Reuben Crandall, said in a contemporary obituary notice to have been b. at Saratoga in 1768; he d. 28 Sept. 1853 “at his residence in Malahide [Tp.],” Upper Canada.[10] According to this notice, he was licensed as a preacher at the age of 19 years, came first to Cramahe Tp. (now in Northumberland County) and served as pastor there until 1810, then came to the Jersey Settlement in Ancaster Tp. (now in Wentworth County), then in 1821 to Malahide Tp. (now in Elgin Co.), then to South Dumfries Tp. (now in Brant County), where he served for seven years, then back to the Jersey Settlement. This notice does not make it quite clear that he spent at least the last ten years of his life in Malahide, where his presence is attested by the censuses of 1842 and 1852.[11] In any case, a largely compatible account, published in 1930, states, “In 1785 a young man, Mr. Reuben Crandel [sic], 18 years of age, came from New York State, and settling near West Lake … began the first Baptist work in Upper Canada. In 1799 Mr. Crandel was ordained as an evangelist and spent 18 years of his life in pioneer missionary work in this and adjoining counties.”[12]
    When a daughter of this minister, Mary (Crandell) Hammill, died on 28 Jan. 1858, she was described in an obituary notice published in the Christian Messenger as “eldest daughter of the late Rev. Reuben Crandell, formerly pastor, successively, of the Baptist Churches of Ancaster, St. George, Southwold, and Alymer, C.W. [recte Aylmer, a village in Malahide Tp.]. She was born near Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County, N.Y., on the 24th of October, 1791…. Her father’s family returned to Canada while she was quite young.”[13] Clearly, if Reuben Crandell had returned to Saratoga before the birth of his daughter Mary in 1791, he could still have been there at the time of the birth of our younger Reuben only eight years later. Moreover, the township (Northumberland) in which the younger Reuben Crandell was married was immediately adjacent to that (Cramahe) in which the elder Reuben Crandell is recorded a decade earlier.
    The inference that the Rev. Reuben Crandell was in Saratoga in 1791 is supported by the appearance of a “Ruben” Crandell at Saratoga in the 1790 census, along with a Caleb and Jeremiah Crandell.[14]) In 1800, a Caleb “Crandle” and a Joshua “Crandle” were in Northumberland Tp., Saratoga Co., but no Jeremiah or Reuben is to be found.[15] Caleb and Joshua in turn disappear from the census record in 1800, when the only persons of this name was an Eber “Crandal” of Milton Tp.
    But despite the corresponding places of residence for these two men named Reuben Crandell, it does not seem possible for them to have been father and son; for according to the 1949 Crandall genealogy the elder Reuben (1768-1853) had a son Reuben (1820-1903) of different dates than ours and who is otherwise accounted for; and this work receives corroboration on the point from another genealogy published in 1964, which while not completely independent of it supplies considerable additional detail from contemporary sources.[16] Not the least significant fact in support of these published genealogies is that this younger Reuben Crandell, aged 31 years in 1852, was living in the same census district as the minister in the census of Malahide Tp. taken that year.[17] Even if the reconstruction given in these genealogies were false, it is difficult to believe that the descendants of our Reuben (1799-1874) could have been unaware of their descent from so prominent a person as the Rev. Reuben Crandell (1768-1853) were he indeed a direct ancestor. Perhaps, though, he was an uncle or more distant kinsman, and played some role in bringing the younger Reuben to Canada.
    The present Reuben Crandell was engaged at an early period in shipping on Lake Scugog. According to a local historian, Crandell, assisted by his son George, “built a crude packet called the Firefly; it was propelled by oars and sails.”[18] In addition, the 1949 Crandell genealogy states that “he ran a hotel at Borelia.” He is designated a “gentleman” in the 1869 directory previously cited. But beneath this apparent respectability, Reuben Crandell appears to have been the head of a crime family. At least five of his children were indicted for various crimes, some were certainly associated with the infamous “Markham Gang,” a crime ring which operated in York County during the 1840s, and two of the sons spent five years apiece in Kingston penitentiary. Reuben Crandell himself stood trial with his sons Elmore and Benjamin at Whitby on 16 Nov. 1855 for a murder which had occurred 14 years earlier; and although they were acquited, it seems quite likely the sons, at least, were actually involved.[19]
    For its possible value as onomastic evidence, we give a list of the children in this family from the 1949 Crandall genealogy, to which we have added a few annotations from other sources. The second through sixth of the children were born at the original home­stead in Reach Tp., and the last five at Crandell’s Corners:

  1. Stephen Elmore Crandell, b. 4 April 1820 in “Haldimand” (i.e. Haldimand Tp., in Northumberland County), d. 11 Oct. 1900, having married and had issue. He and his younger brother Benjamin were indicted for larceny on 26 Dec. 1843, but Elmore was acquited on 25 Jan. 1844. Elmore alone was indicted for robbery on 3 March 1844, but was acquited on 13 April following.[20] Finally his luck ran out in 1846, when he was arrested for theft on 31 May and convicted on 27 June; he was sentenced to five years’ hard labour in Kingston penitentiary.[21]
  2. Lucy Ann Crandell, b. 18 Nov. 1821. As “Louisianna” Crandell she was indicated for larceny with her sister Ellen on 10 April 1844, but both were acquited three days later.[22]
  3. Eleanor Crandell (position uncertain), born at Whitby. As “Ellen” Crandell she was indicated for larceny with her sister Lucy Ann in 1844.
  4. Benjamin Crandell, of Port Perry, b. 1824-25 (aged 56 in the 1881 census),[23] living in 1881. He and his older brother Elmore were indicted for larceny on 26 Dec. 1843, and although Elmore was acquited, Benjamin was convicted and sentenced to five years in Kingston penitentiary.[24] In 1857 he and his younger brother George were operating a foundry at Borelia.[25] He m. by 1856, Anna ——, and had at least seven children. He is designated a “dealer in patent rights” in the 1869 directory previously cited.
  5. “Captain” George Crandell, b. 1827-28 (aged 53 in the 1881 census),[26] d. 22 Jan. 1904 at Lindsay, Victoria Co., Ontario, “while out shoveling snow.”[27] George Crandell No information other than his name is given in the 1949 Crandell genealogy. However, this was the George Crandell who in his youth became a member of the infamous “Markham Gang.” He was convicted of theft on 29 June 1846, and sentenced to five years’ hard labour in Kingston penitentiary.[28] After his release in 1850 built a steamboat empire in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario, which explains the frequent contemporary references to him as a “commodore.”[29] He parlayed the profits from this enterprise into various businesses, becoming the respectable hotelier who could be described in the above-mentioned death notice as “Captain George Crandell, one of the oldest and most widely known men from the area.” The local history gives an extensive account of his career while avoiding mention of his criminal activity.[30] George Crandell m. (1) in 1854, Lavinia Bower, d. 1885, and had at least six children. The family actually lived briefly in Manitoba, residing at Winnipeg during the years 1882-1884, but left no discernable traces there in the documentary record. He m. (2) Henrietta Hopper, by whom he had five children.
  6. Caleb Crandell, b. 14 July 1830, living in May 1900.[31] He is designated a farmer in the 1869 directory previously cited. He later became a police magistrate in Prince Albert and Port Perry.[32]
  7. Reuben Crandell, Jr., of Port Perry, b. 27 July 1832, d. there in Oct. 1922, aged 90 years.[33] He m. 22 Aug. 1857 at Port Perry, Thyrza Rattenbury, living 1881, sister of the wife of his brother Byron, below, and had at least eight children.[34] “Reuben Crandell, jr.” He is designated a farmer in the 1869 directory previously cited.
  8. Clark(e) Crandell, of Port Perry, b. 28 April 1837, d. 1903 at Port Perry. He is listed as “Clark Crandell, fur trader” in the 1869 directory previously cited, but his name is spelled Clarke in a biographical sketch published in 1907.[35] He m. Ann Ruth Worden, by whom he had eight children.
  9. Janet Crandell.
  10. John Byron Crandell, b. 6 Nov. 1839, who follows.
  11. Ruth Crandell, b. 13 July 1842; she m. (1) 18 July 1866 at Port Perry, George Henley, and (2) in 1874, Robert Buck, and had issue by both husbands.
  12. Mary Adelaide Crandell, b. 1849.

John Byron Crandell, M.D., son of Reuben Crandell and Catharine Moore, was b. 6 Nov. 1839 (per 1901 census) at Crandell’s Corners (later Borelia), near Port Perry, Reach Tp., Ontario Co.,[36] and d. 9 March 1921 in the registration district of Miniota, Manitoba, aged 81 years.[37] Byron Crandell never used his first name of John, which is known only from the 1901 census. He m. 15 Oct. 1865 in Ontario Co., Ontario,[38] Alice Basmith Rattenbury, b. 15 March 1841 in Devonshire,[39] d. 12 June 1922 in the Miniota regis­tration district,[40] daughter of William Rattenbury, of Milton Damerel, Devon, by the latter’s wife Frances Blight.[41] Their marriage record, which understates her age, names their parents but fails to state their places of residence. By 1879 Dr. Byron Crandell had acquired 100 acres of lot 26 in the 16th concession of Howick Tp., Huron Co., near the town of Clifford.[42] At the taking of the 1881 census, Byron Crandell is found in the town of Clifford, in a household which included a servant.[43] According to The Chronicles of Crandall, which gives a much fuller account of him than we have attempted here, “Dr. Byron Crandell and Mrs. Crandell came to the district from Clifford, Ontario, where he had practised his profession for many years. In 1887 their son, Morley, had come and purchased a farm, 35-13-25, part of which is now the location of the town of Crandall.” They are enumerated at Miniota, Manitoba, in the 1901 census.[44] They had an only child:

Morley Crandell and Mary Ariss (From The Chronicles of Crandall, p. 173)

Albert Morley Crandell, b. 23 Sept. 1873 (per 1901 census), d. in 1941. He was still living unmarried with his parents at the taking of the 1901 census. Although our subject is called “Albert M. Crandell” both in the 1901 census and in the record of his marriage, it does not appear that he ordinarily used his first name. He m. 7 Dec. 1904 at Brandon, Manitoba,[45] Mary Elizabeth Ariss, b. 18 Oct. 1872,[46] d. in 1937, aged 64 years, daughter of George Ariss, of Clifford, Ontario, farmer, by the latter’s wife Hannah Jackson.[47] She is found as an eight-year-old in the household of George and Hannah Ariss in the 1881 census of Clifford, Ontario.[48] According to The Chronicles of Crandall, which gives a much fuller account of him, “Morley Crandell came west from Clifford, Ontario, in 1887 and purchased half section 35-13-25…. In 1898 the C.P.R. was build from Hamiota to Miniota. It was surveyed through Morley’s farm and he cut a road through his field of green wheat where the town of Crandall now stands in order to allow the men to lay the rails. The C.P.R. had designated a townsite approximately every ten miles in their plans, and consequently a townsite was chosen on the northeast quarter [of] 35-13-25. It was named ‘Crandall’ for Dr. Crandell.” The Chronicles should be consulted for an account of this couple’s five children.

Notes

1. A passage of The Chronicles of Crandall: A History of Crandall and Surrounding Districts (Crandall History Society, 1971), p. 295, which we believe was written by Earl Mark, states: “Edwin Mark was born in 1860 in Port Perry, Ontario. In 1881 he was married to Martha Ann Moon at Clifford, Ontario. Clifford was the home of my mother’s [i.e. Martha Ann Moon’s] [half-]aunt, Mrs. (Dr.) Crandell, and Mrs. Moon’s [i.e. Elizabeth (Blight) Moon’s] [half-]sister, Mrs. Moon having passed on when mother was quite young.”
2. Many early references to the town spell its name Crandell, agreeing with the spelling of the surname typically used by the Canadian family. But the spelling drifted toward Crandall, perhaps because it is a more common spelling of the surname.
3. At http://www.doftw.com/crandallmanitoba/chronicles/chronotes/ ccp001.html.
4. John Cortland Crandall, Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island and his descendants (New Woodstock, New York, 1949), pp. 687-88. The first six generations treated in the main body of this work are revised in Rodger Crandall, Descendants of John Crandall, available online at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/pa/county/lycoming/ family_histories/ crandall/ crandalls1.html.
5. Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York, Ontario (Toronto, 1907), p. 571.
6. Death notice from an unidentified newspaper, quoted in Port Perry/Scugog Township Heritage Gallery, Timeline: 1870-1879, available online at http://www.scugogheritage.com/timelines/1870-1879.htm.
7. Conner & Coltson’s Directory of the County of Ontario for 1869-70. This work lists the following persons under the heading of Borelia: 
Crandell, Reuben, sen., gentleman
Crandell, Reuben, jr., farmer
Crandell, S.E., cabinetmaker
Crandell, Benjamin, dealer in patent rights
Crandell, Caleb, farmer
Crandell, Clark, fur trader
8. J.E. Farewell, [The] County of Ontario (Whitby, 1907), p. 38.
9. Farmer, On the Shores of the Scugog, p. 9.
10. Births–Deaths–Marriages [from the] Christian Messenger, vol. 1, November 1854 – July 1857 (Hamilton Branch Ontario Genealogical Society, 1960), p. 25. Thomas S. Shenston, A Jubilee Review of the First Baptist Church, Brantford, 1833 to 1884 (Toronto, 1890), p. 29, supports the date of death but gives the age as 62 years, which is in serious disagreement with other sources.
11. 1842 Census of Upper Canada, Malahide Tp., PAC microfilm no. C-1345; 1852 Census of Upper Canada, Malahide Tp., District no. 2, p. 28; PAC microfilm no. C-11719.
12. The Rev. Austin Edwards, writing in the centennial edition of The Picton Gazette, 29 Dec. 1930; quoted in Richard and Janet Lunn, The County: The First Hundred Years in Loyalist Prince Edward [County] (Prince Edward County Council, 1967), p. 180. Conner & Coltson’s Directory of the County of Ontario for 1869-70 states, “Borelia … was first settled by Mr. Reuben Crandell, sen., in 1821, who was also the first settler of the Township, and his second son, Mr. Benjamin Crandell, has the honor of being the first white man born in the township.” W.H. Higgins, The Life and Times of Joseph Gould (Toronto, 1887), p. 141, makes a similar statement: “Reuben Crandell, who has left numerous descendants, is said to have been the first white settler [of Reach Tp.], and his son Benjamin, lately deceased, always claimed to be the first white child born in the township.” The family is mentioned repeatedly in Samuel Farmer’s book, which should be consulted for further details.
13. Shenston, op. cit., p. 47.
14. 1790 U.S. Federal Census, New York, Albany Co., series M637, roll 6, p. 333; we used the original, but the record has also been extracted in RootsWeb’s 1790 Census Database – Saratoga County, New York, at http://www.rootsweb.com/ ~nysarato/ 1790_int.htm, which normalizes the spellings of first names. The following households are listed consecutively: 
                   Free White Males     Free White Females
                    16+   under 16    (ages not distinguished) 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Caleb Crandell      1       2                 3
Jeremiah Crandell   1       1                 3
Ruben Crandell      1       1                 1
15. 1800 U.S. Federal Census, New York, series M32, roll 27, p. 51 [verso]. The following households are listed five entries apart: 
                  Free White Males           Free White Females
             -10 10-16 16-26 26-45 45+   -10 10-16 16-26 26-45 45+
------------------------------------------------------------------
Joshua Crandle 2     2     -     1   -    1     -     -     -   1
Caleb Crandle  1     -     1     -   1    -     -     1     -   1
There were also a Henry “Crandle” in Saratoga Tp. and a Richard “Crandle” in Halfmoon Tp.
16. Vera E. (Baldwin) Van Lydegraf, Philip Böhmer Family History and Genealogy … (San Jose, California, 1964), unpaginated, in the 2-page section entitled “Celebrating the Centinniel [sic] of the Baptist Church in Canada,” which explictly cites the work of J.C. Crandall. We do not however necessarily endorse all the statements made in the 1949 Crandall genealogy. Its author rejects (p. 684) the traditional statement that Palmer Crandell, of Crahame, was a brother of Reuben the minister, yet Palmer Crandell’s daughter, Sarah (Crandell) Brintnell, d. 5 March 1871, is said in her death notice in the Canadian Baptist to have been a daughter of Palmer Crandell and niece of the Rev. Reuben Crandell, according to Munson B. Hinman, Descendants of Sgt. Edward Hinman … and John Hinman, available online at http://www.hinmanfamily.com/.
17. 1852 Census of Upper Canada, Malahide Tp., District no. 2, p. 82 (the minister is on p. 28, as noted above); PAC microfilm no. C-11719.
18. Paul Arculus, The Age of Steamboats Begins its Boom on Lake Scugog, available online at http://www.scugogheritage.com/ history/agesteamboats.htm.
19. Paul Arculus, Mayhem to Murder: The History of the Markham Gang (Port Perry, Ontario: Observer Publishing, 2003), pp. 66-72, 96-97, from a copy kindly supplied by the author.
20. Arculus, Mayhem to Murder, cited above, pp. 96-97.
21. Arculus, Mayhem to Murder, pp. 126, 130
22. Arculus, Mayhem to Murder, cited above, pp. 96-97.
23. 1881 Census of Canada, Ontario, district 133 (Ontario North), subdistrict I (Port Perry), p. 11; PAC microfilm no. _____ [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,881].
24. Arculus, Mayhem to Murder, cited above, pp. 96-97.
25. John Lovell, Canada Directory (1857).
26. 1881 Census of Canada, Ontario, district 129 (Victoria South), subdistrict B (Lindsay), division 1, p. 30; PAC microfilm no. C-13242 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,878].
27. Death notice from an unidentified newspaper, quoted in Port Perry/Scugog Township Heritage Gallery, Timeline: 1900-1909, available online at http://www.scugogheritage.com/ timelines/1900-1909.htm.
28. Arculus, Mayhem to Murder, pp. 126, 130
29. Arculus, “The Age of Steamboats…,” cited above; Arculus, Mayhem to Murder, pp. 167-68; Scugog Shores Museum, George Crandell, at http://collections.ic.gc.ca/scugog/crandel.htm; Toronto Star, 3 Oct. 2004, from a copy kindly supplied by a reader, Bev Reilly, since this page was originally published.
30. Farmer, On the Shores of the Scugog, pp. 114-15.
31. Unidentified newspaper notice, quoted in Port Perry/Scugog Township Heritage Gallery, Timeline: 1900-1909, available online at http://www.scugogheritage.com/ timelines/1900-1909.htm.
32. Arculus, Mayhem to Murder, p. 169.
33. Death notice from an unidentified newspaper, quoted in Port Perry/Scugog Township Heritage Gallery, Timeline: 1920-1929, available online at http://www.scugogheritage.com/ timelines/1920-1929.htm.
34. 1881 Census of Canada, Ontario, district 133 (Ontario North), subdistrict I (Port Perry), p. 3; PAC microfilm no. _____ [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,881]. This document gives his wife’s names as “Theresa.”
35. Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York, Ontario (Toronto, 1907), p. 571.
36. The place of his birth is precisely noted by Farmer, On the Shores of the Scugog (cited above), p. 11.
37. Manitoba death registrations, no. 1921-011420.
38. Ontario County Marriage Register.
39. The date is per the 1901 census, is corroborated by the registration of the birth of an Alice Basmath [sic] Rattenbury in the Holsworthy registration district in the January-March quarter of 1841 (vol. 9, p. 373; original record not checked). Therefore the age of 21 years which she provided at her marriage was an under­statement, as was that of 36 years given for her at the taking of the 1881 census.
40. Manitoba death registrations, no. 1922-022359, which credits her with a slightly exaggerated age at death of 82 years. This record is our only source for her middle name.
41. Her parents are named as William and Frances Rattenbury in her marriage record. The Rattenbury name occurs at Milton Damerel from the late seventeenth century onward. William Rattenbury, who probably d. some time in 1841-1855, m. there (as her first husband) 27 Oct. 1833 (original parish register, per controlled extractions in the IGI), Frances Blight, alive in 1881 (the age of 75 years given for her in the 1881 census is perhaps an exaggeration), said to have been one of this name bapt. 1 March 1812 at West Putford, Devon, daughter of William and Margaret (Allen) Blight, of West Putford, Devon, in an online database by Stephen Bashford at http://www.highgen.com/. William Rattenbury himself is identified with a William Fishleigh Rattenbury, said to have been b. 2 April 1793 at Milton Dameral, son of John Rattenbury and Mary Fishleigh, in an online database by Heather Milne at http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=dhmilne, but the account of his issue given therein (except for that of the son William, who is correctly shown as marrying Margaret Groat) does not agree with our reconstruction.
    Considering that no fewer than four of the children of William and Frances Rattenbury came to Canada (where they begin to figure in records of the late 1850s), it seems likely they were brought by at least one of their parents, probably their mother, who, then designated a widow, m. (2) the twenty-years-younger Robert Moon, b. 1831-32 (aged 49 in 1881) in England, alive in 1881, when he, his wife, and her son Edmund were enumerated in Reach Township (1881 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 133 (Ontario North), Sub-district B (Reach Tp.), Division 3, p. 2; PAC microfilm no. C-13245 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,881]). Therefore, unless there was bigamy involved, William Rattenbury cannot have been the man of this name who was one of the first settlers of Seagrove, Reach Tp., Ontario Co., Ontario, and afterward of the town of Clinton, and who m. in 1833 (when Frances Blight was certainly still alive), Sarah Townsend; see A History of Clinton [Ontario] and Surrounding Community (Clinton Women’s Institute, 1950), pp. 3-5, 17-18 (where however the date of Sarah’s death is misprinted as 1879), and Sarah’s obituary in the London Free Press, 29 Dec. 1897, p. 8.
    William Rattenbury and his wife Frances Blight had the following children, all baptisms being at Milton Damerel (original parish register, 1609-1837, per controlled extraction in the IGI):
  1. Elizabeth Blight (conceived before her parents’ marriage), bapt. 3 Sept. 1833, d. 1867 (information from Andrew Timleck). She m. (as his first wife) before 1860, her step-uncle, William Moon, b. 1823-34 (aged 57 years in 1881), in England, brother of Robert Moon above, and also of James Moon, who m. Catherine Mark (William R. Wood, Past Years in Pickering [1911], p. 273; and information from Andrew Timleck). A William Moon m. (2) 7 July 1870 in Ontario Co. (per the county marriage register), Harriet A. Stevens, and is found in the 1881 census of Reach Tp. with a much younger wife Harriet (aged 33), who was clearly not the mother of his eldest children, Elizabeth (aged 18) and Drusilla (aged 15); see 1881 Census of Canada, Ontario, District 133 (Ontario North), subdistrict B (Reach Tp.), Division 3, p. 3; PAC microfilm no. C-13245 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,881]. “Susan, daughter of William & Elizb’th Moon,” d. 4 Sept. 1876, aged 16 years, 7 months, 7 days, and was buried in Bethel Cemetery, lot 11, concession 11, Reach Tp. (per OGS transcription), in which cemetery are also buried a number of members of the allied family of Mark, previously mentioned.
  2. Dolly Rattenbury, bapt. 2 Feb. 1835, of whom no further record has been found.
  3. Thyrza Rattenbury, bapt. 10 Jan. 1836; m. 22 Aug. 1857 at Port Perry, Reuben Crandell, Jr., of Port Perry, above.
  4. William Rattenbury, Jr., bapt. 29 May 1837, living 1881. He m. 18 April 1859 in Ontario Co. (per the county marriage register), Margaret Groat, b. 25 Nov. 1839 (per 1901 census) in Ontario, daughter of Oren and Marion (Moore) Groat, whose mother’s maiden surname was kindly furnished to us by a reader, Mary Perison. The marriage record fails to give the name of his mother, and gives the name of his father as William Moon; perhaps his brother-in-law, William Moon, above, a considerably older man, attended the wedding and was somehow mistaken for the groom’s father, or perhaps his name was conflated with that of his step-father, Robert Moon. William Rattenbury, Jr., is found with his wife and family in the 1881 census of Reach township, only five households away from that of his niece, Martha Ann (Moon) Mark, he being called a farmer and his wife a dressmaker; see 1881 census, district 133 (Ontario County North), subdistrict B (Reach Tp.), Division 3, p. 17; PAC microfilm no. C-13245 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,881]. He is enumerated there as William “Rattenberg” in the 1901 census, at which time the only child still living with him was his son Charles; see 1901 census, district 98 (Ontario County South), subdistrict C (Reach), division 5, p. 9; PAC microfilm no. T-6487; Known issue:
    1. William Rattenbury (III), b. 1863-64 (aged 17 in 1881).
    2. Cecelia G. Rattenbury, b. 1865-66 (aged 15 in 1881). She m. 28 Oct. 1885 in Mariposa Tp., Victoria Co., George W. Tipp, aged 21, of Brock Tp., Reach Tp., farmer, son of John Tipp and Sarah A. Barker (Victoria County marriage registrations, no. 011379-86).
    3. Alma Rattenbury, b. 1868-69 (aged 12 in 1881).
    4. Charles Rattenbury, b. 3 July 1872 (per 1901 census, although his age is given as 7 in the 1881 census); still living unmarried with his parents in 1901.
    5. Margaret Rattenbury, b. 1876-77 (aged 4 in 1881).
  5. Alice Basmith Rattenbury, b. 15 March 1841 (per 1901 census; see discussion in text), whose baptism, if it was at Milton Damerel, lies outside the indexed period of the parish register; m. 15 Oct. 1865 in Ontario Co., Dr. Byron Crandell of the text.
42. Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Huron, Ont. (Toronto, 1879).
43. The 1881 census of District 153 (Wellington North), subdistrict D (town of Clifford), p. 18, PAC microfilm no. C-13259 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,895], reports this household as follows: 
Byron Crandell M  Male   English  41 Ontario  M.D.     C. Methodist
Alice Crandell M  Female English  36 England           C. Methodist
Morly Crandell    Male   English   7 Ontario           C. Methodist
Martha Grear      Female German   18 Ontario  Servant  C. Methodist
Samuel Neill   W  Male   Scottish 57 Scotland [lodger] C. Presb.
44. 1901 Census of Canada, district 9 (Marquette), subdistrict k (Miniota), division 2, p. 1; PAC microfilm no. T-6434.
45. Manitoba marriage registrations, no. 1904-001323k, from the online index. We have not seen the original record, which would presumably supply the names of Mary’s parents.
46. Wellington County birth registrations, 1872, no. 024031.
47. Her identity is established by the statement in The Chronicles of Crandall, pp. 201-202, that she was a sister of Victoria Rose Ariss, who m. Jock McKenzie, of the Arrow River district, Manitoba. This could only be Rosie Victoria Agnes Ariss, b. 16 August 1889 at Clifford, daughter of George Ariss of Clifford and Hannah Jackson, the physician attending to the mother being none other than Byron Crandell, M.D. [Wellington County birth registrations, 1889, no. 038511]. George Ariss, aged 27, b. in Woolwich Tp. and residing in Winterbourne, son of James Ariss and Mary ____, m. 26 Dec. 1866 in Waterloo Co. [per index at Ancestry.com; image of original record not loaded as of 27 Feb. 2011] Hannah Jackson, aged 21, residing in Guelph Township, daughter of Daniel Jackson and Elizabeth ____.
48. 1881 census of Ontario, District 153 (Wellington North), subdistrict D (Clifford), p. 26; PAC microfilm no. C-13259 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,895]. This couple is found at Clifford in the 1901 Census, district 125 (Wellington North), subdistrict d (Village of Clifford), p. 5; PAC microfilm no. T-6504.

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Miscellanea Manitobiana, no. 3
URL = library.uwinnipeg.ca/people/Dobson/Manitobiana/issues/003.cfm
Published by John Blythe Dobson, 1170 Spruce Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 2V3, Canada
johnblythedobson@gmail.com
This page created 3 June 2004
Last revised 27 February 2011
©2004