Phoebe Sanderson of the Royal Oak Inn

Phoebe Sanderson 1941
(photo courtesy of Shirley M. of the  U..K.)

When I first started my family history work last year, and I was researching my maternal grandfather's line, I came across his and his family's Canada Ocean Arrivals forms on Ancestry. All of them, except for the mother, listed "Phoebe Sanderson" as their "Nearest relative in country from which you came". Her address was listed as "Royal Oak Inn" in "Helpston near Peterborough". I realized that Phoebe was my great grandfather Herbert Sanderson's mother, and naturally assumed that she was renting rooms at the inn. One day much later, I was randomly Googling names from my family lines, and entered something like "Mark and Phoebe Sanderson", Mark being her husband, and my great great grandfather. A website popped up with a story about them, describing them as the proprietors of the Royal Oak Inn: http://www.botolphsbarn.org.uk/livingvillage-history.htm. I was amazed at my good luck. On the heels of this discovery came an article from the Village Tribune website, called Where have all Helpston's pubs gone? by Tony Henthorn, with more information about my great great grandparents: http://www.villagetribune.org.uk/local-history/where-have-all-helpstons-pubs-gone. Both sites gave Shirley, my distant, and yet unknown to me, cousin, as a source. I was eventually able to contact her, and then through her, another cousin, Ann. It even turned out that one of my great uncles who had come to Canada with my grandfather actually had visited Shirley's family during World War II, and the end of the seventies; and Ann's father had accompanied my grandfather's family to Canada! I am grateful to Shirley and Ann for the wealth of information they have provided me about the Sanderson and Johnson families. My email relationship with them has been one of the joys of my family history journey to date. I had always felt some sadness about the loss of connection with our English families, and it was wonderful to be reconnected.

I was amazed to receive the above photo of Phoebe from Shirley. I had never expected ever to see a picture of her. I was even more amazed to see her hands--they were identical to the hands of  her grandson, my grandfather, William Sanderson, in the last years of his life. They both must have had the same form of arthritis, and perhaps susceptibility to it runs in the family.

Phoebe Johnson was born on November 26, 1846 in Guyhirn, Wisbech St. Mary, Cambridgeshire, England. She was baptised on January 3, 1847 in Wisbech St. Mary. Her parents were John Johnson, who was a blacksmith, and Jane Leverington. She was the youngest of a family of eight children, the others being Sarah Anne, Harriet, Mary Jane, Eliza, Alice, John Leverington, and William. She was married to Mark Sanderson on October 22, 1867 at the Wisbech St. Mary parish church. Mark was born on February 28, 1839 in Sutton St. Edmund, Lincolnshire, and was baptised in the Sutton St. Edmund parish church on April 7, 1839. His surname at birth was "Sanders", and his baptismal record gives it as "Saunders". His father was Thomas Sanders and his mother was Catharine Plowright. The family started using "Sanderson" as the surname later, sometime between 1841 and 1851. The Sanders and the Plowright families had originally come from Gretton, Northamptonshire before Thomas and Catharine relocated to Lincolnshire and then to Cambridgeshire. Mark was the eighth of nine children, the others being John, George, Ann Plowright, Elizabeth, William, Baines, Catherine, and James. Phoebe and Mark had eight children themselves: William James, Benjamin, Herbert John, Mark, Charles Walter, Abraham, Alice Maud, and George Henry.

Mark and Phoebe are said to have kept a smallholding (a holding of agricultural land smaller than a small farm) in Guyhirn, before renting another on the Norwood Side in the town of March, Cambridgeshire, in 1893. This one was in a very run down state, according to their son Abraham, and it took them about five years to get it up and running and to "get on their feet", which they were apparently able to do because of an inheritance of Phoebe's, possibly from her mother, Jane Johnson. The house was put up for sale in 1898, but by then Mark and Phoebe had no money left to buy it. They continued to farm in the area until at least 1901. By 1904, Mark was a beer retailer at the Chestnut Horse Inn, Church Street, Deeping St. James, in Lincolnshire. It was an established inn, dating back to the middle of the nineteenth century.

The Railway Hotel
(photo courtesy of Shirley M. of the U.K.)

In 1908, Mark became the proprietor of the Railway Hotel, in Helpston near Peterborough. While living there, they kept a white horse for ploughing the land and for pulling their truck. They also had a dog, Vic, who was a whippet. Later, after the family moved to the Royal Oak, their son George took him back to Peterborough with him, but Vic found his way back home the next day. The story is that Mark was "strict" in how he ran the inn, and would not serve patrons whom he thought had had too much to drink. A later resident reported that the Railway Hotel had no electricity or gas, and that it was lighted with oil and paraffin lamps and candles. He described it was a "lovely big house with lots of rooms". He also reported that railway and mill workers lived there. Mark Sanderson died at the age of seventy-five of liver cancer on December 7, 1914 in Helpston , and was buried in the Helpston Cemetery.

The Royal Oak Inn with Alice Maud Martin and Phoebe Sanderson
(photo courtesy of Shirley M. of the U.K.)

Phoebe Sanderson took over the license of the Royal Oak Inn, which likely dates from the mid 1600's, in Helpston after Mark's death. (The date "1654" or "1659" was found inscribed in the adjoining cottage).  There was no bar in the inn, and the family utilized the living room for this purpose while they lived in the kitchen. They would bring the beer up from the cellar. On special occasions, or when ladies were present, they used the front room for patrons. The pub was often crowded on Helpston feast days. Phoebe operated it until 1929, when the inn was closed as a pub, as the clientele had dropped off considerably. With the financial help of her son, William, who was retiring, she then purchased the Royal Oak from the brewery for  £150. Her daughter, Alice Maud  Martin, continued to live there with her whole family. She had lived at the Railway Hotel with her husband Charles Martin, whom she had married in 1912, and then at the Royal Oak Inn. Their first two children were born at the former, and the last three had been born at the latter.

Phoebe died at the Royal Oak Cottage (no longer referred to as an "inn" now that it was no longer a public house) on March 1, 1946, at the age of ninety-nine years, of old age, and was buried at the Helpston Cemetery. She had been bedridden due to ill health for about a year, and was cared for by her daughter Alice Maud. Alice's husband Charles died in 1948, and Alice and her daughter Violet continued to live at the Royal Oak until Violet's death in 1967, when Alice sold the cottage.

 

Faith Cook Saunders 1888 to 1974

Faith Cook Saunders

Although I included Faith, my maternal great grandmother, when I discussed her husband, Herbert Charles Saunders, and her mother, Emma Green Cook, I feel she merits her own posting. Although I do remember Herbert, I remember Faith well, as I knew her all my growing up years. She died in my last year of high school. My grandmother Alice was very close to her, and cared for her in her last years, as Faith cared for her own mother. My mother “idolized” her. My great grandparents lived in the same house on East 23^rd Avenue from 1935 onwards, and later my grandparents lived there. Apparently, the house was “old”, likely turn of the century, when Herbert and Faith purchased it. I was thrilled to come across a realtor’s “open house” video of it on Youtube. The house has been completely renovated, but many of the original architectural features have been retained, such as the front door with its stained glass, the stair railing, the pillars in the front parlor, the bathtub, the veranda, and so on. Here is the link to the video, which was taken in the spring when the Japanese cherry trees along the street were in bloom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crUf9DCfEwk.

Faith as a child

Faith as a teenager

Faith Cook, the seventh of nine children, was born on November 10, 1888 in Helpringham, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England--the same town in which her mother was born. She was baptised in Timberland, Lincolnshire, her father’s birthplace, on December 7, 1888. Her father, William Cook, had already left for Canada by the time she was born, and then the very next year she, her mother, and her siblings emigrated here. The family story is that on the ship coming over, Faith developed an infection in one of her arms, and the ship’s doctor wanted to amputate. Faith’s mother Emma refused to consent, stating, “I didn’t call her ‘Faith’ for no reason”. The arm healed completely. (Please see my postings on Emma Green Cook for a more detailed discussion of the family’s early years in Canada). From having lived in Ontario at first, the family homesteaded in Moosamin, Saskatchewan in the Orangeville district. She attended the Orangeville School No. 88 N.W.T., and there is a picture of her class in 1902, which also includes her sister Mary, in the book Moosamin Century One: Town and Country at the following link: http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=2885401&qryID=b779619d-199c-4c7f-9f5f-4bc07a62e537&pageSizeToggle=large. It seems to have been one of the one room schools so prevalent on the Canadian prairies. The story goes that she met her husband, Herbert Charles Saunders, who was in the Royal North West Mounted Police at the time, when he escorted her drunken father home one night.

Faith and Herbert married in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at Saint Matthew  Anglican Church, on March 24, 1910, three days after Herbert’s contract with the Royal North West Mounted Police elapsed. Her brother Edward and her sister Mary were witnesses. Their first child, Clara Evelyn Hope Saunders, was born there on April 8, 1911, and the family moved to Vancouver soon thereafter in the same year. They were living in Faith’s mother’s boarding house on Venables Street, along with some of her siblings. Herbert worked as a clerk in a shipping office for a time. It appears that they briefly moved back to Winnipeg, where their daughter Alice May Saunders was born on November 16, 1912, and then came back to B.C. During Herbert’s years overseas in World War One, Faith and her daughters again lived in Winnipeg, where her mother and other family members were living.

Alice and Clara Saunders

Faith and baby Bert (?)

Upon Herbert’s return from the war, they settled in Vancouver permanently, where Herbert worked as a lather, and where they had two more children, Herbert Edward “Bert”, and Verna Doreen. Faith’s mother Emma lived with the family from 1927 to her death in 1930. Faith was a midwife, and delivered at least one of her daughter Alice's children. The story is that one of my uncles was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and that Faith was able to deliver him safely. She died on March 29, 1974 of “acute indigestion and general debility” at the age of eighty-five. She was buried in Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby, B.C., where her mother Emma and her sister Mary Eliza are also buried.

Faith, like her mother, was a kind of “matriarch” of the family. She was known for her sense of humour. My mother reports that Faith could send her into gales of laughter with a look, often at inappropriate times, such as at a violin concert in which the musician was less than adept. Faith was called “Ma” by everyone, and referred to as “G.G.”, i.e. “Gravel Gertie”, in cards between her and my mother as a private joke between them. (Gravel Gertie was a minor character in the Dick Tracy comic strip). She apparently was very strong-willed, and once she made a decision, including about people, she stuck with it—forever. It used to be said that she was a “typical Scorpio”. She was also known for her psychic ability, as was her daughter Alice, and her sister Lily’s son, Stan Arnold, who was a “famous psychic” in Salmon Arm, B.C. Faith, in her later years, said one day, “Someone’s got a lot of painting to do”. The next day my grandmother received a call from one of my uncles saying that his company had received the contract to paint the Western Whitehouse. I’m told that when she was younger, she swore by an tonic called, “Lydia Pinkham’s”, as did many women of the era. It was an early herbal remedy for women’s complaints, and contained such ingredients as pleurisy root, life root, fenugreek, unicorn root and black cohosh. It also turned out to be forty proof.   I remember her as a loving, caring great grandmother, and I will always remember sitting with her, my grandmother and mother in her kitchen drinking tea. Her tea was always so strong that you could “stand a spoon in it”.

Mary Eliza and Albert Godfrey: The Cooks Born in Canada

William and Emma Cook’s two children who were born in Canada were Mary Eliza Cook and Alfred Godfrey Cook. They are my great grand aunt and uncle. I remember hearing about “Uncle Godfrey” from my grandmother, but never anything about Mary Eliza, who had lived in Vancouver for at least the last twelve years of her life.

Mary Eliza Cook

Mary Eliza Cook was born on August 25, 1891 in Caledon, Ontario, Canada. The family was living in Inglewood, a village in Caledon, at the time. She moved to Moosamin, Saskatchewan with the rest of the family between 1892 and 1895, where she grew up. By 1910, at the age of eighteen, she was living with her family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was a witness at the wedding of her sister Faith Cook to Herbert Charles Saunders. In 1911, she is living in Vancouver on Venables Street with several of her siblings in her mother’s boarding house. She has no occupation at the time. In 1913, she is still living in Vancouver with her mother and her brother Edward in her mother’s boarding house on West Broadway, and she is working as a waitress. By June 21^st of that same year, she has already met her future husband, William Foster, as they are both witnesses at the wedding of her brother Edward to Mabel Winnifred Mills. She is still living with her mother, but on Hornby Street in Vancouver in 1914, but by 1916, she is living with her mother and new husband William in Winnipeg. (I cannot find a record of their marriage in British Columbia or Manitoba, so I suspect they may have got married in Saskatchewan. The marriage database for Saskatchewan is not yet available on line, so I will try later). William states that he immigrated to Canada from Ireland in 1907, and is working for the city as a fireman, as he had done in 1911 in the same city. (It is possible that William and Mary Eliza had originally met in Winnipeg as they both had been living there around the same time before she moved to Vancouver). Mary Eliza has no occupation listed. They as yet have no children, and seem to have been childless thereafter. They are still living in Winnipeg in 1926, as the R.C.M.P. in their search for Herbert Charles Saunders find William Foster living at Herbert’s last known address. By 1928, they are back in Vancouver, where they live for the rest of Mary Eliza’s life. They mainly live in South Vancouver, where William works as a warehouseman. Mary died on August 6, 1944 in St. Paul’s Hospital at the age of fifty-two of cancer of the cervix. She is buried in Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby, British Columbia, where her mother Emma and sister Faith are also buried. I have as yet been unable to settle on William’s date of death due to the common nature of his name.

Alfred Godfrey Cook

Mary Eliza’s younger brother, Alfred Godfrey Cook, was born on March 3, 1895 in Moosamin, Saskatchewan, where the family was homesteading. He, like his sister Mary Eliza, was also living in his mother’s boarding house on Venables Street in Vancouver in 1911. He was sixteen years old, and working as a salesman in what appears to be “furnishings”. He was making more money than his brother-in-law Herbert, who was eleven years older than him. In the next record I have of him, he is marrying Jennie Dorothy Margaret Olsen on May 30, 1917 In Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is the first marriage for both. In the next two documents of have of them, she is referred to as “Jean”. According to the 1930 U.S. Census, she was born about 1896 in Norway. In 1930, they are living in Burbank, California in rented accommodation. They have a twelve-year-old son, Stanley Edward Alfred Cook, born January 23, 1918 in Canada. (Stanley was to die on April 25, 1979 in Los Angeles at the age of sixty-one). Godfrey is working as a “mechanic”, as is his brother, Samuel, who is living in Long Beach, California at the time. Godfrey is not a veteran. Godfrey died on August 1, 1940 in Ogden, Weber, Utah, at the age of forty-five. The family story told to me by my grandmother, his niece, is that he “died in a parking lot”, and that he had a drinking problem. His death certificate states that his immediate cause of death is “unknown”, but “apparently of natural causes”. The doctor signing is not the attending physician. His marital status is “divorced”. He is a “transient” in the area, and his usual occupation is “automobile salesman”. The informant for the death registration is his twenty-two-year-old son, Stanley, who lives in Maywood, California. Alfred Godfrey Cook was buried in the Ogden City Cemetery in Ogden, Utah.

William and Emma Cook's Other Children

Now that I’ve discussed Lily Cook Arnold, Samuel Cook, and also, to some extent, Faith Cook Saunders, I thought I’d talk about what I know about the other siblings. All are still mysteries, and some were so close and yet so far. All of the children either came to Canada from Lincolnshire, or were born in Canada, i.e. Mary Eliza and Albert Godfrey. I will discuss these two in my next posting, but today I focus on Clara Matilda Cook, Edward Wiliam Cook, Arthur Wilson Cook, and Martha Annie Wheatly Cook.

Clara Matilda Cook

Clara Matilda Cook was born in Eston, Yorkshire on December 6, 1871. She was baptised in Eston on January 7, 1872. She came to Canada with her family in 1889 (as did the other children born in England). In 1906, at the age of thirty-five, she and her brother Edward were living in the household of her future husband, “C. B. Moran” and his brother in Saskatchewan. She is listed as the “housekeeper”. On August 18, 1910 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she married Moran, born July 29, 1873 in Wellington, Ontario. She was thirty-eight years old. He had a variety of possible first names, “Charles Benjamin Chad Guy”. In 1911 and 1916, they are living in Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, and he is a “farmer”. ( In 1916, it is specified that they are living in Rocanville, Qu’Appelle). No children are listed. I have no death record for Clara, but her husband died on April 27, 1938 a widower in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, where Clara’s sister Lily was living. Clara is unlikely to have died in British Columbia herself, as I can find no record of her death here.

Her brother, Edward William Cook was born on January 21, 1875 in St. Bottalpham, Lincolnshire. As mentioned above, in 1906 he was living with his sister Clara in Saskatchewan in the household of her future husband. He is the “hired man”. He was living in Winnipeg in 1910, where he was a witness at his sister Faith’s wedding. He was living at the same address as his sister, Mary Eliza, also a witness, 75 Donald Street. My guess is that this was also the address of their widowed mother, Emma, and possibly some of the other siblings at the time. In 1911, he is living with his mother and several of his other siblings in his mother’s boarding house in Vancouver. He is working as a carpenter. In early 1913, at the age of thirty-eight, he is living with his mother and his sister Mary Eliza, and is working as a “lather”. Later in the year, on June 21, 1913, he married Mabel Winnifred Mills, and listed his occupation as “carpenter”. Mabel was born on January 13, 1889 in Kensington, London, England. From 1929 onwards, he was a shipper and a warehouseman for Vancouver Equipment Corporation until his death on December 6, 1954, and lived in Burnaby for a good portion of the time. Edward and Mabel had at least one child, George E. Cook, born in 1915. Mabel died August 5, 1978 in White Rock, British Columbia. Her address was Crescent Beach.

The next brother, Arthur Wilson Cook, was born December 17, 1878 in Bexleyheath, Kent, England. Why he was born so far away from where the family is known to have lived is one of the many mysteries about him. He is living with his parents in Saskatchewan in 1901, and is a “farmer”. In the last record I have of him, the 1906 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, he is a “boarder” in the household of Alexander Dafoe. He, like Edward, is not in the family portrait, and therefore I have no photos of either of them.

The William and Emma Cook Family

Martha Annie Wheatly Cook

Martha Annie Wheatly Cook was born October 13, 1884 in Guisborough, Yorkshire. She was baptised in Timberland, Lincolnshire, the birthplace of her father, on March 9, 1887, the same day as her sister Lily.  [For further information on Martha, please see my blogpost, Martha, Mary Eliza, and Clara Cook Revisited, dated July 30, 2013].

Samuel Cook 1886 - 1950

Samuel Cook

My interest in Samuel was peaked when I realized that he was the one member of my great grandmother Faith Cook Saunders’ sibship who moved to California, and visiting him was likely the reason that several of Faith’s extended family came through Vancouver in the 1930’s on their way there. I was also able to find records on him more easily than some of the others in his family due to the availability of later census years in the U.S. than in Canada, and other records such as those connected with naturalization. The key was finding his full birthdate on his baptism record on www.familysearch.org.

Samuel Cook, my great grand uncle, was born to Emma Green Cook and William Cook on September 9, 1886, Timberland, Lincolnshire, England, the birthplace of his father. He was baptised on October 8, 1886 in Timberland. He came to Canada with his mother and siblings in 1889, a year after his father emigrated. (See postings on Emma Green Cook for the story of the family’s early days in Canada). From originally living in Ontario, where his sister Mary Eliza was born, the family settled in Moosamin, Saskatchewan, where they were among the early homesteaders in the area. After his father’s death in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1908, the we find Samuel next living in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1911 He is residing with his mother and siblings in his mother’s boarding house, and working as a carpenter, as is his brother, Edward. He married Sarah Ann Crittall in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on July 2, 1912 when he was twenty-five. She was born to James Crittall and Mary Anne Mockford Crittall on Februrary 21, 1894, in Surrey, England. She had come to Canada with her family in 1909. In 1913, Samuel and Sarah Ann were living in Vancouver with his sister Faith and brother-in-law, Herbert Charles Saunders, at 517 West Broadway. Doris Mabel Cook, their eldest daughter was born in British Columbia, likely Vancouver, the same year on July 19^th. Samuel is working as a lather. By 1916, he is living with his wife and daughter in Winnipeg, at 727 Portage. (Other family members also lived on Portage in the late 1910s and in the 1920s, such as Faith and Herbert Saunders, and Mary Eliza Cook Foster and her husband, William). He is now working in a garage as a mechanic, an occupation it appears he had for the rest of his life. On August 7, 1922, his daughter Erva Anne Cook is born.

The family moved to the U.S. on May 28, 1923, when they crossed the border at Noyes, Minnesota. By 1930, they were living in Bryant, Clackamas County, Oregon. When Samuel completed his declaration of intention to become a naturalized American citizen, they were living in Torrance, Calfornia. He is described as 5’11” tall,  weight 170 lbs., with a “medium” complexion, with brown eyes and brown hair. In 1940 and 1942, he is living in Long Beach, California at 932 East Esther Street. In 1940, he is working as a “mechanic” in the “automotive industry”, and his wife is a “saleswoman” in “retail”. Their daughter, Erva Cook, is attending Polytechnic High School, and Doris is no longer living with them. In 1942, he is working at the California Shipyards, according to his registration for the World War II draft. He died on May 5, 1950 in Los Angeles at the age of sixty-three. Sarah appears to have re-married a man by the last name of Harvey, and passed away on December 20, 1985 at the age of ninety-one.

Lily Elizabeth Newton Cook Arnold 1881 - 1965

Lily Elizabeth Newton Cook

Now that we have encountered four hundred years of Harts, I would like to go back to my maternal lines for a bit. I have always been very curious about my great grandmother Faith Cook Saunders’ parents and siblings. My grandmother Alice Sanderson had mentioned them over the years, and I always found it a kind of sad that we had been out of touch with the families of her aunts and uncles even though some of them were apparently so close geographically. All I knew was that some of them lived in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. One of these aunts turned out to be her Aunt Lily. The one story I remember hearing about her specifically was that she had beautiful long auburn hair, which she brushed one hundred times every night. My mother told me that Faith had “idolized” her older sister. My mother had also told me that she remembered that a bunch of the family from the Okanagan had come through Vancouver in the 1930’s on their way to California. I have since discovered that one of the uncles, Samuel Cook, had lived in Torrance and Long Beach, California, but I will write about him separately. Uncle Godfrey, of whom everyone seemed to be fond, had had a drinking problem, according to the family story, and had died “in a parking lot” somewhere in the States. This turned out to be Ogden, Utah in 1940. The only other piece of information about this side of the family that I had, other than I have already shared in my postings about Emma Green Cook, was that my grandmother had told me that she had a male cousin in Salmon Arm who was a “famous psychic” who had been written up in McLean’s magazine. She said that he was famous for predicting natural phenomena such as earthquakes. He turned out to be Lily’s son, Stan Arnold, who died last year a few months before I joined Ancestry.

Lily, Martha, Clara & Faith Cook

My great grand aunt, Lily Elizabeth Newton Cook was born on September 25, 1881 in Guisborough, Yorkshire, England, while her parents, Emma and William Cook, originally from Lincolnshire, were still living there. (She is pictured above standing on the left. Next to her are her sisters Martha and Clara, I believe, and sister Faith is in front). She was partially named after her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Newton, of whom her mother appears to have been very fond. She was baptised at the age of five on March 9, 1887 in Timberland, Lincolnshire, where her father was born. Her sister, Martha Annie Wheatly Cook, was baptised the same day at the age of two. "Wheatly" was the surname of their maternal great grandmother, the mother of Elizabeth Newton. Lily arrived in Canada with her mother and siblings in 1889, her father having emigrated the year before. (See my postings on Emma Green Cook for further discussion of the family’s early years in Canada). After living first in Ontario, the family moved to Moosomin, Saskatchewan between 1892 and 1900, where they homesteaded and had a farm. There Lily met Henry Edward Arnold, a.k.a. “Harry”, and they married in Moosomin in 1901. Harry was born on March 11, 1876 in Bethnal Green, London, England. He came to Canada with his family in 1884 at the age of eight. According to a local history, Lily and and Harry had ten children. So far, bit by bit, I have identified nine: Emma Clara Arnold, Ethel Annie Edna Arnold, William Henry Edward Arnold, Marion Lillian Pearl Arnold, Ralph Garnett Arnold, Franklin Morris Arnold, Herburt Stanley Arnold, Clara Grace Ella Arnold, and Stanley Edward Arnold. Lily and Harry were living in Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan in 1906, and by 1907 they were in Vancouver, British Columbia, where Harry’s parents and siblings had already been living since 1900. Lily was therefore the first person related to me to move to Vancouver, and her following Harry’s family was a key reason. It is interesting to note that where you are born is due to a series of decisions made by many other people long before you came into the world.

Harry had worked as a journeyman “printer’s devil” in Saskatchewan, beginning in Moosamin, where he worked on the Moosomin World newspaper. Part of his duties included operating a hand-turned press. He joined the International Typographical Union in 1907, and worked as a printer on various newspapers, including The British Columbian, The Salmon Arm Observer, and The Vernon News until 1930, when he turned to full-time farming. In 1911 or 1912, Harry and Lily moved to Salmon Arm, British Columbia where they had a farm and raised their family. They lived there for the rest of their lives. Lily was a founding member of the Valley Women’s Institute in 1922, a local service and charitable organization. In 1932, at the age of fifty-one, she and two other members of the Institute petitioned the District Council to be able to retain the old abandoned schoolhouse for their organization. They were determined that they would not leave until the building was granted to them instead of to a prospective buyer. The institute was granted the schoolhouse, but it had to be moved to a narrow lot farther west. Apparently, the lot was so small there was not even enough room for a path at the rear of the building. Firewood had to be carried through the hall for storing.

Lily and Harry were not without their share of loss and tragedy in their lives. They lost their daughter, Ethel Annie Edna Arnold, in 1904 at the age of one, when they were still in Saskatchewan, and their son, Herburt Stanley Arnold died in 1934 at the age of eighteen of cancer of the leg. Lily died of a stroke on March 23, 1965 at the age of eighty-three at her home on Arnold road, and was buried in Mount Ida Cemetery in Salmon Arm. Harry died on June 12, 1971 at the age of ninety-five of pneumonia, and is buried with Lily.

I hope that some of Lily’s descendants may read this and contact me. They are a branch of the family my side seems to have lost track of a long time ago, and it would be wonderful to reconnect and share stories. I am grateful to the volunteers at the B.C. Genealogical Society Library for helping me to locate two Salmon Arm local histories, A Salmon Arm Scrapbook, and Salmon Arm's Historic Routes and the People Behind the Names.

The Infamous Nicholas Hart (1610-1654?)

Nicholas Hart, the first Hart of this line in America, and the first known Hart of this line--period, is my eight times great grandfather. He is currently one of my top five favourite ancestors, along with Herbert Charles Saunders, Emma Green Cook, Melvin J. Hart, and Captain Charles Wright. This is not only because he is the first known Hart of the line and I carry his surname, or because he was part of the first great wave of emigration to Colonial America in the early 1600’s, but also because he was a bit notorious. I am still researching him, but I will tell you what I know so far.

Where and when he was born and died is not certain. It is likely that he was born around 1610 in England. Where he was born has not been ascertained with certainty, but London and Devon are candidates. His father may have been named “Richard”. Nicholas’s name does not seem have been recorded as one of the passengers on the early ships of the “Great Migration”, but this is not unusual. We do know that he was married to Joanna Rossiter of Massachusetts, youngest daughter of Edward Rossiter, who was an assistant to the first governor of the colonies, John Winthrop. The Rossiters appear to have come from London, England. Whether Nicholas and Joanna were married before or after they came to America is not certain. They appear to have had only one child, Richard, likely born in America. Nicholas was a merchant living in Taunton, Massachusetts in 1642. He then moved to Boston in 1643 where he lived until 1648, and from there moved to Warwick, Rhode Island. He is known to have served in the colonial wars of 1643 as a soldier in Captain William Pool’s company. He appears to have died in Warwick in about 1654.

Nicholas was excommunicated from the Puritan Church in about 1642, and I have not yet discovered why. When I was still thinking that Nicholas’s son Richard had married the daughter of Sarah Dudley, daughter of Governor Thomas Dudley, I discovered some references to Nicholas Hart having attended Sarah’s excommunication in October 1647. (Sarah was not only the Governor’s daughter, but also the sister of the first published poet in America, Ann Bradstreet). I also discovered that she was accused of having had an affair with “a man from Taunton”, and I naturally wondered if this man could be Nicholas. I later did find some references flatly stating that the man was indeed Nicholas Hart, and that they had fallen into “scandalous, lewd, and odious unclean behaviour”. I wonder if Nicholas’s decision to move to Rhode Island from Boston was precipitated by the scandal. I look forward to doing further research into both excommunications, and hope to read the detailed accounts. (Sarah’s excommunication appears to have been recorded in the records of the First Church of Boston). I am sure we will never know if they were really heretics and adulterers. Sarah’s husband certainly believed she was unfaithful, according to the letters he wrote about her. He did admit that he had no evidence, however. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows anything further about Nicholas.