Finding a Black Ancestor Using Circumstantial Evidence Part 4

Upper Canada Land Petition
Jonathan Butler
envelope

You may recall that the goal I started with in my search for Jonathan Butler, a man of colour, was to create a timeline of his whereabouts before 1824 and after 1840.


And thus I come to my timeline and summary of the new documents and clues I have found in my research:

ca 1808 Jonathan arrives in Upper Canada (present day Ontario), possibly coming directly from Pennsylvania (as per his land petition) Whether he came as an adult or a child with parents is not known.

March 1816. Jonathan is found in Etobicoke (just west of the city of Toronto), possibly leasing land from Col. Samuel Smith (as per Character Certificate). Jonathan was almost probably at least 21 years of age at this time, thus a very rough estimate of his year of birth would be 1795 or earlier.

March 1819. Jonathan is a farmer with 50 acres in Toronto Township (as per his land petition). Toronto Township has the Etobicoke River on its eastern boundary. I believe this is possibly land he leased from Col. Smith. 

April 1819. Jonathan is granted 100 acres of land in the Wilberforce Settlement (black settlement area) in Oro Township. (as per Land books) It does not appear he actually settled there (as per Gary French)

ca 1822-1838. 2 sons and 3 daughters are born in this time period. Names are not known (as per Assessment records)

1824. A son Allen is born in Toronto Township to Jonathan and wife Elizabeth Jenkins or Ginkins (as per 1851 adult baptism in Waterloo)

ca 1829 A son Harry aka Henry is born, location unknown

1832. A son George is born in Toronto Township. 

1834, 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840: Jonathan is found with 100 acres in Woolwich Township, Gore District which was part of the Queen's Bush settlement area for blacks. He lives "west of the Grand River" and may be on Lot 88 (as per Assessment Records) 

Miscellaneous Details

I find no trace of Jonathan after 1840. It is not known when his wife Elizabeth died and the only record of her is the mention in the 1851 baptism of their son Allen. 

The only children found in the 1851 census (which is incomplete with many missing areas) are Allen, George and Harry/Henry Butler.  

In the 1839 Assessment they are listed as belonging to "other religion" which may mean they were attending a black church. They are also listed as "unbaptised or not belonging to any denomination"

The 1881 Atlas for Floradale, Woolwich Township, Waterloo Co. provides details of their son George Butler as follows: born 1832 Toronto Township, settled near Floradale in 1835,  residing Concession GCT Lot 120. My research indicates that GCT stands for German Company Tract

1891 Census for George Butler records his mother as Irish

Summary

There is much research still to do and hopefully many more clues and facts to uncover. I urge others facing their own challenging ancestral searches to develop a timeline as I've done. Record your facts and your clues, being careful to note whether something is proven, a theory or supported by circumstantial evidence. 

Then sit back and study and analyze your findings. You will be amazed at what sudden "aha" moments occur! Organizing your findings will more easily guide you to where you might look as your next step in solving the ancestral puzzle.

Finding a Black Ancestor Using Circumstantial Evidence, Part 3

On to Upper Canada Sundries!

Certificate of Character

Still desperately wanting to know where Jonathan's various land lots were located so I could find some exact dates of acquisition and leaving, I decided to next look through the Heir & Devissee Commission records (unindexed but online) and the Upper Canada Sundries (also unindexed but online at Canadiana.org) 

And once more I got lucky. In the Sundries I found a  Certificate of Character for J. Butler, a black man. It was dated March 1816 and noted as in Etobicoke. That was a huge clue! Etobicoke is on the outside western edge of the city of Toronto. I was getting closer to figuring out exactly where Jonathan lived. 

Another clue in this small document is that signer indicated he had known Jonathan for several years. We're slowly narrowing down his immigration from Pennsylvania to Upper Canada *if* this is our man.

This document does not provide a full first name but in 1816 there were very few people in the Toronto township area, and even fewer black men named J. Butler! As well the date of the certificate fits well with Jonathan's petition for land. After the War of 1812 those born in the USA had to either sign an oath or provide a certificate of character and loyalty to the Crown. 


Think Outside the Box

After mulling on this new find I realized that the man who signed the Certificate of Character had to be someone who knew Jonathan fairly well. That meant it was likely to be a neighbour. Therefore if I could read the signature, I could try to find land records for the person signing. That might give me a more precise location for Jonathan in 1816! 

1816 signature

I concluded that the signature was "S Smith".  The first "S" is a very strong straight line S joined to the S in Smith, making it look like a stylized "H" But comparing the signature to the rest of the document leads me to believe it is definitely S. Smith. That meant I was looking for an S Smith in Etobicoke. 

1796 signature

My research found that a Col. Samuel Smith was granted a huge area of land in Etobicoke which he partitioned into smaller sections and leased to early settlers. Etobicoke was right on the border of the exisiting city of Toronto and it seemed very likely that this is where Jonathan had settled after leaving Pennsylvania. 

A check of a map of Toronto Township shows that the Etobicoke River runs along its eastern border. An 1881 map of Toronto Township reveals that Samuel Smith's son or grandson B.S. Smith owns a large tract of land bordering that same river, close to Lake Ontario on the south. The clues are coming together at last! 

Looking for Proof of My Theory

My next step was to prove that the Certificate of Character for Jonathan had indeed been signed by Col. Smith. If it was, it was very strong circumstantial evidence that Jonathan was one of the settlers who leased land from the Col. 

It was easy to find signature samples from Col. Smith. He was an important figure in early Ontario history and as such, signed many documents. You can see a sample of his signature from a 1796 document above. My vote is yes they are the same man. The "S" in Saml. is almost identical to the "S" in Jonathan's Certificate. It is a hard straight line sharp pointed S.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

And there you have it. This is how I have narrowed my search for Jonathan Butler's whereabouts in Ontario before 1837. A lot of what I have found is circumstantial but as this evidence piles up, each piece adds more weight to what I found previously.

My next step is to find a list of the settlers who leased land from Col. Smith. I might get lucky and find an exact location (lot and concession number). I may have to look further, check other records to find this information but I am hopeful it can be found. It just needs patience and creative thinking. Oh, and not jumping on a "fact" without solid proof or a whole lot of circumstantial evidence to support it!

Part 4 (the last of 4) will be posted tomorrow

Finding a Black Ancestor Using Circumstantial Evidence, Part 2

Upper Canada Land Book Entries

Looking for Land Records

I hoped to find an exact land location because then my search could extend to the Abstract Indexes to Deeds. That would allow me to learn exactly when Jonathan obtained his farm land and under what conditions, and when he left and who the land passed to. But the only clues were vague..... "West of Grand River" and a possible lot number of 88.  

Jonathan could not be found after this 1840 assessment. There are no early census records for Ontario before 1851 although there is an 1841/1842 and an 1848 Census which is head of house only.  Many of the 1851 census records are missing for several locations so that quickly became a dead end.

Land records such as the CLRI were no help. There was no record of Jonathan as a first time land owner anywhere in Ontario. I could not find a death record for Jonathan or his wife, Elizabeth Ginkins or Jenkins [Source: 1851 baptism for their son Allen]

Analyzing & Assessing Documents

For several years I was stalled. I mulled over what I had found. I did a lot of examining and re-examing the records I'd found, thinking about my next step. I didn't know where in Toronto (or Toronto Township) Jonathan had resided. It seemed to me that land records were the answer but Jonathan was nowhere to be found on the few indexed records available. I knew that a Jonathan Butler had been granted land in the Wilberforce Settlement which was an area of Ontario settled by men of colour as early as 1819. But was this "my" Jonathan Butler? 

A Serendipitous Email

And then a break. Gary French, the author of "Men of Colour: An Historical Account of the Black Settlement on Wilberforce. Street and in Oro Township, Simcoe County, Ontario 1819-1949", wrote to tell me had found what he was sure was Jonathan's petition for land, and that it gave information on his origins in the USA.

A look at the online petition in the Upper Canada Land Petitions found on Library and Archives Canada provided this information: 

March 9, 1819 Petition for Land Johnathan [sic] Butler, farmer of Toronto Township, Home District. Has a farm of 50 acres, has developed 30, desires some Crown Land. Is a man of colour, a native of Pennsylvania, been in the province upwards of 11 years. 

This wonderful document  narrows the time of Jonathan's arrival in Upper Canada, making his immigration year circa 1808. It also reveals that he lived in Toronto Township and not the city of Toronto. 

A close look of the envelope containing this land petition revealed, in very tiny hard-to-read writing:   Entered in Land Book K, page 93 which is C-103, Vol. 29. Granted 100 acres in Wilberforce.  And now the question: Men of colour who were granted land in Wilberforce were War of 1812 military men. Jonathan Butler was the only non-military man granted land there. Why was he included?


Next stop: Upper Canada Land Books


Armed with these new facts, I next went through the online Land Books on Canadiana.org, which believe me is not an easy or quick task. They are not indexed, but I was able to narrow my search to Land Book K on film C-103. From there it was a case of scrolling until I found the reference to Jonathan on page 93. 

26 April 1819. Land Book K page 93: Jonathan Butler praying for a grant of land as a settler. Granted 100 acres in Wilberforce Street.

The entry did not reveal much more than the original petition in March but that's the thing with genealogy and family tree research. You must track down and follow every clue, every reference, no matter how small. Sometimes you find something huge, sometimes nothing at all. But if you don't retrieve the document you will never know what you might have missed.

Although Jonathan was granted land in the Wilberforce Settlement, Gary French tells me it does not appear he ever lived there. But finding the exact location would give a date he gave the land up and that might lead to knowing when he went to the Queen's Bush settlement in Waterloo.  

Part 3 to be posted tomorrow

Finding a Black Ancestor Using Circumstantial Evidence, Part 1

1819 Land Petition Jonathan Butler

My husband has a black ancestor, his 4th great-grandfather Jonathan Butler. For the past 5 years I've been struggling to find all I can about Jonathan. I say "struggling" because Jonathan came from the USA to Upper Canada (present day Ontario) before 1824. He then disappears after 1840. So I have a very limited timeframe in which to search. 

For those who haven't searched for early Ontario ancestors, the records are difficult to find -- if they even exist. Ontario was not settled until after the American Revolution so those are early days in our province's history. Thus they are early days for record taking and archiving. What has survived is scattered in various repositories and much of it is not indexed.

Constructing a Timeline

One of the first things I wanted to do was construct a timeline of events for Jonathan. Where was he living during that limited time frame 1824-1840? Could I extend that timeline? I'd so far been unable to find earlier or later records for Jonathan. My hope was to find out where he came from in America, perhaps even where he was born. A year of birth would prove helpful too. 

What I knew about Jonathan was limited. His son Johannes Alexander Allen (known as Allen) was born in Toronto in 1824. [source: Allen's adult baptism  into the Catholic Church January 26,1851 at St Agatha, Wilmot Township, Waterloo County] This record was not clear as to whether or not "Toronto" referred to the city of Toronto or the township and although it seemed far more likely to be a reference to Toronto Township, it was important that I keep this in mind as I carried on with finding clues to aid me in further research.

Early Tax Assessment Records Helpful

Jonathan himself was found recorded on the following census and tax assessment lists for the Queen's Bush, a black settlement area in Waterloo Ontario:

1834 Assessment for Woolwich Township, Gore District as "Negro, Butler" (note that until August 1, 1834 slavery was legal in Canada. Does this have anything to do with him not being recorded under his full name?)
1837 Assessment same place as "Jonathan Butler"
1838 Assessment same place as "Jonathan Butler"
1839 Assessement same place as "Jonathan Butler (Black)"
1840 Assessement same place as "Jonathan Butler (Black)"

He had 100 acres of farm land and I could follow his improvements over those 7 years. But I could not narrow down when he obtained his 100 acres except by estimating how long it would take a man to cultivate 20 acres (which is how much he had cultivated in that 1834 assessment) The 1834 assessment does not provide any information on family members but the 1837 assessment helps somewhat with this information on who was living there:

1 male over 16, 5 males under 16, 1 female over 16, 3 females under 16
 
It appeared that Jonathan's children were not old enough to be much help clearing land in 1834 and earlier. His owning 100 acres provided some circumstantial "glue" to my theory that he had previously lived in Toronto Township, not the city of Toronto. A farming man would be unlikely to live in the city. 

Part 2 to be posted tomorrow