The Beaty Family Tree
Who's Who
by
Miss Mabel McCartney
The following is an article copied from an unpublished, as far as I know, document titled 'The Family Tree by Joseph A. C. Robertson, dated 1937'. I have included these articles to give some more information about my ancestors and to show that written histories, recollections, family stories are very important to our understanding of our family history. Some of the following information can be confirmed, some may be confirmed, some may just be wrong. If any of the information that follows is of interest to you or sound familiar, please contact me and maybe we can sort out the fact from fiction.
Once upon a time in Ireland, there lived a man by the name of Beaty, who with his four sons, all over six feet tall, held or defended a narrow pass against the enemy until reinforcements arrived. This deed of valour seemed to have been highly esteemed.
Then there is the tale of the "Crawford Castle" which Lord Crawford built at a place called the Meeting of the Waters, where three rivers or streams met. This Castle had a window for every day in the year, he evidently did not want to look out of the same window very often. It was later referred to as "Crawford's Folly" as he ran out of funds and was unable to finish the work. An Irish woman in Toronto told Mrs. Mary Ann Farley that her mother often went to wash and help at the "Big House" and she as a child playing around had often counted the windows and there were exactly 365, one for every day in the year. Also, that many a time she had watched the King and his Company riding up the long avenue, on horse back to the Castle.
Now we do not know whether one of these tall Beatys who defended the Narrow Pass married a daughter of the Lord of the many windowed Castle or not, but we do know that a Beaty married a Crawford and that to them were born at least five sons and one daughter, there may have been two other sons, or these two sons may have been sons of one of the other brothers of that same family, anyway, these two young men left home and enlisted in the English Army, and were never heard of anymore by their Irish relations. The five sons that we know of came out to Canada at various times. It is believed that the family of another son came here too, but, finding things not to their liking, returned to Ireland, also the daughter (Margaret Cook) and her family came and remained in Canada.
Now, about the same time as the Beatys began to leave their beloved Ireland, there was a George Stewart of the Irish branch of the Royal Stewarts who married a Miss Nancy Thompson and he with his family decided to sail for Boston, U.S.A. His youngest child was Elizabeth or Betsy, who at this time was about three years of age and could only remember being in a boat surrounded by water, however her eldest sister Elinor made good use of the time, six weeks on the sailing vessel, by falling in love with one of the sailors, Pettygrear by name, and after landing in Boston married him, and remained in Boston while the rest of the family settled on land now one of the finest parts of New York City. They could not have remained there very long for George Stewart refusing to take the oath of Allegiance to a foreign country left his property and moved to Canada, where he settled on a farm in Peel County not far from where the town of Brampton is now. He had two sons and three daughters. There may have been others. his daughter Ann married Joseph Johnstone and settled in Trafalgar Township in the county of Halton.
Now, it was always understood that John and James Beaty came to Canada together in the year 1818, to little York or Muddy York as it was then known. James, who was the youngest of the family of the Beatys settled and engaged in the leather business. (See article on James Beaty Sr.)
How long John remained is not known but he was there in 1820 where James carried the first Orange Flag through the streets of Little York. There were only about eight men in the procession and John was one of them. They were warned not to walk for fear of the wrath of the R.C.'s, but the descendants of those valiant defenders of the Pass were not daunted, and were not molested.
John took up land in Trafalgar, Lot 7, 4th Line and started to hew out a home for himself. After six weeks of this lonely life he became afraid he would loose his reason and speech so he made his way to what was known as Proudfoots Mill on Dundas Street. Here he met his fellowmen and on his way back to his land, one story has it, that he brought with him a man by the name of John Robinson, who took up land near him. Another tale is that one day, hearing the sound of an axe chopping, he dropped his axe and ran towards the sound and that the other man did likewise and that the two men met half way, and that was John Robinson. However, it may have been ? ? the two men lived near neighbours the rest of their life time.
John also found his way to the home of Joseph Johnstone, where Elizabeth Stewart was visiting her sister Ann, and Ann, being anxious to have her sister near her, did her best to further the match, so John and Elizabeth were married on September 28, 1823, after posting up on the trees the following marriage notice.
Whereas John Beaty and Elizabeth Jane Stewart, both of Trafalgar, are desirous of intermarrying with each other, and there being no minister or parson of the Church of England living within eighteen miles of them, these notices are to notify all persons who know of any impediments why they should not be joined together in matrimony, to give notice to James McBride Esq., Trafalgar, one of "His Majesty's Justices of the Peace". Given under my hand at Trafalgar, 11th September 1823. Signed - James McBride, MP
This notice was posted up and a friend followed after and pulled them down and so the Law was complied with and the outsiders were none the wiser, and to this couple was born thirteen children, four sons and nine daughters, two of the daughters died when they were young. Martha in her first year and Eleanor in her second year. Robert, Stewart, William C., Catherine, James, Mary Ann, Martha, Eleanor, Sarah, Rebecca, Elizabeth Jane, and Margaret. All of these were born in the log cabin that was later moved back to allow the large birch house to be built on the site of the log cabin. Some of the bricks used were burned on the farm adjoining, owned by William Beaty. The house erected about the year 1850 or 1851. The farm was known as Ashdale near Omagh.
William Beaty, a brother of John Beaty, settled on Lot 8, close to his brother at some later date. He married a Miss Martha Brooks and I think there were five children, but at present can only recall three. Margaret who married John J. Johnstone of Norval, later Meaford, and they had a large family. Arthur married Mary Ludlow, and they had two daughters, Ema (Mrs. John Lawrence) and Catherine (Katie) (Mrs. Fred Davis of Toronto). Their son Robert married Miss Matilda Cunningham and they had five sons and one daughter. Lousia married Mr. Plant and they had two sons.
William's second wife was Mr.s Smith, a widow with one son, Samuel and two daughters, Mrs. Jane Mundy and Mrs. Nancy Marrow.
William Beaty and his second wife had three children. Catherine (Kate) Beaty married George Gibson of Toronto and they had one daughter, Bertha (Birdie), Mrs. Phibbs of Toronto. Fannie Beaty married Joseph Cavanaugh in Michigan, U.S.A. and they had several children.
James Beaty married Mary Wales and they had one daughter, Eva.
Now about this time there settled on Lot 6, 5th Line, William and Robert Beaty, sons of Robert or Robin Beaty, a cousin of John Beaty. No doubt, owing to the fact that there were three William Beaty's, he became known as Bush Bill. Maybe his farm was not cleared of bush at this time.
John's son William took the initial "C" from the name Crawford, but was more familiarly known as "Bucky C. Beaty", being very active on his feet.
William and Robert Beaty had a sister, Mrs. Broughton of Toronto, who had three daughters.
Charles Beaty, a son of Robin Beaty who was a cousin of John Beaty Sr., had a daughter Nellie who married Mr. Squires and they had one daughter, Mrs. Barns.
William Beaty of the 5th Line, married a Miss McHugh, and they had one daughter, Emily, and four sons, John, Herbert, and Robert of Toronto; and William T. on the homestead, who married Miss Margaret Ford and they had two sons Clifford and Stanley.
James Beaty married and went to the U.S.A. and had several children. There was John Beaty on the 0th Line Trafalgar about the same time. He may have been closer to William Beaty of the 5th Line. He had a large family of daughters and I think one son. He had a sister Kitty, who married Matthew Beatty, no relation to her, and they had a number of sons. There was another sister now forgotten who married and had a family. There may have been others of that family.
John Beaty of Ashdale had another brother, Robert, either a bachelor or a widower, who lived among them for a number of years and died, I think at John Beaty's place.
Then Charles Beaty, another brother of John Beaty, brought his family to Toronto. He had two sons John and Charles, and one daughter Fannie. She married her cousin James Beaty, a son of John Beaty Sr. They had two daughters, Catherine unmarried, and the other one was married to, I think, Charles Beatty of Hamilton. He was no relation of their family. They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Fannie and they lived in Toronto for may years, also a son Samuel Beatty.
Charles, son of Charles Beaty Sr., had a daughter married to Valentine, and another daughter Elizabeth married to Detective Cuddy, and several sons.
I think another brother of John Beaty, or I mean the brother's family came to Canada, we do not know for sure, but several of his family did come out here, bot for some reason they returned back to their beloved Ireland.
The one sister, Margaret Beaty, was married to a Mr. Cook. How many of their family came to Canada we do not know, but several of them did. One of her daughters, Margaret, married Jacob Cook, no relation. They were married in Ireland and she and her husband and family lived near Omagh for many years and she was buried in Bloomfield Cemetery on the 6th Line in Trafalgar. One daughter, Elizabeth married Thomas Edwards. They moved to either Gray or near Durham counties and raised a family of ten, one daughter, Mrs. J. McFarlane lives in Hamilton, another daughter Mrs. Whitaker lives in Fort William. Nearly all of the Cooks moved to that part of the country.
So it looks as if it would take Exhibition Park to hold a reunion of the descendants of the Beaty-Crawford union alone.
Now to go back to George Stewart's family. Elinor married first a Pettygrear and they had at least five children, two sons and three daughters, Ellen Dyer was a widow, do not know if she had any children. Agnes Webster another daughter had a marked resemblance to Queen Victoria, strong enough to prove that there was some truth in the claim of George Stewart of the close relationship of the Reigning Stewarts. Which story his grand children in the stress of pioneer days failed to note down. Angles Webster had several children, Mrs. George Long; another daughter of Elinor also resembled Queen Victoria. She had another daughter Dolly Long and two sons.
I think Pettygrear and two of his sons were drowned, but they left families. Then Elinor married Hanis and had a daughter Mary Ann. Ann Stewart married Johnstone, and they had two sons, Thomas and Ben; three daughters Mrs. Cook of Cooksville, Mrs. House and one died unmarried. After the death of her husband, Ann married a neighbour Joseph Clements and had one daughter Elizabeth Clements, who married William Johnstone, a nephew of her mother's first husband. These at last, after moving about to various places settled in or near Edmonton and their five sons are still there, also their only daughter, Mrs. Smith.
Of the Stewart brothers, one married Miss Jamison, a tall lady. One of their sons, Dr. James Stewart, married and left one daughter Erie.
Another brother George Stewart married Miss Sinclair and his family lived in Toronto. Ben Stewart married Miss Frazier, they had seven children. John J. Stewart left three daughters in Brampton. Ben died unmarried. Ella married Peter Dunton of Britannia and they had two sons and one daughter.
Hamilton F. married and lived in the U.S.A. Mary, a nurse, travelling in England. Agnes married John Garner of Hanover and they had several children. Lulu married Dr. Piers and had two sons, Calfax and Celip. The other brother had several daughters and one son, John of Brampton. John had two children. One sister Mrs. Murdock had one son. Mrs. Bugg had one daughter, Mrs. Annie Gee and one son. Mrs. Wilkinson of Galt had several children. One sister died unmarried. There may have been another sister. Ben, James and George Stewart had two sisters. Bessie married the Rev. John Garner, a widower with two sons, one of these sons married her niece Aggie Stewart. Another sister, Kate, married Johnstone. They had several children.
Now whether George Stewart had another daughter I do not know, but there was a Mrs. Margaret Twist, first cousin of the Beatys. Her name may have been Counte or she may have been married twice.
Then there was Gussie and Zack Cheate. Their mother may have been a sister of Mrs. Twist. Sarah, Mrs. Twist's only daughter married Charles Reid of Toronto, and they had one daughter and three sons.
George Stewart's wife's name was Nancy Thompson. She had several sisters, one married a Howden and there is a very large number of their descendants scattered over the Dominion. Another sister married a Dundas and it was said that they had twelve sons, and that so many lived along one road in south Dorcaster that it was called the Dundas Road.
Another sister married a Rodgers and they lived somewhere above Brampton, some of her descendants are the name of Craig.
Charles' Beaty's son, John, married Jennetta Trillar, the youngest one of the Trillar sisters, who were known in history in the time of the McKenzie rebellion. When William Lyon McKenzie sought refuge in their parents home, they gave him shelter in an upper room and when the soldiers came searching for him they were so agreeable and entertained them so well that the soldiers never thought of searching that house for any rebel.
John Beaty had one son, Captain James Beaty, and two daughters, Frankie and Cassie, Mrs. McNair and Mrs. Brown.
John lived for a time on his Uncle James Beaty's farm, Lot 5, 7th Line, later moved to Hamilton then to Toronto (Parkdale), where at one time he owned a considerable amount of property.