Society Settler

Society Settler

THOMAS FORSYTHE

1771-182?

Bridgetown Transatlantic Society


Thomas Forsythe was born 04 Jun 1782 at Kelso, Roxburgshire, Scotland.  He was the descendent of; William Forsythe (b. c1662) & Anna Ails (b. c1666); Walter Forsythe (1688/90-1721) & Janet Leech (b. c1692); Thomas Forsythe (b. c1718) & Isabel Madew (b. 1720/21); and James Forsythe (b. c1756-????) & Jean Minto (b. 1761).

In about 1801 he married Isabella Jackson, born 30 Sep 1799 at Nenthorn, Berwickshire, Scotland, the daughter of Henry Jackson (b. c1755) and Christian Laidlaw/Laidley (b. c1755).

Thomas and Isabella appear to have lived at Kelso in Roxburgshire, in southeast Scotland, until at least 1813/14 as their first seven children were all born there between 1802 and 1813. Sometime between 1813 and 1816 they moved to Glasgow where their eighth child was born in April of that year.

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries Glasgow became the center of a cotton spinning region along the Clyde comprising well over 100 mills. These enterprises and associated businesses, enjoyed an economic prosperity driven by the Napoleonic wars, and attracted workers from all over Scotland. Thomas Forsythe was probably among this influx of labor but his arrival coincided with a serious economic downturn and desperate times for factory workers and handloom weavers as the end of the wars against France plunged Britain into a deep economic depression.

Generically speaking, Thomas Forsythe was one of the Lanark Society Settlers of 1820-21, but the emigrants who arrived in Lanark Township in those years were actually assisted through many different societies. When Thomas and Isabella, with seven children (aged between two and 18), sailed from Greenock and arrived at Quebec via the vessel “Commerce” in August 1820 they were part of a “Bridgetown Transatlantic Society” party consisting of 22 men, 20 women and 66 children (organized under president William Walker). Reporting on the departure, the Glasgow Chronicle noted;

The greatest part of them belonged to the Abercrombie, Transatlantic and Bridgeton Societies, (members and their families who had been balloted out of the said Societies) and, all being poor, they were unable to pay for their own transportation, not having raised more money amongst them than about one tenth of the expense, the fund which enabled them to proceed, being raised in London, with a little assistance here.

Thomas and Isabella Forsythe seem to have both died within a relatively short time after arriving in Lanark Township.

Thomas may have died within months. An (undocumented) entry on the LDS website, by Clifton Forsyth of Sacramento California, dates Thomas’ death to 1820 and says he was buried on the “family farm near Lenerk” (sic). Thomas’ signature is on an 1820 list of heads-of-family collecting the first installment of their government loan but there is no documentary trace of him thereafter. 

According to the “Horricks Family History” by John & Ruth Armstrong, Isabella Jackson-Forsythe died shortly after landing at Halifax but the “Commerce” did not put in at Halifax and documentary evidence suggests she was still alive when the vessel reached Quebec City.

More likely Isabella died in Lanark Township sometime between 1823, when daughter Christina Esther married William Horricks of Drummond Township (and was thus likely still living in Lanark County), and 1834, by which date most of the Forsythe family seems to have moved to Nepean Township (perhaps because the children had been orphaned). It also seems likely Isabella died between 1820 and 1823 because her (second youngest) daughter Isabella, who would have been just seven years of age at the time, went to live with her older sister Christina Esther when she married William Horricks in 1823 (and remained a part of the Horricks household all her life).

In addtion to both Thomas and Isabella their 17 year old son Henry also seems to have died within a year of their arrival in Lanark Township while their daughter Agatha died just eight years later also at age 17.

In an 1834 report on the Lanark settlement Col. Marshal cryptically noted,

“Forsythe Thomas, 1820, Lawson John,  Lanark, Concession-5, Lot-11/E, Forsythe, deed: family in Nepean, Lawson here, some good land”.

Exactly what this note means is unclear but suggests the land originally granted to Thomas Forsythe was, by 1834, held by John Lawson (who is listed elsewhere as owning the neighboring properties at Concession-6, Lot-11/W and Concession-5 Lot-11/W) and that the Forsythe family had moved to Nepean Township (near Ottawa).

Thomas and Isabella Forsythe had nine children. The first seven were all born at Kelso, Roxburgshire, Scotland while the latter two were born at Glasgow, Scotland.

Robert (1802-1834) married Lidea -?-. Children, if any, unkown.

Henry (1804-1821) married Katherine -?-, but seems to have died aged about 17 in Lanark Township. Children, if any, unknown. 

Christina Esther (1806-1891) married (1832) William Horricks of Drummond Township. Christina and William Horricks had 14 children.

Agnes (b. c1808) appears to have died as an infant in Scotland

William (b. c1809) appears to have died before family departed for Upper Canada

Agatha (b. c1811) married (1828) Hugh Convery. Children, if any, unkown.

Thomas Robert (1813-1898) married (1839, at Lanark Village) Isabella Donald, daughter of George Donald and Jenette Taylor. Isabella would bear Thomas eight children. The next record of Thomas Robert Forsythe is as a member of the Mormon party, led by Stephen Markham, which left Council Bluff Iowa in Jun 1850 on the overland trek to Utah. He was accompanied by his wife and six children; Thomas Robert (9), Jennett (8), George James (6), Isabella Jane Bell (4), Mariamme “Minnie” (2) and infant Neil. Isabella Donald-Forsythe reached the new Mormon state in Utah but died in 1852. On 20 August 1853 Thomas Robert was married, by Brigham Young, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), to Mary Browitt at Salt Lake City, Utah. Mary Browitt, the daughter of Benjamin and Mary Browitt, was christened on 25 Jun 1823 at Bottesford, Leicestershire, England and was the widow of George Holmes (b.1824, Chesterfield, England). A glove maker by trade, Mary would bear Thomas Robert another eight children (for a total of 16) before she died at Toquerville, Utah on 19 June 1915.

Isabella (b. 1816) was unmarried.

Jean (1818-1889) married Mitchell Convery (apparently a brother to the husband of her sister Agatha). Children, if any, uknown.

The exact dates of death for Thomas Forsythe and Isabella Jackson-Forsythe is unknown and their place of burial unknown and unmarked.

Ron W. Shaw (2005) - mailto:[email protected]


Posted: 14 July, 2005