Soldier Settler

WILLIAM BYGROVE

1792-1882

Sixteenth (Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire) Regiment

And

York Chasseurs

And

Bathurst Militia

William Bygrove was born 28 June 1792 in Bedfordshire, England and joined the Sixteenth (Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire) Regiment of Foot sometime between December 1811 and March 1812.

While with his regiment in Ireland in 1815 he committed some crime under military law. The most likely offense … as it was the most common crime for which British soldiers were sentence to penal regiments … would have been desertion and he is later described in military documents as an “unattached deserter”.

Ultimately he returned, or was returned (substantial rewards were offered for the capture of deserters and special military details hunted them down), to his regiment. He was subsequently tried and sentenced to “serve abroad as a condemned soldier”. He was shipped from Cork to the Isle of Wight on 01 May 1815 and incarcerated on one of the prison-hulks; “Dido”, “Buffalo” or “Volorous”. Among 541 convicted deserters Pvt. Bygrove was released to the York Chasseurs on 28 June 1815.

“ … a virtually unknown regiment of the British Army that was formed during November 1813 from the ‘better class of culprit and deserters incarcerated within the military prison-hulks’. The ‘condemned’ regiment, recruited from soldiers sentenced to ‘unlimited military service within any of His Majesty’s Colonies’, and served throughout its existence within the fever-ridden islands of the West Indies. Following the cessation of hostilities with Republican France the York Chasseurs became a victim of British military reduction, leaving Jamaica June 1819 to be disbanded at Quebec 24 August 1819. Although over 1,500 soldiers were initially sentenced to serve within its ranks, the high mortality rates consistent with service in the West Indies combined with the undoubted aptitude of the York Chasseurs for successful desertion, ensured there remained only 570 Sergeants, Corporals, Drummers and rank and file to be disbanded in Canada. On discharge these soldiers were provided the option of either a bounty of 10 pounds sterling or the ‘offer of waste land’, with 53 initially opting for the latter …

Being sentenced to serve in the West Indies was only marginally better than being sentenced to death outright. Soldiers died in large numbers of typhoid on the passage from Britain and of malaria and yellow fever, known as “Yellow Jack”, while stationed in the Caribbean.

If they did not die of disease, they died of what they imagined was the prevention or cure for such disease. They believed that drinking the so-called “New Rum” protected them from “Yellow Jack” etc. but the sugar producing machinery and distilling equipment had a high lead content. This contaminated the rum which was improperly distilled in the first place. More like “moonshine” than rum it contained deadly fusel-oil alcohols which are poisonous. Over consumption, which was rampant, resulted in soldiers suffering from diseases associated with alcoholism such as encephalitis, cirrhosis, necrosis, nephritis, anemia, peripheral neuritis and gout.

Facing such a bleak future, and being skilled deserters in the first place, 167 of the 510 men mustered to the York Chasseurs deserted again before they could be loaded aboard ship for the trip to the West Indies (although most were recaptured).

The York Chasseurs were finally embarked on four transport vessels, the “Mary”, “Promise”, “Bodica” or “Mariner”, which sailed from Portsmouth on 16 September 1815 bound for the West Indies. A fifth vessel, the “Baring” escorted by a sixth, the 74-gun “HMS Sutton”, seems to have also been a part of the convoy. The “Baring” however, loaded with the regimental baggage and 300 men, ran aground at Berehaven, Ireland (on the Beara Peninsula) on 10 Oct with the loss of 20 lives. The “Baring” was re-floated and sailed again on 02 November 1814.

The vessels “Bodica” and “Mariner” arrived at St. Vincent 05 November 1815 and the vessels “Mary” and “Promise” reached Grenada on 07 November 1815. William Bygrove and the other prisoner-soldiers of the York Chasseur contingent shipped from Portsmouth in September 1815, appear to have been reinforcements for a York Chasseur battalion already serving in the West Indies.

It was British military custom at this time for a few wives and children to travel with their soldier husbands and fathers. Probably about seven to 10 percent of enlisted men were married but even fewer were allowed to bring their wives & families on overseas posting. It has not been established if Pvt. William Bygrove sailed to the West Indies with a wife or if he acquired one en route or soon after landing on Grenada or St. Vincent.

It was also British military custom that women travelling with the regiment, who lost their husbands, should remarry another soldier within three or four months or risk losing their army supplied accommodation and rations.

Considering the rigors of a voyage by troop ship, the fevers of the West Indies, and the effects of “New Rum” it is likely Pvt. Bygrove would have had a number of widows to choose from if he married aboard ship or in the islands. It is also possible William could have married a woman from among the indentured servants serving there (many being descendents of the transported Scots clansmen captured at Culloden). He could even have found a wife among the merchant or planter class, but this seems most unlikely. There is also the remote possibility that he married a black woman.

The timing of his daughter Mary Ann’s birth (10 Sep 1816) might argue in favor of William having been accompanied by a wife when shipped from England. If he married on Grenada or St. Vincent he must have done so within a few weeks of landing (or even while still at sea) as Mary Ann would have been conceived in December 1815 or January 1816. By September 1816 most companies of the York Chasseurs were transferred to garrison duty on Jamaica making it most likely that Mary Ann was born there or en route.

As regards Mary Ann the Bathurst Township census records are inconsistent and almost certainly inaccurate. In 1851 the birthplace column is blank, in 1861 it says Ireland and in 1871 says E.I … meaning perhaps East Indies. But Mary Ann’s obituary and various family histories agree she was born in the West Indies. Mary Ann Bygrove’s obituary states,

“She was born in the West Indies in the year 1816 and came to Bathurst with her father when quite young where she resided until her death.”

A second daughter, Matilda, was also born in the West Indies (most likely on Jamaica). Only the name of this child is known, she seems to have been born and died between late 1817 and mid 1819.

Both Mary Ann Bygrove and William Bygrove arrived in Upper Canada from the West Indies. Never the less it must be noted that the National Archives record of William Bygrove’s land grant says;

William Bygrove, Corp. York Chasseurs, 1 adult male, years of service left blank, country Ireland, located Oct. 7, 1819, Bathurst C7 SW6 SDP”

This raises two inconsistencies. First it suggests William settled on his Bathurst land without a family (because military land grant entries usually list the number of adults and children arriving with the grantee). Second, it records William Bygrove as being Irish whereas all other documentation places his birth in Bedfordshire England.

As for recording his nationality as Irish, even though he seems to have been born in England, it is possible that both are true. He may well have been born to Irish parents in England (a common enough circumstance). It is more likely that he is recorded in military records as being of Irish birth because the York Chasseurs was composed largely of “Irish deserters”, although in reality that meant deserters of both Irish descent and soldiers who deserted while on duty in Ireland (as William apparently did).

As regards William’s family it is also entirely possible the 1819 records are incomplete (as they often are) and failed to record that he was accompanied by at least one child (Mary Ann) and possibly by a second child (Mathilda) and a wife.

It seems most likely however that William’s (first) wife and daughter, Mathilda, died before he arrived in Bathurst Township. Mary Ann (who would have been only three years of age at the time) could have been in the care of others until William could make a home for her on his bush lot.

It is also possible that William’s wife and child arrived in Canada, or at least in Bathurst Township, later than William himself but, if we consider Mary Ann Bygrove-Dixon’s obituary to be perfectly accurate (in terms of both what it says and what it does not say) then the phrase she “came to Bathurst with her father when quite young" tends to confirm the Bygrove family of 1819 consisted of only Mary Ann and her father (William). There is no mention of Mary Ann’s mother and no mention of any siblings.

William was promoted Corporal 16 February 1817 and continued to serve until the York Chasseurs sailed from Jamaica to Quebec City in August 1819. He arrived in Canada via one of three vessels; “Nautlis” (arriving 05 Aug 1819 with 7 officers and 163 other ranks), “Ocean” (arriving 08 Aug 1819 with 7 officers and 210 other ranks) or “Chapman” (arriving 10 Aug 1819 with 11 officers and 296 other ranks).

Peter Lines, in his manuscript “The York Chasseurs: A Condemned Regiment of George III”, cites a final mention of William Bygrove in regimental records;

Private Dennis O’Loughlin, ex 16^th Foot, who arrived from Cork 16 April 1815 and joined Chasseurs with Bygrove 29^th June. Concession-10, Lot-12/SW.

William Bygrove, Corporal, Lot SW-6, Concession-7, Bathurst. Sold out to Robert Clarke, ex Corporal York Chasseurs and appears to have relocated on Lot-12 Concession-12 Bathurst.

William Bygrove appears on the Bathurst Township 1821 Assessment List occupying the land at Concession-7/ Lot-6.

He next appears as a Private on the Bathurst Militia Nominal Roles of 1828-1829, recorded as aged 33 and serving in Captain Kinnear’s Company. Although the age of 33 years in 1828/29 would indicate a date of birth around 1795/96, militia records are not very reliable for ages and the dates are close enough to suggest this to be Cpl. William Bygrove of the York Chasseurs (born in 1792).

Sometime around 1824 William Bygrove married Elizabeth Padgett (as her presumed first child, William, was born in 1825). All available evidence would suggest Elizabeth Padgett was born in Bathurst Township, the daughter of John Padgett, who received a land grant on Concession-8 in 1819. Her family likely included a brother Alexander Padgett (b.c1818).

The Bathurst Census of 1842 records William Bygrove (“arrived 1820”) as being head of a household of six; 1 “born there” (William) and 5 “born here”. Four of those “born here” (i.e. in Bathurst) would likely have been William (b.c1825), James (b.c1830), Alexlander (b.1831) and Sarah Ann (b.1832). The fifth family member born “here” would be William’s second wife Elizabeth Padgett. Mary Ann (also born “there”) would not have been the unidentified sixth member of this family as she had married James Dixon in 1833 and thus no longer lived in the Bygrove household.

The 1851 census records William Bygrove as a widower, having previously married Janet Padgett who seems to have also born William at least two additional daughters and a son, recorded as Isabella age 9 (b.c1838), Edward age 11 (b.c1840) and Elizabeth age 13 (b.c1842).

The 1861 Bathurst census records the presence of Edward and Isabella Bygrove; Edward as a single male, aged 21, born in Ontario, a Methodist and employed as a servant; Isabella as a single female, aged 18, also a servant.

In 1871 William Bygrove appears in the census records for the Township of South Sherbrooke, resident in the household of Alexander Bygrove, who is almost certainly his son (b.1830)

In the 1881 South Sherbrooke census he is recorded again; “William Bygrove, Birth Year 1792, Birthplace England, Age 89, Ethnic Origin English, Religion Church of England”, still living with Alexander Bygrove: “Birth Year 1831, Birthplace Ontario, Age 50, Farmer, Married, Religion Church of England”.

Cpl. William Bygrove of the Sixteenth Regiment of Foot, the York Chasseurs and the Bathurst Militia died at Bolingbrooke, South Sherbrooke Township on 31 Dec 1882 (aged 90 years). He was buried in Bolingbrooke Cemetery where his gravestone reads, “William Bygrove, 1792 – 31 December 1882, Native Bedfordshire England”. (William’s middle name may have been Tansley).