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Pioneer - The TORRANCE Family
Biographical Sketches of
Early Settlers of Wellington County
Information from: Historical Atlas of the County of Wellington, Ontario.
Toronto: Historical Atlas Publishing Co., 1906
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TORRANCE Family, The
. This family left Ayrshire, Scot., at the time of the persecution of the
Covenantors, and set. in Ire., on Lord Gosford's estate, where some of the
descendants still reside. M. Torrance, the ancestor of the family in Canada,
was b. at Market Hill, Co. of Armagh, Ire., where he was raised and educated.
He m. Mary Lindsay, and came to Canada in 1845 with a portion of his family,
and set. in Toronto, where he d., age 63. Issue: John, David, set. in Ire.;
Alexander, James, Joseph, landscape gardener, Edinburgh, Scot.; Andrew and Rev.
Dr. Robert.
John Torrance, the oldest son, came to Quebec and Montreal in 1829, and then went to New York and learned to be a marine engineer. Later he returned to Canada and placed engines on the first steamboats that ran on Lake Ontario, and also in the intervening rime acted as engineer on the boats running from Toronto to Kingston. He was for years engineer of the Collins line of ships between New York and Liverpool, and ultimately was lost between New York and Valparaiso. Alexander and Andrew d. at Port Perry, Ont. Rev. Dr. Robert, whose portrait appears in this work, was b. in Market Hill, Co. of Armagh, Ire., in 1822. He spent his boyhood days about Wigtown and Glen Luce, and came to Toronto with his parents in 1845. He had taken the Artscourse at the Royal Academical College, Belfast, and a theological course of one year in Glasgow, and three years in Edinburgh. He was licensed to preach at 22 years of age, and was called the "Boy Preacher." He was sent by the Secession Church to Canada as a missionary/ He declined an immediate call to a Toronto congregation, and for one year after his arrival in Toronto, travelled in his missionary work on horse-back through Western Ontario, from Toronto to Goderich. The country at that time was new, and sparsely settled; the cabins of the settlers were his stopping places, and in these cabins he held Divine worship. He was called to Guelph, and was ordained and inducted on Nov 11, 1846, and remained as pastor until 1882, when he retired. He has been Clerk of the Presbytery, altogether, forty years, and was , in 1898, Moderator of the General Assembly. He has been Moderator of the Presbytery and Synod of Toronto and Kingston, and has been for a great number of years Convenor of the Assemblies Committee on Statistics, having compiled the report for many years. He has been Convenor of the Committee on Distribution of Probationers for fifty years. Dr. Torrance is one of the best known Presbyterian Divines in Canada, and his name, in the district within fifty miles of Guelph, is a household work. In 1904 he and Mrs. Torrance held their golden wedding. On November 11, 1896, Dr. Torrance celebrated his jubilee as a minister, the Presbytery of Guelph presenting his with an illuminated address. A public meeting was held at Chalmer's Church, at which addresses were made by ministers of the General Assembly and leading citizens of Guelph. Although Dr. Torrance is eighty-four years of age, he is well preserved in body and mind, and is one of the most active members of the Guelph Presbytery. While he has been prominent in church matters, he has also found time to lend his influence and assistance to everything tending to the material advancement of the city of Guelph, where he is such an old and respected resident. He was County School Inspector in the fifties, and was Inspector of the Public Schools in Guelph, and Secretary of the School Board for over 30 years. and is now Hon. Chaplain of Boards. He still keeps up his interest in affairs, and there is hardly a meeting of any importance where this grand old veteran cannot be found taking a leading part. He m. Elizabeth, dau. of the late Thomas Dryden, a respected pioneer of Eramosa, mentioned elsewhere in this work. Dr. Torrance has been quite a traveller, having crossed the continent twice, and revisited his native land several times, and in 1891, made a trip around the world in C.P.R. Steamer "Empress of India." Issue: William Barrie, Assistant Manager and Superintendent of Branches of the Royal Bank of Canada, Montreal. He m. Miss Sarah Stevens, dau. of Judge Stevens of St. Stephen, N.B.; Elizabeth Dryden, the oldest daughter, m. Arthur Nicol, who spent four years in China, introducing Western cultivation methods. He is deceased, and his widow resides in Guelph. Robert Lindsay, whose portrait will be found on another page, m. Agnes Sanderson, dau. of the late John Sanderson of St. Mary's, and is a partner in, and general manager of , the J. B. Armstrong Mfg. Co. of Guelph, and Flint, Mich., with which he has been connected since 1878. He was educated in the Guelph Public Schools and Collegiate Institute. He has been on the Guelph School board for ten years, and its chairman for 1905. He has been President of the Guelph Board of Trade, and on the Executive Council of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, and with them, went to Great Britain and France in 1905. Mr. Torrance has been an active Conservative, and received the nomination for the Local House in 1897, but declined in favor of Henry Hortop. He is Past President of St. Patrick's Society of Guelph, and is now an active worker in the ranks. Issue: Robert, Douglas, and Kenneth Sanderson. Margaret Anna, youngest dau. of Dr. Torrance, m. John D. Higinbotham in 1889. Mr Higinbotham is a druggist and Postmaster in Lethbridge Alberta, and had the fourth choice of lots when Alberta was founded. From: Historical Atlas of the County of Wellington, Ontario. Toronto:Historical Atlas Publishing Co., 1906 |
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