The family of
Symonds descends from Adam Fitz Simon, Lord of St. Sever in Normandy. The
pedigree prior to the Conquest of England is traced to Raungwalder of Moax and the
Orcades in the 9th century, and ultimately to a Simon of St. Sever who died in
909. After the Norman Conquest Adam Fitz Simon received lands and manors in
Norfolk and Hertz. He died sometime before 1118. Three generations later the
family divided into two branches, the second settling in Norfolk. By the
beginning of the 14th century they had anglicized their name to Symonds. The
first branch subsequently died out in England and is now only represented by
the Irish Fitz Simons and the Cornish Symons of Hatt, the latter a branch begun
through the marriage of a Fitz Simon to an heiress of the house of Tregarthyn
in 1297.
The name Fitz
Simon originally meant son of Siegmund. Subsequent variations in the
spelling have included Symons, Simons, Simmons, Symmons, and Symmonds, to name just a few. The name Symons
is recorded in Cornwall as early as 1523. William Symons married Mary Traher on
30 September 1690 at St. Newlyn East Parish Church in Cornwall. Descendants of
this couple gradually adopted the spelling of Symonds.
Not surprisingly the name Symonds in its
many variations is common in both Cornwall and neighbouring Devon.
From several
Canadian documents (marriage, census and death certificates) our John Janes Symonds appears to have
been born in 1835. John’s marriage and death records show his parents to have
been William Symonds and Elizabeth Janes. The only marriage of
two such names took place, according to the Devon Record Office, in
Abbotskerswell, Devon in 1826. At his marriage William is recorded as Symins.
Inexplicably, the original record of marriage shows the name Symmons
crossed out. William and two witnesses, John Emmett and William Douglas, signed
the register, indicating some degree of education.
However the four
subsequent children are recorded baptised as either Simmons or Symons.
The baptism of a son John Simmons is recorded in 1828. This is either the first
of two Johns born to this family or (more likely) John later changed his age in
order to appear younger to his new wife Catherine in Toronto.
We have not yet
found the ancestors of William Symins/Symonds, however his wife Elizabeth came
from several families (Janes, Emit, Sheppard, Addams and
Pinson) who lived in Abbotskerswell as early as the mid-1600s. Some of
these families were still represented there after our John Janes Symonds
migrated to Canada in (about) 1856.
According to White’s Devonshire Directory (1850) “Abbotskerswell or Abbot’s
Carswell is a pleasant village, two miles S. of Newton Abbot[1],
and has in its parish 433 souls and 1600 acres of land, including several
scattered houses and the hamlet of Aller, where there is a paper mill,
on a rivulet 1 ½ mile from the church. The soil is all freehold, and belongs to
Sir W.P. Carew, Bart., the Hon. Mrs. Hare, W. Hole, Esq, Wm. and John Creed,
and a few smaller land owners. The Church (St. Mary) is an ancient
fabric in the perpendicular style, with a tower and three bells. It is about to
be thoroughly repaired and beautified. The old pews are to give way to open
benches, and the finely carved oak screen is to be restored and opened…. A
cottage has been converted into a Baptist Chapel; and in the parish is a
Quaker’s Burial Ground, which has been preserved for that purpose by a Mr.
Tucket when he sold Court Barton estate. Here is a small National School.”
So far, our
first record of John Symonds in Canada appears in the Ontario Directory of 1857
living at 89 Terauley Street, Toronto.
His first wife, thought
to be named Mary Ann, appears to have migrated with him from England. She died
before 1870 and there is no evidence of children. He married Catherine Rich in 1870 in Toronto and
she gave him four children. The marriage record shows both bride and groom as
Wesleyan Methodists. It also shows him to be a widower.
Married to
Catherine, our John appears again in the 1871 census as a carpenter (and
Methodist). Catherine died in Toronto
in 1877. In her autobiography, Norma Jackson contended that two of John’s wives
are buried in Toronto.[2]
In 1881 John
Janes Symonds married a third woman, a widow, Alice Louise Weeks, in
Toronto. Alice had been married to a man called Macdonald and a child, George
Symonds, born in 1879 may therefore have originally been George Macdonald.
Alice would have three more children by her second husband, two in Toronto and
one in, probably, Regina.
The family fell
on hard times in Toronto and his eldest daughter Lucy Hannah was taken out of
school when about ten years of age and put into domestic service. Seeking
better opportunities, John finally moved his family west from Toronto to Regina
about 1885. The family arrived just before the completion of the railway and
the last part of the trip across the Prairie was made by means of a two-wheeled
covered wagon known as a Red River Cart.
The Regina census of 1891 shows John and
Alice living with seven children. John is a carpenter.
By 1906, at the time of his retirement,
John Janes Symonds called himself a builder and contractor. Soon after retiring
he moved to Kelowna, BC with, probably, his wife. However she is thought to
have left him and moved to the coast about 1914. John Janes died in 1922 and is
buried in Kelowna City Cemetery, Row 3 L29, in an unmarked grave. The death certificate
gives his second name (incorrectly) as James and his mother’s maiden name,
Janes.
John’s widow Alice lived with a son in
North Vancouver until her death there in 1949. She and at least one son, John,
are buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Burnaby, BC.
Lucy Hannah Symonds, the eldest daughter of John and his second wife
Catherine, disliked her stepmother and once Lucy Hannah had married there was
little contact between her and her half-siblings. Adversity undoubtedly
strengthened the bonds between Lucy Hannah and her sister Gertrude, and they
remained close wherever they lived. Aunt Gertie, as her nieces called her,
married another Englishman, Albert Weeks, “a good piano[3]
player but a disinterested farmer”, and, though the two sisters often visited
one another, Gertrude lived out her years on a farm at Richardson,
Saskatchewan. Lucy Hannah’s sister Lydia died at the age of seven. Her brother
Willie[4]
is thought to have moved to the United States, married, had a child and died
in, probably, Seattle, WA.
Lucy Hannah
Symonds married George Alfred Bratt
Jackson in Regina in 1895. Their travels and their children are described
in the article Jackson. Lucy Hannah died in 1958 at the age of 85 in
Saanich, a suburb of Victoria, BC. Her daughter Gertrude dispersed her cremated
remains in Victoria.
Although little
is known of them, some Symonds descendants may have adopted the spelling
Simonds.
Sources: Information taken from the Birthday book, handwritten family tree,
and autobiography, Norma’s Yesteryears, of Norma Merriel Jackson; Toronto census
1871; Regina census 1891; Kelowna cemetery records; two marriage records and
death certificate of John Janes Symonds; death registration of Alice Louise
(Weeks) Symonds; birth, marriage and death registrations of Norman Edmonton
Symonds; death registration of John Symonds; International Genealogical Index
®; the website of John Symonds, Cronulla, Australia, whose book Which
Frances Symonds? Cornish Oak or Australian Eucalypt?
was published in 1993 in Australia; GENUKI websites; Directory of the Province
of Ontario, 1857 - part of FTM Family Archive CD 204; Report of the Devon
Record Office 28 Feb. 2001; reports (2000)
of The Genealogy Research Library, Toronto.
Updated 25 October 2001
[1] Five miles from the port of Torquay from which anecdotal history says John Janes Symonds sailed for Canada.
[2] Reportedly together in the “Parliament Hill” Cemetery; however neither the graves nor the cemetery have been found.
[3] He toured at one time as an entertainer.
[4] The names Lucy, Lydia and William reflect names of John Janes Symonds’ probable siblings.