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Descendants of James Wilson

Generation No. 2

2. REV. JAMES² WILSON (JAMES¹) was born July 19, 1770 in co. Westmeath, Ireland, and died May 27, 1851 in Cooksville, Peel, Ontario. He married (1) ELIZA READ Abt. 1793. She was born Abt. 1770, and died Abt. 1806 in Newtown-mountkennedy, Wicklow, Ireland. He married (2) MARY WILLIAMSON Abt. 1807 in Newtown-mountkennedy, Wicklow, Ireland, daughter of RICHARD WILLIAMSON and ALICE. She was born Abt. 1780 in Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, and died September 20, 1829 in Whitby, Ontario, Ontario. He married (3) MARGARET August 03, 1830.

Notes for REV. JAMES WILSON:
He says he was the youngest of nine children. Perhaps his brother John died young. At age six, James could read the scriptures, and at age eight could do arithmetic. He then went to school of Andrew Wilson, Esquire of Piercefield for eight years until he was 16. He then was an apprentice to his only brother, a shoemaker, for six years, until about 1791. He was later in life angry at his father who had not afforded him with a great education. After his father died, he decided to follow his own dictates, and placed himself under the care and patronage of a Mr. Griffin who lived in Clonaro, co. Kildare (Clonard, co. Meath?, misinterpreted from hand-writing). This is how he met and eventually married Eliza Read, whose father had been killed at the Battle of Clonaro. He became a clerk of Gaulston Church in Westmeath under a clergymen of the Church of England, from whom he had a salary of Ł10, allowing him to live fairly comfortably. After a year, he was clerk of a church at Bally Curley under Parson Wakely. Soon after, he joined the yeomanry under Captain Wakely, the brother of his employer, to fight the rebellious Irish. James says that his "loyalty and attachment to the Crown of Great Britain was unshaken."
      His life was saved three times in these intoxicated days of his. At one time, he almost fell backwards into a river after having jumped it from the high bank to the low had not some people chanced to be down there and available to catch him from the hair on his head from falling in and drowning. In another incident he had drunken too much on Fair Day at Kinnegad, Westmeath and upon his walk home, mistook the river for the road and fell in. Luckily, a friend happened to save him. At this period in his life, James recollects a life of "vices and sinful propensities, whoch so well suited my fallen and corrupt nature." After the Irish rebellion, he decided to move to Dublin, partly due to the encouragement of a Mr. Latters, his wife Eliza Read's relation. He had said that he was converted at the "Methodist Preaching House, Gravel Walk, in the City of Dublin."
      Next, he became employed with the Rev. Corcoran in Glenealy, Wicklow. He had to travel to Rosanna for Methodist activities, 5 miles away. Although his employer did not want to dismiss him, he had to since James was a Methodist (which he did not know for six months) since his rector had told him not to hire any Methodists. He then moved to Newtown-mountkennedy, Wicklow to teach at a new school under the auspices of Lady Rossmore. His yearly salary was now Ł120 a year, which included personal tutoring as well; this was much more than the Ł10 only a few years ago. The school then began to fail due to differing interests between Catholics and Protestants, and so James went off to Dublin again with his family, where he began preaching, but was eventually forbidden to do so because his landlord said it would damage the young trees outside his house. He then moved to Kilgobblin, 5 miles from Dublin, and kept shop for a Mr. Emerson, a kind gentleman.
      In about 1808 he moved to Carlow to open a shop on a more extensive scale. There he became quite successful and later, on impulse, moved to Leighlinbridge from influence from another Mr. Wilson, where the two formed another wholesale store there, each owning half. James travelled back to Carlow once a week to visit his family. Soon, though he realized that his greedy partner was swindling him of his profits and so he sold his business and moved back to Carlow. However, he never had the same business in Carlow again as he had once had there before he moved to Leighlinbridge. He then moved eight miles from Carlow under the auspices of an acquaintance, Mr. Murphy to farm the land and build a house. But no one would build a house for a Methodist, and his family had already moved there. He then decided to move to Stratford-on-Slaney in Wicklow where there was wealth from a cotton factory and set up another grocery store. But the town was mainly Presbyterian, and so he moved to Baltinglass, where there were more Methodists. There he sold all his remaining stock from his stores and thus ended his career in business.
      A Mr. Palmer there paid for James to go to military school in Dublin for a month. Upon his return, James was afforded to teach in a brand new school. He taught 200 children to read and write on sand and slate in just one month. However, some Catholic priests were upset at the school for allowing the Catholic children to learn about the Scriptures, which were useful in teaching the lessons. This little confrontation ended the school's existence less than a year after its commencement. James was feeling depressed, but he continued to persevere. He then decided to visit his relatives in the town of Moate, Westmeath, who were scattered throughout that part of the country. He was going to teach a school there but then decided to go to Wexford town and work under the Mail Coach Company in Wicklow, where he now got a salary of Ł52 a year. After ten months, he became a clerk to a church under Rev. Benson in Ince, Wexford in 1815, where he was paid Ł16 a year plus teaching fees. There, he attended Methodist meetings in the nearby towns of Gorey and Ballicanew. James became popular among the respectable families in the area who were Methodists. But a wealthy Captain Bowman then told James' employer, Rev. Benson, that his clery was a Methodist. Upon hearing this information, Rev. Benson, even after admitting that he believed in the principles which James preached, dismissed him at the end of the year because he was not ordained, and was a dissenter.
      He then taught the children of a Mr. Richards (a wealthy relative of his wife's) and his brother, receiving from the both of them a house, Ł60 a year, and one acre of land near Ballicanew. He also taught other children at his liberty. Two of his students were Fossy Tackaberry, who became a travelling preacher in Ireland, and John Tackaberry who travelled in the United States under the New York Conference. Finally, after having tried every possible means, James decided to depart for Canada. He sold all his livestock (two cows and two pigs) and furniture, and with some financial help from the Society of Ballicanew, was on his way. On Thursday, May 15th, 1817, the "Mary Anne Bell" left Dublin with 250 passengers. The cost was Ł5 for anyone over 14, and Ł2.5 for anyone else. His account of his voyage was published later on. He finally arrived in Quebec on June 9th.
      Reaching Montreal from Quebec and enquiring about the Society there, James received many generous donations from fellow preachers to help him get started. They then travelled to Lachine and from there to Prescott by water. At the part of the river called "The Cascades" his books were all stolen when they were given to a boy to carry around the rapids. "Thus I lost at once what I had been putting together for many years." He then went from Prescott to Brockville by land carriage. In Kingston, he found a job as an assistant in the District Academy and received a salary of Ł100 a year (for his four months it became Ł33 6s 8p). His family lived in Brockville at this time, and after the aforementioned four months, James was fired because it was found that he preached. He then became an itinerant preacher near Kingston, and he finally found happiness hear, for he was free. He was depressed upon the death of his wife (Mary) but remarried a Mrs. McMullin. He found true happiness in God.

From accounts of his life:
Although he had only been a local preacher in his own country, yet being a person of good natural abilities, a clear Christian experience, and fair education, he had been very active and useful for many years. He had been a cavalry man during the Irish rebellion, and brought a good deal of martial spirit into his religion and ministry (from John Carroll in 1860). The following explains him. "He was a small sized man, some forty-five or fifty years of age, straight and trim in his build, with a great appearance of determination in his black, fiery eyes, and a most remarkable head, having the crown towering up at an angle of forty-five degrees from the perpendicular, not unlike an Egyptian sphinx, covered with a thick coat of black, glossy hair... This same dark complexioned, severe looking man ascended the pulpit and commenced his service. It was Wilson. I thought I had never heard a man read a hymn with such force and propriety. And then his prayer was so copious, confident and powerful. He excelled in the gift of prayer. But no sooner had he taken his text, than jets of fire began to flash from under his dark, shaggy eyebrows." At one time he moved a dead crowd at a camp meeting. The power of his conviction so descended upon the people that their cries of distress and believers' shouts of praise were so great as to drown the preacher's voice, and forced him to give over. This was all from Dr. Carrolls's rendition.
      He sailed with his family from Dublin on May 15th, 1817. See his autobiography. His service to the Methodist Episcopal Church was as follows: 1817-9, Bay Quinte; 1820-4, Hallowell; 1825, Belleville; 1826, Whitby; 1827, Yonge Street and Whitby; 1828, Trafalgar; 1829, Ancaster; 1830-1, Stamford; 1832, Whitby; 1817-32, Methodist Episcopal Conference (which formed a union between the Methodist Episcopal Church and the English Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and became known as the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada); 1833-8, Whitby; 1839-42, Yonge Street and Cooksville.
      He purchased 30 acres of land from his third wife's son, James McMullin, and built a house on it where he was living in 1834 (when he wrote his autobiography that February 24-5). It was about six miles from York (Toronto) and about two or three miles north of Cobourg. According to Bob Barnes, his father was a United Empire Loyalist from Plattsburgh, New York. He said that there was a town clerk of Cornwall because he was a Tory. All this is incorrect, however. Perhaps this story developed regarding the Beltons, who did come from New York, although they were not Loyalists, since they came in the early 1800s, not late 1700s.

More About REV. JAMES WILSON:
Burial: Mimico Burial Ground, Dundas Street
Christening: July 20, 1770, Belfast (St. Anne's), Antrim, Northern Ireland
Emigration: 1817, Ireland to Kingston
Religion: Methodist

Notes for ELIZA READ:
She bore him eight children, but only three lived.

More About ELIZA READ:
Religion: Methodist

Notes for MARY WILLIAMSON:
She was a steady, upright member of the Methodist Society. She was distantly related to a Mr. Richards, a wealthy man whose children James Wilson taught. At one point she lived in Brantford, Ontario, probably on one of her husband's early circuits.

More About MARY WILLIAMSON:
Religion: Methodist

Notes for MARGARET:
She was a native of Ireland. She was a widow of a Mr. McMullin until she married Rev. James Wilson.

Children of JAMES WILSON and ELIZA READ are:

3.	i.		MARY ANN³ WILSON, b. March 13, 1794, Ireland; d. Aft. 1871, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
	ii.		REV. JAMES WILSON, b. Abt. 1800, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

Notes for REV. JAMES WILSON:
He must have died young.

iii.

MARIA WILSON, b. Abt. 1802, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; d. Ontario; m. JOHN CONGER, Abt. 1820, Picton, Prince Edward, Ontario.

Notes for MARIA WILSON:
She lived near Halliwell (Picton).

iv.

JOSEPH WILSON, b. Abt. 1804, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

Notes for JOSEPH WILSON:
He died young.

JOHN T. WILSON, b. Abt. 1805, Rosanna, Wicklow, Ireland; d. Ontario; m. WRIGHT.

Notes for JOHN T. WILSON:
He lived about 10 miles from Cobourg. His wife was American.

vi.

INFANT WILSON, b. Abt. 1806, Newtown-mountkennedy, Wicklow, Ireland.

Notes for INFANT WILSON:
She died at the same time as Eliza. .

Children of JAMES WILSON and MARY WILLIAMSON are:

4.	vii.		ALICE³ WILSON, b. Abt. 1808, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
	viii.		JAMES WILSON, b. Abt. 1809, Carlow, Carlow, Ireland; m. SHAVER, 1833.

Notes for JAMES WILSON:
He lived in Chinguacousy twp. in the 1830s and later in Wilsonville, Ontario.

	ix.		DAUGHTER WILSON, b. Abt. 1811, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
	x.		MARGARET WILSON, b. Abt. 1813, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

Notes for MARGARET WILSON:
She died young.

xi.

MARTHA ANN WILSON, b. March 05, 1815, Ince, Wicklow, Ireland; d. April 01, 1885, Spanish Fork, Utah.

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