Profile: Isaac Amos Williams and Caroline Seymour Sanders

Profile: Isaac Amos Williams [1820-1886] and Caroline Seymour Sanders [1826-1896]

Isaac Amos Williams was born 11 October 1820 in Gloucestershire, England [D01545] the first-born child of Thomas Williams and Sybil Foxwell. He was baptized 5 Nov 1820 in Bristol, Gloucestershire. He grew up in Gloucestershire, and moved with the rest of the family to Liverpool around 1841 and then to Canada, eventually settling in Guelph, Wellington County. In Guelph, Isaac worked as a brewer in his father’s firm of Williams & Taylor along with his younger brothers and brother-in-law [D04285].

Caroline Seymour Sanders was born 13 September 1825 and was baptized 15 March 1826 in Bathwick, Somerset, England [D03874]. She was the daughter of John Arnold Sanders and Fanny Hippisley [D03874]. It is not known when the Sanders family emigrated to Canada but they had definitely arrived in Canada by the 1850s as Isaac Amos Williams and Caroline Seymour Sanders were married on 21 October 1850 at St. George’s Anglican Church in Guelph [D04283].

Isaac and Caroline remained in Guelph and they had their first children while living there. Their first daughter, Jane Emily Williams was born 23 November 1851 [D04285] followed by their second, Fanny Sophia Williams on 27 March 1853 [D04846, D04848, D04849]. Three more daughters would follow: Kate Julianna Williams born 4 December 1854 [D05337], Amy Seymore Williams born in 1856 [D03763, D03788, D03789] and Edith Mary Williams born 4 July 1858 [D05008]. It wasn’t until their sixth child that that they had their first son, George Williams, in 1860 [D03763, D03788, D05091].

By 1861 the family was still living in Guelph, but Isaac had left the brewing business and had moved into farming [D03763]. By 1862, however, the family had moved to Mount Forest, also in the County of Wellington, where they would remain for the next ten year. In Mount Forest, Isaac and Caroline’s last three children would be born: Elizabeth Williams was born on 25 November 1862 [D03788, D03789], Frederick Amos Williams was born on 9 April 1865 [D03788, D03789, D06182] and Edwin Lawrence Williams was born in 1868 [D03788, D03789].

The family moved to Port Perry, Ontario County in the mid 1870s [D04846] before moving on to Lindsay, Victoria County [D03789] where Isaac would live for the rest of his life. In Lindsay, Isaac worked as a bookkeeper for a Mr. Blackwell [D05448, D05469] and was employed by the Ontario Government as a sessional writer in the winter [D05469]. He also worked as a librarian at the Mechanics’ institute in Lindsay [D05467, D05469].

On the evening of 28 December 1885 Isaac was working at the Mechanic’s Institute. He was making his rounds and about 8:30 in the evening a noise was heard from the hallway. The two men who were in the reading room at the time, Dr. DeGrassi and Mr. J. Kennedy heard the noice, but didn’t think anything of it, thinking that it was the caretaker bringing up wood. The two left the reading room about nine o’clock in the evening and found Isaac lying at the foot of the stairs. The two tried to pick him up but found that he was dead with a wound on his right temple, his left thumb was broken and he had bruises all over his limbs. He had likely died instantly having fallen head first down the stairway and dying from a concussion [D03762, D05467, D05469].

A well-attended funeral was held for him on Wednesday 30 December 1885. The directors of the Mechanics’ institute all attended [D05469]. He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Lindsay [D05469, D06182].

After the death of her husband Caroline Williams moved in with her daughter and son-in-law, Fanny and Lewis Dyer in Uxbridge, Ontario county [D05263]. She herself would pass away at the age of 70 on 7 April 1896 [D05298, D05446, D05471, D05470] and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Lindsay with her husband [D06182].

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Sources:
[D01545] St Thomas (Bristol, Gloucestershire, England), England, Bristol Parish Registers, 1538-1900, "Baptism Record - Isaac Amos Williams," 271; digital images, FamilySearch, FamilySearch.org (accessed 23 Dec 2018).

[D03762] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935, Reel 42: 560, 35, 16571; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (15 May 2018).

[D03763] 1861 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Wellington, Guelph, p. 31; RG 31; digital images,Ancestry.ca (accessed 20 May 2018).

[D03788] 1871 census of Canada, Ontario, district 35, sub-district e, Mount Forest, p. 49, dwelling 173, family 173; RG 31; digital images(accessed 20 May 2018). Rec. Date: 4 Mar 2017. Cit. Date: 20 May 2018.

[D03789] 1881 census of Canada, Ontario, district 129, sub-district B-2, Lindsay, Victoria, p. 99, dwelling 458, family 469; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca (accessed 20 May 2018).

[D03874] (Bath, Somerset, England), England & Wales Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, "Baptism - Caroline Seymour Sanders," 55; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestra.ca (accessed 24 Jun 2018).

[D04283] ”Marriages," (Guelph) Guelph Weekly Herald, 22 Oct 1850, p. 3, col. 1.

[D04285] "Births," (Guelph) Guelph Weekly Herald, 2 Dec 1851, p. 3, col. 2.

[D04846] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, Reel 18: 339, 6765, Dyer-Williams; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 26 Dec 2018).

[D04848] 1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 120, sub-district C-8, Lindsay, p. 8, family 82; RG 31; digital images(accessed 27 Dec 2018).

[D04849] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS940 Reel 16: 2099; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (27 Dec 2018). Rec. Date: 3 Sep 2017. Cit. Date: 27 Dec 2018.

[D05008]

[D05091] 1881 census of Canada, Ontario, district 134, sub-district F, Toronto, p. 164, dwelling 681, family 780; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca (accessed 29 Nov 2018). Rec. Date: 17 Feb 2018. Cit. Date: 29 Nov 2018.

[D05263] 1891 census of Canada, Ontario, district 102, Uxbridge, p. 30, family 152; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestry (accessed 27 Dec 2018).

[D05298] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935; Reel: 81: 355, 19363, 15; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (19 Jan 2019).

[D05337] ”The Late Mrs. Adam Smith," Markdale Standard, 28 Nov 1940, p. 3, col. 3; digital images(accessed 6 Feb 2019), Grey Highlands Historical Newspaper Collection. Rec. Date: 9 Nov 2018. Cit. Date: 6 Feb 2019.

[D05446] "Obituary," The Canadian Post, 20 Apr 1896, p. 5, col. 2; digital images, Kawartha Lakes Public Library Digital Collections (accessed 9 Feb 2019).

[D05448] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, MS 929 Reel 1-245: 590, 35359, 31; digital image, Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada Births," (5 Feb 2019).

[D05467] “A Fatal Accident," The Canadian Post, 1 Jan 1886, p. 5, col. 1; digital images, Kawartha Lakes Public Library Digital Archive .

[D05469] "Sad and Fatal Accident," The Victoria Warden, 1 Jan 1886, p. 5, col. 4; digital images, Kawartha Lakes Public Library Digital Archive (accessed 9 Feb 2019).

[D05470] "Deaths," The Victoria Warden, 10 Apr 1896, p. 4, col. 7; digital images, Kawartha Lakes Public Library Digital Archives

[D05471] "Death," The Victoria Warden, 10 Apr 1896, p. 3, col. 2; digital images(accessed 9 Feb 2019), Kawartha Lakes Public Library Digital Archives.

[D05651] Riverside Cemetery (Lindsay, Victoria, Ontario), 3759 monumental inscription. Rec. Date: 10 Mar 2019. ID: D05651. Cit. Date: 10 Mar 2019.

[D06182] Rest-Haven Memorial Park (Eugene, Lane, Oregon). Rec. Date: 30 Mar 2019. ID: D06210. Cit. Date: 24 Mar 2019.

Conflicting Baptism Information for Caroline Seymour Sanders

So, it would appear that there are two baptism records for Caroline Seymour Sanders (wife of Isaac Amos Williams).

First there is D04436


Child's Name: Caroline Seymour
Parents: John Arnold & Fanny Sanders
Baptism date: 15 Mar 1826
Birth date: Not given
Location: Bathwick, Somerset, England



Then, there is D03874


Child's Name: Caroline Seymour
Parents: John Arnold & Fanny Sanders
Baptism date: 28 Aug 1831
Birth date: 13 Sep 1825
Location: Bathwick, Somerset, England


You will note that other family members were baptized at the same time.

I can see two possibilities: either she was baptized twice, once on her own and once with other children in the family, or these baptisms are for two different individuals.

Looking into the possibility of them being from two different individuals, given the common names, common parents names and locations, it would seem to be a very unlikely coincidence that there would be two Caroline Seymours born to two sets of parents with the same name in the same location around the same time. They could both be daughters of the same parents, only one died at a younger age. But it is the later baptism that gives a birth date that occurred before the first baptism date. So that doesn't look like it could be the case.

Therefore, the most likely conclusion is that there were two baptisms: one initially as an individual and one with other members of the family.

X00288: What happened to Caroline Seymore Sanders Williams? Solved!!

Caroline Seymore Sanders was the wife of Isaac Amos Williams. They married 22 Oct 1850 in Guelph, Canada West [D04283]. The family later moved to Lindsay, Victoria, Ontario. Isaac Amos died in 1885 [D03762].

But after 1885, I had no further records on Caroline and so had no idea what had happened to her after 1885. I checked the Ontario death records, but couldn't find her. I checked census records with no results. I even checked the Ontario marriage records to see if she had remarried after 1885, with no luck there either.

So, I put aside that X-file for some time and started researching other members of the family. When I was researching the family of her second daughter, Fanny Sophia Williams and Fanny's husband, Lewis Dyer, I found Caroline living with them in the 1891 census in Uxbridge, Ontario [D05263]. So, I had at least traced her to 1891.

I started looking for the cemetery records for Isaac Amos Williams, figuring that if I found his gravestone, it might give some clues. I knew that he had died in Lindsay, so I had figured that he had been buried there. But I checked all of the usual cemetery sites: Find-a-Grave, Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid, Canadian Headstones, Ontario Genweb Project, BillionGraves, Canadian Gravemarker Gallery and didn't find a thing.

But I had a bit of luck when I did a search on the Ontario Genealogical Society's TONI database. There, I found a cemetery reference for Isaac Amos Williams. It had him listed as being buried in Riverside Cemetery in Lindsay. The name and date matched. So, I contacted the Kawartha Branch of the OGS and they did a look-up for me. Not only was Isaac buried there, but Caroline as well. And the stone inscription indicated that she had died on 7 Apr 1896 at age 70.

With that new knowledge, I did another search of the Ontario death records with just the year and her first name and I managed to find the record. The record had been incorrectly indexed as "Caroline Seymore" [D05298]. I've since submitted a correction request to Ancestry.



Lewis Dyer is the informant on the death record, to further confirm that it is the correct person.

So the X-file now appears to be solved. After her husband died, Caroline moved in with her daughter and son-in-law and likely lived with them until she died in 1896. Now the next step is to see if I can get a photograph of the gravestone.


Sources:
[D03762] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935, Reel 42: 560, 35, 16571; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (15 May 2018).

[D04283] "Marriages," (Guelph) Guelph Weekly Herald, 22 Oct 1850, p. 3, col. 1.

[D05263] 1891 census of Canada, Ontario, district 102, Uxbridge, p. 30, family 152; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestry (accessed 27 Dec 2018).

[D05298] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935; Reel: 81: 355, 19363, 15; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (19 Jan 2019).