James William Laidlaw (1763 - 1829)

Born 4 Apr 1763 in Phawhope, Ettrick, Selkirk, Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Helen (Scott) Laidlaw — married 1790 in Ettrick, Selkirk, Scotland

Descendants

Died 13 Feb 1829 at age 65 in Esquesing Township, Halton, Upper Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Bruce Laidlaw [send private message]

James Laidlaw migrated from Scotland to Canada.

Biography

James, the son of Robert Laidlaw and Elizabeth Bigger, was born and baptised in Ettrick Parish^[1], in the Scottish Borders. He emigrated from Scotland with his wife Helen Scott to York in Upper Canada and then to the Scotch Block in what is now Halton County (Halton Region) of the Province of Ontario.

The Scotch Block in Esquesing Township, Halton County, was first settled by James and John Stewart from Perth, Scotland. James Laidlaw wrote to his son Robert in 1819:

"We are mostly all Scotchmen and have got a township to be all together, or what is called a parish in Scotland. They give 60,000 acres for one Township. There are a great many people settling here." Beginning in 1820, church services were held at the Laidlaws' farm, led by various itinerant Presbyterian ministers. A meeting house was built in 1824. ^{[2] [3]}

Father of : ^[4]

• Mary Scott Laidlaw (Murray) (1791 - 1847) (Note that Mary was married to Robert Murray born 1799 - this led to understatement of wife's age.)
• Robert Murry Laidlaw (1792 - 1874)
• Andrew Laidlaw (1794 - 1874)
• James Laidlaw (1796 - 23 Jul 1886)
• William Laidlaw (1798 - 1839)
• Walter Laidlaw (1799 - 1873)

From the biography of Canadian author, Alice Monroe:

"James Laidlaw (1763–1829), left Scotland for Canada in June 1818 with two of his sons, Walter and Andrew, his daughter, a grandson, and a pregnant daughter-in-law, Agnes, ” ^[5]

Place of Burial: Boston Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Esquesing township, Halton County, Ontario, Canada. ^[6]

Letters of James Laidlaw

James Sr. was quite the letter writer and copies still exist of the letters that he wrote home to Scotland and to his sons. One of James's letters to his son Robert (excerpted above) was transcribed and published in "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine" by John Wilson.

Another letter, still in the Ontario Archives in 1997, was written by James to William Lyon Mackenzie, publisher of "The Colonial Advocate" in York (now Toronto) of Upper Canada.

"Esquesing, January 8, 1827

Very Dear Sir: -

. . .

Times being bad in Scotland after the War and old shepherds like me being not much thought of when we get old, I thought of coming to America . . .

But I could not get away as stock was so low and it could not be turned into money but times was better in two years so I sold all that I had and came away [in] 1818 . . . ^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ [Ettrick Parish Baptisms]
2. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Scotch Block, Ontario," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scotch_Block,_Ontario&oldid=807271299 (accessed November 3, 2017, with corrections from Oct. 14, 2020).
3. ↑ Note that the original transcription of this letter shows it signed as: " ... your loving father till death. JAMES LAIDLAW " Laidlaw family letters collected by Howard S. Anderson (Ontario Genealogical Society # 7031) 1970s - 1998.
4. ↑ Scheiding, J. Elizabeth. Langford, Westman and Related Families: Their History and Genealogy, Pro Familia Publishing, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Publ. 1999 Chart No. 21
5. ↑ Mentioned in biography of notable descendant, Canadian author Alice Munro. Excerpt From: Thacker, Robert 'Alice Munro, Writing Her Lives', 2005. Apple Books.
6. ↑ Find A Grave image for James Wm Laidlaw Sr.
7. ↑ The Colonial Advocate. Communications. Publ. 18 January 1827. York, Upper Canada. (Ontario Archives, Microfilm N8, Reel 1.) Transcribed in September, 1997 by Howard. S. Anderson, grandson of William Laidlaw (1856-1934) of Lion's Head, Ontario, Canada.

See also:

• Thacker, Robert. 'Alice Munro, Writing Her Lives', 2005.
• Scheiding, J. Elizabeth, Langford, Westman and Related Families: Their History and Genealogy." Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Pro Familia Publishing (1999), Chart number 21.
• Laidlaw family tree and records, collected by Howard S. Anderson (Ontario Genealogical Society # 7031) 21 April 1993.
• http://www.geni.com/people/James-Laidlaw/6000000022920457470
• Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 30 April 2018), memorial page for James William Laidlaw, Sr (16 Apr 1763–13 Feb 1829), Find A Grave Memorial no. 118232697, citing Boston Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Halton Hills, Halton Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Patricia Jackson (contributor 47297496) .
• Much of the information on the children originally came from the Find a Grave source on the profile of his son James. The connection of those graves was made possible by the Canadian census data and marriage records. This data was used and confirmed more than twenty years ago by the family research for the Scheiding publication and Laidlaw family tree listed above. (JA, Oct 2020)