Wilson Ruffin Abbott (1801 - 1876)

Born 1801 in Richmond, Henrico, Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died 6 Nov 1876 at about age 75 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Biography

Wilson Abbott is Notable.

Wilson Abbott is/was a significant Ontarian .

Wilson Ruffin Abbott was an American-born Toronto businessman, landowner and political figure. He was the father of Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada's first African physician.

Born in 1801 in Richmond, Virginia, his father was Scotch-Irish and his mother was a free West African. He died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1876.

Apprenticed as a carpenter, he left home at fifteen to work on a Mississippi River steamer as a steward. Seriously injured when cord wood fell upon him, he was nursed by a Boston traveller’s maid, Ellen Toyer, whom he married in 1830. He then moved to Mobile, Alabama, where he opened a general grocery store. In 1834, receiving an anonymous warning that his store was to be pillaged, he withdrew his savings, put his wife and two children aboard a steamer for New Orleans, and slipped away alone on the night his store was attacked. After a brief sojourn in New York, the Abbotts moved to Toronto in late 1835 or early 1836, one of hundreds of African American families to seek a greater degree of freedom in Upper Canada at this time.

After a false start as a tobacconist, Abbott became a dealer in properties and increasingly made his mark in real estate; although he could not read until his wife taught him, he was known for an unusual ability to do complex calculations in his head. By 1871 Abbott owned 42 houses, five vacant lots, and a warehouse, largely in Toronto, but also in Hamilton and Owen Sound. He helped purchase freedom for fugitive slaves, kept his wife’s sister, Mary, as a housekeeper on wages, and aided another sister-in-law, Jane, who married A. H. Judah in Toronto. As the Abbotts’ fortunes grew, they took an increasing interest in public affairs. Abbott served in the militia during the rebellion of 1837. In 1838 he was one of six organizers of the Colored Wesleyan Methodist Church, aiding in the purchase of property for it. He supported the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada under the Reverend Michael Willis. He was elected to the city council from St Patrick’s ward, which he carried by some 40 votes, and served as a member of the central committee established in 1859 by the Reformers in Canada West. In 1840 Mrs Abbott helped organize the Queen Victoria Benevolent Society to aid indigent black women, and in later years she was active in the British Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Abbotts had four sons and five daughters. One son, Anderson Ruffin, would become the first Black Canadian to receive a licence to practise medicine. Through him, the Abbott family would become linked with another distinguished Toronto family, the Hubbards, and it ‘would be Anderson who would urge William Peyton Hubbard to enter politics, in emulation of his own father.^[1][2]

In his will, signed March 1, 1871 leaves gifts to his wife, Ellen, son William Henson Abbott, a clergyman in Boston, son Anderson Ruffin Abbott, a physician in Toronto, and daughter Amelia Etta Watkins, wife of John Watkins. He also made a bequest to Mary Toyer, who he identifies as his wife's sister in an 1876 codicil. His sons, Anderson and William, along with Adolphus Judah were named executors. His will contains a detailed list of the properties in Toronto, Hamilton and Owen Sound which were distributed evenly among his children.^[3]

Research Notes

According to Catherine Slaney, in Family Secrets: Crossing the Colour Line, (page 214), Josiah Bartlett Abbott (1793-1849) and Anne Wilson may have been Wilson Abbott’s father and mother. The Abbotts were a prominent New England family and Josiah was born in Connecticut. The couple married in Salem, New Jersey, but their faith, the Salem Society of Friend meeting, turned them away. (The Friends were also known as the Quakers.) They sold their farm and moved to Richmond, Virginia. In Richmond Josiah Bartlett Abbott began buying slaves. One of these women may also have been Wilson Abbott’s mother, but we do know that whoever she was, his mother was a “free woman of colour”. ^[4]

• Thank you Shirley Gilbert for the support on this one...

Sources

1. ↑ Robin W. Winks, “ABBOTT, WILSON RUFFIN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed August 30, 2018, [1].
2. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, Wilson Ruffin Abbott, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, [2] (accessed August 31, 2018).
3. ↑ Wilson Ruffin Abbott - Last Will and Testament 1876; Toronto Public Library, digital archive, accessed 08-25-2022,Link to Image
4. ↑ [3] Weaving Our History The Isaac Price House and The underground Railroad

See also:

• 1861 Canada Census. "Ontario Census, 1861," database, FamilySearch ([4] : 5 September 2017), W R Abbott, Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; citing p. 510, line 1; Library and Archives Canada film number C-1106-1107, Public Archives, Toronto; FHL microfilm 2,435,838.

• 1871 Canada Census. "Canada Census, 1871," database, FamilySearch ([5] : 11 March 2018), Wilson R Abbot, St James Ward, East Toronto, Ontario, Canada; citing p. 41, line 15; Library and Archives Canada film number C-9972, Public Archives, Ottawa, Ontario; FHL microfilm 4,396,301.

• Death / Burial - Necropolis Cemetery. "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch ([6] : 19 September 2016), Wilson Ruffin Abbott, ; Burial, Cannington, Durham Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada, Necropolis Cemetery; citing record ID 166372273, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.