Emily Barber (1859)

Born 1859 in Canada West

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Biography

Emily and her sister Susan Ann were girlfriends of James William Young and his uncle John Young^[1] who were convicted in March 1876 of the robbery and murder of Abel McDonald. After their conviction, the two men escaped custody and spent the following summer in the barn of an abandoned farm until their location was given away by visits from the girls.^[2] After their capture, John Young was hanged at Cayuga while James William saw his sentence commuted to life in prison.
One newspaper account told of Susan Barber giving birth to a child fathered by one of the Young's. The baby died shortly after birth. In March 1878, Susan died in utter poverty, “starving to death in a hovel near Caledonia." ^[3] Susan did indeed die young, but there is no record of her baby, although Emily did deliver an illegitimate child on Christmas Eve of 1876. The father is listed as Thomas Tait but counting back nine months suggests that Jenetta was likely the daughter of one of the Young's.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Emily's older sister Ellen had married John's cousin Phillip Nellis Young in 1872.
2. ↑ Memoirs of a Great Detective: Incidents in the Life of John Wilson Murray, by John Wilson Murray, London, William Heine Mann, 1904, Chapter XVII: The Driverless Team on Caledonia Road, pp. 81-85.
3. ↑ Convicted murderers escape from Cayuga jail. The Sachem and Glanbrook Gazette; Sep 2 2013.
4. ↑ "Ontario Births and Baptisms, 1779-1899," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XL5R-F2C : 10 February 2018), Emily Barber in entry for Jenetta Tait, 24 Dec 1876; citing Caledonia, Haldimand, Ontario; FHL microfilm 1,845,206. See https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-Y3S7-GTY?i=239&cc=1784212

• 1871 Census of Canada, Ontario, Haldimand, Caledonia, pg. 21 of 34.