Our Immigrant Ancestors -- the Newcombs of Nova Scotia

Newcomb is an old English family, possibly with Saxon origin, and with many early spelling variations.

The earliest recorded mention in North America of the Newcomb name is in 1630, when a John Newcomen was murdered by Mayflower passenger John Billington, who was tried, convicted and hung for his deed. I haven't found any information about John Newcomen's parents to connect him to my lines, but the murder apparently arose from an old, ongoing dispute. Billington was from Lincolnshire, England, which is also where my main Newcomb line originates. Perhaps that dispute began many years earlier in Lincolnshire.

I have two early Newcomb ancestors in North America. The first is Mabell Newcomen Twyning (or Twining -- the tea people?!), my 11th great grandmother, who probably arrived in Massachusetts Colony with her husband and grown family in the mid 1620s from Gloucestershire. The second is my 10th great grandfather, Capt Andrew Newcomb (abt 1618-abt 1686), a schooner captain, who arrived in Massachusetts from Devon. The earliest mention of him in Massachusetts is in 1663. His son, Lieut. Andrew Newcomb (abt 1640-1708) made his home in Maine, where some of his children were born, but died on Cape Cod in Edgarstown. His son, Simon Newcomb (1666-1745), my 8th great grandfather, settled in Connecticut.

I have three direct Newcomb lines, but only one of these migrated to Nova Scotia. My 7th great grandparents, Simon's son, Deacon John Newcomb (1688-1765) and Alice Lombard (1686-1767) arrived there from Connecticut in 1760, with some of their immediate and two of John's brothers (Simon and Benjamin) and their families, as part of the New England Planters group, settling in Cornwallis. (Yes, several of my early New England and Nova Scotia ancestors were church elders or deacons.) A bit about Deacon John's life can be read here.

I'm descended twice John and Alice: from their son Capt Eddy Newcomb (1713-1781), who married Abigail English (1724-1790) and came with his parents to Cornwallis; and from their daughter Katherine Newcomb (1710-1762), who remained in Connecticut and married Noah Bliss Webster (1706-1762). Eddy and Katherine, and their spouses, are my 6th great grandparents. When Eddy and Abigail arrived, their older children were already young adults.

As Douglas Goff notes in his paper, The Ancestry of Abigail and Elizabeth Newcomb, Capt Eddy "is said to have served as captain under Gov. Cornwallis in the War of the Revolution, and to have been taken prisoner with him and his army, Oct. 19, 1781 (Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton. 1910. The History of Kings County)."

It's from Capt Andrew that my Nova Scotia Newcombs descend. Let's go back to them. Eddy Newcomb was John and Abigail's eldest son. He was named after his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Eddy (abt 1663-1710). It's not a nickname for Edward in this case. He, his father Deacon John, his uncles and his brother John Jr were among the original grantees in Cornwallis (those Acadian lands again!) and were farmers.

Eddy and Abigail had nine children, the first six of whom were born in Connecticut. Their eldest child, Elizabeth (1743-1824), is my 5th great grandmother.  In 1762, in Cornwallis, she married Eliakim Tupper (1742-1810) who was also part of a New England Planter family originally from Cape Cod. Eliakim and Elizabeth were among the early settlers of Stewiake, in what became Colchester County, before moving to nearby Truro in about 1773. Eliakim kept the only inn there, and became Justice of the Peace for what are today the counties of Colchester and Pictou.  Between 1763 and 1780, they had nine children, including six sons and three daughters, including my 4th great grandmother, Mary Tupper Fisher, whom I mention in this post.

Elizabeth and Eliakim returned to Stewiake from Truro in about 1792 their later years, and died there.

In Nova Scotia, and all of Canada today, there are countless Newcomb descendants.

The never ending story continues...

Rt Hon. Charles J. Doherty, MP PC KC -- 1

There is so much to tell about my 2nd cousin twice removed, that his story will cover a couple of posts. First, the personal and family details.

2nd Lt C J Doherty 1885

As a young lawyer, Judge Marcus' son Charles Joseph Doherty (1855-1931) served as a second Lieutenant in the 65th Regiment of the Mount Royal Rifles when it was mobilized between April and July 1885 for the North West Rebellion.

Three years later, Charles married Catherine Lucy Barnard (1865-1945) on 6 Jun 1888 at St Patrick's Basilica in Montreal. Catherine, or Kate, was the daughter of Montreal lawyer Edmund Barnard KC (1831-1902) and his wife, Ellen King Austin (1839-1905), originally from Albany, New York. As can be seen in the basilica's register, the wedding was officiated by Charles' cousin Rev James Dougherty of Kingston, New York.

Charles and Kate had five children:

6 Jun 1888 Record of Marriage

• Kathleen Mary Elizabeth (1889-1979) m Georges Gonthier (1869-1943), Canada's fifth Auditor General (1924-1939), in 1927 in Montreal. They had one son, about whom I'll be writing at some point.
• Eileen Mary (1890-1961) m Reginald Cecil Wingate (1885-1965) in 1918 at Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, near the family's country home, Inishowen (yes, that was a huge clue for me in my research.) They had two children.
• Margaret Agnes Mary Edith (1897-?) took vows with the order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
• Marcus Cahir (1898-1970) became a Jesuit priest.
• Mary Elizabeth Ann (1909-2002) m a Canadian diplomat, Jean Joseph Hubert Morin in Montreal in 1931 and had four children. 

According to city directories and census records, from at least 1889 until 1911, Charles, Kate and their family lived at what was then 282 Stanley Street in Montreal's Golden Square Mile. The address was renumbered and is now 3422 Stanley, and houses a 22-room hotel. 

I found the 1891 photo below of Kate with her two oldest daughters on the McCord Museum's website.



In 1896, Charles and Kate acquired a country home in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts in the Laurentians, north of Montreal. They named their retreat Inishowen, after the peninsula in Donegal, Ireland that is the origin of our Doughertys/Dohertys. The information at the link came to me from the Ste-Agathe historical society a few years ago.

The never ending story continues...

Judge Marcus Doherty and his family 2

Judge Marcus and Elizabeth O'Halloran had a large family of 12 children, and of these, ten survived childhood, only three of whom married and had children. One became a nun, one became an accountant and three became lawyers. Clearly, Judge Marcus' children were well educated. I write generally of his family here. Now, I want to give what information I've found about his children who survived to adulthood.

The eldest child of Judge Marcus and Elizabeth O'Halloran was Ellen Elizabeth (1844-1919). My great-great aunt Catharine Dougherty was Ellen's godmother, according to her baptismal record. Ellen appeared in censuses with her family until 1891, when she appears in that census as a lodger in a Church-run facility, together with other women and men, in Beloiel, Quebec, (about 35 minutes drive from Montreal today).

She appears there also in the 1901 census. That census form includes a column to identify those with what we today call challenges or disabilities. In that column, Ellen is identified as "mental". How sad.

Ellen next appears in the 1911 census as a lodger in a similar facility in Montreal, not far from where family members lived at the time. But in this case, the entire last column has been ripped away from the rest of the page. Ellen died in Beloeil in 1919, and is buried there in the cemetery of Eglise St-Mathieu.

Thomas James Doherty
c 1867

Next was Thomas James (1845-1894), who bore the names of his paternal grandfather and great grandfather. My 2nd great grandfather Marcus Dougherty and his daughter (my great great aunt)Isabella Dougherty McHugh, were his godparents. Thomas followed his father's footsteps and became a lawyer. He died unmarried in his 49th year, as reported in the 7 Feb 1894 edition of The Gazette in Montreal:

DOHERTY - At Colorado Springs Col. (USA) on the 5th inst. Thomas James Doherty Q.C. justice, Superior court, and brother of Hon. Mr. Justice C.J. Doherty. Funeral from his brother's residence 282 Stanley, St. on Saturday, 20th of February, at quarter to nine a.m. to St. Patrick's Church.

14 Feb 1894 True Witness & Catholic Chronicle

A much more detailed story about his life and death, written in the florid 19th century style, was published in the 21 Feb 1894 edition of The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle (col 3, pg 2). The story notes that he died in Colorado Springs "where he had gone to recuperate if possible, from the shocks that his system received from the disease which unfortunately proved fatal".

Thomas' sister Mary Louisa Cecilia (1851-1919) was known as Louisa. She married a Montreal insurance executive. P. Walter Kavanagh (1853-1905) on 10 Jul 1879 in Sherbrooke, while her father was stationed there as a judge. Louisa and Walter had three children:

• Mary Elizabeth (1884-1973) 
• Mary Louisa Eleanor (Ellen) Margarita (1886-1890)
• Walter Patrick Henry Joseph (1891-1916)

Mary Elizabeth Kavanagh
obit, Montreal Gazette, Apr 1973

Louisa's daughter Mary Elizabeth lived in New York for the rest of her life after her marriage (she had two children), but upon her death in 1973, her funeral and burial were in the city of her birth, Montreal. I haven't been able to trace her descendants. Yet. 

Next was Daniel O'Connell (1853-1878), about whom I've learned little. Did he suffer from issues similar to those of his older sister Ellen? I'm just speculating. The death notice below is interesting in that the funeral procession went from the hospital to the church, rather than from the family home, as was the custom of the time, meaning there was no wake at the family home. He was only 24. 

Daniel O'Connell Doherty obit 1878

Daniel was named after Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), called the Emancipator or the Liberator, for his ongoing efforts seeking rights for the Irish people. 

Judge Marcus' third born son, Charles Joseph had a very illustrious career as a lawyer, judge and politician. Separate blog posts will address his life. 

Anna Maria (1857-1944), known as Annie, never married. Her sister Margaret Agnes Mary (1859-1894) took vows with the Order of Jesus and Mary in Fall River, Massachusetts, and became known as Rev Madam Mary of the Annunciation. When she died at the age of 35, her passing was also recorded in an obituary in The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle in its 31 Oct 1894 issue (col 2, pg 9, middle). Her death came six months after her brother Thomas' death, a fact the obituary notes in 19th century extreme. 

Their sister Elizabeth Mary (1861-1926) married a Henry Walter Mulvena (1855-1926), a lawyer who was later appointed to the bench in Montreal, in 1895. They lived in Sherbrooke, where Judge Mulvena was based, and had three sons, 

My great great aunt, Isabella Doherty McHugh was also godmother to Marcus Emanuel (1866-aft 1931) at his baptism. Marcus E. became a lawyer, and for a few years practised law with his brothers Thomas and Charles, and after he stepped down from the bench in 1891, his father Judge Marcus. The firm was called Doherty & Doherty. Marcus E appears in Canadian censuses through to 1891. The following year, according to the 1900 U.S. census, he moved to San Francisco, California. He worked as a stenographer, as reported in the 1897 city directory, perhaps going through a period of study to get his California Bar licence. In 1898, he enlisted in the U.S. Army -- but was dishonourably discharged six months later. What happened? The 1901 census records his occupation as attorney. He is living in a San Francisco hotel. After that, he disappears. 

Newspaper accounts of his brother Charles' 1931 funeral report that at that time, Marcus was living in the Philippines. What brought him there? Did he return to Montreal for any of his siblings' funerals? What kind of life did he live? Did he disappear from his family for his own reasons? 

Judge Marcus and Elizabeth's final child was Michael Joseph (1867-1907), who died at 40 in Montreal. He was an accountant. 

Elizabeth O'Halloran funeral mass 1884

Elizabeth O'Halloran Doherty died in November 1884 aged about 58. Among the clergy concelebrating her funeral mass at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal were Judge Marcus' first cousin, Rev James Dougherty (1843-1906) who was born in Kingston, New York, son of his older brother Michael (abt 1810-1953).

Judge Marcus Doherty funeral mass 1903

Judge Marcus died on 4 Jul 1903, surviving Elizabeth by 19 years and aged as much as 87. Rev James Dougherty also concelebrated at his funeral mass. I write more about his remarkable life here.

Some of these Quebec church records don't survive as well as other records do. But in both these records, the signature of Rev James Dougherty can be seen.

What is clear to me is that the ties between the branches of the Dougherty/Doherty families were strong in the 19th century, despite the lack of modern technology to help stay in touch. In the 20th century, those ties became lost in the mists of time. I'm loving finding them anew in the 21st century.

The never ending story continues....

On this day: the Acadian Expulsion begins

My earliest 18th century Nova Scotia ancestors arrived there from New England, many answering the call of the British government to settle there, as part of the New England Planters. Included in this group was my 4th great grandfather, Alexander Nelson. The lands New England Planters received as Crown land grants were seized lands of deported Acadians. The Globe and Mail has a wonderful feature called A Moment in Time. Today's snapshot recalls that on this day in 1755, the Acadian Expulsion began.

The never ending story continues...

St Michael the Archangel Parish, serving Montreal's Mile End Irish community

As I've noted here and here, my paternal grandparents were married in St Michael the Archangel Church in Montreal in September 1909. It turns out that the building that stands today at St-Urbain and St-Viateur isn't the building where they were married, or where my father and three of his brothers were baptized.

The original St. Michael the Archangel Parish was in a hall above a fire station at St-Denis and Laurier streets in 1902. The parish community quickly outgrew that space, and a small church was built and Boucher and Drolet streets, where a cornerstone was laid on 29 May 1904. It was here in this building that my grandparents were married, and where my father, Butler and his brothers Marc, Luke and Paul were baptized. Yes, three of my uncles were named after the apostles. My grandfather said the rosary daily. What can I say? Many years ago, I met the father of a friend who had dated my aunt. He remembered her because "her brothers were named after the apostles".

I've been unable to locate any photos of the church at Boucher and Drolet that served my family from 1909 to 1915, but I did find a nice early history here.

St Michael the Archangel Parish c 2016

Work on the very Byzantine structure that became the third home of the church of St Michael that still stands today began in July 1914. The first mass was celebrated in it in December 1915. My youngest uncle was the first and last of our family baptized in this beautiful setting in March 1919, probably not long before the family moved to their new home on West Hill Avenue in NDG.

Since 1964, the church has served Montreal's Polish Catholic community, with masses offered in English and Polish. It is now known as the Church of St Michael and St Anthony.

The never ending story continues....

Our immigrant ancestors -- Samuel A. Fisher (1758-1812)

My 4th paternal great grandfather was Samuel A. Fisher, who was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1758 to Deacon Samuel Fisher and Sarah Barber. In chapter 38 of his 1873 book, Historical and Genealogical Record of the First Settlers of Colchester County, Thomas Miller writes this about of Samuel A.:

"Samuel, son of Deacon Samuel Fisher, was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire.  He removed to Nova Scotia in 1767.  He was married to Mary, daughter of Eliakim Tupper, Esq., and Elizabeth Newcomb.  He settled on the interval farm that is now owned by Mr. Samuel Butler and Mr. Patterson, on the south side of the Stewiacke River, in 1784.  He was a worthy man; he went by the name of Deacon Fisher also.  He died in Stewiacke, May 12th, 1812."

Miller also writes about the passage of Samuel's father, Deacon Samuel Fisher, my 5th great grandfather from Ireland to America this:

"Deacon Samuel Fisher was born in the North of Ireland, in the year 1722, and was of Scottish descent. His father was a weaver. He came to America in 1740, in the 19th year of his age. The ship in which he came was usually spoken of as "The starved ship". The vessel was so scantily supplied with provisions, that, long before the voyage was completed, one pint of oatmeal for each individual on board, and a proportionate allowance of water, was all that remained. Mr. Fisher once went to the mate with a tablespoon to obtain some water, which was refused him, there being but two-thirds of a bottlefull on board. Mr. Fisher's custom was to take a spoonfull of meal and having moistened it with salt water, to eat it raw. The passengers and crew, having subsisted in this manner for fourteen days, were at length reduced to the necessity of eating the bodies of those who died. Even this resource failed them; and, at length, Mr. Fisher was selected to give up his life to preserve the lives of the rest. Providentially, however, a vessel hove in sight; and their signals of distress being observed, they obtained relief, and he was saved. So deep an impression did the horrors of that passage make upon the mind of Mr. Fisher, that, in after life, he could never see, without pain, the least morsel of food wasted, or a pail of water thrown on the ground carelessly."

What a harrowing journey! This story takes my breath away. Deacon Samuel married three times in New Hampshire. Samuel A. is the second son of his final marriage, to Sarah Barber, my 5th great grandmother.

Samuel A. arrived in Truro, Colchester, Nova Scotia in about 1767, aged nine, with his older half sister, Janet and her husband Matthew Archibald. He married Mary Tupper (1766-1812), a daughter of Eliakim Tupper and Elizabeth Newcomb in about 1786, and they went on to have ten children, making their home in Upper Stewiake, Colchester, Nova Scotia, where he farmed. In 1791, Samuel A. is recorded in a poll tax roll as residing there.

Samuel A. died on 12 May 1812, following Mary, who predeceased him only weeks earlier on 23 Apr 1812. It is reported in sources that Samuel A. and Mary were the first white people to be buried in Upper Stewiake's Riverside Cemetery, built on land that had originally been an Aboriginal burying ground.

The never ending story continues...

Vermont lives lived: the daughters of Rev James Dougherty

As I wrote here, my 2nd great great uncle Rev James, the Congregational minister, married twice and had three daughters, none of whom married, and so after they died, he left no descendants. But his daughters have their own stories. Don't we all?

James and his first wife, Celia, had two daughters, Sarah Curran (1834-1861) and Isabella Celia (1836-1894). Sarah died aged only 26, "after a long and painful illness which was patiently born." She was, according to this lengthy obituary that appeared in the Lamoille Newsdealer on 25 Oct 1861, well loved by her students and a wide circle of friends. Her obituary starts in the first column and ends in the second column, and includes such praise as "Her attention to her textbooks did not hamper or mind or prevent general reading or liberal culture." Obituaries in the 19th century, particularly for women, were full of much flowery prose.


I think that the birth of Isabella, called Isabel, contributed to Celia's death, five days after Isabella was born.

Isabel Dougherty obit 

Isabel's passing on 1 Jun 1894 is briefly noted in a column of community and social notes. She died from pneumonia. She was the last of the three sisters to die, two weeks after the passing of her younger sister, Mary Louisa (1838-1894), called Louise, whose cause of death is listed as Bright's disease, something that today would be called chronic nephritis.

Isabel and Louise shared the same home all of their lives. They must have been very close. Their estates were wound up at the same time. Probate records are online and offer a snapshot into the household of two genteel ladies of the late 19th century, listing the household contents. Isabel had already started the paperwork related to winding up Louise's estate. Her signature appears in a court document. Both died intestate, and so on 22 Jun 1894, their cousin Judge Marcus of Montreal, signed a letter requesting the appointment of an administrator of both estates (who turns out to have been Emily Drake's husband). Always a small world. It took five years to wind up both estates. I tracked this from published legal notices.

I wonder if these three sisters, my 1st cousins 3x removed, knew their Kingston, Granby or Cincinnati cousins and their families, wrote to them or exchange visits with them. And did they know about their Irish cousins in Dungiven?

In the deposition signed on 27 Jul 1899 attached to Isabel's probate records, Judge Marcus mentions the surviving Cincinnati and Kingston cousins, and his own brother Paul in Dungiven.

"that the late Isabella C. Dougherty (and Mary Louisa Dougherty) ...was my cousin on her father's side and that she was also the cousin of Paul Dougherty, my brother, of the County Derry, in Ireland and of Catharine and Louisa, spinsters, of Cincinnati in the state of Ohio, and of  Isabella and Bridget Dougherty, both of the City of New York in the state of New York, all on her father's side also, and that all of these cousins survived the said Isabella C. Dougherty (and Mary Louisa Dougherty)..."

He definitely knew where everyone in his far flung family was -- almost. Judge Marcus notes in his deposition that Isabel's other surviving cousins on her father's side included:

"another cousin, Thomas Sullivan, who lived with Rev James in Johnson...Vermont who was much her junior, as also younger than all the above named cousins and might and would under certain circumstances presumed to have survived her ....but of whom this deponent can give no account as to his life or residence and that she had other cousins of whom this deponent can now affirm nothing on oath."

1877 Cincinnati directory

Judge Marcus doesn't include in his deposition the name of my great grandfather, John James Dougherty, who was also a first cousin of Isabel, as he predeceased her in 1893. I've never been able to find anything about Thomas Sullivan or his parentage -- and who were those other cousins about whom Judge Marcus was unable to provide any information? Were they the Marcus and Mary Ann Dougherty listed in the 1877 Cincinnati directory?

Mary Hoxie Dougherty obit

Louise's mother was Rev James' second wife, a widow herself, Mary Hoxie Drake (1795-1881), who brought one daughter, Emily Drake (1826-1892), into her marriage in 1837 to Rev James. He appears as Emily's guardian in several documents before she reached adulthood.

I've been unable to find newspaper stories or obituaries about Celia Hall Dougherty, Rev. James' first wife, who died in 1836 in Milton. So far.

Rev James, his wives and daughters are all buried at the Whitting Hill Cemetery, in Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont.

The never ending story continues...