Who was George Drewie?

    "I promise that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us and as our posterity reads of our life's experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us..."   Spencer W. Kimball 

   

George Franklin                      William Miles Franklin                               Richard Hector Francis

Who was George Drewie?  Let's find out 

George Drewie is better known to his descendants, as Hugh Drury. Richard Hector Francis Drury is a direct descendant of Hugh Drury.

When I first starting working on our trees I had very little to go on  Richard’s roots thus our sons and grandchildren as well - it seemed such an impossible task to create a tree.  At that time we had no idea his paternal line began in 1600’s in the United States. Yes there was some information about a Drury ancestor coming to Canada at some point but I had no dates and not sure there were names either, so much has happened since then it is difficult to remember the timeline of how Richard’s line came together.

However, found that as soon as I started to enter names into his parental line of the DRURY-PAIEMENT ARBRE on Ancestry, hints started popping up. On-line research found a great deal of information to help me fill in history and blanks or confirm facts – the stuff that makes genealogy fun and brings ancestors to life.

One of the helpful people I came across was Michael Drury of Boston Mass.,( he and Richard would be second cousins several times removed).  And it is he I have depended on for the correct facts or the ‘version’ I am willing to back until new information and resources come along. As you have likely figured out doing family genealogy is never ending and some information or facts may change so one needs to approach it with an open mind and be able to make changes when needed.

Let’s get started on Hugh Drury, Richard’s 9^th great grandfather.   To quote from Michael Drury who has been researching the Drury line for at least 15 years.

 "I am a descendant of George Drewrie, who was in fact Hugh Drury of Sudbury, MA and later Boston. I am interested in John Freeman (not related to Edmond) as he traveled with George and is found in Sudbury records with Hugh. Court records show that Hugh's birth date and George's overlap. It was the genealogist C.E. Banks (a Hugh Drury descendant) that stated George Drewrie is from East Grinstead, but now that birth records are available for the parish, it is clear he is not.”

This just gives you a small glimpse into the type of genealogy brick walls one comes up against and when researching thousands of names the brick walls and conflicting facts are numerous, promise me I have them in both the trees I am working on.

And again Michael Drury tries to clear up some misconceptions. Yet they go on and on…

From a post on genealogy.com

September 2009

Seeking parents of OBED DRURY born about 1585 London, Middlesex, England and died there about 1663.His wife is unknown but born to the marriage were at least two children: Lydia born abt 1618 and HUGH, carpenter born about 1616 or 1617. If you know anything about this DRURY family, I would very much like to hear from you. Ruth

Michael responded a week later.

Ruth

I have been researching the family of Hugh Drury of Boston for ten years. There is no solid proof that his father was named Obed. This is a family tradition found in the work of Edwin Drury who did extensive research on the family in the late 1800s.I have searched exhaustively for Hugh's roots but never found any hard evidence. My best guess at this time is that he was living in London near the Tower working as an apprentice carpenter for John Freeman, whose family came from Bocking.  Freeman was on the Abigail with George Drury in 1635 and with Hugh in Sudbury in 1640. Hugh and George are almost certainly the same person.

Hugh did not have a sister Lydia. Rather the Lydia mentioned in his will was a half-sister of his wife Lydia. After Lydia Rice Drury's mother Thomasine Frost Rice died, Edmund Rice remarried to the widow Mary Hurd Brigham and had two children, Lydia and Ruth. It was not uncommon for names to be used twice in the large families of New England in colonial times. By the time the second Lydia Rice was born, the older had married and was known as Lydia Drury. When Edmund died, his widow remarried to William Hunt of Concord. Her new family was immense containing some of her Brigham children, her two Rice girls, and several Hunts from William’s first wife. As Hugh and Lydia had only one son, John, and he was now of apprentice age working for his father, they "adopted" the younger Lydia Rice and raised her. After Hugh's wife died, he raised the younger Lydia until she married John Hawkins, grandson of the midwife/witch Jane Hawkins, Hugh's neighbor in Boston. In his will he refers to Lydia Rice Hawkins as his sister, as indeed she was his half-sister in law.

There is similar confusion about Hugh having only one child, John. This son died before Hugh, and his three children -- Thomas, Mary and John -- were raised by Hugh as his own children. Mary married William Alden the grandson of the Pilgrims, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. John died at 23 of smallpox. All New England Drurys’ descend from Thomas and his wife Rachel Rice the daughter of Henry Rice and therefore niece of Lydia Rice Drury. Yes, Thomas married his grandmother’s niece who was only four years older than him.

One final area of common confusion in early Hugh genealogy is that his son John married Mary Weare, daughter of Peter Weare of Maine, not Mary Shrimpton. Hugh's second wife Mary Fletcher, the widow of Edward Fletcher, is mentioned as sister in the will of Henry Shrimpton and as aunt in documents from his son. This has led some to speculate that her maiden name was Shrimpton (unlikely) and led to confusion with John's wife also named Mary.

I have extensive records on Hugh's descendants. Please let me know which branch you are in."

I have contacted Michael a couple of times and shared Richard’s line with him after he confirmed that one of brick walls I had was indeed the way it had worked it out. However, Michael had lost track of Richard’s line once they crossed the border. He now has that line and it likely is time I once again will touch base with Michael.

Huge/George came to America on the pilgrim ship the Abigail in 1635. He was 19 at the time.

He boarded the ship as George Drewey or Drury depending on what resource is found. His given name was soon changed to Hugh in America and the surname can be found in many forms.

Hugh is the 'father' to most Eastern NA Drury descendants.

For now I will share a bit more information as well as the direct line from Hugh to Richard followed by some of the surnames found in Richard’s paternal roots from the early years.

 Hugh died July 21 1689 in Boston, Suffolk Massachusetts -  he, his first wife Lydia Rice and their son John are buried in the King’s Chapel Burying Ground in Boston.
 In the fall of 2013 we went to Boston and walked a good part of the Freedom Trail  and found the burial ground then the grave, which has been moved since the orginal burial.   We stopped to visit with Richard’s 9^th Great-grandparents, took some photos and left a small American flag on the badly damaged headstone. Through research I had come across a very old sketch of the grounds and where to look for the grave easily found because of the condition it is in now.   It was a very emotional experience for me to truly see with my own eyes what had only been on-line or paper till then

At this time my genealogy is more or least on hold as I am comfortable with what I have found out about our roots -  there is a lot to share however and that is the goal of blogging.

The Direct line from Hugh to Richard

Hugh Drury and Lydia Rice

John Drury and Mary Weare

Thomas Drury and Rachell Rice (niece to Lydia)

Caleb Drury and Elisabeth Eames

Caleb Drury and Mehitable Maynard

William Drury and Elizabeth Drury (this was where I got hung up)

John Drury and  Ann Elizabeth Mitchell

JOHN Mitchell Drury and Mary Fairlinda Huff

 * Myles Huff Drury and Catherine Callen

George Franklin Drury and Sarah E. Law (Collins)

**William Milles Frankly Drury and Marie Aline Alexandra Paiement

Richard Hector Francis   Drury and Cathern Agnes Harrison    

* The Drury that came to Canada and married the daughter of Irish immigrants – who came to Canada at the towards the end of the Potato Famine)

**How his baptism was registered

There is so much more to share and will over time bringing in other ancestors that come to Richard though marriages

Same of the other surnames found in the early years after Hugh are

Frost, Gooch, Gleason, Learned, Atwood, Perkins, McDaniels, Mitchell, Huff,  ***Kennedy

*** The other half of Richard’s Irish roots.

 One list found for the passengers on the Abigail and a great example of how confusing it can be doing research.                       http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/abigail1635.shtml

17 Junij, 1635

. Theis under written names are to be transported to New England, imbarqued in the Abigall, Robert Hackwell Mr. P'r Cert. From the minister and Justices of Peace of their Conformitie, being no Subsedy men. The have taken the oaths of Alleg: and Supremacy being all Husbandmen:

    Ralph Wallis 40     Ralph Roote 50      Jno. ffreeman 35   Walter Gutsall 34

   Richard Graves 23    Robert Mere 43    Samvell Mere 3   Edmund Maning 40

    Tho: Jones 40         Geo: Drewie 19      Wm Marshall 40   Thomas Knore 33

    John Holliock 28      George Wallis 15   Rebecca Price 14    Marie ffreeman 50

    Elizabeth Mere 30    Jo: ffreeman 9    Sycillie ffreeman 4     Jo: West 11

    Mary Moninges 30    Mary Monninges 9     Anna Monnings 6   Michelaliell Moninges 3

    Elizabeth Ellis 16    Ellis Jones 36      Isacke Jones 8   Hester Jones 6

    Tho: Jones 3     Sara Jones 3mo.    Cesara Covell 15    Joan Wall 19

    Wm Payne 15   Noel Knore 29   Sara Knore 7  Roberts Driver 8    John Mere 3mo.

………………………………………………

Richard roots through his mother go back to Nouveau France and the early to mid-1600’s, they too are extremely interesting and thanks to one of Richard’s second cousins for sharing what he had put together about that side his tree filled in quite quickly, that side too will be shared eventually. 

September 29 1907

  “I was born upon the prairie, where the wind blew free,

 and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. 

I was born where there were no enclosures,

and where everything drew a free breath."

the Great Comanche war chief, Ten Bears

Written by Cathern Agnes Harrison 

Updated in Oct 2015 and Nov 2016

Was created with imagination and some fiction mingled with facts

(Not the house in the story)

Wilfrid waited outside nervously pacing, for someone to let him know when it was time for him to enter the sod house. He and his wife Mary had only lived in this community for a few months and although folks were friendly and helpful they didn’t really have many people they could count on at times like this, because there just were not many folks around yet.  A kindly neighbor had come and taken young Nellie, their twenty month old daughter back to her home until it was safe to bring the toddler back to her parents.

Wilfrid didn’t like being beholden to anyone as they just didn’t have the resources to pay back good deeds yet but this was not a place for Nellie to be right now.

Wilfrid and his wife Mary, had given up everything in their homeland in the early spring of 1907, to start a new life in this country. It was hard work for two people that had not been prairie farmers back home. They had given up what seems to have been a privileged life to come to the ‘Land of Milk and Honey’, as the recruitment poster called Canada. 

Mary had worked back in England and Wales where she had been born  but it was not as back-breaking work  it was here and being heavy with baby made for very tiring days, on top of having to do everything needed to keep the family fed, clothed and clean as well as really for the upcoming Canadian Prairie winter. Wilfrid also needed her help with the heavy outside chores from time to time.  Plus there was young Jessie that need care as well.  All this with only the few tools and necessities they were able to bring with them in one trunk. And what they bought once they arrived at their destination.

 The trip to get here back in March had been long and difficult by boat, train and an ox drawn wagon. Mary suffered with seasickness on the ship and had been thrown onto the floor of the train when it derailed.  Nellie who had been in her mother’s arms, was found laying in the snow outside the train squalling but otherwise unharmed. They all took it in stride carrying on to their destination with hope.

 Mary however, was not a very strong person to have taken on the voyage let alone what was needed to set down roots here but she was managing, Wilfrid thought. 

The young family had survived their first half year.  What the winter they would soon be expecting, would bring was only to be guessed at he realized.

Wilfrid stopped pacing to listen did he heard what he was waiting outside for?  Yes there it was again, this time much stronger, a baby wailed as if to say “I have arrived!”

 Wilfrid didn’t wait to be called; he hurried into the sod house to Mary’s side to meet his second child.

Standing by the bed, he looked down on Mary and their baby son.

He was the first Harrison to be born in the ‘Land of Milk and Honey’.

 Dad (the young boy) at a neighbor’s house

http://www.danielfrancis.ca/books/selling-canada

A blizzard of posters and pamphlets, portraying the country as a land of milk and honey, persuaded immigrants in the millions to come to Canada’s sparsely populated West and become prairie farmers. What wasn’t mentioned were the sod houses, backbreaking labour, regular droughts and long, killing winters.

That baby, Joseph Henry Harrison, was my father and he was born in Saskatchewan, which had only become part of Canada two years before his birth.

 In 1905 the same year Saskatchewan joined Canada, Wilfrid and Mary were married in England.

 They were lured to Canada by the promises and glory that they could forge their way in a young, vast Saskatchewan.  After plans were made to leave England behind and passage was booked, Mary discovered she was pregnant with their second child.

Before the family moved to Quebec in 1924 five more children were born. The reason the family moved had much to do with losing three years of crops due to windstorms and drought.

Dad remembered his parents being broken heart, tears streaking down his mother’s face as they watched their crops being destroyed by dust and wind for the third time.

During WW I the constant need for grain had destroyed the prairie eco-cultural system  Prairie plants have a very deep root system that holds the soil together, the grain crops had destroyed that so to speak then when cattle and horse were left to roam at will after the war, the soil could not hold up to the abuse.

Dad said his mother was never meant to be a farmer’s wife that she was a lady. AND my grandfather joked about the Land of Milk and Honey where you had to milk the cows to get the milk and fight the bees for their honey…

Today (September 29, 2007), Dad would have been 100.

He died in May 2000 at the age of 92, at the time;

he was the eldest, longest surviving member of the Harrison Clan.

Seventy-five plus members or so have been added to the Mary and Wilfred Harrison Family Tree since they immigrated to this great land of Canada one hundred years ago.

Wilfrid Harrison 30 June 1880 – 7 November 1948

Mary Agnes Morris  21 or 22 November 1880 –   November 21 1971

My Grandparents were married in Bolton Lancashire England 8 March 1905

 Mary Agnes was working nearby as a domestic servant at the Parsonage Nursery in Horwich Lancashire.

The Nursery was owned by the Harrison Family and Wilfrid was a Green Grocer, his father James a Nurseryman.

Grandad is standing behind his father, James.                                                     

 

the Parsonage the Harrison home

Cannot imagine going from this to a sod house. I am extremely grateful to my grandparents for having done that and coming to make a life for all of us in the best country in the world.

Google overhead of the building of the Parsonage Nursery Green grocers a kind person that lives near by sent me after I inquired on Ancestry if anyone could tell me more about the family and the business. The woman went for a walk in the area and spoke to a man that told him is must have been quite a business as he was always digging up pieces of pots in his yard. The buildings are still there but the business is long gone - have tried to trace some of the family but it is one of the brick walls I have yet  to get over. With a common name like HARRISON, it is not an easy task to search records and be sure to have the right people 

Children of Wilfrid and Mary Agnes

Nellie 1906-1990                              Joseph Henry 1907 – 2000            Jessie 1909 - 2005

Jack (John) 1911 – 1983                  Agnes 1914 – 1942                       Edith May 1916 - 2012

Elizabeth Mary1921 –        * two youngest are not in the photo

 In 1924 the family moved from the Kamsack area northeast of Yorkton Saskatchewan, to Ste Anne de Bellevue Quebec.  My grandfather worked at Macdonald College and the children attended Macdonald School where some of the fourth generation children are going to high school now.  Dad and his brother Jack both ended working at the collage too.

Eventually the family spread out around Canada and the States, Dad being the only one to stay in Quebec, it is his great-grandchildren that are now going to the school he attended when the family first arriving in Quebec ninty-two years ago.
The college, school and Ste Anne de Bellevue the town they are in has been in and out of my life now for  over sixty year.


Found at
 https://www.mcgill.ca/about/history/features/macdonald-college

The Land of Milk and Honey

Immigrants were often lured to Canada by shipping agents who painted a picture of the land of milk and honey.

A family tree can wither if nobody tends it's roots

Unknown

Revised November 2016

This is fictional based on what I have learned and feel went on.

Agnes was looking over the railing of the S.S. Canada into the fridge, murky, grey water of the St Lawrence River. It was April 1907 and late the night before the steam ship had passed Anticosti Island then moved into the mouth of the St Lawrence.  Possibly tonight would be their last on the ship before reaching Montreal, the ship’s destination.*

 The SS Canada

 From there they had a three-day train ride to Regina Saskatchewan and another day’s journey to the homestead where Wilfred, her husband of two years, would be working.

 Agnes was alone on the deck; Wilfrid had gone off to play cards with some of the men headed to western Canada to settle on land they hoped to tame.

Jessie their 14-month-old daughter was sleeping in the tiny cramped cabin the three of them had been sharing during this eight day ocean crossing to their new country…

They’d left Liverpool England on a lovely March day with one trunk and a couple of large, bulging valises.  Most of their possessions had been auctioned off or sold to pay the expenses for this new life.

 When they got to Montreal Wilfred would prove to the authorities that they had enough cash to survive for at least one winter and then purchase train tickets for the next part of their journey. 

Supplies, such as sundries and perishables, would be bought in Regina to take with them to the Beaver Hills, north of Saskatoon, where the homestead was. Necessities such as blankets, pots, farm tools, had been brought with them from England. 

____________________

Agnes was feeling another  bout of nausea. It was a familiar sickness something she had experienced for a period of time once before.  She was pregnant with their second child; this baby would be born in a new world far away from their relatives, friends and her beloved homeland.

The cold damp sea air made her feel a bit better but it didn’t calm her fears. “What had they done?” went through her mind.  “Bringing a young child into the unknown and a baby on the way?  Then again,” she thought, “that was not the plan when we had decided to leave England behind to come to Canada, the Land of Milk and Honey” as it had been promoted.

What had they given up? What price would they pay, seeking out their fortune in this cold, wet, grey miserable looking country?

 Agnes could not foresee what challenges truly lay ahead… for if she had she might have headed straight back to England.

…………………………..

According to a book, Selling Canada  by Daniel Francis

there were three Propaganda Campaigns that Shaped the Nation (Canada)  first in the 1880’s, then in early 1900’s and after War World I. It would seem   my grandparents got caught up in the second one and were convince to pack up and come to the Land of Milk and Honey to farm in the fledgling province of Saskatchewan

Not sure why they left England as Granddad was the eldest son and the Harrison Family owned a nursery/green grocer business both he and Granny had worked in. Have tried to find a clue in history but no luck so far.

 * Not sure about the destination as the records show Halifax yet a trunk that was around for years was marked Montreal .Arrival in Halifax didn't start until later in the 1900's according to the Peer 21, in Halifax, records.