The Silver Bowl: 1863 Will of Barbara Donaldson

I, Barbara Donaldson [1] of Cavananore [2] in the County of Louth, widow, do herby make publish and declare this to be my last will and testament. I give and bequeath unto my nephew Thomas Oliver [3] & my niece Mary Jane Oliver [4] and to the survivor of them and the executors or administrators of such survivor the sum of 500 pounds sterling. Upon trust to lend out, the same on good and approved landed security at the best rate of interest that can be had for the same and to receive the interest thereof and apply the same in such a way as they may think right for the sole and separate use of and benefit of my niece Eliza Jackson [5] otherwise Oliver free from the debts control and engagements of her present husband David Jackson [6] or of any other husband who she may hereafter marry with power to my said niece Eliza Jackson by any deed to be duly executed by her during her lifetime or by her last will and testament in writing duly executed and attested to a point the said sum of 500 pounds and the interest thereof or any part thereof to and amongst her children to the said David Jackson or unto anyone or more or such children to the exclusion of the others or other of them for such estates and in such shares and proportions and subject to such conditions and limitations in all respects as she shall limit and direct and in default of any such direction, limitation or appointment and so far as the same if incomplete shall not extend then my will is the said sum of 500 pounds shall go to and amongst such of the children of my said niece Eliza Jackson by her said husband David Jackson as shall be living at the time of her death in equal shares and proportions. I live and bequeath unto my said nephew Thomas Oliver and my said niece Mary Jane Oliver and to the survivor of them and the executors or administrators of such survivor the sum of 50 pounds in trust for the use and benefit of the children of my nephew Andrew Oliver [7] in such shares and proportions or disproportions to be applied at such times as my said nephew and niece may think right. I give and bequeath unto Miss Jemima Collins [8] & her sister Miss Sarah Collins [9] both of #4 Lower Rutland Street in the city of Dublin the sum of twenty five pounds to be divided equally between them and in case either of them the said Jemima and Sarah Collins should die before this will takes effect then I give and bequeath the whole sum of twenty five pounds to the survivor. I give and bequeath the sum of thirty pounds late currency now in the hands of William Charleton [10] of Phillipstown Esq. unto John Brown [11] Esq. Doctor of Medicine at Dundalk in trust for the benefit of Olivia Kyle [12] and her sister Louisa Kyle [13] . To my old servant, Margaret McCullagh [14] otherwise Coulter, I give and bequeath the sum of ten pounds sterling and if the said Margaret McCullagh should not survive me, then I bequeath the said sum of ten pounds to her youngest son [15] . I give and bequeath unto Anne Jane Quinn [16] and Sarah Birch Quinn [17] of Canada in North America whatever moiety of a sum of fifty pounds with interest lodged by me in the Dundalk Savings Bank may remain due to me at the time of my decease. I give and bequeath unto the Reverend Doctor Urwick [18] and the Reverend John Hands [19] both of the City of Dublin and the survivor of them or the executors or administrators of such survivor the sum of fifty pounds sterling in trust for the use and benefit of the Hiberian Missionary Society [20] Auxiliary to the Missionary Society formed in London in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety five one half of said sum I desire to be applied for the education of females in India and the other half for the African Missions. I give and bequeath unto Matthew Patteson [21] Esq. Of the City of Edinburgh his executors or administrators the sum of seventy five pounds in trust to be applied as follows: twenty five pounds for the Edinburgh Bible Society; twenty five pounds for the Jewish Schools of the Free Church of Scotland’s Mission [22] at Constantinople and twenty five pounds in trust for the following objects of his mission in Kings Inn Street [23] Dublin fifteen pounds of said sum to be applied for the use of his church schools and the remaining ten pounds to the Dorcas Society [24] . To the Reverend William Gibson [25] professor in the Presbyterian College Belfast I give and bequeath the sum of twenty five pounds in trust for the orphan asylum and schools in the valleys of Piedmont in Italy. I give and bequeath to the treasurer of the Ulster Institution for the Deaf Dumb and Blind [26] the sum of ten pounds sterling to be applied for the benefit of the inmates of that institution as the managers thereof may think right. I give and bequeath unto my niece Mary Jane Oliver the sum of twenty five pounds in trust for the schools established for coloured people by the Reverend William King [27] at the Elgin Settlement, Upper Canada to be applied by her in such a manner as she may think right for the benefit of said schools. I live and bequeath all the rest residue and remainder of my property and estate real or personal wheresoever situate whether in possession, reversion, remainder or expectancy unto my niece Mary Jane Oliver and to her executors administrators or assigns subject to the payment of my just debts, funeral and testamentary expenses. And I nominate and appoint my said niece Mary Jane Oliver and the said Thomas Oliver executors of my last will and testament and I further will and direct that the said several legacies be not paid or payable or become vested until the expiration of twelve months after my decease and that the interest of the said several sums in the meantime shall become and form part of my residuary estate herein before bequeathed to my said niece the same Mary Jane Oliver in testimony wherefore I have hereunto subscribed my name this third day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three. Signed published and declared by the said testatrix as and for her last will and testament in the presence of us who in her presence at her request and the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses

[1] Barbara DONALDSON, née BRADFORD (1783-1865) of Freeduff, Co. Armagh as well as of Cavananore. She was the widow of William Donaldson (1768-1815), one of the DONALDSONs who was well known for his resistance to the English in the uprising of 1798.

[3] Thomas Oliver (see also link to OLIVER family), son of Elizabeth BRADFORD & Benjamin OLIVER

[4] Mary Jane Oliver (1821-1875 – see also link to OLIVER family), daughter of Elizabeth BRADFORD & Benjamin OLIVER

[5] Eliza JACKSON née OLIVER (1815-1903), wife of David JACKSON & mother of Sir Thomas JACKSON

[6] David JACKSON (1814-1899), husband of Eliza OLIVER, father of Sir Thomas JACKSON.

[7] Andrew Bradford OLIVER, brother of Thomas, Mary Jane & Eliza. Husband of Anne HANNA and father of 7 children including: Margaret, Benjamin and Bradford OLIVER.

[8] Jemima COLLINS – I know nothing of her, but am intrigued that the second wife of Rev. William KING was called “Jemima”.

[10] William CHARLETON (1798-1875) – I am guessing this to be the son of William CHARLTON & Dorothea DONALDSON.

[14] Margaret McCULLAGH née COULTER - a possibility is the Margaret COULTER who was the daughter of John COULTER & Jane BARTLEY

[15] Unknown son – I have yet to track this family

[16] Anne Jane QUINN? – The only QUINN link I have is that of Charlotte Catherine Quin (1754-1813), wife of George BIRCH (d. 1814), although the QUINN name turns up on many wills as a witness.

[21] Matthew PATTESON – I am guessing that he may be the husband of Elizabeth DICKIE.

[22] Jewish Schools of the Free Church of Scotland

[23] Kings Inn Street Mission in Dublin

[25] Rev William GIBSON (1808-7 June 1867) For considerable detail on his life and life’s work, see “Full Circle: A Story of Ballybay Presbyterians” by David Nesbitt, pp 62-67. The interest in Piedmont may be the Waldensian Church..

[26] Ulster Institution for the deaf Dumb and Blind

[27] In time, I will write up a page, but for now: William KING was born in Newtown [Limavady], Co. Londonderry, Ireland on November 11^th, 1812 and in 1834 (age 22) emigrated with his parents to North America. SOURCE: National Library & Archives of Canada [NOTE: There may be a familial link. Mary KING (d. 1796) was the wife of Rev. James Jackson BIRCH (1740-1820) may have been related to William KING. Her father was Rev. John KING, the Presbyterian Minister of Dromora. There was also a John KING (b. 1791), minister at Ballyjamesduff who succeeded Samuel KENNEDY and married his daughter. His father was Patrick KING, a Ballybay merchant. There is also an unnamed KING, also a child of a John KING who married Mary BIRCH, sister of James Jackson BIRCH.]

Initially, the KING family settled on a farm in Ohio but then moved to South Jackson, Louisiana where KING served as Rector of Matthew’s Academy, a private school for children of wealthy plantation owners. While resident there, he married Mary PHARES, the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner. Even though he himself was opposed to slavery, his wife owned four slaves. How he dealt with this, I don’t yet know.

KING would have been in his late twenties or early thirties when his wife and son and daughter all died (of causes currently unknown to me). Just after this, KING returned to Scotland to continue studies preparing him for missionary work. He was subsequently posted by the Presbyterian Church of Scotland to do missionary work in Canada.

Sometime after he arrived in Canada in 1846, KING learned of his father-in-law’s death. He returned to Louisiana to take possession of and to subsequently free the 14 black slaves now owned by him. He brought them to Canada in 1849. Their last names reflect the name of their enslavers, either John Phares, (buried in Jackson, Louisiana) or the Rev. Wm. King himself: Amelia, Ben Phares, Eliza, Emeline Phares, Fanny, Harriet, Isaiah Phares, Jacob King, Mollie, Peter King, Robin, Sarah, Stephen Phares, Talbert King. Also included was four year old Soloman, the son of one of the slaves.

Through the Elgin Association working with the Presbyterian Synod, King had already secured 9,000 acres (3642 ha) twelve miles south of Chatham near the American border as a donation from Lord Elgin (See web site of North Buxton, Ontario, Canada Museum site). The settlement was six miles wide by three miles long (or 8 kilometers by 4 kilometers) and was situated between the Great Western Railway and Lake Erie. The land was divided into farms of 50 acres each and the settlers had ten years to make good on their purchase, a circumstance enhanced by the nearby jobs afforded by the railway to complement the earnings from the farmland. They faced arguments from nearby landowners that the black settlers would drive down property prices. Still, KING and his plan prevailed and became a model of economic self-sufficiency and educational excellence.

On Saturday, October 8^th, 1859, KING spoke at a public meeting in Armagh to raise money for this venture (This was a year before the outbreak of the American Civil War – just to give a sense of context). The Underground Railway was funnelling considerable numbers of fugitive slaves to the Elgin Settlement where they were free to settle and receive an education of such high quality that whites started to want their children to be educated there, making KING’s school one of the first integrated schools in North America. KING believed in a classical education (including both Greek and Latin) and asserted, “Blacks are intellectually capable of absorbing Classical and abstract matters”. The future Father of Confederation, George BROWN was also one of his staunch supporters. By 1857, over 200 families had gained their freedom and were settled there

KING married again, a white woman named Jemima Nicole BAXTER of Scotland, a woman who was both troubled and gifted. Unable to bear children, she was known to try to take babies that she would see on the street away from their parents. On the other hand, she was a gifted musician and taught music at the settlement. KING died in 1895 at the ripe old age of 83. There is a character in a Harriet Beecher Stowe book, “Dred, A Tale of the Great Swamp” which is based upon KING. SEE: Buxton Museum

[28] Joseph DICKIE - posibly the solicitor (1821-1877) who lived at Fairhill, Dundalk, CO. Louth and was the husband of Kathleen Josephine WALLACE