November 5, 2011:

     
     


William JAMES, County Carlow, Ireland to Cumberland, Ontario and buried Trinity Anglican Church Cemetery, Bear Brook. 

The second oldest person buried in the Trinity Anglican Church Cemetery, Bear Brook, was William JAMES, who passed in 1883 
at the age of 89 years.  William was a devout Anglican and a skilled mason and used his masonry skills to help build 
the original Anglican Church in Bear Brook, about 1845, which was the Mother Church of the Township of Cumberland before 
the present stone church built about 1900.  William James was born in Tully Augnish Parish, Rathmelton Townland, 
County Donegal, Ulster, Ireland,  in 1794.  He removed to County Carlow and married Catherine Margaret BUCHANAN 
(b.1804-d.1889) about 1822 and they had seven issue, all born County Carlow, Ireland.  The James family was Protestant 
Irish, but originally of English origin.  According to oral history, one of their ancestors was said to have served in 
Cromwell's army in Northern Ireland and then settled in County Donegal.  William immigrated to Upper Canada, sometime 
during the 1840s, and settled on the boundary between Cumberland and Russell Townships with his younger brother George JAMES. 

William was one of the early Irish pioneer’s to settle in Cumberland Township when it was almost wilderness.  William 
purchased the east 100 acres, Lot 28, Concession 7, Cumberland Township about 1856 when the area was still “wild land” 
with no roads and travel was by walking or horseback along rough tracks through the forest linking neighboring farms and 
villages of Cumberland and Bear Brook.  William’s brother, George, settled the west 150 acres, Lot 28, Concession 7, 
Cumberland.  William, like his younger brother, George, was a staunch Conservative and very loyal to his country.  
William James was first enumerated in the 1861 Agricultural Census, Cumberland Township, Russell, Ontario (page 17, line 46) 
as the 1851 census for Russell has been lost.  Both William and his wife Catherine could neither read nor write.  
They had the seven following children: 

Thomas JAMES was born 1822 in County Carlow, Ireland and died, 27 March 1882 and buried Trinty Anglican Church Cemetery, 
Bearbrook. Thomas married Anna Maria Byron (1863-1876) Bear Brook and they had children Jane Elizabeth (b.1864), William John 
(b.1866), Sophia (b.1869), Annie Maria (b.1871-d.1874) and Thomas George (b.1878). 
Susanna JAMES was born 1825, County Carlow, Ireland and buried 5 Jun 1893, age 67 Trinty Anglican Church Cemetery, Bearbrook.  
Susanna married George Marshall (b.1850-d.1902) of County Carlow, Ireland and they had the following children, born 
Osgoode Township, Ontario, Samuel William (b.1857), Mary Ann (b.1859), Amelia (b.1861-d.1950), Thomas Henry (b.1862-d.1910) 
who married Janet McDougall (b.1873-d.1955), Georgina (b.1866-d.1884) and George Albert (b.1868-d.1943) who married 
Louise Campbell (b.1867-d.1953). 
Samuel JAMES was born 1826, County Carlow, Ireland married Elizabeth born 1828, Ireland.
James JAMES was born 1826, County Carlow, Ireland and married Alice (b.1831), Ireland and had children Hanna, 
George, Ester, William, Ann and John.
Marie JAMES was born 1834, County Carlow, Ireland and married Gregory McGannon, born Ireland.  She passed, 12 Jul 1874, 
Cumberland and buried Trinty Anglican Church Cemetery, Bearbrook.
Antony JAMES was born Dec 1838, County Carlow, Ireland.  “Ontario Archives, Prescott & Russell Co., 1873” records Antony James, 
24, farmer, Ireland, Cumberland, s/o not given, married Sarah Ann James, 28, Canada, Cumberland, d/o George James & 
Elizabeth Ann Gainsford, witn: Thomas Thorpe & Elizabeth James, both of Cumberland, 6 Aug 1873, Cumberland.  
Antony married his first cousin Sarah, his Uncle George’s daughter.  She died 7 Sept 1875 and Antony died 10 May 1870 buried 
Trinty Anglican Church Cemetery.
Jane JAMES was born 1939, County Carlow, Ireland and immigrated to Upper Canada with her parents in the early 1840s.  
Jane married  James SULLIVAN, 1857, Cumberland Township, Russell, Ontario.  
James Sullivan was the son of William John SULLIVAN, County Antrim, Ireland to Nepean Township, Ontario, Canada.  
Jane and James were enumerated in the 1861 Ontario Census, 
Cumberland Township, as “new settlers” and farmed 50 acres at  S˝ of W˝ Lot 20, Concession VI, Cumberland Township 
which James had purchased in 1858.  Jane passed on 22 August 1889 at age 50 and James died 13 October 1906, Ottawa.  
They were both buried Vars United Church Cemetery, Bear Brook.  They had twelve children, Gregory, George, Sarah, Marie, 
Antony, James, Margaret, Catharine, Daniel, Elizabeth, Mary and John.
 
... David Sullivan