The Bagshaw Family
Spreading its branches to Canada almost 200 years ago, this impressive family tree continues to grow
This is the story of my grandmother’s ancestors and their arrival in Canada almost 200 years ago. This account was originally printed in a Bagshaw family-tree booklet published in 1932, when some of the youngest grandchildren were still alive to recount the stories they had been told of their family’s arrival in Canada, aided by documents noted in the family bible.
William Bagshaw was born in 1783 in Staffordshire, England, and set sail for Canada on April 9, 1817, leaving behind his wife Sarah Bolton Bagshaw and seven children (another child died in 1812 after living only a few months). Sarah Bolton was born in 1786 in Suffolk, England. She would have been pregnant with her ninth child when William left for Canada in 1817. For almost two years, she did not hear from him as his letters had gone astray and she thought him dead and went into mourning. Finally, a letter arrived in 1819 telling her that he had 200 acres of good land in Brock Township, Upper Canada, and she and her eight children, now aged 18 months to 14 years, set forth to Canada. Their voyage across the Atlantic on a sailing ship lasted 11 weeks and three days. No doubt the trip seemed much longer with eight children, including a baby, but they all survived. Sarah arrived in York (now Toronto) with her children, only to learn that William could not meet her due to a broken leg. The story retold says she and the children walked, but how would that be possible with eight young
children? Somehow, however, she made her way to Quaker Village near Uxbridge, Ont., where the family stayed for three months before they built their first home, a shanty, moving in on Christmas day 1819, so their story goes.
In the years following, as they developed their farm, they had eight more children for a total of 17. Of the remaining 16, 14 lived a long life.
William Bagshaw became known as Squire Bagshaw and was a Justice of the Peace, “marrying, burying, surveying farms and settling disputes.”
He died May 12, 1861, 42 years after his arrival in Canada, and was buried on a corner of his farm, which became the Bagshaw Cemetery. Sarah Bolton Bagshaw died July 20, 1868, at the age 82.
In many ways, the family was a true Canadian pioneer story, as they fulfilled their dream of prosperity in this new country, clearing land, developing a prosperous farm and replacing their original shanty with bigger and better houses as the years passed.
Some of their children would later purchase farms nearby. Today, William and Sarah Bagshaw’s descendants continue to live on the original homestead and in the surrounding area. Many more have spread out all across North America.