A place in history - Glimpses of the Past with Karen Webster

It is a rare occurrence when the life of an ordinary individual is touched by some event or circumstance that becomes part of history. It seems that William Jackman was destined to take part in several noteworthy footnotes of time.

 

William was born in 1797 in the County of Sussex in England. By the early 1800s, this area was suffering from overpopulation, a lack of work and high food prices. Shelter and food for those in need were provided by local committees and were funded by property taxes. Desperate agricultural workers initiated the Swing Riots, which prompted the wealthy to devise ways of decreasing some of the surplus population - especially the troublesome ones. 

 

It was felt that if the people settled in faraway Canada, they would be less likely to return to England. In an attempt to remedy the situation, the Earl of Egremont sponsored the Petworth Immigration Scheme, in which lower-income individuals and families were given the chance to start afresh in another part of the world. About 1,800 people took part in this plan between 1832 and 1837. Most families were given five acres of uncleared land, while soldiers received 100 acres. The Petworth plan wasn’t the only one that was being sponsored by the well-to-do and various charitable organizations in that era.

 

Among the Petworth immigrants were the Jackman family, William and Sarah (Lilliwhite) and their children Henry (four) and Ellen (one). Four older children - Ann, Francis (Frank), Stephen and Mary - were employed and remained in England. 

 

After a six-week sea voyage on the Heber to Quebec City, the family travelled by Durham boat to Toronto and settled in the Brantford area in 1836. That was a time of turmoil in Upper Canada as well and William became involved with some meetings that were part of the 1837 rebellion. As a result, he was arrested for treason and insurrection and was jailed for 20 days. One condition of his release was that he and his family leave Brant County to go to the Huron Tract. Sometime in this period, William’s wife passed away and, on April 29, 1839, he married Barbara Ann Smith. 

 

In 1840, the Jackman family were the first settlers in Wawanosh Township, locating on the E 1/2 Lot 13, Concession 1, in the southwest corner of the township where Nile is in the present day. The Crown granted the deed to William on Oct. 2, 1847. At the same time William took the title to E 1/2 Lot 28, Concession 1, Wawanosh (present-day Auburn). 

 

The Huron Expositor of Jan. 29, 1886, carried an account of Barbara Jackman, aged 84, in which she told of their early days in Wawanosh. William had to clear a road for a mile and a half just to get to their land. She said that, in order to mark the way through the heavy tree-covered landscape, people notched the bark on one side of the trees along the way. This was called blazing the trail. Barbara recounted that to find one’s way at night, through the bush one had to feel which side of the trees were blazed. It was a lonely time at first, because her nearest neighbour lived two miles away. Wolves could often be heard at night, but didn’t cause much problem. She said that one winter’s night, shortly after they arrived in Wawanosh, there was a snowfall of nearly four feet. William had to take his yoke of oxen to break through the snow.

 

William and Barbara’s son, James, born on Dec. 22, 1841, was the first white boy born in Wawanosh and to honour that fact, his second name was Wawanosh. He went by the name “Wab” and was the one son who stayed in the area to farm.

 

In 1868, William Jackman donated a small lot for the erection of the Wawanosh Missionary Church. Later this would be a Methodist church before becoming Nile United Church.

 

Francis (Frank), who had originally stayed in England, and Henry sought their fortunes in Toronto, where they both became captains of lake freighters, working for the distillery company of Gooderham and Wort. Through the family line of Henry William Jackman, succeeding generations had interesting and productive life paths. Henry Rutherford Jackman, son of Henry William, was a member of Parliament for the Conservative Party. As well, he built the Empire Life Insurance company in the Depression years. 
Many will recall that his son, Hal Jackman, was the Lieutenant-Governor for Ontario for the years 1991 until 1997. This branch of the Jackman family has a foundation that gives grants to registered charitable organizations for projects in Canadian culture and heritage, education, health and well-being, social services and contemporary Canadian concerns.

 

Tragedy hit this pioneer family in August of 1869 when William went to a sawmill near Nile. Somehow, he fell against the large circulating saw and lost his life. He was buried in Maitland Cemetery, Goderich.

 

So many of the milestones in history have been involved in William Jackman’s life. Social unrest in England; the Petworth Immigration Scheme; the Upper Canada Rebellion and the opening up of the Huron Tract by being the first settler in Wawanosh Township were the main ones. He had a remarkable life indeed.