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 MARY SAXON’S NOTES:
William Leslie Sherwood Foley died on February 7, 1912 in
Strawberry Hill, Surrey, B.C. The death certificate says his birth
date was April 10, 1831.
There is an alternate birth date of
October 6, 1830. This date is in the baptismal record of St. James
Methodist church in Montreal: "William, son
of Thomas Foley, Plasterer, of Montreal and of Elizabeth his wife was
born the sixth day of October one thousand eight hundred and thirty and
baptized this twenty ninth day of July one thousand eight hundred and
thirty one by me William Squire Minister. Thomas Foley and Elizabeth
Foley parents." My mother obtained this info in the 1980’s and I can’t explain the discrepancy in dates.
I’m
sure that Thomas Foley and Elizabeth Sherwood were his parents mostly
because the name Sherwood was used several times in the family. Thomas
Foley married Elizabeth Sherwood on December 31, 1827 at St. Gabriel
Presbyterian Church in Montreal.
Also baptized on the same day
was his brother James: "James, son of Thomas Foley, Plasterer of
Montreal and of Elizabeth his wife was born the fourth day of November
one thousand eight hundred and twenty eight and baptized this twenty
ninth day of July one thousand eight hundred and thirty one by me
William Squire Minister. Thomas Foley and Elizabeth Sherwood Foley
parents."
Thomas and Elizabeth had at least seven children. I
was able to find baptismal records recently of two daughters. Selina
(sixth child) was born May 11, 1839 and Mary Elizabeth (seventh child)
was born November 15, 1841. They were baptized by John Hutchinson,
Minister on June 6, 1842 at Methodist New Connexion of the Henrysburg
Circuit in Montreal.
In my research, done several years ago, I
found a family of Foleys on the passenger list of The John Barry that
sound like they might be the family of Thomas Foley. They came from
Ireland to Quebec in 1825. Listed were William Foley (age 44), Ellen
Foley (age 24), William Foley (age 22), Thomas Foley (age 18) and
Daniel Foley (age 16). I believe they settled in Emily at first.
Although
the census records say William Foley was a shoe salesman, a hardware
clerk and a hardware merchant the story in the family is that he went
to sea as a young man before coming to Lindsay and may have had his own
ship. I haven’t been able to find any evidence of this yet.
William married Fritta Jane Greener in
Lindsay on May 5, 1869. They were married by her adopted father Rev.
James Greener , Wesleyan Minister at Lindsay. The marriage record says: "William
FOLEY, 35, Montreal, Lindsay, s/o Thomas & Elizabeth, married
Fritta Jane GREENER, 26, Clarendon, Lindsay, d/o James & Jane,
witn: Aurelie CRICE & Thomas FOLEY both of Lindsay on May 5, 1869."
MY COMMENTS
How can one man have so many different records for his birth date?
Cenus records are notoriously unreliable but there is a pattern here.
The
records referred to below are all for the same man yet
yield different birth years. A possibility is that he married a women
13
years younger than himself and so over time chose to falsify his age.
This practice has been seen before by researchers and is something we
can all imagine happening. Why Apr 10 is used instead of Oct 6 leaves a
small doubt in our minds but again we have seen this before as well.
1831 baptism record of St. James Methodist church in Montreal. b October 6, 1830
1869 Marriage: 1869 - age 35 = 1834
1871 Census: 1871 - 37 = 1834
1891 Census: 1891 - 52 = 1839
1901 census: states he was born 10 Apr. 1837, age 63
1912 death certificate: b April 10, 1831
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