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EIGHTH GENERATION

169. Thomas BOWLBY⁽³⁾⁽⁵⁾ ⁽⁶⁾⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ was born about 1766 in New Jersey.⁽¹⁰¹¹⁾⁽¹⁰¹²⁾ Bowlby Family indicates he was born about 1766, but gene pool records indicate his birth date was 26 June 1768. He was baptised on 26 Jun 1768 in Sussex County, New Jersey.⁽³⁶⁸⁾⁽¹⁰¹³⁾ He resided in 1797 in Woodhouse, Ontario, Canada. He died on 16 Feb 1848 in Woodhouse Township, Norfolk County, Ontario.⁽¹⁰¹⁴⁾ He was buried in Doans Hollow Cemetery.⁽¹⁰¹⁵⁾ excerpts from: THE AXFORDS OF OXFORD, NEW JERSEY (pages 64-66) by William Clinton Armstrong Shawver Pub. Co., Morrison, Illinois 1931

We now go back to Oxford, N. J., and take up the story. A young man named Thomas Bowlby was seeking employment and adventure. He fell in with John Axford daughter (sic) (husband of Abigail Hunt) and worked for him a while. He made love to John's daughter Sarah and married her.

After the birth of a son, this newly-formed household decided to remove to Canada. Mr. Axford was well-to-do, and to his daughter he gave a great wagon, a span of horses, a cow, and a young slave girl named Dinah. He gave her also a housekeeping outfit that was considered elaborate in those days, and a considerable sum of money for investment in the new country.

The Bowlbys start for their new home; the husband occupies the driver's seat and the wife and their son are sheltered by a screen.

The cow is tied to the rear end of the wagon and furnishes the party with milk during the long and tedious journey; the jolting of the wagon churned the milk and gave a fresh supply of butter and buttermilk each day.

This is the pioneer Bowlby outfit that came to a halt where the old Bowlby homestead is located in the second concession of Woodhouse. There they built their log cabin in 1797, having secured a government grant for 400 acres. The original deed with its massive pendent seal is still preserved and bears the date October 24, 1798. Woodhouse is in Norfolk County not far from Long Point, which is on the north shore of Lake Erie.

A word or two as to the after fate of their faithful attendants, the cow and Dinah. The poor cow trudged that painful journey only to meet a horrible death in the Canadian forest. She browsed in the woods and generally came home at night; but one night she failed to put in an appearance, and the family supposed she had wandered away. After several days search, her body was found in the woods; her tail had caught fast to the branch of a tree and the poor creature had died of thirst and starvation.

Dinah was the first person of her race to enter Norfolk County; she was an expert cook and a neat housekeeper; the sight of a hair in the butter would destroy her appetite for a week. In after years, Dinah wanted to marry; and, there being no one of her color near, she came back to New Jersey and married. After the death of her husband in New Jersey she went back to the Bowlby family in Canada. Subsequently she married a white tavern-keeper; but she always declared that her first husband was the better man.

Here is another incident of frontier life. One morning Squire Thomas Bowlby found a wolf in his sheep pen, and shot at it but failed to kill it. In its efforts to escape, its tail accidentally whisked through between the logs, and quick as a flash, the Squire caught hold of it, and called for his wife. When Mrs. Bowlby arrived, she seized the wolf's tail and clung to it while her husband went inside and killed the thieving marauder with a club.

The following incident is taken from a volume written by Egbert A. Owen, entitled "Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement"; to Mr. Owen's book I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness for other material also:

Thomas Bowlby was one of Norfolk County's pioneer Freemasons. During the War of 1812, when the American General McArthur invaded Canada, it was his policy to burn every grist mill his troops could reach; he burned many, but he spared the mill at Vittoria. He spared it because he was a Freemason. Mr. Bowlby met the invaders on the hill as they approached the mill, and with a flag of truce in his hand he asked an interview with the American General. An appeal was made in behalf of the wives, mothers and children of brother Masons, the source of whose bread supply would be cut off by the destruction of the mill; this appeal fell on attentive ears and the mill was spared from the torch.

"Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settelment."

"SKETCH LXXIV.

THE OLD WOODHOUSE SQUIRE WHO KISSED THE BRIDE.

THOMAS BOWLBY was one of the pioneer magistrates of Woodhouse. Before the Rev. Francis Evans came to Woodhouse, Squire Bowlby was frequently called upon to tie conjugal knots, and the knots tied by him were, no doubt, as securely tied and as productive of connubial bliss as the ones tied nowadays by the more dignified spiritual advisers of the people. Many leading Norfolk citizens of by-gone generations were launched on the sea of matrimony by Squire Bowlby. On one occasion a young German and his buxom sweetheart came to the Squire's to be made husband and wife. The blushing bride was very plump and pretty, and when the little formality was gone through with, the Squire could not resist the temptation of planting the first kiss on her rosy lips. The "smack" that resounded through the room made poor Hans grind his teeth, and clinch his fists. Any Dutchman placed in like circumstances, who could witness such a scene without entering a vigorous protest, wouldn't be a Dutchman.

"Py shimminy! Meester, vot for you do dot?" yelled Hans, as he beat the air in a paroxysm of rage.

"Why, my dear fellow," exclaimed the Squire, smacking his lips so as not to lose any of the stolen nectar, "it is customary for the official performing the marriage ceremony to take precedence in saluting the bride."

But Hans was in no mood for being pacified by an explanation he did not understand, and while the Squire tried to explain the situation, the irate husband made a hasty preparation to leave. Placing Barbara between himself and the open door, he faced the Squire and,

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gesticulating wildly with both hands, gave that officer of the peace the following farewell salute:

"Ef you vas not bigger ash I, Meester Squire, I vood knock you mit mine fisht down. You vos no shentlamens. You got no pishness mit kissing dot Barbara, und I git eben mit you fur dot pishness. Py shimminy! you git from your ped oud von mornings und your parns und dot udder pildings you vill not see.

You old fools, I git eben mit you fur dot pishness, und I not pay you von t--m cent fur dot marrish pishness."

During this outburst of pent up wrath Barbara tugged away at his coat tails, but Hans was determined on giving the Squire a piece of his mind, and he gave it. But the Squire did not grieve over the loss of his fee--the delicious flavor of that kiss was ample satisfaction for his magisterial services.

Years afterwards, while in the western part of the county, he met the man who had threatened to "git eben mit him," and Hans took a handful of silver from his pocket and wanted to pay Mr. Bowlby any sum he chose to name for marrying him. He also begged pardon for threatening
to burn his barns.

"Ash to dot kish," said the now middle-aged man of matured sense, "I vood do de same ting mineself now, ef I got a goot shance."

...

In the early years of the settlement the nightly depredations of the wolves occasioned much loss and annoyance to the settlers. Tight pens built of logs had to be provided for the herding of sheep during the night time, and, in spite of the utmost diligence, an occasional wolf would steal into the fold.

One morning the Squire found a wolf in his sheep pen, and shot at it, but failed to kill it. In its efforts to escape, its tail

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accidentally whisked through a crack between the logs, and quick as a flash the Squire caught hold of it and called for his wife. When Mrs. Bowlby arrived on the scene she seized the caudal appendage with a death grip, and clung to it, while the Squire went inside and despatched the sheep thief with a murderous club.

He was married to Sarah AXFORD about 1788 in New Jersey.⁽¹⁰¹⁶⁾⁽¹⁰¹⁷⁾ "Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settelment."

"SKETCH LXXIV.

...

The old Government deed for the Bowlby grant of 400 acres in the 1st and 2nd concessions of Woodhouse has been preserved with its massive pendent seal, and is in possession of Mr. Bradford Bowlby, present occupant, in part, of the old homestead. It was approved and signed by Peter Russell, October 24th, 1798. It was a grant made in consideration of certain settling duties to be performed by the grantee. It is said by members of the family that it was a U. E. Loyalist grant. If this be correct, Thomas Bowlby must have been the son of a U. E. Loyalist, as he was but a young child during the war of the Revolution. It is claimed by some that the American grandancestor of the family settled in Nova Scotia, and that Thomas, while a mere lad, was put on board an English vessel for the

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improvement of his health, and that the vessel was captured by a French war ship, and that subsequently he was landed at a New Jersey port. It is claimed further, that Thomas fell in with a New Jersey planter named Axford with whom he lived for a time; that he wooed and won the affections of the planter's ninth daughter, and married her, and that after their eldest child was born, in 1796, they came to Canada, and settled in Woodhouse. If this tradition be true, it leaves the connection between Thomas Bowlby and the U. E. Loyalists in the dark. A U. E. Loyalist was a subject of Great Britain who lived in one of the thirteen colonies, and who remained loyal to the Crown when the colonies threw off their allegiance in 1776. If it was Thomas Bowlby, of Woodhouse, who was on the vessel captured by a French man-of-war, he must have been a mere child, as the event must have occurred previous to the treaty of peace, in 1783, and even at this date Thomas Bowlby could not have been more than thirteen years old.

...

Thomas Bowlby married Sarah Axford, daughter of a

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wealthy planter in New Jersey. He had six sons--Axford, Richard, Thomas, Woolster, John Alexander and Abraham; and one daughter, Martha Ann. The eldest was born in New Jersey, and the others in Woodhouse.

...

Richard Bowlby, the second son, died young.

...

Woolster Bowlby, the fourth son, died young, as did also ABRAHAM,
Sarah AXFORD⁽³⁾ ⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ was born in 1777 in Oxford, Sussex, New Jersey.⁽¹⁰¹⁸⁾ She resided in 1809 in Woodhouse London district, Canada.⁽³⁶⁸⁾ She died in Woodhouse, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada.⁽¹⁰¹⁹⁾ She was also known as Sally.⁽¹⁰²⁰⁾ Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey: Vol.2 P.7 Abigail Hunt married John Axford, son of Quakers John and Anna (Beach) Axford who settled in Oxford Twp, Warren Co. (now) about 1730. John and Abigail"s daughter Sara married Thomas Bowlby Thomas BOWLBY and Sarah AXFORD had the following children:

+312 i. Axford BOWLBY.
313 ii. Richard Woolson BOWLBY⁽¹⁰²¹⁾ ⁽¹⁰²²⁾⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾⁽¹⁰²³⁾⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ was born between 1795 and 1800.⁽¹⁰²⁴⁾ He was baptised on 6 Sep 1807.⁽¹⁰²⁵⁾ He probably died young in Ontario as his name did not appear in the
partial census of 1812.
+314 iii. Thomas William BOWLBY Jr..
+315 iv. Martha Ann BOWLBY.
316 v. Wooster BOWLBY⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ was born between 1804 and 1808 in Woodhouse, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada.⁽¹⁰²⁶⁾ He died before 1812 in Woodhouse Township, Norfolk County, Ontario.⁽¹⁰²⁷⁾⁽¹⁰²⁸⁾ He died young.
+317 vi. John Alexander BOWLBY.
318 vii. Abraham BOWLBY⁽¹⁰²⁹⁾⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾ was born about 1805 in Woodhouse, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada.⁽¹⁰³⁰⁾⁽¹⁰³¹⁾ He died young. Died young in Ontario