A family history

To date, hundreds of documents and details have been collected from the Ontario Archives, the Toronto Reference Library, from cemeteries and on-line resources as well as my personal research. The information on the pages that follow is a brief sampling from this collection.

Introduction

This provides a brief outline relating to the history of the Townley family who emigrated from Ireland to Toronto in the mid 19th century. It is not known when this Townley line was first established in Ireland. A brief discussion of the origins of the family name can be found here.

A simplified family tree can be found here. It identifies the known, direct ancestors for my own branch of the Townley family.

Samuel Townley was born in about 1833 in Lisburn, County Down, Ireland. Lisburn is just outside Belfast, to the south-west. While most of Lisburn is in County Antrim, a small part lies in County Down. It's thought Down is more likely where Samuel's family resided.

Samuel appears to have arrived in Toronto perhaps as early as during the potato famine, which began in 1847, but certainly no later than the early 1850s. This would put him in his teen years at the time of his emigration to Canada. It appears no other member of his Townley family came with him. There has been one suggestion he may have arrived as early as 1845, but given his young age, this is thought unlikely, especially if he came alone.

In approximately 1854 or 1855 Samuel Townley married Mary Brown, almost certainly in Toronto. Mary had been born 16 June 1834 in Ireland's Coounty Cavan and emigrated to Canada with her parents Francis and Elizabeth and her two brothers, Thomas and Archibald.

A brief description of the Townley and Brown origins in Ireland are provided here.

Many of Toronto's newly arrived immigrants settled in an area called Macaullay Town, along the north side of Queen W, between Yonge and today's University Avenue. Macaullay Town (which later became the city's St. John's Ward, known simply as "the Ward") was the poorest of all Toronto's neighbourhoods, often being described as little more than a slum and a shanty town. Upon their arrival in Toronto, both Samuel and Francis lived in this area. Over the years they lived at various addresses in this area, often on Chestnut and Centre streets in the area immediately north-west of today's "New" City Hall. In fact Francis began buying up properties throughout the Ward, owning at least 21 different lots as of 1890. He appears to have lived in the Ward for all his years in Toronto. Samuel appears to have remained in the area until at least 1890.

Early Toronto city directories list Samuel as a painter. On January 1, 1856 he also became a volunteer fireman, at a time when the city relied on a number of volunteer companies. In 1874 the city established the Toronto Fire Brigade; a full-time and paid department, it was comprised of 50 men in total, including the chief. Samuel was one of these new, paid firemen with the rank of "Foreman" (the equivalent to the modern day fire hall Captain.)

In about 1861, Samuel joined the local volunteer militia that in 1863 was renamed the Queen's Own Rifles. A member of Company 2, Samuel had risen to the rank of corporal when, on June 2 1866, the QOR became the first truly Canadian military unit to engage in a battle in defense of Canada. The Battle of Ridgeway saw Canada's first nine military deaths. One of these was a Company 2 sergeant, Hugh Matheson. Upon Sgt Matheson's death several days following the battle, Samuel was promoted to sergeant in his place. It appears 1866 was Samuel's last year of military service with the QOR.

Following his retirement from the Fire Department in about 1892, Samuel worked in his remaining years as the caretaker of a fire hall on the northeast corner of Farley (since renamed Richmond West) and Portland streets, a half a block from his residence. Samuel died February 2 1896 at his home, 143 Portland Street. Samuel's widow Mary continued to live in Toronto at several different addresses. It appears for the last five year of her life Mary lived with one of her daughters in Victoria, B.C. She died there on September 9 1913.

On June 13 1896, at the age of 95, Francis Brown died while attempting to jump to safety from a wagon drawn by a run-away southbound horse at the corner of Yonge Street and Carlton.

William John Townley, born February 15 1857 in Toronto, was one of Samuel and Mary's 13 children, and it seems the oldest to have survived early childhood. Some references exist suggesting William may at some point have worked briefly for the fire department, but for reasons unknown his service there seems very limited. He mainly is listed as a painter with various locations given for his business over these years. He was active in both the Orange Lodge as well as the Conservative party.

At least four other children of Samuel and Mary re-located to Vancouver in the late 19th century. These four were Robert Alexander, James, Samuel, and Archibald. A fifth, Minnie, re-located to Victoria, B.C. and it was at her home that her mother died in 1913.

William married Martha Ann Smith on January 29 1878 at Trinity Church (now known as "Little" Trinity) on King Street, east of Parliament. William and Martha had 7 children, William John, jr (Will), Eveline (Ev), Samuel Northcote, Martha Ann, Archibald Alexander (Art), David Raymond (Ray), and Olive Marguerite.

On June 24 1891, Samuel Northcote Townley (then only 4½ years old) died after being run over by a water cart on Alexander Street, near his home in "the Ward".

Martha Ann Smith was the daughter of David Smith and Martha Anne Hamilton. Her father David was a sergeant in the city's police department in the 1850s. Several of her brothers were high-ranking Toronto firefighters. William J Smith rose to be Toronto Fire Chief from 1916 to 1919, while Frank was a long-time and highly-popular District Fire Chief and a long-time resident of the East Toronto community (today's Beach and Upper Beaches areas) with a home on Hambly Avenue.

The Smith family was also from County Cavan, and settled in Toronto in about 1838. Over 40 members of the extended Smith family are buried in adjacent family plots at St James cemetery. Martha Ann Hamilton was also born in County Cavan, however no other details of her own family background have yet been located.

William J Townley moved his family into the East Toronto community sometime in 1905, to a house on Birch Ave (now Silver Birch), just north of Queen Street. On September 7 1907, William was struck and killed on the GTR train tracks midway between Main Street and Woodbine Avenue. While walking west along the tracks he was struck first from behind by a west-bound train, and then thrown into the path of the oncoming east-bound train.

Martha Townley passed away Sept 9 1937. She and William are buried in the same Mt Pleasant Cemetery family plot as William's parents and grandparents.

Members of the Brown and Townley families are buried in a number of Toronto area cemeteries. While Toronto's Necropolis Cemetery was the city's only non-denominational cemetery, Francis Brown bought a family plot there when the earliest family deaths occurred. Once Mount Pleasant was opened, he bought another, larger family plot there. The Smith family has their largest number of burials in St James Cemetery

On July 20 1909, William and Martha Townley's son Art married Ethel Mae Clark, the only child of James Clark and Alice Thomas. James Clark was the fifth of six children born to James and Anne Clark of Sandhill, Ontario (in what is now rural north-end Brampton.) Alice was born and raised in the neighbouring towns of Milton Regis and Sittingbourne in Kent England, to Thomas Wm Thomas and Sophia Bowes. Her mother Sophia died before Alice's marriage, perhaps even before Alice's 1888 departure to Canada. It appears she came alone as her father Thomas remained in England. James and Alice Clark died in 1941 and 1944 respectively and are buried in St John's Norway church cemetery.

Images

A sampling of various images (photos, maps and other documents) can be seen by clicking on the various links below.

• • Sam Townley, Toronto Fire Brigade/Department Click to View

• William J Townley and Martha Ann Smith Click to View

  • The downtown properties of Francis Brown, in 1890 Click to View

  • Death of Samuel Townley, February 1896 Click to View

  • Death of Francis Brown, 1896 Click to View

  • Death of William J. Townley, September 1907 Click to View

  • Mt Pleasant Cemetery: the Brown/Townley plot Click to View

  • The Clarks of Sandhill, Ontario Click to View

  • Other cemeteries Click to View

Written by: grt.genealogy@gmail.com (Last updated April 20, 2021)