Timothy Murphy
by R. Robert Mutrie
by R. Robert Mutrie
In the formative year of 1791 the Long Point Settlement was an unbroken wilderness except for a handful of hardy pioneers who set foot here and started to cut some trees for their log cabins. Timothy Murphy, one of these earliest pioneers, found his way into the woods of present Walsingham Township, Norfolk County at the neck of Long Point. Previously unwritten, his American colonial background included exceptional adventure during the turbulent eighteenth century. Murphy provided us with a tantalizing hint of a fascinating childhood adventure in his Upper Canada Land Petition of March 7, 1798 filed to the Land Board of Upper Canada stating: “Petitioner was Purchased when a child from the Indians by Sir William Johnson.”[i]
How did a European child come to be among the Indians? Recently the author heard from Fields family historian Jim O’Neil who located a Baskins family history identifying our Norfolk County pioneer, whom we know as Timothy Murphy, with a three-year-old abducted son of William Baskins, a colonial farmer in south-western Pennsylvania. The following is a quote from Rupp’s 1846 history of the area:[ii]
“At one time when Mr. William Baskins, granduncle to Cornelius and James Baskins, having a crop of grain on what is now called Duncan's Island (having however previously removed his family to Fort Hunter for security) returned with part of his family to cut the grain; and while engaged, all on a sudden they were startled by a yell or whooping of Indians, who were hard by; however, on discovering they were neighbors, their alarms were quieted; but, alas! They were deceived; for the barbarous savages, as soon as near enough, gave them to distinctly understand that their object was their scalps! At this moment they all fled in consternation hotly pursued, towards the house, and when there, Mr. Baskins, in the act of getting his gun, was shot dead andscalped; his wife, a daughter of about seven, and a son three years old were abducted.”
Rupp’s history continues with a positive identification of the Baskins boy and Timothy Murphy by a relative:
“The lad who was taken at the same time was carried to Canada, where he was raised by Sir William Johnson, not knowing the name of the boy, when he was baptized by a missionary was named Timothy Murphy. He was afterwards discovered by Alexander Stephens, Mr. James Stephens father, who resides in Juniata Township, Perry County, by some peculiar mark on his head. He has visited his friends in Perry. James Smith, his nephew, when at Canada in defense of his country, during the late war (1812), visited him [Murphy] and found him comfortably situated near Malden in Upper Canada (Ontario), and the owner of a large estate.”
The leading sentence of this quote requires comment from a historical perspective. Sir William Johnson was Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Johnstown on the Mohawk River in New York from 1756 to his passing in 1774. Although he led an exploratory mission along the north shore of Lake Erie to Fort Detroit in 1761, Sir William never lived in Canada.[iii]
Murphy’s land petition of May 24, 1809 clarifies his residency on the Mohawk River in New York. He noted his “many years” of employment as a gunsmith in the colonial Indian Department under Sir William Johnson, and that he joined the Royal Standard under Sir John Johnson on the Mohawk River at the breaking out of the Rebellion in America.[iv] He would have been in the Johnson family care from the age of three in 1756 and employed with them until the time of the American Revolution in 1776 at age twenty-three.
Timothy’s first three years of life as a Baskins were on Duncan’s Island at the confluence of the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers in southwest Pennsylvania. This area is about 1.6 kilometres northeast of the present town of Duncannon and 24 kilometres northwest of the state capital in Harrisburg.
The following information was extracted from “The Baskin Family” by Raymond Martin Bell, Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, PA, excerpted by Karen J. Lambertsen.
“The father of William Baskins [Timothy’s father], probably John Baskins [Timothy’s grandfather] moved to Paxton Twp., Lancaster (now Dauphin) County, Pennsylvania from Chester Co. about 1737. The Paxton region was purchased from the Indians and opened for settlement in 1736. This was located south of the Blue Mountains near present Harrisburg.
“On 19 Apr 1744, William Paxton joined a group from Paxton including Francis Ellis and Thomas McKee to investigate the murder of John Armstrong, an Indian trader near Mount Union.
“William Baskins served under Capt. Thomas McKee in the Colonial Militia in 1747-48. The next year in 1749 the land east of the Susquehanna River and north of the Blue Mountains was purchased from the Indians. In the 1750-51 tax list for the Narrows of Paxton Twp. are listed James, William and Francis Baskins. They were located at the mouth of the Juniata River on or near Big and Duncan’s Islands. Francis was listed as a trader.
“A deed at Harrisburg (1839) recites: ‘In the latter part of the year 1749 Joseph Thornton, Michael Paxton, George Clark, and Francis Baskins settled and made improvements upon the Island called the Big Island.” William Baskins settled on the smaller, adjoining, Duncan's Island, and James Baskins on the west shore. When the Proprietaries had Big Island surveyed Nov 13, 1760, it was known as ‘Baskins Island’.
The 1750’s go down in history as a turbulent decade in southwest Pennsylvania with frequent Indian attacks on the European settlers. Bell’s account continues:
“Fort Hunter was defending the gap in the Blue Mountains through which the Susquehanna flowed. Another fort a few miles up the river was planned at Armstrong's (now Halifax, PA). On June 7, 1756 they began to fell timber for the fort which was to be built where there was an abundance of pine. Two hundred logs, 30 feet long, were squared. On July 1, there was an officer with 30 men at the fort, called Fort Halifax. William Baskins supplied 1660 feet of pine boards. The Province paid his estate 6 lb, 12, 0 for them on April 15, 1757.
“Evidently before William Baskins fled in October 1755 to Fort Hunter or Paxton, he put in a crop of wheat. In July 1756 he returned to Duncan’s Island to try to harvest it. Indians were rather active, having challenged Fort Granville (now Lewistown) on July 22. On July 29 the Indians came down the river and killed William Baskins and took as prisoners his wife Mary, and his children. The next day Fort Granville was attacked and burned by the French and the Indians. Cumberland County and Paxton were panic-stricken. On Aug 21 the inhabitants petitioned the authorities at Philadelphia for help.
“Col. John Armstrong marched from Carlisle to Kittanning and defeated the Indians, relieving some of the pressure. It was not safe to return to the Juniata. It was necessary to run boats of supplies from Harris' to Fort Augusta (Sunbury). Among the "battoe men" were Thomas Baskins and Francis Ellis 1757-58, as well as other neighbors. By the summer of 1761 a few settlers ventured back. By 1762 there were quite a number. Francis Baskins died in the summer of 1761, probably before he could return. So James Baskins was the only brother left, although Francis' widow returned to Big Island, and William's widow remarried Francis Ellis and lived nearby.
From The Pennsylvania Gazette, Thursday, August 5, 1756.
“We have Advice from Cumberland County, that on the 22d ult about 60 Indians appeared before Fort Granville, and challenged the Commander of it to come out and fight them; but that he being but weak-handed, did not think proper to accept of the Challenge; that they fired at, and wounded, one of the Men that belonged to the Fort in the Thigh, who happened to be a little Way from it, but not so badly but that he got safe in; that they lurked about the Place for some Time, expecting to catch some of our People, but they being upon their Guard, were disappointed; and that then they went off, after shooting down all the Cattle they could find.
“We hear further from the same Place, that on Thursday last twelve Indians (Part of those that were at Fort Granville) went to the Plantation of one Baskins, near Juniata, whom they murdered in a cruel Manner, burnt his House, and carried off his Wife and Children; That one Hugh Carroll and Family were made Prisoners about the same time by some Indians, who asked Carroll a great many Questions, particularly with respect to the Strength of Harris's, Hunter's and McKee's Forts; and said they would soon shew him a great Number of French and Indians, who, they told him, were coming down to fall upon this Province; but that he, notwithstanding they thought they had tied him very securely, made Shift to untie himself in the Night, and made his Escape."
This dates Baskins’ death and his three-year-old child’s abduction as July 29, 1756. Letters of administration in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania were issued to James Baskins and Arthur Forster in the William Baskins estate on August 28,1756.
The Rupp historical account of Baskins’ death and his family’s abduction started above continues:[v]
“Mrs. Baskins affected her escape from the Indians somewhere near Carlisle; the daughter was taken to the Miami country, west of the Ohio, then an unbroken wilderness, where she was detained for more than six years, when in conformity to a treaty made with the Indians, she was delivered up, and returned. She was afterwards married to Mr. John Smith, whose son James is now residing in Newport, Perry County, and to whom I am indebted for this interesting tradition. The lad who was taken at the same time was carried to Canada, where he was raised by Sir William Johnson, not knowing the name of the boy, when he was baptized by a missionary was named Timothy Murphy. He was afterwards discovered by Alexander Stephens, Mr. James Stephens’ father, who resides in Juniata Township, Perry County, by some peculiar mark on his head. He has visited his friends in Perry. James Smith, his nephew, when at Canada in defense of his country, during the late war (1812), visited him and found him comfortably situated near Malden in Upper Canada (Ontario), and the owner of a large estate.”
“The Journal of George Croghan” noted: “Sept 19, 1759 Pittsburgh – Delawares delivered me “Mary Baskins and two white boys”. This was the widow and two unknown boys. The records of Col. Henry Bouquet list Nov 15, 1764 -- Peggy Baskin “taken from the English Camp at the forks of the Muskingum to Fort Pitt”.[vi] This was daughter Margaret.
At Johnstown, New York young Timothy learned the trade of gunsmith in the employ of Sir William Johnson’s Indian Department. In the breaking out of the American Revolution in 1776, he supported Sir William's successor, Sir John Johnson in the Loyalist cause and went with Sir John to Upper Canada. He continued as a blacksmith in the Indian Department from 1776 at Forts Niagara and Detroit (in British hands until 1796), and served militarily in Chief Joseph Brant’s Volunteers. He kept up his employment in the Indian Department until after the war.[vii] The Bell account also mentioned Murphy was present at Fort Michilimackinac another British frontier outpost near present Sault Ste. Marie.
In the 1783 Census of Niagara, Timothy Murphy, aged 28 years old, was listed as late of Brant’s Volunteers. Those who had a wife and children were listed with their family. Murphy was listed singly.[viii]
Murphy obtained permission from Colonel John Butler to seek out land for settlement. At that time, Butler sat as the head of the Land Board of the Nassau District of Upper Canada, as the Niagara Region was then known. In the presence of Major Powell, Butler gave authority to Murphy to settle at Long Point. These events were detailed in Murphy’s petition of December 10, 1795:[ix]
“... applied 5 years ago to Colonel Butler, then at the head of the
Land Board for the District of Nassau, now the Home District, for
vacant lands of the Crown whereon he might settle... informed in
the presence of Major Powell to take 400 acres at or near a creek
called Trading House Creek, since known by the name of Murphy's
Creek, near Long Point, until the same could be surveyed... would
then have the grant... made settlement there, built a good house
thereon; remained on the premises two winters....”
-Timothy Murphy
10 Dec 1795
Murphy’s arrival on Long Point Bay was prior to the surveys and previous to the time of our Province’s first administrator Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, probably in 1791. Developing this date required some calculation. Murphy's August 1797 petition stated that he was called back into the service at Detroit from Long Point four years earlier which placed that event in 1793. In the December 1795 petition, he stated that he spent two winters on the land before going to Detroit, taking us back then to 1791.
There is a possibility that Murphy heard of the area from a fellow erstwhile resident of Fort Detroit. In 1790, Asa Holmes moved from Detroit to settle on land fronting on Long Point Bay, later known as Troyer's Flats, Lot 20, Concession 1, Walsingham Township. In the fall of 1790, Holmes sold out to John Troyer who settled in the spring of 1791 and Troyer became the first permanent settler. Along with Troyer came John Foryea whose biography appeared in The Long Point Settlers Journal, Volume 4, Number 4.
Murphy chose 400 acres of fertile land to the west of Troyer on a creek which bore an early name of Trading House Creek and which he renamed Murphy’s Creek. He built a house near the mouth of the creek at the neck of Long Point and made improvements on what later surveyed under the description of Lot 14, Concession A, Walsingham Township.[x] Murphy continued on his land during the winters of 1791-2 and 1792-3. In 1793, Lucas Dedrick settled on the lot adjoining Murphy in the east—Lot 15, and his family later gave their name to Murphy’s Creek, which then became Dedrick’s Creek. Also in 1793, the Frederick Mabee party arrived and chose settlement on Turkey Point several miles east of Troyer.
In the summer of 1793 Deputy Surveyor William Chewett surveyed Long Point Bay and prepared an area map and this included the name of Murphy’s Creek.[xi] In 1793, Murphy was called back into the service of the Indian Department at Detroit by Colonel McKee. He leased his land and cattle to Isaac Smith for four years. This occurred at the time that John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, was formulating his plans for the new province. The Governor gave special permission to a select few that he knew for settlement in the Long Point area, but reserved the district for later development under a carefully designed plan. On May 28, 1794, Simcoe’s Acting Surveyor General David W. Smith issued an eviction notice to settlers at Long Point ordering them to produce their permissions for being there, or to leave the land. The list included the name of Timothy Murphy.[xii]
Most of those listed appeared at the provincial capital in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) to present their authorizations. Murphy, at that time in Detroit and apparently out of touch, was not among them. A list of approved applications came out of the Surveyor General’s Office on December 23, 1794 under the title of “The Long Point Report”, minus Murphy’s name.[xiii]
Colonel Edward McMichael of Niagara took an interest in Long Point, and with Simcoe’s approval designated the absent Murphy’s land for himself, plus much more for several miles back into Walsingham Township. This grant was recorded in the first actual survey of Walsingham in September 1795. This stated “the House and improvement having been assigned to him by order of Yr Excellency in November last.”[xiv] McMichael evicted Isaac Smith, the tenant and settled into the house.
Finally in late 1795, Murphy learned of the developments on ‘his’ land. On December 10, 1795, he filed an Upper Canada Land Petition noting his prior settlement. He further noted that he “let the premises to Isaac Smith for the term of 4 years.” Under the terms of the agreement, Smith was to “clear about 1 acre every year and allow one-half the increase to Murphy, as is customary in the country.” Murphy had been lately informed that the lands were granted to a McMichael. Murphy noted that this would result in “considerable loss and great misfortune should he be so deprived, having been entitled to his majesty’s bounty for his services since the year 1776 confidently relying on the promises of Colonel Butler.” The distance of his employment [at Detroit] had altogether precluded him of previous knowledge of McMichael's application. Murphy requested that the Land Board grant him the appropriated land.[xv]
The Executive Council ordered that McMichael’s grant be suspended until the Surveyor General made report on the premises. Apparently, the resulting study favoured McMichael who received a grant dated July 31, 1797 and Murphy remained in the dark.
On August 26, 1797, Murphy filed another petition noting his earlier permission to settle at Long Point, that he built a home and made considerable improvements, and that he had been called back into the service at Detroit four years earlier. He let the premises to Isaac Smith, and Edward McMichael received a grant of this identical land then ousted the tenant. Murphy noted that Colonel Powell could testify to the authority given him. The Executive Council ruled that the petition could not be taken up on the bare assertion of the petitioner who would have to produce the Land Board’s order with the surveyor's specification or assignments of the spots he was authorized to occupy.[xvi]
Apparently, Murphy did not produce his authorization, and he was certainly unable to produce a surveyor’s specification as none had been issued until after Murphy’s time at Long Point. He finally resigned himself to his loss and petitioned for land elsewhere.
In 1796, while Murphy was embroiled in his dispute with McMichael, Britain turned Fort Detroit over to the Americans by the terms of the Peace of 1783 and the Loyalist residents moved across the Detroit River to the area of Amherstburg near present Windsor, among them Timothy Murphy.
On March 7, 1798, Murphy, a blacksmith in the Indian Department, filed a third petition, this one noting he had been “Purchased when a child from the Indians by Sir William Johnson.” He noted his service in the Indian Department at Niagara and Detroit and requested a grant of land. This elicited a sympathetic response. The Executive Council noted that his case seemed to be “a hard one” and granted him 200 acres as if given before the order arrived for laying an additional fee on grants, plus 200 acres more under the new regulations.[xvii]
Murphy apparently located his grant in Amherstburg and prospered. On January 29, 1803, Murphy stated that he had been upwards of 30 years in the province (sic) and that he had married. He had property upwards of £500 New York Currency, a substantial sum for the times. In 1809, the highest valuations in the Long Point Settlement fell into the £300-£400 range.[xviii]
Murphy petitioned for Lot 7 in the town of Sandwich, and ran into still another controversy. The lot had earlier been designated to one Borrel who made no improvement nor erected any building. Borrel without any formalities, erected the frame of a town house then died at Malden in April 1802. Despite the recommendation of several of the foremost men in the area, the Executive Council refused the grant.[xix]
Murphy’s last petition dated May 24, 1809, made a belated request to have his name inserted on the United Empire Loyalists List and for still more land. This type of application was allowed by a 1796 order of Simcoe and more usually met within a few years of the proclamation. Murphy noted his “many years” of employment as a gunsmith in the colonial Indian Department under Sir William Johnson, and that he joined the Royal Standard under Sir John Johnson on the Mohawk River at the breaking out of the Rebellion in America. He made yet another mention of his loss to McMichael. Murphy pointed out that he had been employed in the Indian Department at Amherstburg for many years. He noted receipt of a grant of 400 acres, and that he paid fees of £16 which should not have been exacted. The Executive Council agreed to both requests, allowing another 300 acres of land.[xx] This allotment of a total of 700 acres far surpassed the usual allowance given to anyone but officers.
In requesting grants of land, petitioners often mentioned a wife and family to show they had steady roots in the province and intended actual settlement. The first mention of a wife (name not stated) appeared in Murphy’s 1803 petition, but he had married nearly a decade earlier. Handwritten documents in the Fields family noted Timothy Murphy married Eleanor Fields in Detroit on May 4, 1794 by William Park Esq. and the couple were later remarried at Petite Cote Essex County on March 2, 1801. The ceremony was officiated by P. Selby and witnessed by Robert and Margaret Surphlet. Robert and Margaret Pike were "re-married" at the same date with the Timothy and Eleanor as witnesses.”
Family researcher Jim O’Neil wrote. “That marriage date is correct and was obtained from hand-written family documents. That marriage was later deemed not to have been conducted by a proper official as the treaty had been in effect since 1783 and any ‘official acts’ performed between that date and the turning over of Detroit in 1796 were then deemed invalid. They were ‘re-married’ in Essex County. I have a copy of the ‘re-Marriage Certificate’. I gave the original, along with several Detroit real estate sale documents, to the University of Windsor Genealogy Dept. shortly after we moved to the USA in 1990. Timothy died May 4, 1840 and Eleanor August 7, 1845. - again obtained from hand-written family records.”
For the background of Eleanor (Fields) Murphy, Jim O’Neil: “I have never been able to confirm any tie between Eleanor Fields and the UEL Fields. Her father was James Fields, d. Dec. 13, 1813 Essex Co. and mother was Eleanor ______ who d. May 12, 1812, Essex Co. James Fields and Eleanor also had a son James (b: March 15, 1783, d: Aug. 30, 1827. He married Angelique Mary Plant(e) Sept. 6, 1813 at St. John's Anglican Church, Sandwich, Ontario. Mary Ann Fields, the youngest of 6 children married James Skelton Forrest, my great, great grandfather.”
In 1809, Murphy petitioned for status as a United Empire Loyalist, which would have been a judicious move for a man who had children. This entitled each son or daughter to a grant of 200 acres of land. However, no applications have been found for any children of Timothy Murphy, if he indeed had any. None was ever mentioned by him in his petitions.
“The Baskin Family” by Raymond Martin Bell gives a summary chronology of some of Murphy’s life in Detroit and Essex County, Upper Canada:
“The documentary record of Timothy Murphy is as follows: 1787 blacksmith at Fort Michilimackinac, now Mackinaw, MI; 1790 mentioned in a letter; 1796 Detroit and Michilimackinac ceded to US; 1796 Dec 25 Murphy, then of Detroit, appointed blacksmith for Indian Dept of Amherstburg; 1796 spring, bought farm in Essex, Co; 1797 Dec 24 reappointed blacksmith; 1798 summer, resigned as blacksmith; 1809 Apr 4 Timothy and Eleanor Murphy witness at baptism of son of Frederick Fisher, Indian dept employee; 1810 Apr 1 witness at marriage of George Ironside of Indian Dept to Isabella, an Indian and sister of Tecumseh (St. John's Anglican Parish); 1812-13 taxed at Malden; 1813-15 Malden occupied by Americans; 1815 Jun 15 Murphy, from age and long services, no longer able to repair the arms of the Indians; 1819 Murphy, a resident of the Petit Cote, south side of Detroit River, saw two British soldiers desert to an American ship in the Detroit River; 1840 will written Apr 9, everything to wife, Indian witnesses; 1844 died May 4; 1844 Dec 18 Eleanor Murphy in will left her property to her brother, James Fields and his children -- 1000 acres in farmland, lot and house on Bedford St., Sandwich, now Windsor.”
It is interesting that Eleanor Murphy left her estate to her brother and his children. This seems to confirm the Murphy couple had no children of their own. Regardless, Norfolk family researchers will be interested to note this chapter of their family’s geographic origins.
This Long Point Settler background is one that might easily have been missed if it had not been for the dedication of Fields family researcher Jim O’Neil in carrying the research back into colonial times. Appreciation is given to him for sharing the information.
[i] Upper Canada Land Petition, Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 4 Document Number 149
[ii] Israel Daniel Rupp, The History And Topography Of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, And Perry Counties, Pennsylvania 1846, p. 338
[iii] A number of excellent books have been written about Sir William Johnson, among them Sir William Johnson and The Six Nations by William Elliot Griffis published by Dodd, Mead, and Company (New York: 1891), Johnson of the Mohawks by Arthur Pound published by The McMillan Company (New York 1930) and Sir William Johnson: Colonial American by Milton W. Hamilton published by Kennikat Press (Port Washington, NY: 1976)
[iv] Upper Canada Land Petition, Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 9 Document Number 104
[v] Israel Daniel Rupp, The History And Topography Of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, And Perry Counties, Pennsylvania 1846, p. 338
[vi] “The Journal of George Croghan” in Pennsylvania Magazine Volume 71 p. 352
[vii] Upper Canada Land Petition Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 4 Document Number 149
[viii] The 1783 Census of Niagara in The Ontario Register Vol. 1, p. 184
[ix] “The Journal of George Croghan” in Pennsylvania Magazine Volume 71 p. 352
[x] Upper Canada Land Petition, Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 4 Document Number 149
[xi] Survey Map of Long Point prepared by Deputy Surveyor William Chewett 28 Aug 1793 (National Archives of Canada NMC-16721 (1/2) (R) (H) 1/410/Erie/1893)
[xii] Surveyor General’s Letter Books, Book 1, p. 278, Ontario Archives MS 627, Reel 1
[xiii] Surveyor General's Letter Books, Book 2, p. 615-622, Ontario Archives MS 627, Reel 1
[xiv] Upper Canada Land Petition, Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 2 Document Number 138
[xv] Ibid.
[xvi] Upper Canada Land Petition, Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 4 Document Number 31
[xvii] Upper Canada Land Petition, Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 4 Document Number 149
[xviii] Upper Canada Land Petition Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 6 Document Number 78
[xix] Ibid.
[xx] Upper Canada Land Petition, Ontario Archives “M” Bundle 9 Document Number 104