Chapter 2

John Inglis and Margaret Lockie

1786 -1878

“…we gave the preference to the company's land at Guelph, being good, well watered, and a healthful
country…”

John Inglis

T he sources relating to the Scottish background of John Inglis and his wife Margaret Lockie are
more reliable and readily available than in the case of Robert Boyd. This is probably because they
were married in Scotland and came to Canada with at least five of their children all of whom were
born in their native Roxburghshire. However, the birth of John Inglis in Roxburghshire has been elusive
once again because of the fact that the name is common. The birth of a likely candidate was located in
the Old Parish Records of Scotland born 1 December 1785 in Ancrum, Roxburgh the son of James Inglis.
No name of the mother was indicated.1 Margaret Lockie was born in Ednam, Roxburgh about 14 June
1789 to John Lockie and Margaret Pittillo.2 The Ontario deaths register also indicates the birth of a
Margaret Lockie in the Parish of Kelso, Roxburghshire.3 This location could not be verified by the Old
Parish Records but the two parishes are contiguous and very small so error one way or the other is
possible. In general, it was not possible to trace either family with any degree of confidence to a date
earlier than this.

The Marriage of John Inglis and Margaret Lockie

John and Margaret Inglis were married in Melrose, Roxburghshire on the 24th of September 1808. The
parish record states. “Booked: for Marriage John Inglis and Margaret Lockie both of this parish.”4 This
marriage is corroborated by the International Genealogical Index which bases the record on the
transcription of Melrose parish registers of baptisms, marriages, proclamations of marriages, session
minutes, 1723-1741 and mortuary rolls, 1642-1820 edited by Charles S. Romanes.

Roxburghshire, Scotland occupies a very small area and does not reach more than 30 miles in any given
direction. In 1806 there were 31 parochial districts and a total population of about 34,000. There are
five towns or villages associated with the parish including the town of Melrose which is described as
follows in the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson, 1868.

The town of Melrose is delightfully situated at the north base of the Eildon
hills... It has partly the character of an antique dingy place, with narrow
thoroughfares and ancient houses, and partly the appearance of a modern,
spruce, aspiring seat of population, with elegant and airy edifices; and in both
respects it looks in good keeping with its situation, harmonizing partly with the
grand antiquities adjacent to it, and partly with the magnificent landscape
around it. It has recently, on the whole, undergone much improvement, in
The Old Parish Register Record (Bowden) Roxburghshire for Margaret and Betsy Inglis

The Old Parish Registers (OPRs) comprise the records of births & baptisms, banns & marriages and deaths &
burials kept by individual parishes of the Established Church (Church of Scotland) before the introduction of civil
registration in 1855. The parish minister or the session clerk usually assumed responsibility for maintaining the
registers, but since there was no standard format employed, record keeping varied enormously from parish to
parish and also from year to year. As a result, the information may be sparse, unreliable and difficult to read.
Registration in Church of Scotland's registers was costly and unpopular, so many people did not bother to
register events at all. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Roxburghshire, Scotland

"ROXBURGHSHIRE is of an irregular figure, the greatest extent of which, in every

direction, is about 30 miles. It is bounded on the N. by Berwickshire; on the E. and S. by
the English border; and on the W. by Dumfries and Selkirkshires...The whole abounds
with the most romantic scenery; exhibiting in every part the rough appearance of hills,
mosses, and mountains, interspersed, however, with narrow vallies, in which run
numerous streams, long since familiar from poetical description ... Roxburghshire is
divided into 31 parochial districts, which, by the returns made in 1801, contained 33,712
inhabitants." from Gazetteer of Scotland published 1806, Edinburgh.
John Inglis and Margaret Lockie

consequence of wealthy strangers being attracted to it for occasional or

permanent residence.

And in the Gazetteer of Scotland, 1806 as;

A considerable town in Roxburghshire, pleasantly situated on the N. side and

bottom of the Eildon hills, upon the side of a fertile vale about a mile in length,
intersected by the river Tweed, which winds through it in a serpentine
direction, and surrounded by hills of moderate height ... The parish of Melrose
is 7 miles long, and from 5 to 7 broad. The surface and soil are various, being
flat and fertile on the banks of the Tweed, and hilly and covered with heath in
the parts farther removed from the river ... A short distance from the town, on
the S. side of the river Tweed, is the abbey of Melros,[sic] one of the largest
and most magnificent in the kingdom. It is the admiration of strangers, and is
reckoned one of the most beautiful Gothic structures, from the height and
embellishment of its columns, the elegance of its sculpture, the beauty of its
stones, and the symmetry of its parts ... There are several Roman
encampments in the parish, particularly in the N.E. of the 3 Eildon hills. There is
also another Roman camp near the village of Newstead, which is upwards of
three quarters of a mile in circuit. Population in 1801, 2625.

Today Roxburghshire is part of what is called The Scottish Borders, or more simply just The Borders. This
area was created in 1975 when the counties of Berwickshire, Pebbleshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire
and part of Midlothian were merged. Geographically this region incorporates most people’s idea of
Scotland with rolling heather clad hills and the Tweed River running through wooded valleys to the sea.
The entire area is no larger than 50 miles by 30 miles.

Historically the country which lies both north and south of the border between England and Scotland
was known as a battlefield and an area in which ordinary people suffered terribly. Their homes and
crops were ravaged by both English and Scots armies. The result was that many of the inhabitants gave
up trying to earn an honest living and became Reivers or roving thieves who simply tried to survive by
taking whatever they could find that was necessary to sustain life. The lives of these men and women
were popularized by Sir Walter Scott who in his Border Ballads tried to romanticize what was in effect a
brutal and unforgiving lifestyle.

The Children of John Inglis and Margaret Lockie

Reliable evidence can be found in the Old Parish Registers of Scotland to support the birth of five and
possibly six of the children of John and Margaret Inglis in Roxburghshire, Scotland. The eldest was
Margaret who was born in the Parish of Bowden 10 September 1809 and baptized 8 October 1809.5 The
second child was Betsy who later became the wife of Robert Boyd. She was born in the Parish of
Bowden on 22 August 1811 and baptized on the 6th of October 1811.6 A son, James Inglis, was born in
Bowden on 5 July 1813.7 It appears that this child did not survive as a second son, also named James,
was born in the Parish of Lilliesleaf on the 15th of August 1821.8 Mary Inglis the next daughter was born
in the Parish of Bowden on the 8th of February 1817.9 John Inglis, the second surviving son, was born in
The Descendants of Robert Boyd

Lilliesleaf on the 29th of July 1819.10 The last child for which there is a record in Scotland was Jane (or
Jean) Inglis, born 21 April 1815 in Bowden and baptized 21st May 1815 by the Rev. W. Balfour.11 All of
these births and baptisms are supported by evidence which can be located in the International
Genealogical Index.12

Little additional information was located on the children of this family other than Betsy who we know
married Robert Boyd. Margaret Inglis married Joseph Hobson. Jane (or Jean) Inglis married Archibald
Pattison and predeceased her father. Mary Inglis married Archibald McCorkindale and Ann Inglis, who
also died young, married Maxwell Ramsay. No marriages could be found for either John or James Inglis
and this, in part, due to the commonness of the name.

There Remained in Scotland John Inglis’ mother, brother Adam, and two sisters Ann Inglis and Mary
Cleghorn. After Mary Cleghorn was widowed she came out to Canada with her son Thomas and settled
in a cottage on the Inglis property.

The Property of John Inglis

John Inglis purchased at least two properties from the Canada Company. There is evidence that he
purchased the first 100 acres on the 22nd of September 1830 a month earlier than the purchase made by
Robert Boyd. 13 This was lot 10 of concession 2. There are also references in the Land Records Index for
Guelph of additional purchases for a John Inglis in 1832 and again in 1839 in concession 38 and 18 but
the Census and Assessment Records for Guelph Township in 1840 only show him on the original lot. John
Inglis had the great advantage of having two sons, James who would have been about 9 years old in
1830 and John aged 11. By 1838 when the first Census and Assessment was located they would have
both been young men and accustomed to hard work. It is therefore not surprising that he had cleared
more land for cultivation than Robert Boyd but not a lot more – 35 acres to Boyd’s 28 acres. That aside
the farm develops in much the same manner. Each year shows more land under cultivation and more
livestock. By 1840 John and Margaret Inglis were living in a frame house under two stories and assessed
£ 114. In 1861, according to the census for that year, John Inglis was 76 and his wife Margaret 72 and
they are living with a granddaughter Margaret Ramsey [sic], age 12, who is attending school. The house
by this time is 1 1/12 stories and John Inglis is described as “gentl.” John Inglis was also referred to as
Squire Inglis because he acted as the first magistrate of the town.

Letter from John Inglis to John Younger in Scotland

There is in print a letter from John Inglis of Guelph to a friend back in Scotland and although it is
possible that there was more than one John Inglis from that area the context of the letter as quoted
leaves little doubt that that this John Inglis was the father of Betsy Inglis. The letter is addressed to a
John Younger, a shoemaker, living in the Parish of Lesudden (St. Boswells) Roxburghshire. The 1841
census of Scotland for this area shows John Younger aged 55 and his wife Agnes living with a number of
others in St. Boswells.14 John Inglis also refers to his sister Ann and an elderly mother living in Scotland
but neither could be located in the 1841 census.
John Inglis and Margaret Lockie

Guelph, Upper Canada,

Feb. 26, 1831.

Dear John:

You can hardly imagine the joy we felt to hear from our dearest old friend in
the land of our forefathers, that you were in health and able to handle the awl
15
and shuttle , but I do fear you will have enough to do to make your hard
earnings support the cravings of nature.

After arriving at the head of Lake Ontario, in July, I took a house for a month,
and, leaving the family, set out to see a little of the country, in company with
two fellow immigrants, and after traversing between 500 and 600 miles -
through 14 townships, we gave the preference to the company's land at
Guelph, being good, well watered, and a healthful country, although it is a
dollar higher in price than many other townships, so returning to the lake we
16
struck our camps and came direct to Guelph on the first of August.

I immediately went through the lands of the block, and selected a lot of 100
acres; they are all laid off in 100-acre blocks, but you can purchase as many as
three and have five years to pay it in. It is three dollars an acre. You pay 50, that
is £15, you enter on your lot, and a 50 yearly for the other four years. A dollar
here is five shillings, a British shilling 1s. 2d. and a sovereign varies from 24s. to
23s. 4d. A lot of 100 acres is laid off a quarter of a mile in breadth, by five-
eighths long, and a road laid along the head and down betwixt every second
lot, 12 yards wide - you have your measurement exclusive of the roads.

I was desirous to have some wheat sown in the fall, as it would yield us bread
of our own growth for next year, so I engaged a young man who came over in
the boat with us from Edinburgh for two months, and we succeeded, with my
boys' help, in cutting, clearing and getting sown in wheat four acres, which
17
looks excellent.

Our houses are all of wood, the manner of building is: you have your blocks cut
and prepared and drawn to the place by oxen (you get a man with a pair of
oxen for drawing your wood together for 7s. 6d. per day), then you go around
to the settlers of your neighbourhood, letting them know the day you wish
your house raised, inviting as many of them as will manage it in a day. I had 20
at mine. You finish the rest yourself, or pay tradesmen. But that comes very
expensive, wages being high - a joiner or mason has 8s. and 10s. a day, a
laborer from 3s. to a dollar and victuals, and they by no means work too
eagerly.

I did all my house myself, put on the roof and built the chimney - indeed,
everything, till I came to lay the floors, when I had to engage a joiner, a week,
to plane and plough the deals. I paid him for the week $10 with victuals.
The Descendants of Robert Boyd

I have two good apartments with an excellent loft upstairs, with three large
windows. Glass is cheap. A pane 10x12 inches is four pence. Mine is said to be
the best house in the block by all who have seen it. I feel sensible at least that it
is warm and comfortable.

I have since, with the two boys' help, cut six more acres since the fall, and
expect to have eight more cut by spring. Our axes are quite different than
yours. More like a wedge. They cut wood far better. Few horses are kept till the
ground is more thoroughly cleared, as oxen are more steady.

When you have your trees cut down you lop the trunks and pile them up in
heaps, the trunks cut in lengths convenient to be drawn by oxen together in
long heaps, 50 or 60 cartloads apiece. What is cut in winter is burned off at the
end of April and that cut in summer consumed in October, when the wheat is
sown. The wood on one acre would in Scotland give as much money as would
here purchase 300 or 400 acres of land, wood and all. There is here ash, elm,
beech, pine, oak, larch, fir, hickory, butternut, iron wood, bass wood, poplar,
balsam, cedar of Lebanon, and the maple tree, from which our sugar is
extracted, and on my lot there are many cherry trees seven or eight feet in
circumference.

All the kinds of wood grow to large trees and all the above kinds grow on my
lot with some others whose names I have forgot; and plums, gooseberries,
blackberries, black currants are growing in thousands, though the berries are
small owing to the wild state.

The sugar is made in the month of March. They make small wooden troughs
and cut a notch in the tree about an inch and a half deep by two sides, and the
sap runs into the trough. It is then boiled on a slow fire. The longer you boil it
the more it is refined, and the skimming is excellent molasses. When boiled it is
poured into pots and when cooled is harder than your loaf sugar.

The ground requires no ploughing till the third year after burning off the wood.
We sow the grain with only a slight harrowing, and the following year burn off
the stubble and again just sow and harrow. The seed is a short time in the
ground, except the wheat, barley, oats, peas and Indian corn, which are sown
in the beginning of June. Potatoes planted in the same month, and harvest
commences about the middle of August.

We grow pumpkins, water and musk melons in the fields, with most kinds of
vegetables, in great perfection. As to the face of the country, it is not easy to
form an opinion. It appears one vast forest.

One would suppose there are no hills in the country. I believe where it is
cleared I might see a hundred miles. It is well watered, however, with lakes,
rivers and fine burns, which we here call creeks. I have seen no whins, heather
or broom here, but we have gowans and the thistle so green and red; white
and yellow clover grows spontaneously and in great abundance. The fern is also
John Inglis and Margaret Lockie

here in abundance in many places, with a variety of pretty flowers and herbs.
But there is much here of that sort, natural to the climate, which I do not yet
even know the names of. We have a variety of birds of the most beautiful
plumage, robin red breasts, too, much larger than yours and of a lovely
plumage, but we have too much of the bass in our music, if music we have at
all, for I must confess I have not heard a bird sing in all the country.

Our woodcock is a most beautiful bird, the woodpecker also most beautiful.
You can hear it half a mile off. I often, when I see it, remember the song of "The
woodpecker tapping the hollow beech tree." As for game, our variety is not
great. We have plenty of pheasant. You may shoot the whole flock, as long as
they don't fly the gun. It is just fire and load, as long as you please, but I very
seldom or ever take a shot.

I think we have no hares, but large rabbits, which grow white in winter, and
plenty of deer which come to the very doors. Numbers also of wolves and
bears. They never attack any person, but take a sheep, calf or hog when they
can get it. We have few serpents in this place, but there are many in the lower
parts of the province.

Dear John, I would not just wish to advise anyone to come here; but, for my
own part, I would not return to Scotland, though any one would pay my
passage back and give me twenty pounds a-year,- not that I do not love the
land of Caledonia, which will ever be dear to my bosom, (and I could knock
down the man who speaks ill of it,) but I never could have the prospects for my
family in Britain that I here have; only one thing is to be remarked, no one need
come here in prospect of doing well unless he intend to be diligent, and work
hard; and he who does so will, in the course of seven or eight years, feel
independent. Our taxation is here so moderate: a man with a hundred acres
does not pay a dollar a-year altogether. A quite wrong opinion of this country
prevails in Scotland; the United States being generally preferred. Now, in the
States, you are far heavier taxed, and emigrants are there certain to be cheated
out of what they may have by the Yankees. I have seen above forty persons,
Scotchmen, who had first gone to the United States, and they told me it would
have been hundreds in their way had they come here at the first: they are now
coming as fast here from the States as from the old country.

Dear John, how happy would I be to have you here, with my dear brother and
sisters, and the sooner the better would it be for yourselves. Your business is
very good here; they pin all the shoes instead of sewing them; they cost from
ten to twelve shillings a pair, and the leather is not half the price as at home ;
you can buy a side of good patch leather fur the half-bend, &c. in proportion. A
smith right and tailor are, also, wood trades; but spirits being so cheap too
many fall into the drunk. We have got up a good corn-mill this summer in the
village four run of stones; a brewery and distillery.
The Descendants of Robert Boyd

We have been but poorly off for sermons, but have now every prospect of soon
enjoying that blessing. The Government has given £70 yearly to help, and the
Company 400 acres of land, for a glebe. We had a meeting a month ago, and
have subscribed as much as will make a good stipend, and will get a church
built in the spring.

I have not written to our friend David Ovans yet, (teacher, at Cobourg,) he is
about 200 miles below us, but I will write him now immediately. We have a
post-office in the village, and are at no loss for British news. We get two papers
in the week; they are very cheap, cost only 10s. a year. I am sorry to hear of
such disturbances in England, but I trust the new ministry will do good. Be sure
and write me soon, and send it by Liverpool and New York, as that way it costs
me only 2s. 6d. and by Quebec 7s. ; direct to me, John Inglis, Guelph, Upper
Canada, N. America. Our joint love to your wife and family, and all friends and
acquaintance ; how happy have I been to hear that my dear aged mother is still
the first up in the morning; nothing, perhaps, dulls my spirits so much as the
thoughts of not likely being able to look on her again with the eye of mortality,
while I have hope of seeing all the rest.

Margaret and the family all like this country well, and join me in mutual love to
you all. You will, I hope, be able to make it out, though you see I am not a first-
rate scribe. I wrote Ann Inglis, my sister, a month ago.

yours, ever truly,

( Signed ) JOHN INGLIS.

To JOHN YOUNGER,

Shoemaker,
18
Lesudden, Rosburgshire, N.B.

This letter provides an excellent account of life in Wellington County in the early 19th century. It is well
written and speaks to the Scottish educational system. It was on the strength of letters like this that
many Scots made the decision to leave Scotland for a new life in Canada.

The Death of John and Margaret Inglis

John Inglis died 3 August 1862 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Guelph in the same plot as his
daughter Anne, wife of Maxwell Ramsay, who passed away in 1854 at the age of 24. His wife, Margaret,
lived to be 89 and died in 1878 after falling and breaking her thigh bone.19

Cemetery Records for Woodlawn Cemetery, Guelph show that Ann Ramsay the youngest daughter of
John and Margaret Inglis died about the 10th of March 1854. She was interred in Block G, Lot 3, Area
John Inglis and Margaret Lockie

136, Row 17, #98. The actual plot appears to have been repossessed in 1957 but the cemetery record
shows the following for Anne.

“Anne wife of Maxwell Ramsay who died March 10th, 1854 aged 24 years.” 20

The record for John Inglis reads:

“In Memory of John Inglis who died August 3, 1862 aged 76years. Native of Roxburghshire Scotland.”21

And for Margaret:

“In Memory of Margaret Lockie Relict of the late John Inglis who died June 11, 1878 ae 89 years”22

The Ontario death records also show that Margaret Inglis died 11 June 1878 in Wellington County.23
The Descendants of Robert Boyd

Endnotes

1
Baptism, John Inglis, 01/12/1785, Old Parish Records Births 780/0010 0153, Ancrum, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s
People, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.
2
Baptism, Margaret Lockie, 14/06/1789, Old Parish Records Births 788/0010 0120, Ednam, Roxburgshire.
Scotland’s People, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.
3
Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network,
Inc., 2007. Original data: Margaret Inglis.
4
Marriage, John Inglis and Margaret Lockie, Old Parish Records Marriages 799/0040 0184, Melrose, Roxburgahire.
Scotland’s People, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.
5
Births, Margaret Inglis, 10/9/1809, Old Parish Records Births 783/0010 0274, Bowden, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s
People, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.
6
Births, Betsy Inglis, 22/8/1811, Old Parish Records Births 783/0010 0274, Bowden, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s
People, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.
7
Births, James Inglis, 05/07/1813, Old Parish Records Births 783, Bowden, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s People,
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/.
8
Births, James Inglis, 15/08/1821, Old Parish Records Births 795, Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s People,
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
9
Births, Mary Inglis, 08/02/1817, Old Parish Records Births 783, Bowden, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s People,
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
10
Births, John Inglis, 29/07/1819, Old Parish Records Births 795, Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s People,
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
11
Births, Jane Inglis, 22/05/1815, Old Parish Records Births 793/0010 0276, Bowden, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s
People, http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
12
www.familysearch.com
13
Elizabeth Andrews, Ellen Elliott, A Pioneer, (Ginn and Company, 1972), p. 13.
14
John Younger (Census 1841 804/00 003/00 011) St Boswells, Roxburghshire. Scotland’s People,
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
15
This would suggest that John Inglis had come from a textile trade.
16 nd
This date is in keeping with John Inglis’ purchase of property from the Canada Company on the 22 of
September 1830.
17
In 1830 John and James Inglis would have been too young to have provided all of the necessary help hence the
hiring of another young man.
18
Letter from John Inglis, Guelph, Upper Canada, 26 Feb. 1831, In Letters from Settlers in Upper Canada (London,
Marchant 183?), pp 5-7.
19
Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations
Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Margaret Inglis.
20
Woodlawn Cemetery, Plot Holders.
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid.
23
Ancestry.com. Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations
Network, Inc., 2007. Original data: Margaret Inglis. (Note the death record gives her place of birth as Kelso,
Rogburghshire, [sic] Sct.)