THE STORY OF A SKILLEN FAMILY IN QUEBEC, CANADA

By

Terry Skillen

INTRODUCTION

The search for my Irish roots has opened a door to the history of my Skillen ancestors in Ireland and Canada. I have learned much Irish history and some of the story of my family�s early years in Canada. Work on the family tree has brought me in contact with many extended family members some of whom I had not spoken with for many years. Through telephone conversations and e-mail correspondence I have communicated with people in Canada, Ireland, Great Britain and the United States who share the Skillen name or have a Skillen somewhere in their family tree. It has been a genuine source of pleasure to work with others on the many pieces of the family puzzle. The work of extracting information from the hidden past is not yet complete and so I will continue to experience the delight that comes with the uncovering of each new piece of information about a person, place or event in the history of my family and other Skillen families in Ireland and elsewhere.

Unfortunately I have not found a Skillen or Kerns in Ireland who is a direct link with my ancestors Francis and Mary who came to Canada in 1834. What I know about them and their children comes primarily from Canadian archival material such as census data, church records and the annual publication of the Gatineau Historical Society.

The information I have at this time about the family in Ireland is more speculation than fact. The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland and the National Archives of the Republic of Ireland have information about persons with the surname Skillen but nothing is on record that refers directly to Francis or Mary or their children. I have not been able to find a connection between our ancestors who left Ireland and their parents. I have not located a church record that identifies the date and location of the births and dates of baptisms. Nor have I found a date and location of marriage in Ireland for Francis Skillen and Mary Kerns. As a consequence of this gap in my knowledge I can make only general comments about the circumstances of our pioneer immigrant ancestors in Ireland before coming to Canada.

The first archival reference to Francis Skillen and his family in Canada is found in the records of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches in Bytown in 1835. Francis and his family are recorded in the Canadian census of 1841. Francis is identified as resident in Wakefield Township, Ottawa County, Canada East. An Act of Union had been passed in 1840 and put into effect in 1841 which brought Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) together under a central government in the United Province of Canada. Under this centralized government Quebec was called Canada East. The census for 1841 was not conducted until early 1842 in Wakefield Township. The census reported that the family had been in Canada for seven years suggesting that they arrived in 1834. I have not found information about the ship nor the conditions of their passage across the Atlantic. I have yet to learn of the port where they disembarked upon arriving in Canada. I am making an assumption that the port of entry was Quebec. I am unaware of any information that would inform us about their circumstances upon arriving in Canada.

FAMILY BACKGROUND OF FRANCIS SKILLEN

We know from the Canadian census of 1841 that Francis described himself as a member of the Church of Ireland. We can surmise that he was baptized in that Christian denomination and that one if not both of his parents belonged to that denomination. We also have reasonable evidence to believe that upon their arrival in Ireland those with the surname Skillen were from both England and Scotland. Some members of the Presbyterian denomination and others were members of the Church of England who in Ireland would worship in the Church of Ireland. Someone in the family could have converted from Presbyterian to the Church of Ireland. In 1808 the Church of Ireland was still the state church and it had the power of government legislation on its side to limit the influence of both the Catholic and Presbyterian clergy. It was illegal for a Presbyterian and a member of the Church of Ireland to marry. A marriage between a Presbyterian and a member of the Church of Ireland was not recognized in law until the year 1845. Should a member of the Church of Ireland want to marry a Presbyterian the marriage would only be legal if the Presbyterian converted to the Church of Ireland. It is possible that a Skillen chose to convert to the Church of Ireland in order to marry but we do not know who that person might have been. Also worthy of consideration is the possibility that some Skillen families were Church of England immigrants to Ireland. They might have settled in the south of Ireland around Wexford or Cork. Others may have settled in parts of Ulster especially County Down where so many persons with the name Skillen, both Church of Ireland and Presbyterian, resided.

We have no way of knowing the actual location of the family at the time of Francis� birth because the church registry where his baptism was recorded has not been found. There is a high probability that the family was living in County Down when Francis was born about 1808. It is likely that both parents of Francis were members of the Church of Ireland but his mother could have been a Catholic or a Presbyterian. Perhaps his father was a tenant farmer with about fifteen acres of land. Francis would have been one of many children born to parents who struggled to provide for the necessities of life. At the turn of the 18th century the down turn in the Irish economy would have adversely affected the family�s standard of living and possibly resulted in the loss of the leased land. In the worst situation the family would have been removed from the farm by the landlord who would then have increased his income from the use of the land.

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Francis� name has not been found in any records held in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Without a baptismal certificate the names of his parents remain unknown. The same circumstances apply to Mary Kerns. We have no proof that Francis and Mary lived in a specific town land in County Down. We have no first hand knowledge of the socio-economic circumstances of any of the Skillen families in Ulster. A review of Irish census data from the end of the 18th century through to the 1860�s indicates that persons with the name Skillen only rarely lived in towns or Belfast, the one city in Ulster. Most persons with the name Skillen seem to have been farmers. The surname Skillen appears as tenants in records of valuation for property. There may have been a larger number of persons with the name Skillen who did not own or lease land. From the recorded number of Skillen tenants in County Down we have evidence that a significant number did have land and therefore some status in their community. None however seem to have been affluent members of society prior to the emigration of Francis to Canada.

We know from records of the Artists Guild in Cork that a Thomas Skillen acquired some recognition at a local level for his talent as an artist of oil paintings. He was born and raised in Cork in the south west of Ireland in the early 19th century which suggests that there may not have been a connection between his family and the Skillen families in county Down. As an adult he lived with his sisters who were haberdashers in Cork. The surname is not associated with positions of influence or authority which suggests that in the 18th and 19th centuries few members of the extended Skillen families had more than rudimentary if any formal education. It appears that the number of persons with the name Skillen in Ireland was small, rural and not well to do. However in terms of privilege in Irish society of the 19th century the name had the advantage of being identified as Protestant and in some cases with the established church.

After the defeat of Napoleon the Irish economy declined markedly. The cost of goods decreased and the profit from products exported from Ireland diminished. The large landowners who leased out their land to tenant farmers were not making enough money from the rental of their land so they removed the tenants, tore down the farm houses to prevent the tenants from returning and turned the land into large pastures for grazing. The tenant class in Ireland in the early 1800�s was without land. They wandered about without food and shelter. If Francis� father was a tenant farmer whose land lease was not renewed the family would have become homeless. Francis� parents would not have been able to support their son, his wife and a child as well as their own. Francis would have had to seek employment on a landowner�s farm or estate. In the early part of the 19th century many landowners were attempting to divest themselves of tenant farmers due to the poor economy. Some of these land owners assisted their tenants to leave the land by providing financial assistance with passage on a ship to Canada. Another source of employment for Francis might have been a factory in a larger town and especially in Belfast.

Given the birth rate in the 19th century we can surmise that Francis probably had several siblings. Perhaps his father was a labourer on someone�s farm or if he was very fortunate he might have been a tenant who rented a few acres of land. He would have paid rent in the form of crops and live stock. If the family lived in the Mourne area Francis� father may have been a tenant of the Lord of Roden or a labourer on Tollymore the Earl�s estate located near Newcastle on the edge of the Mourne Mountains. Francis� father would have struggled to feed and cloth a large family unless he had the good fortune of having a trade or a land holding of fifteen or more acres. He would have worked long hours six days of the week with only the Lord�s Day off. He may have supplemented the meager return from his crops and animals, part of which had to be given to the land lord as payment for use of the land, by labouring on the landlord�s estate or doing Yeoman�s duty as required by his agreement with the landowner.

�If a member of Francis� family had served in the Army he may have received a grant of land in Ireland. The family would not have had to pay rent and the size of the property would have been considerably larger than the land leased from a Landowner.

The well being of Francis family would have depended considerably on the landlord. One land lord, the Earl of Roden was said to have rented his land to Protestant tenants for farming at a very affordable rate. The Earl was even known to reduce the rent in times of poor crops or a shortage. But he was a very strict adherent to rules and he would not tolerate a breach of the rule that he established for conduct on his estate. The tenants of the Earl of Roden considered their lot in life to be a blessing compared to the tenants of other land owners who maintained high rents and even increased them in times of crop failures and shortages. Many tenants lost their land if they could not pay to the landlord the annual fee required in crops and cattle.

Francis� father as a tenant or employee of a landlord in the 1790�s would have been required to take an oath that he did not belong to the United Irishmen, a Presbyterian and Catholic insurrectionist movement determined to change the laws that rendered them second class citizens. He may also have been required to bear arms as a yeoman of the Earl.

Should Francis� father have become too old to work the land he leased, his eldest son would have taken over the farm if it was held freely by the Skillen family. When Francis father died his son would only be allowed to inherit the land if the lease did not end with the death of his father or another person named in the lease agreement. Francis sisters would be expected to find respectable members of the Church of Ireland to marry. The younger sons could continue to live on the farm but they would be expected to help their older brother on the farm without payment. Payment would be their room and board until they were able to find employment and move out on their own. The younger sons might have found work as labourers for a minor land-owner or the local gentry. Given the economic conditions of the time many male members of families in County Down would seek their fortunes in America. Whatever were the social circumstances of the Skillen family in Ireland, the decision by Francis to leave with his wife Mary and their two children for Canada in 1834 suggests that Francis did not have land or employment adequate to provide for the material needs of his family.

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IMMIGRATION TO CANADA IN 1834

Francis and Mary Skillen arrived in Canada from Ireland with two children in the summer of 1834. They probably disembarked at the port of Quebec, came by a smaller vessel to Montreal and from there in a still smaller craft up the Grande River, now called the Ottawa River, where they went ashore at Bytown on the south shore at the Chaudiere Falls or Wright�s Town on the north shore, just west of the Gatineau River. They would have arrived thirty four years after Philomen Wright had established his settlement on the north shore of the Grande River at the Chaudiere Falls. The Rideau Canal in Bytown had been completed in 1832, two years before the Skillen family arrived. The potato famine would not strike Ireland with terrible devastation until 1845, eleven years after their arrival.

Many settlers had preceded Francis and his family to the Ottawa Valley at the tributaries of the Rideau River flowing from the west side and the Gatineau River flowing from the east side into the Ottawa River. Included were the Americans from New England who settled with Wright on the north side of the Ottawa River at Chaudiere Falls in 1800 and those who came later from Vermont and Boston. English, Scottish and Irish immigrants were numbered among the early settlers in the lower Gatineau valley. Ira Honeywell was the first European settler on the west side of the Ottawa River in 1811.

Wrightville had been established twenty seven years before Bytown and during the 1820�s it was the more vigorous community. There was a steam boat link between Montreal and Wright�s landing with arrivals every two days by 1824. Bytown, the settlement on the south shore of the Grande River across from Wrightville, was named after Colonel By the British Army engineer who had supervised the construction of the Rideau canal to Kingston. Bytown was incorporated as a town in 1827 about a year after construction of the Rideau Canal commenced. The canal was completed in 1832 at which time the population of Bytown was about 1000 and growing in size. After the completion of the canal the city was divided into Lower town on the east side populated by Irish and French Catholics. On the west side of the canal was Upper town populated by Protestant anglophones.

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It is very likely that Francis came to the settlement at Wrightville on the steam boat from Montreal. The family probably made their way across to Bytown in a small ferryboat or perhaps by foot or cart across the Union Bridge which had been completed by Colonel By to bring supplies for construction of the canal from Montreal. He would have come with his worldly possessions and enough money to purchase the transportation necessary to reach Wright�s Town from the Port of Quebec. He may have brought tools, if he had them, from Ireland. He would have brought money to purchase the food necessary to nourish himself and his family on the trip across the Atlantic. He would need money to purchase the necessities of life in Bytown. He would rent accommodation in the town or if able to acquire land on the outskirts he would have constructed a shelter and cleared enough land for a garden. We know from an insertion in the church registry of Christ Church Anglican in Bytown that Francis was a labourer in Bytown in 1835.

The earliest settlers on the south side of the Ottawa River were former English and Scottish soldiers discharged from the British Army. Most of the early settlers in the lower Gatineau valley who came after Wright and the other Americans were Irish, Scottish and English Protestants. Francis would be at home among the Protestants and he might have shared the Protestant belief that his Catholic neighbours lacked good work habits unlike the people of his religious persuasion who viewed themselves as sober, industrious and diligent. We can assume that when he arrived in Bytown Francis would have sought a residence for the family in Upper town among those who shared his religion. It seems likely that some conflict between Francis and Mary occurred regarding the baptism of Catherine. Since she was baptized in the Catholic church in Bytown 16 months after the family�s arrival it may be that the child had already been baptized in the Church of Ireland before the family arrived in Canada.

Francis and his Irish neighbours would have been among many other Irish immigrants on both sides of the Grande River. Most of the labourers who worked on the construction of the Rideau Canal were Irish immigrants. It is quite likely that the Irish on the north side of the Ottawa River had acquaintances on the south side. Francis chose to settle on the north side some time after the summer of 1835. He was still resident in Bytown on July 27, 1835 as evidenced by the baptismal record of his third daughter Elizabeth in Christ Anglican Church. It might be that he had some experience with logging in Ireland and sought a land grant in the Gatineau valley that would also give him access to work in the lumber industry.

Francis acquired a grant of 100 acres of land sometime after 1835. Fifteen acres were being farmed at the time of the census in 1841. The homestead was located just a mile or so north of Farrellton and the land grant on which the home was located traversed the Gatineau River. The land was in the north part of lot 3, range 11 in Wakefield Township, Ottawa County, Quebec. It was located in a farming community that had received its earliest settlers in the 1820�s.