Miller Lawrason

ID # 336, (1768-1847)
FatherThomas Lawrason
BirthMiller Lawrason was born in 1768 at New Jersey. 
MarriageHe married Elizabeth Purvis, daughter of John Purvis
DeathHe died on 10 February 1847 at St. George, Ontario. 
BurialHe was buried at St. George Cemetery. 
NoteAn early map of Clinton Township in the Niagara District places Miller 'Larison' on lot 23 of the 1st concession. Daniel Corson is recorded as being present as well. The date of the map is stated to be 1811. Miller and Elizabeth were later in West Flamboro, but finally settled in Dumfries Township. An 1822 map places Miller on lot 2 of the 5th concession of Dumfries. The Dickson Papers (see MS5 reel 3, ledger C1, page 154) shows for May 28, 1823, a transaction (the earliest) apparently for a half of lot number 2 on the 5th concession. (Whether these ledgers were written by Dickson or a clerk, the handwriting is cramped.)

We are on safe ground placing the burial of Miller Lawrason and his wife Elizabeth Purvis in the cemetery at St. George, sometimes known as the United Church Cemetery. In 1984, Delores McIntyre, a descendent of Miller and Elizabeth, came from Alberta and did some extensive research of the family. At the time, she and her husband took photos of the stones of Miller and Elizabeth and stated they found them in St. George Cemetery. They were broken and lying flat, but such inscriptions as still existed were legible.

A considerable debt is owed to Delores for her research into the early Lawrasons. She and her husband travelled to New Jersey and did much research there. Delores, in her initial researches, draws on the book by Dr. Cornelius Wilson Larison of Hunterdon County in New Jersey: The Larison Family, a Biographic Sketch of John Larison, the Dane, through His Son James Larison and His Grandson Andrew Larison. It was published in 1888 at Ringos, N.J., by the Phonic Publishing House, which was apparently Cornelius' own endeavor.

Delores work is taken as a point of departure for my own research and any mistakes are my own.

There is a record dated Feb. 2, 1793, for son John's baptism at St. Mark's Anglican Church at Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake). This is the earliest record that we have for Miller and Elizabeth being in Upper Canada.

Delores was able to photograph the broken stones for Miller and Elizabeth. The dates she provides for Miller are 1768-1847. Delores did her own gravestone 'rubbings' and these may be taken as correct.

As a further note, thanks to information Delores was able to supply to Lawrason family members, it was possible with the assistance of the St. George cemetery staff to locate the broken, but fairly readable gravestones for Miller and Elizabeth. In the summer of 2018, a ceremony that included members of the local Royal Canadian Legion and the Anglican church was conducted rededicating the gravestones. 

Children of Miller Lawrason and Elizabeth Purvis

Last Edited19 Jun 2019