John Coleman
ID # 78, (1814-)
| Father | John Coleman (1760-1844) |
| Mother | Elizabeth Lawrason (1769-1845) |
| Birth | John Coleman was born in 1814 at Ontario. |
| Marriage | He married Sabrina Caroline Smith, daughter of William Smith and Rachel Walters, in June 1838 at Beverly Township. John Coleman and 'Caroline' Smith were married by license in 1838. They were almost certainly married in June of the year for their marriage bond is dated June 6, 1838. One of the bondsmen signatures is unclear, but appears to be A. Jould or Gould. The other one is very clearly that of Daniel Coleman, John Coleman Jr.'s cousin. The marriage bond gives Beverly Township as the residence of both bride and groom and this is shown as the place of marriage, though of course it is possible that they married in either St. George or Brantford. It is doubtful that they were married much further afield. |
| Note | The birth year for John Coleman is calculated on his age shown as 57 in the 1871 census. This conflicts with his age shown as 55 the 1861 census. Daughter Phoebe's death registration places the birth of both John and Sabrina in Beverly Township. Other records consistently place the birth of Sabrina in the United States. Beverly is likely the birth place of John Coleman Jr., however. The family did not purchase C3-L6 near Troy until 1816, but Sarah's obituary states that the family spent some time in the Copetown area before moving to Troy. Cornell's history is a little ambiguous, but seems to have the family in Beverly by 1812. (Land petition information places the family in Beverly by at least 1811.) Since the Jones family was in the Copetown area and William Coleman, who according to Cornell was John Coleman Sr.'s brother, later married Catherine Jones of Copetown, this is plausible. No death registration for John Coleman Jr. has been found to date. He was living in South Dumfries as an innkeeper at the time of the 1871 census. In 1877, Sabrina, age 56 and a widow, married for a second time to John Everitt of Willoughby Township in Welland County. Sabrina died in South Dumfries, again a widow, in 1896 and we do not presently know where she was buried. No obituary has been found. In both the 1861 and 1871 census John is an innkeeper and from peripheral family histories the family appears to have been in Harrisburg, which was for a time a railroad junction. The only other matter of note is that, along with Melissa and Phoebe, we may say that the family had a third daughter, Maria, who married Samuel Wood. Samuel and Maria had a daughter Eliza Annetta Wood. When the enumerator called on the John Coleman family in Harrisburg in 1861, there was a two year old child staying with them, Eliza Wood. When the enumerator of the same census called in Beverly at the home of Samuel and Maria she is listed as Nettie Wood. It's reasonable to say that this child is one and the same and links Maria with John and Sabrina. Maria's death registration is no help, for it was early enough that it doesn't give her parents' names. A marriage record may exist, but it has yet to be found. One other piece of information has been found that supports Maria being the daughter of John Coleman and Sabrina Smith. When Sabrina Smith Coleman Everitt died in 1896, she was intestate. Letters of Administration were applied for by daughter Phoebe with whom Sabrina had been living in South Dumfries. This application was to the Brant County Surrogate Court, nbr. 2019 and dated 13 March 1897. In it, Phoebe states: That the said deceased died leaving your petitioner and one other child and the issue of another child. Unquote. The 'other child' can only be Phoebe's sister Melissa. The 'issue of another child' are reasonably the children of Maria Coleman Wood. The presence of Maria's daughter Eliza in the Coleman household in Harrisburg in 1861 is one clue, but in the 1891 census in South Dumfries we find Sabrina Everitt with grand daughter Louie Wood, age 10. Louie Belle Wood was enumerated twice, once with her grandmother and once at home. The marriage bond for John Coleman and Caroline Sabrina Smith is indexed on the Canada Archives web site as follows: Microfilm C-6787, Volume 35, bond 6254, date 1838-06-06. Name of future husband, Coleman, John Name of future wife, Smith, Caroline Residence Beverly, Halton County The bond itself shows them both being of Beverly Township in the Gore District and it shows Sabrina's full name as Sabrina Caroline Smith. It should be noted that the two signatories to the bond were an A. Jould, or Gould, and Daniel Coleman. In light of some confusion caused by the presence in Beverly assessments of the family of John W. Coleman from 1822 to approximately 1840, it should be said that John Coleman, husband of Sabrina Smith, is clearly recorded as the son of John Coleman, husband of Elizabeth Lawrason. John Coleman Sr. purchased C3-L6 in 1816. In August of 1844 he sold half of it to John Jr. Both John Sr. and John Jr. are clearly written on the transaction (P 34), registered 15 April 1845). In 1844 a small portion of the land was sold to Henrietta Almas. This clearly shows the sellers as John Coleman and Sabry Caroline Coleman. The sale of this property, by the way, was spread out over several years. |
Children of John Coleman and Sabrina Caroline Smith |
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| Last Edited | 15 Jul 2022 |