further research

I'm hoping to find more information on John Cowey, and also on the Canada Company, when I go to the National Archives in London in about 3 weeks. I'm thinking I may make one final trip for a couple of days back up to Berwick-upon-Tweed, if I draw a blank in London.

Northumberland photos

East Lilburn with the farmer's home below.

Ilderton Church. The church is undergoing renovations, a new roof and shoring up the loose brickwork.

Chillingham, etc.

St. Peter's, Chillingham, below.

Chillingham is the birthplace of Jane Gray. Her father, Robert, was born in 1771 in Newtown not far from Chillingham. Her mother, Mary Mather, lived on the farming estate at Chillingham. Chillingham has a castle, and boasts the only wild herd of cattle in Britain. Mary was also born in 1771. Jane was born in 1800. I believe there were 5 other children. Eleanor, Elizabeth, Mark, Mary, and Robert.

Robert and Mary probably flitted to the East Lilburn estate as their family expanded.

Jane would have met John in Eglingham, not far from Chillingham, and East Lilburn, at one of the March gatherings. John would have been required to find a "bondager" to take with him to where he worked. It was not necessary that he marry the woman, and many hinds did not.

John probably worked on the estate at Eglingham because a condition of marriage was that the wedding banns be read 3 Sundays prior to marriage in the area in which you lived. I have found the record of the 3 banns being read.

From Eglingham, John and Jane might have flitted to Norham, and then to Loanend. Both estates are close to each other.

Eglingham, Lilburn, and Ilderton were all on the main route to Wooler, and then to Berwick on the North Sea coast. Many ships left Berwick for Leith, just to the north.

I doubt it was coincidental that John and Jane made their way to the Colborne area of Canada. At the many March gatherings that they would have attended, I'm sure they heard stories of people who emmigrated to Canada. The village names of Wooler, Norham, etc. would have made them feel close to home. In fact, I have a copy of an article from a Berwick-Wooler newspaper, 1840, in which the encouragement of Border people to emmigrate was discussed. The large estate farmers advocated some kind of financial assistance to encourage hinds and their families to move on. The Canada Company was asked to help as well.

With the advent of farm machinery in the 1830's, fewer labourers were required. It was more brutal in Scotland where the "clearings" were taking place. Labourers were forced to move on, most to the south into England, or overseas.

The population in the Wooler Parish in 1831 was 1 926 people. By 1841, the population had dropped to 1 874 people.

Ilderton

Ilderton was, and is, a village in Northumberland that is basically a farming estate. It has a church, but it is doubtful that John Cowey worshipped there. Ilderton was not far from Wooler, an important market town. It was a place where estate farmers sold their sheep, wool, and grains. It would have been the locale for the large gatherings in March where labourers would try to secure employment with the estate farmers. They would then "flit" to the next estate on Whitsuntide, around May 11 or 12, to begin their year's contract.

Wooler was also a centre of worship. There are several churches in Wooler, one of which was a gathering place for the Presbyterian worshippers. John Cowey was a follower of the religion which spread from Scotland. Although he married Jane Gray in Eglingham, he most likely became interested in the non-conformist church during visits to Wooler, while working at Loanend, or Ilderton. A Robert Semple was one of the original dissenters in the 17th century. Mark Cowie was baptized in the Wooler, Cheviot Street Church. It is a non-conformist church, or Presbyterian.

It was in Ilderton that John would be employed as a husbandman, and his wife, Jane, would work in the fields, spin wool for the estate farmer's wife, and care for the chickens each "hind" was required to raise for the farmer. Their sons, James and Robert, would be working from the age of 10 on the farm as carters, or field workers. All of them would have been paid.

Loanend

Loanend. Part of the original estate cottages, and the Manor House.

The River Tweed and the Union Bridge.


The labourers' cottages that are still being used today.

G'day! Loanend is the birthplace of Robert Semple Cowie, 2nd son of John and Jane. It is a large farming estate located about 3 miles from Wooler, the main market town in this area of Northumbria, or "the Borders". The famous Union Bridge, a suspension bridge, spans the River Tweed with Scotland on one side, England on the other.

Each estate farmer provided his hinds with a cottage, usually rent free. These cottages still exist, but the roofs are no longer thatched, but tiled. The floors are no longer dirt.

As John and Jane's family grew, John would most likely have been contracted to the estate in Ilderton.

East Lilburn

The large farming estate at East Lilburn was where Jane Gray and her family were living when Jane met John Cowey. There would have been a gathering of men, and families around mid March in Wooler, only 5 miles to the north, or perhaps in Eglingham. It was at these gatherings that men sought work, and the large estate farmers would be looking for labourers to begin work about May 15.

Eglingham St. Maurice

G'day! With the help of Skye, my cousin's daughter, I'm able to send photos. This is a photo of the church in Eglingham where John and Jane were married. The banns were read out in this church on three Sundays preceeding their marriage on the 21 May, 1826. John had found his "bondager", Jane, to fufill his contract obligation to work on the Ilderton farm estate. His contract would have begun on, or about, May 12.

Jane was from East Lilburn farm estate located about 3-5 miles from Eglingham.