The Robertson Family of Marshfield

ca. 1910

Courtesy of Linda Harding Peter MacNair Robertson.

Kenneth Henderson and James Henderson respectively, three hundred and fifty-seven dollars. He bequeathed to his niece Margaret Jane Henderson three hundred and fifty—seven dollars. He bequeathed to his sister Jessie Henderson, wife of Kenneth Henderson (Sr.) Esq. “ all the rest of my property after payment of my debts and legacies.” His wife Margaret Forbes having absconded several months earlier and forsaken him without cause and without his knowledge or consent, “gone to California as I have been since informed, I hereby cut her and the said Margaret Forbes 017 from ever of right of title to any portion of my property.”

“I hereby ordain and appoint my friends Kenneth Henderson Esq. and James McFarlane as executors of this my last will and testament.”

In July 1875 Peter transferred his lease for the one hundred acres he held from Alex Robertson. With whom did Peter spend his last days? Peter is buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery, Marshfield.

Jane Ann fourth daughter and last child to be born to James and Jean Robertson was born 1 May 1817 in Scotland. We know very little about this child, only bits and pieces of her history

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we

Courtesy of Linda Harding Hannah (MacLeod) Robertson.

Wife of Peter MacNair Robertson.

(2.1905

can be found and nothing is proven. There is a marriage license for Jane Ann Robertson and Robert Westacott for 18 October 1837, both as being from Lot 34. In Walter B. Robertson’s notes he tells us they had one son Lewis or Louis, who with his father enlisted in the American Army and was never hear of again. In another source we learn Robert Westacott had good connections in England, a cousin having a large manufacture of cotton thread in Yorkshire. I have often seen his name on spools of thread.

We also learn that Lewis or Louis Westacott did not make a success of farming and they all went to the States in the fifties. There was a Westacott family living in Marshfield, Samuel Westacott, cabinet maker and his wife, Mary Gamaut, they sold in 1853 and moved to Charlottetown. This farm was later owned by George Burnett. They may have been Robert’s parents. In 1839 a Robert Westacott received a lease for 66 acres in Lot 48 but on 24 August of the same year he assigned the lease to a John A. Stewart. Was this Jane Ann’s husband?

Submitted by Linda Harding