The McCormack Family of River Side, Lot 34

I likewise constitute, make and ordain John McAuley of Tracadie and Angus McAuley 0f Tracadie to be my sole Executors of this my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written.

his Dougald X McCormack mark

Signed, sealed, published, pronounced and declared by the said Dougald McCormack as his last will and testament and in the presence of us and signed by us witnesses in the presence of said testator and in the presence of each other. John F ergusson, Donald F ergusson, Angus McAuley PP.

Angus, the youngest son, who was to inherit one half the farm when his mother died, was himself dead in 1868. This left John and James the only remaining males. John, the eldest, had taken up the carpentry trade and was living in Wellington, working on the church and convent in Miscouche. He had married innkeeper Nicholas Kent’s daughter, Catherine. They had a family of four children. So James, the other son, unmarried, was left on the farm with his mother, Dougald’s widow Mary Campbell, and the unmarried sisters.

James sold the farm of 100 acres, which his grandfather John had leased in 1792, and moved to Cardigan where he purchased a farm of 132 acres fronting on the Cardigan River from John and Catherine Kaneen. Also included was a three-and— one-half acre plot close to Cardigan Bridge which he sold to John for 200 pounds. James paid Kaneen 750 pounds for both pieces of land. Three of his sisters eventually found husbands in Launching among the pioneering Walker and MacLean families. Catherine married Martin Walker. They did not have children. Elizabeth married Gregory MacLean. They had two children. Margaret married Donald Walker and they had six children.

James died two years later in 1870 and willed his farm of 132 acres to his brother John who had moved as well to Cardigan from Wellington in 1868. Their mother died in 1888 at the home of her daughter, Margaret, and was buried in St. Georges. The census 1798 lists John McCormack’s

-115—

household in Marshfield as consisting of two adults between 16 and 60, three children under 16 and “old McCormack”, possibly Hugh whose farm was taken over by Peter Stewart.

John McCormack, the oldest son of Dougald, was given, as is the Highland custom, the Christian name of his grandfather. He had four children when he moved to Cardigan. His daughter Annie, at whose home he died forty years later, was one year old when he and Catherine left Wellington and moved to Cardigan.

When he died John McCormack was the last of the pioneering family of Hugh and John McCormack to be born in Marshfield. He died in 1910. His granddaughter, Irene, remembers him as a kind and loving man who was a substitute father to her and her younger brother because their father died at age 32 when they were very young. John worked as Customs officer and had his office in their house. His own house was on the other end of the village. To entertain his grandchildren he would sing them Gaelic songs, keeping time by tapping his feet on the floor. Of the ten children born to him and Catherine Kent, five were to move to British

Courtesy of Jean MacDonald John McCormack 1). July 1834 in Marshfield.