All posts by Lucy H. Anglin

I am an artist and a writer.
genealogy, New Brunswick

The Matriarch (A Remarkable Memory)

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Gertrude Thorpe Davidson (Mrs. James P. Hanington) – 1852-1950

The local newspaper in Saint John, New Brunswick, hit the jackpot when they interviewed 96-year old Mrs. James Peter Hanington in July 1948.  “”I always said I would not be old till I was 90’ said the charming silver-haired lady, with the sparkling dark eyes who was recalling her girlhood days in Saint John”[1].  From a remarkable retentive memory, Mrs. Hanington described events of many decades ago as though they were only yesterday, but was fully aware of and concerned about today’s issues.

One of her fondest memories included waltzing on skates to a live band with a gong sounding every half hour signaling the skaters to reverse direction.  She also recalled attending not-so-very interesting lectures at the Mechanics’ Institute with her girlfriends enabling them to meet the boys at those gatherings.

Entertaining was done in the home and was a simple matter due to the availability of affordable domestic help.  A cook’s wages were only $6 a month! The great expanse of her memories included a small playmate telling her of Lincoln’s death, the street lamplighter with his ladder going from lamp to lamp and the thrill of her first ride on a passenger train from Moncton to Saint John.[2]

Gertrude Davidson (my great grandmother), born in Saint John, NB, in April 1852, was the daughter of William and Mary Anne (Cook) Davidson.  Her father was a prominent lumber merchant and the grandson of the first settler on the Miramichi, who came out from Scotland at the age of 20. Gertrude’s earliest memories of her native city of Saint John were centered about the Davidson home at 98 Germain Street, the fine brick building her father erected for his family and to which she moved at the age of five.

Her father had been confident when the Great Fire of 1877 was at its height that the slate roof and brick walls of his home would be ample protection. He was wrong.

When forced to leave, her father had locked the door to keep out the thieves.  But fire proved a more thorough villain and all treasures were lost.

Gertrude saw the spire of Trinity Church fall that terrible day and was very anxious about the safety of the people.  However, blessed with a wonderful sense of humour, Gertrude commented on the strange attire of the people who attended a church service in the Victoria rink after the fire.  They had obviously escaped without their Sunday best![3]

As much as she loved Saint John, she moved her family to Montreal in 1890, when her husband, a successful local pharmacist, decided to go to McGill University Medical School at the age of 44.  Her seventh daughter (my grandmother) was born in Montreal in 1895, when Gertrude was already 42 years old.  While in Montreal, she raised her family, supported her husband’s new medical career, entertained frequently in her home and was an active member of St. John the Evangelist Church. She was very well respected in the community and enjoyed a large circle of friends.

During her long life, Gertrude had had her full share of illnesses and ailments but her knitting needles were always busy…and without the need of eyeglasses!  Perhaps being married to a Pharmacist turned Doctor had its fringe benefits!

[1] The Evening Times-Globe, Saint John, New Brunswick – July 7, 1948.

[2] The Evening Times-Globe, Saint John, New Brunswick – July 7, 1948.

[3] The Evening Times-Globe, Saint John, New Brunswick – July 7, 1948

Gertrude Thorpe DavidsonMrs. J P Hanington (Gertrude Davidson)Mrs JP Hanington

genealogy, New Brunswick

Pharmacist then Doctor

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Dr. James P. Hanington (1846-1927)

James Peters Hanington (my great-grandfather), and his older brother, Thomas, could make emulsions, ointments, pills or potions for just about anything that ailed you.  They were partners in “Hanington Bros., Chemists” in Saint John, New Brunswick.  Today, they would be better known as pharmacists. According to several testimonials in the 1884 Almanac and Receipt (recipes) Book[1], they were extremely helpful in alleviating all kinds of their customers’ health problems.  Here’s an example:

Dear Sirs,                                                   Gondola Point, Clifton, Kings Co. 1878

Having been troubled for years with pains in my side and severe cough, I was tempted to try a bottle of your “JPH Cough Mixture”, and also a bottle of your “Penetrating Liniment”.  I found immediate relief.  I have used two more bottles since, and am now perfectly well.  Returning you my sincere thanks for your cheap and valuable medicine. 

Yours truly, 

Florence D. McCarthy

In 1890, the partnership was dissolved. Thomas became the local Postmaster and James moved his pregnant wife and four daughters[2] to Montreal, Quebec, where he was enrolled in Medical School at McGill University.  He was one of few of his eleven siblings to leave the province, where his grandfather was known as the first English speaking settler and founder of Shediac, New Brunswick.

The first family home in Montreal, Quebec, was at 278 St. Urbain Street[3].  The family grew to include two more daughters, one born in 1891, shortly after their arrival in Montreal and another born four years later in 1895.  Six girls!  The last one born, when her mother was 43 years old, was my grandmother, Millicent.  Could she have been the result of a special celebration once James had finally completed medical school at the ripe old age of 49?

James graduated from McGill Medical School in 1894, having completed his four year degree, which included First Class Honours in Medical Jurisprudence in his third year[4].

A few years later, he moved his family to 699 Sherbrooke Street, corner of Park Avenue[5], which was a larger home to accommodate his growing family as well as his Physician and Surgeon’s[6] office.  His office hours “8 to 10 a.m., 3 to 4 p.m., 7 to 8 p.m.” were even listed in the directory!  He was a prominent doctor in Montreal for several years.

Although he settled in Montreal, he did, however, keep a lovely old home in Shediac, New Brunswick, called “Burn Thorpe”  where his family would gather in the summers and meet up with their cousins.

JohnYoung Wawa Millicent Mrs JP Hanington DodoTootie Jenjen Dr JamesPHaningtonBurn Thorpe -2

[1] Hanington Bros’. ALMANAC and RECEIPT BOOK, 1884, Published by Hanington Bros., Chemists, Saint John, NB

[2] 1891 Canadian Census

[3] 1891 Lovell’s Street Guide

[4] McGill Medicine 1893–p.81

[5]1897-1898 Lovell’s Street Guide [6]1897-1898 Lovell’s Street Guide  Hanington Bros Almanac 1884James P HaningtonDr James P Hanington

genealogy, New Brunswick

“Roaring Dan”

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Roaring Dan’s Dad

(edited 2026-09-14)

Politics were the game, Hanington was the name!

Daniel Hanington (1804–1889) was a man who seemed destined for politics. In 1834, at the age of 30, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the Member for Westmorland County, in southeastern New Brunswick. From that point on, he served almost continuously in either the Lower or Upper House until his death 55 years later—a remarkable political career that spanned the terms of twelve Lieutenant Governors. [2]

The Saint John Daily Sun summed up his career rather beautifully after his death, describing him as:

“a courteous, genial gentleman of the old school, respected by all who knew him…”

The newspaper went on to say that his election as President of the Legislative Council in February 1883 was “a fitting crown to a long and successful political career,” adding that he brought to the position an experience in politics and public affairs for which he was “absolutely without a rival among provincial public men.” [3]

But Daniel Hanington was much more than a politician.

He was born in 1804 to William Hanington and Mary Darby, who were among the first English settlers in Shediac, New Brunswick. Daniel was educated at the Sackville Grammar School and went on to become both a farmer and the Comptroller of Customs at the port of Shediac—a position he held for more than forty years. He finally retired in 1880, at the age of 76.

A Loyalist connection

Daniel’s wife, Margaret Ann Peters (1811–1887), came from a very different but equally interesting New Brunswick family. Her parents, William Peters and Charlotte Haines, had both arrived in Saint John as young children in 1783, along with their families and many other United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution.

Charlotte’s story is particularly poignant.

She came to New Brunswick with an aunt and uncle and, sadly, never saw her parents again. Family tradition tells us that when she stepped ashore at Saint John, she lost one of her little handmade slippers in the mud. The surviving slipper has been preserved and is now in the Museum in Saint John.

It is hard to imagine what that tiny object must have represented to Charlotte—and to the generations that followed her.

A father before a politician

Daniel and Margaret Ann had twelve children, although one son died as an infant. And Daniel seems to have taken his responsibilities as a father very seriously.

While his political career was flourishing, he was offered two departmental positions that would have required him to spend considerable time away from home. He turned them both down. He preferred country life and, more importantly, wanted to be there to oversee the education and training of his children.

It seems that Daniel made the right choice.

They raised an extraordinary family.

All nine of their surviving sons went on to become successful professionals or businessmen. Among them was another politician, Daniel “Roaring Dan” Hanington (1835–1909), who followed his father into public life. Their other sons included a lumber merchant, a broker, a rector, a barrister, a chemist and druggist—my great-great-grandfather, James Peters Hanington—a civil engineer, a chief surgeon and a Comptroller of Customs.

And apparently the three daughters had “done well” too. I suspect that, in the language of the nineteenth century, this probably meant that they had married men with money, good careers, or both!

Fifty years together

In 1881, Daniel and Margaret Ann celebrated their golden wedding anniversary after fifty years of marriage.

Nine of their twelve children were still living, and by then their children and immediate families had grown into an impressive clan of 73 people.

More than half of them came to the anniversary celebration.

I can only imagine what that family gathering must have been like—dozens of Haningtons and their spouses and children, all gathered to celebrate the couple at the centre of this remarkable family.

Daniel died in 1889 at the age of 85, having spent more than half a century in New Brunswick politics. His son, “Roaring Dan,” would go on to make his own considerable mark on the province.

But before there was Roaring Dan, there was Daniel Hanington—the politician, farmer, customs official and, perhaps most importantly, devoted father who chose to stay close to home and raise an extraordinary family.

Politics may have been the game, and Hanington may have been the name—but family was clearly at the heart of it all.

 

[1] As told by Mary Thorpe Lindsay Kerr, his great-granddaughter.

[2] The Canadian Biographical Dictionary, 1881. “Lieut.-Col. Hon. Daniel Hanington, M.L.C., Shediac, N.B.”

[3] Daily Sun, Saint John, New Brunswick.

 

genealogy

Shediac’s First English Woman Settler

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Shediac’s First English Woman Settler

By Lucy Hanington Anglin

Mary Darby was feeding the chickens in her father’s yard, when along came an oxcart carrying a handsome gentleman.  To her amazement, he stopped the cart, dismounted, raised his hat in greeting and approached her for a chat.  The story told is that young William Hanington (age 33 years) proposed to her on the spot and she (age 18 years) accepted just as quickly.  After their marriage, she was taken across the Northumberland Strait from her father’s home in St. Eleanor’s, Isle St. Jean (now Summerside, PEI), in a canoe paddled by a couple of Indians, to her new home in Shediac, New Brunswick, where her English husband had settled seven years earlier in 1785.

Mary Darby was the daughter of Benjamin Darby, a Loyalist of Newbury,  New York.  Born in England in 1744, he emigrated to America in and settled in Newburg, 50 miles from New York City.  He was imprisoned at one time for his Loyalist sympathies and suffered great hardships at the hands of the rebels.  In 1783, hearing that Washington’s troups were marching on the town, he snatched his ailing wife from her sickbed and fled to New York with their five children.  They embarked for Isle St. Jean at Long Island.  Poor Mrs. Darby died on the voyage and was buried at sea. Mary Darby was only nine years old.  Her father re-married and had another family.

Mary’s first home was the log house her husband William had built in 1787, just two years after his arrival from England.   Although her first child died at birth, the next five of her twelve children were born in that log house.  In 1804, he built a three-storey frame house for his wife and family.  The house was all hand-wrought, the boards and beams were hewn by hand, the shingles were hand split, the trimming hand carved, split boards served as laths and the nails were all hand- made.  Water was obtained from a deep well by means of a bucket attached to a long well-sweep or pole.  Their son Daniel (my great great grandfather), born in 1804, was the first of the next seven children born in that frame house.

It’s hard to imagine but Mary was without female companionship for the first three years of her life in Shediac.  It must have been such a relief when her sister Elizabeth and husband, John Welling, also came over from PEI in 1795 to settle in Shediac.  John bought 200 acres of land from William for 20 pounds sterling (about $20 then). Once settled, Elizabeth and John also raised a large family of 12 children.

William died at the age of 79, in 1838, and Mary lived another 13 years without him.  Her life must have been one of hardship and suffering and yet she lived to the age of 77 years.  Amazing!

genealogy, New Brunswick

William Hanington comes to Canada

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William Hanington comes to Canada

By Lucy Hanington Anglin

The property was described as “a commodious estate upon the outskirts of the thriving town of Halifax, in the Colony of Nova Scotia”.  Imagine William’s surprise to arrive in Halifax to discover that “outskirts” meant a 200-mile hike through thick forest and deep snow!

My great-great-great grandfather, William Hanington, was born in London, England, in 1759.  He was the son of a fish dealer, trained as an apprentice to the Fishmonger’s Company and became a freeman in 1782.  In 1784, this adventurous young man purchased land in Nova Scotia from an army officer, Joseph Williams, who had been given a 5,000 acre grant as a reward for services.

After the initial shock upon arrival, he and his friend, Mr. Roberts, found an Indian guide, loaded all their worldly belongings onto a hand sled, trudged through the snow, slept in the open and finally arrived in bitterly cold Shediac in March 1785.  Mr. Roberts was so discouraged that he immediately returned to Halifax and sailed back to England on the first available ship!

William, however, was made of sturdier stuff and was delighted with it all.  There was a good size stream flowing into the bay and he had never seen such giant trees!  He was astute enough to see the lucrative possibilities for trade in lumber, fish, and furs.

Seven years after his arrival, at the age of 33, he hired a couple of Indian guides to paddle a canoe over to Ile St. Jean (now known as Prince Edward Island) where he heard there were other English settlers.  While riding along in an oxcart through St. Eleanor’s (now known as Summerside), he spotted a young lady (age 18) named Mary Darby, feeding chickens in her father’s yard.  It was love at first sight, he proposed to her on the spot and she accepted.  They married and paddled back to Shediac where they raised a large family of 13 children.  Three years later, missing the companionship of another woman, she persuaded her sister Elizabeth and husband John Welling to come over from Ile St. Jean and settle on their land – becoming the second English family in Shediac.

Within the next five years, William had eight families on his property of about one hundred acres of cleared land.  He opened a general store and dealt in fish, fur and lumber.  The furs and timber he shipped to England and the fish to Halifax and the West Indies.  He imported English goods from Halifax and West Indies products, mainly sugar, molasses and rum from St. Pierre. He also bartered with the friendly Indians for furs and helped them clear land.  Before long, a considerable village clustered about the Hanington Store – including a post office and a tavern.  William remained the leading light of the community and acted as the Collector of Customs of the port, supervisor of roads and as Justice of the Quorum (magistrate) in which capacity he married many couples.  To top it all off, in 1800, just fifteen years after his arrival from England, this remarkable young man opened a shipyard at Cocagne and built several vessels there.

Until 1823, there was no church, and William being a religious man, conducted service in his home every Sunday.  So William donated land and lumber, and oversaw the completion of St Martin-in-the-Wood, the first Protestant church.  In 1838, age 79, it only seemed fitting that William was buried in the cemetery there in the shadow of the church he founded.  A huge memorial of native freestone, complete with a secret compartment, still stands.

 

 

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