Richard George Marshall (c1818-1898)

Narrative by George James Marshall, Jr.

Research by George James Marshall and Patricia Balkcom

            Richard George first comes on the scene when we find him mentioned in his father’s will of January 17^th, 1853 in which the elder John Marshall names John, his grandson, as the son of Richard. At his father’s death, (Dec. 1853), Richard would have been about 34 years of age, already married and himself the father of 5 children.       

        Richard married Mary Anne Penney at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Burin on April 18^th, 1842. We think that Mary Anne was the younger sister of Richard’s brother, Matthew’s wife, Frances Penney. Hence it would seem that two brothers married two sisters. The witnesses to this marriage were Mary Marshall and Andrew DuBourdieux. We don’t know who this Mary is but it could possibly be Richard’s sister. Andrew, from information we received from Cyril Dubourdieu, was swept overboard into the Atlantic in 1859. Cyril believes that Mary was the daughter of John Marshall and Mary Hoolihan, however, since there is some evidence that their daughter, Mary Marshall, was married to William Hooper there is still some question as to her parentage.

Richard and Mary Anne had a large family and there were eight known children:

(Because of the often repeated names, I and II, are used for later differentiation. Dates noted are baptismal dates that may or may not be the same as birth dates. All baptisms occurred in St. Patrick's Church in Burin.)

        Mary Anne died sometime in the 1860’s. She must have had many brothers and sisters as there are many Penneys throughout Burin and in other parts of Newfoundland.

        In 1871, on February 3^rd, at the age of 52, Richard married Mary Hardstone in the same church as he had married Mary Anne. The marriage was witnessed by Janet Barry and Alice Power.

He and Mary proceeded to have an even larger family of 9 children:

        Before we tell you what we know about the children, we will give a little more information on Richard. Hutchison’s Directory of 1864/5 indicated that a Richard Marshall was Justice of the Peace for the Southern Judicial District. This area is now know as the South coast, which runs from harbour Breton to Port au Basque, as opposed to the southern Shore, which is south from St. John’s to Cape Race, to Burin and Fortune Bay.

        Frances Marshall records in the Sr. Citizen’s Chronicle of Burin that in 1874, a Dr. Smith came to Burin and leased the Richard Marshall House for 20 pounds sterling annually. That the house was suitable for a doctor may say something of Richard’s prosperity. Further, a notice of the death of Richard’s son John II appears in the May 19^th, 1862 issue of the Newfoundland Gazette: "Of a lingering illness, John, son of Richard Marshall Esq. Of Burin died at age 20." Family tradition has it that Richard died while tending a lighthouse on the South Coast. We have determined that this is indeed true, it being the Dodding Head Lighthouse just south of Burin at the entrance to Burin Bay. It is not very large but for the seamen of Burin was the first welcome thing they saw as they headed home from the sea.

    Very little is known of the children of Richard and Mary Anne Penney. As stated above, we know that their son John died at age 20. It may be significant to note that Mary Anne was not mentioned in this obituary, she might have already passed away. It is also possible that their son, Charles, died early as Richard named another son Charles in his second marriage. It appears that Richard II later married an Elizabeth Emberley although no confirmation of this is available, the information being gathered and assumed from a record that shows a couple of this name adopting an "Alice Mary" in 1884, she having been an indentured servant. Ambrose married Mary Farrell in St. Patrick’s Church on the 26^th of November 1873 and they had a son, John, baptized in the same church on the 12^th of October 1874. No further information is known about the children at this time.

        The eldest child of Richard Marshall and Mary Hardstone, Josephine, married William Murray Hunt, on August 7^th, 1887 in St. Patrick's church in Burin. We believe William was also from Burin and was born in 1843. If our information is correct, Josephine would have been only15 and William 43 when they married! Some time later they must have left Burin for the wilds of Western Canada. They homesteaded near Wareman, north of Saskatoon and the author recalls his father telling him they first lived in a house of cedar logs, mud walls and a sod roof, typical of homesteaders’ first dwellings. That they didn’t go until about the turn of the century is likely as George’s father told him that he remembers their going and that it was on the basis of correspondence with Josephine that he first went West in 1906 and eventually took his bride, Catherine,  there in 1922.   During the 1890s in Burin, Josephine and William had three children, a son, Richard, a daughter, Florence, and another child, whose name is not known at this time.  It appears that they must have returned to the Maritime provinces from out west as William died in 1931 in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and is buried there.  Many descendants of both Richard and Florence still live in Cape Breton today.  The date of death for Josephine has not been found at this time.

        Caroline, born 1875, married on Oct. 20^th, 1897, an Isaac Penney, likely of Burin and apparently moved to Sydney, Nova Scotia. She died in North Sydney on Archibald Ave., age 37. She left 2 daughters, Martha (age 12) and Rita (age 5) and 1 son, Joseph (age 2). Another daughter had died about 4 years earlier, around the age of 5. We believe Isaac moved with the children to Worcester, Massachusetts, a community that welcomed a fair number of Newfoundlanders as we shall see. Martha eventually married William Hanam and they had 13 children. It seems Rita married a Mr. Pike from Burin while she was in Worcester. This information comes to us through a connection with Russell Hanam who lives in Tuscon, Arizona, a grandson of Caroline and Isaac.

        Margaret Mary married a Jack Paul originally from Burin, who had come to Hamilton where he was Superintendent of the Rod Mill at the Steel Company of Canada, a position in which he was succeeded by his son, Jim. Margaret and Jack, when George (the author) knew them in the 1940’s, lived in an apartment on the north side of King Street, just west of Stirton. Jim had been in the R.C.A.F. and unmarried at the time and so it must have been about 1946. George remembers Margaret as being a heavy set woman, very amiable, and visited her brother, George Sr. on occasion, with whom they went to Saturday evening dances at nearby Robert’s Restaurant. Jim had two sisters, Maude, who lived in a lovely house on Maple Ave., just east of London St. in Hamilton, and Genevieve who lived on Cluny St. near Barton and Ottawa Sts. And who worked at Robinson’s Department Store on James St. South. Jack Paul and his son Jim were big, dark men. Jack may have been a son or nephew of a John Paul who is recorded as having emigrated from England and was a fisherman and trader in Placentia Bay. He brought his nephews over from England to succeed him when he retired to the old country.

        John III (Jack) Marshall, born 1879, married Katherine Penney in Burin on November 19^th, 1903. They had 5 children: Madge (Margaret) b. 1904, Matthew b. 1907, Adolphus b. 1910, George b. 1913, and Alphonse b. 1916, the latter two children dying in infancy. John and Katherine left Newfoundland in 1924 to settle in Worcester, Mass. John is believed to have spent a little time in Hamilton, perhaps with Margaret and Jack Paul prior to 1924. The story was told that Jack had a work prospect at the Cooksville Brick Works (now Highways #5 & 10) and walked there from Hamilton to secure the job. Matthew in Worcester, told me in 1996 that his father was friendly with Alfie Pike, also of Burin who had gone to Worcester in 1922/23 and who had corresponded with Jack in Hamilton telling him that prospects were good in the States which may have encouraged Jack to return to Burin, pack up Katherine and the children and set off for Worcester. Katherine died in 1950, at which time John went to live with Madge and her husband John Hult in a lovely home on Courtland St. in Worcester. John was a very friendly man, tall and slim and of no pretense at all. Matthew is the only one left of John and Katherine’s children (1996) and George had the pleasure of visiting with him for a few days in 1996. Madge had no children and Matthew had two children, Jack and Mary, and Adolphus also had two children named, Jack and Mary.

        We know very little of Charles. It has always been said that he died in Bellevue Hospital in New York City many years ago.

        Roseanne, apparently known as Rose, married Dennis Boudreau on the 12^th of Nov. 1903. They had three children, Alice Teresa, born 27 May 1904; Dennis R., born 27 March 1906; and Helen Bernadette, born 14 Nov. 1909. Dennis married again in 1922 and it is believed that the first marriage ended in divorce.

        Information, about George, the next in line will be presented in it’s own chapter.

        Isabelle, born 1889, was until recently presumed to be the youngest of the second family. On February 5^th, 1905, she married Ernest Moignard in St. Patrick’s at Burin. Ernest we believe was from Sydney, Nova Scotia and possibly could have met through her sister Caroline who was living there by then. Isabelle and Ernest had two daughters, Madeline and Doris who was the elder. Nothing of Mr. Sansoucy whom Madeline married is known. Doris was married to Charles Longley, a Halifax lawyer as was his son, also named Charles. Doris passed away in 1972. The Longleys lived in a big house opposite Point Pleasant Park in Halifax and George remembers them coming to visit the house on Barnesdale in Hamilton.

        Until this past year we had not heard of a last child, Elizabeth, baptized June 1^st, 1892. The record from St. Patrick’s in Burin did not include this last child, but the baptism is shown in the Provincial Archives. It indicates that Elizabeth was baptized at Dodding Head that is the location of the lighthouse being tended by Richard George at his death. Why there we do not know. Did Elizabeth die at childbirth? Why was she never spoken of at home? It is interesting that Richard had similarly named children from both marriages (2 Johns; 2 Charles; and Isabelle and an Isabella; and 2 Elizabeths). Perhaps the children from the first marriage had died by the time the children of the second marriage were born.

        Hutchinson’s Directory to which we have earlier referred, in 1894-97 records Richard Marshall as a lighthouse keeper which confirms family tradition. At that time he would have been 75 years of age. We have confirmed that a lighthouse of no particular distinction, was constructed in 1888 at Dodding Head, just south of Burin and seaward of Burin Island. Richard was likely its first keeper and probably died there in 1898 after a long, fruitful and eventful life. Despite our best efforts, we could not locate Richard’s gravesite. Perhaps it is at the lighthouse. We will have to search there on our next visit to Newfoundland.