Sterlingshire is one of the most beautiful Shires of Scotland. It is the country, celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in The Lady of the Lake and other poems. Out from this centre of beauty and romance a great multitude of people have gone to make homes for themselves in all parts of the world. Amongst these were William Gardiner, his wife and family of five boys. He was born in the latter part of the eighteenth century, probably about 1790. The early part of the nineteenth century was a trying time for the people of Scotland. The Napoleonic wars had saddled a heavy debt upon the British Nation, and taxes were very high. The invention of the spinning jenny, too, had made the work of the hand-loom unprofitable - a craftsmans wage was about two dollars per week. These things, together with a growing desire for a greater measure of freedom than they were enjoying turned the attention of many people to the new lands opening up in other parts of the world. William Gardiner was one of these. With his wife and five sons - a daughter had been taken from them shortly before this - he set sail from Glasgow. After a long and tedious journey they arrived in Quebec. Pushing up the St.Lawrence and Lake Ontario they eventually arrived in what was then known as the Queens Bush, now the County of Perth. Here in Hibbert Township they settled. The country was then immense forest. They chose farms and began to hew out homes for themselves.
J.G.Gardiner comments
My understanding is that there is a mistake in the migration of the Gardiners to Canada. I have searched the Roys cemetry and although there is a record of William Gardiner burial there is no record of his wife. My understanding has been that Peter, Robert, John, Walter and William Gardiner came to Canada around 1850 and that their father, mother and sister Mrs. Murray, remained in Scotland. Shortly after their mother and sister died, their father came to Canada and surprised the sons who were engaged in clearing their farms. He died a few years later I think in 1853. The Murrays also came to Canada and eventually homesteaded in the Hamiota area of Manitoba.
Return to Home Page