Miles Livingston Update

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Niall, Please note I have a new e-mail address since my last posting and set up my activation. Have some further updates on my ancestor Miles Livington and noticed some inquiries regarding McLeans who travelled with Miles and others in 1812 to the Selkirk Settlement. Hope everything is well with you and the Baron, regards Donald

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hello, In recent months I have learned a bit more about my great-great-great grandfather Miles Livingston. Miles was born abt. 1775 according to Rod McQuarrie's e-mail and I would agree with him on that. Based on the Canadian records I had estimated his birth as sometime between 1775 and 1780.In his marriage entry in Bowmore Parish, Isle of Islay he stated in 1812 he was a native of Movern. A few days after his marriage at Bowmore to a Morvern native known only as Janet Livingston, Miles journeys by the Schooner "Staffa" to Sligo, Ireland where Miles, a brother Donald Livingston Jr, and a young cousin Donald Livingston b.abt. 1791 son of Neil Livingston all from Bowmore, join Selkirk's group of Scottish and Irish settlers aboard the Hudson's Bay Company vessel "The Robert Taylor" This vessel leaves the port of Sligo on June 24th 1812 for York Factory on Hudsons Bay in British North America. From there the party was head by small boats another 800 miles south by lake and river to the Selkirks Red River Settlement.It is duly noted in Mile's marriage entry that he and his wife Janet were leaving Bowmore bound for America. It is possible that the Miles Livingston born 1775 and the Donald Livingston Jr. whom he travelled with are in fact the Miles Livingston born 1775 and Donald Livingston JR. born in 1772 to Donald Livingston and Christian Campbell on the Isle of Lismore. It may well be that Miles having left the area as a child confused Movern and the Isle of Lismore years later. Two of the other sons of Donald and Christian Livingstone I think I have also found in the Isle of Islay records as adults. All three Livingstons that travelled to Lord Selkirk's settlement were apparently skilled boatbuilders whose skills were found to be of great use by both Selkirk and the Hudsons Bay Company. Miles, his wife Janet and their two eldest children Nancy Ann Livingston (Mrs John Utter CLink) and Hugh Livingston left the Red River Settlement in 1815 for Upper Canada. Miles found work as a boatbuilder along Lake Ontario at Etobicoke in York County, Upper Canada. Early in 1819 he and a number of settlers in York County of Scottish origin as a group petitioned the Government of Upper Canada for a block of land grants where they could establish a Scottish community. These individuals including Miles were granted land in Esquesing Township, Halton County which had been recently acquired from the Mississauga Indians. The area in Esquesing where Miles settled was appropriately named by the locals the "Scotch Block". Miles later sold this farm in the 1830's and found work in his final years as a barrel maker in town of Acton, Ontario. No doubt he learned the skill of barrel making on the Island of Islay where barrels were made for the whiskey trade.