Bohevny Johnstons in Harwich Township, Kent County

Research Note by Wesley Johnston, Begun 27 Apr 2020, Last Updated 27 Apr 2020

 https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/34820597/person/172186112361/media/a4c3b890-95ea-4b2b-b545-247b5e97ffb6

Context

Three sons (Robert, John and George) of Robert JOHNSTON and Anne SANDERSON of Bohevny Township, County Fermanagh, Ireland emigrated to Canada and by 1876 had settled on adjacent lots in Harwich Township of Kent County in what is now the province of Ontario. This research note gathers the information about when each son moved to the township.

NOTE: Robert and Anne's eldest son William JOHNSTON emigrated but went to Trenton, New Jersey, USA.

NOTE: County Fermanagh has two townlands named Bohevny, and it is not known which was the location of this family.

1876 Map

The 1876 "Shackleton & McIntosh's Map of the County of Kent in the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada" is online at https://maps.library.utoronto.ca/hgis/countymaps/kent/index.html where it must be zoomed in to Concessions XII and XIII of the Lake Erie (L.E.) survey lots on the east side of the township to see the five adjacent lots that include JOHNSTONs on them. Specifically, the concessions and lots and those on them are (from northernmost south):

XIII-20 - G. JOHNSTON (south half) - George JOHNSTON

XIII-22 - D. JOHNSTON (south half) - George's son David JOHNSTON???

XII-20 - R. JOHNSTON (east half) - Robert JOHNSTON's 20 Jun 1903 death record places him on lot 20 of concession 12 L.E. (the Lake Erie survey)

XII-21 - J. JOHNSTON (southeast quarter) - George's brother John JOHNSTON???

Vertical Concession-17 - R. J. JOHNSTON (west half) - I do not know what the legal description is for this concession. - George's son Robert John JOHNSTON???

Earliest Record in Harwich Township - 1861 Census

There is no surviving 1851 Census for Harwich Township (although the Chatham census does include people in the municipality of Chatham's portion in Harwich Township -- which is on the opposite side of the Township from the JOHNSTON lots). Thus the first national census to include Harwich Township was the 1861 Census, which survives only with the population schedule and not with the agricultural schedule.

The only one of the three sons who was included in the 1861 Census was George JOHNSTON. He and his wife Margaret and children Robert, David, A. Jane, Margaret, W. A. and James are listed on the first page of Enumeration District 2 (which is stamped with page number 32 and has hand-written page number 15). All of the family are shown as born in Ireland. If correct, this means that the family emigrated in 1860 or 1861. However, the 1881 Census of the same family shows all children then in the home as born in Ontario, starting with Ann Jane JOHNSTON, age 24, so that the emigration date was 1857 or prior.

So, we know that George JOHNSTON (the youngest son of the family) was in Harwich Township by 1861. But where were his brothers Robert and John?