The northeast lots and concessions of Pickering Township held multiple Gibson and Johnston families. And one family had both surnames. This web page seeks to disambiguate these families and also to determine if and how they connect.

No other record brings together so many -- but not all -- of the key people as does the 1861 Census. This census is particularly challenging since the Irish and some of the English Gibson families are listed next to each other, suggesting a connection that their different origins and their different religions weigh against.

On two consecutive pages of the 1861 Agricultural Census, all of the families appear with their concession and lot location. In the lists for each page, concessions are in Roman numerals followed by the lot number and, in parentheses, the number of acres.

Click on image for full size Lib & Arch Canada Judson GIBSON VI-7 (75 acres) William GIBSON VI-16 (75 acres) Oliver Johns[t]on VI-16 (100 acres) ...

Click on image for full size Lib & Arch Canada Joseph GIBSON VI-S 1/2 2 (55 acres) Richard GIBSON VI-SE 1/4 5 (50 acres) James GIBSON VI-pt 5&6 (100 acres) Ebeneezer BIRRELL VII-9&10 (224 acres) William GIBSON VI-8 (51 1/2 acres) Thomas GIBSON VII-10 (54 acres) with Thomas JOHNS[T]ON ...

Click on image for full size ...

Click on image for full size

Those who I have enclosed in a red box lived as a single family in a 1 1/2 story frame house, originating in England with religion Wesleyan Methodist. Those in the blue box were two families (Gibson and Johnston misspelled as Johnson - but really one family since Elizabeth was mother of every child listed) in a 1 1/2 story log house, originating in Ireland with religion Church of England. The religion for the Johnston family conflicts with the 1847 Methodist baptism of Thomas and Elizabeth's son John Johnston.

Here are some initial observations.

• It is not clear how it came about that the enumerator made the William Gibson and Thomas Gibson households consecutive entries in both the population schedule and the agricultural schedule. When examined on the map, their properties were not adjacent. From the sequence of people in the ag census and on the 1877 atlas map, it appears that the enumerator was going from east to west along the road separating concessions 6 and 7. Until I search the land records, I cannot be sure who was living on which lots in 1861. But it appears that the enumerator went south down the road between lots 8 and 9 to first do the McMurry household and then the William Gibson household across the road. He then walked back to the 7th Concession road and headed west again, with Thomas Gibson's household being the first he found. So, it appears to be a coincidence that the two Gibson households wound up next to each other on the two census schedules.
• The Thomas Johnston-Thomas Gibson household had been larger in the prior census (nominally 1851 but actually made in 1852). Thomas Gibson's uncle John Gibson's family had been living with them in the prior census. John Gibson had moved northeast to Reach Township where the ag census shows him on concession 7, lot 4 with 195 acres (virtually the entire lot). This is just west of the village of Epsom and not close to Thomas Gibson. But it is not far from the 25 acres of Henry Thomas Johnston on the SE 1/4 of lot 1 of concession 8 of Reach Township, about whom I know nothing.
• Thomas Johnston died later in 1861.