George Wilton was a brother of my g,g,g,grandfather John of the Flatt. According to Kilmore church records he was christened on 4/11/1773, son of Roger and Mary Wilton.It is George, who besides Roger of Huntley and Wilton's from Cornwall,England that seems to be the common ancestor of many hundreds of Wilton's in the America's today.
                                                                        

    George Wilton of Annagh married Miss Harriett Maxwell at Kilmore cathederal on 23/2/1807.Harriett is described as a daughter of Henry Maxwell of Crover.(see below){ John married a Margaret Maxwell-- I believe Harriett and Margaret were sisters} They also had a son Henry Maxwell Wilton baptised at Kilmore 26/1/1808
 { This information was obtained from Swanzy Will Extracts}

 The "human " side of family history interests me greatly often leading to me imagining what the circumstances would have been like during this period of time. It was in Kilmore records that I came across the following baptism :--

   4/9/ 1804   George son of George Wilton and Mary Brady---- a bastard
They certainly don't "beat about the bush" as we say here in Ireland or maybe shall I put it another way they call a "spade a spade"
 Who was Mary Brady? and what ever happened to her and her son George?. Knowing society in Ireland, things must have been extremely difficult for them. I probably will never have any way of knowing. There are however clues,tenuous but none the less I think clues.
  A mortage deed exists between Roger Wilton, George's father and I think, a neighbour, named Brady. I believe Mary was probably a daughter of this man.
 Also in the "Return of Owners of Land" from Co Cavan of 1 acre or more,dated 1871/72  is a Mary Brady who owns 10 acres.

               The 1821 census for the townland of Crover in the Parish of Ballymachugh, Co Cavan, Ireland:-.
                             
 George along with his wife is given as living in house no 7 with two stories(unusual for this time) Next door in house no8, also 2 stories is his mother in law Mary Maxwell. Both are living on 10acres.Interestingly George has his nephew Richard Booth (age 19), and Mary her grandson George Carmickle(age 4) living with them.

 George Wil

                                a)                                                                               b)

 a) census return for George Wilton,in the townland of Crover, Parish of Ballymachugh
      George Wilton     age 36 yrs         farmer
      Hariott ,wife        age 32
      John, son              age 10
       Henry,                 age 12
       Thomas,               age 5
       Sophia, daughter   age 7
        Ann                        -            but on the extreme right it says 6 mths
        Richard Booth   nephew     age19yrs
  In addition another son, George and a daughter,Harriet were born in Canada

   b) census return for Mary Maxwell,in the townland of Crover, Parish of Ballymachugh
      Mary Maxwell, widow   age57,       farmer
      Henry, son                    age 20
      Sophia, daughter            age22
       George Carmickle, grand son, age 4

     Mary Maxwell, died age 76 on 3/3/1838
  I have also found from Ballymachugh Parish records :-
       John Maxwell, eldest son of the late Henry Maxwell of Crover, died ?----, ?fever hospital age 56 on 26/4/1839  
  and also from the 1821 census for the townland of Garrysalla:-
                                      George Maxwell, farmer age33
                                       Anne, wife, age30
                                       Anne, age10
                                       Harriott, daughter, age?8 or 9
                                       Henry, son age 7
                                       John, age 6
                                       Charlene, age 3
                                        Sophia, daughter age 1 

    I think this George is a brother of both John and Henry     

 My mother used to laugh and rather jokingly say the Wiltons were aristocratic.----I spent a considerable amount of time searching De Brett's peerage and Burke's Landed Gentry trying to prove that the Wilton's were in some way connected to Lord Farnham ( family name is Maxwell)
   This was mainly for the benefit of my Canadian kin who seem to have this fascination with the aristocracy ( as far as I am concerned the "arse and crockery " should have been got rid of years ago as they stole most of what they have ) and I was convinced there was no connection until I came across the following, and I quote from an e-mail I sent to Andy Wilton   :-

O-Andy,
  As I sit here tonight coughing,sweat pouring from every pore and generally dying after my thorough soaking on Friday in the boneyard of Ballymachugh I once again rededicate myself to the cause
. As you are aware I went to Cavan on Friday mainly to research that book "Descent from Henry III and other Kings of England" by Lord Farnham. After 1hr of reading total crap the chief librarian handed me copies of the Brefine journal ( published by the local historical society) and pointed to an article entitled the "Freemen of Cavan " from 1700 to 1880.
                                         I had already seen this but decided to reread it anyway and I confirmed that there were no Wilton's mentioned.
   By this time I was feeling totally fed up at getting nowhere as usual and I started to browse through the various articles when I came across an article called " The Burning of Ballinagh". Out of curiosity I started to read it and ended up nearly falling off the chair

. The article was basically about the story of the rising of catholic dissidents. They had been raiding protestant households looking for arms and had been terrorising the countryside especially the townland of Crover. Henry Maxwell organised the tenants and went to meet the dissidents at Ballinagh. There then proceeded a battle in which the town was burnt and virtually everybody slaughtered! The Dublin militia were called from Cavan town, but by the time they got there it was virtually all over. There were 4 survivors left and they were about to be bayoneted when the officer prevented this from happening.
 Henry Maxwell by this time had buggered off and in the article the following was printed..-
        Henry Maxwell of Crover, cousin to the bishop i.e. Hon Henry Maxwell, youngest son of John 1st Lord Farnham became bishop of Meath in 1766 and remained bishop until death in 1798. Bishop Maxwell also had an estate at Crover.
  Henry Maxwell-cousin to the bishop was landlord to the bishop of the following townlands: Lisduff, Turin, Killyfassy, Cavancoulter, Fortland-was infamous in the area for his policy of suppression and eviction.
                                        He is interred in Ballymachugh.

                             Beneath this tomb lieth the body of Henry Maxwell, late of Crover who departed this life 13th day of June 1803.
                                He lived beloved and died regretted
Ref. Breifne Journal   vol 2 1962-1965 "The Burning of Ballinagh")

    . So a Henry Maxwell( most likely father of Henry Maxwell of the census return) was related to the Farnhams after all, but this is not at all clear in either Burke's or DeBrett's books-more research will have to be done
. Off I went to Ballymachugh like a scalded cat or like a rat up a spout to view the boneyard yet again. However try as I did I could not find any trace of his gravestone. I did find memorials to the Carmichaels and also to the Kilroys plus memorials with the names of Bell and Freeman in the inscriptions.
     The Kilroy memorial I found very interesting in that it was erected by Maria Maxwell. who according to the 1821 census was 10 years of age . Henry had a son Henry ,age 20 in 1821
  The Kilroy's were very wealthy people and according to the 1821 census owned 109 acres. This is absolutely huge for this time.

                                                            

     The above is taken from the 1821 census return for the townland of Omard in the parish of Ballymachugh. In fact as far as I can make out they owned the whole townland of Omard.

              Richard Killroy    age 43       farmer (note the spelling in this return)
              Elisa Killroy    age35
              Antony,     son,      age16
              Alic,   son.   age 14
               Anna, daughter age 12
               Maria, age 10
                Fany, age 8
                Elisa age 6
                Richard, son    age 4
                James,  son   age 2
                John, age 1
    Richard Kilroy died on 20/4/1823, aged 44

         Henry Maxwell, esq married Maria Kilroy on 23/6/1831 in the presence of Anthony Kilroy(her brother)
         The following children were baptised in Ballymachugh Parish church;-
                        Eliz Frances baptised 23/6/1832
                       Henry Maxwell, bapt, 24/7/1833
                        Mgt Adelaide , bapt , 10/3/183?
                        Thomas Henry, bapt,29/7/1836
                         Richard ,born 22/3/1837 and bapt 30/4/1837
                         Alex John , bapt 25/9/1839                   

            

  This then briefly is a little about the background of "Capt" George. However he wasn't a captain, he was a lieutenant and he served in the 56th Middlesex regiment and the local militia. It has been passed down through the generations that he seved with Wellington against Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. He didn't do that either ( very few Irishmen in the Irish regiments survived Waterloo as they were instrumental in holding an important cross roads until the Prussians arrived and were duly slaughtered in the process) .George along with his family emigrated to Canada in 1830. His 4 sons and 3 daughters initially settled in Inverness,Megantic county.George died aged 64 in 1847 and is buried at Rectory Hill near the old homestead.His wife survived him by 14yrs and died11th April 1881    

      This above is a photograph of the grave of George Wilton and his wife Harriet in Inverness. It certainly looks a long way from home in Co Cavan , Ireland and its situation in what looks like quite an expansive landscape speaks volumes to me of how the history of Ireland and indeed that of the Americas has been influenced by the emigration from here of its native sons and daughters.