William Wilton was christened in Kilmore cathederal on 6/7/1843 and was the eldest of the brothers. Nobody in Ireland had the faintest idea of what had become of him,and it was only by chance that I mentioned his name to Ruth Pierce.
Ruth mentioned that her mother remembered him affectionately but he
only visited on infrequent occassions..
a) b)
a) Wm Wilton's gravestone in Mount Royal Protestant
Cemetery,Montreal
b) The only known photograph of Wm Wilton
Wm. was an accountant and I think married twice. According
to the records at Mount Royal, Wm Wilton died Feb
16, 1915. age 71 (buried in section L699).His residence and place
of death is given as 117 Bayle Street. Also stated :--his wife is a Mary
Bennett.
However, also in the records
and also registered in the name of Wm Wilton there is one other person
Mary Jane Brown Wilton, wife of Wm Wilton
: born England and died 20th Dec,1901 age
77 yrs. It gives the late residence as 45 Coursol Street. Montreal. It
is Mary Jane's name that is on the above gravestone
Ruth also told me that as a little girl at school
a school teacher used to smile at her.The schoolteacher said to Ruth that
she was related. Her name was Miss Rorke. Wm Wilton's second wife, Mary
Bennett mother's name was Rorke. The surnames Rorke and Bennett are still
present in Co Cavan, Ireland to this day.
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Richard Wilton was christened in Kilmore cathederal on 6/8/1857
(son of Wm and Sarah of Dromora) and died 10/4/1935
He also was an accountant like his brother William and came to Montreal
after working as a tea-taster in London!! He became an executive in the
iron and steel works of Drummond McCall for approx 50 yrs .It is known
that Richard came home to Ireland on at least one occassion and my mother
remembers him being talked about as "Uncle Richard" ( I also
wonder was Richard the source of the J W Wilton obituary)
a) b)
a) Richard taken in Montreal
b) Richard's grave in Lakeview Cemetery,
Beaconsfield, Quebec. The picture was taken in Dec 1957
It is rather difficult to read but
the following can be made out :--
1857---Richard
Wilton---1935
1866---Emily A Holt---1940
The headstone in front is to Alastair R.M. Murray 1884--1957
and his wife ,Richard's daughter, Lucy E Wilton (1891 to1976). The small
headstone to the right is to Beverley their son who died as an infant.
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George Elliott was christened in Kilmore
cathderal on 29/10/1844 (son of Wm and Charlotte
of Ballyhillan) He married Jane McDowell from the townland of Drumurray
(virtually next door to Dromora) in Kilmore cathederal on 26/11/1868.Jane
Wilton died in 1922 and is buried in the "new cemetery", Kilmore.
I know virtually nothing about him which I personally feel is very ironic
as he was my great grandfather.(see George
Elliott Wilton)
Nobody seems to know anything about him. He rarely
if ever returned and his grave is unknown. I also have only scant clues
to his existence
a)I know he attended an "Orange Order" meeting at Kilmore
b) I have in my possession a letter to my late Uncle
William from the then presbyterian minister of Cavan,a Rev Wm McDowell.
In it he states that when he first came to Cavan he remembered George
Elliott coming to church and that he married his daughter Olivia to Mr
Mathew McClean. He believed "Mr Wilton went further south".
What was he doing in the prebyterian church? and why did his daughter
Olivia get married there?-- they were anglicans.
c)In the returns of landowners registered in 1871
for Co Cavan, there is the following :-
George
Wilton -----Dublin----54acres
This is in Irish acres. 54 Irish acres is approx equivalent to
65 English acres The size of the farm in Ballyhillan today is approx 60
to65 acres so I wonder is this a reference to George Elliott and if it
is was he in Dublin in 1871?
d) I know his daughter Sophia received a letter.After
reading the letter she burst into tears and I suspect the letter told
her of his death. When this was and the existence of the letter today
is unknown.
e) My mother told me and she is by no means sure
of the stories authenticity that George Elliott stood guarantor for someone.
This gentleman did not repay his debt and hence George was held responsible.
He had previously put the farm in his wife's name so when he was required
to pay he vanished. This story I find rather incredulous but as it stands
I have no way of either proving or disproving it. My mother said he became
a land agent in the West of Ireland.
The story
that he became a land agent may have its merits as his nephew Wilton Vaugh
(see Doug Vaugh) was a well known and respected entrepreneur of this time.
He was also a land agent so I wonder did he possibly get George Elliott
a job.
f) His son William (big Willie) is reputed to have visited
him on one occassion. Whenever the land lady answered the door and asked
who he was she was totally amazed to hear that Wm was George Elliott's
son. She didn't even know he was married let alone had a son.
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John Wilton was
christened in Kilmore cathederal on 10/8/1848 (to
Wm and Sarah of Dromora) On this side of the Atlantic nobody had heard
of him and my mother was totally suprised when I told her there was another
brother. In Canada nobody had heard of him either but one photograph which
I received aroused my suspicions.
This photograph had written
underneath it the following :--signed his letters to Aunt Emma as George
Wilton jnr and who worked for the "Embassy of the United States of
America" in Moscow,U.S.S.R during the 1930's, Picture dated 24/1/1930,
California.
I phoned the embassy and they confirmed that he did
indeed work for them until approx. 1939. They also gave me his date of
birth as being 16/12/1905 in San Francisco
The 1880 census has 7 microfilms
for San Francisco alone. It is not indexed and is not in any sort of order
other than by wards and as I hadn't a clue where he lived let alone what
ward the house was in I decided to give this a miss
The 1890 census was burned
before it could be copied.
The 1900 California
census showed no Wilton, Waltons or anything close.
However the 1910 census showed
the following :--
Residing
in San Francisco
Head of House: Sarah H.Wilton,
50 year old widow, born in Ireland
Son George Wilton, age 25, born in
California
Grandson George Wilton jnr, age 4, born in California
Daughter in law Sophia Wilton
, age 22, born in California
Daughter Bessie Collins, age 23, born
in California
The 1920 census
showed the following:--
Head of House: George Wilton, age 36, born in
California
Census address 2548 McAlister Street, San Francisco
Wife H.Sophia Wilton, age 31 (born
in Finland)
Son George Wilton, age
13, born in California
Mother Sarah Wilton, age
63, born in Ireland
Her citizenship Irish--came
to U S in 1872
Aunt Margaret Bowman,
age 52, born in Ireland
From the above George jnr's age approx corresponds with the date of birth given to me by the American Embassy and a search of the Social Security Death Index revealed the rest
The above clearly shows George Wilton's snr father to be John Wilton